Just Deserts

Praise and money are disproportionally meted out to those who excel ... whether through genius or guile. And there will always be those who suffer unjustly due to bad luck or bile.  Thus, equality of rewards is a chimera of those naive on life. — Anon.

Reefer Madness (Revised)

I have been curious as to whether Elon Musk's  (ditto California's) chimera of converting ALL our petroleum-driven vehicles to electric ones. I have performed the following very rough calculations ... which I welcome you dear readers to check and, hopefully, verify:

Daily US number of vehicle miles driven: 8.8 brillion  miles (2015)

Range of electric vehicles (Tesla): 250 miles

= 35.2 million ... average number of daily recharges of US electric vehicles

X  94 KWh ... power used per vehicle recharge (Tesla cars ... much more for trucks)

= 3.3  billion KWh total additional US electric power demand per day

versus 10.7 billion KWh current (2016) US electric power usage per day

Ergo: For the US to go all electric vehicles, we would have to expand our electric power generation capacity by something like 30%. It ain't gonna happen ... certainly not with just wind and solar ... which now represents 10% of our generation ... and would have to expand at least 13 fold.

I think you may now guess why Elon Musk is smoking weed.

A Political Chimera

Headline: Democrats say they agreed to make a DACA deal with Trump -- without the border wall ... see: CNBC Story. I fill up my pipe and dream the following:

- Establishment Republicans want a DACA deal and no border wall

- Democrats want a DACA deal and no border wall

- Populist Americans want a border wall before any DACA deal

- Trump gets a bipartisan DACA deal through Congress but no border wall

- Populist Americans abandon Trump in droves ... meaning no likely re-election in 2020

- Democrats have no real message or candidate for 2020

- Trump switches to the Democrat party and runs in 2020 with the backing of Democrats and establishment Republicans. Crooked Hillary is his running mate.

- Steve Bannon opposes him as the candidate from the newly-formed Populist party. Jeff Session is his running mate.

- Steve Bannon wins the presidency in a landslide and gets a majority in both houses of Congress with primaried Republicans and some Democrats who have switched to the Populist party.

- Construction begins on the border wall

- Fully half of Hollywood moves to Canada

World Government

World government is a chimera. It is highly unlikely that mankind can design an equitable governing mechanism spanning our entire globe with such a diversity of moralities and cultures ... at the very least for centuries. Unfortunately many see this as our destiny and, consequently, we should experience a number of false starts (including the current UN sham) .... some of which likely will be devastating.

With so many trying to bring it down, the fact that the American experiment in national governance is still working is surely a minor miracle.

High Society

The other night I watched  the old movie "High Society" on Turner Classic Movies ... starring Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Celeste Holm. This comedy of manners originally came out when I was a freshman in college and I, along with many of my classmates, were gaga over the message it conveyed ... sophisticated social interactions, loose morals, plenty of alcohol consumption (without real consequences). and romantic music spiced with lots of newly-discovered jazz. I still recall the general appeal that this film engendered. Many of us imagined a fling with Grace Kelly after an evening of champagne and ballroom dancing in a well-appointed mansion.

Alas, it was all a chimera then ... as I can clearly see now in its re-viewing ... Grace Kelly driving Frank Sinatra along the curvy roads of Newport, Rhode Island without hardly turning the steering wheel (rather ironic in that this was the way that Princess Grace of Monaco perished) ... pear-shaped Bing Crosby wooing and winning his scripted svelte former wife, Grace Kelly, at least 30 years his junior ... Frank Sinatra launching into song at the drop of a cigarette ash. This movie is replete with lots of bon mots that don't survive the years. Most of the charm of this movie that I cherished 58 years ago has been interred with its actors.

But then, I strongly suspect our grandchildren will some day feel the same bitter nostalgia about today's romantic cinematic blockbusters (if there are such things?)

The President's Chimera

"Pass this jobs bill now!"
"We need to pass this jobs bill right now!"
"If you love me, you will help me pass this jobs bill now!"
"Now is the time to pass this jobs bill!"

What jobs bill?  The Barry really must believe that the American people are naive ... or stupid ... or worse.  He urgently wants us to pass a jobs bill that hasn't been filed yet in Congress.  And if it hasn't been filed, it can't be voted on.  And obviously it can't then be passed.  It can't be scored by the Congressional Budget Office to see if it really will create [and save?] the jobs he claims ... or that it will only cost $447 billion of taxpayer money.  And it's not clear when it will be filed.  If you don't believe me, read this surprisingly frank artcle in the L.A.Times.

What kind of rhetorical charade is Obama engaged in?  Has this bill really even been written?  Or is it still evolving in focus groups and in the friendly editorial rooms of the main stream print media and network television.  In a way, this is a scary situation.  The President is representing a reality that doesn't exist so that he can attack the Republican members of Congress.  And yet the fact that this bill hasn't been filed isn't generally known to the cheering crowds he is appealing to ... or to the overall American public for that matter.  We are being fed a feast of ephemeria ... right out of George Orwell.  I am nervous that we now have a President who is so detatched from the truth ... and that he believes that he can turn this chimera into a living, breathing beast with his teleprompter skills.
 
And it's time for us all to be nervous.