Odds and ends number 130
Since I'm using the concept from monoblogue, I'm keeping the numbering system, too. Here are thinner slices of bloggy goodness.
As always I have the interesting stuff that stuck around in my inbox and bookmarks, or I just found somewhat randomly - like the first item.
Negative development
I promoted this one from a recent MER because I wanted to make a bigger point.
I follow Oxford more than most towns because it’s the hometown of my in-laws, and I’ve spent many an Independence Day at their local yacht club watching fireworks. It’s the home of the oldest privately operated ferry route in the country, the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry.
I also follow a great Substack written by a town resident. Just down from those landmarks is a beach called The Strand, and as Radio Free Oxford’s Jan Greenhawk details, it’s been ruined by negative development. Instead of leaving the beach (which was more or less a narrow strip of sand, not something teeming with sunbathers) as it was, as Greenhawk puts it:
Maryland DNR and the National Fish and Wildlife Federation wanted a town to experiment with their new "green vs. gray" infrastructure solution to erosion, regardless of the fact that sea wall structures and bulkheads have worked for hundreds of years. It was a recipe for a huge spending debacle.
Basically, cash was burned to ruin what was a scenic view for those fortunate enough to live across the street from the beach - meanwhile, flooding issues which could have been addressed by the state funding (had it not been specifically earmarked) went unsolved, plaguing the town to this day. It’s just one story amidst many Greenhawk details in a formerly sleepy waterman’s village that became a second or retirement home for transplants from the big city, and just another way its charm was squeezed out.
And last week, facing a deadline to complete the fixes to the project, it was as if a five-alarm fire broke out on the beach. Not exactly money well spent.
Opening Pandora’s Box
This was a piece on Just The News that caught my eye.
An Arizona congressman introduced legislation Monday to remove the federal judge who has blocked President Donald Trump's efforts to deport Venezuelan gang members, offering a novel path that avoids the impeachment process and the need for two-thirds support in the U.S. Senate.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., filed a resolution that would remove U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for “failing to maintain the standard of good behavior required of judges" under Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution.
While this is a valid point being made by Rep. Andy Biggs, the problem occurs when Congress falls into the wrong hands. How quickly do you think Democrats would vote as a bloc to remove each and every Republican judge for what they consider “bad behavior” (i.e. following the Constitution.)
If you want to have the nuclear option, remember that the Constitution says in Article I, Section 8 that they have the power:
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court.
Yes, they sure could stack the Court - not the Supreme Court, but all the appellate courts. Don’t like what the Second Circuit does - fire them all and create a new one. You’d never see a Biden appointee again, but surely when one party or the other gets a trifecta the courts would soon reflect that party’s preference. That’s why I call it the nuclear option.
Par for the First State
This comes to me from State Rep. Bryan Shupe, but I have to classify it in the category of “duh.”
According to Delaware Public Media, the vast majority of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds - money meant to help people struggling from job losses, income reductions, and family tragedies - was instead spent on one-time infrastructure projects for state buildings.
As Shupe states:
Why did this happen?
For years, the state overspent - increasing spending by 30%, while only receiving 18% more in taxpayer revenue. Instead of planning ahead and budgeting for the future, they let schools, courthouses, and government buildings fall into disrepair. Then, when relief funds meant for people in need arrived, they used it to fix their own mistakes instead.
The state budget has increased rapidly over the last few years as COVID became an excuse to spend on everything. Now they’re coming back looking for tax increases to cover the budget for next year - what a surprise!
The latest budget sports a more “progressive” tax plan from Governor Matt Meyer that supposedly saves the lower-income people money while raising rates on the higher income brackets. Per WHYY News:
Under Delaware’s current income tax system, Delawareans making over $60,000 a year pay a 6.6% tax rate, which is the state’s top rate. Meyer said he wants the new brackets to start at $125,000, then go to $250,000 before topping out at $500,000.
Meyer said Delawareans who make under $134,667 would see no income tax increase.
“For too long, hardworking Delawareans who come home with dirt under their nails and stains on their shirts have paid the same as the wealthiest among us,” he said. “That changes now.”
I didn’t get to the cigarette tax increase, though, which will probably eat up whatever savings that group gets. Has anyone just considered level-funding a bloated budget for once?
Historic reading
I’m just passing this along without comment, but if you want to read the 700 pages of Crossfire Hurricane documents, here is the place to go. It was curious that Just The News was the one to pass this along.
It’s just the latest in President Trump’s bid to open up the government and allow people to see the sausage-making in all its gory.
Say ya to da UP, eh? The price of mandates
Once again, I have a piece that’s being promoted from MER because I want to say more about it.
If we want to reshore manufacturing, one would think we would want to promote the domestic iron ore industry to the extent that we can. Like West Virginia is synonymous with coal mining and Texas with crude oil, the western end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is a hotbed of iron ore as well as copper and nickel, part of a rich resource area around Lake Superior that, unfortunately, is a sparsely-populated red part of blue states that bow to Mother Gaia.
But here’s what the state officials in far-off Lansing want to do to the region hard along the Wisconsin border:
In its filings, UMERC (the local electric co-op, similar to Delaware Electric Co-Op) reports that it would need to build 500 megawatts (MW) of wind, 175 MW of solar, and 275 MW of battery storage to meet its 100 percent carbon-free mandates by 2040.
It’s worth noting that the filings by the UMERC indicate that none of this additional generation capacity would be needed to meet consumer demand if not for Michigan’s carbon-free electricity mandates, because the company already has enough power plants to meet the needs of its customers.
It’s doubtful these facilities can take a $15 million a month hit, but that’s what government is dictating. And it’s highly doubtful the puny number of jobs created by green energy will match the mining jobs being lost, not to mention the ancillary workers whose businesses will shutter as well.
To my Delaware friends, I am aware that we are not a mining state like that part of Michigan is - although the football helmets worn by our respective state universities look eerily similar. But we have a similar renewable mandate, and it doesn’t have to be a mining operation to be cognizant of rising electric rates - imagine how much electrical use you’d have in a restaurant or an industrial plant, for example. Europe is already finding this out the hard way, too.
The sooner we break off this infatuation with green energy, the better off we will all be - well, maybe except for those in that industry who got fat from the government trough. As they say, pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
That’s enough for now. We’ll see what I come up with next month.
Until my next edition of odds and ends, you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.