88 Comments

One need only witness the folly of Germany in its virtuous move to wind and solar and destruction of its nuke plants to see where an unreliable grid with preponderance of EV virtue signaling will lead us.

We can certainly count on Mr Kerry to deliver us all from the evil of our livelihoods as we enter into the darkness of no base load power, EVs stranded in the snow and fat democrats laughing in their beachfront mansions. Thank you Mr Kerry, Mr Gore, Mr Biden.

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Global warming and sea level rise. And fat democrats in their beachfront mansions? Let's hope they drown!

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For my sins I sat and watched a bit of the latest Davos event and it reminded me very much of countless real estate conferences I've suffered in the past;. boring self serving speakers, a very bored audience, and awful entertainment - although, as far as I know, there were no over-priced hookers!! Mind you, looking at most of the attendees I'd suggest there wouldn't be a whole lot for the call girls to do. As arch villains they should up their game, or no one will take them seriously anymore; rich privileged, self important wankers with, hopefully, a limited shelf-life

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Absolutely. Except there were overpriced hookers! I read an article about them. One girl said she only served the business people, not politicians. Apparently they had no “appetite”. Fear of getting caught or impotence? Who knows.

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Who knows, indeed Richard, but I suspect the "girls" with the whips and handcuffs get most of the attention from the politicians that are there!! Nothing straight about those people

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Great Column Bill! John Kerry and a whole bus load of other bureaucrats and leeches need to dropped off on their own self-made Utopia. Maybe they could you us SpaceX or Bezos's rocket. Anyway, I am happy where I am. If you want to save the world, talk to a back yard gardener.

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Wit all the talk about eating crickets and worms, what's wrong with feeding them to chickens first so we get eggs and meat. I think the Left are just unhappy, miserable cretins who hate to see people eating burgers and fried chicken. Apart from their other shortcomings.

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https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/whos-building-that/kingsport-housing-starts-quadruple-rate-of-2-years-ago-double-last-year/?ipid=promo-link-block-ml2

Regarding decreased property values and lower building starts, you need to check what's happening in our neck of the woods, Northeast Tennessee. Quite the opposite with building, both residential and commercial going up everywhere you look, and property values soaring. People are pouring into the the area, and judging by the out-of-state tags crowding our roads and streets they are coming from mainly New York, Texas, Florida and California. Climate refugees? Covid refugees? I don't know, maybe you could find out for an upcoming column to give the true picture. The averages certainly do not give the true picture, at least no here. Kae lewis

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I hope the "come heres" don't bring the seeds of destruction with them and wreak your neck of the woods. Yard signs reading "Biden 2024" are an early warning that things are heading south!

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Yes Tim, the migration of the leftist liberal is historically towards good, God fearing, family and country loving people. They have the proven history of destroying everything in their world, then moving on to the next. As I stated in the past, they love to shit where they eat, and truly enjoy the taste. They are mostly mentally deranged at best and many just pure evil.

A so called Racist created a poem about them many decades ago. He may have been, but his Fable is a very interesting read... "The Fable of the Ducks and Hens". Enjoy!

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True that on the yard signs . . . another tell tale sign is if you start seeing those "Coexist" bumper stickers on cars.

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Hi Kae -

Pretty much the same here in SFL. Commercial project starts are through the roof and my business appreciates it very much. Don't know about the Residential side, so no comment.

Also (unsurprisingly) Municipal/Government projects are flushing full. Some of it is surely a backlog response to the ridiculous halt imposed on everything during convid, but many of the bid opportunities that I review daily are new projects.

As an aside, I well and truly hope the tags you are seeing from FL and TX are not lefties fleeing from the growing Freedom inherent in their former States. Your part of the Country is spectacular and it would be a terrible tragedy to see it brought down to third world standards such as what we see in CA and NY...

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Jan 25, 2023·edited Jan 26, 2023

That's a truly brilliant post. Why did I always suspect you are a contractor?

I'm guessing "commercial project starts are through the roof" in SFL because you are still living in America. We can only pray that the people migrating there won't descend like locusts and bring the mindset and voting pattern that are prevalent in the States they fled.

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Yes Kae, we also have an insane amount of Yankees and Indians buying million dollar homes that were half that price five years ago. North Carolina is a beautiful state and we share the incredibly beautiful Blue-ridge mountains on our borders. Like Bill says, day gives to night, young gives to old and the same buying frenzy will soon give to a selling frenzy. Looking forward to that day 😊

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A migration to low cost living, less regulation, but also a greener cooler environment might play into this. Northeast TN is a beautiful place to live.

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Same here. We are in the Inland Empire of Southern California. We bought a mobile/modular home for 195k and could sell it today for 275k. I’m tempted….not sure we are ready for another move 🥵🥵

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PG hitting the nails on the heads again. Fortunately, I only own one commercial property and it's lost over 20 percent of its value since 2020 (in Southern California). A lot of people are still working from home, thus reducing the demand for commercial space. Just ask the idiot of a mayor in D.C. who is begging Biden to send government employees back into their offices.

(Again fortunately, I lease my "contractor's storage lot" to one of my own companies so the rent isn't impacted:) The shit is going to hit the fan this year and my bet is it will happen sooner than later (and of course the media will lamely blame it on the election of Republicans in the House).

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Well DJ: What goes around comes around.

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Jan 26, 2023·edited Jan 26, 2023

Whatever that means. I'm independently wealthy so I'll be just fine regardless of the shitstorm that's coming. I'm not bragging, but I am complaining because I care about my sons, their unborn children and the rest of society that you and your ilk have destroyed.

That intellectually lazy tripe (what goes around comes around) has never made sense to me. But, do you know what does? The fact that your ilk has turned the state where I was born and raised into a shit hole. Congrats, at least you get to see the fruits of your physical and intellectual labor. You must be so proud.

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DJ: I'm independently wealthy also, so what does that have to do with anything? That expression has been around for ages. Maybe it's just an Okie expression and it never made it to your part of the world. You seem so negative about anything you don't agree with. You seem to have a very closed mind. You blame everyone else for every thing you don't like. Pray tell me what I have contributed to make it a "shit hole". I am one of the most

responsible people when it comes to our universe; probably more than you!

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Jan 26, 2023·edited Jan 26, 2023

I'm guessing the difference between my wealth and yours is that mine was created out of hard work and "sweat equity" (i.e. creating jobs and businesses from scratch). And yours, was in some way handed to you (i.e. inherited). Congratulations.

What does it have to do with anything? (My Dad was born in Oklahoma BTW.) What you contributed is that you espouse and support everything that destroys opportunity, which eliminates the potential for others to acquire what I have earned and what your benefactors gave to you. I sincerely hope you have the native intelligence to understand the difference between what I have done and what you espouse.

I notice you don't dispute that much of California is a shit hole. That's good, because I'd start posting pictures and make you look like the fool you are. Photos, those pesky things that are going to make Gruesome Newsome's presidential aspirations a non-starter. I hope you volunteer to waste your time working for his campaign!

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The planet undergoes cooling cycles and warming cycles on the average of 1500 years. Consisting of cooling of 750 years followed by warming. The Black Plague occurred during the last cooling cycle. These cooling cycles result in shorter growing seasons, famine, and general ill health in humans. The death toll during the Black plague was exacerbated by general poor health and living conditions besides a lack of medical understanding of the cause and cure. Our life of plenty is due in part to the current warming cycle.

These cycles are contained within larger global cycles or Ice Ages of 90,000 to 100,000 year cycles.

The last ice age had little to do with human activity nor has the present 750 year cycle been influenced by human activity.

If you're cursing me under your breath, listen to the science.

http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/twimberley/envirophilo/unstoppable.pdf

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Quiet you!

As David Byrne (The Talking Heads) so perfectly said 30 years ago:

"Stop Making Sense"...

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Science tries to report facts. Sometimes it fails. But the science is now telling us that climate change is happening. It is observed and observable worldwide and reported to be happening. What is happening is not propaganda. It is not a political ploy. It is really and truly happening. The consequences of our burning carbon fuels and ruminant digestion are creating an atmosphere that is heating the earth.

This heating of the atmosphere is changing the weather around the world. It is melting the ice caps.

We humans can change our way of doing things to reduce this heating. If we do nothing and continue on doing the things that are causing climate change, we will cause major human and other species die offs. The earth will continue, that is true. But we may not. That is the question before us. Can and should we change our habits so that we and other species may continue to live or should we turn our backs and hope for the best.

There is little doubt that we humans are already responsible for the extinction of many species. Not just through climate change, but also through pollution and destruction of habitats.

When human numbers were smaller, taking from nature did not jeopardize entire species so greatly. Now, we are so many that the oceans are nearly devoid of life and whole fisheries are destroyed.

We are headed for our own extinction. Before we kill ourselves by our destructive habits, we will destroy a large share of the earth's others species as well. Species, incidentally, that we depend on for our lives.

The leaders in Davos are charged with addressing these global problems. They pull the levers of industry and politics. It is not easy to change human actions so that we do not destroy ourselves and others species along with us. But that is the hope and the goal. It may be an impossible goal. But is worth addressing and attempting.

Personally, I have my doubts that the global leaders and we individuals are up to the task. Too many rich and powerful leaders have benefited by taking from nature and giving nothing back. Many, if not most, of them will not voluntarily divest or give up their comfort, power, and wealth.

Why would they? They will not die off en mass as the rest of humanity will as water and food become scarcer. They will become even more powerful and wealthy as humanity struggles to survive.

So, as things get worse and chaos reigns, billions of humans will die and species will become much less diverse. Ecosystems will collapse. They are already collapsing all around us. And the privileged will sit back and watch it all with a degree of detachment and aloofness content that they will not suffer a similar fate. In fact, the rich and powerful may even find it a boon for their bottom line.

Less people means more for the rich and powerful.

The Davos men and women are, as you keep pointing out, barely treading water in a flood that will drown most of humanity.

Telling us that Davos is a joke is spot on. It is a joke that has a very real punch line.

Talk. Talk. Talk. It is all bullshit. When these people return home and try to cause change they will be met with derision and outright blockage. Nothing will be done and more and more people will die in the wake of apathy and power brokering.

So, where does that leave us?

Make money at any cost and find a bolt hole.

We are not all in this together.

And billions will die.

That is the truth and the science is telling us so.

The elite will survive.

Adios to all the rest.

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Yes the climate is changing as it has for billions of years. It may have an effect on humanity, but humans are a creative creature, and can improvise to most environments, especially ones that change over centuries. Our problem is the alien human, or sociopath or psychopaths, or those who believe they are born to change the world. They consider themselves above the rest and will stop at nothing to get what they desire. Humans do best when working together towards a common goal. Not so good when directed against other humans, unless they are one of the above human deformity’s.

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Hi Tom -

Well, that was quite the diatribe, with most of the statements made very authoritatively-sounding, yet with zero factual, VERIFIED back-up provided. The first 3/4 of your post could have come from any mainstream media website, nature journal or leftist think tank, where they all specialize in provocative and un-sourced, un-proven or outright misleading claims as well. Yet apparently we are all supposed to just nod, agree completely, reduce our standard of living while opening our wallets. Surely some of the many assertions are true, but to "assign" causes and "dictate" solutions seems highly suspect to many of us down here in the great beyond.

There's is WAY too much narrative jizz in your post for me to bother with refuting and/or verifying, so I would leave you with just one observation:

Let's assume all the doom and fear-mongering you have so succinctly parroted are all true. Isn't it odd how the "fixes" for each and every "crisis" involves more taxes (money to implement the "fixes"), more government control (centralization), lower living standards for all and LESS Freedom for the sheep who actually inhabit this planet? When marrying up the "cures" for all these alleged "ills", the regular human benefits in precisely zero ways. Must just be a coincidence, right? After all, the "science" is "settled."

Please believe this - nothing personal, but I thought you said you were a "scientist?"

PS - you totally blew off my request in yesterday's post about where, exactly, the "facts" came from in your assertion that daily temperatures have risen significantly and are continuing to rise.

"No hockey sticks needed, just the records of numerous weather services around the world and before them private citizens like Thomas Jefferson recording daily temperatures like we can do at home."

Really? Such a "sciencey" answer...

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"Now, we are so many that the oceans are nearly devoid of life"

One thing’s for certain---you could give Al Gore a run for his money in a hyperbole contest.

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Thx , Tom Beach, this is a great statement of the facts of life in our current affairs.

The Science be damned. The " facts " are the only thing a reasonable person should consider in all this diatribe on climate change. The key in all this is SMOG . Who can live in a world filled with smog.

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Hi Patrick -

One man's "facts" are another man's propaganda.

And a third man's cudgel to beat the weak-minded and compliant...

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Hi Starboard that was cogent. Thats the problem nowadays everyone parrots what the latest headline news is without any forethought or after thought for that matter. Here's science.

I was enjoying a new instrument that had just come in. A close friend runs his own business dealing in all manner of optics; telescopes, spotting scopes, microscopes, bino's etc. He had called me up to inform me he had something special in house come and have a look. So I had free time and off I went, arrived and discover he had brought in a dedicated solar telescope, brass 90mm about $20k. Myself and one other a diehard amateur astronomer had the pleasure to witness a rare event on our star. I was the first to witness a truly remarkable anamoly, while fixated at the incredible imagry through that dedicated solar scope, our dynamic sun I snapped up and told my friend have a look, and he said how is it? I said take a look. His reaction was Holy Sh........t ! So I replied what do you see he replied to the exact detail I was witnessing so, he confirmed what I had seen. This was not our first rodeo, we have extensive knowledge and experience in both optics and the general visual studies of many subjects in our heavens above over many years. Its my getaway if you will when I had free time. Anyhow what I witnessed on the the sun after countless scrutiny over the years I saw a rift, opening up on the solar disk, beggining on one end, parting the granular heat across the diameter of the sun making its way toward the opposite side, as the trailing end was folding in on itself. Like Moses parting the sea,! both specatuclar as it was a little unnerving. Myself and the gentleman with me were the only ones to witness that event. If memory recollects it lasted about 5mns and it was 2007 I believe. This was after the great Mars hype of 2003. But here's the kicker the dynamism of the sun be it the large coronal mass ejections, sun spot activity, both in its numeracy and their longevity and sizes were in its peak between the late 90s right up till 2016. Since my last real observations 2018, 2019 on less numerous occasions and less time spent gazing, the sun has gone through a transformation literally yielding as dead by comparison. Am I scientist? It depends on what you call a scientist but the sheer joy having witnessed someting incredible, gives me pause for thought and appreciative to the wonders of our universe

Lost by most people..

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What's a cudgel ??? I think U should Google "FACT " !!

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Jan 26, 2023·edited Jan 26, 2023

Greetings Pat -

Pick up a book. They don't bite....

PS - Duck!!

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PN: Cudgel: It's a short thick stick or club.

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PN. Much agreed but whose facts? I could post reams of info stating the opposite. I tend to believe facts from scientists who tell me there are only two genders.

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I have a question for you: Where does electricity come from, how is it produced?

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Jan 26, 2023·edited Jan 26, 2023

What is "The Movement of Electrons" for $1000 Alex...

PS - Or as AOC so succinctly put it, "From the outlet on the wall, duh!"

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Jan 31, 2023·edited Jan 31, 2023

I notice they never answer my very simple question: "Where does electricity come from, how is it produced?".

Oh yeah, except Dot did, she said something very similar to how AOC succinctly put it, only Dot said, "I just plug it in!"

Voila', how simple: PROBLEM SOLVED, LOL!

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And the caption should read - " Now listen to me John,you have to stop being such a dick-head,or I will be forced to smite thee with great fury and vengence".

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Bill, that may be the BEST article you have written ever. Loved it.

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Delicious !

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Should have checked with Boston radio host Howie Carr before you wrote the article...He could fill you in on John Kerry.

For example, John Kerry ported his yacht in Rhode Island to avoid paying $437,500 in sales tax (which, after it was exposed, he did pay).

And he paid to have a fire hydrant moved from the front of his house in Boston so he could park there.

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Humanity is now challenged to prove that we have the will and intelligence to avoid extinction.

Do you think we have what it takes to survive?

My answer is a solid maybe.

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The thing about the housing (investment) discussion that fascinates me is it is all relative to whether you are talking about leveraged or unleveraged ownership. If I'm leveraged on a property, then of course it makes a difference if house values goes down. If I save and own a property (that is not my primary) outright - and intend to stay in this arrangement for a long time - then why do i care whether it goes down in value ? All I care is that people will have to pay to rent there , no ? And if the world goes to shit, they may pay less in rent, but then things must cost less, right ? And if the world prospers, then they will pay more, but yes things may cost more too. I realize it's more complicated than this, and maybe I could have done better if I did some other investment strategy, but isn't this sort of inflation / deflation proof way to get income on your savings ? Not saying I'm all in on this strategy, but am I missing something here? Maybe this theory breaks down if you are talking about investing in areas that are not local to where you live, but let's keep it simple and say that the cost of living on investment property is comparible to where you live. Thoughts ?

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You've got it exactly right. I learned this strategy from my parents, who were middle class workaday people that never made big money at their day jobs. But, because they were very frugal and invested what they could in RE properties they managed to accumulate a nest egg by making them nicer, renting them to pay down the mortgages, and then selling them when the market peaked. (I hated weekends because I got to scrape wallpaper, pull up linoleum floors, and rebuild gardens (as Bill would say). I have four rentals now (with zero encumbrance) and they perform precisely as you laid it out.

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No way does John Kerry's physique look anything like that picture.

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The AI is flawed!!

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Kerry and friends are really saying they want to keep their HVAC bills from going up long term. 😂

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John Trudell on Becoming Human - YouTube!

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