I had to start ‘moving’ the Weekend Pundit Feline Contingent feeding times until they were an hour later so that when the clocks were set back I would be feeding them at the same time, at least in relation to Greenwich Mean Time. Neither Pip or Bailey can tell time, but their stomachs don’t care about whether we’re on Standard or Daylight Savings Time. They just know it’s time for food. Despite what those without pets might say, dogs and cats don’t like it when their routines are disrupted by things like time changes.
Neither do I.
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Being that this is taking place in California, this doesn’t surprise me in the least.
Mask Mandates Return To California.
Study after study after study have shown masks don’t work, particularly the ubiquitous ‘procedure masks’ almost everyone was using during the panicdemic. That places like Sweden and Denmark didn’t take the extreme precautions like so many other countries like the US did and they saw a lower rate of infections and Covid deaths tells us that many of those precautions forced upon us were not effective.
What worked and what didn’t?
Masks? No.California is going back to mask mandates, but this time because of the annual flu bug. But I have no doubt it will be just as effective against the flu as it was for Covid, meaning not at all. Flu shots have a long history of being effective, but even that comes with a disclaimer, that being that the folks determining which strains of flu would be dominant for the coming flu season chose the correct ones. Sometimes they get it wrong and the flu shots won’t be nearly as effective. But for the most part they get it right.
Social Distancing? Questionable.
Lockdowns and quarantine of healthy people? No.
Washing hands? Yes.
Staying home when sick? Yes.
Vaccination? Questionable.
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Talking with acquaintances in Finland and Sweden, and business contacts in Finland, Sweden and Norway, none of the following surprises me.
Five Nordic Nations Agree to Collaborate on Shared Deportation Flights.
It seems Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have been having an increasing problem with illegal immigrants and have been working to return them to their countries of origin. The flood of illegal immigrants coming in by way of North Africa has burdened many European nations.
One of the major downsides to this flood has been rising crime rates that have been driven by both legal and illegal immigrants. That has certainly been the case in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark where the number of sexual assaults have skyrocketed. My acquaintances in Sweden and Norway have mentioned that as being one of the big problems they’ve seen in their countries.
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In this next item I’m going to throw you a three-fer, seeing as these three items are somewhat related dealing with EVs and renewable energy. (Knowing my disdain for EVs and renewable energy, specifically wind and solar - I still like hydro – I think you’ll see the connection between the two.)
The first item deals with the continuing collapse of the EV market as the EV bubble deflates.
It’s been a crushing week for the EV industry as the bad news that has been brewing for months was laid bare in the quarterly reports. Across the industry, corporate CEO’s are all admitting that demand is unexpectedly slow, orders are down, and suddenly projects are being delayed “indefinitely”.No matter how much the government pushes EVs on the motoring public, it cannot force the public to adopt something it doesn’t want and can’t afford, even with tax breaks.
Volkswagen admitted orders are down a shocking 50% and they are sacking 2,000 jobs in the software division. Ford posted an operating loss of $1.3 billion for the quarter — meaning they are losing $36,000 for every EV they sell. They face a ghastly full year loss of $4.5b, so not surprisingly, they are delaying battery plants, and plans to expand production. All up they are now holding off on $12 billion in investments.
The head of Mercedes-Benz described the market as “a pretty brutal space”. Harald Wilhelm hinted that some manufacturers won’t survive: “I can hardly imagine the current status quo is fully sustainable for everybody,” he said.
Panasonic has slowed EV battery production was reduced by 60% in Japan compared to the same quarter last year. While its US plants were OK, profit forecasts of the whole energy division were down 15% and depended on US subsidies.
News of cars kidnapping drivers, and airport car infernos have added to range anxiety and crushing interest rates to squeeze the EV bubble til it popped.
Speaking of EVs, there’s this:
That this is taking place in California makes it even more enjoyable as the folks there aren’t getting half the abuse they voted for.
And finally, seeing that a major international energy corporation is pulling out of an offshore wind contract tells us that wind isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.
Shell’s finance chief said on Thursday the firm had exited a power purchase agreement (PPA) for the planned SouthCoast windfarm off the coast of Massachusetts, agreeing to pay a penalty rather than face rising costs for building the project.Windfarms aren’t as efficient, reliable, or as financially viable as has been touted. Without subsidies they aren’t moneymakers. Move them offshore and they become even less so as they are more expensive to build, require more maintenance, and have a shorter service life than land-based wind turbines. Add inflation and supply chain issues and windfarms make even less sense.
Energy firms from BP (BP.L) to Orsted (ORSTED.CO) have announced hefty write-downs in recent days for their U.S. windfarm projects in the face of high inflation.
I’m not surprised Shell Oil pulled out.
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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee,where the weather has been very up and down temperature wise, Halloween has come and gone and Christmas decorations are already appearing in the stores and at the malls, and where we’ll still be complaining about the return to Standard Time...until next March.