Culture, Government, Politics, Uncategorized

I Heard Frisco Real Estate Was Expensive, But…

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I just read an article that we, the US tax payers, may end up paying for housing the homeless in San Francisco as a result of President Biden’s executive order which he signed on his first day in office.

The officials in Frisco decided to house the homeless in HOTELS as part of their master PLAN to get them a place of residence.  President Biden mentioned this PLAN when he signed the executive order, implying that the Frisco PLAN would be covered as part of the new LAW.

Now for the GOOD PART.

Frisco politicians are spending $18,000,000.00 per month to house 2200 people. That works out to $8,182 per month PER PERSON. Once again let’s put these numbers into perspective.

Home loans are about 3%. $8000 simoleons per month lets you buy a $1,950,000.00 house. Almost a $2 MILLION dollar house. Not bad for a meth head wouldn’t you say?  Will someone buy me a $2 MILLION DOLLAR HOUSE?!?!  If a couple of homeless folks got married, they could equivalently purchase a $4 MILLION DOLLAR pad.

This place in Frisco might go to someone in need, thanks to President Biden and his most generous plan to spend your money.  It’s listed for just over $4 MILLION.

Who needs to work hard or even win a lottery? Just hang out in Frisco and wait for the government to give you a nice big house with a view.

Culture, Politics

When Counselors Respond

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The lunatic “Defund the Police” movement calls for counselors to respond to 911 calls rather than law enforcement. The mantra is that the counselors will, with their magical powers, peacefully de-escalate ANY situation, while the those who hold the thin blue line only know one skill and that is to kill more people of a certain skin color.  As Alexie Occasional Cortex says, “Defunding the police means defunding police“.

The city of Los Angeles listened to their esteemed leader and has cut the budget for the police.

I read this headline today:

“Los Angeles counselor fatally beaten at children’s home trying to break up fight“

Yup, counselors are the answer.

Business, Culture, Environment, Technology

Going Green

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I own an electric vehicle. Call me Mr. Environmental Sucker. Here’s the issue.

The battery in my Nissan Leaf is going “Tango Uniform” as the folks in the military say. The car was originally touted as having a 100 mile range. Right now I’m limping around with about 50 miles of range and it’s still decreasing as time goes on. The simple solution should be, replace the battery. Here’s the problem.

Car companies would rather sell you a new vehicle instead of extending the life of an older model. What Nissan has been doing is raising the price of a replacement battery to make fixing the car unaffordable. According to kbb.com the car has a private party value of $5000. The trade-in value is half of that, around $2,700. How much is a new identical replacement battery from Nissan? About $10,000!

There are some shops that will replace the battery with a used battery from a wrecked newer car and prices vary from $5000 to $9,500 depending on the capacity of the used battery. The upper end batteries are almost double the capacity of the original battery, increasing the range to 160 miles, which is an improvement.

At this point, I’m not sure if spending more money on the electric car is worth it. On top of the repair costs, here in the People’s Republik of Kalifornia, the electric company has raised the rate of electricity. At peak times the charge is about $0.58 per kilowatt-hour. Compare that to the national average of about $0.12 per kilowatt-hour. If the battery were 100% efficient in charging (which it isn’t) and I was able to get the full 100 miles per charge (which I can’t) it would cost $14 to drive the 100 miles, best case. With gas at about $3.00 per gallon, the equivalent “gas mileage” is 21 miles per gallon. An equivalent sized gas car gets 30 or more miles per gallon, which means the gasser is 50% more cost effective to drive.  My bigazz, four-wheel drive, diesel pickup averages better than 25 miles per gallon beating the electric car on cost effectiveness.

Given all that, I have no idea what I’m going to to with my electric car.  Anyone want an electric vehicle?  I have a “Green New Deal” for you.

As an owner of an electric vehicle, “Going Green” means that “Green is Going out of my wallet“.

Ramblings of a maker