The Beauty of Green Economics in Sonoma County, California

You have heard or read it all, about how this is the way to go to save the world, haven't you.
After all , it doesn't cost much and will make much better, won't it?

So , here are some facts from the Sonoma County Water Agency!

"While the total cost of all three systems is $15.5M, these projects took advantage of $4.49 M in PG&E rebates. Utilizing a total of 11,272 solar panels, the Agency is able to save an estimated $2.3M off its operational costs over the life of the systems. These three photovoltaic systems are part of the Carbon Free Water by 2015 Program which aims to reduce the Agency’s carbon emissions by 2015."

OK it cost $15.5 million minuse $4.49million in PG&E rebates. leaving it costing about $11 million dollars.  Right?
And it will save us "save an estimated $2.3M off its operational costs over the life of the systems."

So, does it look like we spent $11million dollars to save $2.3million dollars!

Only a civil servant could think this was a good deal!

Breaking it down:
"This system meets all of the energy needs of the administration building during peak production hours. Though the total cost of the system was $3.53M, the Agency was able to take advantage of $1.64M in PG&E rebates. The Agency’s estimated energy savings is $640k through the 25 year lifespan of the system."
Now we spent 1.9 million to save $640thousand.

"Though the total cost of the system was $4.39M, the Agency was able to take advantage of $1.75M in PG&E rebates. The Agency’s estimated energy savings is $583k through the 25 year lifespan of the system."

Now we spent $2.7 million to save $583 thousand!

"Though the total cost of the system was $7.59M, the Agency was able to take advantage of $2.78M in PG&E rebates. The Agency’s estimated energy savings is $1.1M through the 25 year lifespan of the system."

$4/8 million to save $1.1 million.

But interestingly enough, there is no estimate of the cost of maintenance of these systems or the cost or replacement of damaged or stolen panels, is there?

From http://notrickszone.com/2011/07/04/weed-covered-solar-park-20-acres-11-million-only-one-and-half-years-old/



Yeah not doubt about it, Solar panels are the way to go, aren't they?

TraderJack

Medical marijuana, how strange

Here in good old California they have medical marijuana so that if you have an ache, pain, angst, bad feeling, need, you can get the docs to give you a prescription of medical marijuana!

then you can go down to the outlet and buy the weed as you need it!

Now that is really funny, as there is no FDA approval for the drug prescription, it is grown in fields, harvested , dried, packaged, sold , and you have absolutely no idea of its actual sanitary condition.

Now that is okay for marijuana, but God help you if you want to buy a manufactured drug from Canada for a serious condition, that my friends, is against the law, because the FDA can not control the production of the drugs.

And is there any sense at all in this situation?

Occupy whatever!

Do these people really think that a mass of the people can do a darn thing as a mass of the people other than moan and groan about conditions in their lives.

If they want to do anything they have to organize and developer leaders then follow the leaders, Ah, but the trouble with that is the followers have never been able to control their leaders , have they?

The leaders take control, organize the system, take their prominent positions in the system, and then start to loot the system to enhance the power of the leading class.

And then one leader leads the leaders and controls the who governmental system and the political system , and the financial systems, and the followers pay their tribute to the leader and adore their leader, who freed them from the nasty capitalists and provided them with jobs in the coal mines of Germany, Italy, or Russia!

And they think that this is FREEDOM, as the leader will provide for the masses and control the rich and take all of the wealth from the rich, that are not part of the system, take from the middle class, and give it to their supports.

Hey, you don't believe this, look at what will happen and remember I told you so.

harrassment, what is the world coming to.

Sexual harassment! Is there a Man in the USA, the World, who has not sexually harrassed a female! Hell, in San Francisco you could get harrassed by a man if you were a man, by a woman if you were a woman, and that was considered normal there, but probably not in the real world

I suspect it part of the unwritten laws of society today to demasculize the male, masculize the female, join them all together in one gender , and solve the world population problems.

Why are they attacking Herman Cain for doing what men are supposed to do, and then ignoring Obama for doing what men are not supposed to be doing?

I guess there is something in the water, or the booze, or the politics of the USA that is confusing.

If you have never harrassed a female, and you are a male, please explain why you have failed the duty of men!

LOL

Politicans and economics.

watching a member of the House of Representatives lamenting the housing crash and the economy crash state that the people losing their homes to foreclosure were losing their wealth, and it was costing the country trillions of dollars.

Folks, those people that lost their house had no wealth to lose, in most cases. If you buy a $500,000 house and borrow $450,000 to complete the transaction, you have a home that costs you $30,000 a year for payments and a tax of $5,000 year that will continue until the home is destroyed.
It will cost you $6,000 a year to maintain it, and if you want to sell it , it will cost you $30,000 to sell it if the value has not gone down.

It is just like buying a Rolls Royce, you will feel great buying it, but keeping it going will be expensive.

Now if the Real estate marks takes a 10% dive you will take a $50,000 loss and that will mean that you will have no equity in the home, and no wealth in the real estate you own.

You will be better off to turn in the keys and get rid of the dept, and perhaps wind up with a small net worth. If you try to sell it you will be in the hole for another $25,000 and be deeper in the debt hole.

The trouble with buying a $500,000 house is that you will have to furnish it, meet the standards of the neighborhood, and , in general, spend a lot of money maintaining your feeling of being a millionaire!

Gun Control and the rest of that stuff

The opponents of guns consider them lethal weapons, but don't seem to understand that they are not the only lethal weapons.

Look at the young folk throwing rocks , or molotov cocktails, are they not lethal weapons?

Must be because they are the weapon of choice for many. So, why are there so few arrests and convictions for those actions.

Oh, guns are really bad! Heck, there were more people wounded than killed by guns.

Oh, that is bad, people were wounded, horrors.

Just wait until you get hit by a big rock, or a molotov cocktail. You might prefer to be hit by a bullet!

But, watching the Philadelphia Police Chief say they were worried about danger to the officers if people had guns. Now that is really strange as all of the officers have guns and he is not worried about them.

But, but, but, his officers are trained in gun control. Hmmmmm, I wonder what the percentage is of people killed by ccw holders, and police officers.

Oh, you know the police officers never commit domestic assault, and never have anger , or rage, or anything else , but the ccw carriers are noted for their inability to control their emotions.

I have the solution, let everyone who wants to carry a loaded weapon, and let the resultant carnage eliminate the people who are not capable of carrying a loaded weapon safely.

Execute murderers, rapists, and terrorist and save the nation now

Life and death, another point of view

You must be aware that there are 5Billions people in the world, and if the average life expectancy if 50 years that that would mean that 100,000,000 a year die.

Or about2,000,000 a week!

Ah , the beauty of numbers, and yet, the news media has great success telling us that 7 people were shot and on killed on any specific day.

But the ignore the other 1,999,999 that died that same week,

Are we so blaze that we can ignore the other deaths, or is it that these deaths are of a greater significance than the one shot in a store.

Or is that the media does not want the public to know how frail the world's population is, or is it because they want to emphazise the value of one human life.

But then maybe it is all a figment of my imagination!

Clean energy updates, Craziness?

they hope to update 9,000,000 home in the next 9 years. Or about 1,000,000 a year.
In California
they anticipate that there will be a $500 charge to the home owner for analyzing the needs.

That means the home owners will pay $500,000,000 per year to the company proposing the retrofits.

Now , if they are hoping to update 1,000,000 homes a year, and the average cost would be, say, $10,000, that would mean that $10 Billion dollars a year in expenses.

Now if the Government gives credits for the work at 50%, it will cost the State 2.5 billion a year.

Oh, now they are talking about the banks lending the money to the users, and it might run at 19% interest on the loans.

And they want private money to get into the act.

And still no estimates of cost benefit analysis being performed.

What I want to know is why anyone thinks that this is a good deal.

Or, as I have consistently said, never believe the facts that a person, who is selling something to you, presents to you as proof it is a good deal.

I have trouble understand why people believe that the government should finance this sort of stuff. If it provides a substancial benefit to the home owner , or the the business, why wouldn't the person finance it themselves, without money from the government.

And you wonder why the government is growing and costing more and more each month.

The fear generated by the Government

Did you ever wonder why we keep getting told that more and more things are hazardous to our health?

You think that perhaps it is because they care about our health individually.

Nope, it is all part of the attempt to build business and make money from the public.

You take lead, now do you know anyone who has ever been hurt from eating paint off of the window sill? Oh, you did! And how many were there?

You see, if you can be convinced that lead in the paint is dangerous to you or your children, you will find that business pop up out of nowhere to remove the hazardous stuff from your home at a cost of $10,000 or so, and if you sell your house you have to remove all of the lead.

Now do you see why there is so much effort to tell you that lead will hurt your children?

Next we take electric light bulbs, we have to remove them because the contribute to global warming, and the world will die in 100 years. Ok! But then they want you to use CFL lightbulbs which are dangerous and reguire hazardous material handling if you break one.

Well, that lets the business men bring in CFL flight bulbs from China, and make money, and also lets the hazardous waste material handlers make money from handling the bulbs.

Now how long have we had those big flouresect light bulbs in stores, businesses , and courthouses, and have you ever seem those buuilding being treaated for hazardous waste in the past. Nope.

Not until they found out about hazardous material handling and the way to make money.

There appears to be no end to the people who want to declare something hazardous so they can provide you with ways to remove it and they will only charge a handfull of bills to correct the problem.

I could go on and on, and tell you my opinions about this stuff, but I assume you may make your own decisions.

Are guns the problem, or is lack of guns the problem

One of the problems with being law-sbiding citizens , we believe that it is our best interest to obey the laws as we believe that the government might know what is best for us.

But,you see, there are wolves in among we sheep, and these wolves want our fleece as they don't grow fleece, so they must fleece us to live.

Now when you are over powered by numbers , or weapons, you will give up your fleece, but if you have weapons that might deter the wolves they you might get to keep your fleece.

But that requires that you have a weapon that will scare the wolf, and you must also be prepared to use that weapon to defend your self.

Otherwise , such as happened recently in Norway, a wolf will get among the flock , and , when rabid, kill until stopped by force.

If the government , in its infinite wisdom, decrees that the sheep shall ot be allowed to carry weapons for defense, the only protection against the rabid wolf, is the government forces, about 1 hour away!

So, the point is, that the sheep must be allowed to carry weapons , not to defend themselves from sheep, but from rabid wolves.

If this allegory is too difficult for you to understand, it is simply, Kill or be Kill, and it should be your choice, not the governments.


TraderJack

casey anthony and the human public of america

Whether the jury was right or wrong, makes not difference. The defendent is presumed innocent, until convicted in a court of law. That is not the court of public opinion, folks, it is the court of law!

If you, in your brilliance could see beyond the presented evidence and show that that evidence showed that murder was committed, you waited too long , didn't you?

Now the defendent is free , and you , at least some of you, are chanting" to the gallows" without any evidence of how the child died.

What is it that you have forgotten the mainstay of American law is that the crime must be proven, and yet you want to throw a stone in to the proceedings.

In fact, the problem lies in the media, where the geniuses sitting in chairs in front of a microphone claimed , stated, and averred that she must be guilty of murder.

Even after the verdict they make the same claims and statements.

Heaven help us!

traderjack

The Real Benefits of muncipal financing

So, here comes the CCA advocating that the city join in a congregation of citys to establish their own little power system, and that it will be cheaper as it will be not for profit.

Yeah right, not for profit, except for the new staff and systems to compete with PGand E.

Of course, it is only good if the municipalities finance everything, and you know the municipal money if free, as it only comes from the taxpayers, and not from the filthy investors. You know, those ones that build stuff and make money.

And, of course, it will be preceeded by an un-biased study by the CCA which is surely a good source of information. And their consultants will peer review the project. And their consultants are no-bid consultants.

But, it will increase the purchases of green power from power suppliers in Sonoma County.

And that is all to the good, except they say the project could go into a death spiral if the customers opt-out of the CCA,

Well , I don't think I will be supporting it, as it say it might save 5% on PGandE bills, but will cost the municipalities to pay the bonds, if it collapses.

Oh, well , politicans know best, don't they?


Trader Jack

ah, the magic of municipal financing1

This week in Santa Rosa, Ca. the city council held a closed session on labor negotiations, and when I spoke on the subject the city council censored the video on-ine and ommitted the Start of the Meeting, the Roll Call, the Report on closed session, and my comments on the labor negotiations.

The city council must be really afraid of showing the public what members of the public want to tell the City Council.

it is amazing that politicans say they want public input , but, they sure as hell don't want the public to see any of the comments or show them in the minutes.

what ever happened to Honesty in Local Governments.

I guess the Progressive Agenda is in effect in Santa Rosa.

Trader Jack, aka Brown Act Jack

How the US Navy is slowly being disemboweled by the politicans

From the USNI blog at http://blog.usni.org/2011/06/26/guest-post-viewed-from-the-deckplates/

A sample:
"The Balisle Report recommended that over 6,500 billets be restored to the fleet. Only 2,200 were approved, with another 3,900 slated for FYDP accessions. The fine print never makes the headlines in All Hands, or the Navy Times. At this time we are told to cut the Navy by 9,000 Sailors. We have to cut solid performers who happen to be in overmanned ratings, while we should cut those who don’t meet standards, or are marginal performers at best. Why must we do this? Because personnel costs, and the billions of healthcare dollars those personnel require for readiness and recovery, are “eating us alive.” Leadership chants the mantra of “people are our most important resource,” but the reality of where the Navy is putting its money is clear. The Naval Vessel Registry lists 245 active hulls as of June, 2011. The same registry lists 268 Flag Officers: 243 Active, 22 Active Duty for Special Work, and 3 Full Time Support. Last time I walked the Naval Station piers, only three ships had broken an Admiral’s Flag at the masthead. Merging Second Fleet into Fleet Forces Command is supposedly one such “cost savings” designed to optimize the Fleet. But, no Flag billets were harmed in the merger. With President Obama announcing a drawdown of 33,000 combat personnel from Afghanistan, and Congress clamoring for further cost savings, it is only a matter of time before budget pressure on incoming Secretary of Defense Panetta turns the magnifying lens on our “greatest asset,” Deckplate Sailors.


And this is what the politicans do!

At Last, the solution for the countrys financial problems

Mny people have wondered how it all happened , and here is my take on it.

In 1966 , or so, came the advent of universal credit cards, where people could buy things and put it on credit at the bank. Now the banks , at that time , would charge a small interest rate, of about 8-9%, and collect a 3% fee from the merchant.

Very well accepted by the public, as they could not foresee the future, where the interest on the credit card went rampant, and fees on late payment went up.

This had two adverse effects, it took money our of the pockets of the buyers, and it took money out of the pockets of the merchants, until the credit cards payments overwhelmed the buyers. Then the credit card companies started offering them to everyone, and everyone took the bait.

Now the public is stuck with the tremendous credit card payments , and that is affecting the economy as the money is going into the banks and not coming out

The solution may be to impose a credit card interest limit of 105 on credit card balances, and , in the interest of the economy, phasing out credit cards over a 5 year term, making the public switch to cash , or check, economy.

It would not eliminate credit purchases, but just make the buyer secure individual loans from the lenders for their purchasers, or from the vendors.

Won't be acceptable to all, but nothing ever is.

abortion, or no abortion?

Would it be better to pay $500-$1,000 for an abortion for a person who needs it, rather than $1,000 a month to pay for the mother and child after birth?

Oh, it is a human life and has to be protected? How? By using someone elses money to raise and pay for the mother and child!

I never hear the anti-abortion offering to pay for the life of the child and the mother, but they want the government to do it, because the government money is free!

I have asked numerous people how much a human life is worth, and they say pricelss.
And then when I ask them why they have money in the bank when they could be saving humanlives, I get no answers.

Government money is not free money

I am a radio amateur and love to buy radios

So, lately I bought this little beauty, Of course, I don't know what it is other than it is a RF communications, inc Controllr. Looks like a crystal controlled 10 channel transciever using 3 6146s in the final.


Still have no power supply for it, don't expect to get one soon, but it is fun

The failure of AG's to prosecute crime in MERS

It seems that some strange politics are in play with the AG's of the US with their failure to prosecute the crimes that were apparently happening in the financial field of home mortgages.

Is there some sort of bargaining going on that the public is aware of.

Oh, I know that the AG can not take on the personal cases of the individuals, but , surely, there is nothing stopping them from filing criminal actions against the individuals who committed crimes in their financial transactions.

Or is it that if they file the claims too many financial institutions will collapse as the management is cited for criminal fraud or similar.. And how about the notaries, and the people who forged the notarized documents.

No answer forthcoming from the Cal Government, or the US government. Oh, the cite cases were small fry were punished, but the percentage of cases filed , seem to be a small fraction of the possible cases.

Just watching hearing where an investigator said that of the 14 large mortgage servicers examined all of them were not doing a good job.

And there solution is to make sure it gets better in the future and not look back at what happened in the past.

Pass the shovels, it is all getting buried with words.

What is there about Politicans that make them hide from the public

Having been alive now for 88 years, I think that the one thing that politicans do not like , is a person asking questions that require an answer. No matter what the problem is, or the question being asked is, the politicans seem to believe that no answer is necessary.

Seems to me that politicans have been advised by their respective attorneys, that questions need not be answered, only official inquiries for public records need be responded to.

When a city council has a meeting, regardless of the subject matter, and the length of material presented by the staff, that a citizen can only comment on the matter for 3 minutes, or the arbitrary limit in time set by the rules.

That way the City Officials are not burdened with a lot of information that requires reply and can just do as they wish. How many times have I sat through a meeting and watch the city council listen to the public as they read the staff reporrs, and then do not respond.

It seems that they do not want any discussion about the problems, just want to take the words of the staff as gospel.

You would think that people in those positions would realize the the presenter for the motion almost always have financial things in mind when the talk, and the public might be the only people who can contradict the other side. Ah, but that would require consideration of the views of the public.

Need I repeat my self.

Can Any Hospital compete with Kaiser?

Spent a little time in an emergency room today and thought about private vs. Kaiser. It looks like the Kaiser hospital will over-run and overcome the private hospital styles of operation. A simple reason is that Kaiser owns and operates the medical system and the hospital operation. They, being a non-profit, can use their own income , from the Kaiser member , to fund all of the possible needs. And this means that they do not have to depend upon the Insurance companies for funds for the operation. And as the Insurance companies have to take 20-25% of the premiums to run their operations, Kaiser has a definite income advantage when it comes to running hospitals. My wife and daughter were at Kaiser for a procedure during the time I was in the ER at the local hospital, and both of them were impressed with the efficiency and precision of the Kaiser operational procedures. It bodes ill for private hospitals to have to compete with Kaiser!

Sonoma County Counsel and the Brown Act

Amazing the tricks the attorneys use to try to explain why the Brown Act wasn't violated by the Board of Supervisors actions, isn't it. Yes they did something that should have been announced on the agenda, yes they did something that should have been disclosed after the closed session, but, hey, it still have to go through the adminstrative process to become effective. What, the County Counsel didn't understand the clarity of the Brown Act?. Ah, but you see, the County Counsel must defend the Board of Supervisiors if the Board of Supervisors is not complying with the law. and the County Counsel can not tell anyone anything that puts the Board at risk, at least in my humble opinion! This too shall pass, somehow, somewhere, a deal will be struck. As usual.

Renewable Energy?

Who ever thought of such a thing? You can have energy, use energy, but you can not have "renewable energy"! Oh, it sound so perfect , doesn't it. You just have an energy source that is inexhaustable! So that you can continue to get energy from it? Just like having an oil well in your backyard! But the strange thing is that the people espousing the concept are people who want to sell you something. Like double paned window, insulation, solar water heating, solar electricity, etc., but never seem to be able to tell you where the renewable energy comes from. The energy on the earth comes from radioactive sources, which provide the heat to generate the life and death of the earth. Yes, the sun is radioactive, the earth is radioactive, and combined they generate the energy. But, it is not endless and can not be renewed after usage. You will have to pay , one way or another for the energy you consume!

the changing faces of politicans and the second amendment

Why is it that politicans, as a whole, while running for election, spout the same philosophy of believing in Democracy and the US Constitution? And, then while seated in the political chairs of the government, immediately forget the 2nd amendment. I believe I have the answer! They believe in the 2nd amendment for people who are not a threat to the politicans! Now, most criminals do not threaten the politicans, as the criminals can get what they want with money, but the average citizen can not do that. Therefore the non-citizens present a more significant threat to politicans, and it then becomes necessary for the politicans to control the weapons held in the hands of the non-criminals. Strange, isn't it?

The magic of television in Santa Rosa, Ca.

television is such a wonderful tool for the City Council to let the public know what the City Council is doing and what the citizens think of the City Council Polices! But the City Council does not want the Citizens to be heard voicing complaints about the City Council. So in January the new City Council decided that they should move all of the comments about the City to the end of the meeting after all of the business had been transacted to delay any comments during the meeting. And after a couple of weeks of that they found that the citizens were still appearing before the City Council and making the City Council look a little foolish about some things in the Government. Ah, a solution was found! The City Council would not show the citizens speaking to the City Council ! They did that by shutting off the television cameras during the comment period. and shutting off the microphone so the comments could not be heard by the viewing public. If that was not enough a couple of weeks ago they shut off a speaker during the session causing some people to , perhaps, believe that the city council meeting was over. Ah, the honesty and dedication of politicans to the idea of listening to the public is not in question, is it? As they listen, but they don't want the public to know what they are listening to.