MaxRedline

Space -The Final Frontier?

South Africa's Makhonjwa Mountains are home to some of the oldest rocks on the planet – but not everything in this magnificent landscape originated on Earth. Scientists say they've discovered trace evidence of extraterrestrial organic matter buried within volcanic sediment from over 3.3 billion years ago.

Many scientists think some of the building blocks for life on our planet may have arrived as space-faring molecules; the new discovery in South Africa adds further weight to this tantalising possibility.

Whatever. I don't care one way or another, though it's pretty annoying that perfessers get paid with our tax dollars to theorize about this sort of thing.

 

Kiss It Goodbye, Moonbeam

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in his State of the State address Tuesday that California would abandon the plan to build high-speed rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

It's about time that turkey was basted.

 

Down Cycle

After rising for several years, the percentage of commuters turning to bikes declined for the third year straight, U.S. Census Bureau figures show.

Experts offered several explanations for the nationwide decrease that has unfolded even as cities spent millions trying to become more bike-friendly.

Most obviously, lower gasoline prices and a stronger economy contributed to strong auto sales and less interest in cheaper alternatives, such as mass transit and bikes. The rise of ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft and electric scooters cut into bike commuting, said Dave Snyder, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition.

I used to ride a bike to and from work each day. Got pretty fast at it, too. But I was in my 30s....

And we didn't even have bike paths and bike trails, let alone those spiffy green-painted bike boxes they're putting in at intersections. We looked and listened to avoid cars and trucks. Now, the kids ride around with earbuds plugged in. Paying attention is so old-school.

City officials around the country said they try to support bike commuters. Besides new bike lanes and trails, many cities added bike sharing programs, which give cyclists the ability to rent a bike to ride point-to-point or for the day.

Yes, they come up with a number of reasons why the number of bike-riders is declining despite the millions of dollars that city "leaders" have been spending on "bicycle infrastructure", but they kind of overlook a fairly important factor: when you hit your 50s or older, interest in riding a bicycle inexplicably declines. Gee, who'd have figured?

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

 

No Wonder They Want In

A majority of “non-citizens,” including those with legal green card rights, are tapping into welfare programs set up to help poor and ailing Americans, a Census Bureau finding that bolsters President Trump’s concern about immigrants costing the nation.

In a new analysis of the latest numbers, from 2014, 63 percent of non-citizens are using a welfare program, and it grows to 70 percent for those here 10 years or more, confirming another concern that once immigrants tap into welfare, they don’t get off it.

In 2014, 63 percent of households headed by a non-citizen reported that they used at least one welfare program, compared to 35 percent of native-headed households.

"Free stuff"! Yay!

And Occasional-Cortex wants to give away more "free stuff". She doesn't know how to pay for it, of course; that little detail is too complex for her.

 

Eminent Domain And Bullet Trains

The California "Bullet Train" has become such a colossal waste of time, money, and other resources that an increasing number of residents are calling for the plug to be pulled on the whole thing.

Eight years ago, the California High-Speed Rail Authority estimated it would cost $332 million to acquire properties for the route spanning the Central Valley’s orchards, vineyards, dairies and cities. The process, however, has proven far more legally tedious, politically painful and expensive than initially thought. The 1,900 property takes in the Central Valley are now budgeted at $1.5 billion. Such complications are part of the reason the project is 13 years behind schedule and at $44 billion over budget.

The land acquisition cases alone are moving so slowly that the judge hearing the cases is now referring to it as a lifetime job.

Kings County is the epicenter of the disputes, where the drama plays out in Ross’ courtroom for just two days each month.

The underlying stories are lengthy and convoluted. Even worse when one considers that the trains will carry no cargo (if they're ever built). And each passenger fare is anticipated to run around $1000, leading to the question of who would want to drop that kind of cash when they can fly from LA to SF nonstop for far less?

 

Responsible Land Management

California has a choice: encourage proper land management, or go all Green&Sustainable™. They've been doing the latter for years, and somehow, it doesn't look as though their "vehicle emissions standards" are all that important in the great scheme of things.

 

Tax Dollars At Work

The city of San Francisco spent $310,000 to register noncitizen voters, beginning last July. At present, 49 noncitizens have been registered to vote in the November 6 elections - at a cost of $6,326 each.

They really know how to get bang for the buck, down there. One thing that may have put a bit of a damper on the old enthusiasm index is that it belatedly occurred to the politicians that ICE can subpoena voter rolls - which of course include names and addresses.

Hmm. That could expose illegal aliens. Oopsie. One of their "supervisors" wanted to spend another half-million dollars to warn illegals that registering could bring ICE to their doorsteps, but in a rare burst of sanity, the idea was nixed.

 

Yes, This Looks Like A Great Location

If built, the new light rail route will run down the middle of Barbur Boulevard for miles.

Oh, they'll build it, all right; they always do. Even when one of their proposals is voted down, they come up with a way to cram another multi-billion-dollar set of rail lines down our throats. This one, they claim, will "only" cost $3 billion (until, of course, it costs a lot more).

 

As Expected, IRS Puts The Brakes On Democrat Subterfuge

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has laid down rules aimed at preventing residents of Oregon and other states from avoiding a new cap on widely popular state and local tax deductions.

In Oregon, the Legislature set aside $14 million a year in Oregon Opportunity Grant tax credits available for purchase.

Taxpayers who purchased those tax credits could, in theory, deduct the amount of their purchase from their federal taxes as if it were a charitable deduction. They could then take a credit on their state taxes to offset their opportunity grant purchase.

Measures designed to work around the $10,000 cap have been adopted in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Oregon, and introduced or explored publicly by officials in California, Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia.

Basically, the Democrat-controlled states have been setting up fake "charities" so that they can still take your money, but you still get a write-off on your taxes for the "contribution". It's not a whole lot different than the "contribution" you make when an armed robber points a gun at you and demands your wallet. I believe that it's also illegal under federal law.

Oregon won't let you deduct more than $5000 in Fed Taxes, so you can already pay taxes on taxes here. But the state really needs more money; they want to build a 12-mile light rail line from downtown Portland to a shopping mall just north of the suburban city of Tualatin. That'll only cost, according to the latest liars' budget, about $3 billion, assuming they can use eminent domain to bulldoze a few hundred homes and businesses. And they need another half-billion dollars to provide for the drug addicts and bums homeless. These are critical endeavors. Critical to making Dermocrat politicians feel good about themselves, that is.

 

 

Green&Sustainable™ Oregon

There were so many reasons to say no: the eight years of consistent failure, the loan defaults, the shuttered factory, the management turnover.

But when SoloPower Systems called last summer, Oregon answered. The state that already had given the Portland company $13.5 million in tax credits, $10 million in direct financial assistance and millions of dollars' worth of tax breaks ponied up another $641,835 in rent.

Thirteen months later, SoloPower appears to be dead. The state doesn't expect to recoup its loans, and the company owes Multnomah County $1.8 million in property taxes.

In a final twist, the county could seize the company's equipment to cover the unpaid taxes, but it's steeped in a toxic stew of cadmium and hydrochloric acid.

Yep, nothing like that Green&Sustainable™ stuff. Oregon Democrat politicians want to be seen as world leaders, and they don't care how much of your money they have to blow through.

And hey, it'll only cost around 3/4 of a million tax dollars to clean up the mess.