Nightmares and Despair: 2014 is crucial to the republic. Illegitimi non carborandum

View 776 Saturday, June 08, 2013

[Original title said 2012.  In a sense that is true: the 2012 election which was lost because the Tea Party did not get out enough votes, in part because their voter organizations were crippled by the IRS – that was a crucial election.  And now here we are.  I put 2012 inadvertently but I could defend using that date as critical.]

It has been a depressing week, full of nightmare.

Nightmare Number One.

Southern California Edison has given in to the regulators and the anti-Nuke demonstrator, and will permanently close the San Onofre nuclear power plant, leaving the regulators free to pounce on the rest of the nuclear power industry. The result will be more CO2 added to the atmosphere,

At the California Independent System Operator, the company that runs the power grid in most of the state, Steve Berberich, the chief executive, said that most of the replacement power had come from natural gas, and that if California’s goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions per kilowatt-hour, “you’re moving in the wrong direction.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/business/san-onofre-nuclear-plant-in-california-to-close.html?_r=0

San Onofre never endangered anyone. There was never an off-site radiation leak, and what little leakage there was – all in the steam generating side of the plant, not anywhere near the nuclear reactors – was trivial and easily fixed. It resulted from some poor decisions on the part of SCE management, who bought new steam generation equipment from the wrong source. It was a silly decision. SCE was once about the best managed company I ever had close knowledge of, but after the California Grand Theft Power “Deregulation” which separated power generation and distribution and created the “Independent System Operator” things worsened. The California legislature had goodies for everyone as they created an atmosphere that let Enron manipulate energy prices and create bubbles, and the result were predictable: transfer of a lot of wealth from the power companies to legislature cronies, creation of a number of lucrative regulatory positions, and wild manipulation of electric power prices. SCE which had quietly operated as a regulated public utility which consistently delivered electric power and made reasonable but steady returns on investments to the stock holders – in other words operated as what used to be known as a Blue Chip company – got pulled into the growth madness bubble. More legislators and political consultants got rich, and power industry management was forced into participating in the bubbles. The result was predictable and I predicted it, but no one paid much attention. And meanwhile the No Nukes! crowd headed by people of the sort who like to tell the press that “The only physics I ever took was Ex-Lax, yuk, yuk” kept the pressure on, the regulators multiplied as Parkinson’s Law and my Iron Law predict, and the terror propaganda escalated. After Fukushima it reached a crescendo, and a tiny minor leak in the steam generation side of San Onofre put a just measurable quantity of Tritium into the building. Tritium has been used to make fishing lures glow, as well as for gun sights, and the amount released was in the order of the amount in those devices, but the media immediately feigned fear of a new Fukushima disaster right there near Mission San Juan Capistrano (actually it is many miles away from Capistrano) and the plant was shut down, the regulators held public hearing after public hearing, and since it costs about as much to run a nuclear plan when shut down as it does when it is generating power and earning revenue, the announcement of yet more public hearings did the trick. SCE is getting out of the nuclear power business. There will be losses to the stockholders, but even more losses to the rate payers. And of course more CO2 in the atmosphere.

I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.

• John Adams, letter to John Taylor (15 April 1814).

The remedy, of course, was to form a Republic, and for over two hundred years the Republic endured. Now it is to be converted into a democracy, and the result is predictable and predicted. There are many good studies of what happens when a democracy commits suicide. If it is fortunate it gets a Claudius Caesar, but more often it must first endure a Caligula so that Claudius seems a blessed relief. And after Claudius as likely as not comes Nero. But I digress. For the moment we do not yet have Marius.

Then connection between the fall of the Republic and San Onofre is not direct or that strong, but the connection between the price of energy and the health of the economy is obvious; and the demand for ‘democracy’ rises to a flood in ‘bad’ economic times, even in a nation that sets its poverty level above the median earnings of most of the world, and keeps increasing those entitlements to the point of enormous debt.

Low cost energy can save the Republic. Perhaps fracking and natural gas will do that. Perhaps. Because the tide is running hard against nuclear power, which is over time the cheapest and safest reliable energy source we know of; and low cost power plus economic freedom remains the best way to produce the goods needed to satisfy the voters in a democracy.

Of course wealthy democracies have their historic problems. They are a great temptation. And without a sound economy they find they can no longer buy peace with silver bullets. Paying the Danegeld is not usually a good idea, but if you are indebt up to your eyeballs it isn’t even an option.

End of digression.

The nuclear industry has had a difficult year as it tries to compete with cheaper, abundant natural gas. San Onofre’s two reactors are the third and fourth reactors to be retired so far this year in the United States.

“It’s no secret that power markets have been radically changed by the development of shale gas,” said John Reed, an investment banker who specializes in nuclear reactors. “That changes the economics of any other power supply option, including nuclear.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/business/san-onofre-nuclear-plant-in-california-to-close.html

San Onofre has been handed over to the jackals. The regulators now regroup. You have not seen the last of this.

Nightmare Number Two

The evidence piles up: the IRS really and truly has become the arrogant highly-competent instrument of political terror out of the nightmares of conspiracy theorists.

The IRS Can’t Plead Incompetence

If the agency didn’t know what it was doing, it wouldn’t have done it so well.

Peggy Noonan

Quickly: Everyone agrees the Internal Revenue Service is, under current governmental structures, the proper agency to determine the legitimacy of applications for tax-exempt status. Everyone agrees the IRS has the duty to scrutinize each request, making sure that the organization meets relevant criteria. Everyone agrees groups requesting tax-exempt status must back up their requests with truthful answers and honest information.

Some ask, "Don’t conservatives know they have to be questioned like anyone else?" Yes, they do. Their grievance centers on the fact they have not been. They were targeted, and their rights violated.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323844804578529713576219412.html

Ms. Noonan gives details. As for example the now proved IRS leak of all the names and addresses of their contributors to their progressive liberal enemies. Hard fact. Definite proof of leak. Result so far, no one punished or dismissed and no felony charges filed. In another scandal a couple of people have been put on paid leave, which is to say free vacation. This is not likely to discourage anyone.

The task of the IRS was to put a primary hamper on all the conservative get out the vote civic organizations, and it sure did that, in Spades with Big Casino. Not one liberal or progressive get out the vote organization had similar problems; hundreds of conservative ones not only did, but continue to do so, as the IRS grinding machine continues to influence the 2014 Congressional election. That election is critical: if Ms. Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House, the final conversion of the US from a federal republic to a unified democracy will jump ahead probably beyond the recovery point. It is still possible for the US to turn back and forsake its foolish ways, although that will be difficult. If Ms. Pelosi becomes Speaker, it is unlikely ever to happen, world without end, amen. The Nanny State will become a reality, in which everything is regulated for your protection and safety. Of course California is attempting that now, but the results have not so far shown many of the benefits, as children continue to die at the hands of their mother’s latest boyfriend despite warning after warning from grandparents and teachers to the Child Welfare departments. And a teacher who fed his own semen to his pupils remains on the school system payroll. No one is ever fired. The Unions see to that. And under Speaker Pelosi expect more of the same, but with the exceptional ritual throwing to the wolves of some particularly egregious public worker chosen as an example. Depend upon it.

And the nightmares continue. The story is still developing, but apparently the government knows much more about each of us than we suspected, and has access to as much more as it likes. Of course government agencies like IRS would never leak that data to progressive allies – oops. The IRS has your tax return data. It doesn’t yet have access to your telephone and email and browsing search records – but colleagues in other agencies do. Of course no one would want to do favors to an IRS investigator.

From The Washington Post:

Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge

By Barton Gellman and Laura Poitras, Thursday, June 6, 2:43 PM

The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.

The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley.

Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: “Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”

PRISM was launched from the ashes of President George W. Bush’s secret program of warrantless domestic surveillance in 2007, after news media disclosures, lawsuits and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court forced the president to look for new authority.

Congress obliged with the Protect America Act in 2007 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which immunized private companies that cooperated voluntarily with U.S. intelligence collection. PRISM recruited its first partner, Microsoft, and began six years of rapidly growing data collection beneath the surface of a roiling national debate on surveillance and privacy. Late last year, when critics in Congress sought changes in the FISA Amendments Act, the only lawmakers who knew about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_print.html

Of course we can trust the reliable civil servants never to abuse this knowledge.

 

There were more nightmares last week, but surely those are enough for one dose.

Despair is a sin. It is also futile. The remedy to all this is more action. We know to a certainty what the battle ground will be. We know we have the resources to win it. There Is no reduction in the people sympathetic to the Tea Party. The President’s personal approval remains high but there is no longer much confidence in his ability to manage the affairs of the nation and even less conviction that Hope and Change was anything but a campaign promise. The realization that Barrack Hussein Obama was only a politician is sinking in.

The IRS will continue to harass conservative organizations but all the money they collect is tax paid money. The donor can’t claim a tax deduction but few ever thought they could. The people of the United States do not need the IRS permission to assemble and that includes on election day.

Winning the upcoming election will not be a final win for the friends of the Republic; but losing it could be a decisive event. All the markers indicate a conservative win – and the enemies of the Republic can read those indicators as well as we. That includes the IRS agents whose jobs and pensions are on the line.

It will not be an easy job.