Utopia, you are standing in it!

Nothing invokes rage and fury in rural communities like a wind farm comprising dozens and sometimes hundreds of 300 tonne, 200m high monsters.

In Germany, locals have expressed their opposition in no uncertain terms by voting 25 to 1 against a giant wind project proposed for their patch of paradise:

And elsewhere, grassroots opposition to the subsidy-sucking wind industry has never been healthier and more active., New York State, is no exception.

20 years into the 21^st century, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we’d left fascist dictators in the 20^th century. Then along comes Andrew Cuomo, New York’s wind power obsessed Governor. Instead of listening to his constituents, he’s determined to gag them and ride roughshod over them.

Sherri Lange reports in with the latest from the battle front in New York State.

New York’s Cuomo vs. the Grassroots on Wind & Solar
Master Resource
Sherri Lange

Hobson’s Choice spokesman Don Brash (a former leader of the National and ACT Parties) is not alone in challenging the justification for tribes claiming to have closed roads to protect their people against Covid.

Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters – his remarks apparently ignored by other media – told Waatea News unofficial tribal militia throwing up checkpoints were more likely to hinder than help the Covid-19 response.

He was interviewed at a time when hapu and iwi on the East Coast were organising such road-blocks and Hone Harawira was arranging checkpoints on roads into the far north.

Peters said the government didn’t need Harawira to ring-fence Kaitaia.

“That’s what the Government is seeking to do now. That’s why there’s a lockdown. That’s why they’re saying don’t travel. That’s why the Government is saying stay at home, look after each other.

“If you ring-fence Kaitaia, it…

In Flanders, we have the expression “calculating yourself rich”. It means presenting one’s case in a too optimistic way that doesn’t accord with reality. This can for example be done by only counting the positives or by making overly optimistic assumptions. Both can result in an end result that is far too optimistic. Therefor “calculate” yourself rich instead of “being” rich. It is not real wealth, it is fully dependent on the tricks used in the calculation.

This expression popped up in my mind when I read an article about the blessings of grid sized battery storage (see previous post). To recap: two advocates for solar and wind claimed that batteries could replace natural gas power plants for peaking and gap-filling. Reading the linked article, it became clear that it had nothing to do with the claims made by the two advocates. The subject of the linked article described how…

I’ve pretty much written off Republicans, but among us Democrats there’s one annoying snake in the grass, a snake who goes by the monicker of AOC. Truly, I am amazed at the number of people who admire her, and even suggest she’d make a good president. I see her as having some good positions. and is generally on the right side of issues (even though her solutions are often ludicrous), but someone who’s not that bright, and is following a script laid out by the Justice Democrats, who recruited her to run for Congress. I also believe she’s an anti-Semite and somewhat of a narcissist—as well as a social-media “influencer” along the lines of Trump. And now she (along with a Republican in the House) is threatening passage of the stimulus bill (see also here).

Passage of largest ever American relief bill could be delayed. 

For my last-but-one Women’s History Month post, I’m so excited to share my review of Erin Lawless’ book Forgotten Royal Women: The King and I, which Pen & Sword Books kindly sent me a copy of to review. A positive in the craziness that the world is going through right now (and I sincerely hope that you, your families and friends are all safe and well at this uncertain time) is that isolation has meant for me lots of reading time. The month of March became, more than I expected when I set myself a Women’s History Month theme of Reading Women, a month of reading women: about women’s history, female authors I hadn’t read before and women’s studies. And this included this lovely, entertaining book about the royal women you might not have heard of before, and a window into their stories.

Lawless opens with Catherine…

Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649)[a] was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from March 27, 1625 until his execution in 1649.

Charles was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603 (as James I), he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life. He became heir apparent to the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1612 on the death of his elder brother Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to the Spanish Habsburg princess Maria Anna culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiations. Two years later he married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France, the youngest daughter of Henri IV…