Biden’s 9000 oil and gas leases.

 Biden has been complaining that the oil companies have 9000 leases to drill and they have not drilled them.  What Biden doesn’t say is that some of these leases were for dry holes, land that just didn’t have any oil in it.  Others are leases on land that has a little oil, but not enough to justify sinking an expensive well which will never produce enough oil or gas to pay for the cost of drilling.  In both of these cases, oil company management is doing the right thing, conserving money by not drilling unless the well will be profitable, i.e. pay off the costs of drilling it. 

   Biden is threatening to cancel all the unused leases and maybe fine the oil companies for not drilling them. 

   This abusive policy is not going to increase domestic oil production and get it back up to where it was when Trump was president.  It will provide welfare for lawyers for years.

   Biden ought to get the leasing situation straightened out so that a lease is issued within a month of the oil company making a request for one.  He ought to sell leases off shore, in Anwar, just about anywhere except in the Grand Canyon.  And come up with a way to disqualify British Petroleum for gross incompetence and endangering everyone near a BP facility.  BP is the company the let the Alaska pipeline rust out and leak, managed to blow up their refinery in Texas, and caused that awful blowout in the Gulf of Mexico back in Obama time. 

Rare Element shortages.

    Lithium is element number 3, above hydrogen and helium.  It is an alkali metal with a single valance electron.  It is found in nature as various compounds.  Elements lighter than iron are quite plentiful in the universe and on earth.  The lighter elements are created in all stars, of which there are many.  The heavier elements, heavier than iron, are only formed in supernova, of which there are many many less than there are stars.  Only one star in 1000 (or more) goes supernova, so the elements formed in supernovae are scarcer, although available.  Copper, silver, gold and platinum are all heavier than iron, scarce enough to be called precious metals, but common enough to be used as money and as jewelry. 

   Anyway, we should be able to find plenty of lithium in North America if we look.  Actually they have found a sizeable lithium deposit out in Oregon.  The company prospecting this deposit was saying on the radio that required greenie paperwork will delay opening a mine in this deposit by five or ten years.  If we really need more lithium for batteries in battery cars, we could get it now be revoking all the greenie paperwork.   

Let’s cut federal spending.

There are a lot of federal agencies that we could do without. 

1. Kill off the Securities and Exchange (SEC) agency.  This was created after the great depression with the mission of preventing another great depression.  After great depression 2.0, which broke out in the winter of 2007-2008 it is clear that the SEC has failed in its primary purpose.  We ought to shut them down, lay off all the workers, burn the files, and sell the buildings. 
2. The federal education department.  They don’t do any teaching which is all that counts in education.  They have been issuing a bunch of “guidance” letters that are not really needed. Again we ought to lay off all the workers, burn the files, and sell off the buildings.
3. The bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE).  This is the old revenooers from the 1930s.  The agency was created to collect the federal whisky tax of $10.50 a gallon, and suppress moon shining.  In recent times they brought us Ruby Ridge.  We could shut them down completely.  State and local police can handle what little law enforcement BATFE does. 
4. The Federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  I cannot think of anything HUD does other than draw their pay.  We could shut them down and nobody would miss them.
5. There are probably more, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind.

 

More old line science fiction authors, Hal Clement

 Hal wrote a bunch of stuff, all of it decent.  His master piece was Mission of Gravity.  The giant planet Mesklin has incredibly strong gravity at the poles.  Mesklin rotates so fast that the planet is stretched out into the shape of the yolk of a fried egg.  Rotation is so fast that centrifugal force reduces surface gravity at the equator to only 3 G. 

   The Terrans have landed an instrument probe on the North Pole to study the intense gravity field with an eye to developing anti gravity.  Unfortunately something goes wrong and the probe fails to takeoff upon command.  The Terrans land one brave man, Charles Lackland, on the equator, where the gravity is light enough to allow a successful blastoff to take a look around.  Charles encounters the natïve skipper of a sea going freighter, Barlenan by name, and talks Barlenan into voyaging to the North Pole to attempt to salvage the probe.  Equipped with Terran TV cameras and recorders to read the instruments on the probe, Barlenan and his crew set off.  They encounter many adventures along the way. 

   It’s a good read; I read it to myself back in grade school. 

Biden’s new soak the rich tax.

   The rich already pay 37% on ordinary income and 23.8% on capital gains.  Will this Biden tax idea replace the existing rates with a 20% rate?  That would be a tax cut for the rich.  Something democrats have been against like since forever.

   Or is the Biden 20% a surcharge on the existing rates, which would jack the 37% on ordinary income up to 57%, very steep even for a George Soros.  And the 23.8% capital gains rate would become 43.8%, also very very stiff. 

   Worse, the Biden tax hike would tax “unrealized income” the increase in value of your stocks and bonds and fine art and real estate, and everything.  To collect this everybody would be required to tell the government how much stuff they own, on April 15 every year.  Doing income tax has gotten so bad that I now have to use TurboTax.  It would be twice as bad if I had to list everything I owned ever April 15. 

   Plus there is serious difficulty in determining the increase in value of things that don’t get traded all that often like New York Skyscrapers or fine art or fancy cars.  That will create a lot of welfare for lawyers. 

Old line science fiction writers, H. Beam Piper.

   He wrote a bunch of stuff, all of it quite readable, most of it published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine (later renamed to Analog Science Fiction).  One of his best novels was Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, a parallel universe story.  The action takes place in a medieval alternate universe where the priests of Styphon’s house have maintained a monopoly on gunpowder, fireseed to call it what the natives call it.  Only Styphon’s house knows how to make gunpowder, and should a kingdom care to make war, they have to get Styphon’s House to support them if the want to win.  Into this universe a Pennsylvania State Policemen from our universe, name of Calvin Morrison, gets tossed.  Calvin knows the formula for gunpowder, and the war with Syphon’s house is on. 

   Piper’s other great novel is Space Viking, about a far future universe where constant space borne warfare has created some really broken down planets.  Lucas Trask buys a large nuclear powered space war craft and sets out to shape up the broken down parts of the universe.   It’s a good read. 

   Both of these are older stories, out of print by now.  You can probably find them on the net, or in a good municipal library, or in any second hand bookstores that may still be left in business. 

Congratulations to Ukraine

   Yesterday the Russians announced, publicly, that they will settle for just the bits of Ukraine on the east side that they have controlled for several years.  The original Russian war aim was to take over the whole of Ukraine and make it into just another Russian province. 

   Anyhow courageous and stout Ukrainian resistance has made the Russians drop back from taking over all of Ukraine to just taking over a small slice of territory on the east border between Ukraine and Russia.  Land that the Russians invaded some years ago, and have held ever since, despite serious objections (armed objections) from Ukraine.

   Anyhow, congratulations to Ukraine for hanging tough and forcing the Russians to back down. Keep hanging in there and Ukraine might be able to force the Russians to pull out and Ukraine to keep all its land. Resistance has cost Ukraine a lot.  The TV shows endless shots of blown up apartment buildings, women and children fleeing, fires, and destruction.  Resistance to the Russians has not been cheap.