If you’re Gen X or older, you can probably remember being a kid and hoping they’d decide to call it a snow day – when it was actually snowing.
Not because it might.
There’d by several inches down already and it was still undecided whether you’d get to stay home.
It took a lot of snow for them to cancel school, back when people weren’t pathologically afraid of even a little snow.
Things are different now. It’s not just that schools shut down because it might snow. Much of everything else shuts down when it actually does snow. It doesn’t take much, either. Just that it’s snowing.
We got maybe three inches today – on the grass – and since I’m a Gen X guy who learned how to drive when the roads were covered by several more than three inches of snow, driving a rear-drive car without even a limited slip differential (let alone any “advanced driver assistance technology”) I decided to drive downtown to hit the gym and run some other errands.
Because why wouldn’t I?
Whey wouldn’t anybody? I’s just a little snow and very little of it is actually on the road.
Well, as it turned out, I shouldn’t have ventured out. Not because of the snow. But because apparently no one else – just about – can deal with snow anymore. I got to my gym, without any slipping or sliding – to find an empty parking lot and locked doors. It was closed. Because people – the owners, I suppose – were afraid to open the joint up. Or perhaps the employees were too afraid to show up for work.
It was the same at the bank. It, too, was closed for business. Same issues, it seems. Probably, the owners decided to do what so many business owners did during the mass-panic event some people still insist upon calling “the pandemic” and pretend there was a reason to panic. More finely, they deferred to the panic of nervous ninnies who have a nervous breakdown when they feel “unsafe.” People who runs gyms and banks and so on are probably afraid of these panicked people. Afraid they might get sued by them if they expect them to show up for work in “dangerous” conditions.
So – out of an abundance of overcaution – they close their doors much the same as the schools now do. Much the same as stores and gyms and restaurants did during the “pandemic.” How long before the doors close on account of rain? Or it being dark outside? It’s not safe!
There’s too much risk!
Best to stay home. Or – as it’s styled nowadays – shelter in place. Maybe under the bed.
I must add that I made it into town – and back – without the “assistance” of any “advanced technology.” Once again, because I am capable of competently driving a car without such “assistance,” having learned how to do just that. Because it was once both necessary – there being no such thing as “advanced driver assistance technology,” which meant you literally could not drive if you didn’t know how to drive. And because it was required that you demonstrate basic competence in that you could not get a license to drive if you were unable to demonstrate basic driver competences such as keeping the car in its travel lane and curbside parking it in between two other cars.
Now that there is all of this “assistance” – and people are being conditioned to rely on it to keep the car in its travel lane and to park itself (and stop itself when a kid runs into the road) what happens when the “assistance” stop assisting?
As for example when it snows?
In other words, in adverse conditions – when people who need “assistance” the most no longer have it?
Well, that’s exactly what does happen when it snows. Because the cameras that are the eyes of all of this “advanced driver assistance technology” tend to get blinded by snow. And ice. And fog. Anything that obscures their view of what’s ahead of you and behind and beside you causes the “assistance” to stop doing just that. The driver will get a warning that the “assistance” he’s been trained to depend on has been “temporarily disabled.” 
Can you see?
The implications, I mean.
If drivers really do need all of this “assistance,” then they are dependent upon it and that implies they ought to stop driving (or avoid trying to drive) whenever conditions are such that “assistance” might not be available – because it isn’t safe for them to drive.
Or for others.
Maybe the roads ought to be locked down at the first hint of snow. And rain, too. Don’t doubt that this isn’t where things are headed. It is implicit in the idea that drivers – in general – need “assistance.” One does not expect a person who has trouble walking to climb a flight of stairs if the elevator isn’t working.
The locking-down could all be done automatically – and remotely. All at once and just like that.
Snowing? Might snow? A signal is transmitted from the hive mind that your connected car is in constant communication with already that temporarily disables it because it isn’t currently safe to drive.
Until such time as the hive mind decides it’s ok to go out now.
Maybe it’d be smarter if we just learned how to drive – without “assistance.” So that we are able to drive safely when there’s a little snow on the ground but know we’re competent to do that and so aren’t afraid to. And know it’s not for our “safety” when they try to lock us down because there’s a little snow on the ground.
Or might be some, come tomorrow morning.
. . .
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Here in the northern reaches of the people’s republic of Illinois we still don’t shutdown anything for snow unless it’s well into the double digits of inches and comes down fast. And even then lots of places are still open. However, people are just crawling along. The other night it had just started snowing and almost everyone is doing half their normal speed or so.
These people are driving vehicles with traction control, all wheel drive, and much more and they are going so slow they are annoying me. Now maybe that wouldn’t mean much but I’m driving a 13.5 year old Mustang with a solid axle and 3.73 gears. I do have proper snow tires mounted but even still a garden variety crossover with AWD and all season tires should be doing better but they aren’t. They are crawling along at 25-30mph. Now I do have traction control and I have it set to the least intrusive setting but it never came on. I’m able to drive the posted speed limit of 45mph and I don’t feel the least bit of traction loss.
The only one not crawling along is some dufus in a Jeep tailgating me as I proceed down an arterial road in the right lane at the PSL. All in a snow storm that left a small fraction of the snow that the news media told us was coming. Because every snow storm is now the end times.
When I was in high school back in the early 2000s, there would have to be AT LEAST 4-6 inches of snow ON THE ROADS, before there was any mention of school closings. And even then, it was usually just delayed openings. Now? The mere PREDICTION of snow is enough for Dildo Murphy to declare a “state of emergency”! And why not? EVERYTHING’S an “emergency” these days, including natural phenomenons that have been occurring for the last…oh, I don’t know…10,000 YEARS!!!
Morning, Bluegrey!
Yup; it was the same when I was in high school 20 years earlier. A blizzard was necessary to get out of school. Now it’s just a flake. The one that might fall.
I’ve had exactly TWO snow days in my entire life. Monumental amounts of snow in the late 1970s and got one day in like 1977. Then the brutal record cold of the first half of the 1980s and nothing. Had to get to school every day.
My second snow day happened in the groundhog day blizzard of like a dozen years ago. I kept things clear enough to get to the road but the road wasn’t clear enough for me to get anywhere. My then employer shut down for the day.
Anyway now it gets a little cold and they shut down the schools.
This is one of those “6 of one, 1/2 a dozen of the other” concepts. In the past the vid maker talks about, the majority of people knew how to drive, and most cars and pick ’em ups were stick shifts and rear wheel drive. People then were smart enough to put some ballast in the trunk or bed and drive slow. Yes, shit did happen occasionally, like black ice. And there weren’t as many idiots out on the road then either, nor were there any cell phones and gay infotainment screens in the cars.
Today, there are far more idiots on the road, stuck on their cell phones, diddling with the infotainment toys, and believing that fake bs poopenvaggen commercial about how great fwd is in snow. Add in the false concept that AWD “allows” one to go faster in snow, and it is no wonder the smart thing to do today, when there is more than 2 inches of snow on the ground and roadways, is to call it a “snow day” and stay home. Fewer idiots on the road means fewer accidents.
RE: “that fake bs poopenvaggen commercial about how great fwd is in snow.”
I haven’t seen the poopenvaggen commercial, but I do know, and many others would tell ya, front wheel drive does excellent in the snow. Especially, compared to rear wheel drive, going up hill.
Also, as a teenager, I never once put weight in the trunk during Winter & never once wound up stuck in a ditch as a result. YMMV?
I don’t know about that. We sure seem to see a lot of fwd cars stuck in snow going uphill bc the snow piles up under the front end immobilizing the car.
“As a teenager, I never once put weight in the trunk during winter…”. Yup, I can believe that one; invincible, immortal, indestructible…
It was more like, we didn’t have “weights” to put inside the trunk.
Or, the extra money to buy, “weights”.
But mostly, we learned to do without & knew how to drive in snow.
Also, if the snow was so deep as to pile up under the car & immobilize it, wouldn’t it immobilize any other car no matter the drive system? …I’ve never seen what you’re describing, so I don’t know.
I have seen lifted 4×4’s stuck in a ditch in the same manner, though. Lots of ’em.
Speaking of getting stuck in heavy snow, one self-help solution was to use the car’s bumper jack (remember those?) to jack up the car and then knock the car off the jack in the right direction of the road. One might have to do this more than once to get the car back on the road but it was doable. Been there, done that…
I think a lot of driving problems come from people not learning on low power simple RWD cars. I watch those videos of someone wrecking a Mustang or Camaro or whatever RWD higher powered car and they are clearly driving it like a Camry or their mother’s minivan. That’s why they couldn’t recover and drove it into a tree or whatever.
An 85hp rear wheel drive car, especially with a manual transmission teaches dynamics in a way the modern FWD or AWD appliance never can.
100 percent, Brent –
It is difficult to drive well when you never had to learn how – as we did, in the kinds of cars you describe. Without “safety” systems such as ABS and traction/stability control. Because you got to experience how a car behaves when it loses traction – and at relatively low speeds. Since this commonly happened – given those kinds of cars – you learned what it felt like and how to deal with it.
The modern Appliance has removed most of that from the experience such that when loss of control does occur it tends to be at higher speed – and the average driver has no clue what to do.
Well, and that happened many times before not with snow but with storms: electric out!
In happened sometimes for up to a week and guess what, not only we survived but it was fun!
Also ten days with heavy snow, more than a meter high on roads, so no traffic and guess what: it was fun!
Also people who live in mountain areas have snow all the time and it doesn’t stop them to go out, live and drive.
Guess what, drivin on the snow is fun!
Global Warming? Au contraire Pierre, earth is still in an ice age epoch, and our orbital cycles/sun output have not changed, thus the ice age cycle will continue, perhaps for another hundred million years. So the snow may increase, and I will explicitly show you what the hell is going on. The charts do not lie, but the MSM does. Charts presented from long to shorter time spans, and you should study them closely:
Ice age epochs come and go, and they last a long time (note non-linear time scale):
https://geology.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/ice_ages1-450×176.gif
The last 5 glaciations of the current ice age (note how the current interglacial, the Holocene, is COLDER than the previous 4):
https://andymaypetrophysicist.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/080417_0233_paleoclimat1.jpg
It takes 10,000 years for earth to cool back into another worldwide glaciation period, interglacials average 10,000 years, and glaciations last 100,000 years. So, in our lifetime, which is a very short time span of a 100 years, what matters are solar cycles, a decreasing solar cycle, called a solar minima will determine your local snow/cold periods. Solar astrophysicists say the next “modern grand solar minima” is 2050.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7575229/
The current interglacial, the Holocene, showing the temperature taper because we are post peak (optimum) temperatures:
https://cdn.imgpile.com/f/1ICvCk_md.png
https://cdn.imgpile.com/f/1nrpnM.png
8,000 years ago was the warmest part of the interglacial, and since, the earth has been cooling. At peak temps, polar ice was 50% less. Polar ice is not normal for earth, polar ice started 20 million years ago when the earth cooled from the end of the dinosaurs. It took earth 50 million years to cool from hothouse earth to glacial earth. Thus the idea that a trace gas, CO2, is going to change that is ludicrous. Earth is locked in an ice age, and media hysterics and stupid dumbasses like Al Gore will not change that when they blow chunks of bullshit from their pie holes.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/heating_effect_of_co2.png
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/03/08/the-logarithmic-effect-of-carbon-dioxide/
I would like to remind everyone that CO2 does NOT drive earth thermodynamics, and that CO2 is a trace gas unable to force temperature up or down. Yes, you have heard otherwise, and that is just another USAID funded lie. I noticed that Anthony Watts excellent site was on the USAID ban list, along with Tony Heller’s Real Climate Science. The two most outspoken climate dissent websites, run by real scientists, are banned by the US government, or were, until Elon/Trump.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/
https://realclimatescience.com
The big lie of CO2 runaway warming was the reason for ICE car ban. CO2 has never forced temperature, yet the lie persists. It is this lie, that CO2 forces warming, that must be overcome for our culture to regain climate sanity. The lie is maintained by having know nothing hacks emotionally brand the public, like Greta Thunderborg, who has no scientific training, but is an expert on climate. Real scientists, who do know, are kept off the Jewtube. Jews lie, that is all they do, time to wake the fuck up and realize who is working you over. They love Israel and they love to kill, and Trump loves to suck their dick. It would be a great day, the day hell freezes over, when Tony Heller got the president’s ear, not some USAID paid lying climate whore.
Just remember Yukon Jack’s favorite climate meme:
SNOW, SNOW, SNOW BECAUSE GLOBAL WARMING IS WRONG, WRONG, WRONG
Hence the term for the little weaklings – Snowflake. This is why you should never allow women the vote.
Jeezy peezy….the misogyny on this one is strong.
Hey I’m doing my part. Filled out both my ballots NO on the school bus levy.
E=MC2
so it logically follows
Married Man = 2 Ballots
“Dad why don’t we have a cast iron frying pan in the house?”
I don’t understand, Sparkey. After a few decades of marriage don’t you have her thinking like you, yet? Is your training falling through? She should automatically know what you want her to do and whom to vote for. There is no reason you have to fill out two.
Well, most ballots can be a bit complex. This one was simple just the one issue. When the daughter was 18 and still at home I did have 3 ballots. Daughter turned out more conservative than dear old Dad. So once she got married and I signed over clear title (none of that hyphenated last name BS!) to the son in law my political training was successfully complete.
The Commander is a happy camper, safe within the realm of my benevolent dictatorship.
ROFLMAO.
Thank you, Sparkey for everything you do. We need more benevolent dictatorships to realize that a happy wife does equate to a happy life. Some guys didn’t receive that bulletin.
When I was a kid we used to joke that the only way they’d close school was if they couldn’t find the building under the snow.
For perspective:
‘Going to School in the Coldest Town on Earth (−64°C, −84°F) | Yakutsk, Siberia’
“The world’s coldest city, where temperatures routinely dip to a bone-chilling -50°C. In this video, we will show you a daily life of a little boy Lionel, his challenges and unique experiences of growing up and attending school in such a frigid environment.”
[Only] “When the temperatures drop below -50 degrees Celsius [-58F] all the schools will close”…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAZ4GXMwH4M
Two more things about driving in snow these days as opposed to the past.
1. Automatic transmissions suck in slick conditions. A manual is far more capable because YOU select the gear thus how much torque to apply. I’ve started from a stop in 2nd gear to avoid breaking the tires loose.
2. Skinny tires no longer exist but, are superior in snow. 80 profile is great, 40 is a sick joke.
Blows my mind how many people are scared of snow even when they’ve got all wheel drive, ABS, traction control, etc. I drive an older economy car which has none of those features and not much ground clearance either, yet I don’t freak out over snow. Just deal with it. It’s not that I’m some hotshot driver either, just an average guy in an older, basic car. Yet I’ve seen numerous times where I got to work on time in the snow, and people with newer and far more capable vehicles were calling out, saying they couldn’t get to work.
This last snow we had started in the late afternoon Tuesday and was over by the wee morning hours Wednesday. The gov’t schools in my area shut completely down both days, which was completely unnecessary (now if the gov’t schools would shut down forever, we might be getting somewhere . . . )
My employer decided to close early. Another organization our company deals with was shut down all day Wednesday, even though the roads had been cleared by Wednesday morning. Now we”ll have a big backlog of work to catch up over the next few days.
All this fear of everything is gradually pushing us toward a society where nothing works anymore. Can’t get the most basic things done (like what Eric mentioned with the bank and gym), because people are scared of every little thing. And years of covid hysteria definitely made this mindset worse.
Anyway, here’s a random video of a guy doing wheelies on his sportbike, in the rain, at night. Action starts about 6 minutes in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5JgT6NCnTw
Unsafe or not, we need more people like that guy. I’d rather hang out with people like that vs the perpetually frightened types.
About three years ago (Saturday into Sunday morning) we had a 2 foot dump of snow during the night. I did not realize how deep the snow was until I started the drive home. Got stuck behind an FBAT (F’kin Big Ass Truck), and was never so glad, as he blazed trail for me. I was driving my old WRX then, which sat real low to the ground. Between the truck blazing trail, it being a Sunday with no one on the roads, the standard transmission, and the snow tires, I made it home in one piece. Oh yes, I remember learning to drive with rear-wheel drive vehicles-hee hee. I made sure all the safety crap was turned off on this newer vehicle, as that would just cause more problems than they solve. I especially love it when the warning comes on that the rear view camera is blocked. I tell it “Welcome To Winter”, and we have lots of it. Those roads Eric was showing look like another typical day in these parts. But, I imagine in his neck of the woods, many may not know what snow is, let alone know how to drive on the stuff. Unlike up here, where people will get on the roads even when they know they cannot drive in such road conditions, at least down there people stayed home rather than pretend like they do up here.
Preach it,Jon!
I think – as you do – that “COVID” really boosted the general state of panic/hysteria, which has become the new abnormal. Danger, Will Robinson! Everywhere. All the time.
It’s pretty simple to me. Most dudes have become severely pussified. When I hear “safety first” I want to go squid out on my bike with no helmet right by the limp-wristed pudges. I will give chicks a break because that’s how they’re programmed and that’s a good thing. A risk adverse dude visits the Low T clinic in my mind. Wusses are definitely harshing the chill…
I have always loved driving in the snow. I think people used to be better at it.
Pretty proud of my 17 yr old daughter. First year she has driven in snow.
A few weeks back it snowed several inches while she was at work.
Our fearless plow truck drivers decided out where we live could just wait until it was all over.
Her 06 Elantra couldn’t make it up the steep hill on the way home, so she backed down the road until she could turn around. No special equipment needed. She seems to enjoy it as much as me.
Good stuff, Dan!
That’s how it used to be – generally. Now your daughter seems to be the exception. The word “safety” has come to mean disproportionate anxiety about what might happen. It is paralyzing as well as something worse because those who obsess about “safety” think everyone should obsess about it, too – and if they don’t, then they are reckless and selfish people who don’t care about the “safety” of others. We saw this manifest during the (cough) “pandemic.” Remember? If you questioned “masking” then you were indifferent to the looming death of granny you were promoting.
How to treat this derangement? I suspect it is not treatable. People who are not afflicted – those of us here and those like us – are already immune. But those who were reared to fear (everything) will likely always fear everything. I blame safety seats for all of it.
Seriously.
“Her 06 Elantra couldn’t make it up the steep hill on the way home, so she backed down the road until she could turn around.”
That happened to me once in my 1989 Camry. It was scary since on one side of the road was a steep embankment while I was trying to gently guide her backwards down the hill. Good thing no one was behind me. Before the 2nd attempt I made sure I built up enough momentum to get over.
After I took her to her car she gave it another go, but this hill is steep with a curve at the bottom, so it just wasn’t enough. She almost got off in the ditch that time.
We had to drive 11 miles out of our way to get to a better road. She was jabbering away on the phone to me the whole time, enjoying the heck out of herself.
There was a dusting of snow last night.
The overnight low was at minus 17 earlier today.
Finally warmed up to negative 4 Fahrenheit at 4 pm this afternoon.
Old Man Winter shows no mercy.
You need a house to protect you from the elements.
Garrett Corporation, now Garrett Motion (GTX), has been manufacturing turbochargers since 1936, primarily for aircraft engines, also automobiles and other municipal uses.
Corvairs had turbocharged engines.
We may be neighbors. I think I saw the frost giants dottir yesterday.
Two highly recommended
books are “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World” by Harry Browne and “Thomas Paine: A Brief Introduction” by Andy Reven.
Look out, here it comes:
‘Ford CEO Jim Farley warned that President Donald Trump’s tariff threats will “blow a hole” in the auto industry and manufacturers faced a spike in “costs” and “chaos.”
‘Speaking at a conference on Tuesday, Farley warned that Trump’s tariff-heavy trade tactics, whether targeting neighbors like Canada and Mexico or raw materials like steel and aluminum, are poised to wreak havoc on his industry.
“Let’s be real honest long-term: a 25% tariff across the Mexico and Canadian border will blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen,” Farley declared.
‘Farley pointed out that many U.S.-made vehicles rely on parts that cross North American borders multiple times during assembly—meaning each crossing could trigger new costs. The tariffs on steel and aluminum also tax the very materials that the cars are built from.’
https://www.mediaite.com/news/costs-and-chaos-ford-ceo-warns-trump-tariffs-will-blow-a-hole-in-auto-industry/
By the time Donnie Fubar is done with his goofball trade war, most Americans will driving made-in-the-USA donkey carts with wooden wheels and canopies of homespun flax.
Hi Jim,
I have no issue with Trump’s tariffs, especially from countries that have taken advantage of us for years. Ford, GM, and Dodge shipped many of these once American made jobs into Mexico and China to “save on costs”. Instead, we have the average new auto costing Americans $49,740. These companies embraced moving overseas or over the border, implemented DIE and ESG requirements into their workforce, and sat on their hands while government destroyed their industry under the Green New Deal and unattainable CAFE standards.
Now, they are yelling about the unaffordability of new cars because of tariffs? If Farley really gave a crap about the costs of vehicles he would have told government to kiss his ass about 15 years ago. Their pleas fall on my deaf ears.
My perspective is a bit different. I ran a business importing specialty steel from Japan. We paid a tariff of about 5 percent.
Had that tariff jumped to 25 percent overnight — while we had tons of cargo on the water headed for the Port of Los Angeles / Long Beach — it would have blown away our entire gross margin on the shipment.
Businesses dealing in physical goods need predictability, both to invest and to transact. Here’s what Jim Farley has to say:
‘Farley told attendees that he is headed to Washington for the second time in three weeks to plead the industry’s case.
‘He continued: “They need to understand that there’s a lot of policy uncertainty here, but in the meantime, we’re scrambling to manage the company as professionals and we’re in a global race.”
“We’re expecting and hoping there will be a pony in here for the auto industry. Right now, we’re doing a lot of shoveling,” Farley added.’
Trump allegedly is a businessman. But he’s jerking the carpet out from beneath the feet of manufacturers — businesses whose needs he apparently doesn’t understand. (I sold Trump some gold-plated stainless steel sheets for his Atlantic City casino — he paid about Net 60.)
Core CPI rose at a 3.3% annual rate in today’s report. Trump’s tariffs will jolt it higher still. Donnie Fubar is a walking, talking clusterf*ck. And I’m going to carry on slanging his fat sagging ass without mercy.
Can I understand your side, Jim? Absolutely. But, my family got dinged the other way.
As some on here already know my family is made up of tradesmen who specialize in sheet metal, HVACR, gas piping, etc. We have been buying US made steel for the entire 40 years we have been in business…black iron, galvanized, etc. straight out of PA. We are constantly being undersold because competitors are purchasing shitty Chinese sheet metal instead.
We expect Americans to buy good and services, right? How does that happen when corporations continue to push manufacturing overseas or over borders? If someone wants to buy American made products they are paying through the nose. We have now hit the crescendo…Americans can no longer afford to buy their own products.
We are going to disagree on this subject. Europe, China, and Canada have imposed tariffs on the US for years. I am not against leveling the playing field.
I agree with you that a level of consistency is needed though and these can’t be thrown around when Trump decides to have a temper tantrum.
Morning, RG –
This is a tough one for me. In principle, I’m a free trade guy. But there must be free trade for this to be something other than a kind of giant wealth transfer scheme – from the country (and people) who practice free trade to the country (and people) who do not practice it. There is also the underlying (in my opinion) cause of the problem that tariffs supposedly address – that being the regulatory regime (in this country) that has effectively incentivized the offshoring of manufacturing to countries such as Chyna – where it is possible to manufacturer stuff without losing money manufacturing it to compliance costs. Thus I would much prefer OMG address the over-regulation of manufacturing in this country. Ideally, I’d like to see the federal government out of the regulating business altogether. Let courts handle claims when there are allegations of harms caused – and let these be defined according to evidence that substantiates claims harms ave been caused.
Hi Jim.
The purpose of tariffs are to encourage production at home. In the nineteenth century America tariffed British steel even though it was cheaper than American steel because it was felt that producing your own steel was good for the country economically.
The problem today is that from some CEO’s vision to startup of a new plant, refinery, steel mill, you name it can be a 10 year process. Sounds like a long time but just wait until they find a couple purple striped Albonian slugs where your new steel mill was going to be built and tell me that won’t throw a spanner into the works. If somehow you avoided that fate and started to build your new project and the next administration comes in and says no you’re screwed, for example Bribem and Keystone.
It’s like the difference between American and Canadian gun laws, here the existing ones are usually grandfathered and in Canada (future fifty first state?) they threaten you with arrest and prison if you don’t surrender legally purchased property. Funny they can’t grandfather major industrial projects but instead create an incentive to build the plant or project in a foreign country that wants it and just export the output here.
I would rather have the jobs here but for that to happen policies must support industry and schools have to educate the students such that they have the skills to work in those plants. Considering how many people are incapable of driving in the snow or meltdown over the wrong pronoun I suspect it will be a long time before the jobs return.
Somewhere around 6 inches in blizzard conditions or around 8-12 inches if not seems about right.
I can remember a couple times there were 3-5 foot drifts.
That’s a snow day.
A couple inches? You should know how to drive in that.
I will acknowledge that it gets tricky when things are hovering riiiight around 32 degrees, because sometimes you get rain that then freezes and becomes a sheet of ice. That’s far harder to drive on than anything else I can think of, because there is so little traction to be had.
At my age, I find myself more apt to stay home. Why not? Why risk damage to a vehicle just to warm my office chair? I can do everything here that I could do at the office.
Driving in the snow doesn’t bother me one bit, but here, we tend to get more ice than snow. I heard it “thunder sleeting” all night last night. Woke up to a layer of ice on everything. Tried to get the car out of our sloped driveway to no avail.
Usually the roads are ok when you get into town on the more heavily travelled roads, but getting there is difficult from here. Lots of hills and curves.
Slightly off topic, but this chick gets it.
“Why I daily drive a classic car”
I think I’m in love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WRBhkmAqkM
Definitely not from the Puget Sound / PNW area. I could help with her patina.
Difference between Puget Sound area chick and Shamu the killer whale?
About 40 pounds and the nose ring.
Hey!
I have a nose ring. I happen to like it. It’s fun to change out the jewelry from time to time, right now I’m wearing a little black opal stud. Sometimes I match it to my earrings, sometimes I go for contrast.
It took the people at the office a little while, but they got used to it. It looks good. If you don’t like piercings don’t get one, if you don’t like my piercings go pound sand.
Through the septum or the nostril, Publius?
Nostril.
Leaning against getting a septum but I do have plans to add a philtrum and a labret.
Good, good. As Helot alludes to below, the septum doesn’t seem a proper place for a ring.
The others are up to you. I wouldn’t, but knock yourself out.
There are reasons why they aren’t necessarily my favorite.
But I don’t hate them and I’m ornery, telling me not to get one is liable to convince me to get one, just to piss people off.
My buddy’s outspoken 8 year old daughter back in the day – guy at one of our biker gatherings with his shirt off and the mips pierced
Walked up to him “that had to hurt!”
Can’t decide which is the better term, ‘Bull Rings’ or, ‘Booger Rings’.
Man, did this thread spiral down fast & ugly.
That chick’s ’67 – & her attitude – was nice.
It was going to spiral further but I stopped before any cute chick/bench seat comments.
Oh what the hey: coworker high school story, borrowed dad’s car for his Saturday night “date”. Sunday morning taking Auntie to church she comments “Franklin, why are there footprints on your headliner?”
Its bad here in Chicago- there has been little to no snow for the past 2 years, now we are getting some and there is a whole generation of new drivers plus illegals who have never driven in snow being exposed to it for the first time, and all those who have forgotten as usual every year. I love driving in deep snow, but I don’t want to get hit by one of these fools so I’m staying home for this one, at least until the rush clears out. If I lived in a rural area, snow would have little to no effect on my life other than doing some doughnuts and power slides with my 165HP truck.
It is like that in these parts as well, Anchar. Somehow, in the span of 3 months, people forget how to drive on ice and snow. How they can do so is always a mystery. That first real snow fall that sticks, I stay home unless absolutely necessary (aka, work). Even long-time residents are some of the worst: Pulling out in front of you on a side road, and then expect you can just slam on the brakes on icy, snowy roads. The idiocy is thick with the drivers. I cannot help but wonder (as Eric mentioned in a previous column) how many are vaxed, and now cannot think anymore? If they ever could before.
Unfortunately, IMO, things are so far past the point of no return that things probably will never return to “normalcy”, defined as requiring everyone to demonstrate basic competencies and eliminating all the government-mandated “assistances” that compensate when they can’t.
Your writings are well done and I appreciate them. I wish more people would read them and appreciate just how silly a lot of their attitudes are. It’s not possible to live a “risk-free” life – risks are everywhere, but they’re manageable.
Tulsi is in!
Let’s hope she stays the course, RG!
Just one RINO traitor voted against her: Mitch the Glitch McClownell.
Who should be in an assisted living home or a prison, not hogging a Senate seat
I’d say he was just keeping it warm but I’m not sure he’s capable of doing that.
I just saw her sworn in.
I really hope she guts that fat, arrogant, Cthulhu bastard and lets everyone know what they’ve been doing to undermine the world’s integrity for all these years. Probably not, but we’ll see.
Yes, Eric. As you suggested, sounds like it’s time to drink!
No shame in that, brother. The world left you; now you can leave the world for a while.
Meanwhile… My garage is almost constructed! I’m becoming fairly ebullient, though it’s tempered by a trip to a funeral I must make this weekend… In the raaaain! D:
New word of the day, ebullient.
Nice to be given that honor, Helot.
Normally I’m being schooled by Eric and other literary luminaries like Jim H.
Well…..if I were coughing up $600 a month on payments for the latest geeked up land cruiser, AND being squeezed for full coverage…what must that cost?….I would stay home, too. Rather than take the slightest risk of damaging my vehicle, and then suffering the ratcheting up of those lovely insurance premiums…what is the cost of full coverage on a $60K plus vehicle these days? Gotta be in the thousands per year.
Anyhoo…while I agree the overblown hysteria due to minior weather events is annoying and specious, I dont care. Why should I risk anything for my corporate overlords if I dont have to?
Agreed, Andy!
Of course, it begs the question… why bother with the Land Cruiser if you’re never going to drive the thing when the weather’s iffy?
The epitome of that I recall seeing in Fresno, CA some 45 years ago. During a pouring wintertime rain, a brand, spanking-new “Cowboy Cadillac” went through a deep puddle at the intersection of Clovis and Shaw, and some mud splashed on those shiny fenders. The driver pulled into a corner Shell station and proceeded to chamois down his precious ride in the rain!
Gen X here. When I was growing up in NJ they never salted or brined. They would plow the main roads and maybe sand. By the time they got to the side roads they were already driven on and packed down. People figured it out. Also, back then most people would put proper snow tires on their cars which makes a big difference. We had a few inches here the other week. I was out and it was just starting to accumulate. Got on I-95 for a few minutes. Saw a guy spun out in the median in an SUV. People just don’t have the skills anymore.
State officials saw that the 90s and 00s cars were lasting forever, depriving the psychopaths of taking your money every 4 years. So the state defeated the more durable cars by salting all the roads, needing salt or not did not matter. Anything to get that commoners tax money rolling in.
Let’s not forget o’bama’s “cash for clunkers” program which took a lot of good cars and trucks out of circulation…
two extremes for me.
Our eastern place, just like you described Eric. I love it cause I get the roads to myself.
Our western place, they don’t even plow anything less than 4-6 inches. They don’t salt either, just cinders if needed on slopes, etc… Your are expected to know how to drive in it. Love it.
Bring the snow!!!! Get idiots and scaredy cats off the road!
This mythical western place must not be Colorado.
In my life it’s gone from hardy winter souls who would get to our intended ski hill in a chained (or studded) 2WD Maverick in 2 feet of blowing snow to can’t get across town in a AWD Subaru with slightly damp roads.
It’s the Texans and Californians to some extent but it’s also the natives. People I grew up with are just as bad. The state sprays brine, plows like mad from November until around March, when they run out of money and everyone’s on their own.
They used to use cinders but the brown cloud over Denver forced them to stop in the 1980s. They then would use mag chloride and plows. But that’s expensive (compared to rock salt) and still requires skill. So they moved to plain salt in a lot of places.
So we used to have almost no rusty cars to now looking a bit more like Ohio in the lower places. They still have to use magnesium chloride in higher elevations, the re-freeze temperature for sodium chloride is too high to work in the mountains (although they try and just give you black ice, which is infinitely worse than doing nothing at all).
Clowns to the left of me
Jokers to the right
Here I am
Stuck in the middle with you
I have an 06′ car. When it snows I figure to use that one, instead of the newer one. Let the salt get at the older one first. The older car, i just had the entire rusted exhaust system and radiator replaced, rusted in large part because of the salted roads i would assume. I was driving home last night and the snow plow takes up two lanes while salting the whole road. I wish I had just taken a different road
It’s partially because over the past few decades more female individuals have made their way into decision-making positions in agencies and businesses. And the fact that many men have become soy-boys as well. The hive is bringing the hive down. They’re just waiting for assertive, confident men like us to die off so the whole world will be scared.
It’s got nothing to do with females, Njroute22.
It’s all about Power & Control. You know, the NWO,… run by confident men.
…”the “anticipatory governance” of human and systems behavior”…
https://mises.org/mises-wire/what-great-reset-part-i-reduced-expectations-and-bio-techno-feudalism
I beg to differ. I’ve seen in our school district (almost entirely run by women) how “saaaafety” and other nonsensical fear-mongering verbiage has taken front stage. Mentally exhausting. Closing schools for a dusting of snow because news reports said it was slippery. Half a dozen “delayed opening” and other crap. All women decision makers. Maybe the master plan had women decision-makers as part of the great reset (and societal insanity).
Seems like something along the lines of, “if they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers” – Thomas Pynchon.
Who shapes policy? Who runs Barter Town? Who runs the world?
Then why aren’t some of the confident assertive men taking over the school board. Man Up!
Expecting them to save the world is a bit of a stretch if they can’t even control a local school board . . . No?
Where were the confident assertive men in 2020? Oh yeah – wearing masks, standing 6 feet apart, and getting jabbed!
Hi NJ,
I have to agree with helot. Who runs Barter Town? I am not a fan of this division between men and women. We are different, yes, but we are also quite compatible if we can get government out of our lives.
It should never be about men vs women, but citizens vs TPTB. Women have always been preoccupied by safety. This trait wasn’t frowned upon for hundreds of years, but now is somehow detrimental to society? Women are told to be nurturing, feminine, and caring. Being concerned for the safety of our spouse, children, or friends is a part of our genetic makeup.
Where I draw the line is government intervention of what “safety” is. Personal freedom is derived from one’s ability to determine their level of risk. This should not be decided by bureaucrats, but by each of us as individuals. The problem with the bureaucracy and now, society, is they feel a safety net is always required. Just as the bureaucrats should not determine our actions they should not be held responsible for the consequences of these either.
Every Bartertown needs Auntie Em to guide the idiots…and Master to be the creative genius, and Blaster to protect him. Too bad they each couldn’t get beyond their considerable egos, it ended up ruining a damned good arrangement.
People can’t drive when the weather is clear and dry. People zip past me doing 90 in a 65, weaving in and out of traffic, not leaving enough space, and overall, being unpredictable. I can’t imagine being on a major highway with these idiots in the snow. It’s bad enough as it is.
Hi Damon,
Yup; it’s a self-reinforcing feedback loop. Expect less from drivers; encourage passivity and what you end up with is a society of Pakleds. People who do not how to “make it go.”
REAL Driving Fun was having a standard cab, extended bed pickup with 2WD to drive in the snow. Limited Slip Rear Diff and Anti-Lock DRUM brakes (on the rear) were the only driving aids. 500 lbs in weight centered over the rear axle (sandbags and cinderblocks held in a homemade frame) gave me the best bet for any form of traction. Drove it for ten Chicagoland winters and survived. Thank goodness it was a Chevrolet and the GM climate control kept me toasty warm on cold days.
Less fun was digging the truck out of a commuter parking lot with a snow shovel after a particularly heavy snowfall while at work.
I remember as a kid walking to school in the winter cold and over piles of snow bundled up like Ralphie’s kid brother Randy in “A Christmas Story”. (“I CAN’T PUT MY ARMS DOWN!”
) They only closed school if it was sub-zero temperatures or a BIG (A foot of snow or more) blizzard socked us. Otherwise it was shovel snow with dad and wait for the snowplows to clear the streets and go to school.
Of course living in the Midwest the view was “Well it snows here in the winter, whattaya expect?” You either figured out how to drive in snow or you were stuck.
Yep. We get 100 inches of snow here. It sucks but you deal with it. You have no choice. Decent snow tires matter. A lot. It also helps to drive around all winter with a shovel and and a bag of salt in your vehicle. If you have a truck, weight over the real axle is mandatory.
If you’re Gen X or older, you can probably remember being a kid and hoping they’d decide to call it a snow day – Eric
Oh, the joy when it was closed! – Mike
If you run a business, keeping the shop open on snow days really doesn’t make much sense economically. I remember when I worked for the grocery store, any time there was a big snow storm the place was empty. After a few hours in the morning our manager would start sending us home. There wasn’t enough business to pay for the background music, let alone a full front of store staff. A few customers did come in, and they got some pretty good service that day too. We were usually so bored we were happy to jump on the register or give them a carry out.
And these days more (most?) business is being done on screens. Specifically in web browsers. A Chromebook or even an iPad in a pinch can be used for most of what passes as white collar work these days. It’s all up in the cloud. When those clouds produce snow, just work at your makeshift home office you set up back in 2021.
Why risk going in to the office when you don’t need to? Besides, it’s fun to work from home!
Trump ordered everyone back to the office. This has been a pretty effective ploy by businesses to encourage resignations, which are cheaper than layoffs. It doesn’t matter that you’re running the same GoogleOffice365 app in a browser in an uncomfortable cubicle that you’re running at home. If you quit they stop paying you and that’s what’s important.
By the way, that grocery store job didn’t pay enough for a car, so I rode my bicycle the 5 miles or so from my house to the strip mall. Even in big snow.
It’s even worse. Remember the USPS Motto: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”?
Yeah, I have a package due to be delivered to me. But it’s gonna be late since on their website USPS said it’s going to snow where I live today so who knows when I’ll get my package?
Maybe they should hire Ralph Kramden to deliver the mail. After all he said “You know that sign at the post office that says: ‘The mail gets through no matter what kind of weather’? Do you know why it says that? Because the mailman rides with me.”
Meanwhile $5 says Amazon, FedEx, and UPS trucks will be seen rolling around my neighborhood, snow or not.
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night…except for a silly little virus with a 99.9 percent chance of survival…don’t get me started!
My car has all the assistance technology it needs; 4 snow tires with OK tread and someone who learned how to drive in the snow with rear wheel drive cars. I will admit going sideways down the road at 60 miles an hour after hitting a stretch of black ice is energizing though…….
Up here where I live, the country closed schools yesterday because it was calling for snow. Never mind the fact that it didn’t start falling well into the late afternoon. What’s next, cancelled due to rain, hard frost?? No wonder China and Russia are having a hard laugh at our expense and stupidity.
I think it has much to do with living in the Sun Belt. Couple this with the incompetence and ineptitude of GovCo and its ability to maintain “its” roads. Couple this with the feminization of society by GovCo schools and you have one merry mix-up.
I can’t imagine, even today, for things to grind to a halt in the Snow Belt. It would be economically unfeasible to run a business like your gym in such a manner in Buffalo.
To add to the Things Were Tougher Back Then file, during the Blizzard of ’78 (those around then know what I’m talking about) the wife worked at the HQ of a global manufacturing company. It was 100 degrees in South Africa and orders must be shipped. One morning while taking her to work it was 22 below zero with 108 mph winds. As a salesman it was a good day to catch up on paperwork and not make a ton of customer visits. But, somehow, we survived.
RE: “I can’t imagine, even today, for things to grind to a halt in the Snow Belt.”
I dunno, the threats of snow from the local weatherman were scrolling across the bottom of the TeeVee screen Two Days before the snow started falling, and almost always the total inches are revised downward the next day, just like employment numbers from FedZilla.
Last night, the number of closures scrolling across the bottom of the TeeVee screen just kept growing and growing, and all the while the weatherman kept saying that while the total accumulation might be in the range of 6″ to 8″, it was all going to be Light Fluffy Snow!
Here in Eastern Iowa with a balmy 12F temp., we got about 2″ of light fluffy snow so far. The kind that’s super easy to drive in. No way would even school be cancelled for this stuff back in the 80’s. It’s not really even cold out.
Sadly, I can easily imagine the same exact thing is playing out everywhere where it’s snowing in the North.
Same thing here helot,
.
We’ve had a couple 3-4” storms and the snow was light enough that I could clear everything with a broom. Not too fond of the temperatures in the teens but it will warm up eventually – Al Gore says so!
What gripes me is the minute they predict a snowstorm the lemmings run to the supermarket and clear out the shelves, they might be trapped in their house for a couple hours, OMG. Idiots.
“the local weatherman” has always been a prophet of doom, except when they badly underestimate their snow forecast, which rarely happens.
On the rare occasion that we got any kind of appreciable snow here in the Heart of Dixie, my brother and I would be glued to the radio waiting for the school closure list. Oh, the joy when it was closed! As long as we had bread & milk everything was great (that’s a Southern thing).
I’ve shared this before, but I went to grad school at Ohio State. I can tell you that at least in Columbus, Ohio they couldn’t drive any better in the snow than we can in Alabama. It’s just that the city of Columbus and the state of Ohio did a good job of keeping the roads open.
Mike”: “Oh, the joy when it was closed! As long as we had bread & milk everything was great (that’s a Southern thing).”
And the reason the grocery stores do not need to open. All the bread and milk shelves were cleaned out the day before when James Spann said it might snow. That’s a Southern thing, too.
(I have formed an idea that you live just a few miles up I-65 from us, Mike. Probably in Huntspatch?)
Yes sir. Huntspatch area.
‘The locking-down could all be done automatically – and remotely. All at once and just like that.’ — eric
Sounds like Donnie Fubar’s increasingly delusional ranting:
“We will have Gaza,” said Mr. Trump, as he sat next to Mr. Abdullah and the Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan. “It’s a war-torn area. We’re going to take it. We’re going to hold it. We’re going to cherish it.” — NYT
This is beyond WTF. Adolf H — the great villain from central casting — actually had a far better claim to the ethnically-German Sudetenland than the US (or Trump personally) has to Gaza.
Evidently, we’re the National Socialists now, grabbing land at gunpoint to colonize it. Count me the hell out.
Indeed, Jim – and not a peep in protest from the red hats. Astounding, isn’t it? The party that once – ostensibly – opposed FDR and contrived wars now loves them and amens them. Especially when they are fought for Greater Israel.
Careful Eric, the chozzen ones are gonna get you if you continue writing like this……..
Hi Jim, just rename it Namibia and sell it to the Germans. The populace then would be the same as what Germany looks like today.
From Thomas DiLorenzo’s excellent article at Lew Rockwell’s site this morning, titled ‘Happy Worst President’s Day’:
‘Lincoln was a lifelong advocate of “colonization,” a euphemism for deporting all the black people out of the country. Whenever he talked about emancipation it was always coupled with “colonization.’
‘As documented in the book Colonization after Emancipation, Lincoln, Seward, and others were hard at work literally until Lincoln’s dying day trying to make land purchase deals with other governments and counting how many ships it would take to deport all the black people out of America.’
Substitute Trump for Lincoln, Palestinian for black, Gaza for America — and we’ve got an exact match. Which is an exceedingly ugly turn of events.
WHOA — was Ape Lincoln our first ‘bi’ president? Thomas DiLorenzo insinuates it:
‘To advance his political career Lincoln broke up with Joshua Speed, with whom he had shared a bed for four years, and married Mary Todd, the daughter of a wealthy Kentucky slave-owning family.’
Oy, vey …
Hi Jim,
Yup. Weren’t there also some insinuations re Herndon, his law partner? In any case, it’s not his being bi or even gay that offends me. It’s that he was a pathologically lying sociopath and mass murderer.
As a child of the 70s (born in 1961) I can remember my Grandfather putting chains on his school bus .Imagine that today!… I learned to drive in snow in Moms 66 nova…It had a 327…would do a mean dough nut in a empty parking lot. Kids today have no idea what they missed out on….Sad.
Hi Zane,
Yup. I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with the Cult of Safety. I sensed its evil eventualities way back in the ’80s, when I began to notice those insipid “Baby on Board” signs. As if it were ok to place adults’ lives in danger; so long as you keep “the children” in mind. Then came “safety” seats in the ’90s – and that brought us to where we are now. At least two generations reared to be scared – of everything.
It makes me want to go do burnouts …
Good points all, and don’t forget the hyperbolic language of the media to describe weather events like Polar Vortex and Arctic Bomb (or my favorite, Atmospheric River). Everything has to be terrifying now, including the most basic weather events. In my neck of the woods they’ve even shut down schools due to high wind alerts. I guess they’re afraid the little snowflakes will blow away.
Gotta keep ’em watching. Before doomscrolling there was armchair rubbernecking. Watching the hurricane hit the beach is always a little thrill. Cable news adapted to this addicted audience with the BREAKING NEWS! banner and horizontal ticker scroll.
Thing is, snow is boring and often pretty. Any place that gets a lot of snow has built the infrastructure to deal with it. Sure, you might not have enough parking spaces at Walmart for a few weeks while the big pile melts, but that’s about the worst thing that happens. Hardly a reason to flee.
The media hypes weather events to first, gain ratings and eyeballs in a highly competitive market and next, to push the narrative that these weather events are caused by climate change (wrong) and were it not for climate change, we wouldn’t have these events (also wrong), so we must do everything we can to stop it, even if it means immense costs and greater misery, from jobs lost to cars that are more costly and less capable.
Don’t forget that every storm also now needs a name – to further reinforce the devastating seasonal effects of the….weather.
If it bleeds it leads.
This fact of journalism goes back to Acta Diurna.
“Alea iacta est” says Caesar! Film at 11.
‘a snow day – when it was actually snowing.’ — eric
Got some new ‘three peaks’ rated tires for muh 4WD Fronty. But it hasn’t snowed … all winter.
And here’s what that does — western drought monitor map:
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?west
D3 (Extreme Drought), which has already swallowed Phoenix and Prescott, is knocking on our door. Could be worse: Las Vegas is a black hole of D4 (Exceptional Drought). Not that you’d notice, strolling down the Strip.
We’ve had a few good snows up north of you, but I’ve only needed to shovel twice so far. Closer to the continental divide they’re seeing a pretty average snowpack but as usual, the message from the SNOTEL network is that it’s always below average until the actual report is posted.
https://nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/imap/#version=169&elements=&networks=!MSNT&states=!&basins=!&hucs=&minElevation=&maxElevation=&elementSelectType=any&activeOnly=true&activeForecastPointsOnly=false&hucLabels=false&hucIdLabels=false&hucParameterLabels=true&stationLabels=&overlays=&hucOverlays=state&basinOpacity=75&basinNoDataOpacity=0&basemapOpacity=100&maskOpacity=100&mode=data&openSections=dataElement,parameter,date,basin,options,elements,location,networks,baseMaps,overlays,labels&controlsOpen=true&popup=&popupMulti=&popupBasin=&base=esriWsr&displayType=basin&basinType=6&dataElement=WTEQ&depth=-8¶meter=PCTMED&frequency=DAILY&duration=I&customDuration=&dayPart=E&monthPart=B&forecastPubDay=1&forecastExceedance=50&useMixedPast=true&seqColor=1&divColor=7&scaleType=D&scaleMin=&scaleMax=&referencePeriodType=fixed&referenceBegin=1991&referenceEnd=2020&minimumYears=20&hucAssociations=true&relativeDate=-1&lat=43.241&lon=-105.285&zoom=5.2&autoExport=full,pdf,2,2,P,BL,Westwide%20SNOTEL,53.1005,29.8803,-100.0054,-127.0528
What RK is talking about. Hoping for a better spring because the Colorado River basin could use a couple of more good years.
‘because the Colorado River basin could use a couple of more good years’ — Sandy
After a western drought that some date to the year 2000, the Colorado River basin could use a quarter century of good years. Or else.
Something of a moving target here because what exactly is “normal” for the basin? They’ve admitted without admitting that the fundamental assumption for the basin capacity in the Compact is bunk, based on a period of flows that were probably higher than historical normal.
Using the levels of Mead and Powell as the metric, Mead has never been filled to it’s highest capacity and it’s high water was 1985. Upstream Powell peaked in 1983-1984 and has only come close again over 1995-2000. It’s not simple to use these as measures though since the consumption over the period exploded.
So the deeper analysis would have to include inflows such as snow pack and outflows to users. The Lower Basin, especially CA, was already sizable by 1936 and never eased up on use. When Powell was done the Upper Basin had only agriculture use for the most part and not much ability yet to move significant water to SLC and Denver until the mid 1980s. Just looking at the population who could utilitize the water can explain the trend down on both pools.
I’m not a hydrologist with specific responsibility here to know off hand, so I’d have to do more research but my gut tells me that if you look at years where the pools were rising the total drought picture would in fact not be nearly as dire as the chicken littles want us to believe as far as the weather is concerned.
That’s not to say the concern should be ignored, we have to face the reality that there’s a limit to the watersheds and drawing down the savings in the reservoirs is a sign to better match our income to spending, no different than household finances or similar analogy.
When you say, “…we have to face the reality that there’s a limit to the watersheds and drawing down the savings in the reservoirs is a sign to better match our income to spending, no different than household finances or similar analogy…” you raise a good point.
I think that California is indeed approaching limits to its population growth—and this growth has been driven almost completely by uncontrolled immigration.
Were it not for uncontrolled immigration, California’s population would have stabilized some 30-40 years ago. The bulk of California’s water infrastructure was built at a time when its population was far smaller.
But you will NEVER hear the greens say a word about this.
Seems like you guys have fallen into the Malthusian fallacy trap & can’t get out?
https://mises.org/mises-daily/malthusian-trap
See also: ‘Why Capitalism is the Answer to Environmental Concerns About “Overpopulation”’
02/25/2019 • Mises Wire • Nikhil Sridhar
California has enjoyed the benefits of a sparsely populated west. The state was able to take all the water in the state for itself, along with water from the west. As the population increased across the west they refused to give up one drop.
California is next to an ocean. Sea water can be desalinated using technology and energy. California refuses to invest in desalination because they have all the fresh water in the Great Basin and much of the Rocky Mountains.
A few nuclear powered desalination plants could provide all the predictable water the cities would ever need, leaving the snowmelt for agriculture. But that would require visionaries and non-hysterics willing to make it happen instead of the nut jobs who have their lawyers on speed dial.
Don’t forget that in California, human water needs take a back seat to providing water for a common smelt which then discharges into the Pacific ocean.
Land of fruit and nuts, indeed…