Overview of the Proposed Morro Bay Offshore Wind Farm
by Joey Racano
The many thousands of 700′ tall wind turbines, collectively known as
the Morro Bay Offshore Wind Farm are only the first phase of a much
larger offshore wind project, a mass-industrialization of our ocean
expanses on a scale not seen in world history.
The leasing process, overseen by industry-captured regulators and
driven by greedy city officials, entrepreneurs, and biostitute yes-men,
is nothing more than a sleight-of-hand by developers; a who’s-who of
those seeking to wring every cent possible out of the land and sea at
the expense of vanishing ecosystems.
While rooftops burn in the
sunlight without solar panels, these giant turbines will disrupt bird
migrations, create navigational hazards for whales and cause unstudied
vibrational effects on the marine environment. California already pays
Arizona to take solar-generated excess electricity off our hands. So
what will be done with the electricity generated by the wind farm
turbines?
The first phase would generate enough to power 300,000
new homes. And where will these new homes get the water needed for such
gigantic developments? Probably from the giant desalination plants that
will be built piggy-back on the power plant seawater intakes, no longer
needed for cooling, but certainly a catalyst for the build-out of the
last open lands on the California coast. Turbines- power plant-
desalination plant, together, a giant engine of new coastal development.
Better to put solar arrays on all rooftops and power a fleet of
all-electric cars with the electricity the sun generates when simply run
through photo-voltaic solar panels. And the seawater cooling intakes of
the power plants? Weld them shut forever.
1. Climate Change: Climate change is real, it’s happening now and occurring all around us, and accelerating at a break-neck pace. I consider the warming of our planet to be the paramount issue facing us today. Long term solutions won’t matter unless somebody has the fortitude to enact short term action. These include a switch to all-electric cars, trucks, trains, planes and military/construction equipment powered via home and business rooftop solar arrays. If it isn’t sunny where you live, we will send you electricity via our already existing power grid.
2. Military Budget: I have always disagreed with the idea of having to fight two wars simultaneously. All wars are questionable, but fighting two at a time makes you a trouble maker. The United States doesn’t have a military budget per se’; rather we have a runaway military budget. This budget siphons from much needed social, medical and educational programs. I propose cutting the military budget from 700 billion dollars every 6 months to 700 million dollars every 12 months. This can also offset growing storm costs which are sure to continue escalating.
3. Judge Kavanaugh, the two-party system and the Supreme Court of the United States: Lifetime appointments are too weighty to consist of jurists selected by a single President with a political agenda and ideology. Therefore, I propose all judges be chosen on the merits of their actions and opinions from the lower court cases they have presided on. Political activists need not apply.
Recently, the democratic party shunned the candidate of choice by rigging the game against Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 democratic primary. This caused a cascading catastrophe, a giant snowball that is still rolling and growing, and goodness knows where we and our republic will be in 20 years.
Like many Americans, I am concerned. Much as the Trump administration is attempting to fire and pardon their way out of coming prison sentences, the democratic party has escaped their 2016 primary malfeasance by virtue of their being nothing more than a ‘club’; yes, the Democratic Party is just a private club and so answerable to no one! A private club that chooses a candidate for public office! This must change, along with ‘Citizens United’, corporate funding of elections, revolving-door politics from private industry to public office and back to private industry lobbyists.
In conclusion, I invite all interested folks to send me your questions if I have missed issues important to you, and I thank you all for your activism. We can save the world!
When last we saw our hero he was zooming through space
Light speed travel took a toll on his face
But interstellar travel has it’s secrets, too
Cosmological cosmetics can take years off you
The journey got unbalanced when the janitor twisted
At light speed he was growing old before he existed
He had to make a move and had to do it right now
So he grabbed the mop bucket and it shifted -pow!
Next thing that he knew the stars were slowing down
Groggy as he felt he feared that he might drown
Outer space is not the place to take things lightly
So when he met an alien he spoke politely
“Hello, I’m from Earth and I’m a ways from home”
The alien replied but in a musical tone
The janitor was sure he recognized the song
And he was pretty sure that copyrights don’t last this long
Besides the alien was talking in slow motion
And juxtaposed with space the thing made quite a commotion
The alien just pointed three hands down the road
And the janitor took off again without his load
Far out up ahead he saw an onrushing mop
Grabbed it as he passed it and it made him stop
He threw it in the bucket and he said ‘ok’
Straddling the Hadron cross the Milky Way
Something made him look behind from where he’d come
There he saw a scientist who rode steel drum
Propelling it through space by playing musical raggae
His dredlocks waved around and he was smoking a ‘J’
The two of them maneuvered nearly side by side
Sizzling at the speed magnetic Hadrons collide
“Come back mon’ said the scientist as he took a puff
That shit is so expensive mon, you’ve got our stuff!’
The janitor looked over at a moon they had passed
And signaled he would land and they could talk at last
‘Ya mon’ said the scientist steel drummed and dredded
Then he turned around and saw where they were headed
The two became as one, their crafts weighed a ton and they realized they had landed on the Planet Fun!
There were dancing children, singing birds, colorful flowers that sprouted words
There were dinosaur vines, Lodge-pole Pines and gold and silver without any mines
They found themselves surrounded by a people quite well rounded, who said the voices in their heads had kept them all well grounded
After much good merriment, they ended the experiment and scientist and janitor climbed back aboard and there they went
Speeding through the vacuum of an interstellar highway
Headed for adventure searching planet, moon and Skyway
Perhaps the two would someday take these teachings back to home…
The Scientist would present this to the Hadron-streaking Gnome
‘Twas the Heart of the Hadron 2017
The janitor was cleaning beneath the machine
He couldn’t help notice every time he looked up
The odd cobalt colors of this massive pup
The hour was late, no one else was around
That’s when he heard that queer far-away sound
It sounded like buzzing inside of his neck
He dealt with a chill and then thought what the heck
Gargantuan though this Collider might be
The subterranean hole could fit three
The janitor felt sure that no one would care
If he placed a nylon rope hammok down there
And many a night when the mopping was through
The janitor dreamed of the things he would do
By climbing atop the great cobalt machine
He visited places not previously seen
Anyway, this one particular night
The monolith hummed and glowed curious light
The janitor finally climbed up to the top
And sat where the reddish light came to a stop
He thought he could feel imperceptible movement
His balance was poor so he clung for improvement
And that’s when the ‘lectric red humming began
A bright light from somewhere beam gave him a scan
He sat on the top, let go of his mop and looked at the floor to see where it would drop
Bells started ringing, phone channels singing and things like big springs did their thing, started springing
He clutched the machine for all he was worth
Somehow innately knew this was rebirth
He stretched out his arms and he clung to its girth
A bright shiny surface reflected his mirth
Doors all flung open and people poured in
Scientists didn’t know where to begin
The janitors ride took them all by surprise
Evidenced in all their wild wide eyes
Rotations accelerated by the minute
A gaseous mist was his cloak- he was in it
Cobalt then red then to blue and maroon
In two seconds flat he went right past the Moon
Where on the dark side he could see all the bases
And all the surprised looks on all the faces
Cities and building and big quansett huts
Built for what purpose known only to nuts
Then off to Mars where a lovely red planet
Brought to his mind his first girlfriend named Janet
Oh but if she could just see me right now
Janitor no, she’d be like, “Holy cow!”
And off to one planetoid after another
Saying goodbye to his Earth and his mother
One last look back and then boldly go on
Perhaps where the Comets and angels had gone
While back in the hole where it all used to be
Authorities asked “Tell us, what did you see?”
But the scientists were all so caught up in the numbers
You could have got better info from cucumbers
That’s when they noticed beyond all belief
The mop, like a horse stood there ready to leave
Glowing and bucking and ready to bolt
But who had the courage to ride on this colt?
Back out in space, the janitor zoomed
Out past where Horsehead the nebula plumed
The vibrating Hadron had put him to sleep
He now was the cosmos forever to keep
In 2003, the global marches against George W Bush and his administrations headlong rush into the American genocide in Iraq was largely ignored by the US media. This was in spite of the fact that these marches were larger than the recent so-called ‘womens march’ when population is taken into account. Even now, Bush’s program of kidnapping torture and unilateral invasions of sovereign nations is having trouble finding its way through the courts.
The problem is that unless and until the Bush/Cheney cabal is ever held responsible for their war crimes, America, and the world -but especially America- will continue its downward spiral into fascist oblivion. Interestingly, according to international laws, when the people of a nation fail to bring their war criminal leaders to justice, the entire population is deemed war criminals, wholly complicit. In a worst case scenario, that is now the case in America. The only further depth to which the United States could descend would be to see itself the subject of a fury, as was the bombing of Dresden.
joey’s note: I once spoke at length with a bomber pilot who bombed Dresden, telling me his great shame because “They told us to aim for the steeples.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden
Former President Obama, who was too tepid to go after Bush, told us “We should look forward, not back.” But that was a huge mistake, and we are still in Iraq to this very day.
In much the same way, American voters can never allow the Democrats, under Hillary Clinton, to get away with the election tampering they, led by the Democratic National Committee, perpetrated against the devoted supporters of Bernie Sanders.
Many rank and file Hillary supporters now call for unity among the left, but where was that sentiment when it counted most- when it could have kept a Donald Trump presidency where it belonged- in the netherworld realm of dark nightmares?
With the world now facing climate oblivion, the American people should not be too quick to see Donald Trump and his Exxon-Mobil State Department as the problem, when they are but the symptom. The problem is the DNC, the Clintons, and their lunatic centrist Blue Dog Democrats who stole the primary from Bernie Sanders and handed the American people a breakdown in place of a breakthrough.
Joey Racano
United States Green Party
Former State Central Committee Delegate, CDP
PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTION 2016 UPDATE
by joey racano
Why do I get the feeling Karl Rove is the steering committee behind the Trump candidacy? Contrary to popular belief, Trump is not smart- he’s just from Brooklyn, where quick wit and fast comebacks are a way of life (believe me, I learned it growing up in East New York, in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn). It was very Rove-esque to attack the Pope just before heading into South Carolina, where they hate anything progressive.
That also reminds me that the Hillary Clinton campaign was shrewd enough to convince the African-American electorate there to vote against their own self-interests. But back to Trump; what do I think of Donald and his potential nomination? It scares the sh1t out of me, and should scare you as well. He makes no sense, he has no plan, he is downright psycho. But I do give him a bucket of red roses for being the first politician with the balls to call G.W. Bush out on his lies about Iraq. Too bad he didn’t go further; after all, Bush murdered 4500 US soldiers.
Hillary Clinton, by virtue (if it could be considered virtuous) of a SUPER PAC was able to squeak out a quasi-victory over Bernie Sanders in Nevada. In the long run, this is only going to hurt her, because she came out of it with half that states delegates, but has now provided proof-positive how corrupt the system is with which we nominate our candidates. Bernie did amazing things in Nevada without a SUPER PAC. Widely viewed by the new voting youth*** as cheating, the HRC SUPER PAC and the threat of using ‘SUPERDELEGATES’ to squash grass roots uprisings against the democratic party status quo has galvanized this new voting block. Look for Hillary to take a page out of the 2000 BUSH/GORE SELECTION and steal the nomination, then lose the general election. Bernie will continue on as a third party independant, and well he should. No progressive or lefty will ever vote for Hillary Clinton. Not one.
No time to discuss Cruz or Rubio, but if they show better in the future I will include them in the next report.
Jeb Bush:
Jeb Bush, despite having all the oil money in the world was DOA because of the American public’s lingering outrage of the Iraq invasion of 2003. For the new-age mystics out there, think of it this way; Jeb Bush is feeling the karma from his decision as Governor of Florida not to protect the Manatee. Many died from propellers to the face as people making up the Jeb Bush ‘base’ went speeding through the Floridian coastal waters in their long, expensive, fancy ‘Cigarette’ boats a la Miami Vice. Good riddance Jeb.
In the last year, the California Coastal Commission has made bold moves to protect the dwindling coast of California and in doing so, made some powerful enemies. For instance, the commission resisted allowing Shell and Exxon from drilling and fracking on Banning Ranch, last large open coastal marsh in Orange County. They stopped Pacific Gas and Electric from blasting whales with seismic air canons at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County. And probably the biggest shot heard ’round the world was their ruling to forbid the captive breeding of orcas at Seaworld San Diego as a condition of approval for bigger tanks.
These powerful business interests, who see the coast as a profit center to be plundered, have struck back, forcing the Commission to remove their own Dr. Charles Lester, no longer the Executive Director as of yesterday. Lester, hand-picked by the late great Peter Douglas, was favored 890-2 by speakers at the meeting in Morro Bay this past Wednesday, but the vote still went against him, 7-5.
Now the call is out demanding Governor of California Jerry Brown to remove and replace his Coastal Commission appointees, (Effie Turnbull, Erik Howell, Martha McClure, and *Wendy Mitchell, who is a lobbyist for PG&E), all 4 having voted for Lester’s ouster in spite of enormous public opposition.
With the petition demanding the removal of the Brown appointees only 24 hours old, the balance is the same- so far, 207-1 to have them removed and the commission’s integrity and independence restored.
