Posted On: Saturday - June 15th 2024 7:41PM MST
In Topics: Music California Treehuggers Environmental Stupidity Geography Peak Stupidity Roadshow
Long ago in Los Angeles, California, I was asking this acquaintance who commuted on his big Honda bike where he lived. "Canyon Country." "Who is this dude?", I wondered. "What does he think, he's the High Plains Drifter or something?" "Canyon Country.", he sort of sneered and pulled up his bandana. (No, he didn't really sneer at all, and it was a helmet.) It sounded kind of bad-assed though. It turned out that Canyon Country is just a stretched out "neighborhood" that's part of the city of Santa Clarita, 2 mountain ranges and a long drive northeast of LA. It's still in Los Angeles County.
That was years ago. With southern California even more crowded now, people are finding newer and farther places to get their own "spread". How far do you go?
You go another 35 miles east on the California 14, the Antelope Valley Freeway, and then, around Palmdale and Lancaster, this road turns north for another 40 miles to the town of Mojave. From there, head 35 miles or so east on the California 58 to get to Boron. Why? Well, that's the town this post is about. This is desolate desert, with 2,000 people residing in in that town. I doubt anyone commutes this far to Los Angeles, unless it's by light plane.
The article I'll mention here is about Joshua trees. The big Joshua Tree National Park, with good rock climbing practice sites, BTW, is 130 - 150 road miles away, to the nearest entrance, say, near Twenty-Nine Palms or somewhere. Boron has some Joshua trees, but they're not the only ones around.
Did I mention desolation? I mean, it's a place like this, but closer to that Joshua Tree park, where I locked myself out of the car on a small desert road* one mid-day in mid-summer. Well, the thing is, I was just going to change the music out and had to get to the back seat to do so, leaving the keys in the ignition, cause, quick stop.. At that point, I noticed that there was actually something nearby to shoot at with my new rifle, bottles or whatever. This was contrary to the situation before, with nothing but rocks around. Therefore, I dutifully locked up the car and after getting done firing off 50 rounds or so at 2¢ apiece, hilarity ensued... till someone stopped finally and gave me a coat hangar.**
The local climate of Boron, CA is pretty hot - daily maxima - for the 3 summer months but dry. As they say, it's not the heat - it's the humidity. (Sometimes they say, it's not even the humidity - it's the stupidity.) To get total rainfall off the table (middle of that page), one can't even use the values rounded to inches, as there are a couple of 1's and the rest 0's, so the nearest-inch rounding makes for a big error. Using the millimeter numbers, it turns out they get 4.8 in. of rain there in Boron... YEARLY.
The solar energy influx is big in the desert where Boron sits. It really is a good place for a solar farm, but the locals are angry about one being built. One Melody Peterson, who looks pretty cute in her thumbnail picture on the Los Angeles Times website, wrote recently, Solar project to destroy thousands of Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert. I'm sorry to say, that I will not agree with the residents of Boron. This is just an excuse, as with the spotted owls and lynxes for the closing of timberlands to production. Not only that, but, after all, the town was built due to the mining industry, obviously.
BORON, Calif. — A renewable energy company will soon begin clearing thousands of protected Joshua trees just outside this desert town, including many thought to be a century old, to make way for a sprawling solar project that will generate power for 180,000 homes in wealthier coastal neighborhoods.As for the century old Joshua trees, aside from the fact that these are not the last ones standing, they are spindly little things. They are not a treehuggers dream. Good luck sitting up in a Joshua tree in Boron to stop the solar farm. If you don't break the branches you're sitting on and fall on your ass, you'll die of heatstroke long before you get the chance to shout chants at the first dozer operator.
Here's the real problem: Government. As usual. Were the industry not subsidized and pushed on the country and especially Californians, perhaps sprawling project wouldn't be going on or, better yet, it'd be locals when they could realize an actual pay-off who sell power on their own to those richies on the coast. Big Biz and Government act hand-in-hand, leaving the little guy out of the fun and profits and distorting the markets. That's the real beef the locals of Boron should and probably do subconsciously have. After all, solar power is sure cleaner than mining boron.
All that talk about "save the trees" does not seem to interest the particular Californians that now claim to be saving the whole planet... except for some of the Joshua trees.
"Now, where else have I heard of these Joshua trees before?", the reader may ask. Was it 37 years ago, maybe? The Irish rock band U2 burst into the musical limelight in force in 1987 with their album The Joshua Tree. It was truly a great album. That's not even arguable, or I should say, don't argue about it until you have listened to it on real speakers with woofers with the volume turned up to 11.
The band had travelled around America before recording this. They, at least lead singer Bono, were impressed with the wide-open spaces in this country. The songs are evocative of Bono's thoughts, but, as usual, it's really the melody and sound that matters, much more than any lyrics.
The 1st 3 songs on The Joshua Tree, Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, and With or Without You were big hits. All 3 were good songs, but after having heard them over and over, I prefer some of the others. Bullet the Blue Sky didn't really have a great tune, but it was a political statement by Bono, one we mentioned in our post Outside it's America 4 years back.
There were 3 songs I thought would be appropriate for this post, all great ones. The name of the song I'm featuring makes me think that U2 came pretty close to Boron on their trip to the wide open spaces of the American west. There's the mining, obviously, but then Red Rock Mountain is 15 miles northeast also.
Yet, In God's Country is still playing in my head nonetheless.
U2:
Bono – lead vocals, harmonica, guitars
The Edge – guitars, backing vocals, piano
Adam Clayton – bass guitar
Larry Mullen Jr. – drums, percussion
Thank you all so much for reading this week! I am always glad to hear from you all in the comments too. Now, we'll try to write some discussion of the 4 points of comparison on Europe v America in fighting the Globalists (if, as not per MBlanc46, it's at all possible). I never did put up that 2 hour long economics discussion video, with commentary, but some time... Then, there is more to write on Trump, the Libertarians, and Trump's talking like some kind of damn Libertarian... and MOAR! Happy Sunday.
* No, I didn't smell any colitas rising up through the air, just gunpowder.
** For this old car, it was very easy to get in with that. I probably could have used a dry stick but didn't know that. I'd already slipped my belt through the window crack, but the roller went the other way. Breaking the window was only an option were it looking like I would need to spend the night otherwise.
Comments:
Moderator
Sunday - June 16th 2024 12:47PM MST
PS: OK, I had to go look that up, Tarheel, knowing the old x-mule team advertisement, but neither really knowing what it was about nor knowing Ronald Reagan was somehow involved. I saw the commercial just now (for some reason I couldn't get the sound on the facebook page that I pulled up).
For some history:
https://www.whatitmeanstobeamerican.org/ideas/how-ronald-reagan-peddled-laundry-detergent/
At the bottom of that page, it leads very slightly toward this post again:
"IS AN ARTIST AND EDUCATOR RESIDING IN JOSHUA TREE, CALIFORNIA. A 2015 GUGGENHEIM FELLOW IN PHOTOGRAPHY, SHE IS CURRENTLY PRODUCING THE MOJAVE PROJECT. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT KIMSTRINGFELLOW.COM."
No, I didn't accidentally cut of WHO is the freaking artist in question. The sentence starts there. I gotta assume it's this Kim Stringfellow or Stringchick, to be more accurate.
For some history:
https://www.whatitmeanstobeamerican.org/ideas/how-ronald-reagan-peddled-laundry-detergent/
At the bottom of that page, it leads very slightly toward this post again:
"IS AN ARTIST AND EDUCATOR RESIDING IN JOSHUA TREE, CALIFORNIA. A 2015 GUGGENHEIM FELLOW IN PHOTOGRAPHY, SHE IS CURRENTLY PRODUCING THE MOJAVE PROJECT. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT KIMSTRINGFELLOW.COM."
No, I didn't accidentally cut of WHO is the freaking artist in question. The sentence starts there. I gotta assume it's this Kim Stringfellow or Stringchick, to be more accurate.
70sTarheel
Sunday - June 16th 2024 8:08AM MST
PS
Borax, 20 Mule Team, Ron Reagan.
Borax, 20 Mule Team, Ron Reagan.
The Alarmist
Sunday - June 16th 2024 5:39AM MST
PS
An unrelated story to warm the cockles of your heart....
When Teens Descend on D.C. for School Trips They Snap Up Trump Merchandise
source: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/06/when-teens-descend-d-c-school-trips-they/
Happy Sunday, Peakers !
☀️
🕉
An unrelated story to warm the cockles of your heart....
When Teens Descend on D.C. for School Trips They Snap Up Trump Merchandise
source: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/06/when-teens-descend-d-c-school-trips-they/
Happy Sunday, Peakers !
☀️
🕉
Moderator
Sunday - June 16th 2024 5:09AM MST
PS: The woods are something else, Alarmist. That doesn't mean I think all the deserts should be destroyed, but forests are another story. It wasn't that story you mention - first of all, solar in Britain on a large scale is plain stupid - you don't get so much energy from the sun there! (High latitudes and lots of clouds)
Anyway, I was thinking of another story, maybe not in Britain, but in Europe, that involved destroying forest land for wind power.
I agree completely that it's all Climate Derangement Syndrome (or hoax, depending on which parties to it you mean). An energy project that actually makes money competing with NG, oil, nukes, well, OK, I've got no problem with that. If you cut down the woodlands to do it on your own land that's one thing. Otherwise, at least proper compensation is due - hard to calculate that for old-growth forests, say in the American Pacific Northwest.
Anyway, I was thinking of another story, maybe not in Britain, but in Europe, that involved destroying forest land for wind power.
I agree completely that it's all Climate Derangement Syndrome (or hoax, depending on which parties to it you mean). An energy project that actually makes money competing with NG, oil, nukes, well, OK, I've got no problem with that. If you cut down the woodlands to do it on your own land that's one thing. Otherwise, at least proper compensation is due - hard to calculate that for old-growth forests, say in the American Pacific Northwest.
Moderator
Sunday - June 16th 2024 5:03AM MST
PS: Alarmist, the threat from the chemicals used to make all the solar panels was more of one to the place in China where (i'm almost sure) these would have been made. I don't think intact solar panels are a threat in this way. Yes, the boron mining I'm sure had its problems.
I agree with your point that it's useful stuff - Borax did a pretty good job with fleas from the cat. Put it on the rugs and couches, etc.
Here's what it really comes down to, as I mentioned in the post:
"“Rural communities that don’t have political power just get ramrodded over,” English said.
The site, known as the Aratina Solar Project, is being developed on private land by Avantus, a California company that is mostly owned by KKR, the global private equity firm."
Kern Country will get property tax money, how much of that spent in Boron I don't know - probably not much. These big projects get decided on by big business and government.* If the governments - all levels - weren't involved in this stuff, with their grants, projects and whatever provided out of US and State taxpayer's money, maybe the locals could have control and perhaps build smaller projects along these same lines .. IF they were to pay off (Gov't doesn't care about that part.) Were the locals to have employment and make profits off of solar projects, I doubt they'd be complaining about the Joshua trees.
BTW, it's unfortunately close to their town because the company wanted to keep it in Kern County, as opposed to San Bernardino Cnty.
The article says160,000 acres of solar/wind projects have been approved. Yeah. that's big, 250 square miles, but then the county is 8,100 square miles in area, much of it desolate.
* Oh, the California gov't says more Joshua trees will be saved by this act of "reducing climate change" than are plowed over for these solar panels. Ha. More BS.
I agree with your point that it's useful stuff - Borax did a pretty good job with fleas from the cat. Put it on the rugs and couches, etc.
Here's what it really comes down to, as I mentioned in the post:
"“Rural communities that don’t have political power just get ramrodded over,” English said.
The site, known as the Aratina Solar Project, is being developed on private land by Avantus, a California company that is mostly owned by KKR, the global private equity firm."
Kern Country will get property tax money, how much of that spent in Boron I don't know - probably not much. These big projects get decided on by big business and government.* If the governments - all levels - weren't involved in this stuff, with their grants, projects and whatever provided out of US and State taxpayer's money, maybe the locals could have control and perhaps build smaller projects along these same lines .. IF they were to pay off (Gov't doesn't care about that part.) Were the locals to have employment and make profits off of solar projects, I doubt they'd be complaining about the Joshua trees.
BTW, it's unfortunately close to their town because the company wanted to keep it in Kern County, as opposed to San Bernardino Cnty.
The article says160,000 acres of solar/wind projects have been approved. Yeah. that's big, 250 square miles, but then the county is 8,100 square miles in area, much of it desolate.
* Oh, the California gov't says more Joshua trees will be saved by this act of "reducing climate change" than are plowed over for these solar panels. Ha. More BS.
The Alarmist
Sunday - June 16th 2024 3:53AM MST
PS
Maybe the locals don’t want tons of non-native toxic materials sitting on top of their aquifer. They already have an arsenic issue there.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/toxic-waters/contaminants/ca/kern/ca1510002-boron-csd/index.html
Besides that, boron has many beneficial uses, including whitening of clothes and controlling arthropods like ants.
Finally, Joshua Trees are less of a blight than a solar farm.
Can you believe that the wacky Brits want to clearcut one of their lusher forests to build a. solar farm? This, as in Boron CA, is Climate Derangement Syndrome.
Maybe the locals don’t want tons of non-native toxic materials sitting on top of their aquifer. They already have an arsenic issue there.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/toxic-waters/contaminants/ca/kern/ca1510002-boron-csd/index.html
Besides that, boron has many beneficial uses, including whitening of clothes and controlling arthropods like ants.
Finally, Joshua Trees are less of a blight than a solar farm.
Can you believe that the wacky Brits want to clearcut one of their lusher forests to build a. solar farm? This, as in Boron CA, is Climate Derangement Syndrome.
There's a big Trump store in Myrtle Beach, SC. One can order stuff on-line there. I had tried to order the red MAGA hat for the trip to China there, but I got on this last minute, and it wouldn't have made it. Instead my local GOP headquarters had one. (I thought they were going to GIVE it to me, but nope, 30 bucks - this was the day before, so no choice.)