Random Observations - v2

Some random observations that I’ve collected over the past few weeks. There has certainly been no shortage of crazy and random things to observe.

• Our mask mandates are back, and vaccine passports are likely right around the corner. We just have to get Gov Gav past this pesky little recall election next month so he can begin to issue the next set of directives to keep us all “safe”.

• I work for a small firm, but we often partner with large engineering companies that want to include some of our specialized expertise and qualifications for specific projects. Part of the process of winning a design project includes participating in a client interview in which the client stakeholders ask questions of key members of the engineering firms’ staff.

I recently participated in a project Zoom interview in which the client asked, “How does your company promote the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion?” Our team lead, a senior VP for one of the largest consulting firms in the nation quickly spoke up and said, “I’ll take this one.”

The result was downright embarrassing. After several minutes of groveling, apologizing, and self-immolation of his own identity, he launched into a classic spiel about how diversity was one of their core values, how they strive to promote people on an equitable basis, and their pride in being inclusive of all identity groups, including LGBTQ++++. He finished with another apology about his lack of qualifications as a white male to speak on this topic, only to be rescued by a young female team member that expressed her appreciation for his attitude of submission.

I confess, it’s a very good thing that my microphone was muted at the time! As a public service, I’m providing the more appropriate response:

“Our mission as an engineering firm is to deliver excellence to our client’s by providing practical, constructable, intelligent, and financially feasible solutions to their problems. As such, our staffing is based on hiring the most technically competent, skilled, ethical, and experienced individuals that work well together as a team. A person’s ethnicity, preferences, melanin content, or religious beliefs have no bearing on our ability to perform our mission and are irrelevant to their suitability to become members of our staff.”

Yes, we probably wouldn’t have been successful getting the project, but at least we could have gone home at the end of the day with our spines intact.

• I’ve identified a malady that, while not officially declared a pandemic, is impacting the health of our society far more than the Covid-19 virus. It’s called Institutional Collective Incompetence (ICI). I’ve been aware of this phenomenon for my entire adult career in interfacing with government agencies and large corporations, but over the past 18 months the infection rates have increased exponentially. The infection generally takes hold when politically motivated brown-nosers are promoted into leadership positions over individuals with the demonstrated capability to get the job done. Productive workers become demoralized, and unproductive workers become entitled.

The consequences of ICI are clearly demonstrated by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and our local health departments and their response to Covid-19 over the past 18 months. The ever-shifting rules, the contradictory directives (sometimes on the same day from the same spokesperson), the utter lack of logic or common sense, the fear-mongering, and complete ineffectiveness of it all. Their name should be changed to “Centers for Diminishing Credibility".

• Perhaps the most devastating example of ICI is our recent withdrawal from Afghanistan. This is one of the most catastrophic and widespread government failures in US history. It was only two weeks prior that Biden told us that it was highly unlikely that our withdrawal would result in a complete takeover of the country by the Taliban. Regardless of whether you agree with the policy, the executive branch, the state department, the intelligence community, and the military botched every aspect of the so-called drawdown. Every one of these institutions is run by our ruling elite, educated in Ivy League schools, and thoroughly enamored of the latest woke ideologies.

I have no doubt that, with their training, skills, and equipment, our marines, infantrymen, sailors, and airmen could overcome any opposing force on the planet. But they are led by feckless bureaucrats that care more about their personal careers and political correctness than effectively accomplishing their mission. The most powerful and well-funded military force the world has ever known has proven incapable of winning a war.

This debacle will cost more than the lives of those beheaded on the streets of Kabul, or the generations of women that will endure chattel slavery, or the terrorist cells that will have a new training ground. We have lost all credibility as a global power and as an ally that can be depended on. When China invades Taiwan, I expect the administration will issue a diplomatic condemnation on the strongest possible terms, and then will slink away, like the spineless cowards they are, saying, “we couldn’t possibly have predicted this.”

• There is a nationwide movement, both in local school districts and at the state level, to ban the teaching of the concepts promoted by Critical Race Theory and “anti-racism” in K-12 public schools. While I whole-heartedly agree with the sentiment of those working toward this goal, I think it’s a complete waste of time.

Our public schools are a lost cause. In order to qualify to teach in a public school, every teacher must go through an accredited university education program. Nearly every education program is dominated by radical leftist professors that unabashedly hate this country and our values. Their students spend four years being indoctrinated in all of the latest neo-Marxist theories and they take them into their classrooms when they begin teaching. These ideals are now entrenched in public schools through curriculum, standards, administrators, and the indoctrinated teachers. This has been going on for at least 40 years and it will take decades to reverse course.

The only viable solution to protect your kids from being indoctrinated into godless hedonism is to get your kids out of public schools. Home school them. Send them to well researched charter schools, Christian schools, or private schools. If you care about educating them keep them far away from public schools!

• Earlier this year, Governor Newsom announced that he was eliminating the sale of internal combustion engines in California starting in 2035. In discussing this idiocy with an engineering colleague, I stated my opinion that the electrical grid can’t support enough electric vehicles to meet Californian’s needs. His response was that I was being ridiculous and that very smart people were in charge of making decisions like that, and they must have considered all of the necessary factors before issuing this directive. Challenge accepted!

I ran the calculations over the weekend and determined that, in order to support 100% electric vehicles, the capacity of our electrical grid would have to expand by 14,900 MW*, which is roughly a 33% increase over our current capacity. This assumes that electric vehicles will be charged uniformly during the day (NOT! the vast majority are currently charged overnight), that there are sufficient metals to build both the vehicle battery systems and the supporting electrical grid (not without massive increases in environmentally destructive mining and a huge wealth transfer to China where they are mined), and that only passenger vehicles will be electric. I stand by my original opinion.

* Calculation is based on 8,700 average annual passenger vehicle miles per person, an estimated population of 39.512 million, an average electric vehicle mileage of 300 Watt-hours/mile, a combined grid and charging system efficiency of 75%, and an existing electric vehicle fleet of 5% of all passenger vehicles.