So…they blew up a segment of San Bruno.  They didn’t HAVE to, of course.  They CHOSE to.  They had received a rate increase to fix the problem pipeline but used the money from said increase to run a political campaign in an attempt to create a permanent monopoly for themselves.  San Bruno blows up, people die.  PG&E gets “punished” via fines – AND they get another rate increase.  The fine will come and go.  The rate increase is forever.

Flash forward.  PG&E burns Paradise to the ground.  Sure, they’ll get “punished.”  They’ll have to pay a fine.  The fine will be a big-sounding number, something that will impress the great unwashed who are just trying to get by week to week.  But it will only be a pittance to PG&E.  Oh, and to make sure investors don’t suffer too mightily from PG&E’s negligence, they asked for – and received – yet another rate increase.  The fine will come and go.  The rate increase is forever.

So, corporations being what they are, do you think PG&E is learning not to blow things up and burn things down…or do you think they’ve discovered a new revenue stream?  As long as “regulators” make it profitable for PG&E to destroy California, no one here is safe…

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Speaking of profitability, these new laws against abortion in the various states can only be fought one way: money.  I don’t mean lots of money for lawyers and lawsuits.  I mean the states involved have to suffer financially.  There are NO other solutions.  Unchecked greed is the order of the day in this once-great nation.

The whole abortion question is a tough one.  I know people are passionate about it on both sides.  I think there’s merit in arguments that come from both sides.  Not ALL of the arguments, of course.  People tend to carry arguments to their illogical extremes and warn of apocalyptic outcomes.  I’m solidly on the “safe, legal, and rare” train.  The ONLY solution is readily available contraceptives and teaching comprehensive sex education to children BEFORE they need the information – which, with perverts sneaking into the bedrooms of eight-year-old girls, is YOUNG…

The thing is, Alabama seems to like it’s poverty-stricken status.  Alabamans will fight for their right to stay desperate.  (They think it’s “freedom.”)  Sure, Lynard Skynard wrote a catchy and proud anthem in response but Neil Young was right…

The result is that nobody goes to Alabama intentionally.  There’s no reason.  But THAT means, there’s nothing to cancel in protest.  Nobody there makes almost anything worth having so there’s very little to boycott.  Okay, so apparently, they make a LOT of chemicals there.  It’s a proudly red state, implying the “deregulation” model.

Unregulated chemical manufacturing?  Maybe that explains some things…

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I’ve been pleased more than once in my lifetime that I haven’t yet been suckered into the conservative way of “thinking.”  Right now those guys are arguing that paying a little more in taxes and saving a HUGE amount in personal expense is unacceptable while simultaneously insisting that Trump’s consumer tax increase, or tariff, is awesome because they think it hurts the Chinese.

Apparently, one can sell conservatives ANYTHING, so long as it’s packaged as harming someone…