Mega MAGA Mike the Johnson has started releasing video from January 6th. Lovely. The estimate is something like 44,000 hours of video. That’s a LOT, something like five years worth of time. The violent part of the insurrection Donny started lasted just over three hours. If you count the whole day, video could show up to seven hours including the violent rhetoric during the speeches in the ellipse, but I think they’re just video from the Capitol. So let’s think about this a moment.

How does one get 44,000 hours of video from a three hour event? Hell, Gilligan didn’t get 44,000 hours from his “three hour tour” and it went on for years. The answer is, it’s ALL the video from every camera in the Capitol, likely for most of the day. THAT means, in turn, the vast majority of what they have on video is empty hallways and normal, work-a-day stuff. I suspect it ALSO means that some clever sod could put together a map of the Capitol building based on the various camera angles. That seems like a bit of a security breech, to me, but it’s kind of off-topic from where I’m going with this.

The last time MAGA released some of the footage, we started seeing video of quiet hallways and normal business functions released by cons under headlines like, “What insurrection?” It’s easy, really. All you have to do is show the video where a crazy mob is NOT trying to break windows, smash doors, attack police officers, or anything else and pretend that’s all there ever was to see. A nothing-burger. Move along, Johnny, nothing to see here…

I’m very aware that there have been FAR more hours of video in the Capitol in which there is not an aggressively violent mob trying to murder the Vice-President of the United States and steal the election for dystopian Donny. The idea that one can show the normal stuff is in no way going to convince me that what I saw didn’t happen. But it WILL convince MAGA. But MAGA already works 25 hours a day to maintain their pretended beliefs so they don’t need no stinkin’ convincing.

So, in essence, nothing changes. Thinking Americans will continue to understand what actually happened in the Capitol that day and America-hating MAGA will continue to pretend it was just an unauthorized tour, reinforced by very selective showings from those videos. But I’ll tell you this: Any position one has to lie about to defend, doesn’t deserve to be defended…

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If you are, like I am, a victim of Pacific Gas and Electric (aka PG&E), you might be torch-and-pitchfork pissed off at their management (please leave the rank-and-file workers out of it), the PUC, and Governor Newsom right about now. This whole thing flows from conservative wrongheadedness about…well, everything, really, but in this case, business operations. In a nutshell, at some point, CEO’s began to be compensated with company stock, a practice once prohibited. The “thinking” was, if the CEO’s net-worth is tied to the stock value, he’ll do everything he can to increase the stock value. End of “thinking.”

That turned out to be true, in a horrifying way. See, CEO’s across the land realized that ANY stock increase made them richer, no matter how the increase came about. CEOs started decimating their companies, the content and quality of the services they provide, and the number of employees available to do the work. Most large corporations are trying for the ‘top-prices-for-as-little-as-possible’ model for the same reason: enhancing the CEOs take-home pay.

In the case of PG&E, they cleverly realized they could increase their bottom line – and, in turn, the stock price – by not maintaining their system. But PG&E’s “product” can be very, very dangerous, if not handled correctly. PG&E started deferring maintenance. It sounds very professional, doesn’t it, “deferred maintenance?” It means “we’re not doing the necessary maintenance anymore.”

The results were impressive. PG&E’s CEO made a killing, metaphorically. But then, PG&E’s “deferred maintenance” blew up a portion of San Bruno. PG&E deferred maintenance started the 2017 Tubbs fire that burned down a large portion of Santa Rosa, CA. PG&E deferred maintenance burned down Paradise, CA. PG&E deferred maintenance caused one fire after another. PG&E deferred maintenance killed many Californians, literally. PG&E deferred maintenance eventually got them sued, sued, and sued again. They lost in court, over and over. Now they owe billions of dollars in pay-outs to their victims. (California.) They’re not paying them, but they owe them. (It’s good to have connections and those connections are VERY well maintained…)

In an effort to stop the lawsuits, PG&E started “undergrounding” their electric lines. My whole life, I’ve wondered why they didn’t do that in the first place. The story was always the same: too expensive. Now? Not too expensive and a great opportunity to run a PR campaign showing how dedicated PG&E is to doing the right thing. “We’re undergrounding our lines – because it’s the right thing to do.” Fuck you, PG&E. You’re undergrounding your lines because you hope it will prevent future lawsuits and everybody knows it.

When the fines started getting handed down, we the rate-payers were assured (uh-huh) that we would not be on the hook for charges. The costs were to borne by PG&E and PG&E shareholders. The undergrounding of the lines PG&E should have been doing all along? That cost, too, was to be borne by PG&E and PG&E shareholders. But how does a company absorb all those payments without the CEO’s share price going down? I mean, if you actually hold the company responsible for their chosen actions, it risks a downturn in profits and, obviously, stock price. Can’t have that.

Each of those fires happened fast. People lost everything they owned fast. People lost their lives in fast-moving firestorms. But the payment? No, those are coming out slow. The repairs to the system we’ve all been paying to maintain for all of these years? “Hey, it takes time, we’re working on it. We’ve got PR commercials to make, you know.” Still, having to correct these horrendous choices (they call them “errors”) is costing the company money, as it should, but the company – and the shareholders – don’t like it. They’re trying to maintain shareholder value they created artificially by NOT maintaining their equipment in the first place – and they’re getting away with it.

This all gets very complicated but the short version is, PG&E is supposedly regulated by a group called the PUC, the Public Utilities commission. The PUC is presented as an independent body that oversees PG&Es operations but in reality, the PUC is owned and operated by PG&E to put a nice, clean face on PG&E’s crimes and deadly greed. What that means is that whenever PG&E wants a rate increase, they “ask” the PUC. The PUC pretends to hmm and haw over the thing for a little while and then? “Well, we’ve decided to grant the request.”

Governor Newsom could – and should – step in. But ole Gavin is running for President. (I know. He says he’s not but actions speak louder than words.) When one is running for President, one must curry favor with big bucks bankrolls. It’s the Capitalist way. PG&E falls into that category, perfectly. So Gavin protects PG&E over the citizens of the state he runs because it’s in his financial interest to do so.

California citizens paid PG&E to maintain their system all along.
California citizens paid the price when PG&E chose to disregard their responsibilities for profit.
California citizens are paying the fines and penalties for PG&E’s reckless operations.
California citizens are paying still more to maintain PG&E’s network.
California citizens pay…and pay…and pay…and pay some more.
And STILL, I get to wake up to condensation on my counters because I dare NOT turn up my heater to keep my house even slightly warm and liveable like I might do if I lived in a first world nation…

I’ll tell you this: I feel like a prisoner in this so-called “free market…”