evil stirrings rise in the west

a tolkien of our appreciation

as we are currently experiencing levels of smoke that make mountain biking feel like smoking a box of cigars because yet again groovy gavin’s eco-topia is ablaze and the effects are awful 700 miles away, i am moved to ask a question:

ok, so who had "the fires from your utter lack of forestry management expose the deeply unserious and unreliable nature of your faux-green power grid" on their california bingo card?

Jason Fordney @FordneyEnergy

What a day on the grid. Demand is projected at about 47 GW, but 40%-60% of solar under threat from smoke. Hurricane in SoCal might lead to public-safety power shut-offs, floods, mudslides possible. Also fires that could affect power lines.

as there appears to be no level of evidence or adverse outcome that will jar the one-time “golden state” to its senses instead of driving dogmatic double downs on the policies that got them here that they will then use to attempt to invade the rest of the nation, sorry guys but i’m calling it:

california is the mordor of america.

file photo: San-Barad-Dûr 2021

and marauding evil awakens there…

but fear not humans, for as new monsters arise so too shall new heroes to fight them.

and while there may come a time when courage fails…

today is not that day.