Author: admin

Greentarded Pinwheels Sitting Idle May Cause Rolling Blackouts Today

Thanks to idiotic “green new deal” policies like building giant pinwheels instead of reliable nuclear or gas-fired power plants, Texas may see rolling blackouts today between the hours of noon and 7pm.

Wind, which is touted as “free and reliable” by morons like Clayton Tucker (it is neither), will only produce about 8% of its total capacity today thanks to there being no wind to turn the blades.

Also don’t forget, the hotter it is, the LESS EFFICIENT solar panels are too – as much as 15-20% of solar panel capacity can be lost when the temps are this high.

Oh, but “the wind always blows”, I thought!

Fucking moron.

Don’t forget that these “green” pinwheels are also loaded with oil:

Wind Turbine Collapses: ‘Leaking Oil Everywhere!’

So with wind generating less than ONE GIGAWATT today in a state that will be demanding EIGHTY GIGAWATTS, where does the extra power come from? It doesn’t matter if you have 100 pinwheels or 1,000 or 1,000,000 pinwheels if the wind isn’t blowing – you still get zero power generated – a truism that is lost on retards like Clayton Tucker and Bruce Haywood.

Add in the fact that tens of thousands of libtard locusts move to Texas every month from failed liberal shit holes like New York, California, Oregon and Ohio and that we haven’t bothered to build any new RELIABLE gas and nuclear plants, and you are left to wonder just where the fuck these idiots think all this power is going to come from. Unicorn farts?

Oh, and many of those libtards have battery-powered cars – which are sucking the grid dry as well.

Luckily, I have 22 kilowatts of solar installed on my property (at my OWN EXPENSE) – so I will be sending an extra 7,000 to 9,000 watts BACK onto the grid every hour this afternoon to help out hypocritical shit birds like Clayton Tucker and Bruce Haywood who have ZERO solar panels on their own houses, despite demanding everyone else have them to “save the planet”.

I installed all this solar 10 years ago not because it made economic sense (the payback period is roughly 12 years – and that’s not including all the snags and costly repairs and headaches along the way) but because I just KNEW that this country was going to turn into a socialist shit hole ruined by “green policies” in the coming years. I valued it because it made me independent of morons like Clayton Tucker and AOC.

Come to think of it, maybe I will just flip a breaker and disconnect from the grid this afternoon so parasites like Clayton and Bruce don’t get any benefits from my foresight. Fuck them.

If they are going to “roll” blackouts, I think the entire city of Austin should just be turned off until tomorrow – since it is filled with lefty, green-new-deal idiots who asked for all this. They should get it good and hard.

Did the City and the LEDC Just Top-Tick Sales Tax Receipts?

Well, it finally happened…

Sales tax receipts DECREASED for the first time in 3 years.

Maybe trees DON’T grow to the sky. Maybe we are finally going to see that much-needed recession to clear out the dead wood and garbage (* cough ** Carvana * cough **), maybe sales tax receipts start falling and the City’s money tree starts losing a lot of leaves.

Amazingly, the LEDC AND the City may have almost perfectly nailed the top in sales tax receipt by borrowing heavily against that “sure thing” money they assumed would grow forever.

You’ll recall, the LEDC borrowed $1.5 million for its ill-fated Business Pork project AND they begged for and received another $971,000 from the City coffers – both very recently.

The City also borrowed $6.5 million at 3.26% for some very dubious projects only two months ago.

As I wrote two months ago:

Don’t worry though, according to TJ Monroe, “typically, we are able to pay those down within the nine years and have saved a substantial amount of money”.

Hm. Perhaps.

Or perhaps with the Fed finally raising rates back to normal, thus cratering the stock market and the housing market and causing a deep (and much-needed) recession, the City won’t have the ridiculous always-increasing sales tax and other tax revenue to rely on and find themselves screwed by the debt burden.

All those stimmy checks and fraudulently obtained PPP loans are long gone and now the addict is being weaned off the monetary heroin. It won’t be pretty. The market is already down 20%, shit coins are being revealed for the Ponzi scheme they are, and businesses are starting to see slowdowns.

A recession probably isn’t the best time for new businesses to start or old businesses to expand into the new ‘Business Pork’ either. The LEDC may very well see a double whammy of declining revenue and zero businesses having any interest in the Business Pork.

Ouch.

Will S2M2 (Brodie Estates) Have To Return the $185,000 They Scammed From Taxpayers?

Several years ago, former Lampasas City council member “Greasy” Chris Harrison went to his former chums on City council to beg for $185,000 for his new employer (S2M2) and their Brodie Estates development.

I have covered this extensively HERE and HERE.

Council initially turned down S2M2, but then S2M2 made the wise move to hire former City council member “Greasy” Chris Harrison to go and do the begging instead. After Harrison was hired and went begging for a second time, former mayor Misti Talbert changed her tune quickly and handed over $185,000 to her former City council chum.

That was about 2.5 years ago.

In today’s Dispatch, we learned that Brodie Estates has only built 3 of the promised 22 homes and has had 6 permits issued.

So S2M2 has another 19 houses to complete in the next 18 months or so, or they are in violation of their agreement, from what I can see:

From the 12/27/19 Dispatch:

The city’s economic incentive package for this development requires S2M2 to complete the Brodie Estates subdivision within four years.

Considering the housing market is taking a giant shit right now and the Fed seems determined (correctly) to push the price of money (interest rates) back up to a more ‘normal’ level, it would seem that S2M2 might get caught with their dicks in a sling. Believe me, I would love nothing more than to see a scumbag developer go bankrupt. Especially one who scammed the taxpayers out of $185,000.

I guess the question is this: if we get to December 2023 and those houses are not complete (which I give an 80% chance of happening), does S2M2 give that $185,000 BACK to the taxpayer? And if not, what was the point of the agreement in the first place?

Also, according to the article, Northington Acres may include up to 177 home sites. Since TJ Moroe, Chuck Williamson and Misti Talbert handed Deorald Finney $72,000 in ‘free’ electrical hookups for HIS development (Stone Valley – 67 houses), then they must be ready to hand the Northington Acres guys $190,000 in ‘free’ hookups for THEIR development too, right?

I mean, according to Talbert Logic, “they will all buy electricity from us” after the hookup. Truly, hers is an amazing intellect.

Misti “The Great Negotiator” Talbert sure made a fantastic deal there! Maybe she can pay the money back to the taxpayers herself! After all, she is ALSO very skilled at begging for tax dollars.

Climate Cult Will Ruin Us All

Local moron socialist and virtual rancher Comrade Clayton Tucker picked a single day when the sun was shining and the wind was blowing to crow about how it was “saving” Texas…

CNN: that bastion of truth and trustworthy ‘news’

Of course, when the sun went down that night and the wind died and there were still 33 million people who needed reliable power (like hospitals, refineries, factories, etc). At THAT point, reliable gas and oil “bailed out” his shitty, subsidized Greentarded pinwheel toys as they sat useless in the windless night.

One of Comrade Clayton’s favorite false statements when he’s touting “renewables” is “the wind always blows”….

Which is preposterous and demonstrably false.

Solar panels only generate decent power about 8-9 hours a day in the summer (far worse in winter, as the days are shorter). That means less than 33% of the day. Throw in the rainy and cloudy days over the course of a year, and you’re looking at more like 28% of the time. I know this because I have lived with a 22kw solar power system for over 10 years now. Comrade Clayton lives in his parents house with NO solar panels. So, as usual, he has no idea what the fuck he is talking about and I do.

Wind is EXTREMELY variable: power over sweep for wind is a third-power function of wind speed, so it’s always going to vary massively with small changes in wind velocity. It jumps all over the place. The variance is managed through fast spinnatural gas plantsthat come online to take up the slack.

Sounds more to me like reliable fossil fuel actually bails out the unreliable renewable garbage.

On those days when both solar and wind shit the bed (**cough* February 2021* cough**), Texas STILL NEEDS those 75 gigawatts of electricity or we go back to the Stone Age. That means 75 GW of RELIABLE POWER (i.e. fossil fuel powered) has to be available at all times! Those reliable gas and oil plants require maintenance and staffing and technical expertise to stay in top condition.

Dummy fucks like Clayton Tucker and Bruce Haywood cannot get this through their thick skulls, apparently. So when their shitty subsidized pinwheels blow up the grid, they start bleating like idiot sheep to “fix the damn grid!” – when in fact their shitty, subsidized pinwheels are the ones who broke the grid in the first place.

Germany and Italy are finding out the cost of listening to Greentarded morons like Clayton Tucker and AOC and Greta Thunberg as we speak. Trump warned the idiots in Europe YEARS ago that they were going down the wrong path with their Greentardation (as any of us with an IQ over 95 would also do) and would be at Russia’s mercy for oil and gas when the shit inevitably hit the fan. Which they are now:

But hey – Orange Man Bad! So nobody listened.

Renewables and crypto have two things in common:

They have a cult-like following and they are Ponzi schemes at scale.

They Think You Are Stupid

So the recent surge of young people and world-class athletes dropping dead is from…wait for it….global warming!

Is there a competition going on for the most insane reason for sudden deaths since 2021 they can get into print? Here is another one – which also manages to slip the global warming horseshit into there as well…

Really? You mean the same health issues some people are experiencing after receiving the jab? Wow!! What a coincidence.

They will literally make up ANY bullshit they can to avoid mentioning the obvious one: vaccines were rolled out in 2021.

Then they throw in their usual “global warming” bullshit for good measure.

Unfortunately, about 25% to 30% of the population (like Clayton Tucker and Bruce Haywood) eat this bullshit up and ask for more, because they lack critical thinking skills and are weak-minded imbeciles who are easily brainwashed and unable to think for themselves.

We are well and truly fucked when the population is polluted with that many morons.

Windmills For Thee But Not Me. More Liberal Hypocrite Scumbags

In the latest display of elite hypocrisy, former president, climate change scaremonger and green energy promoter Barack Obama is installing three propane tanks at his $12 million Martha’s Vineyard property—with a whopping 2,500 gallons of storage capacity. 

Earlier this month, the town of Edgartown, Massachusetts received an application for an underground propane tank installation at Obama’s estate, consisting of two 1,000 gallon-tanks and one 500-gallon tank, to be used for “residential purposes.” 

Owner has never had real job in his life. Freeloading scumbag and hypocrite.

“We’ve never had a private propane tank come to us,” said a member of the town’s review board. Typical residential storage for back-up generators is 100 to 500 gallons.

At a time when his successor’s economic war on Russia is wreaking havoc on the world and the U.S. economy teeters on the edge of an abyss, Obama’s 2,500-gallon scheme suggests he wants his 6,900-square-foot, seven-bedroom house to be ready for many weeks of energy independence at a time.   

As president, Obama declared, “I am a firm believer that climate change is real and that it is impacted by human behavior and carbon emissions. As a consequence, I think we have an obligation to future generations to do something about it.”   

Of course, to Obama and other ruling elites, “doing something” means imposing expectations on society they don’t apply to themselves. From Obama’s fossil fuel indulgence at his 29-acre vacation estate, to lockdown enthusiast Gavin Newsom dining in maskless comfort with 21 guests while he limited indoor dining for others, to gun control-advocating politicians who live under the protection of “assault rifles,” examples abound. 

Indeed, this isn’t even the first display of elite hypocrisy at Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard mansion. 

Last August, while Democrats and liberal elites were still relentlessly shaming Americans into embracing a dystopian “new normal” life of social isolation and promoting hysteria over the Delta variant of Covid-19, Obama threw a celebrity-studded 60th birthday party for himself, with hundreds of guests.

Sounds like a guy who needs to check his privilege. 

More Raises Given During Low Inflation Years…

We already covered a lot of the generous increases in salary and benefits enjoyed by City workers in those years when inflation was nearly non-existent.

Since we are going to see the same argument from the school system soon, let’s go over some of the raises THEY were given before inflation got out of control.

Now, before I shit all over the LISD, I DO realize that if you absolutely cannot fill a teaching position, you CLEARLY have to dangle a higher salary. That is simple economics. However, that money doesn’t have to come from the taxpayer – it can come from the firing of useless slugs like Kathy Staruska who suck down over $80,000 in tax dollars but educate nobody. The school is there to EDUCATE your kid. Not to provide ‘free’ therapy sessions to your kid that you messed up with bad parenting.

Without further ado….

4/6/18 – The Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved a general pay increase for all the district’s teachers, administrators and auxiliary staff. Each teacher will receive a $1,500 increase, a raise of about 3 percent will go to administrators,and an increase of about 5 percent will be given to aides, clerical and auxiliary staff. The pay raise will add about$800,000 to the budget, which will be covered by attrition. CPI in 2018 was 2.4% – raises were DOUBLE the inflation rate.

7/5/19 – The Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees approved teacherraises totaling $1.5 million for the coming school year. CPI in 2019 was only 1.8%

3/3/20 – “This evening, our school board approved a compensation plan for next yearthat includes a 7% general pay increaseof the midpoint for Teachers, Clerical/Aides, and Auxiliary. Teacher salaries will reflect a minimum starting amount of $47,000. A general pay increase of 5%of the midpoint for administrators was approved as well. CPI in 2020 was 1.2% – raises were therefore 5.8 times higher than inflation.

[So over those three years, inflation was roughly 5.5% while raises totaled about 15% – or almost TRIPLE inflation]

Also don’t forget, school was cancelled for the rest of the year (shortly after that big raise) due to Covid…giving everyone two months off, fully paid.

Once again, job security is the phrase you are looking for.

Everyone was ALSO given TEN DAYS of “Covid-related time off” for the NEXT school year! That’s TWO WEEKS paid vacation in addition to regular sick days, Thanksgiving holiday, Christmas holiday, spring break, etc.

Nice perk:

1/14/21 – The Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees voted Monday night to extend Superintendent Dr. Chane Rascoe’s contract, which now is set to expire in June 2024.Trustees also granted Rascoe a 7% raise, bringing his salary to $169,864 as of July 1. CPI for 2021 was 4.7% – Rascoe’s raise was 1.5 times the rate of inflation. Rascoe now makes more than the governor of Texas.

9/3/21 (Dispatch) – On Monday, the Lampasas Independent School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $35.9 million Fiscal Year 2022 general fund budget that includes a 2% salary raise for all staff [that includes all the useless Staruska Slugs infesting the LISD].  The district’s new budget will take effect Oct. 1. Of the total, salaries amount to $27.2 million (76% of budget).

**UPDATE 4/7/23**

4/7/23 (Dispatch) – The plan recommended by Superintendent Dr. Chane Rascoe includes a general pay increase of 4% from the midpoint salary for administrators and teachers, and an increase of 10% from the midpoint range for aides and clerical staff. Auxiliary staff earned the largest pay rise, a general increase of 13.5% from the midpoint salary.

The increase will raise the average teacher salary to $51,000 in LISD. According to the Texas Association of School Board’s statewide 2022-23 District Personnel Survey, the overall median salary for a new Texas teacher is $46,550.

But wait! There’s more!!

Don’t forget that teachers ALSO get the summers off. Why, just look at our own teacher/City council member Cathy “Porkchop” Kuehne! She makes about $67,000 per year (plus bennies) AND has her summers free to work another job! With wages and labor demand what they are now, a determined teacher could easily make another $10,000 to $12,000 over the summer – bringing that total up to nearly $80,000!! Cry me a river!

City Big Wigs Want Raises For Everyone Because of Inflation. Conveniently Forget All The Big Raises When Inflation Was Negligible

ACM Ryan Ward got up on the dais last night and said we need an immediate 3% COLA for everyone working for the City. That will supposedly hold them over until they can hand out much larger “adjustments” in a few months when budget talks start.

[I’m not going to hold my breath that any of the supposedly “overpaid” positions like Police Chief and Librarian get ‘adjusted’ down to normal]

But let’s take a look at the recent past and some nice fat raises and benefit increases that were implemented when there was basically NO inflation. Here are a few examples:

June 24, 2013 council packet – Proposing a three percent (3%) global increase which would be $117,000 budget impact. The new health premiums increased three percent (3%) and would like to budget $71,000 to assist employees with 25 percent (25%) of dependent premiums. Possible staffing adjustments and modifications: one (1) Water/Wastewater employee; one (1) Firefighter (shared cost with County); possibly one (1) full time Economic Development Coordinator (shared cost with Lampasas Economic Development Corporation “LEDC”). CPI for 2013 was only 1.5%. Raises are DOUBLE rate of inflation.

July 25th, 2014 – Initial budget assumptionscall for a 4 percent increase in total salary expenses, although deGraffenried said that does not necessarily mean an across the-board 4 percent raise is suggested. In the budget approved last year, total salaries increased 3 percent.   Mayor Pro Tem Wanda Bierschwale said she would like to see employees get “a goodly raise”and for the city to pay a portion of retiree health care costs. Mrs. Bierschwale also said she would like to increase the dependent cost share. White said he supports a 50 percent health care cost share for retirees and a 4 percent raise for all employees. Councilman Chuck Williamson also said he favors 4 percent raises.

[That idiot Bierschwale certainly was generous with other people’s money, wasn’t she?? White and Bierschwale are long gone…but that fat 50% health care cost share remains…as does that fat raise – every year for the last 8 years. So – we see a huge raise AND a ridiculous bump in benefits: increasing the share the taxpayers pay for employees’ dependents AND for City retirees who have ALREADY gotten tons of benefits over their careers. CPI for 2014 was only 1.6%…raises are therefore 2.5 times the rate of inflation.]

Aug 14, 2015 – The council is considering a 5 percent increase in city employees’ salaries. The original suggestion submitted to the council was for a 4 percent pay boost, but Mayor Pro Tem Misti Talbert [the original Drunken Sailor] and Councilman Robert McCauley proposed giving a 5 percent raise. CPI for 2015 was 0.1%. Raises are therefore FIFTY TIMES LARGER than rate of inflation. This was the beginning of the profligate Toups administration.

Let’s pause here a moment. CPI is up 3.1% over those three years and employee raises totaled about TWELVE PERCENT over that time. Nobody bothers to mention all of this. That doesn’t even include the generous INCREASE in benefits covering employee dependents and City retirees.

Here are some more random raises from before inflation went haywire:

Aug 4, 2017 – Mike White also warned the trend of rising insurance costs will continue – which he said will impose a greater burden on the city each year. Last year, the city’s cost increase was 4 percent, the finance director said. CPI for 2017 was 2.1% –therefore benefit increases were almost TWICE inflation rate.

8/3/18 (Dispatch) – Chamber of Commerce salary.  TJ Monroe says $45,000 isn’t enough.  Needs to be $65,000 to $70,000 [National average is $49,000] – Ergo, TJ Monroe wants a 48% increase in Chamber of Commerce salary…the CPI in 2018 was 2.4%

7/27/19 – Lampasas County Appraisal District Commissioner’s Court voted 4-1 to approve their new budget – which includes a 4% increase in salaries. Previous year’s salary increase was 11% – for a two-year increase of 15%! CPI for 2019 was 1.8%

8/16/19 – The council discussed salaries Monday, and multiple council members said “market adjustments” may be needed to make Lampasas’ pay more competitive with the compensation in nearby entities (sounds familiar?) CPI for 2019 was 1.8%.

8/10/20 council meeting: budget proceedings – Finley asks for 3% raises for everyone once again. CPI in 2020 was 1.2%. ONCE AGAIN, raises are DOUBLE the inflation rate.

Between 2019 and 2020, salary for IT Director Monica Wright increased 7.8% from $73,397 to $79,115. CPI for 2020 was 1.2% – or SIX AND A HALF TIMES HIGHER than inflation. She possess NO network certifications!

Between 2019 and 2020, salary for Network Administrator Kristy Acevdeo jumped 9.4% from $52,674 to $57,639. CPI for 2020 was 1.2%. Her raise was therefore 7.8x higher than inflation

[Also don’t forget, the IT Department workload DECREASED greatly when the police department decided to take the police servers out of the hands of Monica and Kristy and pay someone else to do it. Also don’t forget that TSM Consulting does a LOT of their work for them, at a huge cost to the City]

Between 2019 and 2020, salary for police chief Sammy Bailey jumped from $92,493 to 103,387 – an 11.8% increase! CPI was 1.2% that year – almost TEN TIMES the rate of inflation.

[I’m sure that huge bump had NOTHING to do with artificially increasing her ‘average salary’ for pension purposes right before retirement, right?]

In 2020 – Finley deGraffenreid got a raise of 15%….from $130,000 to $150,000. Inflation that year was 1.2% – a raise that was about 12.5 x faster than inflation!!! Don’t forget that Finley also has an assistant now (that was Misti Talbert’s idea years ago) – so his workload is actually LESS as he makes MORE. See how that works?

9/20/21 – City handed out “paid quarantine leave” to public safety employees of the City (front page Dispatch). Nice little perk!

So I say this to ACM Ward and City Manager deGraffenreid: Gimme a fucking break.

My advice to anyone with the City making $90k or $100k or $200k in salary and benefits is that you should have saved more during those ridiculously generous years instead of taking four annual vacations and buying a brand new $60,000 vehicle every 3 years. THAT’S how it works in the real world.

These idiots need to go and re-read the fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper.

The City is infested with grasshoppers – mostly at the top. You want to give raises to the guys doing actual work? The guys fixing water pipes and sewer mains and electric lines and the guys mowing lawns for $12? Maybe bump them to $18 or $20? I’m fine with that – they deserve it. All these other Nerf jobbers making six figures to sit in an airconditioned City Hall? Fuck that.

Time to say NO to ever-increasing salaries.

Total expenditures for the 2015/2016 City budget were $9.462 million. For the 2020/2021 budget it was $12.175 million – a 29% increase. Increase in the CPI during those 5 years? Under 10%. Expenditures increased roughly TRIPLE the rate of inflation!!

The Finley School of Thought? Big raises during boom times but also big raises during the shitty times too! No time is a good time to tighten the belt in government spending. The taxpayer can go suck a big one.

Next up: a review of teacher raises during the low inflation years!