9/4/2021

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Have you ever heard of B.O.D.? My high school physics teacher, Mr. Rocky, used to put that on our tests. It stands for Benefit of the Doubt & he used it when he gave us credit for answers that weren’t quite right.

            It might be time for you to ask for a B.O.D. so you can move forward & accomplish your goals. Restore the “perception of competence” after the Afghanistan withdrawl debacle by getting on with it. Perhaps Ida will serve that purpose, especially with your emphasis on rebuilding in a better way to withstand climate change.

            As you work on that, please spend some time educating the populace on the need to revamp our electric system. Today’s WP has info about getting power lines to fall gracefully by intentionally designing “self-sacrificing” parts of the system so damage is done in a place where it is most easily fixed. Other ideas include having the power line somehow detach from the pole to prevent the domino effect of several poles being pulled down together.

            I prefer the idea of “distributed generation” & microgrids, where energy is produced closer to where it will be consumed. This will disrupt the economics of our electric utilities, but maybe that would be for the best. We have known for a long time that monopolies are inefficient & prone to malfunction. Entergy & PG&E have been demonstrating that for years.

            Let’s be bold. Stop funding the development of war technologies & hire all those brilliant STEM folk to work on designing batteries. Cheaper energy & fewer CO2 emissions. A win/win!

            BYBS,

            RCA

PS – Pray for Myanmar!