Tag Archives: General Electric

“Get Off My Lawn,” He Shouted

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Last night I watched the State of the Union Address. I watched the entire speech and the rebuttal. I learned that to our ‘representatives’ and the elites in Washington, the most most important issues are Ukraine and January 6th. In the rebuttal, I learned that the four things important to Republicans are our southern borde5r, conflicts overseas, inflation, and crime–not necessarily in that order. When the State of the Union Address was over, I felt like someone had yelled at me for an hour and a half. The speech proved that President Biden does have the energy to give an hour and a half speech. It also left many Americans wondering if there were drugs involved.

In his speech, the President needed to allay doubts about his cognitive abilities. He also needed a reset from his image as a tired old man. He did a reasonable job on both counts as long as you ignored the yelling and the slurred speech near the end of the address.

There were a number of lies told during the speech. January 6th was not an insurrection–there were no guns involved and no one has been convicted of insurrection. The President did not inherit a struggling economy–he inherited low inflation, low interest rates, energy independence, and an economy on the rebound from the Covid lockdowns. A large number of the jobs he claims to have created were simply people returning to the jobs they held before the Covid lockdowns. I would also like to note that many of the jobs currently being created are part-time jobs. During the past two months, the number of full-time jobs has significantly decreased. The President also claimed that crime is down under his administration. That is simply not true, although much of the increase in crime is due to Democrat-run cities who have eliminated bail and are not keeping criminals in jail. In New York, the National Guard has been called up to patrol the New York City subways because crime has become a serious problem there.

Also, why was there a fence around the Capitol, but not a wall at our southern border? Do fences and walls work or do they not work? There was also a comment about increasing taxes on corporation and on the wealthy. Corporations do not pay taxes–they pass them on to their customers, fueling inflation. “Taxing the rich” is a proposal that simply feeds class envy. If you want to see the results, look at the Laffer Curve. I would also like to note that during the Obama administration, General Electric paid no income taxes. Why weren’t they sharing the burden?

The speech was loud, inaccurate, and divisive. The tone was not attractive. I do wonder if this speech, which seemed more like a campaign speech than a State of the Union Address, actually won over any undecided voters.

When Your Energy Falls Over

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Today The American Thinker posted an article about the increasing number of windmills that are simply falling over.

The article reports:

Bloomberg Business Week, no foe of green energy, headlines:  Wind Turbines Taller Than the Statue of Liberty Are Falling Over.” The article beneath the headline reports on a variety of alarming disasters involving wind turbines, including collapses of very tall sructures.

The article at The American Thinker quotes the Bloomberg article (which is behind the pay wall):

On a calm, sunny day last June, Mike Willey was feeding his cattle when he got a call from the local sheriff’s dispatcher. A motorist had reported that one of the huge turbines at a nearby wind farm had collapsed in dramatic fashion. Willey, chief of the volunteer fire department in Ames, 90 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, set out to survey the scene.

The steel tower, which once stood hundreds of feet tall, was buckled in half, and the turbine blades, whose rotation took the machine higher than the Statue of Liberty, were splayed across the wheat field below. The turbine, made by General Electric Co., had been in operation less than a year. “It fell pretty much right on top of itself,” Willey says.

Another GE turbine of the same model collapsed in Colorado a few days later. That wind farm’s owner-operator, NextEra Energy Inc., later attributed it to a blade flaw and said it and GE had taken steps to prevent future mishaps. A spokesperson for GE declined to say what went wrong in both cases in a statement to Bloomberg.

The instances are part of a rash of recent wind turbine malfunctions across the US and Europe, ranging from failures of key components to full collapses.

Wind turbines require precise engineering and very specific construction materials. If either one of these factors is not properly executed, the wind turbine is not going to be able to withstand the air currents it generates or the air currents generated by storms around it.

It is very obvious that much more research is needed on green energy. We need to do that research before we attempt to move further away from fossil fuels.

One Result Of The Supreme Court Ruling On Mandatory Vaccines

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Yesterday The Daily Wire reported that General Electric has suspended its vaccine mandate and testing requirements due to the Supreme Court decision on vaccine mandates. After the Court decision, President Biden requested that companies keep the vaccine mandates in effect anyway. I guess General Electric realized the potential lawsuits and loss of employees keeping the mandates would bring.

The article reports:

“The maker of jet engines, wind turbines and medical scanners confirmed the decision Friday via email,” Bloomberg News reported. “GE is the first major company to announce a halt after the court’s decision Thursday to block the centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s push to boost Covid-19 vaccinations.”

The article concludes:

“I am disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law,” Biden said. “This emergency standard allowed employers to require vaccinations or to permit workers to refuse to be vaccinated, so long as they were tested once a week and wore a mask at work: a very modest burden.”

“As a result of the Court’s decision, it is now up to States and individual employers to determine whether to make their workplaces as safe as possible for employees, and whether their businesses will be safe for consumers during this pandemic by requiring employees to take the simple and effective step of getting vaccinated,” Biden continued. “The Court has ruled that my administration cannot use the authority granted to it by Congress to require this measure, but that does not stop me from using my voice as President to advocate for employers to do the right thing to protect Americans’ health and economy. I call on business leaders to immediately join those who have already stepped up – including one third of Fortune 100 companies – and institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers, and communities.”

Adhering to President Biden’s suggestion will only create more chaos in the supply chain and more lawsuits in the workplace. I suspect a lot of companies realize that. It is a shame that the President either doesn’t realize that or doesn’t care.

Why We Can’t Afford A Democrat Congress

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The Democrats control the Senate. The Republicans hold a 33 seat majority in the House of Representatives. The Republicans can occasionally pass something or delay something from taking effect, but generally those odds make it very difficult for either party to get much done.

Recently, the Republicans gained a small victory for common sense and against crony capitalism.. On Thursday, Investor’s Business Daily reported that in explaining why he wanted to stop a federal ban on incandescent light bulbs, Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said, ‘If the new energy-efficient light bulbs save money, and if they’re better for the environment, we should trust our constituents to make the choice on their own to move toward these bulbs. Let the market decide.”

Oddly enough, if the ban had gone into effect, one company that would make a tremendous amount of money selling very expensive light bulbs would be General Electric. I know it is simply an incredible coincidence, but General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt was appointed to lead the President’s new jobs council in January 2011.

In addition to being more expensive, there are some significant problems with the compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. The Daily Caller posted an artlcle in July 2012 reporting that scientists at the National Science Foundation are warning consumers about the potentially harmful effects energy-saving CFL light bulbs can have on skin. In December 2011 the U.K. Daily Mail posted an article about the fire hazard of a burned out CFL bulb. CFL bulbs also produce a hazardous waste situation when they break.

I think it really is time to celebrate the joys of the incandescent light bulb until some of the bugs get worked out of the alternative.

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Am I The Only One Wondering About This?

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I reported in January at rightwinggranny.com that General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt was appointed lead the President’s new jobs council. In March I reported at rightwinggranny.com that General Electric had paid no corporate income taxes in 2009.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

“”We expect to have a positive tax liability for 2010 when we file our U.S. income taxes later this year,” the conglomerate said in a written response to questions from Dow Jones Newswires. But “we think it will be covered by overpayments.””

“…GE called the Times report “particularly distorted and misleading” on its website Friday. On Monday, GE noted on its website that it paid almost $2.7 billion in “cash income taxes” globally in 2010, “including significant U.S. federal income tax payments.”

“GE also has said that its tax rate has been abnormally low recently largely because of losses suffered by its financial arm, GE Capital, during the financial crisis. The company noted that GE Capital lost nearly $32 billion from 2008 to 2010.

“”Our 2011 tax rate is slated to return to more normal levels with GE Capital’s recovery,” the company said.”

Today the New York Times reported:

General Electric, the nation’s largest industrial company, on Friday reported net earnings for the third quarter of $3.2 billion, up 57 percent from the same period in 2010 despite what the chief executive called a “volatile” economic environment.

The article further reports:

G.E. has been expecting its business for power generation equipment, which involves gas, steam and wind turbines, to improve this year. Profits in that component of its business were down 19 percent in the second quarter. 

Does anyone doubt that if the Obama Administration continues to pursue green energy, General Electric will profit handsomely by being well placed in the industry? I seriously doubt that any of this activity is illegal, but it is a glaring example of crony capitalism. The people at Occupy Wall Street are definitely protesting the wrong people–they should be out in front of the White House.


 

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