Catching Up On Links -- April 11, 2025

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Catching up on links.

California Medi-Cal:

California bullet train: to put that in perspective, original cost estimates for the bullet train was $33 billion. That cost estimate has now surged to $128 billion.

California: Governor Newsom using "smoke and mirrors" to assure California voters the state is not "broke" because of all the money being spent on illegal immigrants. Link here. 

Twelve million new Americans surged across the border during the Biden administration and most of them stopped first in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. Most of those who arrived first in California, stayed. Many who first arrived in Texas left as quickly as they could for a sanctuary state.

I still think Texas should offer bus vouchers to all non-residents coming across the border from Mexico. Bus vouchers: one-way to California, New York, and/or Illinois. Vouchers to Washington, DC, would come with $100 spending money -- real US currency. In all cases, street addresses for free housing at the city of destination.

A year ago physicians' offices were standing room only; all of a sudden, these same physicians' offices now have more than enough open seating. Victor Davis Hanson was first to report on this new phenomenon. Twelve million folks laying low for now.

Amazon: continues to deliver. I am so impressed. Among everything else, I cannot even imagine how much I've saved in mailing costs.

Voting in federal elections: US House passes bill requiring proof of citizenship. Link here. Will John Thune deliver?

The grid: PJM, the grid, google, and Tapestry. Link here. This all points to huge demand for electricity going forward. And, here.

Polestar: anyone can make a luxury EV. Link here. The trick is to make money. So, we'll see. Also, don't forget: Polestar is a Chinese company. Lucid is a Saudi company. Both with deep pockets. Tesla is a battery and an operational "renewable regulatory credit" company.

Ouch: Intel CEO -- Chinese-American or American-Chinese or American or Chinese? Link here. Under Biden it didn't matter. Under Trump, it will. Link here, also.

American opportunity, American exceptionalism, Americans keeping America great, link here to The WSJ:

In half a lifetime, Jonny Kim has achieved the American dream three times over.

He was a Navy SEAL.

Then he graduated from Harvard Medical School. [It's one thing to graduate from Harvard Medical School; it's another thing to practice military medicine overseas at a remote location. Raise your hand if you've done that.]

And on Tuesday, he blasted off as part of his latest act: astronaut.

When novelist Wesley Chu first learned about Kim, a 41-year-old father of three who is also a Navy pilot, his first reaction was awe.

His second: “Thank God my mom is not friends with his mom.”

After word of his feats spread, Kim became a global source of inspiration. And yet, to many of the same people who glance at his résumé and can’t help but compare it to theirs, he has also conjured up a bit of another feeling.

Dismay.

This has been especially true in the Asian-American community, where Kim, the son of South Korean immigrants, has been simultaneously lauded as a hero—and feared, only half-jokingly, as “every Asian kid’s worst nightmare.”

The worry: No matter what they achieve, their high-demanding immigrant parents will say Jonny Kim already did that—only better. “We accomplished all this stuff, but really, it’s what he did that matters,” Chu said.

Kim became an internet meme among Asian Americans, who frequently take to social media to express gratitude that he’s not a relative. NASA’s social-media posts about Kim are flooded with comments expressing similar sentiments. “As a fellow Asian, I hope my parents do not get to read this. But, safe journey my man,” one wrote. Chu wrote about that feeling of inadequacy in a viral post, which inadvertently hammered in the point by containing a typo.

The US astronaut program: where really, really, really bright, high-achievers, go to die (figuratively). Chu needs to do his four years as an astronaut and then do something really, really big. Much could be said.