Nuclear power scandal: High time South Carolinians march on the State House

"Bankruptcy isn't out of the question, (analysts) say, but it may not be the inevitable outcome (SCANA) has suggested." - article, The Post and Courier

South Carolinians are being set up for another shellacking by SCANA and its bought and paid for stooges in the legislature. The gall of a gang of paid-off jerks - charged with representing the public interest - to quietly arrange for customers to underwrite the financial risk of a private corporation. To pay in advance for an unnecessary project and to keep paying even if the project fails.

Those in power couldn't care less what people want, or what's in the people's interest. The behavior of Senate Minority Leader Nikki Setzler epitomizes the shameful state of affairs. Setzler co-sponsored the bill that got us into this mess, supports a deal with Dominion Energy that would leave ratepayers ripped off, and has a profound conflict of interest via his probate-dealing law firm when it comes to South Carolina's probate racket. He's a sadistic, high-handed little jerk who refuses to acknowledge the latest e-mail I sent him (via SC Legislature Online) way back on 12/5/2017 asking what he plans to do this legislative session to eliminate time limits on wills and simplify the probate process.

It all points to one thing: America is a dictatorship.

The few timid expressions of public displeasure with the nuclear fiasco have nonetheless been enough to throw South Carolina's corrupt power structure into a panic, prompting outcries of concern for SCANA, a crooked, 9 billion dollar holding company that now claims - is anyone surprised? - that if it's forced to give back all the money stolen from utility customers, it will go bankrupt, prompting unbearable agony for utility customers. To hear the state's power brokers and their mainstream media stooges tell it, the only "reasonable" thing to do is for utility customers to settle for way less than they're entitled to, way less than they lost, and continue to pay for a boondoggle that will never produce any energy.

The SCANA and legislative gang's Johnny-come-lately concern for utility customers is aptly summed up by the proposed sale of SCE&G to Virginia-based Dominion Energy: "Just offer the suckers a few up-front dollars along with a nominal decrease in rates, and they're sure to bite."  

Here's the kinda propaganda we're being bombarded with:

"Hey, we could get ripped off even worse, and something is better than nothing" blabbers Keven Cohen, chief honcho of Columbia's Miss the Point radio. I recently blogged about the antics of Cohen and his friend Ashley Landess, president of the South Carolina Policy Council. Cohen has since been running Dominion Energy ads, spotlighting Dominion big shots as guests, and airing the opinion of Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, who "ever so sadly" intoned that "there just isn't any way" that ratepayers can be made whole.

Then there's the State newspaper's Cindi Ross Scoppi - another would-be investigative reporter who balks at exposing South Carolina's probate racket. Scoppe downplays anything short of ratepayers being taken to the cleaners in the current ripoff proposed by Dominion. I quit subscribing to the State's biased rag years ago, haven't bought one since, and noticed Scoppe's blabber via the Internet.

It's not that the paid-off creeps that got us into this mess deserve to be voted out of office. It's that they deserve to be tarred, feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. Nor do I buy the claim that there are "some good legislators." I'll make exceptions if someone can gimme the names of anyone who warned the public about what was going on when the oh-so-cleverly-named "Base Load Review Act" was originally proposed.

Point is, if South Carolinians are dumb enough to settle for anything less than a full refund from SCANA, they richly deserve the fleecing it looks like they're gonna get.

1/26/2018 updates 
>  Protested SC's probate racket for a little over 2.5 hours yesterday in front of Williams, Stitely, and Brink law firm across from the probate court in Lexington.
>  Sent a link to this post to all SC legislators and Ethics and Judiciary committees and e-mailed a link to Nikki Setzler's sidekick, Alisa Painter.

Nuclear power scandal exposes a stupefied South Carolina public

"Sooner or later it will dawn on them that there is nothing they can do but violently revolt. Most likely, by the time they reach this conclusion, it will be too late. Americans are very slow to escape from the false reality in which they live. Americans are a thoroughly brainwashed people who hold tightly to their false life within The Matrix." - Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (under Reagan) Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

It was a howling hoot when Ashley Landess, president of the SC Policy Council, blabbered the ol' "contact your legislators" line as a solution to the utility company ripoff orchestrated by SC's General Assembly. Perhaps Ms. Landess is unaware of the deluge of opposition legislators have received for many years regarding their empowerment of so-called Homeowners Associations, all to no avail, Expressing your views to these special-interest-serving jerks is a waste of time, Just for grins n chuckles, I sent all of 'em a link to the latest post on my probate blog. As expected, I got nothing but automated replies.

Interestingly enough, Ms. Landess admitted that popular opposition to a gas tax did not prevent the legislature from imposing one this year. If you say it fast enough, "contact your legislator" sounds almost as good as "Free Iraq."

Someone dared to imply that politically-nonchalant South Carolinians - so permissive of corruption - are genetically disposed to be stupid. I liked that. Ms. Landess, of course, did not.

Why on earth do people participate in a pervasively corrupt electoral system? Ya gotta be pretty dumb - or willfully ignorant - not to know that elections are controlled by big-moneyed goons such as SCANA (a "hyper-secretive" 9 billion dollar holding company), funding those ultra-expensive political advertising campaigns so popular with a presstitute mainstream media whose "investigative prowess" is a national joke. Wanna be elected? Just play up to the "right" special interests, and rest assured that sufficient numbers of a media-brainwashed public - mindlessly believing that voting is their civic duty - will usher you into position. I quit voting many years ago.

The South Carolina Policy Council keeps itself politically correct by ignoring a fundamentally flawed electoral system. I got fed up with their claims to be a government watchdog when they refused to breathe a word about South Carolina's probate racket. Makes ya wonder what else they oh-so-politely decline to address.

Not that some of the Council's articles aren't pleasantly appropriate. I've even linked to several - it's a nice touch - in my blog posts. Unfortunately, their articles really don't disclose anything that a smattering of common sense wouldn't tell a person about notorious corruption in the state legislature.

The nuclear power plant ripoff will continue.

I always laugh when people express shock and dismay that "their" representatives don't care what the public thinks about anything. The self-serving slobs aren't accountable to the public - they're accountable to a slew of special interests. The Public Service Commission - a select bunch of utility company stooges - will approve the utility rate hike requests, and South Carolinians will hand over the dough, keeping their mouths shut and their tails tucked.

The most frequent comment I get regarding the SC Legislature's probate racket is, "It's all a racket." Indeed it is. America has reduced itself to a cesspool of corruption, dishonesty, and deceit. The last thing it needs is a gang of conflicted social climbers who ultimately promote the status quo.

Update 12/19/2017 - According to the SC Secretary of State, Ashley Landess' salary is a whoppin' 104,681 per year. No wonder the Council wants people to donate.

Update 9/21/2017 - My pleasure to tweet a link to this post to the South Carolina Policy Council, and just for a few more grins n chuckles, I also sent a link to all SC legislators and tweeted a link to Governor McMaster.