We're from the government and we're here to help...

A long, but a true story:

It should be no surprise to anyone that the great majority of the world's battery manufacturing capacity resides in the Far East; upwards of 90% of the world's batteries come out of China, Japan, and South Korea.  Elon Musk's adventure in northern Nevada may change those numbers some, but time will tell.

In 2009, the Department of Energy was fired with the fevered visions of new Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu.  Dr. Chu and Mr. Obama had dreams of a future without fossil fuels and an economy driven by windmills, solar panels, and electric cars...lots and lots of electric cars.  I sat in meetings where DOE bureaucrats predicted, with the dead-serious, stone-faced certainty that only people living in the fantasy world inside the Washington Beltway are capable of, that there would be 15 million electric cars on the road by 2015.  But someone had to make the batteries for all those cars.

Enter Congress, who at the behest of Mr. Obama, passed the ARRA bill (more commonly known as the "stimulus package"), which, among other things, funneled huge amounts of money into the DOE.  The DOE decided they would use some of that money - $2.4 billion dollars worth...that's "billion" with a "b" - to stimulate the moribund and virtually non-existent US battery and electric vehicle industries and the Advanced Battery Manufacturing Initiative came into being.  Under the ABMI, the DOE would pay companies to build battery factories in the United States.  Note that these were not the loan guarantees since made famous by other DOE boondoggles, like Solyndra, these were grants...cash, given to a company without expectation of repayment.  The only constraint on the grant was that the awardee had to match the amount of the grant with private funds.  In effect, the DOE would permit awardees to build a manufacturing plant for half-price.

The ABMI announcement, as might be expected, set off a frenzy of activity.  Joint ventures were formed, start-up companies were started, large corporations began including batteries or battery materials in their strategic development plans, and every battery company ( and a lot of wannabees) in America started writing a proposal.

The selection of awardees was Kabuki theater.  The Federal government cannot dole out $2 billion without the process becoming political.  If you did not propose building your factory in Michigan, you essentially took yourself out of the competition.  A joint venture between Johnson Controls and Saft (a French company) received $229 million to build a plant in Michigan.  LG Chem, a Korean company, received $151 million to build a plant in Michigan.  A123 Systems was the big winner with a $249 million award to build a plant in Livonia, MI.  There were other recipients of all this government largesse, of course, and if you're interested, you can find out more here.

The announcement left most people in the industry scratching their heads.  Money intended to stimulate the US battery industry had been awarded to foreign companies.  However, the award to A123 Systems surprised no one; they had been a DOE pet project for a number of years.  I met with a DOE program manager prior to the ABMI announcement who smiled at me and said, "You know, it was my SBIR grant that got A123 started."  Knowing the founders of A123, I knew this was not entirely true, but it did make clear to me that my company, a competitor, had essentially zero chance of getting funding from a program manager who was obviously bolstering his career by having given "A123 its start".

Upon announcing their awards, the DOE insisted that they were "not picking winners and losers", but in point of fact, that was exactly what they were doing.  The ABMI awards essentially killed any private investment in companies that had not received a grant.  After all, if your technology and talent couldn't pass muster with the DOE, why would anyone want to invest in you...and even if you knew what you were doing, how were you going to compete with companies that just received 9-figure grants from the U.S. government.

With the exception of the few anointed companies, the years that followed the AMBI grants were not kind to the U.S. battery industry.  Bankruptcies among both established and start-up companies were the rule, not the exception.  The founders of my own company were, on several occasions, reduced to loaning the company money to make payroll.  No one was feeling particularly "stimulated" by the DOE's program.

Fast forward to 2016:  The Johnson Controls/Saft JV dissolved with extreme prejudice before they even broke ground on their factory.  LG Chem built their factory, but it's use has been limited to importing cells from South Korea and assembling battery packs.  A123 seemed to be the sole success story; building a plant in Livonia and having a very successful IPO that raised $380 million.  But there was always a no-visible-means-of-support aspect to the company's apparent success and, after building $50 million worth of bad product in their new plant - how do you even do that? - that resulted in a number of fires, primarily in the Fisker Karma electric vehicles they were making batteries for, A123 went into a death spiral.  The company went spectacularly bankrupt and the assets were bought by the Chinese.

The country is still without a commercial battery manufacturing plant and, while Tesla's facility in northern Nevada may change that shortly, it is certainly no thanks to the technocrats at the Department of Energy.

Stupid Grapes

   For the longest time, superiority complexes and perpetual smugness were stereotypically Democrat identifiers. Sadly, this trend has blended over, in the spirit of cooperation as it were, across the aisle. While I agree the average voter is, naturally, of average intelligence, I am troubled by the sudden rash of pundits and conservative writers calling the base "losers" and "stupid". Intimating that the GOP bears no responsibility for the mess the country is in. We as individuals are in a bed of our own making, and it's just OUR stupidity that got us in this mess.

  Well if we got here on our own, and you think we can get out of it on our own...wtf do we need you?

oh...

  Do not misunderstand me. I DO believe in personal responsibility. It's the reason why I tend to vote for the most conservative candidate available. Unfortunately, that is getting ever harder to do. It is difficult to exercise  personal responsibility while the GOP is constantly bowing to the party that insists on legislating it away. Tough love, coming from a party of compromising pussies, is laughable.

(Though I do find it ironic that articles chastising poor people for their lot in life is hidden behind a paywall)


  You are selling us a candidate or a party based on how bad the other candidate and party have destroyed the country and the economy, it isn't a smart move to blame the constituents for the position they find themselves in, in life. Did the Democrats ruin our lives, or did we do it. If we did it in our stupidity, how did we become so ignorant?


   The masses are uneducated. Ignorant of the process.Who let the liberals educate the masses? Who have you let control the federal department of education, with only minor "conservative" additions like No Child Left Behind. Why was the Common Core Candidate JEB! himself, considered remotely electable. Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated,"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." So, you've been silent on education, you haven't acted to stop the degradation. You should have. You were elected to. You have not acted, the ignorant masses you deride are on you.

 "Vote for us! We will defund the evil PP that donates to the evil Democrats that votes to fund them. Just give us a majority" gives way to, " Yeah.. so.. we have a majority, but we can't really defund PP. That will lose us crucial seats later. You really need us in office to keep doing the work you sent us here to do, even though we don't, and you are too stupid to see it." You foisted on us the Gruber infested candidacy of Mitt Romney, but yeah we are dumb enough to think you are going to fight to repeal ACA.

  These ignorant rubes are smart enough to see you've been playing them like the Democrats play women and minorities. So either they are genius enough to see through your superior plans, or your ruse was just basic.

  Like any jilted lover, the fox despised the grapes he couldn't win, and disparaged them. Instead of finding a way to reach them, he left them hanging.

 

S I S Y P H U S

 

I've had a love/hate relationship with IKEA since my mom bought her first set of bookshelves there nearly 40 years ago. She still has them and they look just fine. This I love. The hate part is the rat maze they drive you through every section of the store -- unless you master the shortcuts (which I finally have!)

We are getting our new kitchen cabinets there, so I am here to advise you, should you ever consider such an endeavor, how to navigate the process in 20 long steps:

1. Discover the shortcuts from the entrance to the kitchen design section and back out again. You will be visiting multiple times, and unless you need 20,000 steps a day, this will save you.
   
2. On your first trip in consideration of a new kitchen, stop at at least 3 configurations and open every single drawer and door. Pay some attention.
   
3. Pick up all of the Buying Guides: Kitchens (for the 50,000 foot overview). For the details, pick up the following: Cabinets, Fronts, Organizers, Knobs & Handles; Appliances (made by Whirlpool with a 5-year warranty); and Countertops, Sinks & Faucets. You will pore over these for months before you scratch the surface of the (damned near endless) possibilities.
   
4. Also pick up the Lighting Guide and the Kitchen Installation Guide. These will discourage you, at first glance, after you've seen all the other possibilities from the previous Buying Guides. Hang in there.
   
5. If you are like me, it will take you a month to discover what the Buying Guides are trying to show you about how awesome your kitchen can be. You will need to read and re-read, and cross-reference each one, every day for at least 4 hours. Your brain will begin to comprehend.
   
6. With your limited knowledge of the endless possibilities of your new kitchen, you will need to venture to IKEA. Bring your pots, pans, baking sheets (or at least measurements of them), to make sure they will fit into your new appliances, sink and cabinets. Make sure your refrigerator shelves can actually be washed in your sink without machinations (and water on the countertops and floor). [Here's where the fun starts]
   
7. Measure your kitchen -- at least 5 times. If you've gutted it, make sure you're accounting for the thickness of your drywall, flooring, ceiling height, etc.
   
8. Okay. If you've come this far, perhaps you're willing to go a bit further. Create an online profile (free). If you think someone is going to use your info for nefarious purposes, you don't belong here on Social Media anyway.
   
9. March into IKEA (and all its shortcuts) with purpose. Go to the Kitchen section and ask for a computer so you can build your dream kitchen online -- in the cloud (you can always change it later).
   
10. Spend 3+ hours getting a final framework of the ideas you've been building. Only to discover that you suck as a Kitchen Designer, but with the knowledge that you have done your due diligence. Be encouraged by the salesperson who assures you that you're doing it right, because most people walk in and think they can design a kitchen in an hour because, "It's IKEA!"
    
11. Know that you are close to completing your order because you've done your due diligence. 
    
12. Go home. Think about it. Sleep on it. Dream about it. Wake up and realize you still don't get the whole "drawer within a hidden drawer" thing (what actually fits underneath that hidden drawer? And if it's only takeout menus, why the hell am I building a kitchen??)
    
13. Go back home. Discover that in your 5 measurements, you didn't see the sink drain pipe that sits right where the dishwasher is supposed to be. Panic, but only briefly. Call a plumber and see if he can fix the problem in the next 4 days, because you've got a crew installing drywall on Day 5. Calm down when he says, "Yes."
    
14. Go back to IKEA. Start your design from scratch -- with your new measurements and your new understanding of cabinet drawer configurations (That whisk, and that ladle. They're really going to fit in there?) IKEA has lots of these things around in their vignettes. Go grab as many utensils as you can find, shove them in that "inner drawer" and see if they "really" fit -- and how).
    
15. Go back home. Revisit your plan. Realize that, while you haven't messed up anything as far as the HVAC guys and the plumber are concerned, your "filler" pieces aren't quite in the right place. Make notes on your plan.
    
16. Okay, now is the time to dig deep for the Spendthrift in you. (If you can't dig that deep, I can't help you). If you spend at least $X on your kitchen you will receive a 15% discount of the pre-tax amount, in the form of a gift card you can only spend at IKEA.
    
17. Now, you have to do math. $X x 1.Y (where Y is your local sales tax as a percentage), will tell you the ultimate price you have to pay. And $X x .15 is the amount you can still spend at IKEA. The key is to reduce X by enough so you pay the least amount possible, yet still have enough of the 15% to get everything you need. This is difficult when a lot of good, quality, practical things are $4.99/6-pk.
    
18. Okay, so now you've figured out that you've spent enough money to afford the lights you wanted to get elsewhere (because they cost less), but now you've spent so much, that you may as well get them here, because you really don't need 500 100-pk. tealight candles.
    
19. Next to last steps. Start shopping in your mind (via the catalogue) for all the things you would not have otherwise bought at IKEA, but now you realize you can't live without (because, well, you can't spend this money anywhere else). You may even have to traverse the entire store (no shortcuts), take photos and create an Excel spreadsheet. Once your drywall is up, you will feel compelled to measure one last time (now that you can better visualize things and are able to write measurements on the actual surface).
    
20. Go to IKEA on the last day of the sale, where (undoubtedly) there will be 500 other people who followed your exact plan. You will stand in line for hours waiting to pay for your cabinets, then you will have to traverse the store for all the stuff you're going to buy with your gift card, and then you will have to stand in line for another hour to check out (because they have 50 registers, but only ever have 5 open). And don't forget that they don't have bags. You'll have to buy one or bring your own -- or have 16 arms to carry everything.

BONUS: Since you are now an IKEA Family Member, you get a free ice cream cone. But you'll have to go back upstairs to the Cafe for that -- and then shortcut your way back out.

You're welcome.