US Politics: One No Trump

[Week]

3 minutes ago, DMC said:

I really don't think planes should be dropping supplies.  That could get pretty dangerous.

I think there's plenty of open space that would be usable. But, ya know, thinking outside the box - like nuking a hurricane.

[DMC]

1 minute ago, Week said:

I think there's plenty of open space that would be usable. But, ya know, thinking outside the box - like nuking a hurricane.

In West Texas at least most certainly.  Still, there's a significant chance you'll hit one of my uncle's cows.

[Week]

17 minutes ago, DMC said:

In West Texas at least most certainly.  Still, there's a significant chance you'll hit one of my uncle's cows.

I'd aim for 40-50 feral hogs 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

11 hours ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Texas grid is deregulated, no deep insight into how that impacts prices although I assume the price is more prone to supply-demand variances than other states (albeit, it does have ERCOT as the overarching 'supplier' as noted in one of the links).

The last time Texas had significant cold weather, many of the power generators failed because of frozen water intakes (they needed water to operate). Might be part of the cause here too.

I think Biden should come out and say that he will provide infrastructure relief to those blue states that have marginally been maintaining infrastructure, but that those red states that act like the free market is good enough--well, they're on their own.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

8 minutes ago, Week said:

I'd aim for 40-50 feral hogs 

PETA needs to storm your capitol. 

[DMC]

12 minutes ago, Week said:

I'd aim for 40-50 feral hogs 

Hey don't talk about my uncle and his family that way.

[Week]

7 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

PETA needs to storm your capitol. 

I was googling for a joke about PETA in my state ... they seem to be interested in monkey videos and loon shootings. Uh, ok!

7 minutes ago, Centrist Simon Steele said:

I think Biden should come out and say that he will provide infrastructure relief to those blue states that have marginally been maintaining infrastructure, but that those red states that act like the free market is good enough--well, they're on their own.

How about infrastructure investment for all states buying into a national, modern grid. Same as Medicaid expansion - put pressure on bozos to get yeeted out of office and being in new blood. Keep Georgia blue and start flipping the next one.

5 minutes ago, DMC said:

Hey don't talk about my uncle and his family that way.

YOUR* TWISTING MY WORDS.

 

*Intentional tyvm

[Zorral]

22 minutes ago, Week said:

I'd aim for 40-50 feral hogs 

O excellent, most excellent! U no TX~

[DMC]

So here's a telling experiment by a couple of egghead dickwads - Are voters' preferences over stimulus checks driven by party loyalty or financial gain?

Quote

Biden is calling for unity during a time of national crisis, but advocates of additional stimulus money should bear in mind a lesson from this research: in a time of affective polarization, bi-partisanship is not necessarily advantageous. If a party wishes to cultivate support for a policy within its ranks, it may wish to avoid mention that some in the other party also like the policy. We hasten to add that we find this reality to be normatively troubling, but they are consistent with a picture that appears to be taking shape in Washington: Biden will need to forgo efforts to achieve bi-partisan support for at least certain aspects of his pandemic-relief package.

 

[Martell Spy]

Hoyer: 'Bipartisan' earmarks comeback in the offing
Appropriators hope to recast the politically taboo spending practice as funding for “community projects."

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/16/earmarks-coming-back-congress-469131

Quote

 

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer privately told Democrats on Tuesday that earmarks will be revived this Congress and that he can "guarantee" the effort "will be bipartisan," according to two people on the call.

House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro “is working through the details of a reformed process" with regard to earmarks and will share more information "in the coming weeks," a panel spokesperson said.

Appropriators hope to recast the politically taboo spending practice of earmarks — which propelled several scandals on Capitol Hill during the early 2000s — as funding for “community projects" in an attempt to break from its reputation as wasteful and secretive. Through the appropriations process, Democrats could fund a limited number of local projects from specific pots of federal cash, while banning money from going to recipients like for-profit businesses.

A spokesman for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Republican backing for the idea, which has long been supported by lawmakers in both parties.

In the Senate, a spokesperson for Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said the senator "been clear about his intent to restore congressionally directed spending in a transparent and accountable way as part Congress’ constitutional power of the purse."

House Democrats already detailed their plans for overhauling earmarks last year, when they briefly mulled a return to the system but ultimately postponed the effort.

 

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

6 hours ago, larrytheimp said:

Those are relief bombs, sir.  

I got yer Texas relief bomb right here.

 

[Morpheus]

I would simply burn the governor’s mansion for warmth.

 

[Larry of the Lawn]

1 hour ago, Morpheus said:

I would simply burn the governor’s mansion for warmth.

 

Dan Crenshaw is pulling the same shit with some super long thread about how wind power and renewables caused the blackouts.  He was ridiculously claiming that renewables cannot work in cold weather.  The entire world north of Texas has been unable to figure out how to make wind power work in cold climates.  

These guys are clowns.

[Fragile Bird]

I just saw that charging your Tesla in Texas right now costs $900. 
 

That should help sales, right, Elon?

[Corvinus85]

 

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

Slightly beyond the scope of US politics (but hey, climate change has real life consequences and is quite political), Bill Gates has a new book out on how to tackle the climate crisis. With the US being engaged again on the world stage regarding it, I'd rather have Gates on our side than not. And he's a technocrat, so all solutions at least are science based and not on some magical woo-thinking.

The other billionaire technocrat and wannabe Lex Luthor, Elon Musk, is also fronting some money for carbon capture technologies I believe. If only Bezos could do something rather than ship air around the US, we'd stand a solid chance.

[Zorral]

Heather Cox wrote:

 

Quote

 

....Most of Texas is on its own power grid, a decision made in the 1930s to keep it clear of federal regulation. This means both that it avoids federal regulation and that it cannot import more electricity during periods of high demand. Apparently, as temperatures began to drop, people turned up electric heaters and needed more power than engineers had been told to design for, just as the ice shut down gas-fired plants and wind turbines froze. Demand for natural gas spiked and created a shortage.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) told Sean Hannity that the disaster “shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal” for the United States, but Dan Woodfin, a senior director for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the organization in charge of the state’s power grid, told Bloomberg that the frozen wind turbines were the smallest factor in the crisis. They supply only about 10% of the state’s power in the winter.

Frozen instruments at gas, coal, and nuclear plants, as well as shortages of natural gas, were the major culprits. To keep electricity prices low, ERCOT had not prepared for such a crisis. El Paso, which is not part of ERCOT but is instead linked to a larger grid that includes other states and thus is regulated, did, in fact, weatherize their equipment. Its customers lost power only briefly.....

 

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

I just saw that charging your Tesla in Texas right now costs $900. 
 

That should help sales, right, Elon?

So, not the richest man in the world anymore?

(It's probably always been Putin anyways)

[Centrist Simon Steele]

16 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

 

 

His ability to spell sure broke down about halfway through. I mean, I know people think this way, but seeing in a jumble of words spewed forth like some kind of Truth, from an elected official? Yikes.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

13 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Slightly beyond the scope of US politics (but hey, climate change has real life consequences and is quite political), Bill Gates has a new book out on how to tackle the climate crisis. With the US being engaged again on the world stage regarding it, I'd rather have Gates on our side than not. And he's a technocrat, so all solutions at least are science based and not on some magical woo-thinking.

The other billionaire technocrat and wannabe Lex Luthor, Elon Musk, is also fronting some money for carbon capture technologies I believe. If only Bezos could do something rather than ship air around the US, we'd stand a solid chance.

We just can't trust these assholes. They've collected up all the money, and now we have to hope they do what's in our best interests. I definitely don't trust Elon--I think he's the biggest piece of shit. Well, strike that, him and Bezos are both pretty equal. I give Gates a little leeway because I think he believes he's helping people, at least.