billvon

Fun fact - Right after the attack on the capitol, Marjorie Taylor Greene sought to blame the left for the attack, saying that it was Antifa disguised as Trump supporters that rioted, looted and vandalized the capital, and killed a police officer. She just knew that "Antifa would dress as Trump supporters . . Antifa was clearly there." Well, not only does it turn out that it was Trump supporters, it turns out one of them was her bestie. Anthony Aguero, a conservative livestreamer and close associate of Greene, said on video that "we were all there. It was not Antifa and it was not BLM. It was Trump supporters that did that yesterday. I'm the first to admit it, being one myself." Greene has called this guy "amazing" and "one of my closest friends." So we know where to look in the future for people who are likely to riot, vandalize, loot and kill cops - her phonebook.

Oh come on! His reply was funny. It reminded me of that old Steve Martin sketch from years ago.

Yep. Good article on this: https://theconversation.com/texas-electricity-grid-failure-shows-how-microgrids-offer-hope-for-a-better-future-155708 There are basically two ways for Texas to go. One is that they can join the rest of the US with grid interties, so that they can better weather the loss of their own generation. Every other state in the US is connected to neighboring states to avoid exactly the problem Texas had. They get power from other states when they are in crisis - and they give power to other states when they have a surplus. Two is that they move to microgrids and renewable backups. It can be as simple as getting solar with an SMA inverter - that gives you 2000 watts of power when the sun is out, enough to keep your house from freezing, pump water, charge your devices etc. It can be as complex as a network of Tesla powerwalls in individual homes that work together to keep the lights on in an entire neighborhood, even for people who don't have powerwalls. And market solutions work best here - those neighbors pay through the nose to a DR supplier (via an app) if they want to keep their lights on, and that money goes right back to the people with the powerwalls who supply it. Win/win, and the money stays local. The solution will likely be a combination of both.

Watched the first few minutes. "It's getting colder and drier" - no it's not. Per NASA 2020 was the hottest year on record. "If you tell me the temperature is going to go 'straight up' - nothing ever goes 'straight up.' " No one is saying the temperature will go "straight up." Gave up after that. He's not honest.

During the worst storm of the winter? With people being without power for a few hours at a time? Yes, that's a success story. Especially compared to Texas. Keep trolling like that and you'll see another ban.

Yep. Iowa got 42% of their power from wind in 2019. And it's a lot colder in Iowa than in Texas. No big blackouts in this storm; the worst they got to in the worst part of the storm was 1500 homes without power. They figured it out. Perhaps it's not wind turbines that are the problem. Perhaps it's the people who are installing, operating and maintaining the wind turbines. (And the nuclear power plants, and the natural gas plants.)

And I know two women on our rugby team in college who would have had you for breakfast. You would have never seen it coming. Which is the danger of generalization.

Agreed. Further I noticed a pretty steep divide, especially within the Navy. WITHIN the unit there was very little racism; people treated each other equally. (Or more accurately people treated each other based on their actual ability or lack thereof.) But outside that tight-knit community there was often more prejudice leveled at all sorts of targets. Blacks, civilians, gays, Asians, people who lived in Rio Linda. While I was working at McClellan there was one guy who would wax on about how irresponsible black men were, and that's why black kids were growing up in poverty. Cycle of poverty, he would say, and it's their own damn fault. "Not like Davis, he's responsible" the guy would regularly add. (I know, that's an Air Force example, but it's the example that comes to mind.)

No, it's not.

Everyone knows that 38% is a passing grade in school, if you have enough money.

You can indeed ask for that. You realize, of course, he will tell you whatever makes you angrier; that's his goal here. Honesty is definitely not.

And don't forget no nanny state reserve checks! They're adults, let them maintain their gear as they see fit. (And let your pilots man up and take responsibility for themselves if they're scared whiners.)

I can't speak to the Army, but I can speak to the Air Force (worked for them) and the Navy (worked with a lot of people from the Navy.) And there, as in the rest of the world, most people were pretty good about it. There were some people who were still problems.

Yep. mQ is an abbreviation a poster on 4chan used a while back, "IamQ." There are lots of misogynists out there who simply can't comprehend the idea that this could ever happen, who are actually threatened by the idea of a woman doing what a man can:

I agree with most of what you said, but a note on the above - Texas has gone out of their way (i.e. spent money and time) to ensure there is no redundancy in their grid that would connect to grids outside of Texas, because doing so would have triggered federal requirements under FERC. So this was a conscious decision to remain independent. That has both a monetary cost and a reliability cost. And IMO they absolutely have the right to do that; it's their state. Still, it leads to questions as to how much emergency aid the US should give to Texas for a problem of their own creation. It's somewhat hypocritical to demand independence (and refuse to assist other states with their own power problems) only until such time as that independence causes problems, at which time they ask for $$$ from the Feds.