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  2. billvon
    Dunno about that. If anyone intelligent were planning a 25th Amendment remedy, they'd be kissing ass the hardest right now so that Trump trusts them, and won't wonder why they are walking around collecting signatures. Of course, Trump has done his level best to keep any intelligence out of the White House, but one might have slipped in accidentally.
  3. billvon
    Several things are coming together that will drive electrical power prices through the roof over the next few years. The first are mega data centers. There are several companies - most notably Microsoft and Palantir - that are putting up massive data centers that will take up to 1 gigawatt per center. That's the output of a large nuclear reactor. Palantir especially will be growing fast, since the US government uses them to do most of their AI, and Trump has recently signed an executive order to share data between government agencies on US citizens. This will require a LOT of processing to do the sort of collation and profiling that the administration wants to do. Palantir got half a billion from the US government in the last quarter alone, and is on track to get over five billion in the next three years. Much of that will go into new mega data centers. As these data centers open, utilities will be very happy to sell them power. They are exactly the load they want to supply - a load that never changes significantly, and that they can charge 24/7 for. Compare that to domestic users, who have a habit of not using much power at night or in the middle of the day, then using things like air conditioning or heating unpredictably. This is much harder to plan for - and utilities will charge accordingly. The second is cancellation of renewables projects. The Trump administration has cancelled approximately 100GW worth of solar and wind projects that were planned for the next five years. This equates to about 30GW of equivalent baseload generation due to intermittent availability of wind and solar. To "compensate" they are ordering about 5GW of coal power plants to not shut down. Thus there will be a significant increase in demand, and a significant decrease in new generation. The laws of supply and demand will thus send power prices much higher. In addition, those coal plants cost a lot more to operate than renewables. One 1.4GW plant, the J.H. Campbell Plant, was ordered to remain open for at least another six months, resulting in an additional $100 million in costs to Michigan ratepayers. Some unsubsidized costs per megawatt-hour: Coal $69-168 Wind $27-73 Solar $29-92 Solar plus storage $60-210 https://www.lazard.com/media/xemfey0k/lazards-lcoeplus-june-2024-_vf.pdf https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/fossil-fuels/trump-extend-campbell-michigan-coal-plant So higher generation prices = higher power prices. In the olden timey days, PUC's (public utility commissions) would limit how much power companies can charge residential customers. But these have become so corrupt and beholden to the utilities, and have become so easy to game for larger companies (think Enron) that they have no effective power any more. So get ready to pay a lot more for power as AI starts competing with you for that power. I would recommend solar as an alternative, but with the Trump tariffs it's not very cost effective at the moment if you don't already have it.
  4. JerryBaumchen
    Hi Joe, As I have said before: It is all prayers & thoughts until a US Senator's grandkid gets killed. Jerry Baumchen
  5. Today
  6. JoeWeber
    Thom Hartmann wrote recently that it's time we make real the effects of guns by showing pictures of the murdered kids, as Emmett Till's mother so bravely did after he was killed. I agree.
  7. Nicholas Broughton
    Thanks G! You have forgotten more about this case then most will ever learn. I feel like people point to this when dismissing the grudge as just part of the conversation and mistakenly attribute Tina to bringing the word up when it was in fact Cooper. Whoever this guy was he had an ax to grind. Maybe nothing specific as his comment suggests but just in general. The system? Society? The current state of affairs in America? Did he want money sure but I think he was striving for something more. There are less bold ways to acquire 200k criminally. He is on the low end dollar wise as far as parajacking ransom requests go. Cooper imo was a peculiar and complex individual. A man with strong opinions and convictions. Like lxchilton said it’s too general to narrow down the suspect pool but I think it should be baked into the psychological profile of Cooper.
  8. JoeWeber
    Absolutely! You can borrow one of mine.
  9. JoeWeber
    Wasn't it a Church event? If the kids weren't praying how can gun fondlers be held responsible?
  10. JoeWeber
    I'm guessing that Cabinet Level ass kissing show was staged to make clear that no matter the seriousness of Trumps obvious medical infirmities and/or mental decline no one should be counting on relief from the 25th Amendment.
  11. Phil1111
    The question should be. Does anyone think Trump's secret service protections lasts 30 minutes into the next democrat administration?
  12. Phil1111
    I thought that Berlusconi was worst than Trump during Trump's first term. But this Trump term blows the windows out. Most of Berlusconi's bad reputation arose from his bunga-bunga parties. Berlusconi had corruption issues but nothing close to Trump. Obviously politics can be discussed without offending others.
  13. JoeWeber
    Without a doubt this. Also, I do think being from Oregon helps. We seem to have a favorable reputation amongst Europeans and Scandinavians. (No clue if being from Texas or speaking with a southern accent are problematic) Could be not flying a giant American flag like the bubbas fly on their trucks or starting right in on politics gives a positive first impression, too. We have no languages impediments, usually. Even in groups with mixed nationalities everyone naturally defaults to english, even helping each other for our benefit.
  14. wmw999
    I've actually been OK with minor discussion. How else would I have found out that the cab driver in Florence would be appalled for us, but happy for Italy, if we elected Trump in 2016 (because electing Trump would make everyone forget Berlusconi ). But minor, focusing on how people live and react to their lives can just include politics. I'm not that great at connecting, so I have to go with what I can manage... Wendy P.
  15. georger
    Well, she asked if he had a grudge against the airline and he replied that he had a grudge but not against her airline...she put the word in his mouth. Her words are: In response to her query as to why he had chosen a Northwest airplane to hijack, he said ‘he had “a grudge but not against Northwest Airlines” adding ‘that the Northwest plane just happened to be in the right place at the right time’. Tina did not use the word grudge. The word grudge is his. I spend all of my time correcting people! Very time consuming - just cant do this any more. I need a break.
  16. JerryBaumchen
    Hi Phil, Re: The majority of MAGA are old White people that are not adapting to changing employment and social dynamics. ^^^^ This. IMO their fear is that they will lose their jobs & not be able to find one. For the most part, the days of coming out of high school & finding a job, using one's labor, that will last all of one's working life, are long gone. Ad Darwin explained it, adapt or perish. Jerry Baumchen PS) While I think most of these 'Dear Abbie' columns are nothing but junk, this one caught my eye: DEAR ABBY: My husband was let go from his job due to restructuring. He’s understandably upset, and I see him sink further into depression with every rejection letter he receives for the positions he has applied for. How can I help him? -- SUPPORTIVE WIFE IN OHIO
  17. JerryBaumchen
    Hi Wendy, I have had the opportunity to have travelled to a lot of foreign countries. I have learned to NEVER talk politics while in any of them. It is their country, not mine. Jerry Baumchen PS) I have also learned to never tell an American joke in another country; they usually do not understand them.
  18. JerryBaumchen
    Hi Keith, Just for you: Cheap Custom T-Shirts: Design Online w/ Fast Shipping Jerry Baumchen
  19. JerryBaumchen
    Hi Nigel, On 20 Jan 1981, the very first thing Ronald Reagan did after getting to the Oval Office was to sign an Exec Order freezing all federal hirings. He campaigned that the fed gov't was not the solution but the problem. When he left office, 8 yrs later, there were more fed employees than his first day in office. Does anyone think that Trump's Exec Orders will last 30 minutes when the next Pres takes office? Jerry Baumchen
  20. JerryBaumchen
    Hi Bill, Me, also. After all, they are the ones who got us to this technical world that we all enjoy. Reality? Good grief, who wants reality? Jerry Baumchen
  21. wmw999
    Some of them were the middle-of-the-road iconoclastic types 50 years ago, who more and more feel as though this protects what they have, because they’ve mastered this system. They weren’t die hard evangelicals then, many of them quite the opposite. WW2 and the depression were the unifying forces of their parents; that and the smaller number of mass media outlets. Everyone listened to the same news Wendy P.
  22. gowlerk
    We get American visitors often in the summer. They are treated the same as everyone else. No one brings up the current madness, and if it does get mentioned, they invariably state that they are against the regime. And we take that at face value and don’t question it.
  23. Phil1111
    Oh they'll die out. The pockets of very religious evangelicals who support the cause and have big families. Are a small part of the demographic. The majority of MAGA are old White people that are not adapting to changing employment and social dynamics. Hence the need for redistricting to sustain a feeble grasp on power. AI and the failure to bring back dead industries to the US like coal mining, aluminum smelting, etc. Are going to be the final nails in the coffin for a species that couldn't adapt, change. So the species dies off because it couldn't survive.
  24. Phil1111
    Thats understandable. Its well known thought the world that MAGA republicans seldom leave the state in which they were born.I was recently on a dive boat with all of the rest of the divers Americans, mostly from Florida. I knew enough to keep my mouth shut about politics. You don't perhaps have a Canadian flag on your baggage-backpacks do you? Kidding aside travelling Americans likely appreciate how the rest of the world functions. Furthermore wouldn't bringing up US politics be a direct insult? Unless of course you're in Hungary, Israel or Turkey. This may help: How to pretend you’re Canadian when you travel They are all From TEXAS!
  25. wmw999
    Well, mine doesn't say "liberal," but I do speak French and Spanish, and am polite. Never had an issue (yes, not even in France). I have a feeling it's that polite part that really helps, and not thinking that we have the solutions to all of the world's problems. Wendy P.
  26. nigel99
    Sorry the sarcasm got lost in translation. Trumps answer to everything is an executive order.
  27. lxchilton
    Well, she asked if he had a grudge against the airline and he replied that he had a grudge but not against her airline...she put the word in his mouth. As to the literal interpretation of said "grudge," the state of America in 1971 is the very reason I think it's impossible to use it as a reliable investigative tool. You can choose any almost industry a there was a downturn in profits, layoffs, lives being destroyed, etc. Because the options are essentially limitless, Cooper didn't bring it up himself, and he never elaborates on the exact importance of his "grudge," I'm disinclined to take it further than that he was responding to a question in a conversational manner. He asked for a certain amount of money, tried to give some of it away, and was uninterested in any other specific items save for those used in his escape. Cooper seemed hesitant to do anything that would help identify who he was; deflecting questions about his past, thoughts on current places, reclaiming items that he had left identifying information on...why would his vague elaboration to Tina about his motive be anything other than another deflection. I will not say that he didn't have a motive; Cooper was motivated by something to commit so brazen a crime, but money was the ultimate goal. He could have been dissatisfied in a divorce or in some kind of money trouble elsewhere. He could have been unhappy with his retirement from an affected industry or even the military and decided he'd rather have a bundle of cash to launder in Vegas. tl;dr the grudge is useful only to the point that a suspect has to be at an inflection point in their life in November of 1971 that would explain why they wanted $200,000 so badly. It's something that we can use if we find a promising suspect...but it's a double edged sword because it does little to narrow down the suspect pool at all.
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