American Politics

[Tiny 12]

That's why? So Texas' "screw you" separation from the Eastern and Western Interconnections had nothing to do with it?

Texas dwarfs other states in terms of hydrocarbon and wind resources, so that's probably a good part of the reason why it has continued to go it alone. Yes, it would have been advantageous to have been a part of an interstate grid in February, 2021.

But I don't think this is going to happen again. ERCOT would have to have some real dumb asses to make the same mistake twice. I say that with a bit of trepidation though, as something similar happened in 2011, only not nearly as severe as 2021. Anyway I don't think Texas will have ongoing problems like California.

I remember and I hope you remember that the solar and windmills were a major factor in the fiasco. It never happened before when everything was gas or coal fired because gas and coal don't freeze up.

I attended a presentation by an ERCOT engineer some years ago. It was fascinating. ERCOT acts like an air traffic control system for the electricity grid in Texas. Electric rates are set by supply and demand, and variations in price can be extreme. There are old, inefficient gas fired plants that stay idling all the time. But they only go into power production mode when the electricity price shoots sky high. They can make enough money in a matter of weeks to pay for all that idling the rest of the year. Unfortunately, that only works however if the plants have natural gas. And if some dumb ass at ERCOT shuts off electricity to the gas and oil wells and the gas plants, so that gas production goes off stream, then those gas fired plants won't have fuel. Not just the ones that are idling, but those gas fired power plants that operate year round and provide base load electricity too. And that's unfortunately what happened. So I don't think I'd necessarily blame it on solar and windmills. I read an editorial in the Wall Street Journal though that agreed with your view. They pointed out that wind and solar had crowded out nuclear and coal plants, which are more reliable in cold weather than the gas fired plants. Also, I drove from Dallas to Amarillo in the middle of that cold spell, right through one of the densest accumulations of windmills in the state. And the wind wasn't blowing that day.

One other takeaway from the ERCOT presentation, wind power producers on many days would actually pay money to keep operating. When the Texas grid has too much supply, you'd think people would just shut down or throttle back power generation, to avoid operating costs and wear and tear on their equipment. And so the price per kilowatt hour (kwh) would just go down to, say $. 02 or $. 03/ kwh. And that's the way it should work. But the owners of the windmills on some windy days were paying $. 02/ kwh to be allowed to add electricity to the grid! Why? Because the federal government was giving them a subsidy of $. 04/ kwh. So they were coming out ahead! Crazy! Another example of how our federal tax dollars are flushed down the toilet.

[Villainy]

Thanks for standing in for Scat Man, but you didn't answer my Q either.

...I asked you a question. You can refuse to answer it if you like, .......You shared your opinion, and I asked you a question on it.....

Yes, I know. But you didn't answer my Q.

......I am still here waiting for you to address the subject I raised,......

You have this fantasy that you are entitled to answers sounds like a line from Tom Cruise in "A Few Good Men". You're not a US citizen. You have never voted in our elections. You neither understand or appreciate how the US political system works (or doesn't work). You come from some other part of the world. You don't know the history of the last 120 years. The US has been the major force for decency in the world and you want to rewrite the histories of the 2 great world wars. You can't even begin to understand how many countries the US has helped during the last century.

Why should anyone bother answering any of your questions? This is an American Politics Forum not a "I hate the US forum".

[Canada]

It is an easily observable reality that border states benefit economically disproportionately due to their immediate proximity to foreign countries with which we have ongoing trade deals.

Shipping logistics, terminals, warehousing, commercial traffic in and out, it goes on and on. Imagine the greater wasteland Texas border towns (if there would be any at all) and districts would be if that power grid-challenged state was located in the middle of the country far, far away from the border of Mexico.

Therefore, in exchange for that benefit, it is only fair that border states disproportionately pay for and deal with the relatively minor downsides to being right on the border as well.

LOL. Crybaby, deadbeat Red state governors are always looking for a free lunch.

Oh, and a gentle reminder on a different issue; the USA government concept of "Divided Government" has nothing whatsoever to do with political party majorities in the House vs the party in the White House vs the majority in the Senate, etc.

Just sayin'.

Bonus info:

CBO Estimates TCJA Extensions Could Cost Up to $2.7 Trillion.
JUN 28, 2022 TAXES

https://www.crfb.org/blogs/cbo-estim...st-27-trillion

Yes imagine a Martha's Vineyard on the Mexico border. They are complaining about 50 illegals dropped off there and it is an emergency. Can you imagine Obama and Hillary allowing millions of illegals into Martha's Vineyard if it was on Mexico border. Biden would have had the military in war against Mexico.

[JustTK]

Here let me give you an example:

I think the disillusioned Repubs voters the "status quo new order QAnon/Repubs/bothsideists", should be ecstatic after reading your "bothsidesism", and positive views on the Green party/independent

Well its great that you should finally attempt to defend your position. But I have 2 issues ATM:

1. What does this have to do w your claim that I share same policy views as reps / qanon?

2. I have no idea what you mean above. Please can you try again?

[Spidy]

... I am attacking your message. Which was to call me a QaNon supporter bcos of your binary (your either with us or against us) view of the world ...

Binary thinking? Don't be absurd! No, absolutely not!

Here let me give you an example:

I think the disillusioned Repubs voters the "status quo new order QAnon/Repubs/bothsideists", should be ecstatic after reading your "bothsidesism", and positive views on the Green party/Independent.

So now I am thinking, the disillusioned Repub voters have 3 choices. Same-ole-same-ole status quo, don't vote or the new option with Green Party/Independent. Not binary all!

There are those rare moments, when I do genuinely wish the best for Repubs, thanks to your "bothsidesism".

[Cali Guy]

It seems like supporters of Donnie the Dumbass are continually blaming President Biden for inflation. It reminds me of a 60-year-old quote from Abraham Maslow "If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail". That's supporters of Donnie the Dumbass all right. Everything is "fake news" unless it comes from some bogus rightwingnut source. Then, of course, it has to be "real". Yep, to them, "the election was stolen", "Chinese thermostats changed votes". Or was it Italian satellites? They probably even believe that Jewish Space Lasers cause forest fires. Sheesh.

What these folks forget is virtually every country in the world is suffering from inflation. Gasoline prices are up worldwide. Food prices are up worldwide. Commodities are up. Manufactured goods are up. Now, even the dumbest person in the world ought to be able to see that something else is at work here. "All these countries have one thing in common: they're all struggling to recover from a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic that continues to disrupt the supply side of the economy, hampering the ability of businesses, workers, and the global supply chain to operate at full capacity and satisfy boomeranging consumer demand. Rather than putting a Biden "I did that" sticker on products with skyrocketing prices, it's probably more accurate to say "COVID did that. " https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2...blame-on-biden.

But the one thing that no self-respecting supporter of the one-term, twice-impeached, commander-in-chief of the Mar-a-Lago Putt-Putt and McDonalds Emporium would ever do is admit that COVID is probably the main driver of inflation. Because to do so would mean that they would have to acknowledge that we'd have inflation even if Donnie the Dumbass was president*.

After all, even if Donnie the Dumbass was president*, we'd still have surging consumer demand because of the lifting of many of the COVID restrictions. We'd still have labor shortages as US workers say "Screw it, I'm not going to work for some moron who pays peanuts any more". We'd still have global supply chain problems. None of these things would have gone away if Donnie the Dumbass were president*. Unless, of course, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail".

So, sorry folks, but Donnie the Dumbass couldn't have fixed this problem either. Just like he made COVID worse by lying to the American public, he'd have done the same thing here. He'd have simply declared the pandemic over and opened up everything. He'd have killed millions more with this strategy plus kickstarted inflation even higher. https://businessinsider.mx/causes-of...ion/?r=US&IR=T.

It is almost all of Americans that blame Biden for inflation because he is the person that caused it. Yes even democrats blame Biden. Is is just the far left socialist idiots who blame Trump for inflation. There was no inflation during Trump presidency just prosperity. Yes idiots will continue to blame Trump for everything Biden does badly. They blame Trump for everything the incompetent Biden does. Biden has no clue on what to do. He thinks installing thousands of EV chargers across USA will get rid of inflation. The people that Biden has driven into poverty are not going to be able to afford a EV. They can't pay their power bills or put food on the table. We are almost 2 years in a failed presidency and dumb ass leftists are still blaming Trump. Can anyone name one thing that Biden has done that improves the economy or Americans lives? Giving away billions for green energy and billions to democrat states that are failing does not help the average American. How dumb does a person have to be to not blame Biden for inflation?

[PVMonger]

I remember and I hope you remember that the solar and windmills were a major factor in the fiasco. It never happened before when everything was gas or coal fired because gas and coal don't freeze up.

That's what FUX Snooze and all of the rightwingnut media said, but nothing could have been further from the truth. If you stopped believing all of the BS from those sites, you might learn something.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02...er-storm-2021/

https://cz.boell.org/en/2021/03/19/t...-energy-market

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-f...-idUSKBN2AJ2EI

But sure, keep on living in fantasy world aka Donnie the Dumbass' Mar-a-Lago Putt-Putt and McDonalds Emporium.

[JustTK]

According to virtually all Repubs, a foetus has rights but a mother doesn't.

Thanks for standing in for Scat Man, but you didn't answer my Q either. I am not asking about what the law is, nor the difference in red or blue states. I am asking Mr Scat his opinion on the moral rissue egarding foetuses created during rape. Why does he think their rights should be different to the right of foetuses not created under rape.

[EihTooms]

It is an easily observable reality that border states benefit economically disproportionately due to their immediate proximity to foreign countries with which we have ongoing trade deals.

Shipping logistics, terminals, warehousing, commercial traffic in and out, it goes on and on. Imagine the greater wasteland Texas border towns (if there would be any at all) and districts would be if that power grid-challenged state was located in the middle of the country far, far away from the border of Mexico.

Therefore, in exchange for that benefit, it is only fair that border states disproportionately pay for and deal with the relatively minor downsides to being right on the border as well.

LOL. Crybaby, deadbeat Red state governors are always looking for a free lunch.

Oh, and a gentle reminder on a different issue; the USA government concept of "Divided Government" has nothing whatsoever to do with political party majorities in the House vs the party in the White House vs the majority in the Senate, etc.

Just sayin'.

Bonus info:

CBO Estimates TCJA Extensions Could Cost Up to $2.7 Trillion.
JUN 28, 2022 TAXES

https://www.crfb.org/blogs/cbo-estim...st-27-trillion

[Xpartan]

Fair enough. You had both people and utilities with bills they couldn't pay, for electricity and natural gas respectively. In situations like that, I don't know what the solution is. It's above my paygrade.

I do know what caused the problem though. This is something I posted on another hooker board contemporaneously. It was later backed up by reporting in the Wall Street Journal. You can blame the situation on the bureaucrats and directors at ERCOT, which is like the air traffic control system for the electric grid in Texas. During the early stages of the freeze, they gave priority to residences and the like over oil and gas wells and gas plants. And that was a very bad decision:

That's why? So Texas' "screw you" separation from the Eastern and Western Interconnections had nothing to do with it?

[PVMonger]

It seems like supporters of Donnie the Dumbass are continually blaming President Biden for inflation. It reminds me of a 60-year-old quote from Abraham Maslow "If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail". That's supporters of Donnie the Dumbass all right. Everything is "fake news" unless it comes from some bogus rightwingnut source. Then, of course, it has to be "real". Yep, to them, "the election was stolen", "Chinese thermostats changed votes". Or was it Italian satellites? They probably even believe that Jewish Space Lasers cause forest fires. Sheesh.

What these folks forget is virtually every country in the world is suffering from inflation. Gasoline prices are up worldwide. Food prices are up worldwide. Commodities are up. Manufactured goods are up. Now, even the dumbest person in the world ought to be able to see that something else is at work here. "All these countries have one thing in common: they're all struggling to recover from a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic that continues to disrupt the supply side of the economy, hampering the ability of businesses, workers, and the global supply chain to operate at full capacity and satisfy boomeranging consumer demand. Rather than putting a Biden "I did that" sticker on products with skyrocketing prices, it's probably more accurate to say "COVID did that. " https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2...blame-on-biden.

But the one thing that no self-respecting supporter of the one-term, twice-impeached, commander-in-chief of the Mar-a-Lago Putt-Putt and McDonalds Emporium would ever do is admit that COVID is probably the main driver of inflation. Because to do so would mean that they would have to acknowledge that we'd have inflation even if Donnie the Dumbass was president*.

After all, even if Donnie the Dumbass was president*, we'd still have surging consumer demand because of the lifting of many of the COVID restrictions. We'd still have labor shortages as US workers say "Screw it, I'm not going to work for some moron who pays peanuts any more". We'd still have global supply chain problems. None of these things would have gone away if Donnie the Dumbass were president*. Unless, of course, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail".

So, sorry folks, but Donnie the Dumbass couldn't have fixed this problem either. Just like he made COVID worse by lying to the American public, he'd have done the same thing here. He'd have simply declared the pandemic over and opened up everything. He'd have killed millions more with this strategy plus kickstarted inflation even higher. https://businessinsider.mx/causes-of...ion/?r=US&IR=T.

[Tiny 12]

The Inflation Reduction Act is not a legislative plan to tackle and tame the economic reality of "inflation. " That is what the Fed is currently trying to do to tackle Trump's Pandemic Supply Chain Destruction Inflation during Biden's historic economic recovery from it by raising interest rates and artificially inducing a mild recession, at most, in order to cool down Biden's roaring economy that is producing more higher paying jobs than there are current applicants to take them.

After all, nobody should want to reduce all forms of inflation. Some inflation in the economy is normal and healthy. I mean, how flat and dreary of an economy would we have had to endure for the past 172 years if houses were still selling for $50 or whatever they were in 1850?

No, a portion of that terrific legislation is designed to surgically target certain critical areas of necessity for most or all of us eventually whose prices have skyrocketed out of all affordability and beyond the ordinary rate of inflation. For example, for the first time Medicare can negotiate for lower drug prices, price caps on certain widely required drugs and so on.

It will no doubt accomplish its stated goals much better than Trump and the Repubs' godawful $2. 5+ Trillion waste of money December 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. LOL. Talk about a joke name. That one wound up producing a million fewer jobs in the three years with it than in the three previous years without it. And the vast majority of tax cuts for people who might have benefited from them evaporated over the next 2-3 years just as Trump was producing his Pandemic to wipe out millions of jobs anyway.

Of course, one of the most accurate predictors of that legislation producing highly effective results is that not one Repub voted for it. I was worried when 1-2 Repubs hinted they might vote Yes on it. Then they didn't, which was a great relief.

Some of the best and most effective legislation of all time passed with either very few or zero Repub votes. And, of course, some of the worst passed with few or zero Dem votes.

When legislation passes and only members of one party vote for it, it usually sucks.

As to the tax cuts resulting from the TCJA, I don't know where you're getting 2. 5 million. The JCT and CBO estimated that the federal government would receive about $1. 5 trillion less in revenues over 2018 to 2027 as result of the TCJA. It would have been less if Democrats had terminated the cuts last year, which was in their power to do. The corporate tax cuts were long overdue. At 35% pre-TCJA, when added to state income taxes, we were levying a much higher rate on our corporations than than other nations were on theirs. The TCJA also eliminated corporate loopholes. The GILTI (global intangible low taxed income) tax for the first time imposed tax on USA Companies unrepatriated foreign earnings. This solved two problems. First, it ameliorated the problem with USA Corporations recognizing outsized earnings in foreign subsidiaries in low tax countries, where patents and intellectual property and the like were parked. And it encouraged USA Companies to bring money parked in foreign accounts overseas back to the USA, to be used here. The actual revenue from corporate taxes is now turning out to be higher than the CBO estimated. In fact, for the 2022 budget year, the CBO's current projection is that the USA will realize $395 billion from the corporate tax. And that's even though we went through a small recession. Their original estimate for corporate income tax revenues was $353 million with the TCJA and $389 million without the TCJA.

At the individual level, the TCJA tax cuts made our tax system more progressive, and most people ended up paying less. The one thing I disagreed with was the lower tax rate on pass through businesses with lots of employees. And with lots of depreciable property relative to income, like LLC's that own rental real estate. The later was very beneficial to the Trump organization, because of its rental properties, but it was playing games with the tax system to benefit special interests.

Yes, the Republicans should have cut spending along with taxes so as to not increase deficits. But that's what happens when one party controls the presidency, the House and the Senate. It goes on a spending binge. The same thing happened during the first two years of the Biden, Obama, Bush Jr. And Clinton administrations.

I agree with you 100% on Medicare and drug prices. That's something that should have happened a long time ago.

It's other parts of the Inflation Reduction Act that I believe suck. There's lots and lots of green pork. The bill favors special interests which contribute to the Democratic Party. And citizens who tend to vote for the Democratic Party (upper middle class greenies who want to think they're doing something good for the environment by buying EV's.) A reasonable carbon tax, levied on the end user of electricity and fuels, would be the best way to reduce carbon emissions, if that's your goal. And the Inflation Reduction Act isn't going to do jack to reduce global warming. The spending provisions are largely a waste of money.

As to "Trump's inflation" and "Biden's historic recovery," I've given up on making critical comments about peoples' religious beliefs. I will say that I hope the Republicans win the House. If they don't, and if Democrats can add a couple of progressives to the Senate, then inflation, which would otherwise be likely to subside, may just rev up again because of increased spending. And deficits will be higher than they would otherwise, as Democrats most likely will pass something like the $3. 5 trillion Build Back Better bill.

Divided government is best. The ba*tards in Washington can't screw us over as much.

[Tiny 12]

Evidently you don't remember the fiasco in Texas a couple of winters ago (when Buttface Cruz slunk off to Mexico) where people were getting surprise electric bills of $10,000+ because the Texas grid was as badly mismanaged as Texas politics.

Fair enough. You had both people and utilities with bills they couldn't pay, for electricity and natural gas respectively. In situations like that, I don't know what the solution is. It's above my paygrade.

I do know what caused the problem though. This is something I posted on another hooker board contemporaneously. It was later backed up by reporting in the Wall Street Journal. You can blame the situation on the bureaucrats and directors at ERCOT, which is like the air traffic control system for the electric grid in Texas. During the early stages of the freeze, they gave priority to residences and the like over oil and gas wells and gas plants. And that was a very bad decision:

This is from a buddy in Houston who's high up with a gas pipeline company. Oncor (power company) and ERCOT (outfit that controls the electric grid in Texas) in their infinite wisdom decided that compressors on gas pipelines and compressors at the inlets to gas plants were not essential, so blacked them out. They also shut off electricity to wells in the Permian Basin. The effect of all this was to shut off production wells and salt water disposal wells.

So basically a lot of the gas production infrastructure went off line. And it's not so easy to get things going again as when the wells and the compressors and the gas plants stop operating, things freeze up.

So anyway as a result the gas fired power plants were deprived of fuel, so they had to shut down. And just like the gas plants and the compressors and the wells, getting them going again in freezing conditions can be problematic.

In summary, according to my friend, shutting off the power to the oilfield and gas plants generated a chain reaction that resulted in the gas fired power plants going down. He said he and colleagues begged Oncor and ERCOT not to shut off the electricity, because they knew what was going to happen. Undoubtedly people working for other midstream companies were doing the same.

These people just had no common sense. Yes, we need to maintain power to hospitals, etc. But when they cut off the fuel source for the power plants, they put us in a position where that may happen anyway.

[Spidy]

You haven't made any points. Therefore your just name calling. Go back to your neo-lib corner and thinki it over.

Because you're blind to with my POVs or don't agree with them, isn't really my problem. Most times I welcome the debate, but most definitely not the name calling.

I will always do my best to provide counterpoints and stand up for things I believe in, as opposed to someone that "stands for nothing and falls for everything".

Mask your naming calling, just like your "bothsidesism", all you want. I see it for what it is.

[Spidy]

From my point of view. Your question was irrelevant.

Irrelevant to what?

Asked and answered: I believe he said, "from his point of view" your question was irrelevant to him.

From my point of view. Your question was irrelevant.

... I asked you a question. You can refuse to answer it if you like, but this is sposed to be an opinion board ...

Again, asked and answered: he didn't answer your initial question, because it was irrelevant to him. You asked him why and he answered.

No need to badger anybody here, when our questions go unanswered, or when we don't get the answers we want to hear.

We all know it's an opinion board and not everyone's questions are answered, when we ask them. God knows, tons of my questions go unanswered, deflected or 'straw-manned'.

Perhaps instead, you could "do the work" and provide proof/support as to why your question isn't irrelevant. It's pretty easy to poke fun and ask questions all day.

P.S.: ScatManDoo, I am speaking for myself, my apologies if I've overstepped.