American Politics [Archive] - Page 70

Elvis 2008

02-18-25, 02:16

Me neither! But it's hard to have a reasonable debate and come to any kind of resolution, when the other side provides nothing but "opinions."

You should give your article another read. I think you may have misread your article, since BYD stopped producing pure ICE vehicles, since March, 2022.

In the article, the line the first of four offerings from the carmaker in the overall top 10 which includes internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.is somewhat misleading to readers, since no "overall" chart of the top 10 vehicles, was provided. Just charts of the top 10-20 EVs.

BTW, what evidence or facts, do you have to backup your claims about PHEV less reliable than ICE, or should I just write it off as the same old gish gallop, MAGA disinformation?.Actually, you need to get what BYD is producing. https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/what-plug-hybrid-car-what-does-phev-mean.

A plug-in hybrid is a type of car that can run using a combustion engine like a normal car, or using an electric motor and battery like an electric car. Yep, it's two cars in one.

It's called a plug-in hybrid because you have to plug in a cable to charge the battery: this is what gives you a certain amount of zero-emissions range, for which you can drive around without using the engine and with nothing coming out of the tailpipe. Polar bears, rejoice!

Once the battery runs out, the engine seamlessly kicks in and you're back to driving a normal car again. So for short distances you've got all the benefits of driving an electric car without the drawback of having to worry about charging when you travel further afield.

So you do not get what PHEVs are.

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a60731731/plug-in-hybrid-explainer/

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the complexity of two commingling propulsion sources, more can go wrong, so PHEVs fare worse than their hybrid brethren in reliability metrics.

And back to my original link.

A total of 875,904 EVs, consisting of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), took to China's roads in June. This equated to a growth of 23% year on year. Plug-ins took a best-ever market share of 49.9% in the month, with BEVs alone accounting for 28% of new-car deliveries.

With PHEVs though, if people are using the battery mostly, there would be emissions saving, and I suspect most are.

And once again, you have to bring in the dickish MAGA gish gallop shit when honestly you do not know what the fuck you are talking about! It is every fucking post, Spidy. This is why I call you a Democratic douche. You are so fucking arrogant you think being a dumbshit Democratic douche means you are more intelligent.

But while the headlines in your article are scary, you MAGA naysayers and doomsayers, should take solace and think for a moment, at just how much worse it would be if solar, wind, EVs, BESS weren't around to chip in and do some of the heavy lifting.LOL. Most alternative energy is wind, and the red states produce way more alternative en https://www.fool.com/research/renewable-energy-by-state/ergy than blue states.

Yes, China leads the way and is the biggest consumer of coal at 56%, but some reports have China at peak coal in 2024. Not sure I believe the experts, but we'll see.Only way that happens is if they keep building NG pipelines.

Instead of battle cries of "drill baby drill", the U.S. should be ramping up, not abandoning things like solar, wind, BESS, nuclear (w/caveat) and HVDC lines to upgrade the gird, along side gas and coal, as demand requires. Giving the U.S., a steady growth path to a cleaner grid and meeting increasing demands, while slowly weaning off on coal and gas, and decreasing the dependency on fossil fuels.When you look at trade deficits, increasing energy output is one way to compete. Our energy costs are much lower than other nations. The USA can be a net oil and gas and potentially energy exporter if energy companies are not messed with.

BTW, this is exactly what China (and Biden's IRA/Chips and AI) is doing, with a good deal of success! But if the U.S. keeps under estimating China, in true "DeepSeek" fashion, with backwards thinking, it'll be curtains.Uh, Biden was president when the Chinese were making Deepseek, and Biden's goal of a private-public consortium of controlling AI blew up. If the USA allowed all companies to compete, the AI outcome would have been different. I am hoping it still will be. I am not sure what Musk is doing making a bid on open AI, but I trust him. I know you do not, but I do.

But you MAGA yahoos need to stop putting all the gird woes and blame on EVs.The grid cannot handle all those EVs now. In China, EVs are cheaper to run.

Gullible MAGA, needs to pay more attention to what your robber barons are doing and less on the avg. working Joe.LOL. This from the Democratic party pimping for Pfizer and the Covid vaccine? Unbelievable. The blue collar types have abandoned the Dems in droves.

Spidy

02-18-25, 09:49

Actually, you need to get what BYD is producing. https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/what-plug-hybrid-car-what-does-phev-mean.

A plug-in hybrid is a type of car that can run using a combustion engine...

So you do not get what PHEVs are.

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a60731731/plug-in-hybrid-explainer/

Thanks for the update on PHEVs! I can only imagine that was a nice refresher for you, but I'm well aware of what a PHEV is! And I don't need YOU or Car and Driver, to tell me the difference between a BEV, PHEV, HEV, or FCEV. But thanks anyways!

However, I do have a question for you! Do you even know, what is meant, when the term EV is used?

Clearly you don't! Because according to your limited understanding of the article YOU provided (if you even read it at all?), https://autovista24.autovistagroup.com/news/what-were-the-most-popular-evs-in-china-in-june/, makes it's plainly obvious, you didn't have a clue as to the "categories" of EVs and the vehicles it encompasses.

YOUR article CLEARLY reads, "What were the most popular EVs in China in June?" and ONLY showed charts and information on EVs, in several categories. Yet you manage to hallucinate, fuck-it-up and twist the article's reporting on EVs, into a rant about the biggest Chinese automaker still making huge ICE sales, when they'd stopped making ICE vehicles some two (2) years ago (...kkkk!).

• Elvis 2008, do yourself a big favor, and before you try educating others, perhaps try educating yourself first!

And once again, you have to bring in the dickish MAGA gish gallop shit when honestly you do not know what the fuck you are talking about! It is every fucking post, Spidy. This is why I call you a Democratic douche. You are so fucking arrogant you think being a dumbshit Democratic douche means you are more intelligent. (...kkkk!)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the complexity of two commingling propulsion sources, more can go wrong, so PHEVs fare worse than their hybrid brethren in reliability metrics.
So once again, you're just spitballing and speculating, with that MAGA educated, gish gallop prowess of yours! But why guess, when I've already provided you, with the one of the most recent definitive studies on the subject matter?

Well allow me once again (for like the 3rd time), point you to the study out of the UK that examines (not 30, as I had previous wrote, but) 300 million vehicles, spanning 17 years, https://www.motor1.com/news/748745/evs-longetivity-uk-study/ and concludes that EVs are on par with ICE, if not better in some cases, w/r to LONGEVITY.

Perhaps you were confused by the term EV? Which, by the way, includes...you guessed it, PHEVs!

Sirioja

02-18-25, 10:24

Most people to do not love things. They love other people.

France cannot protect itself. That is why it is part of NATO. Audi is not produced buy the French. I do not know of a single French car manufacturer that would be consider quality. It that why you purchased an automobile designed and manufactured by a German Automotive Company?

Because the USA and China are becoming so powerful you only have to learn to speak Chinese in order to survive and thrive in France.Because You just don t know about cars. Best quality cars, Bugatti are built in France by french hands, not chinese robots. A Megane RS or a Alpine would fuck almost all American cars, even most powerful and for sure all chinese, when they are real sporty efficient cars. I choose Germans, even I drove legend RS500 Cosworth for more than 20 years, because more powerful than french cars, but not always better quality. Many Mercedes Benz used Renault engines. But better to know a bit. For car balance and grip, USA cars are far behind french cars and many Germans can t compete. Just better German engines when free speed culture in Germany. Good point is my beloved for my holidays Italy and also NL are increasing speed on motorway, when they found not more pollution with thermic cars. China just build connected little busses to move not far, not what I call quality cars. Moving far with plane pollute a lot, and risky with Boeing. I won t learn chinese, because not my standard for quality and I hate to waste my money and would feel shameful to support such no human rights government making big pollution, fucking our world with their pollution and low quality products. Only cheap.

SubCmdr

02-18-25, 10:27

Elon Musk is a racist and Trump has a history of being involved in racist policies denying housing to his fellow Americans. That being said:

There is plenty of Waste, Fraud and Abuse in the Government. I have no doubt. But if you are really trying to have an impact you would start in the Defense Department.

The Packard Commission reported that there was "no rational system" governing defense procurement, and it concluded that it was not fraud and abuse that led to massive over-expenditures but rather "the truly costly problems are those of overcomplicated organization and rigid procedurePeople act like Trump / Musk Co-Presidency is doing something new. I will simply say that Musk and Trump must follow the law of the land. The moment either one of them does not and receives no sanctions for their actions, grab your guns and and your go bag because kinetic civil war will start and the first step towards dictatorship will have been taken in the United States of America.

Sirioja

02-18-25, 10:32

So shameful USA new government: when USA never protected Ukraine, they now try to robb poor Ukrainians who are in misery. I really wish Ukraine and EU will refuse such robbery. Trump really has to BJ Putin to swallowing. Shame, shame, shame.I wish, even making a lot of noise for everything with his mafia Vance and Musk, but Trump may understand he is not king of the world, even he dreams about, so he should stop to BJ dictator Putin who attacked Ukraine and will have to face Canada, Mexico, Panama, China, EU, UK and Ukraine. Need big balls, when he more behave like a small size with women and criminal Putin who can t travel because of international law prosecution as criminal.

SubCmdr

02-18-25, 16:00

Nah, Bro. I do not love cars. I do not love things. I love people.

As for my knowledge about cars, why would I have knowledge about something that I don't use? So, everyone who has superior knowledge of vehicles over me I will stipulate to that. I actually have not operated a vehicle of any type for almost two years. I feel my mental health is better because I have stopped. My flow is strong and my stack is so big I pay people to drive me around!

Why don't you own a Bugatti?

https://youtube.com/shorts/va1cm5NZPVM?si=ZaLFqkIjxC3rveQB

https://youtube.com/shorts/675djomWhBY?si=esH961M_0EgPRDrx

ROTFLMAO!

Because You just don t know about cars. Best quality cars, Bugatti are built in France by french hands, not chinese robots. A Megane RS or an Alpine would fuck almost all American cars, even most powerful and for sure all chinese, when they are real sporty efficient cars. I choose Germans, even I drove legend RS500 Cosworth for more than 20 years, because more powerful than french cars, but not always better quality. Many Mercedes Benz used Renault engines. But better to know a bit. For car balance and grip, USA cars are far behind french cars and many Germans can t compete. Just better German engines when free speed culture in Germany. Good point is my beloved for my holidays Italy and also NL are increasing speed on motorway, when they found not more pollution with thermic cars. China just build connected little busses to move not far, not what I call quality cars. Moving far with plane pollute a lot, and risky with Boeing. I won t learn chinese, because not my standard for quality and I hate to waste my money and would feel shameful to support such no human rights government making big pollution, fucking our world with their pollution and low quality products. Only cheap.

Elvis 2008

02-18-25, 16:22

Yet you manage to hallucinate, fuck-it-up and twist the article's reporting on EVs, into a rant about the biggest Chinese automaker still making huge ICE sales, when they'd stopped making ICE vehicles some two (2) years agoLOL. Maybe if you keep saying that you will think it is true. The specs on the most popular BYD car are listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD_Song_L_DM-i#Powertrain.

As you can see, there is a 1.5 liter internal combustion engine in this car. Say what? I thought you said BYD was not making combustion engines.

As for this.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the complexity of two commingling propulsion sources, more can go wrong, so PHEVs fare worse than their hybrid brethren in reliability metrics.That was taken directly from Car and Driver. So you pull the Democratic douche move of attacking me versus attacking the fact.

As for your study on reliability, hybrids historically have been less reliable than pure EVs or pure ICE cars.

And the hybrids not the pure EVs are dominating Chinese sales right now. And hybrids have combustion engines in them.

So to your point, Spidy, if EVs were so fucking great, why are the hydrids outselling them now? And if EVs were so fucking great, why did China start putting combustion engines in their electrical vehicles?

I cannot say this is a surprise given your binary thinking. EV, China, Biden good. Trump, ICE, USA bad.

Spidy

02-18-25, 16:23

Not trying to go energy nerd on you, but Nuclear and Solar has been my interests ever since I learned that we could put a nuclear plant on a ship and could get sent to the bottom of the ocean. Still trying to figure out why we don't worry about the environmental impacts of that. My interests in solar occurred as a kid when I learned that how they power space vehicle electrical systems.

Hey, by all means, please do "geek out" on anything solar, wind, nuclear, or clean/dirty energy related. I don't mind at all and enjoy a good amateur "geeking" in this space, myself.

I really do like hearing/debating what other BMs views are, on our worlds energy problems and solutions. Personally, its a nice break from the American Fuhrer and the Repub admin clown show and shit show, currently on display!

BTW, thanks for sharing, those are great inspirational back-stories, with regards to, how you were introduced into the world of nuclear and solar energy. BTW, your setup in the Dominican Republic, sounds pretty good. Sure you have some interesting tales to tell about it. That would definitely be my off-grid vision for living in Brazil, depending on remote or poor gird reliability!

Abashedly, but unapologetically, its only been since Tesla popularize the EV and opened up the choices for powering a vehicle, virtually for free (if you had like rooftop solar), was when my interests first perked up. Anything to avoid the big oil companies (...kkkk!). So my recent foray into learning about various aspects, that make up the U.S./worlds energy mixes, was more about being thrifty at first, and has since became slightly more political. So nothing quite as inspirational, but here I am nonetheless!

Hydrogen sounds good until you look at the energy necessary to produce Green Hydrogen.
Yes, I definitely agree with your assessment of producing Green Hydrogen and definitely a topic for another day, as many still think hydrogen is a good use case for many forms of transportation. I do not.

I think, the next generation of batteries (solid state, Li-Sulfur, Silicon-Anode, Graphene...etc) will render the use of hydrogen, with people strictly sticking to the upper tiers of the of the Hydrogen Ladder. https://cleantechnica.com/2021/09/01/cleantech-talk-chemical-engineer-paul-martin-reflects-on-liebreichs-hydrogen-ladder-hopium-part-1/

In US Nuclear Plant News
Two articles below. I think it is a good start. I don't live in the United States of America. So I don't think I am in the position to debate the issues. But hard choices are going to have to be made in the future. The best to ways to provide a base input to the grid with the current technology available are Nuclear and Gas.

The United States of America is losing it's influence in the world. There is a lot of land mass available. As a society we need to be thinking about how to become self sufficient energy wise, now and into the future.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/three-mile-island-nuclear-plant-gears-up-big-tech-reboot-2024-10-22/
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/26/1104516/three-mile-island-microsoft/

Just so you know, my love/hate (or rather mixed feelings) for nuclear, SMRs and hydrogen (whether its grey, blue or green hydrogen, is a topic for another day), all come with a several harsh caveats. These sources of energy, I think, are more applicable or better suited, to specific instances, where the use case and circumstances, are clearly defined, as being more advantageous over solar, wind and BESS.

My Nuclear/SMRs Caveats:

High Upfront Costs: Cost overruns are very common, as much as x3 to 5x the initial cost.
Long Build Times: As much up to 1.5x to 2x initial time estimates.
Technical Expertise: Is there local talent to maintain the technical and regulatory aspects of a nuclear facility? Short-term and long-term?
Waste Management: Disposal of nuclear waste, requires high level expertise and logistical challenges
Public Perception: What are they, on nuclear energy? NIMBY or can they be overcome?
Those caveats IMHO, makes nuclear and SMRs, a whole lot less desirable, as to what I would consideration as the first or second choice, as the least expensive, least complex or time sensitive and cleaner energy solution, for almost any place, anywhere in the world.

That said, I'm totally in agreement with restoring, refurbishing or upgrading any off-line, shut-down or decommissioned nuclear power plants/reactors, providing it can be done with little to minimal tax-payers dollars. If large amount of tax-payers dollars are involved, then ROI/Cost viability studies should be considered, alongside today's other cheaper, clean energy solutions.

I think its a great idea, for Microsoft and Constellation Energy (CEG) to champion the 3-Mile Island nuclear plant restore project. I'm surprised Microsoft isn't putting some of their money in the pot, on the upfront costs or shares in CEG, for the rebuild and then take a sweeter deal on the 20 year back-end. They've got the billions, they certainly can afford it, especially if the project is primarily for their benefit, why does CEG need govt dollars?

Unfortunately, as the article mentions, CEG were looking to get some of that Biden IRA money. So who knows, if they'll even get the funding to continue, if the American Futhrer, puts the kibosh on the IRA?

Finally, CEG are investing $1.6 billion and its unclear how the federal tax breaks will pan out for them or taxpayers and as I understand it, nuclear power plant reactor restores and/or refurbishing, suffer from the same affliction as new builds, outlined in my nuclear caveats above.

So while this may be, the very first nuclear plant/reactor brought back to life, from a decommissioning, its not the first attempt in the U.S. The Crystal River (FL) plant in 2009, that was shutdown and decommissioned, due to structural damage during a maintenance project, should serve as a cautionary tale. Attempts to repair and refurbish the plant ($1.2 billion) were abandoned due to high costs and then had to be decommissioned again ($1.2 billion). Total cost $2.4 billion dollars.

Again as per my nuclear caveats, whether its a new build, refurbishing or restore, any nuclear project should not be taken lightly and is almost always guaranteed to have cost overruns. So the CEG and Microsoft, 3-Mile Island nuclear restore project, may wanna double (2x), if not triple (3x) their project estimates.

EihTooms

02-18-25, 17:12

Trump's Pandemic Part 2 is probably coming at us, on steroids!

And, please, no more ill-informed bullshit about how "gee, that Covid pandemic would have happened no matter who was president. It just came out of nowhere"!

No. THIS happens because Repub Donald Trump is so-called president.

And without THIS happening, Trump's Pandemic and all the deaths, worldwide economic and global supply-chain collapse, millions upon millions of jobs wiped out, the business and school Closures, hyper-inflation and skyrocketing prices for everything that naturally followed doesn't happen either.

CDC 'disease detectors' among hundreds fired as Trump administration ramps up agency cuts.
Administration officials last week informed CDC leaders of plans to cut up to 10% of its workforce as it targeted federal probationary employees.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...oge-rcna192420

"We have come up with a new slogan for LLS: the disease detectors. If youre not testing, you dont know what disease is there, a current fellow, who was among those who received termination notices, told NBC News.

Termination emails, which were sent to LLS staff members Saturday evening, cited poor performance as the reason for the firings, even though most of the dismissed employees have excellent performance reviews, a midlevel CDC official said.

Multiple outlets reported that a larger sister program at CDC called the Epidemic Intelligence Service, or EIS, known as the agencys disease detectives, was expected to be cut significantly, as well. As of Sunday, though, the two officials who spoke to NBC News had not heard of firings at EIS. One, a senior CDC official, said everyone who was going to be terminated had been notified by Sunday.

"Even if EIS was spared, there are multiple other fellowships that were not, and that's a pipeline for the next generation of CDC leaders," the senior official said. "We're being cut off at the knees. It is going to cripple public health for decades."Tuberculosis, HIV / AIDS, Ebola, Covid-25, something else new and terrific? What will Trump's Pandemic Part 2 be about this time? All of the above?

Spidy

02-18-25, 17:21

LOL. Maybe if you keep saying that you will think it is true. The specs on the most popular BYD car are listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD_Song_L_DM-i#Powertrain.

As you can see, there is a 1.5 liter internal combustion engine in this car. Say what? I thought you said BYD was not making combustion engines.

Do you really not know how to READ? Or just too lazy to educate yourself? Get a clue man!

In your Wiki page, the BYD Song L DM-i, is classified as a plug-in hybrid, with a hybrid drivetrain...DUH!

BYD and all other websites, classify the Song L DM-i, as a PHEV. It would behoove you to do your homework, before spouting off at the mouth!
https://carnewschina.com/2024/06/13/byd-song-l-dm-i-revealed-specs-in-china-as-its-ready-for-launch/
https://db.carnewschina.com/byd/l-dm/2025/params

If it's a hybrid (HEV), PHEV it is classified as a sub category of EVs? Got it!

Wiki:
Powertrain: Petrol plug-in hybrid: 1.5 L BYD472QC I4 Atkinson cycle
Electric motor: Permanent magnet synchronous
Transmission: E-CVT
Hybrid drivetrain: Plug-in hybrid
Battery:
12.9 kWh BYD Blade LFP
18.3 kWh BYD Blade LFP
26.6 kWh BYD Blade LFP

As for your study on reliability, hybrids historically have been less reliable than pure EVs or pure ICE cars. You sound like Sirioja, denying the hard cold FACTS, with lots annoying wrongheaded opinions, with nothing and no FACTS to back them up. You both should get together and try having a debate...I'll bring the popcorn! (...kkkk!)

SubCmdr

02-18-25, 19:52

Hey, by all means, please do "geek out" on anything solar, wind, nuclear, or clean/dirty energy related. I don't mind at all and enjoy a good amateur "geeking" in this space, myself.

I really do like hearing/debating what other BMs views are, on our worlds energy problems and solutions.

BTW, thanks for sharing, those are great inspirational back-stories, with regards to, how you were introduced into the world of nuclear and solar energy. BTW, your setup in the Dominican Republic, sounds pretty good. Sure you have some interesting tales to tell about it. That would definitely be my off-grid vision for living in Brazil, depending on remote or poor gird reliability!

Abashedly, but unapologetically, its only been since Tesla popularize the EV and opened up the choices for powering a vehicle, virtually for free (if you had like rooftop solar), was when my interests first perked up. Anything to avoid the big oil companies (...kkkk!). So my recent foray into learning about various aspects, that make up the U.S./worlds energy mixes, was more about being thrifty at first, and has since became slightly more political. So nothing quite as inspirational, but here I am nonetheless!

Yes, I definitely agree with your assessment of producing Green Hydrogen and definitely a topic for another day, as many still think hydrogen is a good use case for many forms of transportation. I do not.

I think, the next generation of batteries (solid state, Li-Sulfur, Silicon-Anode, Graphene...etc) will render the use of hydrogen, with people strictly sticking to the upper tiers of the of the Hydrogen Ladder. https://cleantechnica.com/2021/09/01/cleantech-talk-chemical-engineer-paul-martin-reflects-on-liebreichs-hydrogen-ladder-hopium-part-1/You brought up many good points and laid out an excellent critical analysis to the problems with nuclear energy. I have no plans to dispute what it is you have to say about it. But, what is your solution for base input into the grid?

That was my point, that there are only two current ways to have reliable base input into the grid: Gas Fired Plants or Nuclear Plants. Otherwise you are back to coal and although the cheapest certainly not the best for the environment.

As the articles laid out the need for more energy is growing. The long game requires a look at what is actually sustainable. I don't believe that sustainability is in fossil fuels. Cold fusion has a long way to go. I still put my vote on Nuclear Power in the short term. Because it is not possible to power an electrical grid without a consistent base input of 40% of the grid output needs.

Sirioja

02-18-25, 21:36

Sirioja

02-18-25, 21:43

Elon Musk is a racist and Trump has a history of being involved in racist policies denying housing to his fellow Americans. That being said:

There is plenty of Waste, Fraud and Abuse in the Government. I have no doubt. But if you are really trying to have an impact you would start in the Defense Department.

People act like Trump / Musk Co-Presidency is doing something new. I will simply say that Musk and Trump must follow the law of the land. The moment either one of them does not and receives no sanctions for their actions, grab your guns and and your go bag because kinetic civil war will start and the first step towards dictatorship will have been taken in the United States of America.No, Musk is facist and stupid Trump is dangerous. Our world have to resist to him, except Putin he is ready to suck for business, and fucking Ukraine and Palestinians where no business, except robbering Ukraine.

Spidy

02-19-25, 04:17

Here's reason #74 and #75, why you just might want to consider, buying an EV (BEV / PHEV) over an ICE vehicle.

Reason #74: If you just haven't quite yet figured out, that sitting in your snowed-covered ICE vehicle, waiting for it to warm up, in a blizzard or winter storm, probably isn't the best way to understand how carbon monoxide poisoning works...it's probably to late. (...kkkk!)

Jan 25th, 2025: Carbon monoxide poisoning suspected in deaths of man, 84, dog found in car stuck in snow. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/carbon-monoxide-poisoning-1.7441783

Feb 18th, 2025: Man found dead in snow-covered car with engine running ... When emergency services arrived, they found the 57-year-old man in cardiac arrest and his vehicle was reportedly stuck in a snow bank, blocking the vehicle's exhaust pipe. His death was confirmed in hospital. https://montreal.citynews.ca/2025/02/18/montreal-man-dead-accidental-carbon-monoxide-poisoning/.

Reason #75: This reason is more EV/Battery adjacent. When all you really need, is a long power cord to your EV (V2L) or a portable battery power station.

Jan 7, 2025: Why the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning grows after a winter storm. It's a silent killer responsible for more than 500 deaths every year across the country. https://wtop.com/health-fitness/2025/01/why-the-risk-of-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-grows-after-a-winter-storm/

Feb 18th, 2025: Carbon monoxide poisoning likely caused deaths of two men in ice fishing tent ... the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning "likely resulting from a heating source used inside the tent," https://ca.news.yahoo.com/carbon-monoxide-poisoning-likely-caused-190516022.html.

Just saying, 2-more reasons you may wanna CONSIDER an EV/Batteries...Yes!

Sirioja

02-19-25, 05:03

Spidy

02-20-25, 07:23

You brought up many good points and laid out an excellent critical analysis to the problems with nuclear energy. I have no plans to dispute what it is you have to say about it. But, what is your solution for base input into the grid?
…

As the articles laid out the need for more energy is growing. The long game requires a look at what is actually sustainable. I don't believe that sustainability is in fossil fuels. Cold fusion has a long way to go. I still put my vote on Nuclear Power in the short term. Because it is not possible to power an electrical grid without a consistent base input of 40% of the grid output needs.
I was afraid you were gonna to ask me this question! (...kkkk!) BTW, thanks for the kudos!

Truth is, I’m really enjoying the mental exercise, and have learnt a few more things along the way. But may have bitten off, more than I can chew, in my solution and its presentation….oops!

So your question really strikes at the heart of my long standing dilemma and my love/hate relationship with nuclear/SMRs. So while nuclear has its many issues (see my caveats), huge cost overruns, long build times, project delays, permitting, NIMBY…etc, when all is said and done, it does make for a compelling case, as a strong reliable and sustainable long-term clean energy solution for base load power…and therein lies the rub!

Introduction to the Base Power (or Base Input) Solution:

Since I like your analysis, case study and proposal for the Dominican Republic (DR), entitled “Power Generation in the Dominican Republic” ttp://www.internationalsexguide.nl/forum/showthread.php?611-General-Info&p=2956503&viewfull=1#post2956503, I thought I’d kill two (2) birds with one stone and answer your question, in the style of your own case study on the DR and how I’d go about proposing a similar solution.

Challenges for DR:

Caveat: I don’t have expert inside knowledge of DR, or the bona fides, like you do, and have never been there, so please excuse any overreach or overstep, in areas, I may not be up to speed on, since my many of deductions on DR, will be based on Google searches and/or related to similar islands, with similar power challenges.

Is it fare to say, the DR face several energy challenges, like high electricity prices, the cost and reliance on imported fossil fuels and geo-topographical obstacles with their land and ocean geo-location, that make energy solutions for the island difficult ?

But also have several advantages, due to their geographical location as an island nation, situated in the Caribbean sunbelt, with a favorable environment for wind power.

What is DR’s Current Energy Situation? Establish Baseline:

Annual electricity consumption (2023)*: 22,193 GWh (Note: Your 20 billion watts is also correct and in the ballpark, as number varies +/- 2K GWh)
Peak demand: 3,662 MW (megawatts)
Annual Cost of Fossil Fuel in the DR: Between $2.55 - $3.47 billion { $1.84 to $2.76 billion (Oil/Coal) } + 0.71 billion (LNG) {…see notes…}
DR’s Energy Mix: Heavy fossil fuels at 83.1% (oil: 12.3%, natural gas: 40.6%, coal: 30.2%) and some renewables at 16.9% (solar: 5.7%, wind: 4.3%, hydro: 6.1% and bio-fuels: 0.8%) *Note: Also in 2023, DR produced (24,580 GWh) more than they consumed (22,193 GWh).
Base Load (or Baseload or Base Input) for DR: 2,197 MW (or 0.60 x 3,662 MW Peak Load).

Note1: Annual Cost of Fuel Calc: Fossil fuels account for 83% DR’s electricity (22,193 GWh) in 2023, so that’s about 18,420 GWh (18.42 billion kWh). Using an average cost of 0.10–0.15 per kWh for fossil fuel-based electricity generation, equals about $1.84 to $2.76 billion for fossil fuel electricity.

The DR in 2023, imported approximately 1.47 million metric tons of LNG (Nat. Gas). The cost was about $707 million, depending on global LNG prices.

Note2: The 40% SubCmdr used, seemed reasonable, but I was read countries with significant coal capacity may have a higher base load percentage, so I went with 60%.

Recap of Nuclear Power Reactors/SMRs Pros and Cons:

Since, you’ve already made the case (and I agree), that a large nuclear plant/reactor won’t necessarily work for DR, it comes down to making the case to consider SMRs or something else?

Nuclear Reactor Power Output: 1000 MW to 1600 MW (at $6K to $9K per kW )
SMR Power Output: 50 MW to 300 MW (at $5K to $7K per kW )
SMR Build Time Lines: For example, a 500 MW SMR build would take between 5 to 9 years.
Pros: High Energy Output, Low Carbon Emissions, Energy Independence and Long-Term Cost Stability.
Cons: Extremely High Costs (incl. cost overruns), Long Times for Builds (incl. large time overruns), Technical Expertise, Waste Management, Public Perception and sometimes Eco-Geo-Political Risks

Base Load Calc and Cost for # of Nuclear Reactor (NR) and SMRs:

Base Load for DR is: 60% of peak load is 2,197 MW. Rounded up is 2200 MW

Nuclear Reactor(s) Costs for Base Load: Most likely for a base load of 2,200 MW, consider two (2) reactors (ie. 2x 1,100 MW reactors, or 1 x 1,600 MW reactor and 1 x 600 MW reactor).

O Base Load of 2,200 MW, using NR Low-End Cost = (2,200,000kW × $6,000/kW) = $13.2 billion
O Base Load of 2,200 MW, using NR High-End Cost = (2,200,000kW × $9,000/kW) = $19.8 billion

SMRs Costs for Base Load: Units of SMR can come in various sizes and apparently there is a difference in cost between a 100 MW and a 300 MW unit, both in terms of total cost and cost per kW. So while, on paper the cost calculation will be the same, the larger 300 MW units, will have a lower cost per kW and benefit from economies of scale, this will ONLY be realized during the manufacturing, construction and operation phases of implementation. So with that in mind, I used 8 x 300 MW units.

The cost of SMRs is generally runs about $5-7K per kW. Since costs are rising, I’ll go with the middle of that range and $6K per kW ($6,000/kW).

O Cost per 300 MW SMR = (300,000 kW × $6,000/kW) = $1.8 billion for each
O Base Load Costs for 2200 MW, using SMRs = $14.4 billion (8 x 300MW SMRs x $1.8 billion). Note: With 8 x 300MW SMRs you get an extra 200 MW capacity.

Additional Costs for NR/SMR:

Site Preparation: Land acquisition, environmental studies, and site preparation can add $1–2 billion.
Grid Integration: Upgrading the grid for the new load capacity, can cost $500 million to $1 billion.
Regulatory and Licensing: Extensive regulatory approvals, can add another $500 million to $1 billion.
Fuel/Waste Management: Initial fuel costs and long-term waste management can add yet another $1–2 billion over the reactor's lifetime.

So what does all this mean and does the DR have a NR or SMR in its future?

SubCmdr, perhaps you can answer this question, better than I, if a NR or SMR could be still in DR’s future, because after crunching the numbers, it’s not as bad as I first thought. But before you answer, also take a look at the “Cautionary Tale”.

Cautionary Tale: The only 3 SMRs currently in production and a fourth now being built in Argentina, went miles over budget. The SMR in China went over budget by 300%, the two (2) in Russia went over by 400% and the one in Argentina by 700% (Source: IEEFA, “SMRs: Still Too Expensive, Too Slow and Too Risky”)

The nearly $10 billion dollar SMR industry valuation, is a bit overvalued (to me) and has yet to prove themselves, in any sustainably or cost effective way, that would bring any great deal confidence, IMHO.

Look, if you cannot build “junior”, a reactor significantly smaller, less complex, with less manpower and with less materials, on time and on budget, than it’s “big brother”, doesn’t this just play into the hands of the naysayers, that say nuclear/SMRs, take too long, cost too much, too complex and are too risky?

Conclusion for NRs and SMRs in DR:
Naturally, financing any big energy projects in the DR, is gonna require assistance from international partnerships (e.g., World Bank, IMF, NGOs…ect) for its critical to success. But the NR and SMR options for DR, look insidiously interesting, considering DR spends like $2.55 - $3.47 billion annually, for importing 83.1% fossil fuels, in electrical energy.

However, while the SMR the industry, IMHO, isn’t mature enough yet, it still suffers from many of the afflictions of their nuclear reactor “big brothers”. For a country with DR’s economic output/GDP and access to funding, it’s far too early for them to be at the vanguard, of SMR nuclear tech.

I think, at this time the answer is still NO (for me anyways), but perhaps a tad bit softer, after crunching the numbers!

So what does all this mean: So what now?

Sorry, but after doing a bit of a deep dive and establishing an energy cost baseline for DR and how to solve the base load problem, other than using NRs or SMRs, as clean energy sources, or go back to using fossil fuel plants, opened up my eyes, and caused me to take a step back and re-think and re-evaluate what I was looking to propose.

That was my point, that there are only two current ways to have reliable base input into the grid: Gas Fired Plants or Nuclear Plants. Otherwise you are back to coal and although the cheapest certainly not the best for the environment.
Yes, you’re quite right! After my deep dive, I may NOT as I earlier thought, be able to provide, a solution that addresses this truth you’ve stated, about our current energy predicaments, and the lack of alternative options, we have for weaning off fossil fuel generated base load power plants.

I still have several things to checkout, but I will get back to you. Feel free, BTW, to ask questions about the numbers and proposal for NRs or SMRs in DR?

BTW, I’m still loving the brain tease!

EihTooms

02-20-25, 12:56

Elvis 2008

02-20-25, 19:03

If it's a hybrid (HEV), PHEV it is classified as a sub category of EVs? Got it!No, I do not "got it". Calling a car an EV when it has a combustion engine and a gas tank is pretty fucking stupid. I know you did not make this up yourself but that is a political definition not a real one. As for your praising BYD for not making ICE cars when they have engines and cars with gas tanks is likewise stupid and quite frankly is BS Democratic douche save the planet bullshit.

The problem with you Democratic douches is you do not see how science is manipulated. Because an asshole like Fauci wormed his way into controlling all NIH grants, he could fund the POV that he wanted. The same goes with global warming, which was converted to climate change once the data did not show warming. If you were against global warming, you got no funding. Hence, all scientists were pro global warming. And the reason environment was so important is that is an excuse to have power over others. You are hurting us all with your polluting.

And the notion that man has control over climate is the oldest fucking scam in existence and yet we have all these fucking "scientists" who swear by it. Give me a fucking break!

Thing is there are tremendous health costs to people who live and work around carbon based energy production. It is not like anybody or MAGA Republicans likes that. It is just that for all those negatives, the positives far outweigh them.

Mining for Lithium is good but mining for crude is bad? WTF is that? Well, someone finally put a pen to paper and looked at it, and the best cars in terms of pollution were not EVs but PHEVs, https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/why-plugin-hybrids-are-better-for-climate-than-full-evs-today.

That really shocked me.

Thing is the batteries in PHEVs are 1/6 the size of those in EVs. The batteries were only good for going 20 to 50 miles but now they have PHEVs that are up to 80 miles per charge. That is HUGE. The study estimates that people will use gasoline 30% of the time. If you can get 80 miles per charge, I bet you could do even better than that.

But more importantly, and this is what you missed, you do not have to build a whole new fucking infrastructure. You can just plug a PHEV into your wall socket after you come home. You do not need to do a huge fucking upgrade with your existing home electrical system.

And if you are running low on electricity, you can rely on gasoline or just pull into a gas station if you are low on gas and fill up in 5 minutes.

Thing is Avis stuck me with an EV once and it stressed me out. First off, the AVIS guy had to show me how to put it in gear, but there were no instructions on where to go to power up, how much of a charge I had to leave on the vehicle, how to charge it up, and how to pay or how much it would be. I knew nothing, and it was stressful, and it would have been a hundred times more stressful if I had to travel a long distance, and I had zero interest in waiting an hour for a car to charge when on the road.

But with a PHEV, I can plug into any fucking outlet. That is easy. I can fill it up with gas if I am worried about a lack of juice or if I can go on the road. With a PHEV unlike an EV, the entire infrastructure that has been built up over a century is at my disposal.

So that left reliability and this really shocked me. In a UK survey of drivers, PHEVs required FEWER repairs than EVS or traditional combustion engines.

And Spidy, this is why you are such a fucking idiot. You come to this as if EVs are great and anyone who disagrees with you is just a MAGA knuckle dragging idiot, and we need alternative power, and we need to build out our infrastructure. Blah, blah, blah. I tried an EV. It sucked, and the AVIS attendant was telling me that AVIS planned on going 35% EV and indicated they were crazy for doing so. I was like, well, if they do that, I am not using AVIS. The renal car companies got the message, and they have pulled back on EV purchases as customers hate them.

In comparison, if AVIS has a PHEV, they can say your first 20 to 80 miles are free fuel wise but you have to return it full if you use the gasoline, I would be fuck yeah. Sign me up. I would seek out a PHEV.

I want a car with a little more juice than the BYD Song, and I looked up the BYD PHEV Han.

https://en.byd.com/news/byds-flagship-han-ev-series-officially-goes-on-sale/

The four-wheel-drive high-performance version possesses an acceleration of 0 to 100 km / h (approximately 62 mph) in just 3. 9 seconds, making it China's fastest EV in production, while the DM (Dual Mode) plug-in hybrid model offers 0 to 100 km / h in 4. 7 seconds, making it the country's fastest hybrid sedan. The Han DM hybrid model comes with 50 miles of pure-electric cruising range and over 500 miles of integrated range.

The 4 WD high-performance version will sell at 279,500 (about $40,000) RMB. Besides, the PHEV version, Han DM, will sell at 219,800 yuan (about $31,400).

And if you look at the Han sales, the PHEV version is outselling the EV version 2:1, and the gap is widening every day.

It is $30 to 40,000, has 4 wheel drive, goes 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds, the car is more reliable than ICE or EVs, and most of the time I pay way less for fuel costs. Yeah, I would buy that fucking car yesterday. You do not need to do tax breaks for a car like that. You do not need to bring politics into it. This car sells itself. The only issue people have with it is that this car looks on the outside like a Honda Accord.

Elvis 2008

02-20-25, 19:26

I don't know why even the targets of pathological liar Donald Trump's lies use silly euphemisms for his blatantly obvious and easily debunked lies like "he is living in a disinformation space" or that he is merely promoting "alternate facts. ".

Donald Trump is a pathological liar who lies about everything; The terrific economies he inherited twice, his colossal economic mess he produced and handed Biden, what he is really up to now, the multiple wars that raged all during his first so-called presidential term that he did not lift a finger to end including the full-on USA Military combat War in Afghanistan he presided over for every day of his previous so-called presidency, the War Against America over which he led his violent mob of cop-killing insurrectionts into battle on American Soil, the proven reality of Russia Russia Russia, his Trump's Pandemic Part 1, everything..Yeah, the whole Democratic playbook of Zelensky good and Putin bad is getting old. As for Zelensky.

He's in year 6 of his 5 year term.

Declared martial law Feb 2022 and has banned elections since then.

Banned 11 political parties.

Passed law in 2022 to censor journalists and combined all news into one gov't station.

Journalists investigating his corruption get conscripted and thrown on the front lines to die.

Zelensky's administration has card carrying Nazis in it, and one Jewish lawyer was on Tucker Carlson and saying Zelensky is throwing priests in jail. This lawyer was no Putin fan. In fact, Putin ordered his arrest. He and Trump are the only two with the balls to call out what Zelensky really is, a ruthless dictator.

So it is more like Putin bad and Zelensky is even worse.

And then there is Glenn Greenwald's take on things: There were all sorts of things that the United States knew that it could do that could provoke Russia to invade Ukraine. There were memos floating all around Washington for years saying, "These are the things that are the red lines for Moscow, not just for Putin but for everybody in Moscow, including his opponents and these are the things that if we do, we will force them to essentially invade eastern Ukraine."

The United States then proceeded to do all of them seemingly wanting Russia to invade Ukraine. In February 2022 they did that and the United States immediately announced, under the Biden administration, that we were going to fund this war, we were going to give Ukraine all the weapons and the money they needed to win.

So after had enough of the Covid scam, you Democratic douches pulled another scam to secure taxpayer money and started the Ukraine war.

If you were go to make a valid criticism of Trump, you could put to the huge budget deficits that he rung up, but Biden was fucking worse.

So while you advocated spending trillions on Covid with its 0.2% mortality and now this fucking stupid war, you kind of ignore the fact that we are $37 trillion in debt, racking up $2 trillion per year and are on the path to default. And while you Democratic douches bash Trump and Musk for cutting spending, which has to happen or it is inevitable we default on our debt, you have no plan outside of continuing to throw good money after bad.

Name one Democrat interested in cutting spending, Loony Tooms. You cannot.

If you actually brought out a candidate like Clinton who actually had a goal of a balanced budget, I might vote for them.

EihTooms

02-21-25, 04:24

Yeah, the whole Democratic playbook of Zelensky good and Putin bad is getting old. As for Zelensky.

He's in year 6 of his 5 year term.

Declared martial law Feb 2022 and has banned elections since then.

Banned 11 political parties.

Passed law in 2022 to censor journalists and combined all news into one gov't station.

Journalists investigating his corruption get conscripted and thrown on the front lines to die.

Zelensky's administration has card carrying Nazis in it, and one Jewish lawyer was on Tucker Carlson and saying Zelensky is throwing priests in jail. This lawyer was no Putin fan. In fact, Putin ordered his arrest. He and Trump are the only two with the balls to call out what Zelensky really is, a ruthless dictator.

So it is more like Putin bad and Zelensky is even worse.

And then there is Glenn Greenwald's take on things: There were all sorts of things that the United States knew that it could do that could provoke Russia to invade Ukraine. There were memos floating all around Washington for years saying, "These are the things that are the red lines for Moscow, not just for Putin but for everybody in Moscow, including his opponents and these are the things that if we do, we will force them to essentially invade eastern Ukraine."

The United States then proceeded to do all of them seemingly wanting Russia to invade Ukraine. In February 2022 they did that and the United States immediately announced, under the Biden administration, that we were going to fund this war, we were going to give Ukraine all the weapons and the money they needed to win.

So after had enough of the Covid scam, you Democratic douches pulled another scam to secure taxpayer money and started the Ukraine war.

If you were go to make a valid criticism of Trump, you could put to the huge budget deficits that he rung up, but Biden was fucking worse.

So while you advocated spending trillions on Covid with its 0.2% mortality and now this fucking stupid war, you kind of ignore the fact that we are $37 trillion in debt, racking up $2 trillion per year and are on the path to default. And while you Democratic douches bash Trump and Musk for cutting spending, which has to happen or it is inevitable we default on our debt, you have no plan outside of continuing to throw good money after bad.

Name one Democrat interested in cutting spending, Loony Tooms. You cannot.

If you actually brought out a candidate like Clinton who actually had a goal of a balanced budget, I might vote for them.Since you apparently could not find a single link to substantiate so much as one word of your tall tales of woe or even supporting one of Trump's typical barrage of lies about Zelenskyy, Ukraine, Putin, Russia Russia Russia Russia or anything else, I'll just go ahead and post some regarding how historically unpopular Trump is at this stage of his presidency, how much Americans disapprove of him and the job he is doing on virtually every issue, his Cabinet, his policies, his real boss, everything:

https://news.gallup.com/poll/656891/trump-job-approval-rating-congress-jumps.aspx

Trumps ratings on several issues that his administration has targeted in the first weeks of his presidency are similar to his overall rating, including on immigration (46%), foreign affairs (44%), foreign trade (42%) and the economy (42%). Meanwhile, slightly fewer Americans, 40% each, approve of the presidents handling of the situations in Ukraine and in the Middle East between the Israelis and Palestinians, as fewer offer opinions of his performance on these two issues.https://time.com/7259417/trump-poll-approval-inflation/

Gallup, which has tracked the opening approval ratings for American Presidents going back to Dwight Eisenhower, found Trumps approval rating dipped slightly from 47% in late January to 45% in mid-February. That is 15 points lower than the historical average of all other elected Presidents at this point in their first terms since 1953, according to Gallups polling.https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/cnn-washington-post-polls-trump-approval-00205169

One reason for the erosion of support: a slight majority of respondents in both surveys said Trump has overstepped his presidential power in his attempts to reshape the federal government driven by tech billionaire Elon Musk. Many of Trumps most controversial early initiatives, including a sweeping spending freeze, have been blocked in court thus far, but the new administration has still made waves with layoffs of federal workers, cuts to federal contracts and a flood of executive orders.https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/02/20/politics/cnn-poll-trump-approval

Trumps support also appears to be fading among some traditionally Democratic-leaning demographic groups with whom he made inroads in last years election. A January CNN poll found that 57% of 1834-year-olds, 50% of Hispanic adults and 30% of Black adults approved of the way he was handling the presidential transition. Now that Trump has taken office, his approval ratings with those groups stand at 41% among younger and Hispanic adults and 23% among Black adults.

Hispanic and Black adults are notably more likely than Whites to also say that Trump has handled the presidency in a way they did not expect (35% among Hispanic adults and 30% among Black adults compared with 20% among White adults), and to see that as a bad thing (29% among Hispanic people and 24% among Black people vs. 16% among White people).

EihTooms

02-21-25, 19:48

There is a reason Trump's post-election relief rally has been one of the weakest and most tepid in history. And despite him inheriting and taking over another historically successful Dem Administration's Economy that was The Envy of the World.

For the 2nd time:

Dow tumbles 500 points after weaker-than-expected consumer sentiment, UnitedHealth decline.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/20/stock-market-today-live-updates.html?__source=androidappshare

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 64.7 in January, a decline of 10% and a steeper drop than expected as consumers feared higher inflation ahead. The 5-year inflation outlook in the survey was 3.5%, the highest since 1995.

All of this is definitely creaking at the edges, and the data is also getting softer, said Tom Fitzpatrick, managing director at R.J. OBrien and Associates. Its still early (and being early is the same as wrong), but looking at these things and the way fixed income is trading is suggesting things are not as rosy as people thought.
.................
Wall Street is waking up to the potential effect of tariffs on consumers

The recent slump in stocks could be tied to Wall Street seriously considering the effect of tariffs and seeing consumers changing buying patterns as a result, according to Harris Financial Group managing partner Jamie Cox.

Its pretty clear that markets are waking up to the consumer impact of tariffs. While the tariffs themselves may never get implemented, consumers are voicing their opinions with major changes in buying behaviors and sentiment about the prospects of their implementation, Cox told CNBC.The reason? Trump. Trump's "all the right words" and the awareness that the Trillions he added to the USA Deficit from his one and only crap economic "stimulus" legislation in the four years of his previous term along with his failed Trade War with China and his Tariffs plunged our Agriculture and Manufactoring sectors into Recessions so deep he had to issue emergency welfare checks just to keep them afloat. Adding billions more to his deficits.

Oh, and this:

Trumps cuts hit red states, triggering GOP pushback.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-rush-soften-trump-cuts-220000057.html

Republican lawmakers are pushing back against sweeping cuts to the federal government launched by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, as their downsizing crusade begins to hit GOP constituents.

A growing number of GOP lawmakers are trying to intervene with the Trump administration and are weighing legislation to circumvent the changes. But with the Department of Government Efficiency and the Office of Management and Budget moving at a rapid clip and flouting federal law to carve up the government, the lawmakers face monumental challenges in getting the White House to spare their constituents from the ax.Hey, I hear MAGAs are in a panic to spin new definitions for the words "Best. Month. In. Four. Years. " So they can continue to give a Thumbs Up and props to those inane Russia Russia Russia Russia bot pop-ups on the Internet.

SubCmdr

02-22-25, 03:09

The only way the evil prevails is for good men to do nothing.

This man did something!

https://youtu.be/lXW_BHW_wM4?si=CTC0RkIK-XjZFkuP

The Musk/Trump Co-Presidencys objective is the cement power for the billionaire class under authoritarian rule that is un-democratic and weld unchecked power!

Fight the Power! We have to Fight the Power that be! - Public Enemy.

SubCmdr

02-22-25, 12:38

Spidy

02-22-25, 14:34

South Australia as a Case Study:

To show how DR could transition their base Load, intermittent and peaker power plants, with renewables, I used South Australia, as a case study example, to compare what they’ve done, successfully.

Background Info on South Australia (SA):

The population in the state of South Australia, in 2024, is estimated to be approximately 1.8 million people. The Dominican Republic has 11.1 million people, and has approx. 6 times more people than South Australia.

South Australia, has around 984,321 sq.km (380,048 sq.mi) of land area. The Dominican Republic has around 48,671 sq.km (18,792 sq.mi) of land area. SA is approx. 20 times larger, in land area than the Dominican Republic.

South Australia is, at the frontline of the global energy transition, having transformed its energy system from 1% to over 69% renewable energy, in just over 20 years. Between June 2022 and June 2023, South Australia’s energy generation via renewables has been 72.3% compared to 36.3% nationally.

South Australia phased out coal in 2016, becoming the first mainland state to do so and hopes to have their grid as 100% renewables by 2027.

South Australia’s Energy Demand Loads:

SA’s Consumption & Demand
• Annual Electricity Consumption: 11,506 GWh (or 11.5 TWh)
• Typical Peak Demand: Is between Peak Demand: 3,084 MW (heat waves periods and 2,000 to 2,500 MW during cooler periods. The high was reached on Thursday 23 February 2023 @ 7:30pm).
• Base Load: Unknown, but with 73.4% renewables, it’s safe to say they have flipped the scales and now renewables run base loads and nat. gas is being as the intermittent/peak load energy source.

Note #1: SA’s Annual consumption is only half that of the DR, for a population that is 6x smaller.
Note #2 : SA’ Peak Demand is only about 580 MW more than the DR, for a population that is 6x smaller.

South Australia’s Energy Mix:

Renewables (2023) (73.4%, up from 69.0%)
• Solar: 26.5% (rooftop solar provided 17.7%, up from 16.5%, large-scale solar PV farms, providing another 8.8%. Note: over 40% of households have rooftop solar, stabilize the grid.)
• Wind: 46.9% (up from 44.6 in 2022, wind farms accounted for the largest portion to the grid, with major installations at Hornsdale, Lake Bonney, and Snowtown)
• BESS: 30% of Australia’s home batteries are in SA. Large-scale batteries like the Hornsdale Power Reserve (150 MW) and residential batteries (30,000+ installed) stabilize the grid and store excess renewable energy.

Non-Renewables Sources and Imports (30%)
• Natural Gas: 25.4% (down from 29.5%, gas-fired plants are a diminishing but still critical backup)
• Interstate Imports: 2-5% (South Australia connects to the National Electricity Market (NEM) via interconnectors with Victoria (Heywood and Murraylink).

Recap of the Dominican Republic’s Energy Mix:

• Annual Cost of Fossil Fuel, for generation of electricity: Between $2.55 - $3.47 billion
• Annual electricity consumption (2023)*: 22,193 GWh
• Peak demand: 3,662 MW (megawatts)
• DR’s Energy Mix: Heavy fossil fuels at 83.1% (oil: 12.3%, natural gas: 40.6%, coal: 30.2%) and some renewables at 16.9% (solar: 5.7%, wind: 4.3%, hydro: 6.1% and bio-fuels: 0.8%)
• Base Load (or Baseload or Base Input) for DR: 2,197 MW (or 0.60 x 3,662 MW Peak Load. Just a best effort guessimate)

A Solution for the Dominican Republic (DR) Base Load and Beyond:

Okay, so here’s the deal, with how the DR, should be able to reach 100% renewables, for their base load electricity grid needs. My recommendation, is for DR to have like a renewables clean energy plan for the next 15-20 years.

A plan, which outlines their intentions, commitments and schedule, showing steady continual growth and build-outs of smaller manageable projects, of like 5% - 7% SWB worth of renewables, added annually to the grid.

Yeah, I know, not exactly the explosive, home run solution, you were perhaps looking for, but the DR, need only take an additional 6-8 years, if they followed a constant regiment of 5-7% SWB yearly implementations to reach your estimated 40% base load (or a few years later to reach 60%). Considering the DR, is already at 17% renewables.

Here is my summation of levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) in ranges, using approx. estimates from several sources for the years 2023 (or 2024), in $/MWh, for those energy technologies, I could find:

LCOE Ranges for Energy Technologies in 2023 (or 2024):
• Nuclear Reactor: $90–140+ (high upfront costs, delays)
• SMR: $60–90+ (early projects at upper end, targets lower with scale)
• Solar (utility-scale): $30–50 (lower with sun-rich regions, higher with storage)
• Onshore Wind: $35–55 (site-dependent, rises with transmission costs)
• Offshore Wind: $70–150+ (higher upfront/transmission costs, but improving with scale and tech)
• BESS (4-hour storage): $120–170 (lithium-ion, varies with duration/cycles)
• Pumped Hydro: $60–200 (site-specific, high upfront but low operating costs)
• LNG (gas peaker): $50–100 (import costs, volatile fuel prices, carbon costs add ~20–30/MWh)
• Coal: $60–100+ (import costs, older plants higher; carbon costs push to 80–150+)

Cost Ranges for Energy Hybrid Systems using 2023 (or 2024):
• Solar + BESS: $50–100/MWh (sun-rich regions with 4–8h storage).
• Wind + BESS: $60–120/MWh (onshore wind with 4–12h storage).

LCOE Sources for 2023 or 2024:
• International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA): https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2024/Sep/IRENA_Renewable_power_generation_costs_in_2023.pdf
• Lazard's Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis: https://www.lazard.com/media/xemfey0k/lazards-lcoeplus-june-2024-_vf.pdf
• U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA): https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/electricity_generation/pdf/AEO2023_LCOE_report.pdf
• The International Energy Agency (IEA): https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/lcoe-and-value-adjusted-lcoe-for-solar-pv-plus-battery-storage-coal-and-natural-gas-in-selected-regions-in-the-stated-policies-scenario-2022-2030

Closing Arguments:

As I look around the world’s at those that are making the transition to a greener electrical grid, I looked to see what is working, what is cheap and less expensive, what is reliable and sustainable, and what is simple in design and complexity, requiring low maintenance and technical expertise to build, service and maintain. More often than not, it’s SOLAR, WIND and BESS (SWB), with some natural gas to round out the energy mix.

Remember it took the state of South Australia 20 years to go from 1% to 72.3% today. In a few more years, their grid, will be 100% renewables, with excess electricity, to either export it via interconnects or used to make green hydrogen.

And like SA, who have “flipped the switch” and “turn the tables” on their fossils fuels plants, being the ones that provide intermittent energy when needed (and soon to be phased out), is the right approach the DR should follow, to save millions of dollars (IMHO) and wean themselves off of fossil fuels.

So YES, I think DR, can absolutely establish and transition to 40% (or 60%) base load (and beyond), with 100% renewables. It will just take a small, but reasonable amount of time. But doable, considering DR has 6x the population of SA, but ONLY consumes twice (2x) as much annual electricity.

Note, I didn’t get into specifics, in terms of a cost/benefit analysis, but with the LCOEs provided, one can easily figure out, a half-dozen different cost scenarios. I suspect it’s going to be a mixture of SWB (with more WIND than SOLAR and even pumped hydro), given DR’s small land size and available space (that being 20x smaller than SA), lots of offshore wind will need serious consideration.

Finally, I think this approach works best for DR, while the rest of the world (mostly the very rich nations), use their time and money to figure out, how viable and cost efficient, SMRs really are, as the industry becomes more mature.

The Cane

02-22-25, 14:41

They voted for him. Now let them get what they voted for! No sympathy here. FAFO (fuck around and find out)!

https://youtu.be/N23KVyaSoLw?si=KnsvsFjmK5yr6Q-P

Tiny 12

02-22-25, 16:33

South Australia as a Case Study:

To show how DR could transition their base Load, intermittent and peaker power plants, with renewables, I used South Australia, as a case study example, to compare what theyve done, successfully.

Background Info on South Australia (SA):

The population in the state of South Australia, in 2024, is estimated to be approximately 1.8 million people. The Dominican Republic has 11.1 million people, and has approx. 6 times more people than South Australia.

South Australia, has around 984,321 sq.km (380,048 sq.mi) of land area. The Dominican Republic has around 48,671 sq.km (18,792 sq.mi) of land area. SA is approx. 20 times larger, in land area than the Dominican Republic.

South Australia is, at the frontline of the global energy transition, having transformed its energy system from 1% to over 69% renewable energy, in just over 20 years. Between June 2022 and June 2023, South Australias energy generation via renewables has been 72.3% compared to 36.3% nationally.

South Australia phased out coal in 2016, becoming the first mainland state to do so and hopes to have their grid as 100% renewables by 2027.

South Australias Energy Demand Loads:

SAs Consumption & Demand
Annual Electricity Consumption: 11,506 GWh (or 11.5 TWh)
Typical Peak Demand: Is between Peak Demand: 3,084 MW (heat waves periods and 2,000 to 2,500 MW during cooler periods. The high was reached on Thursday 23 February 2023 @ 7:30pm).
Base Load: Unknown, but with 73.4% renewables, its safe to say they have flipped the scales and now renewables run base loads and nat. gas is being as the intermittent/peak load energy source.

Note #1: SAs Annual consumption is only half that of the DR, for a population that is 6x smaller.
Note #2 : SA Peak Demand is only about 580 MW more than the DR, for a population that is 6x smaller.

South Australias Energy Mix:

Renewables (2023) (73.4%, up from 69.0%)
Solar: 26.5% (rooftop solar provided 17.7%, up from 16.5%, large-scale solar PV farms, providing another 8.8%. Note: over 40% of households have rooftop solar, stabilize the grid.)
Wind: 46.9% (up from 44.6 in 2022, wind farms accounted for the largest portion to the grid, with major installations at Hornsdale, Lake Bonney, and Snowtown)
BESS: 30% of Australias home batteries are in SA. Large-scale batteries like the Hornsdale Power Reserve (150 MW) and residential batteries (30,000+ installed) stabilize the grid and store excess renewable energy.

Non-Renewables Sources and Imports (30%)
Natural Gas: 25.4% (down from 29.5%, gas-fired plants are a diminishing but still critical backup)
Interstate Imports: 2-5% (South Australia connects to the National Electricity Market (NEM) via interconnectors with Victoria (Heywood and Murraylink).

Recap of the Dominican Republics Energy Mix:

Annual Cost of Fossil Fuel, for generation of electricity: Between $2.55 - $3.47 billion
Annual electricity consumption (2023)*: 22,193 GWh
Peak demand: 3,662 MW (megawatts)
DRs Energy Mix: Heavy fossil fuels at 83.1% (oil: 12.3%, natural gas: 40.6%, coal: 30.2%) and some renewables at 16.9% (solar: 5.7%, wind: 4.3%, hydro: 6.1% and bio-fuels: 0.8%)
Base Load (or Baseload or Base Input) for DR: 2,197 MW (or 0.60 x 3,662 MW Peak Load. Just a best effort guessimate)

A Solution for the Dominican Republic (DR) Base Load and Beyond:

Okay, so heres the deal, with how the DR, should be able to reach 100% renewables, for their base load electricity grid needs. My recommendation, is for DR to have like a renewables clean energy plan for the next 15-20 years.

A plan, which outlines their intentions, commitments and schedule, showing steady continual growth and build-outs of smaller manageable projects, of like 5% - 7% SWB worth of renewables, added annually to the grid.

Yeah, I know, not exactly the explosive, home run solution, you were perhaps looking for, but the DR, need only take an additional 6-8 years, if they followed a constant regiment of 5-7% SWB yearly implementations to reach your estimated 40% base load (or a few years later to reach 60%). Considering the DR, is already at 17% renewables.

Here is my summation of levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) in ranges, using approx. estimates from several sources for the years 2023 (or 2024), in $/MWh, for those energy technologies, I could find:

LCOE Ranges for Energy Technologies in 2023 (or 2024):
Nuclear Reactor: $90140+ (high upfront costs, delays)
SMR: $6090+ (early projects at upper end, targets lower with scale)
Solar (utility-scale): $3050 (lower with sun-rich regions, higher with storage)
Onshore Wind: $3555 (site-dependent, rises with transmission costs)
Offshore Wind: $70150+ (higher upfront/transmission costs, but improving with scale and tech)
BESS (4-hour storage): $120170 (lithium-ion, varies with duration/cycles)
Pumped Hydro: $60200 (site-specific, high upfront but low operating costs)
LNG (gas peaker): $50100 (import costs, volatile fuel prices, carbon costs add ~2030/MWh)
Coal: $60100+ (import costs, older plants higher; carbon costs push to 80150+)

Cost Ranges for Energy Hybrid Systems using 2023 (or 2024):
Solar + BESS: $50100/MWh (sun-rich regions with 48h storage).
Wind + BESS: $60120/MWh (onshore wind with 412h storage).

LCOE Sources for 2023 or 2024:
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA): https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2024/Sep/IRENA_Renewable_power_generation_costs_in_2023.pdf
Lazard's Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis: https://www.lazard.com/media/xemfey0k/lazards-lcoeplus-june-2024-_vf.pdf
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA): https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/electricity_generation/pdf/AEO2023_LCOE_report.pdf
The International Energy Agency (IEA): https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/lcoe-and-value-adjusted-lcoe-for-solar-pv-plus-battery-storage-coal-and-natural-gas-in-selected-regions-in-the-stated-policies-scenario-2022-2030

Closing Arguments:

As I look around the worlds at those that are making the transition to a greener electrical grid, I looked to see what is working, what is cheap and less expensive, what is reliable and sustainable, and what is simple in design and complexity, requiring low maintenance and technical expertise to build, service and maintain. More often than not, its SOLAR, WIND and BESS (SWB), with some natural gas to round out the energy mix.

Remember it took the state of South Australia 20 years to go from 1% to 72.3% today. In a few more years, their grid, will be 100% renewables, with excess electricity, to either export it via interconnects or used to make green hydrogen.

And like SA, who have flipped the switch and turn the tables on their fossils fuels plants, being the ones that provide intermittent energy when needed (and soon to be phased out), is the right approach the DR should follow, to save millions of dollars (IMHO) and wean themselves off of fossil fuels.

So YES, I think DR, can absolutely establish and transition to 40% (or 60%) base load (and beyond), with 100% renewables. It will just take a small, but reasonable amount of time. But doable, considering DR has 6x the population of SA, but ONLY consumes twice (2x) as much annual electricity.

Note, I didnt get into specifics, in terms of a cost/benefit analysis, but with the LCOEs provided, one can easily figure out, a half-dozen different cost scenarios. I suspect its going to be a mixture of SWB (with more WIND than SOLAR and even pumped hydro), given DRs small land size and available space (that being 20x smaller than SA), lots of offshore wind will need serious consideration.

Finally, I think this approach works best for DR, while the rest of the world (mostly the very rich nations), use their time and money to figure out, how viable and cost efficient, SMRs really are, as the industry becomes more mature.If South Australia gets to 100% renewables by 2027, I'll kiss EihTooms' ass in the middle of Soi Cowboy at 10:00 PM on a Saturday night.

South Australia has the highest electricity prices in Australia, probably because it pushed renewables too hard. The wholesale price is almost twice Queensland's:

https://www.aer.gov.au/industry/wholesale/charts

And in 2023, SA consumers were paying 0. 45 AUD per kilowatt hour, or $0. 30 USD per kilowatt hour.

https://www.bluettipower.com.au/blogs/home-backup/average-electricity-costs-per-kwh-by-state?srsltid=AfmBOoqqCxLyz1Vv4S9yV1PvVxbihb5LJZosQn1lp8-bELRHo-TfVGMz

For comparison, in the Great State of Texas, I pay about $0. 13 USD per kilowatt hour.

And Texas, by the way, generates about 40% of its electricity from renewables and nuclear.

South Australia I believe has the largest onshore production of natural gas in Australia. Without that and natural gas fired power plants, SA would be reliant on coal for baseload electricity generation.

The Dominican Republic doesn't have natural gas reserves. It has to import LNG and fuel oil, which are expensive, or use coal, which is dirty and emits more carbon than natural gas. Now this admittedly is a good argument for renewables for intermittent supply in the DR, like what Texas does. But they're just not going to cost effectively supply all base load and peak load requirements.

The Dominican Republic during parts of the year has lots of cloud cover. A hell of a lot more than sunny SA.

Your cost numbers per MW hour above are screwed. Please note that $60100 per MW hour for coal would be $60.10 per kw hour. That's off by a factor of around 1000. The real number is around $60 per MW hour or $. 06 per kw hour.

And you're saying that the cost to generate electricity from coal is 20 X the cost from solar and 17 X the cost of wind? The cost of generating electricity with a conventional nuclear plant is 15 X more than with a small nuclear reactor? That's complete and total bollocks.

Then there's battery storage, which is essential in the tree hugger's pipe dream, which of course doesn't allow for base load electricity generation from nuclear. Cheerleaders for renewables understate the cost of storage. At some point the cost of battery storage may come down to where renewables can cost effectively supply base load electricity. But we're not there yet. And may never be in the USA (which admittedly doesn't preclude that from happening the DR) as long as the Democratic and Republican parties won't allow America to buy from China.

The biggest consideration for the DR is the cost. Californians can afford to pay out the ass for energy. People in the DR cannot. Leftist elites in the developed world should not try to force high priced renewable energy onto developing countries unless they are first willing to give up air conditioning. Because that's what they'd be doing to people in places like the DR and India who would have to pay prices for energy even higher than South Australians. Some will be lucky to afford electric lighting so their kids can study at night, let alone A/C.

Tiny 12

02-22-25, 16:44

Tiny 12

02-22-25, 17:24

Since you apparently could not find a single link to substantiate so much as one word of your tall tales of woeYour demands for links have become tiresome. For example, more than once you've asked me to provide Google links for data I pulled from a proprietary database, that you could verify in seconds with a little initiative. OK, I'll help you out just this once. However, in the future please do your own fact checking.

Yeah, the whole Democratic playbook of Zelensky good and Putin bad is getting old. As for Zelensky.

He's in year 6 of his 5 year term.This is true. Zero Pinocchio's!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy

Declared martial law Feb 2022 and has banned elections since then.This is true, as to martial law. And elections are banned when martial law is in effect. Zero Pinocchio's!

https://www.rnbo.gov.ua/en/Diialnist/7035.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Ukrainian_presidential_election

Banned 11 political parties.This is true. Zero Pinocchio's!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_parties_in_Ukraine

Passed law in 2022 to censor journalists and combined all news into one gov't station.The first part of this statement, about the 2022 law, is true! The second part is not true as there are local stations broadcasting news.

One tenth of one Pinocchio!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press_in_Ukraine

Journalists investigating his corruption get conscripted and thrown on the front lines to die.This is probably true! Men over the age of 25, including journalists investigating Zelensky, are conscripted. And most likely some have served on the front lines. In addition, journalists are arrested and incarcerated. See Wikipedia link above and

https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/ukraine/

Zelensky's administration has card carrying Nazis in it, and one Jewish lawyer was on Tucker Carlson and saying Zelensky is throwing priests in jail. This lawyer was no Putin fan. In fact, Putin ordered his arrest.This is probably true. It is not known whether Nazis still carry cards identifying themselves as Nazis. However please see the following link.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/ukraine-has-nazi-problem-vladimir-putin-s-denazification-claim-war-ncna1290946

I am not an avid viewer of Tucker Carlson but Elvis would have seen what he said he saw.

Zero Pinocchio's!

So it is more like Putin bad and Zelensky is even worse.

And then there is Glenn Greenwald's take on things: There were all sorts of things that the United States knew that it could do that could provoke Russia to invade Ukraine. There were memos floating all around Washington for years saying, "These are the things that are the red lines for Moscow, not just for Putin but for everybody in Moscow, including his opponents and these are the things that if we do, we will force them to essentially invade eastern Ukraine."

The United States then proceeded to do all of them seemingly wanting Russia to invade Ukraine. In February 2022 they did that and the United States immediately announced, under the Biden administration, that we were going to fund this war, we were going to give Ukraine all the weapons and the money they needed to win.

So after had enough of the Covid scam, you Democratic douches pulled another scam to secure taxpayer money and started the Ukraine war.

If you were go to make a valid criticism of Trump, you could put to the huge budget deficits that he rung up, but Biden was fucking worse.

So while you advocated spending trillions on Covid with its 0.2% mortality and now this fucking stupid war, you kind of ignore the fact that we are $37 trillion in debt, racking up $2 trillion per year and are on the path to default. And while you Democratic douches bash Trump and Musk for cutting spending, which has to happen or it is inevitable we default on our debt, you have no plan outside of continuing to throw good money after bad.

Name one Democrat interested in cutting spending, Loony Tooms. You cannot.

If you actually brought out a candidate like Clinton who actually had a goal of a balanced budget, I might vote for them.These are mostly opinions and not subject to fact-checking. The infection fatality ratio from COVID, while higher than 0. 2% at the start of the epidemic, probably is lower than that now. Elvis' number is as good as any. The gross federal debt is indeed $37 trillion, and the federal budget deficit, about $1.9 trillion, is indeed $2 trillion if rounded upwards.

Zero Pinocchio's!

And Elvis gets One Wise Man because of his willingness to vote for Bill Clinton, who helped Newt Gingrich balance the budget!

SubCmdr

02-22-25, 17:38

It should also be noted that two females that were in charge of services, The US Coast Guard and the US Navy were also fired. Along with the commanders of the Judge Advocate Generals.

Why exactly do you think Hegseth a smart guy? Because he has an Ivy League education. Why did Hegseth get the job? He faced allegations of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement, and alcohol issues leading up to his committee confirmation. He was a Major. Please! Do you think I am smart guy? Do I have an Ivy league education (or equivalent. Think John Elway)? Do you question if I would gotten any jobs I held throughout my adult years because I am black?

At that level it is not about absolute confidence, it is about politics

The Musk/Trump Co-Presidencys objective is the cement power for the billionaire class under authoritarian rule that is un-democratic and weld unchecked power!No room for blacks or women in the power structure under a Musk / Trump dictatorship. They want to take the United States of America back to theses days:

In the U.S. Constitution, the Three-fifths Compromise is part of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.Look around this thread and see who is a Trump Supporter. This is what they are supporting!

Republican lawmakers are pushing back against sweeping cuts to the federal government launched by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, as their downsizing crusade begins to hit GOP constituents.

A growing number of GOP lawmakers are trying to intervene with the Trump administration and are weighing legislation to circumvent the changes. But with the Department of Government Efficiency and the Office of Management and Budget moving at a rapid clip and flouting federal law to carve up the government, the lawmakers face monumental challenges in getting the White House to spare their constituents from the ax.Historically, we have seen this play run before:

Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in 1919 when he joined the German Workers' Party, which later became the Nazi Party. He quickly rose to prominence within the party and became its leader in 1921. During the 1920s, the Nazi Party remained on the political fringes, but gained significant support after the Great Depression began in 1929. Hitlers oratorical skills and the party's use of propaganda helped him to become extremely popular. On January 30, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. After the Reichstag fire in February 1933, Hitler convinced Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree, which severely curtailed civil liberties and allowed for the persecution of political opponents. Hitler then proposed the Enabling Act, which gave him dictatorial powers and allowed him to pass laws without parliamentary oversight. By April 1933, Hitler held de facto dictatorial powers and ordered the construction of the first Nazi concentration camp at Dachau. Hitler's rise to power was completed in August 1934 when, after Hindenburg's death, he merged the chancellery with the presidency into the title of Fhrer.MAGA is a NAZI movement in the United States of America!

Tiny 12

02-22-25, 18:43

I thought I was clear SubCmdr. Hegseth was a bad nominee, and based on what he wrote people should have known he'd preferentially fire women and anyone who could be accused of getting ahead because of DEI. In other words anyone who wasn't white.

His most important qualification for president in Trump's eyes was probably that he looks good on television.

Dummies don't get into Princeton. That doesn't mean he was qualified for the office. He wasn't.

SubCmdr

02-22-25, 18:50

So Secretary of State Mark Rubio is the token minority in the Cabinet. They can point to him and say, we are not anti-diversity.

The revolution will not be televised Tiny 12. But when it comes I will let everyone know you are a good one!

I thought I was clear SubCmdr. Hegseth was a bad nominee, and based on what he wrote people should have known he'd preferentially fire women and anyone who could be accused of getting ahead because of DEI. In other words anyone who wasn't white.

His most important qualification for president in Trump's eyes was probably that he looks good on television.

Dummies don't get into Princeton. That doesn't mean he was qualified for the office. He wasn't.

Tiny 12

02-22-25, 18:52

Even Without knowing anything about Brown, I'm confident he's more qualified to be Secretary of Defense than the man who fired him.

Elvis 2008

02-22-25, 20:02

These are mostly opinions and not subject to fact-checking. The infection fatality ratio from COVID, while higher than 0. 2% at the start of the epidemic, probably is lower than that now. Elvis' number is as good as any. The gross federal debt is indeed $37 trillion, and the federal budget deficit, about $1.9 trillion, is indeed $2 trillion if rounded upwards.

Zero Pinocchio's!

And Elvis gets One Wise Man because of his willingness to vote for Bill Clinton, who helped Newt Gingrich balance the budget!Excellent post Tiny. I would love to think this puts Tooms in his place, but we know better right?

On the Covid infection, I would add two things. There was not sufficient tests available early on. Once testing was done on the general population versus the sick population, studies as early as April 2020 had rates as low as at 0. 3 and 0. 4%.

Thing is one of those studies had 500 people with 2 deaths. So the difference in that study between 0. 2 and 0.4% was one death.

In addition, doctors had to learn how to treat patients. The use of steroids and anticoagulants became standard practice. If monoclonal antibodies had been used more widely, the rate of Covid deaths may have been less than 0. 2%. In addition, doctors had to learn to keep Covid patients off ventilators as long as possible as 80% of the time a Covid patient was placed on a ventilator, they died.

The reason that I brought this up is that there is a new pandemic scare that I suspect is bullshit, https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stocks-puke-after-china-reports-new-coronavirus-pandemic-potential-discovered.

So here is the scare sentence: The new virus is even closer related to MERS, a deadlier type of coronavirus that kills up to a third of people it infects.

The key sentences is at the end: HKU5-CoV viruses were first detected in bats in 2006, but the new data suggests HKU5-CoV-2 has a 'higher potential for interspecies infection' than others. However, the potential for HKU5-CoV-2 to spill over to humans 'remains to be investigated. '

The reason I think this is bullshit is Covid was designed in a lab to be as contagious is possible, and this virus then is likely way less contagioius. Also, the mortality rates on this new virus are likely also way overestimated as Covid was.

But yeah, great post, Tiny. Thing is that my post was not even about the facts but that Zelensky's image is taking a hit. When you want to deify someone, you do not mention their negatives. The idea that Tooms is floating, that Zelensky is flawless, is pretty absurd.

Axel Heyst

02-23-25, 02:39

His most important qualification for president in Trump's eyes was probably that he looks good on television.I disagree Tiny. I think the uppermost qualification in Trump 47's mind is loyalty and the 2nd most important is capability. I was surprised by the Hegseth choice myself. I thought Trump would pick Mike Pompeo or somebody like him with stature and experience. Guess I was wrong, but I am willing to give Hegseth a chance. If he fucks up Trump will fire him in a nano second.

SubCmdr

02-23-25, 05:50

I disagree Tiny. I think the uppermost qualification in Trump 47's mind is loyalty and the 2nd most important is capability. I was surprised by the Hegseth choice myself. I thought Trump would pick Mike Pompeo or somebody like him with stature and experience. Guess I was wrong, but I am willing to give Hegseth a chance. If he fucks up Trump will fire him in a nano second.He certainly isn't qualified at all. He is a racist and a sexist. Loyalty to the Musk / Trump Co-Presidency that is building a growing Nazi movement called MAGA in the United States of America anathema to the oath he took to defend the Constitution of the Untied States of America from all enemies forgien and domestic.

It is the domestic ones I worry about now. The Musk / Trump Co-Presidency is building personal loyalty to themselves in order to take over the all functions of the government in a dictatorship.

We have seen this play run before in history: Reference made to Post #17283 written by me on 02/22/2025.

EihTooms

02-23-25, 06:48

Your demands for links have become tiresome. For example, more than once you've asked me to provide Google links for data I pulled from a proprietary database, that you could verify in seconds with a little initiative. OK, I'll help you out just this once. However, in the future please do your own fact checking.

This is true. Zero Pinocchio's!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy

This is true, as to martial law. And elections are banned when martial law is in effect. Zero Pinocchio's!

https://www.rnbo.gov.ua/en/Diialnist/7035.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Ukrainian_presidential_election

This is true. Zero Pinocchio's!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_parties_in_Ukraine

The first part of this statement, about the 2022 law, is true! The second part is not true as there are local stations broadcasting news.

One tenth of one Pinocchio!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press_in_Ukraine

This is probably true! Men over the age of 25, including journalists investigating Zelensky, are conscripted. And most likely some have served on the front lines. In addition, journalists are arrested and incarcerated. See Wikipedia link above and

https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/ukraine/

This is probably true. It is not known whether Nazis still carry cards identifying themselves as Nazis. However please see the following link.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/ukraine-has-nazi-problem-vladimir-putin-s-denazification-claim-war-ncna1290946

I am not an avid viewer of Tucker Carlson but Elvis would have seen what he said he saw.

Zero Pinocchio's!

These are mostly opinions and not subject to fact-checking. The infection fatality ratio from COVID, while higher than 0. 2% at the start of the epidemic, probably is lower than that now. Elvis' number is as good as any. The gross federal debt is indeed $37 trillion, and the federal budget deficit, about $1.9 trillion, is indeed $2 trillion if rounded upwards.

Zero Pinocchio's!

And Elvis gets One Wise Man because of his willingness to vote for Bill Clinton, who helped Newt Gingrich balance the budget!In your very first link regarding Zellenskyy declaring martial law and suspending elections, this is the all-important context we see IN that link you provided but Elvis would not:

Since the beginning of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this is the 13th extension of martial law and mobilisation.See, this is why links matter. Oh, so sorry if providing context and substantiation is "tiresome" for the Trumpster MAGAs. Because they generally refute every lie Trumpster MAGAs need to spin.

I knew with 100% certainty that an ordinary link would provide the context that Elvis was avoiding like a vampire avoiding sunlight.

Without it, the liar was suggesting that Zellenskyy was somehow anti-democratic, maybe a Nazi dictator. FIVE Pinocchios. And FIVE for you too for supporting his Lie.

Oh look. It is simply that the country can not conduct a free, fair and legitimate election while Russa Russia Russia Russia is engaged in a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, nothing whatsoever to do with Zellenskyy being anti-democratic or a Nazi dictator. PUTIN is more responsible for suspending elections in Ukraine than Zellenskyy.

The rest of your links also illustrate why Elvis was lying with his out-of-context spin on it. And you too for defending him for it.

Tiny 12

02-23-25, 11:10

I disagree Tiny. I think the uppermost qualification in Trump 47's mind is loyalty and the 2nd most important is capability. I was surprised by the Hegseth choice myself. I thought Trump would pick Mike Pompeo or somebody like him with stature and experience. Guess I was wrong, but I am willing to give Hegseth a chance. If he fucks up Trump will fire him in a nano second.Hi Axel, The one potentially redeeming characteristic of Hegseth is that he may cut waste and inefficiency, and establish a path toward lower defense spending. But given Hegseth's writings and ramblings, SubCmdr has an excellent point. Add that to his inexperience and I don't think he was a good pick.

Nobody on the board is going to agree with this, but I wish Trump had come up with a really inspired choice for Defense Secretary, like Rand Paul. He and Tulsi Gabbard at National Intelligence would be quite the pair!

I do trust Trump, who's not a neoconservative, more on defense than Hegseth, who may be.

Tiny 12

02-23-25, 11:14

Excellent post Tiny...Thanks Elvis. Yes, not to be immodest, but I thought it was a masterpiece. And I had to sacrifice. I had to choose between writing that post, and the reply to Spidy, or going to Black Caviar or Soi Cowboy on my last night in Bangkok. Given I'm trying to finally embark on a life of monogamy, the choice was simpler than it sounds though.

I'm looking forward to reading up on the new virus. Packing up right now so it will have to wait for another day.

Tiny 12

02-23-25, 11:16

The revolution will not be televised Tiny 12. But when it comes I will let everyone know you are a good one!It won't matter SubCmdr. We'll be living on our island paradises, far away from the revolution. Living in style too. I'll have my dividend paying stocks, and your Bitcoin holdings will soar even more because of the political upheaval.

Hope you'll visit, provided that you bring some fine looking Dominican wenches!

Elvis 2008

02-23-25, 23:20

The rest of your links also illustrate why Elvis was lying with his out-of-context spin on it. And you too for defending him for it.https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3bxbbb/why_didnt_britain_hold_elections_during_wwii/?rdt=37175

Why didn't Britain hold elections during WWII?

It may seem like an obvious question but elections were held throughout the rest of the English speaking world; Canada, the USA, New Zealand and Australia.

Britain did hold elections during WWII. In 1945 they held an election that resulted in Clement Attlee being elected Prime Minister, replacing Churchill. There were also numerous elections to fill in empty seats in parliament during the war.

In Britain each sitting of parliament can last for 5 years at most before an election needs to take place. Parliament can be dissolved and elections called for earlier then every 5 years, but 5 years is the max. Parliament extended this 5 year limit during the war however.

Without it, the liar was suggesting that Zellenskyy was somehow anti-democratic, maybe a Nazi dictator. FIVE Pinocchios. And FIVE for you too for supporting his Lie.

Oh look. It is simply that the country can not conduct a free, fair and legitimate election while Russa Russia Russia Russia is engaged in a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, nothing whatsoever to do with Zellenskyy being anti-democratic or a Nazi dictator. PUTIN is more responsible for suspending elections in Ukraine than Zellenskyy.Nope, it is zero pinocchios because the leader who was at war with Russia and who did not have elections was (wait for it), Adolf Hitler.

A Democratic douche against free and fair elections? Gee, that is a shocker.

EihTooms

02-24-25, 12:30

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3bxbbb/why_didnt_britain_hold_elections_during_wwii/?rdt=37175

Why didn't Britain hold elections during WWII?

It may seem like an obvious question but elections were held throughout the rest of the English speaking world; Canada, the USA, New Zealand and Australia.

Britain did hold elections during WWII. In 1945 they held an election that resulted in Clement Attlee being elected Prime Minister, replacing Churchill. There were also numerous elections to fill in empty seats in parliament during the war.

In Britain each sitting of parliament can last for 5 years at most before an election needs to take place. Parliament can be dissolved and elections called for earlier then every 5 years, but 5 years is the max. Parliament extended this 5 year limit during the war however.

Nope, it is zero pinocchios because the leader who was at war with Russia and who did not have elections was (wait for it), Adolf Hitler.

A Democratic douche against free and fair elections? Gee, that is a shocker.Well, why you are citing Britain not conducting elections during the WWII bomb attacks, as some "proof" that Ukraine not conducting elections during their bomb attacks that Zellenskyy is an anti-democratic Nazi dictator is truly bewildering. Was Britain an anti-democratic Nazi dictatorship as well during WWII? Churchill? Is everybody an anti-democratic Nazi dictator now? I am sure President Musk's MAGAs would love for us to believe that. It paves the way for where President Musk and his assistant Trump would like to take us.

Moreover, other than a few stray Channel Islands, there was no Full-Scale Invasion of Britain by Germany as there is in Ukraine by Russia Russia Russia Russia.

You know where else neither Germany nor Japan invaded during WWII? This may come as a surprise to you, not sure about Tiny, but neither USA, Canada, New Zealand nor Australia were invaded by anybody during WWII. Neither were their land masses ever bombed by anyone during WWII. How about that?

Maybe Tiny can pitch in and provide links that unravel whatever gobbledygook lie you're trying to spin with this one and thereby prove you wrong and me right again.

See, if only you had provided the same links Tiny provided when you tried to float your original out-of-context post full of lies, unsubstantiated opinions and half-truths you would have so richly deserved and earned enough Pinnochios from the start to fill a Trump rally on this point and might not have dragged poor Tiny into the Pinocchio mob with you.

LOL. It is hilarious that as hard as Tiny tried to apologize for and defend your other lies in that post, certainly harder than you tried, the best he could come up with was "the second part is not true", "probably true", "probably true" and the all-time classic "these are mostly opinions and therefore not subject to fact-checking. ".

LOL. Hey, no kidding. Some "masterpiece".

As usual, it is I who should be thanking Tiny or anyone else who provides at least one minimally credible link for the lies MAGAs live to spin because even those are sure to contain at least one critical qualifier and detail that blows their entire premise and lie out of the water.

Sirioja

02-24-25, 15:04

When driving back from my 2 German girls I enjoyed for total 270 €, on Sunday morning I was disappointed not to go for more than 288 km / h, but I didn't see any BYD, Tesla following me, but I really wish I will go faster. Maybe because with 95 E10 , when no french E85 in Germany, so I was maybe less powerful. Have to try to improve, powered with E85.

Spidy

02-24-25, 16:42

If South Australia gets to 100% renewables by 2027, I'll kiss EihTooms' ass in the middle of Soi Cowboy at 10:00 PM on a Saturday night.

South Australia has the highest electricity prices in Australia, probably because it pushed renewables too hard. The wholesale price is almost twice Queensland's:

https://www.aer.gov.au/industry/wholesale/charts I think youre missing the bigger picture. Whether its 2027, 2028 or 2029, when they do meet their goal of %100 renewables, it will signal, a milestone and a monumental moment in Australian and world energy history and prove that you can have renewables as base load and beyond.

In my books, even if they are still at 3-5% LNG, being used as a peaker plant and part of their energy mix, for those rear summer peak demands moments, its still a huge WIN!

And in 2023, SA consumers were paying 0. 45 AUD per kilowatt hour, or $0. 30 USD per kilowatt hour.

https://www.bluettipower.com.au/blogs/home-backup/average-electricity-costs-per-kwh-by-state?srsltid=AfmBOoqqCxLyz1Vv4S9yV1PvVxbihb5LJZosQn1lp8-bELRHo-TfVGMz

For comparison, in the Great State of Texas, I pay about $0. 13 USD per kilowatt hour.

And Texas, by the way, generates about 40% of its electricity from renewables and nuclear.

Not sure whats the deal is with Australian electricity prices in general, but Australia has for a long time ranked among the worlds top 10 countries with the highest residential electricity prices. So comparing it with Texas, isnt realistic.

Yeah, I remember, the winter storm, which struck Texas in Feb 2021. Where a seized up grid and frozen windmills, let wholesale electricity prices, spike up, to a ridiculous price of $9,000/MWh. Leaving residents, with electrical bills of $10-17K for just a few days worth of electricity. (...kkkk!). So Texas is not without its hiccups!

Although, comparing SA with other Aussie states is fair, and their rates are the currently among highest in the country, when you take into account the cost/investment of transitioning to renewable energy, I would have thought, it'd be actually be higher than it is. Historically their rates have been higher then they are today. So while a bit high, it's only short term pain.

The higher rates, wont remain high, in the coming years. Couple that with their increased periods of negative rates, excess electricity sent to NEM and possible green hydrogen generation, theyll be more positive net gains to their flexible 100% renewable grid.

SA has turned the corner and are only using LNG as intermittent/peaker plant power sources. With regards to copycat state of Texas, nuclear is only 5-8%, and barely anything in the scheme things. While natural gas is still doing most of the heavy lifting, with wind, solar and batteries (SWB) as a very close second. It wont be long before copycat Texas follows places like SA and California, with SWB as the biggest part of their energy mix.

South Australia I believe has the largest onshore production of natural gas in Australia. Without that and natural gas fired power plants, SA would be reliant on coal for baseload electricity generation. SA, phased out coal in 2016, as I reported. Natural gas (LNG) is next!

The Dominican Republic doesn't have natural gas reserves. It has to import LNG and fuel oil, which are expensive, or use coal, which is dirty and emits more carbon than natural gas. Now this admittedly is a good argument for renewables for intermittent supply in the DR, like what Texas does. But they're just not going to cost effectively supply all base load and peak load requirements.

The Dominican Republic during parts of the year has lots of cloud cover. A hell of a lot more than sunny SA.Just repeating what I've already said doesn't do anything for your argument. Re-read my section on the "Recap of the Dominican Republics Energy Mix:". And don't worry so much, today's solar will still generate a fair amount of power on those approx. 125-165 cloudy days in the DR. But again, from what I've gleaned about the DR, they'll need a mixture of solutions, from SWB, and maybe pumped hydro, offshore wind and offshore solar, perhaps.

Your cost numbers per MW hour above are screwed. Please note that $60100 per MW hour for coal would be $60.10 per kw hour. That's off by a factor of around 1000. The real number is around $60 per MW hour or $. 06 per kw hour.

And you're saying that the cost to generate electricity from coal is 20 X the cost from solar and 17 X the cost of wind? The cost of generating electricity with a conventional nuclear plant is 15 X more than with a small nuclear reactor? That's complete and total bollocks. What your looking at are LCOE project costs, in my report.

Then there's battery storage, which is essential in the tree hugger's pipe dream, which of course doesn't allow for base load electricity generation from nuclear. Cheerleaders for renewables understate the cost of storage. At some point the cost of battery storage may come down to where renewables can cost effectively supply base load electricity. But we're not there yet. And may never be in the USA (which admittedly doesn't preclude that from happening the DR) as long as the Democratic and Republican parties won't allow America to buy from China. First, batteries are hardly ever paired with nuclear and suited with wind and solar. Second, the cost for storage is dropping everyday, with alternatives like Na-Li batteries being even cheaper. Third, when batteries are paired with S+W, the your LCOE, is better than buying them separately. Fourth, consider, there are projects in the U.S. (Texas, Arizona) now bid $30-$40/MWh for solar + 4h storage (with subsidies) LCOE. Still w/o subsidies globally, your looking at LCOE of $70-$80/MWh SWB combos.

Utility-Scale Solar, 2023 Edition: Empirical Trends in Deployment, Technology, Cost, Performance, PPA Pricing, and Value in the United States
https://emp.lbl.gov/publications/utility-scale-solar-2023-edition

he biggest consideration for the DR is the cost. Californians can afford to pay out the ass for energy. People in the DR cannot. Leftist elites in the developed world should not try to force high priced renewable energy onto developing countries unless they are first willing to give up air conditioning. Because that's what they'd be doing to people in places like the DR and India who would have to pay prices for energy even higher than South Australians. Some will be lucky to afford electric lighting so their kids can study at night, let alone A/C. With an annual cost of between $2.55 - $3.47 billion dollars to import and burn fossil fuels for electricity, is good enough reason to look for cheaper, sustainable alternatives.

I'm sure you love it, when your right-winger billionaire robber oil-n-gas barons, run roughshod over poor struggling emerging countries and would like nothing better than to see them continue to suckle on their oil rich nipples, for the next 15-20 years. But I don't think they can afford NOT to adopt a 15-20 plan, to tackle the ever increasing and rising costs of fossil fuels and provide energy independence for their secured future, if shown what's possible.

Hence way I think the SA's example will show many, what's possible!

Elvis 2008

02-24-25, 17:22

Well, why you are citing Britain not conducting elections during the WWII bomb attacksMaybe you need to read the 1st sentence in the 4th paragraph again, Britain did hold elections during WWII. And the 3rd sentence 4th paragraph, There were also numerous elections to fill in empty seats in parliament during the war.

And maybe you have heard of the cell phone and the internet?

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/04/what-is-electronic-voting/

Estonia was the first country in the world to use online voting in 2005. Last year, the European country held "the world's first mostly digital elections", with more electronic votes (51%) cast than paper votes (49%) for the first time.

In India, almost 1 million people will vote this year using e-voting machines at polling stations, according to Euronews.

Russia and Turkey are among other countries rolling out e-voting systems, while Norway and Mexico are allowing e-voting in this year's elections for citizens living abroad.

France has an online voting system, but this isn't used for national or local elections, according to data visualization specialist Statista.

Some areas of Switzerland are offering e-voting, reports news site SWI swissinfi. Ch.

End of link.

And as of now, Loony Tooms, Ukraine would have an election that is every Democratic douche's dream: one candidate, one party, and state run media.

Sirioja

02-25-25, 10:31

EihTooms

02-25-25, 10:41

Maybe you need to read the 1st sentence in the 4th paragraph again, Britain did hold elections during WWII. And the 3rd sentence 4th paragraph, There were also numerous elections to fill in empty seats in parliament during the war.

And maybe you have heard of the cell phone and the internet?

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/04/what-is-electronic-voting/

Estonia was the first country in the world to use online voting in 2005. Last year, the European country held "the world's first mostly digital elections", with more electronic votes (51%) cast than paper votes (49%) for the first time.

In India, almost 1 million people will vote this year using e-voting machines at polling stations, according to Euronews.

Russia and Turkey are among other countries rolling out e-voting systems, while Norway and Mexico are allowing e-voting in this year's elections for citizens living abroad.

France has an online voting system, but this isn't used for national or local elections, according to data visualization specialist Statista.

Some areas of Switzerland are offering e-voting, reports news site SWI swissinfi. Ch.

End of link.

And as of now, Loony Tooms, Ukraine would have an election that is every Democratic douche's dream: one candidate, one party, and state run media.Do you even understand what is stated in your own link?

It provides beatutiful substantiation, in context, for why Britain did not hold elections during WWII, when the country was being bombed by the Germans. Almost the exact same reason Ukraine has not held elections in Ukraine while Russia Russia Russia Russia is bombing Ukraine with the added bonus of experiencing a Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine by Russia Russia Russia Russia that Britain was largely spared.

Come on, admit it; until you read my posts about this you have been so insulated inside the Winger MAGA mis- and dis-information bubble created by Russia Russia Russia Russia that you had no idea any part of Ukraine had been bombed by invading aggressor Russia Russia Russia Russia or that so much as a square meter of Ukraine had been invaded by Russia Russia Russia Russia, right?

Seriously. Admit it.

That is the only possible excuse for this truly bizarre MAGA lie you are desperately trying to float.

Tiny hasn't even come up with a link providing "opinions not subject to fact-checking" as proof that Ukraine has not once been struck by a bomb from Russia Russia Russia Russia or so much as had a single Russian soldier cross the borders into Ukraine in, oh, at least 3 years.

That is how far off you are from the truth.

And are you now seriiusly suggesting elections be held in Ukraine over the Internet the way they are only now trying to set up such systems in other countries that, oh lookie here, are NOT currently being bombed and experiencing a Full-scale Invasion from Russia Russia Russia Russia?

Have you ever heard of "No Internet Available" or "No Wifi", "Please Try Again Later"? That can go on for days in some areas of USA today!

Sure, maybe Britain should have conducted elections over the telephone during WWII. I am sure there were intermittently working phone lines here and there throughout London, perhaps one working phone for every 6-7 Brits back then. Assuming the Germans didn't figure out what was going on and start targeting the telephone powerlines and interchanges throughout the country to drop a few bombs.

Ceratainly Russia Russia Russia Russia would never catch on about that Internet thingie. Even with President Elon Musk and his assistant Trump aiding and abetting them every bomb of the way. Ha.

Good lord.

The level of MAGA willful ignorance is just astonishing.

Axel Heyst

02-25-25, 13:27

Sirioja

02-25-25, 13:29

In your very first link regarding Zellenskyy declaring martial law and suspending elections, this is the all-important context we see IN that link you provided but Elvis would not:

See, this is why links matter. Oh, so sorry if providing context and substantiation is "tiresome" for the Trumpster MAGAs. Because they generally refute every lie Trumpster MAGAs need to spin.

I knew with 100% certainty that an ordinary link would provide the context that Elvis was avoiding like a vampire avoiding sunlight.

Without it, the liar was suggesting that Zellenskyy was somehow anti-democratic, maybe a Nazi dictator. FIVE Pinocchios. And FIVE for you too for supporting his Lie.

Oh look. It is simply that the country can not conduct a free, fair and legitimate election while Russa Russia Russia Russia is engaged in a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, nothing whatsoever to do with Zellenskyy being anti-democratic or a Nazi dictator. PUTIN is more responsible for suspending elections in Ukraine than Zellenskyy.

The rest of your links also illustrate why Elvis was lying with his out-of-context spin on it. And you too for defending him for it.When Trump doesn t respect USA constitution, Ukrainian constitution which is before Zelensky, tell: no election under war. Trump and Putin are just liar twins, when Putin is a international law criminal dictator and Trump sucking swallowing Putin to get new business with him and lying about money sent to Ukraine, when USA never protected USA, but he tries to rob Ukraine now.

Beno69

02-25-25, 16:00

Let's see if he can destroy the world in 1 year.

Spidy

02-25-25, 16:02

No, I do not "got it". Calling a car an EV when it has a combustion engine and a gas tank is pretty fucking stupid. I know you did not make this up yourself but that is a political definition not a real one. As for your praising BYD for not making ICE cars when they have engines and cars with gas tanks is likewise stupid and quite frankly is BS Democratic douche save the planet bullshit.

For you MAGA Luddites, still having trouble, keeping up the changing times and EV technology and terminology...listen up and pay attention!

Let me be clear, once again! When I (or any non-MAGA, with a lick of intelligence) talks about the classification of EVs and hybrids, it means, they fall under the broader classification of "electrified vehicles", equipped with some form of electric propulsion.

Got it...Good!

Oh, and BTW, when the term NEVs (or new energy vehicles) is used, this will refer to BEVs, PHEVs or FCEVs. If you have any further difficulties with auto vehicle nomenclature, may I suggest you take it up with whatever automotive governing bodies makes that call.

My apologies, if that was too much for MAGA Luddites to learn in one post! (...kkkk!)

Mining for Lithium is good but mining for crude is bad? WTF is that? Well, someone finally put a pen to paper and looked at it, and the best cars in terms of pollution were not EVs but PHEVs, https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/why-plugin-hybrids-are-better-for-climate-than-full-evs-today.

That really shocked me.

Thing is the batteries in PHEVs are 1/6 the size of those in EVs. The batteries were only good for going 20 to 50 miles but now they have PHEVs that are up to 80 miles per charge. That is HUGE. The study estimates that people will use gasoline 30% of the time. If you can get 80 miles per charge, I bet you could do even better than that.
Hey, as much as that article was more of a Toyota propaganda piece, to sell more HEVs and PHEVs over BEVs, that's really fine and okay by me, if they can bamboozle enough buyers to believe them, like they're trying to do with their hydrogen cars (FCEVs) (...kkkk!). Hey, the more EVs, the merrier, the smart consumers, will figure it out for themselves!

You should know, HEVs and PHEVs, are just gateway vehicles to BEVs anyways and are merely bicycles with training wheels. Soon enough, their owners will take-off the training wheels and graduate up to owning a BEV, once they see through all the bullshit about EVs, as they get better and cheaper every year.

EihTooms

02-25-25, 17:28

Shame on USA with Trump lying about money sent to Ukraine, about 120 billions, less than what Europe sent, but now trying to rob 500 billions to poor Ukraine and sucking swallowing shameful dictator Putin, to make business with him, when he knows he lost for economics versus with far higher quality Europe and cheap China, with only his taxes to fight, so now trying to rob Ukraine. Just a shameful chicken robber, elected and representing USA, for so bad image. USA can t look great with so shameful Trump, twin with shameful Putin. I really wish Europe and Ukraine will resist to these 2 shameful.That was an amazing moment, one of the most shameful in a long list of shameful Trump moments.

And I assume very, very few MAGAs will ever know about it. Or understand what happened even if they did ever hear about it on Fux News and the rest.

Or care even if they understood the full implications of it. If anything, love their America-hating lord and savior even more for it.

Which is exactly the premise on which con man Donald Trump operates. It is the reason he is a Repub and could never have run as a Dem. He operates on the premise that his supporters are astonishingly stupid and / or hate America as much if not more than he does.

Old fat con man Trump starts lying in public about the man who is sitting right there next to him. And since Trump has now abdicated the President of the United States' 80 plus year unchallenged position as The Leader of the Free World and has turned his job and the USA into a pathetic laughing stock of an anti-democratic wannabe dictatorship, Macron had ZERO qualms about sticking out his hand, grabbing that fat lying clown's arm and stopping his lie dead in its tracks, correcting him in mid sentence.

Fat lying Clown Trump seemed shocked by the move and then sat there like a snot-nosed 7 year old who just got his knuckles cracked with a ruler, rolling his eyes, but enduring it because he KNEW he was just busted on a huge, critically-important lie.

Then what is fat lying clown Trump's only way he can figure out to ease out of the most humiliating moment any POTUS in history has ever suffered in public on the world stage over such an all-important foreign policy matter and at the HAND of the now presumably real Leader of the Free World, the very man fat lying clown Trump was lying about?

He simply repeated the lie about the man!

What the hell else does he know about how to deal with any and every issue that his golfing is interrupted for him to deal with? LIE, of course.

And every World Leader on the Planet, even the ones from countries Trump would denigrate as "sh*thole countries", knew he was lying and watched him lying about it. Twice. And they now fully understand how shamefully, historically low the once-great USA has fallen in just one month.

For any real American patriot, it was nauseating to watch as well as for anyone else in the world who ever revered and looked up to America or at least the idea of America as a symbol and embodiment of whatever good might be achieved in this world.

Tiny 12

02-25-25, 17:32

So when are you going over to the Ukraine to volunteer your services fight for freedom? I am not going to hold my breath.

The truth is that it has been a bloodbath over there with no end in sight since the Russian invasion began under Joe Biden and this Russian invasion would never have happened in the 1st place if Trump had been President and not the brain addled Joey Biden.

I am very dubious as to whether Trump can actually pull off a real deal between Russia and the Ukraine, ie a lasting peace and an end to all hostilities, but he is thinking outside the box. The alternative is a continuance of the death and destruction for years & years & years. So, I am going to hold off my judgement of this until I see the results. Yes, it might be a no go and nothing comes of it, or it might be another Neville Chamberlain "peace in our times" piece of bull shit, or it just could be a lasting peace where Ukraine survives mostly intact and becomes a part of the European Economic Community (EEC). Who knows? But I am sure we will all find out pretty soon.Great post. I'm more hopeful than you are Axel, that an end to death and destruction is in sight. Trump, while being firm, improved relations with Russia and North Korea by developing a relationship with their leaders. I suspect you're right, the war in Ukraine wouldn't have kicked off under a Trump presidency. From memory, North Korea ceased medium and long range ballistic missile tests after Trump improved relations, only to start them up again under Biden. I may have problems with Trump's tariffs and what he tried to pull after the 2020 election. But he did a great job with Russia and North Korea.

Tiny 12

02-25-25, 18:03

I think youre missing the bigger picture. Whether its 2027, 2028 or 2029, when they do meet their goal of %100 renewables, it will signal, a milestone and a monumental moment in Australian and world energy history and prove that you can have renewables as base load and beyond.

In my books, even if they are still at 3-5% LNG, being used as a peaker plant and part of their energy mix, for those rear summer peak demands moments, its still a huge WIN!

Not sure whats the deal is with Australian electricity prices in general, but Australia has for a long time ranked among the worlds top 10 countries with the highest residential electricity prices. So comparing it with Texas, isnt realistic.

Yeah, I remember, the winter storm, which struck Texas in Feb 2021. Where a seized up grid and frozen windmills, let wholesale electricity prices, spike up, to a ridiculous price of $9,000/MWh. Leaving residents, with electrical bills of $10-17K for just a few days worth of electricity. (...kkkk!). So Texas is not without its hiccups!

Although, comparing SA with other Aussie states is fair, and their rates are the currently among highest in the country, when you take into account the cost/investment of transitioning to renewable energy, I would have thought, it'd be actually be higher than it is. Historically their rates have been higher then they are today. So while a bit high, it's only short term pain.

The higher rates, wont remain high, in the coming years. Couple that with their increased periods of negative rates, excess electricity sent to NEM and possible green hydrogen generation, theyll be more positive net gains to their flexible 100% renewable grid.

SA has turned the corner and are only using LNG as intermittent/peaker plant power sources. With regards to copycat state of Texas, nuclear is only 5-8%, and barely anything in the scheme things. While natural gas is still doing most of the heavy lifting, with wind, solar and batteries (SWB) as a very close second. It wont be long before copycat Texas follows places like SA and California, with SWB as the biggest part of their energy mix.

SA, phased out coal in 2016, as I reported. Natural gas (LNG) is next!

Just repeating what I've already said doesn't do anything for your argument. Re-read my section on the "Recap of the Dominican Republics Energy Mix:". And don't worry so much, today's solar will still generate a fair amount of power on those approx. 125-165 cloudy days in the DR. But again, from what I've gleaned about the DR, they'll need a mixture of solutions, from SWB, and maybe pumped hydro, offshore wind and offshore solar, perhaps.

What your looking at are LCOE project costs, in my report.

First, batteries are hardly ever paired with nuclear and suited with wind and solar. Second, the cost for storage is dropping everyday, with alternatives like Na-Li batteries being even cheaper. Third, when batteries are paired with S+W, the your LCOE, is better than buying them separately. Fourth, consider, there are projects in the U.S. (Texas, Arizona) now bid $30-$40/MWh for solar + 4h storage (with subsidies) LCOE. Still w/o subsidies globally, your looking at LCOE of $70-$80/MWh SWB combos.

Utility-Scale Solar, 2023 Edition: Empirical Trends in Deployment, Technology, Cost, Performance, PPA Pricing, and Value in the United States
https://emp.lbl.gov/publications/utility-scale-solar-2023-edition

With an annual cost of between $2.55 - $3.47 billion dollars to import and burn fossil fuels for electricity, is good enough reason to look for cheaper, sustainable alternatives.

I'm sure you love it, when your right-winger billionaire robber oil-n-gas barons, run roughshod over poor struggling emerging countries and would like nothing better than to see them continue to suckle on their oil rich nipples, for the next 15-20 years. But I don't think they can afford NOT to adopt a 15-20 plan, to tackle the ever increasing and rising costs of fossil fuels and provide energy independence for their secured future, if shown what's possible.

Hence way I think the SA's example will show many, what's possible!Spidy, you could simply say you made a mistake, and draw my attention to your much more realistic, revised LCOE numbers. It's only by a fluke that I noticed you apparently got the moderator to change your original post, to change the LCOE's per megawatt hour.

Again, I believe South Australia has the largest onshore natural gas production on the continent. I haven't checked that in a while though. The natural gas they use to generate power would be transported by pipeline from the Moomba Gas Plant in northern South Australia to Adelaide, and maybe they get a little pipeline gas from Victoria. The cost of generating electricity from natural gas transported by pipeline, especially with new combined cycle plants, is much cheaper than using LNG. Your post conveniently omitted LCOE ranges for combined cycle natural gas power plants.

No doubt South Australia may by 2027 produce more electricity from renewables than it consumes. The state has some very sunny and windy places. It will however export the excess electricity, and continue to generate a substantial part of its electricity with reliable natural gas.

And if the state mandates "no more electricity from natural gas", then no doubt South Australia may, say, generate electricity from renewables in excess of its consumption, while importing, say, 25% of its needs from Victoria, produced there by coal fired power plants.

While I won't make any wager involving kissing EihTooms ass in 2050, given that unfortunately he will have either passed away or have a disgusting looking ass by then, I would bet that SA will still be consuming natural gas in 2050.

As to your cost estimates for electricity with 4 to 12 hour battery storage, I suspect they're low. And also suspect there are periods much longer then 12 hours in the DR when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow much. The DR doesn't have the ability to import electricity from a neighboring country, like SA does from Victoria.

As to your next-to-last paragraph, if renewables were the be all and end all, then why are they still constructing coal fired plants in India, China and many other countries? The air quality in cities in those countries sucks big time, and would benefit from less coal. But because of the economic reality they continue with coal. Are people in those countries stupid?

You've got things reversed. If the rich world somehow imposes renewable energy on developing countries without paying for it, people are going to suffer worse lives than they would otherwise. So called "robber oil and gas barons" are not imposing their will on poor countries. Rather, economic reality causes them to make the choices they do. That reality will result in greater consumption of renewables, but the world is not going to abandon fossil fuels for a long while.

Tiny 12

02-25-25, 18:31

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-pushes-out-top-us-general-nominates-retired-three-star-2025-02-22/

Trump fired a Black Four Star General as the top military official in the United States of America and replaced him with a White 3 Star General.The pro-Trump Wall Street Journal Editorial Board agrees with you. An excerpt from what they wrote a couple of days ago:

As Commander in Chief, President Trump has the power to fire and promote military advisers as he chooses. The question that occurs after his Friday evening purge of Pentagon leaders is whether he wants personal loyalty or honest military counsel.

Mr. Trump and Defense chief Pete Hegseth relieved six officers of duty, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). Other Presidents have sacked military leaders, notably Barack Obama's decision to dismiss Stanley McChrystal after a magazine reported that he had made critical comments about Mr. Obama.

Such dismissals usually come with a specific reason or performance failure. Messrs. Trump and Hegseth offered no reason for Friday's purge, except for a general assertion that they will make choices based only on merit and war-fighting ability.

In that case firing CQ Brown as chairman of the joint chiefs is unfortunate. Air Force Gen. Brown's legacy includes his 2020 document "Accelerate Change or Lose," warning that air dominance isn't an American birthright and the force would have to change quickly or risk defeat in the next war.

He understands the challenge from China and has thought about how to defeat it, arguing for more modern equipment and embracing new tech. He didn't get as far as the Air Force needs but at least he was pushing. He also cut a low political profile as chairman, a welcome improvement over his press-hungry predecessor, Gen. Mark Milley.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trump-sweeps-out-bidens-officers-his-purge-of-generals-targets-dei-but-there-is-a-bigger-issue-09b1e02e?mod=Searchresults_pos4&page=1

Tiny 12

02-25-25, 18:38

The level of MAGA willful ignorance is just astonishing.So what do you propose? Send USA Or NATO troops to Ukraine? Get into a nuclear war? Because those are the only ways Russia gives up the territory it's occupying. At least Trump is promoting peace, instead of war "to the last Ukrainian. ".

Sirioja

02-25-25, 20:21

So when are you going over to the Ukraine to volunteer your services fight for freedom? I am not going to hold my breath.

The truth is that it has been a bloodbath over there with no end in sight since the Russian invasion began under Joe Biden and this Russian invasion would never have happened in the 1st place if Trump had been President and not the brain addled Joey Biden.

I am very dubious as to whether Trump can actually pull off a real deal between Russia and the Ukraine, ie a lasting peace and an end to all hostilities, but he is thinking outside the box. The alternative is a continuance of the death and destruction for years & years & years. So, I am going to hold off my judgement of this until I see the results. Yes, it might be a no go and nothing comes of it, or it might be another Neville Chamberlain "peace in our times" piece of bull shit, or it just could be a lasting peace where Ukraine survives mostly intact and becomes a part of the European Economic Community (EEC). Who knows? But I am sure we will all find out pretty soon.Trump is friend with Putin who has photos of him with prostitutes, and USA didn't protect Ukraine. I agree too many deaths, but Ukraine don t have to accept to be robbed lands by Putin and values by Trump, when both are liar and chicken robbers. We all know Putin is a shameful dictator, but also so bad image for USA.

Elvis 2008

02-25-25, 21:21

Do you even understand what is stated in your own link?

It provides beatutiful substantiation, in context, for why Britain did not hold elections during WWII, when the country was being bombed by the Germans. Almost the exact same reason Ukraine has not held elections in Ukraine while Russia Russia Russia Russia is bombing Ukraine with the added bonus of experiencing a Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine by Russia Russia Russia Russia that Britain was largely spared.Since you did not get the election point, the UK still had elections, I guess it just goes over your head that Churchill did not ban the free press not did he dissolve the other political parties. In addition, it may have gone over your head that the Russians have brought up Zelensky not being a duly elected president. They would likely agree to not bomb for a day if asked if Ukraine did likewise.

Come on, admit it; until you read my posts about this you have been so insulated inside the Winger MAGA mis- and dis-information bubble created by Russia Russia Russia Russia that you had no idea any part of Ukraine had been bombed by invading aggressor Russia Russia Russia Russia or that so much as a square meter of Ukraine had been invaded by Russia Russia Russia Russia, right?Loony Tooms, those things that you hear in your brain are not my thoughts, they are voices. You really need to get treated for schizophrenia.

Elvis 2008

02-25-25, 22:16

For you MAGA Luddites, still having trouble, keeping up the changing times and EV technology and terminology...listen up and pay attention!

Let me be clear, once again! When I (or any non-MAGA, with a lick of intelligence) talks about the classification of EVs and hybrids, it means, they fall under the broader classification of "electrified vehicles", equipped with some form of electric propulsion. !So when someone gets a car with a combustion engine and an electrical power train, you and the other leftoids take credit for saving the planet when the person uses the combustion engine 90+% of the time and dole out tax subsidies at the same rate as someone using a pure electrical vehicle? And that is your version of intelligence? Yeah, that sounds about right.

You should know hybrids are just gateway vehicles to electrical vehicles anyways and are merely bicycles with training wheels. Soon enough, their owners will take-off the training wheels and graduate up to owning a electric vehicle, once they see through all the bullshit. These are sales of BYD's car, the Han.

Year China.

Han hybrid Han EV Total.

2020 11,783 28,773 40,556.

2021 30,476 87,189 117,665.

2022 128,524 143,938 272,462.

2023 121,859 105,887 227,746.

2024 141,284 87,429 228,713.

This data just so happens to be the opposite of what you are saying Spidy.

And is this just the Han? Uh no.

https://www.carscoops.com/2023/11/demand-for-chinese-phevs-and-extended-range-hybrids-is-growing-faster-than-bevs/

It's little surprise then that sales of hybrids grew by 72% during the January-September 2023. To put these figures into perspective, electrical vehicles sales in sale have 'only' grown by 14% this year. Last I checked, 72 is greater than 14.

As for why, there is the cost: In most markets, hybrids are sold at a premium over ordinary internal combustion engine vehicles but that's not the case in China. In fact, some hybrids are cheaper than standard gasoline models and upwards of 23% cheaper than battery-electric vehicles.

Uh, Spidy, why are people going to spend 23% more on a car? Because you say so?

If you are taking solace in Bloomberg Finanical though, Spidy, I would not. Sure they project "battery-electrics still account for the bulk of global plug-in vehicle sales, but the hybrid share is higher than in last year's outlook, and they stay around for longer, peaking at 10% of the global vehicle market in 2030 before falling back as battery prices drop further. " Source: https://about.bnef.com/blog/tracking-the-revival-of-plug-in-hybrids.

What they failed to project is the tremendous continued decline in the price of hybrids. In the graph on their report, hybrids are more expensive than pure electric vehicles and within just the last two years, that trend has totally changed.

So as for now as a leftoid, you got "emission free" electrical vehicles running on gasoline with batteries charged by coal plants. That is not good. Your only case for clean air is if people use the batteries more often than gasoline.

And things do not look good there either, from Bloomberg, For private car buyers, studies found a range of 26% to 54% of all kilometers driven in PHEVs were done in electric mode. For company cars, the story is much worse, with the electric drivetrain accounting for just 11% to 24% of total mileage.

Tiny 12

02-25-25, 22:17

That was an amazing moment, one of the most shameful in a long list of shameful Trump moments.

And I assume very, very few MAGAs will ever know about it. Or understand what happened even if they did ever hear about it on Fux News and the rest.

Or care even if they understood the full implications of it. If anything, love their America-hating lord and savior even more for it.

Which is exactly the premise on which con man Donald Trump operates. It is the reason he is a Repub and could never have run as a Dem. He operates on the premise that his supporters are astonishingly stupid and / or hate America as much if not more than he does.

Old fat con man Trump starts lying in public about the man who is sitting right there next to him. And since Trump has now abdicated the President of the United States' 80 plus year unchallenged position as The Leader of the Free World and has turned his job and the USA into a pathetic laughing stock of an anti-democratic wannabe dictatorship, Macron had ZERO qualms about sticking out his hand, grabbing that fat lying clown's arm and stopping his lie dead in its tracks, correcting him in mid sentence.

Fat lying Clown Trump seemed shocked by the move and then sat there like a snot-nosed 7 year old who just got his knuckles cracked with a ruler, rolling his eyes, but enduring it because he KNEW he was just busted on a huge, critically-important lie.

Then what is fat lying clown Trump's only way he can figure out to ease out of the most humiliating moment any POTUS in history has ever suffered in public on the world stage over such an all-important foreign policy matter and at the HAND of the now presumably real Leader of the Free World, the very man fat lying clown Trump was lying about?

He simply repeated the lie about the man!

What the hell else does he know about how to deal with any and every issue that his golfing is interrupted for him to deal with? LIE, of course.

And every World Leader on the Planet, even the ones from countries Trump would denigrate as "sh*thole countries", knew he was lying and watched him lying about it. Twice. And they now fully understand how shamefully, historically low the once-great USA has fallen in just one month.

For any real American patriot, it was nauseating to watch as well as for anyone else in the world who ever revered and looked up to America or at least the idea of America as a symbol and embodiment of whatever good might be achieved in this world.Politicians lie a lot. Trump lies more than most politicians. Get over it.

If he helps end this stupid war then maybe, just maybe, he'll get the Nobel Peace Prize! Wouldn't that be the cat's meow!

SubCmdr

02-25-25, 22:21

So what do you propose? Send USA Or NATO troops to Ukraine? Get into a nuclear war? Because those are the only ways Russia gives up the territory it's occupying. At least Trump is promoting peace, instead of war "to the last Ukrainian. ".If someone walks up to me and tells me I am going to fuck you in the ass. I am going to tell them the only way you are going to fuck me the ass is after you have killed me.

The United States of America has no moral standing to decide if a man should bend over and take it or fight to the death. It's easy to type on a keyboard. Who among us have stood against an armed opponent that intends to cause you death or serious bodily harm?

Why are you willing to tell another man he should bend over and take it?

If the Ukraine wants to continue to fight and all we are doing is shipping arms because we have no boots on the ground exactly what is the problem?

SubCmdr

02-25-25, 22:30

Your arguments have not won me over. But I am newly converted EV fan. Why? Because I got picked up in a BYD for a Bolt Trip here in Pattaya, Thailand. The vehicle was amazing! It was like a magic carpet ride. So quiet. I has a great conversation with the driver. She has a charging station in her house and it takes about 6 hours to charge her vehicle each night. She says that if she has a long trip to let's say Bangkok, she will have to hit a charging station for about 1 hour. Torque is sublime. The power came on smooth and study with no increase in interior noise as the vehicle sped up. Fit and finish was remarkable. I would buy one just from the ride in it. In my opinion the days of ICEs are numbered.

For you MAGA Luddites, still having trouble, keeping up the changing times and EV technology and terminology...listen up and pay attention!

Let me be clear, once again! When I (or any non-MAGA, with a lick of intelligence) talks about the classification of EVs and hybrids, it means, they fall under the broader classification of "electrified vehicles", equipped with some form of electric propulsion.

Got it...Good!

Oh, and BTW, when the term NEVs (or new energy vehicles) is used, this will refer to BEVs, PHEVs or FCEVs. If you have any further difficulties with auto vehicle nomenclature, may I suggest you take it up with whatever automotive governing bodies makes that call.

My apologies, if that was too much for MAGA Luddites to learn in one post! (...kkkk!)

Hey, as much as that article was more of a Toyota propaganda piece, to sell more HEVs and PHEVs over BEVs, that's really fine and okay by me, if they can bamboozle enough buyers to believe them, like they're trying to do with their hydrogen cars (FCEVs) (...kkkk!). Hey, the more EVs, the merrier, the smart consumers, will figure it out for themselves!

You should know, HEVs and PHEVs, are just gateway vehicles to BEVs anyways and are merely bicycles with training wheels. Soon enough, their owners will take-off the training wheels and graduate up to owning a BEV, once they see through all the bullshit about EVs, as they get better and cheaper every year.

EihTooms

02-26-25, 02:25

Politicians lie a lot. Trump lies more than most politicians. Get over it.

If he helps end this stupid war then maybe, just maybe, he'll get the Nobel Peace Prize! Wouldn't that be the cat's meow!I got over Repub politicians lying in order to further their War Against America during Reagan's 1st term.

Still, I do think it is a wee bit newsy and worth a mention that the current POTUS just sided with Russia Russia Russia Russia, Xi, Kim and a whole bunch of anti-democratic dictators and against Western Democratic Allies on an issue of who invaded who in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Yeah, he'll get the Nobel Peace Prize for preemptively surrendering everything to a murderous dictator on behalf of the country he invaded after Newd Grinbitch wins the Nobel Prize in Economics for doing everything in his power to thwart and reverse the Great Dem / Clinton Economic Recovery, Expansion and Trajectory to a Balanced and Surplus Budget without a single Repub vote for it that began months if not a year before Grinbitch or any other Repub controlled so much as a committe much less a house in Congress.

EihTooms

02-26-25, 02:57

So what do you propose? Send USA Or NATO troops to Ukraine? Get into a nuclear war? Because those are the only ways Russia gives up the territory it's occupying. At least Trump is promoting peace, instead of war "to the last Ukrainian. ".So your and fat lying clown Trump's only conceivable solution to the end of Russia's aggression and a settlement in the war is to have him and his idiotic Secreatary of Defense start out by giving Russia Russia Russia Russia everything Putin wants, concede nothing to the country he invaded, demand that country give up their mineral resources to fat lying clown Trump and just shut up about the former Leader of the Free World characterizing him, the target and victim of the invasion, as a "dictator" and the one who started the war?

Brilliant. Why didn't Biden think of that? What a magnificent negotiator that fat clown liar Trump is!

Because, most certainly when one does that there is no way a murderous dictator thug like Putin would ever think of moving his juggernaut of world dominance one inch beyond Ukraine. Just as it never occurred to him to move one inch beyond Georgia after he invaded them under GW Bush.

Russia was not going to continue that war forever. Those troops were barely hanging on to any resolve to continue with only the prospect that Putin's #1 Useful Fat Lying Clown in the Western World, Trump, might squeak out another razor-thin win last November as a hope.

And even Trump-glorified God's like Putin don't live forever.

Sirioja

02-26-25, 03:57

Politicians lie a lot. Trump lies more than most politicians. Get over it.

If he helps end this stupid war then maybe, just maybe, he'll get the Nobel Peace Prize! Wouldn't that be the cat's meow!Trump does' t care about war and deaths and he doesn't protect Ukraine, but want to rob them and make business with his friend Putin, when he knows he lose for business versus better quality Europe and cheap China, so he just tries to find money elsewhere, robbering poor Ukraine, lying about money given, to ask more. A liar chicken robber for USA image in front of the world who know now. I wish Ukraine who defend their lands and freedom will resist to be robbed by shameful twins.

Elvis 2008

02-26-25, 04:02

Politicians lie a lot. Trump lies more than most politicians. Get over it.I do not think you can say people with dementia can lie nor can people who are asleep, so I think it is safe to say that Biden lied less than Trump.

Of course, if the Democrats elected Biden who was pretty much brain dead, maybe they can use AI and special effects imagery and elect someone who IS actually dead next time. I was thinking about the recently deceased Democratic presidents to choose from and lord knows I would pick a dead JFK over a live Kamala any day.

KeviKev68

02-26-25, 04:50

Great post. I'm more hopeful than you are Axel, that an end to death and destruction is in sight. Trump, while being firm, improved relations with Russia and North Korea by developing a relationship with their leaders. I suspect you're right, the war in Ukraine wouldn't have kicked off under a Trump presidency. From memory, North Korea ceased medium and long range ballistic missile tests after Trump improved relations, only to start them up again under Biden. I may have problems with Trump's tariffs and what he tried to pull after the 2020 election. But he did a great job with Russia and North Korea.Yeah right Trump accomplshed a lot with Russia and North Korea. LOL.

Those two nations are still and will always be run be dictators who poison or murder anyone who questions their "leadership. " Does that sound like American values to you? Reagan must be spinning in his grave!

EihTooms

02-26-25, 05:27

EihTooms

02-26-25, 05:57

I think the appropriate words are Scammers and Liars:

DOGE Secretly Changes Its Website After Being Caught in Huge Lies

https://www.yahoo.com/news/doge-secretly-changes-website-being-203001406.html

DOGE deleted the top five highest savings claims on its wall of receipts leaderboard after various news outlets pointed out multiple errors in its calculations, The New York Times David Fahrenthold reported Tuesday.

The savings, deleted with no explanation from DOGE or the White House, include: a $232 million cut to the Social Security Administration that actually amounted to only $560,000; an $8 billion cut at Immigration and Customs Enforcement that was actually only $8 million; and three $655 million cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development that ended up being a measly $18 million. These mistakes all seem to be completely avoidable human errors.

The bottom of DOGEs savings list reads: Scoreboard normalized to agency size and budget.

"This is a preliminary leaderboard, and there will likely be some initial mistakes in the relative rankings.

DOGE had claimed earlier this week that it has saved $65 billion thanks to all of its cuts. Its website still boasts this number, despite the recently deleted claims.Nearly 40% of contracts canceled by Musks DOGE are expected to produce no savings.

https://apnews.com/article/doge-federal-contracts-canceled-musk-trump-cuts-a65976a725412934ad686389889db0df

Nearly 40% of the federal contracts that President Donald Trumps administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program arent expected to save the government any money, the administrations own data shows.

The Department of Government Efficiency, run by Trump adviser Elon Musk, published an updated list Monday of nearly 2,300 contracts that agencies terminated in recent weeks across the federal government. Data published on DOGEs Wall of Receipts shows that more than one-third of the contract cancellations, 794 in all, are expected to yield no savings.

Thats usually because the total value of the contracts has already been fully obligated, which means the government has a legal requirement to spend the funds for the goods or services it purchased and in many cases has already done so.

"Its like confiscating used ammunition after its been shot when theres nothing left in it. It doesnt accomplish any policy objective, said Charles Tiefer, a retired University of Baltimore law professor and expert on government contracting law. Their terminating so many contracts pointlessly obviously doesnt accomplish anything for saving money.President Musk might be the richest really stupid man that ever lived or ever will live.

The end result of this is so predictable:

Rather than saving American tax-payers money it will only create chaos, confusion, uncertainty, wipe out jobs that generate revenue, trigger $Billions in wrongful termination lawsuits and court costs and skyrocket Trump's deficits even higher.

Or, what MAGAs and their Russian bot script-writers call, "The Best Month In Four Years"!

Xpartan

02-26-25, 06:02

Yeah right Trump accomplshed a lot with Russia and North Korea. LOL.

Those two nations are still and will always be run be dictators who poison or murder anyone who questions their "leadership. " Does that sound like American values to you? Reagan must be spinning in his grave!LOL, does anyone remember how he defeated North Korea in 2018?

President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that the North Korean regime no longer poses a nuclear threat following his summit with Kim Jong Un, even though the meeting produced no verifiable proof that the rogue regime will discontinue its nuclear program.

Just landed - a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office, Trump tweeted as he arrived back in Washington. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.

Trump also said that his meeting with Kim was an interesting and very positive experience and that North Korea has great potential for the future!

Trump also said in a separate tweet that North Korea is no longer the US biggest and most dangerous problem, telling Americans and the rest of the world they can sleep well tonight!And how he fell in love with one of the bloodiest dictators on earth?

"I was really being tough - and so was he. And we would go back and forth," Trump told a rally in West Virginia. "And then we fell in love, okay? No, really - he wrote me beautiful letters, and they're great letters," he said.And how he sold down his long-term ally down the river?

After returning to the White House Wednesday, Trump also defended his decision to halt the joint military exercises with South Korea, which he called war games a term used by Pyongyang arguing on Twitter that the US will save a fortune.

After returning to the White House Wednesday, Trump also defended his decision to halt the joint military exercises with South Korea, which he called war games a term used by Pyongyang arguing on Twitter that the US will save a fortune.https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/13/politics/trump-north-korea-nuclear-threat/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/13/politics/trump-north-korea-nuclear-threat/index.html

Elvis 2008

02-26-25, 06:51

As to your next-to-last paragraph, if renewables were the be all and end all, then why are they still constructing coal fired plants in India, China and many other countries? The air quality in cities in those countries sucks big time, and would benefit from less coal. But because of the economic reality they continue with coal. Are people in those countries stupid?

You've got things reversed. If the rich world somehow imposes renewable energy on developing countries without paying for it, people are going to suffer worse lives than they would otherwise. So called "robber oil and gas barons" are not imposing their will on poor countries. Rather, economic reality causes them to make the choices they do. That reality will result in greater consumption of renewables, but the world is not going to abandon fossil fuels for a long while.Yeah, the problem with Democratic douches is how snide and arrogant they are. To me, if you show people cool and affordable things they will get them on their own. When an EV is shoved down your throat by a rental car company, people like myself rebel, https://www.loopit.co/en-us/blog/rental-car-companies-breaking-up-evs-subscription-rekindle-spark. So rental car companies are turned off of EVs because their customers are.

Now when I post links, I know people do not click on them, but Tiny, trust me, you will want to see this. This is the most luxurious vehicle I have ever seen, and it is $55 to $60,000. As someone said, if it had a toilet, you would not need a house. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEEhBFe03gY.

And we do not have this in the USA? Why? Why do Russia and China have this and we do not? Aren't we supposed to be so much better than them at everything?

I do not want an EV. I want this Li L9 PHEV SUV! Are you fucking kidding me?

I was thinking about plugging this thing in to your outlet, but if you are in Texas, you could buy solar panel with a battery storage unit for a few thousand, and 90% of your driving would be free. If you need to road trip, the thing has 900 miles of range per tank of gas and has 4 WD.

If EVs are better, why did they need a subsidy? Why do we need to upgrade the infrastructure of fueling on the road and in our homes for EVs? That makes no sense when a vehicle like this is ready to go right now and works on our existing infrastructure.

So we got these subsidies on EVs and tariffs on the Li L9. How fucked up is that?

I think almost every family in America would buy this SUV at this price point if they could. It is the coolest vehicle I have ever seen in my life.

Spidy

02-26-25, 07:58

Spidy, you could simply say you made a mistake, and draw my attention to your much more realistic, revised LCOE numbers. It's only by a fluke that I noticed you apparently got the moderator to change your original post, to change the LCOE's per megawatt hour. Tiny 12, yet ANOTHER backhanded way for you to come up with, just to say you were WRONG! (...kkkk!).

Your problem and the trouble with you is, that you never take the time, needed to read and understand what I've posted. But instead you blindly rush in and interject your arrogance, to what you think is right. And time and time again, your narcissistic arrogance, has been shut down. Fine, by me, if you have brain farts and want to keep tripping over your tongue!

But, before you go making wild false accusations, allow me to educate you on how Admin edits work. As any ISGer worth their salt knows, that when Admin changes a post, they'll have a stamped note at the end of the post indicating they've made a change..

Again, I believe South Australia has the largest onshore natural gas production on the continent. I haven't checked that in a while though. The natural gas they use to generate power would be transported by pipeline from the Moomba Gas Plant in northern South Australia to Adelaide, and maybe they get a little pipeline gas from Victoria. The cost of generating electricity from natural gas transported by pipeline, especially with new combined cycle plants, is much cheaper than using LNG. Your post conveniently omitted LCOE ranges for combined cycle natural gas power plants. ...

As to your cost estimates for electricity with 4 to 12 hour battery storage, I suspect they're low. And also suspect there are periods much longer then 12 hours in the DR when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow much. The DR doesn't have the ability to import electricity from a neighboring country, like SA does from Victoria. Again if you'd bothered to read, what I posted, you'll note the links of LCOE's in the section, "LCOE Sources for 2023 or 2024:", are NOT MY estimates and all came from U.S. and International energy agencies. So take it up with them smart ass!

No doubt South Australia may by 2027 produce more electricity from renewables than it consumes. The state has some very sunny and windy places. It will however export the excess electricity, and continue to generate a substantial part of its electricity with reliable natural gas.

And if the state mandates "no more electricity from natural gas", then no doubt South Australia may, say, generate electricity from renewables in excess of its consumption, while importing, say, 25% of its needs from Victoria, produced there by coal fired power plants.Hey you're allowed to doubt whatever the fuck you want, I'll give you that!

But I've provided evidence that says otherwise. So try providing, a better set of arguments than your weakass doubts and maybe then we'll have a debate, on whether SA is producing more electricity and negative electricity prices, than what "your doubts" are telling you.

Ahh!...This is really getting tedious! Once again if you had REALLY READ, what I wrote, you'll note where I included, "South Australia's Energy Mix: (here: http://www.internationalsexguide.nl/forum/showthread.php?2467-American-Politics&p=2984800&viewfull=1#post2984800).

So no need for wild speculation of 25%. Currently SA, only takes a tiny 2-5% from Victoria through NEM. SA, is consistently YoY, growing out their grid with renewables, hence less and less reliance on coal, nat. Gas and NEM.

If you're going to wildly speculate, like you love to do, provide better facts, data or evidence.

As to your next-to-last paragraph, if renewables were the be all and end all, then why are they still constructing coal fired plants in India, China and many other countries? The air quality in cities in those countries sucks big time, and would benefit from less coal. But because of the economic reality they continue with coal. Are people in those countries stupid? Can't speak to India, but the air quality in most large Chinese cites, is on par or better per capita, than most USA cities like N.Y.

You should also note, that not only the air, but the noise pollution, in many of the large Chinese cities, is better than that of the U.S.

The coal argument is a fair one, but it is losing it's effectiveness, as many reports have China being at peak coal in 2024 and leveling off and declining going forward. Not sure I believe the pundits, either, but we'll see.

Now again, the coal argument is IMHO, weak, because you can hardly blame countries like China, India and others for using what they have in abundance to power their industries. Besides, isn't that exactly what the USA Is doing with an abundance of natural gas (LNG and coal), under the wrongheaded Pickens Plan, to reduce American dependence on imported oil?

After all, Tiny 12, the USA And Europe, have had decades long head start, of unfettered polluting with coal, decades prior to any such 2015 Paris Agreements.

You've got things reversed. If the rich world somehow imposes renewable energy on developing countries without paying for it, people are going to suffer worse lives than they would otherwise. So called "robber oil and gas barons" are not imposing their will on poor countries. Rather, economic reality causes them to make the choices they do. That reality will result in greater consumption of renewables, but the world is not going to abandon fossil fuels for a long while.I reject your premises!

The way I see it, the DR are already spending (or should I say, flushing down the toilet) $2.55 - $3.47 billion annually, to the oil and gas robber barons, to run their electricity grid.

Although, what I am saying is, that if the DR, wishes to move pass their currently reliance on fossil fuels and toward energy security, they should find a way to divert about 5% of their imported fossil fuel costs each year, to fund the build out of more renewables. Slowly over time, they'll reach a better energy mix of more renewables, less fossil fuels and more importantly, energy independence and increasingly less money to the robber barons.

Frankly, if developing countries, like DR aren't currently doing this by now, they should be. I believe India, is rightly so, fast following in China's electrification footsteps, but have a long way to go. SA and many places in Australia as a whole, are tracking well, w/r to meeting their renewables goals.

Xpartan

02-26-25, 08:56

If someone walks up to me and tells me I am going to fuck you in the ass. I am going to tell them the only way you are going to fuck me the ass is after you have killed me.

The United States of America has no moral standing to decide if a man should bend over and take it or fight to the death. It's easy to type on a keyboard. Who among us have stood against an armed opponent that intends to cause you death or serious bodily harm?

Why are you willing to tell another man he should bend over and take it?

If the Ukraine wants to continue to fight and all we are doing is shipping arms because we have no boots on the ground exactly what is the problem?The problem is this man is a Russophile, which is a mental disease as vicious and incurable as the MAGA cult.

Remember when we all believed that the Russian Armed Forces was the second army in the world?

The truth is with Ukraine willing to fight, we had a hell of a bargain weakening our mortal enemy without sacrificing a single American life -- to the point that Russia was fast becoming incapable to threaten anyone with their conventional weapons. Almost 1 million of their troops are dead or wounded, most of their tanks and other vehicles are decimated, their economy is circling the drain. They had maybe a year of life left in them.

And then, when they were almost done -- this had to happen. Fucking Trump!

EihTooms

02-26-25, 09:22

Since you did not get the election point, the UK still had elections, I guess it just goes over your head that Churchill did not ban the free press not did he dissolve the other political parties. In addition, it may have gone over your head that the Russians have brought up Zelensky not being a duly elected president. They would likely agree to not bomb for a day if asked if Ukraine did likewise.

Loony Tooms, those things that you hear in your brain are not my thoughts, they are voices. You really need to get treated for schizophrenia.When you read the words, "Russia Russia Russia Russia is not only bombing Ukraine but has engaged in a full-scale invasion of Ukraine while that was not the case in WWII for Britain, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia," at what point do the voices in your head tell you, ah, Ukraine not conducting regularly scheduled elections during all of that is ironclad evidence that Zellenskyy is an anti-democratic Nazi dictator?

Sirioja

02-26-25, 09:47

Spidy

02-26-25, 10:21

Your arguments have not won me over. But I am newly converted EV fan. Why? Because I got picked up in a BYD for a Bolt Trip here in Pattaya, Thailand. The vehicle was amazing! It was like a magic carpet ride. So quiet. I has a great conversation with the driver. She has a charging station in her house and it takes about 6 hours to charge her vehicle each night. She says that if she has a long trip to let's say Bangkok, she will have to hit a charging station for about 1 hour. Torque is sublime. The power came on smooth and study with no increase in interior noise as the vehicle sped up. Fit and finish was remarkable. I would buy one just from the ride in it.

Glad to see you enjoyed the ride! I wonder which BYD (BEV/PHEV) it was?

Again, I'm not really trying to sale anyone on EVs, although I do think, they are the better choice. I simply ask people to consider the facts and reasons, and then judge for themselves and make up their own minds. Reasons to NOT own an EV, have mostly diminished and the reason to own an EV, are becoming more compelling.

Both you and I, have said and explained to certain Luddites, everyone has their own practical reasons for buy/owning a vehicle, whether it be an EV or an ICE.

But, I can see how it looks and how I come across, when I represent and advocate for EVs. But it's hard to dismiss the trends (that Toyota and big oil-n-gas, don't won't you to see), when improvements in EV technology, battery warranties, reliability, eco-benefits and the ability to generate your own (virtually) FREE ELECTRICITY, are clear reasons why you should consider an EV.

BYD crowned Thailands 2024 EV sales and surpassed Toyota in Singapore
https://carnewschina.com/2025/01/23/byd-crowned-thailands-2024-ev-sales-and-surpassed-toyota-in-singapore/

In my opinion the days of ICEs are numbered. Agreed! In the biggest car markets in the world (China, U.S., Germany, U.K., Norway, Aussie, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand...etc), EV are steadily taking market share from ICE. Although in the U.S. this might take some time.

Spidy

02-26-25, 10:54

If EVs are better, why did they need a subsidy? If big oil and gas companies are still making billions year-over-year, why do they still need gov't subsidies? Or big pharma for that matter? Now, that makes no sense!

If DOGE really wanted to rid us of gov't waste, they'd should axe the billions going to big oil-n-gas, big pharma and big military contractors, still suckling like greedy little pigs, from the milk sack of gov't tits.

Why do we need to upgrade the infrastructure of fueling on the road and in our homes for EVs? That makes no sense when a vehicle like this is ready to go right now and works on our existing infrastructure. Fair point, but the distribution, transportation and storage of fossil fuels is just so INEFFICIENT and can't compete with the delivery, convenience and ubiquitous nature of electricity. Regardless, the U.S. grid still needs upgrading...and an opportunity is a terrible thing to waste. BTW, it takes less than 14-days to build like a 10-port charging station and about 9-12 months for an ICE station (...you do the math).

Having said that, HEVs and PHEVs are fine and a "necessary evil", for those still looking (or perhaps never) transitioning to a BEV.

W/R to infrastructure, again take a look around the world at who's being successful, in the transition to electrification (ie. China, Norway, Denmark, Australia, the U.K. and some parts of the U.S.)

So we got these subsidies on EVs and tariffs on the Li L9. How fucked up is that? And who do you think is to blame for this? (...kkkk!)

I think almost every family in America would buy this SUV at this price point if they could. It is the coolest vehicle I have ever seen in my lifeIMHO, there are even cooler vehicles, like the Zeekr Mix minivan...FWIW.

Sirioja

02-26-25, 12:02

Glad to see you enjoyed the ride! I wonder which BYD (BEV/PHEV) it was?

Again, I'm not really trying to sale anyone on EVs, although I do think, they are the better choice. I simply ask people to consider the facts and reasons, and then judge for themselves and make up their own minds. Reasons to NOT own an EV, have mostly diminished and the reason to own an EV, are becoming more compelling.

Both you and I, have said and explained to certain Luddites, everyone has their own practical reasons for buy/owning a vehicle, whether it be an EV or an ICE.

But, I can see how it looks and how I come across, when I represent and advocate for EVs. But it's hard to dismiss the trends (that Toyota and big oil-n-gas, don't won't you to see), when improvements in EV technology, battery warranties, reliability, eco-benefits and the ability to generate your own (virtually) FREE ELECTRICITY, are clear reasons why you should consider an EV.

BYD crowned Thailands 2024 EV sales and surpassed Toyota in Singapore
https://carnewschina.com/2025/01/23/byd-crowned-thailands-2024-ev-sales-and-surpassed-toyota-in-singapore/.Many European brands return to thermic, because they know, at least in Europe and pretty sure also in USA, people prefer thermic than EV.

Tiny 12

02-26-25, 12:34

LCOE Ranges for Energy Technologies in 2023 (or 2024):
Nuclear Reactor: $90140+ (high upfront costs, delays)
SMR: $6090+ (early projects at upper end, targets lower with scale)
Solar (utility-scale): $3050 (lower with sun-rich regions, higher with storage)
Onshore Wind: $3555 (site-dependent, rises with transmission costs)
Offshore Wind: $70150+ (higher upfront/transmission costs, but improving with scale and tech)
BESS (4-hour storage): $120170 (lithium-ion, varies with duration/cycles)
Pumped Hydro: $60200 (site-specific, high upfront but low operating costs)
LNG (gas peaker): $50100 (import costs, volatile fuel prices, carbon costs add ~2030/MWh)
Coal: $60100+ (import costs, older plants higher; carbon costs push to 80150+)

Cost Ranges for Energy Hybrid Systems using 2023 (or 2024):
Solar + BESS: $50100/MWh (sun-rich regions with 48h storage).
Wind + BESS: $60120/MWh (onshore wind with 412h storage).
I owe you an apology. The spelling corrector on ISG removed the hyphens in your LCOE ranges when I quoted you. See above. As such I thought your numbers were off by over 500 X, as I was looking at the quote and not the original post.

Tiny 12

02-26-25, 12:57

Yeah, the problem with Democratic douches is how snide and arrogant they are. To me, if you show people cool and affordable things they will get them on their own. When an EV is shoved down your throat by a rental car company, people like myself rebel, https://www.loopit.co/en-us/blog/rental-car-companies-breaking-up-evs-subscription-rekindle-spark. So rental car companies are turned off of EVs because their customers are.

Now when I post links, I know people do not click on them, but Tiny, trust me, you will want to see this. This is the most luxurious vehicle I have ever seen, and it is $55 to $60,000. As someone said, if it had a toilet, you would not need a house. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEEhBFe03gY.

And we do not have this in the USA? Why? Why do Russia and China have this and we do not? Aren't we supposed to be so much better than them at everything?

I do not want an EV. I want this Li L9 PHEV SUV! Are you fucking kidding me?

I was thinking about plugging this thing in to your outlet, but if you are in Texas, you could buy solar panel with a battery storage unit for a few thousand, and 90% of your driving would be free. If you need to road trip, the thing has 900 miles of range per tank of gas and has 4 WD.

If EVs are better, why did they need a subsidy? Why do we need to upgrade the infrastructure of fueling on the road and in our homes for EVs? That makes no sense when a vehicle like this is ready to go right now and works on our existing infrastructure.

So we got these subsidies on EVs and tariffs on the Li L9. How fucked up is that?

I think almost every family in America would buy this SUV at this price point if they could. It is the coolest vehicle I have ever seen in my life.Elvis, the reason you don't see them is because Biden slapped a 100% duty on Chinese electric vehicles, including this plug in hybrid. That's what the AI blurb in Google says anyway.

The Biden administration wants to encourage the use of electric vehicles and solar cells, so it slaps huge tariffs on the most competitive products out there. And then passes the Inflation Reduction Act, with over $1 Trillion in green subsidies (according to Goldman Sachs) instead. Democratic Party politicians think money grows on trees. They stick it to American taxpayers and consumers. Yes, as you say, how fucked up is that.

Elvis 2008

02-26-25, 16:56

If big oil and gas companies are still making billions year-over-year, why do they still need gov't subsidies? Or big pharma for that matter? Now, that makes no sense!

If DOGE really wanted to rid us of gov't waste, they'd should axe the billions going to big oil-n-gas, big pharma and big military contractors, still suckling like greedy little pigs, from the milk sack of gov't tits.The oil and gas subsidies at first glance look like the deductions any business takes. I rechecked that, and not only did I confirm that, but I am reminded of the windfall profits tax. Google and Microsoft can make money without a windfall profit but oil and gas cannot?

Then you have the gasoline tax for the roads but if you create your own electricity via say solar, you do not pay taxes. And you get this subsidy while buying an EV that you do not get when buying a ICE car. If we all buy EVs, we are going to have pay taxes elsewhere to maintain the roads.

I do not know what it is about me but I can tell what is going to be popular based on what I like. I hated my EV experience. I will say that when I got a Tela Uber and no doubt it was cool but then Elon Musk said, "It takes an hour to charge on the road but you just get a cup of coffee and a Danish and wait" and I am like I do not want that. If I got a Tesla, it would be a second luxury car which hardly helps the environment. And as cool as that Geely Zeekr is, it is still an EV.

Any kid who gets in that Li SUV is going to ask his parents why they do not have one like it. And then a parent asks about it and I say, "Yeah, unless I am going on a long trip, I do not pay for fuel anymore. I just use that solar charger I bought for $2000 (or whatever)". So you put a pen to paper and are like and realize that you save $5000 per year in fuel costs, and the vehicle pays for itself in 10 years, and it has a 5 year, 60,000 mile warranty, and the parents are sold.

And who do you think is to blame for this?Well, you seem to want to blame Republicans but there is this which Tiny alluded to:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/14/joe-biden-tariff-chinese-made-electric-vehicles

Biden announces 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles.

Trump did his tariffs too but that is not the core issue. Both parties are kissing the ass of car companies in the swing states in the Midwest. What has not happened has been real leadership.

Clinton did NAFTA and gave China most favored status despite getting shit from his own party. Elon Musk said he could compete with anyone with a level playing field, and Tesla is competitive in China. Maybe China can build the assembly factories here and preserve the blue collar jobs because it seems like the white collar cost savings are what really matter. And then can you limit the number of imports and increase it slowly year by year.

Thing is American companies have partnerships in China, and they are already competing there. They can have a slot of the number of cars imported as well.

This is one of those deals where the minority, USA car manufacturers, are getting paid while the majority suffer. That is when the finger pointing needs to stop. Big business wants to use partisan politics to stop progress.

Until the GLP1 drugs for weight loss, I do not think big pharma had a new product with wide spread appeal worth a shit in the last 30 years. So the key to bring down costs is reimportation of generic drugs and the head of the FDA tried to say he could not allow that because he is liable, but he really is not. Like everyone in government, he has fucking immunity.

In the generic space, there is considerable variation in product and in the USA, you get what the pharmacist gives you. There is no mystery if most medications work. So in Mexico, you have the ultimate quality control and buy the brands you like. With ED meds, the generic brand name Kamagra is the best generic Viagra and Taladista is the best generic Cialis, and it is not just me saying that.

So reimportation of drugs takes real leadership to get done, and we are not seeing it. As long as the drug companies can play the partisan games, this will not happen.

I call you guys Democratic douches because of how rigid you are. In fact, what gets me is how you advocate for things that do not benefit you all. But I know that Democrats want to pay less for prescription drugs and many would buy a Li L9 if they could. Do you know that about MAGA people?

Elvis 2008

02-26-25, 17:37

Can't speak to India, but the air quality in most large Chinese cites, is on par or better per capita, than most USA cities like N.Y.

You should also note, that not only the air, but the noise pollution, in many of the large Chinese cities, is better than that of the U.S.That is not true. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/01/23/air-pollution-chinese-and-american-cities-in-comparison-infographic/.

Now again, the coal argument is IMHO, weak, because you can hardly blame countries like China, India and others for using what they have in abundance to power their industries. Besides, isn't that exactly what the USA Is doing with an abundance of natural gas (LNG and coal), under the wrongheaded Pickens Plan, to reduce American dependence on imported oil?Yeah, you are missing the point on natural gas. It is a waste product from oil production and is flared off instead of being used. The worst of it is going on in Siberia. This is where I get angry at climate change weirdos. They do not get that. They have this dumb natural gas bad and carbon fuel bad approach.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-25-mn-16837-story.html

When cosmonauts look down from their space station at Earth, they say the brightest spot they see is not a metropolis in America or Europe. It is the oil fields of Western Siberia, where thousands of wells flare off the natural gas they produce in giant wasteful torches. A single flare at the Portovaya LNG facility in Russia is estimated to produce more black carbon than the entire country of Finland.

So of all the immediate steps that can be taken to reduce pollution, natural gas pipelines to China and India would be #1 on my list. It is just the climate change weirdos are not going to go along with that when in reality the switch from coal to natural gas is pretty much the reason carbon emissions in the USA are down.

In Texas, we have enough sun and wind to to compete with natural gas but there is no way that is the case in the Northeastern part of the country. What kills me is we are still flaring gas off in the USA. IMO all that should be used for electricity or as fuel. What pisses me off about natural gas is that you can by a $1000 conversion pact in Mexico and use natural gas to drive a vehicle but that same conversion is like $10,000 in the USA.

The stupidest fucking thing I have seen is gasoline vehicles in West Texas next to gas wells being flared. Why aren't they using that natural gas as fuel? Talk about unnecessary pollution. How fucking dumb is that?

I do not get the fucking bullshit that we are going to allow Russian oil to continue to be shipped but the world will come to an end if Europe or Asia is dependent on Russian gas. Both Biden and Trump have been stupid on this.

You cannot be serious about climate change and ignore what is going in on Siberia and demonize the fuck out of Putin. You just can't. Russia is not Libya or Iraq. It is too important to the world economy and the environment. China is making deals with Russia right and left, and you know what? The Li L9 is for sale in Russia too.

Xpartan

02-26-25, 20:20

When you read the words, "Russia Russia Russia Russia is not only bombing Ukraine but has engaged in a full-scale invasion of Ukraine while that was not the case in WWII for Britain, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia," at what point do the voices in your head tell you, ah, Ukraine not conducting regularly scheduled elections during all of that is ironclad evidence that Zellenskyy is an anti-democratic Nazi dictator?And then there are little things like the fact that the war-time Britain DID NOT hold elections for the head of state, which is exactly what Putin, Trump and Elvis are insisting on.

SubCmdr

02-27-25, 01:38

In Great Britain, the prime minister is chosen by the leader of the political party that holds the largest number of seats in the House of Commons

Some people up in here need to learn the forms of government that exist outside the United States of America. Has anyone looked into the fairness of elections in China and Russia?

Tiny 12

02-27-25, 02:18

The oil and gas subsidies at first glance look like the deductions any business takes. I rechecked that, and not only did I confirm that, but I am reminded of the windfall profits tax. Google and Microsoft can make money without a windfall profit but oil and gas cannot?Yes, the oil and gas industry receives very little in direct subsidies. This is greenie / leftist propaganda.

Accelerated depreciation would be the industry's biggest tax break, and is available to other businesses. Oil companies can write off intangible drilling costs in the year incurred instead depreciating them. This affects the timing of when the companies pay tax, but not the amount paid over the long term. Companies with R&D expenses receive similar treatment in other industries. The only tax break unique to the oil and gas industry is percentage depletion, and only small oil and gas companies receive it. It should be done away with IMO.

While there's no longer a Windfall Profits Tax, most oil producing states levy a severance tax. The amount collected from the severance tax, which is not levied on most other businesses, exceeds the tax benefit the industry receives from percentage depletion. Finally, on leases issued by the feds and the states (mostly western states), the government receives a royalty.

Then there are gasoline taxes, which amount to a pretty penny in some states. And oil companies involved in international operations are frequently not allowed to use all of their foreign income taxes paid as tax credits on their USA Tax returns.

Add it all up, and the industry as a whole receives minimal direct subsidies, and pays higher taxes than average.

Then you have the gasoline tax for the roads but if you create your own electricity via say solar, you do not pay taxes. And you get this subsidy while buying an EV that you do not get when buying a ICE car. If we all buy EVs, we are going to have pay taxes elsewhere to maintain the roads.Very true.

And some great thoughts in the rest of your post, about tariffs, manufacturing autos in the USA versus China, and competition in pharmaceuticals.

EihTooms

02-27-25, 02:29

And then there are little things like the fact that the war-time Britain DID NOT hold elections for the head of state, which is exactly what Putin, Trump and Elvis are insisting on.I don't know which "journalists" and what kind of reportage of potential military intel and troop movements Zellenskyy has justifiably been trying to restrict or contain on the ground during the full-fledged war raging on Ukraine from the country right next door.

But what is so different about a Russia State or Nazi Dictatorship control of the media than this, even during a time of total Peace and Prosperity with no USA Military maneuvers anywhere on the Earth but especially not in the USA as Trump inherited from Biden?

Outcry as White House starts dictating which journalists can access Trump.
Fox News correspondent among those to decry move that journalists say will tear at independence of a free press

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/26/white-house-journalists-trump

The Trump administration announced it will take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.

Tiny 12

02-27-25, 02:42

That is not true. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/01/23/air-pollution-chinese-and-american-cities-in-comparison-infographic/.

Yeah, you are missing the point on natural gas. It is a waste product from oil production and is flared off instead of being used. The worst of it is going on in Siberia. This is where I get angry at climate change weirdos. They do not get that. They have this dumb natural gas bad and carbon fuel bad approach.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-25-mn-16837-story.html

When cosmonauts look down from their space station at Earth, they say the brightest spot they see is not a metropolis in America or Europe. It is the oil fields of Western Siberia, where thousands of wells flare off the natural gas they produce in giant wasteful torches. A single flare at the Portovaya LNG facility in Russia is estimated to produce more black carbon than the entire country of Finland.

So of all the immediate steps that can be taken to reduce pollution, natural gas pipelines to China and India would be #1 on my list. It is just the climate change weirdos are not going to go along with that when in reality the switch from coal to natural gas is pretty much the reason carbon emissions in the USA are down.

In Texas, we have enough sun and wind to to compete with natural gas but there is no way that is the case in the Northeastern part of the country. What kills me is we are still flaring gas off in the USA. IMO all that should be used for electricity or as fuel. What pisses me off about natural gas is that you can by a $1000 conversion pact in Mexico and use natural gas to drive a vehicle but that same conversion is like $10,000 in the USA.

The stupidest fucking thing I have seen is gasoline vehicles in West Texas next to gas wells being flared. Why aren't they using that natural gas as fuel? Talk about unnecessary pollution. How fucking dumb is that?

I do not get the fucking bullshit that we are going to allow Russian oil to continue to be shipped but the world will come to an end if Europe or Asia is dependent on Russian gas. Both Biden and Trump have been stupid on this.

You cannot be serious about climate change and ignore what is going in on Siberia and demonize the fuck out of Putin. You just can't. Russia is not Libya or Iraq. It is too important to the world economy and the environment. China is making deals with Russia right and left, and you know what? The Li L9 is for sale in Russia too.Haha! Yeah, take a look at this list of the top 500 most polluted cities by particulate matter concentration. Three hundred and ninety-seven (397) of them are in China. None are in the USA. I was in China not long ago, and came back home through a large Texas city. There is no comparison in air quality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-polluted_cities_by_particulate_matter_concentration

Yes, natural gas replacing coal for power generation is the biggest reason USA Carbon emissions have come down so much. Greenies don't understand that perfect is the enemy of good. Like our fellow contributor's recent posts on South Australia. If South Australia turns around tomorrow and bans natural gas, which from memory from his post accounts for about 25% of the state's electricity generation, then SA will end up buying more electricity generated from coal from other states. And carbon emissions will go up. As you know, this is what happened in Europe when Russian gas supplies were lost -- it had to burn a lot more coal, and carbon emissions went up.

I agree about the flaring. Yeah, it should be permitted while a well is being completed, or if necessary for safety or maintenance. But not for month after month. If you drive down Interstate 20 at night through West Texas, you won't see as much of it now as in years past. The problem is that there's a lack of pipeline capacity. As a result, the price of gas in West Texas is frequently negative. Oil producers have to pay to produce associated gas, if they want to produce the oil. No wonder they want to flare gas. This is rapidly being remedied, in West Texas at least. A couple of major gas pipelines are scheduled to go on stream soon, or may already have.

And correct, flaring is a much bigger problem in places like Russia and the Middle East. We're increasingly getting on top of methane leaks in the USA too. That's something else the greenies don't understand. It's the developing world that will determine how much carbon is emitted going forward, countries like China and India. We won't have much say in it, as their emissions will dwarf ours.

SubCmdr

02-27-25, 03:06

If the President of Ukraine is truly a dictator, when why does't Trump like him?

There are plenty of examples in the world of dictators that Trump likes!

EihTooms

02-27-25, 03:13

Sirioja

02-27-25, 04:57

Haha! Yeah, take a look at this list of the top 500 most polluted cities by particulate matter concentration. Three hundred and ninety-seven (397) of them are in China. None are in the USA. I was in China not long ago, and came back home through a large Texas city. There is no comparison in air quality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-polluted_cities_by_particulate_matter_concentration

Yes, natural gas replacing coal for power generation is the biggest reason USA Carbon emissions have come down so much. Greenies don't understand that perfect is the enemy of good. Like our fellow contributor's recent posts on South Australia. If South Australia turns around tomorrow and bans natural gas, which from memory from his post accounts for about 25% of the state's electricity generation, then SA will end up buying more electricity generated from coal from other states. And carbon emissions will go up. As you know, this is what happened in Europe when Russian gas supplies were lost -- it had to burn a lot more coal, and carbon emissions went up.

I agree about the flaring. Yeah, it should be permitted while a well is being completed, or if necessary for safety or maintenance. But not for month after month. If you drive down Interstate 20 at night through West Texas, you won't see as much of it now as in years past. The problem is that there's a lack of pipeline capacity. As a result, the price of gas in West Texas is frequently negative. Oil producers have to pay to produce associated gas, if they want to produce the oil. No wonder they want to flare gas. This is rapidly being remedied, in West Texas at least. A couple of major gas pipelines are scheduled to go on stream soon, or may already have. .China despite their EVs and USA are 2 biggest polluting, fucking our planet, and crazy Trump wants to increase pollution, just criminal, killing people from bad air, hurricanes, fires, rivers, sea.

Xpartan

02-27-25, 06:58

The 45% approval rate from two independent polls.

57% say he's exceeded his authority.

A whopping 34% approval for Musk with only 26% approving his massacre of the government programs.

63% don't like his "marauders" having access to government databases.

I'm starting seeing jail sentences in some people futures. Perhaps, not Trump's and Musk's, as our justice system seems to be decisively impotent in front of the rich and powerful, but some of their lesser minions are going to get quite a hungover after the feast. Just wait.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/trump-is-the-most-unpopular-president-in-more-than-70-years-sorry-maga-opinion/ar-AA1zOER0

Elvis 2008

02-27-25, 15:31

At times like these, it is always best to have a blithering, incoherent known goofball conspiracy theory liar appointed by a blithering incoherent 30,000 plus documented liar of a so-called potus in charge:

Texas child who was not vaccinated has died of measles, a first for the US in a decade.

https://apnews.com/article/measles-outbreak-west-texas-death-rfk-41adc66641e4a56ce2b2677480031ab9

So, while he was he wrong about there being two reported deaths instead of one, he was therefore trying to shrug off TWO deaths in a decade as "not unusual".

Be prepared for the worst, most incoherent communications imaginable about whatever Trump's Pandemic Part 2 he is again pulling all the stops to lay the groundwork for in order to usher in and, consequently, is quite likely to occur sometime over the next four years.Man, it must be hard being a Democratic douche these days. Here you are pouncing on RFK Jr. A Democrat and being supportive of big Pharma over, wait for it!, one death. Fuck the millions who were harmed by the Covid vaccine and the potential tie in with vaccines and autism and the millions of Americans suffering from that and the explosion of auto immune diseases among the American people. And of course in the binary Toomsian world of Republican bad, Democrat good, we now have the repeat of the idiotic vaccines good, antivaxx bad.

Are you ready to repeat the bird brained mantra with regards to vaccines and withholding treatment that you did with Covid? Yeah, let's withhold medical treatment from the unvaccinated! Let sick people die! That will teach them!

In actuality, measles is probably the one vaccine along with polio that probably should be mandatory. And some of the more astute doctors are thinking about making that stand alone instead of mixing it in with mumps and rubella. The MMR vaccine has been the only studied and found NOT to be linked with autism.

It is fucking insane as to how many vaccines are being given to kids, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/11288-childhood-immunization-schedule, and the vaccines still have aluminum in them. Yes, we took out the mercury but we added a new poison.

"It's not safe to delay vaccines or to follow another schedule you might find online or through friends. The vaccine schedule that pediatricians across the USA Use (which we describe here) has the backing of careful medical science. ".

Of course, we heard the same bullshit with Covid.

And RFK Jr. Is the Democrat who ran for the 2024 nomination and had to quit once he saw how rigged the primaries were and how your party chose the guy without the working brain. That was a great job there and after you realized Biden was demented, you all chose the woman who was not demented but just really dumb. It would seem impossible to have a candidate with less mental capacity than Biden, but somehow you all managed to pull it off.

The problem with being a modern Democratic douche is you have no principles. Trump is on the verge of peace in Ukraine, and there is all this griping. He gets back the hostages held in Gaza and all we hear about is how terrible his plan is for Gaza. Then you have the climate change weirdos freaking out about cars in the USA while India and China are polluting like hell, and Russia has been forced to burn off more gas than ever after Biden blew up Nordstream. Hell, when Trump and Musk tackle the deficit and try to see that the USA does not go into default, Democrats are like, We want waste! We want default! We want vaccines! We love big pharma! We love censorship! We love the deep state! We love war! And fuck those children with autism and autoimmune diseases!

How long can the Democratic douches hold on? The defections have been ongoing: RFK Jr. , Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Anderson, Matt Taibbi, Walter Kirn, Glenn Greenwald to name a few. And what is the derogatory term for these people who looked at the pro vaccine, pro censorship, pro deep state, pro big pharma, and anti Democracy methods of the current Democratic party? Ah yes, they are bothsiders. Elections? We do not need no stinkin' elections.

Man, it is getting harder than ever to be a Democrat. I almost, almost feel sorry for you guys.

EihTooms

02-27-25, 21:23

If the President of Ukraine is truly a dictator, when why does't Trump like him?

There are plenty of examples in the world of dictators that Trump likes!You are right.

This just in:

Trump the Cowardly Liar back-pedals like a big, fat, lying clown pussy on him calling Zellenskyy a dictator when confronted about it by his own hand-picked, utterly compliant and subservient Nazi Dictator-style press corp:

Donald Trump Denies Calling Volodymyr Zelenskyy A 'Dictator' Days After Calling Him A 'Dictator'.
Feb. 27, 2025

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-denies-calling-volodymyr-192122510.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAL3MyBR_rYrzTmh_f1UGFaVRI-cExPvIvcggnY2xdATx2cGUWicgKYhtvqTCoxtjyDyFoR351PVDIFKPkI4Vy0zg1GLHAnRspSly8lYJ4h-Jt-Ur6nzWNqIMNUakkIkKwZWLdoNL7H1T5ehHalQp5Dzm6SxwMKBaEvSqCX5GQcgc

Donald Trump has denied calling Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator - barely a week after calling him a dictator.

The US president stunned reporters with the bare-faced lie as he sat alongside Keir Starmer in the White House.

Trump attacked Zelenskyy in a tirade on his Truth Social account last week.

He said: He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden like a fiddle. A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.

But asked by a reporter in the Oval Office if he still thinks Zelenskyy is a dictator, Trump replied: "Did I say that? I cant believe I said that. Next question."See video in the link.

But the far more important question is; now that his America-hating lord and savior cult leader has so publicly back-pedaled on his huge lie, will Elvis follow suit as slavishly lemming-like as he follows his America-hating cult leader Trump on every other point?

Or, more realistically, when will Elvis follow his previous lie about this with an even bigger lie that "he can't believe he said that" just as his America-hating, dictator-loving cult leader Donald Trump did?

EihTooms

02-27-25, 22:53

See chart below for the typical stock market decline today as Trump was stationed in front of a microphone talking, talking, talking, blathering and slobbering out one embarrassing lie after another, a colossal lie about how terrible the Biden and Obama economies were vs his "greatest economy in the history of the world", a shockingly stupid lie about who pays tariffs, an array of bewildering, incoherent lies about what is happening under Trump's current spectacular mishandling of the Envy of the World Economy he inherited from Biden-Harris and on and on.

Stock Market due diligence simply does not include falling for the same blithering, blathering, incoherent lies that MAGAs slurp up with a big spoon in a determination to do as much serious harm to themselves and everyone else as possible.

To re-cap on the state of the USA Stock Market as measured by the S&P 500 Index for market watchers like Trump used to be back when he was far more shrewdly simply coasting on the terrific economic trajectories he inherited from Obama-Biden and not DOING anything to effect the economy:

It is up a mere 1. 35% since the November 5th election almost 4 months ago.

It is DOWN 2. 25% since Trump's Inauguration day about 6 weeks ago.

Seriously, has Trump said or done anything in the past 3-4 months that would inspire a serious investor, home purchaser, entrepreneur or "job creator" to invest in anything, buy anything, expand a business or hire rather than fire anyone? Much less to fly anywhere.

And speaking of flying anywhere; That is also unless the prospect of a Trump's Pandemic Part 2 combination of drug-resistant HIV / AIDS, Ebola and Child-Killing Measles works to inspire such a thing.

Again, otherwise known by MAGAs and their Russian bot script-writers as, "The Greatest First Month in the History of Presidential Terms".

Uh-huh.

Sirioja

02-28-25, 03:07

If the President of Ukraine is truly a dictator, when why does't Trump like him?

There are plenty of examples in the world of dictators that Trump likes!Who told Zelensky is a dictator? When Putin is. Trump friends are criminal Netanyahou and Putin, both international law prosecuted.

Spidy

02-28-25, 05:47

That is not true. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/01/23/air-pollution-chinese-and-american-cities-in-comparison-infographic/

Haha! Yeah, take a look at this list of the top 500 most polluted cities by particulate matter concentration. Three hundred and ninety-seven (397) of them are in China. None are in the USA. I was in China not long ago, and came back home through a large Texas city. There is no comparison in air quality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-polluted_cities_by_particulate_matter_concentration

Funny, how your article on air pollution/quality index (AQI), is like 10 years old. BTW, I was only comparing the largest cities.

Annoyingly, any current and/or up-to-date AQI informational comparisons (in 2023/2024) of current AQI, in China's larger cities, is unavailable and or very spotty at best. However, most older data points, do indicate that Beijing vs. New York, for example, had NY's AQI, as being 3x better. But oddly had Beijing on par with NY for noise pollution...go figure!

So, while I was incorrect in my opinions on China's air quality, it is interesting to note, that many journalists and video bloggers with boots-on-the-ground, on recent 2024/2025 scouting trips to China's largest cities (Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Shenzhen), swear up and down, they feel the air/noise quality and pollution is cleaner and better than back home...go figure!

If China has reached peek coal (in 2024), the AQI might be is something worth watching, if my assumption of this inverse correlation, makes any sense?

Yeah, you are missing the point on natural gas. It is a waste product from oil production and is flared off instead of being used. The worst of it is going on in Siberia. This is where I get angry at climate change weirdos. They do not get that. They have this dumb natural gas bad and carbon fuel bad approach.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-25-mn-16837-story.html

When cosmonauts look down from their space station at Earth, they say the brightest spot they see is not a metropolis in America or Europe. It is the oil fields of Western Siberia, where thousands of wells flare off the natural gas they produce in giant wasteful torches. A single flare at the Portovaya LNG facility in Russia is estimated to produce more black carbon than the entire country of Finland.
...

In Texas, we have enough sun and wind to to compete with natural gas but there is no way that is the case in the Northeastern part of the country. What kills me is we are still flaring gas off in the USA. IMO all that should be used for electricity or as fuel. What pisses me off about natural gas is that you can by a $1000 conversion pact in Mexico and use natural gas to drive a vehicle but that same conversion is like $10,000 in the USA.

The stupidest fucking thing I have seen is gasoline vehicles in West Texas next to gas wells being flared. Why aren't they using that natural gas as fuel? Talk about unnecessary pollution. How fucking dumb is that?

On the contrary, you fail to even understand the point I was making and your 32 year old article, only serves to prove my point.

Again, allow me to reiterate, that the production, transmission, storage and consumption of fossil fuels, has the majority of it, being burnt off as waste heat, and is the very definition of INEFFICIENT and can't compete with ELECTRICITY. Take for example, something like 60-65% of an ICE vehicle's fuel, is burnt off, as waste heat and/or CO2 emissions, in the operation of the vehicle.

If you didn't understand, I was actually talking about the myriad of ways fossil fuel waste heat energy is lost, when getting fossil fuels from "the ground" at point A, to "the consumption" use case end point B. But I think, a thank you is in order, as your 32 year news piece, ONLY make mys point, w/r to just how inefficient the industry is...so "Thank You!" for that!

When natural gas is produced as a byproduct of oil drilling, it is called associated gas. In the U.S., the percentage of natural gas that is associated gas, varies by region and over time, and is only estimated to be around 30-40% of total natural gas production.

Yes, flaring is a waste of energy resources and a major climate issue. So while not perfect and a VERY INEFFICIENT use of resources, it persists due to economic, technical, and regulatory challenges. The reducing of flaring, does however, require the oil companies to have better infrastructure and spend the capital (if they truly wanted to), in order to capture any or more associated gas for use, instead of flaring it.

Just don't rant and appeal to your illogical MAGA gullible sensibilities, and tell me flaring releases CO2, which is better than methane...(...kkkk!)

So of all the immediate steps that can be taken to reduce pollution, natural gas pipelines to China and India would be #1 on my list. It is just the climate change weirdos are not going to go along with that when in reality the switch from coal to natural gas is pretty much the reason carbon emissions in the USA are down.
Don't worry about China, like Norway, their decarbonization efforts are are doing just fine, and I'll be sure to revisit that AQI challenge, in several years from now. Although, I think India has a long way to go, its the U.S. decarbonization efforts you should be concerned and worried about...under your American Fuhrer, it's a fucking DISASTER!

Beno69

02-28-25, 13:11

SubCmdr

02-28-25, 14:34

Check Charts BTC / Nividia / Tesla last 6 Month. Maybe this is better than go to courts against this gangster! It will kill him and Musk if this MAGA Stocks ruin many of his followers.Smart traders and investors (like me) took their original investments out of the stock / crypto markets, booked some profit and I now sitting on cash as others are losing their SHIT cause they bought at the top of the market.

We are witnessing history. We are going through a major financial disruption. You are going to witness the largest transfer of wealth from one demographic to another in the history of this Earth. It might be so bad as to create international financial slaves for the rest of my days here on Earth. I don't know. But I do know you need to protect yourself.

Time to buy is now gentlemen! Time to pack your go back is now gentleman! Time to build out your bug out location is now gentlemen. It's about to get ugly!

Elvis 2008

02-28-25, 16:59

Annoyingly, any current and/or up-to-date AQI informational comparisons (in 2023/2024) of current AQI, in China's larger cities, is unavailable and or very spotty at best. However, most older data points, do indicate that Beijing vs. New York, for example, had NY's AQI, as being 3x better. But oddly had Beijing on par with NY for noise pollution...go figure!You mean people are pushing positive notions in a communist country without a free press. That is a shocker.

If China has reached peek coal (in 2024), the AQI might be is something worth watching, if my assumption of this inverse correlation, makes any sense?You mean peak right? Well, we will see. If they have reached peak coal, that is only because they have built a ton more natural gas pipelines.

On the contrary, you fail to even understand the point I was making and your 32 year old article, only serves to prove my point.This was listed in Google as 2019 and the Forbes article was listed as this year and said it was 10 years old. Anyway, Russian gas production is the same now as it was then and flaring is still a huge problem.

Again, allow me to reiterate, that the production, transmission, storage and consumption of fossil fuels, has the majority of it, being burnt off as waste heat, and is the very definition of INEFFICIENT and can't compete with ELECTRICITY. Take for example, something like 60-65% of an ICE vehicle's fuel, is burnt off, as waste heat and/or CO2 emissions, in the operation of the vehicle.Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oil companies tried that same bullshit with corn based ethanol saying it had a negative return of energy. If gas was $7 a gallon and ethanol was $2, that logic made no sense to me. The same goes with natural gas. You can see natural gas priced in gge, gallon of gasoline equivalent and natural gas is going for 99 cents in some places. http://www.cngprices.com/station_map.php.

That is cheaper than electric in many if not most cases.

Yes, flaring is a waste of energy resources and a major climate issue. So while not perfect and a VERY INEFFICIENT use of resources, it persists due to economic, technical, and regulatory challenges. The reducing of flaring, does however, require the oil companies to have better infrastructure and spend the capital (if they truly wanted to), in order to capture any or more associated gas for use, instead of flaring it.Oil companies do not spend on the natural gas pipelines much. They are typically bought / created by MLPs and you can buy shares of them on stock exchanges. Because they have such easy access to capital and a pipeline is among the safest investments there is, outside of some technical challenges, the ONLY real challenge is regulatory, and I can show you countless Democrat enviormentalists protesting oil and gas pipelines. Who shut down Keystone and why? Oh yeah, Nebraska water was at risk per the richest Nebraskan who is a Democrat and is moving all that energy via a train system he owns.

Just don't rant and appeal to your illogical MAGA gullible sensibilities, and tell me flaring releases CO2, which is better than methane

Don't worry about China, like Norway, their decarbonization efforts are are doing just fine, and I'll be sure to revisit that AQI challenge, in several years from now. Although, I think India has a long way to go, its the U.S. decarbonization efforts you should be concerned and worried about...under your American Fuhrer, it's a fucking DISASTER!Whenever you Democratic add in a MAGA hip check, it shows everyone how dumb you are. Carbon emissions went down under Trump and up under Biden. And the single greatest polluting event in years was Biden blowing up Nordstream and sending all that methane into the atmosphere.

You Democratic douches spend all this federal money on green energy and then you blow up a pipeline. Of course, we know now thanks to DOGE that green energy was pure graft and about "throwing gold off the Titanic" as Democrats shoveled $20 billion into a bank for green energy before Trump took power. Stacy Abrams got $2 billion to continue to rig Georgia elections er for green energy and climate change even though she knows nothing about it.

I wonder Spidy when you say the USA is the biggest issue with carbon and not India or China if you are corrupt. How much of that $20 billion came into your pocket?

Elvis 2008

02-28-25, 17:17

Seriously, has Trump said or done anything in the past 3-4 months that would inspire a serious investor, home purchaser, entrepreneur or "job creator" to invest in anything, buy anything, expand a business or hire rather than fire anyone? Much less to fly anywhere.Uh yeah, cutting federal spending and having a goal to balance the budget would bring down borrowing costs and inflation, and it is nice to see someone give cutting government costs something more than lip service.

Loony Tooms, I have gone over this before. If companies are raising earnings, the federal budget deficits are under control, and the market goes up, then you have a government presiding over a healthy economy. That was the case under the market boom with Clinton. With Obama, there was some earnings growth but the Fed and Obama administration were pushing money into the market. With Biden, market stimulus was at record levels.

So do not tell me how rich you are when you are buying all your shit with a credit card, and Biden was using the nation's credit card like a drunken meth snorting sailor.

And with Biden, we had record deficits and decades high inflation. The market currently is priced for less than 2% inflation and zero interest rates. The chances that anyone could push it higher is crazy. In fact, unless we see a balanced budget, inflation way down, and earnings up, all you are doing by pushing market prices higher is blowing a bubble.

Trump has been in office 5 weeks now. The only way you can get the market up in 5 weeks is through very unhealthy means which means using market prices to judge Trump now is patently unfair but what else is new? You have been blaming all these market issues on Trump before he even got into office.

Spidy

02-28-25, 17:28

Then you have the gasoline tax for the roads but if you create your own electricity via say solar, you do not pay taxes. And you get this subsidy while buying an EV that you do not get when buying a ICE car. If we all buy EVs, we are going to have pay taxes elsewhere to maintain the roads.

Not true, as many states have EV owners, paying an additional extra registration fees to cover roads/infrastructure. I long as EV owners, are paying for things they use, I don't imagine they'll be a problem.

It becomes problematic, if for example, EV owners as non-smokers were to pay a cigarette health smoking tax, when they don't smoke.

Elvis, the reason you don't see them is because Biden slapped a 100% duty on Chinese electric vehicles, including this plug in hybrid. That's what the AI blurb in Google says anyway.

The Biden administration wants to encourage the use of electric vehicles and solar cells, so it slaps huge tariffs on the most competitive products out there. And then passes the Inflation Reduction Act, with over $1 Trillion in green subsidies (according to Goldman Sachs) instead. Democratic Party politicians think money grows on trees. They stick it to American taxpayers and consumers. Yes, as you say, how fucked up is that.

Well, you seem to want to blame Republicans but there is this which Tiny alluded to:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/14/joe-biden-tariff-chinese-made-electric-vehicles

Biden announces 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles.

Trump did his tariffs too but that is not the core issue. Both parties are kissing the ass of car companies in the swing states in the Midwest. What has not happened has been real leadership.

Clinton did NAFTA and gave China most favored status despite getting shit from his own party. Elon Musk said he could compete with anyone with a level playing field, and Tesla is competitive in China. Maybe China can build the assembly factories here and preserve the blue collar jobs because it seems like the white collar cost savings are what really matter. And then can you limit the number of imports and increase it slowly year by year.

Thing is American companies have partnerships in China, and they are already competing there. They can have a slot of the number of cars imported as well.

Maybe I was intonating and hinting it was President Joe Biden. Well according to your earlier rants about the U.S. not being about to compete with China automotive manufacturing, due to wages being the single biggest issue, doesn't it now seem like it was the correct thing for Biden to do?

It remains to be seen, but the American Fuhrer's mere 25% tariff on EVs vs. Biden's 100% tariffs, may have a bigger and broader impact and implications, on not only on U.S. legacy auto manufacturers, but on the many auto adjacent industries as well. As 25% may not go far enough to protect MAGA's idea of "American Exceptionalism" and the flood of Chinese EVs.

FWIW, I still think, we should give China the opportunity, to come and employ Americans, compete with U.S. manufacturers, and build their vehicles in the states. Let's see if that MAGA "American exceptionalism" in auto manufacturing, can compete with Chinese auto manufacturers on home turf? At the very worst legacy auto may learn something!

You know, cause clearly, they haven't learnt much about building a good range of cheaper to quality EVs, from those partnerships in China!

W/R to the Fuhrer's 25% tariffs, I wouldn't put it past china, to flood the U.S. car market, even with a 25% tariff, by lowering the price of their cars, just so they can get market penetration. Which will be good for consumers, but what will U.S. legacy auto do?

So while some may scoff, at the IRA and the Great President Biden's masterful plan to make America competitive with China, it is still being herald and haled as a huge success.

Can't wait to see what mayhem, unfurls from the Fuhrer's 25% tariffs on Chinese EVs.

Spidy

02-28-25, 18:17

The oil and gas subsidies at first glance look like the deductions any business takes. I rechecked that, and not only did I confirm that, but I am reminded of the windfall profits tax. Google and Microsoft can make money without a windfall profit but oil and gas cannot?

Yes, the oil and gas industry receives very little in direct subsidies. This is greenie / leftist propaganda.

Accelerated depreciation would be the industry's biggest tax break, and is available to other businesses. Oil companies can write off intangible drilling costs in the year incurred instead depreciating them. This affects the timing of when the companies pay tax, but not the amount paid over the long term. Companies with R&D expenses receive similar treatment in other industries. The only tax break unique to the oil and gas industry is percentage depletion, and only small oil and gas companies receive it. It should be done away with IMO.
...

Add it all up, and the industry as a whole receives minimal direct subsidies, and pays higher taxes than average.

I see they got you gullible MAGA cultists, totally fooled! (...kkkk!) Which is not surprising, coming from the billionaire sympathizers, big oil and gas and big pharma billionaire apologists!

As if lower taxes, tax credits, Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs, created specifically under the Internal Revenue Code Section 7704, for energy infrastructure, in the oil and gas sector) and other such tax loopholes, weren't made specifically for the oil-n-gas industry and are just really "subsides", by any other accounting another name. Call it what you want, it's all just lipstick on a pig!

Oil companies line up for billions of dollars in subsidies under US climate law
https://www.ft.com/content/28b3a8d9-9c5f-4578-a6c6-7b848b3fe700

Biden Cuts Fossil Subsidies, But Oil and Gas Still Lines Up for Billions
https://www.theenergymix.com/biden-cuts-fossil-subsidies-but-oil-and-gas-still-lining-up-for-billions/

Biden budget targets U.S. fossil fuel subsidies
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/biden-budget-targets-us-fossil-fuel-subsidies-2023-03-09/

And my favorite:

Fossil fuel subsidies are proving harder to end than first thought
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/14/1064011237/fossil-fuel-subsidies-are-proving-harder-to-end-than-first-thought

Those headlines say it all!

Sirioja

02-28-25, 21:39

Trump is just a robber, Vance just a duck, trying to fuck poor Ukrainians and make business with criminal dictator, his friend who hold his balls, Putin. All my respect and support to Zelensky who has real balls, not only a small size, to resist to them not to make his citizens fucked by USA. Zelensky is fully legal according to Ukraine constitution and also supported by most Ukrainians to defend Ukraine, when Trump who fucked USA constitution and capitol, is a real shame and the most unrespectul for USA. I wish others than Trump and his gang, will support Zelensky and Ukraine who were attacked by Putin. When USA lost for economics versus Europe and China, when Europeans don t want to buy shit foods and lower level cars, other than taxes, Trump tries to rob the poor and make business with the worst. Real shame in front of the world.

Xpartan

02-28-25, 21:53

Tiny 12

02-28-25, 22:12

I see they got you gullible MAGA cultists, totally fooled! (...kkkk!) Which is not surprising, coming from the billionaire sympathizers, big oil and gas and big pharma billionaire apologists!

As if lower taxes, tax credits, Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs, created specifically under the Internal Revenue Code Section 7704, for energy infrastructure, in the oil and gas sector) and other such tax loopholes, weren't made specifically for the oil-n-gas industry and are just really "subsides", by any other accounting another name. Call it what you want, it's all just lipstick on a pig!

Oil companies line up for billions of dollars in subsidies under US climate law
https://www.ft.com/content/28b3a8d9-9c5f-4578-a6c6-7b848b3fe700

Biden Cuts Fossil Subsidies, But Oil and Gas Still Lines Up for Billions
https://www.theenergymix.com/biden-cuts-fossil-subsidies-but-oil-and-gas-still-lining-up-for-billions/

Biden budget targets U.S. fossil fuel subsidies
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/biden-budget-targets-us-fossil-fuel-subsidies-2023-03-09/

And my favorite:

Fossil fuel subsidies are proving harder to end than first thought
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/14/1064011237/fossil-fuel-subsidies-are-proving-harder-to-end-than-first-thought

Those headlines say it all!Those headlines are bull shit. Reagan's changes in the tax law mostly removed the motivation for oil and gas producers to set up Master Limited Partnerships. They're common for pipelines and other midstream companies though, and for companies that own real estate like apartment and office buildings. Do they really provide substantial tax benefits now that the federal corporate tax rate was cut from 35% to 21%? In the long term, not a lot. In the short term, if they keep expanding, MLP investors benefit from the depreciation write offs. IMO, in order to treat all industries fairly and equally, it would be a good idea to either (a) open up the MLP structure to other industries or (b) eliminate the MLP structure for companies that start up in the future.

Your Financial Times article describes tax subsidies for carbon capture in Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). I thought you were a big fan of the IRA? The only oil company that's gotten a significant tax benefit from carbon capture so far is Oxy. And "significant" is stretching it. They've got one project in West Texas that removes a small amount of carbon dioxide from the air. Yes, other oil companies have plans on the drawing board. Hopefully the Republicans will kill this stupid tax subsidy as it relates to direct air capture. Direct air carbon capture is extremely expensive compared to other types of carbon mitigation. And it will do very little to reduce carbon in the atmosphere.

Same for your second article, from Energy Mix, it's largely about the same issue, Biden's tax subsidies. As to the EOR tax credit and the credit for gas produced from marginal wells described in the article, yes, they should be done away with. The amount the USA Treasury "loses" to these tax credits is minimal.

I've already covered intangible drilling costs and percentage depletion, the main bogeymen in the Reuters article. While yes, IDC results in less revenue to the Treasury in the short term, in the long term the company pays the same amount of tax. There's no difference between it and the way R&D or Section 179 depreciation are handled for other industries. And again, the percentage depletion allowance, which is only available to small oil and gas producers, should be done away with.

As to the tax advantages / disadvantages for foreign oil and gas income described in your NPR article, that cuts both way. Yes, oil and gas are exempt from the GILTI tax imposed in the Republican's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. However, under IRC section 907, oil and gas companies cannot utilize tax credits for foreign taxes paid to the extent that other companies have. The GILTI tax was designed to force tech and pharmaceutical companies from parking patents and the like in tax haven countries. The amount raised by GILTI from a capital intensive business like oil and gas wouldn't be that significant anyway.

The headlines lie. Again, take into account severance taxes and the gasoline tax, and oil and gas companies pay more than their fair share.

Tiny 12

02-28-25, 22:40

Funny, how your article on air pollution/quality index (AQI), is like 10 years old. BTW, I was only comparing the largest cities.

Annoyingly, any current and/or up-to-date AQI informational comparisons (in 2023/2024) of current AQI, in China's larger cities, is unavailable and or very spotty at best. However, most older data points, do indicate that Beijing vs. New York, for example, had NY's AQI, as being 3x better. But oddly had Beijing on par with NY for noise pollution...go figure!

So, while I was incorrect in my opinions on China's air quality, it is interesting to note, that many journalists and video bloggers with boots-on-the-ground, on recent 2024/2025 scouting trips to China's largest cities (Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Shenzhen), swear up and down, they feel the air/noise quality and pollution is cleaner and better than back home...go figure!

If China has reached peek coal (in 2024), the AQI might be is something worth watching, if my assumption of this inverse correlation, makes any sense?

On the contrary, you fail to even understand the point I was making and your 32 year old article, only serves to prove my point.

Again, allow me to reiterate, that the production, transmission, storage and consumption of fossil fuels, has the majority of it, being burnt off as waste heat, and is the very definition of INEFFICIENT and can't compete with ELECTRICITY. Take for example, something like 60-65% of an ICE vehicle's fuel, is burnt off, as waste heat and/or CO2 emissions, in the operation of the vehicle.

If you didn't understand, I was actually talking about the myriad of ways fossil fuel waste heat energy is lost, when getting fossil fuels from "the ground" at point A, to "the consumption" use case end point B. But I think, a thank you is in order, as your 32 year news piece, ONLY make mys point, w/r to just how inefficient the industry is...so "Thank You!" for that!

When natural gas is produced as a byproduct of oil drilling, it is called associated gas. In the U.S., the percentage of natural gas that is associated gas, varies by region and over time, and is only estimated to be around 30-40% of total natural gas production.

Yes, flaring is a waste of energy resources and a major climate issue. So while not perfect and a VERY INEFFICIENT use of resources, it persists due to economic, technical, and regulatory challenges. The reducing of flaring, does however, require the oil companies to have better infrastructure and spend the capital (if they truly wanted to), in order to capture any or more associated gas for use, instead of flaring it.

Just don't rant and appeal to your illogical MAGA gullible sensibilities, and tell me flaring releases CO2, which is better than methane...(...kkkk!)

Don't worry about China, like Norway, their decarbonization efforts are are doing just fine, and I'll be sure to revisit that AQI challenge, in several years from now. Although, I think India has a long way to go, its the U.S. decarbonization efforts you should be concerned and worried about...under your American Fuhrer, it's a fucking DISASTER!China Carbon Emissions:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country?country=~CHN

USA Carbon Emissions:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country?country=~USA

Thanks to clean burning natural gas, USA CO2 emissions are down by 20% since 2007. China's are up by 70%. They were up in China by 5% from 2022 to 2023.

China's decarbonization efforts are nothing compared to Norway's. China has 300 coal fired power plants under construction, permitted or awaiting permitting, totaling 243 gigawatts of capacity. It began construction on 70 gigawatts of new capacity in 2023. For comparison, total capacity from all sources (coal, nuclear, solar, etc.) in France is 148 gigawatts.

https://globalenergymonitor.org/press-release/chinas-coal-power-spree-could-see-over-300-coal-plants-added-before-emissions-peak/
https://www.carbonbrief.org/china-responsible-for-95-of-new-coal-power-construction-in-2023-report-says/
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/electricity_production_capacity/

Thanks for the education on associated gas.

As Elvis says, oil and gas producers don't build the main pipelines. Other companies do that.

Only 0.5% of natural gas produced in the USA is flared.

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=62383

Perhaps flaring would be even less if American Fuhrers like Joe Biden and Democratic Party governors and representatives hadn't held up construction of pipelines. Biden's moratorium on issuance of permits for LNG facilities probably played a part in slowing development of pipelines from the Permian Basin. Before pipeline investors could count on demand for the gas. Now they know they have the risk of stranded assets when Democrats return to power.

There are a lot of mini Fuhrers in Washington D.C. who believe they have the right to take away the livelihoods of people in places like Texas and Wyoming who work in the oil and gas industry. All for the sake of cutting worldwide CO2 emissions by a fraction of a %. If Californians and New Yorkers want to ban oil and gas production in their states, they have every right to do so. But they shouldn't impose their standards on the rest of us.

To your credit, you've been making economic, not moral arguments. So, perhaps unlike Elvis, I don't believe you're guilty of what Bjorn Lomborg said in a recent Financial Times interview, about people people with financial interest in causes like climate change: "Potential catastrophes are fundraising tools. I make up a scary scenario. Now give me all your money."

Newton York

03-01-25, 01:28

Sirioja

03-01-25, 05:06

Christ on a stick! Let's all die already. All this waiting and watching for the nukes to destroy us all. It's boring. And I'm sick of tired of my useless, pointless, old ass life. I want to die, but you know what's better than just me dying? Knowing everybody else will be dead too.

But, but, but, wait. I'm talking to you life, or destiny, fate of god or Satan, or whatever you want to call it. Just let me have one last trip to Bangkok to get my fuck on, and then destroy the world.Then, you were right to elect crazy shameful Trump who is one more danger for our world. Never forget, his dictator friend Putin who hold his balls in hand, attacked Ukraine and stole lands, after Crimea and trying to fuck elections in Georgia, Romania and Moldavia. And now, USA president just trying to rob poor Ukraine. Such shameful USA. My big respect for Ukraine led by Zelensky and 0 respect for fat Trump, now image of USA.

Elvis 2008

03-01-25, 07:11

Today, on 2. 28.2025, Trump has finally admitted being the asset of Vladimir Putin. There is no, I repeat, no other way to interpret this. The scene was staged, the Trump and Vance roles -- rehearsed, the insults, unheard of for any head of state -- slung, and the rest is history. My God, America!

I've never been more embarrassed by any US president even including this one.Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trump speaks to Putin and says that Putin hates Zelensky, and Zelensky hates Putin, and in your mind, Trump is sucking Putin's dick. I could see your interpretation of events a mile away. With Democratic douches, the only thing you can say about Putin is that he sucks.

Given that is your mindset, do you have a peace deal that you can offer up that does not involve Putin? Or is it just more dead bodies, more debt, and more empty slogans (we are with Ukraine until they achieve victory, whatever the fuck that means)?

Elvis 2008

03-01-25, 07:27

Only 0.5% of natural gas produced in the USA is flared.

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=62383Thanks for that. I am glad to see how much flaring in North Dakota is down now. When I was in Pecos, Texas, I was told Carlos Slim was building a natural gas pipeline to Mexico, and I was like damn that is one smart mo fo. It was actually a group he was involved in but that is a smart investment. Areas around Pecos were flaring and honestly it was the first time I had seen much of it in Texas. At that time, Pecos was producing so much oil and gas so quickly that they were having trouble transporting it.

To your credit, you've been making economic, not moral arguments. So, perhaps unlike Elvis, I don't believe you're guilty of what Bjorn Lomborg said in a recent Financial Times interview, about people people with financial interest in causes like climate change: "Potential catastrophes are fundraising tools. I make up a scary scenario. Now give me all your money."Thing about Spidy is I grew tired of his constant name calling and saying nothing in his posts. When it has come to the energy discussion, he still brings his usual partisan hip checks but at least this time he is bringing facts and knowledge to his credit. Maybe it is not fair, but I am suspicious as to why. LOL.

EihTooms

03-01-25, 08:57

Uh yeah, cutting federal spending and having a goal to balance the budget would bring down borrowing costs and inflation, and it is nice to see someone give cutting government costs something more than lip service.

Loony Tooms, I have gone over this before. If companies are raising earnings, the federal budget deficits are under control, and the market goes up, then you have a government presiding over a healthy economy. That was the case under the market boom with Clinton. With Obama, there was some earnings growth but the Fed and Obama administration were pushing money into the market. With Biden, market stimulus was at record levels.

So do not tell me how rich you are when you are buying all your shit with a credit card, and Biden was using the nation's credit card like a drunken meth snorting sailor.

And with Biden, we had record deficits and decades high inflation. The market currently is priced for less than 2% inflation and zero interest rates. The chances that anyone could push it higher is crazy. In fact, unless we see a balanced budget, inflation way down, and earnings up, all you are doing by pushing market prices higher is blowing a bubble.

Trump has been in office 5 weeks now. The only way you can get the market up in 5 weeks is through very unhealthy means which means using market prices to judge Trump now is patently unfair but what else is new? You have been blaming all these market issues on Trump before he even got into office.Chainsaw Musk isn't cutting spending anywhere. He's firing people who, when it is time to pay the piper and Blue States have to pull Red States out of this mess as usual, will cost everyone more!

A "goal" to do what? A stated "goal" from a blatantly obvious con man liar who keeps saying one of the worst economies of all time, his, was "the Greatest in the History of the World", that "we got billion and billions of dollars from China in my trade war because other countries pay the tariffs I impose" is not taken by anyone with a brain as a realistic "goal" but only one more of the 30,000 plus documented lies spilling out of his pie-hole every day.

It does not fool investors and real business entrepreneurs when real money is on the line.

Only dumb MAGA Repub hillbillies fall for that crap.

Markets are forward-looking. They most certainly can rise quickly on certainty in the prospect that competent leadership will do the right thing for the economy. That is why Biden's post-election rally was one of the greatest of all time while Trump's has been one of the worst. And that is despite the fact that there was night and day difference between the total crap, seemingly insurmountable for years conditions Biden inherited from Trump vs the Envy of the World Economy and historically strong and solid conditions Trump inherited from Biden.

Good god. There is still not one shred of evidence that Bitcoin loves Trump more than it loved Biden. And that was one of the most demonstrably optimistic, no-brainer, sales pitches for choosing Trump over anyone else.

See the chart below for Biden's last day in office, after which con man Trump and all of his supposedly "pro bitcoin" Cabinet and Staff were lined up with all their lofty "goals" for Bitcoin to really take off!

Compare to the chart for election day 2024.

Compare to chart for Biden's inauguration. Or as close as I could slide it.

Compare to chart for Biden's election day win.

Spidy

03-01-25, 11:24

Only 0.5% of natural gas produced in the USA is flared.

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=62383

Wow! Hey look everybody! U.S. flaring and venting fell to an 18-year low in 2023, after decades and decades, and took them well over a hundred years, of venting toxic methane plumes into our breathable air, to figure it out. Look at you, being so proud!

Sounds like you're itching for a medal? Or is it just a cookie? How about a pat on the back? Or how about another 100 years to have natural gas at zero 0% flaring and zero 0% CO2 emissions. Now thats something worth hanging your hat on in 3025? Duh!

So while flaring rates have come down, and its good that the industry is capturing more associated gas, places like North Dakota and Wyoming, have flare rates, as high as 31.6%, and signaling there are no guarantees they'll never remain low. But who really cares, when you have S+W+B and nuclear (if that reactor/SMR industry ever gets its act together).

Look Natural Gas is always going to have:
• flaring issues and problems,
• methane leaking problems (80x more potent than CO2),
• burn and emit CO2 gas emissions and last but not least,
• (my fav.) have the dubious honor, of being 50% cleaner than coal (and only when there are no methane leaks)
Let's face it, Tiny 12, when your only claim to fame is, being a cleaner burning fuel than coal, by 50%, that's not saying much!

Thanks to clean burning natural gas, USA CO2 emissions are down by 20% since 2007. China's are up by 70%. They were up in China by 5% from 2022 to 2023.
Thanks, those are pretty good charts! If anything they do reinforce my argument that the U.S./Europe, have been burning huge amounts of fossil fuels for decades longer than China. *Note: It was only as recent as 2007, where China began emitting more CO2 then the U.S.So IMHO, China isn't doing that badly, when you consider and take into account that the USA is 4x smaller, but emits 2x as much in relation to, it's population size, to that of China's.

Tiny 12, "clean burning natural gas", really? (...kkkk!) Ahhh!...you crack me up! And here I thought Elvis 2008, was the one, with the funny bone. Or do you guys share it, every other post?

Your nostalgia, for those bygone days, when the coal industry, would boldly try to bamboozle, hoodwink and greenwash coal, with a huge campaigns, calling it "clean coal", are all but a laughable faded memory.

Remember those days of greenwashing coal, ...NO! Well, I sure do! As your clean burning gas barb, had me laughing so hard, from way back-in-the-day, to as early as 2018, when idiots like your American Fuhrer refers to it as "....beautiful clean coal" (...kkkk!)

Your Financial Times article describes tax subsidies for carbon capture in Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). I thought you were a big fan of the IRA? The only oil company that's gotten a significant tax benefit from carbon capture so far is Oxy. And "significant" is stretching it. They've got one project in West Texas that removes a small amount of carbon dioxide from the air. Yes, other oil companies have plans on the drawing board. Hopefully the Republicans will kill this stupid tax subsidy as it relates to direct air capture. Direct air carbon capture is extremely expensive compared to other types of carbon mitigation. And it will do very little to reduce carbon in the atmosphere.

That's the Great President Joe Biden, for you, almost to a fault. Too often, he goes out of his way to, include and accommodate, all Americans to the best of his ability. This will be the one thing, I would definitely not miss, if your American Fuhrer, puts that kibosh on the IRA. Still a huge fan of the IRA, BTW!

But talk about a pipe dream. Both direct air capture (DAC) and carbon capture and storage (CCS), are once again (I have to admit), masterfully crafted, snake-oil, smoke and mirrors boondoggles, designed to transfer wealth, from taxpayers pockets to the oil-n-gas robber barons.

But I guess when you've had 100+ years to practice the grift of funneling gov't/taxpayers into your own pockets, it is not hard to see, that after 100+ years, it's NOT the art of flaring, that oil-n-gas firms have perfected, but "the art of the oil-n-gas gov't subsidy grift" (...kkkk!)

The U.S. energy industry emits about 5 billion metric tons of CO2, annually and yet somehow in the next several years and A NEW carbon capture industry is going to magically emerge and ramp up, to tackle 5-billion tons, throughout the states, annually?

Just more silly clean coal hubris from oil-n-gas industry, when the simply answer to our growing CO2, problem, is to buildout S+W+B, quicker, faster and cheaper. Then circle-back, a few years down the road, at which point perhaps the DAC tech (CCS ??) has been properly developed.

When cosmonauts look down from their space station at Earth, they say the brightest spot they see is not a metropolis in America or Europe. It is the oil fields of Western Siberia, where thousands of wells flare off the natural gas they produce in giant wasteful torches. A single flare at the Portovaya LNG facility in Russia is estimated to produce more black carbon than the entire country of Finland.

Hey Elvis 2008, that must be Tiny 12's methane fueled "clean gas", your Russian cosmonauts, are witnessing from space! (...kkkk!)

MAGA News Flash! It's not just Russia! As satellites have repeatedly exposed methane plumes in U.S. Oil-n-Gas fields, proving that American oil and gas companies can pollute and light-up the earth, to be seen from space, with the best of them. And no doubt honoring their astronauts, in true MAGA "American Exceptionalism" form.

Elvis 2008, I've decide, I'm giving Tiny 12, a grade of B+, on his awkward attempt at greenwashing natural gas, as "clean burning gas", although I did enjoy the laugh, it wasn't on par with your Fuhrers "...beautiful clean coal"

Tiny 12

03-01-25, 20:32

Thanks for that. I am glad to see how much flaring in North Dakota is down now. When I was in Pecos, Texas, I was told Carlos Slim was building a natural gas pipeline to Mexico, and I was like damn that is one smart mo fo. It was actually a group he was involved in but that is a smart investment. Areas around Pecos were flaring and honestly it was the first time I had seen much of it in Texas. At that time, Pecos was producing so much oil and gas so quickly that they were having trouble transporting it.No shit! The Waha interconnection point of gas pipelines is close to Pecos. For over half of 2024, you could get people TO PAY YOU to take gas at Waha, over $3. 00/ MMBTU from time to time. The current price is $. 04/ MMBTU, compared to $3. 84/ MMBTU at the Henry Hub in Louisiana.

Thing about Spidy is I grew tired of his constant name calling and saying nothing in his posts. When it has come to the energy discussion, he still brings his usual partisan hip checks but at least this time he is bringing facts and knowledge to his credit. Maybe it is not fair, but I am suspicious as to why. LOL.Yeah, he may work with EV's. He knows more about them than anybody on this board, including you and SubComdr, who in turn know a lot more than the rest of us do.

I don't think he works for, say, an NGO that's promoting zero net carbon. He doesn't know much about oil and gas production and taxation, or coal.

SubCmdr

03-01-25, 20:36

Then, you were right to elect crazy shameful Trump who is one more danger for our world. Never forget, his dictator friend Putin who hold his balls in hand, attacked Ukraine and stole lands, after Crimea and trying to fuck elections in Georgia, Romania and Moldavia. And now, USA president just trying to rob poor Ukraine. Such shameful USA. My big respect for Ukraine led by Zelensky and 0 respect for fat Trump, now image of USA.Bro, I don't agree with your opinions that much. But I had a visceral negative reaction to the Oval Office Performance by POTUS.

He is in my opinion a: punk ass ***** sitting up in the White House with his thumb on the nuclear button acting more like a gangster than a US President. He appears to be on his knees in front of Putin. It is a crying shame. I am embarrassed for me and my fellow Americans.

We need Obama, Clinton, Bush Sr. hell even Regan back!

We are on the path to dictatorship if the courts and congress do not put a check on dis mother fucker!

Tiny 12

03-01-25, 21:24

Slow your roll, did someone just say "...beautiful clean coal"? (...kkkk!)Uh, no. Nobody here said that, or believes it. Or this, "Your nostalgia, for those bygone days, when the coal industry, would boldly try to bamboozle, hoodwink and greenwash coal, with a huge campaigns, calling it "clean coal", are all but a laughable faded memory. ".

Wow! Hey look everybody! U.S. flaring and venting fell to an 18-year low in 2023, after decades and decades, and took them well over a hundred years, of venting toxic methane plumes into our breathable air, to figure it out. Look at you, being so proud!Yes, if you go to sleep in a room that contains 100% methane and no oxygen, you will die. Otherwise methane is not toxic.

Sounds like you're itching for a medal? Or is it just a cookie? How about a pat on the back? Or how about another 100 years to have natural gas at zero 0% flaring and zero 0% CO2 emissions. Now thats something worth hanging your hat on in 3025? Duh!

So while flaring rates have come down, and its good that the industry is capturing more associated gas, places like North Dakota and Wyoming, have flare rates, as high as 31.6%, and signaling there are no guarantees they'll never remain low. But who really cares, when you have S+W+B and nuclear (if that reactor/SMR industry ever gets its act together).

Look Natural Gas is always going to have:
flaring issues and problems,
methane leaking problems (80x more potent than CO2),
burn and emit CO2 gas emissions and last but not least,
(my fav.) have the dubious honor, of being 50% cleaner than coal (and only when there are no methane leaks)I'm reading that "flaring rates", as you put it, in Wyoming and North Dakota are in single digits. If I step onto a section of land in North Dakota or wherever with one producing well, and that well is flaring gas, then the "flare rate" is 100%. That doesn't change the fact the total for the USA is a measly 0. 5%. Methane is coming down. Yes, regulators should clamp down on that, and they are.

Again, perfect is the enemy of good. The world can spend many trillions and go to net zero carbon in a hurry. But if instead we approach this rationally, and just spend a fraction of the money we would have spent otherwise on things like malaria, micronutrients, vaccinations (sorry Elvis), education and the like, the world will be a much better place.

Disregarding the preceding, global warming actually has saved lives.

https://unherd.com/newsroom/bjorn-lomborg-how-global-warming-will-save-lives/

(my fav.) have the dubious honor, of being 50% cleaner than coal (and only when there are no methane leaks)

Let's face it, Tiny 12, when your only claim to fame is, being a cleaner burning fuel than coal, by 50%, that's not saying much!

Tiny 12, "clean burning natural gas", really? (...kkkk!) Ahhh!...you crack me up! And here I thought Elvis 2008, was the one, with the funny bone. Or do you guys share it, every other post?
Ridiculous. I could argue that natural gas is 10X or 100X cleaner burning than coal, and would be closer to the truth than you are.

You're mistaken perhaps for the same reason you underestimate the level of air pollution in China. Particulate matter is the biggest contributor to mortality from air pollution. Coal produces around 100 X more particulates per kilowatt hour than natural gas. Coal plants also produce 90 X more sulfur dioxide and 5 X more NOx compounds. Yes, coal does produce about 2 X more carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide however is a colorless, odorless, nontoxic gas that doesn't contribute to dirty air. Admittedly, like methane, if you fall asleep in a room with only CO2 and no oxygen, you will die.

Thanks, those are pretty good charts! If anything they do reinforce my argument that the U.S./Europe, have been burning huge amounts of fossil fuels for decades longer than China. *Note: It was only as recent as 2007, where China began emitting more CO2 then the U.S.So IMHO, China isn't doing that badly, when you consider and take into account that the USA is 4x smaller, but emits 2x as much in relation to, it's population size, to that of China's.The USA, Canada, Australia (probably including your beloved South Australia) and Russia all emit more CO2 per capita than other developed countries. That's because they occupy large areas and people are more spread out. Furthermore people in developed countries, like the USA, consume more energy and thus emit more CO2 per capita than people in developing countries. We have air conditioning, cars, etc, that many in developing countries, like China, don't have. Our economies and GDP's are larger -- we produce more.

That said, the USA accounts for about 13% of global carbon emissions and about 26% of global GDP. Compare to China, which has 31% of worldwide CO2 emissions and accounts for about 18% of global GDP.

That's the Great President Joe Biden, for you, almost to a fault. Too often, he goes out of his way to, include and accommodate, all Americans to the best of his ability. This will be the one thing, I would definitely not miss, if your American Fuhrer, puts that kibosh on the IRA. Still a huge fan of the IRA, BTW!

But talk about a pipe dream. Both direct air capture (DAC) and carbon capture and storage (CCS), are once again (I have to admit), masterfully crafted, snake-oil, smoke and mirrors boondoggles, designed to transfer wealth, from taxpayers pockets to the oil-n-gas robber barons.

But I guess when you've had 100+ years to practice the grift of funneling gov't/taxpayers into your own pockets, it is not hard to see, that after 100+ years, it's NOT the art of flaring, that oil-n-gas firms have perfected, but "the art of the oil-n-gas gov't subsidy grift" (...kkkk!)

The U.S. energy industry emits about 5 billion metric tons of CO2, annually and yet somehow in the next several years and A NEW carbon capture industry is going to magically emerge and ramp up, to tackle 5-billion tons, throughout the states, annually?

I know you're sensitive about me "changing" your posts, so I'll point out it was me that highlighted "Great President Joe Biden" above. I agree with you 100% about Direct Air Capture. The Great President Joe Biden and democrats shouldn't have made the tax benefits so lucrative for this expensive, unproven technology that oil and gas and other companies want to pursue it.

Carbon capture and storage, from sources like flu gas, however holds more promise.

SubCmdr

03-01-25, 22:54

Yeah, he may work with EV's. He knows more about them than anybody on this board, including you and SubComdr, who in turn know a lot more than the rest of us doEV's are on my list of consideration for my next vehicle. But I want a SUV. I'm even considering an electric scooter. But I have to investigate the logistics of charging it up. Scooters get between 80 - 100 MPG so I'm not sure how much of a contribution an electric scooter would actually make.

My take on renewable is they should be the priority. Oil should be reserved for products like aviation and the production of materials. I am not ready to fly in an electrically powered airplane just quite yet. LOL!

Tiny 12

03-02-25, 00:33

The USA, Canada, Australia (probably including your beloved South Australia) and Russia all emit more CO2 per capita than other developed countries. That's because they occupy large areas and people are more spread out. Furthermore people in developed countries, like the USA, consume more energy and thus emit more CO2 per capita than people in developing countries. We have air conditioning, cars, etc, that many in developing countries, like China, don't have. Our economies and GDP's are larger -- we produce more.I'm reading that South Australia's CO2 emissions in 2022 were 15.8 million tons, and the population is 1.82 million. So that would be 8.7 tons per person, or the 30th highest emitter, per capita, out of 208 countries in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

It is doing better than the averages for Canada, the USA, Russia and Australia, which are all in the top 20. And South Australia's total annual emissions would have been 10 million tons higher in 2022 if it were at the Australian average. Given that world emissions are about 37 billion tons per year, South Australia, all on its own, was able to reduce world CO2 emissions by 0. 03%! Wow! That's going to make a huge difference in global warming.

ShooBree

03-02-25, 04:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trump speaks to Putin and says that Putin hates Zelensky, and Zelensky hates Putin, and in your mind, Trump is sucking Putin's dick. I could see your interpretation of events a mile away. With Democratic douches, the only thing you can say about Putin is that he sucks.

Given that is your mindset, do you have a peace deal that you can offer up that does not involve Putin? Or is it just more dead bodies, more debt, and more empty slogans (we are with Ukraine until they achieve victory, whatever the fuck that means)?Let us be honest, trump is not looking for peace, he wants Ukraine to surrender unconditionally while he is praising putin and begging a war torned Ukraine for money. What the fuck is going on? Your president is begging for money like a crackhead.

I remember a time when usa was a Great country, nowadays USA have to do any and everything to appease russia and harass small third world countries for money. There's absolutely zero dignity in the White House today. It is tragic to see how Marco Rubio betrays what ha used to believe in, the same goes for Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham in the senate.

The White House is like a clown car, but instead of clowns it's full of pro-Putin, right-wing weirdos.

I understand that the current administration isn't interested in contributing a single dollar to support the defense of democracy; but why do they have give in to every command coming from Kremlin? Trump and jd Vance are actively working to strengthen putin.

MarquisdeSade1

03-02-25, 05:22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCZzilSoa9k

Spidy

03-02-25, 07:57

Thing about Spidy is I grew tired of his constant name calling and saying nothing in his posts. When it has come to the energy discussion, he still brings his usual partisan hip checks but at least this time he is bringing facts and knowledge to his credit. Maybe it is not fair, but I am suspicious as to why. LOL.(...kkkk!) Coming from the king of the D-BAG and Double D-BAG word usage. With a horrendous ISG reputation for instigating name calling and having more deleted posts by Admin, then you can shake a stick at, I think you need to check yourself in the mirror.

Dude, I bring the "facts and knowledge" to my credit, ALL THE TIME! Which I can't honestly say about YOU and the constant gish gallop you bring to the debate table.

I seem to remember, it wasn't too long ago, our esteemed colleague, Eihtooms, was excoriating you, for your woeful lack of sources, facts, links and evidence to back up all your MAGA gish gallop (...kkkk!).

Although, as of late, I will say, that the recent debates (with me at any rate), you have tried to provided more factual information. Kudos!

Xpartan

03-02-25, 09:27

EihTooms

03-02-25, 11:21

Not proud to be from the United States of America right now!

Bro, I don't agree with your opinions that much. But I had a visceral negative reaction to the Oval Office Performance by POTUS.

He is in my opinion a: punk ass ***** sitting up in the White House with his thumb on the nuclear button acting more like a gangster than a US President. He appears to be on his knees in front of Putin. It is a crying shame. I am embarrassed for me and my fellow Americans.

We need Obama, Clinton, Bush Sr. hell even Regan back!

We are on the path to dictatorship if the courts and congress do not put a check on dis mother fucker!It was one of the greatest understatements of all time when The Speaker of the House stood up at a meeting, looked Trump square in the face and declared, "All roads with you lead to Putin. ".

As overwhelming as the evidence always was and conclusively acknowledged as such even by Investigation Committees headed by Repubs, Russia Russia Russia Russia has now taken a clear and unambiguous turn for the worse, if that is possible, by the America-hating Traitors in the White House:

Two Must-See videos, one 12 minutes in length:

https://youtu.be/Zn9BTALjtLY?si=NQSStN8lRMoyXOVN

Another one 5 minutes in length:

https://youtu.be/iSW8ezOmYHs?si=4DIcxYiRf8KfsCpY

And they are simply brief recaps of seemingly endless and ongoing evidence for what the World is witnessing as the downfall of America at the tiny hands of Trump.

SubCmdr

03-02-25, 13:07

So far has produced nothing of substance for the CRYPTO industry. Next election Democrats need to fight to the crypto vote!

Elvis 2008

03-02-25, 19:53

Let us be honest, trump is not looking for peace, he wants Ukraine to surrender unconditionally while he is praising putin and begging a war torned Ukraine for money. What the fuck is going on? Your president is begging for money like a crackhead.If that is your version of events, I am not going to convince you of anything.

I remember a time when usa was a Great country, nowadays USA have to do any and everything to appease russia and harass small third world countries for money. There's absolutely zero dignity in the White House today. It is tragic to see how Marco Rubio betrays what ha used to believe in, the same goes for Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham in the senate.
The White House is like a clown car, but instead of clowns it's full of pro-Putin, right-wing weirdos.This sounds like a European making criticism. When Russia first attacked Ukraine, I was very skeptical as it seemed like a psyop to get Covid off the front pages. The more I have read, the worst it has become. Matt Taibbi, is a reporter I trust and he was chasing down the money that went to Ukraine and I could just read in his face how exacerbated he was by the corruption and how few dollars were actually making it to the Ukrainian front line.

I understand that the current administration isn't interested in contributing a single dollar to support the defense of democracy; but why do they have give in to every command coming from Kremlin? Trump and jd Vance are actively working to strengthen putin.What Democracy? Europeans got together with the Democrats and tried to sabotage the will of the American voters in 2016. Besides Christopher Steele being a Democrat puppet, we have the UK banning free speech and the rest of Europe following. Romania elected a conservative candidate, and the election was overturned by the EU. German's conservative AFD party was attempted to be banned. Zelensky has banned the opposition parties, does not have a free press, is jailing peace preaching pastors, and will not hold elections.

Trump does not want to send American dollars earmarked for Ukraine any more because the Ukrainians cannot keep track of where it is going. He wants out of NATO, and he has said the EU was formed to screw the USA, and he is going to put 25% tariffs on the EU.

So with Zelensky, the MAGA guys cheered and the Democrats booed. That was predictable. What changed is Zelensky now has zero support among Republican Congressmen and the loathing of European political leaders, who came to Zelensky's support after this debacle, has begun.

I thought the USA leaving NATO, which it should have done after the fall of the USSR, was not going to happen. Now I think the odds are better than 50-50. I suspect whatever European tariffs cost us can be offset by the amount we save in getting out of NATO and withdrawing support from Ukraine.

The most offensive thing Zelensky said was that he was saving the USA from Russia. He did not say thank you. He did not have to. We should be thanful he is willing to take our money, and that is the attitude of most Europeans.

Europe is the perpetual kid getting in family fights that we American adults have had to bail out of jail. Europe is like the child telling the American adults we are lucky to be paying the bail money. I am done with that. It is time for Europe to take the diaper off and grow up.

The Cane

03-02-25, 19:56

So far has produced nothing of substance for the CRYPTO industry. Next election Democrats need to fight to the crypto vote!Well what did you really expect man? The guy is a serial liar and full of bluster! He's going to end the Ukraine war in just a matter of hours. He's going to bring the price of groceries down. And yadda, yadda, yadda! People hang on to his bullshit words with hope, but anybody with any sense knows that cocksucker isn't going to do shit but fuck everything up! Just like he did last time! He didn't create a strong economy. After Bush and the Republicans fucked it up, Obama and the Democrats fixed it and handed it to his ass. Then what did Trump and the Republicans do? Of course, they fucked it up again, and Biden and the Democrats had to deal with all the turds left on the ground (no good deed goes unpunished)! Fasten your seat belt and hold on! It's only March 2025, and we have a long way to go until this piece of shit is out of office! FAFO (Fuck Around and Find Out)!

Tiny 12

03-02-25, 22:53

EV's are on my list of consideration for my next vehicle. But I want a SUV. I'm even considering an electric scooter. But I have to investigate the logistics of charging it up. Scooters get between 80 - 100 MPG so I'm not sure how much of a contribution an electric scooter would actually make.

My take on renewable is they should be the priority. Oil should be reserved for products like aviation and the production of materials. I am not ready to fly in an electrically powered airplane just quite yet. LOL!I'd leave it up to free markets SubCmdr. If you mandate BEV's here in God's Country where I live, there'd be a revolution. Elvis posted about a hybrid truck recently, that would appear to make a lot more sense than BEV's for anyone who drives longer distances.

That said, I understand your enthusiasm for renewables, particularly in the Dominican Republic. Until researching Spidy's claims, I didn't realize the air was so polluted in the DR. I guess I was lucky when I visited Santo Domingo. Six of the 500 cities with the highest particulate matter concentration in the world are in the tiny DR. Yes, perhaps mandating renewables, if they work given the climate and don't create undue hardship on the people, makes sense there.

Newton York

03-02-25, 23:06

I just want NVDA to go back up again *sigh*.

Tiny 12

03-02-25, 23:10

DOGE was designed with one goal in mind -- to destroy the military preparedness of this country. No foreign enemies would be able to inflict the damage the DOGE has already done without a single shot fired. And this is just the beginning, we ain't seen nothing yet.

US intel shows Russia and China are attempting to recruit disgruntled federal employees, sources say

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/exclusive-us-intel-shows-russia-and-china-are-attempting-to-recruit-disgruntled-federal-employees-sources-say/ar-AA1A0kIcI wish you were right, that DOGE will take an axe to the defense budget. We spend more on defense than the next 9 highest-spending countries combined. But you're not right.

The USA is now spending 850 billion annually on defense. In the budget resolution just approved by the Senate, this will go up even more, to $1 trillion! Any cost savings for the military from DOGE will be insignificant.

We spend 8 X more on defense than Russia. We're armed to the teeth. I don't understand why you're so worried about the threat from Moscow.

Axel Heyst

03-02-25, 23:23

Xpartan

03-03-25, 00:02

I wish you were right, that DOGE will take an axe to the defense budget. We spend more on defense than the next 9 highest-spending countries combined. But you're not right.

The USA is now spending 850 billion annually on defense. In the budget resolution just approved by the Senate, this will go up even more, to $1 trillion! Any cost savings for the military from DOGE will be insignificant.

We spend 8 X more on defense than Russia. We're armed to the teeth. I don't understand why you're so worried about the threat from Moscow.Of course, they won't save their money to taxpayers, that's not why they're there. Instead, they're removing career personal from Pentagon and security agencies including top military and intelligence leaders for no reason at all! Man, you're not brainless MAGA cultist, how can you possibly NOT see this?

Xpartan

03-03-25, 00:08

Let us be honest, trump is not looking for peace, he wants Ukraine to surrender unconditionally while he is praising putin and begging a war torned Ukraine for money. What the fuck is going on? Your president is begging for money like a crackhead.

I remember a time when usa was a Great country, nowadays USA have to do any and everything to appease russia and harass small third world countries for money. There's absolutely zero dignity in the White House today. It is tragic to see how Marco Rubio betrays what ha used to believe in, the same goes for Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham in the senate.

The White House is like a clown car, but instead of clowns it's full of pro-Putin, right-wing weirdos.

I understand that the current administration isn't interested in contributing a single dollar to support the defense of democracy; but why do they have give in to every command coming from Kremlin? Trump and jd Vance are actively working to strengthen putin.The answer is on the surface even if it sounds as a conspiracy theory. Unfortunately, all other logical explanations fail.

Spidy

03-03-25, 01:52

Bro, I don't agree with your opinions that much. But I had a visceral negative reaction to the Oval Office Performance by POTUS.

He is in my opinion a: punk ass ***** sitting up in the White House with his thumb on the nuclear button acting more like a gangster than a US President. He appears to be on his knees in front of Putin. It is a crying shame. I am embarrassed for me and my fellow Americans.

We need Obama, Clinton, Bush Sr. hell even Regan back!

We are on the path to dictatorship if the courts and congress do not put a check on dis mother fucker!
Well said...but none of this, comes as a surprise to me!

Project 2025, as was foretold by us Dems, over and over again, to the American people (and to ISGers), is alive and well!

Next stop...for the American Fuhrer and MAGA, ..."The Hunger Games"??

So far has produced nothing of substance for the CRYPTO industry. Next election Democrats need to fight to the crypto vote!

• Speaking of deadbeat presidents and crypto, I was very surprised nobody had reported on the other one in Argentina, who's embroiled in the $LIBRA scandal. I mean that story came out like about two weeks ago...and crickets here at ISG?

Since I know very little about the subject of crypto, I was leaving it up to experts like yourself to report on the story and weigh in, on what it all, could possibly mean?

My limited understanding like 2-weeks ago: Like 5 people held 75% of the value and cashed out as soon as the value spiked from nothing to $5. Now president is accused of "rug pulling" and corruption.

Yet another right-wing president who hasn't quite figured out how "greed" works and how NOT to incentivize "greedy" ponzi schemes in right-wing political regime?

Argentina's $4.6 Billion Crypto Scandal; Largest-Ever Crypto Theft
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/02/24/argentinas-46-billion-crypto-scandal-largest-ever-crypto-theft/

What say you, crypto experts?

PS: And to all you wingers, where's the love now, for Argentine President Javier Milei? Not to worry though, doesn't President Musk, have enough crypto, to bailout his Argentinian bro-president like, 4x over? (...kkkk!)

SubCmdr

03-03-25, 02:40

ADA

Huge move after POTUS announced that it will be included in a strategic crypto reserve.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/02/trump-announces-strategic-crypto-reserve-including-bitcoin-solana-xrp-and-more.html

Speaking of deadbeat presidents and crypto, I was very surprised nobody had reported on the other one in Argentina, who's embroiled in the $LIBRA scandal. I mean that story came out like about two weeks ago...and crickets here at ISG?

Since I know very little about the subject of crypto, I was leaving it up to experts like yourself to report on the story and weigh in, on what it all, could possibly mean?

My limited understanding like 2-weeks ago: Like 5 people held 75% of the value and cashed out as soon as the value spiked from nothing to $5. Now president is accused of "rug pulling" and corruption.

Yet another right-wing president who hasn't quite figured out how "greed" works and how NOT to incentivize "greedy" ponzi schemes in right-wing political regime?

Argentina's $4.6 Billion Crypto Scandal; Largest-Ever Crypto Theft
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/02/24/argentinas-46-billion-crypto-scandal-largest-ever-crypto-theft/

What say you, crypto experts?

PS: And to all you wingers, where's the love now, for Argentine President Javier Milei? Not to worry though, doesn't President Musk, have enough crypto, to bailout his Argentinian bro-president like, 4x over? (...kkkk!)I comment about what I know. I don't know jack about $LIBRA. Why? Because I don't participate in the meme coin casino. ADA has been around since 2017 when it was released to the public. I don't see anyone complaining about Casino profits in Las Vegas. They are produced because the people in the casinos lose money.

I do not believe anyone should be mandated to buy an EV. I was won over by a ride in a EV. I was never impressed by Tesla due to its prices. It was liberal luxury they could feel good about. I own a Private Jet but I drive a Tesla. GET THE FUCK UP OUTTA HERE!!

Spidy

03-03-25, 09:34

Those headlines are bull shit. Reagan's changes in the tax law mostly removed the motivation for oil and gas producers to set up Master Limited Partnerships. They're common for pipelines and other midstream companies though, and for companies that own real estate like apartment and office buildings. Do they really provide substantial tax benefits now that the federal corporate tax rate was cut from 35% to 21%? When it comes to MLP's tax structure and tax advantages, its all too apparent that it was mostly created specially, for energy oil and gas (O&G) companies.

MLPs Tax Advantages:

Only a small fraction of companies (ie. niche industries like, minerals, forestry and timber) use MLP for real estate, as REITs are simpler, more efficient, and a more popular tax structures for mainstream real estate.

If you take a look at MLP investment sector with MLP indexes, ETFs and mutual/hedge funds (like Alerian MLP Index and others), will have 90-95% weighted O&G energy stocks, in their portfolios. Meaning MLPs are most definitely primarily created as tax shelters, with preferential tax treatment, to benefit O&G energy companies.

In the long term, not a lot. In the short term, if they keep expanding, MLP investors benefit from the depreciation write offs. IMO, in order to treat all industries fairly and equally, it would be a good idea to either (a) open up the MLP structure to other industries or (b) eliminate the MLP structure for companies that start up in the future. O&G companies, are making billions, you'd think their time at the gov't trough should have ended long ago.

I've already covered intangible drilling costs and percentage depletion, the main bogeymen in the Reuters article. While yes, IDC results in less revenue to the Treasury in the short term, in the long term the company pays the same amount of tax. There's no difference between it and the way R&D or Section 179 depreciation are handled for other industries. And again, the percentage depletion allowance, which is only available to small oil and gas producers, should be done away with.

As to the tax advantages / disadvantages for foreign oil and gas income described in your NPR article, that cuts both way. Yes, oil and gas are exempt from the GILTI tax imposed in the Republican's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. However, under IRC section 907, oil and gas companies cannot utilize tax credits for foreign taxes paid to the extent that other companies have. The GILTI tax was designed to force tech and pharmaceutical companies from parking patents and the like in tax haven countries. The amount raised by GILTI from a capital intensive business like oil and gas wouldn't be that significant anyway.

The headlines lie. Again, take into account severance taxes and the gasoline tax, and oil and gas companies pay more than their fair share.

The GILTI Tax O&G Loophole:

Allow me to explain, why I think your assessment of GILTI, and that it applies more to tech and software companies, and not so much to oil and gas (O&G), is not entirely correct.

Although, Ken Moy (lobbyist/lawyer for American Petroleum Institute from my NPR article: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/14/1064011237/fossil-fuel-subsidies-are-proving-harder-to-
end-than-first-thought), is correct, that O&G companies have to go where the reserves are found, and can't necessarily choose to solely operate, just in low-income tax jurisdiction/countries, like tech and software companies can, he left out one key important fact ...intangible assets.

To calculate the foreign taxes on oil and gas (O&G) tangible assets, under GILTI, the tax guidelines says to use FOGEI/FORI, in the Subpar F carveout of GILTI, found in IRC section 907. All other non-energy O&G companies use the standard GILTI calculation, unless specified.

The O&G foreign tax calcs, using FOGEI/FORI must use the standard U.S. corporate tax rate (currently 21%), so no real tax benefits there on O&G tangible assets.

However...where the tax loophole comes into play, is from having a large base of oversees tangible assets (or QBAI: ie. rigs, platforms, well, refineries, storage facilities, buildings, offices...etc), that allows O&G companies to reduce their foreign income tax/GILTI tax, on their holdings of intangible assets.

The strategy of allocating or increasing their oversees tangible asset base, to reduce the GILTI tax, on their intangible assets, is widely practiced and seen as very beneficial, many O&G companies, w/r to paying lower taxes.

After doing some digging on the GILTI tax, it appears that the O&G companies (to my surprise, anyways), have more in common with the tech and software industries, than you'd think.

Yes indeed, they do have a vast, expanding and growing portfolio of intangible assets, commonly know as patents, licensing, copyrights, technical know-how, proprietary technologies...etc, that are strangely enough, as we all know, are often more commonly associated with, the tech and software industry. Ergo the why O&G companies want to keep the GILTI loophole!

QBAI Calculation and Its Impact on Tax Planning Strategies:"QBAI plays a critical role in the Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) calculation by influencing the deemed tangible income return. This return, equal to 10% of the QBAI of each controlled foreign corporation, reduces the amount of GILTI subject to U.S. tax.

Businesses can manage effective tax rates by increasing investment in tangible assets, raising the deemed tangible income return, and potentially decreasing GILTI inclusion. This strategy is particularly relevant for industries with substantial capital expenditures, like manufacturing and technology." https://accountinginsights.org/qbai-calculation-and-its-impact-on-tax-planning-strategies/
Intangibles and performance in oil and gas industry --"Findings: Results show that intangibles had a significant impact on firm performance in multiple financial measures. Firms intangibles also influence their market capitalization, indicating that the financial markets discount such information in their pricing." --Brief Synopsis by Emerald Insight. (Bedtime Reading) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327768585_Intangibles_and_performance_in_oil_and_gas_industry OR https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/md-11-2017-1139/full/html
Finally, while the O&G lobbyist/lawyers and other O&G apologists, would have you believe that the GILTI tax, is more for the tech and software industry, when the truth is, the intangible assets for O&G companies, using the GILTI tax loophole, is a windfall!

The headlines in those articles, told the TRUTH and were indeed correct, calling for the oil and gas subsides, tax advantages and loopholes to end!

EihTooms

03-03-25, 11:36

You just don't get it, do you?

Of course, they won't save their money to taxpayers, that's not why they're there. Instead, they're removing career personal from Pentagon and security agencies including top military and intelligence leaders for no reason at all! Man, you're not brainless MAGA cultist, how can you possibly NOT see this?Absolutely. A single reading of your previous post made it clear as day what you meant.

President Chainsaw Musk isn't taking "an axe" to ANY meaningful budget cuts. When has Trump or anyone standing close enough to Trump to smell him ever SAVED anyone else money? Lolol. He SCAMS people out of more and ever more money. He already drove up the deficit more than any president ever the first time around after being handed a near perfect set of economic trajectories, far better than any outgoing Repub ever handed an incoming Dem in history.

What Musk and Trump are doing will COST Americans more money and ADD to the deficit.

And along the way he will, not might, he will hand over all available USA military intel and control of it to whichever enemy or enemies make the highest bid for it. And it will go directly into his and his oligarch friends' pockets, not the USA Treasury.

SubCmdr

03-03-25, 12:25

I expect for the government of the United States of America to work as designed in the constitution. I did not expect for the Legislative Branch of Government to lay down and just take it like a *****. Straight fucking no kissin!! Without giving anyone a civics lesson it's up to the courts now. But will will still have to see if the Administration will obey the courts.

I expected for him to keep his promises. The legislation that crypto industry needs will originate in congress. The current administration has other priorities.

There is a new SEC chair. There will be NO CBDC. But now POTUS needs to ask congress to draft specific regulation to cover the crypto industry. Governing by executive order does not cut it. Next president could be a Democrat. Hostile too crypto as it seems the Democratic party was last election.

I don't like what POTUS is doing to the government workers. But, I don't live in the United States of America and I have no plans too. But as long as I hold a passport that they issue, crypto issues affect me way more than all the other stuff that is happening with the current administration.

I do not like that a child of apartheid has been given permission to run roughshod over the traditional processes that have occurred in the government.

apartheid

policy*that governed relations between*South Africas white minority and nonwhite majority for much of the latter half of the 20th century, sanctioning*racial segregation*and political and economic*discrimination*against nonwhites.The above policy does not work for me. So I am making plans for a new homeland.

Well what did you really expect man? The guy is a serial liar and full of bluster! He's going to end the Ukraine war in just a matter of hours. He's going to bring the price of groceries down. And yadda, yadda, yadda! People hang on to his bullshit words with hope, but anybody with any sense knows that cocksucker isn't going to do shit but fuck everything up! Just like he did last time! He didn't create a strong economy. After Bush and the Republicans fucked it up, Obama and the Democrats fixed it and handed it to his ass. Then what did Trump and the Republicans do? Of course, they fucked it up again, and Biden and the Democrats had to deal with all the turds left on the ground (no good deed goes unpunished)! Fasten your seat belt and hold on! It's only March 2025, and we have a long way to go until this piece of shit is out of office! FAFO (Fuck Around and Find Out)!

Tiny 12

03-03-25, 20:12

When it comes to MLP's tax structure and tax advantages, its all too apparent that it was mostly created specially, for energy oil and gas (O&G) companies.

MLPs Tax Advantages:

Only a small fraction of companies (ie. niche industries like, minerals, forestry and timber) use MLP for real estate, as REITs are simpler, more efficient, and a more popular tax structures for mainstream real estate.

If you take a look at MLP investment sector with MLP indexes, ETFs and mutual/hedge funds (like Alerian MLP Index and others), will have 90-95% weighted O&G energy stocks, in their portfolios. Meaning MLPs are most definitely primarily created as tax shelters, with preferential tax treatment, to benefit O&G energy companies.

O&G companies, are making billions, you'd think their time at the gov't trough should have ended long ago.

The GILTI Tax O&G Loophole:

Allow me to explain, why I think your assessment of GILTI, and that it applies more to tech and software companies, and not so much to oil and gas (O&G), is not entirely correct.

Although, Ken Moy (lobbyist/lawyer for American Petroleum Institute from my NPR article: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/14/1064011237/fossil-fuel-subsidies-are-proving-harder-to-
end-than-first-thought), is correct, that O&G companies have to go where the reserves are found, and can't necessarily choose to solely operate, just in low-income tax jurisdiction/countries, like tech and software companies can, he left out one key important fact ...intangible assets.

To calculate the foreign taxes on oil and gas (O&G) tangible assets, under GILTI, the tax guidelines says to use FOGEI/FORI, in the Subpar F carveout of GILTI, found in IRC section 907. All other non-energy O&G companies use the standard GILTI calculation, unless specified.

The O&G foreign tax calcs, using FOGEI/FORI must use the standard U.S. corporate tax rate (currently 21%), so no real tax benefits there on O&G tangible assets.

However...where the tax loophole comes into play, is from having a large base of oversees tangible assets (or QBAI: ie. rigs, platforms, well, refineries, storage facilities, buildings, offices...etc), that allows O&G companies to reduce their foreign income tax/GILTI tax, on their holdings of intangible assets.

The strategy of allocating or increasing their oversees tangible asset base, to reduce the GILTI tax, on their intangible assets, is widely practiced and seen as very beneficial, many O&G companies, w/r to paying lower taxes.

After doing some digging on the GILTI tax, it appears that the O&G companies (to my surprise, anyways), have more in common with the tech and software industries, than you'd think.

Yes indeed, they do have a vast, expanding and growing portfolio of intangible assets, commonly know as patents, licensing, copyrights, technical know-how, proprietary technologies...etc, that are strangely enough, as we all know, are often more commonly associated with, the tech and software industry. Ergo the why O&G companies want to keep the GILTI loophole!

QBAI Calculation and Its Impact on Tax Planning Strategies:"QBAI plays a critical role in the Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) calculation by influencing the deemed tangible income return. This return, equal to 10% of the QBAI of each controlled foreign corporation, reduces the amount of GILTI subject to U.S. tax.

Businesses can manage effective tax rates by increasing investment in tangible assets, raising the deemed tangible income return, and potentially decreasing GILTI inclusion. This strategy is particularly relevant for industries with substantial capital expenditures, like manufacturing and technology." https://accountinginsights.org/qbai-calculation-and-its-impact-on-tax-planning-strategies/
Intangibles and performance in oil and gas industry --"Findings: Results show that intangibles had a significant impact on firm performance in multiple financial measures. Firms intangibles also influence their market capitalization, indicating that the financial markets discount such information in their pricing." --Brief Synopsis by Emerald Insight. (Bedtime Reading) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327768585_Intangibles_and_performance_in_oil_and_gas_industry OR https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/md-11-2017-1139/full/html
Finally, while the O&G lobbyist/lawyers and other O&G apologists, would have you believe that the GILTI tax, is more for the tech and software industry, when the truth is, the intangible assets for O&G companies, using the GILTI tax loophole, is a windfall!

The headlines in those articles, told the TRUTH and were indeed correct, calling for the oil and gas subsides, tax advantages and loopholes to end!As Elvis and I have already told you, oil and gas producers in general aren't MLP's. A number of the pipeline and other midstream companies are. I can think of a few exceptions, like royalty trusts that don't actually produce hydrocarbons, and at least one producer, Vanguard. But my wild guess is that less than 1% of USA oil and gas is produced by MLP's. If you were dictator and decided there would be no new MLP's, I wouldn't have a problem with that. As long as you treated all companies equally. Meaning no new green energy MLP's like Brookfield Renewable Partners either. I'm all for leveling the playing field.

You've gone off on a tangent on GILTI. Income from oil and gas extraction isn't subject to the GILTI tax. My comments earlier about tangible and intangible assets were just to indicate that the GILTI tax, if imposed on foreign income realized by oil and gas companies, wouldn't raise that much revenue. If you're going to have the GILTI tax on foreign income, oil companies should be subject to it. However, at the same time, you should remove the provisions of IRC Section 907, targeted towards oil companies, that limit their ability to take advantage of foreign tax credits. You level the playing field on GILTI and Section 907 and I bet the oil and gas producers would end up paying more tax.

In fact, if you've been paying attention, I've favored removing all oil and gas "subsidies, tax advantages and loopholes" mentioned by you and in your links, except expensing of Intangible Drilling Costs. And if you want to eliminate Section 179 Depreciation and other accelerated depreciation, for all companies, along with IDC expensing, that would make sense.

The fact is, again, because of severance tax, gasoline taxes, and Section 907, oil and gas is taxed at higher rates than the average for USA. If you removed all the "subsidies, tax advantages and loopholes" available exclusively to oil and gas producers, USA oil and gas output wouldn't fall significantly and revenues to the USA Treasury wouldn't increase significantly.

Contrast with green energy, which in many instances wouldn't be viable without government support. When it's windy in Texas and so there's a surplus of electricity, companies that generate electricity from wind have to pay $.01 or $.02 per kilowatt hour "sell" energy into the grid. And instead of shutting down the windmills to reduce wear and tear, they do it! Why? Because the tax credits are worth $.02+ per kilowatt hour. In the words of Elvis, how fucked up is that?

Tiny 12

03-03-25, 20:27

If the playing field were leveled among all industries, the total tax burden on oil and gas relative to other businesses would be less than it is now. On the other hand, a lot of green energy projects wouldn't be viable. The combination of tax benefits and outright government subsidies exceeds their profit. Here's a list of some, kindly provided by ChatGPT.

As of March 2025, the United States offers a variety of federal subsidies and tax incentives to support manufacturers of green energy and renewable products, as well as their customers. These incentives aim to promote the adoption of clean energy technologies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Below is an overview of the key programs:8203;.

1. Investment Tax Credit (ITC):

Overview: The ITC provides a dollar-for-dollar reduction in federal income taxes for investments in renewable energy properties, most commonly solar developments. .

Current Rates: The Inflation Reduction Act extended the ITC at a 30% credit for qualified expenditures through 2032. The credit decreases to 26% for systems installed in 2033 and 22% for those installed in 2034. .

2. Production Tax Credit (PTC):

Overview: The PTC offers a per kilowatt-hour (kWh) federal tax credit for electricity generated by qualified renewable energy resources, such as wind and geothermal energy. .

Eligibility: Facilities must produce and sell electricity from qualified resources to an unrelated person during the taxable year to qualify. .

3. Clean Vehicle Tax Credits:

New Clean Vehicles:

Credit Amount: Up to $7,500 for the purchase of a new, qualified plug-in electric vehicle (EV) or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCV).

Eligibility Criteria: The vehicle must undergo final assembly in North America and meet specific battery component and critical mineral sourcing requirements.

Used Clean Vehicles:

Credit Amount: Lesser of $4,000 or 30% of the sales price for eligible used EVs.

Eligibility Criteria: The vehicle must be at least two years old, have a sale price under $25,000, and be purchased from a licensed dealer.

4. Alternative Fuel Refueling Property Credit:

Overview: This credit covers 30% of the cost, up to $1,000 for residential installations and up to $30,000 for commercial installations, for purchasing and installing qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property, including EV charging stations. .

Duration: Available for property placed in service before December 31,2032. .

5. Residential Clean Energy Credit:

Overview: Homeowners can receive a tax credit equal to 30% of the costs for installing qualified clean energy property, such as solar panels, wind turbines, and geothermal heat pumps. .

Duration: Applicable for installations from 2022 through 2032, with a phased reduction thereafter. .

6. Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit:

Overview: Homeowners can claim credits for specific energy-efficient improvements, including insulation, windows, and doors. .

Energystar. Gov.

Annual Limit: Up to $3,200 annually through 2032. .

7. Biofuel Incentives:

Overview: Producers of biodiesel and renewable diesel are eligible for a $1. 00 per gallon tax credit. An additional $0. 10 per gallon credit is available for small agri-biodiesel producers. .

8. Accelerated Depreciation:

Overview: The Modified Accelerated Cost-Recovery System (MACRS) allows businesses to recover investments in certain property through depreciation deductions. Renewable energy technologies, including solar, wind, and geothermal, qualify for accelerated depreciation over a five-year period. .

9. State and Local Incentives:

Overview: Many states and local governments offer additional incentives, such as rebates, tax credits, and grants, to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. These incentives vary by location and can significantly enhance the benefits provided by federal programs. .

Recent Developments: The political landscape can influence the availability and structure of these incentives. For instance, discussions around the future of the Inflation Reduction Act and associated subsidies have created some uncertainty within the clean energy sector. Companies like Engie have expressed concerns that tariff and tax uncertainties could threaten investments in the USA Additionally, the potential rollback of EV subsidies under the current administration has raised questions about the future of such incentives. .

And here are some more, provided by Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which according to Goldman Sachs will cost the Treasury over $1 trillion:

Residential Clean Energy Credit.

Extends the 30% tax credit for installing solar panels, battery storage, and small wind or geothermal systems (available through 2032, then phases out).

High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program.

Provides up to $14,000 in rebates for low- and moderate-income households to switch to efficient electric appliances (e. G. , heat pumps, stoves, insulation).

Home Energy Audits.

Covers 30% of the cost (up to $150) for professional home energy audits.

Clean Electricity Production and Investment Tax Credits.

Extends Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for renewable energy projects (solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, etc.).

Base credit: 30% of project costs, with potential bonuses for projects in low-income or energy communities.

Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit.

Incentives for USA Production of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and critical minerals.

Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) Tax Credit.

Increased to $85 per ton for carbon capture used in industrial and power facilities.

$180 per ton for direct air capture.

Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit.

Up to $3 per kg for clean hydrogen production, depending on emission levels.

Energy-Efficient Commercial Buildings Deduction (179 D).

Up to $5 per square foot for businesses improving energy efficiency in buildings.

Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit.

Up to $40,000 per vehicle for businesses purchasing electric or fuel-cell commercial vehicles.

Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).

Grants and loans for rural businesses and farmers to install renewable energy systems.

Spidy

03-03-25, 23:45

I comment about what I know. I don't know jack about $LIBRA. Fair enough!

I do not believe anyone should be mandated to buy an EV. Me neither!

As you may recall, I don't really care, if the consumer buys EVs or ICE! But FWIW, global EV sales, are trending up positively!

BTW, where exactly are people being mandated to buy EVs? The only mandates I know of, are those given to the auto vehicle industry, required to meet emissions standards.

Spidy

03-03-25, 23:52

Uh, no. Nobody here said that, or believes it.
(...kkkk!) No but your American Fuhrer did, and MAGA (and MAGA adjacent alike) ate that shit-up! MAGA greenwashing at it's best!

Thanks to clean burning natural gas, USA CO2 emissions are down by 20% since 2007. China's are up by 70%. They were up in China by 5% from 2022 to 2023.
But don't try to backpedal, outta your equally idiotic statement of "Thanks to clean clean burning natural gas..." , you said it, you thanked it...now own it!

Yes, if you go to sleep in a room that contains 100% methane and no oxygen, you will die. Otherwise methane is not toxic. Maybe, not toxic in the traditional sense, but methane is way more potent (80x??), due to its dangerous asphyxiation and explosion risks and an even worse greenhouse gas.

I'm reading that "flaring rates", as you put it, in Wyoming and North Dakota are in single digits. If I step onto a section of land in North Dakota or wherever with one producing well, and that well is flaring gas, then the "flare rate" is 100%. That doesn't change the fact the total for the USA is a measly 0. 5%. Methane is coming down. Yes, regulators should clamp down on that, and they are.

Let me be clear! You can dibble, dabble and haggle in futility, over a few meaningless flare capturing percentage points here and there, all you want....have at it! Your haggling matters not in the larger scheme of things, when S+W+B emit zero 0% CO2 emissions.

But, your main take-away from this debate, should be that the fossil fuel industry, has been polluting for over 100+ years, and could have another 100+ years and still wouldn't get to zero 0% flaring or zero 0% CO2 emissions from using fossil fuels. Meaning, the very definition of insanity, is...

Again, perfect is the enemy of good. The world can spend many trillions and go to net zero carbon in a hurry. But if instead we approach this rationally, and just spend a fraction of the money we would have spent otherwise on things like malaria, micronutrients, vaccinations (sorry Elvis), education and the like, the world will be a much better place.

Disregarding the preceding, global warming actually has saved lives.

https://unherd.com/newsroom/bjorn-lomborg-how-global-warming-will-save-lives/
Yeah, I often hear that nonsensical statement (IMHO), from those that would love to keep the status quo. Especially when the status quo, benefits them!

Ridiculous. I could argue that natural gas is 10X or 100X cleaner burning than coal, and would be closer to the truth than you are.

You're mistaken perhaps for the same reason you underestimate the level of air pollution in China. Particulate matter is the biggest contributor to mortality from air pollution. Coal produces around 100 X more particulates per kilowatt hour than natural gas. Coal plants also produce 90 X more sulfur dioxide and 5 X more NOx compounds. Yes, coal does produce about 2 X more carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide however is a colorless, odorless, nontoxic gas that doesn't contribute to dirty air. Admittedly, like methane, if you fall asleep in a room with only CO2 and no oxygen, you will die.

Hey, I won't stop you, beating yourself up and defending natural gas vs. coal, if that's what you wish to do, over and over again, while convincing yourself with the fossil fuel propaganda that natural gas is "clean burning."

Again, I refer you to my 100+ years response above. But just keep in mind, other alternatives for producing electricity, like S+W+B, that don't emit CO2 and greenhouse gases and didn't take 100+ years to get to 0.5% flaring capture.

But if you are going to argue, that natural gas is 10X or 100X cleaner, I would love to see your facts, data and sources w/r to such false and dubious claims.

The USA, Canada, Australia (probably including your beloved South Australia) and Russia all emit more CO2 per capita than other developed countries. That's because they occupy large areas and people are more spread out. Furthermore people in developed countries, like the USA, consume more energy and thus emit more CO2 per capita than people in developing countries. And is the very reason I said, that way I think China is doing much better with their CO2 emission than you realize, given their population size and its only since 2007, they surpass the U.S. as the worse polluter on the plant. The U.S. had been the worst, decades before.

We have air conditioning, cars, etc, that many in developing countries, like China, don't have. Our economies and GDP's are larger -- we produce more. And YET, developing countries, like China, somehow manage to develop world class AI, EVs and batteries tech at a fraction of the cost. Hmmm...pretty good for a developing country.

That said, the USA accounts for about 13% of global carbon emissions and about 26% of global GDP. Compare to China, which has 31% of worldwide CO2 emissions and accounts for about 18% of global GDP. Recall, that I said the U.S./Europe has been burning/emitting CO2 emission for a whole lot longer, well I'm betting that if go back perhaps 75 years ago and add up all the U.S. emissions, that would really say something about all the U.S. GDP crap and waster, over 3/4 of a century.

I know you're sensitive about me "changing" your posts, so I'll point out it was me that highlighted "Great President Joe Biden" above. I agree with you 100% about Direct Air Capture. The Great President Joe Biden and democrats shouldn't have made the tax benefits so lucrative for this expensive, unproven technology that oil and gas and other companies want to pursue it.

Carbon capture and storage, from sources like flu gas, however holds more promise.No, not sensitive, just angry about you, adding inappropriate words, I NEVER wrote. Taking what I wrote out of context. But by all means highlight and underline the words in my post all you want just don't change them!

As for the IRA being lucrative, well that was probably more the doing of those backstabbing turncoats and DINOs, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Other wise lucrative tax acts and subsides for the rich billionaires and robber barons is something your American Fuhrer's transactional administration is world famous for doing. I'm sure their cup will runneth over, this term.

MarquisdeSade1

03-04-25, 00:26

Allahu Akbar.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/opinion/trump-wall-street-biden-big-business.html

Spidy

03-04-25, 02:28

As Elvis and I have already told you, oil and gas producers in general aren't MLP's. A number of the pipeline and other midstream companies are. I can think of a few exceptions, like royalty trusts that don't actually produce hydrocarbons, and at least one producer, Vanguard. But my wild guess is that less than 1% of USA oil and gas is produced by MLP's.
Okay...Got it! I thought they'd be more O&G companies, judging from recent results, I was reading in the headlines. 2025 MLP Yields Up To 11.3%: https://www.suredividend.com/mlp-list/

Judging from many of the MLP investment funds, I thought the number of MLPs is probably more like, about 5-10% of O&G companies.

You've gone off on a tangent on GILTI. Income from oil and gas extraction isn't subject to the GILTI tax. My comments earlier about tangible and intangible assets were just to indicate that the GILTI tax, if imposed on foreign income realized by oil and gas companies, wouldn't raise that much revenue. If you're going to have the GILTI tax on foreign income, oil companies should be subject to it. However, at the same time, you should remove the provisions of IRC Section 907, targeted towards oil companies, that limit their ability to take advantage of foreign tax credits. You level the playing field on GILTI and Section 907 and I bet the oil and gas producers would end up paying more tax. The articles (and I) were using FOGEI/FORI (Subpar F carveout of IRC Section 907--is what I meant instead of GILTI) for O&G extraction income.

But that's not the point of those articles, because the the tax loophole that's being uncovered, is really only interested in and uses the QBAI calc of the total tangible assets, in order to determine the GILTI for the intangible assets (which are vast the article's and IMH opinion).

In fact, if you've been paying attention, I've favored removing all oil and gas "subsidies, tax advantages and loopholes" mentioned by you and in your links, except expensing of Intangible Drilling Costs. And if you want to eliminate Section 179 Depreciation and other accelerated depreciation, for all companies, along with IDC expensing, that would make sense. Fair enough, that your in favor having them removed, but why then, were you calling the articles "Ridiculous"? As far as I can make out, their reporting of the O&G tax loophole is accurate.

You also have to ask yourself, and to your point (if it makes sense to remove them), why are O&G companies fighting so hard to hang on to GILTI?

The fact is, again, because of severance tax, gasoline taxes, and Section 907, oil and gas is taxed at higher rates than the average for USA. If you removed all the "subsidies, tax advantages and loopholes" available exclusively to oil and gas producers, USA oil and gas output wouldn't fall significantly and revenues to the USA Treasury wouldn't increase significantly. I'm not necessarily buying that agreement and I'm not so sure that's a bad thing. O&G have had a pretty good run, some 100+ years (and this is where we probably disagree mostly), perhaps it's time to move on.

Contrast with green energy, which in many instances wouldn't be viable without government support. When it's windy in Texas and so there's a surplus of electricity, companies that generate electricity from wind have to pay $.01 or $.02 per kilowatt hour "sell" energy into the grid. And instead of shutting down the windmills to reduce wear and tear, they do it! Why? Because the tax credits are worth $.02+ per kilowatt hour. In the words of Elvis, how fucked up is that? Well according to your last statement O&G wouldn't be viable either, without the all the "subsidies, tax advantages and loopholes". At least my subsides come without emitting CO2 emissions and greenhouse gases!

At the moment (and perhaps I'll circle-back), I can't speak the green energy case, you cite in Texas, but on the surface, isn't this a case for the use of batteries (BESS)? And does shutting down the windmills really give you that much more profit, over and above, the savings from reduced wear-and-tear? Maybe the difference is negligible and not enough to get worked up about?

Tiny 12

03-04-25, 03:18

Okay...Got it! I thought they'd be more O&G companies, judging from recent results, I was reading in the headlines. 2025 MLP Yields Up To 11.3%: https://www.suredividend.com/mlp-list/

Judging from many of the MLP investment funds, I thought the number of MLPs is probably more like, about 5-10% of O&G companies.

The articles (and I) were using FOGEI/FORI (Subpar F carveout of IRC Section 907--is what I meant instead of GILTI) for O&G extraction income.

But that's not the point of those articles, because the the tax loophole that's being uncovered, is really only interested in and uses the QBAI calc of the total tangible assets, in order to determine the GILTI for the intangible assets (which are vast the article's and IMH opinion).

Fair enough, that your in favor having them removed, but why then, were you calling the articles "Ridiculous"? As far as I can make out, their reporting of the O&G tax loophole is accurate.

You also have to ask yourself, and to your point (if it makes sense to remove them), why are O&G companies fighting so hard to hang on to GILTI?

I'm not necessarily buying that agreement and I'm not so sure that's a bad thing. O&G have had a pretty good run, some 100+ years (and this is where we probably disagree mostly), perhaps it's time to move on.

Well according to your last statement O&G wouldn't be viable without the all the "subsidies, tax advantages and loopholes". At least my subsides come without emitting CO2 emissions and greenhouse gases!

At the moment (and perhaps I'll circle-back), I can't speak the green energy case, you cite in Texas, but on the surface, isn't this a case for the use of batteries (BESS)? And does shutting down the windmills really give you that much more profit, over and above, the savings from reduced wear-and-tear? Maybe the difference is negligible and not enough to get worked up about?Oil and gas extraction income is not subject to GILTI, no matter what the level of tangible assets is. QBAI is irrelevant for oil and gas. I don't believe oil and gas E&P is subject to Subpart F either, unless it's a royalty. It shouldn't be anyway. I don't remember why I thought the headlines were ridiculous. If I recall correctly (this is from attending a presentation by an engineer at ERCOT, which manages the electric grid in Texas, years ago), the wind generators were paying around $. 02 per kilowatt hour to sell into the grid. I'd guess the wholesale price of electricity at the time averaged around $. 05 per kilowatt hour. It's the principle of the thing. The tax laws shouldn't be set up so that people are actually paying money to produce electricity, which was wasted because there was no demand for it, solely so they could collect a tax credit. You apparently misinterpreted what I wrote, or I screwed up in what I said, as oil and gas E&P would be just about as viable without the industry specific tax advantages as it is now. You wouldn't see a significant fall off in domestic production if you axed them all tomorrow. Like I said, if I were in charge, they'd all be axed except expensing of IDC's.

And yes, if you can create cost effective battery storage, renewables look a lot better when the suns not shining and the wind's not blowing. Or, in your example, when the wind is blowing but there's no demand for electricity. The question is when will that happen, especially when Biden, Trump and others are punishing the lowest cost producers (in China) with sky high tariffs.

Tiny 12

03-04-25, 03:28

(...kkkk!)

But if you are going to argue, that natural gas is 10X or 100X cleaner, I would love to see your facts, data and sources w/r to such false and dubious claims..I said I could argue. The primary contributors to dirty air, and deaths therefrom, are particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Particulate matter is the worst by far. See table about 40% of the way through the web page below. Hard coal and brown coal produce about 10,000 X to 30,000 X more particulate matter than gas. About 1000 X more sulfur dioxide. And two to three times more NOx compounds. Those numbers are actually variable though, depending on the chemical composition of the specific coal and gas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_power_station

Spend some time in China and Hong Kong and you'll see a huge difference in air quality between there and the USA. One of the big reasons for the difference is we burn more natural gas than coal, and they do the reverse.

EihTooms

03-04-25, 05:21

Former President of Poland Lech Walesa wrote the following letter to Trump.

Your Excellency, Mr. President,

We watched the report of your conversation with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, with fear and distaste. We find it insulting that you expect Ukraine to show respect and gratitude for the material assistance provided by the United States in its fight against russia. Gratitude is owed to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. They have been dying on the front lines for more than 11 years in the name of these values and the independence of their homeland, which was attacked by Putin's russia.

We do not understand how the leader of a country that symbolizes the free world cannot recognize this.

Our alarm was also heightened by the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation, which reminded us of the interrogations we endured at the hands of the Security Services and the debates in Communist courts. Prosecutors and judges, acting on behalf of the all-powerful communist political police, would explain to us that they held all the power while we held none. They demanded that we cease our activities, arguing that thousands of innocent people suffered because of us. They stripped us of our freedoms and civil rights because we refused to cooperate with the government or express gratitude for our oppression. We are shocked that President Volodymyr Zelensky was treated in the same manner.

The history of the 20th century shows that whenever the United States sought to distance itself from democratic values and its European allies, it ultimately became a threat to itself. President Woodrow Wilson understood this when he decided in 1917 that the United States must join World War I. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood this when, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he resolved that the war to defend America must be fought not only in the Pacific but also in Europe, in alliance with the nations under attack by the Third Reich.

We remember that without President Ronald Reagan and America's financial commitment, the collapse of the Soviet empire would not have been possible. President Reagan recognized that millions of enslaved people suffered in Soviet russia and the countries it had subjugated, including thousands of political prisoners who paid for their defense of democratic values with their freedom. His greatness lay, among other things, in his unwavering decision to call the USSR an "Empire of Evil" and to fight it decisively. We won, and today, the statue of President Ronald Reagan stands in Warsaw, facing the USA Embassy.

Mr. President, material aidmilitary and financialcan never be equated with the blood shed in the name of Ukraine's independence and the freedom of Europe and the entire free world. Human life is priceless; its value cannot be measured in money. Gratitude is due to those who sacrifice their blood and their freedom. This is self-evident to us, the people of Solidarity, former political prisoners of the communist regime under Soviet russia.

We call on the United States to uphold the guarantees made alongside Great Britain in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which established a direct obligation to defend Ukraine's territorial integrity in exchange for its relinquishment of nuclear weapons. These guarantees are unconditionalthere is no mention of treating such assistance as an economic transaction.

Signed,

Lech Wał281;sa, former political prisoner, President of Poland.

Spidy

03-04-25, 06:07

Spidy

03-04-25, 06:18

Oil and gas extraction income is not subject to GILTI, no matter what the level of tangible assets is. QBAI is irrelevant for oil and gas. I don't believe oil and gas E&P is subject to Subpart F either, unless it's a royalty. It shouldn't be anyway. I don't remember why I thought the headlines were ridiculous. Okay...it seems I need to revisit my understanding of GILTI, but one last question for you.

So is it your assertion, that O&G companies have no intangible assets? Because if they do (which I think they do) have intangible assets (no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential), wouldn't they need GILTI to be calculated?

And that calc use some variation of the following, when I do a search?: GILTI = Net CFC Tested Income (10% x QBAI - Interest Expense)

That's it, I'm done! It seems YOU and GILTI, have done me in....well at least for now!

PS: My apologies to all the other ISGers, for taking up the forum bandwidth these last few days! I'll try to keep things to a minimum for the next little while.

Thx for your patience and understanding!

Elvis 2008

03-04-25, 06:31

Well said...but none of this, comes as a surprise to me!

Project 2025, as was foretold by us Dems, over and over again, to the American people (and to ISGers), is alive and well!

Next stop...for the American Fuhrer and MAGA, ..."The Hunger Games"??

Speaking of deadbeat presidents and crypto, I was very surprised nobody had reported on the other one in Argentina, who's embroiled in the $LIBRA scandal. I mean that story came out like about two weeks ago...and crickets here at ISG?

Since I know very little about the subject of crypto, I was leaving it up to experts like yourself to report on the story and weigh in, on what it all, could possibly mean?

My limited understanding like 2-weeks ago: Like 5 people held 75% of the value and cashed out as soon as the value spiked from nothing to $5. Now president is accused of "rug pulling" and corruption.

Yet another right-wing president who hasn't quite figured out how "greed" works and how NOT to incentivize "greedy" ponzi schemes in right-wing political regime?

Argentina's $4.6 Billion Crypto Scandal; Largest-Ever Crypto Theft
https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/02/24/argentinas-46-billion-crypto-scandal-largest-ever-crypto-theft/

What say you, crypto experts?

PS: And to all you wingers, where's the love now, for Argentine President Javier Milei? Not to worry though, doesn't President Musk, have enough crypto, to bailout his Argentinian bro-president like, 4x over? (...kkkk!)Is your name Spidy from Spiderman? That was my favorite comic going up. I think I am going to start calling you Spidy the Amazing Binary man because literally everything you post is right wing / MAGA / Republican bad and Dems good. You have no balance. You and Loony "there is no government waste" Tooms must have been separated at birth.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jun/26/instagram-posts/sam-bankman-fried-is-not-free-as-a-bird-he-still-f/

This fact checking was a hoot. "Breaking: Biden administration quietly DROPS all charges against Sam Bankman-Fried," read a June 20 Instagram post. "The crypto founder who stole $4 billion and gave half of it to Democrat candidates is now free as a bird. ".

Did SBF steal money? Yep. Did he give it to Dems? You betcha. Is he in jail? Nope, and the fact check is, and this is hilarious, well, they are going to put him in jail. Yeah, SBF is not in jail now.

I actually considered litigating a matter with stocks. I had to listen to blowhard CEOs say that they had a fiduciary duty to shareholders which is the strongest duty there is, but that duty is more like a doody in terms of shit. If you are a shareholder of say Coca Cola and one day the board at Coca Cola says "Yeah, we are not making Cola anymore. We are going to focus on umbrellas", you would think this is a pretty straight forward case of breach of duty and could sue.

It does not work like that. SCOTUS has watered down the fiduciary duty such that the only thing you can sue for is corruption and not incompetence. Unless the Board of Directors at Coke decided to sell umbrellas to make themselves money, you are shit out of luck when it comes to a lawsuit. Your case will be dismissed. I think this is pure BS but it is what it is.

In fact, it is so hard to sue the only way one can do it is with an insider. That is why there is so much money thrown at CEO types via the golden parachute / NDA.

President Javier Milei does not have any duty at all. In fact, I would argue that those hurt by buying this LIBRA crypto could best voice their displeasure by voting against him. And let's not forget that some pocketed profits in the crypto as it went up.

And you are not going to get any sympathy from me for buying a fad crypto. There have been so many scams in this space you would have to be a fool to buy almost all crypto outside of Bitcoin. This was the equivalent of Milei at the craps table saying, "I know the dice are coming up 7 and that is good for Argentina ", and the dice came up 6.

And a rug pull is not a ponzi scheme. It is saying you are going to build something, get a bunch of investors to give you money, and then take off with the money after having done little to nothing, and it has happened so much in the crypto community, they even have named the scam.

Thing is crypto is outside the main stream with investing. They are not subject to many of the other laws like other types of investment. Mark Cuban, back when he was not a loon, exposed the entire stock market as a Ponzi scheme which pissed off the big boys, and the SEC went after him versus the banks costing tax payers hundreds of billions and Bernie Madoff. I have been very unimpressed with government regulation in the financial world. The laws originally written were among the best laws ever written but the big banks and judges have shredded them down to the point that the big boys can do almost whatever they want.

I actually prefer the crypto world where a fool and his money are soon parted, and there is no illusion of government safety. I do not think the SEC is worth a hoot.

MarquisdeSade1

03-04-25, 07:31

MAGA couldn't ask for a more inept opponent lolololol.

A YUGE thanks to all the losers that voted for Harris.

This video captures your essence quite well.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/when-the-left-is-too-smug-even-for-the-new-york-times/

Sirioja

03-04-25, 17:07

How about this hybrid: 1200 hp and check out the powertrain on this baby. Don't scoff boys. It is all about innovation. This is how the free market works. The Ferrari F80 is already sold out, proving there is demand for hybrids. You just have to make cars that people want to own and not force crap on them with regulations and mandates.I would like to play versus on German autobahns, to see how many kilometers running close to 300 km / h. Shame for what was Ferrari = V12 with making hard, noise.

MarquisdeSade1

03-04-25, 19:47

Sirioja

03-04-25, 20:22

Diesel is back in Europe when people prefer than EV, Tesla having sales divided by 2 on this year in Europe, because of Musk behavior. I will stick to E85 powering my exceptionnal engine with R8 cup admission, but I remember my great diesel with 655000 kms engine. EV guaranty are with limited kilometers.

Tiny 12

03-04-25, 21:02

Possibly the answer to the questions is "both. " If these tariffs are so good for American manufacturers and American jobs, maybe someone can tell me why share prices of some companies like Ford Motor are at multi-year lows.

As you probably know, parts and intermediate products used to manufacture an automobile can cross the border multiple times. Apparently a 25% duty will be paid now every time that happens. Anderson Consulting is estimating the cost of pickup will go up by $8000 and an SUV by $9000. Or that's what the talking heads on CNBC are saying. Fruits and vegetables imported from Mexico will go up big time. How are we supposed to grow avocados and watermelon for harvest in March in the good old USA?

The Trump administration is telling us that we're imposing tariffs on Canada to stem the flow of fentanyl and illegals. Bull shit. Do they really believe we're that stupid?

The US probably sends more drugs and illegals to Canada than they send to us. And how about the new 10% tariff on imported oil? Republicans fought tooth and nail to keep the Keystone XL pipeline on track, to ship oil from Canada to the USA, so we'd have more energy security and more jobs. And now Trump has given the Canucks a bigger incentive to ship their oil to China than Biden did when he jerked Keystone. This is no way to treat your 51st state!

Well, I guess that Mexico and Canada can team up with China now, since they're all kind out of locked out of trading with us. The Europeans will be next.

I feel sorry for Treasury Secretary Bessent and Commerce Secretary Lutnick, having to explain this lunacy.

What the f*** was Trump thinking?

Elvis 2008

03-04-25, 22:33

Former President of Poland Lech Walesa wrote the following letter to Trump.

Your Excellency, Mr. President,

We watched the report of your conversation with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, with fear and distaste. We find it insulting that you expect Ukraine to show respect and gratitude for the material assistance provided by the United States in its fight against russia. Gratitude is owed to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. They have been dying on the front lines for more than 11 years in the name of these values and the independence of their homeland, which was attacked by Putin's russia.

We do not understand how the leader of a country that symbolizes the free world cannot recognize this.
Yeah, well, there is quite a divergence between what Polish leaders say and how ordinary Poles feel, https://theconversation.com/why-many-poles-are-not-as-supportive-of-ukraines-war-effort-as-their-leaders-in-warsaw-240562.

During my recent visit, I was sometimes asked why the BBC and other influential western media never probed behind the slick public face of Volodymyr Zelensky's team to report on the real conditions and opinions of ordinary Ukrainians. Instead, Russians are demonised and Ukrainians hailed for their "European values" and their sacrifices on behalf of the west.

Coverage in Polish state media conveys a similar message but I found many citizens have become sceptical. There is pity for conscripts, sorrow for the loss of young lives on both sides and fear for where all this dehumanising violence is leading. But few of the people I spoke with believed that Russians are the only party violating the Geneva Conventions.

Often, the conversation turned to Boris Johnson. I was asked to explain why the then prime minister advised Zelensky in April 2022 that Ukraine should continue the fighting. Did Johnson, as has often been rumoured, sabotage proposals for a negotiated peace carefully drawn up in Istanbul shortly before his visit? Did he not care at all about the hundreds of thousands who would suffer and die if this war continued?

I did not have answers to any of these questions.

And then there was the Russian reaction, https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-volodymyr-zelensky-vladimir-putin-how-russia-reacted-to-fiery-trump-zelensky-clash-at-white-house-7821096.

After US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodomyr Zelensky's stunning clash at the White House, support arrived for the American leader all the way from the Kremlin in Russia. Russian officials and state media reacted with satisfaction after the heated exchange ended with Zelensky abruptly leaving and cutting his visit short.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova remarked that Trump had shown "restraint" by not physically assaulting Zelensky during the exchange.

"I think Zelensky's biggest lie of all his lies was his assertion in the White House that the Kyiv regime in 2022 was alone, without support," Zakharova wrote on Telegram.

She further said, "How Trump and Vance held back from hitting that scumbag is a miracle of restraint," adding that Zelensky was "biting the hand that feeds him. ".

End of link. Quite frankly, the UK, the home of the Steele Dossier and horrific censorship laws, can go fuck itself. This once great power is down to 25 working tanks, and the UK's pathetic strategy of divide and conquer is obvious to those of with two working eyes, Loony Tooms. IMO the UK is on the side of death and deceit and is no longer worthy of being an ally.

Elvis 2008

03-04-25, 23:42

Possibly the answer to the questions is "both. " If these tariffs are so good for American manufacturers and American jobs, maybe someone can tell me why share prices of some companies like Ford Motor are at multi-year lows.

The Trump administration is telling us that we're imposing tariffs on Canada to stem the flow of fentanyl and illegals. Bull shit. Do they really believe we're that stupid?

What the f*** was Trump thinking?I can tell you what Trump is thinking. I am not sure what tangible goals he is looking for with regards to the tariffs. With Canada, the three big things are oil, defense spending, and the border. Excluding oil and gas, the USA has a trade surplus with Canada. Given the USA can produce the oil and gas instead of getting it from Canada, I think Trump wants that production to be domestic and not from Canada, and apparently, we have the reserves to make that happen.

On defense, Canada is not spending shit on defense, and they are relying on us to pay for their defense. Trump wants us to pay a lot less for defense and for Europe and Canada to pay a helluva lot more. On this, he is totally right. Outside of Poland and Turkey, all the countries in NATO have had pathetic defense budgets. What is so bad about this is with Ukraine, the contributions of our so called NATO allies were pathetic.

On the border issue, and this is with both Canada and Mexico, I am wondering how many Chinese goods are being shipped in, and the made in China sticker is taken off and a made in Canada or made in Mexico is attached. He wants something done on that.

With Fentanyl, I think Trump has his head up his ass. He is following the DEA, prohibition style plan to lower supplies not getting that anyone can produce opioids just like anyone can produce alcohol. So Mexico is going to have to do some symbolic clean up on that, but Trump is not going to get fewer deaths until the USA embraces a Portugal style drug policy.

The border issue is better. I am not sure what more he wants there. My understanding is there is more LE on the border now, but here are the issues with Mexico:

Now in 2024, Mexico sent 78% of ALL their exports to the United States. That's an astounding 37% of Mexico's GDP. US manufacturing is in trouble as companies move offshore to avoid taxation, high wages, and asinine green legislation. John Deere, an American branded company, announced it will move manufacturing from Illinois to Ramos, Mexico. This is part of a growing trend of companies simply finding it difficult to turn a profit in the US.

The average hourly salary for unskilled labor is $4. 55 per hour in Mexico compared to $17.42 in the US. The cost of living is simply drastically less in Mexico than in the US or Canada. Mexico has a robust, educated workforce, with more students graduating with engineering degrees than in America. There is also a strong apprenticeship aspect to trade labor in Mexico, with multiple generations of men honing their skills from a young age.

China Conquers Mexico's Automotive Market, and the US Is Worried. Led by the automaker BYD, China has established itself as the main car supplier in Mexico. The US worries China could use Mexico as a "back door" to sidestep tariffs and gain footing in the US market. A Tesla competitor, BYD markets its Dolphin Mini model in Mexico for about 398,800 pesosabout $21,300 dollarsa little more than half the price of the cheapest Tesla model. According to official figures, 20 percent of light vehicles sold in 2023 in Mexico were imported from China, representing 273,592 units and a 50 percent increase compared to 2022.

End of link.

With Canada, you put tariffs on oil and in so doing make it more attractive for the USA to produce its own oil. That involves short term pain and is doable. With Mexico, I think the issues are more on our end than theirs. Why are we graduating so many lawyers and so few engineers?

Another issue is Mexicans have a different more European attitude towards governments. One time I was told I could not buy alcohol in Mexico due to it being an election day. The US border agents told me do not worry you will find someone to sell it, and I did. I also learned that ALL the businesses paid the cartels protection money. That sounds bad but the cartels really do protect the businesses and the police apparently are so fucking corrupt, as many mongers will tell you are, they are more likely to steal than criminals.

The bottom line is that I am sure Trump has things he wants from the Mexican government. I am just not sure that they have the power to deliver. With Mexico, Trump is probably going to get a few little things and declare victory. I do not see what the Mexican government can do that would soothe Trump. Graduate fewer engineers? Taxes on Chinese cars? Having a minimum wage of $17 an hour? No more good drug cartels? Good luck with that.

EihTooms

03-05-25, 02:00

Is President Trump an Idiot? Or does he think we are?

Possibly the answer to the questions is "both. " If these tariffs are so good for American manufacturers and American jobs, maybe someone can tell me why share prices of some companies like Ford Motor are at multi-year lows.

As you probably know, parts and intermediate products used to manufacture an automobile can cross the border multiple times. Apparently a 25% duty will be paid now every time that happens. Anderson Consulting is estimating the cost of pickup will go up by $8000 and an SUV by $9000. Or that's what the talking heads on CNBC are saying. Fruits and vegetables imported from Mexico will go up big time. How are we supposed to grow avocados and watermelon for harvest in March in the good old USA?

The Trump administration is telling us that we're imposing tariffs on Canada to stem the flow of fentanyl and illegals. Bull shit. Do they really believe we're that stupid?

The US probably sends more drugs and illegals to Canada than they send to us. And how about the new 10% tariff on imported oil? Republicans fought tooth and nail to keep the Keystone XL pipeline on track, to ship oil from Canada to the USA, so we'd have more energy security and more jobs. And now Trump has given the Canucks a bigger incentive to ship their oil to China than Biden did when he jerked Keystone. This is no way to treat your 51st state!

Well, I guess that Mexico and Canada can team up with China now, since they're all kind out of locked out of trading with us. The Europeans will be next.

I feel sorry for Treasury Secretary Bessent and Commerce Secretary Lutnick, having to explain this lunacy.

What the f*** was Trump thinking?The stock market was always Trump's go-to measure for how well he was doing his job and how well the economy was doing. It took the steep stock market decline of March 11,2020 due to so many dead American bodies stacking up inside and outside of the morgues to grab Trump's attention to his Trump's Pandemic enough for him to briefly pause his constant lying about it being a "Democratic Party Hoax, we have this under control, it is disappearing, it will go away without a vaccine", mocking the known mitigating measures and so on to finally declare it a National Emergency on March 13,2020.

So it will be interesting to see if he mentions the stock market at all this time around in his "weave" before Congress or whatever incoherent blather comes out of his pie-hole in about an hour from this writing. If he mentions it at all it will probably be to inexplicably blame the losses to date on Joe Biden after rushing out there to take credit for the post-election relief rally before it became clear stock market investors just aren't into him and his chaotic incompetence or is it his determined anti-Americanism all that much.

To recap as of this writing and as Trump is about to "weave" his way beyond all coherent verbal communication to Congress and the American people:

As measured by the S&P 500 Index, the USA Stock Market is down 0. 8% since his election and down 3. 65% since his inauguration.

Xpartan

03-05-25, 03:21

Elvis 2008

03-05-25, 05:34

Well, I guess that Mexico and Canada can team up with China now, since they're all kind out of locked out of trading with us. The Europeans will be next.

I feel sorry for Treasury Secretary Bessent and Commerce Secretary Lutnick, having to explain this lunacy.

What the f*** was Trump thinking?Yeah, the difference between someone who votes Democrat and a Democratic douche is that a douche will support the party no matter how stupid it is. Biden is not demented? No, he is not. Kamala is a drunk? No, she is not.

So instead of falling into the Trump is crazy camp, it is important to see what he really wants when he acts crazy.

And so here it is: https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6369607232112.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick: I want Americans to stop being murdered by opioids and fentanyl.

Yeah, okay, now it is fine to call Trump crazy. This is like blaming the failures of prohibition on Canada and Mexico. Opioids are as easy to make as alcohol and when you ban all items, you make the more potent items in the class the norm. You ban beer and wine and you get more whiskey and vodka. You ban oxycontin and you get heroin and fentanyl.

Last I checked there were a dozen or so overdoses in Portugal. We need to do what they are doing rather than pointing fingers abroad. This was the rare total swing and a miss for Trump. The only good part is that he allegedly is backing off the tariffs.

Elvis 2008

03-05-25, 05:49

A wonderful letter, but it's not going impress the man brazenly working for foreign interests; his utterly unscrupulous, carefully picked entourage; and the army of willfully blind and exulted cult followers, ready to cut off their right hands if it pleases their Living God. Let's face it: we're living in a country steadily slipping into fascism, and the silence from the opposition is deafening.

I want to be wrong, but it seems the fuckers are winning.If winning means that fewer people are dying, Americans are not going to have send boat loads of arms and money to Ukraine, and Europe is not going to be steal the $250 billion of Russian assets parked in European banks, then we are.

Boris Johnson punked the first set of cease fire talks, and Keir Stamer tried to do it a second time. The British scum do not care how many people die. They want and need that money. If the war went on, the European bankers could have went forward with some kind of war crime type crap and stolen that money using some USAID type dispensing system.

When Stamer said the UK was going to put boots on the ground, someone checked the UK military and learned that they have 25 working tanks. The French have like 125, and Russia has 2,000 or so. Do you think these countries would have had so few tanks if they really thought Russia was a threat? The war was always a racket.

The lucrative war on Covid took 3 years to end and now the same goes for Ukraine. I wonder what costly, pointless, and never winnable war is coming next. I nominate the war on fentanyl.

EihTooms

03-05-25, 05:51

The stock market was always Trump's go-to measure for how well he was doing his job and how well the economy was doing. It took the steep stock market decline of March 11,2020 due to so many dead American bodies stacking up inside and outside of the morgues to grab Trump's attention to his Trump's Pandemic enough for him to briefly pause his constant lying about it being a "Democratic Party Hoax, we have this under control, it is disappearing, it will go away without a vaccine", mocking the known mitigating measures and so on to finally declare it a National Emergency on March 13,2020.

So it will be interesting to see if he mentions the stock market at all this time around in his "weave" before Congress or whatever incoherent blather comes out of his pie-hole in about an hour from this writing. If he mentions it at all it will probably be to inexplicably blame the losses to date on Joe Biden after rushing out there to take credit for the post-election relief rally before it became clear stock market investors just aren't into him and his chaotic incompetence or is it his determined anti-Americanism all that much.

To recap as of this writing and as Trump is about to "weave" his way beyond all coherent verbal communication to Congress and the American people:

As measured by the S&P 500 Index, the USA Stock Market is down 0. 8% since his election and down 3. 65% since his inauguration.Trump has now dropped the USA Stock Market as any guage or measure for how he is doing as a so-called potus and how the economy is doing.

But still, and with a nod of appreciation to so many fine Fact-Checkers in the media and on the Internet, he had so many accomplishments from his 1st four year term to mention as substantiation for why we should all be excited about what he has in store for the next four years:

He incited an insurrection against the government.

Layed the groundwork for ushered in Trump's Pandemic.

Mismanaged a pandemic that killed over a million Americans.

Called neo-Nazis very fine people.

Separated children from their families.

Lost those children in the bureaucracy.

Tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church.

Tried to block all Muslims from entering the country.

Got impeached,

Got impeached again.

Had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history.

Pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden.

Fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia.

Bragged about firing the FBI director on TV.

Took Vladimir Putins word over the US intelligence community.

Diverted military funding to build his wall.

Caused the longest government shutdown in US history.

Called Black Lives Matter a symbol of hate.

Lied over 30,000 times.

Banned transgender people from serving in the military.

Ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions.

Vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers.

Refused to release his tax returns.

Increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion.

Had three of the highest annual trade deficits in USA History.

Called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers.

Coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist.

Refused to concede the 2020 election.

Hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House.

Walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl.

Suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID.

Abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey.

Pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans.

Incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic.

Withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords.

Withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal.

Withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block Chinas advances.

Insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter.

Pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op.

Failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies.

Called Haiti and African nations shithole countries.

Called the city of Baltimore the worst in the nation.

Claimed that he single handedly brought back the phrase Merry Christmas even though it hadn't gone anywhere.

Forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader.

Believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe.

Suggested the US should buy Greenland.

Colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices, after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges.

Repeatedly called the media enemies of the people.

Claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID wed have fewer cases.

Violated the emoluments clause.

Thought that Nambia was a country.

Told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public.

Called his exceedingly faithful vice president a p-why for following the Constitution.

Nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet.

Nominated a corrupt head of the EPA.

Nominated a corrupt head of HHS.

Nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department.

Nominated a corrupt head of the USDA.

Praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies.

Refused to allow the presidential transition to begin.

Insulted war hero John McCain even after his death.

Spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president.

Falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote.

Called the Muslim mayor of London a stone cold loser.

Falsely claimed that he turned down being Times Man of the Year.

Considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions.

Mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID.

Locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones.

Used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the China virus.

Hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser.

Pardoned several of his shady associates.

Gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressman who amplified his bat shit crazy conspiracy theories.

Got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia (Had a Secretary of State who called him a moron.

Forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history.

Botched the COVID vaccine rollout.

Tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him.

Charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties.

Constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate.

Claimed that COVID would magically disappear.

Called a USA Senator Pocahontas.

Used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivankas merchandise.

Opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling.

Got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers.

Claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US.

Ignored or didn't even take part in daily intelligence briefings.

Blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining.

Redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle.

Got played by Kim Jung Un and his love letters.

Threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution.

Botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them.

Pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to find him votes.

Thought that the Virgin islands had a President.

Drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane.

Allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing.

Rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos.

Pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID.

Rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers.

Held blatant campaign rallies at the White House.

Tried to take away millions of Americans health insurance because the law was named for a Black man.

Refused to attend his successors inauguration.

Nominated the worst Education Secretary in history.

Threatened judges who didn't do what he wanted.

Attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci,

Promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn't).

Allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues.

Struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble.

Called an African-American Congresswoman low IQ.

Threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders.

Went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic.

Claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were witch hunts.

Seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution.

Demanded total loyalty from the FBI director.

Praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles.

Completely gutted the Voice of America.

Placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service.

Claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower.

Suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country.

Suggested that COVID wasnt that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public.

Overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported.

Reduced the number of refugees the US accepts.

Insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames.

Gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address.

Named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old whod previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties.

Eliminated the White House office of pandemic response.

Used soldiers as campaign props.

Fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him.

Demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade.

Hired a shit ton of white nationalists.

Politicized the civil service.

Did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the USA Government.

Falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts.

Claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won.

Insulted reporters of color.

Insulted women reporters, insulted women reporters of color.

Suggested he was fine with Chinas oppression of the Uighurs.

Attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him.

Summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House, to pressure them to overturn the election.

Spent countless hours every day watching Fox News.

Refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas.

Hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer.

Tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him.

Acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney.

Attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault.

Held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present.

Didn't disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media.

Stopped holding press briefings for months at a time.

Ordered US companies to leave China even though he has no such power.

Led a political party that couldn't even be bothered to draft a policy platform.

Claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers.

Tried to pressure the you. K. To hold the British Open at his golf course.

Suggested that the government nuke hurricanes.

Suggested that wind turbines cause cancer.

Said that he had a special aptitude for science.

Fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure.

Blurted out classified information to Russian officials.

Tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida.

Fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban.

Hired Stephen Miller.

Openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them.

Interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel.

Abandoned Iraqi refugees whod helped the USA During the war.

Tried to get Russia back into the G7.

Held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden.

Seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive.

Lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated.

Falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they werent.

Shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies.

Still hasnt come up with a healthcare plan.

Still hasnt come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated Infrastructure Weeks.

Forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID.

Told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by.

Screwed up the Census wording.

Withdrew the USA From the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic.

Did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule: President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.

Allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act.

Seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.

Stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win.

Constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president, (which presumably includes four that were assassinated, and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump).

Claimed Andrew Jackson couldve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened.

Said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake.

Claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him.

Claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President.

Created a commission to whitewash American history.

Retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain.

Claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn't have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there.

Hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent "Bowling Green Massacre" as a reason to ban Muslims.

Had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others.

Bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties.

Apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House.

Stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians.

Falsely claimed Biden wanted to de-fund the police.

Said that the head of the CDC didn't know what he was talking about.

Tried to rescind protection from DREAMers.

Gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic.

Tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax.

Said USA Rates of COVID would be lower if you didn't count blue states.

Deported USA Veterans who served their country but were undocumented.

Claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln.

Touted a super-duper secret hydrosonic missile, which may or may not be a new hypersonic missile, or may not exist at all.

Retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile.

Forced through security clearances for his family.

Suggested that police officers should rough up suspects.

Suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs.

Tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender identification.

Suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher.

Nominated a climate change skeptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy.

Retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called Fuck tha Police at a campaign event.

Hugged a disturbingly large number of USA Flags.

Accused Democrats of treason for not applauding his State of the Union address.

Claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter.

Because they were spending too much time on Russia.

Mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

Obsessed over low-flow toilets.

Ordered the re-release of more COVID vaccines when there werent any to release.

Called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek).

Hijacked Washingtons July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech.

Took advice from the MyPillow guy.

Claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists.

Said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure.

Never seemed to heed the advice of his wifes Be Best campaign.

Falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent, though he, (himself), votes by mail.

Announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest.

Insulted the leader of Canada.

Insulted the leader of France.

Insulted the leader of Britain.

Insulted the leader of Germany.

Insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!

Falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues.

Blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually.

Continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders.

Said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their Sony televisions if the US were ever attacked.

Left a NATO summit early in a huff.

Stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that.

Called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary.

Refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise.

And a whole bunch of other things I can't remember at the moment.

Spidy

03-05-25, 08:11

Is your name Spidy from Spiderman? That was my favorite comic going up. I think I am going to start calling you Spidy the Amazing Binary man because literally everything you post is right wing / MAGA / Republican bad and Dems good. You have no balance. You and Loony "there is no government waste" Tooms must have been separated at birth.And true to form, you're back to calling, other ISGers, my esteemed colleagues and other BMs, names again. How predictable and juvenile of you!

It was only just 3-days ago, you were bemoaning to your other MAGA adjacent cultist, about the practice of name calling by others. And HERE YOU ARE, contradicting yourself like clockwork, doing what you do best, and quite frankly, ONLY know how to do.

Elvis 2008, when name calling, is what you do best, all that MAGA gish gallop, and why that's the ONLY OTHER THING, you constantly sever up as a form of "debate", ...

...is starting to make perfect sense!

PS: Actually, I'm kinda somewhat impressed? That you manage to go through, that entire gibberish rant and not use the D-BAG or Double D-BAG word usage...is that progress? (...kkkk!)

Sirioja

03-05-25, 08:25

I would like to play versus on German autobahns, to see how many kilometers running close to 300 km / h. Shame for what was Ferrari = V12 with making hard, noise.My mistake, not EV, but hybrid with formula 1 technique, meaning very high consumming when You drive a bit, when hybrid cars have higher consumming than normal thermic, when You drive a bit, meaning out of towns and traffic jam.

Sirioja

03-05-25, 08:46

Enjoy MAGA payback for robbing our nation of Our Lord and Savior by rigging 2020.

And allowing Scumbag Joe to flood our nation with 20 million more illegal aliens.

Paybacks are a MOTHERFUCKER.

I am your warrior, I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution. I will totally obliterate the deep state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/opinion/trump-imperial-presidency.html

GOD IS GREAT!!When USA are puritan, porn land with Trump used to prostitutes, reason why Putin hold now his balls, best porn 2025 is the world seeing Trump sucking swallowing Putin and both fucking poor Ukrainians. In Europe, Teslas are now burned, sales are divided by 2 and many will boycott USA products, same like I do with chinese, because same shameful governments, the rich USA robbering the poor Ukrainians. No MAGA, but just shame in front of the whole world, with only criminal Putin and Netanyahou for friends, when most others hate your senile schizophrene Trump / Vance / facist fool Musk and know we can t trust now USA under Trump. Funny, Vance was insulted in Vermont: go to ski in Russia, meaning to suck Putin. USA are just porn actress sucking Putin, more than MAGA, but chickens robbers.

EihTooms

03-05-25, 09:01

Trump keeps telling us his agreement to release 5,000 murderous anti-American jihadists to resume their fight against our military in his unconditional surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan, which led directly to the one and only attack on our troops during the otherwise historically least deadly withdrawal of the losing side from an occupied country as "The most humiliating moment in American history and the reason Putin invaded Ukraine. ".

I think it is time to finally admit he got something right.

Suspect in Kabul Airport Bombing During Afghanistan Pullout Is Caught and Heading to US, Trump Says.
March 4, 2025

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2025-03-04/suspect-in-kabul-airport-bombing-during-afghanistan-pullout-is-caught-and-heading-to-us-trump-says

A review last year by U.S. Central Command concluded that the suicide bombing was not preventable. The U.S. military has previously identified the bomber as Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State militant who had been in an Afghan prison but was released by the Taliban as the group took control of the country that summer.Taliban talks: US peace envoy 'not happy about' release of prisoners.
September 15, 2020

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54155768

The release of 5,000 prisoners was a condition, agreed between the US and the Taliban after their peace talks last year, to begin these negotiations.

The Afghan government was not involved in making the agreement, and had concerns about releasing thousands of militants. Last month, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani warned that the prisoners' release was a "danger" to the world, AFP news agency reported at the time.Uh. That would be between so-called president Donald J. Trump and the Taliban.

Sirioja

03-05-25, 09:27

Interesting to understand how the fool Musk is so fake with so fake stories, so many lies, when he received about 40 billions of public help. With bullshiting liar senile Trump, no brained USA are led by really crazies.

Axel Heyst

03-05-25, 13:59

Let's face it: we're living in a country steadily slipping into fascism, and the silence from the opposition is deafening.

I want to be wrong, but it seems the fuckers are winning.You are damn right we are winning. America is winning! Thank your lucky stars on that even if you can't comprehend it. 555! But last night Trump wiped the floor with left wing senators who really have nothing to say except "we hate Trump. " It was really something to behold! Here are the main points from last night's beatdown:

"1. 'Restore Common Sense'.

"Common sense has become a common theme, and we will never go back," Trump said.

Shortly after Rep. Al Green, the-Texas, was removed for heckling, Trump touted his early presidential actions.

"Over the past six weeks, I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions to restore common sense, safety, optimism, and wealth all across our wonderful land," the president said. "The people elected me to do the job, and I am doing it. In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency is the most successful in the history of our nation. ".

Trump referenced his executive orders defining only two sexes male and female and removing men from women's sports.

Trump honored 19-year-old Payton McNabb, who sustained a concussion and brain bleeding after a male spiked a volleyball at her head when she was a senior in high school.

"From now on, schools will kick the males off the girls team, or they will lose all federal funding," he said.

(It was amazing to see the Democrat "female" politicians dressed in pink protesting this a day after they voted in lock unison to prevent men from participating in women's sports.).

2. 'Nothing I Can Do'.

After boos and heckles, Trump seemed to go off script to voice frustration with Democrats.

"I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there's absolutely nothing I can say or do to make them happy or to make them stand and smile, or applaud," Trump said. "Nothing I can do. ".

"I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out an entire nation, or announce the answer to the greatest economy in history, or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded, and these people will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer," Trump said. "Five times I've been up here. It's very sad and it just shouldn't be that way. ".

He invited Democrats to join the celebration.

"Why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America? For the good of our nation, let's work together and truly make America great again," Trump said to boisterous reaction from Republicans and dour reaction from Democrats.

3. 'Restore True Democracy'.

Democrats spent much of the 2024 election cycle claiming that Trump was a threat to democracy, even claiming democracy was on the ballot.

Trump subsequently tackled the federal bureaucracy, which the president and many others contend undermines the prerogatives of elected officials.

"My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again," Trump said.

Trump signed an "Schedule F" executive order that makes it easier to fire bureaucrats involved in policy matters who would normally have civil service protection from being fired. The Department of Government Efficiency has also targeted bureaucratic waste.

"Any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately because we are draining the swamp. It's very simple. And the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over," the president added. "My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again. ".

4. 'They Tariff Us, We Tariff Them'.

Trump also promoted one of his more controversial policiestariffs. The president said that reciprocal tariffs would kick in on April 2.

"Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them," Trump said. "Whatever they tax us, we tax them. That's reciprocal back and forth. If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. We will take in trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before. ".

"We've been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer," the president said.

5. 'Gigantic Natural Gas Pipeline'.

The president said he has reversed the Biden administration's energy policies.

On his first day in office he declared a national energy emergency.

"I terminated the ridiculous Green New Scam. I withdrew from the unfair Paris climate accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars," Trump said.

He added, "We ended all of Biden's environmental restrictions that were making our country far less safe and totally unaffordable. ".

During the address he again vowed to "drill, baby, drill" to Republican applause. Trump, who has long pushed for energy independence, made a significant announcement.

"My administration is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska, among the largest in the world, where Japan, South Korea, and other nations want to be our partnerwith trillions of dollars being spent by them. It will truly be spectacular," Trump said.

Trump will also move on energy policy this week.

"Later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in USA," Trump said.

6. Trump Honors Laken Riley.

Trump gave a standing ovation to the family of Laken Riley, the 22-year-old girl who was violently murdered by an illegal alien in February 2024.

"America will never ever forget our beautiful Laken Hope Riley!" the president said.

Trump highlighted that the first bill he signed as the 47th president of the United States was the Laken Riley Act, which "mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public safety. ".

Riley is one of numerous American citizens who had been murdered by illegal aliens during the Biden administration.

7. 'End the Savage Conflict'.

Just days after the dramatic Oval Office confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump again stressed his goal for peace in the Russia-Ukraine war. He said it was "time to stop the madness. ".

Trump read a letter from Zelensky agreeing to the mineral deal.

"Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine," Trump said. "The letter reads that Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiation table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace. ".

Trump added, "Simultaneously, we've had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals they are ready for peace.

"Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you," Trump said. "My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump's strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine. ".

He added, "If you want to end wars, you got to talk to both sides. ".

"I am also working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded in this horrific and brutal conflict, with no end in sight. The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine's defense. Meanwhile, Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraineby far! And Biden has authorized more money in this fight than Europe has spent. ".

8. 'A Terrible Lie': Trump Stands Against Child Sex Changes.

Trump touted his executive order "cutting off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth. ".

He highlighted the story of January Littlejohn, a mom who saved her 13-year-old daughter from transgender ideology.

He called on lawmakers to pass a bill "banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. ".

"Our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you," the president said.

Trump declared "wokeness" as "gone" from American schools, the military, and more.

"Our service members won't be activists and ideologues," he said. "They will be fighters and warriors. ".

9. 'Combating Inflation' by Ending 'Waste, Fraud, and Abuse'.

Trump said he inherited "an economic catastrophe" and "inflation nightmare" from the Biden administration.

To combat inflation, he said he would be reducing the cost of energy and ending "waste, fraud, and abuse" of taxpayer dollars.

He said his new Department of Government Efficiency has estimated annual fraud of more than $500 billion, shouting out DOGE head Elon Musk.

He said those "who resist this change will be removed from office immediately because we are draining the swamp. It's very simple, and the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over. ".

10. Dems Sit as Young Cancer Patient Honored.

Trump honored 13-year-old cancer patient DJ Daniel whose dream is to become a police officer.

The president made him a Secret Service agent, yet Democrats did not rise to clap.

Trump described DJ as someone who "has always loved our police. ".

Trump highlighted efforts of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy to reduce childhood cancer rates. ".

Spidy

03-05-25, 15:11

EihTooms

03-05-25, 16:59

You are damn right we are winning. America is winning! Thank your lucky stars on that even if you can't comprehend it. 555! But last night Trump wiped the floor with left wing senators who really have nothing to say except "we hate Trump. " It was really something to behold! Here are the main points from last night's beatdown:

"1. 'Restore Common Sense'.

"Common sense has become a common theme, and we will never go back," Trump said.

Shortly after Rep. Al Green, the-Texas, was removed for heckling, Trump touted his early presidential actions.

"Over the past six weeks, I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions to restore common sense, safety, optimism, and wealth all across our wonderful land," the president said. "The people elected me to do the job, and I am doing it. In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency is the most successful in the history of our nation..LOL. So he could cure some horrible disease and no Dem would applaud him for it?

Since when has he ever tried to cure any disease rather than defunding the means to prevent the spread of deadly diseases, a 2019/2020 Trump accomplishment he is determined to repeat this very minute?

How about he and President Chainsaw Musk not defund and cut staff for the kind of toxic chemical regulation enforcement and juvenile cancer research that is likely to create more child brain cancer patients like that poor kid he exploited as one of his human "props"?

And now that he has designated him an honorary secret service cop, the kid and his parents better hope he isn't assigned to a January 6 Vote Certification event the next time a Repub loses a presidential. Election.

If Trump at least added Trillions more to the deficit and this time his Repub economic "stimulus" legislation didn't create one million fewer jobs with it than without it I am sure a Dem or two could conjure up a one-handed clap for him if he really craves it so much.

But everyone with at brain knows that is never going to happen.

EihTooms

03-05-25, 17:32

Nice final month for Joe's Envy of the World Economy.

Crap 1st full month of Trump's Pandemic, Part 2:

Private employers added just 77,000 jobs in February, far below expectations.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/05/adp-jobs-report-february-2025-.html?__source=androidappshare

Private sector job creation slowed to a crawl in February, fueling concerns of an economic slowdown, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.

Companies added just 77,000 new workers for the month, well off the upwardly revised 186,000 in January and below the 148,000 Dow Jones consensus estimate, according to seasonally adjusted figures from ADP.

The total was the smallest increase since July and comes at a time when worries are rising that economic growth is slowing and worries brew that President Donald Trumps tariff plans will spark another round of inflation. ADP said annual pay rose 4.7% in February, the same as the prior month.

Stock market futures lost some of their gains following the release while Treasury yields were mixed.

"Policy uncertainty and a slowdown in consumer spending might have led to layoffs or a slowdown in hiring last month, said ADPs chief economist, Nela Richardson. Our data, combined with other recent indicators, suggests a hiring hesitancy among employers as they assess the economic climate ahead.

Though most economic data points remain positive, sentiment indicators have shown rising fears among both business executives and consumers that the Trump tariffs could raise prices and slow growth. In the extreme scenario, the combination could cause stagflation, a condition of flat or negative growth and rising prices.Hate to break it to the "America's Golden Era" suckers, but even if and when Trump buckles and pulls his punches on those Trump Tariffs Taxes on the American Consumer, the ongoing sense of uncertainty and worry that a chaotic, incompetent, hopelessly stupid, cognitively impaired, pathological Liar capable of and downright determined to pull any and every American economy-destroying stunt is at the helm will likely never be shaken over the next four years.

ShooBree

03-05-25, 18:22

If winning means that fewer people are dying, Americans are not going to have send boat loads of arms and money to Ukraine, and Europe is not going to be steal the $250 billion of Russian assets parked in European banks, then we are.

Boris Johnson punked the first set of cease fire talks, and Keir Stamer tried to do it a second time. The British scum do not care how many people die. They want and need that money. If the war went on, the European bankers could have went forward with some kind of war crime type crap and stolen that money using some USAID type dispensing system.

When Stamer said the UK was going to put boots on the ground, someone checked the UK military and learned that they have 25 working tanks. The French have like 125, and Russia has 2,000 or so. Do you think these countries would have had so few tanks if they really thought Russia was a threat? The war was always a racket.

The lucrative war on Covid took 3 years to end and now the same goes for Ukraine. I wonder what costly, pointless, and never winnable war is coming next. I nominate the war on fentanyl.I'm sorry but there's no Russian money in European banks.

The money belongs to Ukraine and that won't change no matter if the war ends or not.

Russia started this illegal war against Ukraine and they will Pay for it.

But good to know that you're a supporter of Putin's puppet in the White House, Putin and the other Russian war criminals.

You should be aware that Putin will be remembered in history as the Hitler of the 21th century, because What's going on now will very much be in the history books and the future school children will read about this.

There will be statues and streets named after Zelenskyj in every European capital. The school children will read about Zelenskyj in the history books and he will be remembered as a hero just like Winston Churchill.

For USA I do believe that there will be a lot of shame over how the American people could elect trump and how the (Republican) senators betrayed their own beliefs.

Elvis 2008

03-05-25, 21:13

The American Fuhrer's pettiness, could again cost hardworking taxpayers, as much as $1 billion, for GSA to rip out about 8,000 in electrical charging stations, at various gov't locations throughout the country.

Reversal of EV program could carry a hefty price tag
https://www.eenews.net/articles/trumps-reversal-of-ev-program-could-carry-a-hefty-price-tag/

Many of those 8,000 in electrical chargers, are actually generating revenue for the gov't, will be also be ripped out. So where the fuck is the DOGE, so called "efficiency" in that?

DOGE would save more money if it simply concentrated on your Fuhrer's "pettiness" and the billionaire private equity, robber barons, that continue to gut the country and drive it into to ruin.

PS: BTW, how very solar-panel "Reaganesque" of your American Fuhrer!What did I say Spidy the amazing Binary man? You take any fact and look to bash MAGA and Trump over the head, and this one you have not dug into more.

First off, even the Washington Post has called out what a shitty program the EV charging plan was. https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/75-Billion-Bipartisan-Investment-Nets-Only-7-EV-Charging-Stations.html.

When people gripe about paying taxes and the government being the absolute worst possible capital allocator, this is what they are talking about: $7. 5 billion in investments for electric vehicles has. In two years produced just 7 charging stations across four states.

Today, there's seven chargers with a total of just 38 parking spots. And, come on: when the Post is calling it out, you know the results have been horrible.

The USA Has nearly 10,000 fast charging stations, including over 2,000 reliable Tesla Superchargers, but non-Tesla chargers often suffer from poor performance.

End of link. I do not get how Dems can love EVs and hate Musk, but then making sense has never been a Democratic strong point.

Of course, maybe one reason you rip stuff out is because it does not work and / or needs to be repaired: EV chargers are so bad, the USA Government is spending $150 million to fix them. https://bgr.com/lifestyle/ev-chargers-are-so-bad-the-u-s-government-is-spending-150-million-to-fix-them/.

Or maybe another reason is the standard they use is out dated: Take Rivian, for example. While the company is building out its own charging network and plans to change over to Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector, starting with models built in 2025, the R1 T and R1's still come packed with the CCS charger and rely on third-party chargers to get around and there lies the problem.

Just recently, a Tesla Cybertruck was spotted giving some emergency charge to a Rivian R1's at a Tesla Supercharger station.

Now if you think that is the funniest political statement, Musk and Tesla coming to the rescue of some stranded Dem, you would be wrong. It gets better.

https://www.theautopian.com/u-s-energy-secretarys-staff-allegedly-blocked-an-ev-charger-with-a-gas-car-got-a-lesson-on-americas-ev-infrastructure-problems/

That's why I have no issues with calling shenanigans on something that happened during Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm's recent EV road trip. So Granholm wants to show how great EVs are and they decided to do a 9 hour drive from Charlotte to Memphis.

But between stops, Granholm's entourage at times had to grapple with the limitations of the present. Like when her caravan of EVs including a luxury Cadillac Lyriq, a hefty Ford F-150 and an affordable Bolt electric utility vehicle was planning to fast-charge in Grovetown, a suburb of Augusta, Georgia.

Her advance team realized there weren't going to be enough plugs to go around. One of the station's four chargers was broken, and others were occupied. So an Energy Department staffer tried parking a nonelectric vehicle by one of those working chargers to reserve a spot for the approaching secretary of energy.

In politics, the job of the "advance team" is to clear any such obstacles for the VIP in question. But I think we'd all agree this is a shitty move. In doing so, you are blocking some driver who needs to get electrons and if they're doing it at a fast charger, they have somewhere to be, vs. The folks who can slow-charge when they're shopping or seeing a movie or something. And that's exactly what happened, according to NPR.

In fact, a family that was boxed out on a sweltering day, with a baby in the vehicle was so upset they decided to get the authorities involved: They called the police.

The sheriff's office couldn't do anything. It's not illegal for a non-EV to claim a charging spot in Georgia. Energy Department staff scrambled to smooth over the situation, including sending other vehicles to slower chargers, until both the frustrated family and the secretary had room to charge.

End of link. Yeah, that is great convincing people to buy EVs, overheated babies! You cannot make this shit up! And wait, why did they have a gasoline car leading the way? Because it is more reliable?

Back to link, As pro-EV as I am, I don't think sugar-coating the situation is helping anything here; our charging situation sucks, period. My recent road trip from New York to Martha's Vineyard in a BMW iX worked out mainly because that car has a nearly 400-mile range; every fast charger we encountered, every single one, was either broken or running at partial speeds.

At least Granholm's being realistic about the challenges here. And as that story notes, they never got stranded, a risk that many early EV adopters had.

End of link. Never got stranded? That is what EV owners brag about? And the problem with EVs is Elon Musk and DOGE? It looks like Musk is the solution.

It seems like the government should get the hell out of the way and let Tesla and other auto makers solve this issue.

I am just kind of curious, Spidy the Amazing Binary man, you really do not have any real-world experience with EVs, do you?

Tiny 12

03-06-25, 02:53

I'm sorry but there's no Russian money in European banks.

The money belongs to Ukraine and that won't change no matter if the war ends or not.

Russia started this illegal war against Ukraine and they will Pay for it.

But good to know that you're a supporter of Putin's puppet in the White House, Putin and the other Russian war criminals.

You should be aware that Putin will be remembered in history as the Hitler of the 21th century, because What's going on now will very much be in the history books and the future school children will read about this.

There will be statues and streets named after Zelenskyj in every European capital. The school children will read about Zelenskyj in the history books and he will be remembered as a hero just like Winston Churchill.

For USA I do believe that there will be a lot of shame over how the American people could elect trump and how the (Republican) senators betrayed their own beliefs.It increasingly looks like Trump's going to get the parties to negotiate a ceasefire, instead of continuing with a senseless war. Maybe President Trump will receive the Nobel Peace Prize!

President Putin is serving as an intermediary for negotiations between the USA and Iran, that may also bring peace to the Middle East. Perhaps Trump and Putin will jointly receive a Nobel! And now that Trump's talked some sense into him, Zelenskyy too! Wouldn't that be the cat's meow!

Can't wait to hear what Xpartan thinks about this!

Tiny 12

03-06-25, 03:02

4. 'They Tariff Us, We Tariff Them'.

Trump also promoted one of his more controversial policiestariffs. The president said that reciprocal tariffs would kick in on April 2.

"Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them," Trump said. "Whatever they tax us, we tax them. That's reciprocal back and forth. If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. We will take in trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before. ".

"We've been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer," the president said..If that's what he were doing it would make sense Axel. But he's not.

If Trump's tariffs on the North American auto industry go into effect, S&P Global Mobility estimates North American auto production will decline 30%. And that doesn't include the effect of tariffs on steel and aluminum, which will make our auto manufacturers even less competitive.

The corporate tax cut and deregulation during Trump's last term were a great start towards Making American Manufacturing Competitive Again. He's going to wipe that out and make things worse than they were before he ever took office if he doesn't change course.

Here's a quote from his speech last night: "Tariffs are about making America rich again, and making America great again. ".

He's got that backwards. The rule of law, and comparative advantage (doing what what we do best in America) have played key roles in making America prosperous and competitive. Trump is doing his darnedest to flush that down the toilet.

Trump himself signed onto the USMCA trade agreement between the USA, Mexico and Canada, that went into effect on July 1, 2020. Companies made billions in investments in plants in the USA, Canada and Mexico, under the assumption that the parties to that agreement would honor it. Trump just tore it up, exhibiting the same shady ethics he did as a businessman. Rule of law is a common denominator for the most prosperous countries in the world. It's what makes people want to invest here. We don't want to blow that asunder.

The best jobs in the world have gravitated to the United States of America. We're leaders in many areas. Aerospace, tech, medical, etc. The unemployment rate is a measly 4. 1%. We do what we do best and are paid accordingly. If Mexico can provide low-skilled, lower paid labor for auto parts for example, then that helps both of us. Throwing away our competitive advantages and creating lots of new menial labor for Americans is a mistake.

The Canadians are pissed. And there's nothing worse than a pissed off Canadian. Some excerpts from a Bloomberg article today.

"Grocery stores are promoting homegrown produce to consumers as 85% of Canadians hunt for alternatives to US goods.

In Canadian grocery stores, US-grown produce is wilting on the shelves. Local executives are scouring wine lists over dinner to avoid ordering California pinot. And in Toronto, a 73-pound Great Pyrenees-Poodle mix named Izzy is no longer allowed to eat American dog food.

As US President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs, made 51st state jabs and referred to the country's prime minister as "Governor Trudeau," furious Canadian consumers have turned into vindictive shoppers: American-made products are out; everything else is in.

It's a significant shift for a country that purchases almost as much in US goods each year as the entire European Union a total of $349.4 billion in 2024, according to the US Department of Commerce. Canada has also been the largest source of foreign tourists to the US, according to the US Travel Association, with travelers spending $20.5 billion last year. Now, many are cancelling trips.

"It speaks to an awareness and an intention to vote with their wallets," said Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute. A survey of 3,310 Canadians by the Vancouver-based research firm last week found that 85% of people plan to replace US products with alternatives. Nearly half of respondents said they would change their travel plans to avoid the country.

Canadian airlines also have begun to scale back flights to the US in anticipation of falling demand.

"One thing we can do is not give our dollars to the United States right now," said Curtis Brown, principal at Winnipeg-based Probe Research, which found in a recent poll that more than six in 10 respondents are planning to avoid vacations to the US. Brown said his own daughter's school division recently cancelled field trips to the country.

"When I'm out in stores, every single person I meet, they want help and guidance on how to buy more Canadian products and we're really trying to do everything we can to help them," Per Bank added on a Feb. 20 earnings call.

At a competing Metro Inc. Grocery store in downtown Toronto last week, US-grown apples went largely untouched next to nearly empty racks offering Canadian options. Mexican bell peppers were nearly out of stock near an unloved pile of US counterparts, which had begun to soften and crack.

"Donald Trump has the ability to get people in other countries upset quite easily," said David Soberman, a strategic marketing professor at the University of Toronto, who expects a similar reaction from consumers in Europe and Asia. Companies with executives aligned with Trump, like Elon Musk's Tesla Inc. , could face a particularly sharp backlash.

Tesla sales plunged 45% last month across Europe as other EV makers saw a surge in demand. Chrystia Freeland, who's in the race to become Canada's next prime minister, has already floated the idea of applying a 100% tariff on the company's electric vehicles.

To stick to their principles, Canadians will have to make some sacrifices, not least on cost.

Citrus fruits will need to be flown in from South America rather than Florida. Some locally grown produce requires energy-intensive greenhouses through harsh Canadian winters. And the Angus Reid survey also found that 41% of respondents said they would stop using Amazon.com for e-commerce. Imported goods from Europe or Asia will have a much longer journey to get to the shops than products delivered by train or truck from the US.

Still, furious Canadians said it's worth the extra money. ".

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-threat-looms?

Tiny 12

03-06-25, 03:10

Trump has now dropped the USA Stock Market as any guage or measure for how he is doing as a so-called potus and how the economy is doing.

But still, and with a nod of appreciation to so many fine Fact-Checkers in the media and on the Internet, he had so many accomplishments from his 1st four year term to mention as substantiation for why we should all be excited about what he has in store for the next four years:

He incited an insurrection against the government.

Layed the groundwork for ushered in Trump's Pandemic.

Mismanaged a pandemic that killed over a million Americans.

Called neo-Nazis very fine people.

Separated children from their families.

Lost those children in the bureaucracy.

Tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church.

Tried to block all Muslims from entering the country.

Got impeached,

Got impeached again.

Had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history.

Pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden.

Fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia.

Bragged about firing the FBI director on TV.

Took Vladimir Putins word over the US intelligence community.

Diverted military funding to build his wall.

Caused the longest government shutdown in US history.

Called Black Lives Matter a symbol of hate.

Lied over 30,000 times.

Banned transgender people from serving in the military.

Ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions.

Vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers.

Refused to release his tax returns.

Increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion.

Had three of the highest annual trade deficits in USA History.

Called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers.

Coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist.

Refused to concede the 2020 election.

Hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House.

Walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl.

Suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID.

Abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey.

Pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans.

Incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic.

Withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords.

Withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal.

Withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block Chinas advances.

Insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter.

Pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op.

Failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies.

Called Haiti and African nations shithole countries.

Called the city of Baltimore the worst in the nation.

Claimed that he single handedly brought back the phrase Merry Christmas even though it hadn't gone anywhere.

Forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader.

Believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe.

Suggested the US should buy Greenland.

Colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices, after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges.

Repeatedly called the media enemies of the people.

Claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID wed have fewer cases.

Violated the emoluments clause.

Thought that Nambia was a country.

Told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public.

Called his exceedingly faithful vice president a p-why for following the Constitution.

Nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet.

Nominated a corrupt head of the EPA.

Nominated a corrupt head of HHS.

Nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department.

Nominated a corrupt head of the USDA.

Praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies.

Refused to allow the presidential transition to begin.

Insulted war hero John McCain even after his death.

Spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president.

Falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote.

Called the Muslim mayor of London a stone cold loser.

Falsely claimed that he turned down being Times Man of the Year.

Considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions.

Mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID.

Locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones.

Used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the China virus.

Hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser.

Pardoned several of his shady associates.

Gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressman who amplified his bat shit crazy conspiracy theories.

Got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia (Had a Secretary of State who called him a moron.

Forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history.

Botched the COVID vaccine rollout.

Tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him.

Charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties.

Constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate.

Claimed that COVID would magically disappear.

Called a USA Senator Pocahontas.

Used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivankas merchandise.

Opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling.

Got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers.

Claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US.

Ignored or didn't even take part in daily intelligence briefings.

Blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining.

Redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle.

Got played by Kim Jung Un and his love letters.

Threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution.

Botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them.

Pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to find him votes.

Thought that the Virgin islands had a President.

Drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane.

Allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing.

Rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos.

Pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID.

Rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers.

Held blatant campaign rallies at the White House.

Tried to take away millions of Americans health insurance because the law was named for a Black man.

Refused to attend his successors inauguration.

Nominated the worst Education Secretary in history.

Threatened judges who didn't do what he wanted.

Attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci,

Promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn't).

Allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues.

Struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble.

Called an African-American Congresswoman low IQ.

Threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders.

Went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic.

Claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were witch hunts.

Seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution.

Demanded total loyalty from the FBI director.

Praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles.

Completely gutted the Voice of America.

Placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service.

Claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower.

Suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country.

Suggested that COVID wasnt that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public.

Overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported.

Reduced the number of refugees the US accepts.

Insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames.

Gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address.

Named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old whod previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties.

Eliminated the White House office of pandemic response.

Used soldiers as campaign props.

Fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him.

Demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade.

Hired a shit ton of white nationalists.

Politicized the civil service.

Did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the USA Government.

Falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts.

Claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won.

Insulted reporters of color.

Insulted women reporters, insulted women reporters of color.

Suggested he was fine with Chinas oppression of the Uighurs.

Attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him.

Summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House, to pressure them to overturn the election.

Spent countless hours every day watching Fox News.

Refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas.

Hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer.

Tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him.

Acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney.

Attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault.

Held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present.

Didn't disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media.

Stopped holding press briefings for months at a time.

Ordered US companies to leave China even though he has no such power.

Led a political party that couldn't even be bothered to draft a policy platform.

Claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers.

Tried to pressure the you. K. To hold the British Open at his golf course.

Suggested that the government nuke hurricanes.

Suggested that wind turbines cause cancer.

Said that he had a special aptitude for science.

Fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure.

Blurted out classified information to Russian officials.

Tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida.

Fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban.

Hired Stephen Miller.

Openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them.

Interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel.

Abandoned Iraqi refugees whod helped the USA During the war.

Tried to get Russia back into the G7.

Held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden.

Seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive.

Lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated.

Falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they werent.

Shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies.

Still hasnt come up with a healthcare plan.

Still hasnt come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated Infrastructure Weeks.

Forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID.

Told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by.

Screwed up the Census wording.

Withdrew the USA From the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic.

Did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule: President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.

Allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act.

Seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.

Stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win.

Constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president, (which presumably includes four that were assassinated, and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump).

Claimed Andrew Jackson couldve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened.

Said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake.

Claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him.

Claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President.

Created a commission to whitewash American history.

Retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain.

Claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn't have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there.

Hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent "Bowling Green Massacre" as a reason to ban Muslims.

Had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others.

Bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties.

Apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House.

Stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians.

Falsely claimed Biden wanted to de-fund the police.

Said that the head of the CDC didn't know what he was talking about.

Tried to rescind protection from DREAMers.

Gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic.

Tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax.

Said USA Rates of COVID would be lower if you didn't count blue states.

Deported USA Veterans who served their country but were undocumented.

Claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln.

Touted a super-duper secret hydrosonic missile, which may or may not be a new hypersonic missile, or may not exist at all.

Retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile.

Forced through security clearances for his family.

Suggested that police officers should rough up suspects.

Suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs.

Tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender identification.

Suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher.

Nominated a climate change skeptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy.

Retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called Fuck tha Police at a campaign event.

Hugged a disturbingly large number of USA Flags.

Accused Democrats of treason for not applauding his State of the Union address.

Claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter.

Because they were spending too much time on Russia.

Mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

Obsessed over low-flow toilets.

Ordered the re-release of more COVID vaccines when there werent any to release.

Called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek).

Hijacked Washingtons July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech.

Took advice from the MyPillow guy.

Claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists.

Said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure.

Never seemed to heed the advice of his wifes Be Best campaign.

Falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent, though he, (himself), votes by mail.

Announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest.

Insulted the leader of Canada.

Insulted the leader of France.

Insulted the leader of Britain.

Insulted the leader of Germany.

Insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!

Falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues.

Blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually.

Continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders.

Said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their Sony televisions if the US were ever attacked.

Left a NATO summit early in a huff.

Stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that.

Called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary.

Refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise.

And a whole bunch of other things I can't remember at the moment.Yeah, Trump was close to the worst candidate Republicans could pick to run for president. Maybe George Santos would have been worse. But Democrats still couldn't beat him! Hillary should have, both because she won the popular vote by a decent margin and because she would have made a better president IMHO. (I didn't vote for her because the Libertarians were running the best presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan that year -- Gary Johnson.) In the mind of many Americans, including me, Harris and Biden were as bad a choice or worse than Trump.

Tiny 12

03-06-25, 03:18

Yeah, the difference between someone who votes Democrat and a Democratic douche is that a douche will support the party no matter how stupid it is. Biden is not demented? No, he is not. Kamala is a drunk? No, she is not.

So instead of falling into the Trump is crazy camp, it is important to see what he really wants when he acts crazy.

And so here it is: https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6369607232112.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick: I want Americans to stop being murdered by opioids and fentanyl.

Yeah, okay, now it is fine to call Trump crazy. This is like blaming the failures of prohibition on Canada and Mexico. Opioids are as easy to make as alcohol and when you ban all items, you make the more potent items in the class the norm. You ban beer and wine and you get more whiskey and vodka. You ban oxycontin and you get heroin and fentanyl.

Last I checked there were a dozen or so overdoses in Portugal. We need to do what they are doing rather than pointing fingers abroad. This was the rare total swing and a miss for Trump. The only good part is that he allegedly is backing off the tariffs.I agree.

One of the things I like about your posts is you're an independent thinker. We have our disagreements, like on the COVID vaccine and EihTooms. You have severe reservations about the vaccine, while I've gotten six shots. And you think Tooms is loony, while I believe he's intelligent, just sadly misguided and hyper-partisan.

But anyway you call it like you see it, with a good measure of common sense and without regard to what a good Republican or Democrat is supposed to think.

Xpartan

03-06-25, 03:23

LOL. So he could cure some horrible disease and no Dem would applaud him for it?

Since when has he ever tried to cure any disease rather than defunding the means to prevent the spread of deadly diseases, a 2019/2020 Trump accomplishment he is determined to repeat this very minute?

How about he and President Chainsaw Musk not defund and cut staff for the kind of toxic chemical regulation enforcement and juvenile cancer research that is likely to create more child brain cancer patients like that poor kid he exploited as one of his human "props"?

And now that he has designated him an honorary secret service cop, the kid and his parents better hope he isn't assigned to a January 6 Vote Certification event the next time a Repub loses a presidential. Election.

If Trump at least added Trillions more to the deficit and this time his Repub economic "stimulus" legislation didn't create one million fewer jobs with it than without it I am sure a Dem or two could conjure up a one-handed clap for him if he really craves it so much.

But everyone with at brain knows that is never going to happen.What boggles the mind is that Axel is not your typical MAGA cultist. When Elvis spews his own brand of nonsense, you know where it comes from -- Elvis is a conspiracy theorist, he's a guy MAGA IS MADE OF. But Axel is not like that. I've communicated with him, he's a worldly, intelligent person. How is it possible that people like that can't see Trump's incessant lies and empty boasts, his crazy rants and off-the-charts boorishness worthy of a drunken vagrant, his fantastical stories from his own alternative universe? And did I mention his pure LIES -- lies so patently obvious that even a 9-year-old could easily cut through them -- and yet, these grown-up fellas keep coming here to mindlessly and exuberantly defend the pure-evil incompetent scamster and his team of sycophants, no matter what they say and do.

One can dismiss his Day One promises: to end the war and lower the prices (very bold promises that ended in spectacular failures) as typical Trump's bravado, but why none of them is asking one simple question:

For what reason, the president who has the majority in both chambers of Congress is ruling with executive orders? He's signed at least 75 orders since taking the Oval office, "the most executive orders within a president's first 100 days over the past 80 years.".

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-many-executive-orders-has-trump-signed-during-his-second-term/ar-AA1zQer1

Seriously, MAGA, why?

Axel Heyst

03-06-25, 03:31

Tiny 12

03-06-25, 03:33

Okay...it seems I need to revisit my understanding of GILTI, but one last question for you.

So is it your assertion, that O&G companies have no intangible assets? Because if they do (which I think they do) have intangible assets (no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential), wouldn't they need GILTI to be calculated?

And that calc use some variation of the following, when I do a search?: GILTI = Net CFC Tested Income (10% x QBAI - Interest Expense)

That's it, I'm done! It seems YOU and GILTI, have done me in....well at least for now!

PS: My apologies to all the other ISGers, for taking up the forum bandwidth these last few days! I'll try to keep things to a minimum for the next little while.

Thx for your patience and understanding!I only have personal knowledge about how one multinational major did things. It held its patents and proprietary software in a USA entity, so wouldn't have paid the GILTI tax because there was no foreign income. It didn't share or sell the results of its research in upstream (exploration and production), because it viewed it as a competitive advantage. And it only received a very small percent of its income from licensing its refining patents. I bet other large USA Oil and gas E&P and integrated companies would operate similarly.

A lot of the "intangibles" are held by the service companies, like Schlumberger, who may hold their patents in places like Ireland for all I know. I don't think Schlumberger is the best example though, as I don't believe it's a USA Company.

The big players in tankers, FPSO vessels (floating production, storage and offloading vessels) and offshore seismic acquisition are mostly foreign. The seismic companies have a lot of intangible assets. Up until Republicans cut the federal corporate tax rate to 21% in 2017, American companies couldn't compete in these areas because of the tax advantages the foreigners had.

Axel Heyst

03-06-25, 03:38

Check out this video from last night's speech when Trump calls Warren 'Pocahontas' while announcing he received letter from Zelenskyy calling for peace. All the while Warren and the loony Dems applaud the idea of an unending war in the Ukraine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr9U-FCv9gY&t=22s

Tiny 12

03-06-25, 03:39

PS: And while your at it, ask ChatGPT, if natural gas is a "clean burning gas", I'd love to hear the answer.Your wish is my command!

Natural gas is considered a clean-burning fuel primarily because of its chemical composition and combustion characteristics compared to other fossil fuels like coal and oil. Here's why:

1. Lower Carbon Emissions.

Natural gas is mostly methane (CH&#8324, which has a high hydrogen-to-carbon ratio.

When burned, it produces less carbon dioxide (CO&#8322 per unit of energy compared to coal or oil.

On average, natural gas emits about 50-60% less CO₂ than coal and about 25-30% less than oil.

2. Minimal Particulate Matter (PM) and Air Pollutants.

Unlike coal and oil, natural gas combustion does not produce soot, ash, or significant particulate matter.

It emits very low levels of sulfur dioxide (SO&#8322, reducing acid rain formation.

It also produces less nitrogen oxides (NO&#8339 than other fossil fuels, leading to lower smog formation.

3. High Combustion Efficiency.

Natural gas burns almost completely, producing mainly CO₂ and water vapor (H₂O).

This high efficiency means less fuel is needed to generate the same amount of energy, further reducing emissions.

4. No Toxic Residues or Heavy Metals.

Unlike coal, which contains mercury, arsenic, and other toxic metals, natural gas combustion does not release hazardous heavy metals into the atmosphere.

Natural gas is considered a clean-burning fuel because it produces fewer greenhouse gases and air pollutants, burns efficiently, and leaves little to no residue.

Natural gas is often referred to as a bridge fuel because it provides a cleaner alternative to coal and oil while supporting the transition to a more renewable-based energy system.

SubCmdr

03-06-25, 05:06

It increasingly looks like Trump's going to get the parties to negotiate a ceasefire, instead of continuing with a senseless war. Maybe President Trump will receive the Nobel Peace Prize!

President Putin is serving as an intermediary for negotiations between the USA and Iran, that may also bring peace to the Middle East. Perhaps Trump and Putin will jointly receive a Nobel! And now that Trump's talked some sense into him, Zelenskyy too! Wouldn't that be the cat's meow!

Can't wait to hear what Xpartan thinks about this!Ferengi Rules of Acquisition #35: Peace is good for Business!

In other news, I am considering an electric scooter / motorcycle here in Pattaya, Thailand. Research online leads me to believe that some have removable battery packs that can be taken up to my room and charged overnight there. I can even have two so if I am rolling hard during the day I could use my room as hub and change out the battery pack during the day and keep rolling. For my in town movements that ranges are perfect. For longer rides I still need a ICE. But that's ok as I was planning to buy a scooter for errands and maxi scooter for longer trips. The crypto and stock market have been very, very, very good to me.

Sirioja

03-06-25, 06:42

Yeah, Trump was close to the worst candidate Republicans could pick to run for president. Maybe George Santos would have been worse. But Democrats still couldn't beat him! Hillary should have, both because she won the popular vote by a decent margin and because she would have made a better president IMHO. (I didn't vote for her because the Libertarians were running the best presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan that year -- Gary Johnson.) In the mind of many Americans, including me, Harris and Biden were as bad a choice or worse than Trump.Michele Obama could give a much better image than a senile schizophrene threatening blackmailing to rob poor Ukrainians with his friend, criminal dictator Putin, also threatening Greenland to rob also them. USA are just behaving like robbers now, when they can t compete with EU and cheap China for economics. But Hamas won t be afraid of a old senile bullshiting. The world have now to protect versus shameful USA under robber, crazy Trump.

Spidy

03-06-25, 10:08

I only have personal knowledge about how one multinational major did things. It held its patents and proprietary software in a USA entity, so wouldn't have paid the GILTI tax because there was no foreign income. It didn't share or sell the results of its research in upstream (exploration and production), because it viewed it as a competitive advantage. And it only received a very small percent of its income from licensing its refining patents. I bet other large USA Oil and gas E&P and integrated companies would operate similarly.

A lot of the "intangibles" are held by the service companies, like Schlumberger, who may hold their patents in places like Ireland for all I know. I don't think Schlumberger is the best example though, as I don't believe it's a USA Company.

The big players in tankers, FPSO vessels (floating production, storage and offloading vessels) and offshore seismic acquisition are mostly foreign. The seismic companies have a lot of intangible assets. Up until Republicans cut the federal corporate tax rate to 21% in 2017, American companies couldn't compete in these areas because of the tax advantages the foreigners had.Your explanation sounds reasonable enough to me, as I'm still trying to reconcile and wrap my head around, why or what made the reporter think CFCs or foreign O&G companies, were using foreign tax loopholes (ie. Maybe the use GILTI), to sidestep million in taxes and it seem to center around the income from their intangible assets.

Anyways, perhaps there's nothing to the report, perhaps there is. I guess when time permits, I'll take a second look. Same goes for the wind farm subsidies.

Spidy

03-06-25, 10:46

Your wish is my command!

Natural gas is considered a clean-burning fuel primarily because of its chemical composition and combustion characteristics compared to other fossil fuels like coal and oil. Here's why:

1. Lower Carbon Emissions.

Natural gas is mostly methane (CH&#8324, which has a high hydrogen-to-carbon ratio.

When burned, it produces less carbon dioxide (CO&#8322 per unit of energy compared to coal or oil.

On average, natural gas emits about 50-60% less CO₂ than coal and about 25-30% less than oil.

...
Really! Allow me to just stop you, at #1

So when ChatGPT tells you "On average, natural gas emits about 50-60% less CO2", you believe that, that is clean burning, when it still emitting 40-50% CO2....C'mon man are you kidding me!

A simple Google search using "Is natural gas a clean burning fuel?" and I get one of several articles, that all more or less tell me, "CLEANER but not CLEAN"

Cleaner but not clean - Why scientists say natural gas won't avert climate disaster
https://www.reuters.com/article/business/cleaner-but-not-clean-why-scientists-say-natural-gas-wont-avert-climate-disas-idUSKCN25E1DR/

Natural Gas Is Not A Clean Burning Renewable Fuel
https://theclimateguru.org/natural-gas-is-not-a-clean-burning-renewable-fuel/

Forgive me, but I doubt very much, that if you typed the following, into ChatGPT "Is natural gas a clean burning fuel?", it would just return the basic composition of the gas, its properties and relation to other fossil feuls and not come to the same conclusions as those articles I provided.

So with that in mind, when I have a hard time believing you or ChatGPT version of events, I will naturally ask for "the sources" (if you could be so kind), so I may determine the facts for myself, should the need arise.

You forget, I'm not MAGA and therefore don't take things blindly!

EihTooms

03-06-25, 10:56

What boggles the mind is that Axel is not your typical MAGA cultist. When Elvis spews his own brand of nonsense, you know where it comes from -- Elvis is a conspiracy theorist, he's a guy MAGA IS MADE OF. But Axel is not like that. I've communicated with him, he's a worldly, intelligent person. How is it possible that people like that can't see Trump's incessant lies and empty boasts, his crazy rants and off-the-charts boorishness worthy of a drunken vagrant, his fantastical stories from his own alternative universe? And did I mention his pure LIES -- lies so patently obvious that even a 9-year-old could easily cut through them -- and yet, these grown-up fellas keep coming here to mindlessly and exuberantly defend the pure-evil incompetent scamster and his team of sycophants, no matter what they say and do.

One can dismiss his Day One promises: to end the war and lower the prices (very bold promises that ended in spectacular failures) as typical Trump's bravado, but why none of them is asking one simple question:

For what reason, the president who has the majority in both chambers of Congress is ruling with executive orders? He's signed at least 75 orders since taking the Oval office, "the most executive orders within a president's first 100 days over the past 80 years.".

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-many-executive-orders-has-trump-signed-during-his-second-term/ar-AA1zQer1

Seriously, MAGA, why?Repubs have been demonizing and scape-goating Liberals and by extension Democrats since at least Nixon. It really swung into serious neurotic behavior under Reagan and by the time his VP became president their sick culture had decided "Liberal" was such a terrible label to put on someone that silly man would refer to Liberals as "The L word. " That is how terrible they hoped people would consider Liberal / Democrats to be.

The demonizing and scape-goating got to be as vicious and irrational as the anti-Jewish sentiment in 1930's Germany.

Oh, it is so easy to blame "Libs" for all the failures of your life and the ills of society. Chicago, San Francisco, New York and the rest had been hotbeds of crime, gangs and corruption since the day they were built, through Repub and Dem Mayorships and State Governorships. But it is always the fault of "Lib / Dems", don't ya' know. LOL.

Jews in 1930's Germany.

Of course, never mind that "Lib / Dem" policies and stewardship has so surpassed that of "Conservative-Repub"s for at least 100 years on economic Recoveries, expansions and damn near every job created over the past 50 years while Conservative-Repubs' only specialty appears to be driving us into one Great Depression, Great Recession and Massive Jobs Destruction after another in our and our parents' lifetimes.

So that creates a very inconvenient problem for Repubs; how to demonize and scape-goat the side whose economic results are far and away superior to their own? Particularly when you just had a several decades' long pattern of Conservative-Repub disaster vs Lib-Dem Success too blatantly obvious to ignore?

Enter the Repubs' sucker social issues. On steroids.

Now the most horrible thing to happen to America isn't another Great Repub Depression and Massive Jobs Destruction. Oh no. Hey, shit happens. Wild coincidence. Magical economic cycles. A Witch's Curse. No big deal.

It is now "wokeism", "pronouns", "child mutilation", defund the police", blah blah blah shit that almost no Conservative-Repub can define or point to ever happening as often as someone getting struck by lightning 3 times in a week during the Summer.

But the weak-minded demonizers and scape-goaters must believe in it to keep their deep "own the libs" psychosis alive and kicking. And for the Repub pols to win votes and ever get elected for anything.

Do you know there were Emergency Room staff reports of old MAGAs dying of Covid and with their last choking gasp they still refused to believe they had what their lord and savior assured them was a "Democrat Party Hoax"? That they had essentially chosen to die rather than get a vaccine or avoid crowds in closed rooms and thereby be mistaken for a "Democrat"? LOL.

That is how deeply psychotic the need for "owning the libs" is among MAGAs.

A. H. Is a social issue sucker. So is Tiny to a certain extent. So are many otherwise seemingly lucid and capable MAGAs.

They will vote in a way that directly elects or helps Trumps and Trumpists win elections even though it is blatantly obvious that those traitors' only mission is to destroy the USA Economy, wipe out millions of jobs, skyrocket the debt and deficit with nothing of value to show for it because they have been indoctrinated from an early age to demonize and scape-goat the very Party and philosophy whose policies and stewardship have ever actually ever Made America Great.

Con man Trump knew this from the very beginning. He knew where the suckers were and how to bamboozle them because their deep psychosis gave them no choice. And he knew very, very well it was not going to be among Lib-Dems.

Tiny 12

03-06-25, 11:57

Really! Allow me to just stop you, at #1

So when ChatGPT tells you "On average, natural gas emits about 50-60% less CO2", you believe that, that is clean burning, when it still emitting 40-50% CO2....C'mon man are you kidding me!

A simple Google search using "Is natural gas a clean burning fuel?" and I get one of several articles, that all more or less tell me, "CLEANER but not CLEAN"

Cleaner but not clean - Why scientists say natural gas won't avert climate disaster
https://www.reuters.com/article/business/cleaner-but-not-clean-why-scientists-say-natural-gas-wont-avert-climate-disas-idUSKCN25E1DR/

Natural Gas Is Not A Clean Burning Renewable Fuel
https://theclimateguru.org/natural-gas-is-not-a-clean-burning-renewable-fuel/

Forgive me, but I doubt very much, that if you typed the following, into ChatGPT "Is natural gas a clean burning fuel?", it would just return the basic composition of the gas, its properties and relation to other fossil feuls and not come to the same conclusions as those articles I provided.

So with that in mind, when I have a hard time believing you or ChatGPT version of events, I will naturally ask for "the sources" (if you could be so kind), so I may determine the facts for myself, should the need arise.

You forget, I'm not MAGA and therefore don't take things blindly!It's all in the way you ask the question. Try "Please make the argument that natural gas is a clean burning fuel. " If you were using Elon Musk's AI chatbox you might not have to beat around the bush, but the people who wrote ChatGPT are politically correct. ChatGPT will listen to reason though, just as you're starting to with GILTI. Argue with it long enough and often it will agree with you.

While you may not accept it, the fact is perfect is the enemy of good. And natural gas is a practical bridge to get to a future with cleaner air and reduced CO2 emissions.

As to sources, I already gave you the Wikipedia table showing emissions of particulate matter, SO2, and NOx compounds from natural gas, which are the primary contributors to dirty air. Your belief that CO2 and CH4, being colorless, odorless, nontoxic (unless you stick a mask on your face and connect it to a CO2 or CH4 cannister) gasses contribute to dirty air is subjective. You want references but I dont know what to give you. Maybe some chemistry and chemical engineering textbooks?

Spidy

03-06-25, 12:23

It's all in the way you ask the question. Try "Please make the argument that natural gas is a clean burning fuel. " If you were using Elon Musk's AI chatbox you might not have to beat around the bush, but the people who wrote ChatGPT are politically correct. ChatGPT will listen to reason though, just as you're starting to with GILTI. Argue with it long enough and often it will agree with you.

While you may not accept it, the fact is perfect is the enemy of good. And natural gas is a practical bridge to get to a future with cleaner air and reduced CO2 emissions.That's the biggest cop-out I've ever heard! You can do better than that!

BTW, if you have to tell ChatGPT to "make the argument", then you've lost the argument already.

However, that still doesn't alleviate you, from providing the sources (just as I've done) to backup the claims of ChatGPT. So what, you just let ChatGPT do all the thinking for you?

Since when does Tiny 12, shy away from providing source material to his arguments, especially if he's using ChatGPT, to do the research, for him?

Again, I would like to ponder those very sources, for myself!

PS: But look no further than S+W+B that perfectly emit zero 0% CO2 emissions!

Tiny 12

03-06-25, 12:53

That's the biggest cop-out I've ever heard! You can do better than that!

However, that still doesn't alleviate you, from providing the sources (just as I've done) to backup the claims of ChatGPT. So what, you just let ChatGPT do all the thinking for you?

Since when does Tiny 12, shy away from providing source material to his arguments, especially if he's using ChatGPT, to do the research, for him?

Again, I would like to ponder those very sources, for myself!

PS: But look no further than S+W+B that perfectly emit zero 0% CO2 emissions!Again, Go to the table in the Environmental Impacts section of the web page that shows emissions for hard coal, brown coal, and natural gas.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_power_station

And please learn to think and research independently. Like Elvis. I'm not able to educate you via a message board on combustion and chemistry.

Spidy

03-06-25, 13:22

Again, Go to the table in the Environmental Impacts section of the web page that shows emissions for hard coal, brown coal, and natural gas.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_power_station

And please learn to think and research independently. Like Elvis. I'm not able to educate you via a message board on combustion and chemistry.(...kkkk!) Just what I thought! What a cop-out!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas

Well it seems I'll leave you to those, who just love to provide ONLY their options! Because obviously ChatGPT is providing yours! Good Luck!

BTW, I think it was I, who educated you! Well...on what is "clean burning" and zero 0% CO2 emissions, at any rate! Class dismissed!

Elvis 2008

03-06-25, 15:59

When Elvis spews his own brand of nonsense, you know where it comes from -- Elvis is a conspiracy theorist, he's a guy MAGA IS MADE OF.Uh, wrong. I think on my own. When there is an issue that tries to turn us all into robots, and there is this attitude of you have to be crazy to go against the narrative, I look deeper. Look at all the bullshit that was being fed to us that was true. Biden is sharp as a tack. Kamala is no drunk. Putin is pure evil. Zelensky is an angel. The Covid vaccine is safe and effective. Anyone who thinks Covid came from a lab is into conspiracy theory.

On every issue, with time, the public came over to my side. The one pushing conspiracy theories were the douches reading off the same script and Xpartan, you just bought what the douches are saying.

78% of the American people versus 16% want a peace deal in Ukraine. The percent of people saying Russia is an enemy has gone from 64 to 34%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT63l0td9bA

And this is what always happens when the facts are on my side. It just takes a while for people to see him. Here is more drivel.

But good to know that you're a supporter of Putin's puppet in the White House, Putin and the other Russian war criminals.
You should be aware that Putin will be remembered in history as the Hitler of the 21th century, because What's going on now will very much be in the history books and the future school children will read about this.
There will be statues and streets named after Zelenskyj in every European capital. The school children will read about Zelenskyj in the history books and he will be remembered as a hero just like Winston Churchill.
For USA I do believe that there will be a lot of shame over how the American people could elect trump and how the (Republican) senators betrayed their own beliefs.One thing you can deduce from people is the mindless name calling. The fallacy of the Nazi analogy, also known as reductio ad Hitlerum, is a logical fallacy where an argument is invalidated by comparing it to Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party. Mike Godwin later introduced Godwin's law in 1990, which states that as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

So you have the Democratic douche fallacy. Trump is Hitler. Putin is Hilter. The Putin one is really stupid. Hilter took over almost the whole of Europe in 2 years. Putin has taken over 20% of one country in 3 years. Yet I do not expect any douche to back off.

Meanwhile, this is what Zelensky the angel is up to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjlJoLT1Df0.

The pattern with you and the douches is the same. You pound the narrative and once it is shown to be false, you pretend you did not say what you did. When peace comes to Ukraine, no one will admit to being pro war, you will pretend that you were not one of the biggest war hawks going but wanted peace all along.

That is why I call you the never mind Democrats. I should put a pin in this post and have us come back to it in 2 years.

ShooBree

03-06-25, 18:47

The Democrat party is in self-destruction mode. It is simply amazing to watch this mass group suicide. It is so bizarre. I mean ever since the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention the left has seen themselves as the "peace" party. They were against the Vietnam war (although Johnson started it), the Iraq war, and the killing of Soleimani. Biden as VP was even against the raid to kill bin Laden. And the left was so proud of President Biden's impersonation of Humphrey Bogart in the Caine Mutiny with his cowardly and frantic decision to retreat from Afghanistan.

But now for the sole reason that Trump is president the left suddenly wants war, a war between Russia and Ukraine to continue into the foreseeable future. It is just fucking amazing especially considering that President Trump is on the verge of getting a cease fire deal between Putin, the Ukraine and the USA to end this massacre..What trump is doing is not ceasefire, it's not peace, it's a complete capitulation!

What you're doing is to support Russia's war against Ukraine. If you wanted the war to be over you would defend Ukraine because Ukraine are literally trying to defend themselves and end the war!

What you're displaying is a complete lack of humanity and knowledge of history.

Hitler didn't stop just because the Europeans let him take over the Sudetenland and the wars didn't stop after the West let putin take Georgia in 2008!

Neither did the wars stop after putin invaded Crimea in 2014!

To believe that there will peace if Ukraine just capitulates to Russia is the definition of insanity!

To do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result is the definition of insanity!

What trump is doing has actual consequences for real people on the ground in Ukraine!

It's not some Hollywood movie or WWE!

Let us be honest about what trump actually has done and what consequences we have seen:

Trump took away Ukraine's weapons to defend themselves against the russian aggression.

Trump took away Ukraine's information of russian attacks.

And here's the real kicker; what does this mean for russia?

It opens up new doors for russia, they are becoming more aggressive and are attacking more Ukrainian cities because they know that Ukraine will have less weapons and intel to defend themselves.

Does this lead putin and russia closer to signing a ceasefire? Hell NO!

The Russians are in this now, they are going forward and they are not stopping! If anyone believes otherwise, why would you? Because the Russians said something? Haha, that's hilarious! The Russians are liars just like trump!

So thanks to your great leader more Ukrainians will die, the Russians will keep going and be stronger.

Trump is not a politician, he is a cult leader.

MarquisdeSade1

03-06-25, 20:53

Repubs have been demonizing and scape-goating Liberals and by extension Democrats since at least Nixon. It really swung into serious neurotic behavior under Reagan and by the time his VP became president their sick culture had decided "Liberal" was such a terrible label to put on someone that silly man would refer to Liberals as "The L word. " That is how terrible they hoped people would consider Liberal / Democrats to be.

The demonizing and scape-goating got to be as vicious and irrational as the anti-Jewish sentiment in 1930's Germany.

Oh, it is so easy to blame "Libs" for all the failures of your life and the ills of society. Chicago, San Francisco, New York and the rest had been hotbeds of crime, gangs and corruption since the day they were built, through Repub and Dem Mayorships and State Governorships. But it is always the fault of "Lib / Dems", don't ya' know. LOL.

Jews in 1930's Germany.

Of course, never mind that "Lib / Dem" policies and stewardship has so surpassed that of "Conservative-Repub"s for at least 100 years on economic Recoveries, expansions and damn near every job created over the past 50 years while Conservative-Repubs' only specialty appears to be driving us into one Great Depression, Great Recession and Massive Jobs Destruction after another in our and our parents' lifetimes.

So that creates a very inconvenient problem for Repubs; how to demonize and scape-goat the side whose economic results are far and away superior to their own? Particularly when you just had a several decades' long pattern of Conservative-Repub disaster vs Lib-Dem Success too blatantly obvious to ignore?

Enter the Repubs' sucker social issues. On steroids.

Now the most horrible thing to happen to America isn't another Great Repub Depression and Massive Jobs Destruction. Oh no. Hey, shit happens. Wild coincidence. Magical economic cycles. A Witch's Curse. No big deal.

It is now "wokeism", "pronouns", "child mutilation", defund the police", blah blah blah shit that almost no Conservative-Repub can define or point to ever happening as often as someone getting struck by lightning 3 times in a week during the Summer.

But the weak-minded demonizers and scape-goaters must believe in it to keep their deep "own the libs" psychosis alive and kicking. And for the Repub pols to win votes and ever get elected for anything.

Do you know there were Emergency Room staff reports of old MAGAs dying of Covid and with their last choking gasp they still refused to believe they had what their lord and savior assured them was a "Democrat Party Hoax"? That they had essentially chosen to die rather than get a vaccine or avoid crowds in closed rooms and thereby be mistaken for a "Democrat"? LOL.

That is how deeply psychotic the need for "owning the libs" is among MAGAs.

A. H. Is a social issue sucker. So is Tiny to a certain extent. So are many otherwise seemingly lucid and capable MAGAs.

They will vote in a way that directly elects or helps Trumps and Trumpists win elections even though it is blatantly obvious that those traitors' only mission is to destroy the USA Economy, wipe out millions of jobs, skyrocket the debt and deficit with nothing of value to show for it because they have been indoctrinated from an early age to demonize and scape-goat the very Party and philosophy whose policies and stewardship have ever actually ever Made America Great.

Con man Trump knew this from the very beginning. He knew where the suckers were and how to bamboozle them because their deep psychosis gave them no choice. And he knew very, very well it was not going to be among Lib-Dems.https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/03/06/walmart-tells-chinese-suppliers-absorb-cost-trumps-tariffs/

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/02/apple-will-spend-more-than-500-billion-usd-in-the-us-over-the-next-four-years/

https://nypost.com/2025/03/03/business/honda-moves-civic-production-plans-to-indiana-from-mexico-to-avoid-tariffs-report/

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/03/tsmc-to-announce-100-billion-investment-in-us-chip-plants.html

Sirioja

03-06-25, 21:15

Michele Obama could give a much better image than a senile schizophrene threatening blackmailing to rob poor Ukrainians with his friend, criminal dictator Putin, also threatening Greenland to rob also them. USA are just behaving like robbers now, when they can t compete with EU and cheap China for economics. But Hamas won t be afraid of a old senile bullshiting. The world have now to protect versus shameful USA under robber, crazy Trump.Shameful, not respectable Trump put shame and not trustable on USA. Our world have now to boycott USA, for same like Russia.

Elvis 2008

03-06-25, 22:53

One of the things I like about your posts is you're an independent thinker. We have our disagreements, like on the COVID vaccine and EihTooms. You have severe reservations about the vaccine, while I've gotten six shots. And you think Tooms is loony, while I believe he's intelligent, just sadly misguided and hyper-partisan.

But anyway you call it like you see it, with a good measure of common sense and without regard to what a good Republican or Democrat is supposed to think.I think Tooms is intelligent. He just lets his partisan feelings overcome any facts. He seeks out any fact that supports his emotional values and ignores all the others. Everyone does that to some degree. He just has ZERO ability to compensate. If you could not be critical of the Democratic party shit show before the 2024 election, you cannot hold any objective opinion. A bunch of Muslims are to blame for the outcome versus nominating a man with dementia and a drunk airhead after him? Come on, man! James Carville said Kamala was 9th string, but Tooms cannot say that.

As for Trump and the tariffs, he is backing off again, and I think he looks badly doing it. Some are speculating now Trump is trying to cause a recession. I do not. This is Trump at his shoot from the hip worst. He really needs to stop it. Among other things, he is going back on a deal he himself made. It is really bad.

Axel Heyst

03-07-25, 04:47

Na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JYRQMB-LF1s

EihTooms

03-07-25, 05:20

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/03/06/walmart-tells-chinese-suppliers-absorb-cost-trumps-tariffs/

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/02/apple-will-spend-more-than-500-billion-usd-in-the-us-over-the-next-four-years/

https://nypost.com/2025/03/03/business/honda-moves-civic-production-plans-to-indiana-from-mexico-to-avoid-tariffs-report/

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/03/tsmc-to-announce-100-billion-investment-in-us-chip-plants.htmlGot to love the way classic Know Nothing, Do Nothing Repubs like Trump rush ahead of what had already been happening under Dems to claim unearned and undeserved credit for it.

With the added spin under Trump being the enterprises in question know all they need to do to get him to stfu is to suggest it was his momentary influence that made their long range plans necessary and hand him a fake "win" by simply doing what they'd been doing or planning all along anyway. LOL.

Fact Check: No, Honda Isn't Opening a New Plant in Indiana Despite President Trump's Claim.

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cars/news-blog/fact-check-no-honda-isn-t-opening-a-new-plant-in-indiana-despite-president-trump-s-44512444

We've reached out to Honda to see if the company will confirm the reports about Civic production moving to Indiana. The company provided this statement: "Honda has made no such announcement and will not comment on this report. The Honda Civic has been made in our Indiana Auto Plant since the facility opened in 2008 based on our longstanding approach to build products close to the customer. We have the flexibility to produce products in each region based on customer needs and market conditions."

As for Trump's claim about a new Honda plant, the company said this: "We thank President Trump for recognizing our commitment to manufacturing vehicles in America, and we look forward to working with the administration and Congress on pro-growth policies that support a robust U.S. auto industry. While Honda did not announce plans for a new plant in the U.S. at this time, we have invested over $3 billion in advanced vehicle manufacturing in America in just the past three years, with a cumulative total of more than $24.7 billion. We look forward to continuing to invest locally and build quality products in America, as Honda has been doing for the past 45 years.Now, is this the Trump auto tariff plans he announced one day then buckled and reversed the very next day when the Stock Market reminded him what a tariff is and who pays them? Lololol.

No successful company with more than 2 employees makes or changes long range plans based on what some blithering, blathering, buckling and incoherent numbskull like Trump with less than 2 years of fake mojo left spews out of his pie-hole.

EihTooms

03-07-25, 05:48

As of this writing, President Chainsaw Musk and his Hitler Youth Hackers have verified exactly zero evidence of waste, fraud and abuse in their quest to fire thousands of veterans and defund Congressionally-approved programs that Americans want and / or need.

At most, even those veteran firings and defunding has "saved" less than $5 billion from the USA budget. Which, of course, will cost American tax-payers much more than that when Blue States need to rescue and recover Red States from the mess the Repubs in the WH have made. As usual.

And, no, there is no way Repubs are going to fire enough veterans and defund enough programs Americans rely on to offset the Trillions and Trillions they will add to the Trump deficits for President Chainsaw Musk's coveted additional tax cuts.

'An empty promise. Can't happen. Won't happen.'

https://youtu.be/o6wv-37xVO4?si=RGH1IAREqrt4-cuz

Axel Heyst

03-07-25, 05:48

ShooBree, Putin is a mass murderer and a psychopath. You won't get any argument about that from me. And your listing of his past invasions of his neighbors is totally accurate. But for the sake of some context, here are some other historical facts:

In 1956, the Soviet Union occupied Hungary. The Hungarians hated the occupation and oppression so they bravely rebelled. The result was the Red Army marched into Hungary and killed around 3,000 civilians, wounded 20,000, arrested 26,000 Hungarians, and sent them to the Siberian gulags. The USA and NATO did nothing. That was under Eisenhower.

In 1968, The Soviets did the same thing again in Czechoslovakia when the people there tried to rebel. Soviet forces, marched right in and killed 137 civilians and wounded more than 500 people. The USA and NATO did nothing. That was under Johnson.

And in 1950 the Chinese communists invaded Tibet and killed 1,200,000 Tibetans and it's estimated that 100,000 Tibetans were tortured to death in Chinese Communist concentration camps. The USA did nothing. That was under Truman.

So now it is Putin who is on the March. His goal is to restore the power and glory of the former Soviet Union and one thing is clear; Putin does not care how many Ukranians or Russians are killed in the process of obtaining his goal of total domination and control over the Ukraine and the former Soviet bloc. So, the question is how does the world ie the USA and NATO stop this slaughter. Trump has a plan. The idea is to get a cease fire in place so American rare mining companies, their technicians, and workers can move into the Ukraine and act as a kind of buffer against further aggression from Putin. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't. If you have a better plan I am sure we would all like to hear it.

What trump is doing is not ceasefire, it's not peace, it's a complete capitulation!

What you're doing is to support Russia's war against Ukraine. If you wanted the war to be over you would defend Ukraine because Ukraine are literally trying to defend themselves and end the war!

What you're displaying is a complete lack of humanity and knowledge of history.

Hitler didn't stop just because the Europeans let him take over the Sudetenland and the wars didn't stop after the West let putin take Georgia in 2008!

Neither did the wars stop after putin invaded Crimea in 2014!

To believe that there will peace if Ukraine just capitulates to Russia is the definition of insanity!

To do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result is the definition of insanity!

EihTooms

03-07-25, 08:24

Perhaps the greatest of all Repub sucker social issues the GOP exploits to con their Conservative-Repub voters to vote for them and demonstrably against the interests of themselves and the USA, is their unhealthy obsession with trannies.

Now it extends to their thoughts and fever-dreams of tranny mice:

Fact-checking Trump's anti-transgender comments in his address to Congress.
The president claimed the government has spent $8 million making mice transgender.
March 6, 2025

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/fact-checking-trumps-anti-transgender-comments-address-congress-rcna194969

President Donald Trump mentioned the transgender community half a dozen times throughout his address to Congress on Tuesday, though trans people make up an estimated 1% of the U.S. population.
..........
It's still unclear whether the player who spiked the ball and hit McNabb during the September 2022 match was transgender. McNabb has said in interviews that she and her teammates were aware of a trans player on the team, but that players name has not been shared and she has not spoken to the press. Since then, McNabb has become a paid national advocate for state laws prohibiting trans students from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identities. She testified in favor of such a measure in North Carolina, which passed and took effect in August 2023.
...........
Trump then said trans women are hurting other sports, referring to a case in which a trans woman finished a long-distance cycling race and set a record by five hours, beating a cisgender woman. Trump appears to be referring to Austin Killips, a trans woman cyclist who did win the 800-mile Arizona Trail Race in May.

Trump used the same reference before signing the executive order banning trans women and girls from playing in female sports. Killips responded in an op-ed for the Guardian, noting that she did set a course record, though the previous record was held by a man, who had broken a record set by a woman before him.

Killips said the reason she was interested in the event was because it was co-ed and argued that Trump had used her as a scapegoat.

However, Trump on Tuesday said her record which Killips said has since been broken is demeaning for women and its very bad for our country.

'Making mice transgender'

Trump brought up trans issues again about 20 minutes into his speech, in what many on social media have described as one of the most bizarre moments of the address. He said Elon Musk was helping to find wasteful government spending, including $8 million for making mice transgender.
..........
The White House released a statement about Trump's comment Wednesday that referenced most of the above studies and a few more, including one that examines the effects of gender-affirming testosterone therapy on breast cancer risk and treatment, and another that studies the role estrogen plays in how gender influences asthma. None of the studies the White House referenced were specifically focused on "making mice transgender," but rather on the health effects of hormones.
..........
Transgender youth

About an hour into his speech, Trump introduced January Littlejohn, a Florida mom who sued her childs school district for allegedly creating a plan to allow her child to use a different name and pronouns at school without Littlejohns knowledge, which Trump described as child abuse.

A judge dismissed Littlejohns lawsuit in 2022, after the school district amended the internal support plan for her child. The court also said her claim couldnt meet the high burden to show that what the school did had violated her parental rights. Littlejohn has appealed.Read more about the latter lie Trump told that night to see the parents were never kept on the dark about what was going on with the school and those dreaded "pronouns", the replacement for Great Repub Depressions, Great Repub Recessions and Massive Repub Jobs Destruction in the empty skulls of MAGAs as the worst condition the country could ever have to suffer and endure.

Spidy

03-07-25, 09:41

First off, even the Washington Post has called out what a shitty program the EV charging plan was. https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/75-Billion-Bipartisan-Investment-Nets-Only-7-EV-Charging-Stations.html

When people gripe about paying taxes and the government being the absolute worst possible capital allocator, this is what they are talking about: $7. 5 billion in investments for electric vehicles has. In two years produced just 7 charging stations across four states. All those articles are just MAGA and legacy automotive propaganda pieces. Only 7 chargers, but yet there's 8,000 electrical stations to rip out...have you done the the math?

Spidy

03-07-25, 09:51

I do not believe anyone should be mandated to buy an EV. Me neither!

Again, while I'm not aware of any place that has consumers "mandated to buy EVs", it did occur to me, countries that plan to stop the sales of new ICE vehicles, at some future date, will be prohibiting consumer new ICE purchases. But probably won't stop some, from buying new ICE vehicles, still being sold in neighboring countries, without a ban.

For example, Norway's ban starts in Oct, 2025, unlike the European Union's plan to ban them by 2035, joining several US states, Canada, Japan, Singapore, India, New Zealand, and a number of other nations with similar bans. To my surprise, Ethiopia (of all places) became, the first country in the world to ban new sales of ICE vehicles, in 2023.

It begins: Ethiopia set to become first country to ban internal combustion cars

"Ethiopia spent nearly $6 billion to import fossil fuels last year with more than half of that spending going to fuel vehicles. In response, Ethiopia's Transport and Logistics" Ministries have announced that automobiles cannot enter Ethiopia, unless they are electric. (!)" https://electrek.co/2024/02/02/it-begins-ethiopia-set-to-become-first-country-to-ban-internal-combustion-cars/
With Ethiopia's population at about 132 million, it will be interesting to watch, how they plan to rollout their transition, to electrical transportation. Hopefully they'll be taking advantage of their roughly 75% of sunshine days per year with solar energy.

Sirioja

03-07-25, 09:54

Putin feels very free at the moment for war, killing Ukrainians, under his friend Trump who is more interested to rob Ukraine and Greenland, when USA are just able for robbering now, not more. Really no MAGA, but only robbers. Europe should be a more trustable support for poor Ukraine. Have to live without very small crazy shameful USA now.

Sirioja

03-07-25, 10:06

Me neither!

Again, while I'm not aware of any place that has consumers "mandated to buy EVs", it did occur to me, countries that plan to stop the sales of new ICE vehicles, at some future date, will be prohibiting consumer new ICE purchases. Probably won't stop some, from buying a used or new ICE vehicle, still being sold in neighboring countries, without a ban.

For example, Norway's ban starts in Oct, 2025, unlike the European Union's plan to ban them by 2035, joining several US states, Canada, Japan, Singapore, India, New Zealand, and a number of other nations with similar bans). To my surprise, Ethiopia (of all places) became, the first country in the world to ban new sales of ICE vehicles, in 2023.

It begins: Ethiopia set to become first country to ban internal combustion cars

"Ethiopia spent nearly $6 billion to import fossil fuels last year with more than half of that spending going to fuel vehicles. In response, Ethiopias Transport and Logistics" Ministries have announced that automobiles cannot enter Ethiopia, unless they are electric. (!)" https://electrek.co/2024/02/02/it-begins-ethiopia-set-to-become-first-country-to-ban-internal-combustion-cars/

With Ethiopia's population at about 132 million, it will be interesting to watch, how they plan to rollout their transition, to electrical transportation.EU will change, now postponing thermic and many Europeans don t want but burn now Tesla from facist Musk who is a big liar / faker. Now main point will be military for Europe with UK, when we can t trust a crazy Trump, friend with criminal dictator Putin. If Trump fuck Ukraine for values or lands, then USA have to be banned like friend Russia. Such shame for USA with only criminal Putin and Netanhyaou for support.

Spidy

03-07-25, 13:15

When SNL wrote this President Elon Musk skit, and created the dept. of D.O.U.C.H.E., I couldn't help but think, it was somewhat of a nice ode to the king of the D-BAG and Double D-BAG word usage! (...kkkk!)

This one's for the king!
https://www.tiktok.com/@nbcsnl/video/7477313025016466730

Enjoy!

Sirioja

03-07-25, 14:07

Uh, wrong. I think on my own. When there is an issue that tries to turn us all into robots, and there is this attitude of you have to be crazy to go against the narrative, I look deeper. Look at all the bullshit that was being fed to us that was true. Biden is sharp as a tack. Kamala is no drunk. Putin is pure evil. Zelensky is an angel. The Covid vaccine is safe and effective. Anyone who thinks Covid came from a lab is into conspiracy theory.

On every issue, with time, the public came over to my side. The one pushing conspiracy theories were the douches reading off the same script and Xpartan, you just bought what the douches are saying.

78% of the American people versus 16% want a peace deal in Ukraine. The percent of people saying Russia is an enemy has gone from 64 to 34%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT63l0td9bA

And this is what always happens when the facts are on my side. It just takes a while for people to see him. Here is more drivel.

One thing you can deduce from people is the mindless name calling. The fallacy of the Nazi analogy, also known as reductio ad Hitlerum, is a logical fallacy where an argument is invalidated by comparing it to Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party. Mike Godwin later introduced Godwin's law in 1990, which states that as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

So you have the Democratic douche fallacy. Trump is Hitler. Putin is Hilter. The Putin one is really stupid. Hilter took over almost the whole of Europe in 2 years. Putin has taken over 20% of one country in 3 years. Yet I do not expect any douche to back off.

Meanwhile, this is what Zelensky the angel is up to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjlJoLT1Df0.

The pattern with you and the douches is the same. You pound the narrative and once it is shown to be false, you pretend you did not say what you did. When peace comes to Ukraine, no one will admit to being pro war, you will pretend that you were not one of the biggest war hawks going but wanted peace all along.

That is why I call you the never mind Democrats. I should put a pin in this post and have us come back to it in 2 years.Most Americans are so low level, kind of sheeps, when must be really no brained to elect a crazy like Trump who was already known, and now put real shame on USA which are now just able for robbering poor and weak in front of the whole world which can judge really no MAGA, but threatening blackmailing, kind of chickens robbers. I would feel really shameful if I was American. I m proud not to be, when Europe keep on supporting Ukraine and Greenland. Criminal dictator Putin showed the world his military is not powerful, not able to defeat Ukraine after 3 years, but now, he feels supported by Trump and keep on killing Ukrainians. Greenland don t want USA. Romania, Moldavia and Georgia also don t want Putin.

Elvis 2008

03-07-25, 14:11

All those articles are just MAGA and legacy automotive propaganda pieces. Only 7 chargers, but yet there's 8,000 electrical stations to rip out...have you done the the math?Oh brother! Yes, in the MAGA movement, there are people who scoff at EVs in large part due to the fact that they are associated with douches like yourself who want to jam them down everyone's throat. If you had bother to read, you would have seen the person writing the article about Jennifer Grisholm, Biden's DOE head, was an EV owner.

However, the part of the MAGA movement you do not get is to let things grow organically. No one is against an EV if it saves money. I talked to a big MAGA guy about EVs and he has a charger at his work, and I found out another guy has a Tesla and loves it, and he has chargers at home and work. Then there is another guy who has a fleet of seven EVs he uses for deliveries. His payload is not heavy. In fact, he delivers potato chips and he has a set route and knows exactly how far he has to go. His changing to EVs has greatly lowered his fuel costs.

And this is why Spidy you are not just a dumb douche but Spidy the Amazing Binary man. Because while EVs make tremendous sense when you know your route and the distance and can access your own charger, they make no fucking sense for long mile hauls which is what the stupid Biden administration was trying to do.

So no, there is not 2,000 Tesla chargers and 8,000 government ones. Private industry has bought some of their own, and people have put chargers in their own businesses and at home. There NEVER was a need for the government to put in chargers. And it is that action which infuriates MAGA people because it is wasteful and is shoving EVs down the throats of people when they make no sense.

If there was money to be made by putting electric chargers on the highway, private industry would put them in. It is not that hard to get now, is it?

It is pretty obvious you have ZERO hands on experiences with EVs.

Elvis 2008

03-07-25, 14:35

What trump is doing is not ceasefire, it's not peace, it's a complete capitulation!

What you're doing is to support Russia's war against Ukraine. If you wanted the war to be over you would defend Ukraine because Ukraine are literally trying to defend themselves and end the war!

What you're displaying is a complete lack of humanity and knowledge of history.

Hitler didn't stop just because the Europeans let him take over the Sudetenland and the wars didn't stop after the West let putin take Georgia in 2008!

Neither did the wars stop after putin invaded Crimea in 2014!

To believe that there will peace if Ukraine just capitulates to Russia is the definition of insanity!

To do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result is the definition of insanity!.Yes, thanks for the incorrect historical analogy that was brought to us by CNN and MSNBC and the Europeans trying to seize Russian assets. First off, the Nazis are on the Ukrainian side and were launched against native Russians in the Donbas. This was the famed Azov Batallion. By the way, Russia more than anyone was instrumental in defeating the Nazis. So calling Putin Hitler and the Russians nazis makes no sense.

With Crimea, the average Russian has 3 X the income of those in Ukraine. Given the people in Crimea were of Russian desent and Ukraine was killing native Russians and Russians were 3 x richer, it would not take much to get Crimea to say goodbye to Ukraine. If a set of Americans were living in Mexico and being persecuted by Mexicans, and the USA wanted to take over a Mexican province of mostly American people, it would not be a hard sell now would it?

And then there was this from a monger in Russia.

Most people in the west think Russians live a miserable life because of the war and are desperate for money, but it's just not the case. Yesterday I chatted with my erotic masseuse during our session and we somehow arrive on political topics and started to talk about Trump, Vance and other clowns. When asked about the possibility of ending of sanctions on Russia, she said: "Fuck 'them (the west). They think they could easily destroy our life, but they failed and want to beg us. We are now better off and can live well without them". Most girls I met recently share the same opinion. It seems indeed Russians become a lot more patriotic since the start of the war.

Not a Putin bootlicker but what they said is not totally wrong. They are not poor, at least not as poor as many westerners think. The hurt of sanctions can hardly be felt in daily life.When before the war, the Ukrainians and native Russians in Ukraine were stringing each other up and literally crucifying one another prior to 2022, you did not give a hoot. I do not think Russia even wants Ukraine. They just want it to not be a launching ground against Russia. They just want it neutral.

The Europeans want you to buy into the Putin evil schtick so they can steal the $250 billion, really $300 billion in Russian assets in their banks. If the Europeans really thought Russia was a threat, Trump would not have to be ragging on them so much to increase their defense spending.

And you have to be careful who you give your sympathies too. Besides having nazis and stringing up the native Russians in Ukraine, Ukraine is grabbing people off the street and making them go to war. They are NOT the good guys, and neither are the Russians. This is a fight between two bad guys which is a concept you Democratic douches do not seem to get.

However, if I had to choose to live in one country over the other, it would be Russia all day every day, and that is not even close.

Axel Heyst

03-07-25, 14:43

EihTooms

03-07-25, 15:18

Na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JYRQMB-LF1sDidn't you even notice how much younger Paul is in that clip compared to the last 9 years? He was talking about President Obama, not so-called president Trump.

EihTooms

03-07-25, 15:41

Most Americans are so low level, kind of sheeps, when must be really no brained to elect a crazy like Trump who was already known, and now put real shame on USA which are now just able for robbering poor and weak in front of the whole world which can judge really no MAGA, but threatening blackmailing, kind of chickens robbers. I would feel really shameful if I was American. I m proud not to be, when Europe keep on supporting Ukraine and Greenland. Criminal dictator Putin showed the world his military is not powerful, not able to defeat Ukraine after 3 years, but now, he feels supported by Trump and keep on killing Ukrainians. Greenland don t want USA. Romania, Moldavia and Georgia also don t want Putin."Most" Americans have never supported or voted for Donald Trump. "Most" of the American electorate has never voted for him. In fact, most of the American electorate voted for "NOT Trump" last November.

When I accurately point out that as little as less than a single percentage point shift from Trump to Harris in just 3 swing states would have produced a President Harris instead of a so-called president Trump, very, very likely made up entirely by a primarily one-issue demographic of angry Muslims who had been mobilized by their Muslim Community leaders in exactly those 3 States to deny anyone from the Biden Administration the presidency due to Netanyahu timing his cease-fire pause until AFTER the election, I am only referring the deciding factor regarding The Players On The Field, the voters who actually voted.

And that was about as razor-thin a margin of victory vs defeat for Trump as one can imagine; LESS than a one percentage point shift from a demo that wasn't even voting on the economy, immigration, the price of eggs, trannies or any of the other issues typically pro-Repub Mainstream Media wanted everyone to care about.

However, when you factor in The Players Not On The Field, that would include millions of 2020 Biden voters who just decided not to play / vote this time around. And very, very likely for the usual reason people don't bother to vote; they are fine with their financial, economic and job situation and have been bamboozled by classic pro-Repub pretend "Bothsider / Neithersiders" into the mistaken belief that it doesn't really matter who is president.

Well, I think and hope this time around the vast majority of the American electorate will learn a hard lesson that, how about that, I guess it really and truly does matter who is president after all. And quite a lot.

Elvis 2008

03-07-25, 18:49

Most Americans are so low level, kind of sheeps, when must be really no brained to elect a crazy like Trump who was already known, and now put real shame on USA which are now just able for robbering poor and weak in front of the whole world which can judge really no MAGA, but threatening blackmailing, kind of chickens robbers. I would feel really shameful if I was American. I m proud not to be, when Europe keep on supporting Ukraine and Greenland. Criminal dictator Putin showed the world his military is not powerful, not able to defeat Ukraine after 3 years, but now, he feels supported by Trump and keep on killing Ukrainians. Greenland don t want USA. Romania, Moldavia and Georgia also don t want Putin.And most Americans think France is so irrelevant we do not even know or care who your president is. What does that tell you? France and Europe are irrelevant to most Americans. Here you are calling most Americans dumb when we have saved your bacon twice and are still paying for your defense.

We have 2,000 tanks and so do the Russians. The French? A measly 175. The truth is you want to steal Russia's $300 billion in your banks and want us to protect your sorry asses if you do that. Nope, I am not for protecting a bunch of damned thieves. You or Ukraine steal that money and you all are on your own.

There was this monger on the ground in Russia who posted this:

Having realistic expectation is the first key to success. Russia is no longer in 90's when a super model would fuck you for a few bucks enough to buy a bread, but it still has many to offer.

IMHO, the level of women you can get with 200 usd in Russia is far better than those you can get in the west with this amount of money. Sometimes if you are lucky you can get real gems, which are rare in countries like US or Switzerland.

Most people in the west think Russians live a miserable life because of the war and are desperate for money, but it's just not the case. Yesterday I chatted with my erotic masseuse during our session and we somehow arrive on political topics and started to talk about Trump, Vance and other clowns. When asked about the possibility of ending of sanctions on Russia, she said: "Fuck 'them (the west). They think they could easily destroy our life, but they failed and want to beg us. We are now better off and can live well without them". Most girls I met recently share the same opinion. It seems indeed Russians become a lot more patriotic since the start of the war.

Not a Putin bootlicker but what they said is not totally wrong. They are not poor, at least not as poor as many westerners think. The hurt of sanctions can hardly be felt in daily life.It is not just Russia who does not need Europe. The USA does not either, and you are running around saying we are a bunch of sheep when you are ripping us off? Go soak your head!

Sirioja

03-07-25, 19:18

"Most" Americans have never supported or voted for Donald Trump. "Most" of the American electorate has never voted for him. In fact, most of the American electorate voted for "NOT Trump" last November.

When I accurately point out that as little as less than a single percentage point shift from Trump to Harris in just 3 swing states would have produced a President Harris instead of a so-called president Trump, very, very likely made up entirely by a primarily one-issue demographic of angry Muslims who had been mobilized by their Muslim Community leaders in exactly those 3 States to deny anyone from the Biden Administration the presidency due to Netanyahu timing his cease-fire pause until AFTER the election, I am only referring the deciding factor regarding The Players On The Field, the voters who actually voted.

And that was about as razor-thin a margin of victory vs defeat for Trump as one can imagine; LESS than a one percentage point shift from a demo that wasn't even voting on the economy, immigration, the price of eggs, trannies or any of the other issues typically pro-Repub Mainstream Media wanted everyone to care about.

However, when you factor in The Players Not On The Field, that would include millions of 2020 Biden voters who just decided not to play / vote this time around. And very, very likely for the usual reason people don't bother to vote; they are fine with their financial, economic and job situation and have been bamboozled by classic pro-Repub pretend "Bothsider / Neithersiders" into the mistaken belief that it doesn't really matter who is president.

Well, I think and hope this time around the vast majority of the American electorate will learn a hard lesson that, how about that, I guess it really and truly does matter who is president after all. And quite a lot.Unfortunately, Trump won all swinging states Biden won versus him. Result is a crazy who fucked USA constitution, capitol and police with deaths on 2021 , was elected by Americans, even latinos and black he hates, just crazy. Trump is a schizophrene and senile, not remembering what he told 5 minutes ago, example: Zelensky is a dictator, or people eating pets in USA, only able to threaten and blackmail, putting shame on USA. I wish he will make fall USA, when others have now to resist to USA behavior. Nobody can trust crazy shameful Trump.

EihTooms

03-07-25, 20:20

A social phenonium

Good morning, Xpartan. Your post put a smile on my face. This is not meant to be a dig, but I find it an interesting that otherwise intelligent, left leaning persons like yourself can't fathom how people like me can support Trump. Here is a tip, start with the idea that the larger a government becomes the less freedom its citizens will have. Then take a closer look at the social / cultural bubble that affluent liberals exist in, in places like the upper west side of Manhattan, Hollywood, and Boca Raton. KKK. Many, if not a majority of these "liberals" do not / will not socialize with people of their own economic bracket who do not go along with their group sync and thus are shocked when they discover that many of their most cherished beliefs are opposed by people as successful and affluent as themselves.

There is a funny scene in 3 season, episode 3 of White Lotus where three affluent, long time, but distant female friends (farangs) are having after dinner drinks at the 6 star hotel in southern Thailand when the conversation unexpectedly turns to politics and one of the friends reveals that she voted for Trump. The other 2 friends are polite about it, but they can't hide their surprise and disapproval. Later when the two girlfriends are alone, they agree with each other that their friend is out of her gordita and their dismay that their friend has betrayed women's rights. It's a funny and revealing scene.

Check it out although the jury is still out on whether season 3 is any good or not. Season 2 was must see TV, however. The story line in Season 2 revolved around 2 high end Sicilian hookers. It was very entertaining, and the ending of Season 2 was classic.The very definition of a Repub Social Issue Sucker.

Imagine someone so blinded by their indoctrination into that Sucker Social Issue mindset that he apparently hasn't even noticed that Trump surrounds himself with billionaires in his Cabinet, as the Real Acting President, in and around his life who, like him, have never and would never rub shoulders with his support base, refusing to touch those "dirty, disgusting people. ".

Not a word about the millions upon millions of Americans who lost their jobs thanks to his and his fellow Repubs' disastrous economic policies and stewardship.

Or the violent cop-attacking and killing mob of Insurrectionists he led into battle on American Soil in his War Against America.

Or Trump's record breaking Trillions added to the deficit. As is typical of many Repub potuses.

Or his increasing the size of the Federal Governmrnt by at least two hertofore unheard of "Cabinet" departments. Again, as Repub potuses' disastrous policies typically grow the size of government rather than shrink it.

No. It all comes down to some idiotic sucker social issue impression fed to him on some silly TV show.

Former Pence advisor says Trump referred to supporters as disgusting people.
Olivia Troye is backing Harris-Walz saying they will take us down a better path
Aug. 21, 2024

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-olivia-troye-disgusting-people-b2599762.html

Olivia Troye, a lifelong Republican and former advisor to ex-Vice President Mike Pence, said that she is speaking at the Democratic National Convention because she does not want Donald Trump to be president again claiming that he treated his supporters poorly.
..........
"I was in the room when Trump said I dont want to shake hands with those dirty people, those disgusting people, Troye said, referencing an alleged moment in 2020 when Trump said he was grateful the pandemic caused restrictions on handshakes.

Troye said Trump doesnt care about his supporters and has complete disregard.

"What really breaks my heart is just how much they rally around someone who just doesnt care about them, Troye told Jim Acosta.

Axel Heyst

03-07-25, 22:35

Didn't you even notice how much younger Paul is in that clip compared to the last 9 years? He was talking about President Obama, not so-called president Trump.I can't recall exactly how I came upon this video. I just remember vaguely fooling around on YouTube premium last night high on a joint and there it was. Mea culpa. I SHOULD of known better before I reposted it here.

Of course, I noticed Paul's "younger" look in the video, but I did not question the authenticity of the posting mainly because I wrongly attributed Paul's "younger" look to 2016 or 2017 and not 2010 or 2012 when the video was actually made. There were other tells on the video as well which should have raised more red flags plus I have seen McCartney publicly scorn Trump in the past. What can I say? I was bamboozled by the internet plain and simple AND I admit it! It was a stupid mistake. My only defense is that I did not post this BS on purpose or try to mislead anybody. Take a look at the attached pic from the video and the caption at the bottom which reads, "Paul McCartney on singing with Trump". Regardless, I fucked up and I feel embarrassed by being so easily corndogged (fucked in the ass) by the internet.

ShooBree

03-07-25, 23:07

Yes, thanks for the incorrect historical analogy that was brought to us by CNN and MSNBC and the Europeans trying to seize Russian assets. First off, the Nazis are on the Ukrainian side and were launched against native Russians in the Donbas. This was the famed Azov Batallion. By the way, Russia more than anyone was instrumental in defeating the Nazis. So calling Putin Hitler and the Russians nazis makes no sense.

With Crimea, the average Russian has 3 X the income of those in Ukraine. Given the people in Crimea were of Russian desent and Ukraine was killing native Russians and Russians were 3 x richer, it would not take much to get Crimea to say goodbye to Ukraine. If a set of Americans were living in Mexico and being persecuted by Mexicans, and the USA wanted to take over a Mexican province of mostly American people, it would not be a hard sell now would it?

And then there was this from a monger in Russia.

When before the war, the Ukrainians and native Russians in Ukraine were stringing each other up and literally crucifying one another prior to 2022, you did not give a hoot. I do not think Russia even wants Ukraine. They just want it to not be a launching ground against Russia. They just want it neutral.

The Europeans want you to buy into the Putin evil schtick so they can steal the $250 billion, really $300 billion in Russian assets in their banks. If the Europeans really thought Russia was a threat, Trump would not have to be ragging on them so much to increase their defense spending.

And you have to be careful who you give your sympathies too. Besides having nazis and stringing up the native Russians in Ukraine, Ukraine is grabbing people off the street and making them go to war. They are NOT the good guys, and neither are the Russians. This is a fight between two bad guys which is a concept you Democratic douches do not seem to get.

However, if I had to choose to live in one country over the other, it would be Russia all day every day, and that is not even close.It's impossible to not see the resemblance between Hitler's behavior and putin's behavior for the last 17 years.

I called putin out for it eleven years ago. The rhetoric, the lies, the wars.

It's a match. Its indistinguishable.

You really should go back and listen to it.

There are a lot of nazis in russia, I don't understand why you want to repeat putin's propaganda.

The whole attempt to accuse the Ukranians of being nazis is ridiculous considering the fact that President Zelensky is Jewish.

Zelensky received almost 75% of the votes in the presidential election! Is that the reason why trump hates him and Ukraine so much? Trump is simply jealous that he will never be as popular as Zelensky?

Anyways, it reminds me of how they used to lie that the Berlin Wall was an "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart" while in reality they shot anyone that tried to get over to the West.

The Russians are literally war criminals, the Russians started this war but the Ukrainians are "bad guys" because they defend their country.

Come on, in what universe am I supposed to believe that BS?

The Russians are forcing civilians (both in russia and occupied areas of Ukraine) to participate in their illegal invasion and you want to put the blame on Ukraine.

If the Russians returns back home to russia the war will end.

The Ukrainians are already at home, they wish! They pray! They truly do wish that they could end the war simply by going home!

Even Russian men are fleeing their country to avoid being forced to be a part of the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile Russian women flee abroad to work as prostitutes because putin butchered the russian economy.

Putin is an evil guy.

You have to understand how ludicrous this is.

Let me give you the European perspective: Russia's current neighbors never attacked russia!

No one in Russia is afraid of Ukraine, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia or Georgia!

It is laughable to even consider that russian propaganda.

The Russians are the original liars and propagandists, I wonder if they were the ones who taught Donald Trump how to lie?

Let me assure you this; there are a lot of people in these countries that are very afraid of Russia. And we see now in Ukraine why they are afraid of Russia.

That's why they joined NATO. The Baltics could never defend themselves against russia. Russia's neighbors do not ask for foreign troops to come to their countries because they think it's funny or because they want to become the target of Russia's nuclear weapons! They do it because they are afraid of an aggressive russia.

Russia has invaded, occupied and oppressed people all over Eastern and Central Europe.

Some things never change, and that's one of those things.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are small countries with small economic muscles. They depend on NATO. They depend on nuclear deterrence.

The support of USA made them safe. The support of USA made them able to transform their economies to what we see today. Healthy countries, still undoubtedly behind the US, but a far cry from the mess it was during the Soviet Union and when they first began taking their stumbling steps in freedom.

I remember when I was a young boy that my school sent Christmas presents to the Baltics. It was not much, much of it was simple hygiene articles but it also included a little box of candy.

This memory brings me a lot of shame as I remember telling my mother that we shouldn't bother to send any package.

In my stupid, spoiled and childish mind I couldn't fathom how they could possibly care or be thankful for schampo, pencils and a little box of candy.

I'm thankful today that my mother had so much better judgement and simply ignored my opinion.

We saw in Georgia 2008 how Russia treats it's neighbors.

We saw in Crimea and Donbas 2014 how Russia treats it's neighbors.

Today we see how russian soldiers are murdering innocent people all over Ukraine!

There's nothing to discuss, there is no doubt about what's going on.

Putin is a war criminal, russia must end the war, Ukraine deserves peace and Zelensky is a war hero!

But I have to admit that I'the also rather live in Russia as I wouldn't have to worry about getting murdered or invaded by my neighboring country.

EihTooms

03-08-25, 03:11

I can't recall exactly how I came upon this video. I just remember vaguely fooling around on YouTube premium last night high on a joint and there it was. Mea culpa. I SHOULD of known better before I reposted it here.

Of course, I noticed Paul's "younger" look in the video, but I did not question the authenticity of the posting mainly because I wrongly attributed Paul's "younger" look to 2016 or 2017 and not 2010 or 2012 when the video was actually made. There were other tells on the video as well which should have raised more red flags plus I have seen McCartney publicly scorn Trump in the past. What can I say? I was bamboozled by the internet plain and simple AND I admit it! It was a stupid mistake. My only defense is that I did not post this BS on purpose or try to mislead anybody. Take a look at the attached pic from the video and the caption at the bottom which reads, "Paul McCartney on singing with Trump". Regardless, I fucked up and I feel embarrassed by being so easily corndogged (fucked in the ass) by the internet.Actually, I am surprised the scammers didn't apply AI to make him look like he does today.

EihTooms

03-08-25, 03:39

It's impossible to not see the resemblance between Hitler's behavior and putin's behavior for the last 17 years.

I called putin out for it eleven years ago. The rhetoric, the lies, the wars.

It's a match. Its indistinguishable.

You really should go back and listen to it.

There are a lot of nazis in russia, I don't understand why you want to repeat putin's propaganda.

The whole attempt to accuse the Ukranians of being nazis is ridiculous considering the fact that President Zelensky is Jewish.

Zelensky received almost 75% of the votes in the presidential election! Is that the reason why trump hates him and Ukraine so much? Trump is simply jealous that he will never be as popular as Zelensky?

Anyways, it reminds me of how they used to lie that the Berlin Wall was an "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart" while in reality they shot anyone that tried to get over to the West.

The Russians are literally war criminals, the Russians started this war but the Ukrainians are "bad guys" because they defend their country.

Come on, in what universe am I supposed to believe that BS?

The Russians are forcing civilians (both in russia and occupied areas of Ukraine) to participate in their illegal invasion and you want to put the blame on Ukraine.

If the Russians returns back home to russia the war will end.

The Ukrainians are already at home, they wish! They pray! They truly do wish that they could end the war simply by going home!

Even Russian men are fleeing their country to avoid being forced to be a part of the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile Russian women flee abroad to work as prostitutes because putin butchered the russian economy.

Putin is an evil guy.

You have to understand how ludicrous this is.

Let me give you the European perspective: Russia's current neighbors never attacked russia!

No one in Russia is afraid of Ukraine, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia or Georgia!

It is laughable to even consider that russian propaganda.

The Russians are the original liars and propagandists, I wonder if they were the ones who taught Donald Trump how to lie?

Let me assure you this; there are a lot of people in these countries that are very afraid of Russia. And we see now in Ukraine why they are afraid of Russia.

That's why they joined NATO. The Baltics could never defend themselves against russia. Russia's neighbors do not ask for foreign troops to come to their countries because they think it's funny or because they want to become the target of Russia's nuclear weapons! They do it because they are afraid of an aggressive russia.

Russia has invaded, occupied and oppressed people all over Eastern and Central Europe.

Some things never change, and that's one of those things.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are small countries with small economic muscles. They depend on NATO. They depend on nuclear deterrence.

The support of USA made them safe. The support of USA made them able to transform their economies to what we see today. Healthy countries, still undoubtedly behind the US, but a far cry from the mess it was during the Soviet Union and when they first began taking their stumbling steps in freedom.

I remember when I was a young boy that my school sent Christmas presents to the Baltics. It was not much, much of it was simple hygiene articles but it also included a little box of candy.

This memory brings me a lot of shame as I remember telling my mother that we shouldn't bother to send any package.

In my stupid, spoiled and childish mind I couldn't fathom how they could possibly care or be thankful for schampo, pencils and a little box of candy.

I'm thankful today that my mother had so much better judgement and simply ignored my opinion.

We saw in Georgia 2008 how Russia treats it's neighbors.

We saw in Crimea and Donbas 2014 how Russia treats it's neighbors.

Today we see how russian soldiers are murdering innocent people all over Ukraine!

There's nothing to discuss, there is no doubt about what's going on.

Putin is a war criminal, russia must end the war, Ukraine deserves peace and Zelensky is a war hero!

But I have to admit that I'the also rather live in Russia as I wouldn't have to worry about getting murdered or invaded by my neighboring country.Either that or Trump is less capable of understanding the longterm and recent history of Russia in this regard than he is about telling the truth about anything of importance. Which means 100% incapable of it.

This is why his and his VP, Shady Pants, performance and treatment of Zelenskyy in the Oval Office revealed both of them and every other Trump lackey and supporter to be the laughing stock at best and mortal enemies of democracy and the Free World at worst:

Spidy

03-08-25, 03:59

Oh brother! Yes, in the MAGA movement, there are people who scoff at EVs in large part due to the fact that they are associated with douches like yourself who want to jam them down everyone's throat.

(...kkkk!) You're so blinded from you own fake QAnon\MAGA imbecilic nationalism, is it any wonder that, most cult QAnon\MAGA knuckleheads, need to first check with your American Fuhrer, before making a decision to fart, let alone make a decision on buying an EV, by yourself.

And before, you continue to tell more lies, please, please, please...post one time (just one time), where I've told anyone here, what to buy, or "jam them down everyone's throat" as you are idiotically suggesting. But rest assured, I will debunk dis-misinformation, I deem incorrect.

I've repeatedly, told you and others, on several occasions, "I don't freakin' care what you wanna drive or buy...", as it would be moronic (as you, Elvis 2008 have done) of anyone here, to think, that what they prefer to drive or buy, matters to the degree, it will sway/change what the overall market trends are showing.

Don't confuse or mistake my enthusiasm, for greener, cleaner, energy efficient, electrifying technologies and the trends towards the electrification of our industries (where possible) and of just about "EVERYTHING ELSE", as we decarbonize away from fossil fuels, as some silly battle cry of "...buy EVs, buy EVs, buy", because it's NOT!

It just so happens, I have an interest, with an especially keen eye on the electrification of transportation and the geo-eco-socio-policical trends and impact of electrification, as the world moves forward towards (or MAGA backwards from) greener solutions and a faster growing electrification of industries, around the world and what it all means.

But once again, leave it to MAGA pettiness and short-sightedness (which was how this exchange of posts began, with the American Fuhrer's pettiness), to think that the markets and global trends, care much, for their singular choices in vehicles.

Pure hubris at it's best!

Spidy

03-08-25, 04:19

EU will change, now postponing thermic and many Europeans don t want but burn now Tesla from facist Musk who is a big liar / faker. Yes the EU has allowed some relief on payments by those that haven't meet CO2 emission requirements, but have not yet moved, with regards to ending the ban on ICE vehicles for 2035.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2025/03/06/europe-eases-co2-rules-but-pressure-rises-to-end-2035-ev-monopoly/

No tears for Tesla here! It's too bad the company and car owners have to suffer!

But I love the creativity, where it has been reported, that many Tesla car owners, are for example, rebadging their vehicles with Audi, Honda...etc, badges to throw-off would be anti-Musk vandalism (...kkkk!)

Sirioja

03-08-25, 05:12

Yes the EU has allowed some relief on payments by those that haven't meet CO2 emission requirements, but have not yet moved, with regards to ending the ban on ICE vehicles for 2035.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2025/03/06/europe-eases-co2-rules-but-pressure-rises-to-end-2035-ev-monopoly/

No tears for Tesla here! It's too bad the company and car owners have to suffer!

But I love the creativity, where it has been reported, that many Tesla car owners, are for example, rebadging their vehicles with Audi, Honda...etc, badges to throw-off would be anti-Musk vandalism (...kkkk!)Already postponing over 2025 and now main target of Europe is military, not anymore EV which will fall in big market Europe, except Norway. Audi, Porsche, Stellantis already returned to thermic Europeans prefer than chinese EV and hating Musk Tesla now, examples: new A6 is thermic and Tesla sales divided by 2 on this year. I prefer so much to hear engine noise and oil smell and EV are not performing for me, I laugh at Teslas on German motorways, when they hear my engine. What is Musk will make fall Tesla and robber Trump start to give inflation to Americans who start to worry and should follow economics recession because of all crazy shameful Trump bullshits, playing only threatening blackmailing robber and putting shame on USA. Trump should make USA falling, with shame, no MAGA. Europe used to thank USA for the past, but can t trust not respectable Trump / Vance now. Zelensky did behave very respectfully with their lack of respect, but behaving just like robbers, not protecting anymore freedom, but preferring to lick Putin, to find new business, when losing versus Europe and China.

Axel Heyst

03-08-25, 05:20

The very definition of a Repub Social Issue Sucker. Honestly Mr. Tooms, I don't know what the hell you are talking about or why you quoted my post which was specifically addressed to something Xpartan had referred to me in his post. I tried reading what you wrote, and you seem very angry and upset about something. Could it be that deep down you know your side is losing the battle? It's only politics mate. You should roll with it like Governor Newsom. The Gov knows which way the wind is blowing, and he definitely wants to be the next president in 2026 although personally, I prefer Fetterman. KKK /555.

"Gavin Newsom breaks with Democrats on trans athletes in sports" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3A7fg23dz4&t=2s.

Sorry, I couldn't find Newsom's podcast so Charlie Kirk's (Maga Man) will have to do. Same interview. Check it out or go shag a lovely, young Thai girl whichever you prefer.

SubCmdr

03-08-25, 05:25

Sirioja

03-08-25, 06:19

And most Americans think France is so irrelevant we do not even know or care who your president is. What does that tell you? France and Europe are irrelevant to most Americans. Here you are calling most Americans dumb when we have saved your bacon twice and are still paying for your defense.

We have 2,000 tanks and so do the Russians. The French? A measly 175. The truth is you want to steal Russia's $300 billion in your banks and want us to protect your sorry asses if you do that. Nope, I am not for protecting a bunch of damned thieves. You or Ukraine steal that money and you all are on your own.

There was this monger on the ground in Russia who posted this:

It is not just Russia who does not need Europe. The USA does not either, and you are running around saying we are a bunch of sheep when you are ripping us off? Go soak your head!In our world where USA are only 5% citizens, my small France is number 1 for tourism, showing France aura all over the world, when most Americans don t even know out of borders. Yes, most Americans are low level and showed by electing twice a crazy who fucked their constitution, capitol and police, a real senile schizophrene non stop bullshiting who is not respectable, behaving like a robber. With who You elected and his behavior, USA are now not anymore respectable. Europe thanked USA for 80 years, but can t trust USA under Trump now. Europe have to live without USA now, when we have higher quality and I m sure USA will lose a lot when was 1000 billions business with Europe and 250 billions debt for USA. Trump prefer to business with Putin, when he knows he can t compete with Europe quality for economics, having only his taxes, when Europeans don t want USA shit products. The world change and USA don t play anymore values they had, like freedom which is one of our main value in France and Western Europe. EU have to get rid of Orban when Hungary are nothing for EU. Putin increase war under Trump. Trump will make fall USA, with already starting inflation, the fall of Tesla.

Newton York

03-08-25, 06:33

Xpartan

03-08-25, 06:43

Good morning, Xpartan. Your post put a smile on my face. This is not meant to be a dig, but I find it an interesting that otherwise intelligent, left leaning persons like yourself can't fathom how people like me can support Trump. Here is a tip, start with the idea that the larger a government becomes the less freedom its citizens will have. You're right Axel: I can't fathom how intelligent people can support this individual after everything we know about him. It's not left VS right to me -- it's your support for the man who's clearly the worst domestic enemy America has ever known. This is the man who's steadfastly and consistently destroying the foundation and functionality of the US government. Gutting Pentagon and security agencies while stuffing their leaderships with incompetent and unqualified sycophants -- who does it benefit? Supporting the aggressor and blaming the victim of aggression -- who does it benefit? Do you really, seriously, honestly think that Russia is our friend?

Russia, Russia, Russia, Putin, Putin, Putin. Everywhere, at every turn.

I don't blame people for their political views no matter how much I disagree. I blame them for their willful blindness and siding with the US enemies in order to satisfy one burning desire: "to own the libs".

Sirioja

03-08-25, 10:47

Criminal dictator Putin must be really happy to kill much more Ukrainians when feeling under USA support, led by a crazy shameful senile schizophrene. USA are really not anymore what they were, but now sucking swallowing a criminal prosecuted by international law.

SubCmdr

03-08-25, 12:17

I never realized racists were closet intellectuals. I've always thought of them as being rather low brow thinkers who were generally lazy because it easier to blame others for problems in their lives than to take responsibility for themselves.

For example, when there was a crack epidemic the response was to criminalize crack (not the base that white people liked. Cocaine). Now we have fentynal. POTUS will willing mess up the entire economy and disrupt world trade because white people cannot control themselves and are overdosing because they realize their place in there own country is on the decline.

Notice the difference in response. Now, some of you are going to say I am racist for saying this. Check your facts first. Who was most affected by the crack epidemic? Who is most affected by the fentanyl epidemic? They are both drug problems that have to be met at the sources, lack of opportunity in a relentlessly tough world. But two radically different responses because the different demographics in the United States of America.Now before the white hoodie wearers lose their fucking minds I am not saying POTUS is a racist. I am saying that MUSK is a racist. POTUS doesn't give a fuck execpt for himself. I got to give him his props. He has convinced people who have NOTHING in common with him that he has their interests at heart when he does not.

Why don't we take the advice of a former FLOTUS? Just say no to drugs/.

Axel Heyst

03-08-25, 13:32

I just ain't got no luck fellas. <snip> I am desperately trying to dca my way down, and I find myself catching a falling knife, cause NVDA just won't stop dropping. I've sunk half of my life savings into it. <snip> Why is the stock market crashing? Anybody want to explain this?Hey Newton, let me know when you sell your NVDA holdings. That will be the signal it is time to buy. Look mate, the market fluctuates. There was no real fundamental reason NVDA went as high as it did except for market enthusiasm. Everybody and their maid knew about the amazing rise of NVDA and the Magnificent 7, so it became over bought and a market correction was inevitable. As of Friday's close, it looks like it is trying to test its support level around the 102 to 107 level. Will it hold here or go further south is unknown. My advice to you is stay pat, turn off the TV or computer screen, and for fuck sake stop watching the price fluctuations. NVDA is either a good company and you will be ok or it is a total shit company and you better move back in with your parents. If you keep worrying about it, you will do something stupid.

Axel Heyst

03-08-25, 13:33

I forgot to add this:

Elvis 2008

03-08-25, 14:47

(...kkkk!) You're so blinded from you own fake QAnon\MAGA imbecilic nationalism, is it any wonder that, most cult QAnon\MAGA knuckleheads, need to first check with your American Fuhrer, before making a decision to fart, let alone make a decision on buying an EV, by yourself.

And before, you continue to tell more lies, please, please, please...post one time (just one time), where I've told anyone here, what to buy, or "jam them down everyone's throat" as you are idiotically suggesting. But rest assured, I will debunk dis-misinformation, I deem incorrect.

I've repeatedly, told you and others, on several occasions, "I don't freakin' care what you wanna drive or buy...", as it would be moronic (as you, Elvis 2008 have done) of anyone here, to think, that what they prefer to drive or buy, matters to the degree, it will sway/change what the overall market trends are showing.

Pure hubris at it's best!For someone who engages in a MAGA hip check with literally EVERY post, you do not get to separate yourself from dumb shit Democratic douche decisions like mandating EVs and the atrocious charger network. The law that put in those chargers was passed 100% by Democrats.

And now that Musk has supported by Trump, the Democratic douches are turning on EVs. You do not get to seperate yourself from dumb Demorcratic douche decisions when you are leading the EV parade.

Elvis 2008

03-08-25, 14:59

I just ain't got no luck fellas. No luck in life, in love, and definitely no luck in money. Here I am desperately trying to dca my way down, and I find myself catching a falling knife, cause NVDA just won't stop dropping. I've sunk half of my life savings into it. Granted, to many of you rich young people out there, my net worth is not much at all. I'm just a poor old guy. Everyday now I wish I was hit a bus or have a heart attack and finally die. What's the point of living when you don't have enough money to buy time with a pretty chick? I'm so ugly, I can't get laid any other way.

I tell ya folks, it's uncanny. Every time I buy a stock, literally within the hour it'll drop. And when I close out a position, sometimes to the minute it would fucking rocket. It's like life itself has a grudge on me. Like I did something wrong. Like I fucked life's wife or something and it's pissed at me. Death would be mercy at this point, that's why it won't let me die.

I hate my job.

Why is the stock market crashing? Anybody want to explain this?https://currentmarketvaluation.com/models/buffett-indicator.php

If you have not gotten out, you better now. It is not going up now. NVIDIA makes video cards for gaming. They just lucked into the fact that their chips are the best ones for AI for now. This was part of the whole AI is going to change the world nonsense. Sure, AI may change the world but no one knows who is going to benefit from it.

So the recent black swan event was deep seek from China. It showed with some software tweeks, you do not have to pay through the nose for high end chips. Is Deep seek now going to be the darling of Wall Street? I doubt it. What they did can easily be replicated.

If you have an independent streak, read about bonds and invest there. They are boring, but if investing is exciting, you are doing wrong. Like I showed in my link, the market is massively overpriced, and Trump is rolling back the free money Biden parade so we are going to see a crash. Once the market crashes, you should be able to find some bonds yielding 15 to 20% and it will be time to lock those in.

Sirioja

03-08-25, 15:35

Musk is Trump's fall guy. How an otherwise brilliant man does not realize that is beyond me. The seduction of power is great. The only reason I would want to be POTUS is AIR FORCE ONE!

And to get my dick sucked in the WhiteHouse. But the ***** has to swallow.Trump invited Zelensky and insulted Ukrainians, but didn t invite Putin because he didn't want the world see him sucking Putin in White House. If I was American, I would feel very shameful about my country behavior, chickens robbers. I m proud if French planes can now help Ukrainians and Europe still supporting Ukraine rather than robbering them.

SubCmdr

03-08-25, 15:47

If you have an independent streak, read about bonds and invest there. They are boring, but if investing is exciting, you are doing wrong. Like I showed in my link, the market is massively overpriced, and Trump is rolling back the free money Biden parade so we are going to see a crash. Once the market crashes, you should be able to find some bonds yielding 15 to 20% and it will be time to lock those in.The OP never tell the whole story. Familiarize yourself with the term: callable or redeemable bonds.

Callable or redeemable bonds are bonds that can be redeemed or paid off by the issuer prior to the bonds' maturity date. When an issuer calls its bonds, it pays investors the call price (usually the face value of the bonds) together with accrued interest to date and, at that point, stops making interest paymentsGuess what happens when interest rates been to drop again. Those bonds are called in and reissued into the capital market. Ending your juicy yield plans.

His narrative on NVDA is wrong also. But I'll take on his logical errors in another post.

SubCmdr

03-08-25, 16:13

A South Carolina man is executed by firing squad, the first US prisoner killed by this method in 15 years.

Wat da fuc?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/south-carolina-man-executed-firing-231942156.html

America, what a country!

Axel Heyst

03-08-25, 18:19

Guess what happens when interest rates been to drop again. Those bonds are called in and reissued into the capital market. Yep, I just had a beautiful 6. 5% investment grade Government Agency bond with a maturity date set in 2030 called on me. I knew before I bought the bond that it might be called if interest rates declined sufficiently to make it worthwhile to the issuer. That is why it was available to me at 6. 5% in the 1st place. The call feature was built into the offer price.

Here is a tip: never pay above face value (par) for a callable bond. In fact, I will only buy them at discount. I paid 95 and change that 6. 5% Agency bond I mentioned above and they paid me 100 on the call. I am satisfied. So now I might buy another bond, but the best investment grade bonds I have seen available in the current market is around 5% or less. I might buy NVDA instead as soon as I hear NewtonYork has sold his position. 555/ KKK. Just a small joke Newton. Don't sell and stop looking at the daily price fluctuations. 4 or 5 years from now you will thank me for this advice.

Axel Heyst

03-08-25, 19:24

A South Carolina man is executed by firing squad, the first US prisoner killed by this method in 15 years.

Wat da fuc?

America, what a country!What's the complaint SubCmdr? "Brad Sigmon, who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents with a baseball bat in 2001, was executed by firing squad early Friday evening a method used for the first time in 15 years in the USA. Sigmon, at the time of his trial admitted to killing the couple because his ex-girlfriend refused to get back to him. " The only problem I see with this execution was that it was inhumanely delayed for 24 years in the legal system. Brad deserved a just and swift punishment (execution) for the crime he committed. As to the form of the execution, I think it is preferable over most others forms and definitely more humane than the end he selected for his victims.

SubCmdr

03-08-25, 19:33

And now that Musk has supported by Trump, the Democratic douches are turning on EVs. You do not get to seperate yourself from dumb Demorcratic douche decisions when you are leading the EV parade.You don't get to have it both ways Elvis. The move away from EV's by a certain demographic is a market development. I don't believe in such actions. If the China Man makes better product than Uncle Sam then fuck made in the United States of America. Mother fucks running the corporations didn't give a fuck about the economic slaves on the government / corporate wage plantations. Threw there slaves out into the streets. It was called: Downsizing how cute?

No mother fucks you were firing people and ruining their economic lives like that racist Musk is doing chomping at the bit for power but running a illegal organization in plane site that is being allowed to commit crimes because the mother fucks people elected didn't realize the could not read the constitution nor did they have a pair (Not sure what the appropriate description is for a girl that is in office). Hooray to AOC for telling it like it is. Mother fucks willing to put people on the streets in order to get their tax cut. POTUS does not even fuck American. He wifed up an immigrant. (I hope I don't get banned for saying that out loud).

Keep you situational awareness about you and pack a go bag

Spidy

03-08-25, 20:14

... decisions like mandating EVs ...Really!

And what piece of U.S. gov't legislation/bill, would this be, mandating EVs? Please do enlighten us, ...oh "Carnac the Magnificent", with that QAnon/MAGA intellect?

PS: Still waiting on that post, where I'm said to have, "jam them down everyone's throat" to buy an EV? Hmmm....I guess you must be lying about that too?

Elvis 2008

03-09-25, 00:15

Really!

And what piece of U.S. gov't legislation/bill, would this be, mandating EVs? Please do enlighten us, ...oh "Carnac the Magnificent", with that QAnon/MAGA intellect?

PS: Still waiting on that post, where I'm said to have, "jam them down everyone's throat" to buy an EV? Hmmm....I guess you must be lying about that too?Are you fucking kidding me?

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/02/20/should-california-back-off-on-2026-zero-emission-car-mandates/

Starting next year, at least 35% of manufacturers' new passenger car and truck sales must be electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids or hydrogen-fuel cell vehicles, known as ZEVs (zero-emission vehicles) for short. The percentages step up each year until hitting 100% in 2035.

If you are going to be that fucking arrogant, here is an idea. Be right once in a while!

Tiny 12

03-09-25, 05:18

Ferengi Rules of Acquisition #35: Peace is good for Business!

In other news, I am considering an electric scooter / motorcycle here in Pattaya, Thailand. Research online leads me to believe that some have removable battery packs that can be taken up to my room and charged overnight there. I can even have two so if I am rolling hard during the day I could use my room as hub and change out the battery pack during the day and keep rolling. For my in town movements that ranges are perfect. For longer rides I still need a ICE. But that's ok as I was planning to buy a scooter for errands and maxi scooter for longer trips. The crypto and stock market have been very, very, very good to me."Peace is Good for Business," I agree. Ferengi's may be ugly, short mother fuckers, but they're damn smart! They're like the Swiss used to be.

That's a practical solution SubCmdr. I just bought an electric golf cart for my island vacation home, the one you've got an invitation to visit provided you bring Dominican wenches. It's a six seater. That means there's room for you, me and four wenches. It's a better choice than gasoline for what I'll be doing.

On the other hand I'd never dream of buying a BEV for Texas. I wouldn't have the patience to sit for a one hour recharge when on a road trip, if I could even find a charging station. Actually I think I'll try to sell a bumper sticker to my fellow Texans -- "You'll take my gun when you pry my cold, dead finger off the trigger, and my ICV when you lift my cold, dead leg off the accelerator. ".

I never realized racists were closet intellectuals. I've always thought of them as being rather low brow thinkers who were generally lazy because it easier to blame others for problems in their lives than to take responsibility for themselves.

For example, when there was a crack epidemic the response was to criminalize crack (not the base that white people liked. Cocaine). Now we have fentynal. POTUS will willing mess up the entire economy and disrupt world trade because white people cannot control themselves and are overdosing because they realize their place in there own country is on the decline.

Notice the difference in response. Now, some of you are going to say I am racist for saying this. Check your facts first. Who was most affected by the crack epidemic? Who is most affected by the fentanyl epidemic? They are both drug problems that have to be met at the sources, lack of opportunity in a relentlessly tough world. But two radically different responses because the different demographics in the United States of America.I've only known four crack addicts, and they were all white. They were all middle class or, as a result of the crack, poor. And I have one good friend who used to be a cocaine addict. He is relatively wealthy, and actually had a criminal defense attorney on retainer just in case he ran into problems. He never did though. The closest he came was when immigration in another country found cocaine residue on his laptop and gave him the third degree. He's now clean and watches his health and diet better than anyone I know.

Anyway, if you asked me who was most affected by the crack epidemic, based just on my experience I'd say poor and middle class white people. But since I've got maybe 15 white, Hispanic and Asian acquaintances and friends for every black acquaintance or friend, and since the blacks I know are on average higher caliber people than the whites and Hispanics, I don't have the experience to really judge. But from what I read, blacks were disproportionately affected by the severe penalties imposed on crack users and traffickers.

Yes, imposing extreme penalties for crack and letting the wealthy, "elite" cocaine (and fentanyl?) crowd off with a slap on the hand is extremely unfair.

Elvis has brought up the solution a couple of times -- the Portuguese system that decriminalizes drugs and provides treatment instead of jail. It worked well, until it was partially defunded. And still works better than what we've got.

The OP never tell the whole story. Familiarize yourself with the term: callable or redeemable bonds.

Guess what happens when interest rates been to drop again. Those bonds are called in and reissued into the capital market. Ending your juicy yield plans.

His narrative on NVDA is wrong also. But I'll take on his logical errors in another post.That's unlikely to happen for Elvis' example. The call price of a bond is set higher than the issue price. For example, say a bond was originally sold at 100 with a coupon rate of 8%. The call price, being the price at which the company has the right to repurchase the bond, might be 105. Now, say the price of the bond has fallen from 100 to 50, so that instead of 8%, it yields 16%. The company won't pay 105 to call the bond. It may try to buy bonds back on the open market at 50 though, if it can get the money to do so from the banks.

A South Carolina man is executed by firing squad, the first US prisoner killed by this method in 15 years.

Wat da fuc?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/south-carolina-man-executed-firing-231942156.html
America, what a country!Yeah, take a look at the map here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_by_country

Places colored red maintain the death penalty. We're in with a great bunch of countries, aren't we?

From what I'm reading, the guy apparently had the option of lethal injection. But the state of South Carolina wouldn't provide info to his lawyers to show it wouldn't botch the killing like it had several times before with lethal injection. And the deceased was a strong proponent of ending the death penalty, and thought this might be a way to show others how fucked up it is.