American Politics

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2750550]That's what that blue flag in the photo is, right? The Democrat flag.

I'm actually closer to the Democrat way of thinking on social issues. But I vote with my pocketbook. And believe, like the majority of Americans, that Republicans are better for the economy.[/QUOTE]Is this better? [URL]https://babylonbee.com/news/hurricane-ravaged-florida-town-raises-ukraine-flag-so-congress-will-send-aid[/URL].

In fact, when you google "Babylon Bee" it says "Fake News You Can Trust". But that still doesn't explain why you thought that the Babylon Bee satire was real, does it?

You believe that Republican's are better for the economy because you believe that [B]voodoo economics[/B] actually works? I hate to break it to you but voodoo economics has never worked for the lower and middle ends of the economic spectrum. Ever. Where voodoo economics has worked, however, is at the 5% and above level. If you are among the top 5% of the richest Americans, you [B]love[/B] voodoo economics because you get more money and are taxed less.

[QUOTE=Elvis2008;2750565]It was disingenuous math from oil companies prior to shale oil. When the world did not put money into drilling in the 80's and 90's, the Malthusians or peak oil nuts as I called them, declared that oil was running out. Instead of promoting better drilling techniques, AKA fracking, which happened any way, there was a thought process that we were running out of oil and had to do all we could to secure it. This was the REAL motivation for the second war against Iraq. George WB swallowed the peak oil nuts theory whole.

You may scoff arrogantly at GWB, and he deserves it. Just know that I have equal contempt for those parading around with the notion of global warming and climate change.

Much like the data that refutes the notion of climate change and global warming, any alternative to oil was dismissed with the wave of a hand. In this case, there was the notion that it required more energy to produce a barrel of ethanol than was in the barrel of ethanol itself. The oil companies, which get tax breaks themselves, tried to say ethanol production from corn was not a viable alternative to energy without government subsidies. The oil companies used math "to prove" their claim, and it was as flawed as the math climate scientists used to prove so many places would be under water today..[/QUOTE]Fracking made a huge difference in the oil and gas industry and the USA technology is far advanced in oil and gas production than the rest of the world. American oil companies are now drilling up to 24 wells on one pad leaving a very small footprint on landowners property. These wells are being drilled faster and cheaper than ever before. With this technology USA was and can be energy independent. There is enough oil and natural gas in USA and Canada for the next 300 years with being dependent on foreign oil. Trump was smart enough to see this. Biden reversed pretty much all of Trump ideas and blocked drilling on federal land, made drilling permits difficult to get and put stupid EPA regulations to slow down the process making oil companies lives difficult and forcing costs higher. Ultimately oil prices start rising. OPEC sees USA production down and the start raising prices. Biden tried to kill the USA producers but actually made them prosper as Biden caused prices to double. Yes Biden is incompetent. Yes he is probably the stupidest person in the USA except for VP Harris. Yes he has a diverse unqualified staff. But something has to change or Americans are in deep trouble.

[QUOTE=Elvis2008;2750547]TK, they are both true. Musk moved to Austin, TX because he asked his employees where they wanted a second Tesla plant, and they all said Austin..[/QUOTE]Yes, I hear Austin is an interesting place. Def an outlyer in Texas. It has thriving atheiest, humanist and LGBTQ+ communities.

But my point is that not many people form opinions based on the same criteria as Elon Musk.

[QUOTE=Canada;2750759]Fracking made a huge difference in the oil and gas industry and the USA technology is far advanced in oil and gas production than the rest of the world. American oil companies are now drilling up to 24 wells on one pad leaving a very small footprint on landowners property. These wells are being drilled faster and cheaper than ever before. With this technology USA was and can be energy independent. There is enough oil and natural gas in USA and Canada for the next 300 years with being dependent on foreign oil. Trump was smart enough to see this. Biden reversed pretty much all of Trump ideas and blocked drilling on federal land, made drilling permits difficult to get and put stupid EPA regulations to slow down the process making oil companies lives difficult and forcing costs higher. Ultimately oil prices start rising. OPEC sees USA production down and the start raising prices. Biden tried to kill the USA producers but actually made them prosper as Biden caused prices to double. Yes Biden is incompetent. Yes he is probably the stupidest person in the USA except for VP Harris. Yes he has a diverse unqualified staff. But something has to change or Americans are in deep trouble.[/QUOTE]Biden is killing the middle class and the poor. His decision and policies are destroying the Black communities. Now he is fighting with OPEC, who is next Canada?

He is completely incompetent, hopefully the Democratic's will wake up. One bad decision after another.

[QUOTE=JustTK;2750784]Yes, I hear Austin is an interesting place. Def an outlyer in Texas. It has thriving atheiest, humanist and LGBTQ+ communities.

But my point is that not many people form opinions based on the same criteria as Elon Musk.[/QUOTE]You would be surprised. They have a techie festival called South by Southwest that attracted a lot of the rich techies from California to Austin. That is likely how Musk's employees heard about Austin and why they visited it. The techies that have crashed in the Austin area now is staggering.

Yeah, you are right in that there are other things: low taxes, not dealing with the criminal homeless, lower cost of living, but there was one other huge one on the list, and that was how California handled Covid. People could not make a living in many of the blue states like California and moved to red ones like Texas.

A cousin in California told me the role of government should be to "take care of us". That type of thinking is offensive to Texans who do not trust government and who think when given a choice between what is best for the people and what is best for government that government will never choose us.

What bugs me about Democrats is the portrayal of Republicans and Texans as greedy and self-serving. The truth is that if you provide Texans with a good service and product, they will throw money at you in appreciation and in part that is because they have money to begin with.

And while I personally do not do it, I have never met more people in a place who tithe. Granted, the media is filled with stories about churches abusing their position and wasting their money, but honestly, Texans trust the churches far more than government when it comes to really helping the poor. I get why people are atheists, but even atheists should be applauding the churches when they help their fellow man.

[QUOTE=Canada;2750759]Fracking made a huge difference in the oil and gas industry and the USA technology is far advanced in oil and gas production than the rest of the world. American oil companies are now drilling up to 24 wells on one pad leaving a very small footprint on landowners property. These wells are being drilled faster and cheaper than ever before. With this technology USA was and can be energy independent. There is enough oil and natural gas in USA and Canada for the next 300 years with being dependent on foreign oil. Trump was smart enough to see this. Biden reversed pretty much all of Trump ideas and blocked drilling on federal land, made drilling permits difficult to get and put stupid EPA regulations to slow down the process making oil companies lives difficult and forcing costs higher. Ultimately oil prices start rising. OPEC sees USA production down and the start raising prices. Biden tried to kill the USA producers but actually made them prosper as Biden caused prices to double. Yes Biden is incompetent. Yes he is probably the stupidest person in the USA except for VP Harris. Yes he has a diverse unqualified staff. But something has to change or Americans are in deep trouble.[/QUOTE]Saudi Arabia is mocking Biden despite the begging and threats by Biden. Today they announced a price cut to Europe but are increasing the price to USA. Saudi is taunting a weak incompetent USA president. Biden stupidity continues as today his administration is trying to block all offshore drilling. OPEC is smiling and doing what they do best. Screwing America. The only people dumber than Biden and his administration are the people who voted for him and still support his stupidity and incompetence.

[QUOTE=Cali Guy;2750753]China will continue to use coal for the next several decades to ...

China does have it figured out. They are buying coal from all the countries that are going to renewable's. ...[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=CaliGuy;2750750]Fossil fuels, primarily coal, accounted for 67% of power generation sources in 2020 (Figure 7). Coal will remain an important fuel in China's electric power sector in the coming years; 46.1 GW of coal-fired projects were approved in 2020. Aug 8, 2022.[/QUOTE]To which articles/links are you referring to?

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2750586]Don't worry, boys, Nancy DeSantis is here to reduce the cost of gas for you!

[B]DeSantis Takes Credit For Biden's Gas Tax Credit[/B]

[URL]https://crooksandliars.com/2022/10/gov-desantis-takes-credit-president-bidens[/URL]

Seriously, this bit where Repubs take undeserved credit for what the Dems shouldered all the heavy lifting and assumed all the political risk to accomplish has been so commonplace throughout history there are Repubs, pro Repub Bothsiders in typically pro Repub Mainstream Media and elsewhere along with other ill informed numbskulls who actually believe Repubs are better at handling the USA economy than Dems despite the overwhelming evidence, data and record of results proving the opposite.

"People will just believe you. You just tell them and they believe you", as Donald Trump said about his favorite target suckers.[/QUOTE]For Republican governors, all economic success is local.

[URL]https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-08-20/for-republican-governors-all-economic-success-is-local[/URL]

What else is new. Gingrich and his Reps always attributed Clinton's economic success to Republican governors. Yeah, right.

[QUOTE=ScatManDoo;2750515][QUOTE=ChuchoLoco;2750322] ... Ethanol is another false savior. It takes more than a gallon of gas to make a gallon of pure ethanol and mileage is

much less than pure gas. So it really pollutes more and uses more fuel...[/QUOTE]I am very surprised to read this.

From what source did you get this?

I know just a little about the blending of Ethanol. Since I see the few stations that sell Ethanol, sell it at a slightly lower cost than regular gasoline, I was expecting that the opposite was true.[/QUOTE]While I think this maybe true, I would be interested in the source also.

Bare in mind this is maybe based on the 2005 Renewable Fuel Standard, when companies were encouraged to come up with [B]creative ways[/B] [I](as another BM wrote "disingenuous math from oil companies")[/I], to reduce gas emissions, expand renewable fuel sources, while reducing the reliance on foreign oil (at least according to the EPA website).

[QUOTE=Elvis 2008;2750565]It was disingenuous math from oil companies prior to shale oil. ...

The oil companies used math "to prove" their claim, and it was as flawed as the math climate scientists used to prove so many places would be under water today. ...

[/QUOTE]But you conveniently omitted the part where big oil and gas companies, had done studies decades ago, showing their products were driving climate change and then lied about it and denied the findings, just like big tobacco or big pharma with the fentanyl opioid crisis.

Let's just all continue to rape the public, for ever more greed and profit and deny all the human rights, suffering and mayhem, our products cause.

[b]Big Oil CEOs deny lying to the public about climate change:[/b]
[URL]https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/big-oil-ceos-deny-lying-public-climate-change-rcna4033[/URL]

[b]Big oil and gas kept a dirty secret for decades. Now they may pay the price[/b]
[URL]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/30/climate-crimes-oil-and-gas-environment[/URL]

[b]Crime of the Century: How Big Pharma Fueled the Opioid Crisis That Killed 500,000 and Counting[/b]
[URL]https://www.democracynow.org/2021/7/19/opioid_crisis_documentary_alex_gibney[/URL]

[QUOTE=Elvis 2008;2750565] Fracking led to huge natural gas finds and incredibly cheap electricity production in the USA and with it, the electric car that is supposed to save the day. The reason the electric car is so stupid is the storage. [b]Natural gas is a great store of energyand can be used to power a car[/b] and very cleanly at that. Why you need to turn natural gas into electricity and use highly toxic batteries is beyond me. ... [/QUOTE]Fair points, w/r to nat. gas currently being cheaper, but clean renewables are closing that gap, fast. Also, maybe "currently cheaper", but definitely not cleaner.

1. Are you saying US auto manufacturers should be making nat. gas cars powered cars? (There is definitely a case to be made: [URL] https://www.kbb.com/car-news/what-ever-happened-to-natural-gas-powered-cars/ [/URL])

2. BTW, just curious, where did you get the info on "toxic batteries"?

While I don't share your opinions on EVs, as I think EVs are better the option than ICE vehicles, going forward, your post makes me think about hydrogen cars and if the same [b]"flawed math"[/b] is being used in the generation of hydrogen fuel, related to the amount of electricity needed to generate said fuel? Couple that with consumers just aren't buying their cars.

Having said that, if they do happen to get the science (or "flawed math") to work, I can see it being a more viable fuel source for larger industrial type vehicles or machinery. But also keep in mind battery tech is evolving at a pretty good clip.

[QUOTE=Spidy;2750845]To which articles/links are you referring to?[/QUOTE]See'Mon., man. The Moron Brigade [B]never[/B] or almost never posts sources. And when they do, the source is some rightwingnut source like FUX Snooze or Breitbart or something like that.

But you can be virtually certain that when [B]you[/B] post a source that they will deride the source as "fake news". Because that's all they know how to do since their cornbread ain't quite done in the middle.

[QUOTE=Canada;2750759]Fracking made a huge difference in the oil and gas industry and the USA technology is far advanced in oil and gas production than the rest of the world. American oil companies are now drilling up to 24 wells on one pad leaving a very small footprint on landowners property. These wells are being drilled faster and cheaper than ever before. With this technology USA was and can be energy independent. There is enough oil and natural gas in USA and Canada for the next 300 years with being dependent on foreign oil. Trump was smart enough to see this. Biden reversed pretty much all of Trump ideas and blocked drilling on federal land, made drilling permits difficult to get and put stupid EPA regulations to slow down the process making oil companies lives difficult and forcing costs higher. Ultimately oil prices start rising. OPEC sees USA production down and the start raising prices. Biden tried to kill the USA producers but actually made them prosper as Biden caused prices to double. Yes Biden is incompetent. Yes he is probably the stupidest person in the USA except for VP Harris. Yes he has a diverse unqualified staff. But something has to change or Americans are in deep trouble.[/QUOTE]Actually, the dumbest people in the US are the ones who voted for Donnie the Dumbass.

Nobody seems to be counting on a significant Red Wave anymore, much less a Red Tsunami, this time around. If anything, the writer's conclusions are showing a below average gain in this midterm for the non White House Party.

I should mention that Joe Biden's Job Approval and Favorability Ratings on the demonstrably Repub-leaning RealClearPolitics site have both just seen an uptick from when this article was written:

[B]Three Views on the Election.
A collection of competitive Senate races will make for interesting viewing on the night of November 8. Three leading pollsters provide keys.
October 5, 2022[/B]

[URL]https://amgreatness.com/2022/10/05/three-views-on-the-election/[/URL]

[QUOTE=PVMonger;2750932]Actually, the dumbest people in the US are the ones who voted for Donnie the Dumbass.[/QUOTE]The last 2 years prove your statement is a lie. Biden by far the worst president ever. The dumbest president ever. The most incompetent president ever. These are facts. All Americans have witnessed this. Only people in other countries watching fake CNN news have not seen it. But 300,000,000 Americans have witnessed the dumbest, most incompetent and worst president in history. No one can deny this. And yes the people who voted for him were conned. The people who still support him have proven beyond doubt that they are the dumbest people on the USA because they have witnessed his stupidity and they are to dumb to know it.

[QUOTE=Spidy;2750845]To which articles/links are you referring to?[/QUOTE]Just Google it. Every article Google posts confirms China is dependent on coal and is continuing to add more coal fired power daily. No secret. It is easier for you to Google it than me posting 100 articles supporting this.