Ah, George, if only those enticed by the promise of the moon would see what's happening right in front of them. There are enough news sites containing the truth to blame the lack of awareness on the useless MSM. People talk, and the hurt is starting to take root.
I hope enough people wake up and defend our Voting rights, and free and fair elections, before they are damaged to the point of being irrelevant.
I hope people waking up to the reality of a cruel, inhumane, lawless regime take to the streets in huge numbers, and uphold the rule of law and the Constitution that is what allows us to live free, fair lives.
we can try our hardest to show the illogic, the mindlessness, and the outright stupidity of MAGA-QANON lines of "thinking," but their heels just dig in. These people actually relish calling us names like "Smart" and "Pointy-headed Liberals." The Thick Right has glorified ignorance, and they celebrate the absence of learning. The smarter we try to be, the worse it gets.
A few things I've learned (however everyone's mileage may vary!) ... while I don't simply want to be "the left talking to myself" -I've found that we help each other when we are vocal, it helps those who may not have spoken out yet find their voice. I've had a few communications with conservatives who abhor the corruption and the system being used to attack itself, appreciate the occasional humor in my musings, and it's opened the door to good conversations where we find places we agree. And the third -writing, public speaking, and my civ.works project keep me (arguably) close to sanity.
George, this one is over the top and really well executed. I am sharing.
But I think it may be unrealistic to think that many of the MAGA devotees will flip their thinking. Cults and Ponzi victims sometimes die denying reality.
But 89 million of us did not vote. The biggest chunk of Americans have said "I don't like politics, they're all the same, my vote doesn't matter, they're all crooks, leave me alone, I just want my private life, all they do is ask for money, nothing they do affects me...."
Until it does. As you described so well. The ripple effect of the horrors of this maladministration will be huge and lasting. And that's just a small slice of the slaughter ahead. 89 million who didn't want to get involved will be involuntarily involved. I bet we'll pick up a big chunk of them and a small hunk of the 77 million who voted for hate and found it directed at them.
So our 75 plus maybe 5 of MAGA plus 20 million of the couch sitters puts us at or over 100 million.
Of course, 2028 is a long way off. But if these effects affect the midterms, at least we could regain the House and get the impeachment hearings under way.
The pendulum swings both ways. But the damage along its path is just...
Powerfully true Bill. Thank you. 2000, 2004, 2016, and especially 2024 have set us back for multiple generations, and we may never recover from the damage.
I do wish more would get more enlightened before they destroy too much more. The picture of the (former TVA?), power plant in Memphis makes me sad as I was, and am, a fan of the best of the TVA, and one former executive that started in 1968, building a coal plant in Puerto Rico, but steadily moved to greener ways of generating power. When I met him, he was doing a presentation on how PR should be allowed to replace the obsolete Grid in Puerto Rico, which is what failed, without any power plants having to shut down for any failure on their part, just the lack of a workable grid. He showed how a much better replacement would be (IIRC) 8 linked grids that could operate independently for much better resilience, and use Grid Scale Solar and Battery installations like the 51 or 52 AES-Solar had already (back then costing $11 Billion total, but dropping in price to become the cheapest way to get the most reliable power). Among the several conversations I had with him before or after presentations, I learned that his most admired mentors were in the TVA, dedicated to working towards locally owned and managed utilities as the best stewards or employing the most ethical and competent stewards (looking out for local interests as well as appropriate ways to transfer larger amounts of energy through their areas to and from other areas). He enlightened me on the advantage of being able to build the facilities within 6 months, and being able fill in the gap left when the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), was failing badly from the triple density of smaller boiler tubes that vibrated themselves to failure at a pace impossible to keep up with).
Normally, the peaking suppliers get 25 or 30 year contracts to be the first (and I assume 2nd or 3rd, etc, to fill in the gaps for peak loads). Since most base plants have to have 15% reserve capacity, they, along with other base or peaking plants, can load shift for routine or emergency maintenance. Then new providers like AES-Solar have to wait for increases in demand, or emergency needs to be able to sell their output onto the grid. In California they could also provide more energy to do things like Pump water to the higher reservoirs in Pumped Hydro systems. They even had to, at least one time I knew of, pay some Arizona gas peaker plants to accept their surplus power from San Diego Light and Power Solar/Battery plants.
I found my old reply to an ultra-conservative Australian Vietnam Veteran acquaintance who insisted solar would never be viable even in Australia (possibly one of the best places in the world for solar and batteries for small isolated areas that would never really need expensive grids (or Networks as they call them).
My reply to him:
"...Gee, How did Robert F Hemphill Jr co-founder of AES Solar get the 52 battery and solar installations up and running starting over 20 years ago? They seemed to be about 1/20th the cost of new pumped hydro, and far easier to install in locations where pumped hydro can't, near grid infrastructure and even over reservoirs to help reduce evaporation in the pumped hydro reservoirs. He got the long term peaking costs down to 8 cents per kWh before he retired 6 or 7 years ago (IIRC), with far faster response to improve stability and frequency control. two years ago, he told me the latest bids were below 2 cents per kWh.
I think your expert is seriously trying to mislead people. Australia has had incredible resistance to accepting solar as the wave of the future, especially if they use it to avoid trying to maintain the old Network/Grids instead of building more resilient smaller grids like Puerto Rico is doing..."
P.S. When I asked him specifically if they had any response time, stability, or control problems, he replied along the lines of, "Whew, did we ever, it took us a week after the first installation to get our system to slow enough to come on line without disturbing it too much!" Nothing else came close to getting on line as quickly and well synchronized.
Once again, George -- brilliant. I hope that many MAGAs will come to the same conclusion as your Diary writer. Some incurable deplorables will take it as the "Will of Gawd", no matter what happems to them.
Sadly this is fiction. Believing the cult will see the light is wishful thinking. Never happen, until it directly affects them.
Ah, George, if only those enticed by the promise of the moon would see what's happening right in front of them. There are enough news sites containing the truth to blame the lack of awareness on the useless MSM. People talk, and the hurt is starting to take root.
I hope enough people wake up and defend our Voting rights, and free and fair elections, before they are damaged to the point of being irrelevant.
I hope people waking up to the reality of a cruel, inhumane, lawless regime take to the streets in huge numbers, and uphold the rule of law and the Constitution that is what allows us to live free, fair lives.
we can try our hardest to show the illogic, the mindlessness, and the outright stupidity of MAGA-QANON lines of "thinking," but their heels just dig in. These people actually relish calling us names like "Smart" and "Pointy-headed Liberals." The Thick Right has glorified ignorance, and they celebrate the absence of learning. The smarter we try to be, the worse it gets.
Thanks Buddy.
A few things I've learned (however everyone's mileage may vary!) ... while I don't simply want to be "the left talking to myself" -I've found that we help each other when we are vocal, it helps those who may not have spoken out yet find their voice. I've had a few communications with conservatives who abhor the corruption and the system being used to attack itself, appreciate the occasional humor in my musings, and it's opened the door to good conversations where we find places we agree. And the third -writing, public speaking, and my civ.works project keep me (arguably) close to sanity.
George, this one is over the top and really well executed. I am sharing.
But I think it may be unrealistic to think that many of the MAGA devotees will flip their thinking. Cults and Ponzi victims sometimes die denying reality.
But 89 million of us did not vote. The biggest chunk of Americans have said "I don't like politics, they're all the same, my vote doesn't matter, they're all crooks, leave me alone, I just want my private life, all they do is ask for money, nothing they do affects me...."
Until it does. As you described so well. The ripple effect of the horrors of this maladministration will be huge and lasting. And that's just a small slice of the slaughter ahead. 89 million who didn't want to get involved will be involuntarily involved. I bet we'll pick up a big chunk of them and a small hunk of the 77 million who voted for hate and found it directed at them.
So our 75 plus maybe 5 of MAGA plus 20 million of the couch sitters puts us at or over 100 million.
Of course, 2028 is a long way off. But if these effects affect the midterms, at least we could regain the House and get the impeachment hearings under way.
The pendulum swings both ways. But the damage along its path is just...
Powerfully true Bill. Thank you. 2000, 2004, 2016, and especially 2024 have set us back for multiple generations, and we may never recover from the damage.
It has been a busy month with all that winning. Even King Charles and Mark Carney are excited about it.
Trump is truly the great unifier, now almost evryone hates us.
Great piece George. I needed some laughs. Thanks.
I do wish more would get more enlightened before they destroy too much more. The picture of the (former TVA?), power plant in Memphis makes me sad as I was, and am, a fan of the best of the TVA, and one former executive that started in 1968, building a coal plant in Puerto Rico, but steadily moved to greener ways of generating power. When I met him, he was doing a presentation on how PR should be allowed to replace the obsolete Grid in Puerto Rico, which is what failed, without any power plants having to shut down for any failure on their part, just the lack of a workable grid. He showed how a much better replacement would be (IIRC) 8 linked grids that could operate independently for much better resilience, and use Grid Scale Solar and Battery installations like the 51 or 52 AES-Solar had already (back then costing $11 Billion total, but dropping in price to become the cheapest way to get the most reliable power). Among the several conversations I had with him before or after presentations, I learned that his most admired mentors were in the TVA, dedicated to working towards locally owned and managed utilities as the best stewards or employing the most ethical and competent stewards (looking out for local interests as well as appropriate ways to transfer larger amounts of energy through their areas to and from other areas). He enlightened me on the advantage of being able to build the facilities within 6 months, and being able fill in the gap left when the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), was failing badly from the triple density of smaller boiler tubes that vibrated themselves to failure at a pace impossible to keep up with).
Normally, the peaking suppliers get 25 or 30 year contracts to be the first (and I assume 2nd or 3rd, etc, to fill in the gaps for peak loads). Since most base plants have to have 15% reserve capacity, they, along with other base or peaking plants, can load shift for routine or emergency maintenance. Then new providers like AES-Solar have to wait for increases in demand, or emergency needs to be able to sell their output onto the grid. In California they could also provide more energy to do things like Pump water to the higher reservoirs in Pumped Hydro systems. They even had to, at least one time I knew of, pay some Arizona gas peaker plants to accept their surplus power from San Diego Light and Power Solar/Battery plants.
I found my old reply to an ultra-conservative Australian Vietnam Veteran acquaintance who insisted solar would never be viable even in Australia (possibly one of the best places in the world for solar and batteries for small isolated areas that would never really need expensive grids (or Networks as they call them).
My reply to him:
"...Gee, How did Robert F Hemphill Jr co-founder of AES Solar get the 52 battery and solar installations up and running starting over 20 years ago? They seemed to be about 1/20th the cost of new pumped hydro, and far easier to install in locations where pumped hydro can't, near grid infrastructure and even over reservoirs to help reduce evaporation in the pumped hydro reservoirs. He got the long term peaking costs down to 8 cents per kWh before he retired 6 or 7 years ago (IIRC), with far faster response to improve stability and frequency control. two years ago, he told me the latest bids were below 2 cents per kWh.
I think your expert is seriously trying to mislead people. Australia has had incredible resistance to accepting solar as the wave of the future, especially if they use it to avoid trying to maintain the old Network/Grids instead of building more resilient smaller grids like Puerto Rico is doing..."
P.S. When I asked him specifically if they had any response time, stability, or control problems, he replied along the lines of, "Whew, did we ever, it took us a week after the first installation to get our system to slow enough to come on line without disturbing it too much!" Nothing else came close to getting on line as quickly and well synchronized.
Once again, George -- brilliant. I hope that many MAGAs will come to the same conclusion as your Diary writer. Some incurable deplorables will take it as the "Will of Gawd", no matter what happems to them.