nsplayr

I've seen his videos before, he's good. 1000% agree the Powerwall is overpriced. I own a Tesla Model 3 that cost, say, $50K (2023 RWD). It has a ~60 kWh battery. Each Powerwall has 13.5 kWh of storage and costs about $11K on average ($12.5K for the first one, $9K for the second one because you already have the gateway and wiring; close enough). So that's $815 per kWh, which is similar to the price per kWh of my car except, oh yea...it's an entire freaking car and not just a battery in a box! Powerwall is a luxury product because Tesla is using the same batteries* as their vehicles but the market thus far has supported a much higher markup and they're still sold out for years. Good for them I guess, capitalism FTW. If the price was still $6K like when the Powerwall 2 first came out I would have bought three. I looked at a bunch of different setups and despite the cost, SolarEdge + Powerwall was my preferred option. The software interface with Powerwall is fantastic, it was the preferred option to install for my preferred installation vendor (LightWave Solar), and I didn't want to DIY. My runner-up was SolArk inverter with the HomeGrid Stack'd batteries which seem cool because they're LFP and modular and also on the DC-side of the equation so it's a bit more efficient. *Caveat that my car actually has a different battery chemistry than my Powerwalls...LFP in the car vs NMC in the Powerwalls.

Counterpoint: I think the US is in a great position post-COVID, and pre-COVID we were still unquestionably the global #1. China is getting absolutely rekt by the virus right now due to extremely poor central government policy choices. I truly feel bad for the Chinese people. Russia is in shambles both militarily, financially, and demographically. I don’t see how they recover from the massive loss of young male life and national wealth in my lifetime. The EU is closely allied with us and we’re working together really well on the Ukraine War. No one else matters that much to be in the same conversation yet. Meanwhile the US economy is doing better than basically any other advanced nation, we’re also basically past COVID, we’re smartly re-shoring some critical manufacturing that I think is really beneficial long-term, and we’re super well placed to lead the big energy technology transition that will take place over the next 20 years. Our military is well funded and strong, millions of people want to come here and become Americans, and our culture is globally dominant. I’d rather be us every day of the week and twice on Sunday 🇺🇸🦅

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1303432/total-bilateral-aid-to-ukraine/ We’ve provided the vast majority of direct mil aid, the EU has provided more financial aid. Individual EU/NATO countries have made additional contributions. All well worth it, I’m perfectly happy let the Russian armed forces crash against the hard rocks of Ukraine for as long as those idiots want to do so!

That’s pretty sweet, esp because I’m assuming you didn’t have to pay to install the charger. I also have a chargepoint in my garage and pay $0.097 per kW from the grid which is super nice. Great charger for my first EV (2021 VW ID.4) and I’m recently finding out it works well for my Tesla too with the adapter that came with the car. GL with the solar + storage setup when you buy a house at some point!

2x Tesla Powerwall 2s, so 27 kWh of storage. I would have gone with 3x powerwalls on a 10.2 kW solar system but they’re just so damn expensive. I have a decent ability to charge my EVs during daylight hours due to shift work, so ultimately I decided against it for now. Could easily add a third in the future and if the prices come down, tech gets even better or I really just have the need after seeing the system production numbers for a year +, I will. Ideally in the near future also all EVs would be able to do straight up bi-directional charging. I’ve got another 142 kWh of “storage” between my two cars, it would be phenomenal to be able to feed that back into my powerwalls and therefore my house load panel during an extended outage situation where I might value electricity in my home more than driving. The F-150 Lightning I think will be the first EV in America that can do this, although I’ve heard the setup is very expensive once it’s all said and done.

Same in TN, although rooftop solar for homeowners is still relatively rare because TVA power is really very cheap so the numbers don’t work for most folks. We don’t have net metering and there’s an obscure and not-really-worth-it TVA distributed producer program that I don’t plan on joining. My solar just got installed but projected, conservative production numbers would have me totally off the grid other than we now drive 2x EVs that will consume quite a bit of electricity. My production and storage will be well above typical household loads (minus EV transportation) and my only power bill should be the $17 a month it costs to stay connected to the grid. Even having zeroed out my transportation fuel budget with the EVs, my solar will produce about ~90% of my needs including lots of driving, which should be great. Also no need to worry about blackouts, which we just experienced this week, or future electricity price increases. Long-term costs will be about $335 a month to pay for the system, but like I said I also zeroed out my gasoline budget and about 80% of my electricity bill, so true net monthly costs to have this technology are even lower. Absolutely viable here and now and the tech is only getting better and cheaper in the long-run.

@Lord Ratner either you’re right and every major government, energy company, and electrical utility are wrong for investing trillions into new solar and wind capability…or perhaps it’s the inverse. Hard to say 🤷‍♂️

Yea, obv defining "winning" is and has always been the issue. I'd argue we somewhat "won" in Iraq although at TREMENDOUS, unfathomable cost. Today Iraq is better and more US-friendly than under Saddam, but phew it was not an easy road. Afghanistan I'd say is equally bad today as pre-9/11, maybe a bit less so because the problem has not has as long to fester, again at incredible cost. Wish we had done better there strategically...I certainly tried to do my part tactically. But as you said, our spending blood and treasure can't go on forever, even as the global superpower. We are monitoring & assessing and striking when juicy opportunities arise, and I'd argue that's the right strategy for most of the familiar shitholes we've been fighting in for the last 20 years. RPA in particular will continue keeping the lid on as best as is possible with imperfect intel and understanding that the enemy always gets a vote as well. As you well know, VEO isn't going away but it's no longer the focus, nor should it be IMHO.

It seems like overall you have a lot of California-specific net-metering gripes that I'm not equipped to debate about since I don't live there. But the above...what universe are you living in? New utility-scale solar PV and wind installations and planned projects vastly, vastly outnumber any other tech. The cost of wind and solar have plummeted to below fossil-fuel levels while nuclear costs have risen (unfortunately) and fossil fuels have stayed flat. Look, I'm a huge fan of nuclear power, both fission and especially fusion once we get that figured out at scale, and we should do way, way more nuclear. BUT, solar/wind technology, scale and cost improvements are massive wins for humanity and are expanding rapidly not due to some lizard-people Liberal conspiracy, but because they're now the cheapest ways to generate electricity, and humanity is going to need a lot more electricity both today and especially in the future.

Disagree that net metering is somehow a government handout or a liberal scheme. As @FLEA said, power companies benefit by having additional distributed generating capacity on the grid, they should reimburse homeowners who are net generating power. I’m not saying it always has to be 1-for-1 at the commercial rate, but there should be some reimbursement because as a homeowner with solar, if you are exporting watts to the grid, you are helping the power company out - it seems fair to be paid for that. Whether changes in the law or policies make the economics of owing solar panels better or worse is a risk you as the purchaser of the system take…laws and policies change all the time and sometimes it works out for you and sometimes it doesn’t. But on the whole solar power works great within known limitations, is now the cheapest way to generate electricity, and individual homeowners have the ability to gain some independence and resiliency from outages and price increases by putting panels on their roof, which isn’t an option with many other methods of generating power. It’s a net plus for a lot of homeowners, myself included starting this week, and for humanity as a whole.

So long as the orders flow I don't personally care if we stare at a single solitary rock in the dessert for 21 hours per day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for the next decade 😅 Ok that's hyperbole but still...MPA is still relatively unchanged for now which is ultimately what matters to my bottom line. Agreed that "actual war" is down dramatically, but I'm ok with that too. Can't say we were winning exactly when we were murking dudes every single night, let's try just monitor & assess for a while, that's fine by me for real.

For MQ-9 there's still plenty of "war" to be had. Nothing like the heyday of strikes and ops every day/night but still enough to stay busy. In all the familiar places, plus some new places keeping an eye on other bad actors. Inshallah we'll still keep flying/fighting/winning (? on the last one) for approx. 10 more years so I can retire the way I'd like to. The young kids do indeed need to stay in the sim and on the range to keep sharp but that's what instructors and training plans are for. YMMV per platform I'm sure.

FWIW BAH is based on home zip code for long-term MQ-9 title 10 MPA orders. Not sure why or how, but it’s another situation where it’s home vs. base zip that matters.

Phrasing.

Because the MQ-9 is the only platform they can fly and at some point before the end of the careers of currently serving RPA pilots, the MQ-9 will be retired and there is no clear replacement platform. BL: you have a large group of RPA pilots who could fly other platforms with the right cross-flow and additional training, but we're still at square zero where instead they'd just be hung out to dry. IMHO.

I’m also largely Scottish with some Irish thrown in and Catholic…so I’m surprised you are unsure who you can blame for your family’s plight. The British! You can and absolutely should still blame them. Screw King Charles the Turd and his whole wanker family. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪 This is also a classic American view that the Founding Fathers would 100% endorse 🇺🇸

1. "America, nobody can serve God and the military. You can’t serve God and money. You cannot serve God and mammon at the same time. America, choose ye this day who you will serve. Choose ye this day." That's the full quote, referencing Matthew 6:24, and I would tend to agree. Unfortunate that he would choose to pick out "the military" rather than just "your job/career" but he's the preacher and I'm not, let him cook. 2. Oh no, the black preacher from Ebenezer Baptist is getting political and I don't like it...when has that happened before? 🧐 White people may not feel comfortable with some of the messages on race and politics being preached in Black churches (and vice versa FWIW), also breaking news, the water is wet. Look I'm not super religious and I don't really like religious figures who are political all that much anyways...but I accept that it's not my flavor and move on. There are tons of other religious figures taking overt political stances and that's fine in a free country. Also, tax the churches. It also might be semantics, but calling Warnock a "fake 'Reverend'" seems weird...he has a MDiv, MPhil and PhD from Union Theological Seminary and is the full-time head pastor of a church. Seems to me like he's earned the title even if you don't like the messages in his sermons! All that to say, I like Warnock in general! He is a middle of the road Democrat who seems well spoken on policy and connects with regular people. I think he has a bright future in the party and the fact that he won GA now 4 times in 2 years kinda shows that voters even in a relatively conservative state tend to agree. Better luck in 2028! The GOP should try not to nominate a totally soulless corporate nobody (Loeffler) or an unfortunately brain-damaged college football star with a lot of hidden kids, abortions on his credit card receipts, and fake police badges (Walker) 😎

Yea, like I don’t know him personally but am somewhat familiar with his voting record and the outlines of his personal and professional life before his election in 2021. I’m open to hearing more! Why in particular is Warnock worse than say, Ossoff or some random other replacement-level Dem senator (Hickenlooper, Murray, Coons…those are the most boring ones I can think of.)

Republicans won every state-wide race in Georgia this cycle except the Senate race, which they ultimately lost by 3 points. Gov. Kemp, in the same election, was re-elected by > 7 points over a Dem candidate who was a darling of many in the national party and had very high name ID. Seems like candidate quality really mattered! Honestly I think if David Perdue had run for Senate again rather than his suicide primary campaign against Kemp he could have won the race against Warnock.

Is he not a long-time head pastor of a very famous church in Atlanta? I don’t get the critique maybe…he seems perfectly reasonable, we’ll spoken, fluent on important policies, and free of notable personal scandal. Of all the Dems to really single out and hate, he’s a very odd choice IMHO.

FWIW the polls this cycle were quite good, especially if you followed the credible aggregators and especially if they took some of the Trafalgars of the world with a grain of salt. A small Dem over performance that tipped many close senate races their way doesn’t discount the value of polls, especially when considered as a whole. https://www.axios.com/2022/11/11/polls-performance-midterms-results

It’s fine, we’ll only buy 3 of them and they’ll cost $6.9T a piece once you factor in R&D costs 🤣😑 But nah we can’t possibly pay pilots more to stay or even just execute on pay changes already authored by law…

I’m genuinely curious if you just think all Democrats are POS scumbags or if you have some issues with Warnock specifically.