Swamp Yankee
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Everything posted by Swamp Yankee
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There are also a large number of additional conservative outlets available: OAN, Newsmax, Blaze, WSJ editorial, Rebel News WorldNetDaily, and of course much of talk radio. Listener/reader/viewership is another matter; but that's up to each outlet - if they suck at their job less people will partake. However, the outlets exist for consumers to consume.
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Definitely conflict of interest at CNN (duh). However, the NY Times, NPR, Wash Post, and networks for what that's worth have hammered Cuomo pretty hard.
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A accessible 911 (though not aircooled) is the 996 variant (1996-2006). Because of the headlights it's not considered "iconic" but it retains the 911 handling. You can still get one at a reasonable price although some folks have figured it out and values will start going up.
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I get it. There are separate equations for technical performance and driving pleasure that share constants but can diverge. I have an "old" 1996 911 (993 variant - last air cooled engine with manual transmission). It's slow by today's standards (6.0sec 0-60) but between shifting and that distinctive flat six noise the fun meter gets pegged. On a related note I'm actually in the market for a 1967 911S. Only 160hp but considered one of the iconic models. Miata's a great car. Very popular up here for weekend autocross. I bought a used one (original NA with pop-ups) when I graduated many decades ago and drove it from New England to Del Rio. Should have kept it. Hellcat and Demon are ridiculous - horsepower, RWD, and racing slicks don't make a supercar. Sorry to the fanboys. All that said, Tesla has redefined the car and the trajectory of the industry. Brings hypercar performance if not to the masses, then to folks without Fortune 500 CEO net worth.
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The liberal mainstream media largely excused Cuomo and the conservative mainstream media largely excused Cruz. I'm not saying their sins are equally mortal but those are the immediate examples. We've got two sides of the mainstream media now with roughly equal viewer/reader/listenerships. Conflating mainstream media with liberal is passe. That might be a good thing although the two sides are getting further apart. They want us to choose R or D and obediently stay in our little boxes.
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You've got to be kidding me. Words do matter. This is a textbook example of hypocrisy. Cruz ridiculed California's energy planning and his state was equally unprepared. How many times it happened in one state versus another is immaterial. Even Cruz himself acknowledges this. I've listened very closely to Dan Crenshaw in particular as I think (thought) that he has the potential to be a great President. He focused on wind turbine icing as if it is an inevitable problem and a major factor in the grid collapse. Icing is easily addressed. In my view he's trying to score some easy, though inaccurate, points with his base. I encourage you to be objective rather than just reflexively supporting "your guy" as the first instinct. Politicians don't deserve blind loyalty. Hence why I'm an independent. Politicians have to earn every one of my votes.
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At least Cruz is making an effort to own his hypocrisy. I give him sincere credit as such a thing is rare for politicians on both sides. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/02/17/cruz-says-he-has-no-defense-for-mocking-californias-past-power-outages-as-texas-grid-falters-amid-historic-freeze/ Let's see if Crenshaw and Abbott admit they greatly exaggerated the impact of wind turbine issues during this recent cool weather spell.
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Despite the lack of pedigree, Tesla just does it better. I've been a Porsche guy for quite some time, with a 918 as an unrealistic aspirational add to the collection. In comparison the S Plaid+ is a steal at ~$150k. Based on my experience with a friend's Model 3 Performance, the "infinite" torque vectoring capability should also make it shine on the track.
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No one in their right mind sees any single energy source (oil, wind, coal, solar, nuclear, etc) as THE sole way forward. All need investment and implementation for the US to have actual energy independence. In this specific case, concrete is a valuable building material that will continued to be manufactured. Thus, why not defray the impact?
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Technological advancement solves many problems: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ge-announces-first-us-wind-turbine-blade-recycling-program-with-veolia/591869/
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Point taken and I stand corrected. It isn't a single-point-of-failure situation. Seems like part of the problem is lack of a requirement to harden the grid. On one hand, you could pose an argument that a largely deregulated power system is partially to blame. Specifically, insufficient reserve margin to deal with crises and the approach that excess energy needs are filled via the open market, with huge per kW price swings: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/17/how-the-texas-power-grid-failed-and-what-could-stop-it-from-happening-again.html On the other hand, perhaps the cost to build administrative and physical infrastructures for these "once-in-a-lifetime" events just isn't worth it to many. That said, I can't help but notice that several "once-in-a-lifetime-events" have happened during my middle-aged life.
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Now we need an actual moderate outsider-style candidate. Trump as a first attempt failed. Tulsi? Someone from the Republican Tuesday Group? Heck, Jocko or Dwayne Johnson? (half-kidding) Someone who can deftly broker compromise. Neither side should expect to get everything they want if we want to get actual shit done
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It’s going to take some compromise, which is the practical possibly-attainable version of unity. Liberals have to accept that not every acre of uninhabited land will be kept pristine. Conservatives have to accept that there will need to be private $spent on reasonable measures to mitigate pollution and ensure robustness. I say that as someone who on one hand hunts/camps/kayaks and on the other started and succeeded with multiple tech businesses.
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Sadly, unity at this point is an antiquated concept. Our previous president in 2016 won by nearly the same electoral margin (77 vs 74) and a smaller popular vote margin than Biden, yet proceeded forth as if he had a commanding mandate. Energy independence needs to be our primary goal. Without that, national security will be at risk. Second is sustainability through diversification. As we're witnessing to some degree in TX, limiting power generation sources can have dramatic effects if a primary source is compromised (e.g. icing on wind turbines are a contributing complication ). Greater diversification is our realistic path to a cleaner overall footprint as we can have multiple renewal resources along with fossil fuels and nuclear.
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I'm not arguing the threat Iran poses or the bad actions it has perpetrated. I am pointing out that simplistic, imcomplete explanations leads to poor understanding. Both sides do this, but the right mainstream media is often the culprit. Simple, red-meat soundbites that are easily digested and used to sway public opinion. We're being treated as if we can't handle the details which provide a deeper understand of our internal political mechanisms; some of which we can change with our vote.
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That’s not accurate, or at least complete. The $ was released from an FMS account for undelivered military equipment in 1979. An MoU at the time stipulated that the funds were to be frozen in an interest-bearing account. In that sense, it was never our money to begin with. That said, a argument could certainly be made that this was a valuable bargaining chip that could have been held back until a real concession was to be made. The $1.3b interest was not accrued (although presumable realized) and thus had to be paid from the judgment fund. In a similar sense to the “Hillary sold uranium to the Russians” inaccurate simplification leads to inaccurate debate.
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Malley is a contrarian, who defaults to engagement-with-adversaries worldview As a Middle East specialist, that’s where he executes this approach. He also supported negotiations with North Korea, essentially agreeing with Trump. https://carnegieendowment.org/2017/08/07/how-trump-s-iran-threats-could-backfire-in-north-korea-pub-72751 He isn’t specifically or uniquely sympathetic to Iran. However, Iran sees itself as a major power broker and wants to be treated as such. Robert Baer, a retired CIA officer, supports a similar approach. I don’t necessarily agree with this position, but it could be a viable approach. Nothing else seems to be working.
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I didn't know all that detail. In fact, I only learned about it a couple of years ago due to an offhand remark on a podcast. I guess certain folks want to let sleeping dogs lie.
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Yeah this 2nd Impeachment will backfire on the dems. Trump will be acquitted and will be able to say "another hoax, just like Russiagate!" to keep his base fired up and maintain influence on the GOP. It wouldn't matter if Trump murdered someone. 2/3 of the current Senate still would not convict; many would twist their minds into a no vote.
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Part of the issue is the "uniqueness" of the Jan 6th riot/insurrection/whatever you want to call it. The country has experienced and survived riots due to racial unrest: Tulsa 1921, Detroit 1943, Watts 1965, Boston 1974, LA 1992, BLM this summer and many, many more. Now, let me be clear, these events were horrible and cannot be excused. For example, in the 1921 Tulsa massacre up to 200 (mostly black people) were killed by (mostly) white mobs. The underlying factors and the people involved in all of these riots do not speak well of America values. However, sadly, we are familiar with such events. There isn't a precedent for an invasion of a federal building and attempt to stop an important federal government process. Until Jan 6th, an enemy flag has never been forcibly displayed in the Capitol. There were armed invaders who, by their own admission, were seeking to harm those charged with conducting said processes. Luckily it manifested as flash fire that burned out. That said, I would argue that the hot embers still exist and could flare up again. So, yes, I do think we were close to an unprecedented precipice. How close? Who knows, we've never been through this before. We've never had a national leader who has been able to whip up fervor to this extent based on lies.
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What about Duck Dynasty and Honey Boo Boo ridiculing rural whites? Jersey Shore ridiculing Italian-Americans? Or stupid husband / smart wife ads?
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Interesting. The technical details tend to get in the way of "simple" solutions. That reminds me - a few years ago one of my teams was testing anti-vibration seating systems with trucking companies in central Canada and the northern tier of the US. I remember pulling into tiny oil towns and seeing 20 year olds driving brand new $70k pickups, Range Rovers and G-Wagons. They couldn't all be meth dealers. Waste water for cooling makes sense.
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The benefits outweigh the negatives on the XL extension. The main benefit being increased North American energy independence. We are better off getting petroleum from North American land vs the Middle East. Offshore carries unique environmental risks that are difficult to mitigate (busted well heads and crashed tankers). The jobs will help, although the estimates vary widely. The DoS's estimate was 40k jobs, of which 10% would be during the construction period. When compared to a typical 180k/month job creation rate in the US, it isn't much but every little bit counts due to COVID impacts. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-benefits-from-the-keystone-xl-pipeline-and-dakota-access-pipeline-pros-cons/ There is a technology and investment piece here also. Tar sands are significantly more corrosive than other petroleum suspension mediums, thus risking oil leaks. It is solvable in the near term via brute force (more metal, catchment systems) assuming the private sector is willing to pony up the funds. I'd like to see nuclear power regain a viable position and grow. Of course, there are limits regarding suitable conventional plant locations (large bodies of cooling water), construction materials (steady supply of rare metals due to neutron embrittlement), disposal, and uranium. That said, the hysteria around safety is largely overblown. If the Navy can run reactors on warships, we should be able to figure it out for commercial energy needs. Due to particulate pollution, hydrocarbons affect far more people on a per-kW basis than nuclear plants. Another 50 plants could supply 15-20% of our current electricity demand.
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Investment showdown -- beyond the Roth, SDP, & TSP
Swamp Yankee replied to Swizzle's topic in Squadron Bar
I agree on the divide. I was actually in the former group while on active duty, although that was quite awhile ago. Back then, $1m was an unfathomable number. I went to grad school then entered the startup world. I do have some play money in the short term market but even now I'm relatively conservative and long-term focused with regard to traditional investments. I decided to keep that part of our lives simple so I can devote my effort to new technology development. I just focus on net worth and liquid that allows a reasonable take. After trial and error as well as some initial naivete I've been fortunate with a few home runs that have provided comfortable results. True on Biden. If anything, he has no more corruption than the typical career politician. -
The income cap reduction is being championed by Joe Manchin, who is considered one of the most conservative democrats in the Senate. In AOC's NYC, $150k family is barely middle-class. Bernie has the same perspective, since VT is surprisingly expensive due to all that artisanal cheese and former-execs-back-to-the-landers. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/02/06/over-50-house-democrats-ask-biden-not-to-lower-income-threshold-for-1400-stimulus-checks/?sh=31b89573350e
