So if they have a car then they shouldn't be protesting someone building a pipeline in their yard? this country is rotting for within and China has NOTHING to do that. why does "being a major world power" even matter? We haven't done ANYTHING good with the power so far as far as I'm concerned.
I think helping the Soviets defeat the Nazis was worthwhile. The Marshall plan was noble. We kept half of Korea free Lately we haven’t been doing as well. I do think we should turn our attention to our own people and our own problems.
Yes I agree that we have done some virtuous things. But since I was born in 1980 I haven’t seen anything good. Just compounding corruption. We’ve been left behind by our corporate overlords… but they expect us to keep going to work business as usual. Why is it that the working class makes all these big wigs rich and those bigwigs don’t even think we deserve a living wage? I mean… a huge chunk of our population doesn’t make 50k. I’d bet it’s more than half the country. How are we the “richest country in the world” when we just keep on printing the money??? Impending doom is a feeling I have often.
It seems reasonable that if you against “fossil fuels” you should divest your life of them. Hardest change in life is changing yourself. I used to enjoy sports but since they have embraced BLM I have eliminated them from my life.
Apple, Microsoft and Google have also embraced BLM as well as a ton of other corporations you may want to look into so you can divest your life of them. Or not, either way…it’s not about being perfect because that’s kinda impossible.
I protested by not eating at Taco Bell anymore. It was a tough choice on my part, and I, along with my fellow Bell Beeferists, suffered greatly because of it. But, thankfully, due mainly to the economic pressure that I was able to exert, Taco Bell is supposed to bring back the Bell Beefer in 2023. The system works!
I have less "eliminated sports" than "eliminated financial contribution TO the corrupt edifice of American Professional Sports"*. Or at least doing my damnedest to do so.
*- I may condemn American Professional Sports, but compared to the Olympic Grift, it's clean as the Catholic Girls School Curling League.
What does China have to do with any of this? Also, aside from whatever your views are on fossil fuel, why is it Ok to break treaties by putting an unwanted pipeline through native land? I assume that since you are on the right, you are a big fan of private property rights. I too support the rights of private landowners to use their property as they wish, so long as this usage does not harm others. In the case of this pipeline, however, the state grants some corporation the right to use land that isn’t theirs (by way of breaking native treaties or by use of eminent domain to “purchase” it from individual landowners). Last I checked, eminent domain isn’t supposed to be about enriching billionaires at the expense of everyone else and we are supposed to honor our treaties. This isn’t, and shouldn’t, just be just about fossil fuel usage and our environmental policy. Whether you simply support property rights OR you are an environmentalist, there is great reason to oppose this pipeline.
Your version of events is apparently just something you've made up, and you 'know" it must be true because "it all fits together" with all the other stuff you've said in the past.
Never mind the tribal councils and the heads thereof (NOT going to call them CHEIFS, lest I get REEEEEE!!!-ed upon) thought they HAD negotiated agreements of minimal environmental impact (pipeline's pretty passive, just sits there), and maximal positive economic impact for the tribes they represented. Now I don't know if they took a cut, paid someone off, whatever, but they had made a deal, and it was supported by other indigenous people.
The way you've portrayed it seems...tryin' to be nice, but blatantly inaccurate is about as nice as it gets. Do you have some image of feather-bonneted, buckskin-clad tipi-dwellers being conned by some Wild West sharpies?? Because the indigenous people are themselves suit-wearing lawyers, cutting their own deals, I don't know what kind of imaginary scenario you've cooked up. The Olde West parchment-and-quill-pen Indian Territory documents were long ago superseded.
I share your bafflement as to China's role in this matter, but it seems to me the REAL interlopers, the people REALLY interfering with tribal rights are the PROTESTORS who are unhappy with the deal the tribes freely agreed to. And the claim that this pipeline was "unwanted" surely needs confirmation. The people who wanted the oil, and to resell the oil, and to drive their cars, wanted it. The people who wanted the jobs working on the pipeline wanted it. The people who negotiated the deal wanted it. Indeed the actual situation might be closer to OPPOSITE of the gibberishish account you've presented.
Next time somebody says "WE represent the true wishes of [marginalized group X]." feel free to examine the veracity of their claim with as much skepticism as you would those of the widow of the Prince of Nigeria. (who also wants you to invest in a pipeline, interestingly enough)
The whole native treaty thing is kind of weird, because the natives aren't sovereign. They have to abide by federal laws and such. How can you contract a treaty with a non-sovereign entity? They are more like MOAs. Anyway, eminent domain seizure of land is entirely possible, so there is no resemblance to a treaty with a foreign nation.
This is the dumbest gotcha line when it comes to climate activism. So the only people that can credibly speak out on climate are those that don't participate in industrialized society? Very convenient for you, Mr. Status Quo Man.
If it is an “existential” threat(which I do NOT believe) then it would behoove the purveyors of such nonsense to at least attempt to act in a manner that demonstrates their fealty to such hoohaw. I have to give that nut cake Greta some credit for sailing to America
I'm not disagreeing with you here, but the few catastrophic failures have been, well, catastrophic. It's a case of disproportionate invisible success vs. highly visible failure. Hard for me to expect everybody to just rationally run the numbers and not have an emotional knee-jerk reaction after Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.
...it probably didn't help that nuke power got emotionally conflated with ICBMs back during the Cold War.
Chernobyl was essentially run like Springfield Nuclear PP on The Simpson’s. When the meltdown happened, a nuclear physicist put the engineering snafu in layman’s terms as “Imagine if the breaks and the gas pedal were switched on a car unawares!”That said, if managed/engineered properly-like in France, where the majority of nations power needs are met by nuclear, I stand by my statement. The USSR bureaucracy destroyed anything it touched-in the 70s and 80s, 50% of house fires in Moscow were caused by exploding TV sets-same engineering that went into Chernobyl.....
Proliferation is a big issue. If every country has nuclear reactors, they will all be a lot closer to owning nuclear weapons. Maybe that's actually ok for world peace but maybe not.
True. On the other hand France generates upwards of 75% of their electricity from nuclear. They EXPORT electricity. France jumped on the nuclear bandwagon early, primarily for the energy security it provided. People tend to forget even 20 years after WW2, it was still fresh in European minds. Can we learn something from France, or have they just been lucky?
Nuclear power -as history has clearly demonstrated- cannot be put into the hands of those whose aim is personal/political power, or financial gain. It is simply too dangerous. They only work "efficiently" when operated under the strictest design and safety protocols. IOW, when the plant is designed, built, and operated at a continuous financial loss, at least in the hyper-capitalist sense. Plus, the issue of how to safely dispose of the waste absolutely does NOT make it the "cleanest and most efficient energy source out there." If it were, it would be much more widely adopted, worldwide. The future lies in "local" electricity production, moving away from private, for-profit utilities.
Yes. Essentially, given our experiences over the last 50 years, nuclear power scares the hell out of anybody who might be responsible for running the show at a plant. And, yes again: The cost and very real danger involved in storing the waste is another barrier. It ain't like shovelin' coal into the boiler and then grabbing a cup of coffee and playing a little solitaire.
I think you might want to update your reading material.
People can support nuclear power or not support nuclear power, I don't care. But those who oppose nuclear power need to shut up about "climate crisis."
Don't forget... Opposition to nuclear comes from every other industry providing energy. Solar and wind companies hire lobbyists to spread disinformation, just like every other lobbyist in DC.
Is this directed at my comments? Reading material? And I'm not supporting or not supporting nuclear power in my comments. I'm not advocating for any mode of energy in my comments. And I said nothing about the "climate crisis." And: I wouldn't deny (and never mentioned) that "opposition to nuclear comes from every other industry providing energy."
What's your point? There's opposition, organized or not, everywhere against everything. And finally, nobody mentions the "climate crisis" more than Big Oil, in "opposition" to alternative (green, sustainable, what have you) as well as the very existence of climate change. Big Oil long ago recognized "climate change," correctly viewing it as a threat to their bottom lines. That's when they ramped up their propaganda. Ditto for the Pentagon. This is all well-documented.
The Pentagon commissoned a comprehensive strategic-themed study 10 years ago in preparation for climate change. They take the science seriously. Don't doubt that solar and wind companies "hire lobbyists to spread disinformation, just like every other lobbyist in DC."--Ii'll take your word for it. I would welcome a share of some of YOUR reading and research.
One doesn't have to be the victim of an "accident" to suffer the deleterious effects of radiation - just be in proximity to where uranium is mined ....
Then of course there is the release of tritium when a plant is operating "normally"
I don't, at least on principle, disagree. However, the images of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima are still too fresh and prominent in too many people's minds to make "nuclear" a serious and viable alternative. Add to that the fact that the nuclear power industry has done little too nothing to change the public's mind.
I agree. A lot of the fears are overblown. Fossil fuels have been way, way more destructive and responsible for far, far more deaths and negative health impacts. Yet for some reason we've been mostly all good with that up until fairly recently. However, the criticisms of nuclear are serious and legitimate. With very high costs, long roll out times, centuries of commitment to waste storage being just a few of them. These are things we need to grapple with if we want a real clean energy future.
Serious question for those opposed to oil pipelines: Why do you oppose them? Several things that make me wonder. For the foreseeable future we will continue to rely on fossil fuels, even as alternative and renewables come online. Aren't pipelines safer than transporting oil and fuels by rail or truck? Given how clean it burns why is there opposition natural gas pipelines? Since the US gave up on nuclear power years ago, aren't we going to need fossil fuels to generate electricity for many decades yet, especially as the share of electrically powered cars increases? I get being against something, but what's the better alternative after stopping pipelines? This is not a troll. I'm interested in your point of view.
I'm not against pipelines, personally, while considering this question I searched "pipeline failure statistics' and found that there are way more safety incidents than I expected. Pipeline catches fire, on average, every 4 days, explodes every 11 days and someone dies from them every 26 days (!). Whoa. I'm fairly sure this isn't the reason for the protests, but those aren't good stats. If those numbers are accurate, it seems like there is a market opportunity for someone to provide a better pipeline solution.
They were the first result on the search 'pipeline failure statistics.' Admittedly, I spent zero time digging into those, so I probably shouldn't have commented on it, but those numbers are out there, in virtual nature, for all to see.
The reason, and only reason, that we no longer build nuclear power plants is due to the enormous costs of constructing them and bringing them online, and the equally onerous cost of keeping them on line. Utilities and other energy concerns got out of the nuclear business because there's more money to be lost, then made, with nuclear. And the specter and liability expenses incurred from a potential core meltdown, or any other serious mishap, pretty much seals the no-deal for investors. It's not just low-margin power, but potential anti-margin power. This may change in the future, but it's a relatively distant future.
According to Gates, “if we’re serious about solving climate change, and quite frankly we have to be, the first thing we should do is keep safe reactors operating.”
But “even then, just maintaining that status quo is not enough. We need more nuclear power to zero out emissions in America and to prevent a climate disaster,” Gates said Wednesday.
Ah yes - "safe reactors" - anything like those "safe bio-safety labs"?
The NRC isn't exactly a non aligned party.
No doubt the Gates Foundation would be a big investor and already has his fingers in the pie ...
The same Bill Gates who opposes TRIPS IP waivers for vaccines? Or is this a different Bill Gates - considering he's into GMOs, maybe he has had himself cloned ...
Is this directed at my comments? Reading material? And I'm not supporting or not supporting nuclear power in my comments. I'm not advocating for any mode of energy in my comments. And I said nothing about the "climate crisis." And: I wouldn't deny (and never mentioned) that "opposition to nuclear comes from every other industry providing energy."
What's your point? There's opposition, organized or not, everywhere against everything. And finally, nobody mentions the "climate crisis" more than Big Oil, in "opposition" to alternative (green, sustainable, what have you) as well as the very existence of climate change. Big Oil long ago recognized "climate change," correctly viewing it as a threat to their bottom lines. That's when they ramped up their propaganda. Ditto for the Pentagon. This is all well-documented.
The Pentagon commissoned a comprehensive strategic-themed study 10 years ago in preparation for climate change. They take the science seriously. Don't doubt that solar and wind companies "hire lobbyists to spread disinformation, just like every other lobbyist in DC."--Ii'll take your word for it. I would welcome a share of some of YOUR reading and research.
Again, once again, I am neither advocating for nuclear power, nor am I advocating against nuclear power. I am aware of Bill Gate's nuclear project and his advocacy of it as a positive source of energy for mitigating the effects of climate change. In the name of humanity, I wish him godspeed.
Fromm your link:
“Today, nuclear power is at a crossroads. Nearly 20% of America’s electricity comes from nuclear,” Gates said. “But while America’s current nuclear capacity serves the country well, there are far more reactors slated for retirement than there are new reactors under construction.”
In April, the Indian Point Energy Center nuclear power plant north of New York City retired its last operating nuclear reactor. And the Exelon Corporation has announced plans to retire two of its Illinois nuclear power plants in the fall.
If these retirements come to fruition, 2021 could set a record for the most retirements of nuclear generators in a year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Since 1960, the United States has retired 40 nuclear generators but it has never this many in one year, sasy an EIA spokesperson."
This speaks to my point, I believe. There's no reason to believe that if nuclear power were economically viable, at the moment, these plants would either remain on-line or if needed, upgraded. I've not commented on the current efficacy of nuclear technology due, mostly, because I'm not a nuclear engineer. I havenot studied nor am I privy to it.
Here, though, is someone who has, lurking beneath the fold in this piece":
"....Jacobson says that, in fact, “investing in new nuclear power is the surest way to climate disaster.” Climate change is urgent, and new nuclear power plants are expensive and take a long time to build, he says.
Jacobson, who has published a textbook on renewable energy, also points out that nuclear power comes with concerns that renewables don’t have, including weapons proliferation, meltdowns, radioactive waste and uranium mining risks.
Again, I'm not an advocate, one way or another. And as for Gates' Natrium project, it certainly helps to have $160 billion in the checking account. Jeff Bezos, I hear, is using his billions to go spelunking in the Andromeda Galaxy. I wish the two of them well in their scientific exploits.
Yes. And presumably there are some engineers squirreled away in a Western mountain range working on a new technology that will "make nuclear power viable again." And it will be marketed and sold to the American public accordingly.
Pipeline activists expected Biden to keep his promises? Seriously? After all this time one would think they would know better ... I am beginning to wonder if idealism and naivete are joined at the hip ... How many of these folks voted for him? Why? Did they believe It was either that or Trump? Another LOTE election? ... but doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of ..... There was another choice more in sync with their cause so why didn't they choose that? Every time I ask this question I get "3rd parties can't win". But that's BS, any candidate on a ballot can win if enough folks vote for 'em.
And TPTB know this too, so, as we concentrate on voter suppression, we pay no attention to the "poison pills" stuck in the much heralded HR1 that make it almost impossible for 3rd parties to even get on the ballot - just in case enough of us figure out that a particular 3rd party is actually what we want and would actually vote for. So, great, more and more folks can vote for either Tweedle dee or Tweedle dum - Yippee, what a victory for democracy!
And nobody - independent journalists included, seem to have noticed this or give a flying fu**
I totally agree!! I’ve heard about that particular tidbit in the bill as well but I’ve never heard another word about it anywhere else. Why is no one concerned about that in media? Hmm. I wonder.
I think Biden made a huge mistake cancelling the Keystone Pipeline. All the jobs are now dead and most of the pipeline was already completed. Will that oil be safer now traveling by train or truck?
It’s not “Leftist” to take an all of the above approach or embrace technology advances in renewables or to embrace nuclear. It’s a matter of making sense.
"But why does one have to be labeled a "leftist" if one wants to start moving toward higher efficiency standards, lower pollution regulations, and even alternative energy sources?"
I understand why we don't want pollution. Pollution is always a problem. But why would we want alternative energy sources? Particularly if they're expensive and inefficient like wind and solar power generation. Could you please explain?
Pollution is especially always the problem with fossil fuels. You're being disengenuous when you admit to fossil fuel pollution being a problem and then state "pollution is always a problem." Alternatives are becoming less expensive and more efficient. At some point, we transition to alternatives. It's in the cards. Just ask Exxon Mobil.
I understand why we wouldn't want horseshit in the streets, but horseshit in the streets is always a problem. And them new-fangled horseless carriages? Expensive and inefficient, always breaking down and getting flat tires.
You know what else is bad for the environment? Poverty. And if we force ordinary people to give up fossil fuels, then what we're really forcing them to do is to live in poverty.
Have you considered the social and economic ramifications of abandoning fossil fuels because they cause pollution? By the way, what is exactly are the pollutants emitted by fossil fuels? Carbon Dioxide?
What would a world look like without fossil fuels? A lot of death and misery.
I'm dead serious. I think advocates for alternative fuels are delusional. They imagine that we can abandon fossil fuels and adopt alternative generation methods without any serious consequences. They imagine that the world will end if we continue using fossil fuels. It's all bullshit. There's certainly no evidence of it.
All of the available evidence shows that the current climate state is not out of the ordinary or expected. The Earth is fine.
Pollution is always a problem. Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant.
That depends upon your definition of "disappointment." I am one of many people who voted for Obama and felt swindled.
I am incredulous at the idea that anyone could vote for Biden not knowing exactly what they were getting. You would have to have been living inside a black box, consuming no political reportage, for the last 40 years. "Hi, I'm Schrödinger's cat. Not sure if I'm dead or alive, but I'm voting for Joe Biden, he'll build it back better. No malarkey!"
It would be like Republicans voting for Lindsey Graham and being surprised they ended up with a shameless neocon who has no principles, sketchy defense industry friends, corporate connections, and more than a few big brother tendencies. Come on man this is Joe Biden! You should know what you are getting at this point. While we are on the subject can someone please tell me why so many social justice Democrats forgot he wrote the '94 Crime Bill? After almost half a year of Black Lives Matter rioting and protesting, the Left was more than happy to go with the man who should have a lifetime achievement award for putting young black males in prison?
Seriously! If you wanted a "systemic racism" ticket, you'd start with the guy who'd been writing racist laws for decades, and then you'd add a corrupt DA who used those laws to lock up minorities she knew were innocent!
Bu bu but - they were the LOTE! And that's the rule - gotta vote LOTE, for some, enough, it was Trump. What if we had a LOTE party ... oh wait, we do, 2 in fact ....
"someone please tell me why so many social justice Democrats forgot he wrote the '94 Crime Bill? After almost half a year of Black Lives Matter rioting and protesting, the Left was more than happy to go with the man who should have a lifetime achievement award for putting young black males in prison?"
The only explanation I can offer is that we are all fictional characters living in a Philip K. Dick novel. The memory-holing of the Crime Bill by racial/social "justice activists" who should theoretically care about this kind of thing the most is completely insane. If it wasn't "structural racism," what is?
...I apologize for the minor tangent here, but there's an argument to be made that the aggressive gun-banning provisions of the Crime Bill were a not insignificant factor in the GOP sweeping Congress in the '94 midterms. Bill Clinton was able to woo a lot of NRA "bubbas" in '92. In '94 they felt stabbed in the back.
There is also the fact that a lot of the Black community leaders at the time were pushing for harsh criminal penalties. You can bet that they do not want anyone remembering their role in the whole thing. On a side note anyone remember the "super predator" thing?
It's the narcotic effect of seeing Trump out of office that clouds their minds. Try and start a conversation about the Biden administration and count the seconds before it turns to how bad was Trump.
While I like the idea of living in a Phil Dick novel I think there's an easier explanation. Biden supporters were in the CNN/MSNBC echo chamber. Biden's racist crime bill, much like his deranged kid's laptop, was never one of the echoes allowed in that particular echo chamber. Therefore it didn't exist. When you combine that with the fact that every time CNN/MSNBC mentioned Trump's name, every Democrat inadvertently squirted a little pee into their already bunched up panties, I think y'all find a recipe for the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris fondue we're now being force fed.
Not that I don't see evidence of your Phil Dick hypotheses. With everything from the rise of UFOs out of the military's clandestine underoos to the fact that most people now stare at a little electronic device like they want to fuck it or Vulcan mind meld with it, I'd say that Phil's probably somewhere jumping up & down & screaming, "See motherfuckers, I told ya so. Over & over. Did ya listen? Nope. Well Fuck y'all ya easily led by the nose dumbfucks."
Cognitive Dissonance + Trump Derangement Syndrome. If they were true to their values, they would've supported Bernie. Fact is, they would've voted for Trump than Bernie.
Or like the republicans voting for Donald Trump and not knowing that he was a five-time loser in the bankruptcy courts, or that he was a serial molester and adulterer, a shameless but largely unsuccessful con artist, and that, and that---oh, that's right---they knew all this. Never mind.
On the contrary, for this great country, Joe Biden is the logical and appropriate bookend to Donald Trump. A whirling dervish of a loud mouth double-talking con man from New York, to a Delawarian with less life and charisma than the Audio-Animatronic Chester A. Arthur at Disney World's Hall of Presidents. Perfectly executed!
"less life and charisma than the Audio-Animatronic Chester A. Arthur"
I take umbrage at your disparagement of "The Dude President" in this manner, sir. Even a clockwork simulation thereof possesses more innate charisma than Joseph Robinette Biden.
The 'pubs should run the Arthur automaton in '24 and see what happens. Some straight Ambrose Bierce shit. Fuck around and find out, as the Bernie Bros. used to say.
"Let me tell you about this cat Jack, he was bad news, a bad dude. They called him Tidy Paws, he used to carry a bicycle chain and claws."
...has there been any concerted effort by literary scholars to revise Joe's inchoate public utterances into metered, rhyming surrealist poetry yet? You wouldn't have to do very much. As a voter, I am on the record as favoring an NEH grant for such a project.
I seem to remember someone (probably Bill Maher's staff) doing something like that for Sarah Palin after she entered the meth'y rambling stage. They put it to an electronic beat. It was pretty damn funny.
I could see Joe having a lot of potential there as an accidental hip hop star. Just make the chorus end "...then you ain't black!"
Now I'm imagining one of those cliche 90's/early00's gangsta rap album covers which just has a lot of thug iconography poorly photoshopped together. Joe's in the middle with an ice cream cone and it's called "Corn Pop a Cap in Yo A$$"
Minus the rhyming (I think) this was done with Don Rumsfeld's words during the W administration. Good stuff. I'd welcome Biden receiving the same treatment.
I suspect the reason Biden got elected was hubris of Trump. I think a bigger surprise than Trump's win against Hillary is that he managed to squander that win and to lose to Biden.
For easily excited - no, I'm not a Trumpista. Just the facts, ma'am.
Well, I never expected anything from Biden. We have 40+ years of being a sell-out. Obama only had a few years in the Illinois and U.S. Senate of backing away from anything controversial.
The only sonic weapons I saw in that video were the tired old hippy chants. Seriously annoying.
I though the native people didn't believe that land was "owned" by anyone -how then does this break a treaty?
Honestly, it's a non-news-event when reporting that Biden is the same old, same old.
He's been a puppet that dances on the money strings for his entire career. How is this a revelation?
A friend of mine who was acting chief for a period up in British Columbia reports to me that the tribal councils all got together and agreed that the Keystone pipeline was going to be a good thing and they were going to be compensated well for it -and have cheaper oil.
This is seven or eight tribal chiefs coming together to agree on something: rare but they were happy with the agreement -until the white hippies showed up and started protesting.
He said they were offering free beer to the few natives who DID join their protests and that they didn't represent the tribes there at all. They were the people who ALWAYS cause trouble and are usually out-of-their-mind-drunk by 10PM every night and really embarrassing. They don't represent any councils or band governments.
I hope you realize that my post wasn't a cry of solidarity for the anti-pipeline folks. Doing away with fossil fuels would be fine if they had an economical & efficient replacement for them but they don't.
Contrary to what most Dems seem to believe, electric cars & smartphones aren't really powered by meth-ed out hamsters furiously running on grid connected exercise wheels.
My new attitude towards "activism" has been colored by Portland, where they've been protesting non stop for over a year. That has led me to wonder how one pays rent & buys food with that lucrative protest wage. Are there employers who offer a special activism leave of absence where you can still draw a paycheck while chanting "No justice, no peace?" In other words, it appears that someone is funding it all. Who is probably debatable.
Then again maybe they're all converted Breatharians who have learned the neat mystical trick of living on air alone.
Those electric cars are coal-powered battery cars and unless energy can be produced without coal or oil-fuel and they are actually MORE harmful to the environment.
No problem. These days, doesn't the S in USA usually stand for scam?
I should confess that I didn't really watch much of the video. I've seen that episode of Lawless & Disorder for over a year now. It has grown quite old.
And, I really don't give a fuck anymore. According to climate things that I read in the 80s we should all be living in a 21st century version of Atlantis. Let's say I'm also a bit lackadaisical about my recycling habits. Something my 2 oldest "save the Earth" children like to hassle me about until I point out that neither one of them can survive summer without an air conditioner blasting 24/7.
THAT was "ruthless exploitation of savages we considered just barely more evolved than the ape" (which was pretty generous considering it was PRE-Darwin and all).
THIS is a sensitive, respectful negotiation taking into account the savage colonialist greed of the white devil and the generous wisdom of earth-attuned indigenes.
I wouldn't bet on a dramatically different result, though..
I'm an outlier who supports limiting use of fossil fuels and eliminating their use as soon as practicable, but the anthropogenic global warming enthusiasts reject my support. A compelling case can be made for that without ever mentioning climate change, which doesn't set the scene for virtue signaling. My support isn't wanted because it's for the "wrong" reason. That's a religion, not science.
The mining activity necessary to build high-density batteries is as damaging as that done to extract fossil fuels, and the technology does not yet exist to build the plants, the generators, the transmission lines needed without increasing output of CO2.
Other factors are seldom considered. The mining activity necessary to build wind turbines and solar panels (from components of steel to rare earth minerals). We tend to ignore these because much of the mining and production occur in other countries. Even the production of the concrete, rebar, and other construction materials has huge impact, as does the actual process of construction. We seldom even consider the scale necessary to "replace" existing energy. We don't see much publicized in terms of square miles of terrain to be cleared and prepared for renewables nor the total number required to achieve whatever the goal is (assume total replacement). The problem is far murkier than a simple X good, Y bad. We can agree on a need to get away from fossil fuels, the problem is in the propaganda and technological limitations surrounding how that happens. As you mentioned, both sides are overly addicted to and reliant upon the conflict to move on to the difficult and time consuming exploration of decent alternatives.
One other bit. When I used to completely define myself as a lefty, although not a Dem, I'd occasionally buy a magazine called Adbusters. One issue had a full page that was empty except for this sentence: "Humanity needs to find the courage to allow itself to go extinct."
So, if the Left truly believes that fossil fuels will end us, why are they complaining?
Do they have wisher's remorse?
Maybe they should just make up their fucking minds.
Pff. I hope they keep running over the cliff. Big Picture: When we're gone things will go one as they always have, until the sun burps a layer and burns it all off.
One of the "Great Filters" of the Fermi Paradox (yes, I know, not really a paradox) is the instability of so many stars, compared to our rather placid one, and the sensitivity of intelligent species to the effects of super volcanoes, vast solar flares, extreme variations in stellar outputs and the impacts of meteors, asteroids, comets, etc.
Matter of fact, if you look at the wide range of natural phenomena that would terminate our "advanced" civilization, we are way past "living on borrowed time".
And since we're going anyway, before it happens I would dearly love to see the more virtuous among us setting a good example by "allowing themselves to go extinct". I promise to graciously laud their high moral precedent. There could be tears.
I don't see the point. Every iota of fossil fuels will be burnt until it runs out. Why? It's cheap energy. Even a government that agreed to curb it's use would be overthrown or dominated by those who are willing to use the cheap energy. Look at China. The use of this energy enables economic and ultimately military hegemony.
Under the circumstances, those trying to stop pipelines and such are tilting at windmills. Why do things that can only have impact in the smallest ways? Might as well belly up to the trough until the music stops playing, in the worst kind of mixed metaphor. Get the tribe some money for that pipeline.
They actually DO bely up to the trough. My friend up in BC Canada is on his tribal council and told me that the band offices all got together and voted to approve of the Keystone Pipeline.
A month later, all these white cunt hippies showed up from Vancouver and started offering native people free beer to come march with them for photo ops.
Repeat: the tribal councils from all of the bands involved APPROVED the pipeline so that they could finally make some money to help their own people live a better life and the hippies showed up to ruin it.
China doesn't have, nor will it achieve, economic and military hegemony because of their willingness to use fossil fuels - they might, repeat...MIGHT, achieve it for no other reason than so many people in the West (re rapacious globalists/hyper-capitalists) gave it to them.
I think you are underestimating their actual productive effort. A lengthy war with the Chinese would expose the hollowness the Western industrial base. They also have seized monopoly share on some commodities by making the costs prohibitive to compete in the West, think rare earths. Their web of clients in Asia and Africa restrict supply to the West if we do not play ball with them.
All of this activity is powered with fossil fuels, primarily coal.
The Nazis had a similar view of the US in 1941. Makers of razor blades and records or some such.
China is powerful because the most powerful among us made them that way. And on the way to making China powerful, those most powerful among us got richer than hell.
I think we didn't fight it at the point when it could have been hindered, but their execution of their economic plan was all them. Late 90s was the turning point, and what was done then will look like 1930s appeasement does today.
Here is what "cheap energy is cheap until it isn't" means. The "externalities" of fossil fuel consumption are already well known and have been as long as we've been burning fossil fuels. Not only can these externalities be accurately predicted, they are accurately predicted.
And not only are they accurately predicted (forecast), the costs of these externalities can---and are--- accurately measured, assessed, and calculated.
Externality: "....a side effect or consequence of an industrial or commercial activity that affects other parties without this being reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved."
We know damn well what the side effects and consequences of burning fossil fuels are. They are just not "reflected in the cost" of burning them. But when the final bill comes due.....
If we can't predict the co2 effect on climate, which we can't, and 50 years of failed predictions bear me out on this, the externality remains unknown.
I wonder if Warren Buffet pays the protestors more than minimum wage, do they have employer paid insurance, taxes withheld, railroad workers pensions, etc. Maybe the IRS and OSHA should look in on these activities.
Do you have any actual evidence that Buffet paid these protesters? Besides. I thought George Soros was the universal boogeyman for this sort of thing. Is he on summer holiday?
I didn't say he was paying anyone anything, I said I wonder if he is; but he strikes me as enough of a lowlife to do so. I am quite certain there is a 50% chance he is in someway involved.
The statement meant oil is being transported by rail instead of pipeline. People give Warren Buffet a hard time because he owns many shares in railways. I doubt the claim Warren is behind cancelling Keystone, but folks always need something to gossip about.
I suspect you have as much evidence to support your conclusion as I have to support mine, correct? As for him owning shares in railroad, I couldn't care less, but he strikes me as greedy enough to at least attempt to manipulate situations to enhance his portfolio.
While he has obviously gotten rich, it isn't because he is creative, it's because he manipulates. He takes over companies created by others, and at least several times has run them into the ground, causing people to lose jobs and savings. Consider the recent history of Russell Corporation.
But good ol' Warren really, really does want the government to make him pay more in taxes......
There is something you might want to look into Mr. Tabbi. Remember when they had the Standing Rock Pipeline protests? There was a lot of shady actions from federal authorities from the little I could find out about it. Then there was the Bundy Standoff. If you ever read the Judge's affidavit about why she threw the case out with prejudice, you will find out how little the "official" story met reality. I would be interested in someone digging deeper into the use of federal lands and how federal officials abuse their power in conjunction with media support to get their way time and again.
The day of two paths is about ripe. When treaties are broken, they are no longer valid. Each party then takes the actions that they see fit, according to intuition and discernment. Sometimes, those are not popular or politically "correct", but they are right in the eyes of your spirit. So, choose. As children of the earth, it is our responsibility to protect her, or perish as fools. There is no differentiation between banks, governments, and corporations. Black Rock, Bill Gates, Amazon, are but a few among the giants who are land grabbing; staking a claim in the end game they call the Great Reset. Strategic survival of the elites through collapse. The creation of covert covid weapons of mass destruction, lead the masses to take their "medicine" to get the carrot; the freedoms taken from you, with your consent. Ivermectin suppression, censorship of professors and wise elders. The ancestors knew, nobody owns a planet! As if they created it themselves! Ha! The light laughs from beyond the veil. Indigenous law will surely rise through the ashes of our humiliation. Communities that feed themselves carry the ability to free themselves. Everything is energy. It's all a game. Who represents your interests? What do you value? Be your own guru! Peace, peace, peace.
my guess is Biden's day 1 cancellation of the Keystone XL was election related retaliation. The Keystone backers were probably all in for trump at the FEC. These other pipelines must be making the DNC happy at the FEC.
I assume they all walked to the protest? This country is going to destroy itself while China marches on. We are fools.
So if they have a car then they shouldn't be protesting someone building a pipeline in their yard? this country is rotting for within and China has NOTHING to do that. why does "being a major world power" even matter? We haven't done ANYTHING good with the power so far as far as I'm concerned.
I think helping the Soviets defeat the Nazis was worthwhile. The Marshall plan was noble. We kept half of Korea free Lately we haven’t been doing as well. I do think we should turn our attention to our own people and our own problems.
Yes I agree that we have done some virtuous things. But since I was born in 1980 I haven’t seen anything good. Just compounding corruption. We’ve been left behind by our corporate overlords… but they expect us to keep going to work business as usual. Why is it that the working class makes all these big wigs rich and those bigwigs don’t even think we deserve a living wage? I mean… a huge chunk of our population doesn’t make 50k. I’d bet it’s more than half the country. How are we the “richest country in the world” when we just keep on printing the money??? Impending doom is a feeling I have often.
By your logic, they should also not be protesting if they happen to have, or be wearing, any items made of plastic, or made in China.
It seems reasonable that if you against “fossil fuels” you should divest your life of them. Hardest change in life is changing yourself. I used to enjoy sports but since they have embraced BLM I have eliminated them from my life.
Apple, Microsoft and Google have also embraced BLM as well as a ton of other corporations you may want to look into so you can divest your life of them. Or not, either way…it’s not about being perfect because that’s kinda impossible.
Correct. I use Duck duck go. Avoid Amazon etc. I am suddenly “woke” as to who benefits from my money
But it IS about hypocrisy. Ironic, isn’t it?
When Taco Bell got rid of the Bell Beefer,
https://tacobell.fandom.com/wiki/Bell_Beefer
I protested by not eating at Taco Bell anymore. It was a tough choice on my part, and I, along with my fellow Bell Beeferists, suffered greatly because of it. But, thankfully, due mainly to the economic pressure that I was able to exert, Taco Bell is supposed to bring back the Bell Beefer in 2023. The system works!
Blows against the Empire, mate.
Big sacrifice; now you miss out on those oh so cool F-35 flyovers that last 10 seconds, all at a miniscule cost of $1.7 trillion.
That's a pretty big slice of the Virtue Pie you got there. Try not to eat it all in one bite, otherwise you might choke on it.
Really?? Don’t feel all that virtuos.
I have less "eliminated sports" than "eliminated financial contribution TO the corrupt edifice of American Professional Sports"*. Or at least doing my damnedest to do so.
*- I may condemn American Professional Sports, but compared to the Olympic Grift, it's clean as the Catholic Girls School Curling League.
Support the table tennis!
It'd be a shame if they planted someone in the WH who was the physical embodiment of systemic racism... Oh wait -they did.
What does China have to do with any of this? Also, aside from whatever your views are on fossil fuel, why is it Ok to break treaties by putting an unwanted pipeline through native land? I assume that since you are on the right, you are a big fan of private property rights. I too support the rights of private landowners to use their property as they wish, so long as this usage does not harm others. In the case of this pipeline, however, the state grants some corporation the right to use land that isn’t theirs (by way of breaking native treaties or by use of eminent domain to “purchase” it from individual landowners). Last I checked, eminent domain isn’t supposed to be about enriching billionaires at the expense of everyone else and we are supposed to honor our treaties. This isn’t, and shouldn’t, just be just about fossil fuel usage and our environmental policy. Whether you simply support property rights OR you are an environmentalist, there is great reason to oppose this pipeline.
Your version of events is apparently just something you've made up, and you 'know" it must be true because "it all fits together" with all the other stuff you've said in the past.
Never mind the tribal councils and the heads thereof (NOT going to call them CHEIFS, lest I get REEEEEE!!!-ed upon) thought they HAD negotiated agreements of minimal environmental impact (pipeline's pretty passive, just sits there), and maximal positive economic impact for the tribes they represented. Now I don't know if they took a cut, paid someone off, whatever, but they had made a deal, and it was supported by other indigenous people.
The way you've portrayed it seems...tryin' to be nice, but blatantly inaccurate is about as nice as it gets. Do you have some image of feather-bonneted, buckskin-clad tipi-dwellers being conned by some Wild West sharpies?? Because the indigenous people are themselves suit-wearing lawyers, cutting their own deals, I don't know what kind of imaginary scenario you've cooked up. The Olde West parchment-and-quill-pen Indian Territory documents were long ago superseded.
I share your bafflement as to China's role in this matter, but it seems to me the REAL interlopers, the people REALLY interfering with tribal rights are the PROTESTORS who are unhappy with the deal the tribes freely agreed to. And the claim that this pipeline was "unwanted" surely needs confirmation. The people who wanted the oil, and to resell the oil, and to drive their cars, wanted it. The people who wanted the jobs working on the pipeline wanted it. The people who negotiated the deal wanted it. Indeed the actual situation might be closer to OPPOSITE of the gibberishish account you've presented.
Next time somebody says "WE represent the true wishes of [marginalized group X]." feel free to examine the veracity of their claim with as much skepticism as you would those of the widow of the Prince of Nigeria. (who also wants you to invest in a pipeline, interestingly enough)
The whole native treaty thing is kind of weird, because the natives aren't sovereign. They have to abide by federal laws and such. How can you contract a treaty with a non-sovereign entity? They are more like MOAs. Anyway, eminent domain seizure of land is entirely possible, so there is no resemblance to a treaty with a foreign nation.
This is the dumbest gotcha line when it comes to climate activism. So the only people that can credibly speak out on climate are those that don't participate in industrialized society? Very convenient for you, Mr. Status Quo Man.
If it is an “existential” threat(which I do NOT believe) then it would behoove the purveyors of such nonsense to at least attempt to act in a manner that demonstrates their fealty to such hoohaw. I have to give that nut cake Greta some credit for sailing to America
or maybe we should ask the white Christians why they think the oil is theirs, indegenious people have more of a right to it then oil companys
oh my, how much longer do we have to put up with this type of comment. Grow up
Nuclear power is the cleanest and most efficient energy source out there, but American society has a knee jerk rejection of it.
I'm not disagreeing with you here, but the few catastrophic failures have been, well, catastrophic. It's a case of disproportionate invisible success vs. highly visible failure. Hard for me to expect everybody to just rationally run the numbers and not have an emotional knee-jerk reaction after Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.
...it probably didn't help that nuke power got emotionally conflated with ICBMs back during the Cold War.
Chernobyl was essentially run like Springfield Nuclear PP on The Simpson’s. When the meltdown happened, a nuclear physicist put the engineering snafu in layman’s terms as “Imagine if the breaks and the gas pedal were switched on a car unawares!”That said, if managed/engineered properly-like in France, where the majority of nations power needs are met by nuclear, I stand by my statement. The USSR bureaucracy destroyed anything it touched-in the 70s and 80s, 50% of house fires in Moscow were caused by exploding TV sets-same engineering that went into Chernobyl.....
Proliferation is a big issue. If every country has nuclear reactors, they will all be a lot closer to owning nuclear weapons. Maybe that's actually ok for world peace but maybe not.
True. On the other hand France generates upwards of 75% of their electricity from nuclear. They EXPORT electricity. France jumped on the nuclear bandwagon early, primarily for the energy security it provided. People tend to forget even 20 years after WW2, it was still fresh in European minds. Can we learn something from France, or have they just been lucky?
Nuclear power -as history has clearly demonstrated- cannot be put into the hands of those whose aim is personal/political power, or financial gain. It is simply too dangerous. They only work "efficiently" when operated under the strictest design and safety protocols. IOW, when the plant is designed, built, and operated at a continuous financial loss, at least in the hyper-capitalist sense. Plus, the issue of how to safely dispose of the waste absolutely does NOT make it the "cleanest and most efficient energy source out there." If it were, it would be much more widely adopted, worldwide. The future lies in "local" electricity production, moving away from private, for-profit utilities.
It’s actually quite safe. Read Schellenbergers book.
Yes. Essentially, given our experiences over the last 50 years, nuclear power scares the hell out of anybody who might be responsible for running the show at a plant. And, yes again: The cost and very real danger involved in storing the waste is another barrier. It ain't like shovelin' coal into the boiler and then grabbing a cup of coffee and playing a little solitaire.
I think you might want to update your reading material.
People can support nuclear power or not support nuclear power, I don't care. But those who oppose nuclear power need to shut up about "climate crisis."
Don't forget... Opposition to nuclear comes from every other industry providing energy. Solar and wind companies hire lobbyists to spread disinformation, just like every other lobbyist in DC.
Is this directed at my comments? Reading material? And I'm not supporting or not supporting nuclear power in my comments. I'm not advocating for any mode of energy in my comments. And I said nothing about the "climate crisis." And: I wouldn't deny (and never mentioned) that "opposition to nuclear comes from every other industry providing energy."
What's your point? There's opposition, organized or not, everywhere against everything. And finally, nobody mentions the "climate crisis" more than Big Oil, in "opposition" to alternative (green, sustainable, what have you) as well as the very existence of climate change. Big Oil long ago recognized "climate change," correctly viewing it as a threat to their bottom lines. That's when they ramped up their propaganda. Ditto for the Pentagon. This is all well-documented.
The Pentagon commissoned a comprehensive strategic-themed study 10 years ago in preparation for climate change. They take the science seriously. Don't doubt that solar and wind companies "hire lobbyists to spread disinformation, just like every other lobbyist in DC."--Ii'll take your word for it. I would welcome a share of some of YOUR reading and research.
One doesn't have to be the victim of an "accident" to suffer the deleterious effects of radiation - just be in proximity to where uranium is mined ....
Then of course there is the release of tritium when a plant is operating "normally"
I don't, at least on principle, disagree. However, the images of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima are still too fresh and prominent in too many people's minds to make "nuclear" a serious and viable alternative. Add to that the fact that the nuclear power industry has done little too nothing to change the public's mind.
I agree. A lot of the fears are overblown. Fossil fuels have been way, way more destructive and responsible for far, far more deaths and negative health impacts. Yet for some reason we've been mostly all good with that up until fairly recently. However, the criticisms of nuclear are serious and legitimate. With very high costs, long roll out times, centuries of commitment to waste storage being just a few of them. These are things we need to grapple with if we want a real clean energy future.
Uranium stocks have gone bananas. $$$$
See my comment above. If nuclear were cost-effective, it would be happening now, regardless of American knees.
Serious question for those opposed to oil pipelines: Why do you oppose them? Several things that make me wonder. For the foreseeable future we will continue to rely on fossil fuels, even as alternative and renewables come online. Aren't pipelines safer than transporting oil and fuels by rail or truck? Given how clean it burns why is there opposition natural gas pipelines? Since the US gave up on nuclear power years ago, aren't we going to need fossil fuels to generate electricity for many decades yet, especially as the share of electrically powered cars increases? I get being against something, but what's the better alternative after stopping pipelines? This is not a troll. I'm interested in your point of view.
I'm not against pipelines, personally, while considering this question I searched "pipeline failure statistics' and found that there are way more safety incidents than I expected. Pipeline catches fire, on average, every 4 days, explodes every 11 days and someone dies from them every 26 days (!). Whoa. I'm fairly sure this isn't the reason for the protests, but those aren't good stats. If those numbers are accurate, it seems like there is a market opportunity for someone to provide a better pipeline solution.
Source? Those stats don't seem right. They may be but I'd like to consider the source.
They were the first result on the search 'pipeline failure statistics.' Admittedly, I spent zero time digging into those, so I probably shouldn't have commented on it, but those numbers are out there, in virtual nature, for all to see.
Specifically, they're from NRDC.org
Great call out. I'm guessing it will be met with a silence similar to that of anti-nuke folks when similarly questioned...
The reason, and only reason, that we no longer build nuclear power plants is due to the enormous costs of constructing them and bringing them online, and the equally onerous cost of keeping them on line. Utilities and other energy concerns got out of the nuclear business because there's more money to be lost, then made, with nuclear. And the specter and liability expenses incurred from a potential core meltdown, or any other serious mishap, pretty much seals the no-deal for investors. It's not just low-margin power, but potential anti-margin power. This may change in the future, but it's a relatively distant future.
It's not 1970 any more.
Bill Gates three days ago:
According to Gates, “if we’re serious about solving climate change, and quite frankly we have to be, the first thing we should do is keep safe reactors operating.”
But “even then, just maintaining that status quo is not enough. We need more nuclear power to zero out emissions in America and to prevent a climate disaster,” Gates said Wednesday.
And he's putting his money where his mouth is.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/11/bill-gates-bullish-on-using-nuclear-power-to-fight-climate-change.html
Ah yes - "safe reactors" - anything like those "safe bio-safety labs"?
The NRC isn't exactly a non aligned party.
No doubt the Gates Foundation would be a big investor and already has his fingers in the pie ...
The same Bill Gates who opposes TRIPS IP waivers for vaccines? Or is this a different Bill Gates - considering he's into GMOs, maybe he has had himself cloned ...
I suspect he has more than one bunker ready ....
Read again:
Latouche31 min ago
Is this directed at my comments? Reading material? And I'm not supporting or not supporting nuclear power in my comments. I'm not advocating for any mode of energy in my comments. And I said nothing about the "climate crisis." And: I wouldn't deny (and never mentioned) that "opposition to nuclear comes from every other industry providing energy."
What's your point? There's opposition, organized or not, everywhere against everything. And finally, nobody mentions the "climate crisis" more than Big Oil, in "opposition" to alternative (green, sustainable, what have you) as well as the very existence of climate change. Big Oil long ago recognized "climate change," correctly viewing it as a threat to their bottom lines. That's when they ramped up their propaganda. Ditto for the Pentagon. This is all well-documented.
The Pentagon commissoned a comprehensive strategic-themed study 10 years ago in preparation for climate change. They take the science seriously. Don't doubt that solar and wind companies "hire lobbyists to spread disinformation, just like every other lobbyist in DC."--Ii'll take your word for it. I would welcome a share of some of YOUR reading and research.
Again, once again, I am neither advocating for nuclear power, nor am I advocating against nuclear power. I am aware of Bill Gate's nuclear project and his advocacy of it as a positive source of energy for mitigating the effects of climate change. In the name of humanity, I wish him godspeed.
Fromm your link:
“Today, nuclear power is at a crossroads. Nearly 20% of America’s electricity comes from nuclear,” Gates said. “But while America’s current nuclear capacity serves the country well, there are far more reactors slated for retirement than there are new reactors under construction.”
In April, the Indian Point Energy Center nuclear power plant north of New York City retired its last operating nuclear reactor. And the Exelon Corporation has announced plans to retire two of its Illinois nuclear power plants in the fall.
If these retirements come to fruition, 2021 could set a record for the most retirements of nuclear generators in a year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Since 1960, the United States has retired 40 nuclear generators but it has never this many in one year, sasy an EIA spokesperson."
This speaks to my point, I believe. There's no reason to believe that if nuclear power were economically viable, at the moment, these plants would either remain on-line or if needed, upgraded. I've not commented on the current efficacy of nuclear technology due, mostly, because I'm not a nuclear engineer. I havenot studied nor am I privy to it.
Here, though, is someone who has, lurking beneath the fold in this piece":
"....Jacobson says that, in fact, “investing in new nuclear power is the surest way to climate disaster.” Climate change is urgent, and new nuclear power plants are expensive and take a long time to build, he says.
Jacobson, who has published a textbook on renewable energy, also points out that nuclear power comes with concerns that renewables don’t have, including weapons proliferation, meltdowns, radioactive waste and uranium mining risks.
Again, I'm not an advocate, one way or another. And as for Gates' Natrium project, it certainly helps to have $160 billion in the checking account. Jeff Bezos, I hear, is using his billions to go spelunking in the Andromeda Galaxy. I wish the two of them well in their scientific exploits.
Old enough to remember when nuke power was being sold to us a "too cheap to meter" ....
Yes. And presumably there are some engineers squirreled away in a Western mountain range working on a new technology that will "make nuclear power viable again." And it will be marketed and sold to the American public accordingly.
Starting to look that way.
Property rights are top tier importance
Thanks for the reply. I certainly understand having specific.reasons to oppose a pipeline with a troubled history.
No, Biden got in office and Nordstream 2 was given the green light.
Pipeline activists expected Biden to keep his promises? Seriously? After all this time one would think they would know better ... I am beginning to wonder if idealism and naivete are joined at the hip ... How many of these folks voted for him? Why? Did they believe It was either that or Trump? Another LOTE election? ... but doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of ..... There was another choice more in sync with their cause so why didn't they choose that? Every time I ask this question I get "3rd parties can't win". But that's BS, any candidate on a ballot can win if enough folks vote for 'em.
And TPTB know this too, so, as we concentrate on voter suppression, we pay no attention to the "poison pills" stuck in the much heralded HR1 that make it almost impossible for 3rd parties to even get on the ballot - just in case enough of us figure out that a particular 3rd party is actually what we want and would actually vote for. So, great, more and more folks can vote for either Tweedle dee or Tweedle dum - Yippee, what a victory for democracy!
And nobody - independent journalists included, seem to have noticed this or give a flying fu**
"So, great, more and more folks can vote for either Tweedle dee or Tweedle dum - Yippee, what a victory for democracy!"
"If you always vote for the lesser of two evils, you will always have evil, and you will always have less.”
[Ralph Nader]
I totally agree!! I’ve heard about that particular tidbit in the bill as well but I’ve never heard another word about it anywhere else. Why is no one concerned about that in media? Hmm. I wonder.
Shucks, wouldn't it be nice if Matt dealt with it :D
Smart analysis. Thx
Gee, even Bernie didn't mention it ....
I think Biden made a huge mistake cancelling the Keystone Pipeline. All the jobs are now dead and most of the pipeline was already completed. Will that oil be safer now traveling by train or truck?
Shhh! People are clinging bitterly to the fantasy that it will never leave the ground now.
I don't understand the left's hostility to fossil fuels. Climate catastrophism is mighty thin gruel.
Sacrifices to the weather gods have been going on since time immemorial. It must be good politics.
Has to be an “all of the above” approach. Until we adopt Nuclear and advance technology in renewables, we will need fossil fuels. Sorry.
It’s not “Leftist” to take an all of the above approach or embrace technology advances in renewables or to embrace nuclear. It’s a matter of making sense.
Totally agree, right wingers can call it conservation
Which is what I do
"But why does one have to be labeled a "leftist" if one wants to start moving toward higher efficiency standards, lower pollution regulations, and even alternative energy sources?"
I understand why we don't want pollution. Pollution is always a problem. But why would we want alternative energy sources? Particularly if they're expensive and inefficient like wind and solar power generation. Could you please explain?
Pollution is especially always the problem with fossil fuels. You're being disengenuous when you admit to fossil fuel pollution being a problem and then state "pollution is always a problem." Alternatives are becoming less expensive and more efficient. At some point, we transition to alternatives. It's in the cards. Just ask Exxon Mobil.
I understand why we wouldn't want horseshit in the streets, but horseshit in the streets is always a problem. And them new-fangled horseless carriages? Expensive and inefficient, always breaking down and getting flat tires.
So strip mining for heavy metals for batteries and magnets is pollution free?
Alternatives? Like what? Wind and solar? LOL
You know what else is bad for the environment? Poverty. And if we force ordinary people to give up fossil fuels, then what we're really forcing them to do is to live in poverty.
Have you considered the social and economic ramifications of abandoning fossil fuels because they cause pollution? By the way, what is exactly are the pollutants emitted by fossil fuels? Carbon Dioxide?
What would a world look like without fossil fuels? A lot of death and misery.
Lipo is a prop-bot from the API and I'm diggin' it!
We have plenty of fossil fuels awaiting extraction and we should continue to do so. Wind and solar power are bullshit. You can take my word for it.
I'm dead serious. I think advocates for alternative fuels are delusional. They imagine that we can abandon fossil fuels and adopt alternative generation methods without any serious consequences. They imagine that the world will end if we continue using fossil fuels. It's all bullshit. There's certainly no evidence of it.
All of the available evidence shows that the current climate state is not out of the ordinary or expected. The Earth is fine.
Pollution is always a problem. Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant.
All lot of people have retirement accounts. If they aren't busy divesting, the public can get in on the ownership action.
Plenty of fossil fuel drillers are public companies. Buy some shares if you think the owners are making hay.
Biden - bigger disappointment than Obama
That depends upon your definition of "disappointment." I am one of many people who voted for Obama and felt swindled.
I am incredulous at the idea that anyone could vote for Biden not knowing exactly what they were getting. You would have to have been living inside a black box, consuming no political reportage, for the last 40 years. "Hi, I'm Schrödinger's cat. Not sure if I'm dead or alive, but I'm voting for Joe Biden, he'll build it back better. No malarkey!"
It would be like Republicans voting for Lindsey Graham and being surprised they ended up with a shameless neocon who has no principles, sketchy defense industry friends, corporate connections, and more than a few big brother tendencies. Come on man this is Joe Biden! You should know what you are getting at this point. While we are on the subject can someone please tell me why so many social justice Democrats forgot he wrote the '94 Crime Bill? After almost half a year of Black Lives Matter rioting and protesting, the Left was more than happy to go with the man who should have a lifetime achievement award for putting young black males in prison?
Seriously! If you wanted a "systemic racism" ticket, you'd start with the guy who'd been writing racist laws for decades, and then you'd add a corrupt DA who used those laws to lock up minorities she knew were innocent!
You can't make this up!
Bu bu but - they were the LOTE! And that's the rule - gotta vote LOTE, for some, enough, it was Trump. What if we had a LOTE party ... oh wait, we do, 2 in fact ....
"someone please tell me why so many social justice Democrats forgot he wrote the '94 Crime Bill? After almost half a year of Black Lives Matter rioting and protesting, the Left was more than happy to go with the man who should have a lifetime achievement award for putting young black males in prison?"
The only explanation I can offer is that we are all fictional characters living in a Philip K. Dick novel. The memory-holing of the Crime Bill by racial/social "justice activists" who should theoretically care about this kind of thing the most is completely insane. If it wasn't "structural racism," what is?
...I apologize for the minor tangent here, but there's an argument to be made that the aggressive gun-banning provisions of the Crime Bill were a not insignificant factor in the GOP sweeping Congress in the '94 midterms. Bill Clinton was able to woo a lot of NRA "bubbas" in '92. In '94 they felt stabbed in the back.
But, but, but....
Trump bad!
There is also the fact that a lot of the Black community leaders at the time were pushing for harsh criminal penalties. You can bet that they do not want anyone remembering their role in the whole thing. On a side note anyone remember the "super predator" thing?
Hey now! I work hard to make the simulation run smoothly. If sometimes there's a little cognitive dissonance here or there, it is what it is!
Nothing to apologize for, grisha. Great post. And +10,000 hit points for working in Philip K. Dick.
It's the narcotic effect of seeing Trump out of office that clouds their minds. Try and start a conversation about the Biden administration and count the seconds before it turns to how bad was Trump.
While I like the idea of living in a Phil Dick novel I think there's an easier explanation. Biden supporters were in the CNN/MSNBC echo chamber. Biden's racist crime bill, much like his deranged kid's laptop, was never one of the echoes allowed in that particular echo chamber. Therefore it didn't exist. When you combine that with the fact that every time CNN/MSNBC mentioned Trump's name, every Democrat inadvertently squirted a little pee into their already bunched up panties, I think y'all find a recipe for the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris fondue we're now being force fed.
Not that I don't see evidence of your Phil Dick hypotheses. With everything from the rise of UFOs out of the military's clandestine underoos to the fact that most people now stare at a little electronic device like they want to fuck it or Vulcan mind meld with it, I'd say that Phil's probably somewhere jumping up & down & screaming, "See motherfuckers, I told ya so. Over & over. Did ya listen? Nope. Well Fuck y'all ya easily led by the nose dumbfucks."
Cognitive Dissonance + Trump Derangement Syndrome. If they were true to their values, they would've supported Bernie. Fact is, they would've voted for Trump than Bernie.
Just a couple of days ago I watched the 'Glitch in the Matrix'. That Dick fella was on to something....
Or like the republicans voting for Donald Trump and not knowing that he was a five-time loser in the bankruptcy courts, or that he was a serial molester and adulterer, a shameless but largely unsuccessful con artist, and that, and that---oh, that's right---they knew all this. Never mind.
Rent free
The TDS. And the corrupt DNC?
On the contrary, for this great country, Joe Biden is the logical and appropriate bookend to Donald Trump. A whirling dervish of a loud mouth double-talking con man from New York, to a Delawarian with less life and charisma than the Audio-Animatronic Chester A. Arthur at Disney World's Hall of Presidents. Perfectly executed!
"less life and charisma than the Audio-Animatronic Chester A. Arthur"
I take umbrage at your disparagement of "The Dude President" in this manner, sir. Even a clockwork simulation thereof possesses more innate charisma than Joseph Robinette Biden.
The 'pubs should run the Arthur automaton in '24 and see what happens. Some straight Ambrose Bierce shit. Fuck around and find out, as the Bernie Bros. used to say.
*"Hi, I'm Schrodo-Schruduh-Shoulder-Suredeal-Soho-Soma-Schlmo... Slowdangle's Cat."
"Let me tell you about this cat Jack, he was bad news, a bad dude. They called him Tidy Paws, he used to carry a bicycle chain and claws."
...has there been any concerted effort by literary scholars to revise Joe's inchoate public utterances into metered, rhyming surrealist poetry yet? You wouldn't have to do very much. As a voter, I am on the record as favoring an NEH grant for such a project.
I seem to remember someone (probably Bill Maher's staff) doing something like that for Sarah Palin after she entered the meth'y rambling stage. They put it to an electronic beat. It was pretty damn funny.
I could see Joe having a lot of potential there as an accidental hip hop star. Just make the chorus end "...then you ain't black!"
Now I'm imagining one of those cliche 90's/early00's gangsta rap album covers which just has a lot of thug iconography poorly photoshopped together. Joe's in the middle with an ice cream cone and it's called "Corn Pop a Cap in Yo A$$"
Minus the rhyming (I think) this was done with Don Rumsfeld's words during the W administration. Good stuff. I'd welcome Biden receiving the same treatment.
I suspect the reason Biden got elected was hubris of Trump. I think a bigger surprise than Trump's win against Hillary is that he managed to squander that win and to lose to Biden.
For easily excited - no, I'm not a Trumpista. Just the facts, ma'am.
So what will you do now? Biden? Harris? in '24?
Well, I never expected anything from Biden. We have 40+ years of being a sell-out. Obama only had a few years in the Illinois and U.S. Senate of backing away from anything controversial.
I have a nice box of Obama Disappointmints. I've not tried any, I don't think.
"Nothing will fundamentally change."
{Joe Biden}
The only sonic weapons I saw in that video were the tired old hippy chants. Seriously annoying.
I though the native people didn't believe that land was "owned" by anyone -how then does this break a treaty?
Honestly, it's a non-news-event when reporting that Biden is the same old, same old.
He's been a puppet that dances on the money strings for his entire career. How is this a revelation?
A friend of mine who was acting chief for a period up in British Columbia reports to me that the tribal councils all got together and agreed that the Keystone pipeline was going to be a good thing and they were going to be compensated well for it -and have cheaper oil.
This is seven or eight tribal chiefs coming together to agree on something: rare but they were happy with the agreement -until the white hippies showed up and started protesting.
He said they were offering free beer to the few natives who DID join their protests and that they didn't represent the tribes there at all. They were the people who ALWAYS cause trouble and are usually out-of-their-mind-drunk by 10PM every night and really embarrassing. They don't represent any councils or band governments.
This looks a lot like that to me.
I hope you realize that my post wasn't a cry of solidarity for the anti-pipeline folks. Doing away with fossil fuels would be fine if they had an economical & efficient replacement for them but they don't.
Contrary to what most Dems seem to believe, electric cars & smartphones aren't really powered by meth-ed out hamsters furiously running on grid connected exercise wheels.
My new attitude towards "activism" has been colored by Portland, where they've been protesting non stop for over a year. That has led me to wonder how one pays rent & buys food with that lucrative protest wage. Are there employers who offer a special activism leave of absence where you can still draw a paycheck while chanting "No justice, no peace?" In other words, it appears that someone is funding it all. Who is probably debatable.
Then again maybe they're all converted Breatharians who have learned the neat mystical trick of living on air alone.
Oh, I was just adding to it.
Those electric cars are coal-powered battery cars and unless energy can be produced without coal or oil-fuel and they are actually MORE harmful to the environment.
It's all a giant scam.
No problem. These days, doesn't the S in USA usually stand for scam?
I should confess that I didn't really watch much of the video. I've seen that episode of Lawless & Disorder for over a year now. It has grown quite old.
And, I really don't give a fuck anymore. According to climate things that I read in the 80s we should all be living in a 21st century version of Atlantis. Let's say I'm also a bit lackadaisical about my recycling habits. Something my 2 oldest "save the Earth" children like to hassle me about until I point out that neither one of them can survive summer without an air conditioner blasting 24/7.
Free alcohol to the natives-that’s not exploitative negotiating tactics circa 1750 or anything!!!
Oh hell to the nah, mang.
THAT was "ruthless exploitation of savages we considered just barely more evolved than the ape" (which was pretty generous considering it was PRE-Darwin and all).
THIS is a sensitive, respectful negotiation taking into account the savage colonialist greed of the white devil and the generous wisdom of earth-attuned indigenes.
I wouldn't bet on a dramatically different result, though..
I'm an outlier who supports limiting use of fossil fuels and eliminating their use as soon as practicable, but the anthropogenic global warming enthusiasts reject my support. A compelling case can be made for that without ever mentioning climate change, which doesn't set the scene for virtue signaling. My support isn't wanted because it's for the "wrong" reason. That's a religion, not science.
The mining activity necessary to build high-density batteries is as damaging as that done to extract fossil fuels, and the technology does not yet exist to build the plants, the generators, the transmission lines needed without increasing output of CO2.
Other factors are seldom considered. The mining activity necessary to build wind turbines and solar panels (from components of steel to rare earth minerals). We tend to ignore these because much of the mining and production occur in other countries. Even the production of the concrete, rebar, and other construction materials has huge impact, as does the actual process of construction. We seldom even consider the scale necessary to "replace" existing energy. We don't see much publicized in terms of square miles of terrain to be cleared and prepared for renewables nor the total number required to achieve whatever the goal is (assume total replacement). The problem is far murkier than a simple X good, Y bad. We can agree on a need to get away from fossil fuels, the problem is in the propaganda and technological limitations surrounding how that happens. As you mentioned, both sides are overly addicted to and reliant upon the conflict to move on to the difficult and time consuming exploration of decent alternatives.
All correct. Moving from fossil fuels to renewables will take at least a century, while the demand for petrochemicals will continue rising.
One other bit. When I used to completely define myself as a lefty, although not a Dem, I'd occasionally buy a magazine called Adbusters. One issue had a full page that was empty except for this sentence: "Humanity needs to find the courage to allow itself to go extinct."
So, if the Left truly believes that fossil fuels will end us, why are they complaining?
Do they have wisher's remorse?
Maybe they should just make up their fucking minds.
Pff. I hope they keep running over the cliff. Big Picture: When we're gone things will go one as they always have, until the sun burps a layer and burns it all off.
One of the "Great Filters" of the Fermi Paradox (yes, I know, not really a paradox) is the instability of so many stars, compared to our rather placid one, and the sensitivity of intelligent species to the effects of super volcanoes, vast solar flares, extreme variations in stellar outputs and the impacts of meteors, asteroids, comets, etc.
Matter of fact, if you look at the wide range of natural phenomena that would terminate our "advanced" civilization, we are way past "living on borrowed time".
And since we're going anyway, before it happens I would dearly love to see the more virtuous among us setting a good example by "allowing themselves to go extinct". I promise to graciously laud their high moral precedent. There could be tears.
I don't see the point. Every iota of fossil fuels will be burnt until it runs out. Why? It's cheap energy. Even a government that agreed to curb it's use would be overthrown or dominated by those who are willing to use the cheap energy. Look at China. The use of this energy enables economic and ultimately military hegemony.
Under the circumstances, those trying to stop pipelines and such are tilting at windmills. Why do things that can only have impact in the smallest ways? Might as well belly up to the trough until the music stops playing, in the worst kind of mixed metaphor. Get the tribe some money for that pipeline.
They actually DO bely up to the trough. My friend up in BC Canada is on his tribal council and told me that the band offices all got together and voted to approve of the Keystone Pipeline.
A month later, all these white cunt hippies showed up from Vancouver and started offering native people free beer to come march with them for photo ops.
Repeat: the tribal councils from all of the bands involved APPROVED the pipeline so that they could finally make some money to help their own people live a better life and the hippies showed up to ruin it.
China doesn't have, nor will it achieve, economic and military hegemony because of their willingness to use fossil fuels - they might, repeat...MIGHT, achieve it for no other reason than so many people in the West (re rapacious globalists/hyper-capitalists) gave it to them.
I think you are underestimating their actual productive effort. A lengthy war with the Chinese would expose the hollowness the Western industrial base. They also have seized monopoly share on some commodities by making the costs prohibitive to compete in the West, think rare earths. Their web of clients in Asia and Africa restrict supply to the West if we do not play ball with them.
All of this activity is powered with fossil fuels, primarily coal.
The Nazis had a similar view of the US in 1941. Makers of razor blades and records or some such.
That "whoosh" you heard over your head was you missing the point. So, for the benefit of those in the nose bleed/cheap seats....
China is "powerful" because "we" made them that way. That is all.
China is powerful because the most powerful among us made them that way. And on the way to making China powerful, those most powerful among us got richer than hell.
I think we didn't fight it at the point when it could have been hindered, but their execution of their economic plan was all them. Late 90s was the turning point, and what was done then will look like 1930s appeasement does today.
Lengthy war with the Chinese? Any war between the U.S. or any other Western nation will last all of 10 minutes.
that's war between the Chinese, U.S. or any other western nation.
Cheap energy is cheap until it isn't.
It's cheap to the burner unless they take into account externalities which cannot be accurately predicted, so it's just cheap at that point.
Here is what "cheap energy is cheap until it isn't" means. The "externalities" of fossil fuel consumption are already well known and have been as long as we've been burning fossil fuels. Not only can these externalities be accurately predicted, they are accurately predicted.
And not only are they accurately predicted (forecast), the costs of these externalities can---and are--- accurately measured, assessed, and calculated.
Externality: "....a side effect or consequence of an industrial or commercial activity that affects other parties without this being reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved."
We know damn well what the side effects and consequences of burning fossil fuels are. They are just not "reflected in the cost" of burning them. But when the final bill comes due.....
If we can't predict the co2 effect on climate, which we can't, and 50 years of failed predictions bear me out on this, the externality remains unknown.
I wonder if Warren Buffet pays the protestors more than minimum wage, do they have employer paid insurance, taxes withheld, railroad workers pensions, etc. Maybe the IRS and OSHA should look in on these activities.
Do you have any actual evidence that Buffet paid these protesters? Besides. I thought George Soros was the universal boogeyman for this sort of thing. Is he on summer holiday?
I didn't say he was paying anyone anything, I said I wonder if he is; but he strikes me as enough of a lowlife to do so. I am quite certain there is a 50% chance he is in someway involved.
There could be plural universal boogeymen. Can you name them?
"Can you name them?"
Don't have to - I'm not the one making the claim.
Just say "Trump". Guaranteed truth. No evidence required.
Good point. Buffet invested in trains knowing the safer, more efficient pipelines would be protested. Sharp.
The statement meant oil is being transported by rail instead of pipeline. People give Warren Buffet a hard time because he owns many shares in railways. I doubt the claim Warren is behind cancelling Keystone, but folks always need something to gossip about.
I suspect you have as much evidence to support your conclusion as I have to support mine, correct? As for him owning shares in railroad, I couldn't care less, but he strikes me as greedy enough to at least attempt to manipulate situations to enhance his portfolio.
While he has obviously gotten rich, it isn't because he is creative, it's because he manipulates. He takes over companies created by others, and at least several times has run them into the ground, causing people to lose jobs and savings. Consider the recent history of Russell Corporation.
But good ol' Warren really, really does want the government to make him pay more in taxes......
Hahaha, that's funny
There is something you might want to look into Mr. Tabbi. Remember when they had the Standing Rock Pipeline protests? There was a lot of shady actions from federal authorities from the little I could find out about it. Then there was the Bundy Standoff. If you ever read the Judge's affidavit about why she threw the case out with prejudice, you will find out how little the "official" story met reality. I would be interested in someone digging deeper into the use of federal lands and how federal officials abuse their power in conjunction with media support to get their way time and again.
The Bundy affiliated wildlife sanctuary protesters were also acquitted by a federal jury in Portland.
I apologize for the following comment.
Tribal elders say, "Casinos...destroy lives...bring much wampum to tribe. Casinos good.
Pipeline...keeps country running...brings no wampum to tribe. Pipeline bad."
You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming. Please don't forget to pick up your Great Spirit coaster set on your way out.
Pipeline protests exist to protect the railroad oil shipment business
Warren Buffet is probably financing the protests.
The day of two paths is about ripe. When treaties are broken, they are no longer valid. Each party then takes the actions that they see fit, according to intuition and discernment. Sometimes, those are not popular or politically "correct", but they are right in the eyes of your spirit. So, choose. As children of the earth, it is our responsibility to protect her, or perish as fools. There is no differentiation between banks, governments, and corporations. Black Rock, Bill Gates, Amazon, are but a few among the giants who are land grabbing; staking a claim in the end game they call the Great Reset. Strategic survival of the elites through collapse. The creation of covert covid weapons of mass destruction, lead the masses to take their "medicine" to get the carrot; the freedoms taken from you, with your consent. Ivermectin suppression, censorship of professors and wise elders. The ancestors knew, nobody owns a planet! As if they created it themselves! Ha! The light laughs from beyond the veil. Indigenous law will surely rise through the ashes of our humiliation. Communities that feed themselves carry the ability to free themselves. Everything is energy. It's all a game. Who represents your interests? What do you value? Be your own guru! Peace, peace, peace.
That was a refreshing break from the inescapable TK pablum.
my guess is Biden's day 1 cancellation of the Keystone XL was election related retaliation. The Keystone backers were probably all in for trump at the FEC. These other pipelines must be making the DNC happy at the FEC.
They'll simply call it something else, like Uhuru CE, and build it anyway.