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Open thread Feb. 13, 2018

Dan Crawford | February 13, 2018 8:48 am

Tags: open thread Comments (6) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
6 Comments
  • rjs says:
    February 13, 2018 at 10:45 am

    here’s something i’ve been advocating since the 80’s:

    The pumped hydro storage potential of the Great Lakes

    The potential energy contained in the waters of the Great Lakes amounts to approximately six thousand terawatt hours, enough to supply the US and Canada with electricity for an entire year were the lakes to be drained to sea level. This of course will never happen, but there may be potential for partial utilization of the resource. A pumped hydro system that uses Lakes Huron and Michigan as the upper reservoir and Lake Ontario as the lower could theoretically generate 10 terawatt-hours, or more, of seasonal energy storage without changing lake levels significantly.

    he’s got much more detailed explanations than i ever got into…i’ve added a some comments, & might have more…

  • pgl says:
    February 13, 2018 at 2:46 pm

    Mark Perry is spinning right wing nonsense again. Here is my take on how Perry needs to read William Baumol:

    http://econospeak.blogspot.com/2018/02/mark-perry-has-never-heard-of-william.html

  • EMichael says:
    February 13, 2018 at 2:49 pm

    Greenwald makes an utter ass out of himself every single day. Almost like he has a death wish.

    “There once was a time when right-wing conspiracy theorists flourished, argues Glenn Greenwald. “But those people have been largely scorned and relegated to obscurity. The new conspiracy theorists — the ones who casually suggest that when a plane crashes, it is really a secret attempt by Putin and Trump to silence one of the passengers (who wasn’t even a passenger) — are found not on far-right websites, but on MSNBC and at Harvard Law School.”

    The right’s conspiracy theorists have been relegated to obscurity? Really? Because I can think of a number of counterexamples. Some of them have influential platforms, or even extremely high-level jobs in the federal government.

    This passage reveals a great deal about Greenwald’s peculiar approach to the Russia investigation. When evidence first appeared in 2016 linking Russia to hacking of Democratic emails, and the Trump campaign to Russia, Greenwald dismissed the whole question as an absurd, neo-McCarthyite smear. “Democrats seem to have one tactic with their adversaries and enemies, which is to accuse them of being Russian agents,” he explained, so they concocted a conspiracy theory, which was embraced by a liberal elite in alliance with “a shadowy, secretive world of intelligence and military operatives.” In fact, he believed, Clinton was just as in cahoots with Russia as Trump, and there was “a very extreme dearth of evidence” Russia even had anything to do with the hacks.

    If you have been following the news in organs of the dreaded coastal Establishment, like the Washington Post and New York Times, you have seen Greenwald’s claims dismantled piece by piece. Russia’s responsibility for the hacks is no longer in question, and the connections between Trump’s campaign and Russia keep widening.

    If you have been following the news from Greenwald, through his columns, tweets, and appearances on Fox News, you have received a different impression altogether. The nutty conspiracy theories about Trump and Russia just keep getting nuttier as the left loses its mind in a desperate bid to discredit the election.”

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/02/how-glenn-greenwald-made-the-russia-scandal-disappear.html

  • J.Goodwin says:
    February 13, 2018 at 2:49 pm

    Let them eat cake!

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/02/12/trump-wants-to-slash-food-stamps-and-replace-them-with-a-blue-apron-type-program/

    The next level impact will be food banks:

    https://www.aarp.org/money/low-income-assistance/info-04-2009/what_happened_tothefoodsurplus.html

    Snark back on:

    So this is a great plan that will make America great.

  • Longtooth says:
    February 13, 2018 at 11:18 pm

    Reminder:

    If you think Trump’s a serious problem for the nation and perhaps even working deliberately to increase its already increasing disunity as U.S. President, then you had better think very hard about the electorate that elected him.

    His campaign for the GOP nomination and for President after that showed his absolute and clear misogyny, and lies so blatant they couldn’t be mistaken for anything but deliberate, unapologetic lies. Yet nearly half the electorate voted for him anyway. State and national legislators rode his coat tails to their own election victories.

    Many apologists blame the Electoral College system, but that is actually just an apology for the electorate that voted for him…. as if their votes shouldn’t have counted (since they were in the bare minority).
    something. But Trump took 46.1% to Hillary’s 48.2% of the popular vote or in other words just a 2.1% differential .. hardly what I would call a huge difference.
    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hillary-clinton-officially-wins-popular-vote-29-million/story?id=44354341

    Yes, in subsequent days and months after his inauguration, his approval ratings went decidedly negative — but when-ever he appeared to be on the verge of a political policy victory the approval rating increased temporarily& fell back only when they didn’t materialize..

    Since the tax – cut legislation appeared to be passing the Senate (mid-December) and his political victory relative to Dreamers thus far his approval rating has increased even more According to recent 538 composite polls of Likely & Registered Voters the approvals are at their their post election highs since May 2017 (42.8%)

    All polling indications are that his approval rating rises when his far right policies are enacted (either legislatively or by Executive order) which only supports his electorate’s desires …. those that voted for him in the first place.

    The point here is that the issues the nation face are actually those of a split electorate . split to the extremes where most are mutually exclusive positions. Political polarization is putting it far too mildly.

    Racism is now more blatantly exposed than it has been… white supremacy is a better term. The GOP spent 8 years railing against increasing deficits and then promptly increases them as soon as they have the chance. Anti-Christian animus is enacted as a “national security” issue supported by a wide margin of conservatives… those that voted for Trump.

    This isn’t a “Trump problem” folks. Realize it. When the extreme right loses the popular vote by just 2% it’s a serious tear in the nation’s fabric… which can’t be “stitched” back together by changing a few seats in the legislature to the other side. .

    .

  • J.Goodwin says:
    February 14, 2018 at 11:42 am

    I’m so glad to have the Russian perspective represented here.

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