After 3 days hiding from the ice and cold, I finally made it back out to the sunrise.The swans were going crazy celebrating the coming of the light. Here's Meade's video:
Write about whatever you want in the comments.
December 11, 2025
Sunrise — 7:16, 7:23.
After 3 days hiding from the ice and cold, I finally made it back out to the sunrise.
Posts
122 comments:
Tastes like chicken?
Have never seen that many birds of any kind in one place.
I’m in Michigan, and news about the football coach in Ann Arbor is dominating the news. This is just the latest in the trail of horrible things that have happened to the Big 10 and college sports. Can it get worse?
Clyde's Top 15 Favorite "New" Songs of 2025 - Honorable Mentions - (Part 1 of 5) - The Apples in Stereo - "No Vacation" - Travellers in Space and Time (2010)
This is the first of several songs that I found via Susan's "ELOish" playlist; although it wasn't on the playlist, two other songs from the same album were. Travellers in Space and Time, the seventh and final album recorded by The Apples in Stereo, was strongly influenced by the Electric Light Orchestra, particularly their 1981 album Time, which also had a lot of synthesizers, vocoders and sound effects. There are also echoes of songs like "Do Ya" and "Evil Woman" on some of the songs on Travellers in Space and Time. Full disclosure: Time is probably my favorite ELO album and definitely the most played. If you've listened to ELO's Time album and liked it, you'd most likely enjoy this album as well. (And if you haven't listened to Time, I recommend it, too.)
https://youtu.be/jGZYgbQdvas?si=yprMVo-5sEQD3F0e
Clyde's Top 15 Favorite "New" Songs of 2025 - Honorable Mentions -Bonus Song #1 - The Apples in Stereo - "Dance Floor"
Just another track from the same album. I recommend the whole album experience.
https://youtu.be/C66yhRwpt7s?si=fjdgMkFrPPpFULRv
Clyde's Top 15 Favorite "New" Songs of 2025 - Honorable Mentions -Bonus Song #2 - The Apples in Stereo - "Next Year About the Same Time"
https://youtu.be/5ldcIuPszps?si=bfbxWuk4L6lgk_mg
Getting fired and jailed on the same day. That’s a bad day.
Fixed link:
I admit, I'm snickering. The Woke thugs versus the Middle East thugs. Here's hoping for injuries.
Iran, Egypt oppose World Cup ‘Seattle Pride Match’
@Humperdink, Sherron’s Moore was not just fired, but fired from a job that paid more than $6 million annually.
I saw parts of Kristi Noem’s testimony on Capitol Hill. My very first thought was that none of those Dumbocrat Congress Critters was that none of them would have had the guts to talk that way to a man.
Full Moon @ 6:18
I meant to say come over here there is a surplus of the annoying beasties.
How did barbarino let these clowns go on and on,
I have had some very bad days, but I have never had as as bad a day as Sherron Moore.
Can it get worse?
@JZ, if Indiana and Ohio State have a rematch on Monday, January 19th, for all the marbles, no one will remember Sherrone Moore.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=170&v=m2TmyAfXH8M&feature=youtu.be
Senate Republicans reject Trump’s plea for gerrymandered maps ~ Indiana Capitol Chronicle
"The Republican-dominated Indiana Senate spurned months of demands from President Donald Trump as it voted 31-19 on Thursday to reject a redrawing of the state’s congressional maps.
The final outcome remained uncertain until 21 Republicans joined all 10 Democratic senators in rejecting the redistricting plan. The proposal didn’t even win support from a majority of the 40 Republican senators.
With that tally, Indiana became the first Republican-led state Legislature to vote down Trump’s wish to squeeze out more GOP-friendly congressional seats in hopes of improving the party’s chances of keeping its slim U.S. House majority after the 2026 midterm elections."
Maybe some Republican officials are finally tired of taking orders from a nearly 80-year-old mob boss with 36% approval and a loosening grip on reality.
Confederacy of dunces
Thats benny dashiki thompson enabler of the delta house fraud
I went back and read Althouse's thread on the Venezuelan Tanker that was seized a day or two ago. It's so, so amusing--that thread, I mean. All the leftists are there, screaming about how evil Trump is. From Kak to Inga to Gadfly and TeaBag and Chuck's latest incarnation... all of them spitting foam and hysteria, all about how Trump is doing Russian bidding and making our other OPEC allies mad, etc.
Then someone mentions that in fact there was a federal warrant issued by a federal judge allowing the seizure, and that it was the Biden admin that had put the sanctions on the ship.... and suddenly nary a leftist to be found! They all got amnesia, PDQ! Not a sense of shame at their jumping the gun, not an apology for their defamation, nothing.
Our leftist commentators here are completely lacking in integrity.
Remember instead of rebuilding la newsom chose this exercise in vanity
Big Mike said: “JZ, if Indiana and Ohio State have a rematch on Monday, January 19th, for all the marbles, no one will remember Sherrone Moore.”
I dunno, no one seems to have forgot about Jerry Sandusky.
Humperdink PSU ‘73
Iowa rejects trumps threats of primaries, and coercion with a massive rejection of his order to redistrict. Trump says if they dont do it he will stop funding, going there,..Vindictive much?
Misinformation,cruel trump posts threats of violence all in trumps MO. Miami elects a not only a democratic governor ,but a woman no less, Miami aint feeling that + ++ economy repubs talking about.Georgia Dems flip seats georgia state house solidly Red Public service also flipped 1st since 2006 Yup aint feeling that +++ lie. trying to rig districts aint working. Mid terms they get rid of trump and he can just spend last two years grifting and stomping his feet..Having made wager since my cashout on BREEDERS CUP CLASSIC AND SPRINT races but i'll handicapp the midterms and put in my wager somewhere between 30-40 seat loss im thinking without further study.
Lay off the meth
“Maybe some Republican officials are finally tired of taking orders from a nearly 80-year-old mob boss with 36% approval and a loosening grip on reality.”
Indiana Republicans with integrity, who woulda thunk it?
https://scitechdaily.com/dark-chocolate-compound-linked-to-slower-aging/ news you can use
IOW, the R's had a 40-10 partisan advantage in the Indiana Senate, they still gave the liberal/Left Democrats the win.
Because sticking it to Trump was more important then helping the R's keep the House in 2018. Incredible.
I don't think this is just the R's being "the stupid party". I think some Indiana Senate R's are on the take. And probably getting some $$$ from Democrat Billionaires.
https://notthebee.com/article/time-names-wnba-mvp-aja-wilson-athlete-of-the-year
Inag cheers Indiana’s integrity, but ignores the Commies having established the gold standard for gerrymandering to their partisan advantage.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-poll-approval-economy-immigration-inflation-crime-9e5bd096964990e040bc4bacd9fcac21
“Only 31% of U.S. adults now approve of how Trump is handling the economy, the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds.”
What’s the over/ under for number Palisades homes rebuilt by the time Governor Ozzie Newsome announces his run for president.
"What’s the over/ under for number Palisades homes rebuilt by the time Governor Ozzie Newsome announces his run for president."
From "Official Website of the City of Los Angeles":
Posted on 11/21/2025
Mayor Karen Bass today announced a major milestone in the City’s recovery effort in Pacific Palisades: the first home has officially been issued its Certificate of Occupancy, the final step in the rebuilding process.
5,000 homes burned, one rebuilt so far.
Not feeling xmasy yet this year. Not sure why. I think it’s my phone’s fault, though. At least I put some decorations up. Fewer than last year, but something. My MIL (RIP) declared a few decades ago that she was officially done with the Christmas hubbub. Not unreasonable.
Inga reminds me of a certain cheerleader......
In the wake of damaging tornadoes that tore through parts of Michigan and Indiana last week, a story of resilience has quietly unfolded.
In Amish communities struck by twisters with winds up to 100 mph, repairs began not hours later, but immediately. Before National Weather Service teams arrived to assess damage, new shingles were already in place, barns reframed and storm debris cleared. By the time meteorologists reached the scene, it was hard to tell a tornado had come through at all.
“They just fix it,” NWS Meteorologist Dustin Norman said, according to The Associated Press. “When we get there, it looks like nothing happened. I completely respect how quickly they get stuff done.”
https://www.accuweather.com/en/severe-weather/looks-like-nothing-happened-amish-make-storm-repairs-so-fast-meteorologists-couldnt-assess-damage/1764585
Inga - I know you don't think California D's are acting without integrity, so stow it.
Mason G - ooo One home.
Impressive ... for the useless gutless grifting communists.
We had a nice snow storm last week. Now the snow is mostly gone because of mild temps.
Requests for more contempt for mother nature. please.
Re: Sherrone Moore
I have heard from Wolverine fans that his inappropriate affair was well known. UM was able to get out of his contract for cause, a cause they knew about but only took action after he lost to OSU.
Given the money that colleges have been paying out for fired coaches, maybe UM found a clever way to avoid a payout. Moore was probably not worth $6 million a year in their minds.
One thing that's mildly interesting that I thought I'd mention here is that I keep a separate iOS Safari “tab group” for Althouse, wherein I just open up a new Safari window for every new Althouse thread that I follow. Hundreds are left open at one time since I seldom run up against the iOS limit and have to close a bunch of them.
Meanwhile, I keep Instapundit open in a totally different tab-group, along with many other open website windows.
Anyway, for some reason, all of Althouse's open threads in her tab group (when displayed as a group) have assumed the persona of Instapundit's red radio-tower lightning-bolt icon. It seems a bit odd, but there it is.
YouTube : A lot of stuff I didn't know about trees
5,000 homes burned, one rebuilt so far
@Mason G., that’s in 11 effing months, and it’s actually worse than that, if you can believe it. I have read that that particular house was purchased as a tear-down and the permit process had begun months prior to the fire.
Other statistics (from Google):
As of late November 2025 over 1,200 rebuilding plans were approved by mid-November 2025 for 600+ addresses. Again, that’s out of over 5,000 structures burned.
.
Construction has begun tor something on the order of 340 projects as of November 2025
So… Vance @7:15pm… I believe you’re saying that the usual lefty suspects are at least consistently moronic. Do I get that right?
Political Junkie said...
Inga - I know you don't think California D's are acting without integrity, so stow it.
Don't be silly. You know Inga's definition of integrity is whatever makes democrats win.
California redistricting is the definition of Inga integrity.
Republicans betraying their voters in Indiana and not redistricting is also Inga integrity.
That is how retardation works.
Imam: yes, I'm saying that. I note that it has been several hours since my comment and several leftist posters have chimed in.... nary a one of them addressing my point or admitting their utter hypocrisy and lack of integrity.
“One thing that's mildly interesting that I thought I'd mention here is that I keep a separate iOS Safari “tab group” for Althouse, wherein I just open up a new Safari window for every new Althouse thread that I follow. Hundreds are left open at one time since I seldom run up against the iOS limit and have to close a bunch of them.”
“Meanwhile, I keep Instapundit open in a totally different tab-group, along with many other open website windows.”
I run Safari just for Althouse, and Chrome for the rest of the blogs I follow. Chrome allows me to share tabs and the like tween iPads and PCs. That’s because I have 1 1/2 Google accounts. And Chrome and Blogger are both owned by Google. The 1/2 Google account is my IEEE.ORG (mostly) email account that I have had for 30 years now. About a decade or so ago, IEEE farmed out their email hosting to Google. Big scandal from the point of view of IEEE-USA, and esp the Intellectual Property committee I chaired at one point (esp since IEEE international wouldn’t let IEEE-USA see their contract with Google), since Google routinely scopes out their Gmail account content. Gmail (and thus IEEE.ORG and Computer.org) emails are presumptively insecure, and thus ethically cannot be used by attorneys. Chrome insisted on my using my IEEE.ORG account (which is validated via IEEE and not Google) with Blogger on Chrome. After fighting this for a couple days, I switched to running Althouse under Safari, and was fine.
Trivia question: Which states, red or blue, have the highest cost per kilowatt hour of electricity?
This should not surprise anyone. Blue states by far. California, Massachusetts, Connecticut lead the league, in some cases triple or even quadruple low cost red states for electricity.
Forget get affordability, it’s regulations that drain the pockets of blue state citizens. Makes me smile.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/12/energy-affordability-a-blue-state-problem.php
Blue states have a lot of shut down nuclear power plants, because, well, it was fiercely urgent that hundreds of millions of tons of carbon needed to be pumped into the atmosphere since then, and let's not talk about the mercury that's in coal. That was fiercely urgent too, to get that into our oceans and our lakes.
Let's see, now that the billionaires who own the media are banking big on plentiful energy to power AI, if the narrative shits, and the "fierce urgency" becomes getting nuke plants built.
Naturally what follows will be blue state citizens begging for government subsidies to pay for their sky high electric bills.
I have some sympathy for Sherrone Moore. He always seemed like a decent and well-spoken guy, and wasn’t and isn’t the only coach to be flagged for backfield in motion - hello Lane Kiffin!!
But, it couldn’t have to a nicer school or fan base… lol
Zero Hedge Headline: “ Democrats Know Their Constituents Can't Read Charts”
@RJ Ward, they had you in mind.
And speaking of Big Ten coaches, I was at an extended-family brunch last Sunday and my ex said ‘Can you believe Curt beat Ohio State?’ I asked ‘What?!’ And she said ‘Coach Cignetti. One of his daughters married (son of our friends’) Drew - you were at the wedding.’ Too funny! I vaguely remember that the guy had been a position coach at Alabama, but that was about it…
The No Huddle Offense was invented in the mid to late 1980s by Sam Wyche while he was the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. NFL defenses were flummoxed by it. Several other NFL coaches - Marv Levy being one - screamed that it was against the NFL rules. Wyche correctly responded it wasn’t. Midseason, the NFL equivalent of a district court judge ruled it was against the rules anyway.
In the off-season, the NFL admitted it wasn’t against the rules, but eventually does add rules clarifying substitutions. The head coach of the Bills, Marv Levy, incorporates the No-Huddle into the Bills’ offense, calling it the K-Gun. Bills go to four straight Super Bowls, something that has never been done before or since.
You know what teams that didn’t incorporate the No-Huddle didn’t do? Go to the Super Bowl. Eventually, all teams incorporated the No-Huddle into their offenses in various forms and to various degrees.
Partisan gerrymandering is legal. Even the Supreme Court has ruled on this. California, Illinois, and Massachusetts are blatant examples by the Democrats. If you don’t like it, change the law. The sooner the Republicans start playing by the rules, the better.
Humperdink said...
Zero Hedge Headline: “ Democrats Know Their Constituents Can't Read Charts”
…I think it isn’t that they’re hoping voters are stupid, it’s that they don’t understand themselves. It’s always a ‘GE doesn’t pay taxes!!!’ face palm with them. They have improved on percentage changes though- I haven’t heard a Democrat describe a tax rate increase from 4 to 5 percent as ‘only a one percent increase’ in a while. Maybe that’s because tax rates in blur places are closer to 10 percent…
Those Patriots teams that won all that stuff were brilliant at clock management. They were built to sustain long grinding drives that wore out the opposing defense and kept the opposing offense off the field but could turn around and run quick effective strike offenses that could score with seemingly no time left. Credit to Josh for that. He’s running the Patriots offense now, btw…
"Blue states have a lot of shut down nuclear power plants, because, well, it was fiercely urgent that hundreds of millions of tons of carbon needed to be pumped into the atmosphere since then"
No, it was a fad, as these things are. Media amplified and it became a status position among politicians and celebrities. And this was mostly pre-internet. Rancho Seco near Sacramento was the first case, brought down (1989) by San Francisco media creating a hue and cry.
Since then it became a default position in the Sacramento bureaucracy. The decision to shut down and not repair San Onofre (2013) was barely mentioned in the media, as was the decision to shut down Diablo Canyon. But that last was rescinded by Newsom, some billionaire looking at AI probably told him to stop it.
"Naturally what follows will be blue state citizens begging for government subsidies to pay for their sky high electric bills."
Er, thats already happened.
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/09/24/millions-of-californians-getting-refunds-on-their-electricity-bills-next-month-up-to-60-billion-in-savings-starts-next-year/
Thats just the current edition of California electric bill subsidies, various schemes have been ongoing for decades.
Electric rates by State. I have posted this many, many times.
https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a
There is no engineering or geographical or circumstantial reason to have very different electric rates in the lower 48 States. These are all political choices by State governments (not the Feds).
Isn’t that typical of an overbearing, over regulated government? Create a crisis and then act as the white knight to solve the problem they created.
If reality matters, it’s worth looking at the actual breakdown from EIA.
States with the highest electricity prices—like HI, CA, and much of New England—don’t share much in common politically or geographically, but they do share things like imported fuel, dense urban grids, older infrastructure, or limited access to cheap natural gas.
By contrast, states with the lowest rates—like ID, TN, ND, and LA tend to have abundant hydro, wind, or local gas, along with much lower transmission and distribution costs.
Those are structural realities, not decisions made at a statehouse.
If politics were the sole driver, states with nearly identical resources and grid conditions would have similar prices regardless of party—but that’s not what the data shows.
States where household budgets or jobs that rely on coal, gas, or drilling tend to align with the party they think will protect those industries. Meanwhile, many of the high-cost heating-oil states in the Northeast have moved toward policies aimed at long-term efficiency.
So energy realities do shape political shifts, just not in the simple “blue states choose high prices” way right wing influencers like to frame it.
It is absolutely not true that CA has limited access to natural gas. To get approval to use natural gas at all (concerns over reliable supply, when the PUC was doing its job) the utilities had to create three sets of pipelines to three natural gas basins. No shortage of natural gas or the supply thereof.
The dense city thing is a plus for both gas and electricity, the expensive problem was service to rural areas and in particular wilderness. Maintenence of everything so dispersed and with sparse roads is a nightmare. The CA government created this with theur utility charter and "obligation to serve" clauses.
Shutting down nuke plants, ending hydro development, effectibpvely banning new gas turbine plants, preference for "renewables" and subsidies to home electric all have contributed to the California mess.
New England/New York is another story. Banning gas pipelines is just a start. And then there were nuke shutdowns like Indian Point.
“What you very clearly saw in that video was Mubashir, an American citizen, someone who has been here nearly his entire life, tackled, handcuffed, taken into custody … for simply walking down the street and looking like he’s Somali,”
——Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey
“Ask yourself: If someone were actively trying to incite a pogrom against Minnesota’s Somali community, what would they do differently than Trump and his allies are doing now? And, if the government were controlled by David Duke, would it behave any differently?
——-John Ganz
RJ, Did Commiefornia close nuclear and coal power plants to switch to wind and solar?
"Long term efficiency" isn't. It has meant permanently high costs.
RJ, speaking of energy, why is gasoline priced highest in blue states? Asking for a friend.
There’s no question that CA made some policy choices that shaped its energy mix — every state does.
But the bigger point is that price differences across states can’t be explained by a single factor like “blue policy X caused Y.”
CA’s access to natural gas isn’t the issue; it’s the combination of wildfire liability structure, old infrastructure, high peak demand in a hot climate, an enormous grid, and expensive terrain for maintenance. Even the PUC reports break pricing down into fuel, transmission, wildfire mitigation, and legacy costs — and fuel is actually the smallest piece of the bill.
New England’s situation is different again: limited pipeline expansion, high-density heating-oil use, cold winters, and expensive legacy grids. Their high rates look nothing like CA’s cost structure.
When you zoom out, what becomes obvious is that different states have different structural, geographic, and historical constraints. Politics affects things around the edges, but the core drivers aren’t partisan — they’re physical, economic, and inherited from decisions made decades ago.
I remember the pitch for nuclear in Illinois was , "Too cheap to meter."
Which really doesn't explain the wind and solar farms in Illinois since we have more nuclear plants than any other state.
California had had no coal (or bunker fuel) plants in California proper after the 1970s. California permitted municipal (government) utilities, in practice the LADWP, to import coal generated power from Arizona.
Oh, and CA banned nat gas exploration and development.
Shorter Congressman Bennie Thompson: “Reclaimin’ muh tahm!… Hep me Jesus!!!”
"There’s no question that CA made some policy choices that shaped its energy mix " - Stupidly, with results as we see. The utilities were against all of them, or their professiobals were. Of course a regulated utility is designed to be a victim of politicians.
"limited pipeline expansion" - a cretinous choice.
RJ said: “ New England’s situation is different again: limited pipeline expansion….. “
Gee why is that? They don’t want no stinking’ gas lines crossing their states. A choice they made. Fools.
Politics isnt "around the edges", its inherent. And everybody has "a legacy grid", where did that come from?
In PA, we have a Democrat governor. Even he is smart enough to know natural gas drilling keeps our citizens toasty warm. He stays out of the way.
Man, woman drive to police station with Homeland Security agent trapped in vehicle (Minnesota Public Radio)
"A man and a woman are facing charges of assaulting a federal officer after Homeland Security Investigations agents tried to arrest the man Wednesday for overstaying his student visa.
In an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint against Oluwadamilola Ogooluwa Bamigboye and Rekeya Lionesha Lee Frazier, FBI Special Agent Terry Getsch writes that the HSI agents were inside an unmarked Ford Explorer SUV surveilling Bamigboye’s Kia Optima, which was parked outside an apartment complex in Plymouth, Minn.
Frazier, 23, pulled up next to the Kia in a Jeep SUV with Bamigboye, 24, in the front passenger seat. When Bamigboye spotted the unmarked Explorer, he allegedly pulled a mask over his face and got out of the Jeep.
According to the FBI affidavit, the HSI agents walked up to the Jeep, displayed their badges, identified themselves as law enforcement officers and told Bamigboye that they wanted to talk about his immigration status.
Bamigboye then allegedly jumped into the Jeep’s back seat and yelled at Frazier to drive away.
One of the HSI agents got into the front seat of the Jeep in an effort to stop Frazier while Bamigboye tried to push him out and a second agent tried to pull Bamigboye out of the back seat.
Frazier allegedly put the vehicle in gear and drove off. The HSI agent “was now being involuntarily carried in the Jeep as it drove,” according to the FBI.
The HSI agent tried to put the Jeep in park, but Frazier continually pushed his hand away, allegedly threatened to crash the car and said that they were taking him to a police station.
The agent, who’s assigned to another HSI office and is in Minnesota on “temporary detail for an operation,” is unfamiliar with the Twin Cities, did not know where they were going, and “was in fear that he was being abducted.”
From the back seat, Bamigboye called 911, a detail confirmed in an incident report from the Plymouth Police Department. HSI agents pursued the Jeep from close behind with their lights and sirens on, “at one point inadvertently hitting it from behind in the snow.”
Even after the agent inside Frazier’s Jeep drew his gun and ordered her to pull over, she allegedly continued driving and stopped only after reaching the New Hope Police Department.
According to the affidavit, Bamigboye jumped out and ran into a Hy-Vee grocery store across the street while Frazier remained in her vehicle and was arrested only after other police officers arrived.
Another HSI agent chased Bamigboye into the Hy-Vee, where a police officer found him in the back of the store, pulled out a taser, and ordered Bamigboye to get on the ground. When Bamigboye allegedly refused, the HSI agent “took Bamigboye to the ground and arrested him.”
Both are being held in the Sherburne County Jail, where most federal defendants in the Twin Cities are held while in pretrial detention.
Frazier declined to speak to investigators. In an interview with authorities, Bamigboye allegedly denied that the agents showed their badges, but admitted telling Frazier to drive away. According to the affidavit, Bamigboye also said that he has PTSD from being kidnapped in his native Nigeria."
The interesting thing about power prices is that large nuc, coal, hydro and gas utility scale generation is 84% of capacity. This capacity averages 30 years old and the capital is largely paid off. 30 yers ago $1 was worth $2.10 today so all the nuc plants, coal, and dams we shut down are replaced with very expensive new capacity. So power cost is low where we use older paid for capacity.
When a state wrecks older dams or shuts down nucs or coal the electricity price skyrockets due to building new at current prices. When wind and solar is built new transmission lines are needed that further escalate cost. So this great replacement instead of using and maintaining existing good capacity is causing high costs.
Less heavy manufacturing, better light bulbs, and efficient electric motors have made it possible to get by with existing plants at low cost but we keep shutting them down and buying expensive wind and solar and installing with high labor costs. This is a decision made in states so certain states are screwing their customers.
Having the politicians who are currently in office vote on whether they want to have their districts redrawn is pretty much like asking employees whether they approve of an upgraded job review process. Only the safe ones will vote for it.
Bawaya, yes, politics shapes policy — no disagreement there.
But when I say it’s “around the edges,” I mean that the starting conditions for each state weren’t created by Democrats or Republicans. They’re the result of geography, industry history, and the way utilities and grids were originally built out decades before today’s debates.
That’s where the “legacy grid” comes in. New England built an old, dense, expensive system before natural gas was widespread. CA inherited a huge, wildfire-exposed transmission network that has to cross mountains, forests, and sparsely populated terrain. The Plains states built cheap grids over flat land with abundant local fuel.
Modern politics operates on top of those structural givens — it doesn’t erase them.
So yes, politics matters. But the underlying cost drivers were set long before current blue vs. red narratives, and they aren’t identical from state to state.
Hump, you answered yourself. The oil wasn’t stopping in New England anyway, it was passing through to export terminals.
Btw modern gas turbine plants are modular, cheap to build and highly efficient. You can install one in three-four months, as long as you have a pipeline and you have pre-ordered a turbine set (long lead time item because of problems with the US deteriorating industrial base). Pour a concrete pad and everything goes on top.
A model thereof is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Generating_Station
Actual construction took months. Every (numerous) delay was state-caused.
New England could have had dozens, with pipelines.
On coal the decision to shut down was made nationally by democrats administrations. This was for climate, the scientists of which are having their doom papers withdrawn as fraudulent by the Nature Journals.
California policy isn’t the problem, you guys, it is their old infrastructure. - DFC
By contrast, states with the lowest rates—like ID, TN, ND, and LA tend to have abundant hydro …
Point of information. California did have a lot of hydro power, but the state made the political decision to tear down the dams.
"Bawaya, yes, politics shapes policy — no disagreement there."
Evil people-killing, poverty-making politics.
Distribution grids, btw, the "legacy stuff", are constantly being renewed, and that maintenance and upgrade part is cheaper if they are dense.
The mountains and forests was a a policy choice.
The ban was on nat gas pipelines, and distribution grid (to, say, power plants), not oil. And that btw was because of a moral panic over fracking yea long ago. Not that anyone gives a shit now. And who panicked over that?
RJ said: “ Hump, you answered yourself. The oil wasn’t stopping in New England anyway, it was passing through to export terminals.”
I was referring to natural gas!
“ California policy isn’t the problem, you guys, it is their old infrastructure. - ”
Dumbest thing posted on this topic today.
Dams haven't been torn down (much, yet), there was mainly a ban on new hydro development.
“California policy isn’t the problem, you guys, it is their old infrastructure. - DFC”
Embrace the healing power of “AND”!
Hump, fair point on the oil vs. gas — that one’s on me.
But honestly, I’m going to step out of this sub-thread. We’ve gone from rates to pipelines to turbine construction times, and at this point it’s clear we could be swapping technical minutiae all day.
My only point was that different regions have different structural constraints, and it’s not as simple as “blue states choosing high prices.” I’ve made that case as clearly as I can.
In this an open thread, I’m seeing bigger issues being ignored- Trump’s slipping polling, rising costs, ICE’s treatment of U.S. citizens, etc. Hammer on this distraction all you want but I’d rather get back to the broader conversation than spend the rest of the day in a trench-warfare argument over pipeline routing and party gotchas.
Yes, recently 4 dams on the Klamath 2 on the Elwah and the 3 dams on the Boardman total about 500 MW so far removed. About half a nuc.
They are not structural constraints, they are political constraints. If a state wanted to construct a low cost electric power system, it could. That is, if the goal was low cost to the consumer. It definitely is not, in many states.
Power, steel, concrete, things that fly, etc., are by far the most important. Words, or, worse, arguments about words, are shit.
“Nothing bothers the European elite as much as American conservatives praising the European foundations of their shared, but threatened, Western civilization.
Europeans especially resent having their social-welfare state system critiqued by upstart, crass Americans.
Their pique only increases as they push back against the condescending American idea that the U.S. could possibly offer any constructive advice, much less help a more civilized Europe follow the “American model.”
Americans, in turn, are worried that Europe is not just stagnating but is on a trajectory of permanent decline—with dire consequences for the entire Western world.
As for symptoms, the U.S. cites a steadily declining European share of world GDP. It points to Europe’s unsustainable 1.39 fertility rate, which ensures a steadily smaller, older, and costlier native population.
More than ten percent of Europe’s resident population is now foreign-born—some 45 million people. However, the European host, unlike a classless America, does not have a long tradition of melting-pot assimilation, integration, and acculturation.
Unlike America’s mostly Christian-nation immigration patterns, European immigrants are predominantly from the Middle East and North Africa, Islamic, and increasingly anti-Western.
Far too many of Europe’s immigrants profess too little desire to assimilate into what they consider a culturally decadent place—one that, ironically, they have no desire to leave.
The Christian Church, the linchpin of Western civilization, was born in Europe. Yet nowhere do atheism, agnosticism, and open hostility to Christendom grow stronger.
Europe, the birthplace of a dynamic Western military tradition, has been, by contemporary standards and at least until recently, virtually disarmed and unable to protect its own borders or interests.
Europe’s overregulation and war on fossil fuels, combined with a generous social welfare state, have resulted in too little revenue and too many costly dependents...”
https://amgreatness.com/2025/12/11/cry-the-beloved-europe/
“I am very disappointed that a small group of misguided State Senators have partnered with Democrats to reject this opportunity to protect Hoosiers with fair maps and to reject the leadership of President Trump. Ultimately, decisions like this carry political consequences,”
——-IN Gov Mike Braun
Sounds like; “we get 50% of the votes, this would give us 70% of the seats, which would be fair”.
Iman, I saw the irony that one created the other, while DFC was trying to argue the cause and effect backwards. That’s not even going into all the money spent by Obama and Biden to improve infrastructure, the billions that went to California, and still the infrastructure is old.
But honestly, I’m going to step out of this sub-thread. We’ve gone from rates to pipelines to turbine construction times, and at this point it’s clear we could be swapping technical minutiae all day.
In other words, once facts came into play, he lost.
Something else I should mention. Illinois has large deposits of both natural gas and coal, but since that it is mostly situated in the southern half of the state, which votes republican, it is mostly shut down.
Something else I should mention. There are petroleum reserves under Lake Michigan. Not being exploited for obvious political reasons.
One more thing because it involves coal. Hyundai is building a new electric steel plant in Louisiana. Making steel requires large amounts of coal.
Big Mike said...
“But honestly, I’m going to step out of this sub-thread. We’ve gone from rates to pipelines to turbine construction times, and at this point it’s clear we could be swapping technical minutiae all day.
In other words, once facts came into play, he lost.”
Not quite Mike although I did expect some pushback. I get it that fuel price issues in different states have a lot of moving parts but I made my case- that there’s multiple drivers other than politics. It isn’t a binary blue state/red state argument. I gave that response at 7:11 and I’m not seeing any evidence or arguments that invalidates it.
21 minutes later I posted the following that never generated a response.
Ronald J. Ward said...
“What you very clearly saw in that video was Mubashir, an American citizen, someone who has been here nearly his entire life, tackled, handcuffed, taken into custody … for simply walking down the street and looking like he’s Somali,”
——Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey
“Ask yourself: If someone were actively trying to incite a pogrom against Minnesota’s Somali community, what would they do differently than Trump and his allies are doing now? And, if the government were controlled by David Duke, would it behave any differently?
——-John Ganz
Now, I’m not suggesting anyone is required, obligated or even should respond to anything other than what they want. In fact, I skip a great deal of threads and arguments if they don’t appeal to my interests. As Ann says, talk about whatever you like.
I just saw the fuel argument as going nowhere, never actually disputing my claim, and absorbing the oxygen of other issues I find more interesting.
Talk about whatever you like. I’ll do the same.
@Ronnie, yes, you lost. And who is ”Mubashir” and why should I give a f**k about someone stupid enough to live in Minneapolis (or St. Paul for that matter)?
The evidence shows that a large number of Somalis stole money intended to feed hungry children. In your eyes it’s a “pogrom” to hold the criminals accountable? Scratch a lefty and under the gloss you are sure to find someone who favors criminals over the ordinary citizens whom the criminals rape, assault, murder, and steal from.
To answer your question, Mike: Mubashir is an American citizen who was unlawfully tackled and detained because of his appearance.
The reason you should, as you put it, “give a f**k” about someone living in Minneapolis or St. Paul is simple: the same thing could happen to anyone if someone in power decides their place of residence or appearance makes them “suspect”, including you.
The point I raised isn’t about the actions of a few individuals — it’s about how government and law enforcement treat people based on appearance or community identity. The quotes I shared focus on policy and conduct, not anecdotal criminal cases.
The troubling reality is that very few people detained or deported under these policies are actual criminals.
The troubling reality is that very few people detained or deported under these policies are actual criminals.
It does not penetrate that squishy thing you jokingly call a brain that bring in this country illegally — by definition! — makes one a criminal?
If state and local police would cooperate better with ICE perhaps ICE could focus better on the”worst of the worst,” but that’s not going to happen in Minneapolis.
If you complain about Indiana's D representation in the House don't you also have to compare it to California and New England and Illinois? Cali has just 12 Rs in Congress out of 52 and Newsom is going to cut 5 so it will be just 7 out of 52. Just 13% of the seats going to Rs when they're nearly 40% of the state. New England has ZERO Rs. The ONLY reason Rs are doing this is because the Ds have already gone CRAY CRAY CRAZY with redistricting. If you have a beef......F OFF
There was a trade with wes moore to hold one gop seat,
Dems understand redistricting is power, they games the system from the census on
Why is our son a white lion?
Jacob frey let half the city burn down he fronted for the looting party whose beneficiary was al shabaab (thats al queda)
The only reason we didn't sweep the country for blue-eyed blond people in 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 is because German-Americans busted their asses to be fully contributing citizens, to include signing up (or at least not evading the draft) to go fight other Germans. And there were always small numbers of German-American bad 'uns: anarchists in the 19th century, saboteurs in the world wars, communists all the time, etc. But we knew the group as a whole was on our side.
The Eye-talian side of my family had to do the same.
Have the Somalis done that? Gone out of their way to show their full integration into our society?
Then don't be surprised if there is some collateral damage.
CC, JSM
RJW: "Sounds like; “we get 50% of the votes, this would give us 70% of the seats, which would be fair”."
Yes, 70% for the people actually trying to keep American civilization alive is a bare minimum, to fight all the lawfare:
- ballot stuffing in Dem cities;
-deep state prosecution of Rep assemblymen to shave away at their majority;
- vetoes once the ballot stuffing puts a Dem governor in office;
- whatever procedural roadblocks the Indiana legislative process makes available to the Dems;
- appointment fights, if the IN constitution requires legislative confirmation;
- And on and on. Dems have shown over and over again that they will use every legislative trick in the book to thwart the will of the people. So the only thing that can save the country is gerrymandering for Republican overrepresentation.
You don't want to go back to the other ways Indiana citizens used to preserve their civilization. CC, JSM
Ask yourself: If someone were actively trying to incite a pogrom against Minnesota’s legitimate government and productive citizens, what would they do differently than the DFL is doing now?
FIFY. CC, JSM
Big Mike said...
“The troubling reality is that very few people detained or deported under these policies are actual criminals.
It does not penetrate that squishy thing you jokingly call a brain that bring in this country illegally — by definition! — makes one a criminal?”
I get it that this talking point gives the MAGA crowd a warm and fuzzy feeling but how many times must we revisit reality? Most everyone I know of wants those who crossed illegally and intentionally out, albeit not in the inhumane way it’s being conducted.
But many actually did cross legally under the asylum programs. Other have been here legally for decades under visas renewed periodically only by with a stroke of the Trump pen, had that legal status re moved. Many had no idea and were arrested for showing for that very renewal process. And of course, children who were brought over as infants.
John M @ 1:02, what you’re describing isn’t redistricting—it’s the rationale for disproportionate representation, which is exactly why redistricting fights matter.
Redistricting isn’t a tool for correcting imagined “ballot stuffing,” “deep state prosecution,” or any of the other broad claims you list.
It’s simply the process of dividing a state’s population into districts of roughly equal size so that every voter’s ballot has similar weight.
When a party receives about 50% of the statewide vote but draws maps giving itself 70% of the seats, that isn’t “preserving civilization.”
That’s just admitting the party can’t win under normal democratic rules and needs structural advantages to maintain control.
If the argument is:
“We must gerrymander because we believe the other side cheats everywhere, always, and at every level”— that’s not evidence, that’s a worldview. And every party in every era can justify anything when it starts from “our side must win at any cost.”
Democracy doesn’t survive that logic from either direction.
Redistricting is supposed to ensure voters pick their politicians, not politicians picking their voters. If the only way a party can keep power is by drawing districts to create guaranteed majorities wildly out of step with the vote totals, then the problem isn’t the maps—it’s the platform.
And your argument at 12:51 defeats itself based on recent reports of war heroes being deported, not to mention Captain Bone Spurs who’s running the show.
"Have the Somalis done that? Gone out of their way to show their full integration into our society?"
They seem to have fully embraced the left's natural support of voting fraud and welfare grift. But that's probably not what you had in mind, is it?
RJW: "And your argument at 12:51 defeats itself based on recent reports of war heroes being deported, not to mention Captain Bone Spurs who’s running the show."
Veterans understand collateral damage. The vets being deported had lots of opportunities to become citizens. And many of them had "minor" convictions that kept them from getting naturalized.
Captain Bone Spurs: German American who built buildings and employed thousands. Then got shot for his country. I think he meets the standard set by his compadres like Chrysler, Sigel and Schurz. CC, JSM
Mason says; “ They ( the Somalis) seem to have fully embraced the left's natural support of voting fraud and welfare grift. But that's probably not what you had in mind, is it?”
So they “seem”, but you don’t know? Someone implied this to you so you relied on that? Maybe they look like the kind of people most likely to do such things?
John M., John, many veterans like Sae Joon Park, a Purple Heart recipient who was shot twice while serving in Panama in 1989, have been deported by the Trump administration.
Like many veterans, Park struggled with PTSD and substance abuse after he returned and was later convicted of a minor drug offense. That offense ended his chances for citizenship but he was given a deferred status and lived crime free until Trump ended it.
That’s the problem. This getting rid of the criminals is a hoax. And it really didn’t take Trump’s admission of wanting “all” the “stinking” “garbage” “out” to expose it. Many of us have seen it from the start.
RJW: I agree that the violent-crime aspect of the illegals is a bit of a distraction. The real harm is done by what you would probably call the 'law-abiding' ones, who do jobs and build lives.
They steal those jobs and those decent lives from citizens, a lot of them descendants of enslaved Americans.
I wish Trump would talk about this more. The first time he tried, he got all kinds of blowback for talking about "black jobs." I don't know why he didn't double down on the phrase like he does so often in other areas.
He could even do a postmodern Jesse Helms ad: show a black hand holding a pink slip. "You needed that job. To feed your family and respect yourself as a man. They gave it to an illegal alien. Vote Republican."
https://youtu.be/KIyewCdXMzk?si=_j5Jxh9jJL3rTsYg
Maybe another one where a family in a trailer on the Rez gets all excited: "they're giving IT jobs to Indians!" Then "oh...."
CC, JSM
how do we know it was legitimately elected with all the fraud we have seen out of minneapolis, where frey grovels most insistently,
Does it matter that NGOs abused the asylum system by instruct people how to exploit it?
'Ciso, I should have said "legitimate system of government." Yes, the DFL regime draws its legitimacy from car trunks. CC, JSM
Well, John, I do commend you for acknowledging that crime was never the real issue.
And I hear you on allowing immigrants to take American jobs but I think you’re scapegoating the wrong actors while dismissing the rising cost associated with it.
I never bought into the “taking jobs Americans didn’t want to do” but rather taking jobs Americans didn’t want to do for slave wages. And the welcoming of this cheap labor has been the product of both parties, including Trump, for decades.
I would argue that the Republican Party is responsible for lower wages- refusing MW increases since 2009, implemented RTW laws, targeted prevailing wages, overtime pay and on and on, including the tariff tax on the working class. And yes, I have plenty of criticism for Democrats as well.
There’s plenty of room to start building but if Americans are going to start picking the oranges and changing bed linens, they’re going to demand more money.
And who do you think will pick up that tab?
RJW: "if Americans are going to start picking the oranges and changing bed linens, they’re going to demand more money. And who do you think will pick up that tab?"
As I have said before here, higher prices get paid to Americans, who can then pay higher prices to other Americans. Like we used to do.
It will take some adjustment, like anything else. Globalist free-marketeers don't have a problem with times of adjustment when it benefits them. And statists love periods of adjustment because they can create programs.
The trick will be to suppress that statist instinct, while letting the market sort itself within the new parameters.
I'd rather have a period of adjustment where the prices of some things go up, but more and more Americans start getting good-paying jobs, versus the kind of adjustments we've been having, where prices drop just in time to be paid by Americans on welfare. CC, JSM
"As I have said before here, higher prices get paid to Americans, who can then pay higher prices to other Americans. Like we used to do."
Democrats have never gotten over losing their slaves.
John Mosby said: “As I have said before here, higher prices get paid to Americans, who can then pay higher prices to other Americans. Like we used to do.”
The reality is John, there was never any “like we used to do it.” I’m thinking Chinese immigrants laid the rails, slaves picked the cotton at an expense of their survival while the northern steel workers, while having the right to decline should they like, were also working for mere survival, just as later coal miners owed their souls to the company stores. The sweat shop seriously weren’t that prosperous for most.
Come to think about it, there was no income tax and we relied on tariffs. I don’t see a welcome to that return.
What changed were unions, worker protections, and minimum and prevailing wages. That has slowly eroded while the elite slipped immigrants back into our economy as a replacement. And in the meantime, tax payers have subsidized payrolls for the most prominent abusers.
I don’t see any magical “return” of something we never had and I most certainly don’t see voters accepting this slow fabricated turnaround.
RJW: “ Come to think about it, there was no income tax and we relied on tariffs. I don’t see a welcome to that return.”
Ask for a show of hands. There would be a gale-force wind from 350M hands going up simultaneously.
As to when we’ve had a virtuous cycle of Americans paying Americans? The Fifties. Yes, for unions and many of the other reasons you mentioned. We were even dismantling Jim Crow. Then we decided it would be great to let the rest of the world in on it. And double the native born workforce (halving the wages) with women’s lib. And call the people who suffered therefrom racists and sexists. Think that was done out of the goodness of the bosses’ hearts? CC, JSM
I seriously doubt, the reasons for the 65 immigration seem dubious, seeing who was behind it, Edward Kennedy, the future
killer and traitor, to the Soviets,
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