article about political violence on the Right, sanctioned by GOP - (gifted from wapo, no paywall) - good article check it out: https://wapo.st/3yV8Rur Excerpt: Sargent: This is the moment when the hearings really talk about political violence as a threat to our future. What do we need to see the hearings dramatize on this score? Kleinfeld: They need to show how the GOP is using organized militias. They also need to show that political violence is much more mainstream now. The types of people committing political violence on the right are no longer criminal demographics. The kinds of violence we’re seeing at political events — Jan. 6 and so on — the majority of people are older men, they’re married, they have children, they have jobs. Often white-collar jobs. Americans need to realize that paramilitary groups could become a normal part of our political life. We could start seeing it becoming vastly less safe to exercise freedom of speech and assembly. It’s already much less safe than just a handful of years ago.

I don't want to say your close friend is right to not get all of her shots -- but I do understand that prior infection plus vaccine is considered pretty good protection. That is to say, if you got Covid, before being vaccinated, and then got vaccinated -- even with just one shot -- that seems to give pretty good protection. Of course, it would be much better still if she got all of her shots. Huge caveat: I'm no doctor -- I'm just relating what I've read. Also: I don't have any sort of link for you. (I could google it, and try to find documentation -- but I'm too damned lazy 😁.)

@TheyShouldHaveVaxxed So, on one side we have lots of relevant facts pointing to the reality of climate change. On the other side, there's been a meager attempt at a response ("10,000 year warming cycle"), which has been refuted. Instead of coming back with another response, or more factual content, all we see is personal insults. For example, from hectorpizano66: "they ram dicks up each other's starfish." I mean, on second thought, that is a pretty strong counterfactual to the reality of climate change. I stand corrected.

@TheyShouldHaveVaxxed I also feel Poida's post doesn't warrant the label "misinformation." True, that descriptor can be applied to anything that is factually wrong, but imo is best reserved for that which is deliberately misleading. I still don't find Poida's original post misleading, particularly in light of the fact that nowhere does he submit his experience as broadly representative. To me it comes across as the testimonial of a somewhat miffed consumer/mild solar-panel skeptic -- and even that skepticism is limited in its scope. At any rate, that doesn't constitute misinformation. As you point out, Poida's is a cautionary tale -- I don't think it purports to be anything greater than that. At least, that's how it strikes me. -$.02

@TheyShouldHaveVaxxed Yes - very helpful. Thanks for that EIA website link. I don't know much; I know that natural gas plants can spin up fast, so they pair well with renewable sources -- but of course, that's a fossil fuel. Hydroelectric is another source that can be turned up or down on on a dime (provided Lake Mead hasn't gone dry -- droughts are gonna kills us out here in the west). So hydroelectric is a natural companion to renewable energy. One thing that intrigues me, which people often forget about, is geothermal. Two potential problems for geothermal: 1) Earthquakes. I understand they abandoned a geothermal project in France, after an experimental installation caused multiple small earthquakes. Evidently it was causing some kind of seismic instability. 2) Doesn't work everywhere -- or not easily anyway -- depends on local geology. I see that EIA has a whole section devoted to geothermal -- it starts at a very basic, elementary school level, here: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/geothermal/ But there are many more pages on geothermal on that website -- here's a DOE map showing where geothermal is most potentially viable -- (mostly the western U.S.): I love that California has been producing some of its electricity -- a small proportion to be sure, but some nonetheless -- using geothermal -- since all the way back in 1960: I assume for more generalized geothermal energy production, very deep drilling and pumping water and then powering a turbine using the resulting steam would be required. I'm sure it's quite the massive technical undertaking.

@TheyShouldHaveVaxxed I wasn't sure what "Sunlight Backup" meant. So I visited the enphase website, and looked at their sunlight backup documentation, but that's mostly a user guide -- I found this blog post much more helpful -- if anyone else is curious about it: https://runonsun.solar/~runons5/blogs/blog1.php/solworks/est/enphase-iq8-released-sunlight-backup-is-a-thing

@TheyShouldHaveVaxxed I've appreciated reading your posts. Two part question* -- if you'll allow me: do you think nuclear power will (or should) be part of our long term power production infrastructure? If not, then do you think we will need (grid) power storage? And if so, do you have any thoughts or insights as to promising prospects for grid power storage? I know that's not your area exactly; I'm just soliciting your thoughts/opinions. *If my questions are misguided somehow, or off base, then please tell me. (Or if you'd rather ignore my question entirely, then I'll take that as partial answer -- that I might just be an idiot 😂.)

Vietnam war is a better comparison, imo. We fucked that country up, really really badly, and we absolutely targeted civilians as a matter of policy. Here, the "napalm girl" from the famous photograph, wrote an opinion piece in the nytimes (gift article, no paywall): "It's Been 50 Years. I am not 'Napalm Girl' Anymore"

@DeathofRats-BadgeHoorMaroon That's fair -- the higher ups should have received justice, and they never did. The Bush administration sanctioned "enhanced interrogation," and "the fish rots from the head." But Lynndie England and the rest of them -- fuck them. They deserved court-martial.

Those abu ghraib offenders went to jail. The Russian soldiers who tortured and raped, got medals. I know that's small or no consolation to anyone tortured, but it is a difference.

The Iraq war was a travesty. We did unleash hell on that country. That's a totally fair comparison. But as egregious and wicked and awful as that was, it's still night and day. We did not target civilian neighborhoods with artillery. We did not sanction soldiers raping children. We did not sanction torture -- though everyone remembers, it shamefully did happen. Russia is determined to reduce Ukraine to "a fine, fine ash," as Julia Ioffe put it. That's policy, under their rules of engagement. That's not what we did in Iraq. What we did in Iraq, was to open up the gates of hell, partly by allowing Zarqawi's "Al Qaeda in Iraq" to slaughter Shia Muslims, which ushered in a civil war, or a near civil war, and unending tribal violence. But that violence was not committed by U.S. troops. It was ushered in (in large part) by the war that we started -- but it wasn't committed by U.S. soldiers. As bad as GWB's war was, there is still a huge difference between it and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. $.02

@Poida I'm with Poida here -- I suspect Cleetus' trolling may have poisoned this thread. At least the way I read Poida saying "do your homework," was not directed at you, TheyShouldHaveVaxxed, but at us regular schmoes, who probably don't have quite your brainpower (certainly not on this topic). I interpreted it as saying "to any homeowners out there -- do your homework, read up on solar power before you take the plunge -- here's what my experience has been like." That said, I did appreciate your response, TheyShouldHaveVaxxed -- very informative! I'm so gratified to hear A) how much solar power has improved, and B) how much cheaper it has become. It's just that I felt like you jumped down Poida's throat a bit, and I didn't feel Poida deserved that. -$.02/ymmv

To my mind, here's the money quote: “The findings reiterate a basic truth that the U.S. has tragically tried to ignore,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “There will be no end to the pandemic here in the U.S. until there is an end to it everywhere. For our own national interest, not to mention for humanitarian reasons, we must lead the way in providing full funding for the global effort to vaccinate, test and treat everyone.”

@DeathofRats-BadgeHoorMaroon I've noticed an uptick in mask usage here in NorCal just recently as well. About 40% to 60% of the people in the grocery store where I shop ("Foodmaxx") were wearing masks last night. About 20% to 30% of the people at the gym I go to were wearing masks last time I went. A month ago, both of those figures would have been lower.

Thanks so much TheyShouldHaveVaxxed -- I learned a lot from your knowledgeable posts! (And thanks to cath for linking to this forum from the main site!) I just gifted a little old ezra klein article in the nytimes, here (<== link). It points out, among other things, that particulates from air pollution currently kill approximately 10,000,000/year? That fact isn't directly related to atmosphere-warming pollution -- if anything, some of the particulates may reflect sunlight back? -- although, when particulates land on ice sheets, of course, that does the opposite (i.e., causes them to absorb more light, thus heat). I'm no scientist! The point (in part) is that we already live in an imperfect world, filled with consequences -- good and bad, many of them good of course -- of technology and industrialization. This point is so basic it's hard to accept that it has to be made, but here goes: we should try to minimize the bad consequences of technology. Climate change is a bad consequence; it's up to us to deal with it. No one is telling anyone to "worry about" it. Just as I wouldn't tell anyone to "worry about" Trump and election denial. But it is something we have to deal with. $.02/ymmv

What a terrific discussion -- I enjoyed reading it.

@She sat there and she said... I read this again and again -- it's the NRA money, it's the NRA money, that controls the agenda. I totally disagree. Your thought experiment proves it -- even if we came up with an advocacy group called "Anti-NRA," and offered those politicians $$ to oppose NRA policies, they would not go near it. Why? Because of the voters -- their voters. Single issue, Second Amendment voters. Hardcore Republicans, die-hard, died-in-the-wool, and they can't afford to lose that constituency. Sure, NRA money is nice -- they may even depend on it. But it's not just about the money. It's about the culture. It's about that hardcore, gun-loving, GOP base.

It has been many, many years. Long enough that I started on Slackware... long enough that I used Windows "batch" files for multiboot -- but I can barely remember. I worked in the tech field, Unix platform (Solaris on x86 no less -- who does that? --my company did). But I've given all that up. I now teach violin, privately... a surprisingly hard way to earn a living... and my brain has otherwise gone to mush... I miss the technology field! Interesting co-workers (not all of them)... cool toys... the creative challenge of working as a technology generalist, mostly in Operations... where every day is a struggle, since it's constant bootstrapping, working for a start-up... but I was young, then... sigh! 🙂

Appreciate you, TrumpPuncher 🙂. And you, Perlinator -- and Vaxxylady -- and everyone. I love this site. Thank you guys.

@Dip Dibbler Dip -- you're here! -- I've missed you man.