Wednesday, July 13, 2022
LOL, Bitcoin mining operations in Texas threaten power limits, perverse grid operator blames coal and natural gas plants for being offline when overreliance on wind in summer is to blame
Monday, July 11, 2022
LOL Reuters, 11 years ago: "Texas has the most wind power in the country, but the wind does not blow during the summer"
Texas has the most wind power in the country, but the wind does not blow during the summer. Ercot said it got about 2,000 MW from wind during the peak hour on Wednesday. Those wind farms can produce about 9,000 MW when all turbines are spinning.
Reuters, here.
Wind generating capacity in Texas today is in the neighborhood of 35,000 megawatts, but only about 7,770 megawatts of that would be available under similar summer circumstances, with much less coal generating capacity available today than in 2011 to fill the breach:
Because of the increase in wind power and the retirement of almost 6,000 megawatts of coal-fired generating capacity, coal-fired power plants supplied 18% of state generation in 2021, down from a 36% share in 2011.
And as a result Texas now gets to listen to this:
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Damn fool Biden administration releases crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce fuel prices, 5 million barrels get exported abroad last month, including to China
More than 5 million barrels of oil that were part of a historic U.S. emergency reserves release to lower domestic fuel prices were exported to Europe and Asia last month . . ..
Inflation hits new record in Europe, Reuters begins to tell the truth about why
But they save it for the last paragraph, which probably no one reads.
At minus 0.5%, the ECB's deposit rate has been in negative territory since 2014.
The contemplated interest rate hikes are laughably small, and laughably timed for later.
"The house is on fire and we'll get around to sending out a crew next week".
Saturday, June 25, 2022
LOL Boris Johnson, leader of Britain's "conservatives"
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
US COVID-19: The Big Picture, through May 31, 2022
Vaccines have done nothing to stop the spread and little to reduce deaths in any significant way.
Over the last eleven years 2010-2020, heart disease in the United States has killed 1729 people per day on average.
Cancer comes in a close second at 1620 per day.
COVID-19 remains the third leading cause of death, averaging 1221 deaths per day to date, 822 days after the first death on February 29, 2020.
The best explanation of the data so far remains that the virus has evolved to spread more easily at the expense of lethality, otherwise the explosion in cases in 2022 would have resulted in far many more deaths than we have at present. Deaths per day in the third year of the pandemic remain relatively constant when measured over time.
And who is most victimized?
California, America's largest state by population, continues to show that COVID-19 infects people 65 and over the least, but kills them the most by far. Since May 2021, deaths among people 65 and over in California have changed little, constituting 74% of deaths then and 71% a year later.
This is despite the fact that people 65 and older became the most vaccinated segment of the US population in 2021.
CDC reports that today 95% of them nationally have received at least one dose, 91.2% are fully vaccinated, 69.7% are boosted once, and 29.7% are boosted twice. In California to date nearly 85% of people 65+ have been fully vaccinated with nearly 76% of those boosted.
There needs to be a massive shift in the messaging of the medical establishment away from thinking the vaccines are a panacea for anybody, toward preventing senior deaths by reducing their comorbidities and quickly treating them with drugs like Paxlovid when they become infected with coronavirus:
In reducing mortality, Arbel said the treatment showed a very high benefit in patients 65 and older - an 81% risk reduction. There were no observed benefits in younger adults, who are at less risk of dying from COVID.
Friday, March 11, 2022
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
LOL, supply shortage hits reporting: CNBC relies on Reuters, a blog, and FOX Business for shipping container transportation costs data
On Oct. 7, there were reportedly around 60 container ships waiting in open water outside Los Angeles and Long Beach for berths to dock in and unload their goods. Before the pandemic, it was unusual to see even one vessel waiting for a slip. ...
Skyrocketing costs are also part of the problem. Over the past year, the cost to have one container shipped by freighter from China to the West Coast has soared from around $3,000 in Aug. 2020 to more than $20,000 in September of this year.
More.
Thursday, October 7, 2021
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
The J&J C19 vaccine is still getting banned around the world
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
C19 vaccines are working just great in the UK, just great
But while 81.3% of people over 16 have received two vaccine doses, there are currently 8,340 COVID-19 patients in hospital in Britain, compared to just 1,066 a year ago.
Reuters, here.
Monday, September 6, 2021
Joe Biden's Jul 23 phone call with Afghan President Ghani shows him unfit to be Commander in Chief, but not for the reason being trotted out
Everyone on the right is fixated on Joe Biden encouraging Ghani to paint a rosier picture to the press about the progress of the war in exchange for "aid".
In other words, Joe was trying to bribe Ghani to lie. The scenario is very reminiscent of VP Joe Biden's intimidation of the Ukrainians involving his threat to withhold US aid unless they fired a prosecutor who was looking into the Ukrainian activities of Biden's son, Hunter.
But this framing is a diversion, and a misrepresentation.
The call, to the extent Reuters has reported on it, shows Ghani reciting a litany of woe to Joe Biden about how catastrophe is imminent.
In what world does it make sense for Joe to respond to that with the offer of "aid" to a man who is clearly convinced that the end is nigh? Ghani was reciting that litany because everything was falling apart precisely because of the American pull-out. Just three weeks prior the US pulled out of Bagram in the dead of night Jul 2, from which point everything began to cascade out of control.
Ghani had to find what he was hearing from Biden incredible, in particular the promise of "continued close air support".
But close air support had already been withdrawn from Jul 2. It wasn't "continuing". It had already ended weeks prior. That was the problem, AND BIDEN DIDN'T KNOW IT. And even if he once knew it because his generals and advisers told him, HE FORGOT IT. Biden is behaving in the call as if he has resources at his command which are no longer there.
Imagine being Ghani having to deal with such unreality coming out of the mouth of the American president.
By the time of the call, Jul 23, the US withdrawal was already more than 95% complete according to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, as reported by CNBC on Jul 21:
At the Pentagon on Wednesday, the nation’s highest military officer told reporters that the U.S. has completed more than 95% of the herculean task of withdrawing from Afghanistan.
“The sheer volume of movement involved in this operation has been extraordinary,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, adding that the U.S. conducted more than 980 airlifts of cargo in less than three months.
“Furthermore, all the military operating bases, outside of Kabul, have been fully transferred to the Afghan Ministry of Defense and the Afghan security forces.”
Joe Biden was in no position to act as Commander in Chief in Afghanistan on Jul 23 because there was nothing left to command. In truth, he hasn't been fit since before the election, during which he campaigned from the safety of a bunker, protected by the media in the tank for him.
His unfitness for the duties of the office is self-evident to anyone paying attention day to day, except that everyone pretends not to see.
They just smile and pass.
But Ghani didn't pretend. He prepared himself an out. That's why he escaped and is alive today and living in the UAE.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, is living in la la land.
Sunday, July 25, 2021
FBI had at least a dozen "informants" involved prodding along the Gov. Whitmer kidnap plot
But as it was revealed that the FBI had at least a dozen informants heavily involved in the Watchmen — including that Iraq veteran — critics say the G-Men did as much to prod the plot as they did to prevent it from happening in the first place.
The agents took an active part in the scheme from its inception, according to court filings, evidence and dozens of interviews examined by BuzzFeed. Some members of the Wolverine Watchmen are accusing the feds of entrapment. ...
Since the 9/11 attacks, the FBI has reportedly recruited thousands of informants. Some, according to a recent investigation in The New York Times that centered on the dubious arrest and conviction of the so-called “Herald Square Bomber” by the use of an informant, said they were retaliated against if they refused. ...
Coulson said he and others are “very upset” the FBI hasn’t arrested anti-government and anti-fascist protesters who have been leading violent demonstrations in Portland and Seattle for more than a year — yet are bearing down so hard on those arrested for the insurrection at the Capitol.
Read it all here.
Looks more and more like a replay of the FBI's Michigan Hutaree Militia fiasco from 2010.
Monday, April 19, 2021
Someone should tell NASA Mars helicopter team that a Wright Brothers moment requires a HUMAN piloting a PLANE
NASA scores Wright Brothers moment with first helicopter flight on Mars :