nomadpete

However, to balance the above..... Since September last year, the US military has conducted 47 strikes on civilians marine vessels travelling in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, leading to over 190 deaths. No criminal trials, no evidence provided to the public to justify the violence, merely an arbitrary allegation of terrorism with no transparency nor accountability for who they have summarily executed. The USA then sent its military into Caracas, killing more than 80 people, to abduct the President of Venezuela and replace him with a compliant proxy. It then commenced a military campaign against Iran that has already killed thousands, without even attempting to conduct themselves within the parameters of international law. The UN Security Council was not consulted, and no evidence has been provided to support its flimsy attempts of retrospective justification. The US President has made genuine threats to invade Greenland, Panama, and Cuba, without ever once bothering to even pretend to discuss a legal justification for the hostility. People who live in glass houses......

Comment dredged from the interwebbything... Today, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood before the world's media and made the following statement about Iran: “This is an international waterway, No country can control them. There is no international law that allows you to say, I’m going to put mines in an international body of water, and I’m going to blow up ships that don’t listen to us and try to go through.” “We cannot live in a world where a rogue state like this Iranian regime is allowed to claim, as a new normal, control over an international shipping lane,” I agree with him.

Attempting to steer toward balance, I suggest that the Monster Trucks are being made in all formats - diesel, petrol and hybrid electric, by all manufacturers. And the manufacturers are driven (accidental unfunny pun) by market forces. Which is a polite way of saying that style is created by the buyers vanity. The issue of load carrying vs tare weight has been evolving for decades. I was shocked when, back in late 90's, I discovered that a nice big 80 series Toyota Landcruiser could only carry 550kg. Subtract 4 people and the sub fuel tank full of diesel, and you couldn't take more than a sandwich and change of undies with you, in a two ton truck.

My sincere apology, Nev. You are absolutely right. I was talking shyte.

No need to squabble guys. Every tech answer has an application. Diversity of energy sources is like an insurance policy against one source stopping. Specifically relating to Energy, reducing the pollution caused by any industry, is a benefit to all humanity. We should wean ourselves off the fossil fuel industry because burning it causes many kinds of pollution. Sooner the better, as long as we do it progressively. And EV's are a great step in the right direction.

There's only Winners and whiners - no turd prizes are allowed.

As would apply if any government was so wasteful as to build a brand new straight, high speed expressway between capital cities.... from scratch. Any greenfield project can be expected to cost a lot to do the groundwork.

Yeah, unlike like highway maintenance - that's an investment!

Random government thought......... At some point in the future there will be a need to reward a person who tells the truth. A No Bull Prize.

I like this girl. This youtube discusses the issue of EV battery degredation, which is surrounded by urban myth and misinformation. I especially note in the comments - there are a lot of anti-EV trolls simply bagging out EV's.

sad. We need the infrastructure.

All quiet on the eastern front, whilst we wait with bated breath for a new comic episode from the failed reality show star.... "He picked this fight. He chose the timing. He set the rules of engagement. He called it a triumph. And now his only two exits are a war he cannot win and a deal he cannot sell."

Damn. A bitter pill to swallow. To think the tangerine todder gets credit for doing something good, even though he didn't mean to.

Meanwhile the US blockade of the strait is going bigly.... " The Boat Called HUGE While the spam tin emperor was on Truth Social on Friday composing love letters to his own competence, an Iranian VLCC supertanker called HUGE, that is the actual name, capital letters and all, loaded 1.9 million barrels of crude worth nearly 220 million bucks, switched off its transponder, hugged the coasts of Pakistan and India, drifted past Sri Lanka, threaded the Lombok Strait, and is now steaming for China with its destination port already on the manifest. This happened during what the Trump administration has repeatedly called the most successful naval blockade since the Cuban Missile Crisis. 21 warships. 3 carrier strike groups. Over 100 aircraft. 10,000 personnel. The largest US naval deployment since 2003."

Another fun read, this time specifically about the current Middle East unpleasantness. https://ifloz.substack.com/p/israels-fafo-phase-has-arrived-on?publication_id=7671401&post_id=196305427&isFreemail=true&r=tosdr&triedRedirect=true

Warning.... this is not Middle east related. In this new age of infowars, I struggle to find a positive voice. But I stumbled on this guy - although usually very caustic, he's a great source of similies. "The Accidental Unifier: How a Tangerine Wrecking Ball Glued the Fucking Planet Back Together" https://ifloz.substack.com/p/the-accidental-unifier-how-a-tangerine

I suspect most people haven't realised that a battery is simply a different shaped fuel tank. Both types are most useful when not empty.

Sometimes I look back at forgotten news from the past. The old Russian connection to the Tangerine Toddler is largely forgotten. This 4 year old Guardian article notably failed to result in Trump suing. I wonder why. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/15/kremlin-papers-appear-to-show-putins-plot-to-put-trump-in-white-house

Well I will make a connection between grids and EV's. My new solar is connected to the grid. And will charge my EV. So there! Now, back to EV's. (steps down off soapbox)

Recent stats show that 255,000 households have installed a battery.... in the last 9 months. This represents a significant private investment in the electricity market. It also, according to AEMO, reduced the average wholesale price of electricity by more than 15%. This is due to not requiring gas peaking plants to start up during peak use times. So, private home solar installations are definitely NOT causing the price of electricity to go up.

So, what next? all possible paths look too bleak. People assumed it couldn't be -that- bad, that "the system" would curb him. Life would go on. But now they are on track for a busted country? With slave labor camps, gov't death squads in the streets? (such as ICE) Will stupid brutal people rise under this regime, too dumb and short-sighted to keep it together?. The USA may yet collapse and the ruins will be colonized by smarter, more industrious, civic-minded, neighbors. Alternatively, one of the even dumber trumpalo successors will lose another war and cities will be turned to rubble.

-I met a traveller from an antique land, -Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone -Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, -Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, -And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, -Tell that its sculptor well those passions read -Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, -The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; -And on the pedestal, these words appear: -“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; -Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!" -Nothing beside remains. Round the decay -Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare -The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Shelly, circa 1800's)

I still have resevations about A.I. Claude just deleted a entire database of a business, and all backups. When questioned, it confessed though. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/ai-agent-deletes-company-s-entire-database-in-seconds/ar-AA21UbLU

Tis all about putting things into perspective....

No. but it less discourteous than the other misnomers that sprang to mind.