POLITICS SCHMALITICS

[Tigerbomb13]

14 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

DTE (Consumers also I believe) have sold all their transmission lines ITC, an outfit that only does transmission lines. So when DTE talks about the 'grid' they are talking local I guess. I suppose an example would be that they are upgrading the local distribution system in A^2 from 4300V to 13,000V.

We lose power when someone sneezes here where I am in A^2. Hoping this makes a difference. 

[pfife]

I know a number of folks that live in the a2 neighborhoods by cobblestone farm & the mallet creek library and they lose power so often, it's really unbelievable.   I also hope they get it stabilized a bit.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, pfife said:

I know a number of folks that live in the a2 neighborhoods by cobblestone farm & the mallet creek library and they lose power so often, it's really unbelievable.   I also hope they get it stabilized a bit.

They strung new wire all over my neighborhood all through last Spring and Summer. We were still out a couple days in one of the storms. The grid in A2 was obsolete, but that's not what knocks the power out - it's that they've skimped on tree trimming for 20yrs and still have a ton of catching up to do. The improvements will help them find and get stuff back up faster and increase capacity for stuff like EVs, but a falling tree will take down a new line as easily as an old one if it hasn't been trimmed clear.

Edited March 30 by gehringer_2

[pfife]

51 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

They strung new wire all over my neighborhood all through last Spring and Summer. We were still out a couple days in one of the storms. The grid in A2 was obsolete, but that's not what knocks the power out - it's that they've skimped on tree trimming for 20yrs and still have a ton of catching up to do. The improvements will help them find and get stuff back up faster and increase capacity for stuff like EVs, but a falling tree will take down a new line as easily as an old one if it hasn't been trimmed clear.

definitely agree there!

[Tigerbomb13]

I’m in the Dicken neighborhood and they’ve done a lot of tree trimming over the last year. That should help, but we need to do something to get the privacy back. They cut down maybe 8 trees between our house and the neighbor behind us. 

[romad1]

17 hours ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

I’m in the Dicken neighborhood and they’ve done a lot of tree trimming over the last year. That should help, but we need to do something to get the privacy back. They cut down maybe 8 trees between our house and the neighbor behind us. 

Have you considered smoke as a means of obscuring their line of sight?

[pfife]

coincidentally hash bash is soon

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, pfife said:

coincidentally hash bash is soon

Isn't the entire state one big hash bash now?

[Mr.TaterSalad]

https://www.publicpower.org/public-power/stats-and-facts#:~:text=Public power utilities also deliver,for customers of private utilities.

Studies show that public utilities are more reliable and more cost effective for consumers. The DTE monopoly needs to be broken with a public utility.

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

https://www.publicpower.org/public-power/stats-and-facts#:~:text=Public power utilities also deliver,for customers of private utilities.

Studies show that public utilities are more reliable and more cost effective for consumers. The DTE monopoly needs to be broken with a public utility.

A public utility maybe, but not one associated with a local gov like the City of Ann Arbor. I don't want the Ann Arbor city government anywhere near the role of utility manager.

[pfife]

urgent alert for @chasfh and @oblong Libertarian party leader on C-SPAN, calls are incredible

[pfife]

she said part of their plan to increase gotv is to advertise more on zerohedge   hahahaha

[chasfh]

Yup, she looks like someone who would benefit from hands-off government and letting society reward you based on characteristics like what looks you were blessed with and the likelihood of your using them to better your circumstances.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, pfife said:

she said part of their plan to increase gotv is to advertise more on zerohedge   hahahaha

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_McArdle#Career

McArdle is a noted Russophile, giving an op-ed to Newsweek claiming that Russian forces were not committing a genocide in Ukraine, retorting that Ukrainians are committing war crimes against the Russian population of the Donbas, as well as saying that the United States forced Russia, and Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.^[17] McArdle also spoke at the Rage Against the War Machine Rally, co hosted with the People’s Party, where she called on a cut to all aid to Ukraine, and for Ukraine to surrender all Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.^[18] After the rally, the Libertarian Party issued a press release denouncing "Any speaker advocating for the contrary does not align with our values" in reference to speakers that did not support their "anti-war platform," specifically targeting Scott Ritter, the most radical pro-Russian speaker at the event.^[19] The United States Pirate Party, one of the invited participants, refused to show, and vehemently denounced the rally as a "perversion of the anti-war movement" and that "the anti-war stance in this case is easy. Russia, not Ukraine, should put down its arms."^[20]

[chasfh]

One other thing I'm noticing: there is exactly zero information anywhere on the Internet about who Angela McArdle is, where she came from, who her parents are, how her career started or anything like that, with a degree from a non-denominational Christian university I doubt any of us have ever heard of.. So, she may have been air-dropped directly from Russia into the US with a scrubbed and unresearchable background with the goal of picking off and radicalizing a few thousand horny disaffected American men against the current body politic.

[CMRivdogs]

With the Semiquincetennial Celebration of the Declaration of Independence just around the corner, states are gearing up for ways to celebrate the 250th. Personally I think we should hold off until the 250th anniversary of the Constitution, if we make it that far.

That said stories like this remind me that the group of colonies that would eventually make up the 'United States" were not unanimous in their feelings. We're basically in the same place we were back in 1774 or before

https://cardinalnews.org/2024/04/16/a-rascaly-county-montgomery-county-was-a-hotbed-of-anti-patriot-fervor-during-the-revolution/

Quote

Hundreds of people across the Southwest Virginia valleys and mountains openly opposed the Revolution and pledged their loyalty to British King George III. The reasons were as varied as the people themselves — some feared reprisals against the rebels should Britain prevail, many feared a British loss would give France more power in North America, while many others simply saw a future under Patriots no better than the current British rule. American colonists who sided with the British were frequently referred to as Loyalists or Tories, and others were called “disaffected,” which meant that they didn’t necessarily support either side in the war, but neither were they positively affected or persuaded by the calls for independence.

Loyalists caused tremendous headaches for Preston, a former member of the House of Burgesses and one of the largest landowners in western Virginia. Preston’s holdings ran from his Greenfield plantation in Botetourt County west into Montgomery County (which had only been formed a year after the war began when it was carved out of Botetourt County) and deeper into the widening frontier of present-day Kentucky. His status as a businessman and militia leader made him an inviting target for Loyalists, who frequently vowed to attack, scalp or kill him. Many of those who made threats were his very own Montgomery County neighbors and soldiers.

“You live in a rascaly county,” his friend Thomas Lewis of Rockingham County wrote to him. “A majority of Rascals will render any place Rascaly.”

 

[gehringer_2]

Volkswagen employees vote in UAW in Tennessee.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/04/19/vw-uaw-tennessee-vote/

[Motor City Sonics]

23 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Volkswagen employees vote in UAW in Tennessee.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/04/19/vw-uaw-tennessee-vote/

Wow.   Tennessee is doomed.  Most of their residents will die horrible deaths as all of their freedoms are taken away.    

[Motor City Sonics]

Part of me really would like to see Tik Tok get banned in the U.S.,  at least for a little while - just to see all the cellphone junkies lose their minds.     

[Edman85]

7 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Part of me really would like to see Tik Tok get banned in the U.S.,  at least for a little while - just to see all the cellphone junkies lose their minds.     

It's a scourge.

[pfife]

I agree, feel that way about all social media with the obvs exception of troof dot social

[CMRivdogs]

As someone who was hemmed in by Non Compete Clauses, I wish this came 25 years ago.

 

[gehringer_2]

34 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

As someone who was hemmed in by Non Compete Clauses, I wish this came 25 years ago.

 

This is the kind of action where the Biden administration is making deliberate efforts to force up wages in the US as the most direct was to increase social equity. The old theory was let business make the money, then raise taxes and redistribute. But Biden's people have realized that the tax increases never come, so their approach is try to get more people making higher incomes. Of course the corporate pushback is just as fierce, but the advantage politically is that you can point directly to the beneficiaries of the policies, whereas the beneficiaries of increased social welfare spending are too diffuse to create effective political support.

Edited April 24 by gehringer_2

[Dan Gilmore]

Oregon has a law that restricted noncompete clauses…unfortunately one of my past bosses paid big bucks to the local hotshot business law firm to craft a confidentiality clause that functioned in a similar way. Among other weasel power moves. 🤬

[CMRivdogs]

I had to deal with the NC in Chicago as a traffic reporter. There were two companies in town at the time and both enforced the policy. So basically I had to find other employment for a year in order to make a move. 
 

The upside for me was I decided what I was doing between media jobs was more fun than dealing with the politics of my old job. I also figured out without the hour plus commute both ways I was coming out ahead of the game.