Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[Jim Pascoe]

Maybe not for the big Ivy League universities.  But, there are plenty of state universities where the cost is offset by state government.  There are also smaller private colleges that have reasonable tuition.  But the thing is tuitions everywhere wouldn't be so high if it weren't for the loans. Colleges charge whatever they want because they know the students can borrow as much as they need without proving they can pay it back.  If there were no student loans, tuition would go down and be more reasonable like in the old days before government backed student loans.

A bit like US medical insurance costs then?  Hospitals can charge huge fees because the insurers will pay them.  Insurance companies don't care about high fees because they will put up their premiums and Joe public (or their employer) will pick up the tab and pass it on to their customers.  Sounds like a good reason to have some sort of state-funded health service and get the costs down from astronomical to just the usual high......

Jim

[jeremyrh]

Hang on a mo - I thought Texas was perfect ?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/25/texas-governor-greg-abbott-republican-coronavirus

[faberryman]

I think Republicans would be scared of pissing off Trump and that's probably most of them.  If you're running for re-election in two or four years, would you want Trump to come down to your state and campaign for another republican in the primary to replace you?  Better to let sleeping dogs lie.  Vote not guilty and move on.

So basically you think the Republicans will vote to acquit him whether he's guilty or not. Sounds like when juries acquitted mob bosses even though the mob bosses were guilty because the jurors were afraid the mob bosses would send their goons around to kill them. I always thought that Trump acted like a mob boss, and here's the proof. The question is where is Trump going to get 50 severed horse heads?

[Robert Roaldi]

It depends on the specific statute(s) they are convicted of violating and the state of their residence.  Gun licensing requirements and restrictions for the most part are within the jurisdiction of the individual states.  Typically, persons convicted of felonies will not be permitted to possess firearms for a specified number of years.

Thanks. The thought of them being responsible for taking their own guns away is a little funny.

[PeterAit]

<Misinformation and bad logic go here>

All your arguments go down the tubes when the reality and potential of electrical storage are considered. Your figures on battery efficiency are poppycock, rather than the 20-40% losses you state the reality is more like 5% for modern Li-ion batteries. Where on earth do you get your numbers? And then we have flywheel energy storage, liquid sodium storage, pumped hydro storage, hydrogen storage, and probably some others I don't know about.

Your claim that solar and wind cannot be turned off is more nonsense. You might as well claim that you cannot turn a flashlight off. But why turn them off when the unneeded energy can be stored for times of peak demand? This is all in its infancy now, but things are moving along as evidenced by the number of utilities that are building huge battery facilities.

I really do not understand people like you who are psychologically opposed to solar and wind power. Why? Is it because they are "liberal" causes? Wouldn't any thinking human be delighted to have these become major energy sources, with no fuel costs and no greenhouse emissions?

I have no interest in continuing to correct your errors, so this thread is over.

[Alan Klein]

Not true:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/12/956017635/trump-administration-to-change-covid-19-vaccination-guidance-to-speed-up-rollout?t=1611514620782

It's still a bad idea moving second shots to first shots.  But in defense of Trump, he made the recommendation at the same time his chief medical guy Azar made the recommendation.  When I heard Biden say about a week earlier, it came from him alone.  It seemed like he just made a political decision.  Regardless who made the recommendations, its a bad idea.  Hopefully I'm wrong. 

[Alan Klein]

Right! The Europeans were repulsed by him, Kim Jong Un played him by sending him love letters, Putin complimented him for all his kowtowing and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's retaliatory strike on the US military base outside Baghdad inflicted much more damage than Trump ever admitted.

The Europeans pay more for their defense as presidents even before Trump had demanded.  They didn't like him because Trump actually made them do it.  The North Koreans stopped testing nukes and intercontinental ballistic missiles.  The world is a safer place.  Trump imposed more sanctions and actions against Russia than any other president before him.  You need to stop watching CNN.  Iran is still in a box caught between a rock and a hard place with sanctions that are threatening their leaders and limiting their games in the Middle East. Yes, they did damage our base. But Trump got rid of Iran's chief strategist for their Middle East rule and who killed hundreds of American soldiers. He also destroyed ISIS which Obama created by his fecklessness. 

[faberryman]

But in defense of Trump, he made the recommendation at the same time his chief medical guy Azar made the recommendation.

What a coincidence. Trump and Trump's boot licker announced the same policy at the same time. What are the odds of that happening? Lightning is a bottle I guess.

By the way, Azar is not a "medical guy"; he is a lawyer heading HHS. I wonder who made the decision to release all the second doses, because Azar didn't. He didn't know anything about it until a couple weeks later. Nothing like having your "chief medical guy" right on top of things.

When I heard Biden say about a week earlier, it came from him alone.  It seemed like he just made a political decision.

You must not have been paying attention when Biden introduced his COVID task force on November 9, 2020.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/525082-biden-unveils-covid-19-task-force

Unlike Trump, Biden probably listened to the medical experts on his task force before making a decision. You'll note Biden hasn't recommended injecting disinfectant in patients' lungs, so that's a hopeful sign.

[faberryman]

The North Koreans stopped testing nukes and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The world is a safer place.

Maybe the North Koreans had tested them enough and were satisfied with the results. When was the last time the US tested a nuke or an ICBM? I guess Kim Jong-un scared Trump into not testing our nukes and ICBMs, and now the world is a safer place. Good old Kim Jong-un. Keeping the U.S. on the straight and narrow.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

[faberryman]

Bingo!!!

Dominion Voting System sues Giuliani over election claims

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/25/dominion-voting-system-giuliani-election-462122

[Alan Klein]

So the Dutch don't like lockdowns either. At least Americans don't riot over it.  It looks like the BLM riots last summer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evmo5aG377Q

[chez]

Why? Adversaries were afraid to mess with him.   It kept us out of wars for four years.

But Trump shivers like a lost puppy when around Putin. And his buddies in North Korea and China just laugh at Trump. The only thing Trump did was alienate his allies during the 4 years.

[chez]

It's still a bad idea moving second shots to first shots.  But in defense of Trump, he made the recommendation at the same time his chief medical guy Azar made the recommendation.  When I heard Biden say about a week earlier, it came from him alone.  It seemed like he just made a political decision.  Regardless who made the recommendations, its a bad idea.  Hopefully I'm wrong.

Why is it a bad idea? Can you elaborate. I believe you are around 80% effective after the 1st shot.

[kers]

...And then we have flywheel energy storage, liquid sodium storage, pumped hydro storage, hydrogen storage, and probably some others I don't know about.

Today the news in Europe is that we produce more electricity from clean and renewable energy sources than from fossil fuels.
https://electrek.co/2021/01/25/egeb-eu-electricity-renewables-overtook-fossil-fuels-2020/
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/24/business/eu-renewable-energy-fossil-fuels/index.html
Especially Denmark is doing great in this respect producing 61% of the electricity from clean energy.

[Alan Klein]

But Trump shivers like a lost puppy when around Putin. And his buddies in North Korea and China just laugh at Trump. The only thing Trump did was alienate his allies during the 4 years.

Trump was the first US president to be tough on China.   Biden is now just following what Trump did.  He's sent in the US Navy off of Taiwan keeping up the pressure on China.  That something Trump started.  Obama pulled the US Navy out of the South China Sea allowing them to build all those island military bases. You really don't know what you're talking about.   You got to stop watching CNN. 

I hope Biden keeps up the pressure that Trump started with tariffs and other economic trade issues.  China has been stealing our intellectual property for decades. I hope Biden had;t sold out to the Chinese with those deals he and his son made with them.  You were so worried that Trump did that with the Russians.  I wonder if you have the same concerns now with China and the Bidens?  I think we should have a Mueller type investigation just to make sure. 

here are the things ZTrumo did against Russia.  It's assembled by the Brookings Institute, a liberal anti-Trump think tank, not a group who would provide Trump support.  But here they do.  They list 52 specific actions Trump took against Russia through 2019, the date of the report.  You relly need to change your news sources.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/09/25/on-the-record-the-u-s-administrations-actions-on-russia/

[Robert Roaldi]

Trump was the first US president to be tough on China.   ...

He was the first President to talk tough on China on Twitter, there's no doubt about that. And he was good at adolescent ethnic slurs ("kung flu") too.

[Robert Roaldi]

What ever happened to Trump's ban of Tic Toc?

Are there tariffs on Canadian aluminum now or not, I can't remember.

Are you bored with winning?

[Alan Klein]

Why is it a bad idea? Can you elaborate. I believe you are around 80% effective after the 1st shot.

Because it is more important that old people get both shots since they are the most vulnerable.  In my town, 2/3 of the people who died were over 65.  20% not effective due to one shot of 2/3 is around 13% who would still die according to your figures. What's the point of giving younger people shots who aren't as vulnerable and will probably survive and let older people die?  Give the most vulnerable people both shots first.

All this is worsened by the fact they're including younger people in the same group as older people.  So the older people aren't even getting their first shot.  Younger people are getting their first shots first.  So it's double hurtful to the old. So many old people are not even getting the benefit on one shot.  How can you defend these policies?   

[Alan Klein]

Today the news in Europe is that we produce more electricity from clean and renewable energy sources than from fossil fuels.
https://electrek.co/2021/01/25/egeb-eu-electricity-renewables-overtook-fossil-fuels-2020/
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/24/business/eu-renewable-energy-fossil-fuels/index.html
Especially Denmark is doing great in this respect producing 61% of the electricity from clean energy.

You're putting your thumb on the scale.  Tell the whole story. Only 20% comes from wind (15%) and solar (5%).  By the way, don't they have to burn fossil fuels when the wind isn't blowing and it's cloudy? Also, did you know Germany's electric rates are 2 1/2 times as much as in the US because of all their green energy.  It would be cheaper to use candles. 

[TechTalk]

Biden is now just following what Trump did.  He's sent in the US Navy off of Taiwan keeping up the pressure on China.  That something Trump started.  Obama pulled the US Navy out of the South China Sea allowing them to build all those island military bases.

Just plainly false.

https://thediplomat.com/2021/01/the-trump-administrations-mixed-messaging-on-taiwan-strait-transits

The U.S. Navy has consistently framed its transits through the Taiwan Strait as routine exercises of “freedom of navigation,” stating that it will “continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows.” The reality is more complex. In fact, frequent U.S. transits of the strait are a relatively recent development, beginning about 15 years ago as the result of a deliberate policy change by the U.S. Department of Defense. Between 1972-2005, the U.S. rarely transited the strait, largely reserving such operations for occasions when it intended to send a clear signal to China. For example, in 1995 during the “Third Taiwan Strait Crisis,” the passage conducted by the USS Nimitz carrier battle group sent a clearly implied message of reassurance to Taiwan and deterrence to China, even without much media amplification. During the George W. Bush administration, the Defense Department instituted a policy change to conduct regular transits of the Taiwan Strait. These continued steadily throughout the Obama administration, during which the U.S. Navy transited the strait 68 times, but attracted little fanfare from U.S. or Chinese officials. Even as strait transits occurred on a near monthly basis, the Chinese government did not comment on any of the Obama administration’s strait transits.

The Trump administration has, on average, conducted fewer strait transits per year compared to the prior administration, and the record-breaking 13 transits conducted in 2020 barely surpassed the 12 transits conducted during President Barack Obama’s final year in office. Yet, media reports have frequently touted the Trump administration’s use of strait transits as a response to escalating tensions in and across the Taiwan Strait.

You really don't know what you're talking about.   You got to stop watching CNN. 

Really?