I ran into this one a bit ago. Didn't even know they were still recording in 2001.

pay for needed upgrades

See your mistake is thinking that's needed upgrades to the grid. It's actually needed upgrades to their stock price.

I know Duke uses a tiered billing system. Residential and commercial rates are different and there are, I think, 3 steps where, as you use more power the rate per kWh changes. So in theory a data center would be paying more per kWh then a homeowner, but not sure if that difference is enough to cover the cost of the rapid expansion.

Either way the rates they are allowed to charge are set by the state but the state frequently approves increases for pretty pathetic reasons. Recently they got to increase it due to the coal ash cleanup lawsuit. We're sorry we poisoned you. We'll clean it up, and by the way here is the bill for cleanup. So I'm sure if the utilities argue that this rapid expansion to support business in the state requires a bump to the residential customer they will be approved for it.

So my ultra right wing, Fox watching, Trump voting mom is complaining about the weather this summer, and grudgingly admits that climate change might potentially have possibly made the situation maybe a bit worse.

Yet our Energy Secretary still won't see it.

#1 Brilliant, no notes.

Reduce your expectations and we'll all leave happy

My last contractor said the same thing. He isn't my contractor any longer. I had to do the thresholds, backsplash and glass in cabinets myself. Actually the work he did was fantastic but I did those last three things myself because I wanted a finished kitchen before halley's comet comes back.

Conservatives have never been the "party of small government" that's just a saying they use. They love big government as long as it's the big government they like.

They are small government for any assistance programs, but big government for any police or military action.
They are small government for protecting your rights, but big government for spying on you.
They are small government for preparing for the future, but big government for keeping us in the past.

Been that way since at least Regan and the merger between Republicans and "Christians".

I read that article yesterday Lamp.

WTF did no one think that maybe a human ought to investigate stuff before forwarding it to the cops? AI with a direct link to police seems like just an incredibly bad idea.

Got my eye on a 21 acre plot of land it's already got a well and septic but need power so I'm looking at solar. Sure I'll still need batteries and a generator but I'll need a whole lot less of the generator if I go solar.

Also looking at some of those household wind turbines maybe a three way combination of wind, solar, and a generator for when it's dark and not windy. The cost to get power run to the house is about 50% of a solar installation so it's the perfect application as the pay down is only about 4-5 years taking into account the cost to run power. I'll have to do the math without the tax credits now since by the time I'm ready to start development they probably won't exist.

I'm only here cause I'm stuck in bed after breaking my ankle in 3 places. Once I'm up and about I'll be back to working 60-70 a week, especially to make up for being out the past 3 weeks.

So I'll have to pass on lunch but maybe in the future. I should be at 100% in another month or two at the outside.

#28

Not true I know one lesbian with a WRX. Mostly though the Forester and Outback seems to be the favorites of lesbians.

I find myself once again unable to identify a single redeeming quality that North Carolina has

I'm three hours from the beach and three hours from skiing. The blue ridge mountains are gorgeous. Just an absolute ---- ton of trees and open land. NC has quite a lot going for it that, at least in my opinion, outweigh the large number of people like Boaz that live here. We also have amazing medical care and pretty mild traffic.

We are leaning more purple, but as long as R's have control of the state house and can redistrict as they choose, I doubt many people from outside NC will see it.

#4

Oh, I was joking but I guess I was right.

Didn't pay Trump a licensing fee huh?

Honestly would love to see ICE uniforms by Alexander Julian. All the pastels would look so manly.

Have the stupids selected a uniform yet?

Well Hugo Boss has been dead for almost 80 years. Maybe Ed Hardy will take it on?

I work with a guy from Puerto Rico, not sure of the details of the beef but if you want to email me I'm sure he would be happy to come up with some regional and case specific insults.

If you just want generic insults you have a pretty decent list already.

"Trump is opening up thousands of blue collar jobs for Americans"

Maybe over time, but in the short term what I'm seeing in construction says no. Construction jobs are hit with a double whammy, the uncertainty of prices thanks to tariff roulette makes it hard to price things which is causing construction to pull back. Then a lack of workers is slowing the jobs down so that even when you get a job it might be pushed back 2-4 weeks or more. I have two I started in April that I still haven't been able to finish and get my final check for. Not because of me, I have all the materials I have the time I've talked to the PM multiple times and they just aren't ready for my last stage. Usually I run about 4 weeks from start to finish on a project like this. Then any project that was getting any kind of federal funding is now in limbo and you have a third line of attack on blue collar jobs. Granted that's only in construction, but construction represents a big hunk of blue collar jobs that are NOT being created.

So no, disruptions of the supply chain due to tariffs, disruptions of the labor chain due to ICE, and disruption of funding due to DOGE have caused less work for blue collar workers in construction.

#12

For whatever reason Trump picked up the populist vote. I have no idea how he managed to convince anyone that he was a man of the people but there it is.

My one hope is that perhaps things will be so blatant under him that the populist might join the progressives against the influence of big money. It's a slim hope, but when deporting thousands of their neighbors, cutting off all aid even their own, and persecuting LGBTQIA+ people doesn't improve their lives, maybe they will realize the real issue.

#13

I would love to give Roberts credit for that kind of planning. Not sure he deserves it but allowing the planning shows that the plan is to pretty flagrantly violate the constitution. So at the least if the court allows this there won't be any hiding behind an originalist take.

At this point it's just a plan for if the court allows the end of birthright citizenship. Maybe the plan will sound so bad that the Supreme Court won't have any choice but to rule against something that is one of the easiest cases I've ever heard of.

We better hope so because if the court allows the president to ignore the 14th amendment then he'll pretty much be allowed to ignore the other 26.

The good old appeal to authority. As it is, this type of thing has no scientific consensus which is why Europe and Scandinavia have been pumping the breaks on these procedures for minors.

How about the appeal to facts? In 2019 there were 0 gender affirming surgeries for children under the age of 12 and .0021% of trans youth under 17.

Your protect the kids schtick doesn't work when the kids don't actually need protecting.

Stop tilting at windmills.

#2

Typical bully behavior. Sounds more like a husband telling his wife that if dinner isn't ready it will be her own fault she gets a beating.

Accept that it is going to limit some of the things you get to do in life.

I'm not sure in what way my trans son is limited in what he can do in life. He can do everything any other man can do except stick his penis in stuff. While I will be the first to admit that sticking your penis in stuff is a great part about being a man as I've gotten older sticking my penis in stuff has become a much smaller part of my identity. So he just kind of beat me to that level.

I really can not think of anything else he would be limited in accomplishing unless society chooses to limit him for some reason.

Surprised the opioid numbers didn't drop.

Laying here recovering from breaking my ankle and having it surgically reconstructed. I'm taking about 1/2 the amount of painkillers they prescribed thanks to MJ doing some heavy lifting in the pain relief category.

Even on the regular I get 5 norco a day for MS but frequently top out at 4 and on weekends vacations get that number down to 3.