And they'll only get better with time. I think It'll be a little rocky the next four years in the US. But still, they are great. My house is 100% wind powered and I regret not putting solar on 5 years ago

Great points! Wind and solar are far easier to scale. Their main issue is land use, but when applied properly (with appropriate environmental impact assessments) that's not a major concern on its own, really it's transiting that power to use centers. Dealing with the individual property rights for a transmission line that doesn't benefit the person under it is and has been enough to kill energy projects.

In my opinion, nuclear's strength lies in its energy density. You could replace a coal or gas plant with a nuclear plant. This is an option being explored by a couple companies because it enabled them to use land no one wants that already has the cooling and transmission connections.

I support nuclear and it was a recurring theme in my environmental policy degree, but I am by no means against wind and solar. I think they are fantastic sources. They each have their trade offs. But we will need to make use of everything in the face of climate change.

One small note, nuclear is expensive, however be cautious when researching cost per Wh produced and look for the time scale. Wind and solar projects are often forecasted to run for just 20 years, they can certainly go longer though. Nuclear runs for 50+ years. Cost comparisons always use the lowest time scale. Nuclear obviously has a very high upfront cost that makes it stupid expensive for a 20 year plan, but over 50 it can reach parody or undercut renewables. Renewables are also done a disservice by these same reports by locking them to the low timescales when their leases are easily extended. But leases are also a large expense so renewal does bump the cost. Things get difficult to forecast with those known-unknows, so it's easier, and more accurate to take the lowest scale and say "this is the cost for 20 years" and let the reader decide if they want to math out the 2.5 multiplier. But then it wouldn't be accurate to the 20 years since renewal costs and...well, you see why we use the lower scale.

Kyle Hill has done a fantastic job discussing nuclear energy, if anyone is interested in learning more about its viability. https://youtu.be/J3znG6_vla0

Also, I'll leave this safety study here as well because nuclear safety is, and should be, a top concern.

https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy

Shhhh. I don't want these two anywhere near an office or department with merit.

One more I've heard from the MAGAs in my workplace: Trump did not actually get a first term because the Democrats obstructed him so 2024 is actually his first term

It's the Tragedy of the Commons defense

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

First, let me clarify I bought my Tesla used, before Musk went full fascist, and autopilot came free. The car was updated to the newest hardware for free, since the original FSD equipment couldn't do it either.

That out of the way, FSD sucks, and it's getting worse, not better. When if first come out of beta it was okay. I remember describing it as driving with a teenager, they got the general idea, but would make bad decisions so you had to watch them. Years of updates later and it's practically unusable to me. It tries to go way under or over the speed limit, it hesitates or slams on the brakes for green lights. It slams on the brakes for cars that pull out with plenty of gap but doesn't even notice the risky merges. It can not seem to navigate intersections anymore, damn near stopping in the middle of a turn. It actually just updated yesterday and I tried it again, it took me less than 5 miles to disable it again. It is, in my opinion, a hazard to use. I talked to my partner about it and we both agree it didn't used to be this bad.

Anyway, the stupidest part of all this, is they changed it so it's either full self driving all the time or not. You want cruise while you're in traffic because you know it'll try to cut in front of someone? Silly idiot, no you don't. So you now have to have a second profile* for cruise control and lane keep without FSD. And the odd thing is that lane keep and cruise are fine. They function like FSD used to. They can drive the highway with no problem and trust me, I do not have much faith in the car so I'm watching it close. It can't navigate city streets, but neither can FSD....

TLDR, my car was a better deal for me than Tesla. After years of FSD access, it's bad and getting worse, not better. I can't believe people pay 5 figures for it and maybe that's why they feel the need to clip perfect drives or defend it.

InB4 "WhY DiDn't hE Do iT WhEn hE HaD ThE MaJoRiTy?" Because he's calling for constitutional amendments that require a 2/3rds support in Congress and the SCOTUS may finally be disliked enough to get some GOP members to support reform, especially if it comes with limiting Biden's own immunity.

We're stuck with him till 2034 at least, he had this to say following his confirmation:

"The liberals made my life miserable for 43 years," a former clerk renmembered Thomas who was 43 years old when confirmed saying, according to The New York Times. "And I'm going to make their lives miserable for 43 years."

https://www.businessinsider.com/clarence-thomas-told-clerks-he-wants-to-make-liberals-miserable-2022-6?amp

The 119th Congress will be seated on January 3rd 2025 and the presidential election certification will be January 6th. So if the Dems win the majority in 2024, they won't have the power to deny certificatation outright. Though, I'm sure a minority will still object to every swing state like they did in 2020, just to draw it out.

The country music genre is another casualty of 9/11

The Supreme Court has no enforcement arm. That's why the court loosing it's credibility is kind of a big deal for Roberts.

As racist as this obviously is, it's good to see a red state be the test case for ignoring the court. It might give blue states more energy to ignore the next 40 years of authoritarian and climate denial rulings.