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Politics : The Donald Trump Presidency -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (60260)	12/2/2024 9:01:30 PM
From: FJB	2 Recommendations Recommended By GROUND ZERO™ Thehammer Respond to of 74628

The Bell Finally Tolls for the FBI The reported nomination of Kash Patel means chickens are coming home to roost for the FBI, which needs to be destroyed as a political entity racket.news Matt Taibbi From CNN’s “Trump announces he intends to replace current FBI director with loyalist Kash Patel”: Even among Trump loyalists, Patel is widely viewed as a controversial figure and relentless self-promoter whose value to the president-elect largely derives from a shared disdain for the so-called deep state… Patel rose to prominence within Trump’s orbit in 2018, when he served as an aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee… Patel played a key role in Nunes’ efforts to discredit the FBI’s Russia investigation into the Trump campaign, including a controversial classified memo that alleged FBI abuses of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants on Trump advisers. What’s a “loyalist”? How many presidents nominate “disloyalists” to fill senior positions? Why do sites like Axios continue to complain that Donald Trump has picked “ yet another hardline MAGA ally” to occupy a key spot? Who the hell else is he supposed to pick? After everything that’s taken place, it’s unsafe for Trump to do anything but bonfire the whole FBI leadership structure, including probably the entire National Security and Counterintelligence Divisions, for starters. Control over the FBI is the critical test of how real any coming changes will be. In the last eight-plus years, the Bureau went beyond the excesses of the J. Edgar Hoover era, attempting to install itself as a KGB-like domestic intelligence service with gatekeeping power over everything from the White House to the speech landscape. Forget Trump: we are not safe unless its bureaucracy is fully dismantled. As for CNN: for the network to shudder about what a “frightening” choice Patel is without mentioning its own role in his story ought to be a shock, but it’s sadly par for the course. Coverage of the “controversial classified memo” Patel helped author may be exhibit A in the case against the “ dishonest fake news media,” a description CNN’s gesticulator-in-chief Jim Acosta denounced as “ out of control” and part of Trump’s “assaults on the truth.” The network spent more than a year attacking this “Nunes memo,” through reports that were themselves frequently proven wrong, with a few venturing into the realm of outright hoaxes. Industry coverage of the episode collectively represents perhaps the most egregious still-unacknowledged error of the Trump years, a story botched in quantity. No one performed worse than Acosta’s CNN: THE GREAT FACEPLANT? A sample of CNN’s copious coverage of the “Nunes memo.” These are all different stories, even if they have the same illustrations in some cases. A “Hamilton 68” article is in the top right corner I defy anyone from CNN to defend its pile of misses on this subject, which collectively read not as journalism but free advertising for Democrats and the FBI. This episode was so shameful, it blurred the lines between the press and a corrupt federal police force. At minimum, the smug mass errors by stations like CNN were Trump’s best campaign ads. Anderson Cooper, can you defend it? Wolf Blitzer? Brian Stelter? Chris Cillizza, who wrote some of CNN’s copy on this? Anyone? Could even recently departed Chris Wallace justify unacknowledged “mistakes” on this scale? To recap: PAYWALLED CONT...

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (60260)	12/2/2024 9:18:15 PM
From: FJB	2 Recommendations Recommended By GROUND ZERO™ Thehammer Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74628

Wash Post — No historical precedent for Hunter Biden pardon. Politico equally stunned by scope of pardon.

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (60260)	12/2/2024 9:25:42 PM
From: FJB	1 Recommendation Recommended By GROUND ZERO™ Respond to of 74628

AP questions Biden legacy after pardon.

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (60260)	12/2/2024 9:36:18 PM
From: FJB	2 Recommendations Recommended By GROUND ZERO™ Thehammer Respond to of 74628

California can't use all its solar power. That's a huge problem. Stephen Council sfgate.com Solar panels sit in the sun at the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm on Feb. 9, 2015, in Desert Center, Calif. The photovoltaic solar farm was at opening one of the world’s largest of its kind, sitting on 3,800 acres of federal land in Riverside County. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesOver the past two decades, California has become a juggernaut of solar energy production. But that doesn’t mean its residents are reaping huge benefits. A new analysis by Los Angeles Times staff writer Melody Petersen found major problems in the state’s current solar economy. Oversupply of solar power is causing California’s operators to regularly halt production or even pay electricity traders to take power off their hands. Sometimes, other states snag the extra energy for cheap. Meanwhile, California residents, businesses and factories pay around two to three times as much for power as the national average. There are a range of factors at play, but a key takeaway from the Times’ analysis is that California’s most-in-the-nation solar panel buildup isn’t enough for an ideal alternative energy model. Millions of dollars of electricity go to waste because the infrastructure isn’t in place to store or move all the solar power. Article continues below this ad California boasts some of the biggest solar farms in North America, with three huge plants opened in the mid-2010s. The state was responsible for nearly a fourth of utility-scale American solar power generation in 2023. California has an even larger share of the nation’s small-scale market, with many homes and businesses sporting their own panels. But as the Times pointed out, residential rates for customers of PG&E and Southern California Edison have risen by 51% over the past three years, far surpassing general inflation. Despite the high prices, the Times found that California’s solar farms have curtailed production — meaning slowed or stopped — of more than 3 million megawatt hours over the past 12 months. That’s more than twice the amount from 2021, per the outlet, and is enough wasted energy to power 518,000 average Californian homes for a year. Meanwhile, the state is trying to build more solar plants to reach its renewable energy goals; a UC Berkeley researcher cited by the Times raised concerns that the intense curtailment will get in the way. The curtailment has two causes, according to the United States Energy Information Administration. In some cases, power lines in the state don’t have capacity to take on and deliver energy; in others, generation exceeds customer demand. Either way, California’s grid operator tells solar producers to cut production using price drops or direct orders. According to the Times, oversupply has occasionally gotten so bad in California that the prices go negative, forcing solar plants to pay energy traders to take it off their hands. “This is all being underwritten by California ratepayers,” energy consultant Gary Ackerman told the outlet. That’s because state residents pay fixed prices for the grid’s operation and upkeep. Due to the waste, they aren’t reaping the full rewards of those monthly charges or of the taxpayer-funded incentives for solar farms. Article continues below this ad A solar farm is viewed on May 31, 2021, near Newman, Calif. George Rose/Getty ImagesAlong with traders, other states benefit from California’s inability to use all its solar power. The state’s grid operator uses a regional market to dump cheap or even free energy — utility companies in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington all see millions of dollars in savings. Besides upgrading transmission lines, an obvious fix for keeping California-made solar energy in the state and giving it to ratepayers is to build more batteries. But the technology lags behind large-scale solar, as does the infrastructure buildup. In April, Gov. Gavin Newsom touted California’s storage growth, up 1,250% since the beginning of his administration, but there’s a long, long way to go. And in the meantime, the state’s challenges with using its alternative energy may take the wind out of the solar buildup’s sails — as California creeps toward its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045.