Thursday Not So Hidden Tricks Open Comments

Chinese Coal Plant at Shanxi

In Dealing With China, Trump May Have a Trick Up His Sleeve

“Abandoning fossil fuels, which the United States has in abundance, and embracing green energy, the supply chain for which is largely controlled by China, could benefit only one country. And for a while, China’s bet looked to be paying off. “

However, unlike the late Soviet Union – sometimes referred to as “Haiti with missiles” – China is an economic powerhouse, one that puts is technological prowess in the service of its geostrategic aspirations. ”China has roughly nine times as many engineers as the U.S. and perhaps as many as 15 times as many science and technology graduates,” George Gilder recently noted in the Wall Street Journal. This gives China a decisive edge in a world where rapid advances in technology have far-reaching economic and military implications.

There are, however, things that Trump and his team can do, and in some cases are already doing, that can turn the tables on Beijing. With the departure of the geopolitically inept Biden administration, Washington can now harness its considerable geological assets to the disadvantage of its rival in the Far East.

and,

But China’s dominance of such sectors as electric vehicles, batteries that power EVs and serve to backup intermittent wind and solar energy, and the raw materials in wind turbines and solar panels makes the Middle Kingdom vulnerable to Trump’s renewed embrace of “American energy dominance.” One of Trump’s Jan. 20 executive orders titled “Unleashing American Energy” includes directives revoking the EV mandate, freezing unspent funds for green energy, expediting approval of liquid natural gas (LNG) export facilities, and streamlining the permitting process for oil and gas leasing, exploration, development, and production. It also speeds up the approval process for new pipelines and other critical fossil-fuel infrastructure.

Like the man said: You can’t fix stupid“

Wind farms require 10 times the amount of critical minerals as natural gas power plants and 1.6 times as much as nuclear power plants,” writes the Heritage Foundation’s Austin Gae.

 


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

65 responses to “Thursday Not So Hidden Tricks Open Comments”

  1. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    35 here down from 36 at 4 AM but much warmer than the 29 that was predicted due to the cloud cover overnight. I think the high will be in the 40’s. 40’s?! TOO DAMN COLD!!!
    Mornin’ Gang

  2. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Shannon from last night;

    A bitter reminder that those sorry SOBs in the Texas Legislature saw fit to discontinue Vehicle Inspections but keep collecting the inspection fee from us anyway.

    That is the one thing I don’t miss from Texas, here in Alabama we don’t have and have never had a state inspection of any kind. I think that is because we have no really large cities. That said, our biggest city, Birmingham is situated in a valley and I’ve always wondered how it got past the Federal Smog rules.

  3. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Spotted over yonder;

    Meet May. She just turned 329 years old. She watched her husband throw tea off ships in Boston Harbor, lost her son in the Civil War, and survived the Titanic after nearly drowning. She’s been through a lot.

    Elon Musk just stopped her Social Security checks.

    How could Elon do this?!

    Save the Tercentenarians!

  4. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    I saw a clip of Monica Lewinsky on Watter’s last night. Apparently she has a Pod-Cast whatever the hell that is but my question is WHO CARES?!?!
    Edited, I used an old link.

  5. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Funny How a 19-Year-Old at DOGE Is a Problem, but a 13-Year-Old (Greta) Lecturing the World on Climate Was ‘Brave and Inspiring.’ 😀

  6. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Welp, it’s 7:52 AM and this thang is Graveyard Dead! My work here is done.
    😉

  7. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    Im here! Toe got hung up in the sheets. Mornin!

    1. Super Dave Avatar
      Super Dave

      Mornin’ ‘Bout time you showed up to save the day. 😉

    1. Super Dave Avatar
      Super Dave

      Awww, that is soo neat!

  8. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    It was 7 degrees overnight in Detroit when a 54″ water main broke. People woke up to their entire streets as 4-5′ deep frozen blocks of ice. It’s hard to look at this and believe it’s true in an American city.

    1. Super Dave Avatar
      Super Dave

      DAYAAM! What a mess!

  9. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    The SS United States left Philadelphia PA yesterday enroute to its final resting place to become a reef off of Destin-Fort Walton Beach. So sad but I guess she’ll be good for fishing and scuba diving. I just wish they could have saved her.

  10. bsue54 Avatar
    bsue54

    I finally managed to get my hands warm enough, after taking Shortie out, to be able to let go of my coffee cup for a minute… It’s 23 out here in the woods… not really looking for much change today, if yesterday was any example…

  11. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — Two teenage girls are under arrest, accused of plotting a “mass casualty attack” on Memorial High School. The FBI says the plot involved pipe bombs and guns.

    https://abc13.com/post/memorial-high-school-threats-2-students-jailed-threatening-mass-casualty-attack-spring-branch-isd-campus-police-say/15934172/

    1. Shannon Avatar
      Shannon

      The story is making it on to national news outlets.

      1. Texpat Avatar
        Texpat

        I saw the story in national media yesterday afternoon.

        1. GJT Avatar
          GJT

          They claim it was a very credible threat.

    2. Bonecrusher Avatar
      Bonecrusher

      My high school, class of 1978.

  12. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    GJT’s 9:07 AM link is all jumbled up for me. Here is a different link for the Salena Zito column. Zito is great as always.

    1. Texpat Avatar
      Texpat

      After Carter let the American steel companies collapse in the 1970s, the oilpatch bust a few years later finished off what was left with all the steel pipe & tube plants closing up there.

    1. Texpat Avatar
      Texpat

      Note it’s interesting the Biden EPA didn’t object to this terminal proposal in October 2024, right before the election. It was one last desperate move to try and curry favor with red state voters.

  13. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Add Palestinians to this list. I’m not sure it’s safe to save the women. Perhaps the younger children could be saved.

    Deuteronomy 20:16-18

    16 “You are not to leave even one person alive in the cities of these nations that the Lord your God is about to give you as an inheritance. 17 You must completely destroy the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, just as the Lord your God commanded you, 18 so they won’t teach you to do all the detestable things that they do for their gods. If you do what they teach you, you will sin against the Lord your God.”

    1. Bonecrusher Avatar
      Bonecrusher

      This passage has been haunting me for a long time. If ISRAEL WOULD SIMPLY FOLLOW HIS RULES most of the garbage they are plagued with would simply go away.

  14. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    Just finished rosary time and talk with Hubby time, gonna do a quickie on the C&C and then head out for my dental appointment. Today is casting and measurements for three crowns to go on the implants on my lower jaw. I still have implant surgery for the top jaw, but getting these crowns means I can finally start eating like a regular person again. It’s been a long road, but I’m finally seeing the end of the line.

    And then I start seeing videos of folks coming down with thyroid cancer and other abominable ailments from having the metal in their jaws; or from hidden, simmering infections due to long ago dental work. /sigh/ Just rolling the dice….

    1. Bonecrusher Avatar
      Bonecrusher

      Get them to test you with the specific metals they are going to use and see if you have a negative reaction BEFORE THEY INSTALL THEM.

  15. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    C&C roundup:

    Good morning, C&C, it’s Thursday! Today’s mind-blowing roundup includes: Trump runs rings around the court orders and the New York Times doesn’t like it; Zelensky attacks Trump and finds out; EU’s second counter-summit lands flat and manages to forget inviting the one most important party; NYC’s 15-minute-city nightmare ends and Trump massively triggers progressives; Trump terrifies Deep State with announcement of Fort Knox audit; and Musk teases DOGE rebates— but does it signal something potentially Earth-shattering?

  16. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    First, the Trumpian legal maneuvers have flummoxed the left yet again:

    Hahahaha! Behold, the most side-splitting headline since they had to figure out how to climb down from mandatory outdoor masking. Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story headlined, and I am not making this up, “Trump Team Finds Loophole to Defy Spirit of Court Orders Blocking Spending Freezes. The sub-headline explained, “Officials cite other legal authorities — not Mr. Trump’s court-blocked directives — to keep withholding foreign aid and domestic grant money.”

    Speaking as a litigator, try as hard as you like, but it is literally impossible to “defy” the “spirit” of an order—because a court doesn’t issue a “spirit.” It issues orders. Not spirits. Parties aren’t required to hold séances asking spirits what the judge really meant. ‘Spirit of the Injunction, speak to us!

    Mr. C. just cracks me up. He goes on, in his humorous way, of describing the activist judge that is overstepping his bounds in trying to tie Trump’s hands. More fun reading.

    To make the story short, the money isn’t gushing forth as the judge wanted because there are a myriad of bureaucratic ways to slow down the financial spigot. The judge has big lessons to learn.

  17. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    Skipping all the Ukraine stuff – y’all are pretty well versed and it just gives me a headache from all the eye rolling….so, next up, more Trump Trolling:

    Yesterday, our Troller-in-Chief struck again. The ghastly UK Guardian was aghast, running the breathless story under the headline, “Trump receives widespread backlash to social post calling himself ‘king’.” They fall for it every single time.

    Yep, the congestion pricing in New York was instituted in a lordly fashion (as in, nobody wanted it but it was forced upon them anyway). Biden’s folks wanted it, but DOT Sec Sean Duffy rescinded that program.

    To say the public widely despised the program is like saying the French resistance somewhat disfavored Hitler. Once again, Trump is making the Democrats argue for the hated 20% side of the argument. But that’s when he really piled on.

    The official White House account fired off a celebratory tweet: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” The post included a fake Time Magazine cover showing a smiling Trump wearing a crown. More massive triggering ensued.

    To truly appreciate the transgressive humor, you have to remember where the whole “king” canard came from— the Democrats! They cranked up the “Trump as king” rhetoric last year, while the Supreme Court was defining the boundaries of Presidential immunity. When Trump invoked “THE KING!” he knew exactly what he was doing. See! See! We told you! He thinks he’s a king now!

    So, using their own canards against them really wisses them off. While they scream about crowns, Trump’s army continues its battle on waste.

    Priorities.

  18. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    Mr. C. brings up the audit of Ft. Knox:

    Trump’s proposal to audit the gold reserves is common sense, and we will see how the Democrats complain about this one. But I suspect a much bigger play might be in the works than just satisfying a crowd-favorite curiosity. Take a look at the next story.

    [Introduction of the proposed “DOGE refund” tweet.]

    The tweet’s bare suggestion triggered everyone. Progressive wailed about the national deficit (one of the few times it offends them). Conservatives complained about the national debt.

    But … is there something there?

    One of the most mysterious and least discussed executive orders that Trump signed during his first week in office created a “Sovereign Wealth Fund.” At the time, he suggested it might have something to do with TikTok. He said, “We’re going to have a sovereign wealth fund… and we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund,” referring to potential investments like TikTok.

    The President also speculated the fund could be financed through tariffs and by monetizing un-named federal assets. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has mentioned general plans to “monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people.”

    Mr. C. goes on to compare it to Alaska’s Permanent Fund, which sends checks to Alaskans, based on oil and gas revenues.

    Alaskans don’t just “pay into” the system—they get a cut of the profits from their state’s resources. In this sense, Alaskans share in the state’s publicly-owned oil and mineral revenues, giving residents direct participation in benefits derived from the state’s natural resources.

    The rebate varies depending on each year’s royalty revenue…. The principal of the fund is earmarked for Alaskans. The interest is used for rebates and government spending, but only with specific legislative approval. The salutary effect is that Alaskans are arguably more invested in state government than citizens anywhere else, because they have a direct financial stake in its management.

    So, it encourages the populace to be involved in how their government governs. What a novel idea!

    Could federal assets, tariffs, and TikTok revenues create a perpetual fund that pays Americans directly? Could it function like a national dividend, giving citizens a stake in America’s wealth? Could it reduce individual tax burdens by directing federal revenues to be rebated instead of just spent?

    The details remain murky. But President Trump is notorious for teasing big ideas before they drop. A Fort Knox audit. A Sovereign Wealth Fund. DOGE Savings. A potential dividend? I have no better idea where this is going than anyone else. But I strongly suspect it’s bigger than just a Fort Knox inventory check.

    This could be huge. Read the column. This could redesign our whole financial methodology in the country.

  19. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    Yep.NYT new, more appropriate format.

  20. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    There are much more alarming studies like this from South Korea, Scandinavia and the UK illustrating undeniable damages to significant portions of the populations. They are published once and never see the light of day again in the mainstream media.

    Experts from Yale University have discovered an alarming syndrome linked to the mRNA Covid vaccines.

    The previously-unknown condition – dubbed ‘post-vaccination syndrome’ – appears to cause brain fog, dizziness, tinnitus and exercise intolerance.

    Some sufferers also show distinct biological changes, including differences in immune cells and the presence of coronavirus proteins in their blood, years after taking the shot.

    You still have public health physicians defending these injections and making false claims without proof.

    The mRNA vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer are estimated to have saved tens of millions of lives globally from Covid, including 3million in the US.

    plus,

    Persistent spike proteins in the body are thought to cause some of long Covid’s symptoms, by keeping the body in a constant state of inflammation.

    1. Bonecrusher Avatar
      Bonecrusher

      I read on ACE yesterday or the day before that Deborah Birx, the scarf lady, made the claim that the jab was never intended to prevent infection. It should never have been used on the young, only the older, at risk population. So my questions are: if it doesn’t prevent infection:
      What does it do?
      Why only the older population?
      What, specifically, was it designed to do?

      There are lots of people who really need to dance at the end of the rope for their collusion in this crime against humanity!

  21. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    the billions and billions of fraud and waste being unearthed by musk was all funded by our illustrious truth, justice and the amerKan way, walking undead Vampyres in congress, decade after decade.

  22. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    Congress also pretended that they didn’t know the 2020 election was stolen and the wooden dummy has been an incapacitated wooden dummy for 4 straight years.

  23. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    Heck I’ve heard they want to pass this upcoming cr and leave all the shinola that musk has uncovered in the bill.

    the hell?

  24. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    Just how many billions in laundered blood money does the Kentucky swamp turtle and the Texas cornhole need?

  25. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    The drooling dangle of spittle, tingle up his jingle leg, over the Kenyan Vampyre, gets dragged out of the undead’s bag of bat loonies to send a message.

    1. Bonecrusher Avatar
      Bonecrusher

      What a vile, disgusting, reprehensible, sack of a$$#oles, is Chis ‘Tingles up the leg’ Mathews. There is nothing that comes from his mouth that is worthy of consideration; he aspires to be a POS.

    1. Tedtam Avatar
      Tedtam

      I saw that. Made me smile. Living their best life.

  26. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    Buckle up we got us a new FBI Director.

  27. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    There are conservatives in Europe and glimmers of hope for the future.

    Even before I had heard JD Vance’s speech, I knew it must be something special simply from the horrified reactions of the EU elites and their media allies. 

    We publish the US Vice President’s speech to the Munich security conference in full on europeanconservative.com, because we recognise that it marks a dividing line in Western politics. And because we agree with pretty much every word of it.

    Since the moment he stopped speaking on Friday, Vance has been loudly accused of “attacking Europe”. No, he didn’t. He gave a devastating critique of the EU and UK leaders who have themselves betrayed the foundations of European democracy and Western civilisation. They are the ones who are attacking what Europe should stand for.

    and,

    All right, now, maybe even more: we are two Wests. The divide is not America versus Europe, nor just Vance versus Von der Leyen. It is the people versus the elites, the oligarchs versus the demos, the cancel culture warriors versus those who believe free speech is the lifeblood of our civilisation. 

    We know where we stand. Whose side are you on?

  28. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    The Democratic Party has never changed. They have always hated free speech. Democrats throughout history pay only lip service to liberty and freedom.

    In the years before the Civil War, slaveholders were the greatest threat to free speech in the United States. White Southerners used state laws, a congressional gag rule, suppression of the mail, and physical violence to silence abolitionist speech because they believed it was dangerous.

    In 1830, for example, Louisiana penalized anyone using “language in any public discourse, from the bar, the bench, the stage, the pulpit, or in any place whatsoever,” as well as “in private discourses or conversations,” that had “a tendency to produce discontent among the free colored population of this State, or to incite insubordination among the slaves therein.” In other words, those who spoke out against slavery or racial discrimination would be in violation of this law. The mandated punishment ranged from three to 21 years of hard labor to death.

    and this,

    Abraham Lincoln engaged this issue in a speech he delivered at the Cooper Union in New York City in February 1860. Speaking directly to white Southerners, he said, “You consider yourselves a reasonable and a just people. Still, when you speak of us Republicans, you do so only to denounce us a reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than outlaws.” Lincoln pointed out that Southern Democrats were more likely to “grant a hearing to pirates or murderers” than to Republicans.

  29. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    My new dentist and I are getting along quite well. I haven’t laughed this much in quite a while.

  30. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    PRAY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM

    Israel Nehemiah Musonda, a Pentacostal Christian, prays at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2024. Photo by Lauren Markoe
    CLICK THE PIC TO GET THE FULL IMPACT OF THE PICTURE.

    1. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
      Dr phil Good-E=1984

      Good stuff:) squawka Bruddah.

  31. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    We shot him 68 times. Sheriff Judd tells why. PRICELESS

    1. Super Dave Avatar
      Super Dave

      Seem reasonable to me.

  32. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Haven’t had any H‑E‑B Spicy Charro Beans in about a month.
    Man they’re good!

    1. Super Dave Avatar
      Super Dave

      Mmm Mmm!

  33. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    We bought a metal porch delivery box and Hubby secured it to one of our posts. We got our first delivery inside the box today.

  34. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    Well, what I thought was going to be one hour at the dentist today turned into 4 1/2 hours. My new dentist was using the computerized scanning device today. It looks like a large toothbrush but the brush end is a camera that takes thousands of pictures and then stitches them together in a most realistic image of my mouth. Amazing. As a programmer, I’m still trying to figure out how it knows where in my mouth the camera head is…but I digress.

    Dr. Salam is just the cutest lady I think I’ve ever seen. She has more ear piercings than I’d ever want, but she wore ladylike earrings in them. We laughed practically the whole time I was in the chair. She had problems with the computer system, so it took her a while to get things started. When we finally got the first scan completed, she needed to get more detailed scans of each of the implant sites so the prosthetics folks could make accurate pieces to fit my mouth. That meant that she had to unscrew a healing abutment, fit in a “scanner [something]”, and use the handheld scanner to get a picture of it. The scanner piece is longer than the healing abutment and stands proud of the jaw. This allows the prosthetics folks to get accurate angle, screw alignment, and depth measurements for their work.

    The first one went off without a hitch. I wasn’t quite ready for the rebound pain when she reinserted the healing abutment, but it was temporary. When it came to the second and third ones, however, she couldn’t get the scanner piece to screw in. That, of course, was fodder for more joking on my part. One of her classmates, an instructor, and one attending later, they came to the realization that the last two implants were at an angle and not flat. I remembered that Dr. Lucena had mentioned something about angles before, due to the space constructions within the jaw and between the existing teeth. Dr. Salam checked my old notes and found the entry. Soooo….we have a tentative appointment for me to go back in, in about a month. The parts should be available then and we can finish the scanning so I can get the crowns.

    I reminded Dr. Salam that she needed to coordinate with Dr. Lucena. He has one more major surgery (hopefully that last one), to put in the last two implants on the upper jaw.

    I really like Dr. Salam. She assured me that she was going to be around for two more years, so she’ll probably finish up my dental work. I asked about the restoration dentistry for my front teeth, since she mentioned she did restoration, and she said absolutely she could do that. I think it’s already in my treatment plan, but we’ll review it when we get all of these other pieces in. She told me already that once we get the crowns and surgeries done, she wants to do one more comprehensive check-up on my mouth, and then we’ll figure out what to do from there.

    Going to the dental school is one my best decisions, I think. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with all the people, even the ones who drilled holes in my head.

  35. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Where is Shiri Bibas’ body ?

    Deuteronomy 20:16-18

    1. Texpat Avatar
      Texpat

      Don’t let the door hit you in your big, fat ass on the way out, Pam.

    1. Texpat Avatar
      Texpat

      Saw the story earlier. No doubt it is the best.

  36. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    34 here and damn cold, heading to about 25 by daylight.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.