Cross-post 196 and NonCredibleDefense. Sh.itJustWorks
Imagine being a Texan trying to brag about having your own power grid, after dozens of people froze to death because of how shitty that power grid is.
Or died due to heat stroke / exhaustion because of that same shitty power grid.
Why are you guys not connected to the rest of the US in the first place?
Because they
are so strong and independentwould rather funnel money into their own pockets than follow regulation to make sure people don’t freeze to death in winter.Not a Texan, but as I understand if a state connects to other states then there are federal regulations that need to be followed.
This is exactly it. Because ERCOT is fully contained within the state of Texas they don’t have to follow any of the federal rules that would cover interstate connections in the Federal Power Act. The state can fully manage it without outside influence, and they’ve chosen to fully deregulate the entire market. Because fuck you it makes money.
Yep, a friend of mine there says he calls up different suppliers every year to shop for that year’s current best price because they all regularly jack it up.
Tell him to look at EnergyOgre.
Texas Power Guide is another option I’ve used. Power to choose is to be avoided.
Everyone games Power To Choose. I’ll keep TPG in mind in the future. Thanks!
It’s a normal thing in Texas. Annual plan are typical. Longer and shorter term ones are available. Never pay month to month. It’s just like Internet plans.
Texas Power Guide does a nice job of analyzing a lot of plans based on your location and usage.
Do NOT use Power To Choose. The electricity retailers purchase positions on that site. There is usually bias in the plans its shows.
Ah, freedom*!
- for some corporations to abuse the average Joe
Because we didn’t want to follow federal regulations due to cost. Some of said regulations included winterizing measures. It was peak “leopards ate my face” material.
I don’t brag about it. I fear each winter that it will happen again. Or that we will be woefully under prepared for natural disasters when they do strike.
There is no safe season in Texas. It gets tornadoes in Spring and hurricanes in Fall. And because every year is getting hotter and hotter, Summer in Texas is probably also gonna get pretty rough soon. And every time ERCOT struggles, the price of energy soars because of their bullshit predatory small print. I truly don’t understand why anybody would choose to move to Texas these days.
Summer will get rough soon? Didn’t we have two back to back years with heat dome dominated summers and people collapsing on the concrete? I distinctly remember being told by my job not to go outside due to extreme risk of heatstroke. It’s already bad. If ercot can’t handle winter now, they won’t be able to handle summer as AC system loads spike higher and higher.
I have lived here for 31 years. I don’t get the pride I’m supposed to have for being a native Texan. If I weren’t trapped here by the economic forces pressing all Texans down, I would live somewhere with a functional government at least.
Come to Chicago. Rent is fucked I won’t lie, but you can still find some cheap places. Depending on what you do (or are willing to do) there’s plenty of work here. Our city is a far cry from perfect but we have a mayor who actually has the people’s best interests in mind, we’re politically active and quite progressive, there aren’t enough free community resources but far more than most places, we have multiple forms of slightly shitty but fully functional mass transit, and weed is legal. Also, portions of the city are extremely walkable and bikeable.
I friend of mine is moving from New Mexico to Chicago, so it checks out.
You need a snappy title, and an opening theme song … 'cause you’ve got a 70s sitcom on yer hands.
Or that we will be woefully under prepared for natural disasters when they do strike.
Texas is always prepared to receive
handouts, I meanwelfareI mean, their legitimate entitlements from the federal government.Right. What happens to Texas if it secedes and is subsequently hit by a substantial hurricane? Fuck those people in particular I guess. That’s the general stance of our state government.
Hilariously, Texas is all about giving people the freedom to freeze to death with their substandard electrical service in the name of “freedom from government oppression”, but they can’t just let trans people decide to transition because it could be a mistake and they might regret it? All while supporting child labor where kids could get crushed or heinously injured in massive industrial equipments? Amazing.
It is definitely not a Texan. The choice of words and points they’re hitting is very Russian.
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Louisiana would annex the gulf coast in less than a month
Cajun Navy gets shit DONE
But they do, or have I missed something?
What’s your definition of superpower?
Russia has not met any definition since the Soviet Union evolved. China is more debatable. It’s not a military superpower–it can’t project much power outside of its own region–but you can argue for economic superpower.
IMO, China’s an economic superpower, but a regional power by all other measures.
I think that’s a reasonable take. Same with the EU.
I see people throw around the term “superpower” too much without thinking what the term means. Russia is most certainly not a superpower, and hasn’t been for some time. It’ll be lucky if it can avoid being a Chinese vassal state at this point.
Having nukes, large military apparatus and lots of soft power I guess?
What’s yours?
Being able to project power outside its immediate region in both soft and hard ways.
Nukes exist for retaliation. They are a terrible first strike weapon. Having them also doesn’t mean you can deploy them wherever. There are so much more important aspects to a military than those.
China has a major effect on the world economy, but it doesn’t have a military to extend that influence. It’s an economic superpower, but not a military one. Diplomatic options are improving, but far from the influence the US has.
Russia has a shit military and could previously dictate the fossil fuel economy in Europe, but not much else. It lost much of that economic influence while invading Ukraine (backroom deals continue, but it’s not anywhere near what it was). The Soviets built the perfect counter to the US Navy by focusing on submarines, but those old subs are badly outdated. It’s not a superpower at all.
The EU (taken as a whole) also has lots of economic and diplomatic influence. None of its constituent powers has much ability to project military power, though. UK and France both have aircraft carriers, but neither country can solve two problems at the same time with its military, and may even struggle with just one problem if they’re on their own.
The US has both a military that can project worldwide, plus economic and diplomatic power to go along with it. Its collection of carriers can solve five problems at the same time and still have some left in reserve. A major multilateral world treaty without the United States would be considered incomplete. That’s a superpower in a complete package.
Today, I learned that in order to be a superpower, you have to actually bomb poor countries in the Middle East and Africa to prove you can “project” your power.
You have to have the potential to do so, at least. Superpowers aren’t necessarily good for humanity.
This is called a bidet in Europe.
Nice!
I honestly can’t tell if they’re being satirical or not…
It is an actual Russian “divide and conquer” troll. A “warm water port” is exactly how you string that sentence together in Russian. A Texan would first of all call it a harbor (port is the word for it in Russian, so likely a direct translation), secondly wouldn’t mention that at all, since an “ice port” isn’t even a thing anywhere in the US, except for Alaska, and having an ice free one is nothing to brag about. In Russia it is a big deal and is a matter of national pride, hence the Crimea takeover. It’s more than just land to them.
Ehm, warm water port is absolutely the correct term for it. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port
Also, a Texan with a bit of knowledge would absolutely call it a port, especially if they’re talking about the Port of Houston, for example: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Houston
I don’t know where this guy is from, but maybe you should be slightly more cautious with your linguistic judgements.
My point was - “warm water port” (which is precisely тепловодный порт) is nothing to brag about in the US, most ports here are. But it has been a largely discussed point by Russians in Russia, and primarily has been mentioned by Putin as a point of pride for Russia, as they have only 2 of those in the country.
You’ve gotta agree, it is very odd to hear somebody who wouldn’t have been exposed to Putin’s speeches regarding the importance of “warm water ports” even mention it as a first point, especially being from Texas. Every port up and down East and West coast is a “warm water port”.
I’m not saying that this is what I would call a stereotypical Texan argument, but framing it like the wording immediately makes them a Russian troll is just pretty far fetched. Especially claiming that port is a weird word in its own.
Perhaps I should have prefaced my argument with the fact that I’m bilingual, I spent half of my life over there and half in the US and I tend to pick up on the slight wording differences. But I do see where you are coming from with the skepticism. I appreciate you fact checking me on this. I agree, port is not specifically a Russian word, but it would be a primary choice of a word for a Russian speaker, as well as the primary bragging point.
You aren’t wrong. I am an average american in the southwest and no one says “warm water port”. None of them freeze south of Alaska. Its a useless distinction for 95% of the country.
Most Americans on the west coast call any place a shipping container can unload or an aircraft carrier to dock a port.
A grand total of zero Americans would ever think to disambiguate a warm water port or not. Especially from Texas. That’s the weird part. Not the word port itself.
Harbor is usually reserved for non-commercial or fishing use only.
No Texans call it a “warm water port”. Definitely a port, but the warm water part of this is mega strange.
Alright, I’ll bite.
I grew up in Oklahoma and Texas. Didn’t move to Tennessee until my 20s. No, we would not call it “warm water port.” I’ve literally never seen anything bigger than a pond with ice on it. Why would it occur to me to mention it’s warmth?
And where I’m from a sentence like “be slightly more cautious with your linguistic judgements” is the kind of pretentious nonsense that gets you disinvited from the barbecue so I recommend being slightly more cautious your own damn self.
Yeah, see, if you can’t read my comment correctly, you might not be the best audience.
I explicitly wrote, that warm water port wasn’t an usual term and that Texans wouldn’t call such a structure harbor, but port since their port is literally called - wait for it - port.
Maybe a bit less BBQ and more reading comprehension would do you a favor.
Suuuuuper pretentious. Needlessly so.
I can tell you’re one of those people who likes to believe they pride themselves on their intelligence, but the truth is, you pride yourself on using it like a cudgel in a vainglorious attempt to feel better than others.
I think we’d be better off if we disengage here.
“warm water port” is a term I exclusively associate with Russia, because the only time it was ever mentioned for me was in a world history class, talking about Russian expansion to secure one.
While “port” might be a normal word, the phrase is a key to know where it comes from.
I know this one! It was mentioned specifically as Port Arthur, a contention of the russo-japanese war, at the turn of the 1900s. Specifically would call your attention to the part where they lost their main fleet, and called upon the Baltic Fleet (yes hoho THAT baltic) that made a trip around Africa in what became known as the Voyage of the Damned for all of the absolute chicanery and Lethal stupidity that took place on that nearly 9 month trip that culminated in catastrophic losses for the russians, and is one of the major pressures on Tzar Nicholas II to get involved in ww1.
Anyway that’s one of the parts of the story as of how we’re all in this fucking mess.
It is very a arctic way of speaking/writing. “Isfrie havner” (ice free ports) is a norwegian way of saying “warm water port”
It’s real, unfortunately it’s working as well as there is a massive portion of west that bites into this shit. I mean look at Orban or any alt right Republicans in states.
What’s a warm water port?
A port that doesn’t freeze in winter.
So, essentially, 99% of all port cities?
Depends. Most Baltic ports are not warm water, and Midwestern port cities on the Great Lakes freeze. A lot of ports on the Korean peninsula and northern Japan also freeze over. They obviously aren’t the important ports like Rotterdam, LA, or Singapore, but they are vital to local economies, especially if it’s your only port.
The great lakes didn’t do much freezing this year
They sure didn’t, but i was down at Marblehead this weekend and there was still plenty of ice build up along the shore. Not sure how things looked on the upper lakes, but that is where most of the Great Lakes shipping originates from these days.
I imagine it’s pretty regional with climate change for all ports that used to always freeze. Plus depending on the tributaries there’s always the Mississippi as a port for much of the same region as the great lakes.
That’s why those cities built ports.
That’s why those ports matter.
Well, most port cities not in the artic.
It’s what percentage of countries have one that would matter.
Ooohhh. I can see why that would matter.
Vancouver then.
Does it count when it freezes already in fall?
This is how the capitalists & oil barons will sell your government on Global Warming like: “actually it’s a good thing the world is warming”
The interesting thing is that Russia already has two ice free ports on the Western side of the country: Kaliningrad in the Baltics and Novorossisk in the Black Sea, just East of the Crimean peninsula. There’s no real need for another port in Sevastopol. And on the Pacific they’ve got Vladivostok and much of the Kamchatka peninsula.
Sevastopol helps them keep firm presence on the Black Sea and from that the Mediterranean so long as Turkey allows them through the Bosporus and Dardanelles to the Aegean. They don’t want their presence being dependent on Crimea’s holding
Too bad they messed that up by invading Ukraine. Russia had a lease on Sevastopol up through 2042, now they’ll be lucky to keep it for the next 5 years.
iirc the Novorossisk port is kind of bad, right?
Regardless, Baltic Sea access isn’t super great when you’re entirely choked out by Denmark for access to the Atlantic. Same goes for Black Sea and access to the open seas - Turkey and arguably also Spain/UK block several times on the way.
The Pacific ones freeze over and are kind of blocked by Japan, essentially.
It’s going to be interesting to see how much Russia’s geopolitical position improves from rising global temperatures - if their pacific ports become ice-free, then that changes the game quite a bit.
Regardless, Baltic Sea access isn’t super great when you’re entirely choked out by Denmark
Not only Denmark. Norway, Sweden and probably Germany could also shut down access if they wanted.
Norway and Germany couldn’t do it very well alone though.
That’s true. Atlantic access via the Baltic Sea is on heavy lockdown from all sides.
Not to mention that Kaliningrad also is kind of cut off by land in a dire situation as well, making this even more of a struggle.
Kaliningrad is an exclave and not connected to the rest of Russia. Good relations with Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus is the only thing thay allows goods to pass through Kaliningrad. Sevastopol is a superior port to Novorossisk for many reasons, but the biggest one is the crntral location in the Black Sea. The Black Sea Fleet can quickly deploy anywhere in the Black Sea from Sevastopol.
Vladivostok and the Kamchatka usually get iced in during the winter as arctic sea ice moves way down to the Japanese islands. Obviously that is becoming less and less of an issue, but that’s why Russia claims the Kuril islands.
There is a vast untapped natural gas field southwest of sevastopol. On top of giving Russia another warm water port, it also gives them rights over the slarwa of the black sea where the gas field is. the argument has been made that this was the reasoning behind the Crimean annexation in 2014.
They gotta go through NATO waters to get out of the Baltic and Black Seas. Supplying a large Navy in Vladivostok means shipping stuff all the way across Siberia.
It’s always been a bit of a strategic concern for Russia. Probably not a huge problem really, but it does have an effect on their capability to project power.
Having nearly died experiencing that power grid first hand, and their only two state exports of Bucees and Whataburger being picked up in other states, it’s not looking good
Wait until they get slapped with export/import taxes and tariffs when they secede.
Canada doesn’t even have warm water outhouses
Every port we have is warm Water accept far north. Learn something new everyday.
Except?
I’m aware of that, believe it or not. Purely a joke on my end. I legit love canada.
In my limited experience, 1/10 Canadians I’ve encountered were assholes. That’s 9/10 for my fellow Americans. Best ally any country could have, too. Canada is fucking awesome. If I had to move away from home to another country, it would be my pick
Which is kinda silly to say, I guess. But it’s true.
I think you might be wearing rose colored glasses when you’re thinking about Canada.
As a Canadian I think the ”crackhouse above a meth lab” joke is pretty apt. Canada is just America Light®. These jokes are especially poignant nowadays as our political landscape seems to be obsessed with doing its best American impression.
Of course Canada isn’t a horrible place to be but it gets way too much praise from outsiders. We have a lot of problems just like everywhere else and instead of learning from the mistakes of others we seem to be more interested in following them off the same cliff.
Well, I believe you, but I think about it as Canada exporting its best people south :)
Canada doesn’t even have warm water.
Canada doesn’t even have warmth
