Comments by "Xyz Same" (@xyzsame4081) on "NBC News" channel.

  1. I read about a woman from the U.K. travelling alone in the rural areas with her bike - as everyone, literally everyone - she mentioned the great hospitality of the people. (If you come to a village and need food or a place to sleep - you go there and look thirsty and sweaty - then they invite you to tea or dinner - lol. (I think where she travelled they don't see strangers usually, so no hotels. And she needed to improvise.)
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  2. You are right, live translation is very demanding. Often the sentence structure is very different in languages (I would find German and English be challenging and those are easy by comparsion. But the sentence structures are different already, so one has to remember part of what was said, store it for a few milliseconds. continue to pick up everything that was said, and then patch it together. Add to that the lenghth of the interview. Processor is going hot not doubt about tthat.
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  3.  Don Adamson  Of course she was "there". it is a large complex. If the main building with the two Chambers (and the VP in it that day !) is compromised - no building is safe. It does not need a LOT of people to assassinate someone. And the larger the area the less police was able to control it. AOC also said that they heard and saw the insurrectionists (in the other building where Porter's office was and where they stayed for several hours). They were sent over to that building and hid with Rep. Katie Porter and her staff. I think the reason that officer spooked AOC and her staffer (he told them to leave and go to the other building, I think through a tunnel) was that they had just found the bombs at the DNC and RNC and were not sure what was going on in that building. Maybe they had more strict security in the other building and were pretty sure no one could have deposited a bomb there. And I guess they wanted to concentrate the people that they needed to protect in one place - easier to protect.
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  4. Franci Neely ex-wife of Houston Astros owner Jim Crane
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  5. Edmund Pettus was a brave officier, fiercly fighting for the continuation of chattel slavery. (also a massacre on union soldiers if a remember correctly) And a big fish in the Klu Klux Klan later. Later he was a Senator (until around 1900, he died in office). The bridge was named after him in 1940 ! - That route was important for the cash crops produced by the slaves and of course transporting the slaves itself.
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  6. If Simmons is the journalist - he would be only replaced if he had asked intelligent and relevant questions with a good understanding of the role of the U.S. in the "relationship" (or lack thereof) with Russia. Remember - Prof. Steven F. Cohen was the go-to expert on Russia (and accepted in that expert role also by mainstream media) - until his informed opinion was not convenient for the networks anymore. The networks and big newspapers are all stenographers for the U.S. government when it comes to foreign policy (dropping bombs in Afghanistan and Syria was the only time the liberal networks lauded Trump. Tells you everything you need to know aobut media and MIC. They all shill for the war machine, whether they play for the red or blue oligarchs.
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  7. Starting with renaming that bridge. Pettus was a brave officier, fiercly fighting for the continuation of chattel slavery. (also a massacre on union soldiers if a remember correctly) And a big fish in the Klu Klux Klan later. Later he was a Senator (until around 1900, he died in office). The bridge was named after him in 1940 ! That wasn't even a dog whistle more like a scream. that route was important for the cash crops produced by the slaves and of course transporting the slaves itself.
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  8.  @agentorange8530  If they would not expect drugs to be in the house (because they would be at the trap houses - what were they doing there during night in full gear in the first place ? If they want to arrest her or her current bf, they can come in the morning. I guess the point of surprising them during night is so that they cannot destroy the drugs or throw them into the toilet or something.
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  9.  @gw6667  No they were NOT gambling. The professionals that should know better offered such plans. To make things worse the CREATED the scarcity. Failure to prepare for a predictable (10 year) catastrophic even. Cutting corners. Intentionally cutting Texas off the much larger grid (potential backup for emergency supply at much more reasonable costs), only with the Stand Alone Grid they could evade reasonable federal regulation. One governor sued the EPA to avoid winterization. The very measure that could have avoided losing 40 % of electricity production AND natural gas for heating (so even more demand for electricity) - would have made them a natural participant of a much larger grid. Naturally Texas would export - but the same load can be handled as import and if need be even Canada can help out.
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  10. DNC: WTF ?? That didn't go as planned ?!#$#!/!'&# - There I fixed it for you.
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  11. @notyuu you are right, the Democratic establishment and the neoliberal Corprate media were also sore losers in 2016. But at least it did not so directly undermine U.S. democracy. Trump took it to the next level. And the D lies and the stories of the deep state were more sophisticated. After all they cannot show us all the evidence, etc. Which has some plausibility, if the claims would be true they could not show them all. Whereas Trump and his cult members make up dump stuff. Dems in 2016 blamed the bad outsider (Russia). Now, that has also consequences (for nuclear and other treaties, they must get along with Russia. At least the Russians are rational and have a consistent foreign policy. There are of course U.S. actors who want another arm's race so that was a golden opportunity to stir up MORE hostility towards Russia. Insane budgets cotractors need a good enemy as "justification".
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  12. 4:42 so Trump bothered to send out 2 tweets: at 2 : 38 pm and 3 : 13 pm. At 4 : 08 Biden goes on TV (the White House let (R) Gov. Hogan of Maryland wait 90 minutes for permission to deploy the National Guard to DC, he had them ready to go when he got an urgent call from Steny Hoyer and Chuck Schumer. Problem, even when they have the permission, they have to drive over, they need briefing, so there is a delay until they can be helpful anyway. - I assume Biden had gotten phone calls from Democrats). At 4 : 17 Trump releases a video message, he repeated his claim that the election was stolen, that it was a landslide, but they should go home in peace, we love you, you are very special. That will give them solace in jail, or when they pay the legal bills, I am sure. At 5 : 40 the Capitol Building was cleared, at 6 : 00 pm there was a curfew in D.C.
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  13.  @jalabala2772  It was laissez faire before 2008. Clinton did a lot to create the conditions - and the Cheney / Bush admin and Greenspan had a hands-off approach. In Europe the regulators SHOULD HAVE intervened but they are also compromised by Big Finance.
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  14. Where to find the money ?? - in the place where they ALWAYS find the money for tax cuts (80 % !! go to rich people), wars, insane military spending increases on top of an already insance budget (now 680 billion REGULAR, 1,4 TRILLION with the agencies, the wars are EXTRA)
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  15. 39:00 Putin playing dumb, and making disingeuous arguments. The woman (Ashley Babbit) that was killed really pushed her luck, as a vet she should have known better. She saw the agent at the other side of the glass, gun drawn (he was at one of the entries of the chamber, then likely still unsecured). She cast a glance at thim and then proceeded to crawl through the openeing they had just created by smashing the glass. Then and only then the police / security used deadly force. Mere tresspassers were not held but released on bond, and the act of unauthorized entry is relevant when the building houses a part of the U.S. government, a superpower and prime target for terrorists. The "peaceful" trespasser still made it impossible for police to controll who went where in the building or came close to the VP or elected representatives. Or critical infrastructure. Not even all staffers of politicians are allowed in the chambers of Senate / The House, only a few get the ID that gives them floor privileges. And the "peaceful" trespassers also took advantage of the fact that the police was engaged and kept busy by some vicious attacks. The Trump fans could have chosen a LOT of public and private spaces to utter their protests. But not the Capitol, the pentagon, the FBI or CIA headquarters. When a German landed on the Red Square in Moscow with a tiny aircraft (the radar had not picked him up) he was lucky that he was not shot. He got a trial and went to prison. In Russia they have a tradition of dumb dares by young males. Matthias Rust had time to think about his dumb stunt (and anyone that thought it was cool). he spent some time in prison and then he was pardoned and could return to Germany. His stunt had no political background, he was no terrorist - but Russia had to prosecute him nontheless to discourage people doing that "for fun". He did them a favor because they became aware of a vulnerability.
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  16.  @gw6667  the flexible plan was not advertised as horse and buggy. And consumers / votes were not truthfully informed. As part of a larger grid those plans w/o cap would not even make sense, if there would be an extreme scarcity situation they would start importing, not price gouging. Energy scarcity as has happened in Texas is not a consumer inconvenience it is a PUBLIC SAFETY issue. W/o that kind of extreme scarcity (caused by massive ineptitude and almost criminal negligence) there would not be such extreme price gouging. Were the consumers supposed to foresee the leadership of the state and the companies would fail them that much ?  - the whole point of having specialized companies and government is that consumers / citizens can get solutions that individuals cannot achieve, and that they do not have to be experts on complicated things. (legally, consumer rights, technically, planning of grid and energy production, emergency preparedness, ....) Especially not when CRUCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE is involved.
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  17. Not to forget a BIG fish in the KKK !
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  18. Ah - fLORidA ... that explains it. Texas would also have been an option. But maybe a Texan bully would have had to guts to stand by his words and not lie about his insults.
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  19. the state governors ! are responsible. Cruz in the sense that he fully supports all the policies that set up Texas for failure.
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  20. I wonder if my pillow guy will plead for insanity to get out of this. I feel bad for his company. I heard they were delisted. On the other hand it will keep some of the arsonists / grifters from making up stuff.
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  21. Any news from the Giuliani lawsuit ??
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  22. Cardiac arrest looks severe enough for me - a child on the ventilator is a severe situation. Let's hope the boy makes it.
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  23. El Paso DID learn from 2011. For geographic reasons they are on the Southwest grid anyway. (not on the ERCOT Stand Alone Grid that handles 90 % of the load in Texas). 2011 was bad. So they were willing to winterize (they have 600,000 people probably a blue mayor ....) and they are also subject to those pesky regulations of big bad federal government. Which got more insistent after 2011. They could only make suggestions to the rest of Texas. And one TX govenor sued the EPA so they would not have to winterize (not sure if it was Perry or Abott). But El Paso and the neighbour states of Texas (that had to deal with the same cold) are subject to the federal regulations. The regulations that kept them safe this time (or at least avoided the worst). As part of the larger grid El Paso has the powerlines to IMPORT from out of state to meet higher demand. They got extra power from a nuclear power plant in AZ that ramped up output. Probably at slightly higher prices but no extortion prices. In a large grid that includes Canada they are not the only ones that could help out.
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  24. +Jeff Moore Hi just read your thoughts (also the paragraphs below) on US politics in the Middle East, good insights, very informative, knew some of it, thanks for the links. So even if Alex Delarge does not want to consider your arguments, you did not put in the work in vain ;)
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  25. The generals have been reading the constitution ! to see if they have to follow unlawful orders ! - Good idea, great idea ! What took you so long ?
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  26. Oz Khan Did you read my post ? Except for the first line?  Drugs when forbidden are not a source of revenue for the state,  BUT tax revenue that is coming in (no matter what) is squandered counterproductively in the "war on drugs" etc. I do not think there are many points (in substance) where we disagree.
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  27.  @gw6667  maybe you are not a griddy troll, maybe you troll on behalf of the TX Republicans that created that mess. "it is not really their fault with are gong through this". You are not even subtle. O.K. I hope it pays the bills !
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  28.  @gw6667  are you a troll on behalf of griddy / greedy ?
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  29.  @gw6667  btw price gouging in an emergency is agains the law !
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  30. They had extreme scarcity because they lost 40 % of electricity production (when it was the worst) and also the natural gas for heating, so demand for electricity shot up even more. - To avoid federal regulation (incl. the demand to winterize) Texas has a Stand Alone Grid. That means they do not export or import much form other states (if they do that they would be part of the grid and subject to regulation.) That means they do not have the infrastruture to get a lot of electricity from out of state in case of an emergency, they do not have the powerlines, never mind the legalities (maybe those could be overcome by emergency orders - of big bad federal government. but not lack of infrastructure) Normally Texas can produce the electricity they need. And some consumers opted for the flexible plans. They have higher prices in summer when electricity demand goes up, so consumers can save costs if they reduce consumption then. or they leave during summer and live there in the cooler seasons.
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  31. providers failed to prepare. Texan politicians wanted a race to the bottome regarding electricity prices. Preparedness was not mandated, it would cut into profits. Worse: some providers have problems with the margins already, they are not going to invest if it is not a level playing field (with mandates). Federal regulations would have avoided the worst, at slightly higher prices. TX politicians want to attract industries that use a lot of energy and those companies (big donors) resent modestly higher prices (that would include the costs for reserves and making the equipment cold / heat proof). They could easily pay, they just do not want to. They pay those prices in all other states and in other nations. And TX politicians wanted those extremely low prices (with cutting corners) as special attraction of Texas (plus MORE big donors ! for them) so they can lure in companies from other states (states that are now supposed to bail them out via federal government). Tx politicians look good, lots of jobs, also jobs in construction. For geographic reasons some nations or regions must have a stand alone grid (separated by deserts, mountain ranges. Or islands) - but a nation or region that can, will connect to a larger grid. Only Texas - or maybe North Korea (If China accepts them, they would gladly cooperate with them, not sure if they are connected). Stand alone grids COST more, they also have to provide for all the reserves for emergencies by themselves (they miss out on the backup of other states). Or one nation or province has a surplus, so it helps with costs if they import and export. The Texas sitution is unique, because they have so much fossil fuels and they have a lot of consumption to match that. So they CAN be cheap despite being a closed "market". Their politicians will also do nothing to promote energy saving. After all their buddies cannot export much - not part of a larger grid - so they NEED high ongoing consumption IN Texas. but when they lose so much production they have extreme scarcity. They also do not store oil or gas. They get that from ongoing extraction. Well they had a lot of technical problems with that too because of the unusual cold. Then the providers returned to the grid. Households and companies got power again (sometimes). But the closed "market" had much higher demand than usual. Because of the cold and because they also lost natural gas for heating.  No imports from out of state possible - the prices would be slightly higher but no extortion prices, the Southwest grid is large and includes Canada, some providers have reserves - 'cause federal regulations - and would gladly activate them for a reasonable price. If in a large net all keep some reserves and can deliver the resources (power, food, staff....) in an emergency to the other participants than all participants can make do with less reserves and can still have a high level of resilience - compared to when they are on their own in an emergency. Some consumers have those "flexible" plans where the consumer prices are tied to the auction wholesale prices. Consumption is very differently throughout the season in Texas, normally it is the highest in summer. I guess it made sense for some consumers and no doubt was skillfully marketed. The wholesale auction prices rose to extrem levels because of the scarcity - because of an epic failure of political and industrial leadership.
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  32. I read that during an emergency price gouging is forbidden. Now the hotels might get away with it (the wife of Ted Cruz complained about high hotel prices in Texas, that gave them the idea to flee to Cancun. Cost flyin' Ted likely his 2024 presidential run ;) - but the energy providers are easier to catch, their business model is more standardized. And in the hotels the consumers at least knew the high prices in advance and could make an informed choice, we can assume that only wealthy individuals checked in for 1000 USD per night (I hope that was at least for 2 persons in a double).
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  33. She did not come "out of nowhere "_! - _New York Times did not have an article on her (or hardly any). Her opponent had run unopposed for years. How was that underdog story NOT a story !! The independent channels on youtube (many of them) on the internet had her on for 1 year. And also other candidates in other races. They gave her the exposure that helps with fundraising. And might have helped in New York as well.
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  34. So - a schoolboard election board election is not a grassroots campaign BUT it needs undisclosed SUPERPAC money. Everything that is wrong with America in a nutshell.
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  35. And if capitalism fails in a spectacular manner the elites organise a major bailout, then stimulus programs for very select industries (car manufacturing and always the military industrial complex). Then Big Finance got extremely low interest rates - did you notice that Trump urged the Fed to not raise interest rates recently ! This is supposed to be a BOOM economy. Standard economic wisdom is to lower interest rates in the bad times - but they have no room for that. They were low in the GFC and have stayed too low despite the alleged "recovery" and boom. The bailout was followed by "Quantitative Easing" aka creating money for Big Finance and "buying their assets" - purists will tell you it was an "asset swap". Whatever, the banks in need of more liquitdity could not have sold those "assets" on the free market - no one would have taken them for money or exchanged them for anything of value. They did QE to the tune of TRILLIONS in the U.S., UK, EURO zone - just look up the numbers. And no, for the most part the "assets" have not been swapped back. The banks still can work with the money that was created for them to paper over the catastrophic fail of capitalism, the industry, regulators, mainstream economists and politicians.
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  36. No he is from fLOrIDa.
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  37. youtube delivers the ads, the uploader can only generally influence the kind of ads (for instance no political ads). But I think you can report ads if you think they are fraudulent / unethical. Voting the video up or down will do nothing about the ad - and it will be delivered to other channels.
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  38. Maybe your browser restricts the display, that you have to allow the site more (if you chose strict security settings for your browser, some sites will not be displayed properly).
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  39.  @myaccount4861  with some white sheets on it maybe - to give some context ?
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  40. So the mock caucus at Drake University Iowa did not go well for Sanders or Biden ? Both did not get the necessary 15 %. Well the support for Biden is not among the young so that makes sense. Hint: team Yang is passionate and organized, maybe they flooded the event. OR: Sanders supporters were all out knocking doors and phonebanking and did not bother to show up :) It is sad that despite all the babbling (could have been said much more concisely) they did not elaborate WHO did good in the mock caucus. We have gained little insight.
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  41.  @Cat-manDue  No, if you refer to 3:13 - that was someone else, she has been evacuated earlier, not with the other lawmakers. Like Mike Pence, Sen. Grassely that took over from Pence, - in the House Pelosi, and after her Steni Hoyer, etc. They are high up in the line of succession so they are secured first.
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  42. He is over 70 and does not run again. I wonder if he tried to bait her into a shouting match ? he will retire and get his pension but maybe he had a recording device and just in case they could produce embarrassing footage - of HER ... - he would of course not admit to recording it. Or he just lost it.
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  43.  @gw6667  so the professionals that do it for a living, have training, that got and dismissed the 2011 federal report and recommendations, the companies and politicians that can buy the expertise of lawyers, engineers, climate scientists, planners - THEY failed miserably. But the consumers should have known better. Well, yes - to think that anyone doing the free market gibberish had any clue what they were talking about. Regarding economics (for a natural monopoly) or regarding preparedness. There was a major problem in 2011. Maybe consumers naively believed their government and the providers had learned from that. Now El Paso for instance did LEARN. they had major problems in 2011 and they invested. Winterized. For geographical reasons they are part of the SouthWest Grid (the ERCOT grid handles 90 % of TX load, but they are lucky they are not on it) so they are subject to federal regulations and I think they were also willing, the feds did not have to pressure them. As part of the grid they were also able to get large imports (from Arizona via NM) to meet higher than usual demand. Not only did they not lose production, they were able to access the reserves in other states. Which means that those 2 states and the region also had the infrastructure in place and poles and powerlines that could resist some weight - ice rain buildup, wet heavy snow - and wind pressure. (should be a given in Texas because of Hurricanes).
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  44. Chuck was actually neutral. Faux News spit out "Socialism" of course but so did CNN.
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  45.  kettle r  you know that Texas started a Stand Alone Grid to avoid federal regulation ? A govenor sued the EPA to avoid forcing their providers to winterize. They gave up the advantage to be part of a much larger grid (not El Paso region they were doing fine, but 90 % of Texas load is handled in the ERCOT grid). So they cannot get electricity from other states or Canada. it is not only the legalities, other states that are part of a larger grid routinely import and export. They don't do that (then they would be part of the grid and the feds would order them to winterize, and have reserves - can't have that). Texas would be a natural exporter - so they would have the powerlines for handling large loads to other states - and it works also in the other direction in an emergency. El Paso region did not lose production, they learned after 2011 (it hit all of Texas). And to meet higher demand they got extra power from Arizona via NM.
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  46.  kettle r  Biden did nothing regarding renewable energy. And the Obama admin had no impact, except that the gov. of TX sued the EPA so they wouldnot have to prepare for extreme cold. The wind turbines produce cheap power and if they would have winterized them (like they do in other countries and states where it can get cold occasionally), they could have relieved the situation. Wind cannot save the day - they are not enough of the energy mix. But they could have helped. The failure of wind turbines (in Texas ! they were running just fine in lower temps eveywhere else) and the failure of coal, gas and nuclear!! power plants to function during cold snaps is on TX politicians. To make things worse: they had that in 2011, and it was pretty bad already. Nothing learned. (Except for El Paso region, for geographic reasons they are on the Southwest grid, so connected to other states, and subject to federal regulations. They winterized, they CAN import so they did - they coped well.)   To make things worse the natural gas pipelines are also not laid into the frost free zone in the ground, they also were not forced to winterize - so Texans lost also gas for heating. So even more demand, while production was massively reduced.. TEXAN POLTICIANS did not force the industry to prepare, that is at least 20 years in the making. Rather longer the had problems in 1989, 2011 and now in 2021. They created a race to the bottom regarding prices (that is why they are so hellbent to not accept any common sense federal regulation) - so the providers of course do not invest, if they do not have to.
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  47. If the reporter had that kind of insight he would not be with one of the networks. it is like with healthcare, a media person that "gets" it (how the rest of the wealthy nations handles non-profit public healthcare for half the spending per person) would be disqualified for work with the networks. Velshi (MSNBC) gets a waiver - he is Canadian, he can't help himself. But I think he only did one interview with Sanders, he likely is not allowed to cover it anymore. And John Oliver, but HBO is not dependent on the advertisers. Velshi recently came out strongly for the Palestinians. Likely saw an opening and squeezed in his foot. The Israeli army also went after him when he visited a few years ago.
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  48.  @abstractrussian5562  ;) must be that, else it would be too embarrasing. Not as bad as Meghan Kelly though.
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  49.  @12HappyDonuts  providers cause the scarcity. They do not prepare, the government even has cut off Texas from much larger grids (potential backup !! for emergencies) to evade federal regulation, that would have forced them to preapre. Providers likely lobbied for that state of affairs. Then they fail miserably in a predictable event. 1989 / 2011 * / 2021 2011 was bad, but the federal commission could only give recommendations, not force Texas to now upgrade. And now 2021. some warning shots **, highly unusual cold snaps. Predictions of Climate scientists that such events will happen more often. ** Florida and parts of the Arctic had the same temperature for 1 - 2 days. Around freezing point. During the Arctic WINTER. When it should have - 22 F and not + 32 F (- 30 C and not 0). That cold snap did not last long and it was not that cold so it did not do much damage in Florida. THEN. I took notice. The politicians in the Southern states should have taken notice. I was not even aware of the severe snow storms they had suffered before. 2011 was bad already.
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  50.  @12HappyDonuts  the politicians and providers do not prepare. When the big challenge comes (punctually after 10 years) the providers fail miserably. Again ! This time it is worse than in 2011. At the height of the crisis they lose 40 % of electricity production AND have also failed to winterize the pipelines. They are not in the frost free zone (cutting corners for construction costs, once in 30 or more years lifetime) so instruments, controls fail, water condensates IN the gas and causes problems. NO gas for heating, so even MORE demand for electricity. When they come back to the grid they ask for extortion prices. They (politicians likely on behalf of their big donors) arranged for Texas to be a closed region (not a market). In order to be on the large national grid they would need to accept federal regulations that would mandate to prepare for extreme events (cold, heat, hurricanes) and likely to have some reserves. Maybe also some consumer protection. Refusing to abide by common sense regulation (that could have saved them from losing electricty and gas for heating because of avoidable problems with low temperatures) meant also no access to the large grid - so no backup form the other Southwestern states and Canada. In their Stand Alone Grid they do not routinely export and import a lot of electricity - so they do not have the infrastructure to import a lot in an emergency. Since electricity is now a scarce resource in that small "market" hit by a cold snap they neglected to prepare for - the providers demand extortion prices if and when they can do their job (again). Why ? Because they can- and way beyond costs of production. So they missed out on revenue for a few days, but they can make up for that. And they never had to invest the money to avoid most of the problems and the scarcitiy to begin with. They pushed for flexible tariffs. And allowed for contracts w/o caps. such contracts seem to be reasonable. If Texans reduce A/C use when demand is high they can save costs. Of course they can also save costs if the kwH is slightly more expensive (costs of peparedness added) and that motivates them to consume less hours. Not only to delay use, but to cut it out. On the other hand much more could be saved if the state would mandate other building codes (they should have 30 years ago, would save a lot of energy for A/C in summer, and would have helped now. If it helps agains the heat it also helps against the cold). But the providers and politicians do not want that: Texan can only run the Stand Alone Grid * at low prices because it has so much energy, but it also needs a lot of consumption (squandering). The providers cannot export - so they want to sell a lot in Texas. They cannot grow into another market, if Texans would become more energy efficient. The less energy you need to function the more resilient the system is. * New Zealand or Iceland or the islands of Hawaii also have a Stand Alone Grid, they can't help it as islands. But they would connect to a grid if they could. and likely it costs them because they have to provide the reserves all by themselves. In a larger grid one can profit from the reserves of out of state to get help during an emergency.
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