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IronLionZion
IronLionZion's Journal
IronLionZion's Journal
April 20, 2014
Donald Trump has wiped his ass with money for so long, he thinks shittiness is synonymous with success. He wasn't born, he was laid into a solid gold eggshell to protect him from ever learning. And he never left. This would be fine if he wasn't such a colossal jerk. I've spent longer staring into the face of this Scrooge McFuck than anyone other than himself, and while millionaires laughing at everyone who has ever suffered is par for the elephant-hunting course, Trump does it because he likes the attention.
An Internet troll is someone connected to the greatest informational resource ever made who can think of nothing better to do than shit in it. But Trump is so much worse. He has enough money to live out any fantasy, and he spends it with the same motivations as a teenager webcamming dead baby jokes. He could build the dreams of random strangers, then have them destroyed without ever even looking, but that's his idea of work instead of play. These stories are way worse than the last time we looked at him. If George Lucas reremastered Star Wars entirely out of cock shots, it would be less blatant and expensive dickery.
#5. Trying to Bulldoze a Widow's Home for a Casino Limo Parking Lot
The goal of a troll isn't a Dr. Seuss book about monsters that excrete electronically, it's to make things worse for other people just to get a reaction. And Satan himself should have marched into Trump Tower demanding to tear up their contract when Donald double-dicked the concept of decency in 1993.
Trump didn't just want to bulldoze an elderly widow's home of 35 years for a casino limousine parking lot. Michelle Malkin reports that he had Atlantic City authorities try to condemn the widow's house so that he could take it for less than market value. It's just as well that his evil waiting area failed, because that's the sort of shit where even Mammon is embarrassed to be seen visiting you. Even the bad guys from Up were building an actual building, not a dark and heat-blasted shrine to everything wrong with capitalism.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-why-donald-trump-biggest-troll-alive/
I didn't know people could be so evil. He should definitely run for president on a puppy punching platform.
5 Reasons Why Donald Trump Is the Biggest Troll Alive
Donald Trump has wiped his ass with money for so long, he thinks shittiness is synonymous with success. He wasn't born, he was laid into a solid gold eggshell to protect him from ever learning. And he never left. This would be fine if he wasn't such a colossal jerk. I've spent longer staring into the face of this Scrooge McFuck than anyone other than himself, and while millionaires laughing at everyone who has ever suffered is par for the elephant-hunting course, Trump does it because he likes the attention.
An Internet troll is someone connected to the greatest informational resource ever made who can think of nothing better to do than shit in it. But Trump is so much worse. He has enough money to live out any fantasy, and he spends it with the same motivations as a teenager webcamming dead baby jokes. He could build the dreams of random strangers, then have them destroyed without ever even looking, but that's his idea of work instead of play. These stories are way worse than the last time we looked at him. If George Lucas reremastered Star Wars entirely out of cock shots, it would be less blatant and expensive dickery.
#5. Trying to Bulldoze a Widow's Home for a Casino Limo Parking Lot
The goal of a troll isn't a Dr. Seuss book about monsters that excrete electronically, it's to make things worse for other people just to get a reaction. And Satan himself should have marched into Trump Tower demanding to tear up their contract when Donald double-dicked the concept of decency in 1993.
Trump didn't just want to bulldoze an elderly widow's home of 35 years for a casino limousine parking lot. Michelle Malkin reports that he had Atlantic City authorities try to condemn the widow's house so that he could take it for less than market value. It's just as well that his evil waiting area failed, because that's the sort of shit where even Mammon is embarrassed to be seen visiting you. Even the bad guys from Up were building an actual building, not a dark and heat-blasted shrine to everything wrong with capitalism.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-why-donald-trump-biggest-troll-alive/
I didn't know people could be so evil. He should definitely run for president on a puppy punching platform.
April 16, 2014
“We found that when wind turbines are present, they slow down the outer rotation winds of a hurricane,” Jacobson said. “This feeds back to decrease wave height, which reduces movement of air toward the center of the hurricane, increasing the central pressure, which in turn slows the winds of the entire hurricane and dissipates it faster.”
The researchers found that 78,286 large wind turbines arrayed off the coast of New Orleans would have dropped Hurricane Katrina’s wind speeds by 81 miles per hour, and reduced storm surge by up to 71 percent. Covering most of the Gulf Coast with wind turbines (meaning over half a million individual turbines) slowed down a modeled Katrina even more (wind speeds by 90 mph and storm surge by 79 percent). The same area covered by half as many turbines would still cut storm surge by 63 percent. Hurricane Isaac would have lost up to 60 percent of its storm surge and 57 mph of wind speed. Their model of Hurricane Sandy found that 112,014 offshore turbines would cut wind speed by 80 mph and drop storm surge by 21 percent.
The purpose of a wind turbine is to transmit kinetic energy from wind into electrical energy used to power homes and businesses. The wind that comes out the backside of a wind farm has less energy than it did when it entered the array. And a recent study found that wind farms, even on a huge scale, do not affect the climate as some have claimed. And Archer and Jacobson said in 2012 that 4 million turbines spread around the world could generate half the world’s energy needs without interfering with atmospheric circulation too much.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/26/3332521/offshore-wind-turbines-slow-hurricanes/
Joe Barton is an idiot for many reasons. But not because of this. The energy comes from somewhere, which reduces the energy somewhere else. There are consequences to everything.
"This is not a monkey court" but there are some roots in truth
Wind turbines extract kinetic energy from the air around them, and since less energy makes for weaker winds, turbines do indeed make it less windy. Technically speaking, the climate zone right behind a turbine (or behind all the turbines on a wind farm) experiences what's called a "wind speed vacuum," or a "momentum deficit." In other words, the air slows down.
The effect has implications for wind-farm efficiency. Upwind turbines in a densely packed farm may weaken the breeze before it reaches the downwind ones. It could even have a more general impact. If wind farms were constructed on a truly massive scale, their cumulative momentum deficit could conceivably alter wind speeds on a global scale (though how winds would change is complex—they'd likely slow in places and speed up in others).
Wind farms can also affect the local temperature. According to Somnath Baidya Roy, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois, as a breeze passes over a wind farm, the turbines create an atmospheric wake where wind speeds drop and turbulence increases. The rotors spawn a set of eddies that mix air from above with air from below. The eddies can lift cool air and sink warm air or vice-versa. That turbulence could raise or lower local temperatures. In a paper published in 2012, one group of researchers studied areas over several wind farms in Texas and found that local surface temperatures had risen by a small but significant amount.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-05/fyi-do-wind-farms-make-it-less-windy
The effect has implications for wind-farm efficiency. Upwind turbines in a densely packed farm may weaken the breeze before it reaches the downwind ones. It could even have a more general impact. If wind farms were constructed on a truly massive scale, their cumulative momentum deficit could conceivably alter wind speeds on a global scale (though how winds would change is complex—they'd likely slow in places and speed up in others).
Wind farms can also affect the local temperature. According to Somnath Baidya Roy, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois, as a breeze passes over a wind farm, the turbines create an atmospheric wake where wind speeds drop and turbulence increases. The rotors spawn a set of eddies that mix air from above with air from below. The eddies can lift cool air and sink warm air or vice-versa. That turbulence could raise or lower local temperatures. In a paper published in 2012, one group of researchers studied areas over several wind farms in Texas and found that local surface temperatures had risen by a small but significant amount.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-05/fyi-do-wind-farms-make-it-less-windy
“We found that when wind turbines are present, they slow down the outer rotation winds of a hurricane,” Jacobson said. “This feeds back to decrease wave height, which reduces movement of air toward the center of the hurricane, increasing the central pressure, which in turn slows the winds of the entire hurricane and dissipates it faster.”
The researchers found that 78,286 large wind turbines arrayed off the coast of New Orleans would have dropped Hurricane Katrina’s wind speeds by 81 miles per hour, and reduced storm surge by up to 71 percent. Covering most of the Gulf Coast with wind turbines (meaning over half a million individual turbines) slowed down a modeled Katrina even more (wind speeds by 90 mph and storm surge by 79 percent). The same area covered by half as many turbines would still cut storm surge by 63 percent. Hurricane Isaac would have lost up to 60 percent of its storm surge and 57 mph of wind speed. Their model of Hurricane Sandy found that 112,014 offshore turbines would cut wind speed by 80 mph and drop storm surge by 21 percent.
The purpose of a wind turbine is to transmit kinetic energy from wind into electrical energy used to power homes and businesses. The wind that comes out the backside of a wind farm has less energy than it did when it entered the array. And a recent study found that wind farms, even on a huge scale, do not affect the climate as some have claimed. And Archer and Jacobson said in 2012 that 4 million turbines spread around the world could generate half the world’s energy needs without interfering with atmospheric circulation too much.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/26/3332521/offshore-wind-turbines-slow-hurricanes/
Joe Barton is an idiot for many reasons. But not because of this. The energy comes from somewhere, which reduces the energy somewhere else. There are consequences to everything.
April 13, 2014
If you want to tell big corporate insurance to go F themselves, you totally can. I think not enough DUers are aware of this. These co-ops are actually bringing down the average rates in some states where they are popular.
As with many parts of this health insurance reform, the co-ops are facing a lot of opposition, lies, and blocking from the GOP who want them to fail rather than compete with the nonprofits on price and quality of service. You know, because freedom, entrepreneurship, small business, and free markets are things GOP likes to talk about but secretly oppose.
Wouldn't you like to see them succeed? I'd rather have subsidies going towards nonprofits. This kind of stuff builds up the constituency who will politically support single payer in the future.
Small Health Insurance Co-Ops Seeing Early Success
Many of us know the names of some of the big U.S. health insurance companies — like Blue Cross, Aetna and Wellpoint. But what about CoOportunity Health, or Health Republic Insurance of New York? These are among 23 new companies started under the Affordable Care Act. They're all nonprofit, member-owned insurance cooperatives that were begun, in part, to create more competition and drive prices down.
The co-ops' rollout was funded almost entirely by federal government loans. Initial enrollment numbers for many look pretty good — but that may not be enough to make co-ops successful.
Karl Sutton, for one, says he's stoked about being able to buy health insurance through a co-op. Sutton lives in a scenic region of Montana just south of Glacier National Park, where tall, dark forests and taller mountains are blanketed white in early March.
"When you buy into a co-op, that entitles you to one vote in the decision-making, and I think it's the one business model that actually aligns with our democracy," he says. Sutton was eager to join the new Montana Health CO-OP. He thinks if members own the company, they're less likely to overuse health care — and that saves everyone money.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/04/02/293327561/small-health-insurance-co-ops-seeing-early-success
The co-ops' rollout was funded almost entirely by federal government loans. Initial enrollment numbers for many look pretty good — but that may not be enough to make co-ops successful.
Karl Sutton, for one, says he's stoked about being able to buy health insurance through a co-op. Sutton lives in a scenic region of Montana just south of Glacier National Park, where tall, dark forests and taller mountains are blanketed white in early March.
"When you buy into a co-op, that entitles you to one vote in the decision-making, and I think it's the one business model that actually aligns with our democracy," he says. Sutton was eager to join the new Montana Health CO-OP. He thinks if members own the company, they're less likely to overuse health care — and that saves everyone money.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/04/02/293327561/small-health-insurance-co-ops-seeing-early-success
If you want to tell big corporate insurance to go F themselves, you totally can. I think not enough DUers are aware of this. These co-ops are actually bringing down the average rates in some states where they are popular.
In Maine, the nonprofit cooperative there reportedly has as much as 80 percent of the market. Montana’s co-op has grabbed about 40 percent of the new exchange market, the co-ops in Nebraska and Iowa about 50 percent, and in Kentucky, 60 percent. (Other reports have Kentucky’s cooperative grabbing 77 percent of the sales on the exchange.) New Mexico Health Connections had some 10,000 sales as of the end of the official enrollment period.
Beyond enrollment numbers, another surprising impact has come from stimulating with monopolistic private insurers the kind of market competition that had been expected of the public option. “The co-op states have 8.4 percent lower premiums on average than the non-co-op states, across the marketplace,” reports John Morrison, who was the first president of the National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs. “So co-ops are creating that competition. They’re keeping rates down in the states they’re operating in.”
https://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/23975-nonprofit-co-op-insurance-sees-successes-and-confounds-critics.html
Beyond enrollment numbers, another surprising impact has come from stimulating with monopolistic private insurers the kind of market competition that had been expected of the public option. “The co-op states have 8.4 percent lower premiums on average than the non-co-op states, across the marketplace,” reports John Morrison, who was the first president of the National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs. “So co-ops are creating that competition. They’re keeping rates down in the states they’re operating in.”
https://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/23975-nonprofit-co-op-insurance-sees-successes-and-confounds-critics.html
As with many parts of this health insurance reform, the co-ops are facing a lot of opposition, lies, and blocking from the GOP who want them to fail rather than compete with the nonprofits on price and quality of service. You know, because freedom, entrepreneurship, small business, and free markets are things GOP likes to talk about but secretly oppose.
Wouldn't you like to see them succeed? I'd rather have subsidies going towards nonprofits. This kind of stuff builds up the constituency who will politically support single payer in the future.
April 3, 2014
The point I am making by posting this article is to show the unforgivable price of Republican bullshit. They are hell bent on confusing people and discouraging them from signing up. They can spew forth complete falsehoods with unwavering certainty. Apathy is a problem among the American people. And GOP is counting on this. They are counting on people who are too busy living life to bother checking for themselves so they go by what they hear from others. I'm talking about ordinary every day Republicans, not just the politicians and media personalities. The ones who spew forth horseshit to their friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, and anyone else.
For example, I promoted the ACA websites, phone numbers, and some basic info on how to sign up for insurance in a place that has a lot of uninsured people. I was promptly shouted down by hostile TP extremists claiming the government is going to force poor women to have abortions since its cheaper than birth and ration out care with long waits and sharing your private personal data with law enforcement and risk deportation. I couldn't believe that this info was being delivered with complete seriousness and how aggressively these guys were trying to stop people from even considering the possibility of insurance. Of course they spewed the falsehood that you don't need insurance during the open enrollment period if you're healthy, you can wait to buy it at the hospital if something happens to you.
I was able to get a handful signed up, with a few more promising to check out the websites and do their research first. There are people right here on DU who don't know that private marketplaces and brokers even exist as an alternative to the government sites.
This affects real people's lives. I challenge and remind all of you to NEVER let this type of BS go unchallenged anywhere you may see it in your personal lives. Please make sure people in your sphere of influence at least know where to get the correct info, even if you're unwilling to push them towards signing up.
Remember Medicaid signups are year round and have no deadline. People can still sign up with life changing events(birth, divorce, job change, spouse job change, adoption, etc) . And open enrollment starts up again in less than 6 months. Private exchanges and brokers exist. Some will even help with subsidies. We can bring down the uninsured rate in this country. New health care providers are opening up every day, at least in blue states like MD.
Uninsured Who Passed on Obamacare Said it was Because of Cost but Most Didn't Bother to get a Quote
NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Uninsured Americans who passed on signing up for Obamacare say the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was anything but affordable – and the reason they didn't buy health insurance prior to this week's deadline was because of the high cost of coverage. However, most didn't even bother to get a quote or determine if they qualified for a subsidy, according to research from nonpartisan Market Strategies International.
A large majority (70%) of U.S. adults who have been without health insurance for at least six months said they didn't plan to enroll before Monday's deadline. Of those, 81% said the high cost of healthcare coverage was one of the reasons why, but less than a third (32%) had actually visited a federal or state exchange website. And 29% ignored the issue altogether, not even discussing healthcare insurance with friends or family, much less looking to obtain a quote.
The ultimate irony? Almost 85% of those saying cost was a concern would have been eligible for a subsidized plan offering a discount.
"What we found is that those individuals who were the primary reason behind the ACA and its subsidies -- the low-income, uninsured -- seem to have made the assumption that health insurance remains unaffordable to them, often without exploring whether a subsidy would help them afford it," said Susan McIntyre, managing director of healthcare at Market Strategies International.
http://www.mainstreet.com/article/family/family-health/uninsured-who-passed-obamacare-said-it-was-because-cost-most-didnt-both?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
The point I am making by posting this article is to show the unforgivable price of Republican bullshit. They are hell bent on confusing people and discouraging them from signing up. They can spew forth complete falsehoods with unwavering certainty. Apathy is a problem among the American people. And GOP is counting on this. They are counting on people who are too busy living life to bother checking for themselves so they go by what they hear from others. I'm talking about ordinary every day Republicans, not just the politicians and media personalities. The ones who spew forth horseshit to their friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, and anyone else.
For example, I promoted the ACA websites, phone numbers, and some basic info on how to sign up for insurance in a place that has a lot of uninsured people. I was promptly shouted down by hostile TP extremists claiming the government is going to force poor women to have abortions since its cheaper than birth and ration out care with long waits and sharing your private personal data with law enforcement and risk deportation. I couldn't believe that this info was being delivered with complete seriousness and how aggressively these guys were trying to stop people from even considering the possibility of insurance. Of course they spewed the falsehood that you don't need insurance during the open enrollment period if you're healthy, you can wait to buy it at the hospital if something happens to you.
I was able to get a handful signed up, with a few more promising to check out the websites and do their research first. There are people right here on DU who don't know that private marketplaces and brokers even exist as an alternative to the government sites.
This affects real people's lives. I challenge and remind all of you to NEVER let this type of BS go unchallenged anywhere you may see it in your personal lives. Please make sure people in your sphere of influence at least know where to get the correct info, even if you're unwilling to push them towards signing up.
Remember Medicaid signups are year round and have no deadline. People can still sign up with life changing events(birth, divorce, job change, spouse job change, adoption, etc) . And open enrollment starts up again in less than 6 months. Private exchanges and brokers exist. Some will even help with subsidies. We can bring down the uninsured rate in this country. New health care providers are opening up every day, at least in blue states like MD.
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Southwestern PA
Home country: USA
Current location: Washington, DC
Member since: Mon Nov 10, 2003, 06:36 PM
Number of posts: 44,360
