I think I know which third it should be.

There are good Santa’s on both sides…

Conservatism is a plague of death.

How is it legal for Google to acquire anything at this point?

…progressives can take over the Democratic party.

Hear, hear! It will not be given. It must be taken, aggressively. Your Tea Party example is perfect.

Fair point. I’ve updated my spelling.

It’s a bizarre thing, but union workers are often conservatives who completely ignore the anti-union sentiments of the GOP. They think the only union in the world that should exist is their own, and no others.

This is how the GOP is able to convince unions to vote against their own interests. The GOP will tell a union to its face how important it is, earning their votes. Then, once elected, pass legislation harming that same union.

She’s asking neoliberals to step aside and let more progressives in. But neoliberals own the Democratic Party, and they will never give it up.

These diet conservatives suckle at the same billionaire teats as Republicans. They should be tossed on the same smoldering pile as other conservatives.

Anywhere but the scene of the crime! Are you kidding? Why on earth would you ask Abbott why election results are so inconsitent with polling data? Abbott, a known serial liar, is responsible for all the secrecy, shady vendor dealings and lack of transparency in our state elections. You should not just take his word for it.

I agree 100% and I’m working on that.

Neat.

Where?! Austin?! Haha. Just stop. Our lows are in the high 80’s on a good day in the summer! Usually, that low happens at 4 am and is only that temp for an hour or two. At midnight, the temp is usually about 90. Also, humidity is extremely high, making our temps much more deadly. So, just stop. You definitely, definitely do not know what you are talking about.

Also, you can’t just turn off your AC when there’s cloud cover and easily get your house cooled back down when the sun comes back out, as you are implying. It takes a great deal of energy and an over-powered HVAC system (which no one has) to cool a house quickly when the sun is out.

I’m not sure what you are doing right now. Is your goal to try to convince me, a resident of this place who has tried for years to afford a solar system, to embrace a solar solution? I already want one. If you know of a vendor in south Texas that can install what’s needed to keep me and my family alive when the power goes out for the low prices you claim, please let me know who they are and I will call them!

Until then, I will just have to make do with my Generac natural gas generator that can run everything when the power goes out. That solution only costs $15k installed. There’s a reason people get whole-home generators instead of off-grid solar here. That reason is very obviously price. One day I hope to afford a solar solution (panels/batteries/installation) that can keep everything running when we lose power for several days at a time, but as of today, that is at least a $100k investment for a 1500-2000 sqft home.

That is simply not accurate in south Texas. It’s 90 degrees at midnight with 80% humidity. You need a great deal of storage.

Also, the system needs to over-produce and store that excess energy during the day so you can continue to run all night. If there is heavy cloud cover, you will also be relying on that storage during the day as well.

Your source is not reliable at all. Your source is the Texas Secretary of State who is appointed directly by Gov. Abbott. He and his minions are notoriously dishonest and are not reliable sources of any information.

Your source is one of the many places Gov. Abbott tells TX Dems “ohhh… So close, y’all! Better luck next time.”

When you include enough battery storage to keep your HVAC working without interruption, the price becomes extremely high. I was not able to find anything less than about $100k installed here that could cool a 1500-2000 sqft house for a half day.

In Texas, you must also have enough battery power to run your HVAC for at least 12 hours, which is extremely expensive here (~$80k est. for my moderately-sized home), given how hot it is. Without a substantial battery system, you will lose power when everyone else loses power.

My $100k approximation is what I was quoted by multiple solar and battery installers here and is also in line with what my local friends, family and colleagues have paid for their systems.

As an anecdote of what happens if you don’t have enough battery storage: One of my close friends who has a whole-home system (2300 sqft home) actually still had to keep his HVAC turned off on day 2 of the recent derecho outage a few months ago because his $125k battery system could not store enough power due to cloud cover. They took out a second mortgage for that solar/battery system in 2023. He still loves the system and it mostly works fine, but it’s not perfect and it was still $100k more expensive than a 24kw Generac natural gas generator.

So, if you can find a vendor that can install solar and battery storage for a system that can keep our HVAC going in one of our multi-day outages here, please send me their information! I will definitely call them and get an estimate!

You get tossed to collections and your credit is ruined. It makes it very hard to rent, finance anything or get certain jobs.

I hear you, but a solar set up with batteries for a house in TX is often well over $100K. It’s not easy for most of us to pull that off, even with financing. And it’s not an option at all for renters.

I live in Texas and lose power for more than a day 2-3 times a year. It’s July and I’ve already lost power (for more than a day) at least 3 times this year so far. Generators are extremely common here. Newcomers learn that lesson the hard way.

Sometimes it’s only out for a day and sometimes it’s out for 10 or more days. Power companies don’t do preventative maintenance in Texas because power companies are unregulated here. It is more profitable for them to wait for something to fail and slowly fix it rather than replace what hasn’t broken yet.

In fact, power companies base their trade pricing on availability, so widespread outages are extremely profitable for them, as they can claim there are shortages where there are not. There is no mechanism to prevent this. And since the governor’s campaign is paid millions of dollars a year by power companies, they are in control of their own “oversight”.

As long as conservatives are in charge in Texas, this cannot improve. It can only become worse.

True! But Texan dems do vote, despite knowing that as long as a conservative is governor, the election actually will be rigged. In Texas, state elections are under the complete control of a conservative governor, as he appoints a loyal Secretary of State to handle his elections.

Are elections in Texas handled with transparency and honesty? Awwe heeelllllll no. They are handled the way you’d expect a conservative to run an election. With secrecy and a creepy little conservative grin. “Oh, you were so close y’all! Oh, well. Better luck next time!”

While I agree that Texans need to continue voting, it seems pretty obvious to me that pacifist methods cannot yield change against conservatism. Voting in Texas is like voting under Putin. Voting is good, but it’s not what is going to cause a regime change. Only severe and widespread action can have any effect against the deadly cancer of conservatism.

You have been permanently banned from c/MagaHorsePaste