And I absolutely love how she hacks her way thru the bullshit of another bad-faith "argument" against Medicare For All.
Aug 31, 2026
Belle
She's smart, and she makes good sharp points without getting shitty with people. I learn alot from her posts and from how she presents herself.
The A.I. Bubble
It's coming, but I'm cautiously optimistic that there are still enough rational adults on scene who're working their butts off, understanding that they have to let some of the air out before it pops altogether, while also coming up with a plan to mitigate the damage if it does blow up.
But I think the biggest problem that's both pushing the bubble and hindering the efforts to keep a little sanity in the system, may well be that too many of our illustrious Wall Street geniuses have adopted the Silicon Valley mantra of "move fast and break things".
Cuz y'know, "global economic crash" just doesn't sound very appealing to me.
AI 'bubble' bursting could cause a global economic crash, Bank of England chief warns
The AI 'bubble' bursting could cause a global economic crunch, the Bank of England governor has warned.
Andrew Bailey delivered a stark message about the consequences of a 'future market correction' in a letter to powerful finance ministers.
He said the effects of a shock could be 'amplified' because firms were borrowing huge sums to invest in the tech.
In his missive to the G20 meeting, taking place in North Carolina, Mr Bailey pointed to the 'volatility' caused by the Iran war fallout.
Writing in his capacity as chairman of the Financial Stability Board, he said 'markets remain vulnerable to a potentially disorderly correction that could spread across borders, particularly given fragilities in sovereign debt markets'.
He added: 'The issue is not simply that investors are borrowing more, but that leverage is interacting with high valuations and market concentration, in particular the increasing cross-investment between artificial intelligence companies and hyper scalers, in a way that could amplify a future market correction.
Nerves have been growing about the risks of an AI correction, with governments around the world facing rising costs to borrow. Pictured, the interest rate on UK 30-year gilts
Nerves have been growing about the risks of an AI correction, with governments around the world facing rising costs to borrow. Pictured, the interest rate on UK 30-year gilts
'I remain concerned therefore that a large shock or combination of shocks could concurrently trigger multiple vulnerabilities.'
Does "the crash of 2008" ring any bells for ya?
AI has been booming, with the US leading the charge to develop the tech. But nerves have been growing about the risks of a correction, with governments around the world facing rising costs to borrow.
Mr Bailey also flagged concerns about 'frontier AI' – the most advanced form of AI – and the 'threat' it poses to cyber security.
'The risks associated with frontier AI will not respect national borders,' he wrote.
'The global financial system is highly interconnected, and cyber disruption can spread across jurisdictions through common technology providers, shared infrastructure, and cross-border financial activity.
'Differences in legal frameworks, cyber capability, resilience and recovery capacity across jurisdictions could therefore have consequences well beyond the jurisdiction in which an incident originates and may themselves become a source of vulnerability.'
Mr Bailey's warning came as Chancellor John Healey announced a £100million fund aimed at backing British AI start-ups.
The fund is part of the Government's efforts to grow 'Sovereign AI' capacity, ensuring the UK is not dependent on services and infrastructure developed abroad.
Ministers want to see companies compete for the funding to help tackle challenges like cutting waiting lists in the NHS, and improving patient care, as well as bolstering cyber-security and defence.
Mr Healey said: 'Britain is home to some of the most innovative AI companies in the world, and this government is backing them to start, scale and succeed here in the UK.
'This first-of-its-kind competition will help make sure more of the benefits of AI are felt in every UK postcode.
'As G20 countries seek to make the most of AI opportunities, I'm determined Britain has a lead role in harnessing this technology to drive more jobs, better public services, and growth that's UK-wide.'
The War
Trump fucked it up - surprise surprise - and now he needs to shove it all down the memory hole.
Funny how the people who lost their shit over 13 dead Americans when we left Afghanistan are now actively ignoring 18 dead Americans because Trump was looking for a quick dopamine hit by killing thousands of Persians.
And BTW, he's never going to regret any of it - IMO, he gets off on it.
Overheard
I'm Canadian. We don't have prayer in schools, or the Ten Commandments, or God. We also don't have dead school kids.
No Canadian kids have ever been gunned down in a mass shooting at their school.
BTW, We have plenty of guns - we just don't have any Republicans.
America has to get rid of their Republicans.
Aug 30, 2026
They Can't Own The Sun
Wind and solar generation are surging in Utah’s power mix, and experts expect the trend to continue despite cuts to federal clean energy incentives.
Utah’s solar generation eclipsed all other electricity sources for the first time ever in May, which energy experts are calling a win for the environment and economy.
Photovoltaic panels in Utah produced nearly 1 terawatt hour in May 2026. That represented nearly a third of all electricity generated in the state that month, according to data from Ember, a global energy think tank. Natural gas generated 32%, coal generated 28% and wind generated 2%.
“This particular milestone is a curiosity,” said Dan Schroeder, a physics professor at Weber State University who regularly checks energy data. “But the trend of more and more solar in Utah is wonderful news for air quality, it’s wonderful news for the climate, and it’s wonderful news for jobs and the economy.”
Schroeder attributes the trend to several large solar farms coming online in recent years. The 2,500-acre Green River Energy Center in Emery County became operational this spring and includes 400 megawatts of solar generation and 400 megawatts of battery storage. Excelsior Energy Capital’s Faraday Solar project in Utah County started providing up to 685 megawatts for the Meta data center there last fall. The Elektron Solar Project, an 80-megawatt photovoltaic farm in Tooele County, began sending electricity to Salt Lake City, Park City and Summit County in June 2024.
Solar also supports nearly 8,000 jobs in Utah, according to the latest information from the Solar Energy Industries Association. The state is home to 132 solar companies, including 54 solar developers and 23 solar manufacturers. Investors committed $1.5 billion to Utah’s solar market in 2025 alone, an association fact sheet said.
Electricity generation is complicated, however, and solar won’t represent a third of Utah’s portfolio every month.
But with its sunny, dry climate, “Utah still has room to grow its solar percentage,” Schroeder said.
He pointed to California, which saw nearly 51% of its electricity generation come from solar panels in May, the most recent month that Ember has data.
“We’re going to see milestones like this increasingly happen,” said Logan Mitchell, a climate scientist and energy analyst with Utah Clean Energy.
About 51% of the new utility-scale electricity generation added to the nation’s grid is expected to come from solar this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration or EIA. The country will add another 43.4 gigawatts of solar, 24.3 gigawatts of battery storage and 11.8 gigawatts of new wind power in 2026, compared to just 6.3 gigawatts of natural gas generation and zero new coal capacity.
Some of Utah’s electricity gets exported to other states, and some of its solar farms serve a single customer, like the project in Utah County that has a contract with Meta.
Mitchell pulled the numbers from the state’s largest electricity provider, PacifiCorp, which is the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power. Turns out, another renewable energy source has seen a surge in generation in the region — wind power.
Wind blew past all other energy sources in PacifiCorp’s portfolio for Utah, Wyoming and Idaho in December and January for the first time, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“Wind plus solar is on a tear right now,” Mitchell said. “We may have achieved liftoff.”
And the two power sources compliment each other, Mitchell said, since wind generation is highest in the winter months and solar produces the most electricity in the summer.
Most of PacifiCorp’s wind generation comes from facilities in Wyoming, according to Jona Whitesides, a spokesperson with Rocky Mountain Power. He said the recent sweep in wind power likely comes from investment in new turbines, including 400 megawatts added to the grid last fall at PacifiCorp’s Rock Creek II facility.
“A lot of days we are using more wind,” Whitesides said. “There are no fuel costs there; it’s essentially free.”
The Trump administration is phasing out tax incentives for wind and solar projects, however, calling them “expensive and unreliable.” But renewables combined with battery storage increasingly produce some of the cheapest, cleanest and most consistent energy sources in the country, Mitchell said, and are not subject to price spikes and uncertainty brought by global politics.
Burning fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, which is mostly composed of methane, creates pollution and contributes to a warming planet. Mitchell said he keeps a running list of the ways a warming West is impacting Utahns at home.
A record-hot spring followed by a cold snap caused fruit farmers to lose their crops, for example. Utah also saw virtually zero snowpack over the winter. Emergency room visits from tick bites are also on the rise in the West, Axios reports, as milder winters and earlier onset of warm temperatures help the insects thrive.
“In order to reduce those impacts in the future, we need to be reducing our emissions,” Mitchell said. “And we need to be doing it faster.”
Still, the shift in priorities at the federal level caused PacifiCorp to abandon plans to build more wind and solar projects in the next two decades, according to its latest Integrated Resource Plan update. The pivot has earned the utility criticism from renewable advocates like Utah Clean Energy.
Whitesides called the Integrated Resource Plan a “snapshot in time” which is constantly revised depending on energy costs along with federal and state policies.
“It didn’t make financial sense to move forward with new renewable resources at this given time,” Whitesides said. “In two years, we could have a different administration. It may bring back more renewables.”
The utility plans to continue purchasing new electricity from third-party wind and solar farms in the meantime.
“Actually most of our solar is third party; we own very little solar,” Whitesides said. “We don’t disagree that there is value in renewables.”
To The Moon
US National Debt = $40,000,000,000,000.00
A stack of 40 trillion one-dollar bills, would be 2,714,646 miles high.
Two million, seven hundred fourteen thousand, six hundred forty-six miles.
That's more that 5 round trips from the Earth to the moon.
Forty Trillion Dollars
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