Yep. Municipal power is a natural thing to do - it is a situation where the locals are about as close to fully aligned with one another as they get - everyone wants reliable, cheap power and responsive service when you need it. So you make a captive company with a charter that keeps it aligned with its customers instead of Wall St. You don't take silly risks because you're not chasing infinite growth, customers gets decent rates, the area gets some decent local jobs out of it. Everyone except the predators are happy. If only other all local problems had such great solutions.

But, ohhh, booga-booga, that's communism. (Please just ignore Trump seizing the means of production.)

Learn to read.

Yeah. This is what Americans voted for. More expensive solar panels.

Well, better deals for domestically manufactured solar panels...

I mean, we needed to do something after China years ago dumped on the US market and ran domestics out of business....something to try to nurture back our own businesses.

We need to bring back as much manufacturing as possible to the US and be more self sufficient....

You don't consider being dependent as we are on China to be a good thing, do you?

Did you not get a taste of how bad it can be during covid?

I just hope we make it until I'm dead, humans are just about done. I'm glad I got to live through the 80-90s.

I was thinking same thing (the 60's-70's were GREAT too)...I hope to retire in a few years, and spend the last of my days, riding my motorcycle around, brewing beer, bbq'ing on my log burning smoker adjust generally enjoying my latter days.

PLEASE let it last till I'm done with it...after that well, who cares?

AI and viruses....What could possibly go wrong?

There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public. Cell phones are different because they're considered private communications despite using public airwaves.

There have been attempts to get precedent that automated, continuous monitoring is qualitatively different than a cop standing outside watching you, with unfortunately mixed results.

Mostly correct. I'd just add the average LEO doesn't care about catching criminals, either, if it takes too much effort.

Going beyond today, this is a long-running theme in US constitutional law. Before the colonial rebellion, King George was a big fan of "writs of assistance". These were effectively licenses for thugs to search or interrogate anyone at any time in pursuit of a crime (or "crime"), and of course anyone subject to such abuse hated it. So that's where the 4th Amendment came from - we do warrants, but you have to name with specificity what/who you want to investigate as well as why and under what authority, and get a judge to agree.

Authoritarians, thugs and control freaks have been trying to reinvent them ever since.

One famous case from before the digital era was Stanford v. Texas (1965). Texas, being extremely Texan, passed the Suppression Act, which made writings, photos, etc. "concerned with" the Texas Communist Party contraband subject to 20 year prison terms. The Supreme Court unanimously held the warrant was an unconstitutional general warrant.

Opposing general warrants is as American as apple pie, opposing kings and displaying amazing senses of entitlement.

I've been to the ER a number of times in the past few years...again, no big deal and small charges for me.

The only thing Obama did for me, is raise my prices.

Wait, I'll give him the no existing pre-conditions, that was a good one....but other than that, all I got was high prices.

Glad I don't deal with all of that....

This has been educational to say the least. I'd not heard of places actually checking to see what comes out of your tail pipe too?!?!

That doesn't seem to allow for users to customize their cars for performance, etc...?

2017...mx5 retractable hard top

The democrats crying is pure bullshit here. They wanted this to

A. This is nonsense on stilts. Name one elected Dem who promoted this.

B. Even shitbags like Cruz are saying this is illegal.

This benefits everyone's donors.

C. You seem to believe only elected politicians matter. What about the actual, you know, citizens who pay these government workers?

where they'll defend all the anti-human rights shit that happened to no end

Weird how selective you are about which humans and which rights.

It looks like it's equivalent to the emissions tests that most American drivers have to do once every year or two

Emissions test?

Never had one of those...I would guess that's a California thing mostly?

But I've been in some states with a brake tag inspection...which is nothing, you roll in , turn on lights and wipers and you're good.

So, do they not let you mod your cars over in Europe? Flash new ECUs or aggressive cams, high flow exhausts, etc?

Are you sure you actually own your car over there if you can't play with it?

No...I have insurance....I think my deductible is like $3K and after that, pretty much everything I covered.....

About a year or so ago, had cancer surgery, over $100K bill...cost me about $3K and done...after that, every other visit and procedure, I paid for office visits $25 and that was it...everything else major covered.