Killer windmills --- BEWARE- Be VERY, VERY afraid

[packman]

Donald Trump called into Fox News on Wednesday night, and the former president immediately launched into a rambling montage of his rally talking points from the past.

And in one of the strangest moments of the interview, Trump revived his grievances against windmills, this time claiming they “kill everything.”

Trump as president repeatedly griped about windmills, at one point even claiming ― falsely ― that they cause cancer.

In reality, his main problem with wind turbines is that he thought an offshore wind farm would ruin the view from his golf resort in Scotland and sued to stop it from being built. He lost, the turbines were constructed, and he’s held a grudge ever since.

On Wednesday, he went even further with his latest tilt at windmills.

“They’re making windmills all over the place, to ruin our land and kill our birds,” he said. Then, he upped the ante by adding: “To kill everything.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-windmills-kill-everything_n_60cad9e8e4b0d2b86a828057

[secondwind]

1. This asshat is a straight jacket candidate, no doubt about it.

[yardwork]

2. It's all about him.

[OLDMDDEM]

3. Trump

is insignificant. The only places he has a forum are Faux News, OAN and Newsmax. He is yesterday's loser. Biden is the winner.

[-misanthroptimist]

4. Tilting at windmills seems appropriate for today's Republicans

Sums them up nicely.

[tanyev]

5. I am I, Don Baloney, the Lord of Mar'Lago

A Name all the world hears with woe
And the wild winds of fortune will carry me onward
Oh whither so ever they blow

Whither so ever they blow
Onward to Glory I go!

[whistler162]

6. Nary a soul remembers the Great Windmill Massacre of 1615

all over Holland and the Netherlands windmills attacked villages! Tragic.

[Hugin]

9. The victims were ground to a paste...

by the bushel.

Then carefully packed in flour sacks.

[Disaffected]

16. Heh,

Too bad we can't pack Trump in a flour sack.

[nykym]

7. Hes the epitomie of the

Get off my lawn type people.

[Hugin]

8. TFG can't stand the competition...

Once again he's a loser.

[Klaralven]

10. Currently wind turbines in the US kill several hundred thousands of birds annually

[hatrack]

17. Yes, as opposed to 365 million (low-end estimate) from crashing into buildings . . .

89,000,000 (low-end estimate) from collisions with vehicles.

8.000,000 (low-end estimate) from collisions with electrical lines.

1.4 billion (low-end estimate) from cats.

https://www.fws.gov/birds/bird-enthusiasts/threats-to-birds.php

[Tommy Carcetti]

11. Donald Quixote.

Attack of the Windmill Giants.

(Of course, he'd probably pronounce it "Quicks-Ottie" )

[hunter]

12. Trump is criminally insane, nevertheless, wind turbines are not going to save the world.

The economic viability of wind turbines is entirely dependent on natural gas "backup" power, which isn't really backup power at all but a primary energy source.

Unless we quit burning natural gas NOW the world as we know it is toast.

Wind turbines won't postpone the catastrophes of global warming. If hybrid gas/wind/solar systems are adopted worldwide, as more humans begin to participate in the high energy consumer economy, then natural gas usage will only increase, with or without wind turbines.

The only non-fossil fuel energy source capable of supporting the lifestyle many affluent people now enjoy is nuclear power.

If we accept that then we don't need any ugly and environmentally disruptive wind turbines.

Watching giant wind turbines doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. It's more like watching a neighbor who has some treatable form of cancer refusing conventional medicine for some bizarre and ineffective herbal remedy.

Fossil fuels are like smoking. To quit smoking you have to quit smoking. If you cut your pack-a-day habit in half by vaping you are still a smoker. If you are promoting vaping to non-smokers you are increasing the likelihood they'll get hooked on cigarettes.

To quit fossil fuels we have to quit fossil fuels. If we are selling hybrid natural gas / wind systems then we are still promoting deadly fossil fuel use. Those who push natural gas know this. That's why there are wind turbines in Texas.

[Hugin]

15. Since you've obviously given this matter some thought...

I'm genuinely curious as to which power sources you'd define as 'primary'.

I agree that wind is a hybrid power source somewhere in between 'primary' (Solar as our exemplar) and let's call it a 'transfer source' (Steam or batteries would be another transfer source).

[hunter]

18. I'm just looking at it in terms of percentages.

Here in California, where there is a substantial build-out of wind and solar power, natural gas becomes the primary power source whenever the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining, or whenever air conditioning demand peaks, as it will today.

The state also has very significant hydroelectric capacity, extending to neighboring states all the way to Washington. When we need extra power water flows downhill. When we have power in excess water flows up hill.

At this moment I'm getting about 40% of my power from natural gas and about 40% from "renewables," mostly solar.

I live in a place that has fully embraced solar. Half my neighbors have rooftop solar. There are solar panels over parking lots, and on the roofs of Target and Wal-Mart. Whenever the sun is shining some thirty degrees above the horizon it's possible my neighborhood is exporting power. But most of the time it's not.

The nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon picks up some of that load, 24/7, about 7.5% as I write this, but the rest is carried by natural gas.

http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/supply.html

[Hugin]

20. The way I see it...

There are only two primary sources of power on Earth.

As you say, nuclear (or the atomic decay of certain elements which releases energy as one of the products of the decay) and the Sun.

Everything else is the storage and transfer of energy from one of those sources. Fossil fuels are essentially stored solar energy which shined down on the Earth millions of years ago.

A profound thought you had there.

Seeing as there's only two sources of new power, we need to leverage that power more efficiently and cleanly. Solar and wind are two options of immediate conversion and transfer of energy from the Sun and I'm sure there are analogs for nuclear.

[hunter]

22. Uranium and Thorium are the stored energy of ancient stars collapsing.

Those are pretty much an unlimited resource for earth's current human population.

It's my misanthropic nature to note that even one of the worst possible nuclear power plant accidents, Chernobyl, wasn't so bad as the daily carnage caused by fossil fuels.

Chernobyl and Fukushima both demonstrated that ordinary humans going about their ordinary lives are worse for the natural environment than nuclear power plant accidents.

Here in the 21st century we know how to avoid these accidents.

Chernobyl and Fukushima were 'fifties and 'sixties technology with a deadly overlay of 'seventies Space Shuttle / Chevrolet Vega hubris.

[Hugin]

23. Interesting. n/t

[Elessar Zappa]

21. People here don't like it

but the only way, as of now, to slow down fossil fuel use is to go to nuclear energy, at least until we invent some other form of energy.

[Initech]

13. So glad he's not president anymore.

I'm fine with him being a Fox News contributor.

[GregariousGroundhog]

14. Sounds like something Don "Quixote" Trump would say

[hunter]

19. I'm Hunter Quixote

Trump has no honor, he does not deserve that honorific.

w