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This is more geopolitical than culture war. There is a guy with naval experience that has been writing a theory that the US does not want to open the Straight of Hormuz. And Trump has hinted at the thesis. Especially Europe but the rest of the world has depended on the US to keep global shipping open. Europe also looks down on the US as Neanderthals. They do not have the guns to go do things like reopen the Straight and are dependent on the Americans. The US does not directly suffer from the closure as we do Neanderthal things like put little straws in the ground all over Texas sucking oil out of the ground. Europe hurts much more than the modern US today in an energy crisis (US may be net winner).
Besides being a nice FU to Europe it also exposes their geopolitical weaknesses as real. Which hopefully gets them to do things like build big guns, drill for oil, restart nuclear programs, forget Greta ever existed, etc. Which long-term I believe a strong Europe is in Americas interests. America’s relationship with Europe historically and especially Dems has been to go over there and talk nicely to them. Trump has a different philosophy which is basically poke them with a stick. On immigration it does seem like Europe is getting better.
And here is the article. [https://gcaptain.com/the-hormuz-hypothesis-what-if-the-u-s-navy-isnt-in-a-hurry-to-reopen-the-strait] (The Hormuz Hypothesis)
He talks about it more on his twitter. I am mostly posting this to see if he’s crazy or is this a good example of Trump playing 4D chess.
Edit: Based on early comments FU Europe is appropriately culture war
No, not really.
For one, the whole "Europe freerider reeeeee-" screeching is stupid personal projection onto international relationships; the US would need to have all that thang on 'im no matter what, given that all our shit comes from across two oceans so we need the ability to police the oceans. Given that we needed to have the tools of the hegemon, using them to do hegemon shit came free with our navy, so to speak.
In exchange, we get the consent of europe to do pretty much whatever we want outside their backyard, basing rights, a voting block, an economic ally, the ability to impose our idea of commercial law across most of the world by fiat, and a financial backstop (at least until the cheeto in the Whitehouse and his retard hangers-on started dynamiting the careful work of decades like Hong Xi burning the fleet)
For two, anyone who gives a shit about being looked down on as a Neanderthal is an emotional weakling and deserves to be metaphorically swirlied until they disappear down the drain, never to trouble me with their squeaky voice and bitchy tears again.
It's not even true, on top of that! Yeah, America was looked down on as boorish and uncultured, as a component of (formerly at least) being admired as vigorous, strong, cunning, and forward thinking! (Less so now, unfortunately. We've proven to everyone that no, we are that fucking stupid. It's gonna take another 8 years of an Obama tier genteel speechmaking lawyerly type to wash the stink off.)
Also the irrational personal antipathy toward Greta and not being petro-dependent is crazy to me. You're gonna turn down +/-infinity energy at below market rate because it's woke to not inhale carcinogens and die on average 2 years earlier than you would otherwise?
Just shut up, eat the bug, and install solar panels and a heat pump. It was cheaper for me to wire my tool shed with panels and batteries suitable for a home server, a heat pump, networking gear, resin printer, and a bunch of 240v shop tools than it was to extend new service to it, and I did it with no rebates and after the incentives got cancelled. (admittedly I had a decent amount of the materials just laying around and did all the labor myself and I do need to have a light hand with the bandsaw, allow me my point though)
Robert Gates, Obama's SecDef, specifically warned that European free-riding in NATO was causing serious problems back in 2010, during Obama's first term - more than 15 years ago, before Russia invaded Crimea or President Trump was even considered a serious possibility.
Despite this (and the subsequent deterioration of the European defense situation) it was not until 2024 that more than half of NATO countries met their 2% GDP defense spending benchmarks.
The trend is definitely much better now, but US defense thinkers have been warning about European allies free riding for decades, since the Clinton administration. Just accepting for the sake of argument that this has all been "stupid personal projection onto international relations," a wise strategist understands that in a democracy, it is quite possible for there to be a certain amount of such personal projection onto international relations and one should avoid doing things like "failing to meet mutual defense spending targets" specifically to avoid such wrongly-placed personal feelings.
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Solar panels are popular because it's giving stuff to middle class people(homeowners). Heat pumps are probably more red-coded than blue at this point, for climate(not change) related reasons, but Americans will eat rice and beans before embracing bugs as food.
I don't know where you're getting 'infinite energy' from though. Solar has serious drawbacks that make it a not-infinite energy source.
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Heat pumps are ubiquitous in new American construction in red states: most don't get cold enough to need a dedicated gas furnace, and already needed air conditioning. Residential solar isn't ubiquitous, but seems popular on all political sides where it's practical: reds like the off-grid resilience. Combustion-based fuels are powering only about 30% of the grid in Texas today, per ERCOT.
Bugs, though, are probably a bridge too far.
Don't knock bugs till you've tried them. I've had crickets and ants in mexico that were delicious, and some sort of beetle and what I'm pretty sure were deep fried silkworms in thailand that were incredible. Like a more meaty peanut.
Remember, shrimps is bugs.
You can de-vein a shrimp. There only so much bug shit I can contemplate eating voluntarily.
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Well, uuuh, don't eat shrimps then. Also are you not at all concerned about auto-immune issues wrt chitin in the bug carapace?
Not even a little. I reject basically all influencer coded supplement chugging anti-vax associated info, you would need to show my a meta analysis and I would need to really trust it for me to be worried about chitin. I've been eating mushrooms my whole life for one, and I'm pretty sure they are 15% chitin by weight.
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Do arthropods broadly taste like crustaceans?
I remember being very surprised a few years ago to be given alligator and find out it really does taste like chicken. Exactly like chicken, to the point where if you close your eyes you can’t tell the difference. But the line of descent is clearer on that case.
Not in my experience. I've eaten fire ants in the old country just because they got into the food, and I'm not gonna not eat it just because it bites back. They ironically tasted peppery.
The bugs in thailand tasted really nutty, but with even more structure and a kinda meaty, protein sensation. The ant eggs in mexico were rich and kinda fatty, like fish eggs but not fishy.
As for the crickets, I couldn't tell you. I think they were fried, but they were covered in so much salt and spice I just got a pleasant crunchy/oily sensation; like a fried nut but with legs.
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I'm not surprised, considering chicken are basically dinosaurs.
Not just basically. Chickens are straight up dinosaurs, while crocodiles are only archosaurs. Peasants.
The lizards --> birds lineage is made very apparent by chickens and roadrunners.
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I deliberately try to forget this
Remember it and expand! There is a whole kingdom of life you haven't crushed between your slavering jaws yet! Get out there and start eating!
I did enjoy deep fried crickets but realistically they were probably 60%+ fried batter by volume so it wasn't hard to like them lol
Ah yes, the "Was that the cricket or did a bit of spatula get in there by accident? I don't actually care" effect.
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I prefer to remember that woodlice (which are ubiquitous in these parts) aren't insects, but are crustaceans. But I hear they don't taste any good.
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Shrimp aren’t technically bugs. But yes a lot of conservatives “anti-bug people” eat a lot of things that seem like bugs.
Never asks a southerner chowing down on 2lbs of crawfish why he’s opposed to eating bugs.
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I agree and I’ll note that Utah (a red state) has by far the most liberal laws about setting up your own pv systems without having to contract with your utility company (in contrast with states like California where a solar system can easily cost 20-30 k, largely driven by regulatory burden)
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I own a home in another state and I’ve looked into replacing the AC (all of which are in great condition) with heat pumps but I haven’t heavily researched the long-term, household upside to them apart from the general environmental benefits to the community. Same with SP’s. The problem with that though is the slope of my roof is very steep and unless a modification or minor construction to it was able to plateau a ledge out for it to absorb the sunlight, I don’t know how much of a gain I’d get from it; but I haven’t done the math on that yet.
I haven't bothered with solar for my house, I have the grid tie already. Maybe when the roof finally gives up.
re heat pumps, if you are a modern softie who runs the heat when it gets below 60 and the ac when it gets above 80, you will see returns in a couple years IF you install it yourself. I don't even know what they cost to install because they are so easy; only the really complicated multihead setups are hard enough I would consider paying someone to do it.
CAVEAT: I would install heads in at most two rooms of a house at most, one bedroom and one office. I feel cooling your whole house defeats the purpose of the efficiency gains.
The issue is getting electrical service to the unit, and getting ahold of an hvac tech that won't rob you blind for to charge it with refrigerant.
I know they sell precharged units somehow, but I don't trust it. Seems like magic.
Precharged units have a special fitting on either end of the lineset that allows them to stay sealed, even when disconnected. There is a higher failure rate, but whether that justifies paying what I'd charge you for side work is in the eye of the beholder and it definitely doesn't justify what a company would charge you. The bigger issue is that this is almost certainly going to be manufactured by an el cheapo manufacturer, so you're not buying the highest quality unit.
Electrical service shouldn't be difficult, if you're not comfortable running power you shouldn't be doing self install.
I would caution anyone running service not for the increased chance of failure, but the increased effect of failure. You fuck up installing the split? you're out a couple thousand and need to do the call of shame.
You fuck up installing 240v? Your house might burn down/you might get to have the penny fuse experience.
Best to shadow someone/get your electrician friend to walk you through it a couple times before fucking with the kills you juice.
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Heat pumps will save you money over electric heat, but perhaps not over gas. They may not be able to keep up in the depths of winter, depending on local climate- of course, if this is a vacation house you use only in the summer, that doesn't matter very much. That's about the tradeoff- gas works better and the cost advantage could go either way depending on circumstances, electric furnaces are much more expensive(but do work better) to operate.
No, if you combine them with solar and install them correctly they will for sure.
Worst comes worse, you can do a ground source heat pump, but even as I say that I realize that not everyone is as handy with the shovel and pipe flarer as me, so I should extend some grace.
But then you have to pay for solar.
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This is solved if you just buy the right heat pump.
According to IRC § N1108.2.2(14) (part of a complicated section where you have several options for earning 10 "additional energy-efficiency credits"), the recommendation (worth up to 16 credits by itself, depending on your climate zone!) is to buy a heat pump that, at 5 °F (−15 °C), maintains at least 70 percent of the heating capacity that it has at 47 °F (8 °C). You can read the heat pump's specifications to determine whether it meets that requirement. For example:
This heat pump has rated capacity of 24 kBTU/h at 47 °F and 19.2 kBTU/h at 5 °F, for a ratio of 80 percent.
This heat pump cheats with a backup electric-heating system to maintain 70 percent of rated capacity all the way down to −5 °F (−21 °C).
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Not sure why you are emphasizing this in Texas. It's not that they're using little gas, it's that Texas has had an enormous solar buildout (based) for reasons of having good solar resource and being generally pro-building-stuff (based). In any case Trump himself, and his crew, are not representative of the entire population of Red Tribe or Conservatives but more a culture war caricature thereof, and seem to be solidly in the pocket of Big Fossil, so express only marginally less skepticism of solar than they do for wind (cf. Trump's repeated appeals to Chynese windmills that are a scam which Chyna supposedly doesn't use domestically).
I'm sad to see this comment.
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