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[smjjames]

Trumps positions on environment (other than climate change denial) have been pretty mainstream I think (and no I ain't gonna look at his site), for the republicans anyway. It's been the other candidates such as Santorum that wanted to remove regulations.

Actually, I'm not entirely sure what his views on enviroment are, other than 'GLOBAL WARMING IS FAEK!' which is a republican staple anyway.

[mainiac]

It's very difficult to know what Trumps stance on anything is.  Look at the way his views on minimum wage increases just evolved.  I wonder how far to the left he will tack now that the primary is over.

[PTTG??]

Citation on Nuclear being the most expensive? 'Cause I'm pretty sure the most expensive form of electricity is hiring royalty to ride exercise bikes.

I'm not going to say nuclear is the best -- certainly not modern nukes -- but my understanding is that it isn't terribly expensive, even considering cleanup costs for one or two sites every 20 years.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Believe it or not, the primary issue with nuclear isn't cost or waste, it's time. It takes a decade to build a reactor from permit to criticality, minimum.

[Truean]

Not sure exactly where to post this so.... This looks like a politics thread. I rarely participate anymore but wow.

Trump has claimed he will basically find the best people to do things, whatever those things may be. He has essentially said he will delegate to experts that he will hand pick, based upon his expertise picking experts....

https://www.yahoo.com/news/president-elect-or-not-trump-is-going-to-trial-003511101.html

If past performance is any indication of the future, I'm worried. Mr. Trump has made these same claims before and charged a large amount of money off them.... He is now being sued for his ill fated "Trump University" (later forced have its name changed to “Trump Entrepreneurial Initiative”). The name change was forced by attorneys general because it was never accredited and plaintiffs argue did nothing but take money. Hence, Mr. Trump is being sued for fraud....

Remember those "hand picked experts...?"

"One key issue in the case has been Trump’s boasts that the “courses” and “mentoring” would be conducted by the “best of the best” — real estate experts he personally chose. During a deposition last December, Forge hammered away at Trump on the issue, showing the businessman a photo lineup and playing videos of some of the instructors and asking him if he could identify any of them. Trump could not, at first saying it was “too many years” ago for him to recognize them and then finally admitting he didn’t actually know any of them. “I looked at résumés and things, but I didn’t pick the speakers,” Trump said at one point."



He has said he will find the best experts to lead the country. He once said he would find the best experts to lead his "University Entrepreneurial Initiative."

What frightens me the idea of history repeating.

I am neither Republican, nor Democrat; I am a gritty pragmatist. I comment only on the processes proposed or practiced. I have seen no plan, from anyone.

[mainiac]

Thing is, I've never really poised myself economically in either camp. I see the merits, at least economically, of both sides. Socially I skew left, certainly, but economically I'd be willing to try both sides and see what the outcomes are, so long as the policies are actually sound.

Screw the middle of the road dichotomy.  The man wants to dismantle the government.  If you burn the house down you dont get to sit around and make up your mind later, you are stuck outside.  Once you effectively destroy education, medicare and social security you aren't debating the role of the government because we dont have a government left to debate.

Citation on Nuclear being the most expensive? 'Cause I'm pretty sure the most expensive form of electricity is hiring royalty to ride exercise bikes.

I'm not going to say nuclear is the best -- certainly not modern nukes -- but my understanding is that it isn't terribly expensive, even considering cleanup costs for one or two sites every 20 years.

Every proposal for nuclear power starts with the premise of making sure the government underwrites ridiculously long term loans for sub market rates and that the government assumes the "risks" for cost overruns and delays.  I put scare quotes around "risks" because the nuclear industry keeps predicting that with just one more chance they will do a project on time and under budget and they are always wrong.  Even with these ridiculous subsidies they still cant convince someone to build nuclear.

There is also the issue of long time frame.  Suppose you start building a nuclear plant.  Well you start gathering funds now, plan construction, contract work,break ground in 2020 with an eye towards finishing in 2025 and the inevitable overruns means that it actually gets running in 2028.  Compare that to solar where you start having power generation within months of you starting to raise capital.  So when people say "solar built today or nuclear built today" it's actually a false dichotomy.  The actual comparison should be between nuclear power that you start gathering funds for today and solar power that you start gathering funds for in 2027.  That matters a lot because solar keeps getting cheaper.  10 years from now it will probably be at least 75% cheaper then today.  But nuclear plant construction would be tying up resources for far off into the future when electricity is going to be a heck of a lot cheaper then today.

Believe it or not, the primary issue with nuclear isn't cost or waste, it's time. It takes a decade to build a reactor from permit to criticality, minimum.

Or it just gets canceled after a few years with huge sunk costs.

[Orange Wizard]

Re: power: In terms of cost, efficiency, and environmental impact, nuclear power may very well be the best we have available right now, especially in conjunction with renewable sources and micro-generation (like solar panels on houses).

Trump's arguably not even a good businessman, yeah. Though honestly I can't see him screwing up the US any more than it already is, and he's far from the worst leader we've ever seen.
That's all assuming he doesn't get assassinated like so many other populists.

[Loud Whispers]

Don't you guys still have gorillions of Canadian and Texan gas?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Unfortunately. Like a fiend with blond dreadlocks stuck in a hospital pharmacy we must find a way to not use what's all around us or else.

It would honestly be better if we were facing absolute scarcity, then people wouldn't be such assclowns about what should be an obvious thing.

[Shadowlord]

Re: power: In terms of cost, efficiency, and environmental impact, nuclear power may very well be the best we have available right now, especially in conjunction with renewable sources and micro-generation (like solar panels on houses).

If you could spam the things like in a video game, which you can't. Safety is expensive and shit.

People voting Trump, I have to wonder, do they not aware of history? Mercantilism, to be precise. Hell, one of the reasons the American colonists rebelled was because Great Britain was like "We will only buy your raw materials, and sell you finished products for them. You're not allowed to develop your own industry, or to trade with anyone else."

[origamiscienceguy]

Don't you guys still have gorillions of Canadian and Texan gas?

We need to make sure that we use all of everybody else's natural resources before using out own.

[smjjames]

-snip-

You have heard of Trump setting up Ben Carson of all people to head his VP vetting commitee, right? THAT is pretty much all you need to know about his 'hiring the best people.' Granted it might be hard to find experts willing to work with Trump, but still, they're around.

And then theres his wierd mishmash of foriegn advisors that look like they could have been randomly picked out of a hat.

Also, the judge in that trial apparently moved the trial date because of risk of a 'media zoo', but it's going to be a media zoo ANYWAY if Trump gets elected.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Ben Carson is an excellent head for the Veep Squad, he'll ensure the candidates are down to party like the hogs they are. Trump is going to make that one White House cheese wheel party look like a sewing circle. Of Quakers. Eunuch Quakers.

[smjjames]

Ben Carson is an excellent head for the Veep Squad, he'll ensure the candidates are down to party like the hogs they are. Trump is going to make that one White House cheese wheel party look like a sewing circle. Of Quakers. Eunuch Quakers.

I guess it makes sense for an outsider to head the Veep Squad, and Trump seems to trust him well enough.

Maybe Carson is angling for surgeon general or something, which is mostly a figurehead post these days.

[Loud Whispers]

Everyone loved Nero when he made a horse his personal advisor because it pissed off the Senators