The EPA is rolling back limits on toxic heavy metals from coal plants entering streams and rivers as part of the Trump admin’s push to expand fossil fuels to power AI data centers.

fact or fiction ??

An idea:

There’s something called being “solar ready”. It might be worth looking into.

I used to work for a solar system design firm. One of the things we had to do before a solar system could be sold was verify whether or not the home/site was “solar ready”.

That involved evaluating the current electrical hook up, condition and size of the roof, solar exposure, baseline wattage needs of the house; peak household usage (and new plan for off grid if that was the goal - which meant appliance listings and evaluations and sometimes change outs) - local utility and zoning hookup requirements; etc.

Sometimes a client had several months of work and many thousands of dollars to spend just prepping for fill their solar system. So the term “solar ready” was born.

But it should actually be “decentralized power ready” - ie do you understand completely your power use; your connections; your loads; your needs…

Most people don’t. They’re capable of it, they just haven’t got around to it yet.

Well, if we’re on the edge of new decentralized energy systems, maybe we want to think about getting ready for new energy.

“New Energy Ready”

Wouldn’t that be fun?

Tonight’s discovery:

Chocolate Brownies and a buttery California Chardonnay go very well together.

Thanks. For those of you exploring Ai power calcs is an excellent use of the tool.

Another interesting way to think through your usage that I needed to do for my emergency plan (using a generator) is analyze everything on your house or shop breaker box.

Often “figuring out what circuits power what” is on the to do list but it never gets done.

Once you map which breakers go to which outlet sets (the legs), then you can figure out what appliances are on those legs and move things around if you want - either in advance if it works or with cords during an emergency.

If you need to run a generator (or a decentralized power unit) and you know all of that, you can do a couple of helpful things:

*Know exactly what things need to/can (watt draws are very limited with the average generator) run off your generator during a blackout and hook those up quickly (might involve having a special cord - length/thickness of cord has to match appliance draw).

*If you’re solar ready then you’ve got a grid-tied power system (includes inverter and special controls to prevent unwanted flows between the house and city systems) which is super helpful because it lets you use the wires in your walls BUT you need to have already isolated the loads on the legs so you know where all the draws are and can shut nonessentials down at the breaker. (Keeps teenage daughter from plugging in the hairdryer and blowing the house)

This is the main decentralized power readiness I’m thinking about:

Imagine you get a mini-power device (free energy) that supplies 3-5k continuous Watts (10k is what I’ve seen most commonly mentioned for a free standing home device). Thats more than enough to rotate some refrigeration and cooking through easily IF you know what’s on your legs already.

And if you’ve got a solar system for low wattage lights and electronics running a couple of other legs you’re really well set as long as you’ve got a box on the house side of the breaker that can accept power from multiple sources (ie battery storage, live panel, micro free energy device).

But this involves some fancy footwork on either side of your breaker box: regulated power management controls between your box and the public utility (called grid tied power) AND options for different legs to be fed by different power sources between the breaker box and your house.

It’s not something you can do in an emergency; it takes a bit of prep and a few stages require a licensed electrician. And anything between your breaker and the utility requires the utility’s permits and inspections.

But if we’re truly on the edge of decentralized household power and you think your house is good for another 10+ years, getting ready for new energy is 1) smart and 2) not being discussed that I’ve seen.

This - being alternative power ready at the breaker - is one of the investments I’m making in my business and it will be a great selling point down the road (and figuring it out is just plain fun).

An idea:

There’s something called being “solar ready”. It might be worth looking into.

I used to work for a solar system design firm. One of the things we had to do before a solar system could be sold was verify whether or not the home/site was “solar ready”.

That involved evaluating the current electrical hook up, condition and size of the roof, solar exposure, baseline wattage needs of the house; peak household usage (and new plan for off grid if that was the goal - which meant appliance listings and evaluations and sometimes change outs) - local utility and zoning hookup requirements; etc.

Sometimes a client had several months of work and many thousands of dollars to spend just prepping for fill their solar system. So the term “solar ready” was born.

But it should actually be “decentralized power ready” - ie do you understand completely your power use; your connections; your loads; your needs…

Most people don’t. They’re capable of it, they just haven’t got around to it yet.

Well, if we’re on the edge of new decentralized energy systems, maybe we want to think about getting ready for new energy.

“New Energy Ready”

Wouldn’t that be fun?

Luckily you CAN contact a solar company to do a site evaluation. Many do a general one for free and then -for a generally reasonable consulting fee, considering what you’re getting - they will talk you through everything needed for both sides of the breaker box to do what you want to do.

I believe that a small to medium solar array and a portable power unit can sit comfortably side by side as independent inputs to your household system, and a solar engineer is the professional currently suited to make your building ready for it.

There’s a generation a lot of people forget exists. We were born at the tail end of the Boomers, but we are not culturally the same as people born in the 40s and early 50s. We are Generation Jones.

And honestly, it explains a lot.

We grew up in a world that still felt fundamentally analog, but we were young enough to be dragged headfirst into the digital revolution. We are the bridge generation between rotary phones and smartphones, between slide rules and AI, between Walter Cronkite and algorithm driven media.

We remember when there were only a few television channels and the entire country watched the same thing at the same time. We also adapted to the internet, email, forums, social media, streaming and now artificial intelligence. We lived before and after the technological singularity hit everyday life.

That is not a small thing.

People born in the 40s came of age in a post World War II America that was still industrial, deeply hierarchical and institutionally stable. Their formative years were shaped by the Cold War, Vietnam, the civil rights era and a society where information moved slowly.

Generation Jones came later. We inherited the aftermath of all of that.

We were the kids who watched Watergate destroy blind trust in government. We watched manufacturing begin to collapse. We saw divorce rates explode. We were the first truly latchkey generation in massive numbers. We learned independence early because many of us had to.

We grew up with one foot in old America and one foot in whatever this new thing was becoming.

We played outside until the streetlights came on but we also learned DOS commands. We learned cursive and keyboarding. We had card catalogs and Google searches. We went from vinyl records to cassette tapes to CDs to MP3s to streaming in one lifetime.

We remember maps. We remember memorizing phone numbers. We remember life before GPS and before every human interaction became filtered through a screen.

And because of that, I think Generation Jones developed a very unique perspective. We are adaptable because we had no choice but to adapt. We learned technology as adults instead of being born into it. We remember a slower world but were forced to survive in a rapidly accelerating one.

That creates a very different mindset than either older Boomers or younger Gen X and Millennials.

A lot of us also reject the caricature people now associate with “Boomers.” We were not buying houses for the cost of a sandwich in 1965. The interest rate on my first house was over 14% and that was after buying down a point. Many of us got hit by recessions, outsourcing, pension collapses and economic instability just like younger generations did. We watched promises evaporate in real time.

We understand older generations because we were raised by them. We understand younger generations because we had to evolve alongside them.

That’s why the Jones generation often feels culturally homeless. We are rarely discussed, rarely defined and usually lumped into categories that don’t actually fit us.

But we exist.

We are the human transition point between the industrial age and the digital age.

And frankly, there will probably never be another generation quite like us again.

5:39 AM · May 19, 2026

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I can relate...anyone else?
How about Keypunch...anyone remember learning that in high school?

I too sometimes miss the way I used to view the world; when ignorance felt like innocence, when I believed things were simpler, safer, more honest. But that was never reality. It was a projection, a false perception carefully built for us to inhabit.

We were deceived. We believed the narratives, the history books, the promises of leaders, the systems around us. We thought the world was one thing, when in truth it was something entirely different.

And so what we really miss is not the world itself, it never actually existed as we imagined it, but the feeling of living inside that illusion.

We must now replace that nostalgia with vision. Instead of yearning for a false world that never truly was, we must begin to dream of the real world that can be.

A world based on truth and reality, a world that serves humanity rather than enslaves it. A world where we grow into a more evolved version of ourselves, more aware, more compassionate toward one another, and guided by a greater morality. Because freedom can only survive in a society that chooses to hold itself to higher standards of morality and responsibility. Without that foundation, freedom collapses.

So perhaps what we miss is not gone forever, it is simply waiting for us on the other side of this journey. Not the illusion we lost, but the truth we are destined to build. And it begins with us daring to dream it into being, together.


https://t.me/LauraAbolichannel

The current setup of chip manufacturing is the geopolitical version of storing every gold bar on earth in one glass-walled bank vault that sits sixty miles from a guy with a sledgehammer who has been saying for decades he wants the gold.

That metaphorical bank is Taiwan, and Trump just told them that they're not getting the 12 billions in weapons to defend themselves against China, and that it's time to pack up. And FAST.

Brookings is calling Trump's move a dangerous gamble, the chronically TDS are calling it abandonment, and just a handful of us have bothered to read the trade deal.

What he's actually doing is making it scarier for Taiwan to keep their chip factories sitting on that island than to pack them onto a boat and ship them to Arizona.

(Which is in itself harder than everyone thinks)

For thirty years Taiwan has been using their chip manufacturing hegemony the "silicon shield." If Taiwan gets invaded, the world loses its chips, so the world has to defend Taiwan.

So, Trump looked at the sledgehammer, saw the glass walls, saw that the bank is a long ass trip away from Washington, and ultimately told Taipei to start moving the gold.

His own advisers told Axios this week that the odds of China moving on Taiwan within five years went up, not down, after the Beijing summit.

Lutnick wants 50/50 production. Taiwan disagreed. TSMC has already pledged 165 billion dollars to Arizona's factories. That's Billions with a B.

Also, Taipei has committed 500 billions in semiconductor investment, but in all cases, the February trade deal literally ties chip tariffs to how fast that money lands.

So the arms package to defend themselves against the dude with the sledgehammer will collect dust for a while. That's Trump's bargaining chip (pun intended)

If you think about it, this is the most coherent industrial policy a US president has run in fifty years, and the only people pretending not to understand it are the ones whose careers depend on Trump looking chaotic.

Is Trump bluffing? that's indeed 50/50. But the silicon shield only works if China believes the world will fight to defend Taiwan. Since it seems that he world won't, the second-best move is to move the crystal-walled bank to America.

And Trump is giving Taiwan a good incentive to do so.

2:00 PM · May 19, 2026

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My reply to the above

I’m starting to despise this narrative.

If this “fake and ghey” dance is REALLY what it takes to keep America going and set it back on its feet, it’s stopped working for me.

If there’s a victory for “us” it will be hollow and pyrrhic if it follows from this level of self-dealing chicanery, and whatever is saved will still have rot at its core, while claiming it’s all been purged.

The method ensures the rot remains.

And the optics on this for DJT are terrible. In this version he’s a weak manipulative leader who used bribed sycophants and weaponized government against his enemies in the name of saving the republic - which is exactly what the current fake-Russia-hoaxers are being accused of doing.

And the idea that some benevolent mastermind group has to do this elaborate covert feint, filled with triple-speak only accessible to the initiated, all required to prevent billions of deaths from those who “don’t get it” and would panic otherwise - on top of being filled with layers of unforgivable deceptions - is instead protecting what’s too weak to survive, that would otherwise normally be culled. (We should probably be more like Iceland)

In fact, manipulation at THIS level puts the hardships and deaths back on the WH’s hands. And the manipulation makes the deaths a culling, not a casualty of engagement.

When deaths are truly accidental but caused by another’s actions it’s still manslaughter. But when there’s awareness your actions may lead to deaths or, worse, intent to cause some in the name of the many - you’re on the slope down to murder. (That hidden hand guys group accepted the karma from this sort of choice as theirs, but we are not them)

Any “culling” should be organic - ie natural fall out from organic events. Culling that isn’t organic is murder. There’s no way around that. You can’t “break a few eggs” to make an omelette at this level of deceit and call it ok.

The LOW is filled with agreements that prevent exactly this. Transparency is supposed to be paramount; non combatants identified; infrastructure saved; bad guys made obvious and removed - THAT is all that’s acceptable.

Anything more - ie writing a grandiose schema that layers a mythos that wedges your groups’ family fortune building and personal views (like a third temple or an ultimate “last battle” …) is blatant hijacking of what MUST be a neutral platform for justice.

If what’s presented in these particular and similar pages is what’s actually happening, the level of deceit and manipulating dooms whatever it leads to a more ignominious failure than what it was heading for without them.

There’s no way that intentional God-play like this (especially loudly proclaiming God’s hand is guiding) can lead to anything good.

I know that the prolonged fakery is beginning to disgust as well as frustrate millions of supporters. It has to be, because they’re/we’re good people and this is wrong.

The only way this makes sense is if it, too, is designed to flush out the Machiavellis on the self proclaimed MAGA side, the writers and promoters of these sorts of narratives as well as the ones who don’t call THIS out, who are just as bad as the ones who didn’t call out the Obama wrongs, and all the wrongs that went before.

Two - or twenty- wrongs don’t make a right. The end doesn’t justify the means. Deception like this isn’t acceptable.

Something is increasingly wrong.

RESTORING INTEGRITY TO AMERICA’S FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Executive Orders | May 19, 2026

Section 1. Purpose. America’s financial institutions serve a critical role in safeguarding the American people against financial fraud and abuse. My Administration has taken significant steps to lower the costs of providing financial services for Americans and reduce unnecessary and burdensome Federal regulations that restrain economic growth and hamper the competitiveness of financial service providers nationwide. However, it has long been the policy of the United States to adopt tailored measures to safeguard our financial system from illicit use and promote safe and sound lending and other practices by financial institutions. My Administration will not tolerate national security and public safety risks caused by illicit cross-border financial activity, nor will it permit risks to our financial system posed by the extension of credit or financial services to the inadmissible and removable alien population.

INTEGRATING FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION INTO REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS
Executive Orders | May 19, 2026

Section 1. Policy. The United States is a global leader in financial innovation, driven in part by the rapid growth of financial technology (fintech) firms. These firms provide innovative services and solutions that enhance access to financial products and services and create economic opportunity for all Americans. To foster this financial innovation, the Federal Government must update regulations to allow integration of digital assets and innovative technology into traditional financial services and payment systems. The Federal Government must also remove overly burdensome and fragmented regulations and supervisory practices that form barriers to entry and primarily benefit incumbent financial services firms.

It is therefore the policy of the United States to streamline regulatory processes, reduce unnecessary barriers to entry, and encourage collaboration between fintech firms, federally regulated financial institutions, and Federal financial regulators.

100% - IF cash is actually money.

Federal Reserve notes FRNs aren’t real “cash”. They’re unsecured paper IOUs from the Federal Reserve with value owed to the USA and are only currently used because a now-bankrupt government administration corporation declared 100 years ago that they were THE American “legal tender” to be used in the payment of debts, etc.

That “cash” thing is where a lot of us can get it wrong.

The closest thing Americans have to cash right now is silver and gold coin (and some new metal-containing currencies like goldbacks).

The problem is that a silver dollar costs a LOT of FRN “dollars”to buy, so using it to purchase something at the Dollar Store for a dollar makes no practical sense.

(However ANY silver dollar or bouillon you can buy with a FRN right now IS an amazing investment in the cash of the future. Lots of advice here and elsewhere on best ways to do that)

Private parties will likely always be able to exchange any thing for any thing - ie a thing; something real and touchable, that could be a silver bar or coin - for a thing.

The paper and chit currency systems have, for millennia, always been owned by the kings and dynasties, whether fiat or backed. (In America we simply leased the federal reserves system - and the interest we pay is the rent to use it.)

To think that “we” can stop “them” from changing their currency from paper to digital is absurd. We can’t stop them from using a digital form of currency so efforts to stay “all cash” - when you mean REAL cash - and force them to do it, too, won’t work.

But Americans CAN insist that metal coin or asset backed dollars CAN remain as “legal tender”. Ie when you want to pay with cash for something sold to the public (ie a non member store) - FRNs OR coin - instead of an electronic payment system, the vendor will be legally required to accept it.

FTR - currently if a vendor (like a food cart) refuses cash and only accepts electronic debit cards but they are not a member based - ie non public - organization, that is illegal, because FRNs can be used for ALL debts, and they could be challenged on that.

So yes real cash is the real king…

DTCC will use the XRP Ledger
Swift will use the XRP Ledger
Fed will use the XRP Ledger
ECB will use the XRP Ledger
IMF will use the XRP Ledger
World Bank will use the XRP Ledger

And to use the XRP Ledger, YOU MUST USE XRP.
LFG!
#XRP