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As I live in Austin -which many of you may not realize - I don't have to deal with this poo poo but lol https://twitter.com/AJKhn/status/1409919614742499332 Just have the government do it. Have the government do taxes, have the government run the power and water, have the government run healthcare, have them do all this stuff instead of making me make decisions I am not qualified to make. United Health is bouncing around an idea that they won't reimburse for ER visits that aren't emergencies, so I guess I'm supposed to be my own diagnostician now? I've had two kidney stones in my life, the first one, I didn't know what the hell was going on, my pain was abdominal, not in the middle of my back like I'd always heard. And it suure feels like your guts are being torn open, I really had no idea what was going on. I went to the ER and they did CT and confirmed that , yep, this is a kidney stone. They gave me some morphine (that didn't touch the pain) and left me to writhe in agony on a bed in the ER for four or so hours. In reality, I never needed to actually go to the ER because small kidney stones aren't really dangerous, and I don't know if kidney stones of any size are urgently dangerous. Anyway, for doing nothing for me, I was charged $500 in "co-insurance" and then some more surprise bills for labs and poo poo. Before I left my agony bed I asked the doc who was checking on me: so if I have another one, now knowing what I know and what a stone feels like for me, should I go to the ER or just tough it out? He was like, Oh, for sure, come in to the ER. A few months later I had another one: much, much less intense but still very uncomfortable and also you don't know if it's suddenly going to run towards unbearable agony. Knowing how ER network bullshit works, I spent like 2 hours online at 2 am trying to determine what ERs in my area were in network, and I couldn't do it. It was utterly opaque, and I'm probably above-average at "figuring out stuff on the internet". This is all in the middle of 5-6 level pain. I ended up not going, and it was fine, but what if it wasn't a kidney stone, what if it was something else more dangerous that I needed to go to the ER for? How many lives does "well, I'm not spending a thousand bucks for them to tell me it's indigestion" cost every year? We have this caveat emptor mentality in this nation where the entire burden on procuring services from experts is placed solely on the consumer, and it sucks when it's like, a car mechanic or something but forcing someone to make decisions based on information they don't have - and indeed require 10 years of schooling to have - is utterly bonkers. "Do you know anything about electricity generation in Texas? No? Well, make this decision on which package you think you might need for power some months down the road and I sure hope you don't make the wrong choice or you could be on the hook for $10,000 in electricity bills!" zoux fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Jun 29, 2021 |
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Jun 29, 2021 19:53
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zoux posted:It's proper to style a former president (or any ex-pol) by their highest office, you'd say the same about President Obama or President Bush. Of course, you and I understand what's going on here, but Abbott would just be like "that's how it's done what are you talking about" I guess my biggest problem is that Trump will be sitting in on a security briefing. You and I both know Trump is too stupid to understand what will go on there, but Trump is a private citizen. He holds no office. He absolutely should not be allowed into any meeting where actual information is being presented.
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Jun 29, 2021 19:55
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zoux posted:As I live in Austin, which you may not realize, I don't have to deal with this poo poo but lol The worse part is that's another reseller site and not the official government ran one so they give higher rates. I actually prefer the current system since I am always jumping providers to chase 7-8 cents a kilowatt hour pricing and it's worth the 10 mins of work to change that on my own.
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Jun 29, 2021 20:04
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saintonan posted:I guess my biggest problem is that Trump will be sitting in on a security briefing. You and I both know Trump is too stupid to understand what will go on there, but Trump is a private citizen. He holds no office. He absolutely should not be allowed into any meeting where actual information is being presented. The good news is that the security briefing will be in front of the assembled press because it's a photo op to get Trump and Abbott and a whole bunch of DPS troopers in dress khaki in the same frame, and absolutely no important information will be included or imparted. That's my biggest problem with it, that they are making up an problem out of whole cloth in order to leverage the acid xenophobia of Republican primary voters.
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Jun 29, 2021 20:07
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The best part of our deregulated energy nightmare is that we get to have that high of new customer perks every year or so! Nothing can beat the time I switched to Gexa and got half a year of electricity paid to me because the new customer deal was a $40 bill credit for under 1000kwh usage. Even during the heat of summer I was only pushing 700ish in my 1 bedroom apartment.
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Jun 29, 2021 20:15
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That guy looks to be shopping for fixed rate plans, which is smart. Remember, all the people who were facing tens of thousands of dollars had variable rate plans, or were Griddy customers that exposed people to wholesale energy prices, which is basically predatory and should never have been allowed. On a fixed rate plan, it's your retail provider who gets hosed when energy prices spike. Still, I never understood how adding a power retail middleman was supposed to lower prices. Adding another layer just means another person who needs to skim profit off. Bring back Houston Lighting and Power!
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Jun 29, 2021 20:15
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lobster shirt posted:That guy looks to be shopping for fixed rate plans, which is smart. Remember, all the people who were facing tens of thousands of dollars had variable rate plans, or were Griddy customers that exposed people to wholesale energy prices, which is basically predatory and should never have been allowed. On a fixed rate plan, it's your retail provider who gets hosed when energy prices spike. Right, but your average guy doesn't know anything about wholesale v. retail power. I have Austin Energy and I have never once even spared a thought for "Gee who should I buy electricity from". Also a lot of other states are deregulated in this regard, but a) are still connected to the national grid and b) require things like capacity markets and other safeguards so that you don't have 10000 amps running through a straightened out coathanger suppling 50 percent of power to the city of Houston. Of course, I also think that power, and indeed all public utilities, should be federalized.
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Jun 29, 2021 20:18
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I drove down and back to Austin and wow are there a lot of huffines for gov billboards talking about ILLEGALS!1!1!1!1!1!1 and other dumb stuff
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Jun 29, 2021 20:20
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It is fun to imagine Huffines stomping up and down on a ridiculously large ten gallon hat like Yosemite Sam because Abbott sewed up the Trump lane for the GOP primary in loving June. Abbott sucks, bad, but Governor Don Huffines, or Allen West or Sid Miller would be much, much worse.
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Jun 29, 2021 20:24
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Republicans need to be outraged and xenophobia is always a winner Also, WRT electricity, I use Energy Ogre and feel good about it.
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Jun 29, 2021 20:25
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zoux posted:Right, but your average guy doesn't know anything about wholesale v. retail power. I have Austin Energy and I have never once even spared a thought for "Gee who should I buy electricity from". Also a lot of other states are deregulated in this regard, but a) are still connected to the national grid and b) require things like capacity markets and other safeguards so that you don't have 10000 amps running through a straightened out coathanger suppling 50 percent of power to the city of Houston. Yeah for sure, it's idiotic. Asking consumers to get involved in wholesale markets that they almost certainly don't understand (lord knows I don't) is asking for them to get taken advantage of, and even variable rate plans are like that. If you don't have much money, a variable rate plan that promises lower rates on average is going to look better than an more expensive fixed rate plan... until prices spike. You're basically asking people to gamble on energy prices, which, why the gently caress should a normal person need to understand this? Get rid of it! Just run all these utilities as government-owned service providers that don't need to make money. It's not like Houston has deregulated water (although the city council did recently raise water prices  )
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Jun 29, 2021 20:25
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Power de-reg isn't for us lowly consumers, no matter how hard they try to sell it that way. It's for major industrial users who do play the wholesale market, and indeed hire teams of consultants and forecasters to help them do so. Multiple investigations have shown no real benefit for consumers, in fact I think rates have actually gone up a bit. But for your refineries, factories, plants....
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Jun 29, 2021 20:31
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Deregulation is good for consumers, they've been saying since at least the 80s. Nobody would lie for that long.
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Jun 29, 2021 20:34
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https://twitter.com/James_Barragan/status/1409958929245913090 Whoa, are you telling me this was yet another made-up, primary-voter-pandering, non problem that we dedicated weeks and weeks of lawmaking effort towards?
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Jun 29, 2021 20:38
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zoux posted:https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1409880636970651650 Even if it's in Weslaco, I'm still not going out tomorrow...
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Jun 29, 2021 22:15
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If the energy market stays unregulated, then all those chinese bitcoiners that Abbot is trying to entice to Texas can maneuver the market to find the best prices to buy up the entire electrical supply so the rest of Texas can fry without AC. Or at least we'll all fry when all these rains stop, jeez.
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Jun 29, 2021 22:58
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convincing the new bitcoin farms to sign up with griddy just in time for winter
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Jun 29, 2021 23:00
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Sab0921 posted:^^^^ i would have maybe been ok with them, but the whole thing was run by some company in arizona that took most of the profits. it should have been run by the city so there would be an easier way to contest them.
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Jun 29, 2021 23:19
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Also, fines are a tax on the poor and ignorable by the rich.
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Jun 29, 2021 23:27
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I get the argument, traffic enforcement by armed police officers is really bad. How many of these police shootings and other abuses stem from simple traffic stops? I guess we could just get rid of all traffic citations, but how do you make people obey traffic laws? I mean, more than they already barely do. RLCs are bad too, but for other reasons. Dunno what the right answer is I mean besides scandanavian income percentage based fines, which will never happen here
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Jun 29, 2021 23:49
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zoux posted:I get the argument, traffic enforcement by armed police officers is really bad. How many of these police shootings and other abuses stem from simple traffic stops? I guess we could just get rid of all traffic citations, but how do you make people obey traffic laws? I mean, more than they already barely do. RLCs are bad too, but for other reasons. Dunno what the right answer is Robust public transit, eliminate personal vehicle ownership  (obviously a gigantic joke in most
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Jun 30, 2021 00:08
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Gotta catch the 4/10 to Big Spring. No, that's a date not a time.
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Jun 30, 2021 00:11
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I moved back to west Texas just in time for an unusually snowy and perfect winter (hell blizzard was even swell here because we're on the non-murder-your-own-citizens power grid) and now we're having an unusually cool and wet summer. Amazing unseasonal storms today and tomorrow and unusually cool weather all last week and more rain and coolness to come. If it were for the millions of deaths incoming I kinda like this new climate changed west Texas. It's a nice change from the days of my youth when band kids and football players would regularly heat stroke out and that was just an accepted part of doing business.
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Jun 30, 2021 00:13
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zoux posted:I get the argument, traffic enforcement by armed police officers is really bad. How many of these police shootings and other abuses stem from simple traffic stops? I guess we could just get rid of all traffic citations, but how do you make people obey traffic laws? I mean, more than they already barely do. RLCs are bad too, but for other reasons. Dunno what the right answer is the only thing we have roughly equally is our time speeding ticket? 12 hours in the camps
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Jun 30, 2021 00:21
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But the camping ban...
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Jun 30, 2021 00:23
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zoux posted:I get the argument, traffic enforcement by armed police officers is really bad. How many of these police shootings and other abuses stem from simple traffic stops? I guess we could just get rid of all traffic citations, but how do you make people obey traffic laws? I mean, more than they already barely do. RLCs are bad too, but for other reasons. Dunno what the right answer is a middle ground would be to have cops around to pull people over for gross violations, but to give out fines less often and primarily to repeat offenders. also remove those fines as a funding source for the city or cops and give them to blm or something
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Jun 30, 2021 00:25
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i say swears online posted:the only thing we have roughly equally is our time You joke, but I’d put people on Houston Food Bank shifts (or similar, health permitting) for minor offenses like that.
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Jun 30, 2021 00:26
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Captain Monkey posted:You joke, but I’d put people on Houston Food Bank shifts (or similar, health permitting) for minor offenses like that. ...joke??
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Jun 30, 2021 00:28
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I like the rather big assumption that cops enforce traffic laws at all and don't just bs a few tickets when their boss is riding them over it.
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Jun 30, 2021 00:48
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my friend with a new porsche and a concealed carry card has gotten like nine warnings in a row in the last three years
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Jun 30, 2021 01:18
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FoolyCharged posted:I like the rather big assumption that cops enforce traffic laws at all and don't just bs a few tickets when their boss is riding them over it. The best ticket I've ever gotten was turning from my parents' street onto one of the main arteries towards the highway, on my way to fuckin Ontario. Got ticketed nearly a hundred bucks for a wide right turn in the first minute of a 27 hour drive, but it was really fun to have the exchange "Where you headed?" "Canada."
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Jun 30, 2021 01:22
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Some places just have higher rates of traffic stops than others. Enforcement rate differs a lot. I've heard Texas is pretty up there compared to other states too.Captain Monkey posted:You joke, but I’d put people on Houston Food Bank shifts (or similar, health permitting) for minor offenses like that. Honestly if people had to pay in community service instead of money, that might make county governments stop encouraging the police to raise revenue, and more people would push emphasis on traffic law enforcement to things that actually matter instead of getting as many fines as possible.
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Jun 30, 2021 01:24
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In Houston it's basically impossible to get a speeding ticket it seems. I have a friend who moved to San Antonio and he always complains about traffic enforcement and how many speeding tickets he gets. Go the speed limit dude!
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Jun 30, 2021 01:30
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SlothfulCobra posted:
Yes, that's the secret other part of my plan - besides avoiding fines and having more community service done. lobster shirt posted:In Houston it's basically impossible to get a speeding ticket it seems. I have a friend who moved to San Antonio and he always complains about traffic enforcement and how many speeding tickets he gets. Go the speed limit dude! I don't think I've seen the left lane or two on a major Houston highway go less than 75 outside of actual rush hour traffic.
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Jun 30, 2021 02:03
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The speed limit is for the right lane, 5-10 over for the middle lanes, left lane is for the crazy people. It's a pretty straight forward system.
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Jun 30, 2021 03:28
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Dameius posted:The speed limit is for the right lane, 5-10 over for the middle lanes, left lane is for the crazy people. It's a pretty straight forward system. Ahahaha. You think people in the right lane drive the speed limit and not 10 under or some stupid bullshit because they're old, driving a truck or reading their phone.
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Jun 30, 2021 03:43
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San Antonio drives slow.
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Jun 30, 2021 03:49
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FoolyCharged posted:Ahahaha. You think people in the right lane drive the speed limit and not 10 under or some stupid bullshit because they're old, driving a truck or reading their phone. What? No I drive 10 under in the right lane because I have to shave. It wouldn't be safe to go any faster.
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Jun 30, 2021 03:56
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FoolyCharged posted:Ahahaha. You think people in the right lane drive the speed limit and not 10 under or some stupid bullshit because they're old, driving a truck or reading their phone. Honestly who cares what happens in the right, I'm over here in the left lane trying to get places.
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Jun 30, 2021 04:00
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People who want to actually drive the speed limit but don't have a lane for that 
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Jun 30, 2021 04:01
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