Shutting up might let someone else get the attention. Talking empty heads like Carlson and raging narcissists like Trump literally cannot conceive of that.
According to Republicans like Mike Johnson, abortion hurts the economy by depriving it of "able-bodied workers".
Also according to Republicans like Mike Johnson, immigration hurts the economy by flooding it with ... (checks notes) ... able-bodied workers.
Conservative "think tanks" are recommending for-profit homeless shelters as a solution to the homelessness problem.
Naturally, they would be paid by the state to house the homeless, so the taxpayers end up footing the bill, so the advantage over state-run homeless shelters is ... what, exactly?
So many temper tantrums are called "conservative backlash" by the media, but they're still just temper tantrums.
The "conservative backlash" against "wokeness"? It's just racist and sexist white males, throwing a temper tantrum because someone called them out on their bad behaviour.
The "conservative backlash" against environmentalism? It's just people who love their gasoline-powered toys, throwing a temper tantrum because they don't want to hear that their toys are bad for the world.
The "conservative backlash" against LGBT books in public libraries? It's just homophobes throwing a temper tantrum because society stopped listening to their anti-gay fearmongering.
The "conservative backlash" against sex education in school? See above.
The "conservative backlash" against Bud Lite? See above.
The media can call these things "conservative backlash" all they want, but they will always be nothing more than the temper tantrums of spoiled petulant man-toddlers.
I love how they spent years screaming about democract death panels... and have absolutely no problem with republican death panels. The next ruling will be "Texas power plants aren't obligated to provide energy"... you still have to pay them, but they aren't responsible to actually deliver power.
To follow that up,Alabama Power, the biggest power provider in the state, has laws like that. If you get solar power for your house, you have to pay them a $5.41 fee every month per kilowatt hour of power that you generate. So if you have 30 solar panels on your roof, you have 9 kilowatts max setup, and now have to pay them $48.69 every month plus whatever power that you use.
And of course our state government allowed this even after it was challenged:
State lets Alabama Power keep solar fee
A monthly fee on Alabama Power solar customers will remain in place after state utility regulators dismissed challenges that the fee, one of the highest such in the country, is discriminatory against solar customers.www.al.com
The whole point is to remove the cost savings of getting solar panels to stop people here from getting them. You should also see our insane EV vehicle registration fees.
I think the (flawed)logic goes that even if you aren't directly benefiting the grid, you are indirectly, since it benefits those around you so you should still pay the utility companies. Which on its face isn't totally wrong, but the way it's implemented actually hurts grid decentralization AND the environment, both things that benefit society MUCH more than making energy execs and investors more money(which is the REAL reason it's implemented the way it is). What would make more sense would be to make the utilities publicly funded and supported via a combination of usage fees and taxes.
As far as making electric car registration fees higher.... Unfortunately it's a snap decision made by state governments who used to rely on gasoline taxes to fund road construction and maintenance. They have to make up the difference somehow, and THAT's what several of them went with partially, but not only, due to lobbying efforts from the fossil fuel industry. A more nuanced and forward thinking solution should be come up with, but I'm not exactly sure what said solution could be.... Granted SOME red states are passing those laws JUST to OWN THE LIBS and not for any proper reason.
Republicans are ranting that it's "anti-democratic" to use the Constitution to kick Trump off the Colorado primary ballot, because only the voters can decide this.
What happened to all of that "America is a republic, not a democracy" horseshit that they were spreading when Trump "won" an election in 2016 despite losing the actual vote by 3 million voters? For that matter, what happened to their "screw your public support polls, it's in the Constitution" rhetoric from every gun control debate?
Trust me, I know. Alabama's government is squarely in the ' own the libs' camp, but even blue leaning states like Delaware were considering adding a tax to electric vehicles to offset lost fuel tax revenue.The thing is, the fees aren't meant to cover the costs, they are disproportional to deter the use of solar panels and electric cars.
Florida was going to have something like this, but DeSantis surprisingly vetoed it. I guess even he realized there was no way to explain it if he had to defend it on the campaign trail. It's too plainly obvious that policies like this serve no purpose but to make solar panels financially pointless for consumers.
We will probably have it a month or two after his presidential run ends.