Alan Zweibel

A post that demonstrates why you should always doublecheck an AI assertion before posting it.

Of course, it might just be the case that you actually have been following the story, and aren't thrilled at how it casts discredit on Trump. First for his gullibility in believing Putin and second for the fact that during questioning by reporters, first he denied knowing about the alleged attack but little later said this: “This is not the right time,” Trump said about the alleged drone incursion. “It’s one thing to be offensive, it’s another thing to attack his house. I was very angry about it.” https://nypost.com/2025/12/29/world-news/russia-claims-ukraine-attacked-vladimir-putin-residence-with-over-90-drones/ It doesn't really speak well of his mental condition that during the same press conference Trump first denied knowing about the Russian claims of a drone attack on Putin's residence but then said he "was very angry about it." He also claimed that this imaginary attack was vindication of his decision to stop supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.

If you don't know why this is news, maybe you should do a little bit of googling. Or can you just spare us further expressions of your indifference and vanish from the thread. Or maybe someone else will volunteer to school you.

Trump administration tightens US childcare reporting requirements, no funds frozen in Minnesota - A day after the U.S. deputy secretary of Health and Human Services announced on social media that federal childcare funds for Minnesota were being frozen, a spokesperson for the department said that instead, reporting requirements had been tightened across the country. Officials in President Donald Trump's administration had singled out Minnesota in social media statements on Tuesday, ramping up what Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, characterized as a political confrontation over immigration and allegations of widespread fraud in social services programs. https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trump-administration-freezes-child-day-care-payments-minnesota-2025-12-31/ TACO!!! Is this the beginning of a Trump Administration retreat?

Lauren Boebert did claim that Trump's veto occurred because of her support for the release of the Epstein files. But she also said this: "Boebert also argued that the veto would have been reasonable if it targeted more liberal voters in Colorado, but not people in her region who “overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump in the last three elections.” https://newrepublic.com/post/204832/lauren-boebert-donald-trump-veto-water-epstein-vote Because in Magaworld, there are 2 classes of citizens. And voting against Trump is an offense that deserves punishment.

That's not what Trump said: He then explained, saying he stopped talking to Epstein after "he did something that was inappropriate." "He hired help and I said, 'Don't ever do that again,'" Trump said. "He stole people that worked for me. I said, 'Don't ever do that again.' He did it again, and I threw him out of the place, persona non grata." "I threw him out and that was it. I'm glad I did, if you want to know the truth," Trump added. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-trump-says-he-ended-friendship-with-epstein-because-he-stole-people-that-worked-for-me

I do wonder if the Senate and House will attempt to override his veto.

Always helps to include some evidence from a reliable source including links. So people might know what you are referring to. I assume it's this: Veto of Water Project Is Trump’s Latest Targeted Hit on Colorado Miffed at Colorado’s votes against him in three successive elections and furious at its refusal to free Tina Peters, a convicted election denier and ardent Trump supporter, Mr. Trump has opened an assault against the Democratic-run state. His administration has cut off transportation money, relocated the military’s Space Command, vowed to dismantle a leading climate and weather research center and rejected disaster relief for rural counties hammered by floods and wildfires. A major escalation to Mr. Trump’s attacks on the state came on Tuesday, when he used the first veto of his second term to kill a pipeline project to provide clean drinking water to the state’s eastern plains, a largely conservative area. https://archive.ph/H0KEc The veto of the Colorado bill came after Trump’s vow to retaliate against Colorado for keeping his ally Tina Peters in prison, despite his attempt to pardon her earlier in the month. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/31/lauren-boebert-trump-colorado This was a bill that passed unanimously in the House and Senate. As his deterioration gains momentumTrump seems to be going out of his to undermine his support among rural constituencies. Maybe he's also miffed at Lauren Boebert for supporting the release of the Epstein files? This bill affects her congressional district.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that U.S. national security officials concluded Ukraine did not target Putin or any of his residences in the alleged drone incident. The Journal said the finding was supported by a CIA assessment that determined no attempted attack on Putin occurred, citing a U.S. official briefed on the intelligence. Instead, Ukraine, they said, was believed to be targeting a military site it had previously struck in the same region but not near Putin’s residence, the official said. https://www.foxnews.com/world/putin-residence-attack-video-slammed-us-officials-say-ukraine-target-leader

Minnesota officials respond to day care fraud viral video: 'No findings of fraud' Brown said the previous visits were unannounced and children were present at each of the sites during the checks. The state also says the number of children at the day cares were consistent with what was expected at the facilities. Those past checks have Brown's office wondering when Shirley shot his video. "When were the videos taken," Brown asked. "Were they during times that the center was scheduled to be open? Were they during the weekend?" https://www.fox9.com/news/minnesota-daycares-youtuber-payments-dec-2025

CBS News conducted its own analysis of nearly a dozen day care centers mentioned by Shirley: all but two have active licenses, according to state records, and all active locations were visited by state regulators within the last six months. One, Sweet Angel Child Care, Inc., was subject to an unannounced inspection as recently as Dec. 4. CBS News' review also found dozens of citations related to safety, cleanliness, equipment and staff training, among other violations, but there was no recorded evidence of fraud. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/minnesota-day-care-fraud-director-responds/

On the day Shirley came to the center, the time stamps on the day care's security tapes show that he arrived around noon. WCCO reviewed security footage showing families evidently arriving to drop off their children earlier that morning and later in the afternoon. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/minnesota-day-care-fraud-director-responds/

Trump’s Native-Born Job-Creation Claim Based on Questionable Figures In an August post on Substack, Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote that “the apparent boom” in employment of workers born in America “is just a statistical artifact” attributable to the way the population and employment estimates are determined. “If someone is reporting the increased native-born employment, they are ignoring warnings by the Census Bureau not to do that,” he told us in an interview. But that’s exactly what Trump and administration officials have done repeatedly. https://www.factcheck.org/2025/12/trumps-native-born-job-creation-claim-based-on-questionable-figures/ Basically, this article points out that the alleged increase in native born employment is due to statistical artifacts. If the claim was true, that would mean that the native-born population of America had suddenly increased by 5 million people. Given that the native born population is actually growing older and shrinking in population, this claim is obviously nonsense. There are other reason cited as well. And there's this https://cepr.net/publications/trumpian-nonsense-on-employing-native-born-workers/#:~:text=In%20the%20current%20environment%2C%20an,not%20answer%20the%20survey%20accurately. Millions Of American Workers Just Appeared. Why That Might Be A Mirage Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a large increase in the number of native-born U.S. workers, and a decrease in those who are foreign-born. White House officials pointed to the data as vindicating President Donald Trump's "America First" economic policies. Economists said the shift was more likely related to statistical quirks and did not represent genuine gains for U.S.-born workers. https://www.investopedia.com/where-did-3-million-native-born-workers-come-from-11791218

Minneapolis daycare denies fraud allegations after viral video draws national attentionWhen asked about Shirley's viral video, Ali said, "Are you trying to record that we're doing fraud, or are you trying to put the Somali name and fraud in the same sentence?" He added that the video was recorded outside the center’s operating hours, which are posted on the door as Monday through Thursday from 2 to 10 p.m. He said Shirley arrived around 11 a.m., when children and staff were not present. https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/minneapolis-daycare-fraud-allegations-viral-video-national-attention/89-91413882-b0f9-4ec4-a4a4-4b4e3aeab39d#:~:text=He%20added%20that%20the%20video,parking%20lot%2C%E2%80%9D%20Ali%20said.

An Intense White House Response From a Single Viral Video "According to the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, one of the locations Mr. Shirley visited, Mako Childcare Center, has been out of business for three years." https://archive.ph/XcETC

Director of Minnesota day care featured in YouTube video on fraud responds On Dec. 16, 2025, security footage shows various people throughout the day dropping off young children at the state-licensed ABC Learning Center in Minneapolis. That same day, YouTuber Nick Shirley arrived and claimed that the day care was among many in Minnesota that were empty. It's the latter video that has gone viral, creating a new political lightning rod as Minnesota grapples with various investigations and accusations related to widespread fraud https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/minnesota-day-care-fraud-director-responds/

Actually, this project has experience the kind of cost overruns that are usually associated nuclear power projects. "The project's modular offshore grid, MOG2, was originally costed at €2.2 billion. Latest estimates put it between €7 and €8 billion. Energy regulators have issued warnings; politicians are muttering about fiscal recklessness. https://www.brusselstimes.com/1658574/why-belgiums-energy-future-is-blowing-in-the-wind

Putin’s Mobilization Backfires as 370,000 Flee Russia in Two Weeks Russian President Vladimir Putin's partial mobilization appears to have backfired as more than 370,000 citizens have fled the country since the decree—more than the total number that defense officials said would be called to enlist in the military. Putin's September 21 declaration sparked nationwide protests and a mass exodus of Russians fleeing across the border to neighboring countries including Georgia, Finland, Kazakstan and Mongolia to avoid being conscripted. Kazakhstan's interior minister said in a statement on Tuesday that more than 200,000 Russians have come to the neighboring Central Asian country since the decree was announced. https://www.newsweek.com/putin-mobilization-backfires-russians-flee-kazakhstan-georgia-eu-1748771 And that was just for starters.

But why share such blatantly ridiculous thoughts with others?

You know what does work at night? Batteries. Texas is quickly playing catchup on that: https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/infrastructure/2024/battery-store/#:~:text=Texas -- the fastest growing battery storage,(GW) expected to come online in 2024.

Did he address the issue of Donald Trump putting a halt to 5 projects just now? And lots of other projects previously?

It looks to me like graphs like the one you have just produced, function for you in a way similar to a Rorschach test; you project your beliefs onto a graph rather than exploring why the numbers are the way they are. Has it ever occurred to you to ask what's behind these numbers rather than simply projecting your beliefs onto them? It's entirely open to you to ask, for example, why have the rates in Texas. Actually, when I clicked on the link you provided, I did get an answer to that from AI: "Texas electricity rates have seen significant hikes in the last few years, rising from around 13 cents/kWh in the late 2010s to well over 15 cents/kWh (and even 19+ cents depending on the provider/plan) in late 2024/2025, driven by increased demand, weather, and infrastructure costs, with many residents coming off older, cheaper 3-5 year contracts and facing much higher prices on renewals. While there were periods in the 2010s with lower rates (around 4-5 cents), returning to those levels is unlikely, with current trends pointing to sustained higher costs. " driven by increased demand, weather, and infrastructure costs, What makes your comment odder is that previously you were claiming that the percentage of solar in the mix was too low to seriously affect rates in Texas and now, apparently, you're claiming that its percentage should have been enough to stop rates from rising. On top of that the cost of energy is not the only factor that rates reflect. Infrastructure spending has increased dramatically due to the need to harden power sources due to and to to expand the infrastructure due to a sharp increase in demand due to, among other reasons, rising heat levels that resulted in increased use of air conditioning.

"Didn't Texas grid fail a while back during a cold winter. Because they'd scrapped power stations in favour of solar farms?" No. In February of 2021 there was very little solar power in Texas. Estimates for the entireyear range from 2.9 to 4 %. And given that this occurred in the beginning of the year, it was probably less. Rather it was nuclear, gas, and wind powered energy sources that failed because ERCOT failed to require them to be hardened enough against cold weather. In other words it was a lack of regulation that caused the problem. And as for your Pavlovian comment about Biden. One of the features of the Texas energy grid is that it's not connected to the national grid. That means it's exempt from most federal regulations. Anyway, apart from these small quibbles, thanks for the excellent comments.

And how does that apply to the situation in Texas which is universally acknowledged to be the most free energy market in the USA and maybe even in the world?

The fact is that power suppliers compete on price in Texas. Once again, they compete on price in Texas. And for a third time, they compete on price in Texas. So, if solar suppliers are competing on the basis of price and their share of the market is rapidly growing, that would tell people who understand how competition works that solar is very competitive. People who don't understand how markets work might remain perplexed. As I've told you repeatedly, correlation does not equal causation. If you've got facts to offer how the cost of solar has raised rates in California, by all means offer them. But I'm not here to do your homework for you.