OT: Russians and Americans Have More in Common Than Realized

What's the surprise? Both countries are run by socialists.

What an incredibly duckwitted response!

If you ever bother to read some history, you'll find the Russian idea of socialism is some pretty austere and dictatorial stuff, outright militaristic, not all like in this country.

socialism is some pretty austere and dictatorial stuff, outright militaristic, not all like in this country.

So far :-( The Glorious Leader is about to bankrupt the coal companies and cause the cost of electricity to double.

In fact, it has already started... Patriot Mines Division of Peabody Coal just went belly up, laying off 20,000 miners.

These UNION miners lost their pensions... Oh, the Schadenfreude >:-} ...Jim Thompson

What's the surprise? Both countries are run by socialists.

I can't tell if you are being ironic. The only country I can think of that is possibly more militaristic than the US is North Korea.

Facts are sometimes unpleasant. You're here.

socialism is some pretty austere and dictatorial stuff, outright militaristic, not all like in this country.

Yet. ...but Obama is working on it.

Natgas killed coal, not the guvmint.

No. Natural gas is coming, but is not as cheap as coal, yet.

Obama is the scum of all scumbags. ...Jim Thompson

d-of-mistrust.html

They're no longer a socialist republic, they're a federation.

"According to the Constitution of Russia, the country is a federation and s emi-presidential republic, wherein the President is the head of state[91] a nd the Prime Minister is the head of government. The Russian Federation is fundamentally structured as a multi-party representative democracy, with th e federal government composed of three branches:..."

from

Before that it was not a pretty picture, very harsh rule, step out of line and you're dead. Russians were never known for their humanitarianism anyway .

According to wiki on Peabody Energy:

"Peabody spun off coal mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky into Patriot Coal Corporation (NYSE: PCX) in October 2007." Then the reason for that was:

"Patriot Coal was also product of a spin off. Peabody Energy Corporation (N YSE:BTU), in 2007, spun off all of its operations east of Mississippi River in order to, among other things, do away with its long-term health care ob ligations to its retirees, which reach roughly $1 billion"

Patriot is still solvent by $0.5B, the whole point of the bankruptcy filing is to get rid of the "legacy obligation" of pensions and health care under Peabody, this was the plan all along. This was the reason for the spin-off from Peabody and also the reason for the incorporation in New York state.

They haven't lost them yet and they're not likely to under this administrat ion :-)

Patriot claims the operating losses are mainly due to competition from natu ral gas and the weak economy. The tougher environmental regulations do cost them but they're not a deal breaker, everyone they compete with has the sa me headache so it's a level playing field.

-technically-solvent/

One other thing, this country has ERISA: The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal la w that sets minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. ERISA does not require any employer to establish a pension plan. It only requires that those who establish plans must meet certain minimum standards. The la w generally does not specify how much money a participant must be paid as a benefit. ERISA requires plans to regularly provide participants with infor mation about the plan including information about plan features and funding ; sets minimum standards for participation, vesting, benefit accrual and fu nding; requires accountability of plan fiduciaries; and gives participants the right to sue for benefits and breaches of fiduciary duty.

This last statement is the most important:

ERISA also guarantees payment of certain benefits through the Pension Benef it Guaranty Corporation, a federally chartered corporation, if a defined pl an is terminated.

So what happens if the bankruptcy court allows Patriot to shed its legacy o bligations is just to throw the pension obligations onto the American taxpa yer at large. Are you starting to figure out these people are a bunch of cr ooks? They might as well attempt to steal the $1.3B pension fund net worth directly from the American public.

There's a good bit of junk in the stuff, and yes mercury is part of it, but also thorium, uranium, other heavy metals, and sulfur.

A tremendous amount of which they already filter, between conventional filtration (if it's done at all anymore, i.e., filter bags), electrostatic precipitation, desulfating (pass it over a bed of limestone) and other treatments.

But even though these are 99.64% effective or something like that, there's so god damned much coal being burned that it's a lot of fallout!

It's my understanding, the other clean processes just filter it out even better. Or liquefy the CO2 and sequester it somewhere. Something.

Also if your merchant fleet keeps getting torpedoed by submarines (i.e., Nazi Germany).

Be nice if it weren't so expensive -- ironic that nuclear could provide the process heat, which would work if nuclear takes over (i.e., abundant process heat and electrical power) and oil completely tanks (which is coming; it's yet to be seen if biofuels can prop up existing demand, which would be its main competitor until a better process is found).

What would be really cool is a catalyst that turns electricity into hydrocarbons, and vice versa. (AFAIK, existing fuel cells only use the hydrogen -- any carbon goes off as heat and CO/CO2 without yielding electrons.) Metals are awesome at free electrons, so we have batteries no problem. But we don't have the energy density because we have to truck around the oxygen (or whatever anion is used), plus support structure (electrolyte, electrodes, solid "fuel" and oxidizer). Carbon is a challenge, because it hordes four electrons and doesn't want to let them go, but such a catalyst will be a necessity.

Tim

Damn those Socialists drilling and fracking for natural gas!

law that sets minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. ERIS A does not require any employer to establish a pension plan. It only requir es that those who establish plans must meet certain minimum standards. The law generally does not specify how much money a participant must be paid as a benefit. ERISA requires plans to regularly provide participants with inf ormation about the plan including information about plan features and fundi ng; sets minimum standards for participation, vesting, benefit accrual and funding; requires accountability of plan fiduciaries; and gives participant s the right to sue for benefits and breaches of fiduciary duty.

efit Guaranty Corporation, a federally chartered corporation, if a defined plan is terminated.

obligations is just to throw the pension obligations onto the American tax payer at large. Are you starting to figure out these people are a bunch of crooks? They might as well attempt to steal the $1.3B pension fund net wort h directly from the American public.

Sounds considerably better than the government retirement programs' management, doesn't it? Social Security: You're robbed to pay other people's retirement, and the feds promise to steal some later for you, from someone else. Medicare: ditto.

Or the Post Office, which just doesn't salt away the money for the promised benefits, then begs for YABO (yet another bailout)

It's genius--the more we can steal from each other, the more there is for everyone!! Wheeeeee!!

Market forces are helping (temporarily), but the death knell to coal was the new EPA regs. I don't know if proposed or adopted, but a power-plant engineer showed me his calculations that the min. MWHr/CO2 standard was a good 20% higher than physically possible with coal. It scared the pants off 'em, and they switched.

Gas was cheap 'cause no one was using it. Once everyone's using it, it won't be.

law that sets minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. ERIS A does not require any employer to establish a pension plan. It only requir es that those who establish plans must meet certain minimum standards. The law generally does not specify how much money a participant must be paid as a benefit. ERISA requires plans to regularly provide participants with inf ormation about the plan including information about plan features and fundi ng; sets minimum standards for participation, vesting, benefit accrual and funding; requires accountability of plan fiduciaries; and gives participant s the right to sue for benefits and breaches of fiduciary duty.

efit Guaranty Corporation, a federally chartered corporation, if a defined plan is terminated.

obligations is just to throw the pension obligations onto the American tax payer at large. Are you starting to figure out these people are a bunch of crooks? They might as well attempt to steal the $1.3B pension fund net wort h directly from the American public.

Hey, would ERISA prevent several large Democrat cities from throwing their (retired?) employees' medical expenses onto Obamacare (i.e., the taxpayer dole)? Rahm wants to do that in Chicago, and a few others have made similar noises.

Fracking has made gas so cheap that frackers are suffering from the glut. We have something like a 400 year supply of ng, and there's probably more under there. Even ignoring CO2, coal is nasty, dirty stuff. It would probably be better if no new coal plants were built, and existing plants converted to gas as they age.

The frackers have been pushing for a change in law to ease exporting gas. That "freeing of the market" would undoubtedly increase the gas selling price {though they are claiming that it wouldn't - ha!}