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Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

arstechnica.com

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Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#151
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

States run the elections.

The US president just today said that Republicans should "nationalize the voting" in future elections.

He also said his polls are the best they've ever been today. Trump works hard to cultivate an aura of inevitability, but he simply does not have the power to make false things true by declaring them so.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#152

If a country changes course every four years, how can the success of a long-term project be ensured? And what of its negotiating credibility? How can the other side trust that an agreement will hold in the future? This is not a critique, but a genuine curiosity, because there's an obvious drawback with a system with opposing world views. Unless, of course, something still unites them in the first place, with acceptab…

I'm not sure I follow the questions. The success of a long-term project can be ensured through the procedures described in the source article: you set up a durable judicial system, and invest them with the power to require that the country uphold its end of the bargain, no matter how much its current political leaders might want to change course.

you set up a durable judicial system, and give them their own army.

That's the only way to work around Trump. According to the Constitution, no one can actually make the executive branch do anything it doesn't want to do.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#153

If a country changes course every four years, how can the success of a long-term project be ensured? And what of its negotiating credibility? How can the other side trust that an agreement will hold in the future? This is not a critique, but a genuine curiosity, because there's an obvious drawback with a system with opposing world views. Unless, of course, something still unites them in the first place, with acceptab…

> how can the success of a long-term project be ensured?

Well, for one by ensuring that 'long-term' means it starts at the start of a term and ends before the end of that term. At most that only rules out nuclear, at least wrt long term energy projects. And it's not like recent dem administrations were unfriendly towards nuclear. Vogtle 3/4 were approved early in Obama's term, and finished under Biden's.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every additional "right" you have is a "freedom" you can choose to execute or not execute on. A right is an additional freedom. If you have no rights, you have no freedom, if you have unlimited rights, you have unlimited freedom. Suppose there is one city where everyone has the right to build new housing on any piece of land they own and another city where everyone has the right to prevent anyone else from building…

I guess the keyword is "individual freedom." Technically, freedom can be expanded in the way you're implying but usually in common parlance they are referring to individual freedoms. That is what people mean when they say the US is "more free" than China. Under your expanded definition it's not clear which one is more free. Extreme individual freedom is often called anarchy.

There is nearly universal agreement among humans that nobody should have the "freedom" to commit non-consensual violence against another person. This is often cast as interfering with their freedom to be left alone and then the argument is that you don't have the freedom to deprive someone else of their freedom. But as soon as you have a government that so much as prohibits murder you're not doing something that can be described as anarchy.

The question is, in a "free country", does the government limit itself to punishing compelling violations with near-universal consensus like murder, or does it seize control over the micromanagement of dubious and petty violations like hypothetically marginally increasing traffic by carrying out a construction project?

It seems like the thing you're objecting to is the latter.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#155
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do N Korea vs S Korea or Poland vs Belarus tell us about the forms of government and their relative outcomes?

Those are unique situations not solely born out of differences of forms of government.

China seems to be the more unique situation or exception to the rule

Has there been any autocracy in the last century that has had better outcomes when compared to liberal democracy? (other than China)

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I follow the questions. The success of a long-term project can be ensured through the procedures described in the source article: you set up a durable judicial system, and invest them with the power to require that the country uphold its end of the bargain, no matter how much its current political leaders might want to change course.

you set up a durable judicial system, and give them their own army. That's the only way to work around Trump. According to the Constitution, no one can actually make the executive branch do anything it doesn't want to do.

No, that's not accurate. The courts frequently make Trump and his cronies do things they don't want to do, and prevent them from doing things they do want to do. Multiple such cases are described in the source article.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#157

If a country changes course every four years, how can the success of a long-term project be ensured? And what of its negotiating credibility? How can the other side trust that an agreement will hold in the future? This is not a critique, but a genuine curiosity, because there's an obvious drawback with a system with opposing world views. Unless, of course, something still unites them in the first place, with acceptab…

[dead]

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#158
post #150

If these projects ultimately end up canceled they’ll be the largest “mostly done” infrastructure projects to be cancelled. A huge waste. And a monument to US incompetency.

have you met the california high speed rail or not yet?

Well, that's not 'mostly done'

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#159

If a country changes course every four years, how can the success of a long-term project be ensured? And what of its negotiating credibility? How can the other side trust that an agreement will hold in the future? This is not a critique, but a genuine curiosity, because there's an obvious drawback with a system with opposing world views. Unless, of course, something still unites them in the first place, with acceptab…

I'm not advocating their system, but here's one pro for China obviously.

Dictatorships work as long as they're benevolent, much like democracies work as long as they aren't bought.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#160

If a country changes course every four years, how can the success of a long-term project be ensured? And what of its negotiating credibility? How can the other side trust that an agreement will hold in the future? This is not a critique, but a genuine curiosity, because there's an obvious drawback with a system with opposing world views. Unless, of course, something still unites them in the first place, with acceptab…

I'm not advocating their system, but here's one pro for China obviously.

China doesn't have flip-flopping like this with its attendant massive waste. Instead it has endemic corruption which siphons off funds all over the place, perhaps with the exception of the big projects that command the full attention of central leadership.
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