Michael W Stephens

Have to check in with friends and family, Freeport is my home town, although I left in 1974, still "home".

@TobechiOgazi @awkwardgoogle Should have beat her with it, this is not justice

The pain behind that reaction is understandable. Losing a daughter and parents in one incident is devastating. But throwing a chair at a judge is not the answer. Courtrooms cannot function on rage and emotion, no matter how heartbreaking the case is. If he believed the sentence was too lenient, the proper step was to push for a review or appeal through the legal process, not attack the court.

A father threw a chair at a judge after the driver who killed his daughter and her grandparents was sentenced to only 120 hours of Community service

@awkwardgoogle Should have beat her with it, these judges today and their soft on crime approach is disgusting

@calvinfroedge Stupid question, the answer is neither. Our economy runs on cheap energy and plentiful organic based feedstocks, both related to fossil fuels, which while currently available, are finite. Poor hurt the worst, and fuel hungry ventures next. Have to secure cheap energy futures

What can we do about rising food and fuel costs?

@TracesofTexas I fell 2 stories off a ladder painting eaves on an apartment building owned by one of the football coaches. Landed flat on my back no injuries other than wind knocked out of me, and the shock of falling . Won't find me on anything more than 6', Dr says stay off any ladder.

Goodness gracious. It's not exactly a photo like those ones you see of construction workers building skyscrapers in Manhattan back in the 1930s, but there is no way in you-know-what you could get me on the top of this ladder to paint this house in Waco back in 1939. NO WAY! It's not that I have a fear of heights, but I do have a fear of being squashed like a bug after the collapse of a flimsy ladder being held at an off-kilter angle by my uncle Ed, who may or may not have had a couple of beers at lunch. 😀 Taken by Russell Lee.

@TousiTVOfficial I hate the bastardization of the word decimate. It means every 10th. In Roman legions, defeat met with decimation, ie, every 10rh soldier was killed for their loss.

🇺🇸 President Trump: The military decimation of Iran to be continued

@cdrsalamander These people are beyond crazy, they are crazy and dangerous! Shades of Adolph Hitler and his final solutions. I cannot fathom this complete lack of humanity and respect for human dignity

Notice how he says “care.”

@johnkonrad We haven't built a new refinery in US since 70s. Getting environmental permits almost impossible. Newsome is an idiot political animal, bowed to the greeenies to shut down petrol in Ca, go all electric. Doesn't work that way, yet at least. Poor get hurt the worst.

“Are we getting oil from Iran” “No” “Then why are California oil prices so high!” Well Joe… California IS getting oil from Iraq. Which gets sent to South Korea to be refined. Then the gasoline and diesel goes to Cali. BECAUSE NEWSOM’S DEMS CLOSED OIL REFINERIES And there is shortage of oil tankers to deliver it. Supply and demand tells us when there’s a shortage of ships delivery prices skyrocket. Frankly I’m shocked Newsom has been able to hold prices under $10 a gallon. x.com/RedWavePress/s…

@gCaptain Oil contraction is inevitable, as it is a finite resource. Just a question of when. So migration from oil will happen, may as well get on with it. Will be a huge economic shock, harming the poor nations the most.

IEA Warns Hormuz Crisis Could Trigger First Global Oil Demand Contraction Since Pandemic gcaptain.com/iea-warns-horm…

@RonDeSantis Welcome to "1984". Orwell got it almost spot on

Glad our Founding Fathers declared independence 250 years ago. Say no to Digital ID!

@johnkonrad Status matters in Asia, unlike America where everyone is treated the same, just like dogs.

Yes! A naval armed guard and attractive young women in skirts spelling “welcome” in semaphore is exactly how you greet Trump. China: 1 USA: 0 (If our Navy handled the welcome ceremony, it would be two unarmed overweight old admirals in baggy camo.)

@mercoglianos Good on, whomever sank it

Our old friend Ursa Major is back in the news. According to the ship's captain, they were carrying nuclear reactors for North Korean submarines. The original allegation was she had material on board for a new construction nuclear powered icebreaker. The question is why did she sink? My top three reasons are: 1⃣Accident in the engine room led to an explosion and the ship flooded and sank. 2⃣An attack, probably by an unmanned surface vessel, akin to what we have seen in the Black Sea or against the LNG Arctic Metagatz. 3⃣A limpet mine placed on the hull.

@mercoglianos Have to solve refueling and rearm process of Burkes. Turbines burn too much fuel. Nuc makes sense and a larger platform for more and better arms, as well as volume is good. Need now are oilers, stores ships, and better maint have to come first

The Great Battleship Debate | John Konrad of gCaptain and Zach Cooper of AEI 1⃣ Pros and Cons of the New Battleship 2⃣How would the Battleship Fit into the Force Structure? 3⃣Is the Battleship the next Revolution in Naval Affairs? 4⃣Does the Red Sea, Black Sea or Strait of Hormuz need a Battleship? 5⃣Can we even build a Battleship? Video: youtu.be/cpgEAef91zM

@johnkonrad Boiling water is still the most efficient way to make electricity. It also adds the rotating mass necessary for grid frequency control. Renewables have to do blue smoke and mirrors with extra hardware to match and maintain grid frequency. Ships all use boilers of sort.

Elon claims building new power plants is a slow process that will hinder the growth of AI What if I told you the this problem is directly related to our failure to build ships? I attended @MaritiCollege and have friends working at large power plants across the nation. It turns out learning how to operate ship engineering systems is among the world’s best training for building and operating power plants at scale. Nuclear too. The school once had a nuclear training reactor and was a premier pipeline into the nuclear power industry. But as the number of 🇺🇸 ships declined the number of American marine engineers fell off a cliff. And it’s not just power plants that suffer. Large numbers of hospital facility engineers once came from the maritime academies. Same for many other heavy industries like oil and gas. Build ships and you have the opportunity to reinvigorate heavy industry labor pools across the nation. x.com/GeniusGTX/stat…

@TracesofTexas Fun to watch till they get in your attic and chew up a/c wires and other electrical stuff. Cost my mother a fortune in her attic

@TracesofTexas Late 70s when ours closed

Speaking of El Paso, the fabled Pancho's Mexican Buffet got its start in that West Texas city back in 1958. Traces of Texas reader Franco Ruiz kindly sent in this photo and asked "Traces, when's the last time you raised the flag?" I thought about it and can't remember, exactly, but it must have been in the 1980s. And then I thought that it's a shame that there is a whole generation of Texans that have grown up not knowing what "raise the flag" means. I realize that there are still four Panchos in Texas, but unless you live in D-FW or Houston, you're not going to be tasting the epic goodness of their sopapillas. When's the last time YOU raised the flag?

@TousiTVOfficial Just pound the thugs into oblivion, that seems to be the only language they understand. Sick of democratic hatred for Trump skewing their common sense of right and wrong, not the time for divicevence

🚨 TRUMP: “Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none!”

@TXHappens I grew up there, without a/c, home, car or school. Have to acclimate yourself, but manageable.

Painful indeed... SHUT. THE. DOOR. 🤠🤠🤠😂😂😂 #summer #texas #ac #electricity #bills

@TracesofTexas He would be ok as long as there was wood for the stove. Tarpaper shack would keep most of the wind at bay. Folks in that time were pretty tough.

R.J. Fancher stands outside his newly-built shack somewhere in the Texas Panhandle in June, 1912. I would imagine it got a bit nippy when a norther blew through. 😉

@spann Don't know who Morgan Wallen is, too old I guess. Expensive ticket to get rained on over, though.

Rain at the Morgan Wallen concert this evening in Tuscaloosa… video from Erik Velazquez

@TracesofTexas Guess I was on the dark side of the moon. I never heard of her, even though a quick search shows she was born in my hometown, but the year I finished high school. Terrible loss at only 23, just wish to have heard her music.

Today would have been Selena's 55th birthday. Traces of Texas reader Alfonzo Luna kindly sent in this phenomenal images of Selena, taken just seven weeks before she was murdered. This photo has never appeared on the internet before. This was taken at the 1995 Tejano Music Awards and with Selena is Alfonzo's dad, Al “Mr. Moon” Luna, who was a DJ at KEDA Radio Jalapeño in San Antonio. Al, who was a friend of Selena's family, was the first to report Selena's death on local San Antonio radio. Knowing what we know now, it's hard to look at this photo without getting emotional. Selena is so alive here, so transcendentally radiant. It was so tragic and so utterly pointless. I've tried to put this into words before. I can't. Thank you for sharing this, Alfonzo. Just heartbreaking.