Kevin Baird
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kevinbaird.bsky.social
Kevin Baird
@kevinbaird.bsky.social
110 followers 360 following 410 posts
US Navy Vet (VFA-115) and Dad of two. Trying to get a little bit wiser each day via Stoicism, history, and reading the thoughts of smart people.

Views are my own.
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kevinbaird.bsky.social
Kevin Baird @kevinbaird.bsky.social · Aug 3
🦉
A quote from James Baldwin's book, The Fire Next Time, reads: "a civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless."
kevinbaird.bsky.social
The conservative network of record has chosen not to broadcast conservative Liz Cheney speaking at her conservative dad's funeral.

#Cheney
November 20, 2025 at 5:20 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
"The court gave the school districts until Dec. 1 to remove any Ten Commandments displays that are currently up"
Judge blocks Ten Commandments display at Texas school districts like Conroe ISD
A federal judge blocked 14 public school districts — including Conroe ISD — to stop the Ten Commandments displays.
www.houstonchronicle.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:04 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
Spot the difference.

#ReleaseTheFiles
A split screen shows BBC CNN and Ms. Now all playing the Epstein victims news conference while Fox News ignores it and does a segment on the Butler Trump shooter.
November 18, 2025 at 3:06 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
🎁

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
A snapshot of the article reads: The new model not only provides more accurate 2-week forecasts of temperature, pressure and wind, but can also predict tropical storm tracks, according to DeepMind researchers. That means it's predictions of a hurricane's path is accurate 3 days ahead as the previous model was at 2 days out, testing shows. The new weather model has other improvements sought by energy traders, including hourly forecast instead of 12-hour outlooks. It can also generate predictions roughly eight times faster than DeepMind's previous AI weather model. An image from Google DeepMind's forthcoming WeatherNext2AI model is shown as well.
November 17, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Kevin Baird
marcelias.bsky.social
Missouri voters have the power to veto the state’s new GOP congressional gerrymander at the ballot box – but national Republicans are ramping up their efforts to stop them from having the final word. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Republicans in ‘Bare-Knuckle Brawl’ to Stop Missourians From Voting on Gerrymander
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:15 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
No new cases since April. 👍
KDHE says 2-year-long tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas City, Kansas, is over
One of the largest tuberculosis outbreaks in the last several decades was declared over Friday by Kansas health officials.
www.kshb.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:41 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
Texas A&M System bans race, gender ideology 'advocacy' in lessons without university president's approval

www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...
A snip from the article reads: "Under the new rules, professors must get their president's approval for courses and any material that "advocate" race, gender or sexual identity-related topics, and are banned from introducing course material deemed "inconsistent" with their approved syllabus. In addition, the schools' complaint hotlines will soon allow students to report "inaccurate or misleading course content" that strays from approved syllabi. The rules could come into play as Texas A&M expands its review of all course across the system to every semester."
November 14, 2025 at 12:28 AM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
This was an interesting read.

Google’s top AI executive seeks the profound over profits and the “prosaic” -
www.reuters.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:16 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
It should be repeated over and over again. Republicans have clearly shown they will grind this country to a halt and starve Americans before they agree to any ACA extensions.

It's beyond shameful and another #AmericaLast policy choice.

🎁
Republicans Reject Shutdown Offer as Travel, Food Aid Delays Hit
Senate Republicans on Friday rejected Democrats’ offer to scale back their shutdown demands to a one-year extension of expiring health care subsidies, prolonging a stalemate that has disrupted air tra...
www.bloomberg.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:02 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
‘Jenga Tower’ US Economy Teeters as Middle Class Pulls Back Spending
The surprising resilience of the US economy this year is masking underlying weakness among low- and middle-income households, as higher-income Americans continue to drive growth.
www.bloomberg.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:26 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
The author is obviously biased to LDES, and I'm a fan of Fourth Power's solution, but I found this article interesting nonetheless as I was unaware of ELCC.
Why this little-known metric will decide the value of future energy resources
The declining effective load carrying capability of short-duration batteries creates a planning dilemma for utilities, writes Fourth Power CEO Arvin Ganesan.
www.utilitydive.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Kevin Baird
jessedjenkins.com
Cost estimates for new gas power plants just keep rising! www.utilitydive.com/news/gas-pow... 🔌💡
According to Enverus, capital costs for new natural gas power plants now average $2,200/kW to $3,000/kW. An analysis by GridLab adds another $1,500/kW levelized for the 20-year cost of fuel and $500/kW for pipeline infrastructure, putting the cost of new gas generation at $4,000/kW to $4,500/kW. Kevin Smith, CEO of Arevon Energy, spent years working on natural gas projects alongside nuclear and renewables before transitioning to focus on renewables exclusively. He suggested there was a ceiling to how much gas could be built to meet near-term demand given the prices, pipeline constraints and interconnection queues. “Tens of gigawatts of new generation from natural gas is likely at least five years away, if not more,” Smith said. Table: Comparison of typical cost and flexibility characteristics for various gas generation technologies: Natural Gas Combined Cycle, Natural Gas Combustion Turbine, NGCT Aeroderivative, and Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engine plants. From Ascend Analytics’ report on thermal generation.
November 4, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Kevin Baird
footnoted.bsky.social
After losing my beloved dog, Max, back in March after just one shot of Zoetis' so-called magic drug #librela, I started shouting at whomever would listen that this drug was bad news. Zoetis knew it because they registered the domain name: librelakilledmydog.com. Today's 3Q earnings confirm this.
librelakilledmydog.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:23 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
How to Crush the American Battery Boom

washingtonmonthly.com/2025/11/02/h...
A screenshot of the article reads: With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, the nonpartisan energy policy think tank Energy Innovation projects that 31,000 battery jobs will evaporate by 2030. But the more profound tragedy is the number of American jobs—approaching 1 million—in manufacturing, supporting industries, and local economies that will now never materialize.
November 3, 2025 at 4:11 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
Future of nation’s energy grid hurt by Trump’s funding cuts

theconversation.com/future-of-na...
This image is a horizontal bar chart titled, "Federal grants to improve the electricity grid cut or delayed." A caption below the title provides context: "The Trump administration's Department of Energy has terminated or put on hold billions of dollars of funding that includes projects meant to reduce the frequency and duration of blackouts and help utilities restore power faster. Other programs on hold had other primary goals, but would have improved the grid as well." The chart lists the programs affected and the amount of funding cut or delayed for each. It is divided into two main categories. Direct grid support This section shows funding cuts for programs directly related to the grid: Grid resilience and innovation (other than smart grid program): A cut of $1,420 million (or $1.42 billion). Smart grid program: A cut of $725 million. Long-duration energy storage: A cut of $127 million. Energy improvements in rural and remote areas: A cut of $36 million. Other primary goal with grid support as additional benefit This section shows cuts for programs that had other goals but would have also helped the grid: Improvements in energy-intensive industries: A cut of $8,898 million (or nearly $8.9 billion). This is represented by the longest bar on the chart by a large margin. Hydrogen hubs: A cut of $1,200 million (or $1.2 billion). The chart's sources are listed as The Conversation and Yardsale Energy.
November 1, 2025 at 3:07 AM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
Missouri gives ‘one of the biggest millionaire tax cuts’ this year...

thebeaconnews.org/stories/2025...
“We’re now in a situation in Missouri where someone who’s working very hard at a job and earning a modest wage has to pay income tax, whereas somebody who has a lot of passive income — say they’re making a lot of profit off cryptocurrency sales, for example — is going to be exempt from income tax,” he added. “And I don’t think that’s a situation that’s going to sit well with a lot of people.”
October 30, 2025 at 3:38 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
What horror is in store for us if riots are being planned for?
carlquintanilla.bsky.social Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 22d
“.. A top US military official has ordered the national guards of all 50 US states .. to form ‘quick reaction forces’ trained in ‘riot control’, including use of batons, body shields, Tasers and pepper spray, according to an internal Pentagon directive ..”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
October 29, 2025 at 7:18 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
Trump hates wind energy. Why does Texas have more than any other state?

www.houstonchronicle.com/business/ene...
A chart shows wind power by state: Texas - 43.1K GW Iowa - 12.9K GW Kansas - 9.7K GW Illinois - 8.2K GW California - 6.5K GW Colorado - 5.3K GW Minnesota - 4.9K GW North Dakota - 4.5K GW Oregon - 4.2 GW
October 29, 2025 at 6:52 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
Best thing I read today.
China Pushes Boundaries With Animal Testing to Win Global Biotech Race
The research, including creating monkeys with schizophrenia and autism, would face layers of ethical reviews in the US and Europe.
www.bloomberg.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:15 AM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
A nice short video explaining the Republican infighting around data centers and what's driving rate increases in Missouri.
The Low-Down on Data Center Discourse in Missouri Government
YouTube video by Renew Missouri
youtu.be
October 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
The ballroom and the bunker, and who's funding things by @emptywheel.bsky.social.

Corruption and law breaking.
Let them eat ballroom
YouTube video by emptywheel
youtu.be
October 24, 2025 at 9:55 PM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
I'm sure this will do wonders for the whales.
Trump Plans to Open Almost All of US Coast to Offshore Drilling
The Trump administration is readying a proposal to open almost all US coastal waters to new offshore oil drilling despite opposition from state governors and the president’s previous efforts to close ...
www.bloomberg.com
October 23, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by Kevin Baird
metaomicsnerd.bsky.social
Trump has once again failed to kill his own vice president
johnismay.bsky.social John Ismay @johnismay.bsky.social · Oct 19
An artillery shell fired during 250th anniversary celebration of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton on Saturday detonated prematurely over Interstate 5, damaging a California Highway Patrol vehicle on JD Vance's security detail www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/u...
Artillery Shell Detonated Over Interstate 5 During Marines’ Celebration, California Officials Say
www.nytimes.com
October 19, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by Kevin Baird
ronfilipkowski.bsky.social
If you can’t sell your soybeans because of Trump’s tariffs after Argentina stepped in and took your customers, you can take solace that the guy you voted for also just gave $20 billion of your tax dollars to the country that is bankrupting you.
October 15, 2025 at 12:07 AM
kevinbaird.bsky.social
"We know there are exposures to environmental toxins early in pregnancy that could influence autism genes. That’s how we know that autism isn’t caused by vaccines: It starts in early pregnancy, not after birth."
What causes autism? Here's what the White House gets wrong.
More than a hundred autism genes have been identified, explains author Peter Hotez. And Tylenol isn't the biggest environmental factor.
www.houstonchronicle.com
October 10, 2025 at 7:48 PM