Today's IQ Test: Which Is Cheaper To Produce Electricity, Wind/Solar Or Fossil Fuels?

Manhattan Contrarian ^ | 13 Dec, 2025 | Francis Menton

[eastexsteve]

What do you do with a 90’ blade when it is worn out?

Recycle it. Currently, 90% of a wind turbine is recyclable. Shredded blades are fed into cement kilns, where they provide energy and replace raw materials, with some cement production emissions reduced. Blades are used whole or cut into sections for bike sheds, noise barriers, bridges, and other civil engineering projects. Fibers are recovered for use as fillers in other materials, like cement and road materials.

There is no way solar and wind compete if they don’t have the subsidies.

Solar is actually getting more popular as battery technology continues to improve, and energy providers keep increasing their rates.

The article talks about the "intermittent" power of solar and wind. If you want to see intermittent, then connect to my local grid. The power was out a total of 7 hours out of 24 yesterday. We were having nice calm sunshine weather the whole time. The power is cheap, but not dependable. I have a suspicion the outages are because new people are constantly moving into the area, and the co-op is constantly adding on to their infrastructure and having a hard time keeping up. Thank God for solar.

[woodbutcher1963]

There is a podcast called Wild Wonder Off Grid.
It is a couple in WV that built their own house up on a mountainside. They went solar because the cost just to BRING electricity from the grid/road to them was as much as building a solar system with battery storage.

The key to their design is HE is an ELECTRICIAN.
They built a small shed to house all the batteries AWAY from the house. He also did all the excavation, construction of the house, shed, array, barn, etc.

So, like ANY construction project probably 50% of the installed cost is the labor to do it.

[Tell It Right]

I've seen some of that youtube channel.

I'm uncomfortable doing that much electrical work myself. So I paid for professional install. As well as a plumber and electrician to replace my old natural gas water heater with a hybrid water heater (built in heat pump to heat the water tank). And HVAC pro to replace my old A/C and gas furnace with a variable speed heat pump and variable speed air handler, supplemented with electric heat strips for when the weather is too cold for the heat pump (even in Alabama sometimes). I did very little work myself (adding insulation, made some duct work near the water heater to draw in warm air from the attic as the intake to the water heater, and blow the cold air from the water heater into the HVAC intake during the warm half of the year).

My trade is programmer (software engineer), mainly on back-end data processing with some analysis. So for me it's more natural to focus on things like Worst Case Peak Sun Hours Per Month in my Area. And how that compares to each month's power bill / kWh pulled from the grid. Are my wife and I home enough during the day and, therefore, run our appliances during the day anyway when the sun is out? If I could set up EV charging at home. How many miles do we drive anyway (is the gas savings of an EV worth it?). Could I get a loan with all of the flexibility I wanted to buy/install these things? (Yes, HELOC). How does the interest work (fixed interest less than 4%)? How are the payments structured? (As the balance goes down, the minimum payment goes down. Count the "cost" of saving on energy as being mainly the HELOC payment, going down while the energy costs I save go up from inflation.) Tons of other stuff that'd bore all but the totally interested in weaning one off of the over-regulated energy market. Track all of that in an Excel workbook, and doing other calculations by importing the telemetry from my inverters into a SQL DB and querying it many different ways. For me it's all about the data.

[woodbutcher1963]

I am much more a hands on guy.
Design it and build it.
Electrical is not that difficult.
The BLACK wire is the dangerous one.

Or the RED one if it is a two way circuit.

[fella]

Need that “Landman” clip.

[woodbutcher1963]

If the blades are so recyclable why do they keep burying all of them out in Wyoming?
Just because it is cheaper?

[Tell It Right]

That removes much of the cost!

[fella]

Found it

[Cobra64]

There are time lapse videos of the construction of a single wind turbine. There is tons of rebar and truckloads of cement to support these things. The public never sees this. Too bad the Stupid Party earns its moniker every day by not informing the intellectually unwashed morons living in this country.

[rlmorel]

Joseph McCarthy was an enemy of Communism. He should have been lionized in American history, not attacked and dismembered by it.

The Left were the ones primarily infiltrated by the Communists during that time frame. He exposed it, and they went to war on him, all the way up to Truman himself. Disgusting.

Most people don't know that about Truman.

I know this is long, but I think it provides some KEY context in two areas currently of concern to us: First, the machinations we see today on the part of the Left and how they relate to the current sets of Leftist scandals running the gamut from the Russiagate through the , and secondly, the obfuscation, behind the scenes manipulating, and outright lying on the part of the Left, and how it shows the Left of 2025 is the much the same in any ways to the Left of 1953. As it turns out, much more amenable to open violence. Sadly.

(NOTE: If this is too long to take the time and read or absorb, I won't be offended...:). I occasionally post things like this for anyone who shows an interest in it, so even an isolated piece of information can be very useful to you, if that is all you get out of it.)

Also, it both allows us to show both how McCarthy was unfairly demonized (he should be a celebrated American hero) and Truman was propagandized by the Left as an amazing Cold Warrior who fought Communism at every turn.

I hope you can take the time to read this somewhat long explanation to have some more context on McCarthy, Truman, and the Left in general. Hope this is interesting and helps. Much is taken from books I have read such as "Witness" and various books on Venona, but primarily from M. Stanton Evans in his landmark book . His viewpoint is interesting, because he is one of the few writers on events relating to McCarthy who was not only there and reporting at the time (albeit a cub reporter) and saw events with his own eyes, but did original research on the events, not simply regurgitating from what other people with a specific Leftist agenda have written and published.

I used to admire Truman, but his conduct with respect to the issue of Communists in the US government (State Department) in general and Joseph McCarthy in particular has prompted me to lose 90% of the respect I may have held for him.

There were two things in particular, that really disgusted me. (From the explanations provided by M. Stanton Evans in his landmark book ):

---

The lesser of those two things that bothered me were Truman's treatment of Harry Dexter White who in 1946, Truman appointed as the top American presence to the International Monetary Fund, which was a big deal at the time.

Harry Dexter White had been a top aide to the Treasury Secretary Morganthau, was a key figure in big global groundwork laying activities at the time, and was key to putting people in various posts in Treasury and other departments.

He was also a key spy in a Soviet spy ring, identified first to the FBI by Whittaker Chambers, later identified separately by Elizabeth Bentley to the FBI when she came clean, and lastly, by the Venona decrypts when the Cold War ended.

The entire matter came to light in 1953 when normal Americans wondered how someone like Harry Dexter White could have risen to the position he had held and it blew up into a political scandal complete with political hearings. Truman openly lied about how it happened.

• First Truman said the FBI failed to inform him that Harry Dexter White was a spy.
  • There were apparently many things that would royally piss off FBI Director Hoover, but one in particular was saying he was not thorough and failed to do his job. In this case, Hoover made himself available to testify (unasked) in front of the Senate Hearings in 1953, and produced carefully archived memos from the FBI to the White House, complete with custody chains, to show that not only had the Treasury and Truman Justice Department been told via multiple detailed and specific memos, the Truman White House been notified several times (INCLUDING A PERSONAL LETTER FROM HOOVER TO TRUMAN) beginning 6 months before Truman appointed Harry Dexter White to the International Money Fund in April 1946.
• Second, Truman said that once he found out, he took prompt and effective action against Harry Dexter White.
  • Simply not true. President Harry Truman never, EVER did anything to publicly reveal, limit promotion or fire/prosecute Harry Dexter White.
    
    
• Third, Truman said once he knew Harry Dexter White was a spy, he allowed the appointment in 1946 to go through so "he could keep an eye on him and cooperate with the FBI in its investigation".
  • Hoover was visibly angered at this open lie by Truman. From the testimony in front of the Senate where he notably addressed this specifically:
    
    "...At no time was the FBI party to any arrangement to promote Harry Dexter White, and at no time did the FBI give its approval to such an agreement..." and went out of his way to further note that "White's move to the IMF impeded the FBI inquiry as the Bureau's investigative powers didn't extend to global bodies [such as the IMF]"
  • To disgust me even more, Truman personally wrote a letter of congratulation to Harry Dexter White after his promotion, and a full six months after being first notified by the FBI of the security issues with Harry Dexter White. In this "flowery" letter where then President Truman expressed regret Harry Dexter White was leaving Treasury, he said:
    
    "...my regret is lessened...in the knowledge that you leave the Treasury only to assume new duties for the government [at IMF]...In that position you will be able to carry forward the work you so ably began at Bretton Woods [My note: no doubt hand in hand with another known spy Alger Hiss in their instrumental efforts to create the United Nations!] I am confident that in your new position you will add to the distinction of your already distinguished career with the Treasury..."
    
    
  One might ask themselves, what should I make of that letter from a man who has been personally delivered a letter six months prior from then Director Hoover DIRECTLY addressed to then President Truman which explained in depth the serious security concerns Hoover felt about this Soviet Spy in the high levels of the Treasury Department?

---

The thing that DID bother me the MOST about Truman was his shameful behavior regarding the investigation by Senator McCarthy into the security risks at the State Department and the handling and access to the State Department Security Files.

As McCarthy knew (and was subsequently verified by Venona decrypts time and time again) the State Department in the 1930's through 1950 was riddled with Soviet agents. In his attempts to clean them up, he attempted to obtain access to the security files of State Department employees, which were both physically kept and maintained by the security team employed by the State Department itself.

Or so he and many others thought.

During the Senate Tydings Committee Hearings in the Summer of 1950 McCarthy and his committee requested delivery to them for their review the security files on specific employees at State (AS WAS BOTH THEIR JOB AND RIGHT TO DO, THAT RIGHT BOLSTERED BY A MANDATE FROM THE SENATE IN FULL TO DO) and they got a song and dance, first from Tydings, then from the Truman White House.

• McCarthy was having great difficulty getting cooperation from State. This was in 1950, and McCarthy suspected that the files being examined by Senators on the committed had things removed that should not have been since they could see references to documents in the files that were missing from the files.Their suspicions dated back in 1947, where they had proof that someone at the State Department was scrubbing the files on people, illegally removing material from files outside the normal procedures that audit handling, so they asked the FBI examine the files.
  NOTE: this "proof" of security file tampering would later be verified in front of a committee under oath by a Mrs. Balog, who was the Supervisor of the State Department Security Filing Systems, and said there was one man who, for the entire year of 1949 had been spending a lot of time in the file room working with confidential files, and would ask for the key so he could work overnight on the confidential employee files. When the committee asked the name of that man, she named "John Service". That was the same John Stuart Service who (from Wikipedia, no conservative source) was part of the Silvermaster Spy Group, and was identified (from post-cold war KGB archives) in 1948, Chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. Anatoly Gorsky identified Adler (in KGB archives summarized by former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev) as the agent code-named "Sachs," who appears in Venona as an NKVD source on China." Yep. That John Service.
  
  HE was the one rifling thorough state security files for over a year.
  Scumbag Senator Tydings, who was working behind the scene for the White House interests (and not those of the Senate) then issued a statement saying that the FBI had examined those employee security files and found no issues.
  Director Hoover saw these comments from Senator Tydings, and since Hoover had his finger on EVERYTHING at the FBI, was confused, and asked his staff it that statement from Senator Tydings was correct, and they assured him it WASN'T. Tydings had issued that declaration on his own. Amazing.
  By the time the FBI was allowed to conduct its actual search months later, they found only minor irregularities, which then made them suspicious that the missing material had surreptitiously been replaced back into the personnel security files.
  • And here is the part that really burns me the most: Leading up to the kerfuffle with the files, the Truman White House vacuumed all the relevant State Department Personnel Security files and had them brought over to the White House where he isolated them, sequestered them, and refused to release them. Truman did this.
    • First, Truman refused to release the files to the Senate Subcommittee.
    • Second, he would only release summaries to the committee, not the files themselves.
    • Third, from President Truman's Legal Team (as relayed to Mickey Ladd at the FBI):
      • If they insist on viewing the raw files, they will only be able to do it in the White House, in the direct presence of Truman himself
      • The Senators will be forbidden from taking any notes whatsoever during these viewing sessions under the watchful eye of Truman himself.
      • Legal Counsel for the committee or its members will not be allowed to be present.
    • I have to defy ANYONE to read this section above, and not come to the conclusion there was a deliberate, orchestrated, and in your face obstruction of the investigation by the Senate Subcommittee into these matters. It wasn't Executive Privilege. It was the equivalent Andrew Jackson's famous quote about his intent to ignore a Supreme Court decision: "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!"

As you can see, I believe that Truman was far, FAR more interested in protecting the interests of the Democrat Party in general, and his administration's conduct in particular than it was in protecting the National Security of The United States. To him, it was preferable to have Soviet agents burrowed into the decision making apparatus of our national institutions such as the State Department and the Military (see the 1954 Army-McCarthy Hearings for more evidence of this truth). I have, over the years, come to see him as primarily a political hack similar to the majority of politicians we see today in the "deep state" which I have come to accept as well.

[dfwgator]

But McCarthy went too far when he went after the Army and even accused Ike of being a Commie, he went full MTG on Eisenhower.

In the end, he did more harm than good.

[Reily]

McCarthy actions politically discredited serious CI actions for years.

[Retain Mike]

I did actually read you post. I don’t believe the Democrat party would have suffered if Truman had cleaned house of the obvious parties. I think particularly of the Verona files.

[Glad2bnuts]

Hydroelectric is the most economical, and clean.

[rlmorel]

I have to disagree with the entirety of your post.

I should point out that, it was General Marshall that McCarthy went after (who was the Secretary of State when we "Lost China") He didn't accuse Marshall of being a Communist directly, but inferred so strongly that his actions were serving the interests not of the American Citizenry but of other interests around the globe, that the accusation was made.

If you are interested, you can download the eBook of McCarthy's ghostwritten book here: EBOOK LINK: America's Retreat From Victory-The Story of George Catlett Marshall

I also dictated this audiobook version of that, if you are interested, it is a free download: AUDIOBOOK LINK: America's Retreat From Victory-The Story of George Catlett Marshall

As for Eisenhower, I lost respect for him as well. He was part of what we would call today the "Deep State", and he went after McCarthy as well, because he thought problems of Communist infiltration of our government should have been handled by...the government. But he and his administration did what all Deep State governments do-he did nothing, absolutely nothing about it. It was far more important to protect the appearance of the American Government of which Eisenhower was the leader when he became President. If you look at Eisenhower's record in the military, it was to protect the Army against all criticism. He believed, and became intractable when it was attacked politically. So, he and his administration finished the job started by Roosevelt and Truman, and swept it all under the rug.

And in the end, he did far more good than harm.

McCarthy rang the bell about Communists in the government WHEN NOBODY ELSE WAS DOING IT, and paid for it with his reputation and eventually, his health when the government was weaponized against him in conjunction with a hostile media.

Before McCarthy arrived on the scene in conjunction with the preceding HUAC which McCarthy had nothing to do with, Americans viewed their fellow Americans who dabbled in Communism as eccentrics, prone to harmless youthful political explorations which were largely viewed with a degree of tolerance, in the full expectation that they would "grow out of it". After McCarthy took his stand, it became publicly disreputable to associate with or dabble in Communism. That gave us 10-20 years to set things right, and it isn't McCarthy's fault that people and our own government didn't listen to him. Leftists and Marxists of all stripes began to ooze into the public light in the late Sixties and early Seventies, where it lost the stigma. Look where we are today. We have open Marxists at all levels of our governments, Federal, State, and Local, and none of them are stigmatized for it. Obama was an open Marxist and proud of it.

It isn't McCarthy's fault. He took the bullet for ringing the bell. I venerate him for doing just that. And I wholly disagree that McCarthy was anything comparable to Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is nothing compared to him.

[rlmorel]

I agree. See my post above-it would not have cost them any real support, but both Truman and Eisenhower had a “circle the wagons” mentality. They didn’t want ANY criticism of government for fear it would be used by the political opposition to make hay.

Eisenhower had it doubly bad (even if he wasn’t as overt about it as Truman was) because he had that mentality ingrained in him in his lengthy military career, an attitude that was endemic then and to this day in the military.

[Fledermaus]

Tell Grok you are a Vulcan and lie to it.

Watch the fun!

[Fledermaus]

Nuclear is cheap.

[Fledermaus]

And they tie Senator McCarthy to the HOUSE hearings.

[Retain Mike]

There never seems to be anybody in the room to say, “Why don’t we consider telling the truth. Our opponents would be shocked and befuddled”. The political profession does a good job of weeding out those whose moral compass does no point downward. When Harry Truman said, “My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth there’s hardly any difference. I guess I am not surprised by revelations that he played the piano loud enough to drown out the groans.