from the comes-from-eating-too-many-Freedom-Fries dept.
US Department of Energy is now referring to fossil fuels as "freedom gas"
Call it a rebranding of "energy dominance." In a press release published on Tuesday, two Department of Energy officials used the terms "freedom gas" and "molecules of US freedom" to replace your average, everyday term "natural gas."
The press release was fairly standard, announcing the expansion of a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminal at the Freeport facility on Quintana Island, Texas. It would have gone unnoticed had an E&E News reporter not noted the unique metonymy "molecules of US freedom."
DOE Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg is quoted as saying, "With the US in another year of record-setting natural gas production, I am pleased that the Department of Energy is doing what it can to promote an efficient regulatory system that allows for molecules of US freedom to be exported to the world."
Artist's depiction of this news.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday May 30 2019, @03:29PM (13 children)
This is Orwellian as hell though.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday May 30 2019, @03:38PM
More like Steven Winberg is a satirist
(Score: 5, Funny) by SomeGuy on Thursday May 30 2019, @03:47PM (5 children)
More like Idiocracy...
Would you like to try our EXTRA BIG-ASS FREEDOM GAS? Now with more MOLECULES!
FAAAAAAAAAAAAARTT!!!
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday May 30 2019, @04:40PM (2 children)
Molecules of US freedom, it's what Iran and Venezuela crave !
(Score: 2) by arslan on Friday May 31 2019, @02:53AM (1 child)
Sounds like something they serve in Guantanamo Bay or whatever its equivalent is nowadays
(Score: 3, Insightful) by J_Darnley on Friday May 31 2019, @10:20AM
Gitmo's current equivalent is still Gitmo. No president has had the balls necessary to close it down. Maybe some more got started that we are unaware of yet.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:46PM
Pull finger for freedom.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @09:27PM
Avogadro [wikipedia.org] would like to have a word with you...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Immerman on Thursday May 30 2019, @04:12PM
Exactly what I was thinking. Because nothing says freedom like chaining ourselves to the profiteering whims of the oil industry.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday May 30 2019, @04:32PM (2 children)
Let me congratulate you on correctly using the word "Orwellian" as well, which is precisely about BS and propaganda, not just dystopian surveillance and such.
Not that this is anything all that new: Let me enjoy eating these "freedom fries" and avoid getting irradiated with too many "sunshine units". America, f yeah!
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @06:10PM (1 child)
Which was entirely driven by propaganda and fearmongering by none other than the Hursts... before the 20th century had even begun!
None of the current American activities are that far removed from the sort of fearmongering and rhetoric that surrounded that War, or the the collateral damage (much like the Opening of Japan) that was caused by our shortsighted activities that destabilized a foreign nation for the profiteering of the American Merchant-Prince class. Machiavelli would be proud, particularly given how often they get away with it without the criminal and financial investigations that put him under.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @09:33PM
I know, right? That Hurst [hurstreview.com] is a real piece of work, huh?
Oh, wait. You're not talking about prepping for your NCLEX exam?
Perhaps you meant William Randolph Hearst [wikipedia.org]?
Then again, those NCLEX exams are such a hotbed of graft and corruption aren't they?
(Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday May 30 2019, @06:17PM (1 child)
"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right."
--George Orwell, 1984
“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,”
--The 45th President of the United States of America
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:15PM
Oh thank God. I thought was seeing this guy in the Oval Office and Republicans in the US legislature strongly supporting everything he was saying and doing -- thanks for clarifying that I'm just hallucinating.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @03:31PM (15 children)
this is hilarious and many of us will remember this come time to vote in 2020.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @04:34PM
Dumb enough to reelect 95% of these people over and over again. The numbers indicate they have it gauged pretty good.
And no major changes are expected next year.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday May 30 2019, @04:35PM (8 children)
Oh, they know how dumb we are. Every couple of years, they put on an almost-completely-fictional show for us, and try to shame us for not paying attention.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 30 2019, @05:00PM (7 children)
Let's not forget Freedom Fries, and the re-election of W when it was clear that Iraq's WMD were imaginary.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday May 30 2019, @06:43PM (3 children)
To be fair though, W got re-elected because the potential of same-sex marriages rose to the level of a National Emergency during W's re-erection campaign. It hadn't been such an emergency before the campaign. And surely wasn't one after.
But if W hadn't gotten elected again the possible doom of same-sex marriages might have come true, dooming us all. Thank google that W managed to permanently save us from this horrible tragedy ever becoming a reality.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:23PM
I lived in W's home turf at the time - South East Texas, and as gas prices soared in October and November I had some small sliver of hope that people would realize that they were being taken to the cleaners, but, sadly, no.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 30 2019, @08:35PM (1 child)
How do you know that? I say he got re-elected because of Swift Boat ads.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 31 2019, @01:22PM
You're right. He only campaigned on the same-sex national emergency. It is not the entire reason he won. He probably won because it was believed he needed to finish his daddy's war.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday May 30 2019, @06:49PM (2 children)
And now we have Freedom Gas and Trump is trying to start a war with Iran. Republicans only have one playbook it seems.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday May 30 2019, @10:13PM
Trump? OH, you mean Freedom President!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday May 31 2019, @03:29PM
The odd thing is that the conservative definition of "freedom" is "You have to do what people more powerful than you tell you to do." For example, these have all been claimed to have been done in the name of "Freedom", according to their defenders:
- Cops shooting civilians.
- Unpaid overtime, wage theft, and other workplace abuses.
- Rape and sexual assault.
- Environmental damage that harms millions of people, never mind the other species.
- Loosening banking rules so they could crash the global economy.
- Drone strikes on civilians worldwide so we can steal their oil.
- Overthrow of foreign leaders that were democratically elected in favor of dictators who the US can control.
- Efforts to make it illegal to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, etc.
- Efforts to demand that everybody adhere to the Christian religion.
- Killing and jailing people over cannabis (and prior to that, alcohol).
Yeah, people really do call that "Freedom" sometimes.
This isn't a new kind of ridiculousness either: Lots of people spent the early 1860's fighting a war to defend their freedom. Many of them were fighting for the Confederacy, and these geniuses somehow saw absolutely no inconsistency between fighting for freedom and fighting for slavery.
Maybe Orwell had it backwards, and it should have been "Slavery is freedom."
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @05:06PM (1 child)
Somewhere in the US a 3rd grader is crying because the Dept of Energy stole his idea
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday May 30 2019, @10:15PM
Nice! :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday May 30 2019, @05:31PM (2 children)
I doubt many people will remember this next month, much less next year. Multiple new examples of human stupidity will have distracted everyone well before then..
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:22PM (1 child)
Actually, I'm guessing the vast majority will have forgotten about it before the day is over.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Gaaark on Thursday May 30 2019, @10:16PM
What ARE you going on about?
;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Funny) by stretch611 on Thursday May 30 2019, @03:34PM
Freedom gas is when I can just let it all out and not care if I am identified as the one who "dealt it."
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Thursday May 30 2019, @04:00PM (4 children)
They say this design can operate on "spent reactor fuel". If it lives up to the advance billing, this will wipe out all my objections to nuclear fission power.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/05/seaborg-molten-salt-reactor-will-fit-on-a-truck-and-cost-less-than-coal-power.html [nextbigfuture.com]
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Thursday May 30 2019, @04:23PM (1 child)
If objections to technologies were subject to rational analysis we would live in a very different world.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday May 30 2019, @04:29PM
While I will grant that not all objections to technology are rooted in reality, I try to ensure that mine are. I'm certain I don't always succeed, but I try. This is also true of my desires for technology. Often a technology looks good on the surface, but contains implicit results that are excessively damaging. I'm sure you can think of examples.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:33PM
Operates on "spent reactor fuel"? You mean, like garbage [youtube.com]?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:37PM
And it requires thorium as a moderating agent. And why that's a problem [forbes.com]. So, have they made any progress since 2014? Are they on track with their timetable that Wikipedia gives?
Don't misunderstand - I think reusing spent fuel would be a laudable goal. But everything here looks like its on paper so far.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @04:24PM (2 children)
we could have had an aristarchus submission of much more substance. Just saying.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Thursday May 30 2019, @05:11PM (1 child)
Those are smellier than freedom gas.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @05:52PM
But they can be polished.
(Score: 1) by negrace on Thursday May 30 2019, @04:51PM (1 child)
freedom bombs and freedom bullets.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday May 30 2019, @05:18PM
Not "freedom bombs"
NATO is way ahead of us there. They have Humanitarian® Bombs! It's all part of the EU's human rights charter.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @05:30PM
has the electrolytes colons crave
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday May 30 2019, @05:37PM (2 children)
Surely it was tongue-in-cheek? I laughed out loud when I heard it, and it's certain the guys who penned it were laughing, too.
I am eager for the United States to get away from fossil fuel nonsense, but it is not bad that the country has become a net energy exporter. That's something it's never been in my lifetime. Also, there are large swathes of the country that were previously desolate that now have oil and natural gas operations breathing new life into them. From the perspective of economic equity it's good to see. It's been about a century since most of them have felt like they could catch a break.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Thursday May 30 2019, @05:48PM
I like to think it is an Isaac Arthur reference.
.
11:25 in the episode "The Fermi Paradox & Virtual Worlds: Colonizing Inner Space"
.
"Physicality and reality are not inextricably entwined. There are no atoms of justice, no molecules of freedom or art... [youtube.com]"
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 30 2019, @09:51PM
If methane is the freedom molecule, BFR is the freedom rocket.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Funny) by drussell on Thursday May 30 2019, @06:01PM (11 children)
Hamberders, Freedom Fries and Covfefe for all!
Cooked on good ol' Amercunn Freedom Gas!! Woo!
Freedom molecules... Oh, my...
:facepalm:
(Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:02PM (10 children)
And other typos such as "I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected."
Clearly he meant "I had nothing to do with Russia NOT helping me to get elected." Which is a true statement since Republicans are actively prohibiting the government from securing our elections.
And yes, they really are using that same tired excuse AGAIN. [newsweek.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 30 2019, @08:03PM (1 child)
I think he actually meant "I had nothing better to do so that Russian was helping me get erected".
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday May 30 2019, @10:19PM
May all your showers be Golden.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Thursday May 30 2019, @10:21PM (7 children)
I think a more worrying trend would be this other article on that site. https://www.newsweek.com/meghan-mccain-donald-trump-john-uss-1439772 [newsweek.com] Hiding a ship because you think the leader doesn't like the name is some third-world narcissistic-dictator level shit.
It's actually less worrying if Trump ordered it, he'll be gone in less than six years and who cares if he doesn't like a particular ship.
If the administration is starting to act like that, then things are just fucked. It is indicative of an attitude that the leaders are special little snowflakes who can't face reality. Once you have that attitude in the middle ranks, the upper levels will just get more and more detached from reality.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday May 30 2019, @11:48PM (3 children)
That ship sailed years ago.
Anytime an American leader visits my country (not often thank the gods) a huge area of the CBD area of our largest city gets closed to the public, and when they drive anywhere whole roads are closed for them. People are literally told not to go to work.
That also includes ex-leaders of your country.
There is no way we would ever threat our own leaders with such deference, but it is SOP for your guys.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday May 31 2019, @12:11AM (2 children)
Not my leaders, I'm an aussie. :).
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday May 31 2019, @12:46AM (1 child)
Oh, fair enough mate.
When your bloke comes over someone at the airport offers him a lift to the bus stop up the road, and he's pretty grateful.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @02:43PM
Yeah right. I suppose he also gets the good looking ewe with the soft wool too.
I bet you bastards make him walk to the bus stop.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday May 30 2019, @11:59PM (1 child)
Besides, if you want to make a ship disappear, there are better ways to do it [youtube.com].
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday May 31 2019, @12:33AM
My point wasn't about the ship, but the attitude behind what was done.
It is an indication that people are not telling their superiors the truth. It always happens a bit, but any organization where it becomes the norm, and telling the truth is punished, will eventually collapse. Might be slow with a large organization like a government, but when they are no longer operating in the real world collapse is inevitable.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday May 31 2019, @10:14AM
It would appear that it is exactly what you feared.
“Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn’t like him, O.K.?” Mr. Trump told reporters. “They were well meaning, I will say. I didn’t know anything about it. I would never have done that.” Donald Trump.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/lets-not-upset-the-president-the-white-house-tells-the-navy-to-hide-the-uss-mccain/ar-AAC9aNl?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=BHEA000 [msn.com]
American Politics are the 24 hour a day tragicomedy. If offered as a plotline for a TV show or movie, producers would laugh you out of the building. Idiocracy was supposed to be a dystopian comedy, not an instruction manual.
I wish I didn't have a front row seat, but this type of shit is spreading, soon we'll all have front row seats.
Thank god weed is legal now (here anyway).
Invest in popcorn!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 31 2019, @01:45PM
not sure why they're exporting/selling the freedom gas.
cant use the cash to buy stuff from china anyways ...
also pretty sure "freedom gas" will turn into "backdoor gas" once eriscon and nokia are dependant on it to build antennas ...
like any good drug dealer ... first sample is free.