Sunday Night Links

• And it’s undeniable that Republicans created a really powerful message: “She’s for they/them, and Trump is for you.” That was, I think, our cycle’s version of “where’s the beef?” or “I knew Jack Kennedy, and you’re no Jack Kennedy.” That kept hitting again and again and again and again for 10s of millions of dollars. It had an ear worm quality. And I’m not surprised that that resonated. [John Fetterman]
• I am unfortunately a Democrat, but as someone who lives in a place that is governed very badly by Democrats, I can easily understand why “can you imagine what incompetent, lunatic shit those people will do if they get control of the government?” would fall flat as an argument against Republicans. It doesn’t surprise me that the very largest swings away from Democrats in this post-COVID, post-George Floyd, post-inflation election occurred in blue states. The gap between Democrats’ promise of better living through better government and their failure to actually deliver better government has been a national political problem. So when Republicans made a pitch for change from all this (or even burn-it-all-down), it didn’t fall flat. [Josh Barro]
• And I believe that that's what this election is saying to the world and to this country is that the majority of Americans still believe in our country. They still believe that we should have law and order. They still believe that if you want to come to this country, it's a simple process. You just go through the legal process and you can enter. But when you have an administration that is, for all practical purposes, doing everything they can to allow tens of millions of people to come into this country over the last four years, when many of them probably are coming in are good people that just want the American dream. But look what's come with them, look at all the drugs and the gangs and everything, and they're doing it for one reason, for political power. And just how insane and how sick is that, that one of our parties is so enraged for political power they are willing to create safety issues for our country. So, anyway, parlay that into the oil and gas industry and just the attack that we've had in the last four years, what a breadth of fresh at the Trump administration is going to bring. [Energy Transfer (ET) Q3 2024 Earnings Call] 
• On Tuesday, Trump became the first GOP presidential candidate since William Howard Taft in 1912 to win Webb. It’s perhaps the most impressive jewel Trump has collected in his stunning crusade through what was once deep blue South Texas. Webb’s population is more than 95 percent Latino, and, like other Mexican American counties across the region, it shifted hard right in the 2020 election. Trump almost quadrupled his turnout that year relative to 2016, but the Democrats’ advantage was strong enough that the party still managed to beat him handily, sending Biden 61 percent of the vote. This year Trump won with 51 percent, flipping Webb and almost every other heavily Latino border county in Texas. Hidalgo County, home of McAllen, which Hillary Clinton once carried with 69 percent of the vote, went to Trump with 51 percent; Cameron County, home to Brownsville, gave Clinton 65 percent of the votes in 2016 and Trump 52.5 percent this year. [Texas Monthly]
• U.S. exports of ethane and ethane-based petrochemicals reached an all-time high of 21.6 million metric tons (MMmt) in 2023, up 135% since the United States began exporting ethane in 2014 and 17% more than in 2022, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The rapid expansion of U.S. ethane and ethane-based petrochemical exports has been fueled by the growth in domestic ethane production, which has increased with the country’s natural gas production and the buildout of export and production infrastructure. Ethane is a natural gas liquid that’s primarily extracted from raw natural gas during processing. It’s mainly used as a feedstock for ethylene production, one of the most important building blocks in the petrochemical industry. Ethylene is a gas used to produce a wide range of products, including plastics, resins, and synthetic rubber. [EIA]
• Toyota Motor Corp.’s North American chief operating officer criticized US policies promoting speedy adoption of electric vehicles, calling them “de facto mandates” out of sync with consumer demand. Noting government support for EVs has been a hotly debated issue in the US presidential election, Toyota North America COO Jack Hollis said sales of all-electric vehicles should grow organically, without rules penalizing gas-powered car sales. [link]
• Solar panels are a revolutionary technology, one in which manufacturing creates energy as an output not merely an input. Inert glass rectangles that, placed on the ground, print out wealth, at roughly 100x the rate of the best farm land. We should deploy as many as we can! [Casey Handmer]
• Every muscle fiber wants to be exactly as rich in creatine as achieved with creatine supplementation. All of your cells want to be rich in creatine. Your brain is dying to be this rich in creatine. Your muscles are starving to be this rich in creatine. It is completely natural to be this rich in creatine, yet most of us in the modern era who don’t supplement just aren’t that optimized. The creatine we require to be optimized is likely etched deep into our beings by our ancestral consumption of one to two pounds of meat per day. When red and rare, one pound can give the dose that saturates tissue stores. When white and well done, two pounds may be required. [Chris Masterjohn]