There’s been a lot of talk of late about how Democrats have to become “competitive” with voters in districts that have been electing Republicans, in order to win back the kind of decisive House majority that will allow them to do all the Big Things Democrats say they want to do for America.
“The league revealed that it had been denied permission by the Florida Department of Management Services to hold an outdoor rally on the steps of the Old Capitol in Tallahassee under a new DeSantis administration rule requiring groups to first get sponsorship from a sympathetic state agency.”
This is a really good and necessary analysis - it is good to know the damage that has been done to the American Experiment. I believe the current system of primaries is to blame, under the current system. In most primaries, it ids the most dedicated and often extreme voters who participate, and that tends to skew toward the more extreme candidates and positions (helped of course by the likes of Fox News and One America). If we are to hold primaries from now on, we must find a way to eliminate the really dangerous zealots by broadening the field as much as possible. Ranked-choice voting in primaries would go a long way to restoring a sense of the middle in our elections, as would open primaries in which members of both parties AND independent voters would vote in a general primary to arrive at the candidates running in the general election. Our current path promises only further division.....
I find it ironic that in the lo-lo districts where the R's cultivate the culture wars, those R's don't do a damn thing to improve the well being of the people in their districts. They hop to the directions of their large donors and line their pockets.
They hate libtards, which is the most important factor in any election in the past 30 years, maybe longer. (Obama win may be the exception, but racism likely overtook libtard hate, after all said and done). Thanks to the Rush and Rupert duo…
I'm afraid if you improve the well being of the people in those districts in terms of the quality of their schools you might transform the area away from being such fertile Republican turf.
Which is why the Republican governors of Florida and Virginia work so hard to harm public education or make public education a key venue for culture war tropes.
Let us hope that Biden’s decision to greenlight the Willow project will not turn so many young voters against the Democrats that they can’t expect to win coming elections. To me, even acknowledging his rationales, it was a colossal mistake, for the party and for the planet.
She owes Biden, big time.....hopefully, something good will come out of this. As an aside, as much as we wish for cleaner air and a cooler planet, it is much more difficult than you can imagine. First, there are almost a billion cars and trucks in the world running on diesel or gasoline - they are not going away because no one has the money to replace them quickly (in some developing countries, old cars and trucks are the norm), so many of them will be around for 15-20 years. Second, with current technology (and there is much research to alleviate this), there simply is not enough of the rare earth metals and minerals to build out an all-electric transportation system. We will have to do a great deal of mitigation and carbon capture at scale and in the short term settle for very high-mileage cars and trucks, which is possible. In the 1980s, there were companies making true hybrids capable of reaching 90-95 MPG for a compact car and perhaps 45-50 MPG for trucks - regrettably, for whatever reason, they dd not take hold back then and so here we are. We can do better, and need to......
I have no recollection of any hybrid cars in the '80s getting anywhere near 90-95 MPG, and I follow this stuff. Or 45-50 for trucks. Even the tiny Honda Insight Hybrid of maybe 20 years ago never got beyond a little over 70 MPG and it was definitely an outlier.
One major problem I see with reducing "passenger car" emissions (which includes pickups) is that these things are getting bigger and heavier, increasing emissions for vehicles running off of fossil fuel-generated electricity. Pickups weigh up to around 9,500 lbs, which is just crazy, and which is going to put a lot of rubber into peoples' lungs as the weight wears the rubber off of the tires. Even cars, which used to max out in the high 3000s, now routinely get well over 4k,and often above 5k.
On the other hand, the passenger car category only generates 16% of US CO2 emissions.
We do need high standards for home insulation, and an end to the US of oil and gas for space heating. But heat pumps are expensive.
We also need an end to fossil fuel powered electricity. (Solar is very inexpensive now, cheaper than anything else.)
And we in the US--the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita GH emissions--need to quit growing our population. Unfortunately, the Census Bureau projects nearly one NY State population equivalent in growth per decade over the next four, 90% from immigration. And immigration is not like shifting deck chairs on the Titanic. The average immigrant's GH emissions rise fourfold after arrival in the US, becuase they come from third world countries, where per capita emissions are low. And putting more people not only means they will be consuming like Americans, but their presence here will generate more sprawl and more roads, etc. When virgin land is coopted for almost anything else--including farmland--the massive amounts of greenhouse gases sequestered in the vegetation and the soil get released to the atmosphere. A lose-lose for the planet.
I had a 1975 Honda Civic CVCC. The engine was a development from a 1927 design for an aircraft engine. It ran so clean that it didn't have to have any smog devices on it to pass smog inspection here in California. I got 42mpg in town and 52mpg on the highway running up and down the Central Valley for business. Interestingly enough, it was so well designed ergnomically that four six-footers could sit in it for a 3-4 hour drive (we did it several times) without feeling they were in a sardine can, but it was definitely a small car. I liked it the best of any car I've ever had. When US mechanics proved they didn't know how to service it, I bought the service manual - about the size of the LA phone book, with every job to be done on it shown with photos of what to look for and what to do, a list of tools needed, etc. I became a mechanic (and liked the work) and did my own tune-ups (when you could do that with a car) and even did a new valve head gasket replacement - just following the instructions and looking at the photos. Unfortunately it was once parked near a freeway offramp and an idiot came off too fast, lost control and went straight into it. I was sad boy, believe me.
Gotta confess. I rode round trip on the backseat hump from Richmond, Va to Atlantic City, circa 1979, with 4 basketball players, same car. It was pretty damn comfortable. Getting the driver out of the casino at 4 am was not. Ah, memories!
I have a 2003 Honda Civic EX. I don't drive a lot (especially since Covid struck), so it's got just over 37,000 miles on it. Yes, I didn't leave out a digit. I get only about 25-27 mpg, but it's a ULEV vehicle. What I love most about it is its BIG WINDOWS, with great visibility, which little 4'-10" me likes a lot. It is garaged. Its {damn AutoIncorrect for ALWAYS changing "its" to "it's" after I've proofread my posts before hitting Save!)—Its color is Radiant Ruby Pearl, a pretty maroon/burgundy. It needs to get to the hand-wash carwash once pollen season is over. But it looks showroom new, so much so that several years ago, when a teenager sideswiped me, the insurance guy on the phone told me that cars towed to the lot it had been brought to invariably were totaled. I begged and pleaded, but he seemed unyielding, until he called a day later to say, "There's no way I'm gonna total that car." As you can imagine, what little driving I do (never at night or in the rain if I can avoid it), I do very, very carefully because of all the effing idiots on the road.
I looked up the '75 Civic. In DC, I owned a duplex, and in the late '80s had tenants with one of those. Alas, I can't remember when I last saw one of them, but probably not since before I moved to Massachusetts in '99. I'm keeping my eyes peeled.
I do have an '08 Civic (stick) which I love. It's got 151k on it, still runs like when I bought it with 35k, gets close to 40mpg on the road, and barring mishaps, I plan to keep it as long as I drive, and I'm doing everything I can to keep driving as long as I live.
I've never bought a car. or actually, I bought ONE car, which was a very old Honda; so old that when I pulled into a gas station, I'd say "check the gas and fill the oil." my other cars were all hand-me-downs. I had a Toyota Cressida from 1981, which I loved. then a Volvo with that fucking 240 Turbo engine which was so terrible, it was discontinued after a few years. the last one was my father's Civic, which was a wonderful, wonderful car. virtually trouble-free. my friend Danny leased Civics for many years (fully loaded, so not especially cheap, but he's got the money) and never had any trouble. one year, he decided he was flush enough to go a more luxurious route and bought a Lexus...and his experience was disastrous. he'd bring it in for whatever checkup was scheduled and they ALWAYS found at least a thousand bucks that just HAD to be spent.
my building's super (and close friend) has the Great American Flaw of liking big, expensive cars (and he's got a big family, so once upon a time, there was a reason for the big, never for the "expensive"). and of course, he's owned by his Land Rover, which he says is designed to be a big, wonderful toy ( to which I usually reply that any toy with that kind of price tag is a toy that's not worth buying). at least I talked him out of a Tesla (the motherfuckers crunched his numbers, said he could do a financing thing, "accepted" his application for the $100 fee and then told him that no, they couldn't but that he was welcome to apply again for another non-refundable hundred bucks). I told him that since he's not the sort of guy who can wipe his ass with hundred dollar bills, he should not consider a Tesla, and I think he was convinced.
when I'm outside, I find that the number of big, heavy four-wheel-drive vehicles just seems to be increasing. it's very depressing. it just seems like most people just don't get it. the two or three times I've tried to drive one of those things, all I could think about was how much I didn't want to be driving it.
but then I'm also the guy who, in the late '60s, would drive my parents' little red Datsun all over town loaded with six average-sized guys (myself included) tripping on acid, so perhaps my judgment about matters pertaining to driving is a tad questionable.
I do, however, still maintain that when I was driving under that particular influence, I was the best driver alive. just like those pitchers who pitched perfect games on acid...
I think I just got carried away. but at least I didn't have to think about Naomi Wolf....
It is entirely possible the company involved "massaged" their numbers. They were called Unique Mobility back in the mid-80s, but are long gone, swallowed up by a much larger shark. Nonetheless, the technology was interesting - the vehicles were powered entirely by electric motors they designed (8 lbs, 40 HP) which were mounted in the wheels. Power for the motors came from a very small IC engine (probably a diesel) which was tuned to run most efficiently at a certain speed and load range. Its sole job was to run the alternators that powered the motors and charged the reserve battery (much smaller than the batteries in most EVs) - there was no direct mechanical connection between the IC engine and the drive train. Regenerative braking also recharged the batteries. With more modern computerized control systems, a scheme like this could be viable as a way to design vehicles to use much less fossil fuel until we develop a new technology that will be better. It is true that the 'acromegaly' affecting our cars and pickups is not helping. As you know, a major problem with trying to solve climate change is that the worst effects are likely more in the future (though recently, the pace of destruction makes this view questionable), so the politicians figure it will be someone else's problem.....
The US is almost unique among the developed nations in having an increasing population. The problem with cutting immigration is that we need the immigrants to do the jobs Americans no longer will do. The boomers are getting older and in a decade or so, will begin 'exiting stage left'..... Most of the developed world suffers from a declining population - China alone is expected to lose up to half its current population by 2050, the result of the "one child" policy and industrialization. The current birth rate for major Chinese cities averages 0.7 children per woman per lifetime, only 1/3 the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman. China no longer has enough young women of child-bearing age to rebuild its population. Russia is also on a serious downward trend in population, which the current war will not help. Most of Europe, except France, has been facing population decline for some decades. We will have to develop a new economic paradigm to deal with a declining and contracting global economy - there's a Nobel Prize for the people who do it first.....
That notion that there are jobs Americans won't do is BS. You need to read, Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth. The book is solid, covering the academic economic history, black periodicals, statements from black leaders, and gov't commissions on immigration reform, including Barbara Jordan's commission under Clinton (she was the black Texas Democrat who made her name on the Judiciary Committee during Watergate).
An example from the book: in 1980, meat packers were predominantly black. They earned good middle class wages, having organized since the '20s. By that decade's end, meat packers were predominantly immigrants, earning barely above minimum wage under atrocious conditions.
The author interviewed a bunch of black poultry workers who'd lost their jobs to immigrants on the Eastern Shore. Would they take their jobs back if they could? No, they told him. With the wages the plant was paying, they'd have to sleep in their cars, or many to a room.
Contrary to popular belief, big biz GOPers favor more immigration because they like the cheap labor. It's econ 101 that an oversupply of any resource devalues that resource. Which is why Z'berg with his fwd.US and the Koch organization push for more immigration.
I interviewed Tom Tancredo (R-CO), in the '90s and '00s the primary exponent on Capitol Hill of reducing immigration. He told me tht two fast food execs spent an hour trying to buy him off of the issue, that they'd keep his coffers filled if he'd quit talking about immigration. (He wasn't for sale.)
Incidentally, China ended the one child policy in 2016. The current birthrate is 1.705 per woman, a slight increase over the last few years. The birthrate remains low due to the cost of raising children in cities. The birthrate in the US per woman is 1.782. Nonetheless, the Census Bureau projects that over the next 40 years the US will see 7.5 million in native increase, along with 68 million due to immigration, for a total increase of nearly four New York State population equivalents.
And we certainly do need a new economic paradigm, one that deemphasizes stuff and emphasizes the importance of human relationships and happiness.
I think that most people are still operating under the very old impression that renewable energy remains very expensive and isn't remotely able to fill our need for POWER. the fact that the fossil fuel industry spends billions on making sure that people still believe this is obviously a big part of the problem.
A friend who works in politics said they spend billions of dollars in advertising to try to win over 5% of the population. This is a reminder that he's right.
Your last paragraph. That's what it will come down to. Reproductive rights will turn out the youth vote. Willow will keep them home.
The Biden decision to allow Willow to go forward was his greatest career mistake. Even if it meant endless court battles, he should have stood tall and said stick it up your butt big oil. NOTHING is more important to Gen Y and Z.
Regarding the approval of drilling in the Willow oil fields, Biden has not done a good job explaining his rationale. Conoco Phillips acquired the leases back in 1999 and the company has complied with all the requirements set by the Bureau of Land Management, so a denial would most assuredly send CP to court where they would probably prevail. Second, transitioning from fossil to renewables takes time, and the cost of oil and gas is being driven hard by inflation and, yes, greed right now, and Biden could characterize his approval as being based on bringing down inflation. Of course the actual product is years away from delivery, but that's not the point. And while Trump's Bureau of Land Management approved 5 drill pads, Biden's BLM is holding it down to 3.
All of this is in the weeds stuff, but can be communicated to young voters. The activists may lose in court because of Conoco Phillips pre-existing lease rights.
I know this is a comment to a “Fine Mess” entry a couple back, but I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read your concluding remarks, TC.
“As I read this, it seems to me that the area where Democrats need to concentrate their GOTV efforts in all districts is in increasing the voting percentage of younger voters under 30-35.” ….. “For that youth demographic overall, approving the Willows oil field drilling in Alaska is not the way for Democrats to reach them. And denying reproductive choice is not the way for Republicans to make gains there.”
Being part of Florida state politics and, in this case, close to the New College of Florida takeover by DeSantis and his band of white Christian nationalist punks, I find an unsettling parallel to how Repubs think to get the GenZ vote to survive.
Well, DeSantis has let the cat out of the bag… a bit early methinks. His attack on public education and setting a standard for other authoritarian Republican Governors and legislatures makes one thing clear. It is not about book bans, CRT, school board elections turning partisan by party declaration, or any other dog whistle. The clear intent is to establish the pipeline to instill indoctrinated thinking in our university students. Where many young voters reside. And to create a university system ready to receive public education senior students who have been under attack from the time they enter school as 4-5 yr olds.
It is so Nazi Germany youth indoctrination to preserve authoritarian rule for decades.
This community is reeling at the speed in which it has been accomplished at New College.
It has stirred objection at the core where DeSantis dare not tread. And foolishly has. His assumption that public education will rollover passively is a career ending miscalculation. For quite a few seeking re-election or a new office in ‘24.
What a fascinating look at the voting demographic breakdowns. For sure, the whole Conoco project is not the way to go. Young people know the planet's survival, while humans are still on it, is at stake. The next 10 years will make a huge difference. Most of us older folks won't be around by then, so we better do all we can to support the work of environmentalists now. Political parties are always trying to figure out how to cut the cake so that everyone gets a piece. But usually only the fat guys get the big pieces. So what that Conoco Phillips has had the leases for years? This deal is bad for the environment but lets the polluters and the planet killers keep killing, rather than directing our attention to renewables and weaning ourselves from fossil fuels. I'm convinced the Iraq war was about fossil fuels which Cheney wanted to secure for Haliburton. Oh well - that's 20 years ago, and look where we are now.
Important information here. I haven’t seen it elsewhere.
To a certain extent the GQP seems to have internalized these findings. For example, most will say they are against touching Social Security and Medicare, and tout new infrastructure developments in their district, even though they actively work for opposite results, yet they also genuinely deliver on the culture war schtick. So the Lo-Los can feel like they are being economically protected and know that blacks and gays are being bashed. However the Democrats can’t play the same game. That is, really work for preserving the economic safety net but pretend to bash minorities while not lifting a finger against minorities? Major demographics of Democratic electoral support would not tolerate it. And bashing, even if it’s just an act, still has a deleterious effects on society. It’s quite a pickle.
Interesting info leading me to research my Red county’s data.Considered overall low diversity(<30%) although 40% minority in schools and income almost “hi” .So I guess we’re lo-ish/hi-ish.
We have over 600,000 residents. Dems and Independents almost = with Repubs ~ 40% of reg voters. Last election we had slight increase in Independents voting Dem, at least for some candidates.Perhaps if Elon keeps IT( idiotic tweeting) up it will turn off some of those overworked, millennial SpaceXers here..or not.
My millennial “adopted” Rep and her 600 + vols in neighboring county are boots on the ground almost every day…registering voters at events and colleges, organizing voter reg bootcamps, rallying+++ s. Now in her third term she continues to accept no corporate donations. This is what it takes.
I wonder how the increasing numbers of independent voters figure into the 4 categories of voters. In the last election here in Colorado, quite a lot of people changed from GOP or Dem to unaffiliated.
Hopeful news is the big push by League of Women Voters to register young people in high school. Excellent program!
https://www.lwv.org/educating-voters/high-school-voter-registration
They're being denied the opportunity to do that in Florida on grounds they are "partisan."
😡🤬🤬
Grrrrrrrrr. Fascist playbook.
“The league revealed that it had been denied permission by the Florida Department of Management Services to hold an outdoor rally on the steps of the Old Capitol in Tallahassee under a new DeSantis administration rule requiring groups to first get sponsorship from a sympathetic state agency.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/florida-roadblocks-league-of-women-voters
😡🤬😡🤬
#@$&!%!
This is a really good and necessary analysis - it is good to know the damage that has been done to the American Experiment. I believe the current system of primaries is to blame, under the current system. In most primaries, it ids the most dedicated and often extreme voters who participate, and that tends to skew toward the more extreme candidates and positions (helped of course by the likes of Fox News and One America). If we are to hold primaries from now on, we must find a way to eliminate the really dangerous zealots by broadening the field as much as possible. Ranked-choice voting in primaries would go a long way to restoring a sense of the middle in our elections, as would open primaries in which members of both parties AND independent voters would vote in a general primary to arrive at the candidates running in the general election. Our current path promises only further division.....
All solid points.
I think ranked choice voting would be the single most effective thing we could do to moderate our politics.
I find it ironic that in the lo-lo districts where the R's cultivate the culture wars, those R's don't do a damn thing to improve the well being of the people in their districts. They hop to the directions of their large donors and line their pockets.
They hate libtards, which is the most important factor in any election in the past 30 years, maybe longer. (Obama win may be the exception, but racism likely overtook libtard hate, after all said and done). Thanks to the Rush and Rupert duo…
I'm afraid if you improve the well being of the people in those districts in terms of the quality of their schools you might transform the area away from being such fertile Republican turf.
Which is why the Republican governors of Florida and Virginia work so hard to harm public education or make public education a key venue for culture war tropes.
Let us hope that Biden’s decision to greenlight the Willow project will not turn so many young voters against the Democrats that they can’t expect to win coming elections. To me, even acknowledging his rationales, it was a colossal mistake, for the party and for the planet.
Yes indeed.
I’ve been wondering if they’re cooking something up with Murkowski.
She owes Biden, big time.....hopefully, something good will come out of this. As an aside, as much as we wish for cleaner air and a cooler planet, it is much more difficult than you can imagine. First, there are almost a billion cars and trucks in the world running on diesel or gasoline - they are not going away because no one has the money to replace them quickly (in some developing countries, old cars and trucks are the norm), so many of them will be around for 15-20 years. Second, with current technology (and there is much research to alleviate this), there simply is not enough of the rare earth metals and minerals to build out an all-electric transportation system. We will have to do a great deal of mitigation and carbon capture at scale and in the short term settle for very high-mileage cars and trucks, which is possible. In the 1980s, there were companies making true hybrids capable of reaching 90-95 MPG for a compact car and perhaps 45-50 MPG for trucks - regrettably, for whatever reason, they dd not take hold back then and so here we are. We can do better, and need to......
I have no recollection of any hybrid cars in the '80s getting anywhere near 90-95 MPG, and I follow this stuff. Or 45-50 for trucks. Even the tiny Honda Insight Hybrid of maybe 20 years ago never got beyond a little over 70 MPG and it was definitely an outlier.
One major problem I see with reducing "passenger car" emissions (which includes pickups) is that these things are getting bigger and heavier, increasing emissions for vehicles running off of fossil fuel-generated electricity. Pickups weigh up to around 9,500 lbs, which is just crazy, and which is going to put a lot of rubber into peoples' lungs as the weight wears the rubber off of the tires. Even cars, which used to max out in the high 3000s, now routinely get well over 4k,and often above 5k.
On the other hand, the passenger car category only generates 16% of US CO2 emissions.
We do need high standards for home insulation, and an end to the US of oil and gas for space heating. But heat pumps are expensive.
We also need an end to fossil fuel powered electricity. (Solar is very inexpensive now, cheaper than anything else.)
And we in the US--the major industrialized nation with the greatest per capita GH emissions--need to quit growing our population. Unfortunately, the Census Bureau projects nearly one NY State population equivalent in growth per decade over the next four, 90% from immigration. And immigration is not like shifting deck chairs on the Titanic. The average immigrant's GH emissions rise fourfold after arrival in the US, becuase they come from third world countries, where per capita emissions are low. And putting more people not only means they will be consuming like Americans, but their presence here will generate more sprawl and more roads, etc. When virgin land is coopted for almost anything else--including farmland--the massive amounts of greenhouse gases sequestered in the vegetation and the soil get released to the atmosphere. A lose-lose for the planet.
Here's my article on that phenomenon: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2430251/
I had a 1975 Honda Civic CVCC. The engine was a development from a 1927 design for an aircraft engine. It ran so clean that it didn't have to have any smog devices on it to pass smog inspection here in California. I got 42mpg in town and 52mpg on the highway running up and down the Central Valley for business. Interestingly enough, it was so well designed ergnomically that four six-footers could sit in it for a 3-4 hour drive (we did it several times) without feeling they were in a sardine can, but it was definitely a small car. I liked it the best of any car I've ever had. When US mechanics proved they didn't know how to service it, I bought the service manual - about the size of the LA phone book, with every job to be done on it shown with photos of what to look for and what to do, a list of tools needed, etc. I became a mechanic (and liked the work) and did my own tune-ups (when you could do that with a car) and even did a new valve head gasket replacement - just following the instructions and looking at the photos. Unfortunately it was once parked near a freeway offramp and an idiot came off too fast, lost control and went straight into it. I was sad boy, believe me.
Gotta confess. I rode round trip on the backseat hump from Richmond, Va to Atlantic City, circa 1979, with 4 basketball players, same car. It was pretty damn comfortable. Getting the driver out of the casino at 4 am was not. Ah, memories!
I have a 2003 Honda Civic EX. I don't drive a lot (especially since Covid struck), so it's got just over 37,000 miles on it. Yes, I didn't leave out a digit. I get only about 25-27 mpg, but it's a ULEV vehicle. What I love most about it is its BIG WINDOWS, with great visibility, which little 4'-10" me likes a lot. It is garaged. Its {damn AutoIncorrect for ALWAYS changing "its" to "it's" after I've proofread my posts before hitting Save!)—Its color is Radiant Ruby Pearl, a pretty maroon/burgundy. It needs to get to the hand-wash carwash once pollen season is over. But it looks showroom new, so much so that several years ago, when a teenager sideswiped me, the insurance guy on the phone told me that cars towed to the lot it had been brought to invariably were totaled. I begged and pleaded, but he seemed unyielding, until he called a day later to say, "There's no way I'm gonna total that car." As you can imagine, what little driving I do (never at night or in the rain if I can avoid it), I do very, very carefully because of all the effing idiots on the road.
I looked up the '75 Civic. In DC, I owned a duplex, and in the late '80s had tenants with one of those. Alas, I can't remember when I last saw one of them, but probably not since before I moved to Massachusetts in '99. I'm keeping my eyes peeled.
I do have an '08 Civic (stick) which I love. It's got 151k on it, still runs like when I bought it with 35k, gets close to 40mpg on the road, and barring mishaps, I plan to keep it as long as I drive, and I'm doing everything I can to keep driving as long as I live.
I've never bought a car. or actually, I bought ONE car, which was a very old Honda; so old that when I pulled into a gas station, I'd say "check the gas and fill the oil." my other cars were all hand-me-downs. I had a Toyota Cressida from 1981, which I loved. then a Volvo with that fucking 240 Turbo engine which was so terrible, it was discontinued after a few years. the last one was my father's Civic, which was a wonderful, wonderful car. virtually trouble-free. my friend Danny leased Civics for many years (fully loaded, so not especially cheap, but he's got the money) and never had any trouble. one year, he decided he was flush enough to go a more luxurious route and bought a Lexus...and his experience was disastrous. he'd bring it in for whatever checkup was scheduled and they ALWAYS found at least a thousand bucks that just HAD to be spent.
my building's super (and close friend) has the Great American Flaw of liking big, expensive cars (and he's got a big family, so once upon a time, there was a reason for the big, never for the "expensive"). and of course, he's owned by his Land Rover, which he says is designed to be a big, wonderful toy ( to which I usually reply that any toy with that kind of price tag is a toy that's not worth buying). at least I talked him out of a Tesla (the motherfuckers crunched his numbers, said he could do a financing thing, "accepted" his application for the $100 fee and then told him that no, they couldn't but that he was welcome to apply again for another non-refundable hundred bucks). I told him that since he's not the sort of guy who can wipe his ass with hundred dollar bills, he should not consider a Tesla, and I think he was convinced.
when I'm outside, I find that the number of big, heavy four-wheel-drive vehicles just seems to be increasing. it's very depressing. it just seems like most people just don't get it. the two or three times I've tried to drive one of those things, all I could think about was how much I didn't want to be driving it.
but then I'm also the guy who, in the late '60s, would drive my parents' little red Datsun all over town loaded with six average-sized guys (myself included) tripping on acid, so perhaps my judgment about matters pertaining to driving is a tad questionable.
I do, however, still maintain that when I was driving under that particular influence, I was the best driver alive. just like those pitchers who pitched perfect games on acid...
I think I just got carried away. but at least I didn't have to think about Naomi Wolf....
I do remember hearing about Hondas running this clean, and this frugally.
It is entirely possible the company involved "massaged" their numbers. They were called Unique Mobility back in the mid-80s, but are long gone, swallowed up by a much larger shark. Nonetheless, the technology was interesting - the vehicles were powered entirely by electric motors they designed (8 lbs, 40 HP) which were mounted in the wheels. Power for the motors came from a very small IC engine (probably a diesel) which was tuned to run most efficiently at a certain speed and load range. Its sole job was to run the alternators that powered the motors and charged the reserve battery (much smaller than the batteries in most EVs) - there was no direct mechanical connection between the IC engine and the drive train. Regenerative braking also recharged the batteries. With more modern computerized control systems, a scheme like this could be viable as a way to design vehicles to use much less fossil fuel until we develop a new technology that will be better. It is true that the 'acromegaly' affecting our cars and pickups is not helping. As you know, a major problem with trying to solve climate change is that the worst effects are likely more in the future (though recently, the pace of destruction makes this view questionable), so the politicians figure it will be someone else's problem.....
The US is almost unique among the developed nations in having an increasing population. The problem with cutting immigration is that we need the immigrants to do the jobs Americans no longer will do. The boomers are getting older and in a decade or so, will begin 'exiting stage left'..... Most of the developed world suffers from a declining population - China alone is expected to lose up to half its current population by 2050, the result of the "one child" policy and industrialization. The current birth rate for major Chinese cities averages 0.7 children per woman per lifetime, only 1/3 the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman. China no longer has enough young women of child-bearing age to rebuild its population. Russia is also on a serious downward trend in population, which the current war will not help. Most of Europe, except France, has been facing population decline for some decades. We will have to develop a new economic paradigm to deal with a declining and contracting global economy - there's a Nobel Prize for the people who do it first.....
That notion that there are jobs Americans won't do is BS. You need to read, Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth. The book is solid, covering the academic economic history, black periodicals, statements from black leaders, and gov't commissions on immigration reform, including Barbara Jordan's commission under Clinton (she was the black Texas Democrat who made her name on the Judiciary Committee during Watergate).
An example from the book: in 1980, meat packers were predominantly black. They earned good middle class wages, having organized since the '20s. By that decade's end, meat packers were predominantly immigrants, earning barely above minimum wage under atrocious conditions.
The author interviewed a bunch of black poultry workers who'd lost their jobs to immigrants on the Eastern Shore. Would they take their jobs back if they could? No, they told him. With the wages the plant was paying, they'd have to sleep in their cars, or many to a room.
Contrary to popular belief, big biz GOPers favor more immigration because they like the cheap labor. It's econ 101 that an oversupply of any resource devalues that resource. Which is why Z'berg with his fwd.US and the Koch organization push for more immigration.
I interviewed Tom Tancredo (R-CO), in the '90s and '00s the primary exponent on Capitol Hill of reducing immigration. He told me tht two fast food execs spent an hour trying to buy him off of the issue, that they'd keep his coffers filled if he'd quit talking about immigration. (He wasn't for sale.)
Incidentally, China ended the one child policy in 2016. The current birthrate is 1.705 per woman, a slight increase over the last few years. The birthrate remains low due to the cost of raising children in cities. The birthrate in the US per woman is 1.782. Nonetheless, the Census Bureau projects that over the next 40 years the US will see 7.5 million in native increase, along with 68 million due to immigration, for a total increase of nearly four New York State population equivalents.
And we certainly do need a new economic paradigm, one that deemphasizes stuff and emphasizes the importance of human relationships and happiness.
I think that most people are still operating under the very old impression that renewable energy remains very expensive and isn't remotely able to fill our need for POWER. the fact that the fossil fuel industry spends billions on making sure that people still believe this is obviously a big part of the problem.
solar electricity is now even cheaper than natural gas.
A friend who works in politics said they spend billions of dollars in advertising to try to win over 5% of the population. This is a reminder that he's right.
My gast is still flabbered that ANY Repub would vote for chump again. Besides MAGAts of course…
But when winning means stopping at nothing for the power to rule ALL of us, all repubs are MAGAts. And HST was right, there is no “good” republican
Your last paragraph. That's what it will come down to. Reproductive rights will turn out the youth vote. Willow will keep them home.
The Biden decision to allow Willow to go forward was his greatest career mistake. Even if it meant endless court battles, he should have stood tall and said stick it up your butt big oil. NOTHING is more important to Gen Y and Z.
Regarding the approval of drilling in the Willow oil fields, Biden has not done a good job explaining his rationale. Conoco Phillips acquired the leases back in 1999 and the company has complied with all the requirements set by the Bureau of Land Management, so a denial would most assuredly send CP to court where they would probably prevail. Second, transitioning from fossil to renewables takes time, and the cost of oil and gas is being driven hard by inflation and, yes, greed right now, and Biden could characterize his approval as being based on bringing down inflation. Of course the actual product is years away from delivery, but that's not the point. And while Trump's Bureau of Land Management approved 5 drill pads, Biden's BLM is holding it down to 3.
All of this is in the weeds stuff, but can be communicated to young voters. The activists may lose in court because of Conoco Phillips pre-existing lease rights.
Clever that gerrymandering. Cleaver the result.
I laughed out loud.
I know this is a comment to a “Fine Mess” entry a couple back, but I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read your concluding remarks, TC.
“As I read this, it seems to me that the area where Democrats need to concentrate their GOTV efforts in all districts is in increasing the voting percentage of younger voters under 30-35.” ….. “For that youth demographic overall, approving the Willows oil field drilling in Alaska is not the way for Democrats to reach them. And denying reproductive choice is not the way for Republicans to make gains there.”
Being part of Florida state politics and, in this case, close to the New College of Florida takeover by DeSantis and his band of white Christian nationalist punks, I find an unsettling parallel to how Repubs think to get the GenZ vote to survive.
Well, DeSantis has let the cat out of the bag… a bit early methinks. His attack on public education and setting a standard for other authoritarian Republican Governors and legislatures makes one thing clear. It is not about book bans, CRT, school board elections turning partisan by party declaration, or any other dog whistle. The clear intent is to establish the pipeline to instill indoctrinated thinking in our university students. Where many young voters reside. And to create a university system ready to receive public education senior students who have been under attack from the time they enter school as 4-5 yr olds.
It is so Nazi Germany youth indoctrination to preserve authoritarian rule for decades.
This community is reeling at the speed in which it has been accomplished at New College.
It has stirred objection at the core where DeSantis dare not tread. And foolishly has. His assumption that public education will rollover passively is a career ending miscalculation. For quite a few seeking re-election or a new office in ‘24.
Appreciation always for all you share, TC.
Salud.
🗽
What a fascinating look at the voting demographic breakdowns. For sure, the whole Conoco project is not the way to go. Young people know the planet's survival, while humans are still on it, is at stake. The next 10 years will make a huge difference. Most of us older folks won't be around by then, so we better do all we can to support the work of environmentalists now. Political parties are always trying to figure out how to cut the cake so that everyone gets a piece. But usually only the fat guys get the big pieces. So what that Conoco Phillips has had the leases for years? This deal is bad for the environment but lets the polluters and the planet killers keep killing, rather than directing our attention to renewables and weaning ourselves from fossil fuels. I'm convinced the Iraq war was about fossil fuels which Cheney wanted to secure for Haliburton. Oh well - that's 20 years ago, and look where we are now.
Important information here. I haven’t seen it elsewhere.
To a certain extent the GQP seems to have internalized these findings. For example, most will say they are against touching Social Security and Medicare, and tout new infrastructure developments in their district, even though they actively work for opposite results, yet they also genuinely deliver on the culture war schtick. So the Lo-Los can feel like they are being economically protected and know that blacks and gays are being bashed. However the Democrats can’t play the same game. That is, really work for preserving the economic safety net but pretend to bash minorities while not lifting a finger against minorities? Major demographics of Democratic electoral support would not tolerate it. And bashing, even if it’s just an act, still has a deleterious effects on society. It’s quite a pickle.
This was fascinating and illuminating. Thanks!
Interesting info leading me to research my Red county’s data.Considered overall low diversity(<30%) although 40% minority in schools and income almost “hi” .So I guess we’re lo-ish/hi-ish.
We have over 600,000 residents. Dems and Independents almost = with Repubs ~ 40% of reg voters. Last election we had slight increase in Independents voting Dem, at least for some candidates.Perhaps if Elon keeps IT( idiotic tweeting) up it will turn off some of those overworked, millennial SpaceXers here..or not.
My millennial “adopted” Rep and her 600 + vols in neighboring county are boots on the ground almost every day…registering voters at events and colleges, organizing voter reg bootcamps, rallying+++ s. Now in her third term she continues to accept no corporate donations. This is what it takes.
I wonder how the increasing numbers of independent voters figure into the 4 categories of voters. In the last election here in Colorado, quite a lot of people changed from GOP or Dem to unaffiliated.