This time it is not news of wildfires or mudslides or earthquakes…..nothing as a natural disaster but rather the possibility of an economic disaster (if you believe what the naysayers are on about)……
The state of California has moved to ban gas powered cars….this ought to set the GOP’s hair on fire…..here is what is reported…
California has followed up its move to phase out gas-powered mowers with an even more ambitious goal—phasing out gas-powered cars. The California Air Resources Board voted Thursday in favor of banning the sale of new gas-powered cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs by 2035, the AP reports. After that date, people will still be able to drive older gas-powered vehicles, but the state will only allow the sale of new electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles, plus a limited number of plug-in hybrids. More:
- Newsom wants to make the tailpipe obsolete. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who first announced the plan in 2020, tells the New York Times that the move is “one of the most significant steps to the elimination of the tailpipe as we know it.” “Our kids are going to act like it’s a rotary phone, or changing the channel on a television,” he says.
- Other states are likely to follow suit. California is the nation’s biggest buyer of vehicles, and the move will have a big effect on other states. Washington and Massachusetts have already announced plans to follow suit, and another 15 states follow California’s emissions rules, which are tougher than federal rules. “Automakers don’t like making different cars for different states, so California sets the de facto standard for the country and other parts of the world,” Vox notes.
- Auto industry is on the same page. While there are massive production challenges ahead, including sourcing enough raw materials for batteries and expanding charging networks, major US auto makers and their overseas counterparts are moving in the same direction as California and are spending tens of billions of dollars to expand their electric vehicle offerings, reports the New York Times. Ford wants 40% of its vehicles to be electric by 2030 and Volkswagen plans to phase out gas-powered vehicles in Europe by 2035 at the latest.
Pushback. The California rule, called the CARB Advanced Clean Cars II rule, still requires a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency. While the Biden administration has signaled it will be granted, opponents are urging the EPA to reconsider. Reuters reports the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers trade association urged the administration Thursday to reject the “unlawful ban,” saying granting the waiver “would hand over sweeping federal government authority to California regulators, effectively appointing Governor Newsom and CARB as car and truck czars for the entire United States.”
This ought to fire up the fear mongers….more ammo for the naysayers…..
But has anyone stop to think about the draw on electric grid if we all go electric?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
People in the lower economic classes … the poor and nearly poor, the lower, middle and upper middle classes .. will have to revert to motorized scooters and bicycles because none of them will be able to afford all electric vehicles …the average monthly electric bill will double and triple as consumers are required to pay for all the improvements in the electric grid …thus adding to the ranks of the already poverty-stricken ….but it will help the environment … no doubt of that…
It may not even help the environment. Calling a technology clean does not make it clean. Look at how windmills, solar panels, and lithium batteries are made, mostly in China, which is really concerned about the environment, right? Do you think the producers of these things design them with recycling in mind?
Most of people in Congress are lawyers. They know very little science, but they know how to acquire power and influence. For the sake of power and influence, Democrat politicians want to choose the winners and losers in our economy. That’s what Socialists do, and their corrupt politics just make bigger messes.
Most of the treasured programs designed for the public benefit in America — public schools — the highway system — the postal service — social security — and many more are more or less socialist in nature. The United States loves these socialist style programs and has defended them for decades. Better to be a socialist-leaning democrat than a fascist leaning Republican in the best of scenarios.
I will agree that after decade after decade of public school instruction that America leans Socialist. That is why totalitarians insist upon instructing children in their ideology. Such instruction leads to this problem.
Can you explain the difference between a Socialist, and Democrat politicians don’t just lean Socialist, and a Fascist?
Let’s start with “Socialist.” And, by the way, Democrats do not believe that everything should be controlled by government contrary to what radical conservatives like to claim …the real definition for socialist is: ”
A socialist is someone who supports a political or economic philosophy that says society as a whole, rather than private companies, should own or control various goods and services. The word socialist has become so politicized that it can be hard to define accurately. — Now as to defining “Fascism” — ”
: a political system headed by a dictator in which the government controls business and labor and opposition is not permitted. — something on the order of what Viktor Orban, (The new love child of the Republicans) and Duerte and a few others (Putin is a really smart guy) — in the mold of Trump and his adoring hordes.
The Democratic Party believes in Socialism the same way it believes in safe but rare abortion.
When the state controls the assets of a country, especially the means of production, through whatever means those in charge prefer, that is either Socialism, Fascism, Communism or some such thing. The latest buzz word is what the Democratic Party calls Progressivism.
The fake news media fakes communicating. I asked you the difference between Socialism and Fascism. You don’t know so you insult. There is no difference between the extreme Left and the extreme Right. Communists and Nazis are both totalitarian. Who represents the “Moderates” in the middle? Socialists? That’s nonsense.
The political spectrum is better represented by the amount of control government exercises over a society. Anarchy is at one extreme and totalitarianism is at the other extreme. A moderate amount of government, which is historically rare, is best represented by a republic. Most Americans, unfortunately, don’t even know what a republic is, and that is by design.
I don’t know Viktor Orban or Duerte, but I didn’t know what QAnon was either until I heard enough Liberal Democrats obsessing over it. It would help if people like you would debate the issues instead of dragging out every fake conspiracy theory the fake news media can inflate out of proportion.
The list of fake news media conspiracy theories associated with Donald Trump alone is astounding.
You don’t like Donald Trump? So, you voted for the guy who campaigned from his basement instead? And you like what he is doing?
After four years with Trump in charge, I don’t think I have to explain why I voted for Trump instead of Biden. The notion the adults are back in charge is a joke.
Fact is you cannot defend your vote. So, you lash out with insults. The fake news media does the same thing. That’s why almost all the so-called Republicans on the fake news media are fakes. No serious debate is allowed.
Do yourself a favor. Debate.
Do yourself a favor … get a life. I am done with the likes of you. Please absent yourself and go about your fantasies. I am not interested in living in an Orwellian world dominated by the likes of the right wing.
A Liberal Democrat who is not interested in living in an Orwellian world dominated by the likes of the right wing? Yet you cannot explain how the Right and the Left wings differ. Must be immune to irony.
To be honest with you I am well enough situated in life that the only thing that matters to me is my bottom line. I can weather any political storm. And the mundane details do not matter to me at all.
Have you not heard? The devil is in the details. You have forgotten an important one.
Read Luke 12:13-21.
I love your enthusiasm, Tom, but may I remind you that Abraham was a very wealthy man and it was God who made him so, and you and I, if we are Christians, we share in the Abrahamic covenant …Therefore even if it is harder for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than the rich man, nowhere does Jesus say that it is impossible for the rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In fact, God desires that we be in good health and “Prosper.” He has kept his covenant with me very well. By the way, thanks for following my blog. I will now return the favor.
You are welcome, and thank you.
In this case I think Job is a better example than Abraham. Job’s wealth was not his salvation, not even in an earthly sense.
Does God want us to be in good health and to prosper? I think that depends upon our spiritual needs and how God chooses to use us. The Apostle Paul prayed for some undefined disability to be cured, and God refused. Eventually, Paul understood that he served our Lord better with that disability than without.
Money is not evil. The love of money is wrong. Neither Abraham nor Job looked to their wealth for protection. They used their wealth in obedience to God. They understood God is our fortress, is the rock upon which we must stand.
The Left wing works for the benefit of the lower classes as well as for the upper classes but with more emphasis on programs to help all citizens of all classes whereas the right wing works primarily for the enrichment of the already wealthy and works diligently to deny the lower classes help where and when help is needed the most.
The right wing is so hypocritical — Their great icon, Reagan was a victim of a memory and cognition-destroying affliction while in office, yet the same right wingers choose to overlook that detail when they are calling Joe Biden such names as demented or mentally weak. The right wing complains about giving student loan relief while at the same time applauding millions in PPP relief for their own ilk,.
The left wing is wonderful because it says it is wonderful, and the right wing is awful because the left wing says it awful? That’s your idea of debate?
Towards the end of his eight years in office, Reagan may have suffered from the beginnings of dementia. I don’t know, but he obviously had a problem after he left office. Hindsight suggests the possibility that Reagan was suffering before he left office, but that is about it.
Frankly, voting for an older candidate has some advantages and some disadvantages that we must weigh carefully.
Is Biden suffering dementia? I don’t know. That guy is so prone to gaffes it is hard to tell. What we do know is that Biden ran for office from his basement, and the news media covers up for him. So, I don’t think your accusations of hypocrisy hold up under any serious scrutiny.
Where did you get the idea that an opinion blog is a forum for debate anyway?
By the way, I am more centrist on most issues. If I hear a Conservative make a good point, I am not above investigating it …unlike the conservatives who tend to reject any Liberal thought out of hand regardless of its merit.
You dare to show your lack of information by saying the following to me? —It would help if people like you would debate the issues instead of dragging out every fake conspiracy theory the fake news media can inflate out of proportion.
ARE YOU NOT AWARE or do you not care that the Republican CPAC has Orban as one of their top speakers recently and they all stood for standing ovations at some of his fascistic drivel? Are you not aware of a move to the extreme fascistic right among your contemporaries where authoritarianism is beginning to be seen as the only salvationof the nation? Is that the kind of Patriotism that you stand for– or have you fallen for Christo-Fascism like so many of them?
Except when they are ragging on Republicans, the mainstream news media doesn’t have anything good to say anyone who calls himself a Republican or a Conservative.
You don’t like Orban? Instead of reading the crap in the so-called mainstream news media, do some research. Read some of his speeches. Find out what he has actually done.
Given the track record of the news media, Orban’s “crime” is probably guilt by association with Conservatives, not the other way around.
I watched Orban’s speech on CSPAN and I know that he is indeed a dictator and I also believe that Trump earnestly desires to be a dictator and I also believe that the Right Wing in America is lusting to have a dictator …but that is not what I wore the uniform for. That is not what America is about to me.
Trump wants to be a dictator too? But the guys who ignore the Constitution are Democrats.
I wonder what you think makes a leader a dictator.
Stop annoying me, Tom — pester someone who actually cares what you have to say. I have the impression that you are a Trumper and if that is the case, then good luck with your future..
I will readily admit that I voted for Donald Trump instead of the guy who ran from his basement and spends half his time tripping over his tongue.
Since Biden became president, he has issued bunches of executive orders. Much of what Biden has done is either unconstitutional or just plain foolish. Our departure from Afghanistan was constitutional but inexplicably incompetent and treacherous to people who depended upon him and us. The cancelation of student debt is just Biden’s latest unconstitutional act.
Trump, when he was president, obeyed the Constitution. Biden does not. Is obedience to the Constitution what makes our leader a dictator?
Trump spent his entire time in office mocking the constitution, What are you talking about when you say he followed it?
What you are demanding is illogical. Give me an example that you can actually prove that he didn’t.
I am finished engaging in endless round abouts with you …so have a nice life.
Meh —
Can you imagine waiting in a ‘jam’ watching your charge dwindle? chuq
Dear Chuq — There is something that I don’t believe anybody has given much thought to and it is something that is bound to happen .. especially in places like Los Angeles. I can see the headlines now, “Tow Truck runs out of electric while towing auto stuck in traffic.”
School buses, semis, etc…all of it needs to be taken under consideration. chuq
Our government has already said they will implement this by 2030. That is too ambitious, and NOBODY really believes it is possible.
Best wishes, Pete.
Pete they will kick the can down the road as they always do chuq
We might be bankrupt by 2030.
Dear Citizen Tom —Reagan said, “It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.” I say, “The democrats, unlike the Republicans, do not have to make up the facts as they go … Democrats work from facts that have been established and accepted since the begining of the Republic… the Republicans have used lies and misconceptions and ignorance to fabricate an alternative universe for themselves .. ala the Trump era.
John
Why is your reply down here?
Like a living Constitution?
I don’t defend Republicans as perfect, but Trump did well. Since Democrats were determined to throw him out of office, he did not have much choice except to follow the law. You want to dispute that? After two failed impeachments?🙄
Trump followed the law? Did you say Trump followed the law? You just made me pee my pants with laughter.
👍 great argument peeing in your pants. Absolutely irrefutable.
Meh …
Why don’t you declare victory while you are at it?😉
meh