The Biden Presidency

[JoeMorgue]

Not to give any credence to Chris's rantings but fair being fair dependence on a gasoline powered car is one of those Urban/Rural divides that people on either side of it don't get about the other side.

You can't rely on or even in some cases use (to varying degrees, situations of course differ) public transportation, ride sharing, car pooling, or electrical vehicles if you live way out in the sticks.

 

[bruto]

When you open up the use of impeachment as a political weapon whenever possible, it shouldn't be a surprise that the other side will use it too whenever possible. They were warned.

I realize you believe that impeaching a president for encouraging foreign interference in an election and for fomenting a treasonous revolt is "a political weapon," but even so, impeaching a newly elected president on the first day stands apart as a particularly zany effort.

 

[MRC_Hans]

There is nothing but truth in the fact that the average working class person probably doesn't own a Tesla, solar panels or a battery bank for storage. The average person owns an automobile (likely a used one) that runs on gasoline. When you raise the price of gasoline you hurt those that rely on it the most.

And that's just gasoline. When you look at price increases in energy across the board like home heating costs, electricity etc, the average person will have less money at the end of the month if they have to spend more on energy. These are facts to be considered, not lies.

Sure it's a great idea for everyone to have solar power and an EV but not everyone can afford those things. If you believe everyone can, then you're lying to yourself as well as others. I have supported Solar panel use for several years now. I know the benefits but I also know the reason most people don't have them, and that is the cost required for installation. It's like asking for a 20 year advance on their electric bill from someone living paycheck to paycheck. You can't reasonably expect that.

That may all be true, but how exactly do you propose to make the 'average citizen' buy an electrical car (or even just an economical one) and invest in solar planels and such as long as it stays cheaper to not do it?

Hans

 

[Dr. Keith]

Not to give any credence to Chris's rantings but fair being fair dependence on a gasoline powered car is one of those Urban/Rural divides that people on either side of it don't get about the other side.

You can't rely on or even in some cases use (to varying degrees, situations of course differ) public transportation, ride sharing, car pooling, or electrical vehicles if you live way out in the sticks.

I think most people get this. But, since most cars are owned by those who don't live in the sticks it is kind of a side point. If all the people who didn't live in the sticks found a way to not rely on the least efficient means of transportation it would greatly reduce our collective impact on the environment. Even if those who lived in the sticks continued to drive vehicles appropriate to their use case.

I would really love to replace my wife's car with an electric car and eventually move myself from a gas only truck to a hybrid. It would be a good move for us when it is possible. And that is based on us eventually living in the sticks.

 

[JoeMorgue]

//Slight hijack//

I'm leaning toward my next car being an electric, but I do have one reservation. It's not "range anxiety" per se, but I do suffer from a minor case of let's call it "evacuation anxiety."

Few years back me and my wife had to pack up and head north to get out of the way of one of the hurricanes that frequently batter the Florida cost.

I was heading from Jacksonville, FL to my parent's house in Central North Carolina (complete with dog and two cats, the latter two of which made their displeasure at the trip clear the entire trip but that's another story) in a good ole' fashioned, fuel efficient 4 cylinder compact sedan. But I still couldn't make it all the way on a single tank of gas, no surprise. But gas stations were running out of gas and the ones that had it were getting rapidly backed up. I did eventually find a place to fill up (had to waste money on premium and wait nearly an hour at that) but it was really difficult.

What if I was in an electric vehicle? How many Superchargers are on i-95 between The Sunshine and Meth State and the Tarheel and Tobacco State? If takes longer to even supercharge a Tesla then it does to pump a tank of gas into a Dodge Dart, to say nothing of older electric vehicle charging systems which take hours and even now a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of electrical charging stations compared to gas stations. What if I'm in a Tesla or Volt trying to evacuate along the same pathway as dozens of other Teslas and Volts? The infrastructure just isn't there yet.

 

[Venom]

Biden tells appointees 'I will fire you on the spot' for showing disrespect to colleagues

That's a big contrast to the Trump Administration, of course. Wonder if it'll get invoked?

Wasn't sure how to feel about that when it came out. Pretty strict and looks like overcompensation not gonna lie.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

//Slight hijack//

I'm leaning toward my next car being an electric, but I do have one reservation. It's not "range anxiety" per se, but I do suffer from a minor case of let's call it "evacuation anxiety."

Few years back me and my wife had to pack up and head north to get out of the way of one of the hurricanes that frequently batter the Florida cost.

I was heading from Jacksonville, FL to my parent's house in Central North Carolina (complete with dog and two cats, the latter two of which made their displeasure at the trip clear the entire trip but that's another story) in a good ole' fashioned, fuel efficient 4 cylinder compact sedan. But I still couldn't make it all the way on a single tank of gas, no surprise. But gas stations were running out of gas and the ones that had it were getting rapidly backed up. I did eventually find a place to fill up (had to waste money on premium and wait nearly an hour at that) but it was really difficult.

What if I was in an electric vehicle? How many Superchargers are on i-95 between The Sunshine and Meth State and the Tarheel and Tobacco State? If takes longer to even supercharge a Tesla then it does to pump a tank of gas into a Dodge Dart, to say nothing of older electric vehicle charging systems which take hours and even now a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of electrical charging stations compared to gas stations. What if I'm in a Tesla or Volt trying to evacuate along the same pathway as dozens of other Teslas and Volts? The infrastructure just isn't there yet.

Their map shows pretty extensive coverage up I-95 through NC, FWIW.

I'm buying my son a used Volt next week. GM is offering 0% financing, which is pretty unusual for a used car. It has a 53 mile range on the battery, which means 90% of his driving would be electric, but it has the generator for 400+ mile range for road trips. It's also 14K, so much less expensive than a Bolt at the moment.

In the next 5-10 years, full EVs will have will have that kind of range, and the operating costs will be on par with ICE vehicles.

 

[JoeMorgue]

I'm buying my son a used Volt next week.

I'm leaning toward the Volt as well for largely the same reason. Low mileage used ones are getting fairly cheap, the purely electric range would cover all my commutes and errands, but I like having a range extending gasoline engine for the reasons I mentioned.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Kayleigh McEnany tweeted

@kayleighmcenany
President Joe Biden didn’t take questions, just snapped at a reporter, while we got no answer on:

Rightwards arrow whether Biden will force the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide contraception

Rightwards arrow whether he wants to make DC a state

What about court packing??

 

[Andy_Ross]

According to Hannity on Fox Biden's first week is a disaster.

It's the worst presidential first week ever.
.
First of all, someone should tell him 36 hours isn't a week.

 

[CORed]

He misspelled "realists"

No ****. All the evidence indicates that climate change is happening at close to the worst case scenarios predicted ~ 20 years ago. If we continue to follow the Trump/Republican policy of pretending the problem exists, within another 20 years or so, we are going to have problems a whole lot more serious than some unemployed coal miners or oilfield workers.

There are a lot of parallels betweed Covid-19 and climate change. Both require some measures that will negatively impact the economy in the short term to prevent much more serious impacts. The difference is that with Covid-19, those impacts happen in a few days, whereas with climate change, the really bad stuff is still maybe a few decades in the future. We've seen how well, "Ignore the problem and hope it magically goes away." works for the virus. It's not going to work any better for climate change, but for politicians that care only about their chances of winning the next election, it could be a winning strategy.

 

[Firestone]

US president Joe Biden tweeted:

I’m grateful for the Senate’s continued bipartisanship and swift confirmation of Lloyd Austin. His confirmation is historic — and there’s no question that he’s the right person to lead the @DeptofDefense at this moment.

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1352678560180424706?s=19

Vote was 93-2.
Only Lee and Hawley voted against Austin.

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/...fm?congress=117&session=1&vote=00005#position

 

[turingtest]

Perhaps she watched this video where Biden admits to and brags about a billion dollar quid-pro-quo in Ukraine while he was VP during the Obama Admin? Would that do it? I'm not an attorney but it seems to be exactly the kind of thing Trump was accused of during his impeachment hearings. So unless we can have a double standard of law...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCSF3reVr10

Right. Because threatening to withhold our government's money from a foreign government to get them to do something in line with our government's policy is just the same as threatening to do so unless that foreign government takes an action that has no bearing on government policy, and has no other effect than to personally and politically benefit the person doing the threatening. And I'm sure you know this, but the Obama administration didn't want the prosecutor in question fired because he was too tough on corruption (and therefore a threat to Biden's son), but because he wasn't tough enough (USA Today):

As part of that effort ["to bolster Ukrainian democracy against Russian aggression"], Western diplomats and Ukraine watchers in 2016 called for the firing of Ukraine’s general prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who officials did not believe was adequately prosecuting corruption in the young democracy.

Conspiracy theories, like the Facebook post, insinuate that Biden sought to withhold money from Ukraine for some reasons of corruption.

The conspiracy theory has been repeated by the official White House account to draw a false equivalence between Biden’s involvement in Ukraine and Trump’s pressuring of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a call that resulted in his first impeachment.

This narrative is inaccurate; as part of the broader Western effort to strengthen democracy in Ukraine, the Obama administration determined that using $1 billion in aid to Ukraine as leverage was in the interest of the United States, its Western allies and Ukraine itself.

Regardless of the merits of that decision, Biden did not stand to directly benefit financially or politically from the move, nor was he the final decision-maker on the issue.

So...no, not "exactly the kind of thing Trump was accused of during his impeachment hearings." In fact, pretty much the opposite.

See, in order to properly do the childish "tit for tat" thing, you need both a tit and a tat. All you have is a tit- and that's tough.

 

[CORed]

Kayleigh McEnany tweeted

@kayleighmcenany
President Joe Biden didn’t take questions, just snapped at a reporter, while we got no answer on:

Rightwards arrow whether Biden will force the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide contraception

Rightwards arrow whether he wants to make DC a state

What about court packing??

I'm in favor of those, with the possible exception of court packing, because once you start doing that, both parties will use it, and I fear that it won't stop until we have hundreds of Supreme Court justices.

As far as Little Sisters of the Poor, I have a fairly narrow view of religious freedom. IMO, it should guarantee people the right to believe and worship as they choose, but it should not give them carte blance to ignore the law. To do a reducto ad absurdem, the fact that your religion believes in practicing human sacrifice should not exempt you from the homicide statutes.

The only reason Republicans have for opposing statehood for DC is that DC is full of black people who will probably vote for Democrats. There is no other reason residents of DC should not have congressional representation.

 

[Garrison]

Kayleigh McEnany tweeted

@kayleighmcenany
President Joe Biden didn’t take questions, just snapped at a reporter, while we got no answer on:

Rightwards arrow whether Biden will force the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide contraception

Rightwards arrow whether he wants to make DC a state

What about court packing??

Why exactly are we supposed to be interested in the ramblings of ex=president Trump's ex-spokesperson? As of the 20th she became utterly irrelevant. I get that the loss of Trump's tweets leaves a void but why fill it with non-entities McEnany?

 

[turingtest]

Kayleigh McEnany tweeted

@kayleighmcenany
President Joe Biden didn’t take questions, just snapped at a reporter, while we got no answer on:

Rightwards arrow whether Biden will force the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide contraception

Rightwards arrow whether he wants to make DC a state

What about court packing??

I'm in favor of those, with the possible exception of court packing, because once you start doing that, both parties will use it, and I fear that it won't stop until we have hundreds of Supreme Court justices.

As far as Little Sisters of the Poor, I have a fairly narrow view of religious freedom. IMO, it should guarantee people the right to believe and worship as they choose, but it should not give them carte blance to ignore the law. To do a reducto ad absurdem, the fact that your religion believes in practicing human sacrifice should not exempt you from the homicide statutes.

The only reason Republicans have for opposing statehood for DC is that DC is full of black people who will probably vote for Democrats. There is no other reason residents of DC should not have congressional representation.

That thing about the Little Sisters of the Poor being " force[d]... to provide contraception" is misleading enough to be a lie, anyway. As this contemporary Salon article explains:

Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of nuns that operates nursing homes for the poor, is, like other religious non-profits, subject to the accommodation that the administration crafted last year in response to objections that religious non-profits, like houses of worship, should be fully exempt from the rule [requiring birth control coverage in insurance plans]. The accommodation requires them to self-certify as objecting religious organizations, thus placing the onus on their insurance plan's third-party administrator to offer the coverage separately to employees. Objecting non-profits claim this arrangement still makes them complicit in providing the coverage they consider sinful, in that the self-certification would "authorize" and "direct" the coverage through the third-party administrator.
[but]
...the Little Sisters' argument that their self-certification would "authorize" and "direct" the third-party administrator to provide the coverage, thereby making them complicit, falls flat, since it is the government, not the plaintiffs, who is authorizing and directing the third-party administrator to take the action.

Nobody is being forced to provide contraception. The issue is whether religious freedom, i.e., freedom of conscience, is, by its nature, a right to extend one's conscience so far as to cover, even to negate, the consciences of others who may not share the religion. Freedom of religion makes religion free from government interference with their strictures insofar as they don't affect anyone else; that doesn't make it a privilege to impose those strictures on others, or to replace government itself in its legitimate functions.

 

[Garrison]

That may all be true, but how exactly do you propose to make the 'average citizen' buy an electrical car (or even just an economical one) and invest in solar planels and such as long as it stays cheaper to not do it?

Hans

Except it isn't really much cheaper anymore and even if the government does nothing to encourage it renewables and electric vehicles will be on a par with their fossil fuel counterparts in the near future, in fact as far as electricity generation goes that point has been reached.

 

[Shalamar]

//Slight hijack//

I'm leaning toward my next car being an electric, but I do have one reservation. It's not "range anxiety" per se, but I do suffer from a minor case of let's call it "evacuation anxiety."

Few years back me and my wife had to pack up and head north to get out of the way of one of the hurricanes that frequently batter the Florida cost.

I was heading from Jacksonville, FL to my parent's house in Central North Carolina (complete with dog and two cats, the latter two of which made their displeasure at the trip clear the entire trip but that's another story) in a good ole' fashioned, fuel efficient 4 cylinder compact sedan. But I still couldn't make it all the way on a single tank of gas, no surprise. But gas stations were running out of gas and the ones that had it were getting rapidly backed up. I did eventually find a place to fill up (had to waste money on premium and wait nearly an hour at that) but it was really difficult.

What if I was in an electric vehicle? How many Superchargers are on i-95 between The Sunshine and Meth State and the Tarheel and Tobacco State? If takes longer to even supercharge a Tesla then it does to pump a tank of gas into a Dodge Dart, to say nothing of older electric vehicle charging systems which take hours and even now a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of electrical charging stations compared to gas stations. What if I'm in a Tesla or Volt trying to evacuate along the same pathway as dozens of other Teslas and Volts? The infrastructure just isn't there yet.

Wife and I just bought a Tesla Model Y. Great Car.

There are a number of other electric cars on the road now, which is good, however, at the moment only a Tesla can use their Supercharge network. Takes about 30-45 mins to get a decent charge (depending on the supercharger) to get you to the next station.

Charging at home (on something other than a standard 110 volt) generally means you'll 'always' have a full tank, so at least there's that. If you think you'll need to leave in a hurry, you can charge to 100% (which tesla does not recommend other than for long trips)

It does take longer to fill up, But supercharging locations have anywhere from 4 to 16 stalls, and they're installing and upgrading the network all the time.

 

[MRC_Hans]

//Slight hijack//

I'm leaning toward my next car being an electric, but I do have one reservation. It's not "range anxiety" per se, but I do suffer from a minor case of let's call it "evacuation anxiety."

Few years back me and my wife had to pack up and head north to get out of the way of one of the hurricanes that frequently batter the Florida cost.

I was heading from Jacksonville, FL to my parent's house in Central North Carolina (complete with dog and two cats, the latter two of which made their displeasure at the trip clear the entire trip but that's another story) in a good ole' fashioned, fuel efficient 4 cylinder compact sedan. But I still couldn't make it all the way on a single tank of gas, no surprise. But gas stations were running out of gas and the ones that had it were getting rapidly backed up. I did eventually find a place to fill up (had to waste money on premium and wait nearly an hour at that) but it was really difficult.

What if I was in an electric vehicle? How many Superchargers are on i-95 between The Sunshine and Meth State and the Tarheel and Tobacco State? If takes longer to even supercharge a Tesla then it does to pump a tank of gas into a Dodge Dart, to say nothing of older electric vehicle charging systems which take hours and even now a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of electrical charging stations compared to gas stations. What if I'm in a Tesla or Volt trying to evacuate along the same pathway as dozens of other Teslas and Volts? The infrastructure just isn't there yet.

What were you evacuating from? I mean, a current EV has what, 300 miles range? What would you be evacuating from where 300 miles could not get you out of harm's way? OK, you might have to make a night stop before reaching the comforts of relatives, but ...

Hans

 

[acbytesla]

//Slight hijack//

I'm leaning toward my next car being an electric, but I do have one reservation. It's not "range anxiety" per se, but I do suffer from a minor case of let's call it "evacuation anxiety."

Few years back me and my wife had to pack up and head north to get out of the way of one of the hurricanes that frequently batter the Florida cost.

I was heading from Jacksonville, FL to my parent's house in Central North Carolina (complete with dog and two cats, the latter two of which made their displeasure at the trip clear the entire trip but that's another story) in a good ole' fashioned, fuel efficient 4 cylinder compact sedan. But I still couldn't make it all the way on a single tank of gas, no surprise. But gas stations were running out of gas and the ones that had it were getting rapidly backed up. I did eventually find a place to fill up (had to waste money on premium and wait nearly an hour at that) but it was really difficult.

What if I was in an electric vehicle? How many Superchargers are on i-95 between The Sunshine and Meth State and the Tarheel and Tobacco State? If takes longer to even supercharge a Tesla then it does to pump a tank of gas into a Dodge Dart, to say nothing of older electric vehicle charging systems which take hours and even now a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of electrical charging stations compared to gas stations. What if I'm in a Tesla or Volt trying to evacuate along the same pathway as dozens of other Teslas and Volts? The infrastructure just isn't there yet.

Open Google Maps. Move the map to the area between Jacksonville and your destination and type in Tesla Supercharger From what I can see there are at least 5 as well as other charging locations. You can easily recharge a Tesla to 80 percent in 30 minutes at one but it takes 4 times as long to fill that last 20 percent.