#gas for this new car is less than 60$

[fruitless-vain]

Yeah we got a new car n sold the truck 😂

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #18

May 10-17 2024

The Justice Department endorses lifting many restrictions on marijuana. Since the 1970s marijuana has been classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, the most restrictive classification for drugs that are highly addictive, dangerous and have no medical use, like heroin. Schedule I drugs are nearly impossible to get approval for research studies greatly hampering attempts to understand marijuana and any medical benefits it may have. The DoJ recommends moving it to Schedule III, drugs with low risk of abuse like anabolic steroids, and testosterone. This will allow for greater research, likely allow medical marijuana, and make marijuana a much less serious offense. President Biden welcomed DoJ's decision, a result a review of policy he ordered. Biden in his message talked about how he's pardoned everyone convicted of marijuana possession federally. The President repeated a phrase he's said many times "No-one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,"

The Department of Interior announced no new coal mining in America's largest coal producing region. The moratorium on new coal leases has been hailed as the single biggest step so fair toward ending coal in the US. The Powder River Basin area of Wyoming and Montana produces 40% of the nations coal, the whole state of West Virginia is just 14%. The new rule is estimated to reduce emissions by the equivalent of 293 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, the same as taking 63 million gas powered cars off the road.

Vice-President Harris announced that the Biden-Harris Administration had broken records by investing $16 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Harris, a graduate of Howard University, is the first President or Vice-President to have gone to a HBCU. The Administration's investment of $900 million so far in 2024 brought the total investment of the Biden-Harris administration in HBCUs to $16 billion more than double the record $7 billion. HBCUs produce 40% of black engineers, 50% of black teachers, 70% of black doctors and dentists, and 80% of black judges. HBCUs also have a much better record of helping social mobility and moving people out of generational poverty than other colleges and universities.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $30 billion dollars in renewal funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program. The program supports 2.3 million families that are in need of housing with vouchers that help pay rent. This funding represents a $2 billion dollar increase over last year.

The Department of Agriculture announced $671.4 million in investments in rural infrastructure. The money will go to project to improve rural electric grids, as well as drinking water and wastewater treatment infrastructure. The money will go to 47 projects across 23 states.

HUD announced a record breaking $1.1 billion dollar investment in Tribal housing and community development. HUD plans just over 1 billion dollars for the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program. This is a 40% increase in funding over 2023 and marks the largest ever funding investment in Indian housing. HUD also is investing $75 million in community development, supporting building and rehabbing community buildings in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

The Department of Transportation announced $2 billion in investments in America's busiest passenger rail route, the Northeast Corridor between Washington DC and Boston. This is part of a 15 year, $176 billion plan to rebuild the corridor’s infrastructure and prepare for increased ridership and more trains. So far investments have seen a 25% increase, 7 million riders, over figures last year. a fully funded plan would almost double Amtrak service between New York City and Washington, D.C., and increase service between New York City and Boston by 50%. It would also allow a 60% increase in commuter trains.

HUD announced plans to streamline its HOME program. Currently the largest federal program to help build affordable housing, the streamlining of the rules will speed up building and help meet the Biden Administration's goal of 2 million new affordable housing units. HUD announced last week $1.3 billion dollars for the HOME program, which built 13,000 new units of housing in 2023 and helped 13,000 families with rental assistance

The Department of Interior announced $520 million in new water projects to help protect against drought in the western states. The funding will support 57 water related projects across 18 western states. The projects focus on climate resilience and drought prevention, as well as improving aging water delivery systems, and improving hydropower generation.

The Departments of Agriculture and HHS have stepped up efforts to wipe out the H5N1 virus prevent its spread to humans while protecting farmers livelihoods. The virus is currently effecting dairy cattle in the Texas panhandle region. The USDA and HSS are releasing wide ranging funds to help support farms equipping workers with Personal Protective Equipment, covering Veterinary costs, as well as compensating farmers for lost revenue. HHS and the CDC announced $101 million in testing an monitoring. This early detection and action is key to preventing another Covid style pandemic.

The Senate confirmed Sanket Bulsara to a life time federal judgeship in New York and Eric Schulte and Camela Theeler to lifetime federal judgeships in South Dakota. This brings the total number of judges appointed by President Biden to 197. For the first time in history the majority of a President's judicial nominees have not been white men.

Bonus: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that transgender health insurance exclusions were illegal. The ruling came from a case first filed in 2019 where an employer refused to cover an employee's gender affirming surgery. The court in its ruling sited new guidance from the Biden Administration's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that declared that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects trans people in the work place. These kinds of guidelines are often sited in court and carry great weight.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

WaPo: How car bans and heat pump rules drive voters to the far right

Shannon Osaka at WaPo:

More than a decade ago, the Netherlands embarked on a straightforward plan to cut carbon emissions. Its legislature raised taxes on natural gas, using the money earned to help Dutch households install solar panels. By most measures, the program worked: By 2022, 20 percent of homes in the Netherlands had solar panels, up from about 2 percent in 2013. Natural gas prices, meanwhile, rose by almost 50 percent. But something else happened, according to a new study. The Dutch families who were most vulnerable to the increase in gas prices — renters who paid their own utility bills — drifted to the right. Families facing increased home energy costs became 5 to 6 percent more likely to vote for one of the Netherlands’ far-right parties. A similar backlash is happening all over Europe, as far-right parties position themselves in opposition to green policies. In Germany, a law that would have required homeowners to install heat pumps galvanized the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, giving it a boost. Farmers have rolled tractors into Paris to protest E.U. agricultural rules, and drivers in Italy and Britain have protested attempts to ban gas-guzzling cars from city centers.

That resurgence of the right could slow down the green transition in Europe, which has been less polarized on global warming, and serves as a warning to the United States, where policies around electric vehicles and gas stoves have already sparked a backlash. The shift also shows how, as climate policies increasingly touch citizens’ lives, even countries whose voters are staunchly supportive of clean energy may hit roadblocks. “This has really expanded the coalition of the far right,” said Erik Voeten, a professor of geopolitics at Georgetown University and the author of the new study on the Netherlands.

Other studies have found similar results. In one study in Milan, researchers at Bocconi University studied the voting patterns of drivers whose cars were banned from the city center for being too polluting. These drivers, who on average lost the equivalent of $4,000 because of the ban, were significantly more likely to vote for the right-wing Lega party in subsequent elections. In Sweden, researchers found that low-income families facing high electricity prices were also more likely to turn toward the far right. Far-right parties in Europe have started to position themselves against climate action, expanding their platforms from anti-immigration and anti-globalization. A decade ago, the Dutch right-wing Party for Freedom emphasized that it wasn’t against renewable energy — just increasing energy prices. But by 2021, the party’s manifesto had moved to more extreme language. “Energy is a basic need, but climate madness has turned it into a very expensive luxury item,” the manifesto said. “The far right has increasingly started to campaign on opposition to environmental policies and climate change,” Voeten said.

The pushback also reflects, in part, how much Europe has decarbonized. More than 60 percent of the continent’s electricity already comes from renewable sources or nuclear power; so meeting the European Union’s climate goals means tacklingother sectors — transportation, buildings, agriculture.

[...] Some of these voting patterns have also played out in the United States. According to a study by the Princeton political scientist Alexander Gazmararian, historically-Democratic coal communities that lost jobs in the shift to natural gas increased their support for Republican candidates by 5 percent. The shift was larger in areas located farther from new gas power plants — that is, areas where voters couldn’t see that it was natural gas, not environmental regulations, that undercut coal.

Gazmararian says that while climate denial and fossil fuel misinformation have definitely played a role, many voters are motivated simply by their own financial pressures. “They’re in an economic circumstance where they don’t have many options,” he said. The solution, experts say, is todesign policies that avoid putting too much financial burden on individual consumers. In Germany, where the law to install heat pumps would have cost homeowners $7,500 to $8,500 more than installing gas boilers, policymakers quickly retreated. But by that point, far-right party membership had already surged.

The Washington Post explains what may be at least partially causing the rise of far-right extremist parties in Europe, Conservatives in Canada, and the Republicans in some parts of the US: rising energy costs that low-income people are bearing the brunt of.

In the US, right-wing hysteria about gas stove bans and electric vehicles are also playing a role.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

When Interstate 25 was constructed through Denver, highway engineers moved a river.

It was the 1950s, and nothing was going to get in the way of building a national highway system. Colorado’s governor and other dignitaries, including the chief engineer of the state highway department, acknowledged the moment by posing for a photo standing on bulldozer tracks, next to the trench that would become Interstate 25.

Today, state highway departments have rebranded as transportation agencies, but building, fixing and expanding highways is still mostly what they do.

So it was notable when, in 2022, the head of Colorado’s Department of Transportation called off a long planned widening of Interstate 25. The decision to do nothing was arguably more consequential than the alternative. By not expanding the highway, the agency offered a new vision for the future of transportation planning.

In Colorado, that new vision was catalyzed by climate change. In 2019, Gov. Jared Polis signed a law that required the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent within 30 years. As the state tried to figure out how it would get there, it zeroed in on drivers. Transportation is the largest single contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, accounting for about 30 percent of the total; 60 percent of that comes from cars and trucks. To reduce emissions, Coloradans would have to drive less.

An effective bit of bureaucracy drove that message home. After sustained lobbying from climate and environmental justice activists, the Transportation Commission of Colorado adopted a formal rule that makes the state transportation agency, along with Colorado’s five metropolitan planning organizations, demonstrate how new projects, including highways, reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If they don’t, they could lose funding.

Within a year of the rule’s adoption in 2021, Colorado’s Department of Transportation, or CDOT, had canceled two major highway expansions, including Interstate 25, and shifted $100 million to transit projects. In 2022, a regional planning body in Denver reallocated $900 million from highway expansions to so-called multimodal projects, including faster buses and better bike lanes.

Now, other states are following Colorado’s lead. Last year, Minnesota passed a $7.8 billion transportation spending package with provisions modeled on Colorado’s greenhouse gas rule. Any project that added road capacity would have to demonstrate how it contributed to statewide greenhouse gas reduction targets. Maryland is considering similar legislation, as is New York.

[tonguetyd]

literally annoyed that all coastal states (including my dumb glove shaped state) aren't 90% hydro/wind

i might not be an engineer but i am with you there

*drags soapbox out and jumps on top*

DO YOU KNOW HOW INFURIATING IT IS TO HAVE EVERYONE SAY “ELECTRIFY EVERYTHING” KNOWING FULL GODDAMN WELL THAT THE GRID 1) CANNOT SUPPORT IT AND 2) IS DRASTICALLY NOT BASED ON RENEWABLE ENERGY?!?!?!

Don’t get me wrong I love electric cars, I love heat pump systems, I love buildings and homes that can say they are fossil fuel free! Really! I do!

But it means FUCK ALL when you have!!!! Said electricity!!!! Sourced by fossil fuels!!!! I said this in my tags on the other post but New York City! Was operating on *COAL*!!!!! Up until like 5 years ago.

WE ARE SITTING IN THE MIDDLE OF A RIVER.

Not to mention the ocean which like. You ever been to the beach?! You know what there’s a whole hell of a lot of at the beach? Wind!!!!!!!! And yet we have literal campaigns saying “save our oceans! Say no to wind power!”

Idk bruh I feel like the fish are gonna be less happy in a boiling ocean than needing to swim around a giant turbine but. I’m not a fuckin fish so.

NOT TO MENTION (I am fully waving my hands around like a crazy person because this is the main thing that gets me going)

THE ELECTRICAL GRID OF THE UNITED STATES HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED ON LARGE SCALE LEVELS SINCE IT WAS BUILT IN THE 1950s AND 60s.

It is not DESIGNED to handle every building in the city of [random map location] Chicago being off of gas and completely electrified. It’s not!!! The plants cannot handle it as now!

So not only do we not have renewable sources because somebody in Iowa doesn’t want to replace their corn field with a solar field/a rich Long Islander doesn’t want to replace their ocean view with a wind turbine! We also are actively encouraging people to put MORE of a strain on the grid with NO FUCKING SOLUTION TO MEET THAT DEMAND!

I used to deal with this *all* the time in my old job when I was working with smaller building - they ALWAYS needed an electrical upgrade from the street and like. The utility only has so many wires going to that building. And it’s not planning on bringing in more for the most part!

(I am now vibrating with rage) and THEN you have the fuckin AI bros! Who have their data centers in the middle of nowhere because that’s a great place to have a lot of servers that you need right? Yeah sure, you know what those places don’t have? ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT THE STUPID AMOUNT OF POWER AI NEEDS!!!!!!!

Now the obvious solution is that the AI bros of Google and Microsoft and whoever the fuck just use their BILLIONS OF FUCKING DOLLARS IN PROFIT to be good neighbors and upgrade the fucking systems because truly what is the downside to that everybody fucking wins!

But what do I know. I’m just friendly neighborhood engineer.

*hops down from soapbox*

[xiaq]

Hi! I read an old post of yours from when you were teaching, where you said you earned 39k a year, and that it wasn't a lot of money. That would be 3k a month + 3k end-of-year bonus, especially if it's tax free (as in, all money already goes to you, with taxes already paid). In my country, that's a very good income. How much does life cost in the USA, for you to say that academia is not a career that makes you lots of money? I think I'd need context to understand, if you can explain, please :)

Hi there! So what it comes down to is cost of living coupled with an inability to put money away for retirement.

Also, that 39k is before taxes. So I was really making around 32k annually or 2,600 a month. No bonuses.

When I was making that, I was living in Dallas, TX and then Gunnison, CO. The average rent cost for a one bedroom apartment in Dallas was $1,500 base per month and in Gunnison, CO the average rent cost for a one bedroom apartment is $1,700. In both places I paid less than the average, but my total costs with paid parking, utilities, etc. were around $1,500. In addition to housing, I had to pay for health insurance which was around $2,000 a year, car insurance which was around $1,500 a year, and then general car maintenance which was $2-3,000 a year depending on if I needed new tires. I walked or rode my bike as much as possible, but was still spending at least $50 a month on gas (more when I'd go camping or drive home for the weekend 3 hrs away). I also had to pay for vet bills, food for me and my dog, and standard life stuff. Even with couponing and a strict budget, I was spending around $300 a month on food for me and my dog in Dallas and $400 per month in CO since food was more expensive in the mountains (like, a little box of strawberries was $8, a 2-serving bag of salad was $5). Also, even though I was paying for health insurance, I still had to pay copays and out of pocket for bloodwork and some specialists, which was a couple more thousand a year. I rarely went out to eat, I don't drink or smoke, and I bought all my clothes and books second-hand. Pretty much any time I traveled it was because my parents or friends were going somewhere and I could tag along, or I was car camping. So I was living a very frugal lifestyle and still had no money left at the end of the year to put toward retirement based on my teaching salary.

So, as a breakdown my approximate annual costs were (I just went and found an old budget spreadsheet from 2020)

Rent+utilities+wifi/phone $18,000 Health insurance $2,000 Car insurance $1,500 Car maintenance $2,000 Gas $1,000 Vet bills/dog food $1,000 Food $3,500 Medical copays and oop expenses: $2,000 Clothes $500 Books $500 Home-goods, laundry, cleaning products, misc $500 Skin, hair, hygiene products $500 Total cost: $33k You'll notice this is more than my teaching salary. I was doing a bit of tutoring and ghostwriting on the side and my parents were kind enough to pay for some of my car maintenance that year, which is the only reason I didn't end up in financial trouble.

Importantly, I had no money at all for emergencies or putting toward retirement. I was also working 60-70hrs a week, had very little opportunity for career/salary growth, and was constantly being asked to pick up additional unpaid labor for the benefit of students/the program. I loved teaching, but there was no way that lifestyle was sustainable and there wasn't any hope of retirement. AND I was one of the few people who had no student loans to pay off by the time I finished graduate school. Thanks to academic scholarships, living at home, and my parent's assistance, I had no debt. That is highly unusual for people in academia and I can't even imagine the stress it would have added to my life if I was trying to pay off student loans every month as well.

Also, I'd just like to point out that adjunct professors make even less than I was making as a lecturer, and even tenured profs don't make all that much more. The humanities in academia in the US is not the place to be if you're wanting to make a reasonable amount of money for the amount of work you're doing. :( By contrast, working in tech, I'm now making $100k a year (78k take home), I work 40-50 hrs a week, I'm putting money into my retirement every month, and my work/life balance is magnificent. I'm also up for a promotion in a few months and I have a lot of opportunities for career and salary growth in the future. For the first time in my adult life I don't feel like I have to count every penny, and I think I may actually be able to retire some day.

Anyway, I hope that helps give context!

[tf2-headcanon-quotes-confesions]

What all of your femme!tf2 headcannons?

Fem!Scout

Feral. And I mean feral. Scout is to this team what Pyro is to the canon mercs.

Medic gave her some sharper teeth so she can bite people.

Also she’s from New Jersey.

Not as fast as C!Scout but hits much harder.

She’s Miss Pauling’s girlfriend. Pauling likes her because she’s chaos incarnate but is also just very sincere. No over-trying, no posing, no filter, it’s attractive to her. 

Fem!Sniper

Has an incredible sense of humor. If she met C!Sniper she’d probably say something like “Mate, you’re paid to blow up idiots in the dessert. Loosen up.”

Her best attribute would probably be her stealth. It doesn’t matter if she doesn’t hit her target the first time because you’ve no idea where’s she’s coming from.

Her second best would be her gymnastic skills. She finds perches anywhere and climbs just about anything.

Basically, she’s really hard to spot. Almost better at camouflage than the Spy.

Fem!Soldier

Much like her counterpart, she is incredibly patriotic and was prevented from joining the army. 

However she was denied for stupid reasons like 

“this is the 40s and girls can’t be soldiers” 

and “No you can’t be a nurse either, especially when you tell us you plan on going AWOL” 

and “For Christ’s sake girl you’re obviously not 18. You can’t join the army, you’re a child.” 

Didn’t stop her from training though! By the time the 60s rolled around she’s more than able. 

She’s really good at playing the trumpet. Absolutely shreds that thing. 

She’s also an idiot, but a happier idiot. 

Fem!Spy

Good relationship with Scout although they’re not related. Basically the inverse of C!Scout and C!Spy’s relationship.

Hear me out. She’s a stoner.

The predominant way she attacks is via poisons. They have effects such as temporarily blinding a player or reducing their muscle movement.

Also holograms. She has hologram gadgets.

She’s still French and has expensive taste, just less uptight.

Pyro

Does not wear a full gas mask, but wears a face covering and goggles and usually has a hood up along with gloves, long sleeves, and boots. So it’s the same effect. 

They are completely nonverbal. (Can’t talk, not just a muffled voice.) 

They really like cars. Surprisingly, not just for the gasoline. 

They’re about as much of an enigma as canon!pyro, with the exception that their hair is sometimes visible.

Bit of a loner honestly.

Fem!Medic

She’s British! She is also exiled from England and banned from the UK.  

Yes it was for the medical malpractice. 

She has antidotes for Spy’s poisons. They have a rivalry that matches canon Spy and Engineer’s but with fem!spy being more like engineer in this case. 

She’s an aunt in personality. “Love, dear, darling,” etc. are an integral part of her dialogue. 

She’s crazy as the canon medic but in the opposite way. She has an abundance of calmness and apathy as opposed to his surplus of exuberance. 

Fem!Engineer

Probably the most similar her counterpart. 

She’s got the Southern charm. the subtle god complex, and the country-isums.

Unlike C!Engineer, however, she’s not a patient person. She has a temper like hot coals. 

She remains a sweet smiling Southern bell when she’s furious, her tone doesn’t change but her actions do. She gets violent.

She never shows physical signs of anger. No red face or growling or anything like that. Just gets a vicious smile and glare.

Fem!Demo

Also very similar to her counterpart in personality but not in background.

Really jolly and friendly. And loud. 

Has extreme bad luck. Like, comically bad luck. Her last name may as well be Murphy.

She, however, does not believe in luck.

She’s an orphan who grew up apprenticing under several types of demolition jobs.

Eventually she was refused by everyone else because every mentor that took her on would end up blown up by their own had within the year. 

Fem!Heavy

She builds her weapons herself. She’s incredibly resourceful and a scavenger by habit.

Kazakh.

She likes collecting little things. She has a giant doll house filled with miniatures of everyday objects. 

She’s completely stoic when in battle. Big, intimidating, quiet, doberman type.

Outside of fighting, though, she’s a really gentle and good humored person. She has an affinity for Sniper’s antics.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

When I first bought my car back in April I never let it dip below half a tank. Since I moved in September, I usually wait until it's below a quarter before filling up. Last week I let it run down to about an eighth, and it took a hair over 14 gallons to fill it up completely which means it has a 16 gallon tank, more or less. When I got it, I lived in an area dominated by highways; I would regularly get it up to 60 mph going to a from work, and it got decent gas mileage at 30 per gallon. Now that I live in a dense city with stop lights every 10 feet, I'm lucky to get 20. On the dashboard above the radio is a little LCD screen that tells me my fuel economy and how many miles I have left until I run empty. I've been tracking those figures against my odometer since mid-May, and it's not good.

When I got it, I would regularly outperform expectations. Say I drove 100 miles, the fuel range indicator would only go down 90, meaning I traveled 10 miles further than it said I should based on the amount of fuel I used. This slowly crept down, 10 miles better, 7 miles, 5, 3, for a while it was dead even, but since July I've been in the read. I'll drive 100 miles, and the fuel range meter will go down 120 or 130. Doing the math, driven distance over fuel range decrease, my best performance was 120% efficient, and the worst was 65%. Think about that. 65%, less than two-thirds, which means for every 100 miles I drive my fuel tank thinks I'm driving over 150! I'm burning through it like it's nothing!

I don't know what kind of math is going down under the hood, but my maximum fuel range has been dropping too. In April, a full tank of gas could supposedly get me 396 miles; more than that, actually, given my net positive fuel efficiency. Filling it up last week, same tank, same 16 gallons, it's telling me I can only get 323 miles. 396 miles on 16 gallons, the computer thought I was getting 24.75 miles per gallon regardless of how good it actually was. 323 miles is 20.1875 mpg; the indicator regularly dips below 20 when I'm stuck in traffic, and I can actually watch it tick down in increments of 0.1 when I'm at particularly congested redlights.

Sooner or later, it's going to get to the point where I'm less than half efficient. I'll drive 100 miles, and it'll use the fuel for 200 or more. I'll be lucky to get 250 miles on a full tank, which at present time would cost me $50 to fill from empty. Gas prices were higher this summer, $3.80-ish, got down to just below $3.00 even in October, right now they're hovering around $3.20 - $3.30, and as we enter the presidential election I can see it exploding up to $4.00 or more again, over $60 for a full tank.

My car's a 2007 with 132,000 miles on it, so I guess this sort of degradation is to be expected, but it means that it's going to crap out on me in a couple of years. Once I start my new job I'll have to build back up my savings so I can buy something halfway decent. It took me a year and a half to save up $10,000 when I lived with my parents, but now I'm out on my own and have rent and medical bills (I make so little money that I get a tax credit from the IRS that completely covers my insurance, but it's the cheapest plan on the market with next to no coverage, so every doctor visit is astronomical), so I expect to be stuck with my clunker until 2025 at the earliest. I just hope it'll last that long.

[tubbytarchia]

Living in Estonia as it becomes possibly the most expensive EU country to live in rant

Oh my god, oh my god?? Up to 2022 Estonia for many years was declared the country with the best tax system, and you know what? Yeah. Life was decent, but previous governments fucked everything up by making things too comfy, what's the result? And keep in mind that almost ALL of these have already risen by maybe 10-20% at the least in the last year

Gas prices set to raise by 27% to 75% Water price set to raise up to 400% Nursing home prices have already doubled company charges set to raise by 60% Continuous VAT increase, set to increase by 20% at the start of the new year and then more later on, which raises all prices (And store items have already increased, in some cases by double what they cost in 2022! So a total of about 70% food price increase in January!!) Harsh car tax in 2025 Sugar tax up to 25% No confirmation but safely assumed in the near future: Significant increases in alcohol tax, fuel excise duty, land tax, social tax, work insurance tax, deforestation tax (ok cant complain with that one lol I guess?) ON TOP OF the current inflation, euribor increase, salary decrease etc

By 2027, if things were to stay the same, Estonia would be 1.7 billion eur in debt. This is because previous governments continued to introduce fixed costs (mostly to families (AKA if you have kids), companies and the elderly. I can confirm personally as my sister gets pretty ridiculously big sums from the country for having a child. And in the past, establishing a company was a very easy way to earn a ton of money from the country without any drawbacks. Pensions have been increased multiple times, while the number of elderly in Estonian has only been growing) without really finding sources to cover those costs. Our economic growth should grow by like 10% a year to get this money, which obviously isn't going to happen. The country has no option other than to raise costs for all the commoners who earn average or less than. At least, those are the only people having their lives thrown into a goddamn shitpit. Because the country cannot take money away from pensions, military, education and state employees like police and teachers (though teachers' pay is already criminally low). And if we took loans we would just be paying billions of loan interest in 2027

No outside investors will want to come here anymore with the ridiculous prices, and I can only assume that that's why we don't ever get good goddamn things. We got GameStop and Subway which then less than a year later left. I wonder why?? And given the VAT increase which shows no signs of stopping, Estonia is set to become the country with the most expensive food prices in Europe

Estonia still has free education and healthcare (at least... for emergencies) so I feel like I automatically can't complain much given that places like the US experience price increases too on top of stupid education and healthcare prices. But holy shit? How am I ever supposed to move out and live? If I ever have to leave my parents' place I'm getting the fuck out of Estonia and I hope many dozens of others do too. Again, not that the current government has much other choice but idk, can't help but wish they just taxed the shit out of rich people or sum. Just tax rich people regardless, in every country, why can't we tax those guys more instead of the poor etc. It's maddening, how are any of us supposed to live

[peter-author]

More Profit From Almost Nothing

Manufacturing is a simple formula. You take a small amount of material, mold or shape it into something unique and sell it for many hundreds of times more money than the material cost you. A Rolex has maybe $40 worth of raw materials. Carefully designed and constructed, it is worth thousands when complete, many times that when fashionable. So too with cars.

The problem with the car industry is that they are convinced that the formula works so well that they want to make more money but there are only so many customers. Everyone either has or uses a car. Out of the 350,000,000 Americans of all ages – babies and non-drivers -- there already are 278,063,737 personal and commercial vehicles. So the problem facing car manufacturers trying to make more and more profit is that either they have to try and sell two cars to every driver or they have to make the cars much more expensive, thereby making more profit.

The manufacturers chose the latter solution.

How do you make the car more expensive and thereby profitable? Remember the formula: take 10¢ of steel, shape it and sell it for $1.00. Now, there are exceptions to this rule. First you can create a mystique about Bentley, Mercedes, BMW and the like and get an extra 10% for “beat-the-Jones” show-off value. But 10% is not enough to satisfy Wall Street investors. Or you can make very limited numbers of a model to create extra demand like Ferrari and Porsche. Or you can stick to the manufacturing profit model and simply add more and more steel and other components.

It all started to get out of hand with Ralph Nader who declared the ’69 Corsair “unsafe at any speed.” The Corsair was the only US manufactured rear engine car. Kill the Corsair and you effectively killed the other “unsafe” car, the VW Beetle. The Corsair weighed 2,414 lbs. The VW Beetle weighed only 1,742 lbs. and out-performed and was more reliable. But that Nader label of “unsafe” effectively killed the US market for the rear-engined Beetle. VW’s answer was to put the motor back in front, add almost another ton of steel, and relaunch the Beetle. More steel equaled a higher price and more profit.

Meanwhile, Chevy and Ford sedans in the mid-‘60s weighed 2,600 lbs. By 2022 they had ballooned up to 3,500 lbs. More material, more profit. VW Jetta’s are 50% heavier than when launched. Camry weighed 2,161 lbs. when launched in 1982, now weigh in at 3,310 lbs. In the SUV market, 2023 weights are getting up close to 6,000 lbs. or 3 tons for Tahoes and Expeditions.

And then along came electric cars.

Instead of going back to lighter, less bulky chassis, they simply stuck the new motor(s) and all those batteries in conventional platforms, adding another 300 lbs. even though they had removed the engine and gearbox – hardly lightweight components – and had reduced the overall size of the car by 20%. And Tesla? The lightest is 4,048 lbs. with the Model X at 5,390 lbs. And the prices for these increases in weight? Pretty much in lock step. More metal and plastic costs you more.

Now here’s the question we all need to ask ourselves: given today’s technology providing reliability mechanically (which is also lighter than old cast-iron engines), wouldn’t it be nice to have a reasonably heavy car instead of a gas guzzling heavyweight or an electric car that can only go 200 miles? Put today’s engine into a 1968 Volvo weighing 2,500 lbs. and you’d get 50 mpg and all the safety needed. Put an electric drivetrain in an original VW Beetle and you’d get 400-mile range with half the batteries of a Tesla. Or do as Ford is doing, stripping out all the unessentials, and launching the Maverick small truck with a base price of $22,000. Now that’s a business model to suit today’s consumer.

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #11

March 22-29 2024

The Administration, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the lead responded to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Working with Governor Wes Moore and Mayor Brandon Scott (both Democrats) The Department of Transportation promises to clear the harbor and rebuild the bride. DoT has already released $60 million in emergency funds as a "down payment" and President Biden is expected to seek $1 billion from Congress.

Vice President Harris announced a number of actions and investments designed to improve the quality of life of the peoples of northern central America. driven by poverty, lack of economic opportunities, and out of control crime people in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras are taking great risks and trusting criminal human traffickers to try to reach the US. The Administration is working to improve conditions in the Northern Triangle so that is no longer necessary. Vice President Harris announced $1 billion dollars in new investments as part of the Central America Forward public-private partnership, since 2021 it has invested $5.2 billion in the region. Harris also announced $175 million dollars of direct aid from the US to Guatemala at a meeting with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo.

The Department of Energy announced a $1.5 billion dollar loan to help restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant. This would mark the first time a nuclear power plant was brought back online after being decommissioned. The hope is keep the plant running till 2051, this 100% green power source is projected to prevent 111 million tons of CO2 emissions in its new life time, the same as taking 100,000 cars off the road. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer touted it as key for her state reaching its goal of 100% clean energy by 2040.

Vice President Harris launched a social media push to inform the public about the Biden-Harris Administration's SAVE Plan. The Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan was launched last year as part of President Biden's efforts to bring student loan forgiveness to millions of borrowers. Currently 7.7 million people are enrolled in SAVE, under which anyone making $16 a hour or less has a monthly payment of $0 on their student loans. 4.5 million SAVE enrollees are making $0 a month payments and another 1 million pay less than $100 a month on their loan repayment, over 150,000 people so far have had their loans totally forgiven. Republicans are suing to try to shut down the SAVE Plan

President Biden took keep steps to ensure quality healthcare this week. Biden extended the window for low-income Americans to apply for Obamacare. The original deadline of July 31st has been pushed back to November 30th. Biden also rolled back Trump era rules that allowed subsidies for "Junk Health insurance" These plans offer very little coverage and often mislead consumers into believing they have insurance when they aren't covered. These short term plans also don't have meet Obamacare standards and can refuse coverage for preexisting conditions.

The EPA announced new regulations aimed at "turbocharging" the number of electric trucks on the road. The new rules aim to have 25% of new long-haul trucks, the heaviest often diesel trucks on the road, and 40% of medium-size trucks (box trucks and landscaping vehicles) be nonpolluting by 2032, currently just 2% are. The regulation would apply to more than 100 types of vehicles including tractor-trailers, ambulances, R.V.s, garbage trucks and moving vans. The new tailpipe limits are expected to prevent about a billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2055.

the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services  announced that thanks to President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, 41 different drugs will coast those on Medicare Part B less money than it did last year.  An estimated 763,700 people on Medicare use at least one of these drugs every year. Some enrollees will save as much as $3,575 per dose.

The Department of Energy announced $6 billion for an effort to decarbonize energy-intensive industries. The investment in 33 projects across 20 states will eliminate 14 million metric tons of CO2 emissions each year when finished. Each project is meant to be highly replicable and serve as a blueprint for future private sector ventures. 

President Biden signed an Executive Order to Strengthen the Recognition of Women’s History. The Order will launch a review of all historic sites run by the National Parks Service to determine ways to better highlight the role of women, from all backgrounds, in American History.

The Senate Confirmed President Biden's nominees, Ernesto Gonzalez, and Leon Schydlower to federal judgeships in Texas. This brings the total number of federal judges appointed by President Biden to 190.

[sonneillonv]

Listen. I just spent an hour and 15 minutes arguing with someone online who could not comprehend this, so I need to make a PSA:

ALL INSURANCE COMPANIES IN THE USA, IN ALL STATES, HAVE AT LEAST 60 DAYS TO RUN YOUR MOTOR VEHICLE REPORT (MVR) AFTER BINDING A POLICY WITH YOU. THEY CAN THEN ADJUST YOUR RATES, WITHIN THAT TIME PERIOD, BASED ON ANY NEW OR EXPANDED INFORMATION THEY UNCOVER. YOU CANNOT COUNT ON KEEPING THAT GREAT NEW RATE YOU GOT UNTIL 60 DAYS HAVE PASSED OR THE MVR HAS BEEN RUN.

So if you don’t report an accident? They can find it and surcharge your policy for it. If you report an accident as less serious than it was? They can find it and surcharge your policy for it. If you didn’t mean to report it incorrectly but you accidentally did because you’re not a fucking insurance expert? No static, but they can find it and surcharge your policy for it.

My solution to this is, whenever I contact a company to get a quote, I always call them on the phone so I can talk to a human being, and I ask that human being to go ahead and run the MVR at the quote stage. Typically they do this for me when I ask them to. That way, I can be reasonably sure the rate they’re quoting is the one I’ll get.

- Also -

Insurance rates fluctuate constantly in the background, kind of like gas prices but on a longer timeline. They will only CHANGE at renewal, but the fact that companies are constantly filing for rate changes based on other economic factors means your premium could go up, go down, or stay the same at any renewal. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t change your coverage. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t get any accidents or tickets. There are other factors that drive insurance premiums besides what you personally have done, and rates can change based on those other factors.

For instance: One of the industries that’s currently getting a ton of flak for using ‘inflation’ as an excuse to jack up their prices and throw money at their shareholders is the rental car industry. Insurance pays for rental cars. So if they jack up their prices, and we have to pay their prices (because the government hasn’t intervened and told them to stop fucking price hiking), then our premiums go up. The money has to come from somewhere, and premiums only come from one place - customers.

Another for instance: One of the industries that has increased their prices significantly lately due to COVID is the medical care industry. I absolutely believe nurses deserve massive pay raises after what we’ve put them through, I’m just pointing out that when they get massive pay raises, that raises the cost of medical care. Insurance pays for medical care. So when that price goes up, we need something to pay it with, and that ‘something’ is ‘premiums’.

I’m not currently discussing with anybody whether insurance is a giant scam or whether you should be legally required to have it or whether the pooled risk model is wonderful or terrible, because right now, none of that shit really matters. You ARE required to have insurance to drive a car, and these factors ARE influencing prices. Until that changes, all your objections are completely theoretical. The math is factual, and the math is what is affecting the cost of insurance, which affects all of our lives.

- sincerely, someone who has to explain this to people fifty times a day and really wishes I could have a different conversation once in a while.

[newstfionline]

Friday, October 21, 2022

Hours reclaimed (Bloomberg) A new report out of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated the aggregate impact of work from home to be 60 million reclaimed hours every day that otherwise would have been spent commuting. Overall, about 15 percent of people work entirely remotely and 30 percent have a hybrid schedule. All told, much of that time has been reallocated toward leisure time and sleep.

$1.7 million toilet (SF Chronicle) San Francisco politicians gathered in the Noe Valley Town Square Wednesday to celebrate the opening of a $1.7 million bathroom. The politicians were celebrating securing state money to erect a long-desired toilet in the northeast corner of the town square. The city’s housing crisis has led to a growing demand for bathrooms for the people. The new toilet is at least a step in the right direction, but it’s an expensive one—the 150-square-foot bathroom is roughly the same price as a single-family home in the city. Democratic Assemblymember Matt Haney secured the $1.7 million bathroom bag from the state for the toilet following community requests for a new bathroom. “They told me $1.7 million, and I got $1.7 million,” Haney explained. “I didn’t have the option of bringing home less of the bacon when it comes to building a toilet. A half a toilet or a toilet-maybe-someday is not much use to anyone.” The project is expected to be completed by 2025.

Weeks After Hurricane Ian, Hundreds of Floridians Remain in Shelters (NYT) Three weeks after Hurricane Ian made landfall, many of the displaced are still in shelters, with their homes damaged or destroyed and nowhere to go. Sleeping side by side on American Red Cross cots and air mattresses are service-sector employees who are newly homeless and unemployed, retirees dependent on Social Security checks, and newcomers to the region with neither resources nor connections. Many were renters in North Fort Myers and other lower-income areas, barely making it even before Ian. “I’m just at a standstill,” said Kionna Tobler, a single mother of two young boys. She lived in Pine Manor, a low-income neighborhood in Fort Myers, and did not have a car or formal lease before the storm. Her roommate, who held the lease for the $1,200-a-month rental home, died shortly before Ian hit, she said. Without a lease, Ms. Tobler is uncertain what help she will receive.

Truss quits, but UK’s political and economic turmoil linger (AP) British Prime Minister Liz Truss quit Thursday after a tumultuous and historically brief term in which her economic policies roiled financial markets and a rebellion in her political party obliterated her authority. Truss became the third Conservative prime minister to be toppled in as many years, extending the instability that has shaken Britain since it broke off from the European Union and leaving its leadership in limbo as the country faces a cost-of-living crisis and looming recession. “I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” Truss acknowledged in a statement delivered outside her 10 Downing Street office. Financial markets breathed a sigh of relief, but Truss leaves a divided party seeking a leader who can unify its warring factions. Truss, who said she will remain in office until a replacement is chosen, has been prime minister for just 45 days and will almost certainly become the shortest-serving leader in British history.

Mass Strikes Sweep France (Foreign Policy) French authorities have scrambled to respond to mass strikes and protests that have roiled the country for weeks, sparking acute fuel shortages and travel disruptions. Although the strikes first began among oil refinery workers, in recent days they have also rippled into the country’s nursing, nuclear power, and transit sectors, among others. From teachers to railway staff, more than 100,000 people marched throughout the country on Tuesday to demand higher pay. The impact has been felt across France, which is now grappling with severe gas shortages exacerbated by the oil refinery workers’ strikes. Nearly 30 percent of French gas stations’ fuel supplies are now dried up, while Tuesday’s strikes also slashed train traffic. The sweeping scale of the unrest underscores the public’s frustration with soaring inflation and the government’s response—and also poses a major challenge to President Emmanuel Macron.

Bread Prices Skyrocket as Inflation Grips Europe (NYT) Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the price of the wheat that Julien Bourgeois grinds for boulangeries at his family’s flour mill in central France has increased more than 30 percent. The bill for the electricity needed to run the mill has tripled. Even the price of paper used for flour sacks has hit the stratosphere. All of which are driving up the price of a loaf of bread. There are signs that inflation in Europe is getting worse. Data released on Wednesday showed that overall consumer prices rose at a rapid pace in September from a year earlier, climbing nearly 11 percent in the European Union and 10.1 percent in Britain. The cost of food jumped nearly 16 percent in the European Union and more than 14 percent in Britain, while energy prices surged around 40 percent across both places. As inflation continues to flare, few matters are causing more concern than the cost of a basic loaf. Prices for the most essential food staple have never been higher, and are now up nearly 19 percent from a year ago, the fastest rise on record, according to Eurostat, Europe’s statistics agency.

Where Have All the Men in Moscow Gone? (NYT) Friday afternoons at the Chop-Chop Barbershop in central Moscow used to be busy, but at the beginning of a recent weekend, only one of the four chairs was occupied. “We would usually be full right now, but about half of our customers have gone,” said the manager, a woman named Olya. Many of the clients—along with half of the barbers, too—have fled Russia to avoid President Vladimir V. Putin’s campaign to mobilize hundreds of thousands of men for the flagging military campaign in Ukraine. Many men have been staying off the streets out of fear of being handed a draft notice. As Olya came to work last Friday, she said, she witnessed the authorities at each of the four exits of the metro station, checking documents. Her boyfriend, who was a barber at the salon, has also fled, and the separation is taking a toll. While there are still plenty of men in a city of 12 million people, across the capital their presence has thinned out noticeably. This is especially true among the city’s intelligentsia, who often have disposable income and passports for foreign travel.

Will Ukraine retake Kherson? (Washington Post) Kherson was the first major city to fall to Russia when the invasion began in February. Now, Russia’s hold on the southern city is looking shaky. Russian proxy officials in Kherson said today that they would move as many as 60,000 civilians out of the city to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, and that they would also shift their administration there. Losing Kherson would be a devastating blow to Russia’s campaign. Ukrainian forces have been making a slow advance for weeks toward the port city, which is also the administrative capital for the Kherson region and a gateway to Crimea. Since late August, Ukrainian troops have damaged bridges near the city, making it harder for Moscow to resupply its troops stationed there. Ukrainian howitzers are nearly within range of the bridges and river ports over the Dnipro, which could make a pullback bloody and chaotic for tens of thousands of Russian soldiers now on the western bank, reports our Kyiv bureau chief, Andrew Kramer.

Pomp, pageantry and paranoia (Washington Post) No effort has been spared to ensure the smooth execution of a crucial Chinese Communist Party congress this week where Xi Jinping is expected to extend his tenure as his country’s most powerful leader in decades. In Beijing, police and volunteers with red armbands work at checkpoints and patrol neighborhoods under orders to operate with “warlike” readiness during the six-day meeting that began Sunday. To enter the city, residents must have tested negative for the coronavirus twice within the previous three days. After a one-man protest in Beijing where banners were hung from an elevated road in the district of Haidian, guards were posted on bridges across the city. The airwaves have been flooded with testimonies and images of people all over the country competing with one another to celebrate their leader’s words. A 100-day security operation before the meeting began Sunday led to the arrest of 1.4 million people, laying the “solid foundation for the security and stability” of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, according to China’s Ministry of Public Security. The degree of fervor and the focus on Xi underline the direction in which China is moving—toward more centralized and personalized rule under one man.

Trying to plug the brain drain (CNN) Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee announced Wednesday that the city would be setting aside 30 billion Hong Kong dollars ($3.8 billion) to attract more businesses. The new funding was announced following the largest exodus the city has ever seen since official records began tracking such figures in 1961. According to Lee, “Over the past two years, the local workforce shrank by about 140,000.” He also announced a new hiring program alongside the spending bill on Wednesday, aimed at attracting wealthy individuals and graduates of top universities. The program offers “a two-year pass for exploring opportunities in Hong Kong” to eligible candidates. While Hong Kong has traditionally served as the gateway into China for Western countries, Singapore has recently overtaken it. Hong Kong’s harsh Covid restrictions have stifled its business competitiveness, so Singapore’s open-door policy makes it the more attractive option.

New Zealand farmers hit streets to protest cow-burp tax plan (AP) Farmers across New Zealand took to the streets on their tractors Thursday to protest government plans to tax cow burps and other greenhouse gas emissions, although the rallies were smaller than many had expected. Lobby group Groundswell New Zealand helped organize more than 50 protests in towns and cities across the country, the biggest involving a few dozen vehicles. Last week, the government proposed a new farm levy as part of a plan to tackle climate change. The government said it would be a world first, and that farmers should be able to recoup the cost by charging more for climate-friendly products. The government had worked with farmers and other groups to try to come up with an emissions plan they could all live with. But many farmers have been incensed by the government’s final proposal, while environmentalists have said it doesn’t go nearly far enough.

Somalia’s catastrophic drought (Foreign Policy) Thousands of Somali children are in danger of dying “on a scale not seen in half a century” as Somalia faces its most acute drought in four decades, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Since August, 44,000 children in Somalia have entered hospitals for severe acute malnutrition, which amounts to a child admitted every minute, UNICEF said.

Five hours’ sleep is tipping point for bad health (BBC) A PLoS Medicine study tracked the health and sleep of UK civil servants. All of the about 8,000 participants were asked: How many hours of sleep do you have on an average weeknight? And they were checked for chronic conditions, including diabetes, cancer and heart disease, over two decades of follow-up. Those who slept five hours or less around the age of 50 had a 30% greater risk of multiple ailments than those who slept seven hours. Shorter sleep at 50 was also associated with a higher risk of death during the study period, mainly linked to the increased risk of chronic disease. Sleep helps restore, rest and rejuvenate the body and mind—but why the “golden slumber number” might matter remains unclear.

[ebelal56-blog]

The Shocking Truth About Electric Vehicle Cost

Electric vehicles have been gaining popularity in recent years as people become more conscious of their carbon footprint and the impact of traditional gasoline-powered cars on the environment. One of the main advantages of electric vehicles is the cost savings associated with charging them compared to filling up a gas tank. When you break it down, the math is pretty clear. The cost of charging an electric vehicle is significantly cheaper than filling up a gas tank. On average, it costs about $0.13 per kilowatt-hour to charge an electric vehicle at home. This means that to fully charge a typical electric vehicle with a 60-kilowatt-hour battery, it would cost around $7.80. In comparison, the average cost of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is around $2.50. If you have a car that gets 30 miles per gallon, it would cost you about $8.33 to drive 100 miles. On the other hand, if you were driving an electric vehicle that gets 3 miles per kilowatt-hour, it would only cost you $2.60 to drive the same distance. The savings really start to add up when you consider the cost of driving over longer distances. For example, if you were to drive 10,000 miles in a year, it would cost you around $260 to charge an electric vehicle compared to $833 for a gasoline-powered car. That's a savings of $573 per year, just on fuel costs alone. But the savings don't stop there. Electric vehicles also require less maintenance than traditional cars. With fewer moving parts, there are fewer things that can go wrong, which means less money spent on repairs and maintenance. In fact, studies have shown that electric vehicles can save their owners up to $1,000 per year in maintenance costs. And let's not forget about the environmental benefits of driving an electric vehicle. By switching to an electric vehicle, you are reducing your carbon footprint and helping to combat climate change. Electric vehicles produce zero tailpipe emissions, which means they don't contribute to air pollution or greenhouse gas emissions. But despite all of these advantages, there are still some barriers to widespread adoption of electric vehicles. One of the main concerns for consumers is the upfront cost of purchasing an electric vehicle. While the cost of electric vehicles has been steadily decreasing in recent years, they are still more expensive than traditional cars. Another concern is the availability of charging infrastructure. While more and more charging stations are popping up across the country, there are still areas where charging an electric vehicle can be a challenge. This is especially true for people who live in apartments or condos without access to a dedicated charging station. But despite these challenges, the future of electric vehicles looks bright. With advancements in technology and infrastructure, electric vehicles are becoming more accessible and affordable for consumers. And as more people make the switch to electric vehicles, the benefits will only continue to grow. So the next time you're considering buying a new car, take a moment to think about the long-term savings and environmental impact of driving an electric vehicle. The math is pretty clear – electric vehicles are not only cheaper to fuel, but they also offer a cleaner and more sustainable way to get around.

[sa7abnews]

One sentiment is the greatest threat to the Democrats’ election hopes

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/12/one-sentiment-is-the-greatest-threat-to-the-democrats-election-hopes/

One sentiment is the greatest threat to the Democrats’ election hopes

“I want my life back.” It’s a broadly held sentiment that poses the greatest threat to the Democrats’ election hopes this November. Here’s why. For working- and middle-class Americans, it means returning to a time when you could go to the grocery store or fill your gas tank without being shocked by the costs. A lost and better time when getting a burger and fries was not a luxury purchase, your savings were sufficient to meet an unexpected expense, buying a house was not an impossible dream, and getting that new car was something your budget could handle. Those bygone days harken to a time before Democrats saw the pandemic as an opportunity to transform our economy. Recall the February 2021 The New York Times article titled “The Biden Team Wants to Transform the Economy. Really.” Democrats don’t talk about that much anymore, and with good reason. Their post-pandemic spending spree caused “inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation” – as their economist emeritus, Larry Summers, warned it would. As he predicted, inflation surged, dealing a devastating blow to American family budgets and aspirations. HARRIS IS ‘BIDEN’S CO-PILOT’ ON ‘BIDENOMICS’ POLICIES THAT PROMPTED WOEFUL JOBS NUMBERS: TRUMP CAMPSo, no one should be surprised that voters are now yearning for a president who spends less time rebuilding “our economy from the middle out and the bottom up” – whatever that means – and more time actually increasing their incomes with no or low inflation? Perhaps the greatest irony of the Biden-Harris effort to grow the economy “from the middle out and the bottom up” has been its “trickle up” effects. The wealthiest Americans have been benefiting from elevated levels of investment income.Working- and middle-class Americans, on the other hand, have seen their wages depleted by inflation, personal savings well below pre-pandemic levels, and credit card debt at record highs. In fact, rapidly growing credit card and car loan delinquencies are signaling “increased financial stress, especially among younger and lower-income households,” according to the New York Fed. As the impact of inflation has now hit the jobs market, a global stock market sell-off is threatening the value of retirement savings in 401(k) plans, potentially wiping out billions of dollars in value. Consider our economy officially transformed.KAMALA HARRIS AND HER TWO SOCIALIST PROPOSALS TO CRUSH THE US ECONOMYUnfortunately for Democrats, most Americans still recall 2019, a year in which, under President Trump, median household income soared to historic highs. The poverty rate plummeted to a 60-year low, hitting “an all-time record low for every race and ethnic group.” Income inequality also declined – yes, it declined. Job openings exceeded the number of people unemployed in every month. As a result, unemployment rates for Blacks, Hispanic and Asians all hit record lows while labor force participation increased. It was a very good year. Because this all occurred without Biden-Harris levels of transformative government spending, inflation remained under control, averaging 1.8% for the year. Wage growth, on the other hand, ended the year up 3.1%. Wages grew faster than prices and interest rates were low enough to make large purchases – such as cars and homes – economically feasible. AMERICA NEEDS ENERGY RESILIENCY, NOT BIDEN-HARRIS’ ACTIVIST IDEOLOGYSeriously, who doesn’t miss 2019’s economic security and prosperity (let alone world peace, safe cities and secure borders)? For working- and middle-class Americans, it was the best of times. Then, the pandemic hit. Biden and Harris claim they inherited a post-pandemic economic disaster and had to spend like drunken sailors (an insult to drunken sailors, who at least spend their own money) to prevent a recession. It’s a lie. Many governors shut down their states’ economies during the pandemic. That created a bipartisan economic crisis that Trump addressed well before the Biden-Harris administration took office. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONIn the 10 months before January 2021, over 16.5 million workers (that’s about 1.7 million per month) returned to work as states. with Trump’s encouragement, reopened their economies. Economic growth accelerated at a V-shaped recovery pace with GDP hitting a stunning 33.4% in the third quarter of 2020 and a still impressive 4% in the fourth quarter. And, by the way, the inflation rate Biden/Harris inherited from Trump in January 2021 was 1.4%.The economy was on pace for a full V-shaped recovery. Absent the glaring economic incompetence of the Biden-Harris post-pandemic spending spree, it would have quickly and fully recovered.Should Harris prevail in November, we will get more – or worse – economic incompetence. Keep in mind that Harris cast the tie-breaking vote behind passage of both the ironically misnamed American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act. Those multitrillion-dollar spending boondoggles drove the surge in inflation that forced the Fed to increase interest rates – and she owns them. Harris’ San Francisco-style economic policies would include higher taxes, more regulation and more, much more, spending. From Trump, we would get growth-driving (and revenue-enhancing) tax cuts, reduced regulation, support for U.S. energy production and a pullback on the current absurd level of government spending (while preserving Medicare and Social Security). In other words, a return to the economic sanity that so clearly benefited working- and middle-class Americans. Bottom line, “I want my life back” means a future with the prosperity, peace and economic competence our nation once enjoyed under President Trump rather than the continuing chaos and insecurity of the Biden-Harris years. It’s a sentiment that could decide this election.CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM ANDY PUZDER   

[autosalvagetoronto]

Smart Auto Recycling Industry Challenges Nowadays

Auto recycling, also known as automotive recycling, is the process of dismantling vehicles for spare parts and recycling materials. It plays a significant role in the automotive industry and the environment, providing both economic and ecological benefits. This essay will delve into the history, process, benefits, challenges, and future trends of auto recycling.

 History of Auto Recycling

The concept of auto recycling dates back to the early 20th century when automobiles became more common. Initially, the practice was informal, with small scrap yards dismantling cars and selling usable parts. As the automotive industry grew, so did the need for more structured and efficient recycling methods. By the mid-20th century, formal auto recycling facilities emerged, equipped to handle the increasing volume of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs).

 The Auto Recycling Process

Auto recycling involves several steps, each designed to maximize the recovery of usable parts and materials while minimizing environmental impact.

1. **Collection**: The process begins with the collection of ELVs. These can come from various sources, including individual owners, insurance companies, and fleet operators. Vehicles are either towed to recycling facilities or driven there if they are still operational.

2. **Depollution**: Once at the recycling facility, the vehicle undergoes a depollution process. This step involves draining all fluids, such as oil, gasoline, coolant, and brake fluid, to prevent environmental contamination. Hazardous materials like batteries and airbags are also removed and safely disposed of or recycled.

3. **Dismantling**: After de-pollution, the vehicle is dismantled to salvage reusable parts. Components such as engines, transmissions, alternators, and electronic systems are carefully removed, tested, and refurbished for resale. This stage is critical as it extends the lifecycle of parts and reduces the need for new manufacturing.

4. **Shredding and Material Recovery**: The remaining vehicle shell, primarily composed of metal, is sent to a shredder. The shredding process breaks down the vehicle into smaller pieces, which are then sorted using magnets, air classification, and other techniques to separate ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastics, and other materials.

5. **Recycling and Disposal**: Recovered materials are sent to specialized recycling facilities. Metals are melted down and repurposed for manufacturing new products. Plastics, glass, and rubber are also processed and reused in various industries. Any residual waste that cannot be recycled is disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner.

 Benefits of Auto Recycling

Auto recycling offers numerous benefits, spanning environmental, economic, and social dimensions.

1. **Environmental Benefits**:

   - **Resource Conservation**: Recycling metals and other materials from vehicles reduces the demand for virgin resources, conserving natural reserves and lowering the environmental impact of mining and manufacturing.

   - **Energy Savings**: Manufacturing products from recycled materials generally requires less energy than producing them from raw materials. For example, recycling steel saves about 60% of the energy needed to produce new steel from iron ore.

   - **Pollution Reduction**: Proper disposal of hazardous materials and fluids prevents soil and water contamination. Additionally, recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of new materials.

2. **Economic Benefits**:

   - **Job Creation**: The auto recycling industry supports a significant number of jobs, from collection and transportation to dismantling, refurbishing, and material processing.

   - **Cost Savings for Consumers**: Recycled auto parts are often more affordable than new ones, providing cost savings for vehicle repairs and maintenance.

   - **Revenue Generation**: Auto recycling generates revenue through the sale of salvaged parts and recycled materials, contributing to the economy.

3. **Social Benefits**:

   - **Community Support**: Auto recycling facilities often engage in community initiatives, such as environmental education and support for local charities.

   - **Safety Improvements**: By ensuring that hazardous materials are properly handled and disposed of, auto recycling enhances community safety and health.

 Challenges in Auto Recycling

Despite its benefits, the auto recycling industry faces several challenges that must be addressed to improve its effectiveness and sustainability.

1. **Technological Advancements**: Modern vehicles are increasingly complex, incorporating advanced materials and electronic systems. This complexity makes dismantling and recycling more challenging, requiring continual adaptation of techniques and technologies.

2. **Economic Viability**: Fluctuations in the market prices of scrap car pick up and other recycled materials can impact the profitability of auto recycling operations. Maintaining economic viability in the face of these fluctuations is a persistent challenge.

3. **Regulatory Compliance**: Auto recycling is subject to numerous regulations aimed at protecting the environment and public health. Compliance with these regulations can be costly and requires ongoing investment in training and infrastructure.

4. **Consumer Awareness**: Increasing consumer awareness about the benefits of auto recycling is essential for its growth. Many vehicle owners are still unaware of the environmental and economic advantages of recycling their old cars.

 Future Trends in Auto Recycling

The future of auto recycling is poised for significant developments, driven by technological advancements, regulatory changes, and shifting consumer attitudes.

1. **Technological Innovations**:

   - **Automation and Robotics**: The use of automation and robotics in dismantling and sorting processes is expected to increase efficiency and precision, reducing labor costs and improving material recovery rates.

   - **Advanced Material Recovery**: New technologies for recovering materials from complex automotive components, such as batteries and composite materials, are being developed. These innovations will enhance the recyclability of modern vehicles.

2. **Regulatory Developments**: Stricter environmental regulations and extended producer responsibility (EPR) policies are likely to shape the future of auto recycling. EPR policies hold manufacturers accountable for the end-of-life management of their products, encouraging the design of more recyclable vehicles.

3. **Sustainable Design**: The automotive industry is increasingly focusing on sustainable design principles, such as using recyclable materials and designing for disassembly. These efforts will make future vehicles easier to recycle and reduce the environmental impact of the automotive sector.

4. **Circular Economy**: The concept of a circular economy, which aims to minimize waste and maximize the reuse of resources, is gaining traction. Auto recycling plays a crucial role in this paradigm by keeping materials in use for as long as possible and reducing the need for new resource extraction.

 Conclusion

Auto recycling is a vital component of the automotive used tires industry and environmental conservation efforts. By recovering valuable parts and materials from end-of-life vehicles, auto recycling conserves resources, reduces energy consumption, and mitigates pollution. Despite facing challenges such as technological complexity and market fluctuations, the industry is evolving with innovations in automation, material recovery, and sustainable design. As regulatory frameworks and consumer awareness continue to improve, auto recycling will play an increasingly important role in building a sustainable and circular economy.