Another important angle to this story is that Cuba is willing to publicly castigate Russia and take action against its partners in crime. Cuba and Russia/Soviet Union have been allies since at least 1959…
I really want to go electric, but the milage just isn't there yet for me, and add in the charging time and new maintenance routines of swapping out those batteries. I just haven't done enough research.
I don't think there's anything bad with giving the manufacturers money to switch their entire production facilities to electric, I just hope the government actually understands what those funds are being used for, unlike the money they gave our ISPs for infrastructure upgrades that went to waste.
The shells may be similar or the same but inside it would be like asking an apple orchard to change all their trees to oranges, and these funds will help expedite that.
They’re working on improving range, it just isn’t there yet. Recharge overnight at home if you have a garage and it will likely never be a problem, in the vent you don’t have a place to charge slowly overnight or need a charge up on a trip then super chargers are being added all over the place daily, with government investment helping that as well. The maintenance routine is nothing, you need a new battery after nearly a decade, most people are getting a new car on that schedule, even if you plan to keep a car for decades you’ll have major repairs/replacements on a ice vehicle just as much if not more than electric.
Swapping ice to electric isn’t that difficult, ford even sells a crate electric motor and the tools/instructions to replace a gas engine with it in nearly any vehicle.
I fully agree that the government needs to set guidelines, controls, and a series of deep audits over several decades to ensure this money is being spent appropriately. Too often they just hand out cash to corps with no follow up to make sure it didn’t get spent on bonuses
My ice vehicle is nigh 2 decades old and besides wear parts my total investment on repairs is under $500. I’m still getting 30 mpg and although I’m not anti electric 15 years of no car payment is hard to beat.
People really overstate the maintenance difference. It’s basically oil changes, which with synthetic oils are a 2-3 times per year thing depending on driving amounts. In electrics, you have a massive battery that’s going to dictate the value of the car at around the ten year mark, an ice car can be 7-10k, but electric is either 0 or pay 15k to have a car maybe worth that much or slightly more.
Are your tires and brake pads bald as fuck? Neither of those are cheap and have to be done every few years on ICE vehicles.
You are horribly underestimating battery lifespan. They are warrantied for 10 years. They average about 300k miles before dropping to 80% of their original charge. If you are fine with that, many are fine to go longer.
Tires wear the same on battery cars. Brakes are similar, though they were less due to regenerative braking, they also need to be bigger for the heavier weight.
Brakes wear way way less on EVs. You basically never use the brakes. Yes, the EV is heavier, but the regen is strong enough to slow down a car in all but the hardest of braking circumstances.
There are also timing belts, engine seals, coolant flush and fills (there’s a debate on whether that is worth it), transmission fluid, oil filters, air filters, spark plugs, and the lead acid battery. None of those are really a thing on EVs except the battery, but it’s much smaller and cheaper.
I specifically excluded wear parts. At 300k miles I’ve replaced the tires about 4 times (they wear in the front but i move them to the back and they seem to last forever), the brakes & pads/drums & fluids twice although the second time was due to an error in installation on my part, belts once, headlamps once, spark plugs twice, and wiper blades bi-yearly. The alternator was my only non-wear repair and that came in around $300. Also note i do all my own work which i have no confidence for in an electric vehicle although i have to claim complete ignorance, some systems may be identical…
I would 2-3 times a year. And when I did it would be probably 3 charges in each direction, maybe 4 considering heat and a/c and several suitcases of weight. Enough that it wouldn’t be convenient, but that’s why we’ll keep an ICE van around for a while yet.
So you choose to inconvenience yourself 2-3 times a month because of something you only do 2-3 times a year? I get people who complain about range when they take road trips every month or live in very cold climates or have long commutes, but 2-3 times a year you can rent a car for the money you would save on gas and maintenance.
No idea what you’re talking about, but it’s our second vehicle. Primary is a Volt, so PHEV with the longest range. Most days we use no gas because I work from home and we only use the van a couple times a week when the kids need to be in different places at the same time.
Every time I go home to see my family, I’d have to stop halfway and sit at a charger for a bit. That’s why I own a hybrid now since electric doesn’t meet my needs and EVs are still so damned expensive
No airport in villages in the middle of nowhere my dude. Nearest airport I could get a flight into is an hour+ away and I’d have to drive at least 45 minutes to an airport small enough to fly into it. The only real feasible way to get there is drive since America refuses to build non-freight trains
Welp, sounds like you drive waaaaaaaaay more than the average. You live in the middle of the wilderness and frequently drive 500 miles each way. You’re an edge case so it’s gonna be a while before a solution is developed for you.
Fortunately, there’s few enough people in your position that if only the people who drive such an extraordinary amount use ICE vehicles, it will be a tiny contribution to climate change.
If your daily driving is <50 miles or so, a plug-in hybrid is a good option. That way you only burn gas on those long trips.
For much of the Midwest it’s like this, younger generations move to the cities but our parents/grandparents are out in the wilderness still. Yea I have to drive 300 miles to get to them, but that’s far from unique for millennials in the cities
300 miles is almost the entire length of Kansas. And to make that trip often enough that stopping at a supercharger is a hassle? Yeah, that’s abnormal.
Idk what to say, these trips aren’t thought of as much by midwesterners that didn’t grow up in the cities. There are half a dozen from my graduating class of 70 that also came to the same city as me and make similar trips at least once a month back home, you’ve got holidays, births, weddings, funerals, all of those are a 300 mile each way trip. Hybrid is the best kid tof us can do right now, America refuses to build trains and airplanes can’t be expected to have flights to the middle of nowhere
Charging needs a huge overhaul and standardization at a minimum. Being able to charge at home helps, but that’s 50% or less of people can do it. The big problem is travel, there’s way to many different apps, broken chargers, and not actually fast chargers. Especially outside Tesla’s super chargers.
Pretty much every brand is adopting teslas chargers now and more will likely follow. Since ford/GM/Nissan/etc are already adopting it for NA then it will likely become the standard so all will use the same chargers capable of the same speeds. Also iirc the latest infrastructure act included building a fuckload of true supercharging stations
How often do you drive more than 100 miles away? People average 33 miles a day in the US and less than 1% of trips are over 100 miles. I would venture to guess almost never. Range is really not much of an issue for 99% of people. The only instances where charge time is an issue is those less than 1% of trips that are over 100 miles.
Maintenance is also not much of an issue. There is significantly less maintenance with an EV. For the battery, they generally hold their charge pretty damn well and most can go 300k miles before their full battery level degrades to 80% of the original range.
Not saying their are not issues because there absolutely are. But the issue with them is affordability and charging infrastructure reliability. At least in the US, we have a mediocre amount of fast charge stations but one of the main providers, Electrify America, has shit reliability. You would think VW, who was forced to build the Electrify America system, would actually want to make it profitable and also use it as PR showing that they have changed. But nope. They treat it like the red headed step child that they were forced to do and resent it. Fuck VW.
This right here. I had a phev that got 30 miles off the battery. If I worked a regular job that would be more than enough especially if I could trickle charge at work.
Maintenance you’re spot on and don’t forget to account for the intangibles like having to make that appointment for an oil change, etc and then having to either drop the car off or sit around while they do the work. Data coming from years of tesla, prius, etc is showing batteries lasting even longer and holding even more charge than the engineers predicted when designing and testing. I wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually see evs with 500k+ on the original battery and that’s not including some of the cells being repaired or swapped out.
As for charging. In most big cities there are chargers literally everywhere. I run my own livery and work uber, etc so I’m everywhere in my current state. I’m seeing apt complexes put in charging stations backed by Duke Power, I’m also seeing stores like Publix with free charging, simply plug and play versus having to activate it. Parking garages in Charlotte and Greensboro have them including at the airports, Greensboro also has at least one charging setup with a solar canopy for shade. WFU has a ton of free chargers around campus and nearby.
The charging infrastructure has a long way to go but we are miles ahead of where we were just 5 years ago. Those with a house or who can convince a hoa or complex can charge at home and always wake up to a full tank.
Mileage seems fine to me. My gas car gets 260-280 maybe. Electric hits similar numbers.
Charge times are getting pretty low too. 20 minutes is becoming common to hear a new car doing 20-80%. That’s slower than gas but also I’ll only do that in a pinch. Most charging will be at home during the night.
The maintenance differences are a mixed bag though. I think a lot of EVs will be essentially disposed of once the batteries are showing age.
If the phone industry can reach us anything it is manufacturers will make it expensive to change or not make the batteries.
With all that said. Giving car companies money to help them mine rare metals in 3rd world countries, buy motors from China, assemble cars in Mexico and the US…idk how that makes financial sense.
And before anyone tells me the money is only for US plants…I’ll ask you to get real.
Man, I forget how shitty most peoples gas cars are sometimes. 260 miles from a full tank? That’s like 26mpg if you have a 10gallon tank, which is unlikely. My car is 15 years old and gets 40mpg, the hybrids in my household get 50+. How tf do you afford to drive getting mileage like that?
I do as well. However, I read that if you have an economy car the best thing for climate change is to drive it until it dies. Not throw it out and get an EV.
Yes I would love to use mass transit for everything but that isn’t practical for my line of work.
This isn’t going to put a dent in climate change. It just isn’t. Wake me up when we change our stance on Nuclear since that is the only thing that will bolster renewable energy, which is a stop gap.
Furthermore, if the US government actually cared about fighting climate change they would invest in public transportation across the country, making those EV, since they A. Go shorter distances and B. Can carry more people, and they would also tax the shit out of the fossil fuel industry and manufacturing sector for their wonton pollution. It’s called internalizing the externalities and it needed to happen 10 years ago. We’re so fucked.
EV cars are meant to be powered with green energy, but you need a demand and a supply of that first or you’re just powering them with coal instead of oil.
Common myth. Coal makes up a small percentage of power in the US and Europe, and EVs powered by literally anything other than coal (including natural gas) are a net win for the climate over ICE vehicles.
For example, where I live, coal is 3% of the energy mix. Renewables (including hydro) are 42%, and nuclear is 9%.
You realize natural gas is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect, right? When people talk about going to green energy, only the fossil fuel industries pretend gas, or for that matter “clean coal,” is part of it.
And sure, it contributes less per kilowatt but the current concerns are that we’re either already over the threshold or won’t convert in time.
Removing fossil fuels from the grid? Reducing methane leakage in natural gas transmission? Developing domestic nuclear energy?
Maybe reducing car-dependency to make more efficient use of land and reduce the excessive amounts of taxpayer money being dumped to subsidize suburban development? Reducing inefficient flights between close cities (LAX-SFO, BOS-JFK-DCA)? Building more efficient buildings?
How about taking advantage of the already insanely efficient supply chains in China that allow for the development of sub-10k EVs? Helping those companies launch in the US and bring their expertise with them to accelerate the EV transition like China has?
Nah, let’s just give some more money to a few big EV manufacturers, I’m sure that’ll fix everything.
While I agree with your sentiment, ~2/3rds of it according to the article isn’t being given to them but being available in loans. So the article should say $5.5 given away, and $10 billion made avaliable to pay back.
It’s more like investment, especially if it saves jobs. It can be a win-win. Companies have it easier time switching to EV manufacturing, which helps those companies and the environment. Manufacturing jobs are saved, both giving a living to a lot of people and helping communities and saving on benefit payments.
Could of course backfire or go to shit but investments like this from states seem like a very wise move imo.
I wouldn’t exactly be surprised if that happens but I’m not pessimistic enough to think it will hah. I’d imagine plenty of them will actually use the money for EV transition since that really is the direction things are going anyway.
It’s tying up capital that could be used elsewhere
I’m not sure that’s the case when you’re the government and can and do print money. Not every rule of finance applies to the entity that gives credibility to the currency in the first place. This is also why the concept of governmental debt is much less meaningful than the concept of individual debt.
For context, this all started Thursday when the ADL xeeted that is had a “frank and productive” conversation with X’s CEO. She replied with some warm and fuzzy PR bullshit about working together to improve the platform blah blah blah. But the right wing nutjobs weren’t happy with the implication that X was in anyway cooperating with the ADL and there was immediate backlash. “Ban the ADL” became a trending hashtag, because, according to the racist majority on X, the ADL is the actual hate group and they pressure advertisers who in turn pressure platforms to “ban free speech.” Musk, always quick to undermine the sad sack holding the title “CEO” jumped on that bandwagon and been xeeting about it all weekend, threatening to ban them, generally talking trash, and now threatening to sue.
I almost feel bad for the new “CEO”. It really seems like she’s doing her best to give the impression that Twitter is still a sane company with reasonable business practices, only for Elon to completely disregard her messaging and do the exact opposite.
I would feel bad if it wasn’t obvious that Musk would do this. It is impossible for him to control himself. He can’t help to put his dumbass opinion in the mix, no matter how much it hurts him personally and professionally. It’s the reason he was forced to buy Twitter in the first place.
Drop me in her seat for 7 figures with a nice kick-out clause (no stock, please) and I’ll pretend Xitter is a wholesome, thoughtful, productive corporate citizen, too.
It’s a shitty position to be in so I almost feel bad as well, except literally everyone knew this was going to happen when she joined. But I doubt she thought, “What’s the worst that could happen? I have a bland conversation with the ADL, and Musk spends the weekend retweeting self deacribed antisemites and threatening to ban/sue the ADL?”
She is scheduled to be at the Code Conference hosted by the Verge/Vox at the end of September. I’m really interested in how she answers when asked about being undermined, especially now that the undermining has taken the form of her boss just being an outright antisemite.
they pressure advertisers who in turn pressure platforms to “ban free speech.”
This argument of theirs is so strange. Don’t advertisers too have free speech? Is the right wing arguing that advertisers shouldn’t be allowed to choose to stop advertising with Twitter? What “pressure” can ADL put on them? Does the ADL have legal authority to force advertisers to exit Twitter? No. Is the ADL holding private information about the CEOs of advertisers and extorting the advertisers to leave? Not likely.
Is the ADL communicating a position that the majority of the advertiser’s customers find the racist, fascist, and misogynistic content now omnipresent on Twitter distasteful, and therefore harmful to the advertisers’ brands and with negative impacts to future sales? Likely yes, but those statements are themselves free speech on the part of the ADL.
What the right wing seems to be arguing is that the definition of free speech should be the right to say whatever racist, fascist, and misogynistic comments they like without anyone making choices of their own to dissociate with the right wing. That’s not free speech that’s…fascism!
Perhaps ironically it is the ADLs free speech that allows them to show advertisers what is posted on elons website. Further irony can be found in the fact that a screenshot of elsons website showing bigoted posts is an example of fact and not of feelings. Moreover: crying about your lost ad revenue is feelings and blaming the ADL for it is not facts.
It’s never ok to hurt somebody’s business just because you disagree with them giving free speech to everybody. The ADL should pay Elon for the damage they did to his business
No, that’s not free speech. Free speech is supposed to be for protecting businesses, not for hurting them. If you hurt somebody’s business, you gotta pay for that. Freedom isn’t free.
I remember around 2020, a lot of freethinkers began spouting something about how Twitter is “a platform not a publisher” and therefore users are entitled to treat the website like a public meeting place and protected by first amendment rights, etc.
It was basically a Soverign Citizen argument about how Section 230 means websites don’t have the authority to moderate content at all, and it died down after Trump stopped preaching it after he launched Truth
I remember around 2020, a lot of freethinkers began spouting something about how Twitter is “a platform not a publisher” and therefore users are entitled to treat the website like a public meeting place and protected by first amendment rights, etc.
I think you’re taking that quote of mine with an unintended meaning. I didn’t mean to suggest advertisers have right to post what they want, rather they have the choice to NOT post if they don’t want to. The right-wing argument appears to suggest that advertisers should be powerless to choose or not choose to advertise. Suggesting they are wheat to be harvested. A resource owned by the company they are purchasing advertising from; its a bizarre notion.
Cuba is the sole example of a functional Communist Government. Their entire economy is based on tourism. Their citizens have more rights than anyone from Florida for example. The nation fully supports the LGBTQ community, it has free Healthcare and has a strong relationship with the European Union with job programs.
It still needs serious work in regards to human rights as it jails those who oppose the government.
From a United States perspective they would make a better ally than an enemy so we should continue to work on increasing diplomacy with Cuba.
No they were the people or ancestors of those who would not benefit from Marxism and/or those who escaped fir various reasons as people always seem to want to escape.
If I wanted to see what the “ground truth” looked like in Cuba, I’d look at Cuba rather than making dopey assumptions based on the people that chose to leave Cuba’s system in favour of the US.
Interesting. I figured with all the fresh anti-nazism immediately after WW2 the US would have made some kind of law against this kind of thing considering just how much people at the time disliked Nazis. Maybe they just thought it wouldn’t happen in the US later on? Or the cold war threat made everyone reprioritize perhaps?
I’m speaking and thinking from a historical lense regardless of modern politics if that wasn’t clear
Nah from what I know of history and I could be wrong about some details - there was a significant portion of our population that were nazi sympathizers among other things - I figure that might be a big reason why it was never truly dealt with
I believe most States in the US draw the line at "(directly) inciting violence" or "creating a disaster" (eg. shouting "Fire!" In a crowded theatre).
For whatever reasons, shouting "white power" and "Jews will not replace us" while waving swastika flags is not considered "inciting violence" in the US, even though the implications are very clear to everyone. This has allowed Nazis to march in the streets for decades in the US.
The reason is cops and judges agree with those reasons.
Waving nazi flags and using their slogans should be treated as a threat at all times. There is no possible way that anything nazi is not implied violence.
If anyone reading this votes Democrat and stands firm in support of gun control, that Nazi piece of shit and his buddies will continue to arm up ignoring the law because said cops are on their sides and will never prosecute them; you might as well lay down and let them fuck you over until you die because you are incapable or too cowardly to arm yourself to protect your community through deterrence.
I’m not implying anything. I’m directly suggesting you are a sociopath, based upon your comments in this post. If your answer to a social/political issue is “GUNz!” you’re more than a little mentally askew.
I agree, but I wanted to stick to the less disputed parts of the answer. I simply can't do justice to the topic of US support for Nazi ideology and its extensive history, even though it is a topic well worth researching. Depressing but important, like many other things in this world.
At this point I just recommend listening to The War on Everyone audiobook by Robert Evans. It does a pretty great job of spelling out this countries history with fascism
To me it always seemed weird how saying “we should eradicate jews by our own hand” or “we should kill this jew” would probably not be okay because of inciting violence, but saying “we should eradicate jews… Through the law/state” instead is perfectly acceptable and not inciting violence.
Is one level of indirection really enough to make it okay? The end result is the same.
This is also why such free speech has problems. If you’re the one spewing that shit it’s all fine and dandy for you, but if you’re the targeted minority what can you do, exactly? Certainly you cannot legally physically defend yourself! You’re just destined to have to defend your literal existence with speech, like jeez. It’s so lopsided.
It doesn't make sense when you look at it through the lens of "violence is a bad thing", which is what we're generally led to believe it is about. It does make sense when you look at it through the lens of "xenophobia personally benefits/ed me and my other friends currently in power and I would like to keep it that way but I don't want to do the dirty work myself".
Unfortunately most places have a history of the people in power exploiting other groups of people for their benefit, and this is just one way in which it manifests. It feels weird because we know it isn't congruent with what we're taught about how people in a society should behave.
Is being an open nazi and rallying for hate speech legal?
Yes. Ostensibly because of the first amendment, but mostly because cops won’t arrest their off-duty coworkers for doing shit they wholeheartedly agree with.
Is being an open nazi and rallying for hate speech legal?
Yes. Any law making that illegal would be unconstitutional. They’re assholes, but until they do or say something that is part of commiting a crime they still have a right to free speech.
If these allegations are true, this was some severe misconduct by the clerk of the court. In what would’ve been a slam dunk case, she really screwed up. 
I’ve been saying this but I’m surprised no one at Airbnb thought of this, but just start doing long-term rentals. Become a rental management company. Easier said than done, but they have the cash on hand to make it happen.
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