1. Gig The Libs
That’s it. That is the entire Republican platform summarized in one single plank. “Gig The Libs”.
Using this knowledge, I can cite or predict anything that Republicans will do (on days ending in “Y”) that can be a fulfillment of their entire platform.
By way of illustration, let’s take a look at what the Republican folks in Wyoming are doing these days.
The link takes you to the State of Wyoming Legislature website where you can view their latest masterpiece: Senate Joint Resolution 0004.
SJ0004 calls for a total and complete ban on electric vehicles in Wyoming by the year 2035.
Why, you ask? Well, not counting the many repetitions in their eleven “Wherases” there are 4 issues that are identified by the author. But which is it?
Could it be the first/second “Whereas” where the petroleum industry is found to have provided not only good jobs but revenue for the state?
Could it be the “fourth Whereas” where it is claimed that Wyoming has “vast stretches of highway” but very few electric charging stations (outside of a person’s own place of residence, I imagine)?
Could it be the “fifth Whereas” that critical minerals are just too precious to be used for such a mundane purpose as providing electric power for mere transportation?
Or could it be the “tenth Whereas” where electric vehicles are responsible for various unidentified but obviously “deleterious impacts on Wyoming’s communities”?
Or could it be “None Of The Above”, and this resolution is in observance of the 1st (and only) Republican plank on their platform?
As it turns out, here on the Left Coast, California has just mandated a ban on the sale of all internal combustion engines in, wait for it…2035.
Now how, besides the coincidental years, do we know this is the intent and the entire reason for this legislation? You have to read the resolution right down to the bottom, Section 3 (go back and look, I’ll wait).
See?
In the list of governors to receive a copy of the resolution, besides the Wyoming governor, only California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, is on the cc list.
Oh the humanity.
They don’t mind being utterly transparent, do they?
1I would never go to WI but this stupidity is another good reason to avoid the entire state. I am not convinced that this threat to the poor people stuck under the rethug thumbs of idiots will cause California to head straight back to the days of oil, smog and poison instead of moving into the future, but it will probably keep people who want a better life from going to and getting stranded where there are no charging stations. In California, we have cities that have outlawed any NEW gas stations in favor of cleaner electric energy. My car is 20 years old, only has 132,000 miles on it and could run at least as long as I will so an EV is not in my immediate future but I can wish.
2No doubt all Californicators, including Newsom are quaking in their boots today, “Oh no! Our feelings are so hurt!” It would appear that Wyomingers need something to do.
3Cleek’s Law
Today’s conservatism is the opposite of what liberals want today, updated daily.
first propounded in 2010
4http://ok-cleek.com/blogs/?page_id=18788
Ahhhh. Performative idiocy. . . . . .
5What to do? What to do?
What is especially dumb about this is that it does nothing whatever to protect the fossil fuel industry they are pretending to protect.
More EVs mean more demand for electricity, and some of it is generated by burning fossil fuels. In other words they are throttling their own market.
Or attempting to. Their citizens will just go out of state to buy their EVs that they would have anyway. The local dealerships lose.
6When the day comes when GM and Ford have to manufacture the type of car to make and sell, I wonder if they’l focus on markets in California or Wyoming . . .
PS Wyoming: China supports your resolution.
7Whereas the right to breathe is implicit in the Declaration of Independence, we should build a dome over Wyoming so they can keep all their precious carbon emissions to themselves. It won’t be good for the ski resorts, but who cares? Nya nya. You stink and your mother is fat.
Answer childishness with childishness.
8Ya know what would sell well in Wyoming? A car powered by sheep poop. Endless supply, there.
9Own the libs.
10Disown your children & grandchildren.
I think these legislators must have learned logical thinking from the PeeWee Herman show!
11Wyoming repugnantican legislature critters don’t want to admit that minerals in EV batteries can be recycled (90%) and reused in new EV batteries. They also don’t want to talk about how gas powered car emissions are recycled through their lungs. How’s that working out? I guess they are banking on their hot air to blow those fumes into the left coast. I like the idea of a dome over Wyoming.
12Also, this is a dilemma for the Musk Rat and his twitter, since he also likes to own the libs these days. Wyoming is going after his cash cow. Maybe he can ban the Wyoming legislature’s Twitter account?
Like everything else that’s not white, christian or republican, Conservatives hate the Libs. They want to change the whole world to Conservatism. They are extremists that I labeled Corporate Fascists. With Libertarians being Fascists with a ‘feel good’ name.
They declared open, take no prisoners, War on Liberalism with the Powell Memo many years ago. Gone unrestrained, it has now escalated to the dangerous mess we have now.
Thom Hartmann nails it again …
“While the battle for House Speaker appears to be about personality, it’s really about ideology and policy. It’s about the future of “big government” and whether or not we will continue to have an American middle class.
And as long as Libertarian-leaning billionaires continue pouring cash into the campaigns and lifestyles of Republican members of Congress, this battle that’s been going on for over 40 years to tear apart the American middle-class is not going to end or go away any day soon.”
https://www.rawstory.com/house-freedom-cacus/#comments_section_start
And from Driftglass …
” And the defining feature of the base of any future Republican party will continue to be a seething hatred of the Left. And “Left” will continue to mean whatever the Republican Ministry of Propaganda needs it to mean at any given moment.”
13https://driftglass.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-road-ahead.html
Is it time for us to reconnect cable TV? Might be if there’s a late-night comic doing a stupid plastic potted plants in state legislatures and Congress schtick. Nah. We will continue to rely on the WMDBS for all the news.
Ms. JJ name your donee for this month, please. You definitely deserve what we’d otherwise be paying for cable TV. The news with your added humor is so worth much more. Thank you!
14Whineoming is just upping a game that Texas’ Guv Abbott and the Rethug Lege had pioneered years ago.
What the TX Rethugs had done was to prevent the direct sale of vehicles to customers, bypassing auto dealerships. Which, since EVs are usually sold direct [unlike ICE vehicles], served to hinder the sale of EVs in Texas [the TX auto dealer association pushed this].
The Texass Rethugs and Abbutt have dozens of other dumbfock ‘superlatives’ over any other state’s leges and guvernaters.
.
However, there definitely is an underlying conspiracy to deny the the existence of the root cause of all of this ‘anti-environmental’ political activity [IMO].
One aspect that I offer as proof are the ways and lengths to which the local TV weather people, ‘meteorologists’, go to utterly obfuscate and deny the very existence of climate change or global warming.
Around here in South Texas we are in a multiyear drought like never seen before, and multiyear record setting hot temperature events of all kinds, and absolutely NEVER will you hear those ‘weatherpeople’ ever utter a word about the root causes of these well documented weather phenomenon.
EG: Medina Lake holds just 6.1% of it’s ‘full’ capacity, most all other lakes are in similar straits.
Temperature all-time records at SAT/EWX, 7 of 10 hottest years are 2Ks.
Precipitation, driest years, 2 of 5.
https://www.weather.gov/ewx/climate
.
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-texas-direct-sales-update/
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-cybertruck-sales-direct-sales-ban-austin-tx/
https://www.statesman.com/story/business/2020/07/23/teslarsquos-texas-sales-to-come-from-outside-state-despite-austin-factory/113754844/
https://www.businessinsider.com/lucid-texas-lawsuit-ev-market-dealership-sales-store-2022-11
https://cleantechnica.com/2021/02/18/lies-damned-lies-greg-abbott/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_Texas
[yeah I”m pissed, just watched a TV ‘weathercaster’ go on about our very bad droughts and temps carefully avoiding ANY hints of the root causes of these current events [per my own effing personal weatherstation/PWS, it’s been in the 70-80s for weeks/months this ‘winter’ [did have 2 nights of 16deg at Xmas], and without a drop of precip; most definitely very ABnormal]]
15And agreeing 100% with all of y’alls excellent comments here [esp. Lex@13].
.
And for some proof of our out-of-kilter local weather, some summaries from my PWS [courtesy of the PWS’ software tabulation features; the formatting will probably be whacked]:
Summary
November 1, 2022 – November 30, 2022
High Low Average
Temperature 90.3 °F 38.8 °F 59.5 °F
Dew Point 76.7 °F 44.8 °F 51.5 °F
Humidity 99 % 28 % 77 %
Precipitation 3.08 in — —
Summary
December 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022
High Low Average
Temperature 83.1 °F 16.5 °F 56.2 °F
Dew Point 71.0 °F 1.0 °F 45.9 °F
Humidity 99 % 16 % 72 %
Precipitation 4.04 in — —
Summary
January 1, 2023 – January 31, 2023
High Low Average
Temperature 87.4 °F 28.4 °F 62.3 °F
Dew Point 70.7 °F 23.9 °F 48.6 °F
Humidity 99 % 20 % 65 %
Precipitation 1.27 in — —
[Alright, hardly any rainfall, as these months’ got almost the entire year’s worth of precipitation, a bit over 8″ vs ~12″ for the whole year 2022, when ~26+ is normal average.
16OT–
Another prominent Rethuglikan seems to be having some problems [bwahaha].
Maybe you’ve noticed like me an uptick in the frequency and distribution of TV ad spots for the ‘MyPillow’ stuff featuring the head honcho Mike Lindell?
What strikes me about the spots is that he always makes some –plaintive pleas– to ‘pleeease please buy my crap’ in the commercials.
As I suspected, his whiny begging to buy his crap might be because he may be losing his ass financially lately [one can hope].
[BTW, I’m actually tempted by the mypillow slippers, they look good; but I”m looking for some similar ones [probably a generic Chinese product marketed by other brands; wouldn’t spend a nickel with Mr. Lindell.]]
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/19/2148083/-Mike-Lindell-claims-100-million-in-financial-losses-after-election-shenanigans
17Mike Lindell = one of DiJioT’s most vocal and prominent wingnutmen…
18Kind of reminds me when my elders told me about how folks were orginally scared stiff of horseless carriages and my God, the telephone. Various ministers and preachers went off the deep end on how all this was Satan’s doing! There were innumerable signatures on a vast number of “never auto-mobiles or telephones” public letters. Then Henry Ford upped the wages of the folks who worked his assembly line and the telephone was installed in the White House! From then on it was Katy bar the door. It seems that folks just suddenly couldn’t live without these items!
19OT but not really. The repugnantican house of vengeance is about to take us all hostage by moving the economy into a potential default. In 2011 when they last did it, they cost everyone in one way or another. Expect the stock market to take a big bite out of your retirement tomorrow. This is just the start.
20Steve from Beaverton @20, Here’s one of the best websites to follow many of the world’s markets.
The Nikkei in Japan has just opened and is slightly down, the Chinese markets open soon, with the Euros opening ~2/3am.
Gold and crude are trending up slightly too, attm.
Some times you can watch some pretty spectacular market swings in near real-time.
The Hang Seng just opened with a good upward bounce…
But the [defensives] Commodities are heading upward, sooo…
We’ll see how the Rethugs perfidy plays out soon enough.
Scroll around and you find –all– kinds of stats and analysis :
Morningstar
Markets
Follow the market movements with our real-time trackers that show major indexes, global markets, sectors and more.
https://www.morningstar.com/markets
21PS: I pretty well got out of the ‘volatile’ markets after figuring out that they are basically rigged, fixed, corrupt, stacked against most of us [beginning a couple of decades ago.
22But nearly all out before the GWB/Cheney crash of 2008+; still have a few s&bs, but very few]. I’ve gone mostly into alternate investments.
Catherine Riley @ #2, note that WI is Wisconsin. While we have plenty of crazy here, it is a beautiful state and I hope you would consider visiting. We are NOT Wyoming.
23Sandridge, the Dow Futures are down about as much as I’ve seen for some time. Friday often brings out the worst in the stock market as far as speculation so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Good for you for not being in the market (much) but a lot of people’s retirements are heavily dependent. I’m somewhere in the middle. If the repugnantican house has their way, this is just the beginning.
24Lemme see here. Wikipedia says the population of Wyoming is 576,851 according to the 2020 census. And Wikipedia says the population of Albuquerque, New Mexico is 564,559, also according to the 2020 census. In other words, pretty much the same apart from a bit of statistical noise.
I wonder… Would people pay attention if the Albuquerque city council passed a city ordinance that banned electric cars? Of course, any city that called their minor league baseball team the Isotopes would never do anything so gobsmackingly stupid.
25Sandridge @ 15: Actually, the TX requirement that new vehicles be sold through franchised dealers is pretty ancient and long predates Abbott and the Rep wrecking crew. I believe other states have this requirement as well, as this legislation was pushed by the state Auto Dealer Associations, which are powerful at lobbying, because there are multiple auto dealers in most legislative districts who aren’t shy about spreading around political contributions.
26Sandridge, I jumped the gun. The Dow is taking a wait and see approach today as am I.
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