Open Thread November 23 2023 SUVs and Pickups . . .
With high, flat fronts are 45% more likely to kill. Carbon Upfront, Lloyd Alter.
You might think it’s time I stuck to upfront carbon, but new research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) looks specifically at how dangerous these are for pedestrians. The numbers are shocking, with pickups and SUVs like this 45% more likely to kill.
Open Thread November 18 2023 – Bidenomics, Angry Bear.
For some reason I hit PM instead of AM for this open thread. Probably just tired. You can post here Fred. Leave the Thanksgiving post alone when it comes to articles, etc.
To be fair, even my twenty-five year old One Ton Chevy Four x Four with stock sixteen inch rims and tires is … as tall as the roof of my eMini. About even actually, if I were running fifteens it would probably be just below.
Automakers may have taken (or are beginning to) note of the attention: at least Ford’s new pickups this year have lower hood profiles, is in fact a salespoint!
Dependable as hell, that old Chevy: doesn’t matter what you’re doing: uphill, downhill, load/no load, tailwind headwind burn airplane gas gets ten miles to the gallon. Eight in four bye …
Pedestrian deaths have risen 70% since 2010. Blame trucks.
Progress on climate change has not been fast enough, but it has been real
The Economist – Nov 23
Noble aspirations, all well and good … until coopted by the Oiligarchy
Quick example of big oil writing the narrative is this blind insistence we can suck all the carbon we pump into the atmosphere out
How Biden Might Recover
The Atlantic – Nov 24 – behind a paywall
A press release that President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign issued last week offered a revealing window into his advisers’ thinking about how he might overcome widespread discontent with his performance to win a second term next year.
While the release focused mostly on portraying former President Donald Trump as a threat to legal abortion, the most telling passage came when the Biden campaign urged the political press corps “to meet the moment and responsibly inform the electorate of what their lives might look like if the leading GOP candidate for president is allowed back in the White House.”
That sentence probably says as much as any internal strategy memo about how Biden’s team plans to win a second term, especially if the president faces a rematch with Trump. With that exhortation the campaign made clear that it wants Americans to focus as much on what Trump would do with power if he’s reelected as on what Biden has done in office.
It’s common for presidents facing public disappointment in their performance to attempt to shift the public’s attention toward their rival. All embattled modern first-term presidents have insisted that voters will treat their reelection campaign as a choice, not a referendum. Biden is no exception. He routinely implores voters to compare him not “to the Almighty” but “to the alternative.” …
Jeff:
You were in the trash. The site does not like numerous links and or long posts with links. Post away, I can always retrieve them.
Bill
Bill, please take down that post. I am correcting some of the statistic based on better data. Thank you.
J.P.
Done. There are two other comments in trash also. Was one of them the replacement?
J.P.
Just pulled an updated version out of trash. I assume that is what you were talking about.
(Updated post…)
There’s been a lot of coverage about Biden’s falling out with the 18-34 age group. In addition to Biden letting the electorate know”what their lives might look like if” Trump were President again, they need to focus on the idealistic youth group that apparently has difficulty seeing the forest for the trees. Despite their blinders, combined with their high-minded idealism, this group could, if not educated about the reality of politics, could be Biden’s death knell.
This is particularly true with high visibility issues like climate change, oil drilling and renewable energy. The youth group seems to think that they can change things by expressing their discontent and lack of support for Joe Biden. For example, environmental groups and younger voters have are all upset about Biden’s approval of the ConocoPhillips immense new drilling project—the Willow oil project—in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. In normal times, this would be something to complain about. But, Biden and Democrats must ramp up their messaging specifically to this youth group, to clarify that these are far from normal times.
Youth of America listen up. Here’s the reality. You have four (4) choices:
1. Vote for Donald Trump: God forbid the youth would be this ignorant, but if so, they should understand that if Trump were President not only would he have approved the Willow Project; but he would likely have approved it without an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), had DOJ sue the environmental groups, provided a government grant to ConocoPhillips to accelerate their development, and used the event to call for the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency.
2. Vote For A 3rd Party Candidate: There’s been a lot of buzz about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. drawing 22% in a 3-way race with Trump and Biden.”Kennedy was the leading choice for young voters, aged 18-34, in the poll’s surveyed population — 38 percent of whom chose the environmental lawyer.” And then there’s 73 year old, Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, who has absolutely no possibility of being elected POTUS and claims her candidacy is “all about our community rising up for our higher values.” She ran in 2016 and amassed only 1.4 million votes (about 1.1%), but her strongest showing was in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. As we know, elections are won on electoral college votes, not popular votes. It’s pretty obvious that a vote for Kennedy or Stein could draw off enough Biden votes to result in a high probability of Donald Trump being President.
3. Stay home and complain about Biden. The 18-34 age group comprises upwards of 25% of the electorate. Somewhere around 38 million votes (based on 2020 election). This strategy will likely draw off enough votes to give Trump a clear shot at the Presidency.
4. So, hello youth of America, you have 4 choices to achieve your noble and important “higher community values.” You can almost guarantee that you will move the ball forward toward achieving your goals if you vote for Joe Biden for President. You can increase those chances even more if you truly get out there and not only vote but encourage your friends to do the same. There are a lot of potential new voters in your age group that need to be encouraged to vote. Only about 51% of 18-24 year olds voted in 2020, along with 60% of 25-34 year olds. 2020 was an historic turnout of about 159 million or 67% of the voter population.
In 2024, you must set your higher community passions aside and place a higher value on the Constitution, democracy, the rule of law, and free & fair elections. If those values are not preserved, and Trump is elected, there is no non-violent path to pursue your passions.
Hamas frees first batch of hostages under truce, including 13 Israelis, officials and reports say
AP – just in
NY Times – just in
For ‘Napoleon,’ Finishing the Hats
NY Times – Nov 21
Inside the creation of one emperor’s famous headwear, as worn by Joaquin Phoenix in Ridley Scott’s film.
Napoleon’s Hat Sells for $2.1 Million at Auction in France
NY Times – Nov 20
(Interesting stuff not posting. Your loss…)
Having to do with whether or not we really have ‘free will’, with a Stanford neurologist insisting we don’t, really. We just think we do.
Not unlike BF Skinner, out of Harvard.