US - raise the gas tax

[Angrboda]

Just like workers, manufacturers have difficulty adapting their skills and abilities to new markets when old ones close up, but they have the opportunity to do so while the old market still exists. If they wait until the market for WidgetDestroyers is the only game in town, then they are fucked.

[The Grand Nudger]

Companies like exxon have poured billions into green energy.  OFC they have, because energy is what they ultimately sell, not oil, and they have those billions to spend in order to secure their foothold in the energy market.   Oil is an inconvenience for them due to the realities of it's production.  They would very much like to cut out all the surveying and drilling and transpo and negotiations with assholes sitting on top of oi and the metric fuckload of bad pr involved in all of that..and accidents. 

They'd make alot more money cutting it out - and they seem to see green tech as a way to achieve that goal.

[Angrboda]

Well, one can even simplify that equation even further. Exxon exists to sell goods and services. They don't really care what so long as it makes money. The only challenge comes when there is a tension between maximizing profit by doing the old things and maximizing profit doing the new things.

[The Grand Nudger]

For sure.  If selling widget destroyers was the hottest game in town you just know some bean counter at exxon would be looking for a way to use their legacy infrastructure to put a stranglehold on the new product.  

I'll say this, though, oil companies have been going out of their comfort zone when it comes to green energy.  Sure, one of the big hustles is designer algae and synthetic fuels, because that fits for them like a hand in a glove.

....but......they're also buying controlling stakes in solar farms and solar research.

[onlinebiker]

That' s what happens when you take your kids to a riot.


Hoping to use them as shields, are ya???

Actually, that's what happens when you've saddled yourselves with a president who behaves like every two bit dictator he cozies up with around the planet.

The people attempting to enter the US were behaving legally. Everyone who had a hand in stopping them was breaking the law.  Educate yourself.

Boru

What the livid fuck are you talking about???

On what planet is trying to force yourself across a border " attempting to enter legal???


Tell me what law was broken by Customs ????

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Actually, that's what happens when you've saddled yourselves with a president who behaves like every two bit dictator he cozies up with around the planet.

The people attempting to enter the US were behaving legally. Everyone who had a hand in stopping them was breaking the law.  Educate yourself.

Boru

What the livid fuck are you talking about???

On what planet is trying to force yourself across a border " attempting to enter legal???


Tell me what law was broken by Customs ????

The UN 1967 Protocol on Refugee Status.  Look it up, it'll do you a world of good.

Boru

[Losty]

Yes, I am addicted to not walking along highways for the few hours it would take me to get to work with no side walks and 3 kids in tow. That is my greatest vice.

I hope you are not missing my point. I am not blaming anyone for doing what they need to do as individuals. I am blaming oil companies and governments for not funding clean energy long ago. Nobody is suggesting we stop making transportation, just move away from fossil burning transportation.

Yes, and my point is that taxing gas will hurt the working class

[Chad32]

What the livid fuck are you talking about???

On what planet is trying to force yourself across a border " attempting to enter legal???


Tell me what law was broken by Customs ????

The UN 1967 Protocol on Refugee Status.  Look it up, it'll do you a world of good.

Boru

I think we pulled out of the UN recently, though.

[Deesse23]

Article 1 of the Convention as amended by the 1967 Protocol defines a refugee as: "A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."

Sorry, but i dont see this applying to the people at the US-mexican border. Nevertheless imho the way certain political entities tried and are still trying to exploit the situation for political gains is still repugnant.

That being said, i see this situation quite analogous to the one we had in Europe not so long ago (altough, Syrian refugees could claim having the status according to 1967 because of an ongoing civil war with international participation). From my perspective, such a situation is not so much about legal status, but a matter of basic human decency. One should not need to have a UN charter to tell him what to do when a bunch of people consisting of entire families are already standing at your borders, having made way for hundreds if not thousands of miles, mostly without any means of transportation, thereby risking their lives.

You may be entirely right to not grant them access to your country, you may be entitled to tear gas them after they damage your fences and try to violate your territory, but being the most wealthy fucking nation on the globe as a whole, with obscene riches of financial wealth as well as accomodations and supply of food, leading to such disgusting displays of waste and decadence as depicted below, being this country, you are still the asshole...as a whole nation, not necessarily each individual.

It has been mentioned afaik that there is a reason many countries south of Texas and California are shitholes, and US foreign policy has quite a lot to do with it in many cases (not all, or entirely!). If anything this should be a reminder to US politicians to strive for mutual benefit in interacting with those countries and their people, less than taking maximum advantage of them according to MAGA (because thats what it really is about if we are honest with ourselves), instead of taking politcal advantage too.

[The Grand Nudger]

We have our own law.  The refugee act of 1980.

It states, in short, that the us has a legal obligation to process asylum seekers..there are two ways to do that, and both require that a person be in the us. Those agents on the border, broke our laws -specifically- so that our government would not be bound by our laws..which is actually something that we can do on the basis of a case involving a guy at ellis island, lol. See, being in our country is not necessarily being in our country, for purpose of law. Otherwise, we'd have to give those filthy browns constitutional protection and adhere to the laws we wrote about them. The moment that a person is close enough to touch a border fence..they're in our country, but not -in- our country and we only have to follow our own laws when people are in-in our country.

See...see...it all makes sense!