Those are huge infrastructure projects that take many years. They won’t get finished until he’s out of office or finally transfers to the afterlife. “sure, we’ll put your name on it … when we’re done”

Good question, I may have to “investigate” too. I missed it live but maybe I’ll track down some videos

Wow, 12! You’re right

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_US_dealership_disputes

And sure enough, searching for Rivian returns that they are only allowed to sell in 25 US states. It probably hasn’t mattered much with the R1 generation being relatively few sales but now that they’re coming out with R2 and R3, and expecting a lot more sales, they need a way around this

It’s ridiculous that any state would create a law for a single manufacturer: that needs to be fixed

Gotta bring over his fan group, all those sofas he promised to travel the world

I also liked a friends Toyota that had screens on the pillar near the side mirrors, that showed that side when you click on your blinker

Before the current chaos, it really didn’t even make sense to have that distinction. My Toyota and my Honda were both built in the us. Not just assembled, but with a higher percentage of us-manufactured parts than my old pontiac

Why do we care? I can be a shareholder either way, if I had money. The executives dont care about me either way nor do they directly affect me. But it’s nice when the factory is here, employing thousands of my fellow citizens.

Having lived through it, I also understand this was a hard-won battle for local labor, fought for in previous trade battles

It was a fight though, and that’s probably still going on in some states. There were many lawsuits trying to block them. At one point Tesla was opening locations on native reservations to escape state level protections of car dealerships.

I think common sense won out, believe it or not. Given the dealership model, it makes some sense at least historically, to protect dealers from manufacturers. But when you have a manufacturer that doesn’t have dealerships and never had, where does your argument about protecting these non-existing dealers go?

The problem is the sticker price typically already has excessive dealer markup built in. A line that says that is pure scam , never pay that. But even if you consider the list price, there’s an entire industry around trying to figure out the dealer actual cost and how to pay only a reasonable markup. Meanwhile you have these scammer who are paid commission based on how much they can con you out of. Their incentive is to be predatory

For example Tesla does not have dealers. They have to have similar functions but they’re owned and operated by Tesla, not a third party

• they have showroom, including visible places like malls
• they have service centers, somewhat regional. I have two within half hour drive, but also do a surprising amount of service visits mobile
• they have places to pick up your vehicle, typically a service center, or some of the time they are delivered

New car experience you go to a dealer, independent middlemen, where they attempt to steer you toward higher profit choices, and the prices are all negotiated where they’re the only ones who know the cost and they have a practiced skill to extract money. It’s exhausting and time consuming

New car experience with Tesla: you may look at the vehicle in the mall or online. you schedule a test drive from wherever is nearest: mine was at the mall they had a showroom in the shopping area and a small section of the parking garage for test drive. You buy online and pay list price where all the options, prices, and financing are visible before you choose to buy. They schedule a pickup time, which might be from a regional service center. Much simpler and easier, and you never feel exploited or scammed

You’re not spending any time getting exploited by a sales-bro, none of that stupid thing where they “have to speak to their manager” so you can stew or second guess. No games with interest or tradeins, surprise incentives, bargains with the devil

Things like that and tariffs are absolutely useful tools for trade issues: TARGETED, TEMPORARY tools. There would have been nothing wrong with temporary protection for Harley Davidson if it were temporary, if there was a deadline where they have to start competing again.

I think you mean this as deserved punishment and I agree, but maybe there’s also a silver lining: we deserve this, to break up the dead dinosaur cartel, to restart innovation, to free consumers from a prison of protectionism around overpriced legacy vehicles and help light the way to future technology

The loophole is that “antiques” are exempted from safety regulations.

I thought I remembered seeing something about an explicit ban a year or so, but trying to find it I see state level registration bans

Google finds a lot of responses saying it has generally been possible

1. You need to provide evidence that the vehicle meets U.S. federal safety and emissions standards.
2. But safety and emissions standards have generally been harmonized between us and Canada.

So you can currently buy a car in Canada for the us because passing Canadian requires is proof that it satisfies American requirements. Protectionism does not currently matter but you’d need to cover tariffs. Maybe that will remain true, at least temporarily

Maybe wait 20 years , figure out what loophole allowed a handful of Kei trucks to be imported.

At that point even 20 year old car tech might be more advanced than what we’d be saddled with

As always it’s a pr thing and the win could be with very little bloodshed.

American and Canada have had disagreements before and we always will. Not as serious but we’ve always had them. The thing is everyone I know, and the news media at the time, holds Canada in such high regard that we’re on your side. If they did try to invade you’d probably get a hoard of rednecks flooding north but they’d have to come through the northern states and would be held up at every crossroads. They’d drown in a mess of protests before approaching the border

What if I goto penn station with my pocket knife and scratch into the tile “Trump is a pedophile”? His name would be on penn station so he’s always be remembered for his deeds!

Yes, but also I’m not convinced they haven’t done so by voter suppression. I’ve seen a lot fewer articles on that and that may not be part of voter fraud invests. There continue to be way too many attempts to suppress votes. How do you even count how many votes didn’t happen?

And it only needs to happen in swing states. You combine that with gerrymandering and it doesn’t have to prevent many voters to make a difference

I’m sure it doesn’t matter what party you register as, but this is purely racist.

They’re not saying they’ll interfere with elections but they may kidnap anyone who looks like an undocumented immigrant who shouldn’t vote. Generally that’s been people with brown skin.

As a white person who is registered Democrat, I wouldn’t be worried at all. However if I were Hispanic or otherwise not obviously white, I sure as hell would be, and may decide I can’t risk voting

This is exactly what Black Panthers tried to solve half a century ago

I can picture it, just like Red Dawn, but updated with the new threat to society

GO, WOLVERINES!

At least Scouts teach firearm safety, which clearly ICE skipped in their rush to terrorize neighborhoods