Biden’s choices for environmental cabinet members

@danepacker, did your CVT fail on your Prius or were you just disappointed in its performance.

+1 for an EV SUV.

I owned three Priuses in a row, and loved them all. I put 100k miles on the first two in three years each, and never had a problem with them at all.

Ryan,

No my Prius v CVT did not fail. It was just such a weak sister that after 7 years I got fed up with it.

And now, in my geezerhood, I gave in to my worst instincts and got a MAZDA CX-5 turbo, no less. Driving “sensibly’ I get about 28 mpg. But with all that power I sometimes (OK, often) give in to hitting the go-pedal. Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa! Don’t even ask what my MPG is then. But that SUV is a “near luxury” vehicle, my 1st and likely last.

“Do as I say and not as I do.”

It took this thread 4 posts to prove   Kahil Gibran’ s words true .

“Then the lawyer said, But what of our Laws, master?
And he answered;
You delight in laying down laws,
Yet you delight more in breaking them.
Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter.
But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore,
And when you destroy them the ocean laughs with you.
Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent.

But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are not sand-towers,
But to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness?
What of the cripple who hates dancers?
What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer and the forest stray and vagrant things?
What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless?
And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all feasters lawbreakers?

What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun?
They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.
And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows?
And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth?
But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you?
You who travel with the wind, what weather-vane shall direct your course?
What man’s law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man’s prison door?
What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man’s iron chains?
And who is he that shall bring you to judgement if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man’s path?

People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?”

Bow’t time there was a Native American in charge of the Interior.

“The Interior Department is “a massive battleship. It’s not going to turn on a dime, but this is the signaling of a new chapter,” said Crystal Echo Hawk, executive director of IllumiNative, a Native American advocacy group. “This is a deep resetting of the federal government’s relationship with Native peoples, one that was built on stolen land and broken promises.””

Hopefully appointed cabinet members will be selected based on qualifications and experience, not just gender, race, and/or political favors. The last thing we need as a nation is incompetence.

The last thing we need as a nation is more incompetence.

Fixed it for you.

funny because it’s true, Bonzo…

And now I’m laughing at the irony of that post being reported for inappropriate content.

Katt: “It took this thread 4 posts to prove   Kahil Gibran’ s words true .”

But we used fewer words…😝

Touché!

No apologies. I can get to remote campgrounds or trailheads and have enough fuel to get back. Can pull our camper over steep mountain passes or on rugged dirt roads and camp for weeks on end in remote, isolated areas with few or no people around.

And nice to sleep in the back of on a stormy night (though I think it was the last version I slept in, not this one).

That camper is probably bigger than my house! I didn’t care for a vehicle-based camper (always liked tents) until I started camping in Alaska State Parks, where people don’t sleep, and their kids don’t either. Sleeping in a tent while people roar around all night on ATVs is a drag. We have a campervan now, and I hate the gas mileage, but I do enjoy sleeping in it. I relish being far from the cars and in my cozy tent!

“TP Man”,

I never had any real mechanical problems in the 80,000+ miles I owned my Prius v wagon but after owning a few stick shift cars (RX-7 and tuned Maxima)  I absolutely could not take any more of that damnable CVT tranny and its strange and horrible response to throttle inputs even when I had it in “POWER” mode. GAK!

And I had to spend lots of $$ in suspension and body stiffening mods to get that Prius v dishrag to handle properly (i.e. safely). If you’ve never autocrossed or had to make a sudden maneuver to avoid an accident you may not understand how important a good handling vehicle can be. It is as important as good brakes. But I did get that Prius modified enough to make it handle very well.

And Nissan has gone all in with CVT trannys except for there Z car. Another reason to get a Mazda, a company that understands good handling and responsive transmissions.

>”Alaska State Parks, where people don’t sleep, and their kids don’t either.”

What is about states admitted in (some of) our lifetimes?

Twice I’ve ended up, unintentionally, at Hawaiian campgrounds near beaches and, man, the party goes on and on!

Kokee State Park on Kaui, OTOH?  Up at 3,000-4,000 foot elevation?  Far quieter, cooler, and better hiking trails!

So, about the cabinet members…

cabinet members

The environmental problems stay the same.  Think the problem many had with the last administration were pollutants for the most part.   Backpackers could see more protection of wilderness study areas from the new bunch, … and maybe more designated wildernesses?   They may be more focused on removing pollutants especially near poorer areas however (if I’m interpreting their statements correctly).

Many governments are building their own “day-use” trail systems regardless (like the Prescott AZ and Austin TX areas).  Maybe less stress on the backcountry if the feds build more trail closer to cities and towns.

Add that the courts are important too. A couple water lawsuits between Texas and New Mexico were in front of the US Supreme Court from the late Obama era (guessing a lot of hydrology and engineering consults).  The Pecos River one got resolved when Texas was defeated a month or so ago, the justices reminding all that the sun evaporates water … not the state of New Mexico (lol).

Just a reminder a lot of these have technical issues, many different “stakeholder” views… then the lawyers get involved.

Okay, but… what about the cabinet members?

I’m curious to see what plays out with Deb Haaland and the #landback movement. Just like I vehemently opposed any attempts made by the last administration to transfer public lands out of public hands, I have the same sentiment for the current administration.

I don’t agree with the goals of the landback movement in general, but we could certainly lose Mt Rushmore.

I didn’t even know what the landback movement was, I had to Google it. Is there an analog to compare it to going on elsewhere in the world?

UPDATE: Looks like all the heads of  departments directly environmentally related are filled with people who know their stuff. FINALLY!

Obama’s 2nd term could have done more to emphasize the CO2 climate change problem but of course there was the Republican dominated House and later Senate. Republicans since Newt Gingrich have had a “scorched earth” veto policy on ANY Democratic bills with which they had the slightest disagreement – still is their policy.

Republicans since Newt Gingrich have had a “scorched earth” veto policy on ANY Democratic bills with which they had the slightest disagreement – still is their policy.

Well, now the Left has a chance to get back at them for doing so; it will be interesting to see if that’s what transpires.