In Between Times 5-4-2023
Who is Kyrsten Sinema really?, AOC And Gaetz push to ban legal congressional insider trading, EVs are becoming common and that is good, Unsustainable - debt?
TAKE ACTION!
The companies will collectively capture 50 million tons of carbon by 2030, 300 million by 2050. This is significant impact and we should encourage more efforts like this. Carbon capture at scale represents an exciting technology with real potential for global good.
Please sign this petition of encouragement. Let's see more of this sort of thing.
Click here to sign the petition!
Most people can talk about difficult problems respectfully. Most people know that a problem solving mentality is what this country really needs right now.
We exist for the problem solvers. We exist for you. But you are also the reason we can exist.
Please consider becoming a PAID subscriber to In Between Times. Consider it a vote for sanity in what can sometimes feel like insane times.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema an enigma in the middle
Kyrsten Sinema is a rare thing in Washington, an independent in the Senate, and almost as rare, an independent thinker. Elected to the upper house as a Democrat, who still technically caucuses with the Democrats, she became an independent officially last year. She now spends her time making people guess how she’s going to vote while turning her caustic wit on targets swimming in the swamp. Not that she isn’t a type of swamp creature. But she certainly is a different breed.
She has courted Republicans (and Republican donors) but has been coy with Republican leadership. She has largely toed the line for the Biden Administration yet at the same time she literally gave the finger publicly to Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain in a speech. She voted against a federal minimum wage of $15/hour, voted not to tax carried interest, yet still is no Republican. She’s pro-gun control.
Who is Senator Sinema really?
This is a question that has buggered the brains of Washington wonk journalists since she came on the scene in DC. She is pointed and clear as the midday sun one moment but will then engage in a ballet of opacity when it serves her the next. She clearly has an contempt for authority. She is frighteningly smart. She comes from poverty but clearly enjoys the better things in life. She was raised a Mormon but is very openly bi-sexual. She was once a member of the Green Party and openly criticized “capitalism”, yet has been very skeptical when members of the Democratic Party have championed big tax hikes.
In political terms Senator Sinema is one of the scariest things for the establishment in Washington, a variable in the political sausage making equation. Her vote is not guaranteed and that is why so many of the old guard dislike her.
Sinema is part of a slowly growing centrist bloc in the Senate. Her vote will prove vital for many “problem solving” efforts in the next year. Whether she remains in the Senate after 2024 is a very open question for multiple reasons.
But that is probably exactly how she wants it.
The Kyrsten Sinema theory of American politics
Kyrsten Sinema’s party of one
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema plays the media as if it's a lovesick teenager
Transpartisanship: AOC And Gaetz push for ban on Congressional stock trading
About a decade ago your editor wrote a lot about the STOCK Act which was supposed to curb (legal) insider trading by members of Congress. Sadly the issue persists today. Thankfully a new motley group of House members from across the political spectrum are now championing reforms.
(From Forbes via AllSides)
The Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act, also introduced by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), would prohibit members of Congress, as well as their spouses and any dependents, from owning or trading individual stocks.
If signed into law, members of Congress would need to either sell any shares they own within 90 days or place them in a blind trust, and have 90 days to release any shares they acquire in the future, though it doesn’t restrict investments in mutual funds and bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury or by a state or local government.
Is it unreasonable for the American people to expect Congress not to trade on information that is illegal for non-members of Congress to trade on? Decisions made by members of Congress can dramatically impact stock prices. Should congresspeople get to profit off of this power?
We are pleased to see a renewed bipartisan effort to rein in legal congressional insider trading, but whether anything really comes of the effort we don’t know. We had great hopes for the STOCK act, but it wasn’t enough.
Yet we still hope.
Click here for the article.
By the way you can follow the trades of any member of Congress by using the Smart Insider tool HERE. (It’s great.)
Come together…On the Restoring Faith in Government Act
Ford CEO calls electric vehicle market price cuts 'a worrying trend'
It’s a worrying trend for him. Not for us. It’s great news for us.
He fears that cutting the prices of electric vehicles serves to commoditize his product, that lower prices make electrics less special in the eyes of car buyers.
To that we say, we hope so!
Electrics will inevitably be commoditized. They are quickly losing their special status on the road. Does a Tesla even turn your head anymore? No.
And that is a good thing. As cleaner tech comes down in price more people can use the tech which translates into a cleaner fleet of cars on the road. That is what we all wanted with EVs right?
(From Reuters)
Ford on Tuesday announced a price cut of up to 8% of its Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle, the second cut the automaker announced this year.
Farley compared the price war in the EV market to Henry Ford's series of price cuts for the Model T starting in 1913. But the Ford Chief said the company founder's strategy ultimately put Ford at risk…
…"You do not want to commoditize the product," Farley said at a Wall Street Journal forum.
No, we are OK with a commoditized product.
Model Es for everyone!
Click here for the article.
U.S. Debt: Visualizing the $31.4 Trillion Owed in 2023
Sustainability is at the heart of what we do at IBT. Our current debt situation is probably unsustainable. Here’s another way to look at the issue.
IBT Podcasts
Check out Bill Shireman’s latest podcast: It it time for a #YouToo movement?
Check out Theo EJ Wilson’s latest podcast: Planet Park Hill
EVENT
May 11 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm EDT
The Village Square presents A Braver Story
Location: Online
Built by patriotic volunteers, Braver Angels is a national movement to bridge the partisan divide. equally balanced between conservatives and progressives at every level of leadership. They work in communities, on college campuses, in the media, and in the halls of political power. We’ll offer up a behind the scenes view of this extraordinary group of Americans—how they formed, what they’ve learned and what’s next.
We’re delighted to welcome streaming partners National Institute for Civil Discourse, BridgeUSA, Listen First Project, USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, Common Ground Committee, Civic Health Project, YOUnify, Citizen Connect, Center for the Humanities at University of Miami, Tallahassee Democrat, WFSU Public Media,and Network for Responsible Public Policy.