Daily Archives: 3 February 2021

That’ll be the Day

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Ford Motor Co is going to switch to Alphabet’s Android for the software to drive its cars’ displays, beginning in 2023. I can tolerate that, mostly, even if it is Alphabet.

Here’s the kicker, though [emphasis added].

Ford also intends to work with Alphabet Inc’s Google for cloud services to help the auto maker develop in-car features and manage the reams of data streaming from its vehicles.

And

Ford, GM, and others are now working with Google to offer Android as built-in software, a move that allows owners to download apps directly to their vehicle’s tabletlike display….
Auto makers are mobilizing to offer in-car services to customers that would allow the companies to collect recurring revenue streams….

I don’t need tracking software in my vehicles, and I don’t need mechanisms to suck ever more money out of me via my vehicles.

It’ll be a cold day in a warm place before I’ll let any car of mine connect to the Internet.

Full stop.

Bipartisanship the Biden Way

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Then-Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden campaigned on—bragged about—his ability to work with Republicans, to get bipartisan deals done, because he claimed, bipartisanship was best for the nation.

Here’s an example of that bipartisanship in the true Biden way, centered on the nearly $2 trillion Wuhan Virus “relief” bill the Progressive-Democrats are pushing in Congress. It comes on the heels of Biden’s Monday meeting with 10 Republicans regarding their far cheaper relief proposal, a meeting in which Biden paid lip service to hearing what Republican had to say and to offer. Speaking through his White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, Biden said,

he will not slow down work on this urgent crisis response….

He will not wait on Republicans to get on board with Party requirements. His Unity Platform partner, Senator Bernie Sanders (I, VT) also has made clear that Party must proceed without Republican input if that slows down the Party virus legislation. Sanders was characteristically blunt:

Well, I don’t know what the word compromise means[.]

Biden, through his equally characteristic silence, shows that he fully agrees with his partner.

On top of that, neither Biden, nor any of his advisors, nor any Progressive-Democrat Congressional powers are willing to explain the urgency behind their $2 trillion virus spending plan, given that the vast bulk of the already passed $900 billion virus spending plan remain unspent, even in some cases unallocated.