Alas for Cornell's Gender Queer Studies Program graduates and their peers, relief from their feckless borrowing has arrived too late

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chumps

Biden's Last Gasp Effort to Forgive Student Loans Is Just as Illegal as All His Other Attempts

Give Joe Biden credit for his inventiveness in violating the law regarding student loan debt. Courts at every level have declared his efforts to forgive student loan debt as unconstitutional. And yet, he keeps flogging the issue.

It's like this: Democrats are the party of elitists. College-educated voters under 35 have abandoned the GOP and flocked to the Democratic Party. A lot of those voters carry student debt that they're either behind in paying or are having trouble keeping up with.

The pandemic was the killer. The student loan repayment "pause" lasted three years and when it restarted, about half of the 43 million student loan borrowers were in arrears of one kind or another.

Absolutely no one is surprised at that. Indeed, Biden tried to use the pandemic as a springboard to forgive all student loan debt. It didn't work. With the Supreme Court decision last year striking down Biden's plan to forgive half a trillion dollars in student debt, he was forced to implement his plan in bite-sized chunks rather than forcing the American taxpayer to eat the big enchilada.

With Biden's exit from the White House imminent, the president decided to make one more grandiose gesture to pander to his student loan base. He revealed a set of rules that would grant "hardship" exemptions to 8 million borrowers. He's going to try to do it by changing the definition of "hardship"

"If these rules are finalized as proposed," reads an Oct. 25 press release, "the Secretary of Education could waive up to the entire outstanding balance of a student loan when the Department determines a hardship is likely to impair the borrower's ability to fully repay the loan or render the costs of continued collection of the loan unjustified." ….

But this will give the gender benders the sads:

Adam Looney, the Executive Director of the Marriner S. Eccles Institute at the University of Utah and a visiting fellow at Brookings, is dubious about Biden having enough time to implement the new plan. "It seems like it's hard to imagine that there is enough time," says Looney. "And even if it did go into effect…I assume the Trump administration could stop it very quickly."

There will be a 30-day comment period, after which the Education Department hopes to finalize the rule in 2025. Obviously, that will be too late. The incoming Trump administration isn't likely to allow the program to continue. In fact, there's worry among some debt forgiveness advocates that Trump will erase all of Biden's loan forgiveness programs and force people to pay what they owe.

In many ways, the Trump administration could upend Biden’s student loan policies without having to do much. Several key policies are tied up in litigation, and the new administration could simply choose to stop defending them.

“Some of the first victories for the new administration’s education policy may be just them sitting on their hands and waiting for some of these policies that never were legal in the first place to be struck down by the courts,” said Michael Brickman, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

I don't care what they study, nor whether it will be useful in their barista careers, just don't make me pay for it

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Queer Marxism’ course coming to Cornell University next semester

Cornell University students can take a course on “Queer Marxism” next semester that asks questions such as “Are queer theory and Marxism truly irreconcilable.” 

The course description state[s] that the course will compare two visions of society that many have thought could not be joined. 

“While queer studies emerged in part as a rejection of Marxism’s totalizing approach and Marxists have criticized the queer emphasis on individuals, this seminar explores the potential of bringing the two fields together,” it says. 

[RELATED: ‘Queering Health’ course coming to Boston University]

“We will consider how queer critiques of reproductive futurism, racial capitalism, and homonationalism can transform the legacy of Marxist theory and practice,” the description says. “At the same time, we will examine Marxist notions of totality, reification, and value to re-envision the scope of queer politics.”

Students will further examine the principles of queer and marxist theory as they manifest in historical examples. “After covering these key Marxist and queer theoretical concepts, the seminar will turn to transnational Marxist debates on gender and sexuality in Weimar Germany and the Soviet Union,” the course says. 

The course is being offered by Cornell’s  Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program whose mission, it is claimed, is to “to address some of the most important issues the world faces today,” particularly “by offering students the opportunity to study a wide range of fields from the perspectives of feminist and LGBTQIA critical analysis, in global and local contexts and with the purpose of promoting social justice.”

[RELATED: New ‘gender-affirming’ voice course teaches college students how to sneeze, cough like opposite sex]

Other Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies Programs courses students can take next semester include “Sexual Identities in the Media,” “Body Politics in African Literature, Cinema, and New Media,” and “Feminist Science Studies.”

Students of “Feminist Science Studies” will consider questions such as “How does gender, sexuality, race, and class matter in natural, medical, and technical sciences” and “How might orangutans, surgery, and digital imaging all be feminist subjects of interest.”

“orangutans, surgery, and digital imaging”

EV Fail

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If your business plan depends on a central government forcibly taking money from one group and giving it to another so that its members will buy your product, your plan is non-sustainable; in fact, it sucks.

(H/T to CT Tempest, who steered us to Bloomberg’s auto page)

Europe Car Sales Stagnate as Electric Vehicle Weakness Persists

  • Registrations rose just 0.1% due to declines in France, Italy

  • Electric-car sales are down 1.7% this year through October

  • Car sales in Europe are flatlining, leading manufacturers including Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG to push for cost cuts in response to muted demand.

  • New-car registrations inched up just 0.1% in October compared to a year ago, to 1.04 million units, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said Thursday. Declines in France, Italy and the UK largely canceled out expansion in Germany, the region’s biggest car market.

  • Automakers have struggled to grow sales in Europe as the transition to electric vehicles stumbles and a cost-of-living squeeze crimps budgets. Ford on Wednesday announced plans to cut another 4,000 jobs in the region, about 14% of its local workforce. Volkswagen is pushing for savings measures including unprecedented plant closures in Germany.

  • Although EV sales rose 6.9% last month, they remain down for the year after policymakers reduced support for EV purchases. The UK, where registrations jumped 24% in October, has been a bright spot as manufacturers offer significant discounts to meet the government’s zero-emissions vehicle sales mandate.

  • In Germany, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government scrapped aid late last year, EV sales declined 4.9% in October, and are down more than a quarter after the first ten months. Porsche AG and Mercedes-Benz Group AG have dialed back their EV ambitions in recent months, citing slower-than-expected momentum for plug-in models.

  • While the German government has been weighing reintroducing some aid to support its beleaguered carmakers, it’s unclear whether it can go ahead after Scholz’s ruling coalition collapsed, inhibiting its ability to act decisively before early elections.

  • A Europe-wide EV downturn increases the risk that manufacturers including VW, Stellantis NV and Renault SA will end up having to pay billions of euros in fines if they fail to meet stricter fleet-emission rules set to kick in next year.

  • Buyers instead are gravitating toward hybrid vehicles powered by a combustion engine and a smaller battery, benefiting manufacturers led by Toyota Motor Corp. Sales of hybrids rose 16% last month.

  • Volkswagen, which is locked in negotiations with unions over widespread cost cuts in Germany, saw registrations increase 13% in October. Stellantis’s sales declined 17% in the same period.

    And here in the U.S. …

By Tux Turkel

November 15, 2024

Analysis: Maine’s electric vehicle goals won’t take us where we want to go

The Maine Climate Council has just finished updating the state’s climate action plan, as required by law, and a key strategy in the draft plan is to put 150,000 electric vehicles on Maine roads by 2030. Despite good intentions, this seems doomed to fail. 

I’m making that assessment as a journalist who has covered Maine energy issues for many years, and as someone whose extended family has three hybrid vehicles, one plug-in hybrid and one all-electric SUV.

My dive into the latest statistics and the shifting electric vehicle markets suggests to me that state climate planners once again put aspirations ahead of reality. 

The plan was drafted just before the election, which means it also failed to account for a looming political reality: The incoming Trump administration will embrace energy policies that favor fossil fuels. That portends an uncertain future for the federal rebates that have lowered purchase prices up to $7,500 for many electric vehicle buyers.

Having said that, new battery and electric vehicle factories are popping up in red states, and Tesla founder Elon Musk is bound to get something for his $100 million-plus donation to Trump’s reelection.  

Maine’s climate law mandates a 45% reduction in 1990-level greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Because transportation accounts for nearly half of Maine’s total carbon emissions, targeting cars and trucks makes sense.

But a closer look at how the market has reacted since 2020, when Maine first issued its climate action plan, indicates that the latest targets are not only unrealistic, but might not have their intended climate impact.

First, let’s look at where we are.

The latest data shows Maine has more than 17,500 registered electric vehicles, more than double what the state had four years ago. Early this month, Efficiency Maine reported it was suspending its state rebate program because a jump in qualified purchases — 190 in October — had exhausted the $3.5 million allocated by the Legislature in 2022, according to Maine Public.

Taken together, this seems like progress. But it only looks impressive because we started from next to nothing. Meanwhile, there are still more than 1 million gasoline-only vehicles registered in Maine. 

Keep in mind, Maine’s 2020 plan set a goal of 219,000 electric vehicles by 2030. This fall, in a belated acknowledgment that this was impossible, a consultant scaled back the target to 150,000 “light duty battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.”

Let’s unpack those terms. Light duty battery electric vehicles are fully electric, operating only on battery power. Plug-in hybrids have smaller batteries that are backed up by conventional gasoline engines, which take over when the batteries run out of charge (within 30 or so miles on average). 

Remember those 17,500 electric vehicles registered in Maine? The latest figures from Recharge Maine show that only about half of them are fully electric. The largest share is made by Tesla, notably the best-selling Model Y. The other half are plug-in hybrids, often versions of Toyota’s popular Prius and RAV4.

That means half of the registered electric vehicles in Maine also have gasoline engines. This is an important distinction. 

Researchers are finding that many people who own plug-in hybrids don’t always bother to plug them in, leading to gasoline consumption 42 to 67 percent higher than expected. 

Last year, 83 percent of plug-in hybrid sales were sports utility vehicles, according to Green Car Reports. SUVs typically are heavier and less efficient than cars, so the carbon reductions are smaller.

Adding to the confusion, automakers have been ramping up production of plug-in hybrids to entice buyers who are hesitant to go fully electric. But these vehicles accounted for fewer than 2 percent of new car sales in the United States during the first half of 2024, according to a survey cited by Green Car Reports. Fully electric vehicles reached above 9 percent and straight hybrids (which recharge their smaller batteries using their gas engines) accounted for nearly 11 percent.

Electric vehicle advocates don’t like straight hybrids. But Toyota, which sells more vehicles worldwide than anyone, is leaning into these models. Next year’s best-selling Camry is only available as a hybrid. The company has argued that the cost of critical battery-making materials such as lithium, the still-insufficient number of public charging stations and the high average prices for electric vehicles make straight hybrids a more effective way to cut overall carbon emissions in the short term. It’s a controversial calculation that’s rejected by those who envision an energy economy powered solely by electricity.

Maine’s new climate plan doesn’t even mention straight hybrids as part of the solution. It’s a stance I questioned last year in a column about Maine’s all-electric priorities, in which I detailed Toyota’s strategy and claims. Recharge Maine doesn’t tally straight hybrids, but there were more than 33,000 registered here as of last year, according to the federal government’s Alternative Fuels Data Center. So even without rebates, straight hybrids are by far the top choice in Maine for people looking to drive cleaner vehicles.

This is a complicated time in the electric vehicle transition. The average battery electric vehicle price is above $50,000 and loan rates remain high. Automakers keep adjusting their prices and output in an effort to sell the vehicles that Americans want and can afford. Ford, for instance, is pausing production on its F-150 Lightning pickup to shore up losses on a truck that costs between $57,000 to $95,000.

Smaller electric vehicles are more affordable. And in public comments on the latest climate plan, leading environmental groups pushed for higher financial incentives to get low- and moderate-income drivers behind the wheel. That’s fine policy from an equity standpoint, but will it move the needle on climate?

Here’s a personal example: Last summer I purchased a Kia Niro plug-in hybrid, a compact hatchback that starts at roughly $35,000. I was happy to take Efficiency Maine’s $1,000 rebate, but would have bought the car without it. And in the first 2,000 miles of driving, I used only 10 gallons of gasoline. 

But in truth, my climate impact is of little consequence. I don’t commute to work anymore. I rarely take the car farther than 40 miles round trip, which is why I can do 90 percent of my driving on the battery. 

If Maine wants to have the greatest impact, it should stop just counting the sheer number of electric vehicles and focus incentives on the subset of drivers known as gasoline superusers.

That’s the view of Coltura, a Seattle-based non-profit that uses data to promote gasoline-free transportation. It submitted public comments to the Maine Climate Council. 

The group defines superusers as the top 10 percent of drivers in the U.S. in terms of gasoline consumption. In Maine, Coltura identified 118,000 superusers. They make up 14.5 percent of total drivers but use 41 percent of the gasoline, or 223 million gallons per year.

Getting these drivers into electric vehicles, the group calculated,  would cut Maine’s transportation emissions by nearly 19 percent. Even when accounting for electricity costs, the switch would save superuser families, on average, $255 a month on fuel.

Coltura had two key policy suggestions: Target electric vehicle education and outreach to superusers, promoting the financial savings. Modify Maine’s rebate program to prioritize low- and moderate-income drivers who are also superusers. 

To be fair, the climate council faced a tough task in trying to figure out how to reduce transportation emissions. Mass transit can only help around the edges in a largely rural state, where people drive longer distances and are more likely to drive used cars. 

With Americans now holding on to their vehicles for a record average of 12 years, it’s hard to imagine what level of financial incentives would be needed to get 150,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2030.

RELATED: Eliminating the EV subsidy is a huge win for Tesla, since it kills its rivals.


This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from the Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.

More articles from the BDN

Jaguar dug its grave by switching to an all-electric product line; now its brand manager is tamping the earth around it by dancing on the headstone

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Jaguar Motor Cars, RIP

Steven Hayward, PowerLine:

John noted here that Jaguar decided to “Bud Light” itself in spectacular fashion. It turns out it’s even worse than he thought. Here’s Jaguar’s new brand manager, Santino Pietrosanti, speaking at something called the “Attitude Awards.” … (It’s just four minutes long, but it seems much longer.)

Skimming through the four minutes, Mr. Gay Brand Manager Dancing Fool excitedly announces that change is coming to Jaguar, and not “just” to its cars — in fact, like its latest ad, it’s not about cars at all, of any brand. Jaguar has created, I kid you not, 15 different DIE groups for its employees, ranging from the autistic (at another car company, Elon Musk somehow succeeded without such a support group) to cross-dressers, to pedophile Parcheesi players. “It’s not just about cars”, Santino enthuses, it’s total change!”.

Uh huh. Enjoy your jobs while you can, boys; we’ll see you on the unemployment line.

It seems to me that product advertising is about attracting both new customers and maintaining brand loyalty among existing ones; driving away your current customers in the hope that new ones will make up the loss isn’t a winning strategy: the Democrats tried it, and we’ve just seen how that worked out.

The WSJ once published an article about Subaru’s discovery that a niche, but still significant number of its customers were lesbian outdoor enthusiasts. The company set up a separate marketing division (a friend of mine who worked in it confirmed this) that placed ads in gay magazines, sponsored female outdoor sporting events like cross-country (cross-dressing?) mountain bike races, and so forth, all while continuing other marketing programs directed at more conventional buyers. It worked out well; sales to lesbians increased, and Subaru’s straight customers are still with it, and growing.

That makes great market sense: appeal all your potential buyers, don’t alienate one group at the expense of others.

The new wave of brand managers running many companies has eschewed this rather common sense approach. They want to make a statement, not sell their employer’s product, so they’ve adopted an in-your-face, if you don’t like it, go away, strategy. That’s stupid, especially in Jaguar’s case, because the number of Bud Light swilling, dress wearing party boys looking to pop a can of suds in the backseat of a battery car is … limited.

In contrast, Volvo’s out with an equally long ad intended to appeal to young families (I guess), stressing sentiment and safety. Whatever — the online community seems to like it — but unlike Jaguar’s effort, it’s not intended to drive away transgender groomers, it’s simply not directed at them. There’s a difference.

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The fact that you weren't aware of this just proves their point. I guess. If they have a point.

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Ok, job done; we can go home now