November 2021 Newsletter
Dear Mom
by Al Brown
I bought a Tesla today.
It was a lot of darn money. The waiting list is more than six months and I was on the fence. When the rental company Hertz bought 100,000 Teslas today, I got on my phone and bought mine.
Just like that. I wanted to get one while I could afford it.
Your granddaughter ordered one a month ago. We both bought Model Ys – the SUVs. Her gas savings will offset the difference in her car payments. She drives a lot of miles. Hers is white and will get here in April. Mine is red. Scheduled arrival - May.
With brother #2 and her husband both buying electric trucks, that’s four electric vehicles for our little clan. I wonder if brother is going to get a Tesla, a Ford or a Rivian. Amazon and Ford own part of Rivian, and they just began delivery. I suspect it will be next year before anyone gets the Tesla or Ford trucks.
It looks like these things are selling as fast as they make them. Crazy.
Makes me wonder what poll shows picking a fight with Tesla helps us in 2022 and 2024. Seems every time I turn around, we are in a battle with Tesla or Elon Musk.
There are a lot of people who hate Musk … I mean, down to their boxers do not like him. Others who really love the guy. Clean energy to save this planet and a reusable rocket to launch us to Mars. I’m in. I also own stock. It’s gone up and down, but mostly up. I’m no advisor, though.
Your restaurant manager grandson doesn’t care much for any of it. He’ll give up his Dodge when he can’t get gas. He does not like Teslas, and he does not like electric. The autonomous driving research I spout makes him shake his head in sadness at the inevitable demise of the human race.
Where we do agree is most innovation comes from the private sector, not government. He was surprised in how far we are behind China. Most internet coverage that I read indicates China has as many as 400 electric vehicle companies. Many like BYD, Xpeng and Nio are making their way to Eurpoe and the US.
From the 2/11/21 Washington post:
“… China dominates battery production today, with 93 “gigafactories” that manufacture lithium-ion battery cells, vs. only four in the United States, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a prominent data provider. If current trends continue, China is projected to have 140 gigafactories by 2030, while Europe will have 17 and the United States, just 10.”
Build Back Better is shaping up to become the most consequential legislation since the New Deal. No matter how much of the original incentives for additional battery production are included in the final passage, the private sector must drive the creation of these factories.
Tesla has built three gigafactories – two in the US. Two more will open in the next few months – one in Texas and another in Berlin. Ford, GM and others are following suit.
It will take more than factories, though. Tesla chose its sites at least in part because they were good locations to recruit engineers.
I remember the ending of the NASA moon program in the 1970s. There were stories in the papers of unemployed engineers pumping gas. Engineers don’t have those worries today with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics expecting nearly 140,000 new engineering jobs over the 2016-2026 decade. Most popular – robotics engineer.
Next year, Tesla is debuting a robot using the same Artificial Intelligence as its car. Think about that.
The pace of change since 2020 is pretty scary. I bought my car the way I buy your groceries … on my phone. Before last year, you wouldn’t have believed either.
I can see why some folks would want to make sure Elon isn’t going to kick start the Terminator Chip in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s skull and launch Skynet. And, I know none of this fixes more mundane problems like childcare and bad pipes.
Build Back Better has so much. Just keeping the child tax credit in place is going to keep tens of millions of children out of poverty and fixing iron pipes is going to save millions from the effects of mercury poisoning.
Some problems dwarf even these. Saving a world in a climate crisis is one of these. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that building a better, cleaner energy and transportation infrastructure will take everyone.
There is so much that has to happen to get us where we need to be on climate change. I really believe electric cars are part of that solution.
My little red part of the solution should arrive in May 2022.
Love you,
Your Democratic son
POLITICAL UPDATE: FEDERAL AND STATE
Jim Hagedorn continues to take bad votes. Two examples from October:
He voted against increasing the debt ceiling, which would have forced the U.S. government to default on its debt, and against finding Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress after Bannon defied a subpoena from the subcommittee investigating the January 6 insurrection. His renting a campaign office at below-market rates will now be investigated by the Ethics Committee.
There is heavy negotiation about what will go into the Build Back Better (soft infrastructure) bill between President Biden, Senator Manchin, Senator Sinema, and Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, including what the total spending would be. It is no longer expected the bill would spend $350 million/year for ten years, but might be a little more than half that. As this was being written, Speaker Pelosi said she thought that bill and the $1 trillion hard infrastructure bill could both be passed in the beginning of this month. A bill written by Senator Manchin and Senator Klobuchar to increase voting rights was filibustered in the Senate, even though every Democratic Senator voted for it, increasing pressure on Democrats to reform or abolish the filibuster.
The working group set up to figure out how to allot $250 million in bonuses to essential workers in the pandemic still hasn’t yet come up with a plan. Even if that happens, Governor Walz won’t call a special session of the Legislature to enact that plan into law unless Senate Republicans agree not to kick any of his commissioners out of office, which they have not been willing to do.
SENATE DISTRICT 26 DFL CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETS NOVEMBER 8
Our next Central Committee virtual meeting will be Monday, November 8 from 7-9 PM on Zoom. DFL meetings are public, so if you want to “attend”, contact the Chair at mark.liebow@gmail.com. We will hear officer reports, discuss end-of year fundraising, and continue planning for precinct caucuses and our 2022 convention.
We are looking for a Vice Chair and for four Directors, three of which must be filled by people who live in House District 26B. The Vice-Chair and two Director positions must be filled by people not identifying as male. Please contact the Chair at mark.liebow@gmail.com if you’re interested in running for one of these positions.
DONATE TO SENATE DISTRICT 26 DFL AND YOU COULD GET IT BACK
Not everyone will be able to donate right now, but if you can, we need your help to make the DFL a bigger presence in Rochester. We have a year-round office, which is expensive, but is crucial in a battleground area like Rochester. While one-time donations are welcome, we especially need monthly donations. We don’t get money from the national Democratic Party. The state DFL only contributes $500 a month, less than 1/3 of our rent. We rely on our local supporters to keep us going and to get the DFL message out. We need the money and you want an active DFL. If you give, there will still be an office for DFL events and meetings when those are possible soon, DFL participation in events and parades that require entry fees, technology that makes the DFL work better, and outreach into underrepresented communities.
Donate to Senate District 26 DFL and you can get up to $50/person or $100 per married couple back from the state of Minnesota if you are eligible to vote in Minnesota. Do it now. Make your donation via ActBlue (https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/senate-district-26-dfl-party-1?refcode=sd2). If you prefer to write a check, make it payable to Senate District 26 DFL and send it to:
P.O. Box 9044
Rochester, MN 55903-9044
After you send us a donation, we’ll send you a receipt. Send the receipt and the form needed to claim the reimbursement (https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/media/59866) to
Minnesota Revenue Political Contribution Refund
St. Paul, MN 55146-1800.
File a claim and you’ll get a check back in a few weeks.
If you send a check, please include whether you are retired, self-employed or employed. If employed, include the name of your employer and your job title. The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board requires us to collect that information. If you use Act Blue, the appropriate information is collected.
KEEP UP ON WHAT’S HAPPENING POLITICALLY WITH FREE EMAILS
The Minnesota DFL has several free email publications:
Weekdays-In The Know-A news digest divided by topic.
Mondays-DFL Party Monday Memo- Talking points about current issues and key “stories to share”
Wednesdays-DFL Toolkit- Key stories with suggested social media posts and graphics
Fridays-DFL Dispatch- Newsletter with a deeper dive into some topics, some within the DFL
To subscribe, email Brian Evans (bevans@dfl.org) and let him know which publications to which you want to subscribe.
KEEP UP ON WHAT’S HAPPENING POLITICALLY WITH FREE EMAILS
The Minnesota DFL has several free email publications:
Weekdays-In The Know-A news digest divided by topic.
Mondays-DFL Party Monday Memo- Talking points about current issues and key “stories to share”
Wednesdays-DFL Toolkit- Key stories with suggested social media posts and graphics.
Fridays-DFL Dispatch- Newsletter with a deeper dive into some topics, some within the DFL
To subscribe, email Brian Evans (bevans@dfl.org) and let him know which publications to which you want to subscribe.
ROCHESTER DFL OFFICE
The office, at 1500 1st Ave, Suite A, in Rochester does not currently have scheduled office hours. We monitor telephone messages regularly. If you have a question or concern, call us at 507-536-9785 and we will get back to you.
SD26mn.dfl@gmail.com AND OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA
This is a monthly newsletter. However, events often happen on short notice, so we may not be able to include them in the newsletter. Check our website and Facebook pages for the latest news.
Official communications come from SD DFL (though the full address is above). Watch for them.
We tweet from @sd26dfl and have a website at www.senatedistrict26dfl.com
We have a closed Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/144866495637545/
We share an open Facebook page with Olmsted-25 DFL and Senate District 25 at
https://www.facebook.com/sd26sd25olm25/?fref=ts
Our Instagram account is at dflsenatedistrict26.
Our office is unstaffed for now because of the pandemic but you can leave a message at 507-536-9785. We are monitoring the messages.
The Minnesota DFL’s website is at www.dfl.org. If you go there, click on the I am a … and choose Voter, you can enter your address and find out who your DFL elected officials are. If you click on Click here to join in the Senate District 26 box, it will take you to a secondary website that is currently out-of-date, but should be synchronized with our primary website soon.
The 1st Congressional District DFL also has a website at https://www.dflcd1.org/
