Supervisor Jim Desmond’s Crusade for Freeways and Stuff
Defenders of the status quo in San Diego are falling in behind a campaign to demonize a plan to enable improvements to mass transit necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The boogie man in this situation is a proposal for a per mile tax included in the regional government’s transportation planning plan. The mechanics of how such a tax (dubbed the VMT- Vehicle Mileage Tax) would be collected are unknown at present.
The idea has become a political third rail for liberal politicians, a rallying point for Republican politicians, and a fundraising vehicle for the usual gang of right wing grifters, who are apparently out of the funds raised for lost causes like recalling the governor and stopping the “gas tax.”
Leading the pack locally is County Supervisor Jim Desmond, who learned during the pandemic that there’s political gold to be had by being the go-to contrarian for right wing media looking for sound bites on controversies.
Desmond starts off with the premise that climate change is a new religion and it's being used as a weapon. These sorts of arguments are helpful in avoiding rebuttals from data-driven liberals pointing out the existential crisis on the horizon.
He’s really jumping up and down about taxes and fees that could be needed to give local residents a shot at reducing their reliance on cars. This got him a slot on Fox news where he told viewers about how “they” want to tax “us” into submission. Proposed tolls for HOV lanes –something already done on Interstate 15– were converted to proposed tolls for all freeways for purposes of ginning up his arguments.
The North County Supervisor garnered some publicity lately after he reached out to Elon Musk via Twitter and was acknowledged.
I’m not sure about the value of reaching out to a man whose vision is limited to low passenger capacity vehicles and tunnels capable of handling one car at a time. (Not to mention the failure of his auto-driving software.) Then there’s the problem of Musk promising stuff and never delivering once the publicity dies down, as documented in a Wall Street Journal article.
But, hey, Desmond came off as somebody not completely rooted in magical thinking, so that’s a plus. And he does say he’s looking for hi-tech help, right? Too bad he thinks that he can do it for free.
The Supervisor has been treated to (almost) unlimited coverage on KUSI, and the local Fox station published his op ed on their website.
He concluded:
Government agendas should not be used to change behavior by taxing us into fixed-rail trains and buses. Instead of changing behavior, government entities should incentivize technology and innovation.
Government should embrace what most people are already choosing, and make it cleaner, safer, and more efficient. The people have spoken, they choose freedom of movement and not broken promises or additional taxes.
I love how all these guys who are pro-marketplace get upset when non-corporations weigh in. The taxes on tobacco –which effectively reduced smoking– were probably a life crisis for Desmond and his ilk. Governments for as long as we’ve had governments have used their power of taxation to influence human behavior.
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Congressman Darrel Issa is bragging about a nothingburger bill he’s introduced dubbed the No Tax No Track Act. It’s based on the premise of a government conspiracy to track Americans’ movements, something he says is unconstitutional. Maybe he should be speaking with his Republican colleagues in state legislatures, who are promoting laws designed to prevent women from crossing state lines to get an abortion.
Also, somebody ought to tap on the glass silo encasing the East County Congressman to let him know that horse left the barn a long time ago.
Anti-crime cameras, license plate readers, cell phone trackers, and software tags all provide anybody with a badge and/or an open checkbook to find us at any time. Knowing where people are and what they’re doing is big business, and private companies are more than willing to do the legwork that a government agency might find dubious.
One of the biggest suppliers of movement information is the Venntel company.
From an article in Politico:
When Venntel first reached out to the federal agencies, it offered marketing material highlighting the extent of its data collection capabilities. In one email from February 2017 sent to ICE, the data broker boasted that it collected location data from more than 250 million mobile devices and processed more than 15 billion location data points a day.
In another brochure, Venntel showed that its location data could be used to track devices traveling between Mexico and the U.S., and also trace a specific vehicle’s route. The brochure page also indicated that Venntel’s data was capable of identifying mobile devices that were at the deadly 2017 white supremacist riot in Charlottesville, Va.
And finally, a right wing cause isn’t really a cause until Carl Demaio starts fundraising off it. His Reform California group has added the mileage tax to its agenda, along with school board ‘reform’, and a voter ID initiative (Only one million signatures needed!)
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I get snarky about these sorts of right wing campaigns because of the unsaid part.
What would these folks propose to do about climate change?
I guess sticking one’s head in the sand could be considered an option, but I haven’t bought into the flat earther-based science that says it’s no big deal. When the likes of Jim Desmond says recognizing a planetary crisis is the same as a religion, I have to wonder if their real objective is simply to do nothing at all.
Desmond and his ilk actually do have a plan. It involves making citizens realize that adverse events are actually their fault rather than system failures/catastrophes.
We’re supposed to think that using recycled bags and driving electric cars –if we feel like it– will be enough.
Here’s Vijay Kolinjivadi, writing at Al Jazeera on the false promises of corporate/conservative greenwashing:
The optimism of the wealthy and the fake climate solutions pushed on us are quite effective in convincing people that climate change will be tackled. That is because they provide reassurance that we will not have to give up the comforts we enjoy and because they also give us, the consumers, “a choice” – to go “green” or not. Indeed, we can now choose between a renewable or an oil-powered turtle-shaped mega yacht.
Making the “green” choice then leaves us satisfied that we are “doing something” about climate change. But driving an electric car, putting your organic produce in a tote bag and turning down your heating or air-conditioner by one degree is not going to save the planet. Let’s have the courage to face this fact.
What would make a difference is developing mass transport and substantially reducing car ownership; closing coal mines and ending oil and gas exploration; promoting decentralised and community-managed renewable energy systems; doing away with industrial-scale monoculture farming; and supporting smallholder and Indigenous-led agroecological systems that have been shown to enhance nutrition, biodiversity and quality of life.
All these little things are important in changing hearts and minds, but one cannot ignore the bigger systemic issues.
So, yes, it might take a tax or two to combat climate change. Government on every level needs to have a leading role in crafting solutions. And if Desmond has an idea that has the potential to fix a problem that he doesn’t believe exists, by all means, let’s hear it.
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