Petroleum for both fuel and for industrial purposes isn't going anywhere for a long time. It's very much an industry that is critical to national concerns. It is something that would be a mistake to become dependent on foreign countries for. Look what happened to Europe after Russia attacked Ukraine and their environmental policies left them highly dependent on Russia for petroleum and natural gas.

It's nice to dream of 100% clean energy, no plastics, no use of oil to manufacture anything or being used in fertilizers to grow food. Reality is a completely different thing. I have no problems with finding better solutions for anything. But it's not going to happen over night and trying to force it through green political policies does nothing but raise prices, create shortages and hurt the average person.

This has nothing to do with your data. It has to do with cameras that can monitor sensitive sites. Add in future autonomous vehicles, and they can just wander and collect surveillance. They could also be used as drones to create havoc if a conflict were to arise.

China already has restrictions on how the connected systems in Tesla's can operate in China. They do have similar regulations and Tesla has complied in order to keep selling cars there. Polestar could make changes to attempt to get a waiver. Odds are their low sales in the US doesn't justify the effort.

You're probably someone that also complains about how much new cars cost. Every requirement added to what cars must do raises the cost to produce them and thus the price. Much of the current high prices in cars is from required safety features. Much of the added weight that killed econo cars was for safety requirements. The price and selection of cars we can buy in the US is very much a result of regulations for fuel economy and safety features pushing us to larger and more expensive cars.

It has nothing to do with Communism. Cars are become mobile surveillance platforms. You don't just let a foreign adversary (of any political system) fill your roads with spies. China has similar restrictions for such systems from foreign countries. It's about national security.

As for why Volvo got the waiver, I don't have the info to know if that was a mistake or if their systems implement fewer features.

It's just a tax in name. It's actually the government seizing 50% of the company from those that took the risk and invested in it. And after that, using its 50% share to control how that company operates. That ownership and control is essentially government controlling the means of production. I wonder what word is defined by that?

Had I been allowed to invest my SS taxes myself in the stock market, I'd have far, far more money for retirement than I'll receive from SS. I'd much prefer that SS did not exist. But since I had to pay in to it, I expect to get back from it.

The government would in essence be in control of the operations and direction of the industry. That is Socialism. Not only that, but it would be an 'Independent' board meaning that it would not even be accountable to the voters. Like most Socialist (and Communist) systems, the unelected bureaucrats get put in charge. Democracy just exists to put in place figureheads.

It's stable and works well. It's simple for family members of varying technical ability to use on a streaming box/smart tv with a remote.

Jellyfin does try to be all these things, but is a steaming pile. When they changed their db schema a few months ago, I got completely broken. I had already been dealing with all their ancient .net code forked from Emby having all sorts of parsing errors. That got worse with their new db stack. The database then started corrupting itself daily requiring restoring a backup. I also ran in to issues with it getting in scanning new file loops for days at a time maxing out my 12 cores. A clean install to start over didn't fix any of that. I have Plex running on the same machine with its sqlite db on the same drive without issue. It's not the hardware, it's the crappy software. Sometimes paying for a solution is worth all the time you save.

The problem with Euro-Socialism is that the bureaucrats fancy themselves as product designers and want to dicate product design through regulation. The problem being they have no real knowledge or skills beyond thinking they know best.

"and parents were asking the government to intervene"

How about being parents and putting rules in place with your kids? The government does not exist for parents to subcontract parenting to. Are parents afraid to be the bad person and want to just wanting to never have to say no to their kids? So, instead, they want government being the bad person?

It's a win for consumer choice, not for Trump. His policies regarding EVs are that consumers should be able to choose if they want one or an ICE vehicle. The government should not be subsidizing a product that cannot sell without the government giving a significant subsidy nor should the government be forcing a transition when EVs are not a practical option for many use cases.

I have nothing against EVs. I actually own two. But I also recognize they're not ready for mass acceptance. They need market forces to drive them to be better and become not just viable alternatives, but better alternatives.

The 'I believe in science' crowd completely dismissed the data several years ago (this is not recently discovered) when confronted with the data that particulates from combustion engines had been mostly eliminated and that most particulate pollution was actually from tires and brakes. And further, BEVs, with their higher weights, actually produced more particulate pollution than ICE vehicles. Instead, they insisted that BEVs were clean, because 'science'.

Now, the eco groups that have always been anti-car are pushing this data as BEVs have gained market share. They're never going to be happy. Bicycle tires and brakes have the same issue as well. Even the soles on our shoes. This is why every sane person needs to stop listening to the eco lobby. They're extremists that will never be happy and never look for practical balance. Reducing pollution is a good goal. Net Zero is an impractical target lest we drastically reduce human population and give up nearly all modern conveniences.

And if it's made of a material that's dry clean only? Or something that's not very durable? Not everything is practical for people in need.

The net effect of this new policy will be manufacturers doing smaller product runs and there being less available and demand for less supply will result in higher prices. Manufacturers will not want to have to deal with new rules for excess inventory, so they'll just have scarce inventory.

It's common to any large bureaucracy. Of which government is very much one. It's one very good reason why the politics of growing government bigger and bigger never accomplish anything of value beyond more government workers requiring more tax collection to pay their salaries.