Summary

House Speaker Mike Johnson erupted after failing to block a bipartisan proxy voting bill allowing parental leave for lawmakers.

Despite once voting by proxy himself, Johnson called it “unconstitutional,” revealing GOP resistance to family-friendly policies.

Critics say this aligns with Trump-era efforts to push women out of public life, consistent with Project 2025’s goal of restoring “traditional families.”

Johnson’s move, including canceling House activity, exposed the contradiction in the GOP’s “pro-family” stance and highlighted deeper hostility to workplace flexibility and women’s equality.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
    3·
    1 day ago

    That was the case but the past 10 years or so have changed and started going back the other way toward short lived cars.

    Parts that used to be made of metal are now plastic which are cheaper to make, lighter, but also shorter lived as they age. On its surface this shouldn’t be a big deal because they’re cheap to make so replacement parts should also be cheap. However there are two problems with this line of thinking:

    • Labor costs have increased - so even if the cheap part breaks and is cheap to buy the replacement, modern cars require lots of labor to disassemble cars to the point the replacement part can be put in.

    • Replacement parts are getting VERY hard to get - this is true of not only cheap plastic parts, but also complicated electronic modules (which may need custom programming to install).

    “Mechanically totaled” is a fairly common phrase auto techs are having to communicate to customers. This means that the cost of repairs is greater than the cost of replacing the entire car with one its same age and condition. This isn’t just lower end Kia cars (though they are a big offender here) but many cars across Korean, European, Japanese, and American brands.

    You’re correct that today’s cars are more reliable than the 1940’s and 1950’s, but even those cars were serviceable with readily available parts and fairly cheap tools and labor. So when they broke, they could be fixed again. That can’t be said for many of today’s cars.