Ford Building Car That Locks Up if you Miss a Payment?!, Texas A County Again?, Four Kidnapped in Mexico--Mistaken Identity?, Trump More Popular Than Biden (The Five for 03/07/23)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Let’s dive into the news.
[one]
This could be the end of car “ownership.”
Ford is seeking a patent for a system that would enable its cars to annoy users with endless notifications and constant beeps and chimes or even lock owners out of the car entirely if they miss a payment, according to a patent application published last week.
The application, first reported by The Drive, modestly titled “systems and methods to repossess a vehicle,” is essentially a playbook for how an internet-connected software-based car—especially one with some autonomous driving capabilities—can punish owners for missing payments. In laying out a series of increasingly significant punishments, the application can alternately can be read as a dispatch from a future dystopia, one that may be unlikely to occur but has elements that feel entirely possible if not inevitable as cars become more software-based.
[two]
Four Americans traveling to Mexico have been kidnapped.
Four Americans who traveled to Mexico last week to seek health care got caught in a deadly shootout and were kidnapped by heavily armed men who threw them in the back of a pickup truck, officials from both countries said Monday.
The four were traveling Friday in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. They came under fire shortly after entering the city of Matamoros from Brownsville, at the southernmost tip of Texas near the Gulf coast, the FBI said in a statement Sunday.
“All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” the FBI said. The bureau is offering a $50,000 reward for the victims’ return and the arrest of the kidnappers.
Zalandria Brown of Florence, South Carolina, said she has been in contact with the FBI and local officials after learning that her younger brother, Zindell Brown, is one of the four victims.
“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” she said in a phone interview. “To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable.”
Zalandria Brown said her brother, who lives in Myrtle Beach, and two friends had accompanied a third friend who was going to Mexico for a tummy tuck surgery. A doctor who advertises such surgeries in Matamoros did not answer calls seeking comment.
There are some reports that the Americans were mistaken for Haitian drug smugglers. The US has not confirmed any American casualties, but a video appears to show three of the four dead (or seriously wounded).
[three]
Guess who doesn’t want Biden back in 2024? A good number of 2020 Biden voters.
More than one-third of Biden 2020 voters do not want him to run for reelection in 2024, a recent survey from YouGov/The Economist revealed.
The survey found 58 percent, overall, revealing they do not want President Joe Biden to run for office again in 2024, while 24 percent said they do. Another 18 percent remain unsure.
Predictably, opinions are divided along party lines, as 83 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of independents do not want him to run. Less than a majority of Democrats, 43 percent, believe Biden should run in 2024, while more than one-third, 34 percent, said he should not. Another 23 percent of Democrats remain unsure.
Notably, over one-third of Biden 2020 voters, 36 percent, do not want him to run in the next presidential race, while less than a majority, 39 percent, said he should. One-quarter of Biden 2020 voters remain unsure. For further comparison, most Trump 2020 voters, 55 percent, want former President Donald Trump to run in 2024, and 53 percent of Republicans across the board say the same.
The survey was taken February 25-28, 2023, among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens.
Biden already has his first primary challenger (which is rare for a sitting President) in self-help guru Marianne Williamson, who also ran in 2020.
On the right side of the aisle, Donald Trump is…hanging around the same numbers as when he was President, which makes him more popular than Biden at the moment, according to Reuters.
Overall, Americans are more favorable of DeSantis, who is not officially running for President. Currently, Trump still holds the lead.
Nikki Haley…doesn’t seem to move the needle much either way.
Finally, Mike Pence polls…kinda well? But the fact that I forgot about Pence completely when writing this story is probably a better “poll” of where he’s at in the national consciousness.
In non-Presidential election news…Ben Savage (best known as the lead on the 90’s sitcom Boy Meets World) is running for Congress. In California, and he’s already a famous Democrat…I’d assume he’s got that one in teh bag, unless he really screws up.
[four]
First there was Brexit (Britain leaving the EU), followed by…Texit?
The Hill reports:
A Texas state lawmaker filed a bill on Monday that would set a referendum for voters to decide whether the state should explore the possibility of seceding from the United States.
If the measure — known as the TEXIT Referendum Act — passes, a referendum on whether Texas “should reassert its status as an independent nation” would be scheduled for the next general election on Nov. 7, 2023. The bill would also require potential plans to be presented to the state legislature.
“The Texas Constitution is clear that all political power resides in the people,” Rep. Bryan Slaton (R) wrote in a statement. “After decades of continuous abuse of our rights and liberties by the federal government, it is time to let the people of Texas make their voices heard.”
A coalition of Texas lawmakers — including Slaton — filed the same bill in March 2021, which was referred to the State Affairs committee. It did not, however, receive a hearing or a vote.
Slaton said this time around, he was filing the bill 187 years after the fall of the Alamo.
“On this 187th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo I’m proud to file this bill to let the people of Texas vote on the future of our State,” Slaton wrote in his statement. “Texas was born out of a desire for liberty and self-governance, and that desire continues to burn in the hearts of all Texans.”
Texas was an independent nation from 1836-1846, after a coalition of Texians (US-born immigrants to Mexican-controlled Texas) and Tejanos (Ethnic Mexicans who had been in Texas for hundreds of years, and identified more as Texan than Mexican), when just 3,000-7,000 Texan volunteers overcame a Mexican Army that numbered more than 30,000 regular troops.
[five]
Finally, an NFL player saved a man’s life last night.
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver K.J. Osborn is being hailed a hero after helping save a man’s life from a burning car on Sunday night.
“Last night myself and these 3 absolute heroes helped save a man’s life by rescuing him from a vehicle up in flames after a bad crash,” Osborn wrote on Twitter. “A situation I’d never imagine being a part of in a million years.”
Osborn, 25, was on his way home in an Uber after a workout in Austin, Texas, when he was alerted by his driver that a car had crashed under a bridge and burst into flames, he said on The Adam Schefter Podcast.
“My Uber driver just starts going crazy. He’s like, ‘Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!’ I look up, and I’m wondering what’s all the fuss about,” Osborn said. “He’s like, ‘This guy crashed,’ and I look to my right and there’s a car, if you were to picture it, under a bridge’s pillars. His car is head-on. He hit the pillar and his car is in flames.”
Until the next one,
-sth