Thursday, July 11, 2024

More Bad News on the Electric Vehicle Front: UPDATED: Issues & Insights

 Chris Talgo - American Thinker

. . ."As they say, you only have one chance to make a first impression. And, based on Americans’ reluctance to purchase EVs, I think it’s safe to say at this point that the EV rollout has been a disaster so far . . ."


. . ."Aside from the lackluster sales figures and alleged scams, the EV industry is facing several vexing problems that seem almost insurmountable at this point in time.

"For instance, over this summer alone, there have been numerous reports of people being trapped inside EVs due to dead batteries. In some of these cases, toddlers have been locked inside of sweltering cars.

"In one example, on June 20, Renee Sanchez was eager to take her two-year-old granddaughter to the Phoenix Zoo. Early that morning, Sanchez strapped the toddler into the backseat of her Model Y Tesla. After closing the rear door, Sanchez attempted to open the front door. However, it would not open because the battery was dead.

“ 'I could not get in. My phone key wouldn’t open it. My card key wouldn’t open it,” Sanchez told a local news network. In a panic, Sanchez called 911. Within minutes, thankfully, the fire department showed up.

“ 'The first thing they said was, ‘Uggh, it’s a Tesla. We can’t get in these cars,’” Sanchez said. “And I said, ‘I don’t care if you have to cut my car in half. Just get her out.’”

"Fortunately, the firefighters used an ax to break the back window. Then, they climbed in and unstrapped the toddler, literally saving her life.

"Although the toddler was okay, Sanchez said they both were traumatized by the incident. After her granddaughter was rescued, Sanchez couldn’t help but think, “oh my God, this could have been so much worse.” She was angry. And rightfully so." . . .

I admire Elon Musk and wish him well, but tend to associate EVs with Liberal-Hollywood-Biden-Newsom and lose the warm fuzzies. TD

Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.orgis editorial director at The Heartland Institute.

. . .The lack of progress cannot be explained away by the challenges faced by any infrastructure buildout, though Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tried to do exactly that when he said the project is more involved “than just plunking a small device into the ground.” No, what we have is an administration that is insisting that the contractors hired to do the work fall in line with the Democrats’ political demands. . .

. . ."A “survey among leaders in the EV charging industry” recently found that 75% “of electric vehicle charging station developers and operators say electric grid limitations present a significant barrier to deploying commercial EV charging infrastructure,” says Utility Dive. Apparently “a large number” of these businesses “have been unable to secure the energy they need for their projects and have resorted to installing fossil fuel-powered generators to run their chargers.” . . .

The Election FIX IS IN, Democrats REFUSE To Bar Illegal Immigrants Voting, Trump DEMANDS GOP Act

 Who Would Have Believed The Singularity Would Be So Stupid?: (ibloga.blogspot.com)

"The Election FIX IS IN, Democrats REFUSE To Bar Illegal Immigrants Voting, Trump DEMANDS GOP Act"


Get Ready For Big Media To Make Another Biden Pivot

  Issues & Insights (issuesinsights.com)

"Late night comics such as Steven Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel will probably try to make his ramblings kind of lovable — Joe says the darndest things." 

"Now that the mainstream news outlets have been forced to admit that President Joe Biden is suffering serious mental decline – something we’ve been tracking here since March 2020 – they’ve decided that Joe must go. But Biden is so far refusing to step down.

"So, what will the media do if Democrats can’t kick Biden to the curb? We have no doubt that they will suddenly go right back to saying: “He’s sharp as a tack! Better than ever! And all that talk about mental decline is just right-wing cheap-fake propaganda.”

"As J. Peder Zane, an editor for RealClearInvestigations and a columnist for RealClearPolitics, put it:

If it becomes clear Joe won’t go, the party and its propaganda outlets will quickly pivot. Discussions of his physical and mental capacities will be shoved down the memory hole. His continuing gaffes and incoherence will be largely ignored, cast as boring facts that are already ‘baked in the cake’: Voters know about his limits so what’s the point of harping on them? Late night comics such as Steven Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel will probably try to make his ramblings kind of lovable — Joe says the darndest things. If Biden bows out, his replacement will be cast as the second coming of well, Jesus Christ, offering a path to salvation for an imperiled land.

"Zane is absolutely right. And the Media Research Center is already seeing signs that “the networks have begun to fall back in line.”

"Doing a 180 will be easy for the mainstream media since they’ve already done it once. Remember that just moments before the debate, any talk about Biden’s mental health was strictly verboten.

"Sure, the White House staff did whatever it could to keep Biden carefully stage-managed. But reporters, who knew all along how bad Biden was, refused to tell the public the whole story – and accused anyone who dared point out Biden’s decline of “carrying water for Trump.”

"That alone is a huge scandal. But there will be no accountability. The media have already given themselves a pass by claiming that they were Shocked! Shocked! to discover how damaged Biden is.

"Democrats and their corporate media propaganda arm have made it abundantly clear that they will do anything and everything to keep Donald Trump from reclaiming the presidency. For now, they think casting Biden aside is the right move." . . .

Media tries to solicit sympathy for Joe Biden who’s been ‘breathlessly’ attacked since the debate


  Jack Hellner - American Thinker 

Trump gave the United States and world relative peace, low inflation, low energy prices, secure borders, and record low poverty levels; Biden gave the world disastrous energy prices, high inflation, along with unsecure borders, and war. Biden is essentially funding both sides of two wars with his energy policies. He has built up alliances among Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea.

 "Here’s a pathetic story from Margaret Sullivan at The Guardian:

The media has been breathlessly attacking Biden. What about Trump?

The bigger story is Donald Trump’s appalling unfitness for office. He tried to overturn a legitimate election and is a felon[.] 

There really is no comparison in the amount or intensity of coverage. One journalist, Jennifer Schulze, counted New York Times stories related to Biden’s age in the week following the debate; she counted a staggering 192 news and opinion pieces, compared to 92 stories on Trump – and that was in a week when the US supreme court had ruled he has immunity for official acts.

"This poor Democrat thinks Biden is being treated too harshly after most of the media has engaged in a massive conspiracy to cover up his cognitive dysfunction; she’s bellyaching because the media have had to cover Biden’s brain being mush for two whole weeks. Big deal!

"The media has been “breathlessly attacking” Trump for eight years with endless lies, and now a person posing as a journalist is complaining about accurate reporting on Biden for a mere two weeks, after these “journalists” have covered up and lied about his abilities for five years. Remember this?

How negative was press coverage of President Trump’s first 100 days in office? Far more than that of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, or Bill Clinton, according to a new report from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

 Full article.

 

Biden's mental decline reflected in foolhardy policies -

 "During the previous presidential debate, Biden declared, “we’re going to make sure that we reduce the price of housing. We’re going to make sure we build 2 million new units. We’re going to make sure we cap rents, so corporate greed can’t take over,” 

AfterMath - Home (terrellaftermath.com)

Biden's mental decline reflected in foolhardy policies - Benjamin Ayanian

. . ."And any politician who grasps a few basic economic principles knows that capping rents leads to a shortage of housing and harms renters. While that seems counterintuitive, it’s true. High prices signal that demand is oustripping supply, which incentivizes developers and investors to create more housing in attempts to capture a slice of the potential profits. As more housing is developed and supply increases relative to demand, then prices moderate. By capping rents, the government distorts the signal that would otherwise tell developers to build more housing. Instead of new developments coming online, current landlords will cease providing upkeep services to the same extent since it will become unprofitable at capped rents, and others will transform their buildings into office spaces, luxury apartments, or other entities typically exempt from rent control. The result is a shortage of housing and higher prices in the long run.  

This is not just theory. It has played out time and time again

Ever wonder why rent is so high in some areas? Because there isn’t enough housing! Rent control would make the root problem worse. And Biden’s plan to build more government-funded housing merely redistributes taxpayer dollars through inefficient bureaucracies. If prices were allowed to fluctuate properly, and developers were not unduly restricted by city governments, then the private market could far more efficiently create the housing demanded. 

Forget the Kamala giggle when the fingernails come out. UPDATE: Kamala Harris; I'M SPEAKING!

How Trump would attack Harris if she became Democratic nominee (axios.com)  . . ."The intrigue: If Democrats picked a moderate Midwestern male as Harris' running mate, the Harris-topped ticket would be more formidable, Republicans tell us.

  • The Trump team's biggest concern, and some early polling flicks at why, is that Harris would help turn out more women, who historically vote in greater numbers than men. Harris — armed with Democrats' abortion message, which worked well in off-year elections — could leverage the nation's gender divide." . . .
. . ."Kamala Harris’s unsparing questioning of Brett Kavanaugh when the then D.C. Circuit Court judge was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Trump won the senator praise for her prosecutorial skill.
"Critics at the time, however, said Harris’s treatment of Kavanaugh was an obvious and out-of-line attempt to raise her political profile. And now that Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee for vice president, Trump has repeatedly attacked her approach to the Kavanaugh hearings.
Kamala

" 'She was extraordinarily nasty to Kavanaugh — Judge Kavanaugh then, now Justice Kavanaugh,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday during a briefing at the White House, not long after Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, announced Harris as his running mate. “She was nasty to a level that was just a horrible thing the way she was,” Trump said.
"In an interview Thursday with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo, Trump called Harris a “mad woman.”
“ 'Now you have a — sort of a mad woman, I call her, because she was so angry and so — such hatred with Justice Kavanaugh. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it. She was the angriest of the group, and they were all angry.' ” . . .


MSM Fact-Checkers Ignore Kamala Harris's Dishonest Kavanaugh Attack | National Review  "Politifact and other popular political fact-checkers entirely ignored Senator Kamala Harris’ dishonest characterization of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s description of a case involving access to contraception during his confirmation hearing Thursday." . . .

 Who can forget the viscious treatment Harris gave to the very decent Brett Kavanaugh in his confirmation hearing? Recall the opening day when his entire family sat behind him, excited by the honor of the occasion. Suddenly the same dam broke that flooded the hearings for Judge Alito that forced his wife to leave in tears and led to that magnificent speech by Senator Lindsey Graham .   

She must be said to have learned from the best if she watched the treatment Biden gave to Judge Clarence Thomas:

Let's Take a Look Back on Exactly How Kamala Harris Treated Brett Kavanaugh (townhall.com)    "After Justice Kavanaugh was confirmed and rightfully seated on the Supreme Court, the Senate Judiciary Committee released a 400-page report detailing all of the false accusations made against him. A number of individuals were referred to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution after lying to Senate investigators. Those individuals included Michael Avenatti, Julie Swetnik and Judy Munro-Leighton. Leighton admitted to investigators she made up rape allegations against Kavanaugh to "get attention" and as part of a "ploy" to take down his nomination. All of them were upheld by Democrats and the media as heroes for truth and justice.

"After an extensive investigation that included the thorough review of all potentially credible evidence submitted and interviews of more than 40 individuals with information relating to the allegations, including classmates and friends of all those involved, Committee investigators found no witness who could provide  any  verifiable evidence to support any of the allegations brought against Justice Kavanaugh," the report states. "In other  words, following the  separate and extensive investigations by both the Committee and the FBI, there was no evidence to substantiate any of the claims of sexual assault made against Justice Kavanaugh." . . .

Thereby giving this nation a picture of the kind of justice system we would have under President Kamala Harris. TD

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

SCOTUS Girls Gone Wild: the Right to Crap in the Streets

  Ann Coulter

"But with just two more votes on the court, these deranged justices would turn every city in America into a dystopian nightmare where zombie drug addicts crap outdoors and get high all day." Biden promises to add more justices like these. 

"On MSNBC, they're convinced that the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity will finally usher in the long-feared Trump Dictatorship, though I'm almost certain the Supreme Court explicitly limited the immunity to presidential acts authorized, or even required, by the Constitution.

"Staging a coup would not be covered. Neither would murdering political opponents.

"(One of the most alarmed guests was former CIA chief John Brennan. Wasn't he involved in a bit of unauthorized surveillance of American citizens, as well as lying to Congress about it?)

"MSNBC: What if Mohamed Atta were president? According to SCOTUS, EVERYTHING HE DID WOULD HAVE BEEN PERFECTLY LEGAL!

"What if TED BUNDY had been elected president? But for a few votes in a few precincts, he could have been ... OH MY GOD!!!

"Where on Earth did Clarence Thomas get the idea that raping and bludgeoning coeds is part of a president's core functions? That's CRAZY!

"As liberals carry on about the conservative majority on the court, I direct your attention to the three liberals on the court, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson -- aka "Girls in Robes Gone Wild" -- and what a majority of them would mean for our country.

"In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the court was asked to decide whether the "homeless" (in the sense that "I am Hope Diamondless") have a constitutional right to camp anywhere they please. Thankfully, a majority of justices found no such right in the Constitution.

"But the dissenters concluded, Yes! Mentally ill drug addicts have total immunity from any local health and safety ordinances." . . .

What the Dementia-ocrats fear

 Don Surber (substack.com)

"Liberals have seized on the Heritage Foundation’s dopey Project 2025 to strike fear in voters but the problem with that is voters have already seen Donald Trump as president. Most of them preferred The Donald over Obama, er, Biden — and that was before Biden’s dementia became so obvious that the press could no longer hide it."

"Vice President DEI is the only hope Democrats have left. Switching candidates four months before the election shoots a party in the left foot. Suddenly dumping the woman they put a heartbeat away from the presidency shoots the other.

"CNN reported, “Kamala Harris is the only viable alternative for Democrats.”

"The column by Bill Burton said, “African Americans make up about 14% of the American population, yet in 2020 nearly 20% of Biden voters were black, according to Pew Research Center. In what is anticipated to be a close election this year, the depression of a crucially important community within our party by denying Harris the nomination in a crisis scenario is not only contemptuous and degrading but also politically stupid. Passing over our first black vice president — who is literally in this job for the specific reason of being ready to step into Biden’s place should the need arise — would create a level of anger and disappointment from the black community that would completely disrupt our ability to keep together a coalition of voters who could make it possible to beat Trump.”

"Pandering has its price. Live by the DEI, die by the DEI. Kamala truly Didn’t Earn It but there she is. Democrats are soiling themselves over this because they realize they must stop him now because they will not get the Nice Guy Let’s Cut A Deal Donald in a second term. President Trump stands ready, willing and able to play hardball this time.

"In 2016, Obama misled his supporters with his peevish and ultimately self-destructive resistance. He made sure his party would never cede control of government to Trump. This allowed the public to see how rotten the government is. The FBI — once supported by conservatives — has earned MAGA scorn." . . .



The media "lied about Biden simply because they hated Trump."

 Charlamagne says 'all I hear is ego' from Biden, calls on Democrats to challenge him for nomination at DNC (yahoo.com)  . . ."Charlamagne played audio from this interview on his "Breakfast Club" show and responded, "All I hear is ego, and I hope they take him up on his offer. Every single Democrat who feels like the Democrats can’t win if Biden is the nominee needs to challenge him at the convention. Take him up on his offer."

"He added that he has been asking for months whether Biden-Harris is a "’winnable ticket,’ and if the answer is ‘no,' Biden should step aside; and people shouldn’t be upset when folks say that — especially if y’all wanna win.' " . . .

AfterMath - Home (terrellaftermath.com)

Hat tip to Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Democratic convention delegates say they’re loyal to Biden and balk at other options | CNN Politics    "Democrats urging President Joe Biden to end his campaign and allow the party to select another nominee before – or during – August’s national convention are unlikely to find allies in the ranks of Chicago-bound delegates, who are increasingly closing ranks around Biden." . . .

Republicans and the conservative media need to wake up and anticipate their opponents next move or as Sun Tzu says, "Fight your enemy where they aren't.”

 The main reason Joe Biden should not be president - Trevor Thomas  . . ."The Trump campaign ran an ad in August of 2020 that highlighted Biden’s mental decline.  No doubt this is one of the reasons why the drive-by media refused to cover Biden’s numerous health issues.  They sacrificed the truth because none of them wanted to be seen as aiding Trump, or even giving any credibility to his campaign.  In other words, they lied about Biden simply because they hated Trump." . . .

There’s Only One Reason Democrats Oppose Requiring Proof Of Citizenship To Vote

 SAVE Act Heads To House Floor To Stop Noncitizen Vote (thefederalist.com)

"Democrats will be forced to explain why they oppose the SAVE Act, which requires documentary proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections." Schumer's people in Congress; elections matter!

Most House Democrats earlier this year voted against a measure that would have barred illegal immigrants and other noncitizens from voting in local elections in the nation’s capital. The bill is deemed dead on arrival in the Senate. 


"As the Republican-controlled House is expected to take up a bill Wednesday aimed at making sure only U.S. citizens vote in federal elections, President Joe Biden is signaling he would kill the measure should it miraculously survive the Democrat-led Senate. Biden isn’t likely to need the veto pen. 

Democrats will, however, be forced to explain why they oppose the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which requires documentary proof of citizenship to vote for president and members of Congress. 

"And while they have gotten plenty of cover from corporate media in asserting that foreign nationals — including illegal aliens — are rarely ever caught voting in federal elections, such explanations may not sit well with U.S. voters who overwhelmingly support prohibitions on noncitizens voting in federal elections. Most Americans, too, according to polls, are deeply concerned about the tsunami of illegal immigrants that has swamped U.S. communities on Biden’s watch. Exactly why the Biden administration has kept the border door wide open isn’t lost on anyone who has been paying attention for the past three and a half years. 

" 'Democrats say it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. That’s true. It’s also illegal for someone to illegally enter our country, but that hasn’t stopped millions and millions of people,” U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., told me Tuesday during an interview on the “The Vicki McKenna Show” in Milwaukee and Madison." . . . 

Corruption can be made to sound so beautiful:

 . . .“The SAVE Act would prevent non-Americans from illegally voting, protecting the votes of American citizens. The only reason to oppose it is because you want non-Americans illegally voting,” Lee wrote. 

Biden, meanwhile, is pushing Democrat legislation loosening voter integrity laws.  

“The President has been clear: he will continue fighting to protect Americans’ sacred right to vote in free, fair, and secure elections,” the White House said in its opposition statement to the SAVE Act. 

Are there still places in France where people cannot live because of World War 1?

 Are there still places in France where people cannot live because of World War 1? - Quora   Roger Moen: While I was stationed at Etain AFB France a few miles from Verdun in 1958 I guy down the hallway from me was using a spent shell for a door stop in the barracks, someone called EOD and after examination, it was found to be still live. He had found it in one of the fenced-off areas. It was around 1 foot and a half long.


The French "Red Zone" Is So Dangerous, It Still Is A No-Go Area 100 Years After WWI | War History Online  . . ."There are guided “Battle of Verdun” tours, a recreated village complete with trenches, memorial sites, and even restaurants within the Red Zone – but don’t let that fool you. It’s still a dangerous place. The government has set up a Département du Déminage (Department of Mine Clearance), but so far, they’ve only scratched the surface.
"While some bits look like pristine forest, they hide millions of explosives – both the ones that have gone off, as well as those just waiting for someone or something to set them off. Weapons, helmets, and even skeletal fragments are still being found, something that’s likely to go on for centuries to come and ensure employment for those brave enough to work for the Département du Déminage." . . .
Sign indicating the site of the destroyed village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont
The destroyed village: Fleury-devant-Douaumont — Elsewhere: A Journal of Place (elsewhere-journal.com)

'The Time to Stay Silent Was Over’ -

 Maria Muñoz; Tablet Magazine

"I heard the same chants as always: “There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” a chant that echoed the message of Hitler’s final solution in Nazi Germany. I did not have a chance to mourn for Kfar Aza—I was immediately swallowed by the deep hate and vigor of antisemitism."

Placards with photos of hostages held in the Gaza Strip after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack hang on damaged houses in
 Kfar Aza, on April 7, 2024
I never had a country that made me feel like I was a part of a family without being a citizen myself until I was in Israel—a country that hugged me back when I embraced it.
I identify as a Native American, originally from Colombia, but I am a U.S. citizen who moved here in 2001 when I was only 1 year old. Since then, I have traveled the world, and although I’ve experienced wonderful hospitality in many places, Israel is the only place that felt like a second home during my visit.
"The first time I went to Israel, in May 2023, I learned about the tensions that had endured for decades, but I also experienced the strong community between Israelis, something that I felt was missing in the U.S. It felt like it didn’t matter if you were a religious Jew, a secular Jew, Druze, Bedouin, Arab, or a foreigner exploring—you were part of Israeli society. During that visit, I stopped by a kibbutz called Kfar Aza to learn about life inside the Gaza Envelope. The residents showed us the missile that had been launched at their beloved kibbutz earlier that week. The sight of the missile gave me chills. I admired how brave the residents were for continuing to live in this community despite being so close to a dangerous, intimidating militant group.
"Little did I know the missile was an omen of what was to come. Or that I’d return to Israel in a matter of months." . . .
. . . "My reluctance to be an advocate vanished when I was brought back to Kfar Aza. The bright, flourishing community I once knew was now in ruins. Seeing the burned rubble of family homes was the first time I fully understood the fate of the kibbutz residents. Their voices had been stolen by the self-proclaimed activists of social media who were telling the world that the stories of Israeli victims did not deserve to be heard because their deaths were “justified.” I never was an activist myself, but I knew this sentiment was wrong. People who were antiwar were now openly celebrating the deaths of innocent civilians.
"It made me realize people were not using this movement to stand up for human rights. They were using it to ignite hate against Jews—again." . . .

Maria Muñoz is a current fellow at Maccabee Task Force, a pro-Israel group fighting misinformation and antisemitism on college campuses.