End of the Electrified Road?

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We are now at the point with battery-powered devices pretending to be cars that we were with mRNA drugs pretending to be vaccines. The truth is out – and people are not buying the lies anymore.

Or the devices.

Ford has stopped shipping 2024 Lightnings because there are so many unsold (brand-new) 2023 Lightnings collecting dust on dealership lots – like crates of “vaccines” that have gone bad because people aren’t lining up to get jabbed anymore. Volvo is putting a pillow over the head of Polestar – which was to have been its Bespoke device brand. But it can’t afford to waste more money on devices for which there are not enough or even any buyers. Mercedes just walked back its commitment of just a few years ago to be a high-end peddler of nothing but devices by 2030 – because (again) there are not enough people willing to buy a device when they are still able to buy and drive vehicles that aren’t devices.

And that bring us to what now?

In prior Sovietzied economies – i.e., planned economies, with supply determined by government fiat rather than demand – it didn’t matter that there wasn’t a market for what was produced. It was just produced. As much – or as little – as the political apparat decreed would be produced. The decrees were styled Five Year Plans – and so on. The people had to accept what was produced – because there was no other option.

It seems logical that the same approach will be resorted to in order to clear the glut of devices rejected by what’s left of the American market. That part being the still-viable option of not buying a device. It is an option being exercised by most people, for reasons everyone’s well-aware of. Devices are too expensive – and too inconvenient. Most people do not want to have to plan their lives around waits for a charge. They want to be able to just go – whenever they want to, without having to plan it ahead of time.

This latter is a vestige of the American rather than Soviet way of life.

It is a way of life most Americans will continue to choose for as long as they remain free to chose it. And that is why this choice will of necessity be taken away by the Soviets who have seized control of what used to be America.

If the Soviets are permitted to retain control of America.

There is no other way for them – or for us.

If the last vestige of the America that was is allowed to remain viable – if people are allowed to continue buying or even just owning vehicles rather than devices – then the Sovietization of the American car industry (indeed, of the car industry, generally) will fail spectacularly. It will fail for the same reason the old Soviet Union failed:

There was an alternative to it.

People not only knew things sucked in the Soviet Union, they knew they didn’t suck on the other side of the wall, in the West. Which – at the time – was far from being Soviet.

People in the old Soviet Union could see the choices people in the West had – including cars of all kinds and types, rather than a Trabant made of recycled plastic – and wanted them just as much as the people in the West (who often took them for granted) did. This disparity helped undermine internal support for the Soviet Union, which tottered and fell very much in alignment with its gerontocratic ruling elite.

Now the gerontocratic ruling elite rule the West – and they’re determined to Sovietize it. They have taken care of the supply side, by using the regulatory power of government to effectively outlaw choice without (very cleverly) actually outlawing it. That is why it is legal to offer for sale brand-new 1960s Mustangs, for instance – without any modern “safety” features or “emissions” controls. But it is only legal to offer them in very small numbers – at very high prices – to the nonemklatura who can afford to pay the (roughly) $250,000 it costs to buy a brand-new ’60s-era Mustang. It is also why it is still possible for GM to sell a V8-powered Escalade  – for just shy of $100k to start. Because only a few such will be sold and that doesn’t meaningfully affect GM’s compliance profile.

Electric Trabants are for the rest of us. Only our Trabants are so expensive most of us can’t afford what most of us don’t want anyhow.

To make us “want” them, alternatives to them will be actually outlawed. Or made more expensive than the electric Trabants they want us to drive. Or – rather – which they intend to use to end driving for most of us. Expect gas to become scarce – and expensive. At $10 per gallon – if you can find a gallon – it will cost even more to drive than it costs to buy (and charge) a device.

It’s all coming – because it’s all coming to a head.

Better buckle up.

. . .

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74 COMMENTS

  1. Off-topic but on your videos point, I love the 4Runner, had one for a destination wedding 2yrs ago in Sedona, actually took it offroad to help the bride and groom as there it down poured during their ceremony.

    For a #SaveTheManuals guy, this is one of the few Asterisks in my book, I see why half my neighborhood has one. I’ll hopefully get a 5th gen in the future, it left that much of an impression.

    As for the EV’s, should Trump win, watch everything get reserved. There’ll be pushback of course, but being his second term, he won’t care as much as he would have in his first

    • Watch for another election steal in 2024; not much has changed in the voting system.
      They’ll steal again and the courts will do nothing, and we get 4 more years of …….

  2. It’s BACK …

    Elon Musk
    @elonmusk

    Tonight, we radically increased the design goals for the new Tesla Roadster.

    There will never be another car like this, if you could even call it a car.
    12:47 AM · Feb 28, 2024

    Quite right, Elon: that’s no car. It’s a device.

    And my cell phone can do 0-60 in one second when I hurl it to the pavement.

  3. I can’t wait to get my Aptera, assuming they do actually go into production. 0-60 in 4 seconds with the in-wheel, 220 hp, 3 motor version. 1800 lb gross weight with a 400 mile range, 40kw battery. 700 watts in solar panels on top will charge batteries up to 40 miles per day. I commute 13 miles one way to work. Can also charge up at a fast charger or plug into regular 110 volt outlet at home and get a couple hundred miles of charge overnight.
    Since it is a 3 wheeled auto cycle you don’t even have to have insurance here in FL. I think it is a bargain at $34,700. Doesn’t even qualify for the $7500 government ev tax credit since it has 3 wheels.

    So light and aerodynamically efficient it will travel 1 mile on 100 watts of power. Most exciting vehicle I have ever seen, which is why I ponied up over 10k of my after tax dollars to get one of the first 2000 made. And if they never get made I will lose my 10k, which will suck but not being able to get this car will suck even more. Still, a gamble I am willing to take without any government gun to my head.
    A car that makes enough power to operate up to 40 miles per day from just the power of sunlight is pretty cool. I agree with a lot of the arguments here about traditional ev’s but the Aptera is a totally different animal. I really hope they start production on this amazing vehicle. JMHO

    • Wow, that’s amazing. Been a startup since 2005. Might be ready for a production model in a year or 10. Don’t hold your breath, just keep on writing those checks. My prediction is 11 then 7.

    • Hi Greg,

      I hope Aptera can make it, too. However, $35k for a vehicle that’s realistically useful for commuting only seems a bit much to me. Yes, it’s quick. So is a Mustang GT – and it seats four, so it’s a much more practical vehicle – and it costs about the same, too.

      What I’d like to see is a small, light commuter EV that doesn’t worry about how quick it is – just so it’s quick enough to be able to keep up with traffic (an 8-10 second 0-60 capability would be sufficient) and – above all – inexpensive. Something that costs less – much less – to buy than any new car with an engine. Something in the range of $12k or so.

      Now that would be something.

    • It’s like the AI “roadkill” read our responses and spit out another updated response. Interesting. But still recognizable.

    • ‘700 watts in solar panels on top will charge batteries up to 40 miles per day.’ — Greg

      I flatly do not believe this claim. Forbes doesn’t either:

      ‘The reality is the panels on the Aptera are only going to provide the 40 mile maximum if you park the car in the sun in Chile’s Atacama desert in high summer. On dark or rainy days, or in winter, or in less sunny climes, it’s only going to provide a mild boost of 10-15 miles.’

      http://tinyurl.com/2jnuu72s

      Even the claims Forbes cites are probably double the true figures. Aptera over-promised with pie-in-the-sky numbers. Mark my words — Aptera is gonna get busted.

      • I never understood the “rush” to buy the first year of anything, let alone something as complex as a car. You have to know the first few years of anything is going to suck right?

      • Hey Jim,

        I don’t know. It depends on the 100 Wh/mile claim.

        IF that’s the case… I power my house (stationary RV) at the current time with only 1,000 watts worth of stationary solar panels, plus wind power.

        In the summer, you can easily collect 7,000 watt-hours worth of energy on a sunny day. Probably closer to 8k Wh, but let’s say 7k. If the Aptera sports 700 watts worth of solar cells, then it should collect 0.7*7,000 Wh = 4,900 Wh worth of energy, which, if the 100 Wh/mile range is true, that would be 49 miles.

        If it were to use more like 250 Wh/mile like the Tesla is said to in that article, that’s 19.6 miles. The Aptera, looking like an airplane fuselage and having 3 wheels, is likely more energy efficient.

        But I am truly curious if that claim is valid.

    • “will travel 1 mile on 100 watts of power.” You are correct that watts is a measure of power but energy such as watt-hours is required to do work such as moving an object. In other words,
      The correct statement would be, ” will travel 1 mile on 100 watts-hours of energy.” 100 watt-hours is the amount of energy that is consumed by turning on a one hundred watt light bulb for one hour. Most people use the terms energy and power interchangeably but they are not the same. Not trying to be picky. Just trying to inform the public in case they are interested.
      Likewise, the 40kw battery is probably a 40kwh battery which means that it is rated to supply 40kw of power for one hour or the equivalent such as 20kw of power for two hours. It has been many moons since I studied physics but I am reasonably or hopefully confident with my analysis.

    • Hey Greg,

      Keep us informed about your Aptera. I think this is definitely the proper direction if electric cars are ever to be successful in any way. I do agree with Eric and others about the price, however. Should be more like $15k. Maybe if they ever get into mass production, that price can decrease.

      Good luck!

  4. Not so much a question of affordability, but of being forced to buy an EV. With every few thousands that go into use, it might strain the power grid. The rebuild of the grid is falling way behind schedule and costing more and more every year to replace or add to. The entire green energy thing is a fiasco as are ALL government brain farts.

  5. Born 1936 I might runout clock w/two twincam stick Saturns (40 mpg 75 mph I-25). Starter battery $125 or >$15,000 for a EV?
    12 gal quick fill-up. IC engines won that competition by 1910.
    FoMoCo now stuck with $150k EV pickups makes me chuckle.

    • Indeed, Bob –

      Your Saturns are great cars; I got to test drive these when they were new, all those years ago. They were light, fun to drive and very fuel efficient. “Cling” to yours as long as you can!

  6. Huh, my EV only cost me $28K
    I live in the cold Chicago area.
    I’ve been driving it every day for 4 years now. I have 70,000 miles on it.
    Battery is still good as it was new. I’m taking it on a trip to Michigan Upper Peninsula this summer with it.
    The only maintenance is windshield washer fluid. I had to buy tires too, but that’s it.
    Not a long-range model, so after commuting 80 miles, I still have 100 miles when I get home and plug-in, takes only a few seconds. Fully charged before bed time.
    Every morning when I leave I have a full “tank” so I never have to stop to or from work to fuel up. Nicer to warm up the car in the garage in the winter with all the doors closed too.
    I’m a mechanic for a living. I know a little about automobiles. Sure I like to wrench, on other people’s cars. Keep buying those obsolete gas cars. I may add an addition to my house. I bought an EV so I don’t have to do anything to it, and I don’t.
    * When’s your next oil change? What’s that ticking noise?

    • What’s that smell? Where the EV owner’s last thoughts were as the house was filled with smoke as it was burning down due to the lithium battery fire on the charger. Even E-bikes have the lithium battery fire issues. In NYC with over 250 E-bike fires in the night have brought death and destruction in 2023. Of course wondering minds wonder if EV have to have the fires but Fake News doesn’t report on it.

    • I’m not compelled by roadkill’s story here. He doesn’t even tell us the kind of EV he allegedly owns. Seems like an EV “influencer” to me. To add further compelling evidence, he, of course is mechanic for a living, but despite having expert knowledge of repairing ICE cars, he finds his EV to be so much better. Nah, I ain’t buyin’ it.

      Also, imagine having a choice of a two cars, one an EV and one an ICE car. Both of them cost $28k, are 4 years old and have 70,000 miles. Which one would you rather have right now? Clearly the ICE car as it likely has at least another 70,000 left of life (probably more like 130k). What’s that EV going to be like in another 30,000 miles?

      Also, I suspect the vast majority of ICE cars have very little maintenance needed at 70k miles as well. Also, there’s literally a franchise called Take 5 oil changes which claims to take only ten minutes (not sure why it’s “Take 5” then -maybe quarts?). There are also services that come to you to change your oil. I have a friend who just bought a Tesla Model 3. He said he feels so liberated from having to go to a gas station once every ten days to fill up. Give me a break.

      • Me either, Mister –

        I doubt he’s a mechanic. He doesn’t sound old enough to be working as one. And if he were one, he’d know better about EVs and would never have posted what he did, because it makes him look silly. Because it’s so uninformed. I have two good friends (one of them, Graves, posts here regularly) who are professional mechanics; they’d never say anything as silly as this roadkill person/bot/influencer did. You can legitimately tout the immediate torque/quickness and quietness of an EV. But the rest is just rationalizing deficits. And ignoring the mandates, regs. and subsidies.

        And – yep – in re the absurdity of “feeling liberated” from having to stop once a week or so for a five minute fill-up. After which you need not think about fueling for a week or so. As opposed to constantly thinking about and planning around charging. I can speak to this with some authority as a guy who has personally test driven dozens of these devices. The pain in the ass is almost unbelievable. But maybe not for a city soy boy who drives his device less than 10 miles there and back and plugs in at home every night. A soy boy with the green to preen, too.

      • I have a friend who just bought a Tesla Model 3. He said he feels so liberated from having to go to a gas station once every ten days to fill up.

        Post-purchase rationalisation is a helluva drug.

    • Hi Road,

      “Obsolete” gas cars? Hilarious!

      It’s EVs that were judged obsolete – by the market – 100 years ago. Because they were functionally inferior to the gas-engined cars of that era. The only reason this obsolete technology is back is because the market has been replaced by the government. Fact. Take away the regs and the mandates – and EVs go away. Inarguable.

      So – what does that say about EVs?

      Do you really, seriously think that a battery powered device that costs 30 percent more (on average) than a non-electric equivalent that can only go about half (or less) as far before it runs out of charge, that needs at least five times as long to recover a partial charge (at a “fast” charger) as it takes to fully refuel any gas-powered vehicle the range of which is hardly affected at all by extremes of heat or cold or use of accessories is “better”?

      Are you high? Or just in denial?

      My next oil change? Once a year and $50. How much will it cost to change your device’s battery? How about the tires? These will wear out much faster because of the weight of your device. I won’t even mention the cost of the time you waste waiting – while I’m driving.

      And $28k? I assume that’s after all the subsidies you took advantage of, right? And not counting the ones built into the price of the device.

    • Unlike you I live in Michigan. Good luck on your ECV (external Combustion Vehicle) trip to the UP. Trolls have a tough time with ECV’s above the Bridge.

    • How do these EV people not understand that we don’t hate EVs, necessarily. We hate the coercion used by government to take away our choice in the matter, and worse, using our money to subsidize your EV purchase. It’s a slap in the face.

      It’s good you are happy with your purchase, and are able to get around the pitfalls of such inferior technology. Bully for you.

    • Which EV did you get for 28k? I don’t know of any and didn’t 4 years ago. As to the rest, you are the target demographic. Live in a big city? Travel an 80 mile commute? Have a heated garage with heavy duty wiring? Check, check, and check. Good for you, but be honest with yourself when you try to do a cross country trip in your icar.

      And remember, my 50 year old diesels cost me about 8 cents/ mile to drive and emit life giving carbon and CO2. Your battery has polluted the earth for centuries with very toxic lithium chemistry and uses 3 times the battery rubber vs my VW Caddy or Mercedes 190D.

    • […] when I get home and plug-in, takes only a few seconds. Fully charged before bed time. Every morning when I leave I have a full “tank” so I never have to stop to or from work to fuel up.

      The full “tank” you talk about is only full as a result of hours upon hours of mandatory downtime – for your EV, and for you, since your car is unavailable when it’s charging. The number of hours you spend waiting for your EV to charge well exceeds the time it would have taken you to refuel a real car, indeed the average per-mile downtime for your car has skyrocketed after your switch to EVs. To add insult to injury, your EV has an abysmal range.

      So much for “obsolete gas cars”, when your feeble EV can’t even compete with them on the basic stuff.

      But I suppose you’ve got plenty of practice with the charger plug, so much so that you’re actually taking the time to tell us how quickly you plug it in…

      • Hi Stufu,

        I strongly suspect “roadkill” is an AI bot. Its comments make no sense. And its appeal to authority – “I’m a mechanic” – doesn’t hold water.

        • Yes, that’s likely. Then again, don’t more or less all EV “advocates” sound like bots these days? They usually parrot slight variations of the same boilerplate.

  7. Actually the honest description of the EV is, anti freedom. To get a crystal clear picture of that is to show a ball and chain on a person’s ankle. The EV is the catalyst to slavery. No more hassle free impulsive weekend trips driving off for a few nights to someplace fun after work on Friday. That is the life for us little people with an EV. While the limousine liberals jump in their private jets for a weekend to get away. Fact, the internal combustion engine in vehicles has alway been about freedom. And the jet-setters want to take that freedom away from the masses. There is an energy efficient way to solve this anti freedom movement which the French invented, the Guillotine. (Note: that’s a joke for all the humorless liberals, I don’t own a guillotine with no plans to buy one. I’m saving my money to buy an EV)

  8. As compared with what? Keeping using gasoline/petrol/diesel cars until fuel is way too expensive except for ultra-rich too? Synthetic fuels prove you need free energy to make it all work Synthetic fuel is always going to be more expensive because you’re converting electricity energy into fuel energy. Electric cars seem to be the least worst option when there’s no free energy to harvest.

    • You ignore the fact that EV’s need fuel to produce the electricity for EV’s or you ignore the fact that wind and solar are more expensive than hydrocarbons. You are also wrong about synthetic fuels which can easily be made with nuclear energy and will become cheaper and cheaper as nuclear technology is allowed to grow and expand.

  9. “It’s all coming – because it’s all coming to a head.”

    Yes, that is a major understatement. Some day the whole system could implode – that is something I have been expecting every since I read The coming currency collapse and what you can do about it” by Jerome F Smith (available to read free archive dot org).

    Today’s Mood Riffs on “Dumb Money”
    https://www.elliottwave.com/articles/mood-riffs-new-investment-models-what-to-make-of-them-in-2024/

    The electric car bubble is starting to implode – something the readers of this site were expecting. The EV bubble rode the back of the everything bubble and the huge Fed M1 increase during Covidhoax. A bubble onto of a bubble.

    We are seeing limits to this bubble, Clowngress grows tired of funding the failed Jewkraine war. Today, the gay piano player with his dick Zelensky criticized Trump for questioning throwing more money at his failed state. You are to believing funding a genocidal war against the Ukrainians is unpatriotic.

    500,000 White Uke’s dead
    2.3 million wounded
    14 million left the nation (half of the pop.)

    Now that Ukraine is just another bombed out shithole, they want more. More, give us more the fearless leader says.

    Washington Compost – In a CNN interview that aired Monday, Zelensky was asked about Trump declining to say last year whether he was on Ukraine’s or Russia’s side. He repeatedly entertained the idea that Trump might effectively be on Russia’s side.

    “Putin killed all the values which we defend today,” Zelensky said, adding: “That’s why I can’t understand how Donald Trump can be on the side of Putin. So, for me, it’s something unbelievable.”
    ————

    What is unbelievable is the USA would waste money like it has, and install such a loser putz as this coke snorting gay disco pervert and then worship him as some kind of hero. LBGTQ is not a traditional Amerikan value – in fact most people are not for those values – and not for these wars – not for these immoral cutouts like Biden, Zelensky, Olaf, Turdeau, Macroni etc.

    Not supporting Ukraine genocide does not mean one is pro-Russian. It just means we don’t want anything to do with these Jew wars that scumbags like Chuck Schumers start. How many Amerikans would be for this war if they were being sent a monthly bill for it? ZERO!

    This Ukraine hubris is a sign of a major top in the influence of the hegemon – and I expect a major correction or decline as some black swan event or the continuing crisis to bloom into an existential crisis. The EV fad will go down with the Titanic. Amerika is like that western movie train going over the blown out tressel – free floating until impact. Zero G (Fed Money high) sure felt good while it lasted.

  10. Oddly, I considered what I’d consider a reasonable price on one of these trucks. $1,000 is still too high to justify the aggravation of ownership. Perhaps I’ll accept one as a gift if Ford pays me $1,000 a month with concierge service to keep it charged?

    Anybody else figure out what it would take for them?

    • Japan effectively pioneered this regulatory regime decades ago, with its shaken car inspection regime.

      After four years of vehicle use, shaken arbitrarily requires replacing major systems such as brakes and cooling, at a cost that’s not viable.

      As a result, four-year-old Japanese cars are exported to Asia and Africa in vast quantities. That’s why Islamic militants drive Toyota Hilux pickups. We westerners can only drool with envy over their aftermarket, bed-mounted machine guns.

      No surprise that carbon-neutral Europe has now cravenly copied the Japanese, returning the favor from seven decades ago when destroyed Japan desperately copied western technology.

      Europe’s American occupiers smile with approval: our supine pupil shows promise! Hail ‘Biden’, imperator!

  11. Over in Europe, the president of European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), Lightweight Luca (also known as the CEO of Renault), says that “a fossil-fuel car ban in 2035 is feasible if the right conditions are in place” and that European automakers “are not contesting 2035”, referring to the proposed ban on the sale of new ICE-powered cars in Europe from 2035.

    So I don’t think we’re see the end of the electrified road, rather we are seeing the end of established automakers, which will stubbornly cling to their EV pipe dreams even as it causes their demise.

  12. It’s been frustrating over the past 4 years that customers have had such little effect on the supply side.

    For example, it seemed like it didn’t matter how abusive retailers were during what was styled “the pandemic” they’d just continue to abuse us. Arrows on the isles, no mask no service, very limited menus, no cash accepted, etc. The reason for this was the “covid” money that was being handed out like candy. Retailers just didn’t care whether you came in or not. The Sweet Donkey was a great example. They didn’t care if Eric came in or not. They got something like $100k in cash from the government.

    Fast forward a year, the same shit was happening, except prices increased for things like shitty houses and used cars exceeding the price of new ones. The cause of course was the $6.5 trillion that was printed and injected into society at the same time they shut down world-wide production. Not a good combination.

    Here we are 4 years later and we’re finally starting to see a glimmer of power coming back to the consumers to vote with their money (which is quickly dwindling). There’s just not much of that money left over to spend on things like a second home or a third car, which is an electric device. I think this is a big part of the EV decline. Too much money (i.e. not enough money scarcity) puts way too much power in the supplier. The supplier becomes lazy and arrogant. I’m looking forward to when the customer is always right again.

    • RE: “There’s just not much of that money left over to spend on things”

      For some people that’s true, howevah; I read an article a few days ago saying there’s a Huge sum of money in the banks just waiting to be let loose. Ah, here it is:

      ‘Why the Excess “Savings” Ice Cube Is Coming Out of Cold Storage’

      “…Households have told the Fed in so many words that interest rate increases or no, they are sitting pretty on an aberrational $4 trillion cash cushion. They apparently intend, therefore to keep on spending the usual 96% of what they are currently earning, thereby causing the Fed’s vaunted monetary brake to essentially fail.

      [See this graph:]

      Household Checkable Deposits and Currency as a % of GDP, 2000 to 2024″…

      https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/02/david-stockman/why-the-excess-savings-ice-cube-is-coming-out-of-cold-storage/

      …Crazy times.

      Also, too many times as of late, got bad customer service or something was wrong, said, “Can I see the manager, then?”

      “I am the manager” was the replies.

  13. Thanks for the information on old/new Mustangs. https://revologycars.com/

    Now if only someone could do this with Porsche air cooled 911’s at reasonable prices. Prices like under $50,000. I’m sure there are many people would buy these. People who earn $75,000 plus. $75,000 these days isn’t that much as I would guess that would be about the median these days. I might even trade in my 2001 Mustang Cobra SVT with 35,000 miles.

    • A little blood sweat and tears will build your own from a kit, save some money. I’m too weary of my own lack of mechanical skills to take it on. I could see myself digging a hole and having to pay someone $$$ to dig me out.

      Here’s another option from my home town:

      https://brandnewmusclecar.com/

      • Did you see them in the river?
        They were there to wave to you
        Could you tell that the empty-quivered
        Brown skinned Indian on the banks
        That were crowded and narrow
        Held a broken arrow

        — Neil Young, Broken Arrow

  14. ‘Now the gerontocratic ruling elite rule the West – and they’re determined to Sovietize it.’ — eric

    ‘Biden’ is our Brezhnev, comrade:

    ‘[Brezhnev] was loyal to his friends, vain in desiring ceremonial power, and refused to control corruption inside the party. Especially in foreign affairs, Brezhnev increasingly took all major decisions into his own hands, without telling his colleagues in the Politburo.

    ‘Brezhnev’s passion was driving foreign cars given to him by global leaders of state. He usually drove these between his dacha and the Kremlin with flagrant disregard for public safety.

    ‘When visiting the US for a summit with Nixon in 1973, he wanted to drive around Washington in a Lincoln Continental that Nixon had just given him. Upon being told that the Secret Service would not allow it, he said, “I will take the flag off the car, put on dark glasses so they can’t see my eyebrows, and drive like any American would” — to which Henry Kissinger replied “I have driven with you and I don’t think you drive like an American!” — Wikipedia

    Heh heh — Brezhnev’s foibles are all so comical, so colorful … until its our senile scarecrow, lethally re-enacting them. 🙁

  15. ‘People are not buying the lies anymore. Or the devices.’ — eric

    Amen, bro — the jig is up. Se acabó la fiesta, as our hispanic colleagues say: the party’s over, bitchez!

    EeeVee Fever will go down in the annals of Hahhhhhvid Business School as exceeding the New Coke fiasco of 1985 by two orders of magnitude. New Coke, after all, was just an all-American flop — and there was still Pepsi, for drinkers of brown sugar water. But EeeVee Fever went global. Accordingly, its power dive into terrain will be awe inspiring — like watching the entire Mexican air force kamikaze-dive into a Pemex tank farm. KA-POOM! You can see it from space!

    Big Gov has shit the bed with another lost war of epic proportions: the War on Carbon. The choices confronting our imperial overlords are stark: declare surrender; or declare a total lockdown and start starving out the population.

    At least one political candidate — we’ll call him DJT to preserve our non-profit status — has promised to call off the EPA’s red guards and end this festering madness on Day Freaking One. Let it be.

    And I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t
    ‘Cause if I say I miss you I know that you won’t
    But I miss you in the mornings when I see the sun
    Something in the orange tells me we’re not done

    If you leave today, I’ll just stare at the way
    The orange touches all things around
    The grass, trees and dew, how I just hate you
    Please turn those headlights around
    Please turn those headlights around

    — Zach Bryan, Something in the Orange

    • “declare surrender; or declare a total lockdown and start starving out the population.”
      And risk discovery of the purpose of 2A?

    • Hi Jim,
      I wouldn’t be so sure about DJT calling off the administrative state; he says all the right things that people (normal people) want to hear but didn’t do diddly-squat in the four years he had. The only thing he accomplished was the “warp speed” not-a-vaccine. If he pardons Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning then maybe I’ll believe him.

  16. “For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.” –Richard Feynman

    The context was Feynman’s participation in the commission investigating the causes of the Challenger disaster. He was particularly critical of the decision-making process that led to the decision to launch that day, despite warnings from the engineers who knew the system best.

    In the same vein, the decision-making process that leads to eeeveees is purely political and is based on dubious science turned into left wing dogma. It’s a PR stunt. Nature cannot be fooled. Nor can the market.

    • No, nature cannot be fooled, but it can be severely battered, and has been many times, with many casualties. Such comes from men assuming the role of God.

  17. I can’t remember where I read this but the EU was looking to ban what they called major repairs on cars over 15 years old. In other words they would be scrapped when they needed these “major” repairs. Of course “major” repairs included brake jobs.

    Bastards!!!!

    Stock up on some parts now before they pull that sh*t here.

    PS- maybe Dewalt should look into building EVs, at lest they would be reliable and you could always buy a better one on sale at the Home Despot…….

  18. Only our Trabants are so expensive most of us can’t afford what most of us don’t want anyhow.

    For the average Soviet citizen, Trabants were extremely expensive.

  19. As a child of the 80s, knowing all about the Soviet Union, it is depressing to know we now are the Soviet Union, with all its accoutrements. And all we get are octogenarian perverts and narcissists. Sad that I look at Russia and wish we had some of that.

    • Same. The fall of the Wall is still one of the greatest things I’ve ever witnessed. We really took for granted how quickly freedom took hold. It’s the thing that still gives me hope – things can change, both directions, in a hurry.

    • Age 25 single again with any good trade and learned their language/ alphabet—I’d ponder Russian relocation. Putin recently offered prime land to harassed White South African farmers. Such a vast rich country—8 time zones.
      Beautiful women!

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