What We’re About to Lose

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When you can walk, it’s easy to take for granted being able to. But when you no longer can, even walking the handful of yards down to the mailbox and back might as well be a transcontinental trek.

We have taken much for granted with regard to driving – including the ease of being able to do it again and whenever we like.

Whenever we need to. Even if we did not plan for it ahead of time.

This was brought home to me the other day when I realized I’d forgotten to gas up the ’23 Dodge Challenger Black Ghost before I parked it for the night the evening prior. There was not enough gas left in its tank to make it very far, particularly given the appetite of the 807 horsepower supercharged V8 engine under the hood.

But, no problem – as I had gas in the shed.


In a jiffy – that is, less than five minutes – I poured five gallons of liquid energy into the Challenger. Enough liquid energy to get even this car – with its very hungry supercharged V8 engine – about 100 miles down the road. If it had been just about any other car – one with say half the appetite of the Black Ghost – those five gallons of liquid energy would have been enough to impart almost as much range as the typical EV has when fully charged.

Remarkable.

Particularly when contrasted with how a similar situation would elaborate with an energy hog EV I’d run close to “empty” – and forgotten to plug in overnight. How long does it take to “pour” the electrical energy equivalent of five gallons of gasoline into an EV at home?

At least a few hours.

That’s best-case, using what is styled a “Level II” charging apparatus. All that means is you’ve had an electrician come out to your place and paid him to wire up a dedicated 240 volt circuit to “double up” the power that can be transmitted to your appliance via a standard 115-120V household outlet. This reduces the time it takes to fully recharge the typical high-voltage battery-powered appliance to 8-11 hours rather than twice as long as that on the standard household outlet.

Assuming you have a house.

If not, you will have to use a public charger. But that requires enough range to make it there – as well as the time to wait there.

What if you haven’t got either?

An interesting thing – one of them – about this EV business is the unspoken presumption of being able to recharge it at home. This assumes the EV owner is a homeowner. Probably because it is assumed that anyone who can afford to spend the $50,000-plus the typical EV sells for already owns a home. And also that he earns enough money to pay enough in taxes to be eligible for the “tax credit” that helps reduce the cost-to-buy of the $50,000-plus Elitist Vehicle.

But what about those who live in an apartment – because they’re not yet able to afford to buy a home? (And who pay full price for the EV – assuming they’re able – because they didn’t earn enough to qualify for the “tax credit” their more affluent, home-owning EV owners used the government to help them pay for?)   

They generally park on the street – or in a parking lot outside the building – where there isn’t even a “Level 1” (that is, household 115/120V) outlet to plug into overnight. There may be some “Level II” or even “Level III” so-called “fast” chargers sprinkled around. But not a sufficiency for everyone to plug in at the same time.

Or probably even a fourth of them.

The rest will have to wait their turn.

Given that each “turn” takes at least 15-30 minutes – at the “Level III” charger – that wait could take hours. As opposed to the less than five minutes it took me to pour five gallons of gas – and 100 miles of range – from a jug into the Challenger.

It’s more than just that, too.

What if the power is out at home? Then you won’t be able to charge at home – even if you do own one. Which means that if you need to get somewhere – or get away from there – you won’t be able to. But it’s no problem to get going – even when the power’s out – if you have a jug of gas out in the shed, as I did.

And don’t have an EV.

Even if the jug’s empty. Because it’s easy enough to fill it. All you need is a friend who’ll drive you down the road to the gas station.

Assuming, of course, your friend doesn’t drive an EV.

. . .

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123 COMMENTS

  1. Part of the problem is the education system. True “science” is not taught in today’s “public (indoctrination) schools”.

    Those of us who received a 1950s or early 1960s education dealt with hazardous substances in science classes, experimented on our own and were able see the results of our experimentation. “Chemistry sets” of the era had hazardous and toxic substances within them that would not be allowed in today’s “safety” environment.

    Today’s public (indoctrination) schools are more interested in sexualizing five-year-olds and pushing (grooming) LGBTQXYZ+ “lifestyles on impressionable young children, “equity” (despite “equity” being aimed at those with limited brainpower), CRT and other discredited systems.

    That being said…

    Electric vehicles in their present state are “not ready for prime time” and are being “pushed” on an unsuspecting, largely ignorant, gullible public by insane government edict.

    From a scientific and technical standpoint, today’s electric vehicles are “playthings for the rich”.

    From a political standpoint, the elites HATE the masses as the “elites” HATE the fact that today’s ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles allow the masses (us) to go where they (we) want, when they (we) want at any time with few, if little restrictions. Unrestricted mobility for the masses is something that the elites HATE. It’s about CONTROL. It’s ALWAYS about CONTROL.

    Let’s look at the technical side of electric vehicles vs. ICE vehicles. Range is a large factor in the desirability of ICE vehicles vs. today’s electric vehicles. One can fuel up an ICE vehicle in approximately five minutes and be on his way.

    Not so for electric vehicles. Quite often electric vehicle charging stations are few and far between, which contributes to “range anxiety”. The situation will improve as time goes on, but in today’s world, electric vehicles are impractical. For short hops and city driving, electric vehicles can be an ideal solution, but for extended “road trips” forget it.

    Electric vehicle batteries lose power even when the vehicle is not in use. Add to that, cold weather and the use of accessories (air conditioning, lights, etc) will reduce range considerably. Electric vehicles may be somewhat suitable for a California climate, but will fail in sub-zero Michigan winter snow and ice.

    Batteries can be charged only to 80% of full capacity as overcharging will reduce battery life considerably. “Fast charging” is also detrimental to battery life. It’s all about time and convenience vs. battery life.

    Gasoline and diesel fuel has an large energy content (density) in a small package, something that, in their present stages of development, electrical vehicles cannot achieve.

    Let’s make a comparison…gasoline contains approximately 33.7 kwh per gallon. A gallon of gasoline weighs approximately 6.1 lbs. The typical ICE vehicle can hold about 15 gallons of gasoline with a weight of approximately 90 lbs. total, with a total energy content of approximately 500 kwh.

    Keep in mind that high-end electric vehicles have an energy capacity of approximately 120 kwh. This is equal to less than four gallons of gasoline. The typical electric vehicle has a 75 kwh battery pack, equivalent to approximately 2 ½ gallons of gasoline.

    Keep in mind that the battery pack weight is well over 2000 lbs (1 ton) and still has a limited energy capacity compared to gasoline. The typical electric vehicles weighs approximately 2 ½ tons (5000 lbs.), having to haul around a heavy battery pack. This also contributes to “wear and tear” on other automotive systems such as brakes and tires. (Yes, I am aware that regenerative braking exists and is a part of electric vehicle technology).

    From an environmental standpoint, lithium is nasty stuff, reacts with water violently and is much more volatile than gasoline. Electric vehicle accidents are much more hazardous than those of ICE vehicles. Water cannot be used to put out a lithium battery pack fire.

    Yes, gasoline is dangerous, but we have learned to control it and live with it for over 100 years successfully.

    Oil, being abiotic, and NOT a “fossil fuel” is a renewable resource, constantly being created by yet-unknown process within the earth.

    There may come a time with battery technology “breakthroughs” but just not now.

    Governments should never “push” unproven technologies.

  2. We were at a cabin at Tahoe this past weekend. Everything was tied to the internet. Just to turn on the tv required an instruction sheet. Something went wrong and we lost the connection all weekend. Cell service was spotty too so no emails, tv, internet browsers, no music since it was internet based. We laughed and remembered our old tv that was not connected to the internet. Just electricity an on button and channel switches, no one needed instructions to operate a TV. We still had fun but it reminded us that things are not necessarily better or easier to operate these days. And everything is fine until it breaks. Then you’re reliving 1960 style again.

    • New cars are getting huge horsepower but are very heavy….they are getting almost unusable…this car is the solution…

  3. I don’t mind the banter about what will happen “down the road”, so to speak, but given the current rate of pure insanity I don’t think we’ll have to worry too much about it. Things will be drastically different before we get there if we do at all. Yeah, I am quite pessimistic regarding our future.

    • Today it’s confirmed that a Bolshevik-style scorched-earth campaign is underway, to ‘get Trump’ no matter the consequences, by filing multiple federal indictments in multiple jurisdictions.

      Even feckless RINO figures such as K-Mac the Kalifornicator have begun dimly to perceive this. But the hour is late.

      This is a prosecutorial coup d’etat. Like his namesake Lavrentiy Beria, Merrick Beria Garland is prepared to steamroll his putsch to the bitter end, though the mountains fall, the skies darken, and the streets fill knee-deep with blood.

      Fanatical ‘Garland’ is playing for all the marbles, as mainstream Republiclowns begin to low anxiously like cattle being herded into the abattoir. They are a day late and a dollar short.

      Democracy is OVER, when the R-party’s leading presidential candidate may be obliged to campaign from a prison cell. This is Third World shit. One need not approve of Trump, and his manifold faults, to realize that the pretense of ‘rule of law’ ended today.

      • Hi Jim,

        We are no better than any other of the 194 corrupted countries. We are letting this happen. When citizens sit with their hands in their pockets and their eyes closed we cannot be surprised that the villains’ will be villainous.

        When will the rose colored glasses be removed? When Newsome wins the Presidency? In the next decade I expect a mass exodus from the United States (either from death or migration).

        Take a look at our open borders, the puppeteering of our “President”, the uptick in crime faced with no repercussions. It is a good time to be bad. I think if we are waiting for the Rapture we are surely going to be disappointed.

        • Sadly, RG, I think Americans suffer from an “it can’t happen here” mentality. Therefore, they are not going to fight back against a threat they believe will never arrive. Meanwhile, Christians and the church don’t fight back because they think they will be raptured before they have to suffer anything. Never mind their brothers and sisters all over the world have bee suffering for years. What makes them think they are so special? The combination makes for a deadly one. I read on other comment forums how Americans are the most well armed in the world. Well, three years of lock downs showed they did not fight for much of anything. When will the rose colored glasses come off? Maybe when the east and west coast lines get nuked. Maybe when Americans start getting hauled off to FEMA camps at gun point. I don’t know. But hey you can easily look up and see what FEMA region you are in and where your state CDC quarantine facility is. Google does not even try to hide the information.

          • Hi Shadow,

            I don’t think most Americans even realize a threat exists or that it is even here. Most people pay very little attention to current events, politics, finances, etc. I don’t know if it is apathy, ignorance, or a bit of both. It is dangerous though because (with the exception of the plandemic) it happens in small doses. A little less freedom here, a little less freedom there until one really does wake up and realize they have no rights and their life has become the equivalent of a jail cell.

            • It is that “frog boiling slowly in hot water” phenomenon. Those American who are clueless are the frogs. But they just think they are sitting in a hot tub at a great party. Not knowing they are getting boiled for a side dish for the elite.

      • Merrick “Lavrenty Beria” Garfinkle is a jew. Normally, this would not raise hackles but he is doing EXACTLY what his forbears–the jewish bolsheviks did to Russia with the bolshevik revolution of 1917.
        In Ukraine, these same jewish bolsheviks have been closing down Christian Churches, the same thing that their forbears did in 1917 Russia.
        In fact, in both cases, it is a CRIME to point out the inconsistencies and outright fraud of the so-called “holocaust”, calling “anti-semitism” a CRIME (although eastern European and American jews are not “semites”..
        Merrick “Lavrenty Beria” Garfinkle is dong the same thing here in the USA by investigating traditional Catholics and threatening those who speak out at school board meetings.
        There is only ONE real solution…

  4. With respect to apartment dwellers:

    It sounds like the plan is for apartment dwellers to NOT own EVs—they’ll summon an electric Uber if they’re lucky. Otherwise, they’ll take the bus, subway, or trolley, or just ride a bike or walk…just like people in Moscow or Beijing do. The better to control you with, my dears!

  5. Here’s a bit of a bombshell article and video. It seems that gubmint is nudging car manufactures into NOT making smaller cars and trucks. Under the current and future standards, small cars and trucks (those with a small footprint) are heavily saddled with almost impossible mpg requirements. If this is true, I suspect it’s a result of a classic bootleggers and Baptists coalition where the crony manufacturers (bootleggers) want to keep low cost (and low profit) vehicles from the market and the green psychopaths (Baptists) want to destroy the ICE vehicle.

    https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cars/features/why-are-modern-vehicles-so-much-bigger-44501947

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azI3nqrHEXM

    • Thank you, Mister Liberty. From the article:

      ‘Starting in 2011, the U.S. government revised CAFE standards to incorporate a vehicle’s size based on its wheelbase and track width. Requirements were set up such that a vehicle with a larger footprint has a lower fuel economy requirement than a vehicle with a smaller footprint. This basically spelled the end of traditional economy cars on the market.’

      It spelled the end of compact trucks, too.

      Check out the two charts in this article, which explicitly punish small vehicles with stricter mileage standards. AND, drastically raise mileage standards across the board, in increments, for 2024, 2025, and 2026.

      It probably explains why the 2023 Black Ghost won’t pass this way again … and many other things besides.

      There’s been a slaughter here, of common sense and liberty: insanity’s horse adorns the sky, as ol’ Jim Morrison used to say. The US fedgov has turned feral.

      • By the CAFE ‘footprint’ standards, no motorcycle could ever meet any fuel economy rating. It just proves that it is all made up bullshit to control people and transportation through meaningless ‘quantitative’ standards that have no real value.

      • It makes me wonder why there isn’t a national discussion on the fact that the EPA has virtually outlawed smaller cars and trucks that would be more fuel efficient (less size and weight = greater fuel economy) and less wasteful (ok, I’ll say it, and which emit less co2).

        I wonder if a certain automotive journalist might consider an article on this with an eye-grabbing headline (something like “EPA Causes Larger, Less-Fuel Efficient Vehicles While Claiming More Fuel Efficient Needed”). Maybe Revolver.news and/or LewRockwell.com might pick it up.

        This is one of those regulations that is totally at odds with the government agency’s stated purpose.

        • Hi ML,

          It makes sense if the overall premise is to keep the average American from driving, which it is. Transportation by automobile will soon become like commercial flying. It will be expensive, rushed, uncomfortable, and an all around dismal experience…unless you own your own plane (or car).

          Trucks and SUVS are approaching six figures. Are they smaller? Lighter? More fuel efficient? Nope. They aren’t meant to be. Only Greta (and a few goofy liberals) believes it is about the environment. It is to keep the rest of us peons off the road.

          CAFE standards? Ha! Today’s Chevy Suburban gets roughly the same 15 mpg that it did 20 years ago. Electric cars are even heavier which puts more pressure on our roadways causing asphalt/concrete to be repaired more frequently as an additional burden to US taxpayers.

          The WEF/government has already told us the quiet part out loud “You will own nothing and be happy.” I think the last part has been omitted intentionally. We will own nothing and THEY will be happy.

          • Aren’t the bigger vehicles the fault of the buying public? I know everyone here would like to drive tiny, fuel efficient, little buggies, but the market has been asking for monster pick-ups, and 800hp hot rods, with every car a station wagon (SUV). The automakers build what people want to buy (until now it seems) and that was bigger cars. If gas is cheap, and it was, people wanted big vehicles.

            Now the problem is there are not enough Chevette’s and Geo’s out there?

            • With a median income of $53,924 this is not going to buy a bigger vehicle or a lot of horsepower. People drive smaller cars because they are affordable. Are there people who enjoy small buses? Absolutely and they should be able to buy what they like (and can afford).

              But, the car manufacturers are not here to appease Joe and Ethel Smith. They are here to lay out the red carpet treatment to their biggest buyers – the federal government and large corporations. Joe and Ethel may buy a car once every 5-7 years. Ford, GM, and Stellantis are not designing a car thinking about Joe and Ethel.

              Who buys the majority of big SUVS? The federal government who purchased 645K of them with our money.
              Okay, they aren’t all big SUVs, but a lot of them are. Fun fact: Major Pete just lets the public believes he bicycles everywhere. He really doesn’t.

              The manufacturers cater to the wealthy. They make what will sell. Since the government is using our money they don’t care what the price is and the manufacturers are happy to oblige. This puts Joe and Ethel with very little choice on what to buy and a load of debt to show for it.

          • It’s hilarious- Prohibiting the manufacture of smaller lighter vehicles, while subsidizing the production of very heavy EVs…. How could there be a public discussion about such, when to do so would illustrate the fact that it’s NOT about fuel efficiency or emissions or ‘climate’, etc.- but rather about conbtrol and destruction?

            Apparently the masses aren’t sufficiently intelligent to realize that promoting heavier vehicles in the name of ‘being green’ is illogical….so mum’s-the-word, lest they find out they’re being played. That is just the latest fairy-tale in the series, which also includes ones like: Having your dick X-rayed at the airport will prevent ‘terrorism’, and “Just get out and vote- it doesn’t matter for whom- just vote” (At least they’re somewhat hones about that- it doesn’t matter for who…. They just want you to participate so that you’ll buy into the illusion that you have a say, and so you’ll be willing to accept whatever they throw at you, since if you participate in ‘democracy’ you must abide by the results of the democratic process’)

        • Didn’t some guy back in the 70’s invent a device that enabled all vehicles to get a purported 50-60 mile an hour gas mileage, only to have the technology get buried by the oil companies? Maybe someone can correct and enlighten me on this one, as I am going off of memory. Seems to me the technology is out there, they are just jerking us around in an attempt to enslave all of us.

          • Hi Shadow,

            I remember reading about the “100 MPG carburetor” as a kid. It was supposedly suppressed by the oil companies. What I am sure of is that 50 mile-per-gallon cars existed as recently as the late 1990s; the Geo Metro is an example. Light weight is the key to high gas mileage – and cars like the Metro (and Honda Civic CRX) were very light. If you could build a DOT legal 1,600 pound car – one with no air bags that did not have to meet federal saaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety standards – it would no doubt be possible to achieve 60-70 MPG without using hybrid tech.

            • Eric, have you heard about the new “one stroke” “INNengine” (which is really 2 stroke)? It’s supposed to have a very high power/weight ratio, sort of like a rotary engine but different. It sounds promising, even though the literature I read about it now makes it seem like it will only be used as a “range extender” for EVs (which is moronic, of course; why not just use the engine to power the vehicle directly?) at first

            • Aaah yes, I had a 2003 (?) Geo Metro. Front wheel drive, so it was a bit sqirrley in the Winter. 3x cylinder so it got great gas mileage but liked to joke that my old snow machine could probably out run that thing. Even still, it was a reliable car although I would have been toast in an accident had anyone plowed into me. It was rumored to have had a Toyota engine in it. If that was the case it explains how I could put the nearly 140k on it. And standard trans, of course. To say that they just don’t make vehicles like that anymore is an understatement. And on a humorous note I got my first speeding ticket in that thing…pushing 70 in a 55 on the highway. I think I was testing the engine’s limits that day, haha.

            • Hi Roland,

              I’ve meant for years to play around with some of my junk carbs and see what I could come up with. I expect it’s possible to get an engine to idle on very little fuel; I heard about some guy who used a Briggs & Stratton mower carb on a Ford V8 (IIRC). But would it run?

              Or rather, would the car?

            • A carburetor is a just a device that vaporizes fuel by mixing it with air and delivers it to an intake manifold. No matter what you do to it, a given engine needs a given volume of fuel mixture to give a desired performance.

    • I have seen the same in articles and videos as well. What an ignorant ‘standard’ that actually results in having the opposite effect, larger vehicles taking up more space, production materials, and fuel to move any given distance. Bureaucrats are mostly morons that really don’t give a crap what harm and chaos their ‘dictates’ create, provided they meet their goal of having ‘taken action’. Maybe we should apply the same ‘standards’ to BMI.

  6. This Zero Hedge headline grabbed my attention:

    “We Will Bring You Down”: German MP Vows To Dismantle WHO’s Grip On Governments

    German MP Christine Anderson last week shredded the World Health Organization, calling it a group of “globalitarian misanthropists” who she – and a group of seven other MPs, have vowed to dismantle in order to oppose the WHO supplanting democratically elected governments.

    “An unelected body like who is controlled and run by multi-billionaires should never be allowed to act in place of a democratically elected government,” she said during the Citizen’s Initiative conference in Brussels.

    Anderson says she’ll expose and name any individuals, including government officials and parliamentarians, who support the WHO ‘power grab’ and disrespect democracy.

    “It is you [WHO] that is the small fringe minority,” she continued. “You are the ones who do not have the right to dictate to the people what they want and what they don’t want.”

    “So take it from me … take it from the millions and millions of people around the world. We will bring you down, and we will not tire until we have done just that. So brace yourselves. We are here, and the fight is on. So let’s have the fight.”

    ——————-

    Eric, is of course, right – we are losing every freedom. But you can count on the EU bureaucrats to jealously guard their new fiefdom. The EU was formed recently, a suprastate over the Euro PEONS. So they are feisty to keep their power.

    Simplified in redneck talk, you can count on Parasite A to ward off Parasite B. Now it is a contest who can get more power over us. LOLROFL

    Europe is like a dead carcass on the Africa savannah. First the buzzards spot it, swoop down and peck out the eyeballs, but then the hyenas show up, and want a piece of the action. The EU are the buzzards and WHO are the hyenas.

    But then comes the lion pride, UK and USA, they want to feast also, so they chase off the first two carrion feeders. The UK and USA are literally sacrificing Ukraine and now Poland to keep their hegemony and topple Russia.

    The EU parliament led by High Cuntess Ursula von der Leyen is not giving the $300 billion stolen from Russia oil trading accounts back to Russia, AND THEY SURE AS HELL ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE A PENNY TO UKRAINE and that gay demon Ziolensky, they are going to keep that chuck of stolen loot to bail out their failed socialist states.

    They already threw Ukraine under the bus, and now it is a bombed out shithole.

    Here is a live feed of the EU taking a lunch break:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEX0_Wn4mxY

  7. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone and then the lights go out. No TV, no cell phones, no computers, no heat or AC, no water from the faucet, toilets don’t flush, gas stations got no gas, grocery stores got no food and you just ate your last can of spam. But the chumps will be proud that their sacrifice saved the planet. Buckle up, when things can’t continue, they don’t.

    • The Flux Capacitor, the miracle free energy device, is just like fusion, any day now, we will have unlimited free energy. But it never comes, because we are being led along by clever advertizing.

      Follow Elon to Mars and beyond says Buzz Lightyear. Tesla model X? has gull wing doors like the DeLorean. And a cool space age logo to boot. Elon put a Tesla in space, ’cause Tesla is the future, like space travel, Mars, and beyond, like Star Trek, which is all BULLSHIT as humans are confined to earth in a thin biosphere.

      Humans in space sells, but was it true, is it actually possible? The moon landing was the biggest of hoaxes, see this, the LEM was a paper mache:

      NASA FAKE Lunar Moon Lander EXPOSING THIS UTTER BULLSHIT
      https://www.bitchute.com/video/yKWmT9i3C279/

      I bet you all don’t know that the 911 event was encoded in that movie series:

      Back To The Future Predicts 9/11
      https://www.bitchute.com/video/AfKcJ18FPLK9/

      Both expose’s are a must watch, and watch them again and again and again until you realize how bad they are working us over.

      • 1969 I was in the second grade, and they were telling us that by the year 2000 we’d be living in colonies on the Moon and driving flying cars. I laughed, even at that age. Well here we are- 2000 has come and is now a distant memory, and what do we have? They want us to eat bugs; The infrastructure they have created here on earth where nothing special is even needed to sustain life is falling apart, despite them having looted the wealth of everyone in the world- and instead of flying cars we have cars that can’t even drive on the ground for 300 miles without requiring a lengthy recharge.

        But how many people bought into that future of technological marvels, which would solve all problems (Many which did not even exist at that time) because they saw some images on the TV in 1969 of men “walking on the Moon”.

  8. If you were wondering why Exxon Mobil was letting the oil business go to hell, check this BS out. The government is handling billions out to companies so they can “capture CO2” and hide it underground or use it somehow. Sounds like a scam to me. This must be how they aim to buy off the oil industry.

    ExxonMobil Buys Pipeline Company with Carbon Capture Expertise for $5B

    https://www.ien.com/operations/news/22867372/exxonmobil-buys-pipeline-company-with-carbon-capture-expertise-for-5b?__lt-lid=64b175b844365384897c8a41&__lt-usr=1916A2559589J7U&utm_source=IMCD230708006&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=07142023&utm_term=IMCD230708006&oly_enc_id=1916A2559589J7U

    • Here’s Cashy virtue signaling that he’s somehow down with the libertarian/free market struggle.

      Hey Cashy, if you don’t like it, why are you just bitching about it and not protesting, lobbying Congress or starting a revolution? The government is just doing the “people’s” business after all. Come on buddy, hit the streets already.

  9. https://tinyurl.com/2hak8f27

    According to New Hampshire Public Radio, climate change has gotten so bad that it’s flooding in the unlikeliest of places:

    “Some New Hampshire farms located on the flood plains of the Connecticut River and its tributaries were submerged under multiple feet of water, which led to widespread crop loss.”

    Horrors! And multiple bales of hay lost:

    “Kristen Gowen, owner of Tamarack Farm in Acworth, grows hay on the banks of the Cold River. She estimates that the floods destroyed about half of her crop. The water swept up a few of her recently-harvested hay bales, which each weigh around 1,200 pounds.”

    Imagine how many people will starve after a dozen acres flooded for this big operator:

    “Janiszyn said that about 12 to 15 acres of his farmland were underwater, which he estimates will lead to a crop loss of up to 20%. He was ‘shocked’ by the severity of the flood, saying that previous hurricanes had not hurt his fields as much as this week’s flooding did.”

    Oh, the humanity! But even if your deluge was only two inches, you should be very afraid, since, well, other places did flood:

    “Farmers more inland and on higher ground generally avoided flooding. Only two inches of rain fell at Picadilly Farm in Winchester, according [sic] owner Bruce Wooster. Seeing the damage his fellow farmers are dealing with, however, left him discouraged about the future of the profession in the face of climate change, he said.”

    “’As a farmer, I kind of feel a sense of foreboding,’ he said.”

    • Breaking news out of Florida. It’s freaking hot! In July! If we don’t start to make immediate progress toward reducing carbon emissions, the planet could be doomed to endure hot summers for the foreseeable future. I suggest that, in order to have the greatest immediate impact, we replace all gasoline powered vehicles with electric vehicles powered from coal and oil fired power plants. Second step would be to eliminate all life from earth. Gradually, maybe start with the cows. Living beings emit C02, which is obviously the greatest danger that has ever plagued our planet. Only when all traces of this noxious gas have been removed can earth achieve its most glorious state, that of being a large rock floating pointlessly through space for eternity. Approximately 1 percent of humanity, those known as the “elites”, will be allowed to relocate to Mars, courtesy of Elon Musk.

      • Hi Floriduh,

        It’s been unseasonably cool here in SW Virginia all “summer” long. Only a few days in the (low) 90s. Often slightly chilly at night. I still worry the sea will rise and inundate our place up here in the mountains… sarcasm off!

        • Hi Eric
          Just returned from my annual summer trip to NOVA. Had to cut it short because I wound up breaking my ankle. Anyway, weather up there was gorgeous, not too hot, not too cool, although cooler than it’s supposed to be. Unfortunately you couldn’t enjoy it most of the time because of the air quality from the Canada fires. You could barely breathe, and some days you could actually see the smoke hanging in the air. Hopefully it didn’t get all the way down to your neck of the woods.

        • Unseasonably cool here in southern KY all summer too! The last three summers have been very cool- with this one being the coolest, to the point where I believe it will go down as the coolest summer for this area of all time (Well…not after NOAA/NWS gets done “adjusting” the data….).

          • Hiya, Nunz!

            Yup; same here – and I’m expecting a colder-than-usual winter for just that reason. Thank the Motor Gods that we’ve got plenty of wood!

            • Hi Ya, Eric!
              I’d say we could probably use some ‘global warming’, or maybe just a good ol’ heatwave (Remember those? What ever happened to them? Seems they disappeared right around the time ‘global warming’ came on the scene- same way the common flu disappeared when “COVID” showed up…funny how that works, eh? 😉

      • Hi Floriduh,

        So far in Oregon, it’s been a typical summer, but the state is run by morons who are all in with the climate change agenda, and will likely try to frighten Oregonians into giving up any gas stoves or gas vehicles they have to “Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave the planet” by claiming it’s NEVER been hotter, even though summers in Oregon typically get hot. However, I’m not aware of any politicians or corporations looking to SEIZE farmland for installing “Carbon capture” pipelines underground like what we’re seeing in South Dakota.

        And the media is predictably running a HEAVY propaganda campaign about a “Climate crisis” in the same manner they ran a HEAVY propaganda campaign about the ‘Rona and the mRNA COVID jabs. Shockingly though, they’re not pushing consumption of bugs and frankenfood, giving the psychopathic elite more money & power, driving an EV, or living in an apartment as the “cure”.

    • The damn flood plain of a river is an unlikely place for a flood? One just might suspect “not so much” since it’s called a FLOOD PLAIN.

  10. I think that as they ratchet up their agenda, people will catch on and a huge resistance will form. People love cars and those who try to take them away will not get elected.

    This is especially true because the IPCC emails were released back in 2009, showing collusion and data manipulation, and since then the whole CO2 climate science has been exposed as a massive fraud. So the manipulators no longer hold the intellectual high ground, but they do still control the lying MSM media, and thus most people still don’t know it’s a scam.

    Gasoline is like free energy, when you think how far you can go on a mere 5 gallons of it. Imagine having to walk 100 miles – that would take days – but with 5 gallons and 700 horsepower you can get there in less than 2 hours.

    I did a hypermile test in my old Geo Metro a few weeks ago, I drove slow in 5th gear never exceeding 45 mph. Most of the time I was in the 30-40 mph range, turned the key off on the top of the grade and coasted, always feathered the throttle, just to see how many miles per gallon was theoretically possible. The results were shocking. I greatly exceeded my expectations, and this chart:

    https://metrompg.com/posts/photos/mpg-vs-speed-chart-z.gif

    I drove 52 miles with 0.615 gallons. Which means if gas was expensive or hard to get, 5 gallons could get me a long way, 422 miles, if the test was accurate, which I believe it is.

    The car is stock and kept to factory spec. No aerodynamic mods, because if you drive less than 40 then that is not a big factor. But I do have 8 ply 12″ tires inflated to 52 psi which allows the car to roll easily. And it does, you can push it with one finger on the flat. The other mod, which is a change from last year when I did the hypermile test and averages 74 mpg, on the same route, was I had removed the catalytic converter and slightly modified the exhaust for free flow.

    I reasoned that a piston engine is essentially an air pump, like a compressor, and making the air flow in and out easily improves the efficiency.

    Of course, any big V-8 getting around 20 mpg is amazing in itself. Every V-8 truck I owned got around 8-13 mpg tops.

    What I would like to see are ICE cars built for fuel economy and not horsepower. The Geo Metro is rated at 55 hp, and the XFI model 49 hp. And when you hypermile you only use a fraction of that, always keeping the rpm around 2,000 or lower.

    • **”I think that as they ratchet up their agenda, people will catch on and a huge resistance will form. “**

      I’m still waiting for people to catch-on to the previous scams- like income tax….but it’s been over 100 years and that 1% tax on “the rich” has become a 50% tax on everyone, and has become so normalized that few even question it.

      They start off slowly; make it seem desirable; Show creti..err…celebs reveling in it; promote it in the schools from the time you’re tyke….before you know it, it just seems ‘normal’- as if it’s the way it’s always been, and those who don’t do it are seen as weird, stupid or criminal.

      To think at this point now that people will suddenly wake up….now, when half the people currently alive have known nothing but the security-state and 24/7 “connectedness”, is more far-fetched than a Q-anon prognostication……

      • Hi Ninz,
        Sadly I have to agree, 1913 is when it all went to shit; the Fed, the income tax, and lying Wilson getting the US into WWI. Hasn’t been a war since that the USSA wasn’t involved in, assuming it didn’t start it in the first place. Growing up in the 50’s-60’s and now looking back we had orders of magnitude more freedom than today’s youth, who are in the matrix from birth.

        • You left out the 17th amendment. After which the election of Senators was taken away from State legislatures, and handed to “the people”. Making the Senate just a smaller version of the House.

          • Yep, there is no way a State legislature would pick (WA) Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and leave them in position all these years. Yet here we are, decades later with these morons thanks to the population centers of libs in the areas around Puget Sound. Literal shoe ins each election.

            At the state level you can thank Reynolds v. Sims 1964 Supreme Court for screwing up your state legislatures. “One man one vote “ meant in-state senators by district, instead of by county. So, the libs have dozens of districts/senators in King County vs our one here in my Central WA county. No more check on the state house craziness the state senators are just another rep.

            • The electoral college is an “equalizer” which dilutes the power of the largest population centers, forcing the candidates to appeal to ALL states, not just the most populated ones.
              If the “popular vote” was the determining factor in presidential elections, all the candidates would have to do is campaign in two or three of the largest states (New York and California) and could safely ignore the rest.
              The problem is not the “electoral college”, but the “two party system” itself. There should be multiple major political parties, not just two.
              A prime example of the direct “popular vote” skewing election results is that of gubernatorial elections in the “several states”.
              Potential gubernatorial candidates politic in the large population centers ignore the rural areas as all they have to do is gain enough votes in the major population centers to get elected.
              Here in the state of Michigan, the legislature was, until recently composed of a largely reliably Republican majority. However, the governor’s office is usually filled by a democRAT.
              The states should adopt the electoral college system for gubernatorial elections operating on a county-by-county basis.
              It would be interesting to see the results of gubernatorial elections if all of Michigan’s 83 counties were properly represented.

        • Hi Ya, Mike!
          Ya know what gets me too, is that everyone alive in 1913 when they enacted federal slavery, KNEW what it was to be free- even in the big cities. They knew a freedom none of us have ever known, and yet they let it be taken from them without so much as a whimper. But now we’re supposed to expect that the people today who have been enslaved for generations and have never known freedom- people who will literally let themselves be groped and raped by thugs at every airport; people who dutifully stick their hands out the window to show their harmlessness when pulled over by a highwayman, are finally going to decide that atle more inconvenience and expense related to driving is the straw that breaks the camel’s back?
          That’d be like raping someone’s daughter, and then saying “But don’t throw a gum wrapper on his lawn because that’ll set him off” 😀

          We are so screwed.

    • Yukon Jack July 17, 2023 At 11:28 am
      I think that as they ratchet up their agenda, people will catch on and a huge resistance will form. People love cars and those who try to take them away will not get elected.

      I agree. I think there are 3 things that will cause massive revolt in this country, lack of food (true anywhere), try to take away the guns, and take away people’s cars. I think taking away cars will not only wreck the economy, but a large part of it also still invested in building/maintaining cars, not to mention the lifestyle change. I could see massive marches on Washington and state capitals if that happens.

    • YJ,

      You can get good mileage with a V8; you just to drive it gently. I used to drive part time for a local limo service, and I usually drove an early 2000s Mercury Grand Marquis, the twin of the Ford Crown Victoria. It had a 4.6L V8 in it. By gently accelerating as often as possible and using the cruise control, I could routinely get low 20s mpg out that car. So yeah, you can easily get 20 mpg out of a V8.

      • I don’t doubt it, but I had and F-150 with a 360 and I think it was around 12 mpg. A truck is heavier, with different gearing, so I do not doubt your claim.

        I know some Dodge Cummins truck fans, with the 6BT engine, which is a straight 6, and they get around 20. I will tell you something else, and those who are honest know this, trucks get horrible fuel economy, and everyone exaggerates theirs.

        • My trucks always got crappy mileage because I worked out of them. Which means 500 to 1000 pound payload at all times.

        • YJ,

          Not to mention that the aerodynamics are totally different with the F-150 vs. Crown Vic/Grand Marquis. The sedan is surprisingly aerodynamic, whereas the pickup is a brick in comparison. Plus, the F-150 you cited had a bigger engine, plus it was a bigger, heavier vehicle. Those factors, of course, will mean that it gets lower mileage vs. the Crown Vic.

    • Oh you think Gavin will be “elected” in California? I forsaw this future event when he prowled the White House one day while Joe was out. My husband told me he could never get elected, and I said none of these ultra lefties will get elected but they will be installed mark my words.

      • I agree, RS –

        Much as I despise the Orange Man – who still refuses to denounce Fauci – this business of serial indictments and possibly caging him is a blatant, in-our-faces that they will install whoever they decide to install as the “elected” dictator of this country. They are so emboldened now that I do not discount the possibility they will simply declare that 80 percent of the country voted for Newsome (Joe will have been retired before 2024) and anyone who says otherwise is a “denier” and a “threat to our democracy.”

  11. One 1.5 volt battery weighs 12 grams.

    Times 50,000 equals 75,000 volts.

    Push the button to have electrons flowing through those 50,000 1.5 volt batteries, something should happen.

    Cool stuff.

    50,000×12 grams is 600,000 grams or 600 kilograms. 1320 pounds.

    Just for comparison, it is equivalent by numbers anyhow.

    At 30 cents each, you’ll spend 15 grand.

  12. If CO2 is such a big “pollutant” just outlaw it. Fine people and industry for polluting the air. Oh, but that only works if everyone on the planet does it! OK fine, then go after the “polluters” in other countries. If a country’s industrial waste is being dumped across boarders that seems like a justification for war (in as much as politicians will find any excuse to fight each other). We’re talking about an existential crisis here people! Diplomacy goes out the window -remember Chamberlin’s appeasement policy? Seems to me the complete distruction of the planet is a much greater threat than Hitler.

    Of course I’m being sardonic. We have this dilemma where everything is otherwise fine, except for this one little problem. And it is a little problem, mostly about real estate. People who own real estate are going to impacted, and the more valuable the property the more they’ll be impacted. Becuase the expensive stuff is usually at the fringes. No one builds their vacation home in the middle of boring old Indiana after all. If the long term weather trend changes conditions at the ski resort or beach, that’s going to change the value of your investment. And that matters just as much as someone building a 10 story building that eliminates your literal million dollar view of Ajax (Aspen) mountain. Someone is gonna have to pay for that, but you can’t sue Ford out of existance when you’re living off the dividends.

    • Hi RK,
      I don’t think are overlords are actually worried about “climate change”, Obummer just bought a McMansion on an island (Martha’s Vineyard) so he can’t be all that concerned about rising sea levels.

      • His justifcation is that he’s an optimist. He believes that mankind will come to its senses and take the “right” course of action.

        He’s never lived under full communism though.

        There’s a massive problem in China WRT social norms and acceptable behavior, espeically amungst the older generation who remember the Maoist era and didn’t receive the benefits of capitalism with Chinese characteristics. They are the driver for the social credit surveillance system. In China, there’s a rule that if you use a public restroom you will need to bring your own toilet paper and wash towels. The restrooms won’t have any because the products are removed usually by older citizens helping themselves to “free” TP. This isn’t thought of as stealing or wrong by many Chinese citizens, just helping yourself to the commons. It doesn’t even matter if these people can afford TP, they’re going to take it all anyway.

        I remember working in Florida in the 1990s and chatting up a waitress at a restaurant that was popular with the retirement crowd. It was right next to the hotel so we went there for breakfast every morning. She always liked us because we were big tippers and were closer to her age. She said most restaurants hated the retirees because they’d steal all the sugar packets, tip horribly and always complain. Sugar packets cost money, maybe not much, but if you have to refill the basket twice a day that adds up. Maybe enough to force patrons to ask for sugar for their iced tea. Or start selling sweet tea along with regular.

        What’s that got to do with global warming? Well, when there’s no ownership there’s no responsibility. The state declares its sovereignty over the air because it is difficult to portion. So it becomes a tragety of the commons, where because no one owns the air anyone can pollute. The various clean air acts notwithstanding, just dump whatever into the atmosphere. But if (and I emphasize “if”) CO2 is really a pollutant, then there should be obvious damage. Not some vaigue impact that won’t be known for decades, if at all. And certainly not something that is based on forcasting and fancible computer models. But assuming that everything will come to pass and the wholesale destruction of the biosphere is eminent, forcing communism is not the answer. No way. The answer might be to tax carbon dioxide, but more libertarian would be to prove harm. So my two stroke lawn mower is somehow causing harm to my neighbor (or Obama), then where’s the evidence? Again, not some P-hacked “study” that some grad student ran through the university supercomputer. Actual, demonstrated harm.

        Can’t do it, of course. Beause it is such a small amount that it will never be worth the effort.

  13. y’all old boomers make me laugh wit your shit about old ass cars that was pieces of shit
    da new electric is better in ever way it’s the future dog do you still use your dial phone, nah I didn’t think so

    • Jiggy –

      Leavings aside the vulgarity and poor grammar, exactly how are “da new electric is better in ever way it’s the future dog”? Are they more practical? Cost less to own? Last longer? Go farther?

      Please, elaborate (a large word, I know).

      In fact, EVs cost a third to half again as much as a non-EV equivalent. They go half as far and they make you wait much more often – and much longer. They are more likely to catch fire, are obnoxiously heavy and wasteful of resources, etc.

      A dial phone actually worked remarkably well, by the way. They usually lasted decades and they cost a fraction of what a sail fawn costs. Granted you couldn’t send dick pics using one. But is that a loss? And speaking of that – one rarely, if ever lost a call when using dey dail up phone. Gnomesayin’?

      As far a Boomers: I’m Gen X. As if that had any relevance (another large word, I know).

      • you must be gen Xtra old, nobody wants the slow ass stinky shit that they selling, peeps want that clean speed, fuck all day arab oil selling bitches. Make some clean energy get right wit da earth. There some rough spots to work out but new stuff got to have time to get right. It ain’t going back so get used to it!

        • Dammmmmmn, jiggy. I ain’t down widdem punk-ass bitches selling me no EVs. Fuck dat shit, bro. Dem brown peep is sure getting right wit da earth by strip-minin’ if for dat dumbass cobalt n shit. The only thing stinky is yo foul-ass breath blowin’ back in your face from yo stupidass comments. Dem rough spots you talkin’ ’bout is fyzics a kemistry. Get used to it!

          Yeah, this is fun. Keep ’em comin’ jiggy.

        • Jiggy,

          As I said, I’m a Gen X guy, so I’m middle aged. Not “Xtra old.” And even if I were 80, what bearing would that have on the discussion? You calling me “Xtra” old and using that to criticize me – personally – rather than deal with my questions (and facts) is like me calling you a semi-literate ghetto cretin rather than pointing out how you are wrong about EVs.

          Gnomesayin?

          You still have not answered my question: How are EVs better – in terms of practicality and economy – than cars with engines? The answer is – they aren’t. Consider as a point of comparison a 2015 VW Jetta TDI. This car sold for about $23k when new – without “tax credits,” mind. It averaged more than 50 miles-per-gallon on the highway and could travel 600 miles on a full tank that took less than five minutes to fully refill. Show me how any EV you can buy today matches or beats those numbers.

          “Clean energy”? Do you have any idea what goes into making an EV battery? How does one “get right wit da earth” by exploiting child labor to claw cobalt out of pit mines? Or by building massive lithium leaching fields that foul oceans of what had been clean water?

          Some “rough spots”? You mean like the fact that they tether everyone who owns one to a leash? Costs so much that most average people cannot afford them?

          • They are faster
            They done need as much parts so less breakdown
            Better for the climate
            You don’t got to go 600 miles everyday you just need a few miles to get to work stores see people

            Some brothers in Africa got to dig stuff up, good some jobs
            white people digging up coal too!! Same shit!

            • Jiggy,

              They are quicker – briefly (as using the quickness rapidly depletes the charge, after which you will stop – and wait).

              They have fewer individual parts – but one very huge battery pack that is extremely expensive to replace; equivalent in cost to replacing the engine and transmission in a non-electric car. It so expensive to replace the battery, that it is usually not worth replacing it – relative to the value of the EV. So the EV (and its tired battery) are thrown away. How is this good for the environment?

              You have yet to produce one fact to prove that EVs are better in terms of efficiency or practicality or cost.

              “Better for the climate” …First, your statement assumes the “climate” is “changing” in some alarming way due to carbon dioxide “emissions.” This is hysteria, not actuality. Do you know what the percentage of C02 is in the earth’s atmosphere? I will tell you. It is 0.04 percent. Do you believe that a fractional increase in that fraction is causing or will cause serious problems with the “climate”? Are you aware that the totality of C02 “emitted” by a typical EV is greater than that “emitted” by a compact economy car?

              “You don’t got to go 600 miles everyday…”

              Some do. But the point is most EVs that cost less than $50,000 don’t go even half that far – even “best case.” In reality, they often go less far. I have a ’24 Mercedes EQE sitting outside. Just shy of $78k sticker and it goes maybe 279 miles. Keep in mind that, unlike the Challenger I just gave back, I can’t run the EQE down to near “empty” without being forced to wait for at least 30-45 minutes at a “fast” charger to get 80 percent of the 279 miles of range back. At home, it’s 8-11 hours.

              “Some brothers in Africa got to dig stuff up, good some jobs.”

              Some kids, you mean. White men dig coal. Using machines. Not their hands. It’s not the same thing.

              • Don’t you think the new stuff is good ?
                yeah they got problems but it will work out. Look at old tvs took awhile but new ones are better, phones/people live on them, computers make life better for everyone that took a while
                all that cost big bucks until it was up a while same with these evs they come down in price and everyone will have one
                It all goes digital sooner or later why not help instead of hold back to the old stuff???

                • Jiggy writes,

                  “Don’t you think the new stuff is good ?”

                  I think the ’23 Challenger I just finished test driving is superb! 807 horsepower V8 that produces no meaningfully harmful pollution (as distinct from C02 “emissions”) that is brutally fast (faster than a Tesla Plaid) that does not tether me to a cord or make me wait more than a couple of minutes to fully refuel it.

                  I also think the new Prius is a superb car. For about $25k, it averages close to 60 MPG and has a 700 mile range. It can be refueled in minutes, too – and produces essentially zero emissions as well.

                  EVs, on the other hand, are a regression – not an improvement. Less affordable. Far less practical. More hassle.

                  Also, they’re not new. You may be too young to know about this – but EVs have been around longer than cars with engines. They were replaced – by the free market – about 120 years ago. Now the government is trying to force us to replace the cars we have with cars that will greatly restrict driving, as well as vehicle ownership. This will affect the young the most – because they are least able to afford it.

                  PS: No one is “holding up” anything. I don’t like EVs, personally, because I think they are lifeless, disposable appliances (like a cell phone). But I would never “hold them up.” It is the government that does that – by using force to “hold things up” it does not like. I like the free market. I like the idea of everyone being free to buy whatever they like, that works for them. If someone else wants to buy an EV that is fine with me. I just oppose the manufacturers being forced to make them when there isn’t real demand for them – and us being forced to buy them, by regulating off the market alternatives to them.

                  • Maybe you right++++
                    cause yah that challenger is one bad bitch, my boy got a Tesla but I like some noise when I hit the gas.
                    old ladies goin to want thos little quiet battery cars tho
                    how you gonna stop this battery shit?
                    when white people get a bad idea they don let go!!

                    • Hi jiggy,

                      You seem like a reasonable dude; I’m enjoying our discussion! I think there is a natural place for EVs; I think they could be ideal “city” cars for people who don’t need to be able to drive long distances at highway speeds. EV “city” cars with ranges of around 75 miles or so and a top speed of 50 MPH or so (plenty for urban use) could be built and sold at a profit for around $15,000 or even less. That would be cool. I am all for people having options – especially more affordable ones. And I am cool with $100k high-performance EVs, too – for those who can buy them with their own money. So long as people who don’t have that kind of money can still buy family cars for $30k or so.

                      PS: Bad ideas (and good ideas) aren’t a matter of skin color. There are good people – and assholes – that happen to be black people or white people.

                • Yo, jiggy: Them new smart tvs and phones all be all spyin’ on you and your old ladies. They may be workin’ a little bit better than they used to, but, shit, now the man be knowing what you up to.

                  “[W]hen white people get a bad idea they don let go!!” Ain’t that the truth. They wuz pushin’ those masks and poison shots like they wuz goin’ outa style.

    • jiggywit: Dawg, is dat just you, Cashy, giving us a folksy-urban tone now throwin’ out the appeal to novelty fallacy? D’y’all trollers thinks we’s stupid?

      Hey, I kinda like theis persona. I might use it going forward. Thanks, Cashy (eh hem) jiggywit.

  14. Lightning strikes again:

    ‘Ford announced price cuts ranging from about $6,000 to $10,000 across its lineup of electric pickups. That’s roughly 9% off. For model year 2023, the average transaction price for an F-150 Lightning is about $87,000, according to Cox Automotive.

    ‘Ford has delivered about 8,800 Lightnings in the first half of 2023, down from more than 13,000 in the second half of 2022.’ — Al Rooooooot, Barron’s

    https://archive.ph/4gUW2#selection-267.44-267.140

    A nine percent discount from $87,000 … killer!

    In the first half of 2023, Ford will have delivered around 225,000 F-150s (don’t know the exact number, since all F-series sales are consolidated).

    Let’s do some dismal maff: (8,800 F-150 Lightnings / 225,000 total F-150s) = 3.9%

    This figure could be off by half a percent or so. No matter: it will take YEARS for Lightnings to reach ten percent of total F-150 sales, IF EVER. You don’t need no PhD Econ to grok that the market for $80,000 trucks is limited.

    Lightnings will only exceed ten percent of F-150 sales if IC-engined F-150 production is deliberately cut back, as with Maverick trucks. The dogs won’t eat the dog food. 🙁

    • The lowest price Ford Lightning Pro model started at $40,000, rose to $60,000, and is now being reduced to $50,000. Price reductions increase sales, which were falling apart faster than a cheap suitcase after December 2023, but then the owners who paid $60,000 will get very annoyed. It would have been smarter to reduce the monthly expense by subsidizing a very low auto loan interest rate and/or no destination charge and/or a bigger battery for no extra charge.

      Lightning December 2022 Sales: 2,359 vehicles.
      January – June 2023 average of 1,467 vehicles sold per month, down almost 38%

  15. Not only do these psychopaths not want us owning an automobile, they don’t even want us to own a home. They’ll come up with the same lame excuses as to why THEY should own a car, private jet, or multi million dollar McMansion, and WE shouldn’t. They now have Big Media running HEAVY propaganda pieces good & hard about a “Climate crisis”. This propaganda campaign reeks of the propaganda campaign they ran about the ‘Rona and the “cure” for it being a brand new Pharma product they called a VACCINE. It’s only a matter of time before these psychopaths claim (if they’re not already) that the “cure” for the CLIMATE CRISIS is giving THEM more money & power, eating bugs & frankenfood, driving an EV, living in a 15 minute city, and whatever other “cure” they concoct.

    • We have already sold something more precious than driving 800hp cars. Our souls. They give those ‘vaxxenes’ to newborns now. Proud doctor warped speed is today’s front runner for another term.

      • No way DR. Warp Speed gets the nomination Ken. In fact you can mark it down, right now today, It’ll be Ramaswamey. He will make the rest of the republican field and the media cry, just the way trump did in 2015. If you haven’t heard him yet you should give a listen. The only thing going against him is he’s Hindu. At least they wont be able to accuse him of being a White nationalist/Nazi.

        He’s the only young candidate in the race. After what we’ve been going through, everybody but the staunchest boomer will be looking for someone young. Ramaswamy is right on the line between late Get X early Millennial. It ought to be interesting as he is a real force of nature.

  16. People think they will drive for “free” in the all EV future since the electric bill is on autopay at the bank or utility company web site and not something that they have to think about paying until they lose their jobs, the direct deposit stops, and they start receiving angry emails about overdrafts from the bank.

  17. ‘They [non homeowners] generally park on the street.’ — eric

    People park on the street because they have to, not because they want to. Nevertheless, they must conform themselves to the ideological agenda. An article titled ‘Democrats Have a Man Problem’ contains this gem:

    ‘Convincing the Black man and brown men and younger [white] men to stay progressive as they age up — that is going to be an ongoing challenge for us.

    ‘If you can peel back a small percentage of white men from voting Republican by talking to them in a language that they can understand, by assertively saying that their economic interests are better served by what we’re trying to do here, then you’re going to have supermajorities to pass progressive legislation.’ — Politico

    https://tinyurl.com/2wn6ydxa

    Got that? It’s all lip service. Instead of actually benefiting people, you talk and say that elitist mandates like EeeVees are for their own good. Having learned nothing at poor quality (but incredibly expensive) public schools, some of the dupes will believe it.

    Democrats’ ingrained notion that progressive policy is fixed, and the challenge is merely to market it, explains how EeeVee mandates just keep escalating like Stalin’s grain production quotas, even as the incomes needed for the hoi polloi to buy them (even if they wanted to) just aren’t there.

    Living in EeeVee La-La Land isn’t sustainable.

  18. It didn’t take me long to figure out that the purpose of the EV campaign is to get us out of cars, period. Perhaps the collapse of EV sales is a result of more and more people realizing the same thing? Often by force, given few can afford them now, and things ain’t looking up for the rest of us.
    First they start mandating we drive very expensive EVs. Then they wreck the economy such that even fewer can afford one.
    FedGov can certainly fuck shit up far faster than they can fix it. Happens all the time. That’s why they are 32 trillion in debt.

  19. As I’ve mentioned in the past, what fun it’ll be when everyone’s on the highway trying to escape a hurricane here in the congested Southeast. It won’t take a sizeable percentage of EV’s to create a real Mongolian Cluster Event. I can hardly wait.

  20. Eric,

    One of Scotty Kilmer’s recent videos detailed what Toyota is doing on the EV front. One, they’re working on improving existing Li-Ion batteries to yield a 600 mile range. Two, they’re also working on solid state batteries that will yield a 900 mile range and quicker charging time. Of course, they also have their world beating hybrids. As long as Toyota is still in the game, we have a chance at keeping our mobility.

    • Hi Mark,

      I am so tired of hearing about the “breakthrough” that is “just around the corner.” Until it’s here, it isn’t. Also, what will be the cost of the 600 mile battery? How much will it weigh?

      • RE: “breakthrough” that is “just around the corner.”

        I think that’s called, ‘mothering’.

        For example; eventhough we didn’t pay you for your work this week, keep working for us next week for sure we’ll pay you. Repeat again the following weeks.

        Anyway, saw a comment elsewhere which was descriptive(?),

        “You – are the carbon they want to reduce”.

          • “Breakthrough”? Where else have I heard that? Oh yeah, that term was also used for a while when vaxxed people were getting the dreaded ‘Rona that they’ve purportedly been vaccinated against. It was even called BREAKTHROUGH CASES.

          • Hi Mister,

            I’ve been covering this EV thing since it began – in the modern era – back in the ’90s, which was thirty years ago. I have been hearing about “breakthroughs” in battery performance all that time.

            It’s true there have been improvements. But these have come at tremendous cost and there is still not a single EV on the market that is superior to a Corolla from the ’90s in terms of practicality, efficiency, longevity or cost.

            They go faster – briefly. That’s it.

            • The other problem is that all these breakthroughs aren’t being utilized at all in existing lithium ion based power systems. If the solid state battery is such a game changer, why isn’t Apple putting them in the Apple Watch? The biggest compaint people have about the AW is the dismal battery life. People who wear Garmin watches constantly crow about the seven to ten day battery life and dismiss Apple’s wearable for that reason alone.

              Heck, why not put solid-state batteries in everything? If they’re so wonderful it should be a no-brainer for cell phones, USB power banks, SLA batteries, drones, everything. Sure, they’ll cost more than LiPo and LiFePO, but you’ll get them on a production line and in consumer’s hands. Then worry about optimizing the production line.

              Back in 2021 I bought a few shares of Solid Power (SLDP), just to focus my attention on the sector. Watched it fall, fall, fall. Watched press releases about their partnerships with Ford, more money from governement, more experiements. Then the CEO left and so did I. Got tired of talk and no products and cut my losses. The frustrating thing was the “all or nothing” aspect of the product. Has to be perfect or it ain’t happening. Seems to me startups should work under the idea of getting something, anything, out the door now to get some cash flowing and worry about where you want to be later. Or just let the market figure out what to do with your product and be happy it is selling.

      • ..and also, Eric, how long will the battery take to charge, how much will it cost to charge the battery, low long with the battery last, and how much to replace? I think I will keep my gas guzzler for now.

      • All the solid state battery tech uses lithium, just like existing batteries. The difference is that instead of a liquid based electrolyte it uses a solid polymer. The idea is that lithium ions will move from anode to cathode through the liquid while the free electrons flow across the wire. As you can imagine it is much easier to use liquid electrolytes because, well, they’re liquids. Solid polymers have to allow ions to flow but still be solid.

        Imagine walking through a wall vs walking through a swimming pool.

        • Isn’t Lithium the unrecycleable element in short supply and mined by little kids in places like The Congo?

          Does the solid state tech use dramatically less Lithium or last longer?

          • Yes, and yes. Solid state electrolytes can be much thinner meaning the gap between the cathode and anode is much smaller and so that means less lithium needed. And one of the problems with LiPO batteries is that the lithium grows dendrites across the electrolyte over time, leading to a short in the cell (sometimes with a spectacular result). And solid electrolytes are much more heat tolerant so the rate of charge/discharge can be much higher since internal resistance causes the cell to heat up. If the liquid electrolyte overheats under high load it can boil off, again allowing for internal shorts.

            And finally, if a solid state electrolyte battery is damaged there’s a little less of a danger for shorting and thermal runaway. I’ve seen video of researchers cutting up a cell with sissors while the cell was powering an LED bulb, pretty impressive.

            But again, just get something out the door already! Even if it’s just something that’s good for cocktail party conversations, that’s something!

    • I have news for you Scotty.

      There is no major leap in battery technology waiting to be discovered.

      Marginal improvements surely can be made. But this 600-mile thing is not going to be achievable with battery technology alone.

      Electrochemistry has been mapped out for the entire periodic table. We use the batteries we do, because of a lot of reasons. Stability being a major one. Lithium is already kind of on the margin (at best) of “stable enough to use.”

      Lithium ion batteries are used in cars because they are light (compare to e.g. a lead battery. Stable but heavy—limiting range)

      Improvements are going to look like batteries that are a little bit better, and cars that are lighter in weight (I.e., made of plastics and exotic materials).

      We are already pretty close to the limit, using known science, of battery chemistry.

      Maybe—maybe—if someone can figure out how to get slow-discharge capacitors to work, there could be a quantum leap. But people have been working on that one for decades with little to show for it.

      Unless you have a specific idea, and you can prove that it works at least kinda, as far as I’m concerned it’s a pipe dream.

      And yes, I do work in the battery industry (not Li ones—too flammable)

      • Even if a “super battery” were to magically appear there still remains what is the EV’s fatal flaw – charging. Even if somehow it could be charged in 5-10 minutes there’s no changing the physics of electricity; the amperage required to do that would dim the lights across the city. The present grid would need some serious upgrades, lots of heavy copper cables for the thieves to steal, and generation that’s being phased out because it’s not “green” enough. Good luck with all that.

    • Marky,
      For whatever it is worth, I personally am not depending upon another human being nor corporation to guarantee my freedom or mobility.

      They have their own interests which do not coincide with mine.

    • As a Toyota owner, I am biased in favor of their actual products.

      Funny that the pro-hybrid former Toyota CEO, ousted on April 1, 2023, never promoted these new coming solid state batteries.

      Better batteries have been “coming” for over a century.

      Fusion power has been coming for about 80 years.

      The global warming crisis has been coming since 1979.
      … 1974 if you include the prior coming global cooling crisis.

      One thing missing from the Toyota solid state battery articles is any estimate of the cost. It seems obvious why cost is not mentioned — right now they cost MORE than standard lithium batteries. The last thing EVs need is more expensive batteries.

      I like the fact that Toyota is working with Panasonic on these solid state batteries — two companies whose products i have bought and trusted for a long time.

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