Weird: Toyota’s Going All In On Hybrids Instead Of EVs

By William Teach July 20, 2024 – 3:00 pm

It’s almost like Toyota knows their consumers and what they want, and will cater to them

Toyota goes all-in on hybrids in U.S. as Trump risks loom over EVs

Electric vehicleToyota Motor will make all major models in the U.S. available as hybrids by 2030, doubling down on its strength in the vehicles as uncertainty shadows the market for electrics.

At a Thursday test-drive event at Toyota’s North American headquarters — the first in years — half of the 26 models featured were hybrids. Just two were electric vehicles.

The plan is to offer hybrid options for all key models by 2030, said Kevin Butt, regional environmental sustainability director at Toyota Motor North America.

Many of Toyota’s key models are already available as hybrids. The popular Camry sedan went hybrid-only when it was updated this spring. The Crown Signia sport utility vehicle launching this year will be exclusively sold as a hybrid.

Toyota and Honda, both being very efficient and well built vehicles, are trying to minimize the necessity to offer tons of EVs, because customers are not clamoring for them. Heck, a lot of customers do not want standard hybrids. But, really, if you drive a regular Camry or Accord then the hybrid versions you will barely notice the difference in acceleration. Same with the CRVs and RAV4s. And Toyota/Lexus dominates the US market when it comes to hybrids. They would actually like if Trump ands the EPA fuel economy requirements that force manufacturers to make EVs which customers do not want, and are not really profitable.

Heck, they would lose out on profit from maintenance. Doesn’t mean they won’t make some EVs, but, they won’t have to because of Government fiat.

Check out Hyundai’s new $23K Casper EV spotted out in the wild [Video]

As automakers race to launch affordable electric cars, Hyundai is ahead of the pack. Hyundai’s new Casper EV, starting at under $23,000 (31.5 million won) in Korea, was spotted driving out in public. With incentives, Hyundai says its new Casper EV can be bought for as little as $14,500 (20 million won). Check out Hyundai’s new low-cost EV in the video below.

Hyundai opened Casper EV pre-orders (called the Inster EV in Europe) last month, starting at $22,800 (31.5 million won).

Including government incentives and rebates, Hyundai expects the price of its base “Inspiration” model to fall to as low as $14,500 (20 million won).

“To truly popularize electric vehicles, we have prepared the Casper Electric with unrivaled product competitiveness and reasonable price,” a Hyundai spokesperson said. They added Hyundai’s new Casper EV will be “the most attractive choice” for many EV buyers.

It’s also tiny. It’s like buying a sub-subcompact SUV (a Toyota CHR and Honda HRV are examples of subcompact SUVs. RAV4s/CRVs are compact SUVs)

This is the kind of tiny vehicle, very narrow, that you see on the small roads in Japan and South Korea. That some in Europe get for their short trips around town. It might be nice as a 2nd car for around town, but, Americans do not like tiny cars on the road. Especially when government officials who do not use any EV are forcing this on them.

Read: Weird: Toyota’s Going All In On Hybrids Instead Of EVs »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach July 20, 2024 – 1:00 pm

…is a mountain which will SOON! see its snow disappear from global boiling, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is 357 Magnum, with a post on road rage and self defense in Indianapolis.

Read: If All You See… »

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NY Times Seems A Bit Upset Over All The Illegals Shipped To Democrat Run Cities

By William Teach July 20, 2024 – 10:30 am

Texas governor Greg Abbott has shipped around 120,000 illegals to Sanctuary City New York and other Democrat run sanctuary jurisdictions, causing complete freakouts from Democrats who support unfettered illegal immigration. The Times wonders how we got here

Bus by Bus, Texas’ Governor Changed Migration Across the U.S.

The autumn of 2021 delivered a shock to the state of Texas. More than 9,000 migrants crossed the border on a September day into the town of Del Rio and huddled in a tent camp under a bridge. Thousands more came later that week from countries all over the world, challenging the town’s ability to handle them.

The following spring, Texas opened a new frontier of its own. On April 13, a bus pulled into Union Station in Washington, D.C., carrying 24 migrants who had been offered a free ride from the border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, chartered by the state’s Division of Emergency Management. More buses arrived in the capital over the next several days.

Washington’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, suggested that many of the migrants had been “tricked” into riding the buses by the Texas governor, Greg Abbott. The White House called it a “political stunt.”

In the two years since Mr. Abbott dispatched the first buses from Texas, the busing program has turned into a significant part of the country’s transportation infrastructure for migrants.

The Times positions this as an issue, instead of a boon. Aren’t the Times and other Democrat outlets and officials and groups always telling us that illegals are great and this country couldn’t run without them?

A New York Times analysis of state records, immigration data collected by Syracuse University and records from the destination cities, as well as interviews with dozens of migrants, city officials and immigration organization leaders, show that the Texas program is continuing to expand its reach — new target cities include Boston, Detroit and Albuquerque — and helping to reshape migration across the United States.

Yeah, instead of the illegals staying in areas that are not sanctuary jurisdictions they have been sent to those who say they love illegals. Right up until they had to actually deal with illegals.

While Mr. Abbott did not create the migrant crisis that reached a peak at the end of last year, the analysis showed, he amplified and concentrated it. He took what otherwise might have been the slow diffusion of migrants from the border to cities and towns across the United States, and directed it at just a few places.

“I took the border to them,” Mr. Abbott told a cheering crowd at the Republican National Convention, where drastically curbing migration, a centerpiece of former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign, has been a frequent theme. “Those buses will continue to roll until we finally secure our border.”

And this has given sanctuary city residents apoplexy and created massive problems for budgets of the cities. Anyhow, it’s a long article, in which the four “journalists” who wrote it never once get to a spot where they say “hey, maybe it would be better if the border was shut down as much as possible. Maybe Democrats should stop incentivizing people from around the world to just show up at the border.”

Read: NY Times Seems A Bit Upset Over All The Illegals Shipped To Democrat Run Cities »

Posted in Democrats, Illegal Immigration | 13 Comments | Trackback URL

Far Left Wacko Ayanna Pressley Quotes Glorilla In Climate Doom Speech Or Something

By William Teach July 20, 2024 – 7:00 am

Just when you thought the climate nuts couldn’t get more wacko

Watch Rep. Ayanna Pressley Quote Glorilla’s ‘TGIF’ in Climate Change Speech

Glorilla‘s scorching summer anthem “TGIF” has inspired a much more serious discussion about climate change, courtesy of a prominent Democratic lawmaker.

During the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing last Wednesday (July 10), U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley gave a speech about the impact of urban heat islands on lower-income communities. “You know the kids say, ‘It’s 7 p.m. Friday, 95 degrees,’” she said, quoting GloRilla’s track. “And that’s because the climate crisis is here, and it is real,” she started. “Climate change isn’t an abstract problem for people of a far away future to solve. No one knows that better than our youth.”

Glorilla shared Pop Crave’s video snippet of Congresswoman Pressley’s speech on X (formerly known as Twitter) Friday (July 19) and wrote her famous ad-lib from the song, “Ayyyyeeeeee.”

“Famous ad lib”. LOL. Seriously, they had it correct when they mentioned the Urban Heat Island effect.

Meanwhile

Environmental group says weekend’s scorching temps ‘hard to imagine’ without climate change

…

The group Climate Central said this potentially deadly weather should be largely understood as an effect of climate change. Much of the West is accustomed to summer heat, but Climate Central’s Andrew Pershing, who has led development of the group’s tools for measuring climate changes influence on weather events, said “this is an unnatural disaster that society has created over over a century of burning coal, oil and natural gas.”

“Until we get those carbon emissions under control, until we figure out how to adapt our society and produce energy in a clean way, these conditions – it’s not just that they’re going to persist – it’s that they’re going to get worse,” he added.

The group’s Climate Shift Index – a 1 to 5 scale – estimates how much more likely human-caused climate change leads to weather events like this heat wave. They estimate that nearly 40 million people in the region will experience heat made at least three times more likely by the burning of fossil fuels. Parts of Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Colorado are expected to reach a maximum 5 on the index.

“It’s really hard to imagine these conditions, especially the persistence, occurring in a world without human-caused climate change,” he said of those scale-topping estimates.

Well, you can imagine all you want. What’s missing is rock solid proof using the scientific method. And, again, if they really thought it was Mankind’s fault you’d see all these Warmists giving up their own use of fossil fuels and making their own lives carbon neutral.

Read: Far Left Wacko Ayanna Pressley Quotes Glorilla In Climate Doom Speech Or Something »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming, Unhinged Tools | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Good News: Iran One To Two Weeks Away From Producing Nuclear Weapons Material

By William Teach July 20, 2024 – 6:45 am

Obviously, the Biden regime wants to Blame Trump for pulling out of the nuclear deal with Iran, but, really, according to the deal, they’d be able to start enriching soon, and, all this was based on a promise to not do anything while getting all sorts of money and aid upfront. Trump may have pulled the US out of this terrible deal, but, other countries signed on

US says Iran moving forward on a key aspect of developing a nuclear bomb

Iran is talking more about getting a nuclear bomb and has made strides in developing a key aspect of a weapon since about April, when Israel and its allies overpowered a barrage of Iranian airstrikes targeting Israel, two top Biden administration officials said Friday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking separately at a security forum in Colorado, said the United States was watching closely for any signs that Iran had made a decision to pursue actual weaponization of its nuclear program.

However, Sullivan said, “I have not seen a decision by Iran to move” in a way that signals it has decided to actually develop a nuclear bomb right now.

“If they start moving down that road, they’ll find a real problem with the United States,” Sullivan told reporters at the Aspen Security Forum, which draws U.S. policymakers, journalists and others.

Oh, please, Biden and his people have placated Iran, a country which, by their own words, is a sworn enemy of the US, over and over

“What we’ve seen in the past weeks and months is Iran is actually moving forward” on developing fissile material, Blinken said Friday during a panel talk. Fissile material could be used to fuel a bomb.

He blamed the decision by the Trump administration to pull out of the nuclear agreement. Trump called the deal “defective at its core” when he ended U.S. participation in 2019.

“Instead of being at least a year away from having breakout capacity to produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon, they’re probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” Blinken said, adding that “where we are now is not a good place.”

“Now, they haven’t produced a weapon itself, but … you put those things together, fissile material, an explosive device, and you have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Deal or no deal, Iran was never going to stop working on making a nuclear bomb.

Iran was suffering under Trump’s sanctions, was damned near broke. Now, they have tons of money. And are using it to also attack Israel, fund Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as the Houthis.

Of course, Iran has been attempting to make a nuclear weapon for decades. They aren’t very good at this.

Read: Good News: Iran One To Two Weeks Away From Producing Nuclear Weapons Material »

Posted in Iran, Joe Biden | 19 Comments | Trackback URL

The Donald Pledges To End EV Mandate On Day One

By William Teach July 19, 2024 – 3:00 pm

Yeah, well, we’ll see. He pledged to end U.S. involvement in the Paris Climate Agreement, but, it took him till November of 2020 to make that happen

Trump Vows to End Electric Vehicle ‘Mandate’ on Day One

Electric vehicleFormer President Donald Trump used his nomination speech to take aim at President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle policies, vowing to action against them on his first day in office.

“I will end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,” Trump said in his address at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. The move would result in “saving the US auto industry from complete obliteration, which is happening right now, and saving US customers thousands and thousands of dollars per car,” he said.

While the Biden administration doesn’t have a mandate on electric vehicles, critics of new air-pollution limits issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in March have said they would illegally force automakers to sell EVs.

Trump has repeatedly vowed to repeal what he calls Biden’s “EV mandate,” referring to a new EPA regulation limiting tailpipe pollution that is so strict it would compel automakers to sell far more electric and hybrid models over time.

While it is not technically a mandate, the regulations from the EPA mean that automakers really do need to really focus on manufacturing EVs and selling them. I personally have zero problem with the government offering tax breaks for citizens purchasing them (though, of course, the majority who take advantage are making between $100K to $300K.) If people want to buy one, buy one. The government should not be enforcing standards that force citizens into one when they do not want one, and when the people who are forcing this on the peasants usually aren’t driving one themselves.

More Gas Cars and Trucks, Fewer E.V.s as Automakers Change Plans
Ford, General Motors and other automakers are slowing investments in electric vehicles and doubling down on more profitable gasoline cars and trucks.

For much of the last five years, automakers have been spending billions of dollars in a frantic race to develop electric vehicles and build factories to produce them, with expectations that consumers would flock to these new models.

But in the past 12 months, the growth rate of electric vehicle sales has slowed sharply as some car buyers have balked at the high prices of electric cars and trucks and the hassles of charging them, especially on long trips.

The shift in consumer sentiment is now forcing many automakers to pull back on aggressive investment plans, and pivot, at least partly, back to the internal-combustion engine vehicles that still account for most new car sales and a large share of corporate profits.

They might finally be listening to the people who actually buy vehicles rather than the government.

Anyhow, we’ll see what Trump does on day one. Which, of course, would end with lots of lawsuits as Warmists (who mostly do not drive EVs) says that he didn’t go through the rule-making process.

Read: The Donald Pledges To End EV Mandate On Day One »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Donald Trump, Global Warming | 13 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach July 19, 2024 – 1:00 pm

…are huge climate driven wind waves, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Not A Lot Of People Know That, with a post on climate research failing a scientific integrity test.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 12 Comments | Trackback URL

6th Court Of Appeals Blocks Biden’s Title IX Transgender Rules

By William Teach July 19, 2024 – 10:30 am

Title IX is designed to help women. Biological women. Not biological men with mental health issues who take all sorts of things away from women

Trans students’ rights suffer another blow as appeals court refuses to lift block on new Biden protections

The Biden administration’s attempt to protect transgender students from discrimination hit another roadblock on Wednesday when a federal appeals court allowed the new rules from taking effect in August.

A three-judge panel for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld 2-1 a lower court ruling that paused President Joe Biden’s changes to Title IX that expand the anti-discrimination law to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

The judges claimed that the Department of Education likely exceeded its authority in redefining “sex discrimination” insinuating that Congress would need to approve the change and said the rollout would be difficult to implement before school begins in the fall.

Huh. You mean that the duly elected Legislative Branch is the one who is charge of changing laws and the Executive Branch  enforces those laws? That’s so weird. It’s almost like the Constitution means something

In 2021 the administration unveiled the new rules which redefined “sex discrimination” to include “sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

In other words, the whole point was to redefine males with mental illness as women. Most everything else was a smoke screen.

The new rules were made final in April and intended to take effect August 1 but multiple states sought to interfere.

Wednesday’s decision means the new Title IX rules will not take effect in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia and West Virginia before the school year begins.

It is the latest blow to the Biden administration’s attempt to enact rules protecting gay or transgender students from rules that force them to use bathrooms or locker rooms, wear a uniform or play on sports teams consistent with their sex at birth.

The court and those who sued are protecting females from crazy people with male genitalia from being in female spaces, as well as taking away their earned sports wins and others. Which could mean the loss of scholarships, not too mention the simple pleasure from a win after a lot of hard work.

Too bad this only applies to those six states. Women should be provided the protection for dudes waving their dangily bits at them in showers, locker rooms, and bathrooms.

(Virginia Mercury) The Biden administration introduced the rules to “build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming, and respect their rights,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona previously said in a statement. The rules also would have rolled back Trump administration changes that narrowly defined sexual harassment and directed schools to conduct live hearings, allowing those who were accused of sexual harassment or assault to cross-examine their accusers.

Yeah, it’s a real shame that those accused of sexual harassment or assault are given their constitutional rights in government schools, rather than being railroaded with no possible way to defend themselves.

Read: 6th Court Of Appeals Blocks Biden’s Title IX Transgender Rules »

Posted in Constitution, Joe Biden, Unhinged Tools | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Consequences: Five Just Stop Oil Cultists Sent To Jail In England

By William Teach July 19, 2024 – 7:00 am

Looks like the judge pretty much threw the book at them

Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25

Five supporters of the Just Stop Oil climate campaign who conspired to cause gridlock on London’s orbital motorway have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms by a judge who told them they had “crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic”.

Roger Hallam, Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin were found guilty last week of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for coordinating direct action protests on the M25 over four days in November 2022.

Hallam received a five-year sentence on Thursday, while the other four were each sentenced to four years.

The sentences are thought to be the longest sentences even given in the UK for non-violent protest, exceeding those given to the Just Stop Oil protesters Morgan Trowland (three years) and Marcus Decker (two years and seven months) for scaling the Dartford Crossing.

The actions may have been “non-violent” but they caused major disruptions, interfered with many other people, and broke numerous laws

(Judge) Hehir admitted there was a scientific and social consensus that human-made climate breakdown was happening and action should be taken to avert it. “I acknowledge that at least some of the concerns motivating you are, at least to some extent, shared by many,” he said.

“But the plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic. You have appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change, bound neither by the principles of democracy nor the rule of law.

“And your fanaticism makes you entirely heedless of the rights of your fellow citizens. You have taken it upon yourselves to decide that your fellow citizens must suffer disruption and harm, and how much disruption and harm they must suffer, simply so that you may parade your views.”

Too bad the judge didn’t call them cult members. Regardless of whether anthropogenic climate change is real or not, that doesn’t give them the right to engage in a criminal conspiracy.

Read: Consequences: Five Just Stop Oil Cultists Sent To Jail In England »

Posted in Climate Cult, Global Warming | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

NBC News: Bidenworld Expecting Biden To Step Aside

By William Teach July 19, 2024 – 6:45 am

Many outlets are running with this, but, is it true? Was COVID just a fake excuse to head home and consider if he wants to continue?

‘We’re close to the end’: Biden world braces for the possibility that the president will step aside

Biden Brain SuckerPresident Joe Biden’s political world is collapsing. Top allies have either publicly or privately called on him to step aside. Major donations have fallen off a cliff. Grassroots fundraising is not keeping up with the demands of a campaign that needs to aggressively scale up three months before the presidential election. Members of his own re-election effort have already declared he has no path to victory.

Since a disastrous debate in Atlanta upended the trajectory of his campaign three weeks ago, Biden has again and again attempted to dig in, bucking efforts to dislodge him from power.

But there is now a palpable sense that the ground has shifted underneath him, according to five people with knowledge of the situation, even among some of the president’s most defiant internal backers who now believe the writing is on the wall.

“We’re close to the end,” a person close to Biden said.

But, will Jill and Hunter allow this? They seem to love the high life. Everything that comes with Joe being president. Joe is barely cognizant, so, he’ll go with whatever they tell him. But, if he does step down, what does that look like? Some are saying that Joe won’t name Kamala as his replacement. Many of the Democrat base are pissed off that the Dem big wigs will anoint someone at the convention, and they’ll get no chance to vote on who they want. Of course, how is that possible this late in the game?

There’s lots more info in that top tweet, but, consider: if Biden is too frail to continue to run, he’s too frail to continue to be POTUS. I wonder if Democrats will 25th Amendment him, leaving Kamala as the sitting president, hoping she will be able to beat Trump. But, would the Republicans play ball and refuse to go with this?

A person with knowledge of the projections said the Biden campaign now expects it will raise only 25% of the big donor money it had originally projected to raise in July — that’s a further downgrade from the expectation last week that large-dollar fundraising would be down by as much as 50%. The money has “dried up,” this person said.

Yeah, that’s going to make Democrats super squirrely, because it most likely means down ballot is getting shorted on big donor money.

In an interview that aired Wednesday evening, Biden said that, in addition to being shown that there was no path to victory, there was something else that would prompt him to re-evaluate his campaign.

“If I have some medical condition that emerged,” Biden suggested. “If somebody, if the doctors came to me and said you got this problem, that problem.”

Does his minor case of Wuhan Flu qualify?

Read: NBC News: Bidenworld Expecting Biden To Step Aside »

Posted in Democrats, Joe Biden | 7 Comments | Trackback URL
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