Consumer Reports Savages EV Reliability

By William Teach November 30, 2023 – 3:00 pm

Again, I’m not against them, I’m against forced purchasing. And, they just aren’t ready for primetime

Consumer Reports pummels electric vehicle reliability, praises hybrids

Electric vehicleElectric vehicles may be the future, but in some ways they look a lot like the past. Particularly reliability.

That’s the bottom line from Consumer Reports’ eagerly anticipated annual reliability survey, which sounds like an ‘80s tribute act: the top tier, brands credited with excellent or very good reliability, is dominated by Japanese automakers, with a smattering of Europeans and a South Korean.

Unlike those bad old days, though, the culprits are advanced electronics, not oil leaks and faulty transmissions.

Electric vehicles are among the worst offenders.

“The problems with internal combustion engines are mostly sorted,” Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports senior director of testing, told me. “The new problems are mostly associated with electronics: Electric vehicles that use brand new platforms and power trains.”

Volkswagen ranked 27 out of 30 for overall reliability. I’ll get to them in a moment

EVs in model years 2021-24 suffered about twice as many reliability problems as internal combustion engines, or ICE, according to CR’s survey of about 70,000 vehicles.

The five least reliable vehicle categories, from bad to worse, are:

Electric cars

Electric SUVs

Full-size pickups

Midsize pickups

Electric pickups

Oops? And repair costs are astronomical compared to hybrids and straight petrol engines

Volkswagen invested billions in EVs following Dieselgate scandal—now, its brand is ‘no longer competitive’: ‘Other manufacturers would close plants in such a situation’

Volkswagen was one of the earliest entrants into the electric vehicle industry, years before it became commonplace to own or drive them. Its efforts were on full steam in the wake of a diesel pollution scandal that engulfed the German brand.

But in recent times, Europe’s biggest automaker has been struggling to improve its returns amid falling demand and growing competition in the market.

Now, the automaker is on a mission to overhaul its costs to improve earnings by about $11 billion by 2026. Volkswagen’s brand chief, Thomas Schaefer, warned that productivity and efficiency had to be boosted as its brand wasn’t as competitive anymore.

“With many of our preexisting structures, processes, and high costs, we are no longer competitive as the Volkswagen brand,” Schaefer said, according to a post on the company’s intranet site seen by Reuters.

Their EV push killed them. As someone in the business, rarely are customers comparing us and others with VW. And they are not a luxury brand, hence most loyal VW customers aren’t that interested in an EV. I’m hoping that EVs will get to primetime, I’m not a big fan of the pollution, such as smog and oil/gas in the roads (CO2 is not a pollutant), so, they are the future. They have many environmental problems on their own, as well as others. But, people do not want to be forced into them.

Read: Consumer Reports Savages EV Reliability »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 30, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…are wonderful plants which Everyone Else should eat instead of meat, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Chicks On The Right, with a post on Forbes insulting women.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Pro-Hamas Protesters Get Violent, Try And Stop NYC Tree Lighting

By William Teach November 30, 2023 – 10:30 am

A lot of the Credentialed News outlets ignored this. Many minimized it. The NY Times ignored it. Imagine if it was pro-Israel protesters: it’d be front page. Or Trump supporters

Pro-Palestinian protesters, one carrying swastika, swarm Midtown in bid to derail Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters swarmed the streets surrounding Rockefeller Center Wednesday, clashing with NYPD cops and chanting “river to the sea,” long seen as an antisemitic slogan, in an effort to derail the annual tree lighting in support of Gaza.

Waving Palestinian flags and signs calling for the “end to genocide,” the ralliers gathered along Sixth Avenue alongside hordes of tourists waiting in line to see the iconic ceremony.

Unable to get to the NYC Christmas tree, the enormous crowd instead swarmed around the tree outside the News Corp building, which houses The Post and Fox News, and has already been targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters on at least two occasions.

“Free free Palestine!” the protesters chanted.

What, exactly, do they mean? How do they free Palestine? Even right leaning news outlets fail to ask the “protesters” what they mean. The pro-Hamas group announced they would do this, so, there were quite a bit extra cops on hand, and they erected barriers. For a Christmas tree lighting

Additional NYPD units were called, law enforcement sources told The Post, adding that officers were being attacked.

“They should have shut it down. They lost control of the street. I was shoved, punched, kicked. It’s bullsh–t,” one cop caught in the fray said.

Another called it “complete chaos.”

Imagine Jews or Christians doing something like this at a Muslim religious ceremony: Muslims would completely riot, and the media would be running tons of opinion pieces decrying the Jews/Christians.

Jamie Fry, 42, who flew in from the United Kingdom to watch the tree-lighting spectacle said the protest was “very annoying.”

“I had planned my holiday around this event, being a big fan of Christmas. Now I’m walled in by a bunch of terrorist-loving a–holes calling for intifada,” Fry told The Post.

Yes, they are terrorist lovers.

They also disrupted a tree lighting in Seattle.

Read: Pro-Hamas Protesters Get Violent, Try And Stop NYC Tree Lighting »

Posted in Christmas, RoP | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

Your Fault: Global Boiling Is Biggest Human Health Risk

By William Teach November 30, 2023 – 7:00 am

But, African nations can solve this with lots and lots of sweet, sweet no-strings-attached redistributed cash

Climate change is the biggest human health risk, says Africa’s disease boss

Climate change is the biggest threat to human health in Africa and the rest of the world, the head of the continent’s public health agency said.

Mitigating that risk was top of his agenda, Jean Kaseya, the director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told Reuters as he headed to the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, which begins on Thursday.

The measures needed, Kaseya said, would include funding to help countries in Africa trying to contain outbreaks of disease.

Diseases never happened in Africa prior to CO2 going above 350ppm, you know

In an online interview, he said the threat of “a climate change-related disease becoming a pandemic and coming from Africa” was what kept him awake at night.

Since the start of this year, Kaseya said Africa has tackled 158 disease outbreaks.

“Each outbreak, if not well managed, can become a pandemic,” he said.

Maybe stay away from eating bats and stuff that causes Ebola. Use DDT to kill of malaria carrying mosquitos

Scientists have linked a surge in diseases, including dengue and cholera, to rising global temperatures, which have broken records this year.

Cholera is a relatively recent disease, starting in the early 1800s. Before the Industrial Revolution. During the Little Ice Age. Same with dengue, though, that started in the late 1700’s.

Extreme weather events such as floods can also help diseases spread and challenge response efforts. Deforestation, a contributor to climate change, also pushes humans into closer contact with disease-carrying animals, like bats.

Stop cutting down the trees and moving where these animals live. That has zero to do with climate change, natural or anthropogenic.

Seriously, the Black Death killed an estimated 200 million during the beginning of the Little Ice Age in just a few years. The Plague Of Justinian killed 30-50 million during the Dark Ages. Smallpox in 1520 killed an estimated 56 million in just a year. COVID killed around 6.9 million, but, the population is way, way, way more than back then. In fact, many of the worst outbreaks over the past two millennia have occured during cooling periods.

Read: Your Fault: Global Boiling Is Biggest Human Health Risk »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

LGB Blames Retailers For Inflation, Wants Them To Lower Prices

By William Teach November 30, 2023 – 6:45 am

You didn’t seriously expect a guy who was in government since 1973 up to January 2017, then since January 2021, to understand how economics works, did you? That he would understand balance sheets and the need to make a profit to stay in business, when he can just demand millions from people to hire his son to do a job he doesn’t know how to do, right? That when he goes to get ice cream (which is good for dementia) the shop has to raise prices because eggs, cream, milk, chocolate, vanilla, fruit, etc. costs them more?

Biden admits prices ‘too high’ but blames sellers for 18% inflation

President Biden acknowledged Monday that prices are still “too high” and argued that companies should lower them after an 18% jump in consumer costs since he took office.

“We know that prices are still too high for too many things — that times are still too tough for too many families,” the 81-year-old said near the White House.

“We’ve made progress, but we have more work to do,” Biden added. “Let me be clear to any corporation has not brought their prices back down, even as inflation has come down, even supply chains have been rebuilt: It’s time to stop the price gouging and give the American consumer a break.”

The prices of some goods, such as food products, are expected to decline in the coming months, but periods of general deflation are rare in US history.

It would be nice if they went down, but, two main components are still high: wages and fuels, and, to some degree, general energy. But, many services are much higher due to COVID. Auto insurance is up about 25%, due to the increased cost of medical care, auto prices, repair prices, and part prices, among others. How does that come down now?

The president also attacked Republicans Monday, saying they “want to go back to the bad old days when corporations looked around the world to find the cheapest labor they could find, just to send the jobs overseas and then import the products back to the United States” — despite opposition to outsourcing being a signature issue for former President Donald Trump.

Says the guy leaving the border mostly open, which will deflate wages.

Annual inflation has cooled this year due to aggressive interest rate hikes, though it remained an elevated 3.2% in October and interest hikes caused fresh consumer pain, sending average credit card rates to 27.81% — roughly double the 14.6% APR when Biden took office — and average 30-year home mortgage rates have soared from 2.65% to between 7 and 8% this year.

Auto rates are way up, anywhere from 2 to 4 points. And people are carrying massive credit card debt. New cars are about $2000-$6000 higher than pre-COVID. Used will come down to reasonable within 6 months, but, that will leave people with massive negative equity. This isn’t Joe’s fault, it’s China’s fault. Biden’s little “Inflation Reduction Act” failed to target the things driving inflation.

Read: LGB Blames Retailers For Inflation, Wants Them To Lower Prices »

Posted in Economy, Joe Biden | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

The Future Of Fossil Fuels Takes Stage At COP28 As Tens Of Thousands Take Fossil Fueled Trips To Dubai

By William Teach November 29, 2023 – 5:08 pm

You know, the host nation who’s economy is based on fossil fuels

COP28 summit: Future of fossil fuels center stage at climate talks

Delegates from nearly 200 countries will convene this week for the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, where conference host and OPEC member the UAE hopes to sell the vision of a low-carbon future that includes, not shuns, fossil fuels.

That narrative, also backed by other big oil producer nations, will reveal international divisions at the summit over how to combat global warming.

Countries are split over whether to prioritise phasing out coal and oil and gas, or scaling up technologies such as carbon capture to try to diminish their climate impact.

So the BBC asks

COP28: Can a climate summit in an oil state change anything?

I don’t know. Kinda hard to force the climate cult beliefs on Other People when

Read: The Future Of Fossil Fuels Takes Stage At COP28 As Tens Of Thousands Take Fossil Fueled Trips To Dubai »

Posted in Climahypocrites, Climate Cult, Global Warming | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 29, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…are dangerous looking carbon doom infused clouds, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Average Bubba, with a post on liberal stupidity.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

NY Times Notes Most Democrats Do Not Think Much Of The Bidenconomy

By William Teach November 29, 2023 – 10:30 am

I’m sure they’ll find a way to cover for Biden, right?

Even Most Biden Voters Don’t See a Thriving Economy

Presidents seeking a second term have often found the public’s perception of the economy a pivotal issue. It was a boon to Ronald Reagan; it helped usher Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush out of the White House.

Now, as President Joe Biden looks toward a reelection campaign, there are warning signals on that front: With overall consumer sentiment at a low ebb despite solid economic data, even Democrats who supported Biden in 2020 say they’re not impressed with the economy.

In a recent New York Times/Siena College poll of voters in six battleground states, 62% of those voters think the economy is only “fair” or “poor” (compared with 97% for those who voted for Donald Trump).

The demographics of Biden’s 2020 supporters may explain part of his challenge now: They were on balance younger, had lower incomes and were more racially diverse than Trump’s. Those groups tend to be hit hardest by inflation, which has yet to return to 2020 levels, and high interest rates, which have frustrated first-time homebuyers and drained the finances of those dependent on credit.

So, the people doing OK in the Bideconomy are rich? Huh. The economy, as defined by the stock market, GDP, steadily falling inflation numbers, and unemployment is doing great. Those figures do not translate into what the avg citizen feels what they pay out for weekly necessities as wages, prices etc. always lag behind these statistical economic indicators. Combine that with all world turmoil with regional wars, the disinformation being shoveled out in an upcoming election year and that is the reality on the ground vs. upbeat statistics.

But if the election were held today, and the options were Biden and Trump, it’s not clear whether voter perceptions of the economy would tip the balance.

“The last midterm was an abortion election,” said Joshua Doss, an analyst at the public opinion research firm HIT Strategies, referring to the 2022 voting that followed the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling. “Most of the time elections are about ‘it’s the economy, stupid.’ Republicans lost that because of Roe. So we’re definitely in uncharted territory.”

And therein lies the question: will the damaging economy matter in 2024? Trump is just too polarizing, and, if he does the same old schtick it could turn off enough people that he fails to win enough of the states he needs to win, even against a horrible president like Biden.

Nuñez isn’t alone in feeling dissatisfied with the economy but still bound to Biden by other priorities. Of those surveyed in the six battleground states who plan to vote for Biden in 2024, 47% say social issues are more important to them, while 42% say the economy is more important — but that’s a closer split than in the 2022 midterms, in which social issues decisively outweighed economic concerns among Democratic voters in several swing states. (Among likely Trump voters, 71% say they are most focused on the economy, while 15% favor social issues.)

How much of a difference will having all those illegals in NYC, Chicago, Boston, etc. make? Democrat voters see the problems created by Democrat policies. But, they keep coming out in droves to vote the same way. The NY Post blasted AOC for noting that New Yorkers are blowing out of the city because they cannot afford it, due to the very policies Democrats like her enact.

It’s difficult for presidents to directly control inflation in the short term. But the White House has addressed a few specific costs that matter for families, for example, by releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to contain surging oil prices in late 2022. The Inflation Reduction Act reduced prescription drug prices under Medicare and capped the cost of insulin for people with diabetes. The administration is also going after what it calls “junk fees,” which inflate the prices of things such as concert tickets, airline tickets and even birthday parties.

It’s only difficult when Democrats are in office. When Republicans have the White House they get blasted by the NY Times. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was a gimmick that did not help in the long term, and has left it dangerously low. It only capped a dozen drugs, with the prices having nothing to do with inflation. Junk fees? That would do what, exactly? Things are not good. But, will Trump, if he’s the GOP candidate, do the things necessary to blow up the Biden/media narrative, or be the same old bull in a China shop, going after people personally and forgetting to talk policy?

Read: NY Times Notes Most Democrats Do Not Think Much Of The Bidenconomy »

Posted in Economy, Joe Biden | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

Climate Cult High Poobahs Back To Pushing Taxes On “Bad” Stuff

By William Teach November 29, 2023 – 7:00 am

As tens of of thousands of people take fossil fueled trips to the fossil fuels supplying nation of Dubai, the Warmist elites, who’ll be taking lots of private fossil fueled jets which will have to be deadheaded to other airports, are back to pushing taxes

‘Tax the bad’ to boost climate finance, COP28 panel advises

Increasing taxes on polluting activities and cutting fossil fuel subsidies could generate trillions of dollars to tackle climate change, an advisory panel to the COP28 talks in Dubai said.

Summit host the United Arab Emirates, a major oil producer, has said the two-week meeting starting on Thursday must deliver “tangible action” on climate funding, which has been squeezed by rising debt burdens, faltering political will and patchy efforts by private finance.

Higher carbon taxes – including levies on emissions from the maritime and aviation sectors – should be among options COP28 studies, the panel recommended.

“We see a big potential, particularly from taxing the bad internationally and using that money to generate predictable resources,” panel member Amar Bhattacharya of the Brookings’ Center for Sustainable Development told a briefing.

In economics, taxing the bad refers to levies that target harm to the public good – for example, greenhouse gases – as a way to raise revenues and discourage the activity.

How can those things be “bad” when so few Warmists have given up using them in their own lives? Do the peasant level Warmists understand that cheering for carbon taxes will mean a higher cost of living in their own lives? If you increase the cost of, saying maritime shipping, the price of goods will go up. I’ll stop, because you’re smart enough to understand how this works.

There are growing calls for a carbon levy on shipping, which transports around 90% of world trade and accounts for nearly 3% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

It would be ugly.

Investments in the fossil-fuel economy continued to outstrip those made in the clean economy, it said. Subsidies for fossil fuels totalled $1.3 trillion, and substantially more if counting the societal cost of dealing with emissions and pollution.

Yeah, those of who aren’t nuts and inventing bullshit manners of economics do not count the societal cost.

Aviation, which accounts for some 2-3% of emissions, is not directly covered by the Paris Agreement but the air transport sector has pledged to align itself with its goals.

I suggest a big tax on private jets that cost more than $10 million. And better, anyone worth at least $1 million will have to pay a huge tax for every flight they take. People like Al Gore are good with that, right?

Read More »

Read: Climate Cult High Poobahs Back To Pushing Taxes On “Bad” Stuff »

Posted in Carbon Credits, Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 23 Comments | Trackback URL

Unhinged Jew Haters And Hamas Lovers Have A List Of Who They Can Boycott

By William Teach November 29, 2023 – 6:45 am

Each and every day they prove that they aren’t in opposition to Israel, that their opposition is not rooted in hatred of Jews

Boycott Baskin Robbins? Heck to the no. Great ice cream. Liberals have to be freaking about boycotting Starbucks and Disney, which support pretty much every hardcore leftist ideal. All those companies might operate in Gaza if it wasn’t for all the terrorists and terrorist supporters.

Haram means forbidden by Islamic law, hence, they are showing that this is about hardcore, extremist Islam, which hates Jews. Maybe we can have a list of Palestinian stuff to boycott, but, what are they actually inventing other than murdering, raping, beheading, and torturing women and children?

Humorously, every time these wackos use a barcode they’re using something invented by two Jews, Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver.

12-year-old Israeli hostage was held at gunpoint, forced to watch horrors

With the release of 12-year-old Eitan Yahalomi on Monday night from Hamas captivity, his aunt, Deborah Cohen, depicts the terrible treatment he experienced.

Eitan was kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 massacre from Kibbutz Nahal Oz. (snip)

If previous hostage releases that took place this past week created the impression that Hamas is treating the Israeli hostages who are being held captive in the Gaza Strip well, Eitan’s testimony depicts an entirely different reality.

In an interview with the French news outlet BFM, Cohen said that after speaking with Eitan it was clear to her that he went through “terrible things” while in captivity.

According to Cohen, Hamas forced him to watch the uncensored October 7 documentary released by the IDF.

The 12-year-old watched about 45 minutes of footage that portrays the evidence of the gruesome attack carried out by Hamas terrorists. Many of the scenes take place in Nahal Oz where Eitan is from.

“They forced him and other children to watch it. The entire movie. Whenever another child would cry during the screening, they would threaten them with a rifle to silence them,” Cohen explained.

They’re sub-human animals who live in the 6th Century, and even the estranged son of Hamas’ founder is calling for Israel to kill him if all the hostages are not released.

Read: Unhinged Jew Haters And Hamas Lovers Have A List Of Who They Can Boycott »

Posted in Israel, RoP, Unhinged Tools | 4 Comments | Trackback URL
Pirate's Cove