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scary developments in 2023

friday, march 3rd, 2023

Ibelieve most people hope 2023 is a better year than 2022.  But I am not counting on it.

In just the past two years, our national government has spent roughly $13 trillion and authorized spending trillions more.  Politicians use words and phrases like "investments," "long-term savings," "reducing inflation," "protecting Ukraine's sovereignty," etc. to justify this.  Clearly, they are either lying or living in a fantasy world.  Most of the money is being used to pay off campaign contributors and special interest groups, such as the climate change lobby, or to make politicians look good.

[FULL TITLE: "The Scariest Developments To Watch Out For In 2023."]

Inflation spiked to nine percent in June 2022, so the Federal Open Market Committee began raising interest rates to fight it.  As interest rates rose, the stock market tanked.  In 2023, interest rates will likely increase further, possibly sparking a worldwide recession.  Neither is good news for investors.

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

China appears to have ended its zero-COVID policy for economic reasons.  Now COVID is out of control in the Middle Kingdom, which will lead to other complications, such as pneumonia.  Since the Chinese communists do not like to be embarrassed, if China is suffering, they may want everyone else to suffer, too.  That seems to coincide with reports that roughly half of the airline passengers from China have tested positive for COVID.  They caused a pandemic once.  Why not twice?

Supply chains are a second issue.  Who will make the products we normally buy if Chinese workers are sick?  Yes, I know this sounds like a "who cares" thing.  But if they are not shipping parts, our factories will grind to a halt.

Naturally, these two problems overlap.  Due to a rash of lawsuits in the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies moved their manufacturing facilities to China.  Now China makes most of our antibiotics.  If Chinese workers are sick and using the antibiotics they usually produce, there may be little left to export.  With antibiotics already in short supply in the U.S., what do we do?

If you want to see life before sulfa drugs and penicillin, visit a graveyard that is at least a few decades older than World War 2.  The number of grave markers for young children and infants is sobering.

In Heaven, the pizza is from Chicago and there are no politicians. In Hell, the politicians are from Chicago and there is no pizza.

Illegal immigration is not good for the U.S.  It strains our medical and educational resources, costs billions to support people who cannot legally work here, and may increase the crime rate.  Roughly five million people have crossed into our country in the last two years.  How many are sick?  How many are vaccinated, and what are they immunized for?  How many are criminals or terrorists?  The government does not know and seems not to care.

Republicans are not helping clarify this issue.  Regarding the border, Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz says, "President Biden does not have a plan."  Actually, he does.  It is called let millions of illegals in, make them citizens, and get re-elected in 2024.

Now that Biden  has visited the border, will the flood of immigrants decline in 2023?  Apparently, the optics of illegal border crossings was making Democrats nervous.  So now potential migrants will be allowed to apply for asylum in their home countries and simply fly to the U.S.

There are other questions related to the border that should be asked.  For example, Mexican cartels are rumored to be making billions from human-trafficking and drug-smuggling.  Where does all the money go?  Is it possible someone in our government is getting a percentage to ignore these problems?  Has anyone bothered to investigate?

Okay, what about fentanyl?  This stuff is toxic and deadly.  In fact, over 110,000 deaths were attributed to fentanyl-type opioids during a 12-month period in 2021–2022.  Since you can die from breathing fentanyl and it is easy to manufacture, could terrorists use it to make an unsophisticated weapon of mass destruction?  Has Homeland or the DOD considered this?

Friends: "John, why don't you run for elected office?" Me: No way, I'd run from elected office!

It may surprise you that none of the previous issues scares me as much as the similarities I see between 1914 and 2023.

In 1914, there were two large, well armed military alliances in Europe.  Both had armed forces numbering in the millions, with detailed plans for confronting their potential enemies.  All that was needed for a  war to start was some unfortunate event to justify mobilization.  That event occurred in June 1914 with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  Only a month later, the armies mobilized, war-fighting plans were activated, and the war began.  No one seemed able to stop it.

In 2023, we already have a land war in progress in Europe between Russia and Ukraine over Ukrainian territory claimed by Russia.  Ukraine is backed materially by the largest military alliance on Earth, NATO.  Since Russia and NATO have been adversaries in the past, both have war-fighting plans and doctrines from the Cold War era.  Even though Russia has already threatened to use nuclear weapons multiple times, it cannot without risking retaliation by NATO.

Similarly, for several decades, China has claimed the Island of Taiwan as its territory and has indicated that it is ready to use military force to resolve the situation.  The main ally of Taiwan is the United States.  Both the U.S. and China have nuclear weapons.  So far, both sides have limited themselves to political posturing and war games.

What could change this?  Let's assume Joe Biden stumbles, falls, hits his head, has a stroke, none of which is unusual for someone in his eighties.

The problem is: It's not OUR guns. It's YOUR sons.

If he cannot continue serving as president, Kamala Harris will become the leader of the free world.  While this may ignite ecstasy within the Democrat cult of diversity, it will likely ignite a sense of opportunity elsewhere.  

Let's review why Biden chose her as his running mate.  First, she is a female Democrat politician.  Second, she is a "person of color."  Yes, that is all you need in the world of identity politics.  Hopefully, the fact that she was a district attorney, California attorney general, and senator from California factored into the decision, but who knows?

Even so, her ability at the presidential level seems lacking.  Behind-the-scenes reports and actual observations of her performance indicate she has trouble processing information, dealing with subordinates, talking without laughing inappropriately, and speaking in clear sentences.  Moreover, as a campaigner, she is a complete dud because she comes across as spoiled and entitled.

So what happens if Putin decides to use a tactical nuke to encourage Ukraine to surrender?  What if Xi decides this is the time to mount a full-scale invasion of Taiwan?

Suppose a single nuclear weapon is used in any capacity for any reason.  That will focus the world's attention like nothing else.  At that point, the DEFCON numbers will begin to fall as everyone's war-fighting plans start to spool up.  In 1914, they had thirty days to avert war.  Now we may have less than thirty hours.

In the game of world domination and power politics, we could have one or both of the world's most ruthless dictators in one corner.  While in the other, we have the world's foremost beneficiary of identity politics plus a gang of frightened European socialists.  What could go wrong?

© 1.13.2023 by John Kudla, "American Thinker"

A Day In The Life.

Up at 8:30a on Friday, I went thru my finger stick to check my BSL (Blood Sugar Level) and recorded it on my Diabetes 2 chart, made coffee and breakfast, took a Tylenol Extra Strength for various pains, had a couple smokes in the semi-cool garage and checked the leftover errands list. It was 38°, sunny and clear, and forecast to hit 45°. Big difference from yesterday.

Nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to do it with.

I scanned the weather and news, tuned into the "Chris Plante Show", from 9-12, since I had nothing on my to-do list, to do. Sherry was working at her Daughter's Shop, in nearby Hallam, so I wouldn't see her today. After yesterday's crappy day, I sure could use a hug and a kiss. Thew left-side, massive headache continued.

After lunch, I fell asleep on the LR couch, with the headache, and woke-up 3hrs later, with a still-bad headache. A real head-splitter. Sherry called and stopped by to visit, on her way back from working, and we both got a much-needed hug and kiss. She left around 5, I had Cream of Crab Soup for dinner, and the headache got worse. Much worse. I watched the news, 2 usual guys on Fox, and watched the new episode of "Gold Rush" on Discovery+; then made it an early night at 10:30p. Snow coming tomorrow, or so they claim.

The absence of pain, is pure joy.

I slept-in until 9:15a on Saturday, no headache, and sans headache, had coffee, a couple of smokes in the garage, scanned the weather and news. Overcast day, 30°, and I just lounged around in my luxurious Turkish Bathrobe, most of the morning. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to do it with. The 1-2" of snow didn't materialize here, but was passing to the north of us. Michigan sure got hammered from it, and now New York State and New England are getting it.

The L/S of my skull was still painful from Thursday and yesterday, so I took a 30mg Oxycodone, and laid down to rest on the LR couch. Falling asleep was the best thing I could have done, and having nowhere to go was even better. That pretty much finished-off my day, as I don't drive on any painkillers or similar meds.

I tried a new podcast -- The Ben Domenech Podcast, a Fox News Contributor -- for a few hours, but I reserved a final "judgment" on it, based upon what I heard. Lee stopped-by to chat, but because of my 1½ days of serious and painful L/S headaches, I thought it best not to go with him on a trip to nearby Thomasville. Better to stay home and let it all settle-out, instead of driving and taking any risk..

Tik Tok is "Cultural Fentanyl".

I grabbed an hour-plus of shut-eye, and watched the 6p news and got back on the computer to do some "house cleaning" -- defragging & optimizing the HDs -- and some other computer-related work. I'd had enough by 10p, and called it Yankee Doodle. Lights out.

I slept-in until 10:15 on Sunday, a bright, sunny, 45° start to the day. Forecast was for a 58° day. (Winter's NOT over yet) After breakfast, I skipped all painkillers, got ready for the day, and checked my to-do list: empty. I put my cellphone on charge, and fell asleep on the LR couch around 1p, and slept until 5p. Wowzer, the day was gone. I had a grilled cheese, and went to bed. Day over.

I slept-in until 9:45a on Monday, and could barely get out of bed, I was so tired. Some cold air in the garage, a smoke, coffee and I was wide awake, checking the day's to-do list. By 10:30, I felt fine and got ready for the day. Just a trip down south to the cleaners. I tuned into the "CP Show" until 12noon, and left for Red Lion.

What's happening at the southern U.S. border with Mexico is in fact an invasion, Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe says. “We’re experiencing a silent invasion of military age men,” Coe told The Center Square when describing what his deputies have been increasingly facing over the past two years. He spoke with The Center Square during an Operation Lone Star task force multi-day operation during which law enforcement officers rescued foreign nationals from a burning vehicle and revived a five-year-old girl being smuggled who’d been stashed inside of a car’s trunk. The “silent invasion,” Coe said, is being committed primarily by single, military age men between the ages of 17 and 45 who are illegally entering the U.S. They’re wearing camouflage and carrying backpacks, according to video captured by cameras placed throughout the county viewed by The Center Square. Many are armed and dangerous, committing robberies and engaging in shootouts with law enforcement, Coe said. The men are believed to be working or associated with Mexican cartels. Once they arrive in major U.S. cities, they are embedded with gangs and or cartel affiliates acting like a “Trojan horse,” Coe said. “They set up in our cities, take over through voting and or crime, and scare the local people who move out. It’s happening in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio,” he said, where crime has also exponentially increased over the last few years. He said, “You can win a lot of battles without getting violent,” referring to the “silent invasion” as an act of war against the U.S. by Mexican cartels." Yep, it's happening.

So, every newspaper and website in the leftist universe, have now canceled "Dilbert"? Based upon what Scott Adams said on You Tube? Hyperbole? Irony? Comedy? No, it was the TRUTH. They're some of the most racist people I've seen and heard on TV, but have never met, personally. OTOH, Americans, who just happen to be black, are good people. I'd share a meal with them, any day, or defend their backs, anytime. The majority of the Rasmussen Poll respondent, black racist filthies are merely SUBHUMAN NIGGERS. Deal with it, people. BTW, NO; I don't read the comic strip. Never have.

I was back home by 1p, and tuned into the Chris Stigall Show Podcasts, on iHeart Radio, for a few hours. Amazingly, the Chris Stigall Show Podcasts">Wuham CCP-China Lab Leak of Covid-19 is true, as I said many time in this "Journal", while US Gov't officials -- the lying bastard Fauci Criminal, being #1 -- denied it, claiming it was a "wet market" thing.

I grabbed a short hour nap on the LR couch, and felt fine, unlike this morning, and the past 1-2 days. I cleaned out the 'fridge of some "overdue" items, and since I'll be going to Weis Market on Wednesday, I can easily replace them. After dinner, I watched Fox News, the rain started, the two Fox Opinion Guys -- Watters and Carlson -- and some spisodes of "Gold Rush", until 11:30p. Lights out.

"God Made A Fighter" -- good campaign ad.

Sure, CCP-China dismisses US energy department's lab-leak report on COVID-19 origin. The CCP-Chink Commies are liars. Surprise. I've said so for over 2yrs in the Pages. Prove me wrong.

If you don't think CCP-China's the world's real enemy, take a few minutes and read this... if you dare

Up at Zero-Dark-Thirty -- 5:55a on Tuesday -- but it's getting lighter earlier; now at 6:15a, as we move toward the Summer Solstice, in June. it was still raining. I upped the heat, made coffee, tuned into the Chris Stigall Show LIVE from Philly, until I woke up. JoAnne, my cleaning lady, would be in at 8:30, so I had plenty of time to get ready for that. After breakfast, I got ready for the day, had coffee and a few smokes in the garage, and tuned into the "CP Show", until noon. I'd planned to meet Sherry at 1p, at the huge York Galleria, to get some exercise in for the day.

“When we expelled Jesus Christ from all things National, America died. An old pastor from the 1950s era -- I don’t remember his name -- once said: 'When God judges a nation, He does so by giving them terrible leaders.' I thought that was kind of a weird statement, until I thought about it for awhile. The left is completely unhinged. It’s their standard MO, and they will become violently evil at the drop of a hat. At 73 years of age, I don’t plan on physically fighting with anyone these days, especially someone 50 years younger than me. IF it gets physical, to the point where I must defend myself, or my Family or Friends, from and physical harm, I’m just gonna shoot the evil SOB and call it good." [Anonymous eMail].

Sherry and I walked 1½ miles -- 3 laps around the York Galleria's Upper Mezzanine -- and came back to my condo to relax a while. She left at 5p, I got some dinner, and fell asleep on the LR couch for an hour, and back up in time for the news. I listened to Watters and Carlson, while I did some computer work, and then switch-over to some early season "Gold Rush" episodes until 11. Lights out.

Up at 8:15a on Wednesday, I had lower back/hip pain, so I took some meds for that, turned-up the heat, made coffee, and scanned the news and weather on my desktop in the office-sunroom. A cloudy and nippy 36° outside, I had plans to go to Weis Market around 12 noon, but tuned into the "Chris Stigall Show" until the "CP Show" came on at 9. It was a nice day, with a projected high of 58°. but with snow/ice coming on Friday morning.

Today, is technically the "Meteorologically" The First Day of Spring, did you know? Spring might not officially begin until March 20 with the vernal equinox, but meteorologists and climatologists actually consider March 1 the beginning of spring. This is because the astronomical seasons are based on the Earth’s position relative to the sun, while "meteorological" or "climatological" seasons are divided into three-month periods based on the temperatures that would be expected during each season. The start of spring depends on whether you're referring to the astronomical or the meteorological start.

Chicago Mayor Lori "DYKE Dwarf Asshole" Lightfoot, a demonKKKrat dwarf scumbag, lost her re-election bid Monday night, and critics are celebrating the end of her term. Now, if Chicago can just elect a real crime-prevention, pro-police mayor, they can make a comeback to a Tier 1 City. I doubt it, though. This corrupt, criminal, loudmouthed demonKKKrat Randi Weingarten bitch needs to go to prison, as well.

"It is not a secret that over the past decade, hundreds of large U.S. corporations have adopted woke policies, regularly injecting left-wing ideals into their products, services and employment practices. But some of these businesses have recently gone much further than merely promoting social justice causes; they have chosen to target conservative customers and employees, coercing or forcing Americans to abandon their deeply held beliefs in order to receive important goods or services or to stay employed." I'm changing banks from Wells Fargo and PNC, to somewhere else; still working on that. I started with Dauphin back in 1990, then Drovers, then PNC and now Wells Fargo. Time for another change, perhaps back to Drovers. Sad that America has to go thru this idiotic shit.

No, I haven't read a word about this Murdaugh Trial, which seems to be "transfixing" the Nation, and don't plan to get into it. I just don't care about it.

Are you ready for WEF's "The Great Reset"? I'm not, and will fight it to the bitter end.

I left for Weis Market at 12:30p, got what my list called for, got home and unloacded. After lunch, I caught 2hrs on the LR couch, did some condo chores, had dinner, watched the evening news, a new "Americvan Pickers" episode, more of Season 4 of "Gold Rush" until 11:30, and called it Yankee Doodle for the night.

I slept-in until 9:15 on Thursday, to a warm but damp, 53°, cloudy morning. At least we weren't getting any snow tomorrow, as the forecast had changed to only show rain for the York area, with the massive snow/ice storm going to our north. No complaints from me. I scanned the news and 10-day weather forecast, took my 3 pain and 19 regular pills, and had breakfast. I had 3 loads of laundry upstairs that I'd try to get to, after my 1p walk with Lee at the gigantogundo York Galleria Mall. I got ready for the day and, what the hell, started 1 load of laundry, before walking at the Galleria.

Auto Racing - REAL Auto Racing, such as F-1, IMSA & IndyCars -- starts this weekend, and I'll be watching! HOO-RAH!

I listened to my usual "CP Show" from 9-12, while doing laundry, sorting thru eMail and some niggling paperwork, and just as I was getting ready to leave for some walking, Lee called and canceled. Okay by me; I had plenty of other things to do. I got all 3 loads of laundry done, folded, and put away. Gold Star for me.

By 2p, it was 59°, all laundry was done and I closed-up the front/back screen doors, and hit the LR couch for a short snooze. After an early dinner, I went back to paperwork and filing, watched news and the 2 usual Fox Guys -- wal-to-wall coverage on the Murdaugh murder trial verdict, which I don't give a crap about -- and switched over to "Gold Rush" until 11p.

Tomorrow starts a new week here in the "Journal", and with just a Therapeutic Massage for my lower back and hips, the week is clear, so far.

Blackout Risk: Nation’s Largest Grid Operator Warns of Capacity Shortfalls.

The nation's largest grid operator is warning it may face a major coming shortfall in electric generating capacity as utilities retire more and more traditional fossil fuel power plants.

It's a challenge facing grid operators across the country as power generators mothball coal and natural gas-fired plants for various reasons, such as reducing high maintenance and regulatory compliance costs or cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

PJM Interconnection, which manages grid operations across 13 states and the District of Columbia, published new analysis Friday showing retirements outpacing new additions in the coming years that could leave its service area short of thousands of megawatts of capacity by 2030.

"Retirements are at risk of outpacing the construction of new resources, due to a combination of industry forces, including siting and supply chain, whose long-term impacts are not fully known," it said in its report.

PJM said this shortfall is on track due to a "potential timing mismatch" between retirements, growing electricity demand, and the pace of new generation coming online.

Nearly 40,000 megawatts, or 40 gigawatts, of generating capacity in PJM is forecast to retire by 2030, 90% of which is coal and natural gas.

PJM's "low entry scenario" envisions an addition of just over 15,000 megawatts over the same period.

Under its high entry scenario, capacity additions through 2030 would be twice that at 30,000 megawatts, still short of making up for retired capacity.

PJM serves more than 65 million consumers living between northern Illinois and the Eastern Seaboard, including all of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

Traditional generators are retiring rapidly due to government and private sector policies as well as economics, PJM noted.

Coal retirements are forecast to make up well over half of all planned generation retirements in 2023 at 8.9 gigawatts, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Utilities are under increasing pressure from the Biden administration and investors to phase out fossil fuel resources, especially coal, for the sake of mitigating climate change.

The administration, which has a goal of achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035, is also drawing up a suite of regulations to crack down on coal plants after the Trump administration liberalized rules.

The report follows multiple warnings from regulators at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation that utilities, lawmakers, and grid operators need to act to better manage the pace of retirements or else risk more of the blackouts seen during recent extreme weather events.

Several utilities, including TVA and Duke Energy, had to implement controlled outages during peak demand periods in December when winter storm Elliot struck.

PJM had its own issues with generator outages during the storm, during which coal made up nearly half of additional generation, according to a report released Thursday by America's Power, a coal-fired power interest group.

Retiring those resources without having replacements in order further threatens grid reliability, NERC has said.

© 2.24.2023 by Jeremy Beaman, "The Washington Examiner".

Three Huge Reasons Why Electric Vehicles Will Never Dominate American Roads.

Here’s the most important fact about plug-in electric vehicles (EV), courtesy of the liberal content-creators at Wikipedia in the opening sentence of their post on “Government Incentives for Plug-in Electric Vehicles:”

Such incentives “have been established around the world to support policy-driven adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. These incentives mainly take the form of purchase rebates, tax exemptions and tax credits, and additional perks that range from access to bus lanes to waivers on fees (charging, parking, tolls, etc.).” [Emphasis added]

The campaign by the Western elite in the U.S. and Europe to force everybody else to stop driving cars and trucks powered by fossil-fueled internal combustion engines and adopt EVs instead is a product of the elite’s policy choices, not ours.

No matter that hundreds of millions of Americans own and depend upon their cars and trucks to earn their livings, go where they can purchase the basic necessities of life, and visit any place they choose to go to in this vast land.

President Biden has made a regulatory policy decision that half of all vehicles sold in America will be EVs by 2030. He is spending billions of tax dollars to install half a million EV charging stations around the country to serve the anticipated explosion in demand for electric “refills.”

And federal tax credits are available to help obscure the fact that EVs remain extremely costly for consumers and offer unproven maintenance and reliability records. No wonder that, despite the immense pressure being put upon consumers to buy EVs, they still only make up about seven percent of all new-vehicle purchases.

The fact that Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, and the rest of the world’s automakers are rushing to offer EVs throughout their model lineups is a response to the government, not consumers.

In other words, the elites in government, media, academia, woke corporations, entertainment, and non-profit advocacy communities are doing everything they can to sell EVs, but the vast majority of Americans aren’t buying. That’s the first of three huge reasons EVs will never dominate American roads.

The second reason is seen in a recent analysis by John Eichberger, executive director of the Fuels Institute, a research and advocacy group backed by a coalition of energy and transportation firms.

Eichberger told me in an email:

The decision by several governments to mandate all vehicles sold by 2035 be “zero emissions vehicles” got me thinking – how would such a decision affect the United States.

Disclaimer for the nerds like me: Unlike the Fuels Institute reports that you may be familiar with, this is not an exhaustive analysis – it does not consider how or should or buts – and it is not a forecast. It assumes the planets align and all works out to achieve 100 percent of sales in 2035 are ZEV.

Assuming average vehicle sales and scrappage rates and an average annual increase rate in ZEV sales to achieve 100 percent market share, a 2035 ZEV mandate could convert 16.5 percent of the fleet by 2035 and 60 percent by 2050. This means 83.5 percent of vehicles in operation in 2035 will be primarily powered by liquid fuels.

Think about that. Even under an optimistic scenario of achieving a 100% market share of annual vehicle sales in 12 years, less than one-fifth of the nation’s overall vehicle fleet will be EVs. That means more than 83% of all the cars and trucks on the road will still require gasoline or diesel.

When I asked Eichberger about the Biden schedule, he responded, saying he “did do a 50 percent of sales by 2030 achievement and kept ZEV sales growth constant beyond that date. Results in 6.6 percent fleet conversion by 2030, 100 percent sales by 2035, and 21 percent fleet conversion by 2035.”

Put another way, elected officials and bureaucrats who think they can simply wave their regulatory magic wands to achieve their policy aims might as well order the sun and moon to reverse their courses.

Related: The Dark Side of Green: Indonesia’s ‘Tainted City’ Is Killing Workers

And that brings us to the third huge reason EVs will never dominate American roads: A study recently published by an environmental advocacy group, the Climate +Community Project. According to the study’s authors:

A crucial aspect of electrified transportation is new demand for metals, and specifically the most non-replaceable metal for EV batteries– Lithium. If today’s demand for EVs is projected to 2050, the lithium requirements of the US EV market alone in 2050 would require triple the amount of lithium currently produced for the entire global market. This boom in demand would be met by the expansion of mining. [Emphasis added]

Large-scale mining entails social and environmental harm, in many cases irreversibly damaging landscapes without the consent of affected communities. As societies undertake the urgent and transformative task of building new, zero-emissions energy systems, some level of mining is necessary. But the volume of extraction is not a given. Neither is where mining takes place, who bears the social and environmental burdens, or how mining is governed.

To their credit, the researchers acknowledge the reality that exploding demand for the batteries that power EVs will require an exponential increase in mining the lithium those batteries require. That increased mining activity will result in much greater environmental damage if lithium demand is not curbed.

But check out the researchers’ recommended approach to limiting lithium demand:

This report finds that the United States can achieve zero emissions transportation while limiting the amount of lithium mining necessary by reducing the car dependence of the transportation system, decreasing the size of electric vehicle batteries, and maximizing lithium recycling.

Reordering the US transportation system through policy and spending shifts to prioritize public and active transit while reducing car dependency can also ensure transit equity, protect ecosystems, respect Indigenous rights, and meet the demands of global justice.

Note there is not a word about consumer choice in that prescription. The desired end of researchers is to be achieved through the use of government force — AKA “federal regulation” — to make all of us non-elitists toe the elite line.

In other words, just so the elitists can pursue their EV policy goals, everybody else will have to all but give up the vast freedoms afforded every American with a car or truck to go where they please when they please. Reducing “car dependence” means all but ending private ownership of cars and trucks.

© 2.23.2023 by Martk Tapscott, "PJ Media"

Biden and Buttigieg Fumble, Trump Runs It In for a TD.

Instead of America asking why it took 19 days for former President Trump to visit East Palestine, Ohio, we are asking why it took Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg 20 days.

That’s how badly His Fraudulency Joe Biden and Buttigieg bungled the Norfolk Southern train derailment and toxic spill. They had 18 whole days to beat Trump to the punch, and they still blew it.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not criticizing Trump. What he did was spectacular in several ways. Trump in East Palestine on Wednesday was Trump at his best, was Trump firing on all political cylinders. Instead of shit-posting on Truth Social, he was proving he cared for the very people the political, media, and entertainment establishment write off as Red State Trash. Trump not only visited, he did something, he accomplished something. He brought supplies paid for with his own money. Most of all, he connected. While Biden was in Ukraine (amid staged air sirens) to stand by the people of Ukraine, Trump stood with the forgotten and discarded people of this country.

I’ve certainly not been shy about criticizing Trump, but I have no doubt he really cares about America and Americans. Keep in mind that the mega-builder from Queens was an outsider in Manhattan. Remember that he spent decades working with and depending on the working class to build his dreams. He gets us. He really does.

Joe and Pete, not so much.

Joe hardly knows where he is anymore and only seems interested in earning the good opinion of the European Union. This is why he went to Ukraine instead of his own Ohio. This is why he’s determined to protect Ukraine’s border while he opens ours wide to destroy American towns, cities, and schools deliberately.

Pete reminds me of the kid in second grade who sat in the back of the room, ate paste, and shrieked in fear if anyone got near him—you know, that weird little kid who lived in his own weird little world. Pete’s like that. Pete always needs his quiet time, his time off, his parental leave… But even with all of Pete’s oh-so-delicate sensibilities, he still had 18 days —- 18! —- to beat Trump to Ohio, and couldn’t find the time.

People who don’t understand just how much people like Biden and Pete truly freaken hate people like the residents of East Palestine, Ohio, are probably shaking their heads in confusion: How could smart politicians with smart advisers blow such an easy call, miss all the political upside that would come with a two-hour visit?

Yes, they are all smart, but they are also poisoned by hate for middle America, and this hate has so warped their judgment Trump waited 19 days to seize this opportunity and still beat the haters,

If you gave people like Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg a red button and told them it would give every Trump supporter stomach cancer, they’d fall all over themselves to press it.

These people HATE us.

Their allies in the media and entertainment HATE us.

They are driven and twisted and broken by this hate.

You think Bill Clinton would have missed this opportunity? Nope. You know why? For all his flaws, he was one of us. He didn’t hate us. His wife hates us. He doesn’t. Joe and Pete? They hate us. Trump? The only thing he hates is how the broken and corrupt political establishment prioritizes everything —- and I mean everything —- over the American people.

© 2.23.2023 by John Nolte, "Breitbart".

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