And at filling stations too, Tim; we need a victory, and your fellow morons can provide it

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(I paid $1.67.9 per gallon in NH January 20, 2021: I remember, because Joe Biden was being sworn in while I filled my tank.)

Tim Walz Wants You to Have “Hard Conversations” With People at the Grocery Store

Kamala’s running mate Tim Walz was campaigning in Wisconsin this weekend when he told a crowd that the race is going to be a battle in which you speak to people in the grocery store and ask them if they’ve voted yet.

“This thing’s going to be a battle for the next 52 days,” he said. “It’s gonna be won in rooms just like this. It’s gonna be won door-to-door, call-to-call, $5 donation, trying to have that hard conversation in the produce aisle with the person you saw there at the grocery store.”

If I were a Democrat, I don’t think I’d harangue strangers while they’re standing in front of the meat section staring at rib eyes they can no longer afford, or at the check-out counter, paying three-times what they were paying in 2020. But then, I’m not a Democrat, so I’m not stupid.

Not even if they paid ME

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And we’ll even throw in Pennsylvania

EV Dealers Are So Desperate to Offload Stock That They're Offering Lease Deals For $20 a Month

How soft is the new EV car market? Some EV vehicles have been on their lots for so long that they're offering lease terms so generous, they may as well be giving them away.

A Kia dealer in Virginia only gets a couple of inquiries a month for EVs. The price tag of new vehicles scares them off, says Finance Director Ramon Nawabi. He's got a few EV 6 SUVs that have been on the lot for six months that Kia is now offering discounted leases on top of the $7,500 EV tax credit “just to move the car,” he says. “In a sense, we’re giving them away.”  

That $7500 tax credit helped dealers sell a million EVs in 2022. However, the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act severely limited how that $7500 tax credit could be applied. There are now price caps for EVs ($80,000 for SUVs and trucks; $55,000 for cars), and the batteries must be American-made. Also, the vehicles must be assembled in the U.S. There's also a cap on the net income of the potential buyer.

But you can avoid the restrictions if you lease a new EV. "That’s allowed car companies or dealers to bundle the $7,500 tax credit savings into the lease financing cost, lowering consumers’ monthly payments," reports Bloomberg News.

Also, the bottom has fallen out of the EV resale market. The average price of a used EV fell by 32%over the past year, while the average price of a used gas-powered car fell just 3.6%. It makes no sense to buy a new EV if your purchase loses one-third of its value in one year. 

There are enough worries in buying an EV, including charging, lack of choice, and driving range. Now, owners worry when it comes time to sell the vehicle, they’re not going to get much back.

“Consumers didn’t used to be worried about the resale value of an EV, but (Tesla chief executive Elon) Musk cutting prices made people feel like they owe $50,000 on their Tesla and now, it’s only worth $40,000,” said Pat Ryan, chief executive of free car shopping app CoPilot. "When people see the value of an EV drop so dramatically, it creates a new problem."

Who ya’ gonna believe, the Administration and Al Gore, or your own lyin eyes?

ABC:
More Americans are starting to embrace EVs. Sales of electric cars and trucks last year totaled 1.4 million in 2023, up from 1 million in 2022, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced in January.

“The progress that’s been made is phenomenal,” Albert Gore III, executive director of the nonprofit coalition Zero Emission Transportation Association, told ABC News. “The United States has been a leader in electric vehicle manufacturing and also has really been a leader in a lot of good policymaking with regard to investment in every part of the EV and battery supply chain.”

Gore also noted that electric vehicles can have a significant impact on the economy, saying, “There’s a huge amount of opportunity.”

The industrial Midwest, Southwest and Southeast already have seen investment and job opportunities in the production of minerals and battery components for EVs. Georgia, Nevada, Texas, Ohio and Kansas have grown as domestic hubs for battery manufacturing, while Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and Arizona have risen as leaders in EV manufacturing.

“So a lot of really exciting economic opportunity in these places, and oftentimes it’s multiple parts of the supply chain,” Gore added.

Lest we forget our native homeless while we fret about foreign invaders; they’re still with us

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I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
California dreamin, On such a winter's day

Homeless Encampment Starts Massive Fire - Destroys Apartment Building, Flames Spread

Six people were injured after a massive fire broke out early Friday at an apartment building in Chinatown and spread to a nearby structure, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

The fire erupted shortly after 4 a.m. at a three-story building in the 800 block of North Bunker Hill Avenue, officials said. The fire was believed to have started by homeless encampments.

"There have been several fires at this structure here. And they come out and they put it out, the police chase the homeless out, but they keep coming back. So this time, they set it good," said resident Ken Ferris.

Video from AIR7 showed dramatic flames spewing from the upper floors of an adjacent building and through the roof after the fire engulfed the original building

More at ABC

Just in time for the election, Disney/ABC create Fantasy Land Entertainment Network

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ABC News Caught Grossly Deceptively Editing Kamala Harris' Disastrous Solo Interview

As RedState reported, Kamala Harris' first solo interview since wresting the nomination away from Joe Biden did not go well. The vice president seemed ill-prepared, rambling on about things unrelated to the questions being presented by ABC News reporter Brian Taff

One particularly egregious example occurred when she was asked to give just two specific things she'd do to bring down costs for Americans. What followed was a mind-numbing word salad in which she spent nearly a quarter of the interview (which was only 10 minutes long) rambling about being "middle class."

The above exchange can be seen online by going directly to ABC 6's website. Guess who didn't see it? That would be the network's television audience. According to Tom Elliott, who runs Grabien, a media service that archives news coverage, ABC 6 and Taff made an astonishingly dishonest edit to the interview before playing it on the nightly news. 

Specifically, the above word salad was completely cut out of the interview, and instead, a later portion was spliced in. In the recording of the live broadcast, you can hear Taff ask the question posed in the above excerpt, yet the answer Harris is shown giving was not her actual answer in the interview.

I realize that the Episcopalians ditched the guy long ago, but I'd thought the Jesus thing was still a part of Catholic belief. That leaves the Baptists; anyone else?

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The idiotic lockdown can be blamed for lots of things, but I’d look elsewhere on this one: try DEI, and die.

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The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students, according to Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math Brendan A. Kelly.

The course, titled Math MA5, will run alongside two established math courses — Math MA and MB — with an expanded five-day schedule.

Kelly said that students in MA5 will meet with “one of two instructors all five days” with “a variety of different activities” on Tuesdays and Thursdays. [finger painting, finger pointing, and wailing about injustice? — Ed]

He said the Covid-19 pandemic led to gaps in students’ math skills and learning abilities, prompting the need for a new introductory course.

“Students don’t have the skills that we had intended downstream in the curriculum, and so it creates different trajectories in students’ math abilities,” Kelly added.

These Harvard students - despite their incapacity for college-level work - will likely graduate with straight-A grades, since that is pretty much the only grade that Harvard gives out:

Harvard gave 79 percent ‘A’ grades in recent academic year

A newly released report revealed 79 percent of grades given to Harvard students in 2020-21 were in the A range, nearly a 20 percent increase from a decade ago.

Approximately 60 percent of grades given in the 2010-11 year were in the A-range, The Harvard Crimson reported Thursday.

A faculty-administration meeting was held to discuss what, to outsiders at least, might be considered a problem. Here’s one proposed solution, an obvious cure that just restates clearly what has always been understood, at least in Cambridge: “All Harvard students are exceptional, so there’s no need to distinguish among them — to hire one is to hire all.” Looking at the quality of the people Harvard has unleashed upon corporations, politics and the country’s new fourth branch of government, the Administrative, I’d say that policy has been in effect for at least the past 100 years.

During the meeting, faculty brought up several strategies to address grade inflation and compression.

Romance languages and literatures Professor Annabel Kim suggested the “abolition of grading” and the institution of “narrative-based” evaluations, according to The Crimson. 

That’s all well and good, but is there room in our schools and in our government to accept still more of these illiterates? To make sure there is, the Charles River Trouts have created yet another specialty, one that will produce a new place to slot useless hires

Harvard to Train 'Planetary Healers' to Save World From 'Climate Change' and 'Structural Racism'

Students in this concentration will also learn about the health inequity born out of environmental degradation. Structural racism and international economic policy have exacerbated the climate crisis, with communities of color, poor communities, and the Global South being disproportionately impacted. You will be equipped to use research, leadership, advocacy, and policy to implement solutions that better serve these populations.  

I read about this when it happened last month, and thought "drug dealer fight"; now that the cops have released the perps' names, and further details, it still looks that way to me.

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6 Florida Men Charged with Conspiracy, Carjacking Offenses in Connecticut

Following a violent carjacking and kidnapping in Danbury that many people in Connecticut were following, six Florida residents have been charged by federal criminal complaint with multiple offenses:

  • ANGEL BORRERO, aka “Chi Chi,” 23, of Miami, Florida

  • JOSUE ALBERTO ROMERO, aka “Sway,” 26, of Miami, Florida

  • REYNALDO DIAZ, aka “Rey,” 20, of Belle Clade, Florida

  • ANTHONY PENA, aka “Tony,” 23, of Miami Gardens, Florida

  • MICHAEL RIVAS, 18, of Miami, Florida

  • RICARDO ESTRADA, aka “Ricky,” 21, of Miami, Florida

The six defendants have detained since they were arrested on related state charges on August 25, 2024.

As alleged in court documents and statements made in court, in the late afternoon of August 25, 2024, Danbury Police received multiple 911 calls from witnesses who observed several males assaulting another male and forcing him into a white work van.  Responding officers encountered the van on Clapboard Ridge Road, near the intersection of East Gate Road, and attempted to stop it.

The van accelerated at a high-rate of speed and crashed approximately one mile away on Cowperthwaite Street.

Four men dressed in black, later identified as Borrero, Romero, Pena, and Diaz, exited the van and fled on foot.  Officers arrived at the location of the disabled van and located a male and female victim, both bound with duct tape, in the back of the van.

The male victim had significant injuries to his face and arm.  Both victims were transported to the hospital for further evaluation. The victims reported that the Lamborghini Urus they were operating was rear-ended by a Honda Civic on Damia Drive in Danbury, and a white work van cut in front of their vehicle.  The victims were then forcibly removed from their vehicle, dragged into the van, and bound with duct tape.  When the male victim began to resist, he was punched in the face and hit with a baseball bat.  The victims were repeatedly told that they would be killed.

Borrero, Romero, Pena, and Diaz were apprehended in various locations within a quarter-mile radius from where the van crashed.  Rivas and Estrada, and the Honda Civic, were located at a short-term rental home in Roxbury.

The victims’ Lamborghini was found abandoned in the woods off the roadway on East King Street.  It is alleged that Borrero organized, paid for, and booked flights for the six defendants to travel from Florida to commit this criminal activity.

You don’t need to import six hitmen from Florida and stash them “in a short-term rental” just to carjack a Lamborghini — plenty of “yuts” in Waterbury or the Bronx would do it just for the fun of it all.

Only a million and a half bucks, yet comes with "full-sized stainless steel appliances"! Such a deal.

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and the ridgeline slopes south, for easy drainage

I suppose that’s a compelling detail for a NYC refugee fleeing a 500’ studio apartment equipped with a mini-fridge and a hotplate, but ordinary people expect a working kitchen at this price range.

In any event, those New York buyers having failed to appear, 28 Sound Beach Avenue has cut its price today from $1.595 million to $1.525. Besides those appliances, this one’s proximity to transportation should prove the icing on the cake.

A gourmet kitchen sure to be a chef’s delight