Melting ICE

European Automakers Warn That Combustion Engine Ban Isn’t Possible

Industry leaders urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to reconsider plans for phasing out fossil fuel-powered vehicles by the mid-2030s.

The largest of those carmakers are in Germany, where they’re already witnessing the cost of Green Folly:

Oh, the humanity!

the peruvian-afghani lgbt dance team for the promotion of democracy will need a new sponsor —greenwich invisibles, are you listening?

Trump scraps $5B in foreign aid in rare ‘pocket rescission’

WASHINGTON — President Trump is moving to cancel nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid and peacekeeping spending in a rare “pocket rescission,” The Post has learned — making use of a legally debated maneuver that hasn’t been done in 48 years.

Trump on Thursday night notified Congress of his request to cancel the funds, which had been tied up in a court case until earlier in the day.

A pocket rescission is a request that’s presented to Congress so late in the fiscal year — which ends Sept. 30 — that it’s made regardless of whether Congress acts.

The clawback includes $3.2 billion in United States Agency for International Development (USAID) development assistance, $322 million from the USAID-State Department Democracy Fund, $521 million in State Department contributions to international organizations, $393 million in State Department contributions to peacekeeping activities and $445 million in separately budgeted peacekeeping aid.

The spending had been destined for a wide variety of nonprofits and foreign governments and was paused earlier this year by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and then stuck in legal limbo due to an ensuing lawsuit filed by the Global Health Council.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday lifted an injunction in the case, opening the door for Trump to proceed with the first attempted pocket rescission since 1977.

The Trump administration has [previously] highlighted spending items that are allegedly wasteful, such as $24.6 million for “climate resilience” in Honduras, $2.7 million for the South African Democracy Works Foundation, which published inflammatory racial articles including “The Problem with White People,” and $3.9 million to promote democracy among LGBT people in the Western Balkans.

Other highlighted allocations include $1.5 million to market the paintings of Ukrainian women.

The roughly $838 million in peacekeeping funds being eliminated include payments to support United Nations peacekeeping forces in places such at the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Trump administration recently brokered a peace deal with next-door Rwanda, and the Central African Republic, where the mission has been criticized as aligned with Russian business interests.

White sharks, white powder. this doesn't surprise me in the least

no, that’s not “pizza” carlos is delivering

Nantucket’s sewage reveals higher than average cocaine levels in the water

“Nantucket Nose Candy”

While results have bounced up and down since testing began at the start of summer, the most recent findings showed just under 1,500 nanograms per liter (ng/L) of cocaine at Surfside, compared to a national average of 1,000 and an average across the rest of the Northeastern U.S. of just 900.

Sold, but sadly, at a very low price that surely failed to fully compensate the owners who put so much effort into preserving it.

295 Taconic Road finally sold yesterday for $2.450 million after beginning in March ‘24 at $3.250.

An old classic still retaining 5.2 acres, the home was described by David Ogilvy when he listed it back in 2010 for $3.2 million on behalf of the estate of the Beatrice Chase, as “THE BRUSH-LOCKWOOD HOUSE ORIGINAL PORTION FROM 1775 [The tax card and current listing say 1792, so take your pick — ed] NOW AN 1867 SUPERB SECOND EMPIRE W/MANSARD ROOF, WONDERFUL CORNICES, DECORATIVE TRUSSES”. Alas, the house was pretty-much a wreck at time and, as friends of mine who toured it with me with an eye towards its renovation suggested, it really would have benefitted from being moved further back off the road and deeper into its five-acres of lawn/meadow.

I can’t remember whether it was the estimated prohibitive cost of such relocation, or whether there were restrictions preventing it, but my friends declined the opportunity and finally, in 2014, these owners purchased it for $1.650 million — about half the price it had asked in 2010.

The new owners, in turn, put on a new slate roof and replaced/improved all the mechanical and other essential elements, but more or less stopped there, leaving a daunting amount of work still to be done. And that explains the low price achieved now.

Our local historian Jeffrey Mead provided more information on the house a few years ago:


Jeffrey Bingham Mead's post

Images of Greenwich, CT  ·

Welcome to the Brush-Lockwood House. Located on the corner of North Stanwich and Taconic roads on over five acres in the Stanwich Historic district, the original portion of the house was built in 1792.

In 1867 the house was extensively remodeled in the Second Empire style. The house and property was locally purchased several years ago. Since that time the property has undergone extensive restoration by an owner who truly appreciates its distinctive history.

One of its previous owners was Shubal Brush, who operated the tannery across the street -and who was well ahead of his time. He called for the end of slavery and giving women equal rights decades before it became law.

And answered a reader’s query thus:

Here’s the barn on the property: newer, and in far better shape, as I recall.

That would indeed explain a great deal

Tearing down Cross of St. George flags

(I was never quite sure what British Home Office did, so I asked Google AI)

AI Overview

The UK Home Office is the British government's interior ministry, responsible for national security and public safety. Its key responsibilities include immigration and passports, counter-terrorism, crime and policing, drugs policy, and fire and rescue services. The department works to keep the UK safe and secure by managing the country's borders, making decisions about who can enter the UK, fighting crime and terrorism, and ensuring the public feels safe. 

Key Responsibilities

  • Immigration and Passports: The Home Office manages who enters and leaves the country, processing visa applications, deciding on asylum claims, and issuing passports. 

  • Crime and Policing: The department supports public policing and is responsible for policies related to crime prevention and reducing crime. 

  • Counter-Terrorism: A major focus is on protecting the UK from terrorist threats and related security issues. 

  • Drugs Policy: The Home Office shapes government policy on illegal drugs. 

  • Fire and Rescue Services: It oversees these services in England. 

How It Works

  • Internal Agencies:

    The Home Office is a large department that leads several agencies and bodies to carry out its functions, such as Border Force, HM Passport Office, and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). 

  • Policy and Law:

    It creates and implements policies across a wide range of public safety and security matters within the UK. 

  • Home Secretary:

    The department is headed by the Home Secretary, who is a senior Cabinet minister responsible for the department's work. 

What is the US equivalent of the UK home office?

These are the Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence, the latter two of whom, like the Home Secretary, also sit on the US National Security Council.

Mr. Science resigns – why wasn't he fired January 21st? Or before? Monkeypox hasn’t been a “thing” since the Provincetown Gayfest in ‘22 (UPDATED 8/29)

Prounouns and leather pentagram harnesses — Marcus Welby, he ain’t

Biden's monkeypox advisor resigned from his director role at the CDC to fight fascism

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis has served as the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases since 2022. You may recall that Biden appointed him as advisor for the monkeypox epidemic that was spreading among gay men (and their dogs).

On Wednesday, however, Daskalakis resigned with a scathing letter attacking President Trump and Health Secretary Kennedy.

[Didn’t Monkeypox disappear a few minutes after its spin in the 24-hour news cycle? Why was he still on the government dime?]

Here's a little of what Gay Satan ("he/his/him") had to say as he publicly posted his resignation on X.

I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective August 28, 2025, close of business ...

[“Scientific policies” like 463 different sexes, COVID vaccinations for infants, and men who can get pregnant.]

I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public's health. The recent change in the adult and children's immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people.

Yes, pregnant "people. "

Some examples include the announcement of the change in the COVID-19 recommendations for children and pregnant people, the firing of scientists from ACIP by X post and an op-ed rather than direct communication with these valuable experts, the announcement of new ACIP members by X before onboarding and vetting have completed, and the release of term of reference for an ACIP workgroup that ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC ...

Sincerely, Demetre C. Daskalakis MD MPH (he/his/him)

Perhaps the best part is when he said his resignation wasn't political and then cited fighting "fascism" to make his dead grandpa proud as the reason for his decision.

Nothing political going on here. Just a brave doctor who is standing up for people's health! 🙄

UPDATE: David Strom has lots of things to say about this tragic tale of a principled satanist/scientist done wrong, including this:

Back in the good ol' days of Biden, ideology played no role in making public health decisions, such as directing medical treatments based on race or burying the facts about COVID's origin, or the health effects of COVID vaccines. It was The Science™ that directed all decisions, and who better to determine the value of science than a Satanist and an insane transgender "woman" who encouraged medical professionals to recommend sterilizing and mutilating minors?

Lithium battery cars and barbeques

Family sues Tesla after Cybertruck owner dies in 5,000-degree inferno, causing bones to disintegrate

A Tesla owner was burned alive in his Cybertruck after the stainless-steel beast erupted in a 5,000-degree inferno so intense it caused his bones to disintegrate, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Texas.

Michael Sheehan, 47, bought the futuristic pickup in April 2024. Just three months later on Aug. 3, the truck veered off-road, slammed into a culvert and burst into flames near Beach City, around 30 miles east of Houston.

The raging fire trapped Sheehan inside the vehicle as the batteries powering the $100,000 SUV went into catastrophic failure, court filings say. The blaze was so hot Sheehan’s skeletal system literally fractured from the heat.

Sheehan’s widow, Shannon, and his parents filed the suit in June, accusing Tesla of selling a vehicle so defectively designed it transformed a survivable crash into a fiery death.

“This was a single-vehicle crash,” the petition states. “The crash forces were survivable… except for the fire, ergonomic shortcomings, and deficient crashworthiness.”

….

The lawsuit says the Cybertruck’s electrically operated doors can’t be opened once power is cut. Exterior handles fail, and the manual release latches inside are “unreasonably difficult to locate in an emergency.”

Tesla, the filing continues, gave owners “insufficient warnings or training” on how to exit post-crash.

The suit claims the Cybertruck’s battery system was “hyper volatile” and prone to “thermal runaway,” a chain reaction of short-circuits that unleashes uncontrollable heat. KHOU11

“But when Tesla delivered this [Cybertruck] to him, the instructions they gave him were woefully inadequate to handle a situation like this.”

He was drunk, but really, the cause of the crash and what happened afterwards are different issues, for the most part.

[Plaintiff’s attorney] West acknowledged that Sheehan had alcohol in his system, a fact noted in the complaint. But, he argued, “that shouldn’t sign his death warrant.”

In fact, the lawsuit also targets 3180 Bar, LLC, doing business as The Barn Whiskey Bar, where Sheehan was allegedly overserved on the night of the crash.

Attorneys accuse the bar of continuing to serve Sheehan despite his condition and failing to intervene or provide safe alternatives.

Sheehan was the first person to die in a Cybertruck crash since the model launched in November 2023, according to The Independent.

One bright spot: he died while doing the three things he loved most:

“His obituary said he loved [drinking and driving, and] cooking for family and friends.”

Still addressing the important issues, saying the things that must be said

half out of the closet himself

Good Point

handing off to transman

From #MeToo to #FreeKilmar: Democrats keep trashing their dearest values over Trump

Just eight years ago, in those halcyon days of 2017, millions of women took to the streets in pink “pussy” hats to protest the election of President Donald Trump, who they saw as an affront to women.

The Women’s March planted leftists’ enraged flag in the sand — and eight months later they swamped social media and America’s airwaves to excoriate sexual harassment in the workplace.

Protecting and believing women was the movement’s clarion call, with the hashtag #MeToo a symbol of women standing together against predators and abusers.

And now, in 2025, they have once again taken to the streets to rally around . . . a credibly accused wife-beater.

Just because Trump is trying to deport him.

…. The left is out in full force — marching, singing, chanting, even traveling to Central America — to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia, known to the sycophantic legacy media as the “Maryland man wrongfully deported by the Trump administration.”

In fact, Abrego Garcia is from El Salvador.

He’s an illegal immigrant who gamed the asylum system to remain here after a judge issued a deportation order due to his apparent ties to MS13, a notorious gang whose members, experts say, “systematically use gender-based violence . . . to exert territorial control.”

He’s also an alleged serial wife-beater, according to his spouse Jennifer Abrego Garcia, who has been recorded begging a judge to step in and protect her.

And he was caught in the act of human trafficking, for which he’s now facing charges.

…. Yet as Trump tries to rid America’s streets of this lowlife, the media and the Democrats have rallied to Abrego Garcia’s side, demanding his freedom.

“Kilmar is all of us,” tweeted Democratic Socialist Rep. and progressive standard-bearer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Really? Why are we all Kilmar the wife-beater and not Jennifer, the American citizen who said he repeatedly beat her up?

What happened to “Believe All Women”?

It’s truly amazing: The left went from pussy hats and #MeToo to adoringly boosting a wife-beating gangbanger in just eight short years, for no other reason than that the wife-beating gangbanger is someone Trump wants removed from the country.

A Trump deportation order was all it took for the warriors of the #MeToo movement to embrace a violent misogynist.

There’s not a value leftists hold dear that they won’t immediately turn on if they suspect Trump agrees with it.

Remember when the left fought for free speech?

Not anymore! The Biden administration routinely pressed social media companies to censor posts that didn’t align with the regime agenda.

Or remember when the left supported “my body, my choice” — until Biden pushed mandatory COVID vaccines?

Or when the left stood for women’s rights — then started demanding access for trans athletes in women’s sports and women’s locker rooms?

The age of Trump has scrambled the categories of left and right, but nothing makes liberals renounce their own values like Trump himself.

Not so long ago, a hawkish immigration policy was a left-wing preoccupation. As recently as 2015, Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders was calling open borders “a Koch brothers proposal.”

Labor unions used to oppose immigration on the grounds that a mass supply of cheap labor hurts working-class wages.

But when Trump made that exact case, every single Democratic politician — including Sanders! — turned on a dime and promised to decriminalize illegal border crossing, and Biden went on to do just that.

They’ve done the same 180 on economics: Remember when it was the left that supported tariffs and a strong manufacturing base? That was the basis of the Democrats’ electoral “blue wall.”

Now they’re all-in on free trade, condemning Trump’s tariffs as a tax on consumers — even though corporations seem to have eaten the lion’s share of them.

Leftists spent the last five years braying about greedflation and demanding higher corporate taxes  — yet when Trump actually got corporations to eat $100 billion in tariffs, they pivoted yet again.

The Je Suis Kilmar-ification of the Democrats reveals a party adrift — from its voters and its values.

It’s a party that has supplanted any positive platform, policy or message with a reflexive mandate: oppose Trump, whatever he does.

He is a singular threat to Democracy! they insist.

The truth is, Trump is a singular threat to Democrats — not because he opposes them, but because he’s pilfered their best material, and with it their base.

And rather than fight for either, they’ve abandoned both.

Related:

Dem Laments: When You Stand For Nothing, Trump'll Make You Fall For Everything