Ford’s New Tiny EV Is Supposed To Be A Game Changer

By William Teach February 26, 2025 – 7:15 am

Aren’t they all supposed to be game changers? Ford is risking a lot of capital on this venture, after already losing vast sums of money on EVs

Electric Ford ‘Fiesta’: game-changing affordable EV due 2026

A new range of smaller and more affordable electric Fords will be spawned from an upcoming ‘skunkworks’ architecture on which the firm aims to produce the world’s most efficient electric cars.

This new platform, the development of which is being led by a former Tesla engineer, could underpin spiritual successors to the Fiesta and Focus and a replacement for the Puma, as well as opening up the potential for other small cars from Ford.

The architecture programme is still in the engineering stages, yet it is the first concrete sign that Ford sees a way back to offering a whole suite of more affordable models underneath the new Explorer, Capri and Mustang Mach-E SUVs in addition to the Puma.

“We are spending a decent amount of time at the corporate level talking about affordability,” Marin Gjaja, chief operating officer of Ford’s Model E division, told Autocar recently.

“We know we need to do it and it’s a muscle we need to build up over time.

“If you look at our line-up globally, at this point we don’t really have much in the affordable segment. The key for us is to be affordable, differentiated and profitable. For too long we stayed in the affordable segment, either at break-even or losing money.

Affordable seems to mean tiny with little range. And, come on, it’s a Ford. Would you trust a Ford other than a truck? They keep trying to push this stuff on consumers, even though consumers are not clamoring for them. When does it end?

Read: Ford’s New Tiny EV Is Supposed To Be A Game Changer »

Posted in Global Warming | 28 Comments | Trackback URL

US Islamist Group Urges ICC To Investigate Biden Over Gaza

By William Teach February 26, 2025 – 7:00 am

Biden was very much hot and cold when it came to Gaza. It seemed like he wanted to side with Israel and Jews, but, also provide aid to the murderous Palestinians while also providing, sometimes unintentionally, aid to Hamas. He and his party have let in scores of Islamist into to the United States, doing all they can to make them citizens, yet, at least one group has turned on him

ICC urged to investigate Biden for ‘aiding and abetting’ Gaza war crimes

A US-based nonprofit organization has urged the international criminal court to investigate former president Joe Biden and two of his cabinet members for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

The request, submitted by the Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) last month but made public by the group on Monday, urges the ICC to investigate Biden, as well as former secretary of state Antony Blinken and former defense secretary Lloyd Austin, for their “accessorial roles in aiding and abetting, as well as intentionally contributing to, Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza”.

Dawn’s 172-page submission, which the group says was prepared with the support of ICC-registered lawyers and other war crimes experts, alleges that the former US officials violated articles of the Rome statute, the court’s founding charter, in their support for Israel.

According to a press release, the group’s submission to the ICC lays out what it describes as a “a pattern of deliberate and purposeful decisions by these officials to provide military, political, and public support to facilitate Israeli crimes in Gaza”, including “at least $17.9bn of weapons transfers, intelligence sharing, targeting assistance, diplomatic protection, and official endorsement of Israeli crimes, despite knowledge of how such support had and would substantially enable grave abuses”.

Look, say what you will about Biden, there’s no way I can support this Islamist group going after him (though, the irony is delicious after all the support for them by Democrats), and certainly not the ICC investigating him for supporting Israel after the US designated terrorist organization Hamas attacked Israeli civilians and all they did. Let’s learn a little more about DAWN

(NGO Monitor) In October 9, 2023, two days after the brutal Hamas attack, DAWN issued a press statement calling  on the ICC prosecutor to “Issue a public statement reminding all parties to the conflict that his investigation of international crimes in the OPT is ongoing, and will include all crimes currently taking place” as well as to “Immediately dispatch an investigation team to Gaza.” On October 15, DAWN sent a public letter to the ICC Prosecutor noting that “the ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute not only nationals who are party to the conflict in Gaza, but government officials who are aiding and abetting the commission of crimes by providing weapons and other materials used in the commision of crimes,” and calling for the Prosecutor to “Provide information about the work your office is currently undertaking to investigate and document crimes taking place in Gaza and Israel since October 7, 2023.”

In December 2023, DAWN submitted a list of 40 senior Israeli commanders to the ICC prosecutor, demanding an investigation for “planning, ordering, and executing Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment, wanton destruction, and mass killing of civilians in Gaza.” As part of its campaign, DAWN posted  “‘Prime Suspect’ cards” with the name, rank, photo, and alleged role of each individual Israeli. There is no indication that DAWN submitted any Palestinian names to the ICC.

So, right after their comrades murdered, raped, and tortured Jews DAWN was asking the ICC to protect….Hamas.

(Middle East Forum) On September 29, friends and colleagues of deceased Saudi dissident, Jamal Khashoggi, launched his “brainchild” – a new, shiny D.C. thinktank named DAWN, or Democracy for the Arab World Now. Led by Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN “seeks to highlight and celebrate democratic reforms in the Arab world, while also shining a light on human rights violations and arbitrary and abusive practices.”

“Abusive” is putting it lightly. Few can forget that the horror of Khashoggi’s murder. Killed and dismembered in 2018 inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey, his death sparked outrage around the world. But such outrage, and the gruesomeness of his murder, must not be used to sanitize Khashoggi’s ideology.

In reality, Khashoggi was an open supporter of violent, theocratic movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood. His public commentary included open support for designated terrorist organizations and unabashed anti-Semitism. Khashoggi appears to have reinvented himself as an exiled ‘human rights’ dissident only once he lost influence in Saudi Arabia after the rise of reformist Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and presumably trusting that his editors at the Washington Post would not bother to read the fascistic posts on his Twitter feed too closely. As even the Post itself reports, Khashoggi’s columns were “shaped” by a top official of the Qatari regime’s Qatar Foundation.

And DAWN has continued the beliefs of Khashoggi and the Muslim Brotherhood: hardcore Islam. Hatred of Jews. Hatred of the unbeliever. And, this just goes with what the MB wants: pretend everything is lollypops and unicorns while quietly infiltrating Western culture until it is too late. See Sweden and the United Kingdom, for one. So, yeah, I’ll take Biden’s side, and, perhaps Democrats will finally realize that these people are not their allies.

Read: US Islamist Group Urges ICC To Investigate Biden Over Gaza »

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Religion Is Fundamental To The Climate (scam) Movement Or Something

By William Teach February 25, 2025 – 3:00 pm

Gee wiz, I’m totally wrong when I refer to the climate change’ movement as a cult, right?

Why religion is fundamental to addressing climate change

“There is no time for imagination, religious or otherwise. We need to act now!” an irritated scientist told me during a workshop on climate change and religion in 2024. Contrary to the tone of his comment, this scientist was not dismissing religion as being marginal to tackling climate change, but his underlying assumption rang clear: religion, while undoubtedly a necessary part of the solution, is only useful if it works alongside rational science.

Research by me and my colleagues suggests that framing religion and science as totally separate entities is unhelpful in advancing a global response to climate change.

In 2022 and 2023, I spent four months conducting fieldwork in Egypt, living and interacting with Muslim and Christian communities in Cairo and Alexandria. As a salient reminder of the ongoing climate crisis, my research took place over the summer, when temperatures reached more than 45°C.

Who would have thought it got hot in Egypt in the summer? to the end

Fortunately, things are changing. Through initiatives such as the UN Environment Programme’s Faith for Earth Coalition and the faith pavilion at recent UN climate summits, religious groups are becoming more prevalent and active on the global climate stage.

But efforts to seek collaborations between scientists and faith communities are not good enough. We need to resist the urge to see religion as a mere vehicle for convincing most of the global population for whom religion gives meaning to life. The only way we can do that is for scientists and faith leaders to start laying the groundwork for new ways of thinking together.

As Russian author Leo Tolstoy once wrote, “Science is meaningless because it has no answer to the only questions that matter to us: ‘What should we do and how shall we live?‘” The climate crisis demands new ways of thinking, new ways of perceiving reality, and religion is fundamental to achieving that.

Yes, it is a cult, but, you have to understand that the point here is to subsume religion under the banner of global boiling, to make it secondary and controlled by the cult. The cult attempts to do it to everything, because this is about empowering government, making it bigger and more controlling, taking away the freedom, free speech, movement, everything from the masses. That is the heart of the ‘climate change’ movement: authoritarianism.

Read: Religion Is Fundamental To The Climate (scam) Movement Or Something »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 25, 2025 – 1:00 pm

…are mountains which lost their snow cover, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is GeeeZ…., with a post on ending the deficit.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 24 Comments | Trackback URL

LOLCNN: Federal Employees Are In Bedlam Over Musk Email

By William Teach February 25, 2025 – 10:30 am

Did CNN really think about this before publishing it? Because I thought it was from a satire site when I ran across it on Yahoo News first.

‘It’s bedlam’: Federal workers left in limbo as clock ticks down to Musk’s email deadline

Federal workers spent Monday trying to figure out how – or even whether – to respond to Elon Musk’s weekend email blast telling them to explain their work last week or risk losing their job.

A day of confusing and often contradictory guidance left many federal workers still unclear ultimately how to handle Musk’s request. Some were told to comply, others were advised not to, and still others were awaiting instructions from their agency’s leaders until late in the day.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump called Musk’s email demand “ingenious” and said that anyone who didn’t respond is “semi-fired or fired.”

Then, a couple of hours later, Trump’s own administration directly contradicted him, when the Office of Personnel Management formally notified agencies that response was voluntary and that any failure to respond would “not equate to a resignation.”

“Our chief said it was mandatory. Then OPM said it became voluntary. Then I guess Trump just told us it was mandatory again,” said one career employee with the Department of Veterans Affairs. “No one knows who is in charge and who to listen to.”

“It’s bedlam,” added one IRS employee.

Do federal employees not realize that Americans working in the private sector a laughing at them? Speaking derogatorily about them? Have zero sympathy? It’s 5 things. Over the course of a week. If you cannot think of 5 things you did last week and write it in 5 quick bulletin points then you aren’t really doing anything. It is not hard. Not hard at all.

The leftover bosses in the Permanent Federal Bureaucracy do not need to confuse things. How about finding out what your employees are doing? It’s rather your job. If this was the private sector there would be a lot of people on the chopping block for the inability to come up with 5 things, and for fighting against it. It really was brilliant to make this requirement, because it shows just how unhinged and intransigent the federal bureaucracy is. They live in a completely different world from the rest of Americans.

Not too belabor the point, if your boss, your bosses the boss, a person who assists the CEO, said “give me 5 quick things you did last week”, would you fight it? Or, would you jump on the computer and take 5 minutes to write the email and move on with your day?

More: ran across this at Real Clear Politics

RCP Podcast: What Did You Get Done This Week? DoD Shakeup, Trump vs. AP, Goodbye Joy Reid, Bongino’s FBI

…

“An organization that wants to take stock of what its employees are doing is a healthy thing, but this was not that,” Carl Cannon commented. “This was one step above trolling, really…It wasn’t a good faith effort to do what President Trump and Elon Musk say they’re trying to do, which is make sure the federal government workforce is working efficiently.”

“The tone was insulting and demeaning… Also, what person is going to read 2.3 million responses?”

Is this the new Talking Point? The email sent to require 5 things Was Mean? Frankly, Margaret, I don’t care. You are a worker bee. You do not run the federal government. There are requirements to have the job.

“…you need to know.”

“We had a lady on CNN today, a supposed federal worker who said she was infuriated by the getting this e-mail. She had time to go on CNN, but she didn’t have time to send a 30 second email saying, here’s what I was working on last week.”

“This is what people in the private sector have come to hate about how they view the public sector.”

Yeah. Are federal employees saying they cannot be held accountable?

Read: LOLCNN: Federal Employees Are In Bedlam Over Musk Email »

Posted in Government | 12 Comments | Trackback URL

Climate Scam Groups Say They Will Spend The Scam Money Given By Biden Regime

By William Teach February 25, 2025 – 7:15 am

Well, enjoy it. Because there will be no more forthcoming. If the Trump admin doesn’t figure out a way to cancel the contracts

Recipient isn’t giving in as Trump’s EPA tries to revoke climate grants

A coalition of nonprofits under fire from President Donald Trump’s appointees says it will begin doling out money from a $2 billion climate grant it received during the Biden era — despite the Environmental Protection Agency’s attempts to claw back the funds.

“When the EPA made a grant to us and grants to other awardees, there’s an official contract that the government enters into,” said Tim Mayopoulos, the CEO of Power Forward Communities, in an interview with POLITICO. “The agreement has not been terminated, and we have an obligation to fulfill it.”

He said his group, an umbrella for five nonprofits that include United Way and Habitat for Humanity, will deploy its initial $539 million disbursement from the grant over the coming weeks to help communities across the country build energy-efficient housing.

Asked for comment on the status of the fund, EPA referred POLITICO to a videotaped statement Feb. 12 in which Administrator Lee Zeldin demanded that a total of $20 billion in Biden-era green grants be returned — vowing, “The days of irresponsibly shoveling boat loads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over.”

Well, good luck with that. If they do spend it they best keep complete records and it best all go where it’s supposed to for what it’s supposed to. They best not siphon it off, either for the umbrella groups or the recipients. It best not be wasted. Because you can bet that the auditors will be taking a hard look at any disbursements.

Mayopoulos said those accusations misrepresent his organization, which intends to improve or build 11,000 multifamily and 61,000 single-family homes, spur 64,000 jobs and curb energy bills $1.26 billion over the seven-year grant period.

Good for them. What does that, for the most part, have to do with the climate scam? Those homes best be on the up and up.

Read: Climate Scam Groups Say They Will Spend The Scam Money Given By Biden Regime »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Homeland Security Ends Use Of Biden Era Fake Asylum Seeker App For Boarding Domestic Flights

By William Teach February 25, 2025 – 7:00 am

The Trump admin keeps give the “migrants” more and more excuses to not come. They’ve already cancelled the use of the CBP One app. Now the ones here won’t be able to freely fly around the country, especially on the taxpayer dime.

Noem ends Biden-era use of controversial app to allow migrants to board flights, except to self-deport

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is ending the use of the controversial CBP One app to allow migrants to board domestic flights – unless it is being used for their self-deportation.

“Secretary Noem is reversing the horrendous Biden-Era policy that allowed aliens in our country illegally to jet around our country and do so without identification,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

“Under President Trump, TSA and DHS will no longer tolerate this. Aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport,” they said.

The Biden administration had expanded the use of the CBP One app to allow migrants to enter the U.S. at ports of entry or via a separate parole process. That process involved them uploading information including a photograph. The Biden administration also allowed for the app to be used by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to verify a migrant without sufficient ID by comparing a photograph of a migrant in DHS records, and also use biometric matching. Those verified would also receive additional physical screening.

Of course, how many actually received that extra screening? It seems like a goodly chunk barely got basic screening, if any.

“Secretary Noem is reversing the horrendous Biden-Era policy that allowed aliens in our country illegally to jet around our country and do so without identification,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

“Under President Trump, TSA and DHS will no longer tolerate this. Aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport,” they said.

You and I have to go through the who rigamarole when we fly, because we are illegals. Well, now they cannot even fly unless leaving the country.

Trump administration directing ICE to track down unaccompanied minors: Source

President Donald Trump’s administration is directing immigration agents to track down unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S., a source familiar with the plans told ABC News.

An internal document from Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE), headlined the “Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative Field Implementation,” said the initiative claims to prevent children from being human trafficked or other types of exploitation.

There are more than 600,000 migrant children who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without a legal guardian or parent since 2019, according to government data.

And the Biden-Harris admin lost almost 300K of them.

Read: Homeland Security Ends Use Of Biden Era Fake Asylum Seeker App For Boarding Domestic Flights »

Posted in Illegal Immigration | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Climate Cult Now Blaming Egg Prices On Global Boiling

By William Teach February 24, 2025 – 3:00 pm

I’m surprised it took this long. Heck, they weren’t even blaming ‘climate change’ for egg prices during Bidenflation. And mostly saying there was no problem with eggs. But, now Trump is president, so….

What climate change means for bird flu — and the soaring price of eggs

Buying eggs at the grocery store has become a major headache for U.S. consumers, with the average price of a dozen large eggs in a typical American city reaching $4.95 last month. Since the start of 2020, the cost of eggs has increased by nearly 240 percent, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Recently, acquiring eggs has become a game of luck — as shoppers find barren cooler cases and limits on how many cartons they can buy at the grocery store. The kitchen staple has gotten so hard to come by that thieves stole 100,000 eggs — worth $40,000 — off of a distribution trailer in Pennsylvania earlier this month.

President Donald Trump ran his reelection campaign on, among other things, a promise to bring down the cost of groceries. But in the first two months of 2025, egg prices have continued to climb, sending government officials in search of answers and interventions.

Well, yeah, Biden killed off 100 million chickens. I do not blame him or his administration, they were worried about bird flu. Unless someone can provide solid proof that this was done in order to hose Trump. I’ve seen the conspiracy theories, and I wouldn’t put it past Democrats, but, I need proof. I really wasn’t blaming Biden for eggs during COVID/Bidenflation, except in terms of him making fuel prices higher. Anyhow, here we go after many more paragraphs

Climate change is also playing a role in rising egg prices — albeit differently from how it’s increased the price of other kinds of food. In recent years, extreme weather events like drought and flooding have disrupted food supply chains and sent shock waves through the economy that end up hitting grocery shoppers. In 2022, the Mississippi River entered a period of such extreme drought that ships transporting crops for cattle feed couldn’t navigate its channels. Meanwhile, in California, flooding and extreme heat hit some of the nation’s biggest suppliers of lettuce. As a result, the price of salad greens and some dairy and meat products rose. A study published last year projected that extreme heat driven by climate change will exacerbate overall inflation in nearly every country in the world by 2035.

When it comes to eggs, climate change is affecting supply more indirectly — by changing the migratory patterns and nesting habits of birds that carry avian influenza. As global average temperatures rise and extreme weather events scramble animal migration patterns and force some species north toward increasingly temperate climes, animals are crossing paths in entirely new configurations, making it easier for them to swap diseases.

Sigh.

Because bird flu evolves quickly and mostly in the wild, it’s hard for researchers to pinpoint exactly where and how climate change may be affecting its spread. What the handful of scientists who work on this topic can say for certain is that warming temperatures and rising sea levels are changing when and how birds move across continents, which may be influencing the unusually fast-paced and large outbreaks of bird flu that have been occurring for the past half decade or so.

So, they know jack shit, but, feel the need to fearmonger.

Read: Climate Cult Now Blaming Egg Prices On Global Boiling »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 24, 2025 – 1:00 pm

…is a world killing dog, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Green Jihad, with a post on rekindling the fire at a California lithium battery plant.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 13 Comments | Trackback URL

USAID Begins Process Of Putting Employees On Leave And Terminating, While LA Times Says Agency Is Awesome

By William Teach February 24, 2025 – 10:30 am

Such a shame, putting people involved in graft, waste, fraud, siphoned aid for idiotic projects on leave and terminating them. Closing USAID and folding any worthwhile projects directly under the State Department. None of the people defending them had any problem with terminating people who didn’t take the COVID “vaccine”

The Trump administration is putting USAID staffers on leave worldwide and firing at least 1,600

The Trump administration moved its fast-paced dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development toward what appeared to be its final phases, telling all but a fraction of staffers worldwide that they were on leave as of Monday and notifying at least 1,600 of the U.S.-based staffers they were being fired.

The move was the latest and one of the biggest steps in what President Donald Trump and cost-cutting ally Elon Musk say is their goal of gutting the six-decade-old aid and development agency in a broader campaign to slash the size of the federal government.

The move comes after a federal judge on Friday allowed the administration to move forward with its plan to pull thousands of USAID staffers off the job in the United States and around the world. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols rejected pleas in a lawsuit from employees to keep temporarily blocking the government’s plan.

“As of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally,” according to the notices sent to USAID workers that were viewed by The Associated Press.

Perhaps they should have done a better job. Should have not treated USAID as their personal slush fund for funding their personal beliefs

Lawsuits by government workers’ unions, USAID contractors and others say the administration lacks the constitutional authority to eliminate an independent agency or congressionally funded programs without lawmakers’ approval.

First, it was created by Executive Order, so, Trump can erase it the same way. As for funding, did Congress specifically authorize money for transgender comics in South America? Or, just for USAID? Anything specifically allocated can be disbursed properly by the remaining USAID employees, or, moved to State.

But, hey, this gets fun from the LA Times

Opinion: We may all regret dismantling USAID

American foreign assistance is experiencing an existential moment. The foreign assistance budget appears to be on the chopping block, and the primary agency responsible for delivering foreign assistance, the U.S. Agency for International Development, is undergoing rapid, unplanned disassembly. Some are saying it’s time to give up on foreign assistance altogether, but is it?

As someone who worked on USAID-funded projects around the world for nearly 15 years, I can say that USAID deserves much of the criticism it receives — critiques such as poor performance, misplaced focus and insubordination. Many of its projects run far behind schedule or fail to achieve their intended results. Others appear to be poorly aligned with U.S. foreign policy objectives or simply disconnected from them. Even the more successful programs cost substantially more than one might expect. And U.S.-based contractors and nongovernmental organizations take home a large portion of the assistance, all while working on contracts and grants that minimize their risk and guarantee a profit (where permitted).

So, basically, Ryan Crow just gave enough reasons to close USAID. Probably not the best way to start a defense of the agency.

But our strategic interests, including energy, critical minerals and counterterrorism, among others, span the globe. A few billion dollars wielded effectively in countries around the world can do far more for American interests than some want to believe, especially in the long run. Dismantling the agency may be something we come to regret.

Is giving lots of money to jihad supporting organizations helping American interests? How about transgender puppet theater? And what portion cannot be, again, performed out of State?

  • $50 million to fund condoms in Gaza
  • $70,000 for the production of a DEI musical in Ireland
  • $47,000 on a transgender opera in Colombia
  • $6 million in non-emergency funding for redundant administrative supports for the Center of Excellence

Maybe this money should be spent on Americans.

Effectively shuttering USAID will also take important power projection capabilities off the table. As many have already noted, containing disease outbreaks, reducing migration and bolstering political stability are all more difficult without the unique set of skills and expertise built up (often painfully) over decades at USAID. The value of these activities can be difficult to recognize in the short term because they often work far upstream and geographically far away from the consequence they are intended to avert, such as strengthening the justice system in Honduras to reduce migrant flows. But they do have demonstrable value. A safer, healthier, less violent and more prosperous world is in the United States’ interests as much as anyone’s, and foreign aid can help achieve these goals where military force, private interests or markets cannot alone.

All can, and should, be performed within primary agencies. And USAID emboldened illegal immigration. So, bye!

Read: USAID Begins Process Of Putting Employees On Leave And Terminating, While LA Times Says Agency Is Awesome »

Posted in Government, Unhinged Tools | 8 Comments | Trackback URL
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