Tag Archives: politics

Buying Battery-Operated Cars

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My then-new gasoline-powered 2022 Ford Escape and my wife’s new 2023 Ford Maverick hybrid, each one level down from Ford’s top tier, each cost in the low- to mid-$30 thousands. Joanna Stern, The Wall Street Journal‘s Senior Personal Technology Columnist, evaluated a number of battery-operated cars under $60,000 to see which one of those she liked best. The ones she looked into were the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Tesla Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, and Volkswagen ID.4.

The prices of these, as tested, were—oh, wait; she didn’t discuss equipage in any detail, nor did she name the price of those cars as tested. Accordingly, here are the prices I found after an arduous five minute Bing search. All prices, save Tesla, are via Edmunds; Tesla’s prices are per Tesla.

  • Mach-E: $42,500-$60,000, depending on how gussied up you want it
  • Model Y: $52,900-$66,000, depending….
  • Ioniq 5: $47,700-$59,400, depending….
  • EV6: $45,900-$60,200, depending….
  • 4: $40,300-$56,500, depending….

Assume, arguendo, that Stern’s evaluations are reasonable (noting that some of her criteria are matters of taste), and truncate the gussying to Stern’s $60,000 cap. This is the cost of transportation that the Progressive-Democrat Biden administration is trying to force us to pay in the name if its—and the Left’s—climate funding industry and related artificial hysteria.

This is just to get into the car, too; the comparison elides questions of range; the availability of charging stations outside the home garage; the long time to charge to the battery-operated cars’ 300-ish miles range (my Escape reaches 400+ miles on a tank of gas, and the tank fills in three minutes, or so); and of special importance to the Left (except when inconvenient to them); the environmental damage done by mining the raw materials and disposing of the spent batteries.

“I’m Busy”

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President Joe Biden (D) has traveled to Maui to observe the damage done by the wild fires there and to claim that “help would be on the way.” Biden has just been to Florida to observe the damage done by Hurricane Idalia and to claim that “help would be on the way.”

But Biden still hasn’t been to East Palestine, seven months after a train derailment that polluted the town and its water supply with toxic chemicals that leaked from train’s tank cars. “I’ve been busy,” he claims.

Well, I haven’t had the occasion to go to East Palestine. There’s a lot going on here, and I just haven’t been able to break.

A lot of that lot going on here is the 40% of his time in office that he’s spent on vacation, mostly in his Delaware home.

And this bit:

Meanwhile, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R), Senators Sherrod Brown (D), and JD Vance (R) have called on Biden to issue a disaster declaration for East Palestine.

Biden hasn’t throughout these seven months since the disaster, even though the State and local jurisdictions have asked for the declaration. Biden’s vacation schedule has been interfering with that simple action, too.

It’s clear: Biden’s vacations are more important that going to East Palestine.

Frankly, the good residents of East Palestine are not missing anything in Biden’s absence. He’s speaking to them quite clearly from where he is.

Electrifying Transportation

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A Wall Street Journal editorial centered on California’s idiotic push to fully electrify cars and trucks—yes, including heavy duty freight trucks—within the next dozen years, has this tidbit, which is canonical in exemplifying such foolishness anywhere in the US:

One trucking company wanted to install charging stations for 30 trucks at a terminal in Joliet, Illinois, only to be told by local officials they would draw more power than the entire city.

And this, specific to California and its already existing green ideology:

In January northern California utility PG&E told a charging provider that one of its large fleet customers couldn’t charge its trucks on summer afternoons owing to a power crunch.

A power crunch which PG&E knew six months in advance was going to occur. It’s clear: neither facts nor the fiscal or quality of life costs of ignoring them matter to the mainstream Left. They’re right, and if you have questions about that, they’ll enthusiastically disabuse you of your questions. Never mind that

[a] Southern California Edison executive recently said some fleets are powering chargers using diesel generators so electric trucks don’t go unused.

Pay no attention to the zealot behind the door.

Mistake

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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wants Republicans currently investigating Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden (D), and the rest of his family to broaden their investigation to include ex-Secretary of State and Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and ex-President Barack Obama (D).

…this is really about the weaponization of government, the collapse of the rule of law, and its replacement by the rule of power. And that really involves three principles. It involves Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden.

This would be a mistake, as it would unnecessarily dilute the investigative resources available to the House committees conducting the Biden investigations, possibly fatally to those investigations. The broadening, at best, would draw out the Biden family investigation unnecessarily through that dilution.

Gingrich is right about the weaponization and the supplanting of law by power. However, the optimal way to investigate that larger matter is to separately investigate Clinton and Obama, and then tie those three investigations together into the outcome that is that weaponization and power grab.

This will be a frustratingly slow process, but it’s the best way to get to the final truth and get the relevant folks tossed from political life for their misbehaviors and the remaining jailed for their crimes.

The Political Center

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Senator Joe Manchin (D, WV) and his daughter are looking to form a project that would promote centrist policies and candidates in future endeavors and elections. Their project is Americans Together, and it’s intended to be a politically active nonprofit entity.

In a memo that was shared with potential donors and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, the project proposes a coalition that would “mobilize the middle” and support a shift toward the political center.

The Manchins’ move, though, misses an important underlying assumption: what is the middle, the political center?

The Progressive-Democratic Party, with its extremist ideology—

  • no effective southern border
  • voting “rights” and welfare support for illegal aliens
  • sanctuary for illegal aliens
  • identity politics
  • ideology indoctrination of our children from kindergarten through graduate school
  • ever expansive and intrusive government

—has been dragging what used to be our nation’s center steadily Leftward at least since 2008.