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I appeared on Silvio Canto's talk show from Dallas.  It's here.

JULY 24-25, 2022

REVELATION? There are reports that some on the left, who occasionally have thoughts, are starting to realize that their queen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, may be a bit of a fraud.  Just a bit, of course.  From the New York Post: 

The knives are out on the woke left this week as one of its most prominent divas is catching shade from a bold new up and comer.

The delicious drama pits Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez against state Sen. Jessica Ramos. The sniping began when a medical student took to Twitter to condemn members of AOC’s staff who skipped a meeting with prominent medical academics with a dismissive, “We’re not doing healthcare right now.” AOC dutifully apologized, saying that the missed meeting did not represent her or her values.

“Maybe if you spent more time in your office and with your team you’d know what goes on. Just saying it would be nice if you breathed our air,” Ramos jabbed. “Our district offices are on the same floor in the same building. She’s barely ever present in the community. It’s an indisputable fact.”

This wasn’t a gentle gibe meant to correct AOC’s course — it was a political body slam. And an impressive display of the very Twitter snark Ocasio-Cortez is known for. But as shocking as the insults were, they didn’t exactly come out of the blue. Back in April, AOC was shunned by organizers who unionized an Amazon distribution center on Staten Island.

They claimed the champion of labor and socialism had “left them high and dry” during their fight. This just a couple of years after the progressive Queen of Queens was key to killing a deal with that same Amazon that would have brought thousands of jobs to her district.

So her staff won’t meet with health-care experts, she won’t meet with union organizers, she kills jobs in her community, and, according to Ramos, who wasn’t quite done castigating her victim, AOC won’t even sit down with local leaders and politicians. This has to leave her constituents and all New Yorkers asking of Ocasio-Cortez: What exactly would you say you do around here?

The answer: Nothing. AOC, you see, is a figure of national prominence, an avatar of a far left. She can’t be bothered with the minutiae of everyday lives and practical policies, she has a brand to build, galas to attend, invisible handcuffs to pretend to be locked in. Or as the aspiring doctor who kicked off the kerfuffle put it, “So while she’s doing performative resistance art for the cameras she’s not doing healthcare right now.”

We should forgive conservatives and maybe even some moderate Democrats who may be enjoying a super-sized portion of schadenfreude over this progressive infighting. After all, we’ve been pointing out that AOC is all performance art for sometime — it’s heartening to see the progressives are catching on.

Don’t expect to see AOC in New York anytime soon. But keep an eye on Ramos. The gauntlet has been very publicly thrown down, and this is a spat we could be watching for a very long time.

COMMENT:  I love it, I love it.  It's about time someone took on Queen Alexandria.  But remember, she is nationally known.  Voters coming to vote in any primary will know her name immediately.  Defeating her will be a monumental challenge.  Does Jessica Ramos have the right stuff?  I think we'll be finding out.

July 24-25, 2022       Permalink

WE WERE NOT AWARE OF THIS, AND IT'S IMPORTANT:  DNA testing services can be dangerous, we're now told.  And they can be a national-security threat.  Welcome to the 21st century.   From Fox:

A member of the House Intelligence Committee warned Americans to stay away from DNA testing services as the information could be used to develop bioweapons targeting specific groups of Americans or even individuals.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., made the comments during an appearance at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Friday, saying many Americans are far too willing to give up their DNA information to private companies.

"You can't have a discussion about this without talking about privacy and the protection of commercial data because expectations of privacy have degraded over the last 20 years," Crow said "Young folks actually have very little expectation of privacy, that's what the polling and the data show."

"People will very rapidly spit into a cup and send it to 23andMe and get really interesting data about their background," he added.

Crow, a former Army Ranger, then argued that once a person's DNA is gathered by a private company, that company can then sell it. 23andMe has denied ever selling the private information it gathers from customers.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, also attended the forum and added that U.S. adversaries could use the same technology to target livestock and crops to induce famine.

The warnings from Crow and Ernst came the same day that they raised alarms over the availability of cheap, military-capable drones, as well as China and Russia's expanding use of AI.

The U.S. and its adversaries are researching ways to pair drone and AI technology to create "swarms" of up to 200 drones that can rapidly traverse the battlefield.

"It's not just the one-offs that are being purchased on the internet, but now we have near-peer adversaries that are developing swarm technology where they can use 100 or 200 different drones — highly, highly evolved drones that can attack our service members on the battlefield," Ernst said.

Crow added that U.S. research into drone technology must also take moral and ethical considerations into account, something he acknowledges many U.S. adversaries are not concerned with.

COMMENT:  There recently has been a dramatic increase in articles about new forms of warfare.  We are an advanced nation, but I wonder how prepared we are to defend ourselves on these new, often invisible battlefields.  If Republicans take over Congress in November's elections, this new world should be a subject of a major investigation.  Will we survive?

July 24, 2022       Permalink

JULY 22-23, 2022

IT'S ABOUT TIME!  It's about time that someone blew the lid off the fraud of electric vehicles.  The way the Washington crowd speaks, you'd think they were some kind of gift from Heaven, coming to solve all our problems.  (Of course, the Washington crowd thinks the Indianapolis 500 is a list of society members.)  Electric vehicles have their problems, to put it mildly.  From Fox Business: 

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's recent comments that electric vehicles (EVs) are cheaper than traditional alternatives were misleading, experts told FOX Business.

Buttigieg suggested EVs can be cheaper than comparable cars with internal combustion engines and more cost-effective to fill up, in response to a question from Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., during a House hearing Wednesday. During his questioning, Perry noted the high average cost of EVs and asked what the Biden administration's plans were to lower such costs for American consumers.

"I knew this might come up, so I pulled a few of the latest prices," Buttigieg told Perry. "A Chevy Bolt, an American-made 2022 EV is $26,595. If you want a pickup truck, like a Chevy Silverado EV or Ford F150 Lightning, the starting prices of those are $39,900 and $39,974, respectively."

"But what we're seeing in terms of the dynamics now is we're close to the point, and may actually be there on certain models and under certain circumstances, where the extent to which your car payment would go up, is actually already outweighed by the extent to which your gas bill would go down, even factoring in the cost of electricity," he continued.

However, experts highlighted that cheaper EVs are still more expensive than comparable traditional cars and must be charged more often due to their relatively low range. For example, the 2022 Chevy Bolt referenced by Buttigieg costs $26,595 and has a range of 259 miles while the traditional engine 2022 Chevy Spark costs $14,595 and has a range of 297 miles, according to company data.

"Customers are clever enough to figure this out despite the snow job from the electric vehicle promoters and people like Secretary Buttigieg," Myron Ebell, the director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Center for Energy and Environment, told FOX Business in an interview.

"It's really kind of a con job," Ebell said. "It may be a good deal for some people in some places under some circumstances. But by-and-large right now, it's not a good deal."

Overall, the average cost of an EV was $64,338 while the average cost of a compact car was $26,101 as of May, according to Kelley Blue Book. Factoring in government incentives, the average cost of EVs are likely closer to $60,000.

In addition, the Department of Energy reported in January that the average range of model year 2021 gasoline vehicles was 403 miles compared to the median 234-mile range of model year 2021 EVs. That means EV owners must pay to charge their vehicle more frequently than owners of traditional cars.

"We systematically researched the entire industry — who buys cars, where they're built, how much they cost, what segments they're in and what consumers do with them," said Patrick Anderson, the founder of Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group (AEG). "Our research shows that a lot of Americans have been given a false impression about EVs."

In April, AEG released its annual report analyzing the real world costs of vehicle ownership, comparing EVs to gasoline-powered cars. The report concluded that traditional mid-priced 2021 cars have a cost advantage over mid-priced EVs after factoring in electricity costs, charging equipment costs, road taxes and "deadhead miles," the distance consumers need to travel to remote charging stations.

EVs charged using residential and normal commercial charging methods cost about $0.50 more per 100 miles than comparable traditional vehicles, according to the report. EVs charged using more expensive commercial charging stations cost about $4 more per 100 miles.

"The first thing that a lot of potential electric vehicle owners need to be aware of is that they're probably going to be paying both their home utility bills and the cost of charging at commercial chargers," Anderson told FOX Business. "Failing to understand that a large number of miles that the typical American travels are away from home and require using a fueling station that's not in their garage, would be a very costly mistake for a potential EV driver."

Anderson added that AEG's research showed 78% of electric vehicles are luxury vehicles and most EV purchasers also own traditional vehicles.

"A very large share of the electrical vehicles themselves are owned by affluent people and, often, wealthy people," he said, arguing government subsidies for EVs mainly benefit the upper class.

Ebell echoed Anderson and said EV owners are "free-loading" off Americans who own gasoline-powered cars since the federal gas tax funds roads and infrastructure. EV owners aren't required to pay an equivalent tax for infrastructure funding.

COMMENT:  Bottom line, look with both eyes if you're in the market for a new vehicle, and have a hand calculator with you, one with charged batteries.  We really don't know what conditions will be like when the great majority of Americans go electric. 

And I'd like to know about repair bills, and the cost of replacing batteries in an EV.  Car buyers don't like surprises.

And batteries are very dirty to manufacture. 

And what happens if the cost of electricity suddenly goes way up, and you need your EV for work?

I'm not a spoilsport, but there are facts to be acquired.

July 22-23, 2022       Permalink 

THE COST OF OUR OPEN BORDER:  A group of informed Republicans issue a dire warning.  To be taken seriously.  From Fox: 

EXCLUSIVE: Republicans on the House Select Committee on Intelligence are raising the alarm about "grave" national security threats facing Americans due to the destabilized southern border.

Fox News Digital exclusively interviewed members of the congressional delegation following their law enforcement briefings and line tour along the El Paso, Texas, border with Mexico Friday.

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, who serves as the ranking member on the committee, said simply that counter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' claim earlier this week, the border "is not secure."

"We met with the FBI, the Texas Department of Safety, the Border Patrol. What's clear as we stand here on the border is that the border is not secure. Thousands of people are being apprehended a day, others cannot even be captured. The amount of drugs, even guns, that go across the border, cash, illegal activity, human trafficking. The toll that's happening on people who are crossing this border is extraordinary," Turner told Fox News Digital while standing next to the border wall with Mexico.

"This represents a national security threat. The number of people who are crossing who are not from Mexico, Central America, or even South America is enormous. These individuals are a threat to our national security. Many are from countries that have very questionable purposes when they come here. So our border patrol are overwhelmed. They need assistance. This wall needs to be completed."

"What we heard repeatedly today and yesterday was the portions of the wall that had been built worked. And some areas since the [Biden] administration stopped construction of the wall have gaps in them where wall was being repaired or replaced and those repairs even stopped. So today you have a porous border, you have a great risk to our nation."

The number of terrorists coming across the border poses an "absolute threat and danger" to the U.S., continued Turner.

"You have people who are on the terrorism watch list, people who are known terrorists, there is a threat of them crossing the border. People who have been apprehended fall within those categories. But then you also have the people who aren't caught at all. And then others of which there is no information who are crossing the border who are not even from this hemisphere. This represents an absolute threat and danger to our country, and it could be stopped if this border wall was completed. If we gave [Border Patrol] the right resources, we could be able to stop these border crossings and, of course, keep our country safe."

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  The prospects here are horrible.  Sooner or later one of these terrorists, or terrorist groups, will strike.  Remember that 9-11 was pulled off by fewer than 20 Islamic terrorists.  

It is very hard to engage the public about the border, and keep it engaged.  We don't think about borders every day.  And, with the exception of Fox, our so-called "news" organizations seem little interested.  They will remain that way until a catastrophe occurs, and then they'll blame Donald Trump.   And CNN will buy it.

July 22, 2022       Permalink