Interesting…

It appears the UAW is settling for less than what they wanted…

The United Auto Workers and Ford Motor Company have reached a tentative agreement to end the UAW work stoppage against Ford. The deal may also serve as a template for GM and Stellantis to settle with their workers.

If the deal is accepted by the UAW executive council and ratified by the rank and file, the strike will be over. If so, it will make union president Shawn Fain look like the idiot he is.

Fain was issuing blood-curdling threats to the automakers to give them what they wanted or see a historic work stoppage. Fain demanded a 32-hour workweek with 40 hours of pay, a 46% pay hike, and a restoration of pay raises given back during the downturn of 2008.

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

So, apparently, the threats didn’t work as advertised… And the car companies realized that would have priced American cars out of the reach of pretty much everybody in the world that ‘might’ be interested in buying one.

Per Consumer Reports, the average cost of a new car is $48,000, HERE. And trucks are even worse! I had to get an oil change a couple of weeks ago and walked around looking at the prices of trucks and didn’t find a single one under $60,000!!! And the high end ones were over $72,000. Not a single ‘basic’ work truck on the lot, and apparently if you order one, it may take up to six months to deliver it…

Sigh…

And all of the manufacturers are losing money (Ford supposedly $5BILLION) a year on the electronic vehicles…

Oh yeah, and there aren’t any used vehicles that are affordable anymore either, no thanks to Obummer’s cash for clunkers.

Hmmm….

Another job ‘opportunity’???

Pennsylvania’s share of broken electric vehicle charging stations, although small, points to a much bigger problem: there aren’t enough certified technicians to fix them.

There are currently just under 63,000 DC Fast and Level 2 public charging stations with over 161,000 charging ports across the country. According to data provided by the U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation’s website, approximately 7,900 ports at 4,200 locations are temporarily out of service or offline due to maintenance. 

Pennsylvania has just under 1,700 public charging locations with 4,111 ports installed. Of those, there are approximately 117 charging stations and 214 ports – amounting to roughly 7% and 5% of the totals, respectively – that are currently temporarily unavailable. 

Full article, HERE. h/t Stretch

There aren’t nearly enough charging stations anyway, and the percentage of out of service ones isn’t doing the EV crowd any favors. I know up until a couple of new hotels came to Itchy Paw, there were THREE public chargers in the county, and they were all out at the truck stop!

And this article, HERE from Autoweek talks about the charging deserts in lower income areas… And rural areas are even worse!

But .gov wants ‘everyone’ to go EV… Nope, not happening in my house.

A little humor…

An oldie but a goody!!!

23 ADULT TRUTHS

1 Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind-of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.

13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Light than Kay.

17. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

19. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?

20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

22. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.

23. The first testicular guard, the “Cup,” was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

SFO is dying…

And the doom loop for San Fran Freako just gets worse…

San Francisco’s mayor has ordered city departments including police and public health to propose budget cuts of $206 million by next week in a desperate attempt to reverse the stricken city’s ‘doom loop’ spiral into economic collapse.

Law enforcement budgets in the city, which is ravaged by homelessness, drugs and a downtown business exodus, face cuts of $27.6 million, while the public health department could lose a further $25.9 million, according to a DailyMail.com analysis.

The fire department must propose reductions of around $10.5 million to meet the mayor’s demand, while city’s crumbling Municipal Transport Agency must find savings of $15.5 million, a review of official figures suggests.

Full article HERE from the UK’s Daily Mail.

You know it’s pretty sad when the Brit papers have better coverage of what is going on in the US than the MSM does, even when they are local!

San Francisco has been going down by leaps and bounds for at least the last 5 years, if not longer, following the other blue cities into disfunction and oblivion exacerbated by defunding the police/leftist DAs/changing felonies to non-prosecutable misdemeanors.

It is a sad ending for a once great city, may it rest in peace…

PSA!!!

Got this from one of the gun groups!

Fortress gun safe recall!!!

Roughly 61,000 biometric gun safes sold nationwide are being recalled after the shooting death of a 12-year-old boy, Fortress Safe and the U.S. Consumer Product Commission announced on Thursday.

The recalled safe poses a serious safety hazard and risk of death due to a programming feature that can allow unauthorized users, including children, access to the safe and its potential deadly contents, including firearms, according to the Naperville, Illinois-based company and regulatory agency.

The recalled safes include the following model numbers: 11B20, 44B10, 44B10L, 44B20, 55B20, 55B30, 55B30G, 4BGGBP and 55B30BP. 

Fortress Safe can be reached at 833-588-9191 or online HERE or HERE. Consumers experiencing issues with a recall remedy can fill out a complaint form with the CPSC HERE.

Full article HERE, from CBS News.

If you know anybody that has one, please let them know!

Posted in PSA

Burp…

Well, I think the first quarterly get together of the North Texas Troublemakers at our little local ‘social event center’ was a success…

The ‘start’ of the food line… which wrapped into the kitchen, then back out…

And the ‘lighter stuff… and more food, and desserts…

30+ folks showed up, chatted, ate too much, cussed and discussed writing and a number of ‘other’ things, and I think everyone had a good time! Many thanks to those who made/brought food! I had ‘thought’ we would have to go get meat, but would probably have 42 desserts…

Not with this crowd! Everything from brisket, pulled pork, smoked chicken, to cabbage rolls, and plenty of trimmings!!! And only a few desserts!!! LOL

And thanks to all who helped clean up afterward!

Book promo…

Alma T.C. Boykin has a new story out in her Elect series- Wolves of the Wilds

As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

High in the mountains, something unholy lurks …

The Elect broke free of the vampire, Lord Ivan. Now they live in the forest as men, all save the two who were born werewolves. The forest lands provide what they need – jobs, materials, a familiar place in a world that changed around them in their decades of captivity.

Evil hunts under the full of the moon …

Into that world comes a group of graduate students doing research on the Carpathian geology and biota. All is well, until a grad student falls ill, and another goes missing. Or does she? Claire and the others wonder.

… But so too does Good.

Join Paulus, Attila, and the other Elect as they fight against the forces of cruel darkness (and excessive shipping costs.)

And Larry Lambert has a new novel out- Broken Toys
The blurb-

Broken people are willing to risk everything because they have nothing to lose…

Combat-wounded Sergeant Lucky Frank Brandt is taking pickup work to supplement his medical retirement paycheck in a world where his skillsets are rewarded. As he plies his trade from the New Orleans slums to the Utah desert, his success puts him on a short list that will catapult him into the seats of power.

Captain Claire Hoffman’s life changed when an IED cut her Humvee in half, taking her legs with it. Struggling as a double amputee, army nurse Hoffman returned to school in search of a new way forward. The CIA, looking to fill a quota, offered her that opportunity.

Laurel Vega-Mendoza, a congresswoman from Texas, is tapped to fill a vacancy when the United States Vice President suddenly dies in office. Now on a trajectory to fill the sitting president’s shoes, she casts about for people she can trust among the most untrustworthy group of scoundrels on the planet.

Unbeknown to them, an extrasolar spacecraft devoid of organic life crashed in the Pamir Mountains on the Roof of the World on November 4, 1932. There, in that place, an intelligence awaits its resurrection.

In a world of risks and rewards, they are poised to do things you wouldn’t.

Monalisa Foster has the third in her Ravages of Honor series up- Lineage

The blurb-

Darien and Syteria have been to hell and back. Their wounds and scars remain a part of them and who they are as they fight to stay together and prevent civil war. But when an old enemy is found alive he threatens their most precious secret as well as the future of both humans and donai. Will they be able to forge the new alliances needed to keep the Imperium from rising from the ashes? Or will the Imperium’s old guard carry out a genocide that will doom the donai to extinction?

And last but not least, Dan Zeigler has a new story up in his Cops and Dragons series- A Test of Time

The blurb-

This collection contains three Cops & Dragons stories: The Constable’s Quest, a Circle of Stars, and A Test of Time.

The Constable’s Quest – When a dead red dragon crashed in the alfalfa field on the outskirts of the city, Watch Sergeant Sigurd Arnson hoped it would attract the King’s attention to the remote frontier territory and the increasingly cruel duke who administered it for the Crown. What the dead dragon attracted instead was a runaway teenage girl with a magic talent that could lead her to the dragon’s lair and the treasure within. Now the duke has ordered Sigurd to take the girl into the Wilds and find the unclaimed hoard within seven days or they and their families will suffer the duke’s wrath.

A Circle of Stars – Brynn Starsinger, Lieutenant of the Queen’s Watch, is an anomaly among the elves of the City: an orphan seemingly born with no ability to work magic. After being falsely accused of murder, she is sentenced to face the justice of the mysterious Fey Lord. Though Bryn fears her life is over, the Fey Lord angrily declares the covenant had been broken and merely sends her off to sleep. When she is awakened by Turo, a dragon of many questions, and Bryn discovers the Fey Lord has been defeated, his forest left devastated, and everyone in her beloved City has vanished. Now Bryn and Turo must race against time to not only save the elves of the City, but also thwart the sinister plans of the Cult of the Fallen God.

A Test of Time – As Captain of the City Guard for the Market Precinct, the biggest challenge Saxon Tage usually faced was the occasional bellowing merchant-chief. Now he finds himself confronted by a serial killer, a mysterious woman who is either a witch or one of the fey, an ancient evil intent on bending him to its will, and a secret that will forever change his life.

I highly recommend them all!

Old, slow, and fat…

From a discussion that took place on one of the mil chats…

But it worked for almost 80 years as the weapon of choice for the US military. Much like ‘other’ technology advances that have occurred, it was overcome by events, political correctness, and whining about how ‘unsafe’ the 1911 was, how heavy it was, how heavy the ammo was, and the fact that there weren’t 17 rounds per magazine. And who’s ‘turn’ it was to get a contract for their district(s).

And everybody could have a different size of weapon, and more ammo…

Rather than actually learning how to shoot, how to carry the weapon properly, etc…

Before you start with me on the ‘issues’ that women have with the 1911, I know of two women who love and carry 1911s as their primary pistol. And neither of them is a ‘big’ woman.

Much of our military are now hobbled by ‘multi-capability’ systems they are forced to use, which are average at best across the spectrum, rather than being GOOD at one thing. From aircraft, helicopters, ships, submarines, tanks, APCs, etc. but you can damned well bet the congresscritters are getting their percentage, and ‘bringing jobs’ to their districts… Even as maintenance on the stuff in service suffers…

Sigh… Glad I’m old and not having to deal with this stuff anymore. I saw how long it took to get ‘new’ systems into service, and how much they were dumbed down by the time they actually got to the ‘end users’ in the field…

Kicking the soapbox back in the corner now.

h/t Joe for the meme.

Unbelievable…

This is almost as stupid as the Chick-Fil-A crap from a few years ago…

Usually, when you think about a burger war, McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s come to mind. Not in this case. McDonald’s found itself under fire for providing free meals to Israeli soldiers

What’s interesting is that there are other McDonald’s restaurants that have voiced their support of Gaza and the Palestinians, yet the voice you hear above all others is that of the left. It really isn’t that surprising. It’s just another example of the paradoxical projecting of that group.

Liberals want everyone to believe that they are for equality and justice. In reality, they are only for those ideals when you are in agreement with them. Liberals want you to believe that they are peace seekers, yet what group burns, loots, and destroys? In this case, one McDonald’s restaurant located in Lebanon has already been destroyed in “retaliation” for this distribution of food, and right on cue, the radicals on the left are calling for a boycott of the chain worldwide.

Full article, HERE.

Franchisees can do as they please, if corporate doesn’t object. And I haven’t heard anything about Micky D’s corporate turning them off…

And yes, the ‘other’ franchisees have the ‘right’ to put out their own statements.

Funny…

How NONE of the middle east countries want to take Palestinian refugees…

Jordanian King Abdullah II is drawing lines and refusing to take in Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip as they attempt to flee Hamas. 

“I can quite strongly speak on behalf of not only Jordan as a nation but our friends in Egypt — That is a red line. I think that is the plan by certain usual suspects,” Abdullah said in remarks Tuesday. “[There will be] no refugees in Jordan and no refugees in Egypt.”

Full article, HERE.

It’s almost like none of them want to give Iran a ‘nose under the tent’, by allowing Hamas into their country…