Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[Robert Roaldi]

And only on Fox "News", host Lara Logan making a comparison between Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
What a Holocaust survivor has to say about this:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2021/12/01/holocaust-survivor-fauci-fox-news-lara-logan-newday-vpx.cnn

Wow, Godwin made the jump from social media to TV.

[LesPalenik]

r adeAnd only on Fox "News", host Lara Logan making a comparison between Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

That's a most repulsive statement. Almost as preposterous as Biden's and Mary Barra's lies that GM is the leader in the electric vehicle sector today.

[Peter McLennan]

That's a most repulsive statement.

Clickbait.  It's all about clicks and "engagement". 
We've been had.  Rupert Murdoch figured this out years ago.

[Chris Kern]

And only on Fox "News", host Lara Logan making a comparison between Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

That's a most repulsive statement. Almost as preposterous as Biden's and Mary Barra's lies that GM is the leader in the electric vehicle sector today.

You win, no contest.  In a forum thread notorious for its demented comments, this is one of the most bizarre I yet have read.

[Peter McLennan]

You win, no contest.  In a forum thread notorious for its demented comments, this is one of the most bizarre I yet have read.

Whose comment is "demented"  ?  Les' or Lara's ?

[LesPalenik]

Whose comment is "demented"  ?  Les' or Lara's ?

I was wondering myself. Why shoot the messenger?
I still think that Lara's statement was repulsive. Maybe using the same adjective for Biden's speech about GM leading the EV revolution was slightly over the top, but his lies make you also to throw up. This was about the same GM company which as one of the very few carmakers in the world still doesn't have a functioning battery powered car. And their upcoming Hummer. Lyric and Silverado vehicles will be way too expensive and produced in such small quantities that they won't make a dent on the global scene.

Chris, if you haven't heard his bizarre speech or don't know the current EV situation, there are at least ten youtube videos explaining the current EV situation and commenting on that misleading and embarassing Detroit event. They explain it much better than I ever could. Below is just one of them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrB_ObK9C18

I don't know if Biden and his advisors are really so clueless and uninformed, or if he just wants to hoodwink the public. Or maybe it was a very clever move to force Mary Barra and GM to get off their asses and speed up their EV development.

[Robert Roaldi]

Just as an aside regarding this discussion about GM. I googled and GM sells more cars in China than in the US. I doubt they are selling many giant pick-ups in China so it could very well be that a more modern fleet is being sold over there, although I'm just guessing about that. I'm no fan of GM, just saying that maybe what we think we know about them isn't a complete picture. I've never had the impression that the US has ever been much of a technology leader in automotive design, not since I've been alive anyway, until Tesla that is. And they haven't been around long enough yet for me to hold an opinion about them. Kudos to them for their electric engine innovation, of course, that's fun to see.

[Alan Klein]

I was wondering myself. Why shoot the messenger?
I still think that Lara's statement was repulsive. Maybe using the same adjective for Biden's speech about GM leading the EV revolution was slightly over the top, but his lies make you also to throw up. This was about the same GM company which as one of the very few carmakers in the world still doesn't have a functioning battery powered car. And their upcoming Hummer. Lyric and Silverado vehicles will be way too expensive and produced in such small quantities that they won't make a dent on the global scene.

Chris, if you haven't heard his bizarre speech or don't know the current EV situation, there are at least ten youtube videos explaining the current EV situation and commenting on that misleading and embarassing Detroit event. They explain it much better than I ever could. Below is just one of them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrB_ObK9C18

I don't know if Biden and his advisors are really so clueless and uninformed, or if he just wants to hoodwink the public. Or maybe it was a very clever move to force Mary Barra and GM to get off their asses and speed up their EV development.

Biden's lying. He's talking to the unions who supported him in the election. So he praises GM and ignores Telsa.  The rest is conversation.

[Alan Klein]

Just as an aside regarding this discussion about GM. I googled and GM sells more cars in China than in the US. I doubt they are selling many giant pick-ups in China so it could very well be that a more modern fleet is being sold over there, although I'm just guessing about that. I'm no fan of GM, just saying that maybe what we think we know about them isn't a complete picture. I've never had the impression that the US has ever been much of a technology leader in automotive design, not since I've been alive anyway, until Tesla that is. And they haven't been around long enough yet for me to hold an opinion about them. Kudos to them for their electric engine innovation, of course, that's fun to see.

America has started the SUV revolution.

Some SUV statistics:

SUV Sales Exceed 40% Of Global Car Sales For The First Time
Sales of SUVs have been continuously rising not only in America but also around the world, to the point of exceeding 40 percent of all new car sales worldwide in 2019, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its World Energy Investment 2020 report, noting that preferences for larger cars have dampened fuel economy improvements and more than offset the gains by EVs.

Over the past decade, the world has seen “a dramatic shift towards bigger and heavier cars,” the Paris-based agency said. This shift toward SUVs has doubled the SUV sales over the past decade, and now there are more than 200 million SUVs on the road globally, up from about just 35 million back in 2010. Last year, the share of SUVs in total global car sales topped 40 percent for the first time, up from less than 20 percent a decade ago.

A total of 60 percent of the rise in the global car fleet since 2010 is attributable to SUVs.

From the perspective of oil demand for road transportation, bigger cars support oil demand as more fuel is being consumed. From an environmental point of view, SUVs are making the challenge of cutting transport emissions harder, the IEA said.

The trend for SUVs is not only confined to the United States, where half of all car sales are SUVs—it has been “universal and unrelenting,” the agency said.

“In China, as elsewhere, SUVs are often considered symbols of wealth and status. In India, sales are currently lower, but consumer preferences are changing as more and more people can afford SUVs, and their share is rising,” says the IEA.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/SUV-Sales-Exceed-40-Of-Global-Car-Sales-For-The-First-Time.html

[LesPalenik]

Just as an aside regarding this discussion about GM. I googled and GM sells more cars in China than in the US. I doubt they are selling many giant pick-ups in China so it could very well be that a more modern fleet is being sold over there, although I'm just guessing about that. I'm no fan of GM, just saying that maybe what we think we know about them isn't a complete picture. I've never had the impression that the US has ever been much of a technology leader in automotive design, not since I've been alive anyway, until Tesla that is. And they haven't been around long enough yet for me to hold an opinion about them. Kudos to them for their electric engine innovation, of course, that's fun to see.

As Radio Yerevan would comment on these news - in principle it is true (and that's what Mary Barra said), but when it comes to Wuling cars, these are cheap and unsafe micro EVs with a tiny 9.2kWH battery which would not sell anywhere outside of China. Furthermore, the actual manufacturer is the Wuling Motors company, GM is just a 1/3 investor in a joint enterprise with SAIC and Wuling Motors (similar to Amazon and Ford investments in Rivian company). As far as I know, Ford never claimed that they are making the R1T trucks.

Wuling car production for 2021 is projected at 1,700,000 cars (based on the 1,270,000 cars made in the first 9 months in 2021) with a combined battery capacity of about 12MWh, whereas Tesla in Shanghai is on track to make over 500,000 cars with 75KWh battery each, totalling 37MWh, which is more than 3 times of Wuling production.

[Alan Klein]

As Radio Yerevan would comment on these news - in principle it is true (and that's what Mary Barra said), but when it comes to Wuling cars, these are cheap and unsafe micro EVs with a tiny 9.2kWH battery which would not sell anywhere outside of China. Furthermore, the actual manufacturer is the Wuling Motors company, GM is just a 1/3 investor in a joint enterprise with SAIC and Wuling Motors (similar to Amazon and Ford investments in Rivian company). As far as I know, Ford never claimed that they are making the R1T trucks.

Wuling car production for 2021 is projected at 1,700,000 cars (based on the 1,270,000 cars made in the first 9 months in 2021) with a combined battery capacity of about 12MWh, whereas Tesla in Shanghai is on track to make over 500,000 cars with 75KWh battery each, totalling 37MWh, which is more than 3 times of Wuling production.

China will steal ours and the rest of the world's commercial technology anyway just as they steal military and everything else.  Then they build things for less because they have 1.5 billion people.  On the plus side, they have 65 million empty homes and apartments if anyone is looking to move.  Enough to house all of France.    Of course you have to learn Mandarin.

[digitaldog]

Biden's lying.

Speaking of lying, isn't it time you put up or shut up? That is if you can tell us the truth about what TechTalk said according to your post:

Never mind the others.  Do you still believe he conspired with the Russkies?

Then:

Oh, I thought I was responding to Tech, not you. My error.

Naturally you can provide us all the URL where TechTalk wrote that he believes he (Trump) conspired with the Russians/Russkies.


You and Joe have a lot of catching up to do, rank amateurs compared to this guy:

Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30,573 over 4 years

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/

[LesPalenik]

China will steal ours and the rest of the world's commercial technology anyway just as they steal military and everything else.  Then they build things for less because they have 1.5 billion people.  On the plus side, they have 65 million empty homes and apartments if anyone is looking to move.  Enough to house all of France.    Of course you have to learn Mandarin.

Most Chinese homes have a relatively short lifespan - 35 years compared with 100 years or so in America or 200 or more years in Europe.

Many Chinese buildings aren’t constructed to stand the tests of time, not even for a short period. In 2010, housing officials shocked the country when they revealed that many residential properties had a lifespan of just 20 years. The average period of time that Chinese housing remains livable in is a meager 35 years compared to a century or more in many developed countries.

Many housing units in China have already hit the lower end of their shelf-life. The apartment block in Fenghua was built just 20 years ago. Large swathes of housing were rolled out across the country in the early 1990s as China transitioned from a government-assigned housing system in urban areas to a form of private ownership. Housing built during the planned-economy phase of China might be especially shoddy as the highly subsidized rents paid by tenants often failed to cover even the cost of construction, leading to poorer building quality.

https://chinaeconomicreview.com/china-housing-shoddy-building-quality-energy-incentives-gdp/#:~:text=The%20average%20period%20of%20time,more%20in%20many%20developed%20countries.&text=The%20short%20lifespan%20doesn%27t,begin%20crumbling%20beneath%20residents%27%20feet.

[Alan Klein]

Most Chinese homes have a relatively short lifespan - 35 years compared with 100 years or so in America or 200 or more years in Europe.

https://chinaeconomicreview.com/china-housing-shoddy-building-quality-energy-incentives-gdp/#:~:text=The%20average%20period%20of%20time,more%20in%20many%20developed%20countries.&text=The%20short%20lifespan%20doesn%27t,begin%20crumbling%20beneath%20residents%27%20feet.

Their homes apparently match much of the shoddy crap they sell to the rest of the world.

[Robert Roaldi]

Most Chinese homes have a relatively short lifespan - 35 years compared with 100 years or so in America or 200 or more years in Europe.

There may have been a time when homes were built to last 100 years in North America, but I haven't seen any lately.

I don't know where you guys are getting your info about China, but it doesn't mesh with what I hear from friends who live there. It's 2021 you know, not 1956.

Read the first paragraph of this wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_China.

[Robert Roaldi]

On another topic, following that school shooting north of Detroit the other day, I came across this very interesting podcast interview with an ex-executive of a US gun manufacturer https://www.npr.org/2021/11/22/1058053083/former-gun-industry-insider-on-his-battle-against-the-nra.

Here's the intro blurb from the Fresh Air landing page: 'Gunfight' author Ryan Busse was once a rising star in the gun industry. But he became disillusioned after Columbine when, he says, the NRA began to use "fear and conspiracy and hatred" to bolster sales. Busse talks about turning points within the NRA and his career, and the state of the industry today.

It seems incredible that a sensible gun user like him should be considered an enemy of the current gun industry. He refers to the modern day gun fetishists (my word) as a radicalized community.

The podcast is about 45 min long.

[LesPalenik]

There may have been a time when homes were built to last 100 years in North America, but I haven't seen any lately.

I don't know where you guys are getting your info about China, but it doesn't mesh with what I hear from friends who live there. It's 2021 you know, not 1956.

Read the first paragraph of this wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_China.

I quoted from the article referenced in the link I supplied in my post.
In addition, a friend of mine who worked about ten years ago for several years in Chongqing in a managerial function for a construction company there told me that the new apartment buildings in that city were built at a lower quality than in Canada and that the tenants were much harder on them as here. On the other hand, most non-residential buildings were built much better and quicker than similar buildings in North America.

Also, it has been reported that the Tesla cars made in Shanghai are better than the ones from Fremont, California. One reason is that the Shanghai factory was newer and more advanced than the Fremont factory, built originally for Toyota. But maybe the Chinese workers are also more conscious and work with more precision than the Americans. Next month, the new Tesla factories in Berlin and Austin will start their production, and those factories will be even more advanced than the Shanghai factory.

[Alan Klein]

On another topic, following that school shooting north of Detroit the other day, I came across this very interesting podcast interview with an ex-executive of a US gun manufacturer https://www.npr.org/2021/11/22/1058053083/former-gun-industry-insider-on-his-battle-against-the-nra.

Here's the intro blurb from the Fresh Air landing page: 'Gunfight' author Ryan Busse was once a rising star in the gun industry. But he became disillusioned after Columbine when, he says, the NRA began to use "fear and conspiracy and hatred" to bolster sales. Busse talks about turning points within the NRA and his career, and the state of the industry today.

It seems incredible that a sensible gun user like him should be considered an enemy of the current gun industry. He refers to the modern day gun fetishists (my word) as a radicalized community.

The podcast is about 45 min long.

What bolstered sales more than the NRA is when politicians, the left media, and anti gun proponents suggest limiting their sales and confiscating them.   Then sales increase by the millions as gun enthusiasts stock up. 

The fact is most Americans act responsibly when it comes to guns. 

[Alan Klein]

On another topic, following that school shooting north of Detroit the other day, I came across this very interesting podcast interview with an ex-executive of a US gun manufacturer https://www.npr.org/2021/11/22/1058053083/former-gun-industry-insider-on-his-battle-against-the-nra.

Here's the intro blurb from the Fresh Air landing page: 'Gunfight' author Ryan Busse was once a rising star in the gun industry. But he became disillusioned after Columbine when, he says, the NRA began to use "fear and conspiracy and hatred" to bolster sales. Busse talks about turning points within the NRA and his career, and the state of the industry today.

It seems incredible that a sensible gun user like him should be considered an enemy of the current gun industry. He refers to the modern day gun fetishists (my word) as a radicalized community.

The podcast is about 45 min long.

It should be noted that Busse was an advisor on Biden's election campaign and is selling his book on this topic.

[Alan Klein]

I quoted from the article referenced in the link I supplied in my post.
In addition, a friend of mine who worked about ten years ago for several years in Chongqing in a managerial function for a construction company there told me that the new apartment buildings in that city were built at a lower quality than in Canada and that the tenants were much harder on them as here. On the other hand, most non-residential buildings were built much better and quicker than similar buildings in North America.

Also, it has been reported that the Tesla cars made in Shanghai are better than the ones from Fremont, California. One reason is that the Shanghai factory was newer and more advanced than the Fremont factory, built originally for Toyota. But maybe the Chinese workers are also more conscious and work with more precision than the Americans. Next month, the new Tesla factories in Berlin and Austin will start their production, and those factories will be even more advanced than the Shanghai factory.

Musk sold 10 billion dollars of his Tesla stock. What does he know that the rest of us don't?