With that out of the way, it was a gorgeous day yesterday with sunny skies (for the most part) and temperatures in the upper 40’s and just about 50ºF here at The Gulch. Some places in New Hampshire saw record breaking temperatures in the mid-60’s. It will be warm again today though not nearly as warm as it was yesterday. In fact we’ll be seeing below freezing temperatures this week, with snow forecast for Tuesday. The Weather GuysTM haven’t told us their ‘educated guess’ about how much snow we’ll get, though I expect they’ll do so either sometime tonight or tomorrow morning.
I will state that I am disappointed with our winter as we haven’t seen the snow we usually expect and temperatures haven’t been what we usually see. This has led to Ice In to be declared on Lake Winnipesaukee weeks later than usual.
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Does anyone remember Volkswagen’s two tries to sell their version of a pickup truck here in the US? The first one was a chopped Microbus. The second one was based on the Rabbit/Golf platform. Neither was all that great.
Recently, Volkswagen has been looking at yet another pickup truck to sell in the US, but in the end decided not to make that mistake...again.
Volkswagen is no longer looking at offering a pickup truck in the U.S. or Canada. The closest you will get to a VW truck stateside is to get an electric pickup from the new Scout brand, but that is still years away.The last thing we need is yet another pickup truck, particularly one that is merely a derivative of an existing platform.
VW dealers have long clamored for a pickup truck to sell to Americans, and the automaker pursued a number of possible ways to make it happen, but the idea has been shelved. "It is not in the plans anymore," Pablo Di Si, president and CEO, Volkswagen Group of America and CEO of Volkswagen Brand North American Region, tells MotorTrend at the Chicago Auto Show.
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Some at VW expressed interest in a Ranger-derived version of the Amarok (seen below) for the U.S., as well (after all, the Ranger is sold here), but this part of the deal was sensitive and never came to fruition.
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First, they came for our light bulbs. Then they came for our appliances. Then our ceiling fans. And then our appliances again. Now Washington state wants to up the ante as they’re coming for our tires.
I’m not kidding.
It seems Washington state has aimed their sights on tires, more specifically they want to mandate use of low-rolling resistance tires on vehicles.
Let’s see: straws, plastic anything, gas powered anything, light bulbs, refrigerators, guns, diving boards, disposable diapers, charcoal grills, the nozzle on your hose and shower head to control your water consumption, the thermostat in your house to control the temperature you live at, and now the tires on your car, so you can be unsafe when you drive, but environmentally responsible in some mythical way.I find it disturbing that the always virtue signaling elite have decided that these tires, notorious for having relatively poor traction in wet road conditions, are The Answer to what they see as automotive ills. (It’s ironic that it’s Washington State pushing this idea considering how wet it is there year round.) That mandated use of such tires are likely to increase the number of traffic accidents and the number of fatalities that go with them is immaterial to them. I have no doubt that such deaths will be tacitly welcomed as a means of “reducing the surplus population”.
In Washinton state, Democrats want to outlaw the most popular tires. House Bill 2262 intends to disrupt people’s lives by mandating low rolling resistance tires on all passenger vehicles. Of course, this tire ban, by eliminating the tires that everyone wants to use, punishes the innocent. If violated, it would subject people to a $10,000 fine per occurrence.
Like masks, these tires are nothing more than social theater. The tires aren’t safe in wet weather, something that the northwest has plenty of, and are also more expensive. They would also need to be swapped out during winter months for snow tires if traveling in areas with seasonal snowfall.I can see a future where citizens of Washington state start a class action lawsuit against the state for the myriad of injuries and wrongful deaths caused by such and ill-advised mandate, particularly if that mandate were ‘snuck’ in within the body of other legislation. I don’t put it past them as we’ve seen such acts before, both at the state and federal level, where special legislation that is unrelated to the main body of a bill is placed. There is no real public hearing since it is nearly invisible...just what the sponsor(s) want.
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The worst part of all of this is that these are nothing more than unsubstantiated, idealistic, woke fallacies.
In case you haven’t noticed, everything about environmental restoration is all about sacrifice, without any promise of reward or even justification. For the people in an always wet, and often snowy, area, the current tires have served the people well. This is nothing more than a test of limitations. Will the public give up something they know and trust for a generated lie on the word of the government?
Naturally, those pushing this absurdity want the citizens to believe that swapping out their trusty treads for these environmental alternatives is a small price to pay for the planet. Guilt is their favorite playing card.
All we can do is hope this incredibly stupid idea dies a much deserved death.
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This couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people...and is long overdue.
It appears that Hollywood’s box office receipts are hitting “alarming lows”.
It isn’t all that surprising to me considering the junk Hollywood has been trying to foist on the movie-going public over the past few years.
It’s still very early in 2024 but woke Hollywood is having a very bad year already. Box office sales are way down and show no signs of improving in the near future.The last time I actually went to the movies was pre-Covid when the WP Mom and I went to see the first Downton Abbey movie. Any of the newer movies I’ve seen since then have either been via streaming or from Blu-Ray DVDs I’ve purchased. I did neither blindly as I either had suggestions from friends or caught reviews from sources I trust to not point me to a ‘woke’ movie. It seems a lot of other movie fans are doing the same thing and staying away from movie theaters in droves. Unless Hollywood dumps its ‘woke’ approach to their customers and start making movies that entertain rather than preaching an in-your-face doctrine those same customers, this decline will continue until the concept of Hollywood will be something spoken of only in the past tense.
Perhaps audiences are tired of political lectures from leftists who despise everything about traditional America. Or maybe no one wants to see another tired superhero movie. How many Marvels movies are there now, anyway? Who can keep track?
This is a simple case of people voting with their wallets.
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Here are some of the stories highlighted in this episode of Stupid People Of The Week:
Correction officer charged with murder after allegedly firing more than a dozen rounds in road-rage incident.Just when you think people can’t get any stupider, those people prove me wrong.
Food bank receives ‘record’ expired 25-year-old jar of cheese sauce.
Drunk, naked Florida woman wielding peeler knife barges into RaceTrac, threatens to kill staff: deputies.
Florida man hands deputy driver’s license with meth on it during traffic stop: Sheriff Grady Judd.
DPD: Suspect allegedly bit off, spit out officer’s finger during arrest.
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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been nice, the ice still hasn’t completely covered the lake, and where we’re preparing for our next bout of snow.