Day: January 24, 2023
RINO Republican Maria Salazar Lectures Americans in Davos: Illegal Aliens Owed Amnesty
Tucker Carlson spars with South Florida congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar
Maria Elvira Salazar breaks from party, votes to raise legal age to buy AR 15s
Congresswoman Salazar Introduces Dignity Act
SEE: https://salazar.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-salazar-introduces-dignity-act
February 8, 2022
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar (FL-27) and a group of her Republican House colleagues introduced the long-awaited Dignity Act, a complete immigration reform bill consisting of 3 core principles: stopping illegal immigration, providing a dignified solution for immigrants living in America, and strengthening the American workforce and economy.
Original cosponsors are Representatives Dan Newhouse (WA-04), John Curtis (UT-03), Pete Sessions (TX-17), Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon (PR), Tom Reed (NY-23), and Peter Meijer (MI-03).
“Our broken immigration system is fracturing America — economically, morally, socially, and politically. It's threatening the American Dream and our very way of life,” said Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar (FL-27). “Today, I am introducing the Dignity Act to secure our border, provide a dignified solution to immigrants in the United States, and support American workers. While we are a nation of laws, we are also a nation of second chances. I'm grateful to my colleagues for joining me to keep the American Dream alive.”
“For 25 years, illegal immigration and protecting the American worker, American sovereignty, and the rights of those who’ve sought refuge in the United States has been a balancing act between Congress and Presidential administrations. These entities have failed to work together to find agreement on a plan and laws, leaving the American people in chaos and danger,” said Congressman Pete Sessions (TX-17). “I applaud Congresswoman Maria Salazar for coming to Congress with substantial ideas to fix this pressing issue. Maria has chosen to tackle an extremely difficult situation—one that has only increased in severity every day since Biden took the Oath of Office. I am proud to be joining the great work Maria has started to safeguard our nation and reinforce the Rule of Law.”
“The Utah Compact on Immigration, first adopted by Utah’s government and business leaders in 2010, established 5 pillars of focus for immigration policy: Federal Solutions, Law Enforcement, Families, Economy, and a Free Society. While I have been in Congress, I have used the Utah Compact to guide me in developing and voting on immigration policy. In line with these values, I am proud to support the DIGNITY Act, which addresses all 5 of these pillars,” said Congressman John Curtis (UT-03). “Like the Compact, the DIGNITY Act balances the need for a secure and working border with compassionate policies that keep families together, ensure employers have access to reliable foreign workers and welcome people into our society and communities. Fair immigration policy is the Utah way and I am proud to be an original cosponsor and supporter of this important bill to provide certainty to Dreamers, reform asylum laws and procedures, provide a path to redemption for those who have contributed to our society for decades, and overhaul our broken immigration system consistent with Utah’s values.”
“One only has to look at our southern border right now to know that illegal immigration has reached a crisis point in this country. Since coming to Congress, reforming our broken system has been one of my top priorities—particularly by ensuring we have a workable guestworker program for our agriculture industry,” said Congressman Dan Newhouse (WA-04). This legislation builds off of those efforts, recognizes the contributions of immigrants, strengthens our national security, and bolsters our local economies and small businesses. I am proud to join Rep. Salazar in introducing the Dignity Act, a comprehensive proposal to finally fix our broken immigration system.”
“Border security and comprehensive immigration reform are responsibilities that Congress has failed to act on for far too long,” said Congressman Peter Meijer (MI-03). “Securing our borders and making humane reforms to our immigration system are not mutually exclusive. Both of these actions are necessary for the United States to live up to its principles as a nation of laws and values. This bill offers real solutions for fixing our broken immigration system that will enhance our national security, reinvigorate our economy, and enrich our society. There is room for both security and compassion in our immigration policies if we have the political will to find it. I am proud to join my colleagues in this historic effort, and I thank Congresswoman Salazar for her leadership on this issue.”
“The Dignity Act introduced by my colleague, María Elvira Salazar, is a step forward in providing solutions to our flawed immigration system that for decades has left immigrants living in fear and uncertainty. This bill would provide a path to legal status for immigrants that are already living and contributing to our communities, provide more resources for border security, target criminal networks, and address the record backlog of cases in immigration courts. It is time we have laws in place that work for America while strengthening our workforce and economy,” said Congresswoman Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon (PR).
The Dignity Act is the only realistic solution proposed in Congress that fully secures the border, reestablishes law and order in our immigration system, enacts a 10-year Dignity Program providing renewable legal status, and offers an additional optional redemption path to permanent legalization. This reasonable and compassionate approach will finally fix an immigration system that has been broken for decades.
The Dignity Act was written in consultation with American business leaders, agriculture and farming industries, the faith-based community, immigration reform groups, and border security experts.
In March 2021, Rep. Salazar announced her vision for immigration reform through the Dignity Plan. Less than one year later, Salazar has made good on her promise. It is the first substantial immigration reform bill written by a freshman Member of Congress in modern history.
Key Provisions of the Dignity Act:
Border Security and Enforcement
- Authorizes funding to fully secure America’s border at no cost to American taxpayers.
- Implements best border technology available – including radar, cameras, infrared, secure communications, and autonomous detection technology.
- Restarts all currently paused border infrastructure contracts and increases funding for physical border infrastructure.
- Hires 3,000 new DHS border security personnel and prioritizes the hiring of military veterans and law enforcement agents.
- Creates a task force to detect and destroy cartel smuggling tunnels along the southern border.
- Mandates 100% nationwide e-verify to ensure all American businesses are hiring legal workers.
- Increases criminal penalties for illegal border crossings and immediately deports illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
- Expands U.S. authorities to go after transnational criminals, smugglers, human traffickers, drug traffickers, and gangs like MS-13 operating outside the United States.
- Establishes 4 Regional Processing Centers to house asylum claimants at the border to end catch-and-release policies while cases are being determined.
- Enacts last-in, first-out judicial policy to cut down multi-year backlog in immigration courts.
- Hires 1,700 new immigration court personal to rule on asylum cases faster.
- Curbs irregular migration from Central America and address roots causes of northern migration by bringing law, order, and increased development to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
Addressing Immigrants Living in America
- Creates immediate legal status and a streamlined path for Dreamers.
- Dignity Program (10 Years): Through the 10-year Dignity Program, undocumented immigrants will be provided a chance to work, earn legal status, pay restitution, and get right with the law. They must comply with all federal and state laws, pass a criminal background check, work or serve as a family caregiver, and pay taxes. They must contribute to the American Worker Fund to begin the program. The Dignity program provides work authorization and protection from removal proceedings as long as conditions are being met. Dignity participants will pay $10,000 in restitution during the 10 years of the program, must check in with DHS every 2 years, and must remain in good public standing.
- Individuals in the Dignity Program will not have access to federal means-tested benefits or entitlements. They will be net contributors to tax revenue and the U.S. economy.
- The Redemption Program (+5 years): The Redemption Program is optional, and individuals must complete the 10-year Dignity Program to start the Redemption Program. It will offer a chance at redemption and earn more permanent legal status. The 5-year Redemption Program requires that participants learn English and U.S. civics, and provides the opportunity for those seeking permanent legal status to contribute to their local community either through local volunteer work, national community service, or increased contributions to the American Worker Fund. It also opens up eligibility for existing pathways to citizenship, but would not be a special pathway. Individuals applying would go to the back of the line.
- Enforcement through a functioning mandatory e-verify system and certification of a fully secure border will be completed before the Redemption Program can begin.
American Workforce and Economy
- Creates an American Worker Fund, using restitution payments from the Dignity and Redemption programs, at no cost to taxpayers. This provides grants to American citizens for workforce education initiatives, apprenticeship programs, and Career and Technical Education to give opportunities for Americans to enter new careers.
- For every $10,000 paid by 1 immigrant in the Dignity program will, one can retrain at least 2 American workers.
- Implements a market-based solution for our labor shortages by expanding and modernizing the H-2A Agricultural Guest Worker program to adequately respond to workforce needs.
- Updates the antiquated definition of farming to reflect modern-day farming practices, setting a policy that works for all of America’s farmers, growers, and ranchers.
- Provides wage stability for farmers and ensures a resilient and reliable agricultural commodity supply chain.
- Combats food price inflation so families can continue to have access to affordable groceries and a large variety of products that originate from American farms.
- Includes the H-2B Returning Worker Exception Act to ensure that small and seasonal businesses can fulfill their labor needs and contribute to our nation’s post-pandemic economic recovery.
For remarks from Congresswoman Salazar in English, click here
.For remarks from Congresswoman Salazar in Spanish, click here
.For a one-pager on the Dignity Act, click here
.For a brief background on the Dignity Act, click here
.For a more detailed summary of the Dignity Act, click here
.For a section-by-section breakdown of the Dignity Act, click here
.For the full bill text, click here
.Background:
Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar will continue working to advocate for the Dignity Act. In her first term in Congress, Salazar has been lauded as a champion for immigration reform in addition to being a champion for freedom, prosperity, and American values.
The Miami community has rallied around Salazar for her bold leadership on immigration reform. Salazar has spent 35 years as a Spanish-language primetime journalist, covering immigration and speaking with the Hispanic community in America about the appropriate way to address these complex issues.
________________________________________________________________
BY JOHN BINDER
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) lectured Americans while in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, urging them to accept amnesty for the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens.
During a panel discussion alongside Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and others, Salazar said some form of amnesty is necessary for illegal aliens living across the United States. She said:
We need to also give dignity to those people who are in the country and those are the people that I represent. We’re talking about 13 to 15 million people — who are, most of them, Hispanics, I would say 85 percent who speak my language, look like me, and sound like me — who are contributing to the economy of this country and they live in the shadows.
“So it’s time to seal the border … let’s see who comes in and who doesn’t and then turn around and give dignity, that doesn’t mean a path to citizenship, that means to include them and make them dignified members of our community,” she continued.
Last year, Salazar joined six other House Republicans in unveiling an amnesty plan that would have allowed illegal aliens to secure 10-year work permits to hold American jobs before then applying for green cards to permanently reside in the U.S.
An amnesty for illegal aliens, which would hugely inflate the U.S. labor market and likely spur more vast waves of illegal immigration, is critical for many of Salazar’s largest donors, who include real estate developers looking to build more housing and Wall Street-linked financial firms focused on driving up the number of consumers and available workers.
Independent analysis has shown that amnesty, in addition to more legal immigration, is a net loss for Americans’ job security and wages.
In 2013, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis stated that the “Gang of Eight” amnesty plan would “slightly” push down wages for American workers. Another CBO analysis, published in 2020, stated that “immigration has exerted downward pressure on the wages of relatively low-skilled workers who are already in the country, regardless of their birthplace.”
Other research finds current legal immigration to the U.S. results in more than $530 billion worth of lost wages for Americans.
Recent peer-reviewed research by economist Christoph Albert acknowledges that “as immigrants accept lower wages, they are preferably chosen by firms and therefore have higher job finding rates than natives, consistent with evidence found in US data.”
Every year, the U.S. gives green cards to more than a million foreign nationals who can eventually sponsor an unlimited number of foreign relatives for green cards — a process known as “chain migration.” In addition, more than a million are brought to the U.S. on temporary work visas to take American jobs and millions of illegal aliens are arriving at the southern border annually. Many are being released into the U.S. interior where they can secure work permits.
New York’s COVID Vaccine Mandate for Health Care Workers Struck Down~Pfizer CEO Asked in Davos When He Knew COVID-19 Vax Wouldn’t ‘Stop the Spread’
Pfizer CEO Asked in Davos When He Knew COVID-19 Vax Wouldn’t ‘Stop the Spread’
Mr. Bourla, can I ask you when did you know that the vaccines didn’t stop transmission? How long did you know that without saying it publicly? Why won’t you answer that question? I mean we now know that the vaccines didn’t stop transmission… but why did you keep it secret? You said it was 100 percent effective, then 90 percent, then 80 percent and 70 percent. But we now know that the vaccines do not stop transmission. Why did you keep that secret? (Bourla says) Have a nice day. I won’t have a nice day until I know the answer. Why did you keep it a secret if your vaccine did not stop transmission?
BY CAROLYN HENDLER, J.D.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
The COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in New York has been overturned by the New York Supreme Court, which found that Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York Department of Health exceeded their authority when implementing the vaccine mandate. Siding with the plaintiffs, Medical Professionals for Informed Consent, Judge Gerard Neri ruled that the vaccine mandate was “null void, and of no effect.”1 2
The COVID vaccine mandate in New York was implemented at the start of the COVID pandemic by Governor Andrew Cuomo when the New York Legislature granted him the power on an emergency basis. On June 24, 2021, the emergency orders were rescinded by the governor, but the vaccine mandate was made a permanent regulation.3
The court found that New York public health law specifically prohibits the Commissioner from mandating vaccination for adults and children with the exception of school requirements from preschool through high school. For school-aged children, the public health law only permits mandates for vaccines related to poliomyelitis, mumps, measles, diphtheria, rubella, varicella, Hib, pertussis, tetanus, pneumococcal, and Hepatitis B.
Accordingly, the COVID vaccine mandate exceeds the authority granted to the Commissioner by Public Health law. The court concluded:
The mandate §2.61 is beyond the scope of Respondents’ authority and is therefore null, void and of no effect, and Respondents, their agents, officers and employees are prohibited from implementing or enforcing the Mandate… DOH blatantly violated the boundaries of its authority as set forth by Legislature.4
The court determined that the COVID vaccine mandate was “arbitrary and capricious” and the changing definition of “fully vaccinated” in the mandate “contains all the hallmarks of “absurdity” and is no definition at all.”
Plaintiff attorney Sujata Gibson said:
This is a huge win for New York healthcare workers, who have been deprived of their livelihoods for more than a year. This is also a huge win for all New Yorkers, who are facing dangerous and unprecedented healthcare worker shortages throughout New York State.5
New York State Health Department officials strongly disagreed with the ruling stating that the mandate was “a critical public health tool” and that they were exploring their options.6
If you would like to receive an e-mail notice of the most recent articles published in The Vaccine Reaction each week, click here.
Click here to view References:
1 Stimson B. NY department of health ‘exploring options’ after judge strikes down COVID vaccine mandate for health workers. Fox News Jan. 14, 2023.
2 Associated Press. Judge strikes down NY State COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. News 10 Jan. 16, 2023.
3 Medical Professionals For Informed Consent et al. v. Mary T. Basset et al. NYSCEF Doc. 86 Index No. 008575/2022.
4 Ibid.
5 Breaking: CHD Defeats NY State Healthcare Mandate Dropped. Children’s Health Defense. Jan. 13, 2023.
6 NY vaccine mandate for health care workers struck down. MSN Jan. 15, 2023.
Big Pharma’s Influence in Shaping the U.S. Medical Model
BY NATASHA HOBLEY
SEE: https://thevaccinereaction.org/2023/01/big-pharmas-influence-in-shaping-the-u-s-medical-model/;
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
The United States is the most medicated country in the world, with 70 percent of Americans using at least one prescription drug daily. The U.S. also has the highest rates of obesity, heart disease, childhood illness, and autoimmune disease, yet it often touts its health care and medical research as the best in the world.1
The medical model in the U.S. focuses on addressing the symptoms of disease and illness through the widespread use of pharmaceutical products rather than dealing with the root causes of disease. Lifestyle choices are rarely addressed and alternative forms of medicine are often mocked, despite most of them being around for decades to centuries longer than western medicine. Although diet has long been known to play a significant role in maintaining good health, medical doctors receive relatively little training on the topic of nutrition—on average only 19.6 hours throughout their entire 15,000 hours of education.2
To understand how the “pill for every ill” approach became the underpinning of the U.S. medical model, it is important to understand two factors—the history of how allopathic medicine practiced by medical doctors came to dominate health care in the U.S., and the fact that pharmaceutical companies provide a significant source of funding for medical school education and textbooks.
Rockefeller Capitalized on Oil Industry by Creating Pharmaceuticals
During the first half of the 19th century in the U.S., much of the model for health care was based on natural and holistic approaches such as herbs, homeopathy, and chiropractic care.3 In the early part of the 20th century, European pharmaceutical companies in the U.K., Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S. were expanding their product lines.
The oil industry was booming and German pharmaceutical companies had begun developing synthetic vitamins out of petroleum byproducts known as petrochemicals. Billionaire John D. Rockefeller, who founded Standard Oil, recognized the opportunity to further expand markets for the oil industry by using petrochemicals to make pharmaceutical drugs and synthetic vitamins and purchased German pharmaceutical company Farben, now known as Bayer.4
The Flexner Report Eliminates Majority of Natural Healing Doctors and Education
In partnership with Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller hired Abraham Flexner, who released the “Flexner Report” in 1910, which reshaped the practice of medicine in America forever. Flexner himself had attended Johns Hopkins University and had developed a distaste for “nonconformist” approaches to health and healing, which he deemed as “quackery.”5 His report concluded that there were too many doctors and medical schools in the U.S. and that natural healing modalities were unscientific and he advocated for their closure.6
The Flexner Report was then submitted to Congress and later adopted as law. Any medical school that agreed to adopt the scientific paradigm-focused recommendations outlined in the Flexner Report received large grants from the Rockefeller Foundation. Through this funding, virtually all other traditional healing arts were eliminated, and, by 1930, only 76 percent of the 168 existing schools educating physicians remained.5
Boundaries Between Big Pharma and Medical Field “Hard to Disentangle”
Fast forward to the present and it is obvious that there are many blurred lines between medical care and the pharmaceutical industry. Not only do pharmaceutical companies continue to provide outsized funding of medical schools, medical textbooks, and medical associations, but the pharmaceutical industry also spends a lot of money funding the legacy and online digital media, as well as U.S. lawmakers at the state and federal level.
“The truth is, it’s hard to disentangle medical education from whatever the prevailing culture is in medicine, including ways of thinking or beliefs of the day about diagnosis or treatment,” said Elia Ai Jaoude, MD, a psychiatrist who also went through medical school “And currently, the pharmaceutical and medical device industries continue to have much influence over the shaping of beliefs.”7
Opioid Crisis is Prime Example of Pharmaceutical Industry Influence
A recent example of how the pharmaceutical industry influences the practice of medicine is the opioid crisis, which has resulted in thousands of deaths and even more lives impacted by addiction. For years, representatives of the pharmaceutical industry set out to wage an aggressive marketing campaign in which they intentionally lied to and misled physicians about the safety of opioids and the potential for addiction. Harvard Professor and former editor-in-chief for the New England Journal of Medicine Marcia Angell, MD said in 2009:
Drug manufacturers paid doctors and movie stars to promote more aggressive pain treatment. The companies also created campaigns for their sales forces, tying bonuses to opioid sales and holding contests to reward top earners.8
Johnson & Johnson Reps Gave Prizes to Doctors Prescribing High Numbers of Opioids
One pharmaceutical company that promoted aggressive pain treatment using opioids was Johnson & Johnson, which courts of law found created PowerPoint presentations promising prizes for physicians who sold the highest amounts of their extended-release opioid Nucynta (tapentadol). Prizes included Caribbean Cruises and Sony home theater systems.8
Courts Deem Pharmaceutical Company Marketing as “False, Misleading, and Dangerous”
Federal judges throughout the country have ruled against various pharmaceutical companies for their aggressive and misleading marketing, including an Oklahoma judge who stated that Johnson & Johnson had engaged in “false, misleading, and dangerous marketing campaigns” causing “exponentially increasing rates of addiction, overdose deaths” and opioid-addicted babies.8
Throughout the pharmaceutical industry’s marketing campaigns, from 1997 to 2002, pain relief prescriptions in the U.S. increased from roughly 670,000 prescriptions to 6.2 million prescriptions.8 Attorney John Brownlee pointed out that Oxycontin was mostly about making money for pharmaceutical companies:
The genesis of OxyContin was not the result of good science or laboratory experiment. OxyContin was the child of marketeers and bottom line financial decision making.8
Physician’s Trust in Drug Companies Begins in Medical School
According to Joel Lexchin, MD, who was once an emergency room physician and now teaches health policy, the issue of physician trust in the pharmaceutical industry stems back to medical school. Dr. Lexchin wrote a book on the topic entitled Doctors in Denial: Why Big Pharma and the Canadian Medical Profession Are Too Close For Comfort.7
In his book, Dr. Lexchin outlined the many ethical dilemmas that arise from the entanglement between medical school students and the drug industry, including the companies paying university educators and the development of relationships with students early—which has been shown to impact the doctors' prescribing habits, the co-authoring of biased textbooks, and research funding and findings that may be skewed in a drug company’s favor.
Medical School Research Funded by Big Pharma
Dr. Lexchin said that even when funding seems charitable, it is not uncommon for drug companies to benefit because they are promoting research in particular areas with a particular slant to them. He gave the example of a pharmaceutical company interested in developing a product to treat sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The funding would likely not go toward researching the sexual practices of teenagers, but rather toward researching STI antibiotics, which would help sell treatment drugs. Dr. Lexchin added:
The pharmaceutical industry level of resources means that other voices and other kinds of research may be drowned out.7
While medical schools maintain that drug industry funding helps to promote quality education, Dr. Lexchin believes that drug companies should not play any role in shaping what and how future physicians learn and says that medical schools are environments ripe for influence.6
Harvard Professor Says Relationship Between Big Pharma and Medical Schools is Increasingly Entangled
In 2000, Dr. Angell, in her position as a senior lecturer in Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, asked, Is Academic Medicine for Sale?8 Dr. Angell described the evolution of the relationship between medical schools and the pharmaceutical industry, a relationship she said has only grown to be increasingly entangled and too intimate since the late 20th century. She cited a poll in which 94 percent of physicians surveyed acknowledged receiving financial compensation of some form from pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Angell also cited the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 in which Congress voted to allow universities to patent discoveries that stem from federally funded research and then license those discoveries exclusively to companies in return for royalties. This 1980 Act created a financial incentive for universities to aim for discoveries that were likely to benefit the pharmaceutical industry, rather than the public at large. In her address, Dr. Angell stated:
Drug companies [do not] aim to educate doctors, except as a means to the primary end of selling drugs. Drug companies don’t have education budgets; they have marketing budgets from which their ostensibly educational activities are funded.8
She went on to outline reform steps that would need to be taken in order to restore integrity to the profession and stated the need for the profession to wean itself from industry money. Dr. Angell concluded:
You are not entitled to anything you want just because you’re very smart. Conflicts of interest in academic medicine have serious consequences, and it is time to stop making excuses for them.8
If you would like to receive an e-mail notice of the most recent articles published in The Vaccine Reaction each week, click here.
Click here to view References:
1 Gallant A. A growing number of Americans report taking prescription medications daily. Civic Science Jan. 11, 2023.
2 Colino S. How much do doctors learn about nutrition? U.S. News and World Report Dec. 7, 2016.
3 Pharmaphorum. A history of the pharmaceutical industry. Sept. 1, 2020.
4 Schmidt E. How Rockefeller created the business of western medicine. Meridian Health Clinic Dec. 27, 2019.
5 Simpson JK. The five eras of Chiropractic & the future of chiropractic as seen through the eyes of a participant observer. Chiropractic & Manual Therapies Jan. 19, 2012.
6 Stahnisch F, Verhoef M. The Flexner Report of 1910 and Its Impact on Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Psychiatry in North America in the 20th Century. Evidence-Based Complementary Alternative Medicine Dec. 26, 2012.
7 Hensley L. Big pharma pours millions into medical schools—here’s how it can impact education. Global News Aug. 12, 2019.
8 Angell M. Is academic medicine for sale? Boston Review June 26, 2012.
Enthusiasm Fading for Electric Vehicles
BY BOB ADELMANN
SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/enthusiasm-fading-for-electric-vehicles/;
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
The recent announcement that electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla has cut its prices by between six and 20 percent just to maintain its production goals and market share is the latest manifestation of the fading enthusiasm for electric vehicles.
In essence, the result of government meddling in the private market is now showing up in such moves.
In 2021, for example, auto executives were “very optimistic” about EVs, expecting them to capture as much as 70 percent of the total automotive market by 2030. A year later that optimism had subsided considerably, with those same executives cutting their expectations to 40 percent.
The latest report from international accounting firm KPMG reveals that car dealers expect EVs to capture just over 20 percent of the total automotive market by 2030.
The initial enthusiasm was generated by the belief that somehow EVs would save the planet. Governments got on board with the fraud, allowing massive tax credits to be given to purchasers of them to stimulate demand and hasten the transition.
That demand is now causing consternation, especially in California, where the far-Left interventionist governor and his Democratic sycophants in the state’s Legislature have deemed that 100 percent of vehicles sold in the state by 2035 be electric. The only problem, of course, is that making the demand and providing the supply are separate issues. As Ram Rajagopal, a professor at Stanford University, pointed out, a complete transition to electric vehicles in the state would require at least 15 times more charging stations than the 80,000 that presently exist.
And the demand on the state’s existing energy grid would be highly unlikely to be met. For instance, during a heat wave last September, just days after Governor Gavin Newsom announced that his state was going 100 percent “green” by 2035, the California Independent System Operator (which runs the state’s power grid) asked residents owning EVs to avoiding charging them during peak usage hours.
There are other issues as well. As inflation impacts the cost of building EVs, the so-called “cost advantage” of owning one over the traditional internal-combustion vehicle has narrowed to almost zero. An analysis by The Wall Street Journal in December showed that drivers of Tesla’s Model 3 had to pay the same to drive 100 miles as did the owner of a Honda Civic.
And there are political issues as well. Geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan wrote:
The lithium comes from one place, and it’s all processed in China. So, just building the alternate processing infrastructure … and by the way, we [would] have to invade Russia too … just to get the materials to do EVs at scale is just laughable for the next decade.
There are reliability issues, too. Consumer Reports noted in its 2022 Annual Auto Reliability survey that just four of the 11 EVs in that survey had “average or better than predicted” reliability.
Then there are supply-chain issues. Last February the Felicity Ace — a cargo ship carrying hundreds of EVs — caught fire and sank in 10,000 feet of water off the shores of the Azores, Portugal. As Captain Rahul Khanna, global head of the marine insurance firm Allianze Global Corporate & Specialty (KGCS), noted, a single fire, from whatever cause, could (and did) incinerate an entire ship. In an interview with Autoweek, he said:
There have been quite a few, let’s say, near misses that the industry has seen over the years. And we … recognize the fact that EVs can be problematic, especially when it comes to fire….
The problem with EVs is that the lithium-ion batteries can actually propagate the fire. In fact, they can actually encourage a fire if a fire has already started and you have lithium-ion batteries — they can ignite a lot more vigorously as compared to any other cars.
Just last Friday a Norwegian shipping company banned EVs on its ferries, explaining that if an EV catches fire, the fire cannot be extinguished.
The bloom appears to be off the rose for EVs now that the reality of government interference for political reasons is becoming increasingly obvious. The cost of “going green” continues to escalate, and consumers are reacting accordingly.
THE NEW AMERICAN: Social Justice “Religion” is NOT Christianity, Warns Christian Author
The social-justice movement is a religion with its own saints, holy books, seminaries and doctrines that is inherently opposed to Christianity on multiple levels, Christian author and filmmaker Jonathan Harris said in an interview on Conversations That Matter with The New American magazine's Alex Newman. Harris, who has extensive theological training and has written books about the issue, called on Christian leaders to see through this, but warned that this false religion is even infiltrating conservative evangelical seminaries. Even the Southern Baptist Convention is falling victim, he said. Harris, who hosts his own podcast called Conversations That Matter, also gives his thoughts on the proper role of the church in the culture and political realm, as contrasted with the "woke" view advocated by social-justice warriors. 🇺🇸 The New American: http://www.thenewamerican.com/