The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

It's been just a few days since Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba proclaimed he was not afraid and that's why he would testify on Monday.

"He still wants to take the stand, even though my advice is, at this point, you should never take the stand with a gag order," Habba said outside the courthouse on Thursday. "But he's so firmly against what is happening in this court and so firmly for the old America that we know, not this America, that he will take the stand on Monday. He will open himself up to whatever they want because he's not afraid. People who are afraid cower. President Trump does not cower."

But by Sunday afternoon, that's exactly what Trump confessed he would do.

Taking to his social media in an all-caps rant, Trump said that the expert witness that they had through the final parts of last week will continue early into the week, finishing up on Tuesday.

"I have already testified," Trump explained, "and I have nothing more to say..."  (our emphasis)

The "Never surrender" charlatan does it again!  Headline you won't see in the mainstream media:  "Trump Cowers!"  It's extremely doubtful the pathological liar ever intended to testify again.  He was likely playing to his cultists all along, trying to come off as the brave (and, don't forget, very wealthy!) teller of truth against a corrupt system engaging in Election Interference! But knowing what perils he faced in cross- examination, he chose to cower instead.  Bwahahahaha!

The bad: 

Allies of Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to push for an end to US military support for Ukraine, the Guardian has learned.

Members of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and staff from the Hungarian embassy in Washington will on Monday begin a two-day event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank.

The first day includes panel speeches about the Ukraine war as well as topics such as Transatlantic Culture Wars. It is expected to feature guests including Magor Ernyei, the international director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights, the institute that organized CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) Hungary. Kelley Currie, a former ambassador under then president Donald Trump, said she was invited “but declined”.

According to a Republican source, some of the attendees, including Republican members of Congress, have been invited to join closed-door talks the next day.

The meeting will take place against a backdrop of tense debate in Washington over Ukraine’s future. Last week the White House warned that, without congressional action, money to buy more weapons and equipment for Kyiv will run out by the end of the year. On Wednesday Senate Republicans blocked an emergency spending bill to fund the war in Ukraine.

A diplomatic source close to the Hungarian embassy said: “Orbán is confident that the Ukraine aid will not pass in Congress. That is why he is trying to block assistance from the EU as well.”

Orbán is a frequent critic of aid to help Ukraine against the Russian invasion. Seen as Vladimir Putin’s closest ally inside the EU for the past few years, he was photographed smiling and shaking hands with the Russian president two months ago in Beijing...

"Fascists of the world, unite!"  Why is this mf-er and his mf-ing country still in NATO and the EU?  He's a Russian agent ffs.  But, of course, Putin's Republican coup caucus will be happy to hear what his emissaries have to say.  It's obscene that Orbán / Hungary is sabotaging not just the war effort in Ukraine, but the entire Western alliance, yet he's still allowed to do his dirty work with only some piddling sanctions that have no apparent effect.  Western liberal democracy is at least as much at risk in Europe as it is here, yet extraordinary measures to protect it somehow come too little, too late (if they come at all).

The ugly:

... It’s anyone’s guess how much of a success or failure the [Cybertruck] will be, though the fact that at time of writing there is, incredibly, still no official information about price or battery capacity doesn’t bode well. But we can conclude that the Cybertruck is just possibly the dumbest vehicle ever produced. Here’s why.

Let’s start with the Cybertruck’s body panels, which are made of stainless steel. That is a nightmare for several reasons. First, it is quite a bit harder than ordinary steel, making it difficult to shape and machine. When Ford experimented with stainless steel in the mid-20th century, they discovered that the metal would eventually break the dies they used to press their door panels. Tesla has had to cut the sheets with lasers and bend them into shape, which is undoubtedly more expensive.

Second, there is cost. The chromium and nickel alloys typically used to make steel stainless—that is, resistant to corrosion—are expensive, at about $11,700 and $18,300 per metric ton, respectively, as compared to about $800 for steel. And while stainless steel is resistant to dents, that also means that if it is dented it is difficult and costly to repair.

Incidentally, automakers have long since developed techniques to combat rust that are roughly equivalent to stainless alloys, like galvanizing the steel (that is, applying a zinc coating) and improved paint. Indeed, stainless steel itself is not entirely rustproof, as anyone with a stainless knife or cutlery has likely discovered. Leave it under a damp surface like a cloth (or leaf, or bird poop) for too long, and it will start to corrode.

Third and perhaps most importantly, stainless steel is much stiffer than the ordinary stuff, which makes it dangerous. Since the 1950s at least, automakers have understood that stiffer cars are more dangerous to people inside and outside the car, because in a crash they deliver energy to other parties rather than absorbing it. In early crash test experiments with more heavily built cars, collisions often did only minor damage to the car but turned the test dummies into paste. Since then, cars have been designed with progressively more sophisticated crumple zones to absorb impact forces. Musk’s boasts of a Cybertruck “exoskeleton,” if true, are a recipe for gruesome carnage...  (our emphasis)

Any way you slice and dice it, or anyone who gets in an accident in one, Musk's latest effort at innovative adequacy looks like it will be an über- Edsel- level fail.  But count on some fellow fascist bros with trust fund money to go out and buy one so the rest of us can laugh and say, "There goes another sucka!  Hope he has a will!"