I'd like to hear if even one person in this discussion had ever heard of it before this was posted here. I follow quite a bit of automotive news myself and had never heard of this van before now. Granted it is a commercial vehicle that would have been difficult to obtain as a regular consumer here (similar to the larger current model Ford econoline (not transitconnect) vans) but I had never heard of this at all. I've seen news on the new USPS delivery vehicles, the new NYC taxis, but never on this.

It's awfully difficult - at least in real space - to claim to be an expert on something you never heard of. I'm sure that won't stop people here but nonetheless it is worth pondering why we had never heard anything of this vehicle. If regular consumers hadn't heard of it, how many potential commercial customers hadn't either? Plenty of commercial customers exist in this country who would do well with an electric van, if only they knew this one existed.

Are you sure you're talking about China there? That sounds like the MAGA party to-do list, especially if you add on corporate extortion and mandatory bribes to the leader of said one party state.

I'm fine with sending Musk to Mars. He can take DOGE and the rest of MAGA with him. Few of them are smart enough to realize there is no return trip, even if the trip there is a success. Musk and Trump can spend the trip trying to convince each other who is the most important person in the history of the universe while those of us here on earth rebuild from the destruction they left behind here.

Making things even worse we now see MAGA flexing another muscle here to exert force on America; they are getting people all over the country fired for daring to express a non-MAGA-endorsed opinion of the matter. Yesterday ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel indefinitely for stating a few days ago that we didn't know the politics of the shooter. How dare he suggest that the shooter might not be the left-wing devil that MAGA insists him to be!

There are endless counts of other people across the country who are losing their jobs for daring to say something disparaging on social media about Kirk after his death as well. MAGA is very openly celebrating these firings.

We should also consider the non-zero chance that he was shot by someone not for being too far to the right but rather for not being far enough to the right. Remember there are a lot of MAGA folks who are tripping over each other to see who can be the most extreme; years ago the GOP passed a point where they would have thrown out Reagan for being too far left and now the MAGA party is even further yet to the right.

There is a long list of times during this - and the previous - Trump Administration when it seemed clear that would happen. We thought they finally got to the point where they wouldn't be able to stand each other and they would annihilate their own. Never before did it happen; indeed they only rallied harder each time and came out stronger.

Now they have a new martyr. Any time anyone doesn't toe the MAGA line they will be accused of leading towards "another Charlie Kirk". In fact they could have hardly asked for a better event, as they can use it to also brush any other gun violence crime under the rug as well.

Say goodbye to democracy. Charlie Kirk managed to do exactly what he wanted - he killed it. He wasn't wise enough to realize it would take his own blood to take it down, but it is dead and buried now. The new Single Party State rises up now, and by the end of next month it will be illegal to be a democrat.

Right now is a good time to invest in your exit strategy if you don't align yourself 110% with the MAGA party.

Where did I encourage violence? You must have me mistaken with someone else. I have multiple times very plainly advocated against violence in all forms. I don't approve killing anyone by anyone else. Not by or for politics, not by or for the state. Murder is wrong, period.

In the 1960s the assassinations were of people who wanted to improve our country and bring about progress. This decade we're seeing assassinations of people of all stripes. There is no rhyme or reason to the violence any more. The only difference is that one party advocates exclusively for "thoughts and prayers" after any killing, because they are afraid their owners will drive them out of their cushy jobs if they ever propose any kind of legislative reform.

I didn't say anyone would make a new amendment. I said that the MAGA party would ignore the 22nd Amendment, and that the SCOTUS would not stop them from doing so. That's a big difference. Indeed a constitutional amendment is only passed by congress; the SCOTUS cannot make one. Up until now, the POTUS has been expected to follow the constitution, but that is no longer the case. Nobody is willing to apply any laws to Trump.

Again, nobody is looking to pass a new amendment, nor are they looking to repeal one on the books. They have license to simply ignore the constitution, and they will do exactly that. The constitution is no longer worth the paper it was written on.

Indeed strangely enough by killing a liar the MAGA party likely killed truth itself . This just gives them more momentum for squashing dissent and labeling those they don't agree with as undesirable and "UnAmerican". They never let an opportunity like this go by without making political hay from it.

I'm not praising him or his hateful ignorant rhetoric. I'm merely forecasting what comes next.

The MAGA party is hard at work canonizing him. They will absolutely make political hay from this for some time to come. We will see a call to arms - both physical and metaphorical - as the MAGA party rallies ever harder around Saint Donald. This will become a push for more persecution of "the left" as MAGA folks claim they are themselves being hunted. This will also become a push to discard the 22nd amendment - which the SCOTUS will not prevent - to keep Donald as god-king for all eternity.

Very convenient that this came up for the MAGA party while they were desperately trying to find a way to distract America from the Epstein files. Notice how far down in the news feeds anything relating to that has fallen since. The front page of CNN no longer mentions Epstein at all; MSNBC barely mentions it in referencing a congressman asking for the files to be released and NPR buries it far down discussing the UK firing an ambassador to the US over Epstein ties.

In other words, mission accomplished for the MAGA party. The longer the manhunt continues for the shooter the longer we're distracted from matters of real consequence and the stronger the MAGA party gets against the rest of America.

Go ahead, mod me down. I know this is a little off topic but it warrants being said. Matters of climate change will soon be forbidden discussion topics in the MAGA world.

He's already getting a complimentary ride on Air Force Two. I'm trying to think of other non-politicians who were not war heroes whose corpses got Presidential or VP escorts and not thinking of any...

Except each time the rage machine gets louder and more profane. At some point if it doesn't come back down to earth we're going to have a real problem. Time to get more supplies for the bug-out bags.

You're probably right on that. However there are plenty in Trump's orbit who would be willing to enable something like this to happen to draw their base away from the Epstein saga. I probably gave him way too much credit to suggest he could have dreamed this up on his own. He wasn't even of above-average intelligence when he hosted The Apprentice, and he's shown just how little one can learn in 4 years when they really try hard.

I don't support murder, regardless of how awful the murdered person is. Violence doesn't end violence, it only triggers more violence. I will say though that the current POTUS is not one to follow any laws at all any more, so I can't help but wonder if he's connected to this murder himself - it is certainly drawing attention away from the Epstein saga.

As a chemist I can tell you that glass bottles leach out ions into water constantly. It's not microplastics, but it's plenty of ions. Most glass on the market - even high quality lab glass - is made with sodiated glass, so the best water you can put in it will end up carrying a substantial about of sodium ions over a short amount of time. Other trace elements will get pulled out by the water as well.

You forgot to tell us how this ties in to Barack HUSSEIN Obama, to Hillary Clinton's email server, to Hunter Biden's laptop, to Benghazi, to the Iluminati, and to pizzagate. But it's still enough to get us to forget about the thousands of illegal acts that have been partaken or endorsed by the current administration, right?

Yes, I know I'm going to get downmodded into oblivion on this. Go ahead, bring it.