SMART Exits North America

Interesting musical chairs I recently learned about. ITA Airways was recently acquired by Lufthansa. ITA, and preceding Alitalia, were in SkyTeam, headed up by Delta along with Air France and KLM.  ITA came across as an unwanted stepchild for the more fastidious French and Dutch.  SkyTeam is pricey, as are their award redemption tiers. With this transaction, ITA joins Star Alliance, headed up by United and with Lufthansa and Air Canada in the consortium.  I'm happy about this.  At least I am right now.

I don't feel religion is bad.  I have one.  It's the dogmatic "holier than thou" crowd - usually older ladies who go to socialize and gossip - that drives people away. Ukraine has the right to exist peacefully the way we've known it to be for some 30 to 40 years.  The death toll is harrowing, and it's hard to think about the children, elderly, and invalids they've killed or maimed.  And these instigators claim to believe in God.  Not.

Seems the crazy Stooges circus has begun. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/liz-cheney-referred-for-criminal-investigation/ar-AA1w2lHB?ocid=BingHp01&cvid=f2884bd4f8b34ba2f527fff1fded1ac6&ei=12 Crazy back n forth, I hope Ukraine can recover their land and kick Russia out. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/vladimir-putin-embarrassed-as-ukrainian-rout-causes-huge-russian-surrender/ar-AA1w0T5o?ocid=BingHp01&cvid=f2884bd4f8b34ba2f527fff1fded1ac6&ei=23 Next year is going to be one extremely large clown mess of attempted dictatorship wanna be attempts against our Constitution and I fear this is only the beginning as investment firms lock in profits and get out of companies, they do not feel can handle a downturn in a U.S. and or Global Economic recession. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/dow-suffers-worst-losing-streak-in-nearly-50-years-this-stock-is-driving-index-down/ar-AA1w2wlh?ocid=BingHp01&cvid=f2884bd4f8b34ba2f527fff1fded1ac6&ei=34 This will hurt the GOP as folks assess their view of Conservative with the GOP party. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/record-slim-house-majority-faces-new-problems-as-gop-lawmaker-announces-exit-from-republican-conference/ar-AA1w2e2V?ocid=BingHp01&cvid=f2884bd4f8b34ba2f527fff1fded1ac6&ei=47 Good to see our judicial system stand up to the snake oil salesmen who think they can get away with various crimes. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/judge-merchan-just-put-leash-on-trump-during-presidency-legal-analyst/ar-AA1w2qhi?ocid=BingHp01&cvid=f2884bd4f8b34ba2f527fff1fded1ac6&ei=67 This brings up a good question for all here, do you like Standard Time or Daylight Savings time? If you are like me and not wanting to deal with flipping back and forth on time twice a year, which time do you want? https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-says-he-ll-end-daylight-saving-time-here-are-the-winners-and-losers-if-he-does/ar-AA1w1Obc?ocid=BingHp01&cvid=f2884bd4f8b34ba2f527fff1fded1ac6&ei=78 So here is how states have voted to make one or the other permanent and do away with the flip back and forth. I do find it interesting that Ford is still filing patents on EV technology even though they have pulled back and have not really planned to move forward with 800v platform. Ford's Latest Patent Could Revolutionize EV Charging Crazy the lease deals you can get on an EV. As expected another ICE only, death to EV writer finally, actually got behind a wheel and found that the EVs are way better than ICE and even states that his next auto will be an EV now that he has actually driven one and tested it. Interesting read, his few dislikes is more of him needing to choose the display preference. I like mine in Dark mode, but the wife likes hers in light mode. So it is totally customizable. I drove an EV for the first time Have to say, I am hearing more and more from coworkers who were a never EV mind set, have actually test drove and ended up buying an EV. I think the tipping point is here where variety of EV choices are going to only make this more and more common. I suspect the Kia EV3 next year will be a huge deal for them as will the Chevrolet BOLT coming back into the market. Two SUVs that are below $30,000 will attract many new auto buyers.

@oldshurst442 Thank you for the laugh, I needed it today. Much appreciated the post you did.