I'm pretty sure we have hit peak Lidar.

I haven't seen any new rig configurations lately. Now I imagine we go into a consolidations phase. They can't all be making money.

BMW did have these stylish cameras though.

Hypercolor Masi.

Normally I rack my photos differently. But I was walking in downtown San Jose when this car passed me. It caught my attention because well - it's purple. And it had a loud motor. I couldn't really figure out what it was.

It got stopped at a light, so I zoomed in from down the block to get one shot off to look at later and figure out what it was. I'm not actually sure the above shot would have helped me. The back didn't have any badging.

Then I remembered that San Jose traffic signals are set really slow and I hustled down the block getting a few extra shots off. Once I got to about this point I could see it was a Masi. The photos aren't great over all - but I had about 20 seconds to get almost half a block.

I like to be fair.

Elon has cleared out quite a bit of over inventory. I would say by at least half.

Seems about right.

I'm sure it's different this time.

Larger.

When this is your everyday car.

We are right in the time of year when you can't decide if this is too early or too late. I could only get one shot off.

Goose eggs all around.

My city is hosting a car show for planes this weekend. At first I was super excited because they were going to have a drone show. I'm just okay on the planes.

Then they cancelled the drone show. I did a drive by of the planes a couple of times and I didn't think there was anything worth stopping for.

Then went to the fair to check out the bunnies and silly chickens. But there is some kind of bird virus in California right now. No silly chickens. All the bunnies were the same. And there were much less of them.

I'm really glad to don't forecast where I am going because I'd look like such a phony. So much stuff I was interested in this year was completely cancelled. I don't quite remember a year like this one It's really strange.

I have a serous case of the Mehs.

Nothing says you are too dependent on a country more than this.

Strolled up to my doorstep today to find that my husband bought a 12 inch pizza pan from China. I'm sure he didn't chose China, he just clicked a button. But, how is it possible that it's less expensive to a make this thing in China and ship it all across the ocean?

Please tell me this is peak crazy.

I do love funky tile sometimes.

When I heard this I laughed....

All Target registers are down and shoppers are abandoning their carts. Here are some scenes from the #TargetDown apocalypse.

Because I was just having a conversation on this post (in the comments) about not being able to use cash when the power goes down or just even if the stores servers are down. It is just not possible.

Rando parking lot Q8.

I wasn't aware that any models of anything were shipping with Lidar yet. But this certainly looks like lidar to me. You can see it also has a forward facing camera. If there was anyone with the car I would have asked, but there wasn't. Audi does adopt technology faster than the rest.... sooooo.

I guess the homeless have unionized.

People like to rail about what a shit hole San Fransisco is... but today I ran across a facebook page called Santa Cruz looks like Shit that shows that even they have had enough of the problem with the homeless. Which says a lot because Santa Cruz has an extremely tolerant view of "campers".

I guess they cleared this camp about a month ago, But the whole thing was so completely insane. If  this were a tax paying citizen - the government would literally fine you out of existence.

But even they are getting tired of shit on the streets. The needles and the crime that comes with this. And you can't do ANYTHING about it. Not only are cities responsible for the costs of cleaning these camps - but now the homeless basically just sue cities. Junkies have more rights than the rest of us.

Meanwhile over in Oakland - Home Depo wants to close up because they have a crazy encampment right next door.

The hardest part is the waiting.

You just feel stuck. And it's just so weird that people are so tuned out that they don't even see that vehicle sales around the globe have collapsed. The UK fell by 44%

"The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said earlier this month that car production fell by almost half in April, with an “extraordinary” drop from 127,970 cars rolling off production lines in April 2018 to 70,971 this year, a fall of 44.5%." Source.

India Fell 20%. You know shit is getting real when anyone talks about India.

"Sales fell 20.6% in May to 239,347 vehicles from a year earlier, according to data released on Tuesday by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam). It was the biggest fall since a 22% decline in September 2001 and the seventh consecutive drop in monthly domestic passenger vehicle sales. Vehicle sales in India are counted as factory dispatches and not retail sales." Source.

And China down 26%.

"China car slump extends to a year with no rebound in sight https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-11/china-car-slump-extends-to-a-year-with-no-rebound-in-sight … via @markets "Retail sales...fell 12.5% to 1.61 million units in May...That follows a 16.6% decline in April and a 12% drop in March." Chinese car brand sales down 26.5%. BIG number." Source.

But hey - Tesla is still meeting production goals! I guess. You just feel like you are living in a mirage.

That time autofill made you forget what you were searching for.

Makes sense.

Homelessness has risen 42% in San Jose and is skyrocketing in all the large cities. But we are giving health coverage to illegals now.

I guess these are kinda cute right now.

They are very color dependent. Normally silver isn't even a color to me. But it works here.

Small town charm.

Last year my city did a micro cattle drive through the city. I didn't even know they did that because I only accidentally ran across it while I was driving into town. I thought it was a cute thing to see - ONCE.

Then I heard it was the last year for the city next to me, who also runs a cattle drive through their city. So Mr. S. and I got up early and went down to watch. I mean, if it's going to be the last year I might as well do it twice. But after waiting for a while Mr S. eventually walked down and talked to one of the traffic cops who said they only did it last year because it was the 100 year anniversary. No cows this year. And it pretty much explains why I never knew my city did that. They still have a micro parade. Really micro.

Here we go I guess.

PG&E warns of possible widespread power blackouts amid extreme CA fire risk this weekend.

I am not in the affected area - this time. California is just so nuts. I imagine I will have to find a backup bug out hotel because they did this a few months ago in the area around Napa.

That is when I learned a lot of people reply on power for oxygen. If my bug out hotel is next to the hospital, it could be a problem to get in. When they did this last year they didn't get their power back for three days and people were howling. I mean, imagine if you are a restaurant!

One of the places in St Helena was going to have a block party because they were out of power for so long and figured if we are going to lose this food - we might as well cook it. Now that area is considering having to buy a microgrid. Can you believe this shit?

Oh. Now if you own a car you are too rich.

Carpocalypse now: Lyft's founders are right — we're in the endgame for cars.

"We believe that the world is at the beginning of a shift away from car ownership to Transportation-as-a-Service, or TaaS. Lyft is at the forefront of this massive societal change," they told investors.

"Car ownership has ... economically burdened consumers. US households spend more on transportation than on any expenditure other than housing. ... On a per household basis, the average annual spend on transportation is over $9,500, with the substantial majority spent on car ownership and operation."

Cars create "inequality," they argue. "The average cost of a new vehicle in the United States has increased to over $33,000, which most American households cannot afford," the IPO says. "We estimate over 300,000 Lyft riders have given up their personal cars because of Lyft."

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I've been seeing these stories come out the past week. I have also been talking about the buildup for cars since last year.

There is nothing in human history that makes me believe this. Lyft and Uber did not take ANY cars off the roads. They only allowed people to finance more cars.

I thought I was gonna see

Sooooooo. Plastic is okay again?

I went to the store today to get my bunny some wheat grass. Which I do every three days or so.

When I asked for a bag the bagger asks - paper or plastic? I'm like - that's even an option? He goes - this one or that one. They both cost ten cents. Which is quite the reversal here in California.

I think this pretty much confirms this whole plastic hysteria was basically just stores not wanting to have to pay for bags anymore.

Free speech doesn't include monetization.

YouTube says it has 'suspended' the ability of a star with millions of fans to make money from his videos, following a huge backlash.

Even though I identify as a conservative - it drives me crazy when conservatives get all crazy about being demonetized.  It's sort of like saying - not only do you have to bake a cake for someone you don't agree with, YOU ALSO HAVE TO PAY that person with whom you don't agree.

THIS IS NOT FREE SPEACH. Someone doesn't have to pay you for a view in which they do not agree with. You are still allowed to say them. But they shouldn't be forced to pay you. I don't agree with YouTube at all or facebook. But it is their right to pay anyone they effing want and it doesn't infringe on your free speech.

This blog doesn't take money from anyone. It of course suffers as a result. Google down revs me all the time. But you know what? I can say anything I effing want.

The government isn't causing the middle class to die. The government is incentivizing people to be losers.

Goodbye Middle Class: The Percentage Of Wealth Owned By The Top 10% Just Got Even Bigger.

If I read another one of these sorties I just might lose my mind. Day in and day out people act like the government is killing them when in fact they are killing themselves.

You see - I had a front row seat to the housing recession and saw a LOT wealthy people jingle mail their key's to the bank because the media told them  their houses would never be worth what they paid for them. These were people who COULD afford the houses they were giving up, but were underwater.

At the time I just couldn't understand it. I too was crazy underwater, but chose to fight for my houses (I also have a rental) because I understood the rent trap from growing up poor. My family moved every year because the landlord raised the rent. I must have done dozens of stories during the recession asking - where are these people going to live?! 

Well... now we know don't we. On the streets. I'm still bitter honestly because I was the LAST to be refinanced. Every loser on the planet got relief before I did because the banks calculated that I didn't want to screw up my credit. But apparently I was pretty alone in this concept. I knew that if I gave up my stuff - the banks would never lend me that kind of money again. I took a loss on my rental for a decade. Which at the time seemed something only stupid people would do. But if you knew how many large corporations know they won't make money on something for many years, yet still invest that money anyway - it wouldn't seem so stupid.

When I bought my place you had to list all your credit cards. I have two. At the time this was completely shocking to the people trying to close my loan. They said usually people have a page of credit cards. People seem completely blind to how much money they waste on credit card interest. It's like a tax on everything! My family used to know almost down to the day when they could get new credit after defaulting.

People walk away from EVERYTHING and then cry - it's the government fault I'm a loser. When in reality - it's the government that allows them to be deadbeats and forgives every bad decision they make. I am just over it today. And it's just really a sad day when someone with a house and a rental is considered super effing wealthy. When I was growing up, that didn't make you that wealthy. We didn't always understand how people did it - but it didn't stand out in any way.

MehClaren in the wild.

When I start getting bored of cars I start putting Meh at the beginning. I have also started calling Teslas Mehslas.

This is a new one.

Now, if they moved these tree houses over to San Jose - the Mayor there would grant them a loan and forgive it after five years. I have heard rumors that people are building "accessory dwelling units" (granny flats) to house their potential old people nannies for when they get old and need to be taken care of.

There is no end to the unintended consequences these idiots cause to happen. Instead of providing more homes for the people "the government" wants you to house - it's just sort of a wealth transfer. I am not okay with loan forgiveness from the government. It's bullshit. It makes everyones property taxes go up.

People just don't want this element in their neighborhoods and no matter how much you try to incentive people - they will just come up with some clever plan to side step the rules.