The Durak Report May 19, Anno Domini 2026

Uhm. I thought this article was going to be a bit different. See Below:

Are we still talking about this? Maybe nothing really is happening.

It's California. Of course it is.

I wasn't paying attention for the first one, but when I realized there were a bunch of these videos endorsing candidates, I paid a bit of attention and the AI is obvious. Great idea though. Given people can't be bothered to read anymore.

It's the first? What? Was detransition a non-option for adolescents?

This is just funny. Russia called Xi a girl.

Drones entered the country from Iraq, two destroyed, one hit a generator.

Russia's been on this for a while. Might not be the worst idea. Might.

What have I already told you about Lithuania?

Uhm, Latvia too? Are you trying to lose Article 5 protection?

Musk lost on a technicality. What OpenAI did was wrong.

I've been really slacking off, kind of, about my daily writing.

Obviously, when was my last post? And now it's the 19th?

But really, not much has happened. It's been a super slow spring.

Sure, if I were a political streamer, there's tons to talk about and grift on, like the recent shooting on the Islamic center in San Diego, but things that have real meaning in greater politics, has slowed way way down. IRGC has done this and that, Trump as done this and that, Trump backs off, Trump goes in. Blah blah blah nothing.

Is it important? Yes. It's important to stop terrorism. It's important to resolve wars, but these details aren't all that important to me. Trump vs Iran, in particular, is mostly giving uninvolved people something to bicker about and play the mind reading game. While this is important strategy for the war and various other social things, so far, in the history books, it'll be a one line thought.

Iran was doing things the US didn't like, the US destroyed their military assets, and after some public pysops the war was resolved.

That's it. If Trump gets everything he wants, that's it. If Iran gets everything they want, that's it.

Yes, the details are recorded by plenty of people, I'm interested in results and things that point to results. The rest is noise until we see the end.

Oh wow. This is nuts. CNN is following Iran's lead into trying to convince us to use less energy.

I thought this article was going to be some brain dead piece, but no, it's propaganda.

That's all I really had to say, but let's dig deeper just to tear down the arguments:

>> Reducing your driving speed on the highway from 75 mph to 55 mph leads the average gasoline-powered car to use 40% less gas, according to the Department of Energy. Exact savings can vary, but generally being a lead foot is costly.

Yea, sure, but not only is this rude and dangerous, it's actually illegal in some places to drive that slow on a freeway.

And while 55 MPH is the standard the governments have settled on as an ideal gas to efficiency ratio, every vehicle is different. Some probably do sit right on 55, others 45, others still higher. It's extra noticeable on manual drive cars.

It's a much better idea to be easy on the gas, especially uphill, and start stop kills more gas than anything else. Maybe hybrids get around this.

Then they say to use the bus. Maybe that works, but I've often been the only person on a bus, so that doesn't help much.

They go on to claim only 4% of US commuters use public transit for work, but that's obvious. Mix America's poor public transit with inflexible jobs and you'll quickly see why public transit is clearly a bad idea for most people trying to get to work.

Oh, "shop around" for gas. That's a great idea. Drive all over to see gas prices, or rely on some gas app that's out of date and you do all this extra driving…

They mention maybe saving 0.50 cents a gallon, which is almost meaningless if you have to drive further for it. Unless you have a giant gas tank, the most you're saving is less than a cup of coffee.

Oh good, they save the dumbest for last. I thought I was being a bit unfair to the article, but here we go:

>> Buying a more fuel-efficient car

First, the article doesn't even talk about this headline. It says "switch to electric!"

Okay, grok, what's the cheapest new electric car on the market out the door price?

Grok failed. Okay.

Perplexity, what's the cheapest new electric car on the market out the door price?

>> The exact out-the-door price depends on your state sales tax, title/registration fees, and any dealer fees, so there isn’t one universal number. For a rough example in Detroit, Michigan, a Bolt at $28,995 would usually land several thousand dollars higher once tax and fees are added.

Okay, so at least 30,000, plus higher tags (most states) plus higher insurance (everywhere), but we will ignore that.

Let's assume the average vehicle gets 20mpg. It's higher than that, but whatever.

Let's assume gas is $6 per gallon.

so, 30,000/6 = 5000.

So that 30 grand got you 5000 gallons of gas, which at 20mpg is 150,000 miles.

So after you drive that electric vehicle 150,000, you break even. Not counting the cost of electricity, extra insurance, and other costs that I've ignored or downplayed.

This is a really really dumb idea.

If you are new car shopping, sure, consider electric, but it is not a strategy to reduce costs.