So Much For That Stereotype

August 28, 2025 Kim du Toit Drive Time, Technology

My buddy (whom I’ll call “Brian” because, well, that’s his name) was once married to a gorgeous but rather empty-headed girl named Irene (also her real name). Over the course of his twenty-odd year marriage, he would unfailingly buy her a new Honda Accord every two years or so. When I asked Brian why always an Accord, his answer was quite succinct:

“Because not even Irene can fuck up a Honda.”

Well, that may have been true back then, but apparently it’s not so true anymore:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched an investigation into more than 1.4 million Honda and Acura vehicles over defective connecting rod bearings that can cause complete engine failure. The probe targets 3.5-liter V6 engines in popular models including the Honda Pilot, Odyssey, and Ridgeline, along with several Acura vehicles.

The investigation underscores growing safety concerns about widespread engine problems that could leave drivers stranded or create hazardous situations on busy roadways.

Federal regulators opened the probe on August 20. They are focusing on the J35 V6 engine used across multiple Honda and Acura model lines. The investigation covers 2016–2020 Acura MDX vehicles, 2018–2020 Acura TLX models, 2018–2020 Honda Odyssey minivans, 2016–2020 Honda Pilot SUVs, and 2017–2019 Honda Ridgeline pickup trucks.

NHTSA has received at least 414 complaints involving engine failure tied to the defective connecting rod bearings.

Oops.

Strange that this problem should surface in their V6 engines; I always thought they’d be bulletproof compared to the smaller 2-liter 4-bangers, but there ya go.

Readers thinking of buy a new-model Honda with said engine: caveat emptor.

Fiddling & Fraud

August 28, 2025 Kim du Toit Corporate Fuckery

I see that Walmart has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar:

A very high-ranking Walmart executive was allegedly tossing American tech workers aside while pocketing massive bribes to bring in Indian H-1B workers from shady “visa mills.” And once again, the globalist lie about “filling jobs Americans won’t do” is blown to pieces.

This scandal was never about talent shortages or innovation. It was about greed, lining pockets, cutting costs, and selling out the American workers who built Walmart into what it is today.

It should come as no surprise that the corporation whose business mantra is all about the lowest possible prices should treat their own workforce any differently.

I’ve written about this whole situation before (Screwing Americans and Racial Preferences), so to say I am unaware of this bastardy would be some kind of understatement.

But I’m now well past the point of just observing such things and shaking my head about it.

Here’s my suggestion to the Trump Administration.

find out how many of these fraudulent H-1B visas were given to Walmart employees since, well, forever;
calculate the average annual salaries of each of those jobs, if held by U.S. citizens, and multiply those dollar amounts by the number of frauds;
add three zeroes to that aggregate;
fine Walmart for that amount, with a massive daily penalty for non-compliance;
then go after every other company which has benefited from this kind of fraud, and sue them in identical fashion (ahem Google etc.).

Or just go through the all finance and HR departments and in classical Roman fashion, randomly select one in ten employees for summary termination* (the original meaning of the word “decimation”). Repeat the process on a monthly basis.

A precondition for the above is the immediate “reshoring” of all fraudulent H-1B visa holders, along with their families.

I’m sick of us pussyfooting around this nonsense, and I’m pretty sure that a large number of Trump supporters feel the same.

* I first wrote “execution” but some people may have a problem with this because Krool & Hartless, Kim.

Just In Passing

August 28, 2025 Kim du Toit Bad News

I know that the London Daily Mail is an awful publication. If you want to read reports that one of the Kardashians has changed the color of her nail polish or how some barely-known “celebrity” is experiencing post-divorce trauma, then the DM is the paper for you.

So why do I read it? Because unlike the conservative newspapers Over Here, it isn’t all politics, all the time — which is almost as boring as another article wherein Amanda Holden gets to show off her skinny (“toned”) body yet again. I like me a little diversion of the salacious kind, but only as an occasional counterweight to all the earnest political crap.

Every so often, however, the DM surprises me with coverage that is not only relevant, but excellent — and often, their reportage on events Over Here arrives earlier than that from US newspapers, which makes no sense at all.

However, just the other day I noticed something interesting. There was a blizzard of coverage in conservative US outlets about what I referred to the other day as “flaggism“, so I went over to the Daily Mail to see what their take was on the situation. I mean, thousands of people all over Britain protesting the migrant hotels, Union- and St. George’s flags being hung on lamp posts and painted on the roads: this is news absolutely worth covering and talking about, because it’s a really important issue in British life at the moment. So what did the DM say about it all?

Nothing. On the day in question, there was not a single article devoted to the topic. Nor was there one in the Sun, and in the august Times of London? Not one either, but there were two on Taylor Swift’s engagement. Even the conservative (by UK standards) Telegraph had only one report on the unrest, and that was an analysis of how a single town‘s unrest may cause an election party switch at some point in the future.

One would almost think there was a conspiracy… but then again, I’m not too surprised. The British population (and its mainstream media), it seems, would rather gorge themselves on the details of Taylor Swift’s engagement or the Beckham family’s feud than concern themselves with an issue that is of vital national consequence.

Morons, the lot of them.

Thursday Landscape

August 28, 2025 Kim du Toit Travels

Ramanagara, outside Bangalore India (2006)

School uniforms: girls with shoes and socks; boys barefoot.

Flaggism

August 27, 2025 Kim du Toit Mocking Furriners, Patriotism

“Wut dat, Kim?”

Allow me to explain, via this article:

This is turning into one of the most subversive and colorful patriotic campaigns ever. And it’s really chapping the knickers off of the pissy, prissy ‘minders’ who keep an eye on everyone and tell them how to behave.

Hundreds of flags have sprung up in towns and cities across the country, many flying from lampposts, as part of a campaign called “Operation Raise the Colours.”

Sounds all peaceful and normal, right? Nazzo fast, Guido:

A council leader has said that some residents have been left feeling “intimidated” by the appearance of Union Jack and St George’s flags.

My heart bleeds for their tender sensibilities. Perhaps those “residents” (none of whom, I bet, are native-born Brits) should have tried “settling” in another country, perhaps?

Just not here.

Because if they had, they’d have been confronted by this:

A California RV dealership is defiantly displaying the massive American flag that it was told to take down by local officials earlier this year — despite proudly flying similarly sized versions of the Stars and Stripes at its more than 250 other locations across the country without issue.

Camping World on Interstate 5 outside Stockton is well known for the giant Old Glory flying over its grounds — but in April, San Joaquin County Community Development ordered that it be taken down for safety reasons and lack of a permit. Specifically, they are worried about the flagpole’s foundation and its proximity to property lines and the highway in case it ever fell over.

Yeah, I’m sure it was for “safety” reasons. Oh, and I’m a little curious how John Adams (to name just one) would have responded to the ordinance requiring a permit to fly our flag. (I’m thinking muskets, tar, feathers etc., but feel free to correct me.)

Anyway, our intrepid business owner has told the council to take a hike:

Marcus Lemonis, CEO of Camping World, found out about the ongoing issue and ordered the dealership on Monday to raise the flag.

Lemonis said if it were a marketing flag on the pole and not the American flag, he would consider keeping it down until it was approved.

But Old Glory stays, he said, regardless of what the county says.

“It’s symbolism about how we feel about this country. We have a lot of veterans who work for us, and a lot of veterans who shop with us,” Lemonis said.

Best part of all this?

“I happen to be an immigrant,” the Lebanon-born entrepreneur said. “I was given the blessing of being able to enter this country and become a citizen, and I’m grateful for it. It’s been part of my life since I was a little child down in Miami, Florida, where we had the largest flagpole in Miami at our car dealership.”

“Not when they sue, not when I lose, not if they take me to jail, the flag is not coming down.”

Makes you proud to be an American, dunnit? (And by the way, if it were me in his shoes, my response would probably get me on A List faster than you could say “dog”.

Anyway, back to our article about the Brits and their flags. Beege Welborn concludes by saying about these naughty “right-wingers” and the BritGov apparatchiks who want to pull down the national flags:

They have no clue how lucky they are that it’s only flags.

Unfortunately, the way things have become Over There, all they have is flags.

Unlike us Over Here…