Toyota Motor plans to move in the first 100 residents of a futuristic city at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan by as soon as this fall.
The initial residents of Woven City will be composed mostly of the carmaker’s own employees and their families, and will gradually expand to about 2,000 residents as part of its initial phases, Toyota said Monday.
“This year, residents will begin moving in as we slowly bring Woven City to life,” Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said at a news conference at CES in Las Vegas. “We aim to accelerate the pace at which new technologies can be tested and developed at Woven City.”
Toyoda debuted plans for the “living laboratory” five years ago as Toyota’s then-president, saying then it would be a fully sustainable city and real-world showcase for artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, self-driving cars and smart homes.
But it won’t be open to the wider public for at least two years, and Toyota’s chair said it may never be profitable.
“Will this Woven City make Toyota any money? Well, maybe not,” Toyoda said. “As global citizens, I believe Toyota has a responsibility to invest in our collective future.”
A key part of Toyota’s broader Woven initiative is a new software platform and vehicle operating system it calls Arene, which is designed to speed up car development and lower costs. It plans to deploy the system this year and make it a core component of its next-generation EVs starting in 2026.
Toyota appointed a new head of the wholly owned Woven subsidiary in 2023 as part of a shift from a research-heavy focus to become more involved in the production of next-generation vehicles.
Former President Barack Obama revealed Thursday that all the hot campaign rhetoric he directed at Republican Donald Trump last fall regarding him being a supposed would-be dictator, an admirer of Hitler, and the rest was just talk.
Obama and Trump engaged in several minutes of what appeared to be good-natured banter at the funeral for former President Jimmy Carter at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The 39th president died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins noted the friendly exchange between Obama and Trump, during which both smiled and laughed. “These are just moments that you do not see, hardly ever,” she said.
Jeff Zeleny, the network’s chief national affairs correspondent, agreed.
“It truly is extraordinary,” he said, but he pointed out, “If you look from these presidencies, they are linked from one to another to another.”
The Western Lensman’s account on social media platform X posted a side-by-side of Obama’s campaign rhetoric toward Trump back in October at a Kamala Harris rally in Georgia versus the friendly exchange the two had on Thursday.
“Now I want to explain that in politics a good rule of thumb is don’t say you want to do anything like Hitler,” he added.
“General John Kelly, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, said that Trump told him that he wanted his generals to be like Hitler’s generals,” Obama told the Georgia crowd.
A user responded on X to Obama’s past hot rhetoric toward Trump, “It was always a scam.”
Another wrote, “Wow Obama is laughing with literal Hitler? Almost as if they never believed their own lies.”
And it seemed pretty uncomfortable that they all had to…
FOX News
Daily Show pokes fun at Obama laughing with Trump at Carter funeral
Obama was actually mirroring a talking point Harris was using during that same time period in late October.
The vice president quoted Kelly — based on reporting from the far-left shill The Atlantic — as saying he believes Trump is someone who falls into the “general definition of fascist.”
Keep in mind, the former president reportedly fired Kelly, or at the very least, the retired general left the White House after the relationship between the two men soured.
Obama posted a longer version of his Georgia rally remarks about Trump, writing on X, “Just because Donald Trump acts goofy doesn’t mean his presidency wouldn’t be dangerous. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Lately, some of the people who know Trump the best have been saying in no uncertain terms that he should not be president again.”
Obama warned the audience regarding Trump, “Unlike the first time, he won’t have people like John Kelly around to stop him. He’ll be surrounded by people just as loony as he is, and who will let him do what he wants.”
“We do not need four years of a wannabe king, a wannabe dictator running around trying to punish his enemies,” the 44th president argued.
The majority of American voters — and apparently Trump himself — knew Obama was just spouting campaign rhetoric.
Surrogates for DOGE, which is still very much a work-in-progress, have already visited 12 federal agencies for preliminary interviews with staffers about the running of those workplaces, The Washington Post reports
The Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service and the departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services are among the bureaus that have already answered the door to the agents and addressed their questions, according to the Post.
Elon Musk was brilliant in that he worked with President Trump.
The Independent
Democratic rep open to ‘bipartisan cooperation’ with Elon Musk’s DOGE
Taking part in a remote interview with Stagwell CEO Mark Penn as part of the CES tech trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Wednesday, Musk was asked: “Do you think the $2 trillion is a realistic number now that you’re looking more closely at it?”
“I think we’ll try for $2 trillion. I think that’s the best-case outcome,” he answered.
“But I do think that you kind of have to have some overage. I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting $1 [trillion].”
Much is currently unknown about precisely how his department will operate, with its role ostensibly advisory and limited to making recommendations for the White House Office of Management and Budget to act upon as it sees fit.
There also appears to be a good chance that DOGE will encounter plenty of obstacles as it goes about its business, from both congressional Republicans reluctant to wave through large budget cuts that could impact their constituencies and career civil servants uncomfortable with Silicon Valley’s “disrupter” culture being let loose on the slow-moving and necessarily intricate machinery of Washington.
It is also currently unclear what authority the fledgling body currently has, how it fits into the wider Trump transition team’s schedule of briefings with staff from agencies it is about to assume control of and who, at this stage, is paying the agents’ salaries.
More generally, it is not obvious how DOGE hopes to go about driving change, with the next fiscal year for the US government not beginning until October 1 and spending for the current one being thrashed out on Capitol Hill under the leadership of House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Musk tried to incite a rebellion against Johnson last month over a stop-gap spending bill he took exception to, only for Johnson to break it up into separate legislation and pass many of the provisions he objected to anyway, with the speaker subsequently re-elected to a new term last week.
The Department of Defense was one agency that the GOP voted overwhelmingly to boost spending for in light of the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza – it is also a bureau the billionaires had singled-out for downsizing.
What is known is that DOGE currently has around 50 staff working out of Musk’s SpaceX office in downtown DC and that hiring is continuing apace, with insiders telling the Post that the aim is to double the size of its employee roster by the time Trump is inaugurated on January 20.
Musk’s agency has already made executive appointments, adding the likes of Boring Company president Steve Davis and former Uber executive Emil Michael to oversee its project, with the president-elect also assigning political insiders Katie Miller and Bill McGinley to help out.
When advertising positions, DOGE has invited applications from “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting” and has reportedly been using the encrypted messaging app Signal to orchestrate its efforts.
Immediately after Christmas, it said it was seeking personnel to work on its IT, HR and financial arms in full-time, salaried positions and has since put out a call for full-time software and information security engineers to join its ranks.
The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.
Avowed and resident ardent communist, CNN’s own political commentator, Van Jones, once stated that the idea of re-electing the octogenarian Biden was akin to giving “grandpa a high-stress job.” Jones, a former adviser to Obama, had referenced a CNN poll that showed Biden’s approval rating tanked to just 36% as voters expressed worry about his advanced age and apparently declining mental acuity, especially after the Trump debate in July, 2024. It was enough! And the voting public did!
Many Americans blame Biden and his radical, progressive policies for the numerous crises that hurt the country: including the border crisis that could have erased our national identity, security and national sovereignty. And thanks to DementiaJoe’s treasonous open door policy, initiated at the very outset of his failed presidency, the Democratic Mayors decided that their localities would be sanctuary cities. As a case in point, due to the millions of illegal aliens who invaded the southern border and were transported to assorted self-proclaimed sanctuary cities, the cities and their budgets were stretched and strained to accommodate the influx of the aforementioned illegal aliens. The sanctuary cities have sacrificed the resources that are necessary for their homeless population, the lower socioeconomic families and homeless veterans. It’s enough!
Democratic hypocrisy!…Biden’s open border policies have caused damage to the Democratic run cities who proclaimed they were sanctuary cities and welcoming illegal aliens. So, Adams was trying to convince illegals not to come to NYC, as the results of the 2024 election was a foregone conclusion.
Subsequently, Mayor Eric Adams(D) had demanded 5% cuts across all New York City agencies, which would have gutted a host of critical municipal services, including the Department of Sanitation, afterschool programs and the NYPD, as stated by financial experts. Since January, 2021, over 125,000 illegal aliens have been transported at a current cost of over $5 billion and counting, which has set NYC on a disastrous trajectory. The best guess financial projections over the next few years will tack on $12 billion more to the city’s budget. And while Adams has been spot on with his criticism of DementiaJoe and the administration, the mayor moved more to the border policies of President-elect Donald John Trump, in order to stem the illegal alien invasion and rise in crime. However , what Adams, along with the other liberal, progressive Democrats refuse to acknowledge is that when Trump was POTUS, the Southern Border was secure and Biden torpedoed what was working. Accusations from the left that Adams is an alarmist was absolutely correct, but missed the point about DementiaJoe’s open border policies, which was designed to generate a larger voting base to fundamentally change the US as was Obama’s goal and finally, the destruction of the Constitutional Republic. It’s enough!
Adams was way late to the party with his realization, which should have been obvious the moment Biden threw open the southern border and the first batches of illegal crossers landed in Manhattan. And let’s not forget the clandestine Biden Airline that was transporting people in the middle of the night, surprising locals. Even in Democratic majority New York, 41% of residents want the US government to construct a wall along the entire southern border with Mexico to curb illegal immigration, a new survey revealed. Their 10w lightbulbs finally went on as more New Yorkers voted for GOP for the first time in years.
New York City!
Jacques Jiha
New York City has taken in more illegals than any other city in the country since spring 2023, and city taxpayers are on course to spend an astronomical $40,000 per illegal, far more than any of the top five cities where asylum seekers land, as data analyzed by The New York Post indicates. NYC officials had announced that the NYPD’s budget would be cut, with that money re-allocated to solving the migrant crisis. NYC Budget Director Jacques Jiha revealed in a memo explaining that Adams, who recently said the migrant crisis could “destroy” the city, will soon “issue a directive to implement an overtime reduction initiative for our city’s four uniformed agencies.”
Didn’t Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass(D) push for a $23M budget cut for the LAFD, but got only $17M? And where was that $17M cut reallocated to? The illegal alien population who received more funding than the LAFD. Absolutely pathetic! And the citizens have every right to be furious with Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom.
When the UN General Assembly recently met, Biden once again blessed New York City with his presence. Yet Biden wouldn’t find the time to meet with Mayor Adams, who made it clear that “everybody knows where I am,” complained to reporters about Biden’s visit. “I am hoping that he understands that this beautiful city is the economic engine of the entire country and been saddled with a $2 billion bill that we spent already, $5 billion we’re going to spend in this fiscal crisis, $12 billion in the next two budgetary cycles.” Biden blew off NYC…the sanctuary city as he went fund raising. He didn’t care…and still doesn’t!
As the days progress, due to the federal open border policies of the worst POTUS in American History, New York City is turning into a third world “country.” Just look at the evidence on the streets of a sanctuary city!
True hypocrisy!!…The migrant crisis in New York was so bad that even Governor Kathy Hochul(D-NY) had ramped up her attacks on Biden’s border policies, demanding “a limit on who can come across’’ and more agents to nab illegals. As Hochul tries to blame the GOP, this is the result of DementiaJoe’s open border policy. “The only people Hochul has to blame are the ones in her own party,’’ seethed Representative Nicole Malliotakis (R-SI/Brooklyn) to The Post.
Initially when the illegal aliens began crossing into the United States, Governor Kathleen Hochul(D) spoke openly and proudly about New York’s sanctuary policy. With thousands upon thousands of illegals now dependent on New York government, both state and local, Hochul finally warned illegal aliens not to come to New York. The governor claimed New York no longer has capacity for new illegals. She told migrants to first apply for asylum while still in their home country. But the illegal aliens are still coming in droves.
Former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan is once again on the front lines as President-elect Donald John Trump’s new border czar. And he will implement Trump’s border policies to close the borders and arrest, hold and then deport criminal illegal aliens and those who have broken the law. And will go after the sanctuary cities.
One longtime New York City police officer was astonished by the mayor’s budgetary orders, noting any NYPD budget cuts will mean fewer cops through attrition and gutting funds for equipment. Hey, that’s a version of defunding law enforcement as it remains the demands of the orthodox, radical, extremists of the progressive, liberal left. So, since there will be less police officers on the streets, crime will increase and the Soros backed district attorneys will enforce no-cash bail and turn felonies into misdemeanors or dismissals. By the way, ultra-liberal politicians such as Sandy Ocasio-Cortez and that anti-Semitic piece of garbage Ilhan Omar spend big bucks on personal security. How is that for hypocrisy?
Mayor Brandon Johnson(D)…Communist? Socialist? Knucklehead? Take your pick!!
Chicago recently joined New York City in pleading for federal help. The Chicago Tribune had reported that Mayor Brandon Johnson(D) recently joined Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D)to call on the Biden administration to expedite work permits for illegal aliens in Chicago. They warned that the city would be unable to support more migrants if changes are not made. Work permits for illegal aliens? What about the lower socioeconomic American citizens who are getting forgotten once again by a progressive Democrat? And Johnson, instead of addressing the out of control crime problem, had sued Hyundai and Kia because, according to Johnson, their cars are easily stolen. How about supporting the Chicago Police Department’s efforts to stop auto larcenies and lock up the mutts? It’s enough!
Chicago…O’Hare Airport
On one ridiculous side note that never came to fruition, Johnson had announced that there was an attempt for a government sponsored supermarket. Why? Because large chain stores have fled Chicago due to high crime and high shoplifting. So, if the government sponsored supermarket did in fact open, it’s one more step towards big government control and communism, similar to the old USSR.
The Los Angeles Times once reported that Biden had considered forcing some illegal aliens who entered the country illegally to remain in Texas while they await screening…sounds an awful like Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. Despite any confirmation or denial, that was an approach the Biden administration must have considered as it faced relentless, and rather angry, calls from sanctuary city Democratic mayors to address the influx of migrants in large American cities. However, one must not forget that each of the localities declared themselves havens for the illegal aliens. This lead to major increases in weapons trafficking, sex trafficking, human trafficking and drug trafficking, specifically fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Representative Claudia Tenney(R-NY)
Interestingly, there have been over 10,000 apprehensions, from 76 different countries, by Custom and Border Protection at the Northern Border. These numbers exceeded the last ten years combined. As for upstate New York, Governor Hochul, who is a version of disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo in a skirt, is using tax dollars to offer entitlements to the illegal aliens, including as far as having the NYS Department of Motor Vehicles issuing driver’s licenses with no questions asked. How can they pass the written exam? The road test? So, as stated by Representative Claudia Tenney(R-NY), the state issued license gave the illegal aliens an open door to go anywhere in the country. And when both Adams and Hochul speak with DementiaJoe, he essentially ignores them and blames Governor Gregg Abbott(R-TX) for the illegal alien invasion, along with Trump. Northern states have seen an increase in numbers. It’s shocking that to travel from Mexico to Canada a visa is not required.
Socialist New York state lawmakers were jonesing to impose new tax increases to cover the ever-increasing cost of illegal aliens in New York State, forcing New Yorkers to pay even more is the only way out of the mushrooming crisis. Two New York state senators told The NY Post that new taxes were on the table, while their grassroots cadres have buzzed on social media. “We should increase taxes because it’s economically just policy to offset all costs for our state to function,” said state Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Brooklyn). Typical of the radical, progressive socialist Democrats to raise already high taxes in an attempt to buy their way out of the problem created by DementiaJoe.
For years DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been perjuring himself and had been uncooperative during his testimonies in The Congress. With six months left in the Biden presidency, Mayorkas finally admitted that there was an issue at the borders, but still blamed the Trump administration.
Moving on…Six hours after his inauguration, DementiaJoe signed numerous Executive Orders in order to shut down the domestic energy industry, which saw an unprecedented spike in petroleum prices and then a reliance on foreign energy imports. Moreover, Biden has done further damage to the economy by killing off oil and natural gas drilling in Alaska. They cancelled all remaining oil and gas leases issued in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, otherwise known as ANWR, which would be able to supply the United States for the next 200 years. These were leases granted under the Trump administration. These lease sales were mandated by Congress in 2017. According to the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, the arbitrary cancellation of these leases, mandated by Congress, breaks long-standing legal contracts between the federal government and the oil and gas industry. In other words, Biden’s breaking the law and not unlike student loan cancellations and not unlike the EPA, he’s trying to treat the Supreme Court in a disrespectful manner. It’s enough!
Let’s not ignore the fact that DementiaJoe had sent over 5,000,000 barrels to the draconian Communist Chinese Republic and India. The Biden administration had authorized American oil released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves to be sent overseas, despite the administration’s claim that releasing oil from the reserves would provide some relief to Americans feeling the pain at the pump. ManchurianJoe remains on the CCR payroll!
Domestic oil was sent to China where Hunter Biden, who was found guilty, and then pardoned, had engaged in years of potentially criminal business activity embroiling the Biden White House in scandal since the 2020 campaign, going back to his days as vice president…which was covered up by the bootlicking, corporate dregs of the coastal mainstream media and the weaponization of the DOJ. It’s enough!
Moreover, The US Department of Energy had sold 950,000 Strategic Petroleum Reserve barrels to Unipec, the trading arm of the China Petrochemical Corporation. That company, which is commonly known as Sinopec, is wholly owned by the Chinese government.” Sinopec is also tied to Hunter Biden, whose private equity firm, BHR Partners, bought a $1.7 billion stake in the company seven years ago. Phillips 66 shipped about 470,000 barrels of sour crude from Texas to Trieste, Italy. Atlantic Trading & Marketing (ATMI), an arm of French oil major TotalEnergies, sent 1.12 million barrels. The bootlicking dregs of the mainstream media didn’t report that…ever!
It was quite obvious that Biden still has no idea how gas prices work. If this was not clear from his inability to bring oil prices in any direction except up, it’s clear that he blamed gas station owners for rising prices. Just as bad, or worse, the Interior Department would also bar any new oil or gas leasing on 10.6 million acres – or more than 40% – of the National Petroleum Reserve. Not that Biden cares, but the GOP House had passed a bill in March, 2022 that would have boosted oil and gas accelerate new projects by streamlining environmental reviews.
Spiking gas prices and a depleted domestic supply of energy heading into the winter season? So, Biden was attempting to pass blame onto the major oil companies to be punished for making profits. Therefore, if there’s no financial benefit, the incentive for the energy companies won’t happen. Biden, who’s never had a real job, doesn’t get capitalism. DementiaJoe’s energy policies have alienated OPEC and warned financial institutions not to fund oil futures. It’s enough.
Lastly, even though the entire world hates the United States, it does seem that we are the destination of choice, both through legal ports of entry or crossing the border illegally…which is the accepted means of entry by the Biden administration and the cartels. Moreover, there are adversarial countries that love doing business with us because of Biden’s ineptitude and cognitive impairment. It’s enough!
Just to make the case with how incompetent Harris was when she appeared stunned by a question from CBS host Margaret Brennan, who wondered if she had taken the possibility of another Donald Trump presidency “seriously enough.”Harris looked taken aback, pausing before responding, “I don’t understand the question.” The Biden/Harris “team” was so bad that Representative Nancy Pelosi(D-CA) found herself defending the even less likable Biden on CNN, where she avoided saying even less about Harris being Biden’s running mate in 2024. Case closed!
Last year a one year old Bronx baby boy died of fentanyl poisoning while in the care of a child care center, who fronted a drug lab directly because of Biden’s border policies. The lack of border control results in weapons trafficking, sex trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering and drug trafficking, specifically fentanyl and methamphetamine, along with the reintroduction of diseases long since eradicated. The hundreds of fentanyl deaths are strictly on Biden, Harris, Mayorkas and their puppeteers.
Well, as I maintain, one couldn’t possibly fix the incompetency, dysfunction, lack of accountability and common sense of the outgoing Biden administration. Yet as his time as president is coming to an inglorious conclusion, DementiaJoe has seen fit to do as much damage as possible…kind of like a spoiled child having a hissy fit. But in his cognitively delinquent state, does he really have any clue as to what he is authorizing? Like banning gas heated water tanks! Banning the exploration for oil and gas off the coasts, which will result in prices going up! Transferring 11 prisoners from Gitmo to Oman, who were connected to Bin Laden and 9/11! Pardoning 37 incarcerated death row inmates because he claimed to be religious! These are the actions of someone who could not accept being removed from the most powerful position in the world by his own party because of his feebleness. Also, there’s Biden’s lack of personal integrity as he lied about pardoning Hunter.
Soon to be former President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. by the course of his final actions clearly demonstrated to the country and the world that he is a cold blooded, self-serving, money laundering, treasonous hypocrite, who’s cognitive dissonance was covered up by the Biden syndicate, the WH staff, the Democrats and the bootlicking, dregs of the corporate mainstream media. Good riddance. And who’s running the country? It ain’t DementiaJoe!!
FOX News
The Independent
kommonsentsjane 