For planned obsolescence to work, you’ve got to keep the conveyor belt rolling. And most of all, prevent anyone from getting off.
It is a problem if people “cling” to their old cars instead of regularly trading them in – ideally, to be crushed – for new ones – hopefully, heavily financed.
But how to get rid of the old cars when people decline to get rid of them voluntarily?
Democratic politicians in Oregon have just the thing.
It is House Bill 2877 and – if it becomes law – it will impose heavy taxes on cars 20 years old or more to the tune of $1,000 payable every five years, in perpetuity – unless the owner obtains Antique Vehicle registration and tags for the vehicle.
The Antique tags, of course, cost extra – and once registered as an Antique, the vehicle may no longer be legally driven regularly but only occasionally, to “parades” and “shows” and so on. It’s one step away from drilling holes in the engine block and turning the car into a static display.
The legislation would make older cars either functionally useless – or usuriously expensive to drive . . . if you insist on clinging.
A grand every five years. So, two every ten. Four every twenty. In exchange for the privilege of being allowed to keep “your” car.
And that’s in addition to all the other assorted fees, such as annual registration dunning-for-nothing (unless you consider a little government-issued sticker getting something in return for your money) and the mandatory “safety” and emissions rigmarole.
Old car collectors might be able to afford it – though that’s a pretty twisted standard, when you think about it: Punishment applied based on the victim’s ability to absorb the blow. Don’t kick the old lady; sucker punch the young guy instead! He can take it.
This is, of course, the operating principle behind what is called “progressive” taxation, of which this is a sub-species.
And it is punishment that we’re dealing with here.
The Bill reeks of how dare you own an old car. Its language is victim-blaming, describing the punitive taxes as “impact fees,” as if the state were merely recouping money for costs imposed.
But what is this “impact,” exactly?
It is not specified in the Bill itself (PDF here, if you’d like to read the thing) but whenever that term is used in the context of cars you should always assume they mean environmental impact.
The magic words.
Older cars are not as “clean” as new ones – which is true, as far as it goes.
But it doesn’t go very far.
New cars are slightly cleaner than circa 1990s-era cars.
Slightly meaning a percentage or two; maybe three – that’s it. Really. People don’t grok this, in part because it is never explained to them.
You have to go way back to the era before three-way catalytic converters and computer-controlled fuel injection (which would be early 1980s and older) to find cars that produce significantly higher Bad for Gaia exhaust byproducts and now you are dealing with cars more than 35 years old – and the number of those still in use as daily drivers is so small – fewer than 3 percent of the cars registered – as to render whatever their exhaust emissions may be irrelevant as a public health issue.
However many pre-early ‘80s cars may be running around in Oregon (or any other state) they are emitting a fraction of the Bad for Gaia materials that the government’s vast fleets of exempt-from-any-emissions-controls-whatsoever MRAPS and Humvees and assorted Peasant Control Units in inventory spew every single day. 
This is never explained, either.
Instead, the impression is left that any car not brand-new or nearly new is a kind of mobile Chernobyl and its owner a vile misanthrope who probably also pours used motor oil down the storm drain.
And of course, such people must be dealt with.
Note that it’s not even material whether the old car is actually running. Many cars more than 20 years old are not. They are in the process of being restored – or just being stored for now. In which case, of course, such a car is as much a “zero emissions” car as a new (and Green Approved) electric car.
Still, its owner must either pay the impact fees – or accept what amounts to vehicular disfranchisement, his car prohibited from ever again being more than an occasional-use-only toy.
Which brings us to the real heart of this particular darkness. It is an elitist measure – ironic, given the peasant-hugging pretensions of the Democrats pushing it.
If he’s not a collector, the owner of a car 20-years-old or older is probably someone just trying to live inexpensively. He probably owns his car. He bought it for cash, perhaps. He’s not in debt. His insurance costs are lower. He pays less in personal property taxes – which are based upon the retail value of the car.
This is good for him but bad for the state, which is not getting its pound of flesh out of him.
And the beast’s belly growls.
The guy who drives a 20-year-old or older car probably also does most if not all of his own repair work, too. Those cars are simpler – and they lack a lot of the creepy Big Brother Tech that new cars have.
This is freeing – which is another reason why the New Car Reluctant are being targeted – and not just in Oregon, either. Whether this bill sinks or swims, it’s not the last – and it’s not an isolated canker sore.
We just can’t tolerate people driving around in cars they can fix themselves, that are paid-for and which aren’t generating enough “revenue” for the government.
They won’t put it in such honest language, of course.
They never do.
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Late reply to the article itself, but, this is already what’s done in Japan. Once a car starts increasing in age, the (already expensive) inspection sticker starts getting more an more expensive. The authorities say it’s to make sure everyone gets to benefit from the latest safety and emissions improvements. Anyone with an IQ over 40 knows it’s pure crony capitalism, done to provide their domestic manufacturers with a steady stream of guaranteed consumption.
How CARB is Destroying Trucking In California
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDTZkLh0WK0
Did you see the USA today article on the port truckers? The article concentrates on the evil company town set up the trucking companies did but it glosses over the root cause. The state made the trucks the truckers owned illegal to operate. This forced the truckers into debt slavery to the companies for new trucks. Probably the same law as covered in the video.
I think this is the right one: https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/news/rigged-forced-into-debt-worked-past-exhaustion-left-with-nothing/
Of course I didn’t see it- I avoid the MSM (and news in general) like the plague…..as the letter half of your reply so perfectly illustrates: They always take a government-created problem, and make it seem as though the victims are the bad guys.
I’m in Oregon and heard this didn’t pass. A guy could just do what some illegals do- buy a dirt cheap beater car , don’t pay to register it in your name , no insurance , and when it has a bad breakdown you leave it where it is and go buy another one like it.
I suspect that the real reason to keep older techjology off if tge riad is so that the non-internet, non-government accessable automobiles won’t be on the street. Image how horribke it must be to the government, if tgey can’t listen in on your conversation as you drive, and dusable your steering and brakes if what you say is something they think is dangerous.
But they can always shoot ya in the back and call it suicide!
It is your fine friends in “Law Enforcement” who enable this.
Dead pigs tell no tales.
Hi Mark,
Yes. I rant all the time about the significance of that term, incidentally. Law enforcement. What do people suppose that means? There is a law. It must be enforced. Could there be a more precise definition of authoritarianism than that?
Upon start-up, my 1992 F-250 w/7.3 diesel runs every mosquito off of my block. Tree huggers would crap their pants!
UK now wants to tax formerly “clean” diesels (that the government encouraged motorists to buy because they were “environmentally” friendly).
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3238045/diesel-car-charge-city-centres/?CMP=Spklr-_-Editorial-_-TheSun-_-News-_-FBLink-_-Reply-_-FBPAGE
“Diesel vehicles could be banned from some of the worst-hit areas.
But experts slammed the “staggering ignorance” of the Government’s plan to tackle toxic air.
Campaigners pointed out that diesel vehicles are responsible for just ten per cent of all emissions.
Huge cargo ship vanishes in the South Atlantic with 22 crew members on board after sending out distress signal
In an extraordinary attack on ministers, the FairFuel group said: “Their myopic and out-of-touch dogma that taxing drivers more will solve the issue is tantamount to pre-kindergarten levels of intellect and stinks of incompetence.”
It added: “Why should hard-working drivers, families, White Van Man, small businesses, be held responsible for 90 per cent of the issue?”
There was also fury at ministers targeting drivers coaxed into buying diesel cars by Gordon Brown, who as Chancellor cut taxes on them as they were thought to produce less pollution than petrol vehicles.
Tory MP Charlie Elphicke said: “Many drivers feel they were encouraged to buy diesel by the last Labour Government.”
Politicians, have the courage to tell the truth. It’s not the cars, it’s the money. This scheme is just a sneaky way to squeeze money so politicians have more money to harass us and tell us how to run our lives.
I live in Portland.
My rides are a 1996 Nissan Maxima with 210 k miles. Excellent condition.
1992 nissan pickup. Ugly, passes emissions.
Soon a 2003 toyota corolla. I’m rebuilding the engine, myself.
All of these will pass emmissions and safety inspections.
I would have to pay 4000 bucks to keep the older ones on the road. They are worth maybe 1500 bucks each. Since I can maintain them myself, it would make sense to pay the tax. Yet for most folks, the right decision would be to drive a perfectly good running and looking car on the freeway all the way to the junk yard.
JvG wrote:
“I live in Portland.”
My sympathy goes out to you. My sister also lives in the Soviet Republic of Portland. It’s a beautiful place being run into the ground by far left, neoMarxist politics. I like a lot about Portland but I refuse to visit anymore because it just is so fucking uncomfortable all the time. Oh well. Same goes for Austin, where I lived during the best of times…..I’d never consider living there again for all the tea in China.
I moved to north austin in round rock. Texans are nice folks for the most part. its these liberal concentrations that destroy the cities. oh well. not my problem. i never go downtown austin. downtown round rock is nice.
Texas has a serious carpetbagger problem. Look at what the damn Yankees have done to Florida. Very few remnants of beautiful, serene Old Florida remain. Unfortunately, Texas will suffer the same fate.
Yeah, Florida’s really turned into a complete shithole thanks to all of the ex-Northeasterners. Most of the real Floridians moved out decades ago; now, a lot of the northerners who had moved there years ago, are moving out due to the influx of newer N’orEasters.
Got a lot of former Floridians (Both native and first gen Yank excapees) are here in KY.
Pretty much all of the states around the edges are getting flooded with ex NYers, CAers, ILers, etc. FL, NC, SC, TX,… and some of the interior states too- TN, UT, CO.
More people are now leaving NY than are even leaving CA. now, and IL is becoming a close 2nd. Anyone with any sense fled these shithole liberal cities long ago; and now that these cities/liberal states are on steroids, pretty much any sane person who is not destitute is leaving ’em (Way to go, Dumbocrats!)-the new white flight- to the point where the more librul ones have amassed ion the cities (they LOVE the cities!) of their new states, and are turning them into hotbeds of liberal insanity that need to be fled from, and whioch will end up taking down the rest of the stat, just like Detroit did to MI, NYC did to NY, LA & SF did to CA, etc.
This cancer will consume the entire country!
I think AL, LA, and MS will remain unmolested for the foreseeable future.
The eastern southern states are definitely lost. Comrade Stacey Abrams nearly won the Georgia governor’s race. It won’t be long until Georgia is under their control.
The South has been dying a slow death since Reconstruction, anyway.
Hi Handler,
Yup. Even here in SW Virginia, the urban areas – Roanoke, in my case – are controlled by them. I often feel as those old Romans must have, as they watched their great country deteriorate before their very eyes.
Handler, some of these states are doing it to themselves. I guess they see the other states doing it, and just imitate them, so they can get more money and control.
I remember when a tornado did a number on a small town in AL a few years ago. Some mobile homes were destroyed. The owners couldn’t replace them with new MH’s on the property they still owned, ’cause the town had since implemented ‘zoning’ which prohibited MH’s!
Freaking Iowa and Nebraska are becoming liberal shitholes too- sans many foreigners….
Mississippi was on my list of possible places when I was looking around to leave NY. Never made it there…but it’s still probably O-K…’cept for too many [as Archie Bunker would say] minororities….. LA. would be interesting too, but I know I could never stand the humidity! (And I don’t know about that Napoleonic Code thing!)
Thge poorest states tend to be the best (Hence MS.)….but with the damn feds now pumping money into ’em constantly for “law enforcement”, and “infrastructure” and “edumacation” etc…we’re really running out of places that truly have any local autonomy or old-school values- like ya said….the South ain’t gonna come again- it’s going the opposite way 🙁 -and GA. is a prime example. (Ironically, one of my uncles was probably one of the first NYers to move to GA. in the very early 80’s!- after a brief stint in FL)
Funny too- he worked for Gulfstream; he did the interior of Bill Cosby’s personal jet- Hehe…a NYer living in Georgia, building a jet for a jig….. oh, the irony! (The Cos sent him a big gourmet food basket as a thank you…)
Almost all of the major developments we’ve had over the years have been government subsidized. Eminent domain has been used on most of them. The corporate state took over when the casinos (mafia) came to town in the early ’90s.
Coastal Mississippi isn’t bad, but it’s noticeably different than it was 30 years ago. Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of its heritage. The beachfront used to be lined with gorgeous antebellum homes. Now only about a dozen remain. We’re very lucky Jefferson Davis’ home survived. Many of the iconic small businesses are no longer. Sadly, the uniqueness of this region has been rapidly fading away.
Wow, that’s sad, Handler. Ya expect it to bad anywhere that they try and cater to the tourist types- i.e. the coast. Didn’t realize so much of the old stuff had been destroyed though.
We’ve just about already lost everything that made this country unique and great, once upon a time. Wish I could’ve gotten to see the South back in say the early 80’s when it still had some of it’s greatness. I drove through parts of it in the 90’s…it was all gone already. I think here in southern KY. it actually feels more like the old South than does the actual South! (And that’s being extinguished too). 🙁
I don’t live far from Jefferson Davis’s birfplace…. Ironically, both it and I aren’t too far from that bastard Lincoln’s birfsplace either.
Canal Street in New Orleans was once a bustling shopping district for the locals. Now it’s just hotels and cheap tourist traps.
The rural community I live in used to be filled with beautiful pecan farms and other family farms. All gone. Now it’s filled with subdivisions. The remaining rural communities are into farming meth now.
All these changes happened during the ’90s. So yes, the ’80s was probably the last decade where the quality of life was good.
Hi Nunz!
I’m too old to flee and start over – as discussed previously – but if I were 20 years younger, I’d be seriously considering rural Argentina or Chile. I think a man might find some peace there for say the next 30 years or so.
Mornin’ Eric!
Heh, I’m too old too- even older than you! 😮 :p -but I’m fleeing anyway!
I agree- Argentina is a big and beautiful place, full of nice people- I dated a girl years ago whose mother was from there- they were like us…not like the Latino culture associated with much of the rest of Sud America. I think we’d feel very comfortable in such a place- it’s more like Europe, culturally.
LOTs of expats in Chile, too- I’ve known at least two families who moved there; never looked back (Been there for well over a decade now).
THIS country now feels foreign to us. Just to get away from the ever-increasing insanity here, and to be able to enjoy some peace and normalcy, without having to be disgusted constantly; and without having to look over our shoulder endlessly; to have some peace, and not having to fear the evil which our government will bring to each new day, is something that I want to experience. That, and to live amongst a sane culture which is not committing suicide….I tells ya, it’d be at the very least like a return to the 60’s or 70’s here.
There is NOTHING here for people like us anymore…and it’s just getting exponentially worse.
It’s even starting here, where I live… This county recently got a new sheriff. Old sheriff had been in for decades; he didn’t do much; his brother was a drug dealer. They’d mind their own business and generally leave the regular people alone.
New sheriff wants to make a name for himself (A guy who has spent his entire adult life on the gov’t payroll in various mercenary positions)- so now, we’re starting to see them paTROLLing here in the countryside; traffic stops are becoming common; and every day in the local news, there are reports of arrersts here now- whereas before, there’d rarely be any. It begins…..
There is NO PLACE in this country where we will be left in peace; the middle of the desert out west is already spoiled…..
I would like to suggest Alaska, but I can’t. It is still significantly less messed up than the rest of the country (I have a black friend who continued being my friend after I told him I’d voted for Trump, if that’s any indication), but unfortunately all the trouble is starting here. LOTS of police, with frequent speed traps on the Wasilla-Anchorage freeway, plus constant finger-wagging radio ads moralizing about seatbelts and speeding, plus they patrol the deep woods too so they can catch someone trying to drive through a creek and fine them $10,000 because it’s a salmon stream. Anchorage with a population of 291K as of 2010 would barely qualify as a town in the lower 48 but still has big city problems with gangs and homeless camps. “Premium” gasoline is only 90 octane, except down in Juneau where it’s 92 for some reason (nowhere to drive down there so why bother?) Lots of “casually outdoorsy” types (you know, the kind of person who wears Patagonia and drives a RAV4), surprising numbers of liberals hiding around especially in Anchorage, and please leave your bicycle(s) behind because we have quite enough of those people already. Bush villages are morasses of failure and despair where everything is expensive and there really isn’t anything to do except sit around and drink. Feddies shut down most of the independent hunting, fishing, mining, etc. starting in the early 1980s, and touristified most of what was left. The past is dead, the present isn’t much to look at, and there is no future. Alaska is a state without any meaningful leadership where a facade of freedom remains only because there isn’t enough population to really get them hammer dropped.
Yep, Chuck. When I was younger and didn’t mind the cold, I used to fantasize about living in a cabin in the deep woods of AK or Canadia….
But then Uncle ramped-up his BS. so’s they look for people like tht, just because they’re “suspicious” and “may be fugitives” [Meanwhile, 99.9% of fugitives hide in the big city, where they can just blend in).
Wonder how long one could live out there before being visitied and having them make up some phony charges to route ya? a week?
There’s nowhere left to go in this country. The few spots in a few of the ‘better’ stastes that still remain somewhat tolerable, are the last that remain- and they’re on their way out too.
Even my county here- it was still pretty free when I moved here 18 years ago- but the same crap that I saw take down NY 40 years ago is starting here.
Little town of 1500 people that is the county seat, is dying- half the stores are empty- but they built a brand new “justice center” to replace the 160 year-old courthouse that they just spent a million dollars restoring; and a new county office building; computerized all the records, etc.
The few counties right around here had been an oasis of tranquility and freedom and old-school America until the last few years…now they’re modernizing. I know one day I’m gonna wake up, and they’ll be imposing zoning and all of that BS. They’ve been talking abouit it.
Glad I got to experience how it was, at least for a few years; damn shame to see it going the way of the do-do already. There’s nowhere else left to go here. Same BS everywhere ya go. And there’ll be no rebellion, ’cause the people ASK for it, because they’re programmed to in the skools.
Want to see the future? Just look at the things that kids who go to skool are saying and believing and advocating…that will be what is decreed by the time they are adults- they’re being primed for it.
On another forum recently, I saw someone say that not only racing but ALL MANUAL DRIVING should be confined to tracks, and robocars should be mandatory on the road.
Now you know why I say that car enthusiasts have become their own worst enemies.
Alaska’s politics, by the way, aren’t much better. Alaska Democrats are pie-in-the-sky types who incompetently attempt to replicate the worst aspects of their favorite Big Liberal Cities (usually with help from outside), Alaska Republicans are a dinosauric good-ol-boys club still trying to operate as if we’re still in the Reagan-Bush-McCain-Romney era, and Alaska Libertarians, to the extent that they exist at all, are the whacked-out descendants of 60s/70s hippies and are weird even by Alaska standards. The public employee unions are vampires feeding on the rest of the state, the schools Hoover up more money per student than anywhere else in the US in exchange for some of the worst results in the country, and the state university, which was supposed to train people for Alaska-type jobs such as oil and mining, has long since become just another indoctrination center teaching climate alarmism and gender studies. “The Machine” uses blatant voter fraud to get its way, with news stories surfacing at least every few years of ballots being “found” in a broom closet or the trunk of a police car.
The green lobby has WAY too much power, too. Every once in a while someone will decide we need to build a highway to Nome, and I do honestly believe that it would be a good thing for the state… but every time the idea surfaces, the greens pop out of the woodwork and start crying about something or other. All design work screeches to a halt as whoever is in charge this time works on satisfying their unreasonable demands, until finally they give up and leave the idea for some other idealist to try later. Last time it was “duck habitat”. Who knows what it will be next time.
Even Montana is falling…. This country is done.
Ya’s know what too, speaking of South America…
[Disclaimer- I’ve never been there, but this is based on having known and even dated people from there; knowing missionaries who’ve spent time there; and having been in touch with people I knew who moved there permanently]
The laws there don’t usually mean squat.
I mean, here in the US, you want to know what laws are extant in your state and local area, ’cause here, laws are used to entrap people; to mess with the innocent; to [as Eric would say] mulct the sheep….and basically, if there’s a law, an armed goon or other one of Uncle’s incestuous prodigies [gov’t agents] will find a way to inflict that law uipon you if they encounter you.
In SA, -at least in the ‘better’ countries, they’re not out there just looking to impose laws on everyone. Pretty much, unless you commit a real crime (rape, murder, robbery, etc.] the law isn’t applied to you…..
And whereas here, it’s now to the point where the laws are largely preventative [to control your actions to prevent you from committing a ‘crime’], there, the laws are still more pounative in nature- to punish you AFTER you’ve actually done something.
And of course…outside of the big cities and densely populated areas, there’s little to no enforcement at all.
Remember when it was like that here? (Well….at least somewhat, as far as any iof us are old enough to have experienced]
Argentina is a bit cool. I hear it borders on Chile.
I heard the weather forecast for Mexico: Chili today, hot tomale!
South America has always had a deep-rooted love affair with socialism. Their conservative revolutions never last.
T’is true- thanks to the damn Catholics! The Jesuits have been trying to socialize the continent for the last 100 years. Luckily, thanks to lack or resources, corruption, and the vastness/sparse population of the bigger countries, that socialism hasn’t had much of a foothold outside of the biggest cities.
Damn UN has ruined a good thing though, as they managed to get property taxes enacted about a decade ago. Before that, there was none on residential and agricultural land.
My first choice would be an outer island way off in the Pacific….but given the difficulty and expense of getting there, and my increasing age, I may have to settle for a remote area of South America.
Argentina doesn’t look so good on paper…but given it’s vastness, and that there are some really remote wild areas that they just essentially never bother with….
And the thing to remember is, even in the more populous areas, and or where socialism has taken hold…it is still freer than here; they still pretty much leave you alone in your daily life. Pretty much any place in SA, you can do in your car what would land you in jail here, and as long as you don’t cause an accident, in many places they wouldn’t bat an eye or give you second look.
There doesn’t appear to be any powerful nanny, police, or surveillance states present. I wonder how long that will last, though.
Argentinians don’t seem to mindless drones. That’s refreshing.
Argentine beef is the best I’ve ever eaten. Wally World sources their beef from there.
If I ever catch a break, I’d like to check these places while I’m young enough to make the move.
That’s the thing about SA, too- those people are not easily controlled- and it will take a few generations of indoctrination camp to get ’em to the point where they can be.
Even in the more socialist countries there, the socialism is basically just economic; and only really affects those who participate in the system- like if they live in a populous area and work 9-5.
Most of the people, especially in small towns and out in the country, just ignore all laws- and suffer no consequences for it. Even those who work for the government tend to ignore most of the laws (In a good way).
And with Argentina, with the vast wilderness of Patagonia, one could literally just disappear and never come into contact with civilization/government again.
Unlike here, where there is virtually no spot that is not patrolled and controlled…no matter what laws they enact there, they only have thje resources to enforce them in the most populous areas; and really can’t be bothered interfering with everyone for every piddling little thing….they can’t really even fully handle the big stuff.
If you ever ate good Texas beef you’d forget Argentinian beef. But that’s small chops compared to how easily they are controlled.
Countries with populations who worship the Pope are the most easily controlled.
I have lived with it and seen it every day. Treat a Mexican like shit and they just go on. Do the same thing to that old redneck and get your ass handed to you.
The fed has always hated Texas, too damned independent and not easily bullied.
When I was in Mexico in 04 I got to watch Mexican politics first hand. There were 5,000 mestizo farmers(hands, nobody owned anything) and they were gathered in El Centro having a big Communist meeting. I’ve watched these people give their last dime to the Pope while they lived below poverty level. Little kids that remained little.
Since fedgov has given everyone everything they need I’ve seen Mexicans go from 100 lb guys to 250 lb guys and a good foot taller. And it’s still that way in Mexico. I nearly got into a fight with a gang member there and a friend asked if he was smaller than me. My cousin who was there said “Shit, everybody in the country was smaller than us” and neither of us were what would be considered big guys in the US. And they line up to vote for Democrats almost without exception except for this last election. I think they’re beginning to catch on.
The Catholic churches are nearly as well-used as they used to be and now I know Mexicans who are Jehovaha’s Witnesses and Church of God goers. But in the same breath, they’ll tell you the Jews are the chosen people. I asked one why he didn’t convert to Judaism. No reply. It really pissed him off. I don’t get it. If I believed that I’d be converted in a heartbeat.
This might work.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/30023/brazils-aircraft-carrier-so-paulo-to-be-auctioned-off-after-years-of-disappointment?xid=twittershare
It is not the battleship you want Eric but I’m pretty sure it is stable in most seas. Plus it has a short dragstrip and plenty of garage space.
Bids start at $1.3 million.
eric, it’s gotta be better than Va. I keep up with their draconian laws, even much worse than Tx. now. They use to be about the same. But Texas is big enough the law changes according to where you are or at leat, it isn’t applied to the same degree.
If a politician had to tell the truth for more than five minutes a day, the government would stop functioning.
That’s because every one of their ill intentions would be exposed, identifying them as fraudsters. And this is why good Americans are having continuous problems with government activities. Everything they do is based upon lies and finding ways to separate the citizens from their ability to live in peace.
One of my favorite movies is Liar, Liar with Jim Carey. CLASSIC!
David Ward
Memphis, Tennessee
Liar is just the phonetic spelling of ‘lawyer.’
“or just being stored for now”. How’s that old 52 Suburban doing? “It’s still resting in the barn”.
Boy you have really hit on something. But you are missing the real issue.
By definition an “old car” is reliable. Portable. Durable. Maintainable. Inflation hedge. What an awesome asset!
The Government must eliminate ALL such assets as they can be used to TRADE in place of Government money. I would rather have an old ford truck than $10,000 paper dollars. Why do you think they keep wanting to outlaw guns? It isn’t to prevent violence. It is because they can be used as “Money”.
“the owner of a car 20-years-old or older is probably someone just trying to live inexpensively… This is good for him but bad for the state, which is not getting its pound of flesh out of him.”
They certainly are saving a lot of money (I own 3 cars that are 16 – 21 years old), but the state will still get their pound of flesh – through federal and state gas taxes on every gallon of fuel we burn.
“Peasant control units”…love it!
My pleasure, Bryce… but I must credit fever and the flu!
This definitely smells like a tax on poor people. And the retired, driving their Buick Centuries that they only put 2000 miles a year on.
Never mind the fact that there are still plenty of liberals driving around in old Jeeps, BMWs, Range Rovers, and VWs, even quite a few TDIs. Or that (warning, racist generalization) many immigrants drive old cars, not only because that’s all they can afford, but because (as Eric points out), they are easy to repair yourself.
Oregonians are a bunch of racist conservatives!
The illegal immigrants are the ones driving brand new Ford F150s where I live in North Carolina!
bad boy, bad boy, watcha gonna do , when the bald head muthas come for you, bad boy ., anyway here in the good “old Dominion” apparently the state inspection is little more then a wallet lightning farce ( remember when it was twice a year ?) I happen to glance at the worn out tires on cars in the Wally World parking lot and frankly its a bit scary , the Storm Troopers used to ticket for bald tires. My penurious less then honorable ex employers have a lot of “Farm use ” tags ( the state issued kind ) on a lot of their company vehicles , I guess being able to hoard a lot of land has something to do with whether you can qualify for FU or not. As penurious as these Guys and Gals are there must be a dodge somewhere. Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess , the company pres ( the one who fired me a couple of years ago ) called me up and offered me a job , apparently truck drivers and holders of CDLs are not a dime a dozen any more . I thanked Him and politely declined the invitation , starting to have to jump through too many hoops to have a CDL now . When conditions and Finances allow , going to drop my CDL like a hot potato.( You wouldn’t believe the raking I got from the Medical examiner( despite having 20/15 vision at 60 – guess seeing isn’t that important) because I take meds for borderline hypertension . I have to get my groin and balls fondled every year and I am starting to get tired of this blatent bureaucratic BS.
The noose is tightening and the “Orange Guy ” is not our Messiah .
Wel, Oregon is one of the insane states trying to figure out how to tax every car by the mile actually driven. They’ve had some issues, and rightly so, getting that one down our throats…. what, roadsice scanners? A black box to transmit miles deriven every time the key is switched off? Maybe a fuel registry? Annual inspections to include mileage readings? Checkpoints? But what if I live in Portland and mainly use the car in Washington? What if half my annual driving is outside Oregon? Spotting someone on one road one place does not necessarily mean hes driven where they think he has…. number plate scanners are an intrusion of privacy, too… they’ve not yet figured out how to milk the cow for more than she’s got… but they’re working on it.
funny how they NEVER consider ow to spend less of the money they continually take from us at gunpoint, hey?
Oh, no!
Because they need it.
Destruction of old cars, like the abolishing of cash, is a way of advancing government control of our lives but only, of course, for a “good cause.” Despite some people’s rosy-hued views of Millennials, they as a group will be part of the problem, not the solution. The succeeding generation will be even more indifferent.
Oregon’s assault is merely the first wave. Usually once such an idea is broached it will return again and again. Big Brother only has to win once, and it’s done. My old Mopars would be toast under such a regime. He can have my 440 and 360s and slant sixes when he pries the torque wrench from my cold, dead fingers.
Get your subway passes ready, and do your part for the country and the world, conserving gas for Uncle Sam’s jackbooted missionaries to go save the world.
This bill got canned, but on another site that covered it I had an uphill battle explaining to the well conditioned under 35 crowd the great battle to save the hobby from 1987 to 1996. In this regard I feel like the little girl staring at the TV static….. “They’re back”
For those that don’t know beginning in the mid-late 80s there was a push to ban/crush/destroy all cars made before 1980. Yes, they wanted to destroy cars that were less than ten years old. This is where the clunker and crusher laws began. For the environment. They were fought. The hobby pushed them back into the dark corners from which they came. Cash for clunkers, the attempted ban on road cars being turned into race cars, and now legislation like this being floated tell me they are getting ready for another war. Like cylons not showing up for the meetings they are off preparing. They are now seeing how much we will push back. If our legions are still on guard. So far so good. People have screamed back loudly.
From my cold dead hands.
Yeah, I remember back in the 90’s, Missouri was trying to ban older cars. Freaking MISSOURI!
Some states are defacto doing already through inspections. Like MA. where a lot of perfectly good vehicles, often 10 years old or less, get junked, because their inspections have become grueling that it would cost thousands to make the vehicle “compliant” if you’re paying to have the work done (Especially there, where the shop labor rate is well over $100/hr.).
My Excursion LTD came from MA. from a salvage auction. The thing is mint- looks and drives like new (it’s an ’00)- Why was it junked? Needed exhaust manifold gaskets and a brake line and brakes all around. This thing is so cherry, it’s amazing! MA.- one of the most heavily taxed and highest cost-of-living states in the union. Apparently, the more ya pay, the more they screw you.
I thank God that MA’s former gov. Mittens Romney never made it through the presidential primaries…our whole freaking country would be like that hell-hole, which is even more hellish than the hell-hole the rest of the country already is!
In fact, wasn’t he the one running against Obozo the first time? Talk about a no-win situation!
Why do you think I can’t wait to get the hell out of Assachusetts!
Oooo! You poor guy! That state is totally “reTAHdid”! They’re starting to make CA. look sane!
And even Cali at least has better weather then the crap weather here.
No, the Mitten ran against O-Bomb-Ya the 2nd time. The 1st time was Mc-Insane.
Oh! Forgot about that war-mongering asswipe! Ya know, it’s getting to the point where compared to what runs every four years here, Hitler is starting to seem like a veritable lesser evil……
What a cast of fiends, psychopaths and criminals!
I even miss “Mr. Bill” compared w/what came after him.
Hi Nunzio,
Years ago, I had a T shirt with Adolf’s face on it and the caption: Don’t Blame Me… I Voted for Hitler!
i live in portlandia and heard this bill didnt make it, thankfully.but they will keep trying for sure? art tax , sanctuary city, bottle tax , left lane driving fine, whats next! wher e does it end for heavens sake-this town is so gone. sad , used to be the best little city in the country off the map!..last century of course..
Hey Anonymous. I lived in the south coast of Oregon for many years. I loved it but the liberals in portlandia have ruined the state. We used to say there are two states: The state of Oregon and the state of Portland. Oregon is the only state in the union controlled by a single city (portlandia). Can’t say that for any other state. New York city, as big as it is, does not control the state of New York. I couldn’t stand the liberal BS anymore and moved out of the state. I miss the beautiful countryside but don’t miss the political bull shit. The whole left coast is rot and nothing short of a major earth quack or tsunami will fix it. I now live in the gun-shine state. No mountains here but plenty of wildlife. It has its problems but they appear fixable.
Illinois is worse. Illinois state government is controlled by Madigan who is elected by a single district in Chicago.
I am expecting a special “climate change surcharge” to be levied on older cars, or driving restrictions (as in Europe). It’s coming. But the collapse of this Jenga Tower might happen first…
I know a Portland chick. She’s very nice… but an open communist. It frazzles my mind. These people just do not grok that communism and niceness are as compatible, in the end, as matter and anti-matter. That one fine day, the ideology she reveres will turn back on her.
And it won’t be very nice.
n open communist is not very nice.
You should shun it scorn it and avoid it.
I wouldn’t touch it with yours, as they say in Liverpool.
Hi Bill,
Don’t worry, I won’t.
I’m pretty much retired from dealing with women, regardless. I’ve got all I can do just keeping my eyes open at this point. I would put up with a lot – sacrifice a lot – do a lot – for my ex. But some new one? Nope. There’s just no fuel left in the tank. That realization made me realize it’s time to DOR.
I’d rather just make a BLT, read a little and then take a nap. Seriously.
Larry, As an ex-NYer, I can tell you that NYC certainly DOES control all of NY state (And at least half of the rest of the country, as well). You could live up in the Adirondacks, but you still pay taxes for NYC and have to have license plates on your tractor and abide by all the rest of the BS liberal loony laws that come from Albany via NYC.
Cut off NYC, and NY would have been a Trump state- but thanks to NYC, all of their electoral votes went to the Bitch. Even long-liberal Long Island (NYC’s skilled white work force) is sick of all the BS- There’s been talk for a long time of LI becoming a separate state, because all of it’s wealth goes to NYC/NYS- and as even MORE immigrants take up residence in NYC, even the ghetto crowd are now moving out and ruining the suburbs.
Eric. Great article.
I’m not sure if my already high blood pressure is helped by your writing, since it probably spike even more. This is a complement BTW.
Do any of these morons consider the “impact” of crushing a perfectly drivable vehicle? Do they consider the “impact” of scarce raw materials being used to build a new car to replace the perfectly good one they doomed to the dustbin of history? Do they consider the “impact” of the massive power, driving, and human resource moving that are used to create the “clean” new car?
Of course they don’t.
Just as they banned incandescent light bulbs (or damn near), do they consider that I live in Michigan? Do they consider that I heat my home 8-9 months of the year? Do they consider that the “10% efficient” incandescent light bulb is actually 100% efficient during the heating season? Do they consider that incandescent lights don’t wreck your vision like fluorescent or LED lights due to the fact that your eyes need near infrared radiation?
Of course they don’t.
Environmentalism is a disease and its members need to be quarantined from polite society to live in their own “environmental” commune.
I have 120 100W bulbs, 644 60W bulbs, and 420 40W bulbs. The “real” ones – not the “60W equivalent” expensive ones they pawn off today.
I wish I didn’t have to keep a dedicated shelf filled with bulbs that wont wreck my vision, make me angry, and make my stuff look like muted, lifeless garbage for the REST OF MY MISERABLE LIFE. All due to a bunch of stupid commies who actually think politicians and rich famous people actually give a fuck about them (despite centuries of evidence to the contrary).
Anyway – if you ever get through to Trump, have him repeal the incandescent bulb ban so I can take some shelf space back.
Thanks
Environmentalism isn’t a disease; government is THE disease. We have gone far too long in this empire between revolution.
Pretty soon, with all the fatwas from auto’s, healthcare, guns, and my toilet capacity, non-compliance will be cheaper and reasonable. Don’t piss people off or eventually they will get real angry, and those 300 million or so guns will come out of hiding.
Get the “warm ” LED bulbs , the high color temp(5000 K or so )are almost as bad as those silly ass blue retinal burner head lights .
Environmentalism was just an excuse to kill off the incandescent. The real reason was because it was a low margin commodity business that was fully automated and not worth moving from the USA to China. Bulb makers wanted to sell higher margin products.
BTW, not long after the law took effect someone came up with a simple laser treatment to the filament that makes the incandescent energy efficient. It would have required adding a station to the automated line. But alas, all that capital was probably scrapped by then.
The other nasty little secret is the collusion between the bulb makers to reduce the lifespan of LED’s. Remember when they were good for 20,OOO hours?
It as not coincidence that GE, Phillips and Sylvania all ended up producing incandescent bulbs with a life span of 1,000 hours.
I noticed when I was a child that old light bulbs lasted longer than new ones. Although I believe it is more competitive price pressure than collusion. The longevity costs money and people generally won’t pay for it for it up front.
The lentire left coast, and the northeast need to fall into the ocean. They emit nothing but constant insanity, and act as role models for deviant politicians in other states to get ideas from. And I have zero sympathy for anyone who continues to live in such places. This crap has been going on in these places for 40 years now; those who are willing to tolerate it at this point deserve what they get.
And it’s spreading. It used to be mainly CA. on the left and NY, NJ, MA on the right coast. Now it’s CA OR WA ID BV AZ NM CO UT and NY NJ CT MA NH VT ME OH IL. Most of those Western states now have federalized police; are comprised of a lot of Gov’t land (even though according to our Constitution there shouldn’t be such a thing! -From Military bases, to gov’t office complexes to BLM range land to parks…..it would make Hitler and Stalin salivate- and all with their own agencies and police at varying levels from fed to local….
If there’s enough time before it all implodes or someone has the good sense to nuke us, at some point, that paradigm will just overspread the entire country, and there will then be more of them, than us. (It’ll probably take until then for it to implode, because that will be the point at which the parasites will outnumber the hosts, and there will no longer be anything productive- just consumption till it is all gone.(
In contrast, Montana allows you to permanently register any vehicle that is greater than 10 years old for like $180. No inspections, emissions. I’d prefer to never have to register, but you know…
At minimum, that’s the way it should be. You get rewarded for living simply instead of being cr*pped on for “polluting”. Of course not having to register to begin with would be the best.
Texas is similar but has to be 25 years I believe. Also the usual antique driving restrictions. Illinois is the same but youre plain not allowed to drive it six months out of the year.
All little steps towards no personal cars for regular folks.
Make new ones expensive, make driving expensive and annoying, buy old cars and crush them. Then move on to making old ones expensive to license, get people used to renting and ride sharing.
Ban cars entirely from city centers (at some point even electric ones), ban pre 1990 cars completely (this time no buybacks). Hobble the remaining new cars (by making them low range electrics).
Yup, its coming along nicely.
when I lived in Sodom on Hudson, I got a rent-controlled apartment on Fifth Avenue by payment of a three thousand dollar cash bribe. It cost 80% of the rent to park my Landcrusher on the next block.
“Sodom On Hudson”- I like that!
Probably paid $4K a year for car insurance too.
Remember when Katherine Hepburn was still alive and had a rent-controlled apartment on c. 72md St. for $200 a month??!!!!!
The last three paragraphs describe me to a tee! Here in the Commonwealth (of VA) I get the “personal property tax” for all the cars I own. It goes to zero once the assessed value is $1000 or less. There was sweet rejoicing when my 1995 Subaru went under the $1000 mark two years or so ago. I still daydream of buying, say, a 1997 Buick LeSabre and totally getting new upholstery, paint job, engine & transmission… but to the state of VA it’s just a ’97 Buick! (One way of getting it over on the Man). However, the best way here in VA to do this is to get “FARM USE” plates! I need to figure out how to get on that boondoggle!
I have Farm Use plates in Virginia. I bought them at Tractor Supply for $2.99 each. That’s all it takes, but you do have to have insurance. You also have to meet your county’s standard for farm property ownership. No inspection sticker is required for a farm use truck.
Lots of us out here in the sticks will just cancel heh registration on a truck when it fails inspection and buy a pair of FU plates. My ’68 F250 has been running FU plates for 10 years or so, and I’ve driven it all over the state.
and the name is sooooo appropriate
Could that use of FU be a message to the state telling them to Fuck U?
Used to watch guys get tickets at the lake pulling boat trailer. I never did. Maybe it was my beat up Silverado…..with a new Ranger Trails trailer. Always parked well out of the way. Never got let go for anything else.
I began to lose interest in the lake when those State Poleez would pull up and search the boat for beer.. Godalmighty, beer and fishing, I never considered such….you assholes.
in a lot of boats youll find a lot more than beer. in chicago they’ll tolerate almost anything. lots of rich folks out there i guess
Why does a local police department need a tank, and why are they dressed in fatigues?
They don’t need a tank. The fatigues make them look like the military.
I call it ‘playing Army’.
I suspect it has to do with the size (or lack thereof) of their cajones.
Meanwhile, here in Victoria, Australia, our Melbourne police have more armor on their fat bodies than our military over in the countries inhabited by alien creatures that are not human. And they have 11 MRAPs, posing as a militia that is forbidden by the Australian Constitution. That’s to deal with the people who complain about the african gangs that are raping and pillaging with full approval of our socialist government.
Keep that in mind if you think Australia is the place to live, folks.
As a kid in the 50’s I had this thing about going to Australia to live. I kept that alive till I was in my 20’s when I saw the way it was heading. I really feel for yall. Australia was my dream place to live and hunt and do all the really libertarian things you could do back then. Fairly much no laws and a huge place to hang out and do whatever.
If you were a kid in the 50s, then you were probably in your 20s about the time this happened:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercar_scare
(Hard mode challenge: try to read the entire article without gagging!)
SC, it is sickening. I always thought Australia being where England sent their criminals would be a pretty good place since, from a young age, I knew “criminals” were often those who wouldn’t toe the line and tried to live free, probably the greatest appeal for me about the place. Had they been “real” criminals they would have been in prison or hung.
Australia was the second version of people wanting freedom leaving England with the American continent being the first mass migration from a king and united church for law.
This was about the time GM quit officially racing in the US or maybe a bit later.
From what I’ve heard Australia is one of the worst police states for gearheads too. Speed cameras everywhere (expertly camouflaged), mandatory reinspections at own expense (can be quite expensive if certain kinds of testing are involved, such as with racing ECU) after every modification, and of course, bull-headed cops who pull over anything that looks modified and start looking for excuses to red tag it off the road. Apparently they even pulled this on a journalist in a dead-stock AMG press car, just because it looked like it might have been modified. They give citations for hilariously inconsequential “violations” such as pod air filters too, and once crushed someone’s (extremely rare and valuable) car for a second burnout ticket. Under 18 can’t drive anything over a specific power/weight ratio or, until the eco-turbo downsizing BS began in earnest, anything with a force-fed gasoline engine at all. The fact that car culture even exists there at all is a testament to how resilient car culture can be when enthusiasts actually care enough to keep their hobby alive.
Hello Chuck, all that you have heard is true. I live here, have for 31 years. We have some of the best freeways in the world, some better built than autobahns, and the lowest speed limits in the world for how open and thinly populated the country is. And over the last 5 years, all states have experienced at least 10% annual increases in the road toll, that until 5 years ago, was on the decline since the 1970s. The more the cops crack down, the higher the death toll on the roads goes.
Well what do you expect, when you’re always watching your speedometer you can’t watch where you’re going!
That’s the damned truth. It’s one reason I like cruise control. As a truck driver, I wish it was mandatory. I realize mandatory is a nasty word to most everyone including myself but people who drive by throttle on the roads are a real danger to truckers. They’re always going around you and slowing down causing you to pull out to pass and then they speed up so you fall back behind them and then they slow down. It’s not aggravating, it’s maddening and it happens every day with countless cars doing it.
Hi to5,
“Down under dreaming: revenge of the persecuted driver”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SZMFqMWfCM
Cheers,
Jeremy
Ha! 8Man beat me to it! I too dreamed of heading to Australia when I was a kid….then when I actually started looking into it in the 80’s and saw what was happening, I said YIKES!
Now the exact same thing is playing out here in the US- just taking longer ‘
cause we have so many people- but we’re just about there now.
Looked into Ireland after that…HOLY CRAP!
Quickly learned to give up on first-world white-people countries….they’ve ALL gone nuts. It’s like the white race is committing suicide.
Hi Nunz!
In re: ” It’s like the white race is committing suicide.”
From what I gather, the east – the former Warsaw Pact countries – is still sane. I have watched some broadcasts from there and the women do not have tattoos and look… feminine.
Hey Eric!
True! But I think it’s just that the Warsaw Pact countries haven’t “caught up” yet, what with the detour through communism and everything…. They’re kinda like where we were in the 70’s…but they’ll be caught up soon 🙁
I hope not. There’s Asian women. They are fine as hell.
“…give up on first-world white-people countries…”
Well, they won’t be White for much longer, and it’s been many decades since they were run by and for straight White menfolk.
Just sayin.’
Ain’t THAT the truth, Mack!
THAT IS the suicide….as our neighbors tolerate and even advocate for it, to the point where they vilify and ostracize and minimalize anyone who criticizes the politicies which have allowed it.
It’s like a gun is pointing at their head, and they’re reaching out to pull the trigger!
I believe the term is “security theater”. Convince people there’s this huge threat from somewhere, then acquire military gear to fight the threat, then use the military gear to oppress the citizenry and never actually fight the threat because if the threat goes away, the gravy train stops and the little people might expect to get their freedom back too.
You see it in everything, not just policing. Notice how wherever you look, education, public health, “climate change”, etc., there’s always A Problem that needs a lot of Funding, preferably Right Now. So the edumacators/quacks/climate “scientists”/whatever get their Funding, and start to work, but it turns out that they need even more Funding to “study” the Problem some more and finally work on solutions. So they get more Funding, and study the Problem, and recommend their Solution, which always requires yet more Funding, which The Machine happily gives to them. A couple years later they’re right back at the public trough requesting even more Funding to solve this Problem, even though it’s obvious to anyone with an IQ over 40 that the Problem has gotten worse since they started “solving” it. A perverse incentive exists to never actually solve the Problem, because that would mean no more need for Funding, but somehow very few people ever notice this fact.
It’s a great way for politicians to be re-elected(I saved your asses)and gain even more power so they’re re-elected almost without thought.
Oregon’s state government is at least as twisted, and possibly even “more” evil than Kali.
I predict this new law won’t work for them. An extra $200 per year does suck. But it’s still way better than buying a new car, with hefty monthly payments, and all its big bro tracking features.
They are going to have to increase that tax much higher to get their intended effect.
And you can be sure they will.
If they make it too high at the beginning, it may not pass. It will be simple to raise it later, they may even have built in automatic increases even.
Good call Rich.
The bill was reported killed off. http://www.wweek.com/news/state/2017/02/11/proposed-oregon-tax-on-old-cars-gets-hauled-to-the-scrapyard/ http://democratherald.com/news/opinion/editorial/clunker-bill-stalls-out-in-salem/article_8da31774-761a-525a-aab4-10bb28725fa7.html “In any event, we come not to praise House Bill 2877, but to bury it: This is exactly the kind of legislation that Oregonians point to when they argue that state officials pay little heed to the needs of the rural portions of the state. The bill, for example, didn’t include any provision for farm vehicles, many of which are older than 20 years but which nevertheless are in good working condition.
And the bill also would have done a disservice to those Oregonians who still are economically struggling and must drive older vehicles.
Rep. Sherrie Sprenger of Scio said it well: The bill was a “legislative indictment of poor Oregonians.”
“When I first heard about this, I thought it was ridiculous, just one more way to punish folks who can’t compete with Portland liberal standards and don’t want to,” Sprenger said, noting that she and her husband, Kyle, own two vehicles that would have been subject to the impact tax.”
Of interest was the fact that it was a “anonymous” bill. http://www.bendbulletin.com/opinion/5172484-151/lukens-column-lawmakers-cling-to-anonymous-bills-for?referrer=bullet2
Hah!! Ever driven, walked, or biked around Portland? There are probably more old wierd cars in Multomah and Clackamas Counties than in all the rest of the state combined. Then get out east, where its nice and dry and cars don’t rust much. Population is sparse there, as is income. Old iron is everywhere.
Oregon do not charge an annual fee based on value, like an excise tax. Nope, Flat fee for anything for two years. But it ain’t that cheap. Hah, my 98 van would begin having to pay that fee starting next year. They’d have apoplexy if they knew of my 77 Mercedes 300 D that runs like brand new, and excelt for some slightly ragged seats, looks that way too. In ten years its needed one water pump, and a set of brake pads up front. Oh, and batteries and tyres, but a 2015 will need those before long. Starts every time, runs and drives perfectly. My total cost in? Under $500. Ya think I’d be parting with that one any time soon?
Had a drag race with an old 300 D from a light on my bicycle. We were neck and neck for a block and a half. The drivers, passengers and myself were all laughing. They waved, I waved back.
Part of me would be strongly inclined to just floor it and leave you, and part of me would be afraid to go near the accelerator with a bicycle in close proximity. Take that as you will.
From the bill:
“and providing for revenue raising that requires approval
by a three-fifths majority”
Assuming the bill were to proceed to a vote by the full House, and assuming it was a completely partisan vote, the Ds would be one vote shy, with the current 35-25 party breakdown.
My guess this is more about finding coins under the seat cushions to pay for a voracious state, with the environmental thing as a “bonus” in oh-so-green Portland.
I am sure they will find a Republican to vote for it. Here in Indiana, it’s the Republicans that are increasing the car taxes, and only a handful of Democrats are resisting it. They are even trying to toll all the interstates as well.
Indiana has been a failed state for a long time. I had the misfortune of doing a summer internship in South Bend of all places. Driving around the state, there were speed traps everywhere. (of course, back then it was 55 mph speed limit land). Indianapolis was in decay and so was South Bend. An ethanol plant belched out an unspeakable smell when the wind was blowing from the south. People there drove like they got their 10th speeding ticket and were about to lose their license for life. Fast forward to the late 2000s, and you had Mike Pence selling the Indiana toll road to Cintra. People are now paying 3x the amount for a road built and resurfaced last in the 1960s. I am completely unsurprised that something called Buttigag is South Bend’s mayor. The signs were all there in the 1980s. Nothing surprises me about so-called red Indiana. It’s a dumpster fire now.