Hidden in VW’s announcement yesterday that it was “setting aside” nearly $9 billion to buy back – and destroy – about half a million diesel-powered cars convicted of “cheating” Uncle’s emissions tests was a statement by CEO Matthias Mueller that tells us how craven – and divorced from reality – car company CEOs are these days.
Mueller told reporters that VW will undergo a “wide-ranging transformation” that will end up with the company “focusing more” on “digital services” and “zero emissions” vehicles; that it would be sinking money into “mobility services” such as ride-sharing apps and car-sharing.
Because it looks like selling cars – economically and functionally viable cars – isn’t working much for them.
Well, it was.
But not anymore.
Because Uncle.
Instead of $22k TDI Jettas that can go 50-plus miles on a gallon of fuel, VW’s Matthias wants to “focus” on Germanic Teslas like the electric Golf – which costs almost $30,000 and goes maybe 70 miles on a full charge. VW can’t send me an eGolf to review because the thing can’t make it here in a single trip, in a single day.
Not unless it is carried here on a flatbed.
But the eGolf is “zero emissions” and that makes it politically appealing to politically correct CEOs like Mueller, whose “customer” is Uncle… not us.
If this weren’t the case, VW would be defending its excellent – and hugely popular – TDI-powered cars instead of crushing them. And not “focusing” on electrified idiocies such as the eGolf.
Mueller told reporters VW intends to “make electric cars one of (its) hallmarks” by 2020, by which time – less than four years from now – it plans to introduce 20 new electrified idiocies, notwithstanding the eGolf’s great success (not) and notwithstanding utterly absent market demand for cars that struggle to go anywhere and which need a very long umbilical cord to get there. And which also cost Ludicrous Sums of money and even then still can’t be sold at a profit without open-ended “help” from Uncle.
Reading between the lines – you can almost see the type – Matthias intends to ditch diesels (politically incorrect) in favor of … electric cars.
Because they are “clean” (and, of course, politically correct).
Whether they work being – apparently – beside the point.
It’s crazier than Nicholson in The Shining. The “cheating” TDIs about to be crushed – in what has got to be the most disgusting mass-display of wastefulness and stupidity outside of the Kasich for President campaign – would every one of them easily pass Uncle’ s circa 2000 (model year) emissions fatwas.
Were those cars “dirty”?
Really?
At the time, they were touted as exceptionally “clean.”
Which of course, they were.
Nothing produced since the late 1970s could accurately be described as “dirty.” Once new cars got smart catalytic converters (three-way, with oxygen sensors and the air-fuel ratio constantly fine-tuned by a computer and the fuel precisely metered by fuel injection) emissions became a non-issue, if the issue was air quality and so on.
And new cars have had all that since at least the late 1980s.
But emissions became a political issue – and the public (with the passive connivance of rollover CEOs like Mueller) has been gulled into believing that Great Work remains perpetually to be done (at whatever cost) to reduce emissions to nil.
Well, that’s been done – years ago.
Or damned close to it, anyhow.
As I’ve written about so many times in the past it is beginning to make my teeth ache, 95-plus percent of the exhaust stream of new cars is water vapor and carbon dioxide. Inert gasses that have nothing whatsoever to do with air pollution.
Cars are “clean.” Have been “clean”…. for decades.
This includes VW’s cars.
These agenda-dicks who “caught” VW “cheating” could do a public service by taking some of the “affected” TDI cars and seeing whether they meet Uncle’s standards circa 2000 or even 2005.
My bet is they would.
And if so, then their being tarred-and-feathered as “dirty” is disgustingly dishonest. Remember: Half a million owners of perfectly sound cars are going to be pressured to hand them over to be destroyed over a fractional difference in emissions output that absolutely no one can point to any actual harm resulting from.
Why isn’t anyone – Herr Mueller? – asking about that… ?
What harm has been caused by a TDI-powered VW car “emitting” – says Uncle – “up to 40 times” (but probably a lot less than) a third of a percent more of whatever Uncle has his panties in a bunch about? Define the thing, dammit. Show me a victim before you crucify me.
Or throw away half a million perfectly good cars and flush almost $9 billion dollars down the got-damned toilet.
No wonder Trump is surging.
When the ship is sinking, you grab whatever you can to stay afloat.
Whatever Trump’s flaws, he’s got balls.
Too bad Herr Mueller lacks them.
EPautos.com depends on you to keep the wheels turning! The control freaks (Clovers) hate us. Goo-guhl blackballed us.
Will you help us?
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: EPautos stickers are free to those who sign up for a $5 or more monthly recurring donation to support EPautos, or for a one-time donation of $10 or more. (Please be sure to tell us you want a sticker – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
Go ahead and spend a few hours as a honey badger handing out these pamphlets as a bitcoin evangelist. You can absolutely be arrested. For added fun don’t carry an ID or money on you. Roll out of bed still drunk or hung over and grab some dirty torn greasy clothes out of the hamper. Make sure you smell rank and your hair is unkempt. If possible be dark complected and speak a rare Roma language and only broken English if accosted by heroes.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/butggvdpyymsu42/5GIDAmAUrX
Ask a few strangers for a quarter or a ride to somewhere. Get off the road to serfdom and it’s false rituals of authorities and plebians. Be a streetwalking hustler on Agora Avenue. And then take you take it higher.
The games you play in life and online that you imagine give you your dignity and status are roadblocks that get in the way of unique ideas and fullsome actions.
Face your fear to challenge the ideas of dignified authorities and esteemed peers. Learn to crawl below it all, aloof to so many pointless conflicts that arise from affronted dignity, ask yourself qui bono from these games?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5znh58WITU8
Dignity is used by the ruling class and powerful wealthy to emphasize class distinction and fear of violating it encourages conformity.
The benefits of this arrogant/craven dichotomic dick measuring contest are all to the individual who lives for his place in the peckers order, who gets to assert high social status at the expense of everyone else.
Especially when dealing with those who impose their will and ivory or chrome tower credentials via force, this should be seen as a bad thing, and childlike wonder and irreverant enthusiasm should be instead be earnestly sought at all stages of your one and only life. It all comes back to you. Back to a mattress on the floor with the one that I love. To a room with loving adorned with lace and paper flowers
Back to the gypsy that I was, to the gypsy that I was,
And it all comes down to you, well, you know that it does
Well, lightning strikes, maybe once, maybe twice
And when it finally does, it lights up your night
And you too see your gypsy, your inner gypsy that remains faces freedom with a little fear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo6ZryveN1s
I have no fear, I have only love. And if I was my child and my child was enough
Enough for me to love, enough to love. She is dancing away from me now. From facetimes of a backwoods honkytonk. She was just a wish, she was just a wish
And soon her memory will be all that is left for my older self now.
You see lightning strikes, maybe once, maybe twice. And then it all comes down to you and it all comes down to you.
I still see your dimming bright eyes, keep them burning, don’t help them to bury your light. Don’t give up without a fight. It all comes down to you.
I remember my Grandfather telling me the story of the first time he had seen a car. He told me he could smell it for an hour after it went by. Now you can practically stick your nose in the tailpipe and not smell a thing. Our modern cars including the VW that is going to be destroyed put out less emissions that the horses that my Grandfather used to go to town with. I’m surprised that these idiots haven’t tried to put a carbon tax on the Amish people who live around me. It would make as much sense.
By the way, I can remember boring out the catalytic converter on my first Truck when I was 16 or so. That was so I could run “Regular” gas in it. We are so incredibly far from those days that it’s ridiculous to act as if that last .005 percent of emissions are going to somehow change anything.
So instead of blaming the cheaters (VW) you blame the government? HAHAHAHAHA
Clover,
How does one “cheat” Uncle? Do you also feel moral guilt when you drive faster than the speed limit? Do you consider yourself a “customer” of the IRS’s?
You see the federal government has these things called “laws”. Some people like them, others do not. For the people who do not like them there is the option of leaving this country and going to another one. For manufacturers these “laws” are made of of rules and regulations which need to be followed. Just like how manufacturers are not allowed to give babies rat poison and call it food likewise manufacturers are not allowed to sell cars which do not meet Uncle’s minimum requirements for exhaust standards. VW did manufacture cars, sold them in the US but they didnt meet the minimum standard for exhaust emissions. Rather than choosing either to not manufacturer the cars, not sell the cars here VW simply choose to lie about their emissions. they even admitted to lying. Now in a competitive free market environment if one manufacturer is given an unfair advantage that is called “cheating”.
I guess you support foreign countries coming over here and gassing the American people. If the country was Iran instead of Germany would it make a difference?
Clover,
You reverence laws as if they were moral absolutes – which is the defining essence of Cloverism. But a law is just a legal prohibition – it is by no means necessarily moral by dint of being “the law.”
Many laws have no moral validity – and therefore, no one is morally obligated to obey them, if they can avoid it.
For example, laws arbitrarily decreeing that you (an allegedly free adult) may not do this or that with your own body.
Others are morally neutral. For example, laws against “speeding.” It does not harm anyone to drive 75 MPH in a zone with a posted maximum of 70. The posted maximum is almost invariably ridiculous and, in in any event, unless a victim can be produced, no harm has been caused as a result of ignoring it.
And without a victim, there can be no crime – morally speaking.
You trot out a study that claims 60 people might get cancer as a result of diesel exhaust emissions. Note that these are not actual/real people. They are hypothesized people; projections.
Show me an actual person actually harmed (provably so) by the fractional (alleged) increase in the exhaust emissions of the TDI VWs at issue.
‘You see the federal government has these things called “laws”’
Clover, you ignorant slut.
I personally don’t give a rat’s behind about the criminal gang calling itself the “federal government” or the diktats they call “laws.” As Eric has so eloquently pointed out, laws that have no moral basis are merely arbitrary rules. This is the case with the vast majority of them.
The only problem with what VW did was caving and crawling before the federal scumbags rather than standing up for themselves. Other than that, as far as I am concerned VW did nothing wrong. The amount being emitted from those cars is extremely low by any measure, and by running more efficiently they use less fuel which means less needs to be produced and transported.
Now due to pressure from the vile, miserable, wretched, filthy, stinking, villainous, ignoble, contemptible, detestable, excrement-guzzling, worthless, good for nothing, degenerate subhuman federal scum and their miscreant lackeys, VW will likely be buying back and crushing many if not all of the “offending” vehicles, meaning more will need to be manufactured to replace them. How much pollution is going to be emitted by this pointless exercise?
The federal gangsters are the ones who have been doing the “cheating” all of us, and they have been doing it for a very long time.
“the law” is whatever the gang of gunvermin criminals says it is at the moment. When this country got started “the law” said it was ok to own humans as slaves, are you ok with that? Nowadays the Amerikan gunvermin think all of us are their slaves and have to submit and obey their “laws”. I personally choose to ignore all the BS “laws” they create and will follow my conscience in dealing with others.
The 911 hijackers had the same view of the law as you do Mike. They also came from Boston Mike.
Edward O
That is the lamest response I’ve seen in a while and demonstrated that you put exactly zero thought into it.
Let’s review:
Laws come in two flavors under common law.
1- mala in se (bad, in and of itself, like murder)
2 – malum prohibitum (bad because a bureaucrat said so, aka victimless in many cases)
911 falls under item 1, VW under item 2.
Factoid: The EPA is not authorized underbthe Constitution, and was created by Nixon by executive order. How’s that representative government working for you, when it can grant itself powers and the be continually funded by a compliant congress?
Sheesh, 911 and VW.
@ Edwardo
So you are equating Mike in Boston, a non aggression principle supporter, to one of the 9/11 (allegedly ) hijackers? That is ingenious, vulgar and disgusting.
The individuals that carried out what happened on September 11th didn’t care about the laws against murder. Note, that Mike said, “I personally choose to ignore all the BS “laws””. Laws that have no victims. Laws that are used by the state as an excuse to increase revenues. Such as the laws against people using some drugs. The state really doesn’t give a shit if you die from drug use. if they did they’d focus more on rehabilitation. The state wants to use those laws to seize assets of perfectly innocent individuals. All they have to do is make some asinine claim that the asset, might have been used in some violation of a state law. If you have a circulated dollar in your pocket odds are it has some drug residue on it. If so then it was used in an act that violated a state levied law and therefore subject to state seizure.
edwardo go back to the under the rock sleazy area you came from and leave the polite discourse here to adults that have the ability to think critically.
So contaminating the air with a known cancer causing agent which as MIT has proven leads to death is a “victim-less crime”. I hate to supersede political belief with actual facts but NOx is related to cancer, asthma and brings about smog which leads to early death.
I know how much you want to hate the government but it is the government that cleaned up the LA basin and made the air quality improve.
Then again maybe you hate America so much that you are going to use the VW issue to set prescient for other countries to come over and gas our people. I mean who cares about BS laws, all VW is doing is polluting our air, contaminating our water and shortening our lives in the name of profit. You are probably hoping Iran or Saudi Arabia starts to make cars running off of nuclear so they can have rolling dirty bombs killing people. That is probably why are you fighting so hard to allow foreign countries to pollute as they see if.
Sorry I am not sorry, I love America and Americans you obviously only care about a large corporation making money off of BS laws which expedite the death of Americans.
“NOx is related to cancer, asthma and brings about smog”
No one here is denying that NOx can be harmful, just not at the levels (or differences in level) currently coming off the tailpipe, even in ‘cheating’ cars.
“it is the government that cleaned up the LA basin”
Maybe so – Maybe. But LA is a unique geological location. Why should the whole country have to abide by limits established by CARB?
NOx reacts with ammonia, moisture, and other compounds to form nitric acid vapor and related particles. Small particles can penetrate deeply into sensitive lung tissue and damage it, causing premature death in extreme cases. Inhalation of such particles may cause or worsen respiratory diseases, such as emphysema or bronchitis, or may also aggravate existing heart disease. (according to the national institute of health).
Also last time I checked Mississippi doesnt abide by CARB infact only 16 states do….. so I guess you believe the USA is only 16 states or you are just lying to make a point
You’ve made a generalized assertion about a hypothesized risk. “60 people” might get cancer (or whatever). Show me evidence that an actual person has bee harmed by the minute (fractional) difference in emissions at issue here… .
You can’t.
I lived in LA in the sixties. The cars got 10 miles per gallon. Gas got high priced. Foreign cars got 30. A third as much fuel was burned. The air got cleaner. This is from my column on this subject written last December:
An average diesel truck would have to drive 10 miles to emit as much NOx as a charbroiled burger. And a diesel car driven across the country 100 times would still not produce as much NOx as a flash of lightning, of which there are 1.4 billion per year. If diesel cars were as prevalent here as they are in Europe, Americans would save $20 billion per year in fuel costs and oil companies would sell that much less fuel.
Clover,
It’s the dose that makes the poison. We are talking about trivial levels of N0x emissions. As I have tried to explain so many times, the exhaust stream of any new car (or recent vintage car) is very nearly zero emissions, in terms of genuinely harmful byproducts. The low-hanging fruit was picked years ago. But in order to justify its continued existence, EPA and CARB make mountains out of molehills and play upon the ignorance of the average person with regard to the nearly nil harmful exhaust output of any modern car.
If a given car’s exhaust is 97 percent “clean” is it really worth it to go after another 1/8th of 1 percent? Regardless of cost? If it means reduced efficiency and higher fuel consumption (and, accordingly, more total exhaust volume produced)?
NOx can be avoided by running rich. But that means more HCs and poorer fuel economy. Speaking of running rich ever notice how much soot city buses make? Seems to happen more places than not.
Anyway we are talking about NOx levels that were legal some years ago and they were considered clean then. We are talking about a practical difference in NOx levels that’s not even detectable in the atmosphere if there even is a difference. PS: NOx is naturally created by lightning. Try stopping that.
To your closing, there are lots of companies making money off of BS laws. That’s the american way these days and you’re supposed to like it.
Another from my TDI column: “And a diesel car driven across the country 100 times would still not produce as much NOx as a flash of lightning, of which there are 1.4 billion per year.”
The tiny difference in standards has much more effect on our financial standard of living than our health. And has no effect outside the prisons we call cities. I’ve often wondered why tech companies don’t migrate to rural areas to improve living standards for their workers. Now that would be a way to actually change the air they breath.
@edwardo
Nine of the eleven alleged hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. It is my understanding that none of the alleged hijackers were born and raised in the united States. So your claim, “They also came from Boston Mike”, is a blatant falsehood.
Again, leave the intelligent discourse to the adults here and get back to playing your Gears of War for adolescent teens video game.
Um…. the planes left from Boston.
DUH!!!!!
Idiot
Edwardo,
If you wish to mean (or say) something else, then you need to choose your words more carefully.
I doubt that anyone can read your (or anyone else’s) mind.
You can’t read what’s not there.
yes the planes left from Boston, but the HIJACKERS were from Saudi Arabia, our so-called “allies” more accurately known as actual “terrists” or members of the Bush crime family.
“the HIJACKERS were from Saudi Arabia”
At least that’s how the official narrative goes.
“members of the Bush crime family”
You mean like Rafael, Jr.?
Obviously, many Israeli’s knew of the plot since only 1 Israeli out of hundreds failed to get the warning to not go to work that day. Dubya didn’t look surprised at all and Cheney was hunkered down in the most secure facility on the east coast even though all military flights were on the ground for an “exercise” that day.
Everyone who had knowledge of this should die, be executed toot sweet by whatever means is handy, drowned in a glass of water that’s handy.
This likely includes all the higher ups in the White House, a large amount of people in the illegal Isreali Zionist country, everybody in Saudi Arabia who knew about it and anyone else (Israeli workers in the towers in the months before). It should bring back bloody torture, drawing and quartering, grilled over a slow fire, etc.
I’m normally against the death sentence in the justus system. People who kill in a moment of passion likely will never hurt anyone again. The people who knew of 911 beforehand are beyond humanity and should be set on top of a 500 foot tall bonfire and tied to it. I’ll be glad to bring lots of houses worth of old shingles, old cross ties and used motor oil……and several tankers with 150 barrels of water each……don’t want it to burn too quickly. There are probably plenty of people who’d bring their own towels and water for a few days of waterboarding. Lots and lots of tv cameras with worldwide internet coverage and shown in movie theatres.
@edwardo
Yeah, like “from Boston” and “flying out of Boston” are two radically different concepts. They were from Saudi Arabia and flew out of Boston.
Wow! To think you called me the idiot???
Again, go back to your Halo “designed for adolescent teens” game and leave the sensible discussion to the over 120 intelligent quotient individuals here.
The 911 hijackers if we accept that story wanted to kill americans so they would force the federal government to change its policies. Oddly the US fedgov bombs, sanctions, and otherwise harms people to get them to change the policies of the governments that rule them. So there ya go.
BrentP,
Exactly! I don’t buy the story the lyin gooberdicks with gooberment spew. Thanks for the backup dood. 🙂 Also, a very nice touche moment there. They kill us because we kill them! Who woulda thought?
David, you said “Who woulda thought?” The correct English for that is “hooda thunkit?” aha
“Just like how manufacturers are not allowed to give babies rat poison and call it food”
So in your mind the only thing keeping rat poison out of baby food is government?
Remind me not to eat at your house. You might decide it’s in your best interest to poison me…
In all seriousness as to my last comment , can we have a conversation about how much more pollution will be created by destroying all these cars,there will be two or three shredders operating at about 800 horses each for months ironically diesel powered then the will be handled by multiple tractors loaders at probably 300 horses each for months then they will be placed in trucks at probably 500 horses each probably hundreds or thousands of trips to take them to a port to be sent who knows where on ships that are powered by 100,000 horse power engines then all that scrap will have to be made into something else to start the process all over again , that’s not even counting to pollution that will be created by all of the workers driving to and from work for months in the process of destroying the cars .
“how much more pollution will be created by destroying all these cars”
Gunvermin cares not about that. VW thumbed its corporate nose at Uncle, and so must be punished, no matter the cost in pollution, $, or even lives.
Or VW could have just followed the rules of manufacturing that they said they would follow to begin with. Unless you are in favor of a foreign government gassing American people in the name of profit.
Clover,
Can you show evidence of an actual harm caused to an actual person? Or is it just that Uncle was “harmed” by “cheating” him?
“VW could have just followed the rules of manufacturing that they said they would follow”
But Uncle kept changing the rules.
I like this guy and his ideas.
Honestly I have no problem with the Germans gassing people.
Yeah, if they’d just gas clovers. When the gunvermin gassed and then burned people at Waco the clovers cheered…..yayus, law abiding, religious people working the land have gotten their just due. Shit Ronnie, it don’t get any better than that.
I heard the Amish were stockpiling……what?…..it doesn’t matter, just stockpiling and you know where that leads. Drones on buggy’s. It don’t get any better than that.
Waco, Ruby Ridge, and many more murders all in a day’s work for our so-called “leaders.” Not to mention that just yesterday was the anniversary of the school shooting that clovers and government toadies would prefer we forget:
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/kent-state/
My scientifically illiterate, Sanders-supporting cousin enthusiastically posted an article unveiling VW’s new replica of the 60s hippy van, but with an electric motor. I asked the following questions, which the article didn’t address: “What is the range? How long does it take to charge it? Where can it be charged? How will the electricity to charge it be generated?” So far no answers.
At least the old ‘bus’ was notoriously lacking in winter heat, so that will not need to be a factor in battery life.
Ours were notorious for gassing the occupants so being cold didn’t matter…..you didn’t feel it. Now I think I’ll just sit back and sleep a while.
Hi Doug,
Expect a “best case” range of about 100 miles; if it’s like other electrics, you can recharge it via common 115v outlets (hours) or a “fast” charger (which takes about one hour). The electricity will come from oil or coal-fired utility plants, mostly. Because that’s what powers most of the grid!
eric, I was surprised when I looked at the power grid for the US. It mainly consists of the Eastern Grid, east of the Rockies, the Western grid, west of the Rockies and the Texas grid. Of course the maps are not completely up to date and don’t show some major transmission lines I could draw in Tx. But Tx. has redundant lines that sometimes parallel old, smaller lines. There is also a great amount of new infrastructure that goes with these huge transmission lines. I know this since I helped build some of them and have pics and videos from at least one when we shut down early for the day and it was on my way home. It’s called the Wetsel, named after a good man I’ve known my whole life. I don’t know the names of the others but next time I get near one I’ll take some pics. These new lines originate in the wind fields. They go across the state from top to bottom at least to the edge of east Tx. The controls for them are hardened, building wise as well as computer-wise so they’re much more immune to cyber attack.
Well, we’ve always wondered the source of our power so at least we know this although I could find no figures of amounts of power supplied from various sources. I can tell you the wind fields are significant.
Well, the capacity of installed wind is significant, but the actual production from those wind farms is surprisingly much less than the rated capacity. Most wind projects expect to produce commercial amounts of electricity about 30% of the time. That’s shockingly low when compared to nuclear (90%) and coal (63%). Because of this fact, and the high variability of wind and other renewables, every KWH of wind capacity must be backed up with an easily dispatched generator source. In most cases that’s natural gas. In some cases, because of incentive pricing and regulations that require ISOs to take renewable power over other forms no matter what, highly available sources (baseload) that weren’t designed to load follow are being taken offline. This WILL have a dramatic effect on grid stability. Not only that, but since there’s the potential for big power to come from the wind farms, distribution networks have to be constructed using the worse case, maximum power rating from the farm, even though it will rarely be seen.
Now instead consider human controlled power generation. You build a plant for a given capacity. You build the grid interconnection rated only for that capacity, which you can be pretty sure will be what you get. Very predictable. Electricity customers like predictable, even though they might not list it as a high priority these days. Start screwing around with electricity and people WILL get upset. Just look at what Enron did in California in 2000 and multiply it times 50. We’ve been pretty lucky so far, just because renewables have been such a small portion of the power generated. But as they gain a higher percentage of the electricity produced it will cause more problems. Just ask the Germans about how they’ve had to install UPS systems and backup generators, something unheard of before Energiewende.
So I find this site https://wind-watch.org/faq-output.php is fairly much full of shit. Their wind speed ratings for full electrical production is way out of whack. Once speeds reach much over 25 mph with the generators we have in Tx. then they are cut back or stopped, mainly stopped, since the wind is blowing nearly all the time in the areas they exist. I noticed Tx. produced(on another site) more than 3 times the amount of power of the next closest state and much more for most all states.
I’ve spoken with lots of wind generation people and the newer units produce a great deal more power at lower speeds, are a great deal cheaper to build/install and produce more power overall than previously built units. As with everything, the more made, the greater the efficiency and the cheaper to produce.
But I don’t want one close to my house. I have to work right under them at times and they bug hell out of me. Livestock tend to stay as far away from them as possible also.
Dude and his son using a “Gibs-Me-Free-Food” government credit card gets an earful from some lady
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwrNiRngMhc
Clover Marilyn Hedlund feared howling autistic girl might crash plane. Angry Mom Dr Donna Beegle is suing airline. Refused to leave plane until police gathered ten pages of statements testifying teen wasn’t a threat.
http://koin.com/2015/05/09/she-wasnt-put-off-plane-because-of-autism/
JACOB HORNBERGER’S OUTSTANDING JURY NULLIFICATION OVERVIEW
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/jacob-hornbergers-outstanding-jury-nullification-overview_052015
If you want to put a self-made license plate on your vehicles. And assert yourself a sovereign. Or spend your days asking passersby if they’d like a pamphlet proclaiming “laws” to be potentially null and void upon any group of citizens finding them so, that’s great.
The trick is not to do so in an overtly autistic way. Which is way harder than it sounds. Each of us is bewitched by different bugaboos of autistic dogma, and are highly sensitive to hearing any contrarian dogma, even if the underlying premises are sound and beneficial to our goals and freedom.
15 year old autistic girl forced off a Salt Lake city plane because the heroic captain didn’t feel safe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rOUQjqVnyQ
Autistic girl’s family distraught after being frogmarched off a plane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CegWO9XoTKY
Nuller Keith Wood had to put %15,000 on his credit card to get out of jail.
Prosecutors say the pamphlets could cause a “lawless nation.”
https://tribwxmi.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/keith-wood.jpeg?w=1200
Keith has already lost money on the credit card interest, as well as having to fund the ongoing expense of his legal defense. Felony charges have been dropped, but misdemeanor charges remain.
http://fija.org/2016/03/23/felony-charge-dropped-misdemeanor-still-in-play/
Woods was locked up with a $150,000 bond. Wood was in a Mecosta County, MI jail for about 12 hours before he paid 10 percent of the bond using a credit card.
“When the judge told me the bond, again I was speechless,” Wood said. “$150,000 bond for handing out a piece of paper on a public sidewalk? Speechless.”
Wood, a former pastor, said that he was moved to action when he read online about jury nullification. A concept derived from medieval English common law, it allows jurors to acquit defendants who they think are victims of an unjust law, even if the evidence shows that the law was actually violated.
“I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ,” Wood said. “Jesus said ‘the truth will set you free’ and I want people to know the truth.”
The pamphlets are titled, “What rights do you have as a juror that the judge won’t tell you about?” Wood says it is not illegal to inform jurors of their powers to nullify laws, but that judges “just don’t do it any more.”
When he was handing out the fliers, Wood said that a woman came out of the courthouse and asked him to come inside and talk to a judge. Wood refused, and then a deputy came outside and told him that if he did not talk to the judge, Big Rapids police would come and arrest him.
Under the threat of arrest, Wood went inside the courthouse, and was told that he was not being detained. Once inside, however, Mecosta County District Court Judge Peter Jaklevic told a deputy to place him in custody for jury tampering.
I was watching the 90,000 people evacuating Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada. The nearest big city is three hundred miles away, I wonder if anyone there wishes they had a zero emissions vehicle with a seventy mile escape radius. After all the forest fire has a wall of flames forty feet high, the air quality might be really bad! (being sarcastic)
I own a 2013 Jetta wagon TDI, bought back in 2013, and my purchase was partly based on the recommendations from this site, that I happen to agree with, and still do.
The car has functioned well, has given great performance, delivered a rock steady mid 40 mpg (50+ is possible with very delicate foot on the throttle) and has been relatively trouble free.
I do not WANT to take part in this orgy of Uncle mandated waste.
But it appears I will have no choice in the matter, as I am sure any “refuseniks” that tried to hold onto their VW TDIs will be the subject of another decree stating they will no longer be able to obtain the required government permission slips to operate the cars on the roads.
So, combined with the recent government fatwas directed at the energy industry that are going to decimate that sector, this will make three time in my life I have been put out of business by government decree, and now I will have a car stolen from me that I freely bought, enjoyed and was happy driving, by government dictate.
And if I wanted to exercise my “free speech rights” to say what I think should happen to the happy government assholes responsible for this, I would quickly be hauled off to prison, in the Land of the Free.
Fuck this place, fuck what it has become and fuck and damn the people who did it.
I have a Florida address you can use for those types of purposes. Florida does not have a state inspection system. Registration is around $46 a year.
Hi AF,
I share your sentiments. It’s all I can do to keep the disgust and anger out of my writing.
Whoops… so much for that.
It is literally beyond my ken what’s happening; the world turned upside down.
The problem with VW could have been avoided if engine developers would have collaborated more closely with lawmakers who set pollution limits. Diesel engines naturally produce higher levels of nitrogen oxides because they burn the fuel at higher compression rates and higher temperatures in order to achieve higher efficiency. The question is really what is the optimal mix of pollutants allowed per mile travelled. VW tried the right thing, but decided to do it alone without collaboration of the authorities. In any case, trying to solve the problem by building cheating devices is unethical.
VW is the second German car company who made the crucial decision to abandon IC engine development in favor of electrical cars. A few years earlier BMW made a similar announcement that they would stop allocating new money into further development of IC engines. According to BMW management, the future is in electricity.
Indeed, there will always be electricity around since there will be sunlight for millions of years to come. There will be no fossil fuels in a few hundred years simply because all of that oil and gas will exhausted by that time. So the future will be less mobility by cars, but more mobility by train, bicycles and simply walking. Indeed imagine how beautiful and clean our cities could be if there were no cars. Perhaps we will return to horse traffic one day ? Nobody knows.
A proud owner of a Passat 2001 station wagon powered by a gasoline engine.
“Perhaps we will return to horse traffic one day ? Nobody knows.” No doubt horse drawn vehicles were the good old days. Solid horse shit on the roads and a stench you just had to grow up with to not notice and even those who didn’t live in the city were turned off by city streets even though they themselves traveled smelling horseshit and watching the act of deposit…..but on a country road it’s soon left behind. And shoveling out the horse stalls always falls to the guy downhill. There’s a reason they say Shit rolls downhill.
I grew up with horse shit. it ain’t all it’s cooked up to be.
“Indeed imagine how beautiful and clean our cities could be if there were no cars.”
Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea how ‘polluted’ the streets of, say, NYC were when all the vehicles were horse drawn?
Reminds me, I had a dorm mate in college who tried to convince me that horse manure didn’t smell as bad a cow manure. I told him he had never been in a barn with 80 horses. Of course even the horses are not as bad as pigs or chickens in dense quarters.
I can recall trucking in the east and enduring a really foul smell for miles and miles till I overtook a poultry truck. No doubt the driver was glad to be PULLING the trailer….yeeoow!
Back in the day the Thames was a sewer…..and cemetery. London always had huge piles of shit, and I’m sure every major city did, waiting to be disposed of. Of course disease and insects were no problem either. I’ve been in countless parades with each having a dozen sheriff’s Posse’s as well as plenty other riders and horse drawn conveyances. You’d better watch your step if you were on foot.
Hi Robert,
No one’s disputing that electricity is abundant; the issue is whether it makes economic and practical sense to power cars with it. The evidence so far says – no, it does not. Electric cars cost too much to be economical and their functional deficits make them problematic for most people. Hence the need for the government to prop them up with subsidies.
Regarding your comment about cars and cities: Take away cars and you either make it very difficult for people to get to (and from) those cities…. or else you her them, like cattle, into government transport of one kind or another.
I know I’m old-fashioned, but I prefer to come and go as I like, driving myself.
“No one’s disputing that electricity is abundant” but some of us are disputing that oil is not. Ever hear of “abiotic”?
You beat me to it PtB. I’m convinced more and more that oil is not necessarily finite. The abiotic theory sure makes more sense than the fossil theory. I believe it’s another ‘secret’ that has been get from us by the powers that shouldn’t be.
eric, I have a couple cattle prods with 5′ stingers. Better get in that railcar right now. To be honest, I detest using one. You generally get more activity than you desired. I don’t like to cause pain and sure don’t like to rope one and have to drag it into a chute or alley. If an old cow goes down to be stubborn it’s one thing but if she goes down because she can’t stand up it’s simply torture.
Growing up, a best friends uncle walked into the house with one as his wife was fighting to get the wash out of the machine with her back and butt exposed. He zapped her(they bring blood and big bruises on humans plus lots of adrenalin)and it was give or take for a few minutes if He would live. She was very religious but you couldn’t tell it by her speech. I bet he did without for some time. Probably every time she sat down or looked in the mirror she got nearly as mad all over again.
When I was a kid an old man thought it funny to show me how they worked while I was in a trailer with the cattle. My dad and grand dad had to restrain me from getting my .22 and returning the favor. I did chase him around with a big piece of steel though. I wasn’t laughing then and neither was he.
The real problem is out-of-control psychotic lawmakers.
Their real agenda appears to be to outlaw cars altogether by making it too onerous to own one. That’s the way the legislature salami tactic works, by steadily raising the standards to the point that it becomes impossible to meet them without cheating.
Anyway, how many of you people know what jury nullification means?
Hi Kerdasi,
Most of us here are familiar with jury nullification – and understand that it is as useless a tactic as asserting your Fourth Amendment rights at a probable cause-free checkpoint. Or your Fifth Amendment rights to the IRS.
Don’t misunderstand me. I agree with you… in principle. But in fact – in the real world – there is no hope of asserting any of our ex-rights within the system. “The law” is whatever they say it is.
The plain language of the Constitution is an irrelevance.
Besides which, the Constitution itself was designed to achieve exactly the current state of affairs. This is what Hamilton and his Federalist friends intended. They despised the Articles of Confederation chiefly because they did not give much power to the central government. They wanted a “vigorous” central government.
I recommend Thomas DiLorenzo’s books, if you haven’t read them already.
eric, a couple years ago a young man was on trial for DWI in Ft. Worth with a visiting “judge” from Mineral Wells. The evidence was shaky and the guy was very well liked. The jury returned a not guilty verdict and the judge literally went off the deep end. He called the jury every name in the book, even compared them to Nazi’s and such. He screamed and ranted and simply showed himself to be the fool he was.
For some reason he hasn’t been invited back to dish out any more justus. The jury and the observers in the courtroom were simply aghast at his tirade and the foul language he used. A tyrant who didn’t get his way is evidently way worse than a woman scorned.
Eight,
” A tyrant who didn’t get his way is evidently way worse than a woman scorned.”
Actually, they’re the same thing. Show a woman how impotent she truly is, and she will hate you with every sub-atomic particle in her body until an infinity after hell has frozen over.
The Emperor hates to be told he has no clothes.
eric, I recall as a kid people sitting around and cussing politicians. It was generally because they spoke of something specific and their views differed from the views of those who knew the truth about some situation.
This is the reason successful politicians now speak in generalities. I’ve seen a few taken to task in a public forum that had to rephrase and prevaricate to the point of embarrassment.
About 20 years ago a bunch of, get this, doctors from a nearby town wanted to “invest” in a disposal well for all sorts of noxious chemicals(stick this up country people’s asses….they don’t know anything). The trouble was everybody was aware of the land that had been ruined by salt water injection by the very well they intended to use.
A major highway passes through this land so everybody gets to see it constantly. I recall when it was good farmland as did most of the people in the county….or at least enough. Some of it had been reclaimed at great cost by putting drain pipe under it and sending the stream of salt water onto the downhill person’s property. Most of it was simply grown up in salt cedar and bermuda grass, the only things that would survive on it.
A notice in the local papers of a hearing on this proposed well showed the courthouse filled with opponents. Lawyers full of what they normally spout were brought in and one after the other locals told them the exact history of this well and what it had done merely with brine water. There were about 3 hearing held and the idea was dropped. Not long after the Texas RR Commission hired(at taxpayer expense naturally)a drilling company to plug this and other nearby abandoned wells as well as one across the road from my place. What a difference that made. The land that had drain pipe had the drain pipe dug up and returned to good crop land as did all the rest that people desired to spend money to bring it back to production.
Our stock tank, that had a six ring feet wide area of white salt around the edge suddenly had no salt and our water was much, much better. Amazing how plugging old wells can help the ground water. I live in an area of west Tx. where the original oil play was named Round Top in the 20’s when it was first discovered. The land here is now back fairly much to normal. You can still see old pasture where the salt water ran for decades and it has come back in natural plants.
The school system we now have would probably see the residents simply accept whatever was done to them. Here in our parts, it’s easy to see the “school system” peaked in the early 60’s.
Jury Nullification:
It has been effective in the past – during Alcohol Prohibition – and is currently, when jurors are properly informed of their power – A Fully Informed Juror.
From the Fully Informed Jury Association:
“The primary function of the independent juror is not, as many think, to dispense punishment to fellow citizens accused of breaking various laws, but rather to protect fellow citizens from the tyrannical abuses of power by government.”
The Constitution guarantees you the right to trial by jury. This means that government must bring its case before a jury of The People if government wants to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property.”
Jurors can say no to government tyranny by refusing to convict.”
http://www.fija.org
Yes, as a juror you can bring the entire crushing tyrannical machinery of the State to a grinding halt and there is not a damned thing they can do about it. All you have to do is kick back and say “I am not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt.”
I would love to be a juror on a victimless “crime” case where there’s an opportunity to screw the system. Even if not able to convince the other jurors there will be a mistrial and the persecutors have to scratch their heads trying to figure out what happened to them.
And yes, i DO lie during voire dire and pretend to be a pliable serf who will do as he is told.
Judges have put jurors who do that in jail. The system is very afraid of people using the power of the jury and have arranged things to weed out those who know and keep the rest ignorant.
In one of my stints in jury duty I got called into the court room but not the jury box and the judge demanded that the jurors follow his instructions etc in direct violation of the power of jurors.
BrentP: “Judges have put jurors who do that in jail”.
Not aware of this happening. Case example…?
libertyx, this isn’t a new thing at all. It’s been happening for decades. It really got a boost once the shrub was in office. If you need an example use that search engine on your browser, you’ll find plenty.
Usually short term, on a contempt charge until they can bail out. The case I had in mind is the Laura Kriho case, but I may have remembered wrong about her being in jail for any period of time. However a contempt charge usually has a possible jail sentence upon conviction.
Laura Kriho case – no jail time or conviction for her or others.
https://www.flexyourrights.org/faqs/can-go-jail-jury-nullification/
“On appeal, Kriho’s conviction was overturned and the fine was dropped. Recognizing the danger posed by government intrusion into the jury process, Judge Sandra Rothenberg wrote that this invasion tends to “chill the willingness of our citizens to serve on juries.” Echoing Bushell’s Case, Rothenberg ruled that a juror’s opinions expressed during deliberations cannot be used to convict them.”
Part of the problem with today’s auto business is: there are very few “car guys” in the business anymore.
Frankly, the people I know that work currently for the car makers aren’t “car guys”, not by a long shot. “Car guys” no longer fit into today’s generic corporate system that have taken over the car business (and every other large business for that matter). People in suits move from one type of large business to another, the industry matters little. In the past, if you changed jobs, you generally stayed in the same industry. Today, you work for a car company, next year your working at a soda company. You have passion for neither, and may know very little about the business your even in.
I think “car guys” still dominate car dealerships, but that is it. And that is declining quickly as the family owned dealerships where those car guys are at, are replaced by corporate style dealer “groups”.
When you talk with those that worked in the car business before 1970, they have a passion for the car world that is absent today in the new car business. If you have passion for cars, you are in some small restoration business most likely.
I truly think today’s corporate structure has killed the passion for business overall, not just the car biz. Today your just selling things, even if your wearing a suit in the corporate office. And you know how hard it is to sell something you know little about, or worse, you don’t even like all that much.
A fiend went from selling furniture to cars. He was fairly clueless as to cars, probably furniture too. He took a couple expensive chiffarobes I had and sold for me……I guess, never got any money.
Rich:
As a “car guy” in the car business for 20+ years, you are absolutely correct.
There are engineers designing pistons that don’t even know basic engine function. They know the temperature and pressures inside the combustion chamber, and the acceleration and stress on the piston, but some couldn’t actually tell you the four strokes that make an engine work.
The new breed of engineers has grown up on “capitalism is evil” and “regulations save lives” and “active shooter drills” and “CO2 is a dangerous pollutant” (instead of one of the 2 products of perfect combustion – as I was taught in basic chemistry) beat into their brains for 22+ years.
I hate the industry now. Hate it.
The complexity and engineering man-hours wasted on ridiculous regulations make me want to join the nuclear energy industry to escape the burden.
I had a friend in this industry and I could go head-to-head with his stories of bureaucracy.
Back in the day, I graduated in 1961, I was a co-op student at GMI. GMI stood for General Motor’s Institute. Every co-op was a GM employee, and except for a few Bus. Ads. who were being phased out, all were engineering students (all guys, then, too). Being a car nut and wrench twister, I was shocked at the number of students who were following the Mechanical Engineering path who had no idea how an automobile worked. “Planetary Gear Set? Are we going to Mars?”
Think of that time frame. Think what those 40-year-olds were producing in the 80s. They had “progressed” from Chevelles and Chevettes to Cavaliers, for instance. Super! I don’t think the water we drank in Flint had anything to do with that.
The first sign of decay I saw at GM was when they took Joseph M. Biedenbach, one of four physic instructors whose classes scored 10% above the classes of the other three in all the common exams, and put him to work at Guide Lamp on a defense project. Joe was born to be a teacher.
The second was divestiture of GMI. Ketttering may be doing a fine job now, maybe not, but GM gave up the opportunity to train engineers “the right way” for an automotive firm. I don’t think they were any longer a real automotive firm anyway. Ask Ross Perot.
Seemed like in ’68 when I graduated from high school hardly any engineering students(ME) were gearheads. Remove their pocket protectors and slide rules and they were clueless. Most of us gearheads were waiting for Vietnam to be over. 3 years of courses taught by Asians who nobody in a class could understand was enough for me.
I own an effected diesel. I recently scheduled a service at the dealer and they informed me a “firmware” was avail for the diesel issue, but not a whole fix. I declined that fix but wanted the other fixes. Wasn’t a problem. At least for now.
VW should stick it to the government and give all those cars to poor people instead of crushing them just imagine the visuals of the government taking away poor peoples new free cars and the poor people protesting because they cannot register them .
That is an excellent suggestion, Kent. But we know it ain’t a gonna happen.
There was an old hermit named Dave…….
This is a beautiful idea. Mueller’s grand plan is even more evil than the ivory destruction events. Holman Jenkins in the WSJ has written quite a lot about the VW issue. His last one (April 27), tied the diesel scandal to the end of the success of the industrialized world. Then, like Eric, he ended with a reference to Trump. Socialist Trump should orchestrate the diesels-for-the-poor program. I can hardly wait, but they won’t take ours.
Ironically, Audi sent me a saaaaaaafety recall notice yesterday. Apparently my A3 TDI also has Takata
claymoresairbags installed. It just keeps getting better!Matthias Müller pleas for mercy from Barry:
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1103740_vw-ceos-plea-for-mercy-to-obama-over-diesel-cheating-scandal
I used this link because 1) first hit on the Googles -which speaks volumes about search engines, and 2) read some of the comments. You’d think VW was gassing jews.
We keep hoping there will be a tipping point, where the good men finally rise up against evil. Not gonna happen. Too many people aren’t impacted by any single action taken by government, and millions of people are told about every transgression against the regulations (note I didn’t say laws). Everyone knows that the IRS audits thousands of small businessmen every year. Everyone knows that any withdrawal or deposit over (or under) $10,000 is reported to Uncle because of phony money laundering. But as long as it doesn’t affect them personally, well, too bad for them. And even if something like mandatory backup cameras add $1000 to the cost of a vehicle, well, that’s spread out over a decade of ownership, just pennies a day. And besides, who are you going to complain to? There’s some guy in Washington DC, who’s been sitting in an office for 20 years. He’s not going anywhere, and he doesn’t give a shit about your finances. He’s not going to do anything differently when the regime changes next January, because that’s not his job. And, because he’s got union protections, there’s nothing Trump or Clinton or Austin Petersen can do to get him out of there. And in case the bureaucrat does something that might be unpopular, the marketing department (yes, government agencies have marketing departments -who do you think puts together all those press releases?) kicks into high gear and phonies up a bunch of statistics showing how much worse our lives would be without the agency running things. And the majority of the population just accept it because… well, I don’t know why they just accept it. Maybe there’s subliminal messages broadcast on Radio Disney…
I keep periodically getting recall notices for the Sportwagen where they want to put something in the filler neck to be sure I don’t put gasoline into the tank instead of diesel. I guess there’s all sorts of idiots out there.
PtB, I can’t believe you brought that up. I drove a truck(I said last year I’d never drive again)45 miles in the wee hours this morning, wet pavement, heavy fog and brakes so bad I had to be careful when stopping to keep it from jack-knifing or any of those other things it could have done that would have left me as a passenger, along for the ride I might or might not survive). When I met the crew I told the foreman who also has a CDL if he wanted the job done he’d have to do it himself, I was done with that truck.
I called the wife to come get me and after waiting a bit, one of the guys with another company that was working this job said he’d take me home since it would give him something to do. This company has a fleet of diesel and gasoline pickups so when he stopped to fuel I didn’t second guess him when he put gas into it. He stopped at 14 gallons and said Shit, I did it again….not a good sign. He’d added it to the diesel in the tank, the second time he’d done it he said. We waited for another pickup to pull us to the shop where we left it to be drained. Well, my refusal to drive that IH POS resulted in more work for two other people, never mind the company was making no money. I believe it was my last day for my company. Shit Happens.
Could part of the push for electric “appliances” be to offset the fleet average perhaps? “0” emissions goes a long way to fudging the numbers, like removing from the unemployment rolls those who aren’t looking for work improves the “employment” numbers.
It’s a fraud, but we’ve been swallowing the shit for so long, most people don’t, won’t, and CAN’T think…
It is for sure Jean. The problem with it, those cars don’t sell, due to being unpractical and for being too expensive.
Is the average for the vehicles MANUFACTURED, or Sold? 😉
I think we need to look into making full-size slot cars, and electrifying our roadways. Only way to really make it work (Overhead wires, too, but even less pretty.)
Might as well go back to the trolley system.
Even on this site I’m constantly struck(ouch!)by the disconnect between what seemingly is a disparate system involving city/urban and rural people.
I haven’t noticed rural people getting a bye on anything, taxes included, but they are ignored by a huge majority of people and almost all govt.(except in revenue collecting). Slot cars, trolleys, buses, railroads, all conveyances for moving people and certain goods from every larger points of collection. Nobody sees that beef, pork, chickens, veggies, etc. when it’s loaded on trucks that must travel plain old dirt roads to collect goods. The closest we get to collection of goods(chilluns)by any mass transit(not so mass) is a school bus in rural settings.
We even get taken to task over our electric cooperatives getting cheap interest loans(shouldn’t be a big deal these days)so we can have electricity since no provider is willing to do so except for those coops. Every year we get offered(by law now)our choice of electric providers. Such a waste of money for most since only one company will provide it. At least I can still call any propane seller I desire although I must wait for some further away to have enough orders near me for delivery…..as it should be, the closest I get to a free market.
Too many rules. Trolleys were once run as a business, often times as an offshoot of the power company. Then they started piling on rules and regulations (retroactive of course) and the businesses had trouble competing. It’s not true that GM bought out trolley companies, they just had to get them regulated out of existence. Then came “public” transportation and massive subsidies via fuel taxes on cars.
I’ll believe in global warming when we start to see nuclear power plants and deregulation of the railroads. That would tell me they’re serious about reducing CO₂. Until then, I’m sticking with the “denier” side.
That was the inspiration.
And the thought is really, “WTF?” Nothing government can’t make worse. If government were to take over hell, there’d be shortages of devils and hellfire…
Electric vehicles may be zero local emission. But, unless you count nuclear, which gets the greenies’ knickers in a different twist, electricity generation is not zero emission. If that big granola bar that is California could not import electricity from elsewhere, they might not be so enamored of ‘zero emission’ vehicles.
Oh, but CO₂ emissions from our electricity grid are just a temporary artifact! When enough wind turbines and solar panels are installed the grid will automagically become zero emissions! The theoretical physicist and the kids’ show TV clown said so!
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mackay_a_reality_check_on_renewables?language=en#t-411604
“but CO₂ emissions from our electricity grid are just a temporary artifact!”
I’m not talking about CO₂, which is NOT a pollutant. I’m talking about burning coal, and our ‘rapidly depleting supply’ of oil. Not all the plants have converted to natural gas.
I grant you that solar panels are improving, as design and manufacture are still on the steep upward slope of the curve. But wind is not likely to ever be practical, except in places the grid won’t reach.
That was sarcasm. There’s no way we can install enough wind and solar panels (and storage) to ever make the grid 100% renewable only. There’s a reason we don’t use sailboats for anything more than entertainment.
Eric_G – I didn’t think you were serious, but a lot of the GIC ‘educated’ jokers out there do believe it’s going to happen.
But are you implying that the Americas Cup is only entertainment?
Well, I suppose if you’re a professional bookmaker it’s a business…
They think solar and wind will charge their electric cars not big oil’s natural gas.
At some point they are going to hit the wall of running out of other people’s money. They just layer subsidies over subsidies and when confronted about deny it’s all needed for their good ideas to work and say it’s to accelerate the process of positive change.
At least I enjoy turning the screws when I see my friend with her Leaf. I always ask, “how is that coal powered car doing?” She hates that, but it’s true, the power round here is almost entirely from coal. The greenies got our electric company to abandon a half built nuke plant back in the 1970’s (the cooling tower is still standing there). They finished it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,as a coal burner.
Hilarious, Rich… that made my day! 🙂
I’m wondering if the buyback will be offered to owners, or if it’ll be mandatory.
Imagine if you take your Jetta in to the dealer for an oil change, and get handed a check instead of your car keys back. People would avoid the VW service departments like the plague, even further damaging their business. (Shooting themselves in the foot is how they got here, so why stop now?)
A more likely outcome is the government will deny you the ability to renew your registration, so you’ll be forced into accepting the buyback. “Your vehicle does not meet EPA rules for it’s model-year, and can no longer be registered for driving on US roads.”
And I agree with the emissions. A modern car’s exhaust is amazingly clean, especially compared with the cars of the 70’s and 80’s. As much as I like cars, I now dislike being behind one at a traffic light because of the smell.
“I’m wondering if the buyback will be offered to owners, or if it’ll be mandatory.”
Well, they’re going to have to come and get mine, because it’s sitting in the driveway w/a dead DSG.
Part of any VW/Audi service (including oil changes) from the dealer is firmware updates and checks to see if the factory settings were “modified.” The computers in the service bay connect up to the factory’s servers and compare notes. If there are any anomalies your powertrain warranty is voided.
I don’t know that they can force you to sell your car back to the company. But my guess is that owners are gonna have to do something to get their vehicles registered. I was thinking the other day that the fix might be to swap out the oil burner for a gasser and be done with it. The gasoline engine should fit the bay, change out the fuel tank and exhaust, and that’s it. If VW offers that as an option I might just take them up on it. But getting used to 1/2 the fuel economy (and $0.75/gallon price increase for premium) is still going to sting.
Why don’t they just ship them to Europe and sell them there? Am I wrong, or don’t Europeans mostly drive diesels, and they don’t have any problems with governments whining about their emissions?
If that won’t work, how about just shipping them to Africa or Asia and selling or just giving them away? As cheap as transportation costs are today, it’s got to be cheaper (and far less stupid) than destroying the cars.
Oh wait, I can hear the complaints now. Doing either of these things would destroy the local car markets. You can’t just have somebody flood the market with cheap reject cars. There would have to be a tariff or something to protect the locals. We can’t have some people just getting cars without everybody else getting a cut.
Yeah, these cars should probably just be destroyed. It would be better for everybody, especially consumers.
I’m furious about the waste and stupidity… and I don’t even own a VW right now.
“Yeah, these cars should probably just be destroyed. It would be better for everybody, especially consumers.”
This is one ‘yuuuuuuuge’ broken window. But Cash for Clunkers worked so well, doncha know?
European regulations are different and to protect markets such importation of recent cars is difficult. Also the German automakers dumb down their head lamps and tail lamps for the US market. The side repeaters may be removed entirely. All of that would need to be addressed to send the cars to europe. By the time it’s all done it’s pointless.
So if they are going to be pointlessly banned in the USA they could be sent to Africa, the middle east, SE asia, south america, and probably a few other places where they would be appreciated. As diesels they can sent most anywhere.