Ralph Nader’s outfit, Public Citizen, is attempting to shame Ford and VW for not embracing the catastrophic 54.5 MPG CAFE standard imposed by Barack Obama’s EPA and for not bear-hugging the idea that carbon dioxide – an inert gas that has never before been categorized as a “pollutant” – ought to be regulated as if it were.
The Naderite group – whose claims to represent the public are never questioned – accused the industry of “colluding” with the Trump administration – which was at least elected – to dial back or even toss the standards. (Bully; it’s about time someone in the business grew a pair.) 
It demands that Ford and VW – for starters – “disassociate themselves” from the American Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the industry lobbying group which has been working hard to restore a degree of engineering and economic sanity by explaining to the public – and to lawmakers – that requiring new cars to average 54.5 MPG is effectively a requirements to retire every currently-in-production car except the Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid, which is the only current car that meets the 54.5 MPG standard.
And also explaining to the public that the carbon dioxide produced as a result of burning gasoline and diesel in automobile engines plays no role at all in the formation of smog and does not in any way cause health problems in human beings; and that characterizing this inert gas as a “pollutant” is scientifically illiterate and deliberately dishonest.
Carbon dioxide stands accused by government witch doctors of “playing a role” in “climate change,” those two assertions soups of ominous sounding but vague and highly speculative generalities backed more by neurosis and political agendas than science.
What’s not vague or speculative is the fact that the only way to reduce the C02 produced by an internal combustion engine is by doing less internal combusting. Ideally – from the Public Citizen point-of-view – none at all.
C02, not being a pollutant, can’t be chemically scrubbed and making an IC engine run “cleaner” has no effect on how much C02 is produced. Thus, this business about characterizing C02 as a “pollutant” is really a back-door way to ban internal combustion – and force electric cars down the public’s throat.
Ironically, electric cars produce C02, too. Just not at the tailpipe. They produce their C02 at the smokestack. At the utility plants that make the electricity that makes electric cars go. Almost all of them combust coal or oil or natural gas – all of which produces C02 as a byproduct.
Public Citizen never tells the public this – and won’t, until the time comes for them to go after electric generating – and they begin to “demand” that people use less electricity.
Wait and see.
The effrontery – and dishonesty – is titanic.
“The automakers and the Trump administration are conspiring to undo clean car standards that will save consumers thousands of dollars on each vehicle they purchase,” Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, said in a statement. “That the Trump administration is willing to drain billions of dollars from consumers’ collective pockets is yet more evidence of the complete corporate takeover of our government. Consumers will not stand by quietly -we’re going to hold the auto makers accountable, starting with Ford and Volkswagen.”
Oy vey!
This guy Weissman is either an imbecile who understands nothing about mechanical things, much less economic things – or he is an outright liar, like his godfather Ralph.
“Save consumers thousands of dollars on each vehicle they purchase”?
Italics added.
Really?
Who does he think he is kidding? The cost to “consumers” (loathsome word; it evokes images of digestive tracts) is in the thousands of dollars per car range already . . . to meet the existing 35.5 MPG mandatory CAFE minimum. Or does Bob imagine that “fuel saving technologies” such as direct injection, turbochargers, aluminum bodies and transmissions with as many gears as a kid’s 10-speed bike (literally) that have come into widespread use during the past three or so years to cope with the 35.5 MPG mandate came at no cost to “consumers”?
How about the “cost to consumers” of vanishing V6 engines? Check and see how many 2018 model family cars still even offer one. I’ll save you some time; virtually none do. Three years ago, almost all of them did.
How about the cost of the disappearance of vehicles that the public very much wants but which people like Bob presume to deny it by rendering such vehicles economically impossible to produce?
Why do you suppose almost no car company is still making large sedans with V8 engines for the mass market – that is, for the public – any longer? There is only reason – CAFE, which extincted these vehicles as mass market vehicles by making them too expensive to produce except as small volume, big-price luxury cars (e.g., BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes, Audis and so on). In other words, for rich folks only.
How about that “cost to consumers,” Bob?
“That the Trump administration is willing to drain billions of dollars from consumers’ collective pockets . . .” he warbles.
No, Bob. It’s you who has his hands in “consumers” pockets. Your fuel economy fetish costs money. Other people’s money. Not your money, you filthy animal.
And then, the threats:
“Consumers will not stand by quietly – we’re going to hold the auto makers accountable, starting with Ford and Volkswagen.”
Well Bob, “consumers” aren’t standing by quietly. They are using their dollars to buy the kinds of vehicles that meet their needs and wants, which are really none of your business.
But – alas – it’s not just Bob.
There is also Margie.
Margie Alt. She – if she is a she – is the executive director of something called Environment America, another self-appointed “public citizen” group that somehow gets treated by the media as legitimate.
Margie is on Ford’s back – demanding that it ” . . .put its foot on the accelerator to build and sell 100 percent zero polluting cars by the end of the next decade.” In other words, Ford must build nothing other than electric cars – even though (forgive Margie her ignorance, assuming she is merely that) their emissions are merely elsewhere.
VW, meanwhile, is being singled out for sonderbehandlung (special treatment) that is, for special punishment, to make sure it learned its lesson for “cheating” Uncle’s emissions tests and daring to build and sell cars that “consumers” – as opposed to Uncle and the Naderites – desired.
Another frau – this one named Lauren Lantry from the Sierra Club – says VW “should do more” to make up for the sordid crime it committed by end-running Uncle.
That is, VW should reconfigure its model lineup and engineering to placate public citizens, the actual public be damned.
Like so many other things which characterize Terminal Stage America, this business all about the opposite of the face value terms. It is not about saving “consumers” money. It is about making cars cost more. About limiting their choices.
Just as “diversity” means White straight men need not apply. As “security” means living in a state of perpetual dread of the organs of security. As “patriot” means unquestioning subject.
As “public citizen” actually means a tiny body of professional busybodies who know better than the actual public – and are determined to cram it down their throats.
. . .
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Bevin, I’m so happy you responded, in college I had a male Korean teacher hit on me during a class in voice I was taking.
Looking back, he did have a lovely baritone, and I’m retro-actively glad for the whole bewildering exchange now.
Years later, I had a Hong Kong born male boss at an Agricultural company come on to me at a business lunch he was buying me on his expense account.
By then, it only made me smile, he was such a great guy, and his calling his female acquaintances he kept bringing around to meet me his “gal pals”, should have informed my young bumpkin ass.
Some of whom I had some nice sex with later, which he wasn’t there for. I guess, I thought he had sex with his favorite one too, and he was just sharing his bounty for the sake of camaraderie with me. I had no idea I was such an abject victim of the horny yellow menace, I must say.
I came back a month later, from the happy times of those sex related lunches after playing the organ at my younger sister’s wedding in Austin, only to find I had been fired by my favorite boss ever.
I should have taken the choir director job the priest at the church in Texas had offered me, as he put his large hand on my shoulder and thanked me for the beautiful music I had played for some matrimonial members of his large, far more wealthy than me’s congregation. He had a bit of a palsy and his hand was shaking I still vividly remember that padre now.
My favorite 5 foot 1 inch Vietnamese boss, who went by the name “Q”, and he was full hetero and drove an immense Hummer. He showed me how to make 6 figures annually by running a Vegas VIP service and a chain of payday loan stores for a millionaire mormon. Damn those Viet cuties were off the chain, and all I ever did was look, he never even let me talk to any of them.
But I did take what he taught me and found a duo of Jewish real estate investors, both of whom were worth at least in the low 10 millions.
I worked in Vegas for the Iranian Jew, the biggerwig German Jew that lived in Beverly Hills was the alpha managing partner.
I remember seeing on the Vegas LLC partnership papers that one of the silent 36 partners was “Body By Jake”, his last name was Steinfeld or some kind of Jewish name, I can no longer remember. They owned 50,000 acre tracts near prime interstate exits, that were ready to become casinos, if the right investors were to come around.
I only made 20 something an hour, but the office I worked at was a large gated RV park, and I had a single female latina assistant who’s tiny body and humongous tits were a daily million dollar experience in and of themselves.
All of them spoke mostly spanish, and I fondly remember all the nights at the park manager latina gypsy’s backyard cookouts and hookahs as some of the best years of my life, learning a romance language all on my own.
Sad part, is my illegitimate daughter’s teeth were rotting out of her head throughout this whole lech fest, I never got with any of those honeys, but damn if they weren’t all as fine a female specimens as you’ll find.
I was paying for her to have $1500 a year in dental coverage, but from 2004-2016 she never used a penny of it, or had anyone look at them, until this Nov 2017 I don’t know the why’s, what are you going to do when you’ve cuckholded a 6 foot 4 welder that I saw drunkenly put a wrong key in his door with such force that it actually opened his front door anyway out of pure limbic and cellulose fear.
The key was still there the next day, the mother of my daughter who I’d met in a Karaoke session told me as she unbuckled her bra and her ridiculously gigantic breasts popped out and I became stupefied yet again.
I’m actually tearing up in the outside corner of my right eye and salty water is flowing down my right cheek as I write this, because I really need guidance from a “yellow savior,” which you might personally be, or at least know one and you might tell me how I might approach this life changing experience I’ve been alluding to.
I got a call from a female human being today, that has half of my genetic material, and she was crying and cursing me as a “white sinner” because she’s not even an adult yet, and has only 26 teeth left at such a tender young age.
Worse than that, is her dentist David Tang,
http://www.memorialpediatricdds.com/ whose dental credentials indicate his birth name is Huy Phuoc Tang, had just informed her that her best and only option is to have her outside 8 mandibular and 6 maxillary teeth removed at her Dec 1st appointment, which will max out the $1500 annual dental coverage I’ve provided her for 2017.
And then first thing in January 2018, she will have her front and center remaining upper 6 mandibular teeth and lower front and center maxillary teeth totally removed.
I only have a few days to convince him to leave them in there for a bit more. Maybe do take the outside 14, but taking the front 12 at such a tender age and going to dentures seems so final and damning for her long and sacred young life.
This is the cardiopathic heartbreak of a weak willed strong minded semi gypsy who’s really violated the non aggression principle hard this time, and is hoping for some Ancient Chinese Secret as Mr Lee of the soap seller Calgon used to say.
https://www.taiwanese-secrets.com/chinese-astrology-birth-chart/
I’m guessing the ancient chinese secret is probably that the white man truly is a white devil, a whitish gypsy doubly so, but there’s still time if there is anything more a mahjong fortune teller might share.
Often the best part of the article is the highest voted comment. This is no exception. And it’s also a proof of concept in a way that the article has connected, when a really good comment awaits the reader who knows where first he should go.
FauxScienceSlayer • 9 days ago
It takes 100,000 BTU/gal to plant, irrigate, fertilize and distill Ethanol that has
80,000 BTU/gal that you add to 110,000 BTU/gal gasoline to reduce your mileage and ruin your engine. One third of America’s cropland is devoted to this scam, depleting water resources, clogging waterways with silt, pesticide and fertilizer runoff.
End this Big Agra subsidy scam NOW.
+34
Holy shit, I just realized my sister once dealt with that Yalie Cunt Margie Alt’s “Environment Texas” Shrew Coven
It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to regulate it.
In 2009, Environment Texas and the Sierra Club filed similar lawsuits against Chevron Phillips for alleged violations of pollution limits and the Shell Oil Company for alleged illegal air pollution emissions.
Shell Oil Company agreed to pay a $5.8 million settlement, reduce emissions from its Deer Park refinery by 80%, upgrade chemical units, and reduce gas flaring. The following year, the environmental groups sued the largest oil refinery in the United States, Exxon Mobil, accusing it of violating the Clean Air Act through the release of emissions from refineries and chemical plants in the Texas Gulf coast.
Here’s 3 fucking hours of Margie testifying before the EPA
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4505430/margie-alt-executive-director-environment-america
I’m going to start throwing all my trash and sewage outdoors somewhere in the middle of the night from now on. You should find somewhere to do the same IMO. I’ve had it with all these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane.
Margie Alt
Executive Director at Environment America
Greater Boston AreaPublic Policy
Current Executive Director at Environment America
Past Executive Director at U.S. PIRG, Associate Director at Fund for the Public Interest, Organizer, Advocate, Field Director at MASSACHUSETTS…
Education Yale University, Long Beach High School
Summary Experienced, passionate and effective campaigner, advocate and organization builder. Skilled in Nonprofit Organizations, Policy Analysis,…
All of this nonsense is justified by the excuse of preventing “climate change.” Why should the climate stop changing now, after it has been changing so dramatically for so many thousands of years? Who do those pecksniffs think they are, to decide what the climate should be anyway? At which point in the history of ever-changing climate should it be locked in, and prevented from further change? After all, the Sahara actually used to be a harsh desert! It was dry, arid, and barren. That is, before it became a lush, fertile, forested region, and then became a desert again. Scientists also believe that “sea levels during several previous interglacials were about 3 to as much as 20 meters higher than current sea level.” – https://water.usgs.gov/edu/sealevel.html. Should climate have been stopped from changing when glaciers were extending as far south as the Ohio River? Or should it be like it was when crops were grown in Greenland? Sure, climate change is happening. It always has, and always will. Adapt. If anything, I feel a little guilty that I am not driving my 4,000 lb Cadillac more, and putting more beneficial CO2 into the atmosphere. Crops grow better in an atmosphere with higher CO2 levels. Perhaps I should change to driving a cement mixer, so I can burn more gas. I could paint the tank with some cool scene, like one of those conversion vans, and fix up the inside of the tank all nice and plush. Then I could contribute more CO2 to the atmosphere when I drive. I would also like to recommend the book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, by Alex Epstein. Read it, burn more gas, and feel good about it.
Hi Jim,
Well-said, sir!
This idea that the climate isn’t supposed to change – that “change” is somehow unnatural – depends on imbecility; the lack of just such knowledge about past (and ongoing) “climate change” for as long as the Earth has been around.
To me, the obvious clue that they are peddling a con is their use of a demagogic, blazingly unscientific term: “Climate change” – which could mean anything, which makes it unscientific, because science is very specific. Something is – or it isn’t. Defined. Clearly.
They ran into problems when they said there was “global cooling” – and the, “warming.” The facts did not line up with their assertions.
And so, “climate change” – which can be anything.
This, in turn, justifies anything.
eric, and this change occurs radically this time of year……for my whole life. Go to work and have a hooded coat on and good gloves cause it’s freezing. By the end of the day it’s 90 and you wish the a/c would work or work better. To think it wasn’t this way 500 years ago is laughable. The old west Tx. saying about the weather was old before I was born. “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a while”…..and they weren’t talking days but hours.
It helps to sell this to people who are young, people who never paid much attention to the weather and the plain ass old stupid ones. The weather everywhere goes in cycles, even in the S. Pacific, hence the Pineapple Express. If someone doesn’t even have a rain gauge I discount to much of nothing their view of the climate.
“The sky is falling … send money.”
If science was being applied, then their hypothesis would be rejected. As I’m sure you know, in the scientific method, a scientist formulates a hypothesis, then designs an experiment to test the hypothesis. If the results contradict the hypothesis, then the hypothesis is rejected. Several interesting hypotheses were put forth about the climate. Sea levels were predicted to rise enough to drive large numbers of people away from Carribean islands and coastal regions of China. Snow was going to become much more rare. California was to be flooded with inland seas. – https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/18888-embarrassing-predictions-haunt-the-global-warming-industry. Well, the experiment was to let time run its course and observe the effects. The experiment has been run. The results are in, and they contradict the null hypothesis. A scientist would therefore reject the hypothesis. Clearly, then, those alarmists are not scientists.
Well-said, Jim.
The politics – the agenda – behind the “climate change” religion have become pretty obvious. The priests have had to resort to desperation tactics in order to advance their plans. If, as they tell us, “climate change” were unnatural, catastrophic and so on then we’d see them making “big changes” in their habits – including enormous reductions in the “defense” budget, to cite just one example.
Watch what they do – don’t listen to what they say…
I think that for many intellectuals there’s a guilt that’s been drilled into them because they live so well without having contributed to that well being. But for many others, it’s because they like the idea of a clockwork universe, predictable, stable and never changing. The Sun rises every morning, “we” figured out how to predict it, and so therefore all’s right with the universe. And that ability to predict the future means they have some cool party tricks they can perform, too. It wasn’t that long ago that hurricanes were random events that no one knew about. Then came wireless communications and ships on the water could report storms. Meteorologists could track storms and alert coastal cities. Of course the weather satellites were an even bigger game changer because now they could watch the storm move across the open ocean and get even better at prediction.
But all that prediction depends on a static model. If there’s any sort of change it’s inevitable that your ability to predict the future will be more difficult if not impossible. If there’s a human caused reason for that variability well, better put a stop to it right now. The only difference between human-caused climate change and insect-caused climate change is we’re intelligent and can observe it happening. As you point out there’s actually a lot of upside to additional CO2 in the atmosphere, especially when it comes to plant growth. We never hear about that, only the worst case Mad Max wasteland. Mostly because it’s a nice opening for a power grab.
I can’t wait until F1, LeMans, and NASCAR go all-electric. It’s going to be so exciting watching 13 minutes of racing followed by 3 hours of charging, repeat for 500 miles.
Can’t remember when but the last time I walked in on a NASCAR race that was going like crazy and then they all pulled into the pits. No good reason I could see, no flags, just pace cars cruising around and I finally had to ask why they pitted. OH, they are pitting now so they can all go back and be equal and finish the race. It really was something very close to that. Well, ok. Let’s don’t have somebody with a better team win this shit. Is this NASCAR little kid everyone wins t-ball? I liked racing, all kinds of racing….back when winning was everything and tempers went a bit haywire and people did irrational things like jumping out and going fisticuffs. I guess that’s a long gone thing….huh?
With your scenario there’d be hell to pay if somebody had .2 seconds of battery left when all the rest quit simultaneously. This isn’t a matter of who wins but of sportsmanship. Ah god, I’m glad I’m old and don’t have another 40 years of this shit to endure.
First (and only) Steeler’s game I attended in the 1980s opened my eyes to the world of sports. At some point the game just stopped. No huddle, no QB consulting with Coach Cowher, just stopped. Some of the players chatted with the opposing team. As you probably know, that was what is known as a “TV Timeout.” Not enough opportunity for advertising during all the many known clock stoppages that make a 60 minute game into a 3+ hour event, so let’s just add a few more. My guess is Nascar does the same thing given the length of the races.
Once my somewhat young naive self saw the breaking of the illusion of rivals battling for… whatever it is they battle for, I was pretty much done with sports. Professional cycling’s pharmacological freakshow further drove me away. Today the only way I’ll watch a sporting event is if you pay me, which happens from time to time because some events are so important to our customers (advertisers) that I have to be on-site for the duration. The amount of money involved is staggering.
I have hated fuuuuuhhhhhhtttttball from earliest memory; it is one of my proudest achievements…
Let me explain about NASCAR. I didn’t drop in on the race in person, just in on people watching it on tv. I would never waste my time doing such.
I love car racing, real racing, but it’s been decades since the kind I like has existed. My heroes mostly died in the 60’s cause racing really was dangerous and nobody thought to simply install a roll bar and a seat belt on extremely fast cars. GM kept that venue alive by using the Chaparral as a test bed for keeping drivers alive. It spread through that form of racing without any mandates.
I recall Jim Hall saying at some point in the sixties he could name 22 people he knew well enough to sit down and have a beer that were no longer alive. Unless you lived through it and were paying attention it was a terrible situation. I could never understand why a roll bar and a seat belt weren’t simply part of the racing package. I never liked convertibles for that reason.
It’s amazing that people refuse to look st the research about the correlation of CO2 and temperature – which has shown that it is actually the rise in heat that increases CO2.
Folks, we don’t understand this just like we still don’t understand gravity. Everyone still uses the faulty “hockey stick” curve.
Hi CP,
Exactly. The entire “climate change” religion – and that’s the right word – is based on illiterate bogeyman-ism; on fear-peddling and power-seeking.
The middle class dumbos who support it do so because they think it won’t affect them much.
Wait.
It’s sad. Meanwhile my gas guzzler tax will go up for both of my V8 vehicles in my ‘golden state.’ The irony is that our state is right next to the number 1 greenhouse gas – that large body of water! Water we might fall into one day!
The EPA did silent 3 of their scientists this week refusing to let them speak at an EPA event.
I just cringe when I hear someone say they “believe” in science. There’s nothing to believe, it just is. Science is “postulate a hypothesis, attempt to test the hypothesis and record the result. Repeat as necessary and draw conclusion.”
No belief needed. In fact, believing in a hypothesis usually contaminates the result.
But the people who “believe” in science are also the ones who believe in big government and that corporations are evil while googling some Wiki article on their iPhone.
But ready, you don’t cringe when you express your belief in science. You believe that the totally retarded US government cracked the scientific whip over some scientists and engineers and put a bunch of retards on the moon.
See, you people who believe in moon landings are putting a huge amount of faith in big government’s lies while googling some wag the moondoggie myth on your laptop.
When did activism become an honorable profession, anyway?
Every single social radical and rabble-rouser in America is proof of my Rule Number 1:
“The world would be a better place if there weren’t so many people trying to make it a better place.”
Environmentalism has been the method used to impose communist principles on western society–especially in the USA.
Environmentalists are not content with promoting clean water, air and land, but are hell-bent on controlling human behavior, and yes, promoting extermination plans for much of humanity as these “anointed” types consider mankind to be a pestilence (except for themselves) to be reduced in population “by any means necessary”.
Environmentalists HATE the God-given concept of private property and have imposed government-backed and enforced “land use controls” on private property owners without compensation–clearly an unconstitutional “taking” of private property. If environmentalists want to control land use, let them purchase it themselves–not by government force. Today the only method of negating government-imposed land use restrictions is “shoot, shovel, and shut up”.
If environmentalists had their way, the earth’s human population would be reduced by approximately 90%, with the remainder to (be forced) to live in cities, in soviet-style high rise apartments, utilizing bicycles, buses and trains for transportation. The use of automobiles and access to “pristine wilderness (rural) areas” would be off-limits to us mere mortals, and would only be available for these “anointed” environmentalists.
The “endangered species act” is another abuse of environmentalism. Species are always changing, to adapt to their environments–”survival if the fittest”. In fact, the hoopla over the “spotted owl” (that placed much northwest timber land “off-limits” to logging) turned out to be nothing but scientific misconduct and arrogance. There are virtually identical species in other parts of the northwest.
More scientific malpractice occurred when government biologists attempted to “plant” lynx fur in certain areas to provide an excuse for making those areas “off-limits” for logging or development. Fortunately, these “scientists” were caught–however, no punishment was given.
In a nutshell, today’s environmentalism IS communism… like watermelon…”green” on the outside and “red” (communist) on the inside…
Environmentalists hate mankind.
Period.
Once you realize this, all becomes clear.
That’s really all there is to it. What boggles the mind is that “normies” can’t see what their end goal is: a controlled population of less than 1 million people.
If the sky-is-falling-end-of-the-world scenario was actually imminent, the only “solution” that would have any alleged effect on the C02 levels would be a drastic, violent, horrific, monstrous culling of the human race. I mean, these EnviroNazis should be openly promoting world-ending war with India and China in the near term if they actually believed humans are the primary cause of something negative that they now call “climate change.”
Any time someone mentions overpopulation I tell them to kill one of their children.
“Oh, well you’re just being too literal.”
Ok, then disconnect your power drop, Internet service and gas supply. It will be like camping. You enjoy camping, right?
…silence, or anger.
Everyone hates everyone else’s progress. If we’re not careful we’ll all end up like East Germany where people were encouraged to turn in their neighbors in a kangaroo court like system. Worked great because once they were off at the gulag you could have their apartment.
We’ll end up being LIKE east Germany? Hell man, that’s what 911 was for and it worked swimmingly. I see it every day on the net and too often in my own reality. It’s the very reason I said I thought the woman who wanted to remain anonymous and yet wanted to drop a dime on somebody who, like I said, might have been fighting the cigarette in their lap or having a sneezing fit, either one of which will set the dogs of war(thanks Pink)on you but she just wanted to “be a good citizen” she said time and time again. El Porko, had no illusions of being a good anything except punisher for anybody he could find to punish….and she damned near got his ultimate attention. I wish she had and he’d been fired. Both those incorrigible taint stinks should be strung and hung for crimes against humanity.
One other area of emissions thats never taken into account for electric cars – the amount of energy needed to manufacture. Instead of transporting 1.5-2 tones of material, they are now transporting 3 tones of material when you include the additional ton of batteries. That (without taking into account how to access rare earth materials for motors, or lithium for batteries) means one is already emitting about 30%more CO2, NO2, etc…. now its already a known fact that energy consumption during manufacture is much more than at the tailpipe of most cars (and has been since the 80s)….. there is a case to consider if electrics actually pollute MORE than normal cars. And this is before their batteries get old and start leaking all sorts of wonderful stuff that all batteries always do at some point in their life….. but not to worry, thats for another tax / regulation at another date in the future……
Hi Nasir,
I have become convinced that the agenda, the true purpose behind all of this, is to get most people out of cars – period. First, by imposing impossible regulatory edicts on IC cars, so as to render them impossible to manufacturer – at least, in large numbers. Or at very great expense.
Then, to force electric cars into the system as the “solution.” But EVs are much too expensive and impractical for most people to buy and own.
Enter ride sharing. Rent by the hour/day.
They will then have complete control over almost all our movement that’s not on foot.
Wait.
Hmmm wonder when they make the electric Yukon XLs for our dear leaders high above us…… but they get rid of the V8 there any day now……
Hi Nasir,
Just as the Nazi leaders had their supercharged Mercedes touring cars and the Soviet leadership its Zil limousines, our Dear Leaders will continue to have armored, V8-powered, “gas guzzling” SUVs and many other such things, too.
Eric, here’s a thought.
Why hasn’t Mercedes ever been publicly taken to task for their shameless practice of selling their cars to the world’s worst people – colonelissimos, Presidents for Life, narcoterrorists and rap stars?
Mercedes is literally rewarding criminal behavior, and there’s no public outcry.
Write that article – I’d love to get your take on it.
Hi Ice,
God, if I do that, I’ll never get to test drive/review the latest AMG Benzes!
As I have said for a long time here, that is the agenda. It’s very clear when reading new urbanist websites like “streetsblog” that the agenda is the end of the private passenger automobile for anyone but the most wealthy.
The problem is their hand will be forced into showing this agenda to the public at large at some point in a big way. Too many automobiles were manufactured from 1900 to the present and far more are still ‘out there’ than they realize. Most are worn out and broken but people can fix that one way or another on their own. Even fedgov chokes the parts supply we can go Cuban.
Yeah. What I am hoping is that cheaper scanning and 3D printing technology will make it cheaper and cheaper to manufacture replacement parts that were formerly unavailable except from junkyards. I am trying to figure a way to cash in on this somehow. In addition, some people from eastern europe are working on pilot projects to replace OEM only ECUs with generic substitutes to run engines, transmissions, etc. I can’t assess how far they are along with this idea to replace expensive OEM software with aftermarket….
Hi Swamprat – I’ve heard this too, guys are using Raspberry PIs or Arduinos for trying to replicate the ECU functions of cars, to keep them going long after their ECU goes (or certain pointless things on the car go) and the manufacturer no longer supports. This along with 3d printing as you say can in theory keep a lot of the existing cars going for a very long time to come. I think the solution for that is here in the UK – there is a very strong push to have cars “recycled” once they reach the end of their useful life…. 😛 just to make sure a pleb like us can’t get their hands on it and get somewhere they want without being tracked 😛
EFI will happily sell you a generic ECU that will work with any fuel injected engine. We use them in race cars all the time. This stuff isn’t rocket science.
The only reason you can’t use an EFI ecu in your street legal car is because of regulations.
I keep mentioning that there are aftermarket ECU systems available but alas…. anyway unless one lives in an area with emissions testing nobody will ever know. Even in a test area they just check OBD2 now so if the car is older it’s exempt. At some point someone will have something that works OBD2 wise to get through the emissions tests if it isn’t out there already.
Eric wrote:
“Just as “diversity” means White straight men need not apply.”
Man, get out of my head. I was walking by some idiotic banner in some box store today, Wal Marx I think it was, that loudly proclaimed “Understanding Diversity!” Which prompted me to respond out loud, “Yeah, I understand diversity completely: No White People Allowed!”
Hi AF,
Yup. The most vicious aspect of the Diversity Cult, I submit, is that it increases friction – creates hostility.
I suspect that most people are like me in that they don’t bear any animosity toward anyone based on their skin color, ethnicity, sex or even their sexual preference. They are not out to “get” anyone and do their best to deal with everyone they meet as an individual.
Because most people mean well and are not psychopaths.
The eructation of “racism” – blanket accusations – are of a piece with the presumption of criminality at the airport and at checkpoints on the road.
It is infuriating to be treated as a presumptive drunk or terrorist – or racist.
Because “some” (a few, a very few) are – we must all prove we are not and be defrocked of our dignity as well as our rights on account of this.
Fuck that.
I am done playing nice.
The ruling class in the USA has always pitted different groups against each other so they may maintain power and keep wages low. It is how it has been since the the 19th century. It is not a conspiracy theory it is historic fact.
Look at what various company-town industrialists did a century ago. Or what empires did thousands of years ago. We are looking at the same shit in new packaging. Every major issue is at its root some repackaging of ancient shit. Six thousand years go by and nothing fundamentally changes.
The trouble is practically nobody learns history on their own so they get only what suits the ruling class narratives. They are conditioned and the meaningless conflicts go on.
The term “racism” was invented by communists, and is used to destroy cultures and defuse (and render impotent) those with differing points-of-view on “racial” issues.
That being said . . .
True “racism” is desirable as it merely cements cultural and social bonds that are necessary for a society to function and flourish.
True “racism” merely denotes commonality of purpose and advancement within each respective racial group.
Blacks have the NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus, Hispanics have La Raza and Mecha, Jews have the $PLC, ACLU and ADL. These are all “racist” organizations that serve to promote the interests (and political power) of their respective races.
It is only whites who are castigated and threatened for attempting to show any signs of racial solidarity.
Let’s look at what us “evil, privileged” whites have done for Western society and the world:
1. “Civil-rights (for some)” laws (that effectively destroy “freedom of association” for whites, but not for other races) and do not apply to whites–only “people of color” are covered by these so-called “civil-rights (for some)” protections.
2. “Affirmative action” policies (that push better qualified whites out of positions and jobs that they would ordinarily qualify for) in favor of lesser-qualified minorities. In fact, “affirmative action” policies actually damage those minorities who are quite capable of “making it on their own” because they get “lumped in” with the groups that cannot make it on their own without “help”,
3. “Contract set-asides” (that are specifically targeted for minorities (that white people are prohibited from bidding on) and immigration policies (that specifically exclude whites, most of who have skills that would benefit the USA) in favor of those from the third-world (with no marketable skills).
4. Scholarships that specify particular ethnic groups are looked upon favorably by most people, save one–scholarships that are intended for whites only are looked upon as being “racist”, and therefore impermissible and improper in today’s racially-charged climate of “political correctness”.
NO OTHER RACE (BUT WHITES) HAS BENT OVER BACKWARDS to assure that all non-white races receive a “fair shake” in being a part of American life, even to the detriment and social well-being of “our own kind” (whites).
Whites are imbued with an externalized altruism possessed by no other race. This externalized altruism that “looks out for the other guy” will be the demise of the white race. This altruism needs to be internalized and focused inward, just as other races have done. There is NO SHAME in looking out for one’s own kind.
“Multiculturalism” and “diversity” are code-words for white genocide.
Since whites comprise approximately 6% of the world’s population, it is whites who are the true minority, on a worldwide basis. Being a true minority on a worldwide basis, it is whites who should be the most cherished and protected of minorities.
Have you ever read about the ancient stories of where civilization came from? How people learned to raise crops? Learned a multitude of technologies? That is when it isn’t sky people or gods. When it’s just men who arrived in boats.
You can still see the representations on some very ancient monuments.
The stories are always the same. We are only told the Aztec one in schools but they are the same the world over. It’s interesting when you think about it.
Eric,
Exactly right, and what this is doing is creating racists where none had previously existed.
I am, as well, as much as humanly possible, a live and let live libertarian, leave me be and I will leave you be, to live as you see fit.
That, it seems, is no longer allowed in any way, shape or form in the New AmeriKa.
An interesting piece on the subject, from a leftist at Bloomberg of all places:
“Be Careful Who You Call a ‘White Supremacist'”
If you’ve cried wolf too many times, no one will listen when you actually see the real thing.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-24/be-careful-who-you-call-a-white-supremacist
Hi AF,
A good friend of mine is gay; known him for 20-plus years – one of the best people I know. I don’t give a flip who he is fucking, just as I am sure he doesn’t give a flip who I fuck. We don’t define our friendship based on such nonsense. He’s a realtor; he got my business last time I sold property because he’s good at his job and I trust the guy. Period.
I hate what this PC scheisse is doing to human relationships.
It’s doing a lot of damage to human relationships. But I think it’s designed that way so people like ourselves stay quiet for the sake of those human relationships.
Grouping people based on things don’t amount to hill of beans and then saying people of this group have to believe X and people of that group have to believe Y. I actually had someone I’ve known for a long time insist my experiences she didn’t know had to be a certain way because of what I am because her ideology told her that. It was exchange that somehow got on to ‘privilege’.
Good morning eric. I recall in the 60’s when you began to hear “redneck”. A friend pointed out it didn’t make much sense. Fair skinned people working in the sun are going to be red on the neck. It’s not a very good way to predict their personality though.
For the most part, it has served me well dealing with the law and order crowd. For decades it was good camouflage in that respect.
It seems to me though, the people who coined the term had an aversion to manual labor. For the most part it seemed it was city slickers denigrating the working class as opposed to whatever it was they did for a living.
We all know looks have nothing to do with the kind of person you are. In my view, it’s the various groups that think they gain some advantage by denigrating another “group” as preconceived…..and they’re all just playing into the hands of those who wish to divide and conquer. Why else would billionaires throw bones(a few million)to certain “groups”? And none have the sense to see how they’ve been used.
This isn’t a new thing, it’s just has more twists and turns these days to encompass more people.
I was struck how many people have their own political agenda these days promulgated by various groups who have their own dog in the hunt and use others with no ability to think for themselves.
A YT of a late 30’s, early 40’s(hard to tell when they’re so obese as she was)”mother” who got out of her vaunted Prius and walked across a parking lot to jack up a guy whose kids were in his pickup that was running. She kept going on about how his exhaust was killing her in her Prius. What did he need that gas hog for? On and on she went and it wasn’t answers she really wanted but only to make an ass of herself attempting to put her SJW values on everyone else.
I keep telling people that the racists are being conjured into existence by the leftists. But few if any get it. If you call everyone who opposes your political agenda racists why should you be surprised if racists appear?
“Be Careful Who You Call a ‘White Supremacist’”
If you’ve cried wolf too many times, no one will listen when you actually see the real thing.
My sentiments exactly! The SJWs have cheapened the language so much by throwing such terms as “racist” and “white supremacist” around so freely that they have lost all meaning.
I resent this deeply because it undermines my own carefully measured, non-hysterical grievances about the “white savior narrative” promulgated by left liberal Hollywood elites.
These self-described “opponents of racism” are the most anti-Asian racists of all. They relentlessly produce films in which Asian males are stereotyped as either evil or sexless, as either mindless thugs or impotent geeks.
All females in their films are depicted as “out of the league” of any Asian males. This includes Asian females, who are instead depicted as easy pickings for the white male protagonist.
This is not something Asian males such as myself have imagined. It is all too real. It is a textbook case of conspiracy fact, not conspiracy theory. This anti-Asian male racism has been so “normalized” that any departure from it comes as a shock.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/walkingdead/images/f/fa/Lauren_Cohan_Steven_Yeun_1.png/revision/latest?cb=20130728001136
http://cdn3-www.superherohype.com/assets/uploads/2013/07/file_178109_0_glen_and_mag1.jpg
Not that I’m surprised. Neoliberals such as Hillary Clinton, and Neoconservatives such as William Kristol, are actually the most rabid China demonizers of all. They are far worse than their counterparts on the conservative right.
I would flip that around and talk about the Yellow Saviors who helped create America.
Weren’t you guys instrumental in designing and laying the railroads.
Every town of any size, the Far East Asians are there, offering all manner of goods and services.
Yet always being yourselves. You don’t see you guys foisting such monstrosities as cookie cutter franchises on anybody.
Or of only being able to function in samefag stripmalls where every storefront looks the same.
There’s just so much there, that will never even be accessible to someone like me, and maybe that is a good thing.
Sometimes less is more, and the lotus is wise not to open its petals to just anyone too easily or too quickly.
Dear Tor,
Thanks for the affirmation.
All I know is that Asian males, especially Chinese American males, have never done anything to deserve the dehumanization they have been subjected to by the liberal Hollywood elites who claim to be the victims (McCarthy Red Scare).
Now of course, with recent revelations involving Kevin Spacey and others, they have been exposed as guilty of precisely the same “racism”, “sexism” and “toxic masculinity” that they accuse the right of having.
Martin Luther King had a dream that one day, society would be colorblind and someone’s race wouldn’t be a big deal.
To date, only white people have taken him up on it.
Sometimes I wonder what our country would look like if Apollo 11 failed. It’s the one bright spot that Uncle can point out in the 1960s and 70’s that he didn’t screw up royally. The nation just came off the horrible year of 1968 (one bright spot was that I happened to be born), Viet Nam was going poorly, and the free-love crowd was coming down of their high and finding out they had the clap.
The thing is, the people who have no idea how any of this stuff works are the ones setting the rules. All they do is point out things like Apollo 11 and how successful they were at meeting a challenge that seemed insurmountable at first but incrementally improved with a constant infusion of cash. Imagine if all that money just meant that there were 2 or 3 bodies on the surface of the Moon? Would we see all these people demanding a “Moon shot” project to engineer a solution? Would they all just assume that the engineers will figure out the problem, all the while not understanding the basic issues at hand? Will they, after finding out that dancing on the head of a pin is impossible, just simply give up or will they go sinister and start passing a bunch of laws to make the technology conform to their idea? Or maybe they would keep their hubris in check and defer to the naysayers once in a while.
Humans rarely concern themselves with competency. Hence social manipulators rise to the top. Furthermore the better a person is at a technical job the more likely he is not to advance per what is called the dilbert principle today.
Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people”:
First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.
Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.
The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.
” I wonder what our country would look like if Apollo 11 failed”
OK, ready. Somebody’s got to put you hip and it may as well be me. None of the “apollo missions” were even attempted except as a huge series of hoaxes. You could say that the apollo missions didn’t actually fail, because they weren’t really attempted, but none of them ever succeeded either. There was no moon landing, ever. There were no guys walking around on the moon, ever. There are no abandoned moon buggies and no merkin flags sitting up on the surface of the moon.
The moon landing shit is still impossible even after 50+ years of technological advances. There are a couple of mongoloids on this forum who say that the apollo hoax is no hoax, but they are wrong. There. I told you the truth.
Actually it’s all pretty basic stuff. Pressure suits have been around since the 1880s. Rockets, well the Chinese started building them during Rome’s heyday. Kerosene and LOX make a pretty big boom, the only real problem is containing it, which thanks to metallurgy of the day was actually pretty easy to do too. Orbital mathematics were very well known since the 17th century and Johannes Kepler’s calculations. The only thing needed was a pile of taxpayer money and people fool enough to try it.
The conspiracy isn’t that the US didn’t put men on the Moon, it’s that we the people were suckered into paying for it by Walt Disney and a (real) Nazi.
Oh no. Another true believer. Well, you had me fooled. I was pretty sure you weren’t a mongoloid. Carry on, ready. You believe that because the theories have been around for a long time, that’s proof enough that they are solid, and since they’re so solid, then of course men went to the moon.
Nevermind that fact that today’s NASA geniuses admit that they can’t make it to the moon.
They say they can’t go to the Moon because they need more funding.
Hi RK,
Politics enters into it, too.
There is a cache of high-performance Russian (Soviet) NK 33 rocket engines available; these apparently outperform the Saturn V F1 engine. But using them presents political problems…
Yes, it’s not because they “don’t know how.” The Saturn V and Apollo cannot be recreated because those designers and engineers have long since passed away or been placed in nursing homes, and the 1960s technology no longer exists. (Seen an IBM 7094 in use anywhere lately?)
You would not want that half-century-old approach anyway, but there is no funding to develop new lunar craft, nor should stolen tax money be used for it in any event. (Read Robert Heinlein’s “The Man Who Sold the Moon” for one example of a different approach.)
None of these so called “citizen’s groups” represent me in any way shape or form, let alone even asked my opinion on any issue whatsoever. These are just phony, self appointed, special interest groups, in other words, a minority. they misrepresent themselves with officious sounding names, and false claims of representing a majority social group, whom they have never asked for the advice of, nor care to hear it. These minority factions have there own agendas that merely serve their of self-interests.
They are already going after electric generation and individuals use of electric.
The feds banned cheap, simple, well working incandescent light bulb for those terrible expensive CFL bulbs (made in China to boot). They banned the incandescents because nobody wanted or bought those crappy CFL’s. Note that happened during the shrubs regime not Barry’s. At least the LED’s don’t suck quite as bad as the CFL’s, but they are expensive which sucks up most of the “savings” in energy.
My electric company sends out these mailers showing my use of electric compared with my neighbors. I of course have higher energy use, because my house is a third larger then most of my neighbors, so no matter what I do I will use more. That fact is NEVER noted on that mailer. I imagine I probably have fairly low overall use for someone with a house this size. But they can’t “shame” me that way.
I confess, I did take the “free” LED’s and CFL’s bulbs they were offering, but I only install them as my old bulbs die off, they wanted me to replace them right away, which immediately makes them less “green”. The lady who brought them over only relented when I told her if I couldn’t keep the my existing still working bulbs I wouldn’t take any of the LED’s or CFL’s. I don’t mind the LED’s (they are great in outdoor lights) so much, but gave away the CFL’s because they still suck (the light from them is terrible!!, and they buzz). I will continue to pick up incandescents when I find them. They are like gas engines, hard to beat. So if your that person who thinks they they won’t ban gas, think again……
Since my local electric company thinks nothing of throwing out still usable but politically incorrect items, they are closing down the majority of their electric plants, some that could serve for decades yet. Their business “plan” now involves buying the majority of the electric, on the OPEN MARKET…………..from other producers.
Never mind that nobody will be that producer anymore………. I am guessing this is the plan for many so called electric companies, they don’t mind delivering, but yeah, they may have nothing to deliver…….
Good point on the idiotic utility execs not realizing they are being John Galted!
One of the big reasons why old productive electric power plants are being shuttered is because Uncle puts his thumb on the scales for renewables. So much of a subsidy is given to wind turbines that in some states the grid operators are paid to take power from the wind turbines. Pretty hard to compete when your competitor is selling electricity at negative cost.
The real tragedy that we’ll all look back on is when all those baseload plants are gone and the ISOs (grid operators) start having real problems juggling all the intermittent power sources to attempt to keep the system operational. Welcome to Central American power grids, where brownouts, blackouts and just plain unreliability is the new normal. And incredibly wasteful since all the “on demand” sources like natural gas turbines have to be brought up on a moment’s notice when the wind dies down or the Sun sets, or it’s too cloudy. Whatever reason, why anyone would want to give up on reliability and on-demand power is beyond me. Talk about peasants revolting? That’s exactly what will happen when the power goes out.
Yep, here is something worth reading from a friend.
http://stoppathwv.com/stoppath-wv-blog/noper-on-the-nopr
Amory Lovins is electricity’s version of John Maynard Keynes. All theory and handwaving with nothing to back up his ideas. But he has the ear of the powerful so his fatally flawed ideas continue to be taken as gospel. Much like Keynesian economics, we’ll all be worse off when his experiment comes to fruition.
“Atomic” Rod Adams is a blogger who writes about nuclear power and debunks the myth of renewables. Here’s a pretty good debate between the two:
https://atomicinsights.com/amory-lovins-continues-sowing-confusion-renewable-nuclear-energy/
Keep in mind, although Rod is fairly well known in nuclear circles, he’s basically nobody when it comes to policy.
Thank you. My point in linking was that “prepping”/producing closer to user is better than everyone relying on Big Daddy Crony Utility Monopoly to take care of you. If the market itself determined that long wires is best, I’d be fine. However, at the least, in the current crony system, if individuals took more responsibility and ownership of producing their own power the cronies might die naturally, busting naturally the myth of the natural monopoly.
Rich – I get those same mailings from the gas company, shaming me for using more gas than my “efficient” neighbors. Like you my house is larger than most of the others, plus it’s 150 years old and has 12 foot ceilings. Also I’m old and prefer to be warm in my own house, in a normal world they would be happy to sell me lots of gas thus making money for themselves and their shareholders. I wish all the uber environazis would go live in caves and leave the rest of us alone but it’s more likely the next step for these control freaks will be rationing. Sorry sir, your quota for this month is used up, no gas for you!
Hi Mike,
A letter like that would spike my blood pressure, too! Who do these people think they are? You are paying the bill; you have every right to not be pestered by busybodies over what you buy with your money.
But I agree, they are going to attempt rationing after shaming. It’s part of the reason I fled to the Woods – where I can always heat my place with wood… my wood, cut on my land – and subject to no external control … unless they actually come here with guns, which they may.
I get them from the electric company. I am using too much energy according to them. I think they are just making the crap up or have detected my old appliances with the back EMF via the smart meter. Before you say I’m paranoid, read the IEEE paper on the technique.
Hi Brent,
You aren’t paranoid, over the last few years most all of the meters around here have been changed out for “smart” meters; I’m sure this was to monitor individual usage and at some point be able to shut you off if they want to. My sister in Florida is part of a program that lets the electric utility shut off their a/c and pool pump for a few hours when there’s peak load. It’s voluntary and she gets a small break in her bill for doing it but I bet down the road it will be compulsory for everyone.
Up here we get robocalls on hot summer days asking everyone to cut back our electrical usage to help save the power grid, maybe next time they will shut people off selectively starting with those of us who exceed our quota ?. I worked for the electric utility here for 43 years and they’re always close to the edge on peak days; it’s gotten progressively worse as some of the older base load generation has been shut down, supposedly to be made up for with conservation and solar panels. Yeah, those solar panels will be great overnight when it’s 95 degrees out with a dew point of 75….. and they think at the same time many thousands of electric cars will be pulling a charge off that same grid? Can’t wait to see how that works out.
Since most of Texas is served by ERCOT(Electric Reliability Council of Texas) we’re fairly protected from the Fed electricity-wise.
We have so much power that in times of least demand some of the wind generators have sold chunks as cheaply as -$8.52 per megawatt hour. Talk about a need for capacitors. In 2015 wind surpassed nuclear power and is online to surpass coal next year in Tx.
They have the same thing here too. A whole 10 bucks off the bill. Big deal…….on the few days I would actually run the a/c…. And yup, someday they won’t ask, it will be a requirement. Flip a switch, and your a/c won’t come on.
I have noticed that electric generators have gotten way more popular. Makes sense as the power companies have become less reliable. I’m 43, and I don’t remember the power going out as much as it does now and for longer periods too.
Hi Rich,
I advise anyone who can to do whatever they can to become as independent of the grid – and the system, generally – as they possibly can. I’ve been working on this myself for years. Step 1 was to acquire some land – enough land such that I can cut wood on my land to us for free heat. My place is also located at an elevation and in an area where I can get by without AC, which greatly reduces my electricity needs and makes it feasible to self-generate power for lights and so on (working on this).
I added a propane system for back-up heat. Have my own tank, self-contained – not dependent on some vile corporation or government entity.
I have chickens. Intend to begin raising goats and possibly a couple of cows.
I don’t think we have much time. Less than five years, I’d guess.