As a journalist I understand completely why so many people rightly loathe the media. It is because the media no longer understand – or just doesn’t give a damn – about the difference between conveying facts and attempting to force-feed its opinions to you – these opinions presented with the most insolent certainty, formed in such a way as to make it clear that anyone reading who harbors a secret doubt is not merely a doubter but a denier; i.e., a malicious and vile person who must be dealt with.
It’s the sort of thing which leads to fists and worse.
Well, here we go again.
Bloomberg – the organ of billionaire leftist Michael Bloomberg – is practically signing death warrants (and probably would, if it had the power) in its “coverage” of the Trump administration’s apparent intention to dial back an Obama-era increase (a near-doubling) of the federal fuel economy mandate, which is lately being conflated with the most despicable dishonesty as an “emissions” (of “greenhouse gasses”) mandate – which is an outright lie.
The mandates are Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) mandates and you’ll note there is nothing in that term even hinting at “emissions” – of any sort. CAFE dates back to the 1970s and the Energy Policy Conservation Act – italicized to emphasize the emphasis on energy and its conservation rather than emissions.
It decrees that every car company’s combined fleet of cars must achieve a “corporate average” of X miles-per-gallon, that number constantly going up, along with heavy fines for “non-compliance” (the writ-large version of the “shared responsibility” fines which the Obamacare recalcitrant – including this writer – are being hit with).
One of the Obama regime’s final acts of regulatory thuggery – after all, no one voted on this – was to unilaterally decree that the corporate average MPG mandate ascend to 50-something MPGs by the 2025 model year.
This was a vicious decree because, in the first place, who are these people to be dictating the mileage of our cars – the ones we pay for? This includes the gas which goes in their tanks.
What gives them – the bureaucrats nesting in DC – the moral right?
If buyers want ultra-efficient cars, won’t the car companies build them? In fact, they do build them. Some cars are very fuel efficient; those who want them are free to buy them. If you want a 50-MPG-capable Prius hybrid or even an electric car that gets infinite MPGs, they are available.
This obviousness is lost on the government bureaucrats – and the screechers at Bloomberg, et al.
Of course, the problem is that most buyers prefer larger or more powerful or more capable cars – and trucks and SUVs. Not hybrids and electric cars.
Damn them – literally.
Obama’s regulatory ayatollahs sought to countermand buyer preferences, freely expressed, by decreeing an increase in CAFE to 50-something MPG and then styling it as an environmental mandate – in order to attempt to force everyone into a hybrid or an electric car, by stigmatizing any criticism of this putsch as the equivalent of pouring used motor oil down a storm sewer.
Bloomberg – and it’s not just Bloomberg – have joined this unctuous chorus:
“The proposal, expecte to be released this week, amounts to a frontal assault on one of President Obama’s signature regulatory programs to curb emissions that contribute to climate change.”
Italics added.
This is excerpted from a news story.
First – it’s not “Obama’s signature regulatory program.” It is a federal regulatory program that dates back to the Carter presidency. Obama was in middle school at the time, so he can’t take credit for it or be given credit for it.
Second, CAFE – the “regulatory program” being discussed – was never written to nor amended to address “climate change,” a term which didn’t even exist when CAFE came into currency some 40 years ago.
CAFE is about gas mileage. It is not about “greenhouse gasses” or any other “emissions.” There are other regs which cover those.
But they – the media – either do not understand these distinctions, in which case they are incompetent. Or they do understand these distinctions and deliberately lie – in which case they are despicable.
I think they know – instinctively – that the only way to get a car-buying public that likes bigger, more powerful cars and trucks and SUVs more than it likes gas mileage is to shame the public.
To smear any opposition to a near doubling of the CAFE mandate to 50-something MPG – which no currently available cars except hybrid cars and electric cars are capable of achieving and which therefore would mean the extinction by regulation of almost every car other than a hybrid or electric car – as opposition to “clean air” and “denying” of “climate change.”
And the writers of this stuff wonder why the people being lectured to despise them so.
. . .
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Nunzio, I grew up coon hunting, and I really loved it! During that time in the late “70’s though, the price of fur dropped thanks to PETA and the like. It costs big money to feed, vaccinate, and otherwise take care of dogs for an entire year, and 2-3 months of hunting on nights when you don’t have to get up early for work did not result in earning enough to feed them even if you discounted the labor involved. I haven’t gone coon hunting for almost 4 decades. Coon hunting is great exercise too.
Darn, Brian! I should’ve tried that (Coon hunting)! I lived so close to the “hoods” of Brooklyn at the time!
I actually took a few short-lived 9-5 jobs in those days, to support my boat! (Needed a new battery; gas fund, etc.) -Only 9-5 jobs I ever had in my life!
Trees and coon dogs wood be necessary for effective coon hunting Nunzio. Using coon hounds is more fun because the hounds start baying, ie, sounding like hound dogs as soon as they first find the scent of a coon (or possum). They may trail after the coon or possum for a half a mile before catching up to it and forcing it to climb a tree.
A more effective way to catch them is to have what we hillbillies call a harry mouth healer, which is a crossbreed between a coon hound and an Airedale terrier, because they won’t warn the coon or possum by all of that barking. They will catch the coon by surprise and force it to climb the closest tree. With baying hounds, the coon might have the time to escape to its den in a hollow tree. Other dogs can be crossed with coon hounds, but Airedales are the best choice because they are faster fighters than the coons are. Once a coon is treed, you have to catch up with the dogs and shine your spotlight into the tree to try to spot it. Sometimes you have to squall at it in order to frighten it enough to open its eyes and look at you. Those eyes really shine with your spotlight on them. You then aim your .22 right between the eyes at shoot. Most of the time my shots were dead on target, but the coon may be 40-50 foot high. From that distance, their brain is a very small target for the shooter to hit, so once in a while the coon would fall out of the tree. This is when a scrappy half Airedale shines, because he can pull his head back quickly enough to avoid the coons swinging paw, then quickly move back in and grab the coons neck and kill it. I did have one very large hound cross between a Black and Tan coon hound and a Walker coon hound that had a rump just like a Greyhound. He was an extremely fast hound; so fast that he caught a coon before it could even get to the tree. He was young and fairly inexperienced. When I caught up with them, the coon had caught his lower jaw, and he was yelping in pain. The coon released his bite probably because it hoped to get a neck bite, but the hound quickly grabbed its entire head in his mouth and crushed its skull. New skill learned!!!! :0)
I’m not sure how well coon hunting would have worked in your New York neighborhood. Did you have any trees for them to climb in order to escape Chihuahuas? If you had managed to tree one; it might have been more effective to tell a pimp joke in order to make him smile, exposing those large white teeth in the dark.
Brian, I was thinking of a potential coon-hunting scenario as I was going about my bidness today. It would have gone something like this:
Set some watermelon and fried chicken out on the curb, and when one of the buggers stopped to take the bait, release the rottweiler or pitbull!
Only thing is: Nowhere to sell ’em. no cotton plantations in NY…. 😀
“The car reviews are part of the deal; it’s what I do – per Dr. Evil. If I stop doing them, I lose standing to write about cars generally, about regulations – about freedom of mobility.”
Well stated, you’re doing what you do and it has been working for a long time. It ain’t broke, so it doesn’t need fixing. The new car reviews are the mainstay, and writing them for years has created an archive of them for people thinking about buying the used version of a car you wrote a review on when it was new.
That’s a big feature of the site that I use and link friends and relatives to when they’re thinking of buying something used. Anyway, looking at sites that have focused on liberty rants and reporting abuses by cops, the main thing I see is that those sites are drying up, and running out of content. That isn’t because the infringements have stopped or that cops have stopped assaulting us, but because people who write about nothing else burn out.
Maybe that’s why so many of what were once the sites with the most interesting content are just posting what everyone else is posting. I hope you don’t change what you write.
Hi Ed,
I won’t!
I love cars – which are integral to liberty – which is why I write about both!
BTW, eric, refresh the donations meter and see if you made it for the month. Just curious.
Hi Ed,
Yes!
In fact, we’re ahead 3 percent into August as a result of some last-day donations! Thanks to everyone who chipped in! 🙂
“The socialists and Republicrats must love this guy…..”
To judge from the comments sections following his articles, I suppose they do. The Tyler Durden screen name comes from the movie, “Fight Club”. At different times, different owners of the site have posted articles using that screen name. The long time commenters refer to the site as “Fight Club”.
Usually, a Tyler Durden article’s text is taken from MSM articles published elsewhere. The current owners seem to write a little bit more, but still rely on block quotes, sometimes attributed, sometimes not. What was weird is that a bunch of the commenters were riffing on a scene from the film where Tyler and his alter ego were playing with the idea of “if you could fight anyone, who would you fight?” Tyler said, “I’d fight Ghandi”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Oh56oNKFw
In the thread I said, I’d fight Tyler. It was a joke, but I don’t know if that’s what got me banned. I mean, after all, there’s no Tyler.
Oh, and BTW, Zero Hedge ran Eric’s piece:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-29/health-insurance-mafia-heroin-signing-obamacare
Hi Ed,
“I mean, after all, there’s no Tyler”.
Yep, Tyler Durden is not a real person. It is a pseudonym for a number of bloggers at Zero Hedge. Nothing wrong with that per se, but the Zero Hedge site is so ad heavy as to be almost unreadable, especially with an older box/operating system. I also remember a failure to attribute problem that Eric had with “Tyler” a while ago. Considering that Zero Hedge is mostly an aggregator site, I wish LRC, Wendy McElroy, etc… would only link to ZH when they produce original material. If you can find the original source, link directly to that.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy, I don’t know when Zero Hedge began but I began reading it about 5 years ago. There were good, original articles then but it rapidly deteriorated as did the comments. I haven’t read it in years except when LRC has one of their articles and now don’t read it at all. Once I realized I had originally read the article the day before on another site I quit opening the links, LRC be damned.
And speaking of LRC, it’s been scraping the bottom of the barrel the last couple years reprinting crap from British tabloids
Eight, LRC is getting worse by the day! I still check it now, if only for entertainment value. Holy crap! There was an article on there last week; the copy and paste job was so bad that it repeated two entire paragraphs, and in a couple of places, some hyperlinked text from the original never made it to the LRC version, so the damn thing didn’t even make any grammatical sense! (And of course, it was from a Brit tabloid….).
I don’t know what’s going on, but the few once-decent libertarian sites all seem to be going down the drain at once.
I just listened to a video of Larken Rose from the 2018 Anarchopulco this afternoon while waiting for an injun to cool down so I could flush the cooling system- ahh! At least hasn’t been corrupted. (But alas, it’s just preaching to the choir- but oh so good to hear!)
Morning, Nunz!
My guess – my bet – is that it has to do with money. I understand the pressure. People not in publishing have no idea how tough it is to just tread water as a publisher, even when your publication has the readership of a successful magazine or medium-sized newspaper. I’ve written about this before, using EPautos as an example. This site should be capable of supporting at least two or three full-time people. A magazine or newspaper with the same audience in the pre-Internet (and pre-Googuhl) days would have had a dozen full-time salaried people. Instead, it’s just me. Doing everything – and just treading water. And I tread successfully only because my cost of living is low. I could not do this if I had a big mortgage or rent payment and as it is, I cannot afford “coverage” and forget spending money for car projects.
If I’d remained on the Reservation and been a good and civilized Indian, writing the stuff you can find in Bloomberg, The Washington Post and other MSM organs, I’d be making four to five times what I make now. But I’d be a gelded Indian; only writing government-corporate friendly pabulum.
It’s a Hobson’s Choice and few can even make it because they are under tremendous pressure to provide for themselves and their families. Some try to compromise by becoming click farms and hoping they can make money via Goo-guhl, which I submit is unlikely even for tame sites and hopeless if you’re not tame (see my various letters from them about “violations”).
This is why I rely almost entirely on reader support. It cuts Goo-guhl out or at least, gelds their economic power over me. So long as enough people chip in a few bucks each month, things work.
I suggest other popular Libertarian sites adopt this approach, too. It’s a Libertarian approach as well as a practically necessary one. People who find value offer value in return, freely exchanged.
Hi Ya, Eric!
Ha! I was actually going to use you as an example in a previous post- of how one either remains independent…or ends up catering to political-correctness and the government-corporate line.
It’s like that in pretty much all aspects of life these days. Those of us who don’t go along with the program are outliers who must learn to operate without the rewards which the system gives to their livestock.
We truly operate in the free market; trouble is, the true free market is very small, as most others have been goaded into the collectivist-communal-centralized market.
Sad thing is, increasingly they try and force us into that controlled market, and criminalize our freedom.
You and I basically live the same lifestyle (No debt; own everything we own free and clear; very low expenses; buy used…) only I think I have an advantage, as I grew up knowing someone who lived this way- not because he was a Libertarian (although he was awfully close to it!) but I think because it was the style I life he enjoyed (And that was at a time when you could still do that even in metro NY- until his property taxes started doubling every year- but he managed to endure till he died).
That guy was like a father to me- and I find myself emulating his lifestyle so much that I find it hard to believe that he wasn’t my real father! (You would’ve loved this guy! Lifelong batchelor- built his own house- which was always full of car/truck/tractor parts -even in the kitchen. Did everything himself; always tinkering with interesting stuff and vehicles- and he was the nicest, kindest guy you’d ever want to meet- he could never pass a broken down car on the side of the road…and he wasn’t even Italian- he was a Kraut! 😉 )
I can’t figure LRC out, though. What is the point? Either publish good Libertarian stuff, or publish fluff to try and make money. Adultering his site with garbage serves no purpose- such a bastardized site neither helps the cause, nor makes money- it just self-destructs. (And like you say, even a popular mainstream site is likely not going to exactly prosper financially…so what is LRC’s motive?).
Hey, if it’s any consolation: At least today with the internet, you can accomplish a lot more than years ago when your only option might’ve been to publish a “newsletter”! You may not be making money, but at least now you have a voice! It’s pretty awesome when you think about it.
Nun, when I lived in a college dorm you could smell gear lube on my floor since I did transmission work when I should have studied. To get my deposit back I had to clean the room as you’d suspect then make sure someone was available to inspect it and sign off on it, then go back and reclean the floor just ahead of them to get the seep of gear lube up from the tile.
Fast forward to my early 30s when I hear the wife come in from work and say Shit, you SOB, on my good Chromecraft table.
Hell, we ate in the dining room anyway and I did put thick cardboard under the TH 350 I was working on. After all, she didn’t say anything when I polished my American Racing Wheels in the guest bedroom.
Strike-The-Root has been deteriorating in recent years as well. They used to have new articles 7 days per week verses LRC having a weekend edition. STR doesn’t post BBC crap, but lately it only puts out new stuff once per week. The owner is having great difficulty finding people to run the site on specific weekdays. My truck driving job keeps me from helping due to my erratic work schedule. Perhaps some of you can help.
http://www.strike-the-root.com is the link to the formerly great anarchist website which could be revived by some of you. Nunzio, if you have the time; you could make STR look like you would like LRC to look. Hell, both sites use to have some of the same authors, so you could do both of them if you have the time. I used to try to send new potential libertarians to LRC first, and more established libertarians to STR, because anarchist thought was too much for a statist to absorb right at first.
What I ‘think’ is involved in STR is that you would post anarchist friendly news and events as articles. Eric’s EPAuto’s articles would be very welcome there. If you can make articles of your own: you could post them there as well. These are just my guess’s. You and others would need to contact Rob in order to find out what he wants and expects. I strongly doubt that there is any pay involved.
Hi Brian,
Hmmm, never heard of STR- I’ll have to check it out.
I’ll tell ya though, even if I had the time (I pretty much just post here, and on trips into the house for supplies or info or breaks when doing stuff) and the inclination (I feel at this point there is enough info out there for people to see all they need to see- at this point, even the best stuff is just preaching to the choir, and hand-holding/entertainment for those already on the path), I would probably just start my own site (I had one back in the 00’s- but after attracting only about 7 regular posters, I figured it was pointless- even though it didn’t take much time or effort to maintain).
I hate sitting in front of a computer for very long, anyway. I currently make the better part of my living doing some internet work, and only work a few hours a week at it, but I find it to be such a drag, even the $50/hr I get for it doesn’t seem worth it. (Don’t get the wrong idea…I work like 2 or 3 hours a week…)
Heck, I’ve been meaning to explore a site called AnarchoChristian.com for ages…and never even bring myself to do that.
Hey Brian, Ya know what I was thinking? If I were so inclined and had the time, I could see myself transcribing parts of Larken Rose videos and posting them (with his permission, of course) as articles on sites like STR [Still have to check that out!].
LRC would do well to do something like that….instead of GARBAGE like this:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/07/linh-dinh/last-philly-glimpses/
(Why would ANYONE post irrelevant rambling crap like that- much less a Libertarian site?!).
Hi Brian,
I feel STR’s pain… .
Some insight: I usually research and write at least one full-length article every day, plus two or even three minor ones (e.g., the Armed Government Worker rants) and reply to people’s questions and do radio interviews several times a week. That’s a lot of work for one tired, middle-aged divorced Libertarian!
Back when I was on the mainstream media reservation, I generally had to produce 2-3 articles per week. Less than half my current writing workload. I did not have to format/edit the articles nor anything else; all of the other stuff was handled by other people. And I made a whole lot more money back then, too. I actually had free time.
People get burned out. It happens to me, episodically. There are days when I just can’t think clearly and writing doesn’t happen. The harder I try, the worse it gets. I have learned to just step away from my desk when that happens and go cut hay or do something – anything – except try to write.
It seems to work, more or less.
But I completely understand and empathize with others attempting to publish Libertarian material and keep a Libertarian web site alive. It is rough sailing.
Eric,
I’ve often wondered how it is that you can be so prolific! The sheer amount of quality stuff you put on here is amazing, and the more so considering that it eminates from ONE man!
Sites/publications which employ numerous writers, editors and technical staff can not even come close to what you, ONE man, have achieved here!
If I were doing it…I could see myself turning out maybe one article per week!
And the piggy exposés are probably the best feature of this site. If there were a way you could advertise/promote that such content was here….it would probably do more to draw-in the right sort of people, who would derive the most benefit from your other articles, and really serve to help those who care, to see what this country has become; the info that is sadly missing from the MSM and most other media sources.
I know I’ve mentioned this before….but, if you’re looking to lighten the load without sacrificing the quality or quantity of Libertarian content, have you considered ditching the new car reviews?
I mean, I know that’s “what you do”, but considering the time and effort I’d imagine that you must devote to that vs. the fact that those who may come for the revioews, probably just come only for that and are not interested in Libertarianism/think we’re tin-foil-hatters (Hence the 10’s or 100’s of thousands who may view this site, but the small number who feel the Libertarian content is valuable enough to them to leave a comment) and that those who may come for a specific car review are probably the least likely to throw any support your way, -I could be wrong- but it seems to me that that is a big inefficiency that is robbing you of time, but not producing much benefit, other than maybe some page hits from new car-shoppers.
Morning, Nunz!
The car reviews are part of the deal; it’s what I do – per Dr. Evil. If I stop doing them, I lose standing to write about cars generally, about regulations – about freedom of mobility. I understand you and others aren’t especially interested in new cars, but many others are. Just as I would not stop writing the political columns to focus on just the car columns, so also I won’t stop writing the car columns to focus on the political ones – because that would be the same thing as no longer writing about the things I write about and which (so far as I know) no one else does, the way I do!
I’m so ashamed[blushes] 😉
Eric, I think it’s just a labor of love, for you.
Would that everyone were occupied with such!
Hi Nunz,
More like a compulsion…I have to do it!
Ah! I know the feeling, Eric! My very first endeavor when I was a teenager, was as a clam-digger….errr…..”commercial shellfish harvester” 🙂 -I never made any money- on a good day I’d make enough to pay for the gas I put in my boat!
But I LOVED it! It’s what I was. It’
s what I am, although I haven’t done it in over 36 years. I no longer even believe in eating shellfish! But I’ll always be a clam-digger!
Morning Eric,
Even though I’m not a car guy, I appreciate your car columns. They’re well written, informative and often sneak a little libertarian thought into the text. I often send them to car guy friends of mine in the hope that the auto columns may serve as the “gateway” drug to more libertarian ways of thinking.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Eric, my S4 recently died with the ever present threat from Google I couldn’t remove that had been there for years because I wouldn’t allow it to be updated, probably the very reason it suddenly died.
I considered an iPhone but they’re too expensive and suck Android’s exhaust so it was back to Samsung for a replacement.
It became evident quickly I was going to be a Google bitch…or else.
Like every device, I installed Firefox and then my favorite add-ons. I barely got AdBlock+ installed when sent a missive telling me I WAS going to be their bitch and they disabled AdBlock+.
I tried another ad blocker, same results. I felt like the next time I tried the door would be knocked down by the SWAT team. Hmmm, that iPhone looks better every day.
I am sick of ads I can’t block. That reminds me to put Prep H on the gettin list.
Yes, true,Jeremy. ZH is a click farm. It has changed hands a few times since I started browsing articles there, but I learned early on that the Tyler screen name wasn’t an author at all, but one of three (at that time) owners.
I’ve suggested to people who think there’s a real Tyler Durden to look at the little avatar pic. It’s an image of Brad Pitt playing Tyler Durden in “Fight Club”. I don’t know how they get away with using the image and name. The series producers of “Ray Donovan” couldn’t get permission to call a gym in the story “Fight Club” and had to change the spelling to “Fite Club”
Ah! Thanks for the briefing there, Ed!
I’m woefully(and happily) ignorant of modern (c. last 25 years) pop culture references.
So that’s why people say “THE TylerS”!
Sheesh- if they’re gonna plagiarize stuff, they should at least pick better sources.
Funny how the presstitutes want to credit anything they interpret as “good” upon Obama, while decrying any evils they find to be charged to Trump.
To those same presstitutes, the only thing that a choice should be allowed for is whether to have an abortion. To them, no other choice matters. Which is why Obama had a “regulatory czar”: Crass Cass “The Ass” Sunnstein, who was so abhorrent as to say that people should be nudged into making decisions that they would not otherwise do on their own. And also that every deviation from their nudge (in other words, every exertion of personal choice and freedom) should be met with ever-increasing fines and penalties (like the Obamacare shared responsibility mandate).
That Sunnstein jerk needs to introduced to a woodshed. And I have a really good one to show him. The same goes for any of those other freedom-deniers.
In the 1970’s, the choice was Ford or Chevy. In 2020, the choice will be hybrid or full electric.
Because to the worldly do-gooders like Doomberg, nothing else matters.
Bloomberg, a fuckin idiot.
My cousins kids were about 10 years old and there was a Japanese sports car they’d just become enamored with. I don’t remember the car but it was fast and fairly cheap and they’d been around one somebody they knew owned.
They’re gushing as young males tend to do over the car. They wanted me to buy one. It would have been great since I dug it too but the heavy El Camino with the tow package was the lightest vehicle I owned with an Eddy Brown custom engine made specifically for high speed hauling, freight hauling.
Our other vehicles were heavy pickups, 4WDs with big power for farm and ranch and construction work.
I’d kid them and ask how I’d modify the hatchback to install a gooseneck setup in one. It would deflate them only minorly.
But grown people should have the awareness to understand work trucks make this country go, they are what makes the entire country function.
Without light trucks we’d all starve.
These greenies are too ignorant to understand why they have enough to eat.
It is the segment of the population with plenty of income from whatever source who are trying to affect the transportation industry through sheer ignorance.
Saturday, I bought fresh produce from people using a big pickup and tandem axle trailer selling Pecos cantaloupe, watermelon, peaches and tomatoes.
It wasn’t the make believe stuff from Wally. What would we do without this source of food?
These people are completely out of touch with the real world.
Jimmy Carter had more integrity and common sense in his pinky finger than Barrack HUSSEIN Obama will ever have…BTW, even President “Malaise” got one BIG thing right..he pushed through the development of the Trident II D5 missile for the Ohio-Class nuclear boats, which gave the USA the world’s only credible first-strike capability from SEA. It also enabled the US to not have to, in event of warning of a Soviet (Russian) or Chinese nuclear strike, “Launch on Warning”, as the President could wait for confirmation and stick have a very powerful retaliatory capability that would take out the Soviet or Chicom leaders in their bunkers where they THOUGH themselves to be safe’, the Soviet or Chinese peoples be damned.
“And the writers of this stuff wonder why the people being lectured to despise them so”
Where are all of these people- aside from us? All the people I see are not only consuming all of the mainstream media’s smörgåsbord, they’re paying a LOT of money to do so. Even on the interwebz, most news sites (especially web versions of newspapers) have either eliminated public comments entirely, or so heavily censor them, or require that their posters post via Facebook, etc. that they have effectively stifled all opposition, correction, and any possibility of a shard of actual truth making through to any viewer. And yet people read it; quote it; pay for it; and believe it.
And people really do believe what they hear on CNN or Bloomberg or Fox, etc. The garbage the media spews is basically just a continuation of what people have been plied with in the skools; they never hear the other side (or even know that there IS another side)- Change the channel or click on another site or buy another paper…it’s all the same- a united, solid wall of BS, from authoritarian-collectivists who are in the business of creating more of the same and squashing all resistance.
As I often say, the average person today is just like a cult member. They can’t think for themselves; they’re told what to think, and how to react.
I know a guy who put a deposit on a Tesla Model 3 a few years ago (Still waiting, of course…)- When you talk to the guy, you may as be listening to the MSM- He just parrots the standard Tesla/EV hype. Offer any competing info to the contrary, and he has no rebuttal- just “I dunno, that’s not what they say”. Then they look at us like we’re the kooks, because we’re not saying what all them smart people on TV, and the politicians are saying….
It doesn’t matter that Saddam never had WMDs; or that the 9-11 commission never even so much as mentioned WTC7, etc. because such things are not to be mused upon; they are non-issues because the talking heads never talk about them….. It will do you no good to mention such things, because they haven’t been told what to think about them, so they can’t think about them; they can’t form an opinion, other than that they must be non-issues, since the politicians and news-actors don’t even mention them (Except perhaps to try and associate such things with deranged mass-murders and such- Hows THAT for irony?!).
Nunz, exactly. US amerikans do not deserve Liberty. They deserve everything coming to them now and in the near future. Problem is that the rest of us will suffer too. That’s why I’m dropping out as quickly and as deeply as I can.
‘Zactly, Skunks.
I dropped-out when I was a teenager. Now it’s time to GET OUT. Not only is everything we do/the pursuit of privacy & liberty being exponentially criminalized, but the common man is increasingly our enemy and a threat to our liberty, property, and everything we hold dear, the more they are propagandized and fall into lock-step with the state.
Iposted a comment on a local news site once, on a story in which some kid vandalized a plaque in a park which commemorated the dead mercenary for whom the park had been recently named. I said something to the effect: “All the kid did was destroy a plaque. The “hero” whom the plaque honored destroyed many innocent human lives, in the name of politicians and bankers”.
Holy crud! Good thing I post anonymously! You should have seen the unamimous response! Those people would have me boiled in oil if they could! 30 yars ago, ya might’ve had one or even a few sympathetic responses, but not today, in the perpetual warfare-welfare state! And I’ll be damned if I’m going to keep quiet about it, because keeping quiest is as good as giving our assent to injustice, and insuring that all voices of opposition will be extinguised- as is now already almost the case.
And really, who can stand to live in the day to day world with these creeps who venerate murderers and jack-booted thugs? That’s my main reason for wanting out- I can no longer tolerate living in a country where everyone is like that. It’s like a normal person trying to live in Jim Jones’s shithole. Only these idjits don’t drink the Kool-aid and kill themselves; they drink it and kill people who are better than themselves, and applaud those who do the same.
Nunz, I once posted on the local paper’s site that locking down the entire region to catch the so-called Marathon Bombers was a huge overreaction and got a similar response; pretty much unanimous I was a traitor and should be summarily executed. So much for this city being the “cradle of liberty” , I’d rather live under King George III, taxes back then were a fraction of what Uncle steals from us today.
Wish I could bail out too, but I’m too old to start over and besides that there don’t seem to be many places left that aren’t infested with Big Brother busybodies.
Hi Mike,
I was appalled by the display of servility as well. “Lock down” is a prison term. It is psychological warfare to use such terms (and tactics) against ostensibly free people. We are being conditioned to accept what is coming – and to a great extent, what is already here.
Not to mention the chants of “USA! USA!” and high-fiving after they caught the 2 Chechen brother (who are possibly not even the true culprits). Essentially a dumbed-down version of the good Germans of the 1930s-40s blindly Sieg-heiling for der Fuehrer.
MIB, I fear I’d be familiar with another jail if I had lived in that town.
Societal norms have had me on the run and oft times hide. Even while in single digits I found it difficult to choke down the never-ending need to be a conformist.
I wore the ubiquitous “ducktail” my mother said made me look like a hoodlum. It wasn’t bad people I respected but simply the non-conformist.
I feel vindicated somewhat by many who comment here
Hi Eight,
In re: “I feel vindicated somewhat by many who comment here…”
Amen!
I think perhaps the most valuable thing about EPautos is that it shows tens of thousands of people – even hundreds of thousands – that they are not alone.
One of the most effective cons of the System has been to convince people of the opposite; one way (Nunz mentioned this) is by stifling comments online, t give the impression that everyone agrees with the partei line. It is not by accident that the brief spring of wide-open commenting on MSM sites was shut down real fast.
eric, I get depressed when I think of the intelligent people I know who lapped up the horseshit served nonstop to the public regarding 911.
Twin Towers collapsing was bad enough but Larry Silverstein saying he meant to “pull” building 7 over was too much.
I’ve worked hell out of a D6 just trying to get a single concrete pier out of its very old hole in the ground. Now imagine huge piers each 100 feet in the ground holding a huge building being pulled any direction. It would require months of work and the largest dozers in the world to budge it, huge amounts of cable, hundreds of workers trying to rig attachment of cables just to pull a few stories over if it were even possible to get a single floor.
How are intelligent people unable to understand? They WANT to believe the lie. Most are still dejected they didn’t get to give the Shrub their own personal BJ.
And never bring up Shrubco in its entirety telling the same treasonous lie they all should have been tried and hung for.
They’d be screaming before you could speak a second sentence. I have witnessed it and it ain’t pretty. They’ll hate you. I’ve been called all sorts of heinous things by those good, Christian Republicans…..and even those who hate Republicans.
Don’t say it at an NRA convention where the attendees can’t understand who their real enemies really are.
I had an article in the Ft Worth Star Telegram catch my eye today so I opened it. Scrolling down the list to the bottom I come across a badge shaped icon with Robert Muellers pic in it with the missive asking the reader to “save” him. I nearly had my coffee come up. I’m still livid….fuckin Commie rag.
Sad thing is, Eight-san, what we’ve been seeing is just human history repeating. Those who are hungry for power and wealth know the drill- they know how to exploit the fears, weaknesses, moral shortcomings and ignorance of the masses- and so what we see today is just a high-tech uber version of every empire of the past, from Babylon, to Medo-Persia, to Greece to Rome, Spain, etc.
The routine is always the same; the people are just chattel and pawns to be easily deceived into fulfilling the purposes of the empire.
Give ’em bread and circuses, and tell ’em they’re “free”, and they’ll do ANYTHING for ya- including sacrificing their own lives and children.
It’s funny: All the wars always going on in the world, and everyone fighting on every side always thinks their side is right!
Now we are seeing this crap on a large, more integrated scale because of all of the technology. We grew up hearing that technology would solve all of the problems- but of course, like everything else, it was just used for evil- and has given more control and power (including power to deceive) to the overlords.
Nun, is this what they meant by “Better living…..tthrough chemistry “?
” it shows tens of thousands of people – even hundreds of thousands – that they are not alone.”
Eric, this site is such a blessing for us…..but I don’t know about 10’s or 100’s of thousands.
People can post here without registering or anything….yet there are only a handful of us who post, because most simply don’t care. If they did, they’d be at least chiming-in with a quick acknowledgement- but except for the occasional stray…it’s pretty much us and the crickets.
This fellowship that you provide us with though is truly invaluable! This is the only place- real or cyber- on which I have ever encountered at least 10’s of other like-minded people, and with whom we can all agree on pretty much all major things.
And notice, despite there being no censorship or any of that BS here, there is no real arguing!
This is truly unique, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and will be doing so from the bottom of my wallet too!
Hi Nunz,
Actually, the site does reach tens of thousands of each month – no joke! Most don’t post comments, but lots of people are reading… site traffic has been in six figures some months!
‘Morning, Eric!
Oooo, yeah, I don’t doubt that tens or hundreds of thousands read this site; I’m just saying, that if the Libertarian content expressed in your articles or here in the comments were striking a chord with them, they would likely be leaving at least one comment.
I’d say that the small percent who do post out of those tens or hundreds of thousands, is representative of the percentage of people who really “get it” or care in real life- seems about right- say, out of 100,000 people, there may be 10 or 20 who actually yearn for real liberty- and that may even include some Tea Party types, who advocate things like “Medicare for Americans only”- i.e. not real liberty, but just a return to a more sustainable form of tyranny.
Nun, I’d like to think there are millions who would identity with the Fugs doing Wide Wide River, the 1st version on YT. CAN’T seem to post a link on my Verizon device. It’ll do your heart good.
Hopefully the ones reading are also learning from it. It’s good to hear that you have such a large audience. Maybe more people will see the light.
A number of websites have shown me there are others that think like I do. But it has also shown me that we spread very thin across a vast geographical area.
Brent, I think out of 300Million people, there are a handful of “us”. Even if we were to isolate those who call themselves Libertarians….there would only be a very small minority who really are. (Pretty much the same same with “Christians”- 99.7% are in direct opposition to the Bible and the teachings of Jesus; and so too with most other movements- once they formally organize and or become mainstreamish….they cater to mass appeal, rather than to the cause which they initially represented- and the masses love it that way, because they can don a label and reputation or credibility associated with that label, without really doing anything or even changing their outlook/beliefs.)
Hi Brent,
Agreed. But – to use a perhaps ugly analogy – The Nazi Party once had just a dozen members. Look what happened. Ideas are like X rays. They can penetrate anything.
Our ideas are powerful because (unlike the ideas of national socialism) they are powerfully coherent, principled. It is why these ideas are such a threat to the left and the right.
Hey Ya, Eric!
Problem with the Nazi analogy though, is that things like Naziism and socialism tend to appeal to the masses, and snowball quickly because they appeal the baser desires of human nature, such as greed and power.
E.g. they offer the prospect of gratuitous power, or free shit- and such things (or promises of such things) appeal to a great number of people, because there are more people in society who lust after such things, than there are people who are miore concerned with justice and liberty.
This is exactly why the ranks of real Libertarians and Anarchists are so small- because we advocate every man for himself and voluntary cooperation- but the majority would rather have others forced to pay for their own benefit, or forced to do business with them, etc. -not realizing or caring that the same force which compels others to do those things is also exerted on them and their children.
I.e. they’d rather have their kid promised a “free education” than to have him inherit a free society where he will not be a tax slave, because they are comfortable being tax slaves, and have compunctions about seeing that we remain tax slaves too, because “It’s for the common good”- and hence, authrotirian-collectivism.
This is why systems like this never die until they collapse under their own weight and dysfunction.
Systems which use overt force are quickly rebelled against- but systems which use covert force and propaganda, and make people think that they are “free” and prosperous, linger, because the majority will defend their empire- and this is just what we do see, as no matter what regime people live under- be it Hitler’s or Hillary’s, there is never a lack of subjects willing to fight for that regime, and to brutalize their fellow citizens whom they view as “infidels” if they transgress the protocols of the regime- i.e. soldiers and cops.
tl;dr version: The ones offering positions of power and free shit always win. Bad ideas which reinforce human nature are more popular than good ideas which leave all men free to pursue what they desire without anyone being forced to help them.
Right you are, Nunz…
And I think you nailed the key to undermining this dynamic, too: By to the self-interest of people as much as their morality/consciences. For instance (as you mention) point out that by supporting theft to fund “schools” for their children, they are also supporting the enslavement of their children.
In the end, there is no such thing as a free lunch – for anyone.
Eggs-actly, Eric.
But people still believe that there is a free lunch. Ya still see “FREE!!” in advertising; and the offer of free stuff, or use of the word “freedom” in politics (while describing their police state) still seems to fool 98% of the people.
This is why socialism is the universal government model in places like Central and South America- just promise the peasants free stuff and they will gladly accept and even demand a system of tyranny.
The majority realize that nothing “free” is actually free- they just think it’s free for them- as in “other people pay for it”.
There was a time in America when enough people still had enough morality and regard for property rights, to resist such schemes- but that morality has been routed out- so enough people are perfectly willing to advocate that others be enslaved- not realizing that by doing so, they are advocating their own enslavement- just as was the case with the income tax.
I agree with you guys. On July 4th, I posted on Farcebook: Yeyyyy!!! Freeedommmmmm, Liberty!!!! Come chant with me: We are number 18! We are Number 18! We are number 18! I then posted a number of links to sites rating global freedom indexes in which we rated from number 12 to number 48 depending upon what metrics was measured. 18 was for individual freedom. Not one person made a reply or liked my post. Further, it never made it to the news feed even though I had changed my settings to allow everyone to see it, and selected for it to be posted publicly. I complained to Farcebook about it, but I suspected they were purposely censoring we somewhat. Regardlessly, all of my (very few) “friends” should have gotten a notification that I posted something (which only made it to my homepage).
libertarians don’t offer people anything but freedom. Power groups offer people something for nothing. Also power groups get a lot of support from the wealthy who want to control political power for their own reasons. This includes the Nazi party. What do libertarians offer the wealthy? Freedom. Freedom be knocked off the top by the next guy with a good idea and good execution. Not exactly appealing.
Hi Brent,
I get that – but freedom is also power. Imagine the power you’d possess if you owned your home outright – really owned it; no property taxes/rents to the government. Free and clear ownership. If you were free to keep what you earned. You and I would no longer have to work. We could work, if we liked.
That is immense power – over your own life, over time.
Imagine being free to deal with people – or not – according to mutual voluntary agreement. To be able to transact business, to hire or fire or work for anyone you liked (or who liked you) as you both pleased, absent any external coercion.
This is extremely powerful stuff!
Eric, THAT is the kind of power we want! The power over our own lives and property- to be free.
Trouble is, most others would gladly trade that for power over others; free stuff; and ego-inflating prestige.
I went to look at a car once, and the seller turned out to be a pig. An older, not very big, not very tough guy.
He had no problem leading a life of submission- doing exactly what local Uncle demanded he do as to every detail of every little thing on his prooperty; crossing every T; dotting every i; following “the law”- doing whatever “those in power” mandated.
You or I would ditch that and live free, and want our neighbors to be free, too.
Instead, this guy leads a life of submission, but feels vindicated, and derives a sense of empowerment, not from having power over his own life and property- but by in-turn exercising the power of the state which rules him, on other hapless souls.
That’s a lesson I learned long ago just from watching the kids around me in elementary skool. 99 out of 100 kids, if being dominated, whether by the skool, or a bully, whatever- instead of fighting the power that dominates them, they instead will seek to exercise that power over others on whom they can get away with doing it.
That is why tyrannical systems are so hard to break. Whether the US or N. Korea, etc. -the subjects will fight for the very system which dominates them, because that system in-turn lets them dominate others, and provides a “moral” excuse for doing so- if one considers the god-men of the state to be legitimate and the arbiters of what is moral….
It is. But most people don’t value it. The social competition isn’t won by being independent and owning yourself and your things. The social competition is won on appearances.
And it’s through the enslaving processes by which the social competition is won.
Brent- I guess I’m a little slow. I’ve never understood this social competition, nor why “appearance” is so important. From the time I was in grade school I have done my own thing my own way. Mostly sill do. My son at times will complain about it being embarssing because no one else does things that way. I don’t even understand what he means.
I’ve always figured that the best way to live is as you please, to hell with what everyone else wants you to do.
I am living the consequences of not going the same way as everyone else and in many respects was warned repeatedly this would happen. Still better than being a debt slave and more.
Life itself, to most people, has become just a matter of determining what “the accepted norms” are; what everyone else is doing; what “the law” dictates; etc. and hewing to them.
This is one of the primary reasons that mass media is so effective and damning- it portrays (whether accurately, or inaccurately, as predictive programming) “what is normal/what is accepted/what everyone else does”- whether in a silly sit-com, or in “the news”, etc., and after repeated exposure to that, one becomes convinced that that is perfectly normal and acceptable, and the thing to do/the way to be.
One can not own themselves or become a Libertarian, until they stop caring about that and desire to do things their own way; things that please them, rather than others.
This is why you can tell so much about people by the way they dress or the music they listen to. It is readily apparent to most of us, when people are doing things that no one in their right mind would do if left to their own devices, but in-fact do do, because “everyone else is doing it” and they would rather be accepted in the eyes of “everyone else” than live for themselves.
I mean, does anyone believe that some kid who only listens to one style of music, does so because of all the various styles of music in the world, only one sub-genre of one style is pleasing to their ear?
So true, Mike!
That nonsense over the Boston Marathon was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever seen happen in America- the VERY thing which the old piece of parchment was supposed to prevent- going from house to house, just like our mercenaries invading a sovereign nation, and rounding up and executing some guy, to make the public feel “safe from terrorists”, because they are too ignorant to realize that those whom they believe are “keeping them safe” ARE the real terrorists.
Ol’ King George [The Limey, not the shrub] would seem like a breath of fresh air compared to what we have had here for the last century.
Yesireebob, we are all alone here, except for a little internet fellowship, like this. Our familiar friends and relatives have all drunk the Kool-aid. Forget about advocating liberty; they can’t even grasp the concept of liberty anymore- even the ones who somewhat used to get it.
I’m getting too old and too blind to leave too, but I’m doing it anyway! I don’t want to die in what has become the land of my enemies. There are places. Hard to get to…far away, not familiar names, where government is minimal- and almost non-existant. Some have just a king. Not perfect, but it’s only one layer of government and very small and unobtrusive. Basically, don’t murder or rape anyone, and don’t plot to overthrow their little gov’t, and they don’t care what you do. The matrix of government at every level and it’s constant interference in one’s life which we’ve come to accept as the norm, just doesn’t exist in many places.
There may be no place on earth to totally escape all government…but we are living where government is rampant and all-consuming. Why?!
Oooppps! I meant to add, re: being “all alone here”:
As was prophesied in the Bible: “A man’s enemies shall be those of his own house”. And I’ve never felt that to be more true than today.
It’s to the point now, where your spouse, kids, parents may well throw you to the wolves- not for any egregious evil, but rather for being any enemy of the state. They’ll choose fidelity to the state over you, because the state is their god.
If the Boston PD or Mass State Police had showed up at my door in Southie (assuming that I lived there, I live in Northern CA, which is as much as “People’s Republic” as the Bay State) and demanded my firearms, I’d have asked them (with cameras rolling), “where’s your WARRANT, Officers?”. If they’d replied in the negative, I’d have slammed the door in their faces without further ado nor a word. That is definitely NOT an “exigent circumstance” that the cops can hornswoggle into bypass the Fourth Amendment. But one has to take a chance and STICK UP FOR ONESELF!
I completely ignored the lock down. My Clover-ish neighbor was in shock when he saw me return home from work. He said something like “we were told to shelter in place.” I said, “I chose not to participate.” He was left speechless. He still looks at me like I’m crazy to this day.
Boston, for being the cradle of the American Revolution, is chock-full of state-worshiping Clovers. Don’t get me going on the sports team worship.
Hi Myles,
The sports worship is pressure relief valve for male frustrations. Shrieking, “we won!” makes a helpless man feel briefly empowered; he is controlled and emasculated at every turn…. but “we won!” the big gaaaaaaaaame. It also lets him feel “manly” in a way that is harmless to those emasculating and controlling him at every turn.
Distraction can be an even more effective weapon for controlling people than fear.
Jason, gotta hand it to the bastards they have mastered the art of distraction to include fear i.e. GWOT (Inc.).
Eric, you are so right – seeing the obsession with the football world cup here in the UK just proves the point that no matter how much you try to pussy-fy guys, they will always inherently be guys and have a need to win…. organised sports seems to give them that so that the energy god forbid builds up and gets used elsewhere….
Professional sports are the modern day circuses, and cheap Chinese-made crap is the bread.
I made a similar statement to the wife earlier this week. I was pissed having read news about Jerry Jones, another rich mofo who makes his money off the backs of working people who could care less about him, the cowgirls or pro sports.
A stadium worthy of any empire paid for by people with a gun to their heads.
8, I remember a conversation back in the late ’70s with a big time fan of one team or another who wanted to get me interested in his team in the Super Bowl.
He listed all the great plays they had made that season and claimed that the opposite team had gotten there by default and yadada yadada.
I asked him, “But what does that have to do with you, or me?”
He looked at me like I had two noses.
Hi Ed,
Been there and done it, too. I once got invited – by GM! – to attend a press event in Florida; I forget which car it was. Anyhow, the Stoopid Bowl was on that week and all the men there could talk of nothing else. I observed them, like a Great White Hunter might have observed the bushmen of Africa 200 years ago…
Yep, eric. Mark me down in the column for those who just don’t get it. Why anyone would harbor thoughts about some bunch of strangers (who play a kid’s game for a living) being like family is beyond my understanding.
I view the sports aficionados like a kindergarden teacher views a room full of five year-olds [Apologies to 5 year-olds for the slight].
What really kills me, is back when I used to piddle with the radio- I’d come upon some sports talk show. People would call in and discuss the stupid subject not only with religious fervor- but the sheer depth of their memorized knowledge of the stats and various characteristics of a multitude of players was absolutely ASStounding! That grown men would devote such time and effort to something of ultimately no value or benefit to them or anyone else….
Talk about hero worship!!
Just imagine if all of the time, money, effort, affectiion, and thought expended on sports were spent instead on something meaningful and worthwhile- like the pursuit of liberty…
Talk about distractions!
Nunz, I have been banned from many a website for arguing that the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, etc not only have the right but the duty to kill any and all invaders of their land by any means necessary. The invadee is innocent and the aggressors are all murderers. So fuck the worship of the likes of Chris Kyle and other so-called badasses “defending our freedom” utter bullshit.
Similarly, people – especially Bostonians – go nuts when I point out what cowards the people of Boston were during the false flag Boston Marathon fiasco all while proclaiming themselves to be “Boston strong!”
Too true skunkbear, a few people I considered friends no longer talk to me, having completely drunk the kool-aid of the official story. As Eight mentioned above the posters here help keep me from abandoning all hope but hardly any others realize we’re all ear-tagged cattle in an open air prison. Glad that I’m an old fart, Orwell’s prediction for the future of humanity is looking increasingly imminent .
No surprise there, Skunks. Boston has always been a commie place. They were essentially California, long before California became California. Boston was one of the first places to have compulsory edumacation; police; building codes; etc.
I think it’s just a function of time. Being one of the oldest cities, it just suffers from what all places inhabited by humans and flush with money suffer from: REG-U-LATION; an entrenched system of extortion [MA. was known as a tax-hell even by NYers before NY became a tax-hell] and corruption.
Apparently, they tried to cover all of the turds with something called The Big Dig…but it didn’t work! (Despite the fact that they used lot of yellow “Cats” to do it 😉 )
Oh, guys, you know what is absurd too- and shows the TOTAL lack of logic and integrity of these statists, is that while they will unswervingly defend the mercenary killers who invade sovereign nations and oppress, injure and kill innocent people, they will just as readily label you a “hater” if you dare to criticize “diversity” or make any non-PC comments (whether in jest or real) about the same people whom their mercenary “heroes” routinely kill.
It’d be like the Nazis having no qualms about killing the Jews….but punishing you for telling a Jewish joke.
A true sign of the lack of any thought or logic; just programmed responses, and an inability to see ludicrous contradictions.
‘Zactly, Nunz,
I made a comment on a racing site about how the public is subsidizing Tony Schumacher’s toy, the “US Army Top Fuel Dragster”. I asked, “where’s my hospitality pass?, I helped payed for his toy.” Oh boy, the responses! The most common response was that the Army needs to advertise. Really? Kids today don’t know what the Army is? In one ear and out the other. Do you have any idea how much it costs to run a TF dragster for a season?
Wow, Adam! I didn’t even know about that! There seems to be no limit to the reach of their tentacles. And it’s amazing- openly enticing people’s kids through silly sports/competition/power emotionalism….and instead of condemning it, the morons cheer and defend it!!!
Maybe it’s another case of people getting the government they deserve though. The fools defend this BS, and hate us for criticizing it- and meanwhile, it’s their kids who come back in a box, or maimed, or traumatized or drug-addicted, and emotionally crippled for life because they know that the people whom they harmed and killed were not our enemies.
I love it when you see older vets today! Gimping along in a wheelchair, and or drinking themselves to death; all alone because their emotional problems destroyed their famblies; living pathetic lives, usually in poverty; all kinds of health issues from the vaccines they were given, things they were exposed to, or experiemnts done on them when they were in “the service”- Dying slow miserable deaths. Very fitting for the mercenary bastards who were no better than Hitler’s SS.
VA hospitals are another great payback! I hope Trump’s promises to “straighten them out” were about as sincere as his promises to get us out of NATO and cease our involvement in all of the foreign wars!
Like they say: Payback’s a bitch! (Can you believe I’m not very well-received on mainstream sites?! :D)
I’ve watched friends and family suffer terrible neglect in VA hospitals.
My uncle was dying in one so I made a call to our county hospital’s administrator to have him transferred there.
She nixed the idea so I did something I’ve done that one time in my life, I asked if she knew who his brother was. She said no so I said my father’s name. She did a 180 and an ambulance was dispatched immediately. My dad was always doing something for the community and his name is still on building plaques to this day. Amazing how everyevery damned thing has its own politics.
I’d already seen too much in that hospital since I had run a courier route there years before.
Keep in mind that ALOT of online comments on news articles, as well as faceplant accounts, are HIRED DISINFO AGENTS working at a cubicle in a building. Each troll has many many fake accounts and direct access to the faceplant & disqus comment system/etc. Plus most/all of the GOOD commenters are CENSORED automatically by computer programs scanning for keywords/phrases, or censored manually by employees.
AND also keep in mind that when Trump was elected, there must’ve been at least 25-30% election fraud (directly throwing out ballots or flipping votes) because we know they’ve been doing that for decades. So Trump probably actually truly got about 75+++% of the popular vote. So, bottom line, all the crazy people are still a vast minority — they just put on the ILLUSION that they’re a majority since they have total control over MSM & gaining more online control too.
Yep, I’ve menntioned here that Disqus is malware, and edits posts, blocks users and does other shit on the sites where it’s used. The resident ringmeat here said that Disqus has never harmed his computer, though I was careful to say that it’s malware to the site’s system, not the users.
Site owners who use Disqus are probably just too busy to moderate discussions on their sites. Disqus does it for them, and blocks most of the interesting comments at the same time.
“Resident Ringmeat” ROTFL!!! You’re GOLD, Ed!! Pure gold!
I have noticed lately, that a lot of my comments have disappeared from Disqus comment sections. But I think unless one has there own custom-built comment section/forum, it’s getting so there’s no alternatives anymore, as virtually all platforms seem to censor now.
And funny how it is, that they all seem to be united as to what they censor! They all go after conservative, Libertarian,un-PC comments- i.e. the liturgy of the new world religion.
A faggot can post with impunity comments expressing abject hate towards Christians, and even advocate their elimination, and that is fine in the eyes of these censors- but if you so much as make a statement objecting to faggotry….it will be swiftly removed, in this brave new world.
Saw a good one in a Disqus section the other day: A comment in reference to the new mulatto female libtard mayor of San Fagcisco whose name is “London Breed”, someone asked “What kind of name is that?!” To which someone else responded: “She’s a nigger- what do you expect?”.
Bet that’s gone by now…..
Disqus is sold to site owners as a way to keep their comment pages free of trolls and to relieve them of having to moderate commentary. Disqus accesses Facebook, Twitter, Google and WP profiles to track commenters and enforce Disqus bans against them.
I’ve been banned by Disqus for years and can’t log into a Disqus dominated comment section via WP, or Google, which are two profilers who keep your profiles active even after you delete them.
Of course, the people who haven’t been banned yet will argue that I’m a tinfoil hatter who suspects everyone of being Big Brother. My view is that anyone who hasn’t been edited or banned by Disqus is a ringmeat mongoloid dickweed who probably thinks that NASA put men on the moon.
That’s just the kind of commenter that Disqus loves.
Interesting, Ed.
My experience being banned on Disqus has been that it’s site specific. My first account was banned on one site (Mentalfloss) but can still (years later) post on all others. I started another account for posting on Mentalfloss….no problemos.
Of course, I don’t have anything like Facebook or Google+ or anything- I wonder if that accounts for our seemingly contradictory experiences?
I still maintain that site owners can choose whether they want Disqus to moderate or not- I could be wrong, but that would explain why on some sites I can say virtually anything in the Disqus comment section, while on others I might get banned or have my comment deleted.
Hey, we need to make up a Ringmeat Mongoloid Dickweed song!
You probably got your ass banned on Mental Floss for saying ringmeat mongoloid dickweed or something tasteless like that.
They are kind of fragile over there.
I was told by one blogger, years ago , that he didn’t know Disqus was blocking or removing comments on his blog until someone told him they were blocked.
Who knows the truth about it? I like to suspect the worst so I can cuss about the shit I suspect them of pulling.
Ed, Nunz, being banned from major conservative sites just convinces me my arguments are correct. Indeed, a good rule of thumb is if you’re not banned you should reconsider your views.
Not just major conservative sites. Pretty much any site that is not Libertarian/Anarchist (and even some that claim to be). Major; minor; conservative; liberal; middle-of-the-road; apolitical; general interest….
Pretty much, if it practices moderation or censorship, WE will be the first and most obvious targets.
We, who advocate liberty, and believe in free speech, are considered obsolete by everyone, from politicians, to journalists, to Mr and Mrs Front Porch.
You can advocate some despicable radical things, and as long as they are a part of some accepted movement, no one will care.
But advocate self-ownership and the NAP, and be critical of that which opposes such…or merely express your own beliefs and opinions, and if they do not align with the accepted PC dogma…..your comment is deleted.
How long before WE are deleted?
Hi Nunz,
It’s depressing to witness the silencing of dissent via the elimination of “open comment” sections following articles – opinion articles especially. This, of course, is being done to try to maintain the fiction of unanimity and to isolate and demoralize those (like us) who disagree with the orthodoxy of authoritarianism.
This is why I maintain an open comments policy. So long as it’s not just invective and gibberish, almost anything goes – including criticism of me!
I was banned from Zero Hedge, and never told why. Maybe it was for saying that I would fight Tyler, or maybe it was for flaming one of Tyler’s pet libtards who was allowed to post his mongoloidish articles all the time. They never told me why. I don’t think I’ve ever been banned anywhere else.
That thing about fighting Tyler was in a little exchange about Fight Club where people were saying they’d like to fight Obama, or John Podesta, or the like. I told them I’d like to fight Tyler, and the next day I was banned.
I’m actually banned by Disqus from even being allowed a Disqus login.
I haven’t read much by the Tyler, but after what I stumbled upon this morning, I’m convinced that he’s either an idiot, or a disinformation stooge.
Trying to convince people that we are not free, he mentions things like “You can’t just walk into Starbucks and use their terlit without buying anything”….
Uhhh…yeah- so if the state forced them to accomodate non-customers on their private property, that would be “freedom”? Freedom for who?
Or “You’re not free because you can’t take a dump in the middle of the sidewalk” or because “You can’t join the military and then just change your mind and walk away” (Oh noes! You enter into a contract and then complain when held to it?!)
Not ONE word about the real tyrannies, like the right to our own property/labor/wages without paying extortion. Not one word about the inability to decide the level of risk you will accept; the right to be left alone; the right to choose to as you please with your own body; etc. -just stupid stuff that has nothing to do with the real issue- and in-fact (like the Starbucks example) would constitute a further destruction freedom!
The socialists and Republicrats must love this guy…..
Ed,it’s been a decade or more since I used Disscuss. Once I had a comment deleted I’d had enough.
I’m not banned but won’t use it.
As someone close to you once said, Fuck em and feed em fish heads.
I remember that guy who was close to me. Wonder what ever happened to him? I wouldn’t use Disqus even if I wasn’t banned. There, that’ll show ’em. FTAFTFH.
From LRC today on the philosophy of “nudging” the public towards a cashless society, seems applicable to your article today about “nudging” the public towards hybrids and electric vehicles:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/07/no_author/the-cashless-society-is-a-con-and-big-finance-is-behind-it/
This “nudging” seems to be happening in many dimensions.
Remember the scene in “Atlas Shrugged” onwhere Hank Reardon has to go on the run but they froze all his bsnk accounts? Yeah that’s what the cashless economyis about. Remember how he got around it too.
Hi Michael,
What is needed for the real Galt’s Gulch to be possible is something along the lines of a hydrogen bomb for the individual. I mean this metaphorically. A trump card. Something which renders the sovereign individual immune from aggression by making the aggressor subject to extreme consequences.
I hope there is a Libertarian physicist working on just such a thing…
I think civics groups would help alot lol! Also, if every person had a powerful laser rifle — self powered, never needs ammo, can cut through a tank, super accurate at long distance, no recoil. I think that would go a long way to balance out the power. One person, nevermind groups, could do HUGE damage, therefore the criminals would have to behave. It’s all about power. Even just the “rock throwers” that we have now are a HUGE power tool. The mad dictators always have in the back of their mind that the people COULD get together, even small groups of them, COULD do huge damage. So the dictators have to mind control us all and brain damage our kids since they can’t directly force us at gunpoint yet.
Congress always has been and always will be Public Enemy #1
and the M$M Fifth Column is #2
None of it, from CAFE crappola to -20 trillion $$ on the credit card, to war on white Christians here in America and Russia, to lawless migrants and gimmegrants, could be done without the Congress of Carnies.
Hi L Garou,
Another problem is the regulatory apparat – which functions as an unelected legislature. But in the end, it’s the people who vote for and support all of this stuff who are the root cause of the problem. If people weren’t violent control freaks, envy-riddled poltroons too afraid to steal on their own but happy to have others do so on their behalf, via the ballot box – most of the problems we suffer from would not be problems at all.
That’s a big NO SHIT. YOu’d have gotten a kick out of the neighbor across the street from where my son lives in Roseville, CA. “Rosey-Palm-Ville” is middle to upper middle class,with a few VERY “ritzy” areas, but plenty of “worker bees” live there! As well as some real asshole cops! When my son and his friend go retrieve the 1966 Plymouth Fury, which looks every bit like it has been sitting in a cow pasture for three decades, and drops it off on his DRIVEWAY, having spend six hours getting that hulk from where it was near Gridley, trailering it home, and then unloading it (it was a royal bitch, especially in 100-degree weather), he called it a night (it was about 1 AM) and decided to wait until the weekend to clear out his garage to make way). Lo and behold, his bitchy neighbor, who seems to have nothing better to do than freak out if the grass gets higher than three inches, puts a sticker quoting the local ordinance about “derelict” vehicles (which, IAW my son’s plans, he would be well in compliance with). My daughter-in-law calls the city, worried, and they send over a code enforcement officer, who explains what they have to do and assures them that as long as the vehicle is either in the garage or the back yard, out of sight, by the end of the weekend, they needn’t worry about a citation or the old sled getting towed off. She then promised to talk to the neighbors…a few days later, as I’m helping him solve a fuel injection issue with his wife’s old Toyota Corolla, the nosey neighbor’s husband stomps over, indignant, and curses my Son out for “siccing the police on them” and so on. I wouldn’t even engage in a discussion with this jerk…I just said to him, “LEAVE…NOW.” I picked up my phone as if I was going to dial 911, and he got the message and left. Haven’t been bothered by those nosey twits since, and we’ve proceeded to try to resurrect this old sled.
And “some” people used to ask how we got by living in the middle of nowhere. Just fine and dandy.
What do you do when you get a late night munchy and it’s 20 miles to town? 31 C.F. freezer and 3 refrigerators.
The closest neighbor wouldn’t know or give a shit what we do, where we go or what hours we might keep.
Used to put 2 sets of studio speakers on the porch with a huge amp, preamp and graphic equalizer and rock out as late as we liked. If you really wanted to speak to us you could walk 3/8 mile past the locked gate, wonder where the pit bulls might be and take your chances with a few AFRs with night scopes. …or just drop by during the day, sit on the breezeway drinking a cold mug of keg beer and hang out if we were working in the barn. I kept plenty extra gloves including welding gloves. Just hold that steady if you would while I tack it and tell me what you have on your mind. City folk, a whole nother breed for the most part.
eric, it was that regulatory apparat that really did control the airwaves in 1960s UK the very premise of the movie Pirate Radio. It probably hasn’t changed a great deal, sorta like the FCC in the US….and they most likely considered banning rock and roll. Now they want to control the Internet and do in the form of CIA called Google.
Amazing how few know Alphabet that owns Google is a CIA construct. No telling how many arms and drug deals it took to finance both parent and subsidiary
I don’t seen Obama or Bloomberg tooling around in a Prius or Versa.
“Do as I say, not as I do” is how they and the likes of Al Gore operate.
Hi Escher,
This is how I see it:
Step A: Make conventional cars less and less affordable and more and more unappealing.
Step B: Convince people that burning gasoline is one step removed from pederasty.
Step C: Present unaffordable/impractical electrics as the “solution.”
This results in what is really wanted: The majority of people out of their cars and into automated “public” transport, living in cities, in perpetual debt slavery.
One step removed from pederasty….hilarious….
Nor did we see the “Green” Al Gore ride a bicycle or downsize to a trailer. Which, one “Tipper” gets through with divorcing his pompous fat ass, he might have to anyway!
Why doesn’t CAFE look into this instead:
1990 Honda Civic: 2165 lbs.
2017 Honda Civic: 2751 lbs.
+ 586 lbs. (+2 fat or large guys)
1990 Toyota Camry: 2811 lbs.
2017 Toyota Camry: 3340 lbs.
+ 529 lbs. (+2 fat or large guys)
1990 Ford Escort: 2242 lbs.
2017 Ford Focus: 2974 lbs.
+732 lbs. (+3 fat or large guys)
Source: Edmunds.com
By god I think I’ve found out why cars still seem to get crappy mileage, despite massive technological breakthroughs since. Stop the presses!
They should frog march all of NHTSA’s administrators out and then pardon the VW dude. NHTSA has done more to unnecessarily waste fuel and increase emissions than anybody else on the planet.
I think I’ve also stumbled upon why it seems rotors don’t last worth a shit anymore before warping:
They are turning between 19% and 33% more kinetic energy into heat at every stupid freaking stop sign(just looking at the 3 examples above). This combined with more unnecessary stop signs = warped rotors.
Just make the freaking rotors a bit larger and charge us a few bucks more for Pete’s sake.
I’m starting to think that agency’s like NHTSA and CAFE and the EPA are just jobs programs for otherwise unemployable ass hats that like to boss their intellectual superiors around.
They can all eff the f off.
Blake, I know you’re correct. Don’t have a link but there’s some good videos on YouTube of Trey Gowdy and another congressman tearing àss on bureaucrats who accomplish nothing but burning massive amounts of money.
BTW, they can all fuck off.
Recently a seemingly more prudish friend wrote he had a problem with the word frickin. I replied I had the same problem with it and many other words that meant the same thing as a four letter word and meant for a person to interpret it as the four letter word.
How do you justify some asshat word that has you saying to yourself the four letter word it would replace? If it didn’t do that then it assumes some people are unaware of the four letter word.
But then they’d be wondering what the word meant. There are really stupid people out there but not THAT stupid.
So why not simply be upright and say fuck or shit or whatever you’re trying to dress up?
My mother cussed like the proverbial sailor but wouldn’t say fuck. Made no sense to me so one day in conversation she stumbled trying to find a word for fuck. Me,being me, and having an aversion to duplicity, asked her out right why she didn’t simply say fuck and be done with it? She didn’t reply but my dad laughed dryly and shook his head.
Nobody missed a beat and continued to grab another chip, get another load of homemade pico de guilo and a drink of cold cerveza. Life is fairly simple unless you make it complicated.
Uh gallo…..or beak of rooster. Goddam auto complete.
Friggin’ ay, 8. 😉
8, fully agree! Say fuck or shit or whatever if that is what one means. Not saying there is not a time and place angle but let us speak honestly and sometimes fuck is the proper word to express a thought (other cuss words as well).
I know it, skunk. If they won’t say fuck or shit, I don’t know what the fuck kind of shit they are trying to say.
I don’t know what the fuck kind of shit they are trying to say….I’m dying here lol. Just WTF are they saying…..or trying to say?
This reminds me: When I was a kid, and would go to my sister’s house, there was this kid in her neighborhood who say things like “Mother-effer” and “Effin son of a B”- that’s the way he would say it- just like i wrote it! Apparenly, he wanted to be profane without using profanity. Even as a kid I found that very odd.
Either use profanity or don’t. What does that kid’s way accomplish?
I mean, what the H?! 😀
Hi Blake,
Amen. I’ve been singing this song for years. Obese cars (plus obese people) equals high fuel use, despite the tech “advances.” It’s startling how bad it is. That ’19 Subaru Ascent I just wrote about? My ’76 Trans-Am is only slightly thirstier, despite having an engine more than three times as large (7.5 liters vs. 2.4) with a carburetor and no computer….
eric, another thing about new cars I don’t understand is the way seatbacks are made.
Seems to be worse on Japanese and Chinese cars with a too narrow build that keeps people like me being pushed out which is damned uncomfortable. When side bolsters aren’t far enough apart it’s simply a miserable ride.
I noticed American cars aren’t this way. I even found this same problem this year with a Freightliner brand air ride seat.
I carry 25 more pounds than I should but it affects my upper back very little.
I don’t understand how the real fatties tolerate it. This is probably one reason pickups continue to gain popularity.
Dear Mr. Eight-san!
We don’t understand.
Seats in our super happy fantastic automobile have been extensively tailored to and tested by tons of average Japanese men! Work fine for man of typical size (5’2″ 120 lbs). Maybe Amelicans need Sumo version.
True enough Nunso. I had a conversation with my best friend today about automobiles. He was watching a Chip Foose show where a 65 Impala was being rezurrected.
Seriously, those seats were great with the Oldsmobile seats besting them all.
We lamented the demise of the early 70s cars that were not only bulletproof but comfortable to almost, what Some people would consider, an immoral degree.
Those statist can kiss my rusty red one. …or in dumbass speak, my àss. HEY goddammit, I’ve put i
Eight, remember when you had ROOM inside of a car??!!!
My uncle’s c. 66 Impala, or my sister’s ’72 LTD, or Vista Cruiser, years ago. They were comfortable and cavernous! You can’t even get that kinda room in most “trucks” and full-size SUVs today…..
It might’ve been just a plain old bench seat- but it allowed movement, and had room, and you didn’t feel cramped or confined. You weren’t cradled half-wrapped in a semi cocoon with a console on one side and a 3′ deep dash in front of you, tilted 45* backwards 2″ off the floor.
I’m glad I got to see a glimpse of the tail end of those days as a kid….but man, I’ve lamented their passing ever since, because they were the pinnacle, and we’ve been on the downward slope now for a long time, and the good ain’t coming back.
Maybe that’s part of why I never cared for money and never strove to acquire it- because no matter how much money you have today, you can’t have what even the poor had back in the 60’s and 70’s- materially, or otherwise.
Living in the boonies and being left alone- relatively- is about as much as anyone can have these days- and we have that. Money would just tie us more into the system- the very opposite of what we need or want.
Hi Eight,
My friend’s mom who hit the deer with her Fiat was given a Chevy Colorado pick-up as a rental. The thing is mid-sized bordering on full-size by 1990s and earlier standards but has a much more cramped cabin than my compact-sized Nissan Frontier. The new Camaro is enormous, but has literally unusable back seats. My Trans-Am is much smaller but has a vastly more comfortable interior…
Eric, inside room is only one reason I want another 93 GM pickup. With captains chairs in the front 5
5 people had plenty room and legroom. Big glove box and a huge console a person could sit on comfortably. The carpet was much better than the crap now.
4 of us used to pile in the 66 Impala, load up lots of different types of guns and ammo along with 3 big coolers and hit a turkey shoot or two. We’d return with the coolers stuffed with fresh turkeys we’d pay to have cleaned. We became famous arriving in that car and people would watch to see what ordinance we’d brought.
I made a point of bringing an H&K M 91 plus a couple ARs along with custom rifles and shotguns. In the 70s and 80s the. 06 crowd weren’t accustomed to such but the old men couldn’t resist my Garand.
Then they went to frozen turkeys and shooting at light bulbs. Then insurance wormed its way in and now it’s just memories.
Whatever can’t be stopped outright is banned by bureaucracy.
Hell, maybe we do owe the Pope something. If it weren’t for him we probably couldn’t fuck without a
Without a permit and insurance.
Eight, what do you think a marriage license is? I read somewhere (don’t remember where) that the term “fuck” originated in the Middle Ages. When a couple got married they were given a license to “Fornicate Upon Consent of the King”. Literal fucking papers. This later morphed into the modern “marriage license”.
Loneeolf, I’ve always had a problem with a marriage license. I tried to explain to the SO we should simply cohabitate since Texas automatically puts marriage labels on those who do live together and claim the same address, etc. and treat you as such in the legal sense.
Some see marriage as a contract with their religion. The contract with government is much worse in my view.
2001 Camry weighs 1880 kg or 4144 pounds. Smaller and less weighty than my full size Holden Statesman at 1467 kg or 3234 pounds.
2001 Camry weighs 1880 kg or 4144 pounds. Smaller and heavier than my full size Holden Statesman at 1467 kg or 3234 pounds.
Federal legitimate authority is over Washington DC and other federally controlled land such as national parks
and ports and forts. U.S. presidents have assumed dictatorial power.
Attorney Larry Becraft has an interesting page on federal jurisdiction, including a link to the Congressional study on the subject that took place in the 1950s:
http://home.hiwaay.net/%7Ebecraft/federaljurisdiction.html
This is only of academic interest since it really does not matter what the law says. The gunvermin do as they please and in most cases the courts will just rubber-stamp it. The King’s Men can do no wrong.
The Hitleresqe bureaucrat in the movie Pirate Radio summed it up accurately when he said “That’s the great thing about being the government : If you don’t like something you simply make it illegal “. It was the only honest thing he said in the movie.
Obama was the black Jimmy Carter, so maybe he does deserve credit for CAFE regulations. /s
Hi Feeedom,
He kind of was… hat tip, sir!