Most people who’ve read a little bit about World War II have heard of Martin Niemoller – and what he had to say about precedent becoming practice.
What happened to VW is now happening to Ford.
It is being criminally investigated over asserted “cheating” on federal emissions certification tests. But with a twist.
The verbiage makes it appear the “cheating” asserted involves the byproducts of internal combustion which can lead to air quality and health problems . . . when the dose is too high – a scientific caveat which is now universally ignored when the matter is discussed – or rather, emoted about – in our hystericized/politicized era.
These include unburned hydrocarbons (fuel vapors), oxides of nitrogen and particulates.
The latter two were the emissions alleged to be pouring forth from the tailpipes of the “cheating” VW diesels in great toxic clouds – but in fact were so minute their quantity had to be deliberately hystericized to not only almost ruin VW but to absolutely ruin diesel-powered VWs, which the company no longer sells at all.
Now we come to the latest expansion on this theme, with Ford in the crosshairs this time.
But it isn’t just Ford – or won’t be just Ford.
And it has nothing to do with “emissions” this time.
It has to do with fuel efficiency – at least superficially.
In what has to be ranked among the most stupendous – and so far successful – bait-and-switches ever performed upon the public, the regulatory apparat of the government now treats compliance with fuel economy fatwas as an “emissions” issue.
Federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) fatwas are styled “clean cars” standards – a despicable manipulation of language clearly intended to deceive the public into supporting the government’s fatwa’ing fuel economy standards, which unlike emissions standards are none of its legitimate business.
There isn’t much market support for the fuel economy fatwas; the best-selling vehicles are persistently trucks and SUVs, a clear market repudiation of the fuel economy fatwas.
The government – that is, the busybodies and control freaks who constitute “the government” – cannot stand this and have tried for decades (since the ’70s) to push people out of the vehicles they want – trucks, SUVs and larger/more powerful cars – into the small cars and hybrid/electric cars the busybodies and control freaks want to force them to drive.
Every several years, the mandatory minimum CAFE number goes up.
It was 27.5 miles-per-gallon (average, not “highway”) for many years, a number high enough to practically kill off large sedans and wagons. It now stands at just over 36 MPG – and threatens to almost double, to more than 50 MPG, if the fatwa-raising decreed by the last Decider (Obama) isn’t “rolled back” by the current Decider.
Who has been trying to do just that.
Which is why the debate isn’t being framed about the propriety – in an allegedly free country – of the feds decreeing ever-higher mandatory MPG minimums, but rather about compliance with “emissions” standards.
For example, the loathsome (because despicably dishonest) busybody organization styled Public Citizen – though “the public” never endowed it with proxy power to act as its representative, elected or otherwise – states in a release that “Ford has lobbied the Trump administration to roll back the clean car standards …”
Meaning the Obama-era 50-plus MPG fuel economy fatwa almost-doubling.
But Ford stands accused – formally, by the government – of “…taking a flawed approach to using road-load specifications to simulate how aerodynamic drag and tire friction can affect fuel economy outside testing labs.”
Italics added.
Note the bait-and-switch. A gas mileage issue becomes – hey, presto! – an emissions issue.
Public Citizen’s release goes on to say that keeping the fatwa at 36 MPG rather than almost doubling it would “…cost consumers billions at the gas pump and lead to 2.2 billion additional tons of carbon pollution.”
This is spectacular.
First, there’s the assumption that “consumers” – a loathsome term suggestive of hogs at the trough – are too stupid to buy the types of vehicles which meet their needs and budget and that Ford and the rest of the industry is determined to not to build the types of vehicles which meet buyers needs and budgets, because they’d rather not make money.
That, instead, Ford and the rest of the industry are forcing “gas guzzlers” on buyers who have no choice but to buy them.
The problem is that they do have a choice.
There are numerous high-economy cars available for sale, including hybrids and EVs. The problem – from the standpoint of the busybodies and control freaks – is that many people do not choose them.
Because they don’t meet their needs – or their budget.
What the vile SOBs at Public Citizen (and who constitute “the government”) never mention in these eructations is the fact that “saving gas” costs money. The technology necessary to jump from 36 MPG to 50-plus does not pop into existence at the touch of the government’s fairy stick.
Hybrids like the Prius make the 50-plus CAFE cut, but they also cost several thousand dollars more than an otherwise-similar car that averages 35.
EVs cost tens of thousands more.
Direct-injected/turbocharged/ASS-equipped engines also cost money. Often, more money than whatever is putatively “saved” at the pump.
If the total cost of owning – not just fueling – vehicle X is greater than vehicle Y, then many people will choose Y rather than X. Assuming they have the choice.
It is not rocket science.
Additionally, the car industry currently makes all kinds of vehicles, in response to market forces. Vehicles that run the gamut from 13 MPG Hellcats to 58 MPG hybrids like the Prius.
It is preposterous to suggest – as Public Citizen has – that Ford would ignore market forces and not build vast fleets of 50-plus MPG small cars, hybrids and infinite MPG EVs… if there were strong demand for them.
It would be like Starbucks refusing to sell coffee.
The problem isn’t that high-economy cars aren’t available. It’s that other kinds of vehicles are, too.
The busybodies and control freaks intend to eliminate choice – by forcing the 50-plus MPG fatwa down our throats – which they intend to do by greasily framing it as an “emissions” issue.
Note the line about “2.2 billion tons of carbon” in the Public Citizen press release; that is, of C02.
This is the new “emission” – politically necessary, because the old ones have been almost entirely eliminated. Which eliminated the justification for the regulations, which failed to get rid of IC-engined cars because the engineers succeeded in reducing their harmful emissions to nearly nil.
Thus, Ford stands accused of “emitting” lots of C02 – even though the entire atmosphere contains less than 1 percent C02 and the amount “emitted” by every IC car which ever idled amounts to a tiny fraction of that fraction.
And this C02 is vital for life.
To conflate C02 with unburned hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen and particulates – things which at high dosages can lead to smog and health problems in human beings – with a non-reactive gas that has nothing at all to do with any of those things at any dosage – and to characterize questioning or opposing this as “rolling back clean car” standards is a species of effrontery that would have left Dr. Goebbels speechless.
It isn’t just Ford they’re after, either. It is the internal combustion-powered car – no matter who makes it.
And they’re after it because they hate it. They hate the mobility and freedom it represents. “Emissions” has always been a stalking horse – the plausible window dressing that hid their hatred of the car as such.
Now the drapes have been pulled back. But most people are too busy looking at their cell phones to catch the view.
. . .
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“Now the drapes have been pulled back. But most people are too busy looking at their cell phones to catch the view.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why social media was invented; to distract the “sheep” from their inevitable fate at the slaughterhouse (provided there’s no pushback, that is).
To: martin Niemuller
From: Jarhead Mike-Foxtrot
Let me Explain Something to ya..
(Eastern European Ashkenazi) Jew = Marxist-Leninist = Communist/Bolshevik = Trade Unionist/Revolutionary
Just to simplify things to the Lowest common denominator.
To Jarhead Mike-Foxtrot
From: Jason Flinders
Let me Explain Something to ya…
I have known many (Eastern European Ashkenazi) Jews who are NOT Marxist-Leninist, Communist/Bolshevik, Trade Unionist/Revolutionary. On the other hands, there are MANY non-Jews who fall into that category. (Not to mention that the base philosophies that underpin Communism have a long history that go back well before the Bolsheviks saw the light of day.
As usual you are simplifying things beyond the Lowest common denominator with nonsensical garbage from the Stormfront crowd.
Using your “logic”, it is the Catholics who are responsible for opening up the floodgates to an endless stream of third-world immigrants to the United States.
Damn, Jason. You’re triggered again. Not every comment on Ashenazim comes from Stormfront, you know. It’s a fact that the Ashkenazim aren’t semitic people but they are jews, some families of them are even practicing religious jews. Some of them, however, are kabbalists and that type of Ashkenazi have been zionists for generations and were the driving force behind the establishment of Israel.
You would do better to read some of the history of those people and learn a little about them instead of mounting these knee-jerk defenses of people you don’t even know.
I do know a lot of Jews (I used to live in Hymie-town, remember?) and I’m sorry but none display the negative characteristics that so many bigots like to paint all Jews with. (Oh, I know that not all those kind of comments come from Stormfront. Some also come from the Daily Stormer. 🙂 And various other sources of course.)
The kind of evils that bigots lay at the feet of “the Jews” can also be laid at the feet of non-Jews who have their own brands of mysticism and methods of swindling, brutalizing, and enslaving their neighbors.
As I said, using the same “logic” displayed here one might well blame “The Catholics” for flooding America with culturally-incompatible 3rd-world immigrants because Ted Kennedy’s 1965 immigration bill did away with the old quota system. If you have problems with specific people, name them. I have problems with Ted Kennedy, may he rot in hell. I don’t have problems with Catholics in general and don’t defame them because of the things that Ted Kennedy did. Likewise, I despise George Soros but do not vent my spleen at “the Jews” because of what he has done and continues to do.
We all have our hot button issues. For one of our regulars here it is vehicular bicycle riding. For others it might be any number of issues. For me it is senseless bigotry, which as far as I am concerned has no place in libertarianism. The problem with blind hatred is just that – it makes one blind to everything but what one wants to see.
Jason, I must agree. Yes, I have a problem with Israel’s govt. It has blockaded Gaza for a dozen years or more. A blockade is an act of war by every country on earth. This has nothing to do necessarily, with Judaism.
You and I and every other US citizen are blamed personally for what the US does all over the world. I know it first hand from being in Mexico and having “some” people his “tousant needles” behind my back, never to my face.
That’s as stupid as me accusing them of being stupid duped fools of the Pope. Yes, some are but many are not.
I think most country’s people know the people of this country are as much victims of the evil of Bush/Cheney and their collusion with foreign powers to create tyranny as the rest of the world. We’re being soaked in ever-increasing taxes and every-increasing loss of freedom.
If I really wanted to pick on any one religion it would certainly be Catholicism but I believe most follower are simply duped and have no active role in the evil they can’t see that comes from the Vatican.
I have never believed any large portion of the middle east wanted to wage war. It only requires 5% or so of any population to wage war and control public perception, less perhaps in this country than there.
I understand this is a car blog but theres quite a difference between zionism and judaism. I’ll leave it at that.
Before I retired, someone put an article from a car magazine on his work station. Some high school automotive instructor borrowed a 1920 something Buick to show his students how much cleaner new cars were.
They took the old Buick and tuned it up by ear. When they did, it passed modern smog standards!
Apparently, the old, long stroke motors had time to do a complete burn, Less efficient but much cleaner.
OK, so this is slightly off-topic but since Eric mentioned Volkswagen/diesel gate and the fact that VW got completely out of the diesel game because of it I notice that local VW dealers and others are selling slightly used TDI Jettas, Golfs and such. These appear to be the recalled TDIs due to the “scandal”. So I guess VW changed the software and are putting them up for sale.
I’m sorely tempted to get one. Would that be a good idea or not?
Hi Bruce,
There is nothing – nothing – wrong with these cars and much that is very right with them. The only press cars I’ve ever driven that exceeded the EPA mileage claims were TDI VWs… 50-plus on the highway in a Jetta TDI is easily done. I love these cars and would buy one myself tomorrow were I not so po’!
Thanks for the quick response. Most of the ones I’ve seen are from 2013 up to 2016 or so. Going for $12k to $16k with anywhere from about 20k miles to 50 or 60k. Drove one in fact. Pretty nice. Do you know anything about the reliability/longevity of the 6 speed DSG automatic trannys?
Here is an oldie montage from the Nurburgring. Notice how nearly every Beetle that rolls lands on its wheels, and the occupants jump out seemingly unscathed. The lethal ones look like mostly BMWs; who would have guessed? Roll me in a Beetle any day, lol!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAIxdwOFnQk
So I’m actually kind of lost. Did Ford actually do ANYTHING here other than beg the government to hold off on their lip-flappingly insane standards increase? Is that, like, a criminal thing now?
I’m actually starting to lose track of how many companies have been “gone after” over supposed fuel economy/emissions garbage. First it was Volkswagen, then Fiatsler, then Nissan, now Ford, and Harley-Davidson was in there somewhere too. I wonder when the eco-fascists are going to realize that they are the problem here?
Hi Chuck,
“I wonder when the eco-fascists are going to realize that they are the problem here?”
Umm, I’m going to guess never. You see, the idea that they’re mistaken and misguided but are honestly trying to “save the planet”, may be true for a few useful idiots on the left, but it is definitely not true for the architects of this global scam. It’s about power and overhauling the political and economic systems of the world to favor themselves.
Cheers,
Jeremy
True. But I am talking about the truly misguided ones. It seems some people are so lost in eco-la-la land that they really don’t realize what’s happening here.
I remember a day a few years ago, when I went to the grocery store and stopped to read the car magazines as I sometimes do. In one of them – I don’t remember which – was a column about Volkswagen’s reveal of some new advanced fuel economy concept car which used aerodynamics and a diesel engine to achieve MPGs well into the triple digits. However, during the introduction of this concept, one of the company brass came on stage and basically begged TPTB to lay off the regulations for a while, because no one could deal with said regulations anymore.
A while later, Dieselgate hit and everything clicked for me. They didn’t want to “cheat” the “regulations”. They really wanted to be good little German boys and follow all the rules. But they couldn’t. Following the rules has become physically impossible with current or even near-future tech – at least while maintaining the illusion of somewhat-desirable cars. Mark my words, literally everyone is “cheating” to some degree, because there is no other choice.
To the people running this thing, of course, this is the whole point. Whatever proponents of “certain alternatives” might say, the car IS movement at this point in time. You restrict people to bicycles, or public transit, or their own feet, you take away 90% of their ability to move around at will – to get away, in other words.
Hi Chuck,
In every power game there are people who are derisively referred to as useful idiots. This is not really fair as those people are usually well meaning but not well informed. The elite manipulates their basically decent concern and creates a narrative that “only bad people” could disagree with that narrative. By extension, belief in the narrative makes one a “good person”. Thus, belief in the narrative becomes an expression of one’s morality and an excuse for vilifying those who disagree, who, after all, have shown themselves to be immoral. One can see this play out in many areas; laudable conservationism is transformed into anti-human environmentalism, concern for equal rights becomes divisive identity politics and SJW hysteria. The goal is conflict, as the elite wants us to squabble amongst ourselves and therefore fail to see the common enemy.
Finally, bicycles will be on the chopping block eventually. Before cars, bicycles were a powerful symbol of freedom. At one point, bicycle racing was the most popular sport in America. Conservative preachers railed against the freedom that bicycles provided to women. Bicycles provided our first real freedom as children, I suspect you enjoyed that as well. Sadly, the safety cult has mostly destroyed this, children don’t ride miles from home, unsupervised and helmet-less anymore. Independence, an innate love of freedom and the desire for adventure were instilled in the hearts of children largely through the bicycle. Just as you lament the loss of “car culture”, I lament the loss of “bike culture”, especially among children. Deny children the ability to ride bikes freely and unsupervised and they will grow into adults who want to take away your car.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
This is very well-said. Thank you. Your connection of bicycling as kids and affection for cars/driving when grown up is so very true.
And it’s so very sad that connection has been severed…
Darn, Eric – beat me to the compliment.
QHM
Hi Eric, and everyone else who responded.
This gladdens my heart.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy, the subject of bicycles always reminds me of just how much this country has changed….and why.
My friends and I used to jump on our bikes with our .22 rifles and race to the gravel pit where you could safely shoot and not have to worry about a bullet doing other than eventually embedding itself in a wall or dirt….or gravel.
I have no doubt that an LEO seeing same right now would be holding the same age children at gunpoint and calling for the cavalry.
And to add to that, it would only be a couple years later we’d be doing same in our hot rods, the farm pickup. Put a knob on the steering wheel it became a Corvette with a bed ha ha.
A couple years after that at the ripe old age of 14 we got our DL and could flaunt our freedom. A fellow I work with also had trucking in his life growing up and got his commercial license at 14 so he could drive a family water truck, the same business in the same area some of my family had.
I don’t see it so much as the change in people, just the change in the power of the state.
It wasn’t many years ago I’d see a crewcab dually Dodge diesel coming and not be able to see the driver. It was a friend’s kids come to fish. He didn’t like the idea of them driving 10 miles on 4 wheelers but figured they’d be fine in a big truck…..and they were. Joan Claybrook wired to the front end would have been a great touch. At least she’d have kept the deer scared off.
Hey Eight,
“I don’t see it so much as the change in people, just the change in the power of the state.”
As the State grows in power and intrusiveness, it enables those once derided and shunned (busy bodies and control freaks), to wreak revenge on a culture that reviles them. Slowly they insinuate themselves into positions of bureaucratic power and attack the prior, noble values from within. Lacking the character and strength to be natural leaders, they hide behind the “authority” of others (generally sociopaths) and work to impose their vision on others.
Absolutely convinced, though unjustifiably so, of their moral superiority, they resent others who do not share their values; and seek to win, not through the strength of reason, but by subterfuge. These people are far more dangerous than the overt power seekers, as they hide their malicious intent, even to themselves, behind a veil of benevolent concern.
Neitzsche termed this trait ressentiment:
“While the noble man lives in trust and openness with himself, the man of ressentiment is neither upright nor naive nor honest and straightforward with himself. His soul squints; his spirit loves hiding places, secret paths and back doors, everything covert entices him as his world, his security, his refreshment; he understands how to keep silent, how not to forget, how to wait, how to be provisionally self-deprecating and humble. A race of such men of ressentiment is bound to become eventually cleverer than any noble race; it will also honor cleverness to a far greater degree…”
Cheers,
Jeremy
I was just thinking about this on today’s ride. A few kids were riding along the same route, and we exchanged pleasantries, just as I would with any adult or other cyclist. They probably didn’t notice, or care, but I know that when I was a kid the same thing happened to me and I learned a little something about mutual respect.
That and that I completely understood, in a physical way, engine lugging and when to shift a manual transmission without any instruction or tachometer.
The real reason VW was broken was that they had come up with a car that had fuel economy in the triple figures. Now that would have really derailed the “green” [aka communist] agenda. And we can’t have that now Especially with green stuff killing millions of birds, poisoning the ocean, poisoning the land with the wastes that come from making windmill motors, etc. And now the greens want to spray 4 million tons of sulfuric acid into the air to kill off the oceans, and thereby all life on the planet.
That would smash the need for ‘green cars’ or a green agenda. If a diesel has triple digit fuel economy, pollution won’t be an issue. That would pollute even LESS than an EV would! Plus, it offers convenience and economy of ownership that an EV simply can’t at this point in time…
well said indeed. A ten speed got me anywhere in town. An exhilarating feeling. A car got me anywhere on the east coast. Although perhaps some of those car trips werent the greatest idea in the world. We’ve lost a lot.
“Although perhaps some of those car trips werent the greatest idea in the world.”
Are you kidding? Those are always the greatest idea in the world.
Jeremy,
When I was in HS, I had an old Rollfast single speed I got around on-good times! For the most part, central NJ is fairly flat, so that was no issue. But yeah, I rode EVERYWHERE on that thing. I and my friends thought nothing of going 8, 10, 12, or even 15 miles one way-sans helmets! The only riders who wore helmets in those days were hardcore racers and serious riders; the rest of us couldn’t be bothered to wear a helmet on our bicycles. It was en empowering feeling of FREEDOM & INDEPENDENCE-my first taste of freedom…
I also rode that old Rollfast to work at my summer job, which was 9 miles one way. I liked riding because I was doing it for myself. My mom offered to bring me to work, but I refused; unless it was to bring me home when a nasty thunderstorm came in, I rode. I not only did it for the freedom; I did it help my mom out too. My parents had divorced by then, and my mom didn’t have it easy after that; she worked a lot, and I didn’t want to burden her with having to get ME to work too.
It’s interesting you brought up the freedom of women. I didn’t know about preachers railing against bicycles and women, but I knew that bicycles were a big part of women’s freedom. The History Channel, before they went to the stupid reality shows, talked about this in one of their documentaries.
Bicycles are freeing in another way. Because you power them yourself; because you get a good WORKOUT on a bike; they’re freeing in that they give you good health. Health is like a triangle, with the legs comprised of one’s physical, mental, and emotional health. I find that when I exercise regularly, I feel better. I also think clearer. TPTB would be against bikes for that reason too.
Now that you brought it up, I think that the TPTB will HAVE to go after the bicycle eventually. It’s been too big an instrument of freedom for too many people. Freedom is the one thing that TPTB hate more than anything else, so anything associated with it has to go. This includes the bicycle.
But yeah, your comment made me think that you hardly see ANY kids riding these days; the few there are riding are wearing helmets and are with their helicopter parents…
Kids riding bicycles? What about kids WALKING/HIKING anywhere, at all, without helocopter parents hovering nearby? When kids no longer start by walking to school at an early age, it’s no wonder bicycle riding, and then automobile lusting-after suffer later on.
I was a Scoutmaster, oh goodness, 15 years ago. We (the fathers who remembered a less structured Scouting experience) tried very hard to bring back something that was, even then, still in the Scoutmaster’s Handbook, the Patrol Leaders HB, etc…patrol campouts separate from Troop campouts. A patrol of 6-8 guys going off nearby, doing their own thing in the woods. It was done in my day as a Scout, and was quite the eye-opening experience for me and my patrol. Nothing doing. The Troop Committee shrieked about Dahmer and forest fires, and lost Scouts dying horrible deaths in the woods. We then advised of our own experiences as kids, hiking 2-3 miles away to go to the swimming hole, etc. Pearl-clutching shock ensued.
This is why the USA is dying. Young men not being allowed to develop as young men, with interests peculiar to young men, like cars.
Can’t have any of that ‘toxic masculinity’ now, can we?
Nail > Head. When normal male behavior is considered “toxic”, then men stop behaving that way. The whole of US society now has no conception of training young men to be young men, discipline, risk assessment, problem solving…oh, nothing important, just those things that brought us Western Civilization. Not embracing personal transportation freedom is but one tiny canary in the bigger, firedamp-filled coal mine.
Hi Crusty…
Amen. I very much wish I’d had a son, to train up at least one replacement for myself.
Maybe I will get the chance.
It still happens the right way. We’re just the minority now. When my kids were young I sought out the right environment and cliches to get them involved in and ‘nudged’ them that direction. We let them make mistakes and suffer the consequences. The schools teach nothing important anymore so you have to make sure yourself. We picked right and their group of young friends stand so far ahead of their peers they will have good lives, baring uncontrollable scenarios. When I was a youth sports coach, I did similar things and most parents said wow this is what is missing, and some fought me. I gave them a chance for their kids sake, and mostly it worked. There is hope if there is effort.
Hi Crusty,
I second/amen all you’ve written – as an Eagle Scout myself, but from a time when Scouting was about just the things you’ve described. The Scoutmaster of my troop was one of my best friend’s dad. He was a Korean War vet (think Clint in Grand Torino). He took us on marches that most grown men would have found challenging – and we were 13-14-15-year-old boys. Three days on the AT, 15 miles a day with full packs. We did the entire C&O Canal (I have the patches to prove it). We grumbled and cussed (under our breath) but we loved the “old bastard,” as we called him. He helped us become men.
I owe him a debt I’ll never be able to repay.
There are Troops and Scoutmasters still existing as you describe…but, they exist despite the best efforts of BSA, and your local Council to destroy them. You have to fly under the Council’s radar, vet the parents (not so much the Scouts coming in, it’s almost never the Scouts, almost always the parents causing trouble) for their mindset and philosophy of life, etc. In the olden days, the Scouts came, the parents (except those few fathers needed to enable the Scouts learning) stayed well out of the Scoutmaster’s way. Good stuff can only happen for young men that way. Scouting is not a father (or heaven forfend, mother)/son “experience”.
Civil Air Patrol’s Cadet program has followed BSA into irrelevance, too, and for related reasons. Too many shylock shysters and pearl-clutching soy-men out there creating legal havoc for any organization who might dare to train young men to be young men, and not soy-men.
The owner of Specialized bicycles has/had ADHD but cycling helps him control it. He’s attempting to study if there’s any science to back up his thesis.
https://www.bicycling.com/news/a20010881/riding-is-my-ritalin-how-one-cyclist-gained-control-over-his-adhd/
Exercise contributes to the production of seratonin. I think there have already been connections of increased seratonin and reduction of symptoms of such as ADHD.
But they bought indulgences from Elon right? That should have washed away their carbon sins.
There was an article over at Are Technica (the place for all SJW techie-types) about how converting coal electric generation to natural gas won’t really help as much as claimed because of methane leaks. I mentioned nuclear power, and most of the comment voting was pretty mixed. But there were plenty of harsh replies about how nuclear can’t possibly be brought into the mix, for the usual FUD reasons.
In light of the Russia”gate” investigation I see now why the Democrats and left are convinced the American people were duped into voting for Trump. Because they themselves are so easily swayed by popular opinion.
“What you say about others, you are yourself.” -Dutch proverb
methane isn’t the fearful thing the alarmists claim either. Remember methane is also a product of biology. The earth can handle it. There would be a question of too much at one time in a particular place but methane isn’t the disaster alarmists claim it to be.
Plus there’s so much natural gas right now oil companies are flaring it off. Flaring so much off that the fuel economy standards and everything else applied to us peasants is comparatively meaningless. The energy efficiency forced on us is likely wiped out by the practice of flaring off natural gas at present. Fedgov does nothing and this high volume of burning off natural gas has been going on since Obama was president.
So, are they going to now outlaw burritos and black beans? 🙂
Burritos don’t get me going; what sets me off is some good steak and baked potato smothered in butter-oh, yeah! Then, I make PLENTY of gas…. 🙂
First, they came for my Ford, then for my frijoles and steak…hmmm, good meme for the whole Public Citizen Ford curb-stomp attempt!
Per a friend’s logic of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, I take all the D and R bullshit plus the bs like Public Citizen and such. It’s easy to keep an eye open for what they have up their sleeve when they constantly think you’re going to give them money.
Month after month and year after year you get a good idea of what is coming next.
Hi Crusty,
Nader (and Claybrook) are the archetypical authoritarian control freaks masquerading as Do Gooders. It amazes me that no one ever asks who gave these people – and those like them – proxy power to represent “the public”… among other things.
Nader, the loon, killed the Corvair, having never driven a car in his life. The Corvair was a good US domestic attempt at capturing the compact market on the part of GM. Even the swing-axle versions handled well enough if you kept the tire pressures in the specified range. The 4-CV-joint versions were really, really fine cars. Killing it was an inflection point in the curve of mediocrity trending in GM in the late ’60’s. The next “innovation” after that was the Vega…need I say more?
Claybrook, well, when you look in the dictionary for a picture of “pure evil”, you see her mug.
My best friend’s cousin had a Spider Turbo that was wicked. In the quarter it would probably have outrun some of the muscle cars.
Nat gas has forced more pipelines and collection points for such in Tx. You can’t flare natgas now without it containing a dangerous(not much)amount of H2S.
We only smell methane getting close to feedlots. Otherwise, we mainly smell “other people’s money”. We have a gas plant close to us. When the wind is just right we get a good dose of it. I’m so accustomed to it doesn’t really affect me.
The joules of energy released when pipeline companies flare off and purge the lines is ridiculous. Could power a city, the flare can be seen 20 miles away at night.
If this insanity continues, the auto industry will go out of business. Mobility will become too expensive to purchase for the average person and what may be available will not be wanted by the unwashed masses. I can see a future where we will be ending up in the same situation like the Cuban people. No more new autos and what’s left will be repaired with “tape & glue” provided that uncle doesn’t outlaw previously built autos for not meeting today’s or tomorrow’s standards. But not to worry, our masters will still be accommodated with new limos and huge SUVs no matter what. Just remember, “Socialism is for the people, not for the Socialist”.
Of course. The wealthy will always have a workaround. So they plan anyway. But as economies of scale breakdown they may find a lot of things unaffordable to them as well.
Hmmm, this is a rather interesting thought. Had not considered the Cuban model as an end-point. Maybe the Mad Max model, but you’re right, the Cuban one is more likely. So, I wonder if Eric could do an article on the recent cars most likely to be for the US what the ’57 Desoto or ’56 Chevy are for Cuba? Probably not any of the recent rolling Borg cubes…maybe a 200x VW TDI, or a 199x Cummins BT-equipped Dodge truck?
The reason for Global Warming was to do exactly what you have wrote. They have dumbed down the masses so much while throwing massive amounts of GW indoctrination 24 and 7 at the new generations that it has become a cult. No matter what logic or other scientific proof you reply with, you are a denier. I have read that many of these newly minted believers now want deniers fined and/or incarcerated for speaking blasphemy.
This is a war which they are winning. The major part of this war was their taking control of public schools and college system. Then they needed a bogey man. The first was Global Cooling but didn’t fly because the boomers were too educated and could think it out…. then Global Warming. At this time they had one generation indoctrinated and could make it fly. Problem was they called the end of the world too soon,,, Year 2000. (They’re doing it again saying we only have 12 years) Then there was Climate Gate which showed how all government bought off ‘scientists’ were colluding. When it became clear the world wasn’t ending in floods and heat they had to postpone it. Since the term Global Warming was now being laughed at they changed it to Climate Change. Now, no matter what the weather did, they could blame it on CC. ‘They’ consider CO2 a warming gas even though plants use it to sustain their life. Eliminating it would eliminate most life on the planet, including us. Most of the younger gens are to indoctrinated to fully comprehend this.
It all boils down to…. control. They now have three generations (going on four) of brainwashed idiots. They are starting to enact truly stupid fatwas. New York outlawing Hot Dogs,,, Reducing school children’s meat at lunch by 50% and no meat at all on Monday to fight CC. This will make them even more unhealthy. They’re already forced to take over 72 vaccines before they graduate. Autism has went from 1 in over 4000 to 1 in 45 and still increasing. Now if you don’t want vaccinated or don’t want your children vaccinated you are called a anti-vaxer. Sound familiar…. anti-Climate Change,,, anti-clean air,,, you name it.
IMHO I believe they intend to decimate the human population by these vaccinations. It’s about the only way they can do it without including them as well.
So the entire scheme is to dumb everyone down where they will believe anything their told,,, control their every activity,,, then when robots are capable to do ordinary tasks humans are doing now they can eliminate the majority of us…………….. all to save Mother Earth. It is the only conclusion I can logically come up with from watching their actions. Differing opinions are welcome.
Geez,,, the comment didn’t look that long in the little box!
Tony Heller has shown that climate alarmism goes back well into the 19th century. Of course it is as people became more conditioned that the alarmism began to take hold across the population.
Today’s CO2 driven “global warming” also has deep roots but its political traction comes from the idea of “technocracy” where currency would be energy based and each person would only get so much currency per unit time. In other words a system of centrally managing the population. The CO2 driven “global warming” nonsense fits the purposes here quite well.
I write this, apr 27, 2019 at 1pm local time as I look out my window and a steady snowfall. I do not recall it snowing this late into the year in my lifetime. However it does fit the actual trends in the measurements. The global warmists who said my area would become like the deep south by now will come up with some convoluted magic-bullet-like nonsense about how this snow is caused by warming. For it is a political-religious belief system.
Uh, they already have. I have actually had someone (a Brit, are you surprised) tell me there are “valid scientific reasons” why global warming would lead to earlier winters. It really is the Swiss Army knife of excuses to them.
Hey Chuck,
Yep, in the early days of the “pause”, they started peddling this idea. See here for an example: https://www.livescience.com/3751-global-warming-chill-planet.html
They also claimed that the heat was hiding, see this funny take from Watts Up With That; https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/28/the-top-ten-reasons-global-temperature-hasnt-warmed-for-the-last-15-years/
But, the most successful method of avoiding the obvious is to pretend the “pause” never happened. This is done by repeated manipulation of the temperature record, accompanied by hysterical headlines like, “scientists now believe that it’s worse than we thought”.
Just once I’d like to see a headline like this, “Scientists insist that, while inaccurately reporting the temperature record multiple times over the last three decades, they’ve got it right this time.”
Cheers,
Jeremy
Here’s an interesting article about EVs: https://www.autonews.com/blogs/new-york-sets-example-shift-evs
The article talks about NYC’s recently enacted congestion pricing scheme, and how similar schemes can be used to speed EV adoption. Though the whole piece is worth reading, the key paragraphs are below.
In fact, with a team of New York state agencies and industry partners promoting electric vehicles at the auto show, in a city that has just agreed to “congestion pricing” to discourage gasoline-powered traffic in Midtown Manhattan, New York is poised to emerge as a national leader in the e-mobility revolution.
For proponents of e-mobility, the New York approach can be a model for speeding the local, state and national adoption of EVs with all the benefits in cleaner air and quieter streets this revolution can provide.
So, the congestion pricing will be used to discourage the use of ICEVs in Manhattan; it says so right there. It then goes on to say that NYC’s approach can be used as “a model to speed national adoption of EVs”.
The type of vehicle has absolutely nothing to do with traffic congestion. Big city traffic congestion has been there since before the automobile. So of course it is a method by which to achieve an agenda. EVs are expensive and they will remain so. Thus for them to be profitable the cheaper competition must be made not cheaper or eliminated through the only institution capable of doing so, government.
Sometimes I think I am the only person whomever bothered to go to the library and read late 19th century and early 20th century publications at random. And maybe that is true. Where I went to college magazines from the 1890s to the 1950s were bound and sitting on library shelves. I walked through the stacks and picked whatever looked good to me. I would sit down and flip through and read what I wanted. Zeppelin air ships to big city horse poop problems. A couple years later those stacks were behind locked doors and could only be accessed in certain hours by request. No random browsing.
The case for the automobile was often an environmental one. The dead horses, the urine, the poop, etc was a huge pollution problem. Ever wonder why people put up with the pollution considered most foul today? It was better than what they had put up with before.
But what will be the difference today? approximately nothing. A very small number against a very very small number at most.
Brent,
The article ITESLF says that congestion pricing will be used to spur the switch to EVs.
“The case for the automobile was often an environmental one.”
Interesting!
The books at the library of my college were all at least 5 inches thick and had roman numerals I’d never seen before. They were probably just for show, all the cool stuff was probably burned.
And in regards to your other comment, I had always considered May 1 to be the start of reliably warm weather. It is in the 40s today. We’ll see how reliable that marker is this time. The climate is changing alright. But I’m sure we’ll get some “hottest in recorded history” highs this summer.
Well, my university had stacks full of really good engineering tomes…and, a very good collection of Motor, Car and Driver, Motor Trend, Road and Truffle, etc. going as far back as the respective magazine’s start. Don’t remember lots of navel-gazing enviroNDSAP articles in them, though I was mainly drooling over 2002tii’s, Cortina Lotuses (or is that Lotii?), Hemi Darts, E-Type Jags, etc. back then.
Hi Crusty,
As a kid, I read Yates and Bedard and the others- who were what I aimed to become. Today, a car journalist who likes cars (or understands how cars work) is as rare a thing as virgin at the Bunny Ranch!
Funny you mention those giants. You’re doing pretty good yourself with this little ole blog, at least from a journalistic point of view, BTW.
I used to love Car and Driver especially in the late 70’s, they were the anti-Motor Trend. Csere and his excellent technical articles, Jean Lindamood and her “mind rotting torque” essays, David E. Davis spinning a yarn about a friend taking a sick wife to the hospital in England…in a Bristol 405, IIRC. “One does not cane a Bristol Six until the oil temperature rises above 180 degrees” stuck with me for some odd reason, all these years. Bedard skewering some corporate loon. Gently skewering the last MG Midget, while writing a tender love sonnet to its better characteristics. You’re right Eric, that was real automotive journalism at its apex.
WTF are they going after Ford? Because they made products people-gasp-want?! I bought a Focus last year because it was what I WANTED! Imagine that! I wanted something that was small, practical, economcal, and FUN. The Focus is the first car I’ve had in a while where, if I have some extra time, I’ll hit the local back roads with it. The only other car that really meets those requirements in all trim levels is the Mazda3. I liked the Ford better, so that’s what I got.
Ah, there aren’t enough people BUYING Ford cars, so they’re discontinuing all their cars but the Mustang. That’s one reason why I got the Focus; I wanted to get one while I still COULD. I don’t blame Ford for making their decision; they can’t make what won’t sell, because they won’t be in BUSINESS very long if they do; for them it was a BUSINESS DECISION. Now, because they made a business decision; because they’re following the market and responding accordingly; the gov’t is going after them? WTF?
Ford is still making sedans and such they are only called cross over SUVs because marketing and government. Look at a 1940s Ford 4 door sedan and then something like a current Ford Edge. Nobody from the 1940s would find a line up of modern CUVs shocking at all.
You raise a very good point. In some ways, automotive design HAS come full circle.
The problem is that simplicity and efficiency have gone by the wayside, and what we are seeing now is how much unreliable garbage can be stuffed into given size container. My Model A coupe is more comfortable to drive than most of the current crop of CUV’s even though it is considerably smaller in physical size. And the flathead 8 coupled to a Merc 3 speed is WEAK by today’s standards, pushing MAYBE 150hp on a good day, but in a light little car scoots along pretty good. That flathead wouldn’t budge one of Ford’s bloated 21st century analogues to the ’46 Fordor that it came out of.
If Uncle would stay out of it, we CAN do a better job – I point again to my ’64 C10 as automotive perfection – the old 230 isn’t fast, the 3 on the tree requires a little finesse, the drum brakes require some adjustment here and there and it really needs new wood in the bed. But…….At 55 years old, it fires up instantly with very little manipulation of the choke, The A-arm IFS and coil sprung rear provide ride quality superior to any current ½ ton offerings, you can reach anything in the center of the bed from over the side rails, and this is a big one……..Saturday I treated it to New points, plugs and wires, and 5 quarts of fresh SAE30 plus filters (oil, air, fuel). All of this set me back just shy of $80 and took almost 4 hours (taking my time, cleaning things up as I went along and just enjoying a spring day with a couple of “fine” domestic “macrobrews”). I’m still debating putting a Porter muffler on the old six, just to get the old “pissed off bumblebee” straight six exhaust note back out there in the public.
I’m still kicking myself that I sold my 1965 short stepside!
Same as yours except it had the SM420 four speed which meant I could take it up some jeep trails even though only 2wd.
An early stock ford flathead V8 was something like 82hp as I recall.
That was quite a lot for a car for the masses back then.