For years, the insurance mafia has been trying to get people to voluntarily plug a driving monitor into their car, using the prospect of a “discount” as an inducement. Most people don’t fall for this because they understand that the “discount” is of a piece with advertising that promises you’ll save “up to 20 percent” but actually save you nothing or very little – while always paying more.
Well, your next new car may come standard with the driver monitor already plugged in. Embedded, actually – which means you can’t remove it. Or say no thanks to it. If you buy the car, you buy the embedded narc.
Allstate and Nationwide just announced they’ve “partnered” with Ford to pre-wire most 2020 (and likely all 2021) model Ford and Lincoln vehicles with the embedded tech to “participate” in what is styled the Milewise program, which uses the vehicle’s in-car WiFi to transmit to the mafia data about your driving habits.
Elena Ford, chief customer experience officer at Ford Motor Company says: “This is the latest way we’re improving the customer experience . . . (it) makes getting insurance easier for connected-vehicle customers to cover one of their biggest investments – their vehicle – while saving money.”
The spiel goes on to promise “savings” of (here it comes) “up to 40 percent.”
Ostensibly, the monitoring is merely of the mileage driven – you pay less if you drive less – but what people aren’t being told is that the vehicles so equipped are fully capable of transmitting data about everything.
And not just your driving, either. But let’s start there.
How far you drive and where – as well as how fast. Anything faster than the posted speed limit being, of course, synonymous with “unsafe” driving – and we all know what that means.
Bye-bye “up to 40 percent” savings. More like 40 percent surcharge.
It will be like taking a radar trap with you every time you drive. Or rather, being unable to drive without running afoul of a radar trap.
These in-car narcs also monitor how quickly you accelerate. Even if you never actually break the speed limit, if you accelerate too quickly – for saaaaaaaaaaaaafety! – then you can expect to not get that discount. Same goes for braking “too abruptly” – another indicator (according to the mafia’s metrics) of “unsaaaaaaafe” driving.
Basically, if you don’t hew to the “defensive driving” orthodoxies enumerated in the DMV manual – i.e., total mindless obedience to every traffic law, including full stops at every stop sign, the use of a turn signal every time you make a turn, never making a right turn on red, no passing if it means “speeding” – even if that’s the only safe way to pass – and eggshell-under-the-pedal accelerator and brake pedal inputs.
The tech also knows whether you’re buckled up for saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety, using a cell phone and even where your eyes are pointed (“drowsy/distracted driver” systems that use real-time eye-movement monitoring).
The car monitors alles – and alles can be piped in real-time to the mafia.
Ask any commercial driver. They are the Beta Test guinea pigs for what’s soon to be (cue Toothless Mountain Man voice) ree-quired of the rest of us.
It’ll be “optional” at first – in the sense that you’ll have the option to not do business with the Nationwide and Mutual families of the insurance mafia. But the other families are sure to clamber on board and it’s inevitable that if a new car comes equipped from the factory with the embedded tech to narc you out, the mafia will ree-quire it as a condition of coverage.
Which you can’t opt out of.
Aye, there’s the rub.
None of this would be intrinsically threatening if it were possible to (as Nancy Reagan used to say) just say no . . .
Not to Ford and the other car companies who are embedding wireless squeal-on-you (and squeal like a pig) technology in their new cars as part of the standard equipment suite. No one is forced to buy a Ford or any other car and that would serve as a kind of firewall against such intrusive, creepy tech because other car companies would likely not include it, giving you the option to avoid it – and putting pressure on Ford to not include it, assuming most people didn’t want it.
But when the mafia is in cahoots with the car companies it becomes very threatening because the mafia can literally threaten you. It can sic the government – and armed government workers – on you for saying no. It can force us – via the application of duress – to accept the in-car narc.
And not just Ford’s in-car narc.
When all the Five Families (there are more, but the term amounts to the same thing) decide to collectively reequire the in-car narc as a condition of their “coverage” – which the law reequires us to buy – then we have to accept as well as buy.
Allstate consigliere Ginger Purgatorio says that the in-car narc will “give drivers the ability to control and customize their auto insurance policy like never before.” She has it exactly right – except for the beginning.
It will give the mafia “the ability to control and customize their auto insurance policy like never before.”
. . .
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The end game is total control and submission. We must resist all of these so called safety enhancements. Don’t buy the cars. The 2019 models are still sitting on the lots and no one is buying. So many bad ideas incorporated in new cars. I want crank windows, manual locks, no anti skid, no airbags, a self contained hydromatic automatic transmission, no key fob, no TPS, no telemetry and stability system, repairable lacquer paint, steel bumpers, simple electronic spark control module, no rubber bands on the engine and outside easy change components, able to tow my trailer, vynal seats, full sized spair tire. I guess I will keep driving my old Charger.
Dayum, John! Those are things I want in a vehicle too! And I’d add: Manual tranny; bench seats, and NO stinking center console that cramps ya into a little tiny cubbyhole the whole time you’re driving! And how about a nice big last-for-half-a-million-miles straight-6 engine?!
Can’t even find old used cars with such things anymore!
Those kind of cars were sold by the millions at one time and you can still find them out west, Nunz. (That’s about the only good thing about Commiefornia.) What kills them in the northeast and midwest is rust due to winter salt. Just about anything else can be dealt with. Pick up something like a solid Valiant or Dart with a slant-six and drive it forever if you can keep the tinworm away.
A word from someone who is part of the “commercial” crowd bringing this to the masses…. these sensors/devices are more sensitive than you would think. If you don’t drive like grandpa in Florida on a Sunday afternoon, it is going to ding you.
My device gives feedback (as do some of the devices offered by insurance companies now) and it goes off all the time for infractions that should not be infractions. I get dinged daily for coming home to my dirt road. Less than 10 mph, straight road, I get hit for harsh cornering due to bumps in the road.
You will get cut off in traffic, animals will run in front of you, traffic pace will be going its pace and you don’t realize they are all speeding, slowing for a yield and then proceeding to go when clear (nose dive into a nose rise without a stop will get you hard acceleration despite transitioning in a prudent and safe manner), you will need to swerve to avoid objects in the road, etc. etc. etc. While you are driving properly, you will get dinged. No “thanks for not hitting that deer”, just “YOU BRAKE TOO HARD!”
Hi Jay,
Yup; I have friends who work in the field (commercial driving) and am hip. And it is bad. Worse, it is here.
I bought my 2020 Ford Fusion knowing full well that, with the GPS, it has some form of cell phone built-in, included in the price. Not for MY use, of course, save for the included navigation system, which has SOME utility (though not much above what’s already in my phone).
It’s more than the “tattling” that concerns me. It’s that probably the ability to interfere with the operations of MY car already exists…and more than, if the “coppers” turn on their lights and sirens, and I decide to make a run for it, they just direct that a signal gets set to shut my ride down. No, it’s IF certain types are in charge, and they don’t like what I’ve said, like posts to ericpetersautos.com, and decide that since driving is a “privilege”, mine is suspended until I’m “re-educated” to their satisfaction. Don’t believe that it couldn’t happen here.
Heh, just like this, Doug:
The Simpsons – Re-Neducation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlyzkw1we_g
That was great Nunz. Ever seen A Million Ways to Die in the West?
Ahh…if it tweren’t made before 1960 or so, I probably ain’t seen it, 8…but I will look into it!
2014, Seth McFarlane, fairly hilarious. Even Jamie Foxx(Django unchained) appears at the end of it. It’s stupid comedy but mostly funny.
Where the “elite” meet, to have their spirits BROKEN!
These sausages will give me the quick energy to escape!!!
You have come up with an article I find very good.
Ford is on its way out the door of bankruptcy within the next few years.
It is not just one car company either.
We were in a Ford dealership last week. The prices were out of sight.
They have long lost the concept of a car people can afford.
This insurance nonsense is just one more nail in their coffin of bankruptcy.
There are two definitions of afford. The corporate-government complex and most of the public think of what can be afforded on a 80 month loan. Our definition is what we can pay in cash, today. It’s two very different things. The government mandates more nonsense and the automakers add it plus profit. Margin is a percentage. Even if there is constant margin the price goes up more than the mandate cost because profit in dollars increases on the constant percentage.
Also car makers and dealers make more money on financing than selling cars. So they don’t care about the cash buyer much unless there’s a huge sales slump. What people can afford by our definition is irrelevant.
I can remember a lot of annoying nanny-state inclusions in cars.
I can also remember that knowledgeable and skilled mechanics have aided their customers by reactivating and bypassing these same devices.
Instead of whining about the coming surveillance devices in our cars, we would be better off to nurture the geeks that could neutralize them in such a way that the narcs would never know they had been.
Since the majority of them use a device like OnStar to do the narccing, all that would be required is the cutting of the line to the antenna that provides the external connection that it relies on. Since the antenna is placed on the roof of the car like the status symbol some consider it to be, it shouldn’t take very long to drop the headliner and cut the cord. With a bit of knowledge, it might be just as easy or easier to unplug the antenna at the box. I’ll leave that to those who have the problem to solve.
I’m currently living in and driving a 2003 E-150 and I don’t intend to replace it unless it becomes unserviceable, because Ford added the black box to the 2005 model.
Defeating the systems is not a bad idea.
The problem is automated monitoring systems are popping up all over. If you drive by one, it will read your plate, check the database for your model vehicle, compare the “features” it should have to the data grabbed from your vehicle. If the proper metrics are not received, you will be flagged.
The laws that prevent you from doing so may not even exist yet, but they will as soon as the man catches on and sees another way to commit highway robbery. Even if they government does nothing, which is unlikely, you can be sure the insurance companies will.
Further, the auto manufacturers will almost certainly install “call home to start” features on cars soon. No rat devices, no start. It will be demanded to protect them from warranty fraud or something like that.
“Elena Ford, chief customer experience officer”… “Allstate consigliere Ginger Purgatorio says…” Now this isn’t PC, but it is true… women are always at the forefront of autocratic safety culture dictats. War games and political surveys have found consistently that when you put women in charge, due to their latent fear/nurture instinct… they quickly hand away the kingdom to anyone who promises security. Sorry if I’ve offended any ladies reading this… if this isn’t you, you are the exception that proves the rule. But giving women by and large decision making over cars, immigration, taxation always means bad outcomes in the end for that society.
Hi John,
Yup; there is pravda to what you say… females are naturally more risk-averse than men but it’s been taken to a neurotic extreme by the kultur – which is now in need of serious therapy…
But once the risks are mitigated by having someone else pay for the downsides, someone else to be responsible, look out.
I think you are correct about the influence of risk-averse women on our culture. It also makes me think of Adam Corolla who predicted that in 50 years, we’ll all be chicks. Unfortunately, his timeline was far too optimistic. It is already here. (And btw, I am a woman and I am the exception that proves the rule.)
Krista, I have to agree. It’s the rural guys and gals that seem to be in touch with real world things.
It’s an old psychological “trick” to get women to “restrain” their men. During the days of slavery, when a slave group was being created, the slave overseer would pick out one male slave for “punishment” for a minor infraction. The rest of the slaves, male and female were forced to watch the “punishment”, often being brutal in nature. This conditioned the women slaves to make their male slaves “behave”. This process worked quite well.
Not condoning slavery at all, but merely pointing out a practice that was in common use at the time.
The practice was in use centuries before anyone thought about slavery.
Bill, slavery has existed ever since one tribe came across another.
Elena Ford ran the Mercury brand into the ground by feminizing it to death. Remember the Marauder performance sedan they sold? She helped kill it. It was supposed to have a supercharger, but the bitch wouldn’t approve it.
Handler, back in the 60’s and 70’s the Cougars were “girl” cars and they could have been just as muscular as any or all other Ford’s but with nicer interior and handling. But no, they’d give an option to one something akin to “Barbie” and no man would buy one so they verily did kill them off with feminization. You saw a lot of good-looking girls driving them with colors to match. Black Mustangs…yes, Black Cougars, very few. Came in those colors of clothes and furniture in women’s magazines. Oh, I remember well and thought the look of them to be a step up from a Stang but they just never put any guts or anything the least masculine in them.
Weren’t there also drag-racing packages available though?
No; just drag queen packages [shudder].
Hiya Nunz,
Remember this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc80tFJpTuo
eric, Texas just passed a law against using drugs or surgery for gender change on minors under 18. I’m not keen on laws for much of anything but for protecting children I’m on board.
How are minors under 18 different from minors under 21?
Those under 18 and 21 seldom qualify as children unless they remain stunted by public school education.
If the theoretical protection of a law is required, why should it be limited by age?
So you don’t see anything wrong with pre-pubescent children changing their biological sex?
And those who do change their sex at ANY age have a suicide rate of over 40%. You ok with that?
I got a DL when I was 14 and could have gotten one earlier had my dad wanted to get me one on a hardship license. Now, you can’t get a DL before you’re 18 most places.
I have no idea what a “mature” person is since I’ve seen 12 year old girls who had nothing to learn and no sexual maturity left to attain. Whatever they did was determined by mature thinking.
I can’t tell you the thinking here but I was nearly conscripted when I was 18 and not near being mature. YMMV.
Yeah, Bill- if a kid has parents who are so F’ed-up in the head that they’d want to alter their sprog’s gender….that kid’s gonna have problems regardless of whether he/she/it has surgery or drugs.
Everything within me wants to applaud a law like Texas’s….but when ya think about it, where does it end?
It’s just another case of the state usurping dominion- same as dictating drinking/smoking age; age of consent; child “saaaaaaafety seats”; dictating what household conditions constitute “safe and clean” etc.
Once they get their foot in the door in one issue, it never ends. It always starts with “the children”, ’cause people are naturally protective of them- but once we let the state dictate a morality to what is the sole creation of two others, we then give it the right to do so to all, including ourselves, and in all other matters of morality as well, and thus we become statists.
At some point we have to accept that stupid evil parents are going to produce messed-up kids who will likely reflect the very same values as their parents- and that is just as much a natural law and self-evident right as any other- and as we have seen with all other state interventions, government is not going to fix it, even if we were willing to accept the abrogation of rights in exchange for such.
But damn!…..this’ll be one law I wouldn’t complain about until all others are abolished!
But damn!…..this’ll be one law I wouldn’t complain about until all others are abolished!
And that’s the only thing I think is good about it. It protects those who can’t protect themselves. I know that’s said about many laws but that’s really all this law is about.
8, as much as we agree with the sentiments of that particular law (Seems too good to be true, that the state is actually making sense for ONCE!)….it is indeed a slippery slope.
I mean, what about Moozlim female “genital mutilation”? What about circumcision?
See how fast it can lead us to statism, as long as it happens to be a brand of it that we agree with?
It all comes down to who owns us before we are old enough to own ourselves- and if no one owns us once we are old enough to own ourselves, how can they then own that which is the sole creation of two people over which no one else has any legitimate claim?
So in principle, I oppose such laws….but in practice, I’d do nothing to oppose them- hypocritical I know- just like the fact that I liked it when it mine and surrounding counties were “dry”, even though I abhor prohibition. I SO wanted to vote to keep this county dry…but of course, I didn’t. But technically, I guess I’m still a hypocrite for abstaining, rather than going out and voting to go wet. (Maybe not though- as of course, the wet option entailed the usual county and state regulation and taxation, and limiting of competition- so really wasn’t a true free-market Libertarian option anyway)
These kind of issues are where the rubber meets the road.
Nunz, you know I detest govt. of any sort. But if I have to support it, the least I can hope for is protection to children. If they could own a gun, I’d say let things fall where they may.
I was relieved to have this county go wet. Got tired of trying to reassure the Babdiss and C of C’ers when I saw them at the liquor store in the next county.
Now we keep our tax dollars here and there’s less DWI’s now than when the county wasn’t wet. It’s a win/win for the county and residents. People who drink aren’t going to be put off by going to another county and in fact, everyone will be better off. I have no idea why you’d want to deny your fellow residents a local way to get alcohol and help them stay off the roads doing so.
Things are much worse than they used to be. The wife and a friend and I were coming in from dove hunting one evening about 30 years ago. We’d seen no dove and had stowed our guns and ammo and had our last 3 beers open, tooling slowly down a dirt road headed back to our house, also on a dirt road. I saw a green Fury and a red spotlight so I stopped and he pulled up and asked if we’d done any good. I replied we’d never fired a shot and hadn’t seen any birds.
There was a cooler in the bed and he asked if he could look in the cooler, a good sign since he didn’t have to ask. He raised the lid and there it was, full of empties we could have flung but didn’t believe in littering.
He said “Yall be careful” and we said same. It wouldn’t go like that now and it’s a shame. Hot as hell here and I think I’ll have a cold one and have one for you although I know you don’t want one.
It is not possible to change your “biological” gender because it is fixed in your genetic genome. You got half of your genome from your mother and half from your father, and your gender was fixed permanently at that time.
Those who “change” their gender are getting their genitals changed with plastic surgery and jack around with the operation of the endocrine system with hormones and other chemicals, but there is no way to change the genetic gender assignment.
IMO, the reason why people become unhappy with their genders is because of the artificial chemicals that are given to us starting at birth and continuing until death. Soybeans contain the largest amount of plant estrogen on the planet, and soy is being put into everything that most people eat out of bags, boxes, and bottles. This continuous supply of estrogen makes little girls into women before they are tweens, and feminize little boys before their own hormones can kick in and turn them into normal men.
Like the geeks say in “GIGO,” it is garbage in garbage out. If you constantly put garbage into any biological system, you will eventually get garbage out of it.
If you malnourished your immune system, it won’t protect you from the continual assault of pathogens that nature has always thrown at you.
Nutrition can be fixed until you are dead. It is easier to fix if you ignore all of the ignorant doctors telling you the lies they were told in medical school.
Bill, I think the reason people become unhappy with their genders is because of the modern-day mental illness known as liberalism! (And the sexualizing of young children well before pooberty!)
8, ya know what the great thing about being “dry” is? [Again, not advocating it though]
It keeps out the NYers and CAers and other big-city douchebags who are fleeing their former locales just because they can’t afford to live there, but who retain their blue-state mentality.
Back in NY when I’d tell people where I was going, and they’d start to express some interest, all I’d have to do is mention: “It’s a dry county”, and you never saw someone’s expression change from glee to disgust so fast!
Driving an hour to get some beer or vodka; or the idear of stocking up, was just too much for ’em. I mean, hey, I guess it’s worth paying $11K a year in property taxes, so long as ya can pick up a 6-pack in the supermarket.
Also: They claim “less DWIs”- yeah…maybe on the Interstate….but locally, they’ve actually gone way up. Now, every weekend, I hear sireens go by at least once, if not several times.. (Amberlamps, farn gin, pig mobile) whereas when we were dry, maybe I’d hear a sireen once every six months.
AND- and this is the biggie- Now that there’s a greater chance of people having a drink and driving, they’ve increased the “law-enforcement presence”, AND are more zealous to pull people over- whereas before, in this county, you’d almost never see a pig of any variety, much less have to worry about being stopped.
And the increased extor…err..uh…tax revenues? They’re all spent (and then some) on that increased “law enfarcement”.
So basically, what is made to sound like a win for liberty for some, is in reality yet another win for the state on many counts, and in myriad ways, a detriment to liberty. They can’t EVER give us ANYYTHING without taking at least 5 other things!
“Remember this one?”
Hey Eric!
Nope! I was likely watching James Cagney in The Roaring Twenties when that came out! (Been hearing the name of that Rocky Horror movie all my life….never had any clue what it was about. I was lucky! 😀 ) (Never seen Star Wars, either!)
I don’t recall drag racing packages back then for cars that would go around a corner. I believe you’d have to look at Mopars for that although they did produce the winged jobs so they could use the wing in NASCAR. I recall people owning them but never running high speed curves.
When the Z 28 came out it was just a low-power smaller engined car or at least that’s what they wanted the insurance companies to go for. Just a little 302 and a manual (M21)transmission, never mind the set of tube headers that were in the trunk.
“It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers−out of unorthodoxy.”
George Orwell, 1984
Hi X,
Modern kultur has warped/leveraged women’s built-in desire for “safety” – a healthy thing in the context of the family unit/care for kids, etc. – into a pathology that is destroying everything.
Every week seems to bring more ominous news about the loss of our privacy in the automotive world. I will never buy a new car given the narc-you-out (but promoted for our saaaaaafety or to be environmentally friendly, ugh!!) tech embedded in them. I own a 1999 Toyota Sienna, which I purchased 5 years ago. I plan on keeping it as long as I possibly can!
Ditto, Steve –
I intend to keep my ’02 Nissan until the frame rusts and then replace it with something from the ’80s or earlier… I recommend everyone who agrees with us do the same. It’s the one means of fighting back without actually fighting that’s still open to us…
Acquire it now and get it road-worthy while you CAN, Eric, especially as VA, once for “lovers”, is being taken over by Communists, all but in name. Lord knows, if you wait, what restrictions would impede restoring an 80s vintage vehicle. Of course, the Apparachitks in Richmond could just deem your ride unfit for the public highways and roads, all in the name of s-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-f-t-e-e-e-e. Then haul it to Texas!
Exactly.
I’ve got another 4 years left on the loan on my ’16 Focus ST…plenty of time to build something old enough to legally require almost nothing but brakes, turn signals and seat belts.
As happened some time ago, the entirety of the West has completely abandoned any value placed on liberty and/or freedom. You will very rarely, if ever, hear any one proclaim love of liberty as embodied in such statements as “give me liberty or give me death”, or “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees”. The plain simple fact is that western culture no longer exists in a significant portion of the population. If one proclaims they prefer increased risk of injury or death to state imposed “safety”, one gets either crickets, or an illiterate diatribe of nonsense.
Which by the way is not limited to automobiles. I would much rather live with the “danger” of every single person in possession of a firearm, than live with the “safety” of no one possessing one.
Hi JWK,
You’re right, of course – but that doesn’t mean it’s forever or unchangeable. No major change starts overnight. But it doesn’t start without a beginning…
Sadly Eric, in the past, most meaningful changes to society have occurred from the bottom, up- at the “grass roots level”. Today, by contrast, we are in a unique paradigm, in that people are artificially controlled by uber-intrusive politics, economics, indoctrination, and especially, constant propaganda- all working together to ensure that even the biggest and most traditional social institutions no longer carry much sway- let alone a few lone voices in the wilderness, whom are very unpopular because we do not appeal the baser lusts, and because the manipulators paint us as Orwell’s Bernstein.
It’s down to just trying to save ourselves as the Titanic sinks- There aren’t enough others to alter the course of the ship.
libertarians aren’t born, they’re created by government intervention.
That is true, Bob! In my case, it was encountering the tyranny of compulsory schooling, as a very young child, that lit the flames of freedom in my soul! “Why do these people whom I’ve never even met before; who didn’t even know of my existence, have any right to tell me what to do or how to spend my time, or to tell my parents what they must do with their own child?”.
Nunz, just exactly what I thought. I couldn’t buy a good grade in “gratitude” or whatever they called it. I got an S every report card. My mother was miffed I couldn’t get along with anybody. That wasn’t true at all and I got along fine with everybody but one big old gal who wanted to be boss of everybody(still hate her)and the teachers.
I had one old time teacher for the first grade, one for the fourth and one my mother’s age my 6th I could get along with. We had one male teacher and I never had a problem with him. He was fair as fair can be.
Much later in life I’d have great conversations about the 3 women teachers and occasionally, the male teacher.
But I knocked off the real a-holes at church. I had a friend talk me into leading the youth in music during one of those evangelistic things. I got so sick I nearly died. You couldn’t drag me into church after that. Just mention a Babdiss or Church of Christ and the hair on my neck comes up. I get hot just thinking about it…..and I’m not easily roused. My daddy was the same way.
So true, JWK! People shopping for new cars are looking for “connectivity”- all of the BS to connect to the interweb; integrate the smartphone; GPS; music streaming; remote STD testing of prostitutes ( 😀 ) etc.- but privacy and autonomy are of ZERO concern- not even on the table; not even an inkling of a remote though; never enters their mind. Nor does even the element of time and cost- like “How long might this car last, and how feasible and economical will it be to repair once out of warranty?”- because economic considerations for most also have a large bearing upon freedom (as in living within/below one’s means, as opposed to being in perpetual debt).
And such is symptomatic of our current state of affairs- and why government is not alone responsible for our plight, but rather is more like an out-growth of a culture which has become dysfunctional; and why liberty will not be won back anytime soon, because it is not just “the people vs. the government” as has been the case in many past instances of the past- but rather now, it is more like the government is just representative of 98% of the population to one degree or another, and the struggle for liberty is as much against the mass of society, as it is against any regime.
Hi Nunz,
I agree it’s a lot (of people who don’t like liberty) but I don’t think it’s 98 percent. I think more and more people are awakening to liberty all the time, too! It’s a question of holding the line.
Exactly. The brainwashed masses will always be a major stumbling block for us.
Handler,
I doubt the world has ever seen a more brainwashed people than what have here today; a whole nation of “educated” idiots who are believing that the lowest nigger-Americans and butt-fooker-Americans are somehow wonderful hapless “victims”, while WE are somehow the “problem”…….
That alone illustrates the point of absurdity it has gotten to…..eh?
Human history has never seen the level of degeneracy we have today.
There is absolutely no way to fix this…..peacefully.
We won the cold war. USA USA USA! Facing down the communists, the USA Clovers pointed out how children in commie-land were encouraged to report on their mother, father, brothers, sisters. Pointed out as contemptible, and rightly so.
But, “WE” must have an enemy so “WE” have declared war on ourselves?
FYI. NAZI economics is private companies partnering with the power of the state to create a public/private monopolies.
Eric is almost alone on the web, to point out, the clovers, are using technology to patiently strip away my freedom and your privacy (using Govt authority).
If the clovers made a clumsy power grab, maybe it would be more obvious to all.
But, the heat is turned up S-L-O-W-L-Y, so the frog doesn’t know it’s being boiled alive.
Russia really won the cold war – by a miracle- by reclaiming their country for traditional values. We lost as we became the leader of global communism. 52 genders / race obsession / unchecked immigration / constant wars etc etc
Absolutely! V Putin was a God send to the Russian People. He brought the country back from the brink. The US has tried to ruin their country 30 years,,, almost was successful with Yeltsin. They are now reasonably self sufficient and are slowly turning the screws on the US. Russia needs to hang on to him as long as possible. Leaders like that are one in a thousand years. He has more intelligence in his pinkie than the entire Beltway in DC. The US has never had a leader even near the scale of him. He really cares about his nation. The US ‘leaders’ only care about money and power over the worlds People called Global Government.
I prayed for an American ‘Putin” in this election cycle so I could vote again but all I got was Bernie and Pocahontas on one side and a self proclaimed 3D genius on the other.
Amen, Ken!
If only they would “interfere” in our elections!
For my two ~20-yr old vehicles, I signed up for 90-day Liberty Mutual monitoring devices which interface with phone GPS, for an alleged discount of up to 30 percent.
LM was fairly candid about what would reduce the discount: high mileage; harsh acceleration and braking; driving between midnight and 4 am “closing time” hours.
After the 90-day trial, allegedly I qualified for 18% and 20% discounts, respectively, on the two vehicles. But the actual premium reduction was less than 10%. Evidently the fine print applies the discount to only certain portions of the coverage (never found out the details).
But when I added a third vehicle a few months later, LM whomped me with a near-doubling of the premium, despite the third vehicle (like the other two) being driven only part-time and low miles by the sole driver, myself (with no license points).
Went back to the green lizard guys for a big premium reduction.
But yeah … real-time, panopticon monitoring is coming … because they can!
From an engineering point of view, the challenge is to develop a cheap black box that can feed localized but fake “little old lady from Pasadena” driving data into the spy network … until it becomes felony insurance fraud (probably already is, in the view of ham-sandwich indicting prosecutors).
Well, from an engineering POV simply finding the damned wifi antenna on the car and wrapping it in aluminum foil will work.
Boy, I would have been in trouble. I worked swing shift and always drove home after midnight…
Hopefully, I will not be in the market for a new rolling prison cell for another 15 years. Speaking of prison cells, they might offer more privacy than this tech BS they are installing in vehicles.
How about this one; since I was living with my daughter and family, State Farm figured my “Customer Rating Index” based on my son-in-law’s credit rating and not mine. They said this was because I was over 65. I questioned the agent and received some nonsense from “Headquarters” in Georgia, I think, that the reason had something to do with the law of big numbers. There is a law of big numbers but why it matters in this case is not clear. And why my own credit rating, which is very good, is not used in these calculations. I am wondering if this is standard practice in the insurance industry for seniors living with others. Does this mean if I was to rent a room in an apartment that my landlord’s credit rating, which may be awful, is used to determine my insurance costs? Marxism anyone?
Some clever entrepreneur with gobs of money (if there are entrepreneurs who have gobs of money) ought to buy up as many after market parts for Hondas, Toyotas, Subarus, whichever kind of econo-cars last a long time as folks will have added incentive to keep these cars on the road. On the other hand, the insuristas may refuse to cover them, the DMV-istas may refuse to register them and rooftop solar panels may have replaced gas at the pump. I smell another TOA (transfer of assets) brewing as the working/middle class begin to subsidize the rates of new car owners who play ball with Big Brother. Nationwide’s not on our side.
Hi Imbroglio,
Yup – Ich werde ein prophet sein.. I will be a prophet, as Der Chef once said. These creatures will use the insurance mandate to force those of us who do not play ball – by driving older cars – to give them up by making “coverage” (which we’re required to buy) conditional on monitoring. Since old cars can’t be monitored in the way new cars can be… well, there you.
And it’ll be sold – and imposed – as a saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety measure.
Maybe Coronavirus is a good thing.
There is a helluva lot of competition in the car insurance game. One of them will figure out that not monitoring its customers will make them a lot of money.
I would imagine Ms. Purgatorio is a real piece of work…
Hi Jalopy,
Indeed. Insurance at gunpoint attracts a certain type. Like government – as it’s basically the same “business.”
Disable the wi-fi in the car, even if you have to disconnect the wi-fi antenna. This might be a good way to start a clandestine side business…
The marketing department is all out of ideas, the accounting department is getting tired of paying out despite all the safety-inspired laws, and the C-suite has no idea how to beat expectations on earnings. So they start grasping at straws, turning to technology and making it harder for customers to get services they are paying for. Or the product is redefined, made intentionally confusing, or over promised.
“When all the Five Families (there are more, but the term amounts to the same thing) decide to collectively require the in-car narc as a condition of their “coverage” – which the law requires us to buy”
Maybe a way of getting the older “non compliant” cars off the road?
Hi Ken,
Yup; this prospect keeps me up sometimes. But – eff them – the Orange Barchetta and I are ready. Like Admiral Lutjens, I will fight until the barrels of my guns glow red and to the last shell.
My cell phone carrier, Verizon, offered me a discount if I let them put “Hum” into the diagnostic port of my car. One of the first things I did after driving away from the Verizon service center was to pull Hum out of the port, package it up and it now rides in the trunk of my car. Funny thing: every month Hum reports that zero miles were driven. 🙂
I wonder how the people at Bronco6g will feel about the news.
Shame, while I wasn’t going to get one, was following it regertless
My wife signed up for the Liberty Mutual “monitor” that plugs into your OBD2 port. The “test” period was 90 days. We did in fact get 18% off the quoted rate on the policy. One little thing though- we were supposed to get “up to 30% off for safe driving” BUT she had some peanut head in a hooptymobile panic stop in front of her for no apparent reason (My bet is the affirmative action driver was setting her up for a rear end collision and the payday lawsuit). That one “unsafe stopping” incident whacked a chunk out of the discount she was controlling for. Then there was the time I drove it. I swear I was being good…..but apparently I took a left turn into a side street “Unsafely” WTF!! that cost us an 8% whack off the goal of 30%.
I called Liberty Mutual and some fairy answered the phone. He/it lisped the company line (canth changth the computer’sh assessmentsthhhtth) and that was that. A lousy 18% off the stated premium. damn liberals.
You had me interested in your Liberty Mutual story until you drifted into commentary on the “fairy.”
Rather than try to explain to you that human beings come in many varieties of shape, size, color, and speech affect, I’ll instead just say that I hope you die slowly in a fire, Jethro.
***”Rather than try to explain to you that human beings come in many varieties of shape, size, color, and speech affect,”***
But someone who might have a distaste or repulsion for certain “species”, or may just good-naturedly or otherwise poke fun at their foibles or filthy habits, is not acceptable/tolerable to you?
We must “all accept everyone” because “one comrade is just as good as any other”?
What isn’t tolerable to me is Auric referring to the person on the phone as “it;” as for the rest of your argument, it’s clear where your sympathies lie.
to quote Jim: “I hope you die slowly in a fire, Jethro.”
and YOU,Jim, handily reveal your own
Disdain for certain perceived characteristics is worse than wishing a slow painful death upon the one so inclined?
FUCK YOU, Libtard! There’s this thing called freedom of speech. Maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s clowns like you ruining the country…
***” it’s clear where your sympathies lie.”***
I should hope so! I (and I assume that I speak for Auric as well) have no compunctions about making my “preferences” clear….just as you do also, only to a much more extreme degree by even wishing horrific and painful death upon those who abhor what you approve of.
Well said Nunz. No excuse for that type of thing. I’d like to think we’re civilized people who can make an argument without threats. Govt. has plenty of that to go around as do insurance companies.
While I don’t apologize one whit about my disdain for faggotry and those that promote same, likewise I don’t wish misfortune, especially violence, upon them. If their conduct be “sin”, then I let “Gawd” handle the matter.
I wish that these control-freak libtards accorded me the same privilege, or, if they don’t like what I say, either respond POLITELY and state their objections, or simply IGNORE me altogether. (ala the late John Belushi)..but NOOOOOOO! They gotta censor, or threaten violence, or wish misfortune upon yours truly. And that’s WHY these jokers should be driven from power via the political process where necessary, and why we must be every vigilant in defense of the Second Amendment.
Be warned, there are many so-called “liberals”, or self-styled “progressives”, who, IF they could get away with it, will KILL those they disagree with, or at least get someone to do the killing if they lack the guts, which I believe the majority do. They’d have no problem, for example, of misusing the “Red Flag” laws, themselves an egregious affront to the Constitution, to induce the AGWs to do a “hut! hut! hut!” event, as Eric puts it, with hopefully a violent demise for the targeted person.
I thought the liberal crowd was always open to civilized debate…..
https://youtu.be/OG6VqJunOOw
Nunz,
Darlin’ you send me! Honest you do!
(((I sure hope that you’re the French-horn playing Anon from the other day/thread, -of the female persuasion….as opposed to a skin-flute playin’ “it”…. 😀 )))
Hiya Nunz!
I think you’ve triggered someone… oy vey, eh?
And here I thought we were discussing govt. over-reach into the transportation industry. I think I’ve reached the point of no longer trucking if I can’t get a “construction” job with no ELD. It’s low enough pay as is but working that line that says “working, not driving” is a killer.
Oh yeah, I can take a can and split it, wrap it around some rubber over the hole in the turbo oil line while waiting for the smoke to clear, clean my windshields, find a clamp or piece of wire to get it to not leak “really badly” and limp on into a town……where there is no repair facility and do it all in my sleep…..in that day cab.
OTR trucking has become a bureaucratic nightmare.
Ooohh! Funny that they should say “triggered” Eric, what with their abhorrence of anything relating to GUNS! 😀 Their kind are all meshuggenah!
Mi fa cagare!
Fairy, fairy, fairy, you fudge packer!
AURIC is out of line, (try not to take it personal Nunzio) the struggle is real brother! Serious question. When was the last time you tried to register a complaint, as a customer?
You expect to find your counterpart on the other side of the transaction. (Handsome, Educated, real world life experience, the ability to listen, prioritize, and resolve issues).
What you find are apathetic No Influence No Authority (NINA) employees at the first 2 two levels of “customer service”. Their job is to parrot the company line, and ask “Is there anything else I can help you with?
I got a guy on a help line last week at Speed Queen. He was as good as I’ve had on any help line, better than 99% of them. It was a pleasure to find a professional.
8, was he a speed queen? 🙂
Hiya Nunz!
I much prefer the old British Airways designation of the Concord… speed bird!
Eric, I don’t doubt that there was a little birdie involved… 😀
Eric,
Do you mean the Concorde?
No- he meant concord- It was a discount airline that had planes painted purple, like a grape- It used to fly between the Bronx, Baltimore and Detroit…. 😀
***”AURIC is out of line, “***
JJ, even if you vehemently disagree with Auric- there is nothing “out of line” about him stating his opinion- that is largely the purpose of communication. You can agree or disagree- and it is not out-of-line if you should disagree- the only thing “out-of-line” is not wanting someone to express their opinion/belief/preference because it may not be the current popularly-accepted norm- It is that freedom of speech and expression/conveyance of ideas, which is, after all, how fudgepackery went from being a crime in every state, to being a government-protected “right” and special class [equally as wrong]- THAT could never have happened without the dedication that this society once had to freedom of speech- and now the very people who benefited from that free speech, want to curtail it, now that their own agendas have been achieved.
Oh dear, look at Jim, a triggered snowflake.
I don’t really care what the faggots have to say about anything anymore or their petty complaints.
I used to be a “live and let live” kind of guy, until the last few years anyway.
Someone questioned me about why I’ve become so bitter recently, at least politically.
My answer, in part, fits nicely right here:
“I’m bitter at being duped into supporting the weirdosexual movement to legalize sodomy as a marriage choice, thinking that by supporting them in that effort, they would, in turn, reciprocate in efforts toward restoring freedom in other realms. Vain hope. The weirdosexuals backstabbed me and everybody else on the “liberty right” who looked the other way at the distaste of their “lifestyle” and tried to increase liberty for them, and gained in return, filthier and even more twisted weirdosexualism, accompanied by efforts to normalize pre-pubescent homesexual pedophilia.”
And now you wish death by fire on someone for making nothing more than a smart ass, offhand comment about some lisping, mincing, faggot phone worker?
Fuck you and everybody like you.
I’m surprised to see Ford be the first to install this intrusive tech. Would have expected the whores at GM, or the Chicom owned Volvo to lead the way.
But as you indicated, “all” new cars will have this spyware very soon.
ps. Hey Eric, maybe you could do an update review on the one car specifically designed to deal with the pandemic issues we’re currently experiencing……The Toyota Corona. 🙂
I’m not surprised at all. The “Big 3” take turns at screwing us.
Hello Again, the reason I bring up the old Car Recycling Shops is because you can buy a like new old car without all of the surveillance gear but still have modern amenities like A/C; good stereo, new paint, new interior, remanufactured engine, etc. And for the price of a very low end new car. In addition, if you restore an old diesel and live in a rural area, you have the option of turning trash plastic into diesel which is fairly simple to do and also use waste vegetable oil. The workarounds for the surveillance are inexpensive and possibly preferable.
Oh, there is also a Geo Metro Restoration shop somewhere in CA. Same thing, new inside/new outside.
Here is one example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLl7i_pnqtg
I have noticed that there are two Classic VW Beetle Restoration shops in Ports., VA and Va. Beach. I have also noticed a lot of new looking 40+ year old Beetles in the area. Perhaps the recycling of old cars is a new trend?
Friends of my brother have a VW restoration shop in Colorado. But most of their projects aren’t daily drivers.
I love cars. I love working on them, maintaining, and driving them. I love them as much more than an appliance that gets me from A to B.
With that being said, I don’t have any desire to carry on this love affair. Yes, I drive “older” cars that don’t rat me out or bitch at me. The big rub for me is the control being exerted by busybodies “keeping me safe”. I don’t consent to anyone claiming my sovereignty, but having a “license” removes my sovereignty without my consent. Something that used to represent freedom to a lot of us has become a burden. I ride motorcycles as well and these tyrants are now requiring all the nanny stuff on bikes.
I would rather have liberty than be safe any day. Too bad these absolute wusses around us don’t feel the same. These aren’t just women, but grown ass men acting like they can’t handle this big scary world. Shame on them all for making our lives hell!
Hi Slave,
Same. There is so much to like about modern cars but that is all being curb-stomped by the Safety Cult and its enforcers; I suspect this is calculated – consciously intended to alienate us from cars and from driving – in order to get us to accept becoming meatsacks who are “transported” by “mobility as a service.”
Anyone in a big city has seen all those electric scooters for rent. That’s the plan for cars.
Ever more, Calipornia is trying to do away with owner self-servicing of automobiles (save, if somehow that PROMOTED faggotism), under the guise of s-a-a-a-a-a-f-t-e-e-e or the “Environment”. Wouldn’t surprise me if someday you’ll have to apply for a “license” and pay a hefty “impact fee” just to purchase a quart of 5W-30 to top off your ride. As well as, ala the “seeing something? Report it!” form of snitchery to the local branch of the Geheimestatspolizei, offer a bounty to anyone catching you changing oil yourself or performing any car repair work. But hell, how difficult with these modern rides and their default connections to the cell network, to have a sensor that reports you if you dare to pop open the HOOD?
That’s why my “bucket list”, should I come into some “Fuck ‘Em” money, like winning the “Mega Millions” lottery, is to restore a TANK, and no, I won’t grout up the main weapon! Be like that German guy whom kept a restored Panzerkampfwagen V (Panther) in his basement! Sieg Heil, he’s mind kind of friend!
https://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/203021-keeping-a-panther-tank-in-the-basement
Products of the perverted-over-forty-years gummit skewl sistum.
Its all about the FEEEEEEELZZZz and no intelligence required.. or permited.
Mindless dweeb minions predictably performing to specs.
Like the old song goes…
“da man aint got no CULTcha…….”
Hi T,
This is one more reason why I love the Barchetta and my bikes. What goes on is between myself and the machines. No unwelcome third parties are along. Why so many people like being monitored and controlled boggles me.
eric, same here. The old 93 has NO computer anywhere. It’s just mechanical all the way. The only “codes” it throws are the ones such as “4 Low” and that’s not even in the dash. You have to be pretty dense to not be able to read and see the light beside a shifter. It won’t even tell you the ABS isn’t working since it’s all unplugged.
And just think: The most recent generation have known nothing but smartphones, video games and computer/connected devices since birth….. They won’t even question continual monitoring…..it would seem weird to them to “not be connected” in myriad ways; to have no one watching; to be fully on their own; to have no “back-up”; no safety net just a click away…..
And 5G is handily coming right along to handle all of the load of an entire society which just accepts all of this as business-as-usual….
We’re screwed.
The more connected we are, the more opportunities we have to misdirect big brother.
I’ve never seen less actual communication than what I’ve been seeing in the last 10 years, now that everyone (else) has smartphones, texts, Facebooks, Skypes, chats, etc.
Eric, I don’t LIKE it at all. But the 2020 Fusion serves my needs for COMFORTABLE transportation, and even with its puny four-banger (2.0 litre, turbocharged), it’ll still “shit and git”, and, given my means, actually CHEAP. It was not time to buy the pickup that I want, as the 7.3 OHV V8 that Ford is coming out with won’t come to Calipornia until at least the ’21 model year, and maybe not even that. I can get a “beater” truck for now, and wait until I’m retired and escaped the “worker’s paradise” that is the once-Golden State to get my “Cowboy Cadillac”.
By the time I no longer need the Fusion, likely I can just give it to either of my kids that still live in CA and let them deal with the bureaucratic aggravation.