Redefinitions Rebuked

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Oh, the humanity! 

Well, if only the Left were merely weepy – as opposed to rabid – whenever it meets with disagreement. 

Most especially, official disagreement. 

This just happened – on Thursday morning – when one of the last of this session’s Supreme Court decisions was published in the case of West Virginia v. EPA.  It had to do with whether the federal regulatory apparat – specifically, the Environmental Protection Agency (as these apparats are blandly, deceptively styled) is authorized by law to “regulate” the dread inert gas, carbon dioxide, by redefining it.    

Back in 1970 – thanks to Republican President Richard Nixon, who was the same Republican who saddled this country with the precursor of Obamacare via HMOs, a subject for another day – a new apparat/agency was hey, presto’d into existence. It has plagued us, ever since. 

In 1970, a new law was passed – at the behest of Republicans (again) who crawl over each other to show Democrats just how much they agree with them –  that endowed the new EPA with mighty (and mightily general) power to “regulate,” among other things, “emissions.” 

These included vehicle exhaust emissions, though the definition wasn’t limited to just them. But it only encompassed compounds that were understood to cause or exacerbate air pollution, create or contribute to the formation of smog – and so on. 

The EPA used its new authority to decree vehicle exhaust emissions standards, among other things. This fleshed out in several ways. On the manufacturing end, the car companies were obliged to “clean up” the exhaust stream of the cars they offered for sale, which they did via both wholesale re-engineering of engines, including their fuel-delivery systems (e.g., the switch from carbureted or mechanical fuel delivery to electronically controlled fuel injection) and via the addition to chemical exhaust scrubbers (i.e., catalytic converters).

Car owners were also obliged, in what were (and are) styled “non-attainment” areas – bureaucratic argot for areas where there was/is smog or the air is suffused with beyond-a-certain threshold of various contaminants traceable to vehicle exhaust emissions – to have their cars’ emissions regularly or periodically tested. 

This regime dealt a mighty blow to smog, which now exists mostly in old movies about LA. The air today is extremely clean, on account of the emissions coming out of the tailpipes of cars made since the ’90s being very clean.

So clean, in fact, that smog and air pollution generally are no longer a problem, insofar as vehicle exhaust emissions can be blamed for causing them. Most people unfamiliar with the Byzantine categorization methodology of the EPA apparat have no idea that this is so, precisely because the EPA does not want them to know it is so. It is why you will hear and read news stories about the latest regulatory ukase assuring that vehicle exhaust emissions will be reduced by another 20 percent – or even 50 – which sounds both wonderful and necessary. 

It is never explained to people – if the EPA (like the CDC and the FDA) can help it – that the “20 percent” or whatever the percent reduction claimed is in fact a reduction of less than 1 percent; i.e., it is a fractional “gain” of immaterial effect, often at great cost – to those who get to pay for it. 

That’s us, by the way. 

The fractional gain is the best that can be gained – because the big (whole number) gains have long-ago been made. The exhaust stream of any modern car – any recently made (as in the past 20-plus years) car is better than 96 percent free of the emissions that cause smog or foul the air. Further gains – in the whole numbers – are essentially impossible as there will always be something emitted when anything is combusted. No one demands to know, however, whether the minuscule amounts currently (and recently) emitted are materially harmful. 

The evidence – of our eyes (and noses) – indicates strongly otherwise. Where is the smog? Where is the “dirty” air? If there is an issue, then EPA ought to be obliged to demonstrate (rather than assert) it, as via evidence that it so – as opposed to might be so – in view of the cost of the imposition relative to the absence of any provable benefit. 

EPA knows this – which brings us back to the redefining. And the Oh-the-humanity’ing.

It is why EPA oilily redefined “emissions” to encompass carbon dioxide – which the authorizing legislation, the 1970 amendments to the Clean Air Act – never authorized it to do.

The Supreme Court just said exactly that, in the decision it handed down. 

It essentially left it up to Congress to pass a new law, endowing EPA with the lawful power to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. God help us, if Congress does that – because unlike vehicle exhaust emissions as they were formerly defined, carbon dioxide “emissions” can only be reduced by us doing less. This includes breathing – as all living fauna “emit” C02.

Such a law would empower the EPA apparat to regulate essentially everything. And it would do so based on hysteric assertions about “climate change” as opposed to facts about whether the “climate” is in fact “changing” in a threatening way, on account of human activity vs. natural causes over which humans have no control.

It is of a piece with the way hysteric assertions about a “virus” were used to justify other arms of the apparat – both federal and state – imposing heretofore unimaginable harm, both economic and psychological, upon almost the entire population, the minions of the apparats excepted, of course.

And there is the additional parallel of the redefining of experimental palliative (supposedly)  drugs as “vaccines.” Previously, that definition only applied to concoctions that immunized the recipient, as these “vaccines” manifestly do not.

So, a small blow for honest language – as well as lawful process.

Two things the apparat – and the Left – cannot abide, even as they wail in Hindenburgian dirges about the endless “threats to our Democracy.”

Oh, the humanity! 

. . .

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49 COMMENTS

  1. Of course this “ruling” is too late for a local power plant put out of business early by the EPA (it was not owned by the local electric company). It was a big one with 515 megawatts.

    It once had a “license” to operate until 2025, which at that point the plant would have been worn out and closed voluntarily. That of course ended when Obama’s EPA took away its grandfathered exemptions in 2010, making the plant uneconomical to continue to operate.

    It would have required pollution controls which for a plant of its age would have not been worth the expense. So instead of allowing it to be used until completely worn out it was closed in 2012. It wasn’t mothballed but was razed, so it’s not possible to start it back up and finish out its lifetime.

    My local electric company plans on closing it’s coal powered plants by 2030 (though they been walking that date back lately, since 80% of the power comes from them). Some of those plants have decades of useful service left in them. They never talk about the waste of those resources when they close plants before their useful life is used up. How is that green?

  2. Here is a meme that Eric can appreciate, how current CO2 levels are compared to a car fuel gage, the tagline says that worrying about current CO2 levels at 400 ppm is like worrying that your car’s fuel tank is going to overflow at 1/8 tank:

    https://i.imgur.com/RzVtZq2.gif

    CO2 levels are not to high, they are near all time lows. So low in fact that during the last glacial maximum only 18,000 years ago you could NOT farm. In fact farming is only possible in very recent times, after the ice started melting (which took 10,000 years) CO2 took thousands of years to get high enough to even allow farming. In this meme I show this:

    https://i.imgur.com/t1Doved.jpg

    Only 14,000 years ago could rice be cultivated, before that man had to survive by hunting. So if you have a brain with at least two functioning neurons, hunter gathering was the only way to survive until CO2 levels went up to even allow farming.

    That changes everything concerning early “civilized” man and his change of lifestyle. And how did “caveman” just happen to figure out how to cultivate seeds? It boggles the mind.

    They do not teach at any university Paleontology class that CO2 levels were the critical factor in man switching from hunting to farming. So this idea that CO2 is a threat is utter nonsense and in fact completely opposite of reality. Universities should be higher learning, but the one here all I see are a bunch of conforming mask wearing retards.

    This next chart is the grand prize of all ice age charts, you ought to save it and print it out as big as a sheet of plywood and hang it on your wall next to that Big Mouth Billy Bass:

    ice age co2 levels chart

    https://i.imgur.com/Woh7SFw.png

    What this (hard to find) loaded chart shows is the horrific conditions during the ice age cold periods. It is dry with endless dust storms. CO2 gets low, real low, down to 140 ppm for tens of thousands of years. Earth is a dead zone. Plants and trees died, animals perished.

    And lest we forget, we are still in the ice age, sure we are in the latest interglacial, but we are still in the ice age cycle and CO2 levels ain’t got a damn thing to do with earth temperatures. So think about that you all. Without lots of CO2 we are all dead, it is a life gas, and those that demonize it are a crazy death cult.

    CO2 can go up and up and temps can go down and down because Al Gore was an idiot, CO2 levels have never forced temperatures on earth. Some day little Greta is going to figure this out, and realize she has been had, and like Marvin the Martian, she is going to very, very angry indeed!

  3. The Friday before the Forth of July week is always a treat for plane spotters up at Sardy Field in Aspen. I enjoyed lunch at the bench overlooking the apron where the GA jets load and unload. Saw lots of Gulfstreams, Bombardiers, even a nice little Learjet 4 seater. No pilot shortage here, that’s for sure. In fact the only thing in short supply was parking, most jets have to unload then fly out to another airport for the week.

    Some may call the Aspen elites hypocrites. But one has to remember they’re heavily invested in wind farms and other “carbon neutral” sources, so it’s OK they can burn hundreds of pounds of JET-A for their vacation. They earned it… LOL

    https://flightaware.com/live/airport_status_bigmap.rvt?airport=KASE

  4. CO2 bs = insanity. another nutcase theory for low iq leftist morons
    This professor completely dismantles the climate change lie, worth watching, these leftists pushing this climate change bs are the biggest liars in history.

    Climate change just like covid is purely political and religious, based on fake science. Climate change, the new GAIA cult religion, like it’s brother covid, a big favorite of the communist, reset, one world government, satanic cult freaks,

    Don’t lose sight of the fact that the whole scam is being used to hide a financial crime, they looted the place.

    No pension money left = need depopulation now.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA1zUW4uOSw

  5. The government has great solutions for the climate hoax……technology that is far more destructive to the environment…..

    Lithium batteries:
    Can’t be recycled = really green energy….haha

    95% of lithium batteries aren’t recycled, Solar panels can’t be recycled, Used wind turbine blades can’t be recycled, Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds, they are made from fiberglass.

    A typical EV battery weighs one thousand pounds, (tesla batteries go up to 1800 lb. ) It contains twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds cobalt, 200 pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic. Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.
    It should concern you that all those toxic components come from mining. For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth’s crust for just one battery.”
    Sixty-eight percent of the world’s cobalt, a significant part of a battery, comes from the Congo. Their mines have no pollution controls, and they employ children who die from handling this toxic material. Should we factor in these diseased kids as part of the cost of driving an electric car?”
    95% of lithium batteries aren’t recycled

    Solar panels:

    The main problem with solar arrays is the chemicals needed to process silicate into the silicon used in the panels. To make pure enough silicon requires processing it with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, trichloroethane, and acetone. In addition, they also need gallium, arsenide, copper-indium-gallium- diselenide, and cadmium-telluride, which also are highly toxic. Silicone dust is a hazard to the workers, and the panels cannot be recycled.
    Solar panels can’t be recycled…..what will they do with them (and wind turbine blades)? throw them down old mine shafts like nuclear waste?…..lol..

    Wind turbines

    Wind turbines are the ultimate in embedded costs and environmental destruction. Each weighs 1688 tons (the equivalent of 23 houses) and contains 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of fiberglass, and the hard to extract rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium. Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds and will last 15 to 20 years, at which time it must be replaced. We cannot recycle used blades. Sadly, both solar arrays and windmills kill birds, bats, sea life, and migratory insects.
    Used wind turbine blades can’t be recycled, Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds, they are made from fiberglass.

  6. The government’s solution to (what they say is pollution), is more pollution….lol…pushing EV’s that are far worse….

    Lots of lies….
    ice vehicles burn fuel in the vehicle so it is hard to hide what the fuel consumption is, with EV’s the fuel is burnt back at the power station, so it is easier to hide/lie about how much fuel was burnt to generate the electricity, this is never discussed and is lied about/denied/concealed all the time….lol….24/7 liars…..

    What they wanted:
    The target fuel economy EV manufacturers are trying to get is to get 3.6 mile range for every kwh or using 27.77 kwh to go 100 miles (.2777 kwh per mile) = 125 mpg
    125 mpg is based on electricity just coming out of a wall plug, in reality 3.20 gallons of fuel are burnt to generate the electricity in the power station). = 31.25 mpg

    What they got:
    What test drivers are actually getting driving in the real world driving EV’s is they are getting 2.4 miles of range for every kwh or using 41.66 kwh to go 100 miles. (.4166 kwh per mile) = 83 mpg
    (83 mpg is based on electricity just coming out of a wall plug, in reality 4.80 gallons of fuel were burnt to generate the electricity in the power station = 20.8 mpg).

    So to end up with 41.66 kwh of electricity which is equivalent to 1.20 gallons of gas to push the EV 100 miles down the road 4.80 gallons of fuel were burnt to generate the electricity in the power station, remember net 25% efficiency. 100 miles using 4.80 gallons = 20.8 mpg,

    20.8 mpg….lol…..these EV’s use more fuel so pollute more then ice vehicles

    most new gas or diesel ice cars get better fuel economy, cost way less, use far fewer resources to manufacture, don’t have lithium fire bomb batteries, last three times as long as EV’s….

    NOTE:
    Thermal efficiency of power plants using coal, petroleum, natural gas or nuclear fuel and converting it to electricity are around 33% efficiency, natural gas is around 40%. Then there is average 6% loss in transmission, then there is a 5% loss in the charger, another 5% loss in the inverter, the electric motor is 90% efficient so another 10% loss before turning the electricity into mechanical power at the wheels.

    33% – 6% – 5% – 5% – 10% = 25% efficiency for EV’s. In very cold weather EV’s are 12% efficient

    Plus the cost of the battery, which is huge, you have to store the electricity in the very, very expensive battery, that is the killer for EV’s right there, the expensive, rapidly wearing out battery.
    the tesla $22,000 battery is used up, worn out in 100,000 miles. this works out to $22.00 per 100 miles it is costing you for the battery.

    travelling 100 miles in a 50 mpg diesel uses 2 gallons of fuel @ $4.00/gal. = $8.00
    One difference is the diesel powered car doesn’t need a $22,000 battery for storage, it just has a $200 gas tank for energy storage that lasts longer then the car.

  7. Does this mean that CAFE should go away? Certainly sounds like it.
    But then what will happen to the all the new EV cars coming “but our investment!”

  8. Every summer we experience real air pollution in the West due to massive fires that dot Western states thanks to government regulations that prevent logging and the clearing out of old, dry underbrush. Naturally they blame global warming, and not their policies.

  9. I strongly suspect that too many Republican congressmen will “respectfully” kneel to the Green New Deal, and fall all over themselves to grant this power to the EPA.

  10. Here’s the predictable turd in my inbox this morning from the NY Slimes, though it contains one diamond concealed in the muck:

    ‘The EPA can still regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles, the nation’s largest source of such emissions — although the ruling may make the agency more cautious.

    ‘Biden has focused on the nation’s top source of greenhouse gas pollution — transportation — by directing the EPA to craft tough new limits on tailpipe emissions to speed up adoption of electric vehicles.

    ‘But those rules are already under legal assault in lower courts by many of the same plaintiffs who were victorious in this week’s Supreme Court case.

    ‘California in the coming weeks is expected to finalize a first-in-the-nation regulation requiring that all new cars sold in the state must be electric or zero-emission by 2035. Seventeen other states are in line to adopt the same rule when it passes in Sacramento.

    ‘Republican attorneys general have already filed a suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia seeking to block state authority to mandate a transition to all-electric vehicle sales. Oral arguments have yet to be scheduled.’

    ————

    California lists its 17 fellow travelers pursuing the ‘ZEV program’ under Sec 177 of the Clean Air Act:

    NY, MA, VT, ME, PA, CT, RI, WA, OR, NJ, MD, DE, CO, MN, NV, VA, NM

    https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/§177_states_05132022_NADA_sales_r2_ac.pdf

    What is Virginia doing on the same list with all these communist-run regimes?

    Get to work, Mr Youngkin.

    Or else unbutton your shirt and show us the hammer and sickle tattooed on your chest.

    • Wikipedia:

      The states that joined West Virginia [in suing the EPA] were Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

  11. Another funny story about language being changed – the other day I was forced into a 3 hour mandatory DEI training at work. It means Diversity equity and something else. Now while I didnt quite learn what it stands for – I did learn that saying “hello ladies” to a group of ladies is now a “microaggression”. A word I’m assuming is also newspeak because even Apple’s woke spell check is underlining it as misspelt!!

      • That’s one of the things I appreciate about my current employer…they haven’t gotten into the DIE stuff.

        They have a lot of problems, but this isn’t one of them, yet, and I don’t really see it coming down the pike (perhaps only because our owners are publicly traded but on the Nikkei)

    • In the neighborhood where I grew up, the standard greeting to a nubile was, “Do you like onions? Do you like peanut butter? Do you wanna ****?

      It was never said to any of the girls around, it was just run-of-the-mill fun nonsense spoken among all of your friends in the neighborhood.

      Microaggression, whatever that is, is just plain old indoctrination, it’s propaganda.

      It is not an aggressive action, it is being human towards others, if others are women, you are expressing human interaction in a civilized manner, nothing more than that.

      If a woman is attracted to you as a person, so be it. Nothing wrong with that. Can’t deny human nature, women have special needs.

      Klouse would differ in opinion, but Klouse is a lunatic gone wild, so it doesn’t matter what the chief bug eater says.

      Ain’t no fun when Klouse is around, get lost, you no good bum. har

  12. Eric – at what point do you think the west reaches a point with rules, regulations and other dictates that are so onerous and pointless that the people just stop giving a damn, as you hear about in the days of the USSR, or see across other banana republics in Asia or Africa. To some extent it’s started in Europe, with Italy and Greece officially not caring about rules from the EUSSR. The people give even less of a damn on the ground. Maybe thats the way forward, just stop caring….

    • Hi Nasir,

      I think that point has been reached. I have at least reached it, myself. I ignore/disregard as many “laws” as I can “get away” with. I would stop paying insurance were it not for my gig as a reviewer of new cars. I will not renew my driver’s license if it means wearing a Diaper or presenting proof of Jab or submitting to any kind of “biometric” “real ID” cattle-tagging. I am beginning to actively-seriously consider a “bail out” option – meaning, removing myself and stalwart gal (plus our beasts) to some remote locale and giving the double birdie to all of them.

  13. IDK which is worse…putting the Clowngress in charge of writing smog regulations, or some bureaucratic, “Woke” twits at the EPA, in particular, the infamous EPA Region IX, headquartered in Sin Francisco, which I have the *ahem* pleasure to work with in my profession…along with regulatory agencies of the great State of Cali(porn)ia.

    Of great interest has been the class of chemicals known as PFAS, of which PFOA and PFOS are the best known. One source of these chemicals has been Aqueous Film Forming Foam, or “A-triple-eFF”, many also dub it “Aircraft Fire Fighting Foam” for its main use in putting out aircraft fires by airport fire departments. For many years, this stuff was considered fairly benign, and fire departments would often train by setting mock aircraft (usually made of steel pierced planking) ablaze with Jet fuel and training fire fighters and rescue personnel. It was not uncommon to use several thousand gallons of solution in a typical exercise. These compounds were also used in making waterproofed outer wear such as Gore-Tex, or in carpet dyeing.

    These compounds came to EPA’s attention some fifteen or so years ago, and various government agencies involved, like the Department of Defense, in performing environmental cleanup at current and former military facilities, began to investigate discharges of PFAS compounds about ten or so years ago. There is still no Federal consensus nor direct EPA regulations for what’s termed “MCLs” (Maximum Contaminant Level) in groundwater, or WQOs (Water Quality Objectives) in drinking water, but originally a “Health Advisory”, or HA, of 200 parts per TRILLION (yeah, .0000000002 %) was promulgated for PFOA and PFOS combined. In 2016, this was lowered to 70 ppt. Some states have set forth cleanup standards in groundwater, notably Texas and New Jersey, which are lower but still within an order of magnitude of the EPA HA. Recently, a guidance was put out where the EPA has a draft recommendation (which should be formalized shortly) which lowers this “HA” to the parts per QUADRILLION range. The hell of it is that not only are years and millions upon millions of dollars of investigations now rendered effectively useless, the detection methods at those numbers are not reliable. I can’t say what possessed the EPA to put these standards forth.

    Yet more evidence we’re living in a banana republic, headed by clueless buffoons with advanced university degrees, that have no idea how their decisions adversely impact the lives of the public they supposedly serve, nor do they seem to care. There will come a point where the public will get fed up with it, and, IMO, they SHOULD.

    • Hi Douglas,

      I’d like to see a simple requirement that (a) actual harm is being caused and (b) the proposed amelioration is both effective and cost-effective. Thus, a mandate in law to establish that the “climate” is “changing” in some objectively dangerous way and that this “change” is demonstrably the result of “human activity” and that amelioration is possible, without incurring more damage than the “changing” of the “climate.”

      • Eric if it were obvious there’d be no need for debate. Everyone knew that the air in Pittsburgh was horrible. Housewives wouldn’t put out laundry to dry on days the coke plant was running. You couldn’t see the Point from Mt Washington most winter days. But that was the price to be paid at the time. As wealth increased the people in the US Steel building figured out how to scrub the air. Oh there were objections over cost, but eventually they realized they were killing themselves and their workforce too. The air in the 1970s was much better, in fact when I visited the ‘Burgh as a kid I don’t remember anything about air quality other than greasy-spoon diner and bar exhaust fans. Some might credit the EPA for cleaning up Pittsburgh’s air, but no way would USS have been able to install scrubbers that quickly, especially if they were mandated by the governement.

    • There are times I think Trump, for whom making his bones in the Tri-State area would mean he was no stranger to corruption and political chicanery, was utterly naïve as to what the “Swamp” would do to resist him. Honestly, I’m surprised he hasn’t been “Arkancided”, I felt back in 2016 when he was running, at each step when he won primaries, then the nomination, and then, surprisingly, the November election, that at a certain point he was a dead man. My guess is that the established politicos arrogantly figured they could control him, and it got nasty and ridiculous when they realized he wasn’t easily controlled after all. Hence the blatant “steal”, which not only pushed him out of the White House, but, like the CA “recall” last year, was an “in your face” to show that the “Swamp” will not meekly abide by any results of an honest election. And don’t get the idea that everything “The Donald” did promoted Libertarian values. I’d actually voted for Gary Johnson in 2016, figuring that even if it wasn’t so blatantly fixed, Cali(porn)ia would still easily elect whatever excrement-bag was nominated, so my vote was figurative no matter what. It went to OM in 2020 for the same reason…give the party of the Jackass the finger, just in a different manner!

      • Hi Douglas,

        Orange Man, for me, is akin to a fixer-upper house that became a money pit. So much potential. So much waste. What you imagined could be a fantastic place turned out to be an endless series of setbacks and disasters. You eventually realize it’s hopeless and walk away.

        I’ve written previously that I was more than willing to give the man the benefit of many doubts, up to a point. That point was passed after about six months into 2020 – by which time I concluded he must be either an idiot or complicit. There is no other explanation that can account for his ongoing deference to Fauci. His continuation of the “emergency” – even to the very end of his failed presidency. The final nail in the coffin was – is – his “vaccine” pimping. If he genuinely believes, as he says he does, that he (personally!) “saved millions of lives,” then the man is an imbecile of titanic proportions. If he does not believe it, but continues to say it, then he is demonically evil.

        I see no other plausible explanation. Does anyone else?

        • Indeed, Eric. It’s a classic case of Stupid or Evil. Any time there is a massive screw-up (usually
          involving GovCo) and the people responsible are faced with defending themselves their choices of defense are boiled down to either they’re Stupid or Evil. They ALWAYS pick “Stupid” as a defense. And they usually get away with it.

          It’s long passed time we faced the fact that “Our Rulers” are, in fact, Evil.

        • Trump was always more about what he represented, than about who he really is. He is far more moderate than he usually is given credit for, I knew this in 2015-16. I still voted for him. I consider it a kind of “no confidence” vote.

          Most of his failures were in being not “Trump-y” enough, in my view (and probably a whole lot of others)

          Which, given the hysterics over what he actually did manage to accomplish (very minor changes), underscores how dangerously disconnected from the rest of the country the governing class actuss actually is.

          The country as we know it isn’t over yet, but it doesn’t have very long to go now. And it has less time than even I expected. My parents (Boomers) might actually live to see its end; previously I thought I probably would but they surely would not.

          • Both the left and the right were primarily reacting to various cartoon versions of Trump, which were largely drawn by the media. Very little reality, but a great deal of hyperbole, was used to construct these images. Much like Obama (only we really only got one cartoon there, which was drawn by the Left).

            Our “leaders” are nothing more than an outlet for the hopes and dreams of the people. The flip side of this, is that they are the scapegoats for all of their problems and frustrations (like Biden now—he’s just the fall guy).

            Our leaders are nothing. It’s up to you, folks. Either you can keep the republic, or not. I’m pretty sure the answer is “not.”

          • Hi Anon,

            It was nothing elaborate – just sinister. My friend has invested years in his education/career as a nurse. They threatened him with loss of job/tenure/pension if he failed to submit to the jab. He’s divorced and raising his daughter on his own. Yes, he might have found another way. But I will not attack him for what he was pressured into submitting to – in part because I have had the luxury of avoiding such pressure myself. I hope I would not buckle. But I won’t know until I am faced with something similar to what he was faced with.

            • Hi Eric

              This was Re: trump…

              Hi Eric

              He was paid off, or they threatened his family or all of the above? Or he is pretty dumb?

              Send him this link to help deprogram him….lol….screw with his belief system….

              https://www.truth11.com/untitled-301/

              someone said that they would rather end up homeless then take a killshot….

              in that sense a homeless that refuses has less to lose then someone that has a good job, or tons of stuff they are trying to pay for, so will take the killshot to continue working and paying for their stuff…..so own very little, owe nothing, keep living/survival costs very low (all you need is $300 per month for food, then maybe a tent to sleep in or very low rent somewhere), only have/use cash (or hard currency…gold, silver), …gold, goats and guns…..

            • Hear, hear, Eric! It costs us nothing to affirm what out neighbor ought to do. Perhaps it costs him much? Would we pay the price we expect him to pay? Hopefully, but not certainly.

              “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye; and behold, a beam is in thine own eye?”

        • He’s owned, lock , stock and barrel by the tribe. Just like his opposition. It’s all theatre, tv bullshit. No one represents us, they hate us. They are literally killing us. Hopefully people will break open their eyeballs and wake the fuck up.

  14. The EPA is regulating carbon dioxide on the wrong planet. Mars’ atmosphere is 95 percent carbon dioxide. EPA regulators need to rocket up to Mars as soon as they can. Clean up the atmosphere on Mars first, forget earth, 400 ppm is peanuts here on earth.

    Soybeans, dry edible beans, fix nitrogen from the air and store nitrogen in soils. You never add anhydrous ammonia when you plant soybeans, dry edible beans.

    Terraform Mars, build biodomes to clean up Mars’ atmosphere.

    Sequester carbon dioxide on Mars first and foremost.

    A Mars mission is top priority. You’ll be able to accumulate carbon credits until the cows come home. Send every employee from the EPA to Mars where they obviously belong.

    Beam me up.

  15. Let’s hope that ruling includes slapping down any authority to mandate mileage requirements. Get rid of the tiny turboed 4 cylinder engines that seem to be ubiquitous and bring back some heftier sixes and V-8’s!

  16. ‘And there is the additional parallel of the redefining of experimental palliative (supposedly) drugs as “vaccines.”’ — eric

    OSHA’s attempt last year to force janky so-called ‘vaccines’ on most working Americans was a similarly egregious abuse of authority by an administrative agency.

    That gross abuse was stayed by an injunction, sought by plaintiff NFIB. With the new EPA ruling in place, NFIB now has an excellent chance of prevailing at trial.

    When the Lügenpresse weeps and rends its clothes like this, you know something wonderful has happened:

    ‘Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law, said the ruling “could be cataclysmic for modern administrative law.”

    “For a century, the federal government has functioned on the assumption that Congress can broadly delegate regulatory power to executive branch agencies. Today’s ruling opens the door to endless challenges to those delegations — on everything from climate change to food safety standards — on the ground that Congress wasn’t specific enough in giving the agency the power to regulate such ‘major’ issues,” Vladeck said. — CNN

    ‘Cataclysmic for modern administrative law’ — AH HA HA HA!

    Lurch … errr, Mister Kerry … you’re fired!

  17. When the EPA declared CO2 a pollutant, they left science behind and became an insane organization, just like the Left now says you must accept the “fact” that men can become pregnant.

    Carbon Dioxide is a life gas, without it, we are all dead. You can not live on this planet without Oxygen AND Carbon Dioxide. Without CO2 that plants breathe, then plants can not grow, and thus animals can not feed.

    This actually has happened. Back in the last glacial maximum, CO2 got all the way down to 140 parts per million. That is to low for plants to live, they need 200 ppm just to stay alive, about 240 to grow. At 140 ppm the life on our planet was dying. Current levels are at “bare” recovery levels, and the proof of this is that if you add CO2 to a plant grow room the plant’s genetics is optimized to grow much faster.

    This low CO2 in the last ice maximum is a great untold story. CO2 got way to low! Megafauna died, nothing to eat! No one knows anything about it except some climate specialists. You can see for yourself in these charts.

    I recommend you print them out and hang them on your wall.

    https://imgpile.com/i/1IDiyi

    grim conditions of ice age max, dust storms:

    https://i.imgur.com/pdJvPIr.png

    Global Warming by CO2 is not only impossible and fake science, it is a very dangerous insane idea, only something that deranged lunatics of a death cult would promote like that Davos Dumb Ass Klaus Slob and his underlings.

    • An interesting tidbit to illustrate just how idiotic some of these regulations of “contaminants” get: Farmers often leave an old tractor out, often parked at the same spot, in the fields they work. Many of these old workhorses leak engine oil and other lubricants, and many, being diesel, the farmer will purge out some fuel prior to startup to make sure no condensation gets into the injector. As well as, if the engine requires an oil change, just dump the old stuff right there! So after quite a few years, a great deal of spent engine oil and diesel fuel has accumulated in the soil where the tractor is customarily parked…and the grass grows under it, very well!

      This is why I find it somewhat rankling where some irrigation districts will email notices to these farmers to NOT park their farm equipment in their own fields, for fear of “unauthorized releases” of POLs. By Gawd and Sonny Jesus, I shite you not. When you get right down to it, the Earth is where this stuff CAME FROM. “Behold, I say unto you, Cetane thou art, and to the shale formation shalt thou return.”

    • Hey Jack, don’t you know that the past was always better than the present? Why, just read Little House on the Prairie. That was a bucolic lifestyle, one of homesteading. And there were horses! What little girl doesn’t go through a horse phase? And log fires, iron cookware… why, it must have been a little slice of heaven!

      Too bad you can’t smell a book, or feel midwestern winter in a drafty cabin watching a TV show…

  18. “at the behest of Republicans (again) who crawl over each other to show Democrats just how much they agree with them” – yep.

    I hope today’s opinion will reign in the EPA’s fight to implement the new world order of sparse energy for the masses.

    It certainly opens the door to other suits of the same nature.

  19. I’m curious what changes, if any, this decision will make to current CAFE diktats. Maybe now car companies (c’mon Dodge) may challenge instead of rolling over and saying yessa massa.

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