Government doesn’t merely fleece us; it tries to pretend it is helping us when it fleeces us. No ordinary thief is possessed of such effrontery. The latest example being what the government of New York City is styling congestion relief zones. In fact, what the government is doing is relieving people who come into the city by car of money.
And freedom – of movement. Which amounts to the same.
It’s now $9 to get in – by car – “discounted” to $2.25 during off-peak hours. That is, after 9 p.m. in the evening until 4 a.m. the next morning, times long after the end of the work day and hours before the next work day, assuring most workers who drive into the city will have to pay, unless they find another way into the city.
The air-fingers quotes are used to make a point about such “discounts,” which are of a piece with the “refund” you sometimes get from the IRS . . . which takes your money. It’s essentially a kind of rape-courtesy.
Thank you so much for allowing me in.
The purpose of these congestion relief zones is twofold. The obvious first one being to generate “revenue” – as the money extorted by government is commonly styled. Once again take note of the deliberately euphemistic language that’s meant to diddle the mind of the victim. To keep him pacific in the face of effrontery. Hand over your wallet, says the honest thief – his gun pointed at your guts. The city needs revenue, says the government.
How much money – in the case of the government of New York City?
Well, let’s work it out. Nine dollars per day equals $45 per week, assuming you work in New York City but don’t live there (which many who commute don’t because it is both unaffordable as well as unpleasant to live in the city). Per month, the charge comes to $180 and times twelve that comes to $2,160 annually – which is for most working people a great deal of money. And it’s more than that, too – if you don’t “agree” to ear-tag your car with an electronic transponder styled (here we go again) “EZPass.” And it is easy – in the sense that it makes it easier for the city to collect revenue automatically, by directly debiting your bank account.
Your “agreement” being of a piece with the “consent” they say you have given to submit to random, probable cause-free searches of your vehicle and person for indications you’ve been drinking because you were effectively forced to obtain a driver’s license to be able to legally drive your vehicle. (And yes, it is a search when you are forced to stop and forced to permit an armed government worker to look inside your vehicle and examine your “papers.” That it is a brief search in no way changes the nature of thing, just the same as a brief penetration does not change the fact that a rape has occurred.)
Think how much revenue will be “generated” – that is, extorted – from all those drivers. And this brings up the ultimate purpose of this scheme, which is to make driving into the city unaffordable so as to effectively outlaw driving into the city without actually (technically) making it illegal to do so.
This tactic is the same one used by the federal government to force cars that are not devices off the market. It is absolutely true that there is no “EV mandate,” per se – as the Biden Thing has correctly stated. But the thing is, only EVs can meet the regulatory requirements laid down by the apparat. Thus a de facto ban on vehicles that are not devices and a de facto mandate that devices be manufactured.
Its genius lies in its disingenuousness.
Why, we’re not saying you have to buy a device! We’re just making it so there is little-to-no alternative to buying a device!
We’re not saying you can’t drive your car to your job in the city! So long as you can afford to pay the fee!
They know, of course, that many cannot. And that will serve to push many of them into what is styled “public” transportation. Meaning government-controlled transportation, such as the train or perhaps a bus – further proletarianizing the public.
This is necessary for at least two reasons. The first being the obvious one, which is to reduce the average person to a state of dependency on government even for basic once-taken-for-granteds such as being able to drive to work and back. To come – and go – on your own schedule. That small but significant degree of personal freedom must be stamped out if freedom itself is to be stamped out. Once this is understood, one understands why there has been a decades’-long assault upon the personal car. It is not merely that the people committing the assault hate cars.
They hate you.
They will not suffer a diminution of their mobility. When John Kerry talks about the urgency of curbing “carbon” emissions, he means you won’t drive when he gets off his private jet. They will have limousines and helicopters. You will wait in line for the bus.
And they will sneer and laugh when they talk about you in private, behind closed doors – expressing the contempt they have for you, which is the ultimate motivating reason for all of this.
. . .
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This is 100% off topic, but…
How many of you are aware that 37 assassinations have occurred in Mexico over the last year or so, so that a Jewish woman could become president of Mexico?
This is a shit show we all need to keep our eyes on.
I still won’t use an EZ-PASS. The real congestion relief is when the highway splits to EZ-PASS only tolls on the left and it’s gridlocked, then on the right takes you to a whole other set of turnstiles for CASH an 1/8th mile away. (and the idiots sit there when the CASH tolls also accept EZ-PASS).
I guess enough lemmings have EZ-PASS now they can just throw up congestion zones like the UK. Can’t wait for that to hit my city, as they’ve been busy lately throwing up speed cameras in the suburbs.
It’s really just a tax on NJ residents. On top of the NY income tax they are forced to pay, since apparently NY can just tax anyone who works there regardless of where they live with their progressive and high income tax rates. Maybe NJ should retaliate by charging NY tagged vehicles a surcharge to use the NJ Turnpike – to reduce congestion on I-95 of course. But because they are all libtard morons, they deserve to have their wallets lightened.
Actually someone in NJ had proposed doing something very much like that. They called it a “reverse congestion charge”. Might not be a bad idea to do just that!
A case can be made that the exorbitant tolls on all of the bridges and tunnels across the Hudson River are an unconstitutional interference with interstate commerce. These tolls largely go to subsidizing the subways and commuter rail systems — local projects which travelers on federal interstate highways are obliged to pay for. Commuters who work in NYC already ‘contribute’ via NYS and NYC income tax.
Wish someone would file a class action, using plaintiffs from neighboring states such as PA, CT, RI and MA, objecting to being fleeced on interstate highways for NY-NJ transit projects which do not benefit them.
An oft-cited rationale is that auto drivers indirectly benefit from reduced congestion thanks to mass transit. Even if this is so, the Constitution does not accommodate such convoluted reasoning. Effectively these highway tolls are a tariff erected by individual states — which is definitely prohibited, as tariffs are solely a federal prerogative.
As the famous sign on the PA side of the Delaware River says, ‘America starts here.‘ (And communism ends, till you hit the Left Coast.)
I’m likely never going to New York City, except perhaps once to validate my belief that it is a condition against every grain of my being.
I have no issue with user fees for roads, as long as there are unmaintained roads somewhere to allow travel for those who don’t wish to participate.
The unmaintained (by any government) roads out where I live are rough, but I somewhat love them in that you very rarely run across a sheriff and there are no stop signs, lights or other controls. Speed is only limited by the abuse to which you wish to subject your vehicle. I still believe a specialized hovercraft is the best way to travel these roads.
And eventually I want to have a short-take-off gyrocopter. But that is another story.
Hi BaDnOn,
I have never been to NY or NYC…I start getting nauseous after crossing over the Mason Dixon Line. 😉 I actually would like to see NYC at Christmas time…catch a Rockettes show, see the Rockefeller Xmas Tree, check out the NYC’s Holiday Markets, get lost in Saks Fifth Avenue, etc.
I don’t know if I will ever do it. The crime, the noise, the amount of people. I try to avoid these things. I still have it on my Bucket List though.
As someone who enters NYC regularly, including at Christmas time, I can say you aren’t missing anything. All tourist trap crap, unbelievable crowds, and pickpockets milling about. Hotels over $1000 per night in December, dinner for two will be $300 at a decent restaurant. You will be disappointed, it’s not like pictures make it seem. Find another bucket list item, like maybe visiting a Bavarian Christmas market in Austria or Germany.
Thanks, BAC. Germany at Xmas time is also on the list. Those are the exact same reasons I don’t go to to the National Mall on the Fourth of July. Did it once…never again.
Hey Raider,
I have a friend who went to NYC a few months ago. He said it’s worth the visit, but he’s the city-dwelling type. He still described it as a cesspool of humanity and said it made him feel so insignificant.
The craziest part is that he stayed at a hotel with his sister, and apparently she took a pull off of a vaporizer in the room. The hotel confronted them with graphical data of the air-quality in the room, noted the spike in contamination, and threatened them with a $500 fee for smoking! I guess after some noise, they were able to leave without paying the fee, but holy shit!
That didn’t sell me well.
“It is not merely that the people committing the assault hate cars. They hate you.”
Bingo. Just as all psychopaths do. Not only do they hate you, they revel in your pain and suffering. It makes them feel good.
Psychopaths KNOW they arent human and can NEVER be. There is only ONE way to deal with such. How one deals with a Rabbid dog?
Here in WA last November the voters failed to pass the initiative that would have eliminated the carbon tax/credit trading scam. We pay way more in gas ($4.23 average in King County today) due to this scam.
The 2025 legislative session is now starting here, the state strangled by D majorities for decades similar to California. The D leaders were on local news recently crowing on about how since we didn’t pass the carbon tax rollback that means the citizens are supportive of increasing taxes for causes they believe in! The POS had a gleam his eye during this interview. There was a memo leaked last fall outlining the tax tax and more tax goals here for 2025. Meanwhile there is zero accountability where the carbon tax money is going and how it’s supposed to “fix” climate change.
I really didn’t want to move again but my daughter keeps asking “how much more of this BS can you stand till you leave this state?”
And the real hell of it is that one, the cost of bus/train/subway fare isn’t much lower, or even higher, than driving and parking; and two, nothing, I mean nothing, will be done by TPTB in NYC to make using mass transit better, even though more people will be using it. Service isn’t being increased and nothing is being done about disorderly conduct. Speaking of which, why is it that on a plane, you can get cuffed and stuffed for looking at flight attendants the wrong way, but bus drivers, subway operators, and train engineers and conductors can’t (or won’t) do jack and/or squat to deal with disorderly passengers?
Speaking of which, why is it that on a plane, you can get cuffed and stuffed for looking at flight attendants the wrong way. . .
Because airlines are still privately owned and operated.
The terminals and the thugs in Blue are of course operating on properties typically owned by a Meteo transit authority or an airport authority (ie public).
Can’t be all that congested in LA nowadays, everybody is stranded and a new tent city popped up overnight.
Frying in LA can’t be that much fun.
A lot of cars were turned into crispy critters.
The global warming hoax is revealed today, it is 20 below zero this morning here in the outback. Should experience some global warming by the middle of March, but that has been going on for centuries.
To Live and DEI in LA…
I remember that movie!
Wang Chung did the soundtrack. 😆
Had a bootleg version of that tape. Wore it out on my walkman. Listened to it riding in taxi cabs at ludicrous speed, Seoul SK, dark of the night. Drunk ass cab drivers, red light running at 6o mph, narrow misses, saying a prayer of thanks upon arrival. And feeling that god is in heaven, either that or I was one lucky SOB.
The sound track was more popular in Korea and Japan than it was in the states. To Live and Die in LA. The remake should be called, To Live and DEW in USA.
+1
Still own the movie dvd. It cycles thu rotation every few years, nice to escape to the 1980’s once in a while.
Music and movies, the closest things we have to a time machine.
Just think if Christ had never been born. No Christmas ever. No Christian churches, no hymns, no silent night, no holy night.
No Joy to the World.
Sing it, do ti la so fa mi re do.
Joy to the world, the Lord has come.
Would have never heard a note of it.
Never been history.
Look no further than the NYS Thruway (I-90 & I-87) which was paid for with a 40 year bond in 1957.
The tolls were supposed to pay it off and toll plazas bulldozed in ’97.
Guess what? Toll booths were eventually bulldozed, but merely replaced with overhead transponders.
It would be one thing if the continued, endless tolls had been used to upgrade the road, but it remains primarily a relic from the 60s with 2 lanes in both directions, while other states have 3-4 lane wide interstates that ARE NOT toll roads.
NY & Albany are an epicenter of misery and corruption.
Same is true of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It can actually be cheaper to fly from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia than drive.
Same thing happened here in Taxachusetts back in the 90’s, the bonds on the Mass. Turnpike were about to be paid off and once they realized that the politicians issued a bunch more in order to keep their gravy train going forever.
Off topic a bit but still on cars and transportation…
“Texas Sues Allstate For Secretly Tracking Drivers Through Apps, Using Data To Raise Rates”
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/texas-sues-allstate-secretly-tracking-drivers-through-apps-using-data-raise-rates
“The state of Texas has sued Allstate and a subsidiary, Arity, accusing the insurance giant of illegally tracking drivers through cell phone apps without their consent and then using the data to charge more for car insurance.
According to Texas AG Ken Paxton, Allstate created the “world’s largest driving behavior database,” which collected information on more than 45 million Americans after paying mobile app developers millions of dollars to secretly incorporate tracking software. The software was designed beginning in 2015 by Allstate’s data analytics unit, Arity, and integrated into several apps such as Fuel Rewards, GasBuddy, Life360 and Allstate-owned Routely.
In a Monday complaint filed in a Texas state court near Houston, Texas says Allstate also profited by selling the data to other insurers.”
Once I got myself West of the Hudson River, I never went back. Nor do I intend to.
When Uber turns on “surge pricing” for the Taylor Swift concert, everyone has a conniption. When the city does it, someone gets a commendation for creative thinking.
Of course the opposite is true as well. Charging a fee for entry will help make sure only the people who must travel into the city go, as opposed to a (literal) free for all. The pricing is somewhat arbitrary in this case, but it is no different than the shopkeeper “gouging” homeowners for blue tarps after a hurricane by jacking up the price. Then again, “public” roads are already paid for by the public. Like Darth Vader, Eric Adams is altering the deal. Pray he doesn’t alter it further.
As others pointed out, the real issue is that it will affect businesses who are already dealing with the post-covid marketplace, theft and the end of rule of law, and now this. Just another reason to leave in a city with 8 million other reasons to go.
I am going to play Devil’s Advocate here for a sec. Is this not a user fee? I think most of us on here have a strong dislike of taxes. I think we are also rational enough to realize that if one wants streets they also have to be paid for. Who better to pay for them than the people actually using them?
I will be the first to admit I am a Lexus Lane driver. I will pay more to get myself from Point A to Point B faster. Since I am using the road and I want to get home quicker the Australian highway system of Northern Virginia charges top dollar to do so. Does everyone have to use these lanes? No. Does anyone have to travel into NYC? No. Should the people of NYC who don’t have a car and don’t use the roads be forced to pay for them through higher taxes? Personally, my opinion, is no. If you don’t use something why should you be forced to pay for it? If you do use it should you not be charged for its use? Nothing is free. We all know that. So why not charge the user for the use?
Great minds…
I think the bigger issue is what changed to cause all the traffic? I know that NYC has always been difficult to get around on the main thoroughfares, but once you get to the side streets it usually tapers off. Anyone who lives there will give you 10 different “short cuts” to get anywhere in the city, usually sparking a heated debate with anyone within earshot. Why surge pricing now? Just because someone wants more bicycles? Because London does it so NYC says “me too?” Perhaps because the city is becoming unlivable due to the leftist policies and so everyone felt the need to flee to New Jersey?
“Flee to New Jersey” is a whole mouthful of cognitive dissonance. From my relatively free upper midwestern viewpoint that is choosing between frying pan and fire for the place you want to be.
Hi RG,
I don’t in principle disagree with you. But I think the strongest objection here – in practice – is that everyone is paying for the roads who pays motor fuels taxes, which are very high in NY already. So it’s a form of double taxation as I see it. If roads were private – and people who wanted to us them paid to use them (just the same as people pay to use any other privately owned service) but those who did not use them were not made to pay for them, then there would be no issue.
Bingo – right on Eric.
The idea that all pay for the roads via gas taxes but then the rich get to use the special lane should be an outrage. Note also that the higher the use tax on the Lexus Lane, the more users get pushed to the Prole Lane.
Set the Lexus Lane pricing to Maybach or Bentley pricing . . . Let’s call it $5k. That ought to clear the lane out pretty well so that only the animals with more rights than the others can use the lane with no delay.
Just to expand on a them. Then we can move the Lexus lane to the middle lane – how’s a $100 sound? That will push the Proles to the right lane – let’s call that $5.
Too congested and can’t afford $5, well we could allow bicycles, scooters and rickshaws on the shoulder. We’ll call that free (for now).
Did I hit a nerve, BID?
I would think most people would love it if their were less cars on the roadway and that people, like me, that are silly enough to pay the additional tolls have freed up space for someone else who doesn’t want to pay.
Also, the Lexus Lanes (at least in VA) are free to anyone and everyone as long as you have three or more people in the car. If a group of people want to carpool into work together…free whether coming or going.
Let’s do some “napkin” math. I will use myself as an example. I drive a Highlander (the cheaper Lexus). My SUV has a 19 gallon tank and averages about 17 miles per gallon. This equals 323 miles per tank. If I drive 12k miles per year that is around 37 fill ups or 703 gallons. The federal and state gas tax is around $.30 per gallon (in my state). I am paying about $211 annually for gas taxes. This wouldn’t pay for 12” of asphalt.
I guess the alternative, if one wants to get rid of the gas tax, is to charge per mile. How much does everyone want to pay per mile…$.10, $.50, $1? At .10 I end up paying $1200 annually, $.50 equates to $6000 annually, etc. Right now I am using the roads for about .0175 per mile. The gas tax only affects those that drive. It is another user tax, but I think we are foolish if we think it covers anywhere close to the continued maintenance and repair of the US roadways.
The reason the napkin math doesn’t work is because both you and I know the roads are also funded by the state General Fund as well as Federal Grants in addition to fuel taxes.
It really is about first principles.
Privatize the roads (completely – no public funding at all) and I’m aligned to what you are saying about a use tax.
I take issue in the same manner with TSA pre-check, CLEAR, and when the airlines were providing separate TSA lines to first class passengers. When the general public is being forced to fund airport terminals and airport authorities, the rich should not be afforded a way to bypass the lines which others are forced to endure. If it were up to me, John Kerry would have to get his and his wife’s junk felt up by the TSA to board their private jet since we can’t be sure he isn’t a terrorist and might decide to turn the jet into a weapon of mass destruction.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander
I should add that I acknowledge that privatization of existing roads has significant issues. Chiefly that many roads have a historical basis as public right of way that truly were “free” roads to travel before the government got involved in extracting money from the public to improve them.
Hi BID,
I can’t speak for the rest of the country, but here in the Commonwealth, it is the new roads that are privatized, not existing roads.
An example, of this is the I66 Express Lanes that go from Haymarket to the Beltway or the I95 Express Lanes that go from Alexandria to Fredericksburg. The state did not take away the lanes, but added new lanes. So I-66 has four “free” lanes and then two “paid” lanes were added a few years ago. The same for I-495 and I-95.
There are also cases where the addition of new roads got rid of existing tolls lanes. An example of this is when I-295 was built going around Richmond in the late 1980s. Prior to that I-95 that ran through the heart of Richmond was a toll road. Every visitor (and resident) who used this roadway paid. After the state built the roundabout the state closed down the tolls on I-95, because people were taking the roundabout to skip the tolls and businesses were suffering in Downtown Richmond.
The NY congestion fee is easy to get around. Don’t go to NYC. When business revenue starts suffering, which causes the city coffers to suffer as well, these things have a tendency to get rid of themselves.
Sorry, you don’t have to be rich to bypass the TSA cattle chute. Less than $1oo for five years isn’t exactly going to break the bank, of anyone. It pays for itself in two trips.
Roads should never be privatized via tolls as long as we pay gas taxes, and property tax to county roads departments. Want to make public spaces into a rent seeking business models, then drop all Property, DMV, and fuel taxes.
As for this talk of traffic congestion, yes, less cars would be better. Forty years ago when there was Seventy million less people it wasn’t a problem. Where did the seventy million come from? who brought them here? And what would life be like if they were all sent packing?
Six more days and they all get sent back.
Actually, BID, I am a little surprised that you are supporting the “we should all be treated the same” narrative. Someone who pays $2800 for a first class ticket should be treated the exact same as someone who buys an economy ticket for $300?!
Sorry, I disagree. Maybe that makes me a snob. If I am paying top dollar do I expect better and faster treatment? Damn, straight.
When it comes to passing through the TSA checkpoints which are again Taxpayer funded – yes.
I used to fly first class regularly – it pissed me off to no end that first class would be afforded priority service over a coach customer at TSA.
At the end of the day it’s the taxpayers paying (albeit forced) for the TSA.
Again first principles – if the airlines were paying the full cost of private security and wanted to afford their first class customers expedited passage – so be it. But that isn’t the case. Taxpayers fund TSA.
Do you support expedited justice for those that can better afford it? And yes we all know this happens in real life but at the same time all are supposed to be equal before the law.
Hi BID,
Except only 60% of all Americans pay taxes to the federal government. Sure, the other 40% pay Social Security (if they are working) or sales tax (which is collected via the state), but the majority of Americans pay nothing into the system while the other 60% do. And I am not just pointing my finger to the poor, but there are many wealthy people that pay $0 into the system.
I have a problem when I have to write Uncle Sam a check every freaking quarter or each pay period (sometimes, both) to get the same service as someone who pays absolutely nothing.
You are right…taxpayers funds TSA. But, we should stand in line with the other 40% that don’t, right?
Should be large minority, not majority.
You could also spend $5k to visit Sierra National forests off limits burnt area designated by Capt Hair gel as “carbon sink” with its $5k “tresspassing fine”
in colorado, we have a toll road E-470 that was put in. when they got a section done. all the traffic on either side of the highway got bottlenecked down. they shrunk the roads that were NOT toll roads..they even tore some roads up so that the traffic was thicker and thicker on the local roads making it impassable UNLESS you use the toll road. they even changed the timing of lights to make traffic back up on purpose.
they did these things 2 miles on either side of the highway. making all local traffic useless. you had to PAY if you wanted to get to work on time.
before the toll road there was no problem. no congestion. or very little in comparison. they started it for FUTURE traffic concerns on the new airport DIA…which was just getting rolling when they put in the toll road. there was no issue even after Dead on Arrival airport was put in. they had to manufacturer an issue that didn’t exist before hand. forcing people to use the toll road
the taxpayers were forced to pay for the toll road. and the money from the tolls went to spain. the toll road was supposed to go to a regular road after it was paid for or so the paid liars in government said. 30 years later it is still a toll road..never paid off apparently but then they decided it needed NEED TO BE PAID OFF…EVER…keep that money coming in and going to spain who they sold the toll road to!
left that area a long time ago. glad to be out of that state. like going over the berlin wall to get out of the peoples republic of colorado. we used to say BOULDER colorado was 15 square miles surrounded by reality. now it is the whole damn state that is the people republic surrounded by reality.
Who paid for those ‘lanes’? Likely bonds paid for by those those that may not afford the ‘use tax’. They won’t set up booths, they want to use those damn transponders. A no truer example of fascism where the company operates the equipment and corpgov takes a cut for forcing the tax morons to pay.
Those transponders mark where and when you pass through a gov toll. It would be extremely easy to track your every movement by adding a GPS circuit and memory to store a few years. This can be used by the insurance thugs. If you are constantly going to a high risk area up goes your payments.
It’s to the point now that we should be saying NO to any tax scam they come up with. I live 7 miles from some beautiful beaches. I can’t go because I refuse their device. The charge is $20 if you don’t use their transponder. How? They use a license plate reader. Another hit on freedom no one seems to mind.
It’s beyond me why people continue voting for DEMOCRAT politicians, especially after the way many of them behaved over the past several years, from draconian COVID measures such as mask & vaxx mandates to draconian “Climate change” agendas to wishing to impose MASSIVE new taxes on the citizenry (with the constant claim that it will ONLY affect the wealthy when that claim turns out to be complete bull crap time and time again).
It’s almost as if voting doesn’t matter and the electronic voting machines are rigged huh?
“It’s almost as if voting doesn’t matter and the electronic voting machines are rigged huh?”
Damn.. you just blew my mind 😳
Could be….on the other hand, there are people who are soooooooo propagandized they just reflexively vote for whoever has a “D” next to their name and completely IGNORE stuff that “D” politician does that they’d excoriate “R” politicians for.
Those people are a small but very prominent majority John. If you think otherwise, turn off the tele and spend more time outside. Most states would be blood red if we had same day, one in person ID verified ballot and did away with all mail in ballots. There is absolutely no good argument why we should allow people to vote by mail.
In Oregon, we have had vote by mail for over 20 years, and during that time we’ve had 1 Democrat Governor after another, each of them worse than their predecessor. Heck, the state even “recycled” a former D Governor back in 2010 named John Kitzhaber, who was originally Governor from 1995-2003. He returned to office in 2011, and “won” ANOTHER term a few years later but had to resign shortly after his FOURTH term started due to a scandal he & his then girlfriend was involved in, resulting in Kate Brown becoming Governor. There have been efforts to recall her due to her ruling as a QUEEN, but she always magically survived such recall efforts.
I knew a wise old guy who spent months working on that governors removal. Lotsa construction kickbacks.
Looking at the election map from 2024, Oregon is largely RED save a few hive minds of BLUE thinking, and yet somehow Democrat politicians magically win statewide office year after year. And now that Democrats have a supermajority in the state legislature, they seem hell bent on ramming through all sorts of insane, malicious bills, probably under guise of “Resisting Trump”, “Protecting public health”, “Stopping gun violence”, “Build Back Better”, or the old worn out Democrat line “Making the wealthy pay their fair share”. Will Republicans in the state legislature deny quorum (Quorum being required by the Oregon Constitution) in an effort to stop the most evil bills? That remains to be seen, though the current crop of R legislators seem to be little more than wimps afraid of whatever Democrats or corporate media says about them if they stand up against what can only be described as evil.
That kind of makes my point John. Almost all so called elections are now decided b the two or three large urban areas in any state. Look at any state that trends blue. They have inconsistencies such as 11o% or more turnout in certain precincts. That alone is clear evidence of fraud.
Doing away with mail in ballots is the first step to restoring some honesty to the process. Until then, I’m out. Wont waste my time on the lesser of two evils when I know damn well the victor will be who the owners want, not who I, along with the majority of the population want.
In Southern Oregon, there were efforts to change the county charter in 2 largely RED counties to have 5 commissioners & break the counties up into districts disguised as MORE DEMOCRACY. However, they were largely pushed by DEMOCRAT special interest groups & a failed Democrat County Commissioner candidate, and thankfully, those efforts FAILED as enough people voted & said NO to such schemes, as they would have likely emboldened Democrats in power with authoritarian ambitions to issue all sorts of insane diktats for EVERYONE, with SEVERE punishment for people who refused. Just look at the way they viewed people who refused to comply with nonsensical government diktats & be guinea pigs for Big Pharma during the COVID hysteria.
No reason why Oregon, or anywhere for that matter should suffer under D-tard oppression. J-6 ensured there would be no fear left in any politicians diet. Sad that, as they are such fragile and weak characters. Drag them into the light, and it all changes. I would sell everything I own and move to a free state of Jefferson.
Here in chicago, its mostly the dead and illegals that vote that way every time. People you find on the street rarely agree unless you are in a few small core neighborhoods. Illinois is a red state, cook county is the problem
The electoral college system is an “equalizer”, which dilutes the power of the largest population centers, forcing the candidates to appeal to ALL states, not just the most populated ones.
If the “popular vote” was the determining factor in presidential elections, all the candidates would have to do is campaign in two or three of the largest states (New York and California) and could safely ignore the rest.
The problem is not the “electoral college”, but the “two party system” itself. There should be multiple major political parties, not just two.
A prime example of the direct “popular vote” skewing election results is that of gubernatorial elections in the “several states”.
Potential gubernatorial candidates in the large population centers ignore the rural areas as all they have to do is gain enough votes in the major population centers to get elected.
Here in the state of Michigan, the legislature is composed of a largely reliably Republican majority. However, the governor’s office is usually filled by a democRAT.
The states should adopt the electoral college system for gubernatorial elections operating on a county-by-county basis. It would be interesting to see the results of gubernatorial elections if all of Michigan’s 83 counties were properly represented.
I realize that in decades past, there were “supreme court” opinions outlawing an electoral college system within the “several states” for state political candidates.
THAT has to change…
You always get nickel and dimed to death.
These are the times that try men’s souls
In the course of our nation’s history the people of Boston have rallied bravely whenever the rights of men have been threatened
Today a new crisis has arisen
The Metropolitan Transit Authority, better known as the M.T.A.
Is attempting to levy a burdensome tax on the population in the form of a subway fare increase
Citizens, hear me out, this could happen to you! – The Kingston Trio, MTA
Charlie never returned.
The song was written in 1949, The Kingston Trio recorded it in 1959.
75 years later, it’s worse than ever.
$2,100 to drive into the city during the work year or risk being sucker punched by thugs. That or be pushed onto the rail line by psychopaths. Or set ablaze by psychopaths. What a choice.
Fortunately we have the second amendment so that armed road bandits cannot operate with impunity and usurping governments cannot trample the people’s liberties by force. What, you’re not exercising that right and you’re not supporting the free men who do fight back? May your chains rest lightly upon ye.
The 2A exists in NYC?
Nope, the 2A does not exist in NYC, especially for ordinary citizens.
New York City is the epitome of citizen disarmament whose residents have been taking it for a very long time…and apparently liking it.
Since the Sullivan Laws were enacted, enabling the most extreme and restrictive limits on the acquisition and uses of firearms, the Constitutional right to defend one’s self and others has been almost totally obliterated.
Once restricted to handguns, the laws have been extended to rifles and shotguns, all of (what were supposed to be “registered”) demanding that they either be confiscated or taken out of NYC.
I’ll bet that those people who voluntarily turned in their weapons added to NYC police officers’ gun collections.
NYC prosecutors relish the thought of prosecuting those who legally defend themselves, even a “rolled up newspaper” is considered to be an illegal “weapon”.
The honest citizen is the easiest person to charge and convict.
If you defend yourself successfully against a criminal without NYC police being involved, you WILL be prosecuted.
Witness Daniel Penny who was being viciously prosecuted for saving fellow subway passengers from mentally ill Jordan Neely who had been harassing and threatening subway passengers for decades. Thankfully he was acquitted of all charges.
The case of the bodega owner, Jose Alba who successfully thwarted a knife attack, his attacker succumbing to his injuries, was under indictment and prosecution for murder until a groundswell of opposition forced the prosecutor to back off on prosecuting him.
The case of Bernie Goetz, the subway rider who thwarted being robbed by dispatching three of his attackers to the “hospital”. Subway crimes dropped dramatically after that act. If Goetz had kept his mouth shut, no one would have been the wiser.
What kind of society prosecutes the victim of a crime?
It happens in NYC all the time.
You see, the approximately 36,000 NYC police officers constitute a powerful lobby and do not want to give up their monopoly on the use of force.
They cannot have their monopoly on the use of force jeopardized by allowing honest citizens to provide for their own self-defense by “taking the law into their own hands”.
Despite having relatives who live in NYC, I will not visit or enter NYC. This also applies to New Jersey.
oh yes the bandits operate just fine despite the 2nd amendment. they wear uniforms and carry a gun and a badge! no different from the highwaymen of old just more of them and they literally get away with murder. if ever caught then they pass the judgment and fines to the tax payers. so if a uniformed thug gets taken to court and sued it the tax payers who pay the judgment. without exception. the legal bandit pays nothing.
no matter what happens it is the tax payers that are punished.
After their behavior during COVID I have put New York State on my personal list of no-go states.
Quite frankly, you couldn’t pay me to enter New York City.
“That it is a brief search in no way changes the nature of thing, just the same as a brief penetration does not change the fact that a rape has occurred.”
When one willingly lives in a state like VA that has made the roadside rape legal, I can’t help but wonder if perhaps maybe if the citizenry don’t enjoy it . . . Maybe just a little . . . Maybe just the tip?
Otherwise who tolerates this sort of tyranny?
There are 10 states that explicitly disallow roadside checkpoints. Three have state constitutional provisions prohibiting them. This despite the fact these 9 federal clowns in gowns have given all the states the right to rape.
It remains to see how the other 40 behave when the orange clown and his minions try to establish immigration control and whether they try to enact immigration check points to “show za’ paparz’ “
What are those 10 states?
Congestion is a result of government not doing its job of building and dimensioning infrastructure according to demand. Charging people for having to suffer the consequence of this negligence constitutes double punishment – one is the congestion itself, and the other is the fee.
If anything, people should receive tax discounts for having to put up with the congestion.
Eric,
The last time I went to NYC was 2.5 years ago, i.e. July of 2022. I drove in, as I was going to the NYC ACC shelter to adopt a cat. I didn’t end up adopting a cat from them, but that’s another story. Because of the logistics of the trip, using public transportation (bus to NYC and subway/bus trip to the shelter) wasn’t a practical option. Hence, I took my car that day.
After gas, tolls, and parking, it cost me about $50 or so to make the round trip. That’s about the same cost as a round trip bus ticket from my city was at the time. With the increase in the cost of a car trip, courtesy of NYC’s congestion pricing, I can’t help but wonder if the bus tickets will increase too? Oh and BTW, that bus ticket just gets you to Port Authority Bus Terminal; if you have to go elsewhere in the city, you’ll have to cough up extra for the bus and/or subway ride to get close to your ultimate destination.
Whether driving or taking a bus or train to NYC, the trip is a PITA. If you drive there, you have to pay for gas, tolls (NJ Turnpike and any bridges you need to cross), and parking. Parking will cost you a minimum of $20 for 1.5-2 hours; if you need a parking space for work, that’ll set you back $200-$400 a month. Then, there’s DRIVING in NYC, which is always a “fun”-NOT!
If you take a bus or train into the city, that’ll only get you to the bus or train station. Buses all go to Port Authority, while trains into NYC stop at a few different stations, depending on the train line you use. If your destination isn’t near the bus or train station, you’ll have to either take a city bus or subway that’ll go near your destination, or you’ll have to pay for a pricey taxi. That doesn’t consider the personal safety issues of using MTA buses or subways! That’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish…
Anyway, in my experience, whether you drive to NYC or use public transportation to get there and travel there, the cost was about the same either way. Also, no matter how you get around NYC (either by car or mass transit), it’s a PITA. Because getting into and around NYC is a PITA, I seldom go there. I can’t help but wonder if the price of a bus or train ticket will continue to be the about the same after congestion pricing goes into effect? Those are my rambling thoughts about this…
I went to NYC a few months ago to visit relatives. I spent less flying in from Atlanta and taking the bus to Manhattan than it cost you.
NYC produces nothing but misery and steals from everyone else. People living there are supported by government thieves or bankster thieves.
I encourage all honest people to leave and make productive lives elsewhere.
Once you start discouraging workers from driving to work in the city it will result in them not shopping in the city on the way home. I’m guessing business’s will lose sales as a result. I won’t pay a fee unless I’m forced to go there and I’m guessing I can buy whatever I need some where else.
Don’t forget the restaurants, bars, and street vendors who cater to commuters! Because of the COVID lockdowns and increase in remote work, fewer people are going into NYC; this decrease has also hurt the businesses that support the commuters.
Lunch time restaurants might survive OK as you can eat it right there.
Parking garage values in Manhattan should have just plummeted in the last week.
You are right, Landru. The more cities make it inconvenient for patrons to visit, shop, eat, etc. the less they will do so. I live an hour outside of DC. I haven’t visited in well over ten years (maybe more). Why? It is a nuisance. Are there good restaurants and shops I would like to visit? Sure, but the inconvenience isn’t worth it. Instead my money is spent in Fredericksburg, Charlottesville, or Front Royal. More affordable and closer to home.
The traffic alone is reason enough to stay out of DC; it’s a nightmare! I know, because I made that mistake once. I’ve visited the museums in recent years, and I may do so again in the future. However, when I visit DC, I stay in NoVa (normally Chantilly area by Dulles), and I take the Metro in; the Silver Line has a stop near the hotel I use. The Metro goes near every place I’d want to visit in DC, so I don’t have to drive there. Did you ever try the Metro? If not, you should; it makes traveling to DC so much easier and less stressful.
Hi Mark,
I haven’t taken the Metro in about 15 years. The last time I took it my kiddos were 2 and 4 years of age around and we took them to the National Zoo. I may be getting paranoid, but I don’t leave home without Betsy and since she can’t come to DC I don’t go to DC. 🙂
Ha! Old town, downtown Fredericksburg and Charlottesville are nice, but Front Royal? By that, I guess you meant Rural King. Or as me and my buddies call it, The Front Royal Armory…
And yes, I need to find out the company that runs the I66 toll lanes and invest. That’s gotta be a dividend king for sure!
Aww, Tom, don’t be mean…
Yes, The Rural King (where else can one get free popcorn while shopping for chicken food, mason jars, and pro-gun T-shirts), but also Spelunker’s, Element, Glen Manor Vineyards, Skyline Drive, Vibrassa Beer, the antique shops in downtown, etc. Also, it is just a hop, skip, and a jump from Flint Hill, Huntly, Sperryville, and Washington (VA, not DC) which has some great restaurants. Yes, Front Royal is a tad bit backwoods, but somedays that’s nice. During COVID it was the only place one could show up and not see a freaking mask.
FYI: VA owns the lanes, but the maintenance and repair is through I-66 Mobility Partners which is made up of a bunch of large global companies.