Tesla didn’t so much pioneer the modern electric car as it did the modern electric car grift.
It works like this:
The people who constitute the federal government decided to use the power of the federal government to sluice money taken by the federal government from what are styled “taxpayers” – as if they had a choice as to whether to pay these “taxes” – to an industry that the people who constitute the federal government have decided to favor, via finance – using other people’s money.
In this case, the industry was Tesla – the only company that was in the business (so-called) of making electric cars when this business began about fifteen years ago. No one else was in this business because there wasn’t any money in it.
But that was before the people who constitute the government began to redistribute money, to this business.
First, though, it was necessary to lay the groundwork for it. It was asserted that it was necessary to promote EVs because they did not “emit” carbon dioxide and so were characterized by the people who constitute the government as “zero emissions” vehicles. This was marketed as being a salve for a “crisis” the people who constitute the government – and its attendant lampreys in the “media” – claimed would otherwise befall us all.
Various government regulations were then imposed that favored the manufacturing of these “crisis” salving, supposedly “zero emissions” vehicles. There were even production quotas (as in California, where any company that wanted to sell cars there was obliged to at least offer a certain number of “zero emissions” electric cars if they wished to be allowed to sell any cars at all) to push things along.
This latter gave Tesla leverage – in addition to the subsidies it also received courtesy of the people who constitute the government.
It worked like this:
The people who constitute the federal government decreed that businesses that earn money via free exchange would either have to waste money complying with federal regulations obliging them to reduce their “emissions” of the dread inert gas carbon dioxide – as by manufacturing “zero emissions” EVs themselves – or pay Tesla for credits that could then be credited against their own “emissions” for not manufacturing EVs. Tesla being given credit for producing cars that don’t “emit” the dread inert gas carbon dioxide at the tailpipe but never mind the “emissions” emitted in the course of making them – and powering them.
In this way, Tesla got the government to finance its business while at the same time hobbling rival businesses. GM, Ford, Stellantis (the combine that owns Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Ram trucks) spent money financing Tesla, via the carbon credits they were essentially forced to buy from Tesla.
It’s the crony capitalist analog of the wasp that stings – and paralyzes its prey and then lays its egg on the victim, which remains alive while the baby wasp gradually consumes it, alive.
And now the other “wasps” want in on the same action.
GM, Ford – pretty much all of them – have decided they are All In on EVs, too. Some have taken the Kook Aid Pledge to build nothing but EVs in the near future. They are betting that the people who constitute government will make a “market” for them. That is to say, force one – on us. This will result in their stock prices going up – per Tesla – and that is how they will make money, going forward.
Meanwhile – and at the same time – the Biden Thing pumps more of our money into peripheral/supporting boondoggles via the “Inflation Recovery Act,” to erect more public “fast” chargers and so on. 
Never mind that it’s becoming more and more obvious that there are only so many people who want an EV and are able to afford one. Especially as more and more people become aware of the truth about EVs – including what it actually costs (in time as well as money) to own and drive one. That if you aren’t a homeowner – with a garage – you won’t even be able to charge one, at home.
The assumption seems to be that the people who constitute the federal government will find a way to make someone else pay for it.
But the fallacy that this assumption depends upon – and that Tesla profited from – is that there is someone else to pay for it all.
What will happen when every car company is producing nothing but “zero emissions” cars and – for that reason – none of them can legally extort their competitors to finance their business via selling them “credits” they no longer need to buy in order to comply with government regulations? When everyone is being subsidized, from the head of the rotting fish all the way to its tail?
It’s a fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Ollie.
Of course, the “taxpayers” will still be paying for all of this – including for the electric cars they’ll have no other choice about buying. If they want to buy a new car. The people who constitute the government are clearly Hell-bent upon out-regulating alternatives to them and if that doesn’t work, then it’s damned likely the alternatives will simply be outlawed.
The problem there – for everyone – is that the taxpayers will be even less able to pay for the EVs most of them already can’t afford – unless the people who constitute the federal government increase the tax rebates that have been used up to now to make EVs artificially more “affordable” for the already affluent – who are the only ones who pay enough in taxes to be qualify for these tax rebates.
But that will necessitate even higher taxes – to pay for the increased and perhaps generalized rebates (i.e., the government just sends everyone a check with which to partially pay for a new EV). And that will result in a need for even more compensatory taxation.
Or inflation, which amounts to the same thing in that it fleeces the people of their wealth. And that, in turn, will result in the further ossification of the economy, because business will no longer have any interest beyond appealing to the government to keep it in business.
The people, meanwhile, will lose interest in working – because why bother when the people who constitute the government take practically everything you earn and there’s not much you’re interested in buying with what’s left over anyhow.
This is the Soviet Model.
And that appears to be the plan.
. . .
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The crony-capitalism is only a front for what is a past reality. Sheeple today keep saying it as if it is a good ‘alternative’, that being ‘democratic socialism’. The economic reality of antisemitism was actually the killing of capitalism under the guise of ‘Jewism’. The same is under way here, believe it, or don’t, it doesn’t change the facts. Watch this video series in color and let the brilliance of unbridled narcissistic hubris astound you as it did the sheeple of Hitler’s Germany. Today’s Wokeism is tomorrow’s Fascism, in colorful disguise!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0b4kP-z-lY
What’s happening with the tracking of us with these new connected cars, especially EVs?
>>>
Of the car brands Mozilla looked at, Tesla fared worst of all.
>>>
Mozilla looked at 25 car brands and found that all of them collected too much personal data, and from multiple sources—monitoring not just which buttons you push or what you do in any of the infotainment system’s apps but also data from other sources like satellite radio or third-party maps. Or even when you connect your phone—remember that prompt asking you if you wanted to share all your contacts and notes with your car when you connected it via Bluetooth?
While some gathered data seems innocuous or even helpful—feedback to improve cabin ergonomics and UIs, for example—some data is decidedly not.
For example, Nissan’s privacy policy says it can collect “sensitive personal information, including driver’s license number, national or state identification number, citizenship status, immigration status, race, national origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, sexual activity, precise geolocation, health diagnosis data, and genetic information,” although it’s unlikely your car knows whether you’re getting busy in the back seat. While this might be technically possible with a car fitted with a camera-based driver-monitoring system, Nissan’s privacy policy notes the data source for the quoted paragraph as “direct contact with users and Nissan employees.”
Mozilla found plenty more to worry about. Eighty-four percent of the brands they analyzed said they can share your data, and 76 percent said they can sell it. And more than half say they’ll share data with the government and law enforcement by request.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/connected-cars-are-a-privacy-nightmare-mozilla-foundation-says/
Eric,
Do you think that, with the bad press and EV market running out of steam that this tar baby can be stopped? It appears that most of the people who wanted and could afford an EV now have one. EVs are not moving off dealer lots. Finally, Toyota isn’t all in on EVs; they’re betting on hybrids. How can the gov’t force something on the people if they don’t BUY it?
Another ev article of interest Eric.
“Officials have boasted that ‘one in five’ vehicles sold last year was a plug-in electric, and that ‘sales of EVs overtook those of diesel in 2022 for the first time’.
But critics said the industry figures showed that this was ‘misleading’ because it obscures the fact that businesses are mostly driving it.”
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-12484029/Only-quarter-electric-car-sales-year-private-buyers.html
Indeed, Stephen –
And: “overtook sales of diesels”? Hell, that’s easy. There are almost no diesel-powered vehicles available for sale int this country anymore, outside of HD trucks.
A common deception. “EVs will be 50% of new car sales by such and such a year.” Easy, take all their competition off the road. Reducing over all sales. They can reach that goal without actually increasing their sales.
“Tesla didn’t so much pioneer the modern electric car as it did the modern electric car grift.”
That is 100% correct. And Elon became the richest man in the world (supposedly because Forbes top billionaires never include the Rothschild trillionaires) by mining subsidies.
But get this, grifter Elon who runs Tesla and grifter Bill Gates who runs Microsoft do not actually own that money – that is an illusion. They are front men for a consortium, and when they die to goes to the investment group that fronted the face.
You are to believe Elon runs 3 major corporations, then buys a 4th, Twitter, yet has time to raise a family, smoke pot with Joe Rogan, and having a wrestling duel with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and now sue the ADL.
It is a show folks, those hijinks are done by actors in a show, and it is exactly the same for the political actors, like Trump who was a reality TV star. And Trump touted the vaxx, because when he did, he got a check. Mention Covid, you get a check, that is why the media kept saying it over and over, they were bribed to do so.
And if you think Elon is a muskRAT then take a look at the boy wonder, Microsoft genius Bill Gates, vaxxaholic and now carbon credit miner. Gates wants to cut down 70 million trees and bury them for carbon credits – go look it up.
That is insane. And trees are not fossil fuels. But there’s money in it, fighting climate change, the biggest financial scam of all time outside of central banking itself.
Charles Hugh Smith has an interesting chart:
https://www.oftwominds.com/photos2023/rent-income8-23a.png
They say a picture is worth a thousand words:
https://i.ibb.co/KmRLz3S/bill-gates-is-jewish-with-rabbi-rebbe.png
The Lubavitcher Rebbe is Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson –
“THE BODY OF A JEWISH PERSON IS OF TOTALLY DIFFERENT QUALITY FROM THE BODY OF ALL NATIONS OF THE WORLD. A NON JEWISH SOUL COMES FROM THREE SATANIC SPHERES, WHILE THE JEWISH SOUL STEMS FROM HOLINESS” – Raset MENACHEM MENDEL SCHNEERSON One of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century Tones FROM ‘Tanya; THE Boox or Cuasan’ CuarTER 19, PAGE 77
Who cares what some nutball Jewish rabbi says? There are Christian ministers that say similar stuff. Most jews are about as secular as can be and don’t listen to guys like that anyway. Jewish power and tribalism is a problem but it doesn’t matter what they believe. They should be forced to operate under the same rules as everyone else.
For example, I believe I’m superior to some people but I don’t expect special treatment for it. Making a big deal of crazy jewish “leaders” just brings up accusations of anti-semitism. It should be avoided.
Hi Jack,
Gates wanting to cut down trees just proves he’s insanely evil. Trees absorb that “bad” CO2 and give off oxygen for all of us living critters, so his plan is to end all life on earth. I think we should end his.
Link: connected cars are a privacy nightmare:
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/connected-cars-are-a-privacy-nightmare-mozilla-foundation-says/
Has anyone here ever had to deal with a repurchase/buyout from a car manufacturer?
GM has decided to lemon the piece of junk that we bought, but neither outcome is one that I am crazy about.
1. Option #1: They repurchase the truck and we have to bring $6900 to the table. Yes, you read that right. We have to come to the table with almost $7K for a truck that we drove for 10 days. 🙁
2. Option #2: They repurchase the truck (dollar for dollar) and they move us to a new truck. Since the new models are out we have to move one model up which means an additional $3200 out of pocket (this is based on MSRP).
I hate both of these options. Will I have to get a lawyer? Yes, but I am inquiring if anyone else has gone through this because I feel like I am flying blind and am beyond furious. I have spent over 20+ hours on this – writing letters, making phone calls, talking to lawyers, etc. That I have to come to the table with any money seems like insanity to me.
RG: Does this help at all?
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title59.1/chapter17.3/section59.1-207.13/
Yep, I’ve had a car bought back under lemon laws. It’s complex.
They assume the lifetime of a car is 120,000 miles under CA law, where I did this. My car had 4000 miles on it, so they refunded me 96.7% of what I paid based on how much of the car I “used up”. They also refunded that much sales tax.
Now, where it gets messy, and where I am guessing you are getting caught, is that there are sometimes cash-back offers or financial incentives to finance with them or whatever, and if you lemon-law the car, you have to return the cash-back or whatever. Is this what’s happening to you? It’s a sneaky thing. They sell you a car for some marked up price, but then give you a cash-back, which somehow makes their books work out better, but creates headaches for you.
Hi OL,
GM actually follows the CA lemon law (even in VA) and you are absolutely right… that is what is happening. They gave me the formula (price paid x mileage/120K), but the incentives are added back in.
At the same time I don’t want another vehicle…the possibility of going through this again gives me the jitters.
Thank you for the information. I guess they aren’t trying to get one over on me although it sure feels like that.
Lemon law and going with something else entirely may be for the best. If it has a brake issue that hasn’t been figured out odds are it’s a vehicle that needs to go to auction at a discounted price to someone who can then put in the time and effort the dealer won’t and GM won’t pay for.
You shouldn’t have to pay anything. Get the full purchase price back. Check your state laws.
Steve Lehto is the youtube lemon law lawyer.
This may be the relevant video for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZumX4M-o9Ok
Hi RG,
This is completely egregious. I’d lawyer up – and tell the dealer you’ll be suing them (and GM) to the fullest extent the law allows. If the dealer – if GM – had any decency, they’d simply refund your money. All of it. You thought you were buying a premium vehicle and paid top dollar for it. You didn’t even get two weeks’ use of it before a catastrophic failure due to a design/manufacturing issue over which you had no control.
You have already lost the use of the vehicle you paid for – and the time already spent making other arrangements and dealing with this debacle. What is your hourly rate for accounting? I think a case could be made they owe you thousands – in addition to every cent you paid for the vehicle.
I am happy to help you raise a public stink about this, too. Feel free to tell the dealer that as well.
Hi Eric,
We are meeting with a lawyer next week. I have lost almost 4K in potential billings just with the amount of time I have put into this. It is just aggravating.
They have at least stopped contacting me to come pick up our “fixed” vehicle.
I’d pony up the $3200 for the upgraded vehicle and sell it or grit your teeth and drive it. You are not going to win at this. They have the $$$ and the lawyers on retainer. Dragging it out is only going to cost more and you might end up with the same result.
Krusty the cowardly klown. So RG should just eat the shit sandwich GM is offering up?
More insight into the self-defeating krusty and why he complies with the abuse. Yes sir, may I have another, sir.
Krusty, if anything, I will pony up the $7K and wash my hands from all of this. The last thing I want to do is pay an additional $3K and deal with the possibility of more issues.
I am not going to do anything until the lawyer reviews everything. If he says I am screwed then I will pay the $7K and tell anyone that will listen that GM sucks. I am hoping it won’t come to that.
I understand how you feel. But consider the options. $7k for nothing $3k for a new truck. Yes you did have issues with the first one but that has to be an extreme outlier. The odds are astronomical of anything like that happening again. If you get another truck it almost certainly will run okay and you can sell it for nearly (or maybe more) what you paid. Then go buy something you prefer. I know it sounds like giving in but I consider it taking a lemon and making lemonade. You can’t change the past but you can try for a better future.
I agree with krusty klown: The chances of you getting a second lemon are astoninglishly low. Or you can turn right around and sell the replacement. Are used car prices holding up right now? I came thissss close to buying a Silverado with the 5.3L LS engine. What turned me off was the cylinder deactivating technology. However, the internet supposedly has a gizmo you can plug into your OBD-II port and turns that off. (Hafta leave the gizmo inserted). Thought about that for a moment as well, but ended up getting an eco-boost Ford. (at least the turbos are external to the engine…)
Hi krusty and MDP,
I have no desire to have the same vehicle. I don’t trust it.
Ten days after we purchased the vehicle the brakes failed with all of my family inside the car. The truck would not stop and the electronic system went absolutely haywire. We coasted to a stop and are thankful we did not cause an accident.
We dropped off the truck the first morning the service department opened. The engine failed while the truck was under their possession. They could not explain to us why the brakes or engine failed. It took over 30 days for the dealership to get a refurbished motor. I don’t know where this motor came from or the amount of miles it has on it. They still haven’t addressed the brake issue.
They also refuse to give us a service ticket or repair notice. We have asked four times and are told it has to be approved by management?!?!
To be fair, when I notified GM they did respond very quickly (about a week after they received my letter) and when I went to the dealership’s manager he began making phone calls. I still have not heard from Cadillac Corporation at all.
I have been driving almost 30 years and I have never had a truck leave me stranded, unless it was from my own stupidity (e.g. running out of gas). This truck has had two catastrophic failures within a 48 hour period. If the backup camera was broken or the radio didn’t work those are pretty mundane and the car is still drivable. Brakes and an engine…they are kind of important. I don’t trust the quality of GM/Cadillac and I do not want another of their vehicles. At this point I just want to be made whole less the miles we put on it and move on.
And I presume it has an electronic parking brake, not a mechanical emergency brake, which would at least have let you slow down a bit quicker.
Correct, John. At that moment, I would have loved an emergency brake.
It dawned on me that I am not ready for this new technology.
This is very generous of you: “I am happy to help you raise a public stink about this, too. Feel free to tell the dealer that as well.”
RG should definitely utilize this help and specifically direct them to these comments so they know it’s real.
All I know if I have pissed off someone somewhere in the universe. The last half of the year has been an absolute train wreck.
It’s just life. Shit happens. We all go through rough patches sometimes. Life is a constant battle and you seem to be a strong fighter. You’re alive with what sounds like a great family. I’d bet with what truly matters, things are going well for you. Hang in there and keep fighting!
These are the good times
These are the times we’re gonna laugh about
Now is the time we’re gonna dance and shout
‘Cause these are the good times
-Chic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er9xGRolrT4&t=2s
Hi Mister,
It demands that. It just astound me that Cadillac would treat a customer this way. So incredibly short-sighted. RG is going to tell everyone she knows to stay far, far away from Cadillac. And how many people reading her account here will do the same? How much will this cost Cadillac, in good will and reputation – as well as dollars?
For Cadillac (GM) eating the loss is a small write-off. Give the customer her money back and profusely apologize. Offer her a new vehicle – and some cash for her trouble. Let her decide which works best for her. Even if she decides not to risk another go with a replacement Cadillac, her attitude toward Cadillac (and GM) will be worth its weight in gold. Or at least, Escalade. She will tell everyone she knows how well she was treated by Cadillac.
This is how Lexus became what Lexus is now.
Cadillac is an embarrassment, now.
Back in ‘06, I bought a Cadillac SRX new for cash. After an immediate check engine light (first day off the lot) requiring a new gas tank, the transmission crapped out in about two weeks requiring a whole new one. It was/is the only car that ever stranded me away from home (a block or two but still). I wrote them a long letter about how they were hurting the notion of “American luxury” and they didn’t give 2 shits even back then.
Traded it one for one on an ‘06 Ford F-150 in ‘10. I still get “maintenance” notices on the caddy even though I’ve moved 4 times since I sold it. Huh?
I am sorry to hear that, Funk, but I sympathize. I had never heard anything bad about Cadillac until I started talking to people who owned one. It seems to be a long line of problems and inconsistent “quality”.
In some fairness to Cadillac I think they sell the cars to the dealer and it’s their problem afterwards other then warranty repairs which are partly covered. This is really a dealer issue although you’d think Cadillac would want to help.
Years ago some friends bought a brand new ford, Escort I think. The oil leaked out the first day and the wife was driving the kids home so she waited. The engine seized. Complete loss. The dealer and then Ford told them to pound sand, because they had ignored the warning light. They purchased a new engine, sold the car, and have not bought an American car since. Ford probably cost them selves a couple hundred grand in future sales.
“In some fairness to Cadillac I think they sell the cars to the dealer and it’s their problem afterwards other then warranty repairs which are partly covered. This is really a dealer issue although you’d think Cadillac would want to help.” -krusty
Fairness to Cadillac for RG’s engine destroying itself within a week or two of driving it off the lot? WTF? Krusty’s always the faithful apologist for the abuser. What’s with you?
Indeed, Mister –
There is no excuse for what happened to RG. She deserved a no-questions-asked immediate refund. Cadillac markets itself as a premium brand. A big part of what you’re paying for – ostensibly – is a high-quality product backed by a manufacturer that takes care of you as customer. Imagine paying for a suite at a very expensive hotel and finding pee stains (or worse) on the bed. That’s what happened here, essentially. They owe her the money (all of it) back. A replacement vehicle? After what happened, would you feel good about driving another of the same vehicle? Made on the same line? Of course not.
And they didn’t even offer her that. They tried to pawn off a replacement engine (not even new, if I am remembering correctly). She paid for a brand-new vehicle. But she’s supposed to accept a vehicle with a used/replacement engine that by dint of that has objectively lost a large part of its former resale value even if the replacement engine works flawlessly. People are – rightly – leery of buying a vehicle that’s already had to have its engine replaced. And who wants to pay full fare for a “new” vehicle that has suffered a catastrophic failure? Would you feel good driving it? The whole point – well, one of the main points – of buying as new vehicle is that it works. That you do not need to worry about something going wrong. Let alone a total engine failure. That’s what you expect when you buy a high-miles old beater – and then it’s something you just accept.
She’s being gypped.
I doubt RG’s alone in this. I would be more than willing to bet there is a design/manufacturing defect with the vehicle and it ought to be recalled and the people who own it compensated.
Hi Eric,
Just by looking at the amount of recalls throughout the auto industry tells me there are problems in the supply chain.
The Scamdemic shut everything down and I am sure there were parts, materials, etc. that were not being manufactured or were placed on back order. I think most of the manufacturers took a chance and they probably let certain defects/missing parts through that they shouldn’t have.
Once you add in the new technology that these cars have it is only a matter of time before a once simple fix becomes a nightmare.
Krusty,
RG paid nearly $100k for a top-of-the-line luxury-brand vehicle that suffered a catastrophic engine failure due to a manufacturing/design defect less than two weeks after she took possession. It’s inexcusable. Cadillac (GM) made this piece of shit; the dealer sold her this piece of shit. They are both responsible for making her whole. The dealer should be going to bat for her with Cadillac. But they didn’t (as I recall) even offer her a free loaner vehicle to drive while this is being sorted out.
And Cadillac (GM) ought to refund her every cent she paid, plus (my opinion) something for her trouble, which has been considerable. She paid for a brand-new vehicle on the reasonable assumption she would have a brand-new vehicle to drive – the purpose of the purchase. She assumed – reasonably – that this brand-new vehicle would be reliable. Instead, she has had no vehicle to drive because the vehicle is not even operable. For more than a month now, she has had to drive something else – at her expense – and spend her time dealing with a problem that no one who just bought a brand-new vehicle ought to have to deal with.
Most Yugos at least ran ok for the first year or so.
I hope she hires a really sharp lawyer and goes after the dealer and GM. GM made a shit product; the dealer sold it. They were very happy to take her money – and once they had it, they just stopped giving a shit. And treated her like shit. Neither have tried to make this fiasco properly right – by giving her back her money. Suggesting she pay thousands to get out of the deal is beyond obnoxious. She did nothing wrong. Why should she have to pay?
It is they who owe her.
After their near collapse in the mid to late 70s, along with all other American car makers, for this very lack of quality and durability, which it took them decades to overcome, one would think Cadillac would be a bit leery of repeating that catastrophe and pay the damages due. Before word gets around.
The dealer took her money. They are ultimately responsible for making it right, by giving her money back. Then it’s up to the dealer to get right with Cadillac. Or not. Not RG’s problem.
In a sane world anyway.
Who holds the note on the vehicle? Ally? Third party bank?
Third party bank – BOA.
Michigan has a Lemon Law that helps a lot. You are 100% covered. It came about in a way because one person sued the car company, I forget which one, way back when the car companies decided to not include a spare as part of the car when purchased. He objected. ( I want a spare in case it is needed) $50K later he won, I think a Michigan supreme court decision. Sue, but be prepared to pay, justice is never cheap, it costs.
PS, should have read the other comments, KK’s are simplistic, simple what will cost more. As I think someone said VA has a lemon law, I would go that way, typically those types of laws have an “attorney fee provision” or even treble damages if egregious enough.
RG, for 3200 dollars you have a new truck. It is a bargain, you drive away with a new truck and the lemon is gone.
All new truck, new wheels, new tires, new everything.
Not sure how you can say this, “for 3200 dollars you have a new truck. It is a bargain, you drive away with a new truck and the lemon is gone.”
Keyword, I guess, is, “bargain”?
Getting ripped off & shaked-down, is more like it, no matter which way she goes. …It’s the, American way?
But she already had a new truck, new tires, and new wheels, new everything. At no additional charge. It blew up. How confident should she be that the 3200 dollar new one won’t blow up too? There’s a name for this. Con game.
Didn’t realize that the price is as high as it is. Another 3200 dollars will be gone along with the 100 grand that has already been frittered out the window.
At 100 grand for a Cadillac, get your money back. Buy another make and forget Cadillac.
Refuse to pay anymore on the loan, the bank and Cadillac can work things out.
This phrase “crony capitalism” is a meaningless contradiction in terms that needs to be put out of our misery.
When you have “cronies” dictating what will be built, under what conditions, and the price that will be paid, then “capitalism” — what happens when you leave people alone to do business as think fit — disappeared long ago.
One of the drivers of banning small diesels is local production of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (soot). This is alledged to be the cause of all resportory issues ever encounted in the cities prior to the dread virus.
The thing is, as engines become more efficent they naturally create more NOx because a hot engine is a clean engine. Diesels run much cooler, and modern gasoline engines too, as more energy is converted to motion instead of heat. Most of the “bad” stuff gets burned off in the catalytic converters (if yours isn’t stolen), but not all. That’s the big reason why EU cities are banning ICEs all together. The powers in charge saw the reduction in NOx after banning small diesels and now want to eliminate it all together.
My guess is that because they assumed all respiratory problems were caused by diesels they’d see a drop in asthma after banning them. When that didn’t happen, they figured that the ban didn’t go far enough. So now they have to ban all burning, despite humans evolving around fire for Chirst’s sake! So get rid of your gas stove, your car, your gas boiler, your gas hot water heater. And that wood fired pizza oven too. Think of the (asthmatic) children! But that’s not a good enough reason because asthma is treatable and really, where are we going to get the next generation of bookworms and nerds from if we eliminate asthma, so we have to make it all about global warming.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66027038
This is part IV of my “know your enemy” series (or it probably should be).
Problem: A growing segment of the public is not buying the idea that so callled “pollution” causes respiratory illness of any kind. I sniff a 50 year old lie called the clean air act. I am completely reassessing the last 50+ years in my mind as it relates to “air pollution” Was “air pollution really as harmful as they stated?
Was the banning of things like DDT and the adoption of much more harmful pesticides like Atrozine and herbicides like glyphosate beneficial? Same thing with the current pollution model?
Sulfuric acid concentrations increased when Catalytic converters were installed in cars. Was that more or less harmful than keeping things as they were?
Would we have more or less pollution if we kept refinery operations simpler and more efficient using low concentrations of lead to boost octane than burning through increased quantities of oil and gas to produce ethanol and other supposedly pollution reducing additives.
The last 55 years have been a b unch of bullshit
“The last 55 years have been a b unch of bullshit”
You are in the first stage of mental detox. It gets worse.
Tetraethyl lead poisons catalysts, which is the main reason it was banned in the U.S., AFAIK. Besides that, it is extremely toxic, being an organic lead compound. U.S. refineries continued to manufacture leaded gasoline for overseas markets long after it was prohibited to sell it in the U.S. I was involved in decommissioning the TEL facility at Chevron El Segundo, which happened in he early 1990s.
I don’t know where you live, but as a resident of the L.A. basin (SCAQMD), still one of the most polluted airspaces in the U.S., I am all in favor of catalytic converters, because I remember just how *foul* the air was here before smog regs. The air is much cleaner now, even though we have another 2 million people living here.
As others have noted, raising the combustion temperature increases the thermodynamic efficiency of an engine, but inevitably produces NOx, which are among the main precursors to photochemical smog. Catalytic converters absorb NOx, thus preventing smog, which tends to be brown in color. Perhaps you like brown air; I don’t.
AVGAS is 100 octane gasoline, with tetraethyl lead added. Lycoming requires it for their engines, which are certified by the FAA. If you install a more modern engine that would require recertification of the airframe, which isn’t going to happen, especially for a 60 year old plane. It is absolutely illegal to sell any leaded fuels in California, but somehow Cali pilots still manage to refuel at their home airports.
The FAA has been s-l-o-o-o-w-l-y approving “G100UL” for use in piston engines, starting last year. When was the last time you could buy leaded fuel at the pump for your car?
Of course the reason is that the power of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (lawyers) who are great at reminding the FAA who’s in charge around here. Pretty much any innovation in aviation over the last 25 years has been fought by the AOPA, even the stuff that makes sense.
Imagine if there were such an orginization for automobile owners and drivers…
Hi, RK,
No doubt another aspect is the relative numbers involved, i.e. number of private planes versus number of private autos. As well, once a plane is airborne, it will be emitting exhaust at altitudes which in many cases will be above the top of any inversion layer, meaning whatever pollutants are in the exhaust will dissipate, rather than be trapped, and “cooked” into smog.
As far as the numbers game is concerned, there is an analogy with hiking/backpacking. If one person pees alongside the trail it is no big deal, but if thousands do likewise, the place will stink of urine. A woman of my former acquaintance refuses to hike Mt. Whitney for exactly that reason. She said the trail reeks of pee and poo, because it is quite popular. You probably know what “blue bag area” means, and why they exist.
Good stuff RK, thank you. However, I believe all this anti petroleum push is way more than emissions. They are just using it to ‘educate’ the masses that it’s bad. They know petroleum created civilization as we know it, and they don’t want civilization as we know it anymore.
Bingo Chris. We’re doing too well, in spite of their equine feces, and they can’t stand it.
Ready Kilowatt: Think of the (asthmatic) children! But that’s not a good enough reason because asthma is treatable and really, where are we going to get the next generation of bookworms and nerds from if we eliminate asthma”
As much as I appreciate the attempt at humor I would like to point out that asthma is not the breathing illness associated with brainy kids, it’s hay fever (pollen allergy). Asthma is associated with poor kids, who alas are not known for their braininess.
As usual, the self-styled klown provides a clown-like response.
Did the Lucerferian Aristocracy put you up to that reply?
A demonic stench in here….
it is krustyklown….the voice of the luciferion aristocrcy…
Wrong. I’ve known plenty of white kids with asthma. They had inhalers and everything. And they were the computer nerds and bookworms I associated with in school.
Asthma is colorblind. Unlike you.
ReadyKilowatt, you’re usually solid on your arguments, but you have it backwards here.
As engines get more efficient, they run hotter, not cooler, and they make more NOx because heat in the presence of nitrogen and oxygen drives that reaction. This is textbook Carnot efficiency. Heat isn’t really a waste byproduct of internal combustion engines, because they are heat powered engines, and the higher the heat gradient (the bigger the difference between its temperature and that of the surrounding environment), the higher the possible efficiency. All engines extract power from energy gradients, and in the case of combustion engines, that’s heat gradients. Physics sucks – we can’t extract all the energy, hence there is “waste heat”, but the higher the temp, the more we can extract from the same amount of fuel.
Diesels run FAR hotter than gasoline, and modern efficient gasoline engines run quite a bit hotter than old lower efficiency engines. You can look at compression ratio to get an idea, higher compression is generally higher temperature.
OK I stand very corrected. I just remember that my TDI’s temp gauge was very low and that it took a while to warm up. And back in the old days it was very common to see big trucks with cardboard over the radiator in wintertime.
And the TDI could go for something like 12K between oil changes -and it was easy to install a bypass oil filter to go over 20K if you wanted. I assumed that was because the engine was running cooler and was less likely to cook the motoroil.
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/diesel.html
“So now they have to ban all burning, despite humans evolving around fire for Chirst’s sake!” – RK
Unless of course the criminals want to incinerate a city and burn up a bunch of used to be land owners and their offspring.
Asthma is an exaggerat condition, usually exacerbated by anxiety. It’s little wonder that so many Jews “suffer” from it and the study of this mostly bogus disease is almost all Jewish docs.
Green energy comes a cropper:
‘The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for green energy, yet now renewable developers want utility rate-payers in New York and other states to bail them out.
‘According to a report by the New York State Energy R&D Authority (Nyserda), large offshore wind developers are asking for an average 48% price adjustment in their contracts to cover rising costs. The Alliance for Clean Energy NY is also requesting an average 64% price increase on 86 solar and wind projects.
‘Irony alert: One reason is that the government-forced green energy transition is driving up demand for equipment, material and labor. Another irony: The IRA’s prevailing wage and domestic content conditions for bonus tax credits, which are necessary to make projects viable, inflate costs.
‘Nyserda adds that “requests for inflationary relief on clean energy projects” have also been submitted in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Rhode Island, among other states. Electric customers will get no such relief when their bills increase.’ — WSJ
https://tinyurl.com/3mjzhcwv
DemonRat Senator Joe Manchin was the architect of the ludicrous IRA. DemonRat president ‘Joe Biden’ signed it. Now its outrageous costs are coming due, a whole year before the election. Somebody’s gonna pay …
What many seem to miss concerning those energy saving turbines is that everyone of them needs the grid or a diesel generator (usually both) to get the blasted thing turning. If there is too much wind they feather and shut down.Absolutely useless but makes the manufactures and installers boo-coodles of your ‘green’ tax dollars.
Like the covid,,, the whole thing,,, everything,,, is all a scam.
Most of the utilities around here are bailing on the contracts for wind power due to way higher costs than first proposed. The old bait and switch, gets them every time. Of course eventually all the associated costs will be handed off to the ratepayers; the only “green” in the energy will be what goes out of your bank account.
While not an EV, I can speak of my battery powered appliance woes from yesterday.
I cut the yard with a 21″ electric push mower. Yesterday the grass was a tad wet but nothing to get in a twist over. Damn thing ran out of power with only ~3/4 of the yard cut. The little bit of water on the grass sucked that much more power. So, I waited 3 hours for the battery to charge in order to finish the remaining quarter. Keep in mind this is a suburban very small yard.
All this to say that applications that require consistent steady state power over long periods of time, at least right now, do not lend themselves to batteries.
Oh, and I didn’t get a federal subsidy to get an electric mower…
Indeed, Mike –
High-draw devices are always going to have “range” and recharge issues. When the power goes out and I put us on the gennie, turning on the microwave causes the poor thing to shudder and groan on account of the just-added load. And a microwave takes a lot less electricity to power than a 1,000-plus pound 400-800 volt EeeeeeeeeeeeeVeeeeeeee batteyr.
The microwave produces voltage surges on the line because of having to charge up the magneto. I don’t think there is a way around it because it takes a certain amount of juice to get the microwave going. Lower voltages will decrease performance and life of the oven itself. An EEEEEEEVVEEEEE can ramp up and down voltages without impeding peformance.
Still, the whole concept of EEEEEVEEEES is garbage and all of them should be tossed in a land fill. Even the small, efficient ones.
My “solution” for a small patch of Terra Firma with green grass was a Scott’s push mower, i.e., rated “1 Doug Power”. Gone “green”? Nah. Need the exercise, and I can hang it up in the shed on a sturdy hook
I happened by the hardware store where I got mine and noticed they didn’t have any. Asked the proprietor, and he said they’re being taken off the market. It seems the Consumer Products Safety Commission has mandated a special automatic guard be fitted so small children won’t get their fingers chopped off in the reel blades. Seriously.
Next thing I’m expecting is that the local busybodoes will want mine confiscated on the dubious idea that it poses a hazard to the little bastards. Just like the Legislature wants to ban keeping a loaded sidearm handy in one’s home, even if no “minors” (Up to age 21) reside there. So…I can somehow get a 20 y.o. female to my anode, wine her, dine her, and bang the Bejeezus out of her, but my Smith&Wesson is the “gun” that’s a THREAT? Ludicrous.
Hello Mike
I have seen people go out the door with those things and they are NOT cheap,,, like $400. I’ve always wanted to ask what possessed them to spend money on those things?
My neighbor has one and it never finishes his lawn. He always uses his trusty gas powered mower to finish. I can’t figure it out!
I think it was $180 at Lowes when I got it several years ago. Minus whatever the veteran’s discount is. You see alot of ’em on eBay sans battery. Because the 6v battery is unobtainable & the 4v one has too little capacity to do much work.
Guessing the same one is double the amount of inflated bidenbucks nowadays.
$180… wow,,, you did good price wise.
I don’t get the veterans thing,,, got wounded and all but that doesn’t count.
Mike, I call such demand, constant load. E-anything does not do well with constant load.
If you break anything down to the simple fact of ‘work required’ it gets easy to understand.
And work boils down practically to moving or imparting weight.
A mower is almost under constant load.
An airplane is under constant load.
A car/truck in under partial load until you add more and more weight (people, cargo, trailers).
Can’t wait to see the fallout from CA banning gas landscape equipment and all being forced into e-mowers, etc….
This is purely anecdotal and unverified, but a casual friend told me that his good friend owned a Tesla, lost control and crashed about 6 months ago. He said it caught fire and burned for hours incinerating his friend’s body.
This was nice to see:
“London, England: An anti-ULEZ vigilante group known as the “Blade Runners” has committed itself to removing or disabling every last ULEZ camera in London.
90% of the cameras in South East London have already been “retired”.
Within London’s ‘Ultra Low Emission Zone’, people are charged a daily fee of up to £17.50 for driving cars that don’t meet arbitrary “minimum emissions standards”, essentially making driving an unaffordable luxury…”
https://twitter.com/wideawake_media/status/1696844415715672314
Hat tip to SurvivalBlog for the URL.
This inspires a little bit of hope for today’s youth…excellent work guys! Stupid rules (and cameras that spy on you) are made to be broken.
Excellent helot!
I’ve read the same thing; I’m also adapting my tree trimming pole to accommodate a can of spray paint 😆
‘This is the Soviet Model. And that appears to be the plan.’ — eric
Don’t we miss old Joe [Stalin] and his five-year plans.
How’s this for a five-year plan — a five-year chart of TSLA?
https://tinyurl.com/yux8wp7n
Don’t kid yourself: it was the fantastical ramping of TSLA shares — by an order of magnitude or more since 2019 — which made Eeeeelon the envy of every auto manufacturing CEO, as he was propelled skyward to become the planet’s richest lifeform.
Other CEOs are option-compensated, too. But they own only a tiny fraction of their companies. AND, stock ramping just doesn’t work with debt-burdened, Old Economy smokestack businesses with flat sales.
So they burn in the camps with coruscating envy of Eeeeelon, even as they ape his all-in EeeVee moves in the forlorn hope that somehow stock market lightning will strike them, too.
And it will — but as a final, liquidating burndown, not a ten-bagger into the bleacher seats. 🙁
Guten Morgen, comrades:
‘German factory orders plummeted in July, showing that the woes of Europe’s biggest economy are continuing into the third quarter.’ — ZeroHedge, Sep 6, 2023
How that ‘all-EeeVees-by-2035’ transition going … bitches?
Don’t want your Beemers anymore
Don’t want your Benzes, that’s for sure
I die each time I hear this sound
Here he comes, that’s Elon’s clown
— The Everly Brothers, Cathy’s Clown
Say, where is that Cybertruck? Weren’t deliveries supposed to start right about now?
I believe the credibility of the entire EV scheme rides on that vehicle. After Musk fails to deliver to the faithful, EVs will have to be pushed at gunpoint, literally if necessary.
Roscoe, the credibility of EV’s has already been tested with the EV pickup. They can not do what avg truck owners wants them to do, and the bad press has and is coming out.
Enough Blue Oval die hard collectors purchased the F150 Lightning to ensconce on thrones as garage queens that the vehicle did nothing to the credibility of EVs.
At least in the short run.
if their garages don’t burn down
I was in a Mazda dealership yesterday test driving the last manual transmission 3 and asked the salesperson where their EVs were. She proceeded to complain loudly that she would never buy an EV, that they had no range, were too expensive and would be a bitch in the cold, snowy weather here. She said not for 10 years would she even think about an EV.
I just smiled and thought, “good luck lady, it doesn’t matter what YOU want. The government says jump and people will do it, no questions asked.” Covid me-too freakout proved that.
It does matter what you can afford though. Perhaps even what you’re willing to pay.
The Covid excrement was “free”.
Everything the government puts its paws on it destroys, for what are most often absurd reasons. As of right now, they have nearly destroyed a 100+ year old industry, and will get it done shortly. Just 10 years after the very time the industry was reaching peak performance. Excellent gas mileage, excellent durability, performance and affordability. Everything the consumer wanted. NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Not perfect, by government standards. Based on what government wants, not what the consumer wants.
The government started destroying the industry in 1966 with the Motor Vehicle and Highway Safety Act. In 1970, with the adoption of the 1970 Clean Air Act, the work began in earnest. Since then, it has been dueling factions of the anti-car movement set to destroy individual mobility.
Now, more than ever, I believe that and wish these had never happened. I was deluded for close to 50 years that the initial CAA was a good idea. But like anything, it evolved into a regualtory monster, not a large one, but a corrosive, toxic one upon the passage of the 1990 clean air act. That legislation put the regulation of emissions in the hands of the bureaucrats, away from congress.
Same with the MVHSA of 1966 which led to the creation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. People just relaxed when the Reagan administration curbed one aspect of the overreach of the administration under St. Joan Claybrook, the recission of FMVSS 127, the 85 mph speedometer rule. Now, cars made since the late 2000’s are virtually undrivable with their gunslit windows, large pillars and high beltlines.
I prefer the days of metal dasboards, squirrly suspensions and bias tires. At least life was interesting then.
I also like the days of leaded gas, burning exhaust fumes and whatnot.
At least men were men and women were women then.
And most cars had bench seats so your woman could either sidle up next to you, or, lay down with her face in your lap…
Oh yeah! The good, old days…