Your Smartphone and the Mafia

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A convergence is coming. It is already here.

It is no mere coincidence that EVs have so much in common with smartphones in that both are excellent devices for controlling your driving by monitoring it – and charging you for it. (Double entendre intended.)

No “dongle” required.

The “dongle’ being as old-fashioned as an eight track tape player. The insurance mafia no longer needs you to plug its device into your device. All it needs is for you to carry around your device – while you drive your device.

The mob uses your phone to monitor how you drive your device. And makes adjustments to what it demands you pay the mob for the harms you’ve not caused on the pretext that the way you drive suggests an “increased” risk that you might cause harm. Never mind whether you never do.

The object is to make sure you pay – as much as possible.

In the past, it was possible to minimize what the mob made you pay by not giving the mob the pretext it needed to make you pay more. If you were a good driver – not in the legalistic sense; rather, in the sense that you never filed claims nor had them filed against you – and avoided getting caught not obeying traffic laws that generally have nothing to do with good driving – then you were reluctantly considered to be a “good driver” by the mob and paid less rather than more.

Well, why do you suppose the mob has been so eager to get people to plug one of those dongle things into their vehicles – dangling as a putative reward the possibility of “good driver” discounts?

It is because the mob knows there will be no discounts. It is because the mob knows practically everyone is a “bad driver” – in a legalistic sense; in the sense that practically everyone drives faster than the almost-always absurdly low (and arbitrarily set) speed limit, makes safe rights-on-reds, U-turns and accelerates/brakes appropriately to merge with/pass traffic and avoid accidents. The law – and the dongle – regard the latter as aggressive (and so “bad”) driving – and each “incident” is immediately conveyed to the mob via the dongle.

There goes your “discount.” Here comes your surcharge.

The smart set knows all about this scam and for that smart reason has eschewed the dongle. Enter the device. Not the one you’re driving.

The one you’re probably carrying.

Geico – one of the Five Families (there are actually more) – has figured out how to use your smartphone to monitor your driving. No need to plug in. Just download their app – which the mob presents as a convenience, just as smartphones were sold to people as more convenient than corded wall phones.

And indeed they are very convenient – just in a different way than most people who carry them around all the time think.

One driver who just got “adjusted” by Geico posted a video on TikTok explaining what happened to her. She had signed up for what Geico hilariously calls its DriveEasy program – which is all about making it easy for Geico to filch your pockets based on how it characterizes your driving. That, of course, is not how the shill-press describes it – just the same as the shill-press didn’t describe the mRNA drugs pushed on people truthfully, either.

Using sensors in your phone,” the shill-press explains, “DriveEasy automatically logs your driving behaviors – like how fast and far you drive, how hard you brake and how often you use your phone – and calculates a safe driving score. GEICO then factors your score into your insurance rate (either with a discount or a price hike) upon renewal.”

Italics added.

“Safe driving” having nothing to do with good driving – unless the latter is not equated with avoiding accidents and not filing claims, nor having claims filed against you. And the former is equated with complying to the letter with every traffic law, no matter how arbitrary or unnecessary – and never accelerating/braking appropriately, as to merge without gimpily pulling in front of faster-moving traffic and expecting the other cars to slow down for you.

She signed up – and downloaded the app.

In short order the mob “adjusted” her premium from $129 to $202 – an increase of nearly 60 percent. With more “adjustments” like to follow.

That’s the cost of downloading the app – which enables the device. No wonder the Five Families are so eager to get the people who’re forced to “do business” with them to download the app.

This just almost happened to me, too.

One of the Five Families tried to get me to download their app – for the sake of convenience. Not mine. Theirs. I declined. But how long will it be before you can’t? How long before they won’t “do business” with you unless you download their app? How many jobs already require that you have (and carry) the device? The same device they plan to force you to use in lieu of cash – via another app. Without which it’ll be very hard to buy anything, including food.

And then consider the other device – the thing that looks like a car that has much in common with the device in your pocket. EVs being the ultimate expression of the transition of vehicles into devices. But even if you don’t drive one of those devices, you probably do have one of the other devices – and it can and will be used to “adjust” what the mob is legally empowered to make you pay. Especially if what you drive isn’t a device – and for that reason otherwise impossible for the mob to keep track of.

Just one more reason to keep the device you have gotten used to keeping in your pocket in a drawer, at home.

Wrapped in tinfoil, ideally.

. . .

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106 COMMENTS

  1. After paying for insurance the slaves are too broke to buy food…

    The slave owners have a solution……

    The slave owning control group is telling the slaves to eat cereal…because they have no money after paying taxes…..but the control group eats steak daily…..

    in video……..

    the CEO of Kelloggs recently told us
    0:02
    that we should be eating cereal for
    0:04
    dinner to save money so we’re
    0:06
    advertising about cereal for dinner

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0974tS6ZJ8

    • Controlling slave reproduction….and keep the slaves weak and stupid….

      in video……

      did you know that corn flakes were
      0:02
      originally developed to kill the libido
      0:04
      of the patients at the Battle Creek
      0:06
      sanitarium in 1894 one of the Kellogg’s
      0:09
      Brothers developed Corn Flakes with the
      0:11
      intention of feeding them to patients in
      0:13
      a psychiatric institution to quell their
      0:15
      libido corn flakes are the original
      0:17
      libido killer

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03TghQRGA34

        • Gliophosphate fertilizer has also been found in all five major brands of orange juice, too, including the one I used to drink (Minute Maid). Talk about a well-rounded diet of toxins all-around…

        • @9:28 in video….there is 60 harvests left…60 years left…because of destruction of the soil, through industrial farming, etc…..then starvation….

          Sperm counts in indusrialized countries are down 60%….33% of males are infertile…there is 80 years of human fertility left….then gone….extinct….

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az46NhoOe5E

        • from ZH comments…

          We have been lied to all these years, My understanding was that cross breeding produced the shorter thicker wheat. now we find out that it is being done by a growth retarder. this sounds worse than GMO stuff.

          No wonder all my kids are short and stocky. Been eating this stuff all their lives. Who do I sue?

          Another example of the planned obsolescence of humans by means of covert sterilization.(?)AI robots are cheaper now…

          There seems to be so many of these things going on now that it’s a miracle there are any viable human offspring at all.

          (And people still have to ask and wonder why Bill Gates and his comrades in the anti-human leauge are so eager to buy massive amounts of farmland…)

          In April 2018 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allowed chlormequat into the food supply ..

          In 2020, the allowable chlormequat levels were increased for oats. In April of 2023, the EPA proposed allowing the first-ever use of chlormequat on barley, oat, wheat, and triticale grown in the United States.

          Who owns Quaker Oats -> PepsiCo, who owns PepsiCo -> Vanguard & Blackrock, who owns Vanguard & Blackrock ?..the control group….

          Viewed through the lens of population control, adulterating breakfast cereals makes prefect sense. Sterilized children = future Sterilized adults.

  2. I do not have a smartphone. I have a phone capable of accessing the internet, but it doesn’t have roaming. I’ve never logged it onto any wifi, even my own. It has no apps. It calls, texts and has a solitaire game. (I use a Kindle Fire and a desktop at home.) The only time this has been an inconvenience is when I rent a car. They want to email me the receipt and you can’t leave the rental garage without showing it, so I have to make them print it out.
    At first, I didn’t get one because I was a cheapskate. Then, it was just that I didn’t need it and didn’t think I would use it. I don’t like the tiny touchscreen, etc. My Nokia was nice to use with its actual buttons and long lasting charge, but smart phones seemed more difficult with my bad eyes and big fingers and way too much going on in there. (Of course, now all you can buy are screen-style phones unless you want a jitterbug or something.) Finally and presently, I don’t want one because the government and big business have realized this is a convenient way to access our lives, whether we are cool with that or not. No thanks. Please forget I exist.
    I am at work, 32 miles from my home, and my phone is on the kitchen counter still hooked to the charger, forgotten as usual. I went on a trip out west a couple of years ago and didn’t realize I had forgotten to bring my cell until Day 3.
    I watch people constantly bent over their phones tapping away and/or holding them up to record instead of watching what’s going on and I rather like that I never caught that particular bug. I will have better posture anyway, even if I remain unconnected.
    If I am ever compelled to get one, it will likely be useless most of the time because I either forget to charge it or forget to bring it. It’s really just my house phone without the landline.

    • As a former lot kid, I was triggered by him touching the damn windows every single time. I wanted to punch him the entire video!

      But it’s an interesting one. My buddy, for reasons only known to him, got the hybrid Wrangler. I have no idea how he purchased it, but I hope it was leased. So amazingly expensive.

      • Lot rat in ‘73 and ‘74. Buick dealer rental division. Prep/detail the year old cars for sale, then the assistant manager would take a Riv for a “hot date”. Thanks. Start all over on Monday straightening out the mess.

  3. There is similar approach with at least one insurance company’s homeowners coverage. They are “offering” a device you plug into one of your 110VAC receptacles that detects arc faults (sparking at loose screws, for instance). It requires a Wi-Fi connection, so I am presuming it will report any problems to the company as well as to yourself. So far, no carrot, just the “free device”, but I am betting homeowners premiums will be eventually be “adjusted” for those who don’t get one.

  4. I bought some trailer wheels/tires at Harbor Freight. The cashier asked me for my phone number and I said no thanks. She claimed that couldn’t sell them to me unless I gave her my name address and phone number. She said its a DOT requirement. I rolled my eyes and said: “Fine. My number is (local area code) 867-5309.” She typed it and said with a look of relief: “Oh, you’re already in our system. Are you Jenny?” Holding back laughter, I replied: “Yes, I’m Jenny.” The transaction went through without any further problems.

    • Downside sometimes has an upside until someone screws it up. We moved 300 miles. Since we hadn’t darkened the door of the Harbor Freight in the old location they started sending me “25% off on any single item” coupons, about once a month. Then someone ruined it by (probably) accidentally using my phone number. (I am glad the number you used was not mine.)

    • I did that same thing several times during the ‘vid panic. Restaurants were collecting contact info as you went in. I was Tommy and that was my number.

    • “Fine. My number is (local area code) 867-5309.” — Mister Liberty

      Asked for my SSN by a real estate agent selling my farm, I ‘accidentally’ entered it with two digits inverted.

      Presumably the Form 1099-S, Proceeds from Real Estate Transactions, went off into the ether.

      The IRS asked no questions, and neither did I. If that mid-six figure transaction ended up on your account, my sincere apologies!

  5. I’d recommend not getting the “latest and greatest” phone. I’m still using an S9. It doesn’t have all that crap on it. Verizon is constantly trying to give me an S23AI phone. But, no thanks.

  6. Slave’s costs going up…higher insurance….

    but their net worth shrinking…..

    Real estate down…

    Stock market dropping….

    Nasdaq down 2.2% right now…..at least VIX is up 3.5% right now….gold and silver are up too….gold up more then the SP500 over the last 5 years….

    https://finviz.com/futures.ashx

    Someone predicted a stock market crash…then a bail out before the election….then crash it again on Trump’s head in 2025….

    • I share the opinion that they plan to crash all markets if Trump is elected. They’ll blame it on the populist candidate’s “antiquated America first” policies and, of course, evil capitalism. Inevitably, the traditionally equity-deprived, people of color and LGBTQ communities will be portrayed as suffering a disproportionately large impact from the unfortunate economic downturn, further demonstrating systemic failures caused by white supremacy. In other words, they’ll use it to stoke further class warfare between the purported oppressors and oppressed (i.e. it’ll be used to promote communist tenets).

      Not sure about a pre-election crash and bailout, but it does make some sense. Crash it now and the monied class can then buy in at pennies on the dollar. Then propose a massive bailout to jack up prices on their newly acquired assets. All those up for re-election will have to support the bailout, otherwise they stand the risk of being sent packing in November. That plan worked seamlessly in 2008. But can the dollar as the world’s currency withstand it? The 2008 national debt was about $10 trillion. It now stands at $35 trillion. Yikes.

      • a pre-election crash and bailout, but it does make some sense. Crash it now and the monied class can then buy in at pennies on the dollar……

        Right….the billionaire slave owning nobility will short it on the way down..buy puts…. then buy calls/stocks at the bottom…then buy puts again in 2025 when they crash it on Trump’s head….

        short it on the way down…there is story of how WW2 was funded….shorted the market …then crashed the market in 1929….American share owners financed WW2…..maybe WW3 will be financed the same way?…..

        @1:05:00 in video…Americans financed WW2 in the 1929 crash….through their losses….

        https://inv.n8pjl.ca/watch?v=GuoWtkt9Hj0

    • I can see this happening, Anonymous. “Allow” Trump to win the 2024 elections, crash the economy good, and one and for all, and then blame Trump for the entire thing. Never mind the Federal Reserve has been printing money non-stop for so long, sooner or later it was going to catch up with us. Trump would just be the dumb fool in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most are so damned stupid, they would believe Trump was responsible for spending $34 trillion dollars, even though this has been a longtime in coming. Hyperinflation is going to destroy us, that is for sure, and if Trump gets in, he will hang for it. And if O’Biden gets installed, they will merely install Communism as a solution for the problems they created in the first place.

  7. Another way to get rid of old ice cars…….AI traffic cameras to identify and fine drivers of older vehicles who enter the city

    Don’t Look Up! ‘Orwellian’ AI Traffic Cameras Raise Privacy Concerns

    Existing traffic cameras set up across America to find speeding and red light scofflaws are being replaced by smarter, artificial intelligence-fueled versions equipped with upgraded software that for the first time gives the government the ability to monitor behavior inside of private vehicles

    Plus….the new vehicles are monitoring everything you do and say and ratting you out….
    Plus the insurance companies want an app on your phone so they can monitor everything too….

    Driving…a private activity is about to get very un private…and soon not worth it…or too expensive….

    In July, local governments in Australia installed new phone-detection cameras along roads to spot drivers who are texting on their mobile devices.

    In the United Kingdom, authorities have already issued hundreds of fines to drivers after AI traffic cameras were used to detect violations such as not wearing a seatbelt.

    In at least one other country, residents have already begun fighting back against the technology.

    After London rolled out an expansion of its Ultra Low Emission Zone program, which uses AI traffic cameras to identify and fine drivers of older vehicles who enter the city, many citizens showed their outrage through acts of vandalism.

    Police say this month hundreds of intelligent cameras have been damaged, disconnected, or stolen by a vigilante group who call themselves the Blade Runners. 1 in 4 out of action, 90% in the poorest part of London.

    “The cameras are going to keep coming down,” Nick Arlett, an organizer of the protests, told CBS News. “People are angry.”

    from zh comments….
    Nothing quite as “righteous” as investing the money they’ve STOLEN FROM US (aka: ‘”taxes”) into new ways to steal ever MORE of our time, our money AND our privacy.

    It’s 100% Unlawful and Illegal by just infringing upon Freedom of Association alone.

    It’s crazy how quickly this crap has reared its ugly head… it’s everywhere. We’ve been apathetic for so long as a nation and we’ve let this evil take over our country. If you really think about it is quite horrifying.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dont-look-orwellian-ai-traffic-cameras-raise-privacy-concerns

  8. Insurance going up?….

    It is to cover the losses from insuring EV’s….a slight bump in an accident….write off the whole one month old, $50,000 EV….they are too dangerous/expensive to fix…the battery box might have a dent….screwing the battery….

    Insurance will go way up….part of agenda 2030….stop the slaves driving….slaves on foot only…in the 15 min city/prison

  9. State Farm sent me one of their ‘drive safe and save’ dongles a few years ago. It was unsolicited. I carried it to my local agent and told them I didn’t want it, even though I could “save up to 30%”. My insurance is already absurdly expensive. I would never allow someone to monitor my driving like that.

  10. If your house burns to the ground and you have no insurance, you are out of luck. Set up your tent and start rebuilding with what you’ve got. If you have insurance, you can rent a house for a year while the new home is being built. You’re in a pickle at that point.

    Insurance and taxes rob you so you can feel safe and sound, even after a devastating loss. Still have to fork over more after that.

    Auto insurance costs over 40 years at 3000 USD per year for coverage, 120 thousand dollars. Times one hundred million policies. The insurance company CEOs are happy as clams, swimming pools full of gold coins. Has to pay better than vaccines.

    You don’t have to own a car, don’t have to drive, most people want to, have to, so they do. It becomes a Catch 22.

    You’d think the auto insurance companies would have collected more than enough in premiums over the years. A little bit more is what they want, more isn’t enough.

    There are 50 million retired American Romans. At 2000 USD average social security payment, that is 100,000,000,000 USD each month. 1.2 trillion dollars each year. Close enough guesstimate.

    Evidently, you need a trillion dollar military industrial complex, a war machine, that has a worldwide presence always willing and sometimes able to stick its nose into everyone’s business, must be to help retirees have some money. Can’t last forever.

    It was a kind word and a gun, now, just the gun.

    That’s the way it goes, first your money, then your clothes.

  11. The resistance by we commoners to ‘law and order’ is growing at the same time the garbage elite finalize their plans for the ultimate ‘Order out of chaos.’ The old problem, reaction, solution is becoming as worn as the ole banana in the tailpipe routine. Too many still fall for it though. Its interesting to watch the epic race between humanity waking from its spellbound hypnosis and the completion of the planned bolshevik destruction of America. Its still all up for grabs. Down but not out, these kind of things have a way of turning quickly on the smallest of trifles.

    We could easily pull the plug on these grifters. Insurance is the weakest link in the money powers control system. All it would take to start the ball rolling is probably 20%. If thats truly the number of us who refused the vexx, it should be a baby step from there. I’m finding the more shit I say NO to, the easier it becomes. Of course not owning a ‘cell’ phone makes it easy, as I’m not constantly bombarded with bullshit

  12. My husband is an insurance agent and he said the monitoring by the insurance companies is definitely about to be mandatory in the near future.

    • Hi RS,

      How will they mandate it? What happens if someone drives an older car and doesn’t own a phone? They will no longer have insurance?

      • Insurance Co. supplied phones? Like Obama phones? Probably subsidized by goobermint?

        …Then, there’s the issue of some people don’t know – and, don’t want to know – how to use the things.

        …So, a one-button device like pagers?

      • That is a feature, not a bug. How do you think they will make it so its not “legal” to be on the road without a phone or an old car?

      • It’s much more than lizard Flo. Devices contain a full array of sensors monitoring most physical parameter. MOST “free with ads” apps advertised as “offline” capable that employ these sensors actually require constant internet connection to be functional.

        I’ve tried and s canned dozens of em. All the same lies. I have NOT paid these con artists to see if a monthly payment actually allows the so called “download” to work offline. At 66 I view all of it as what it is, a ripoff vector.

        It’s even worse. I’ve “downloaded” pdf books to read offline. Even though a huge file exists on a device, the content is impossible to view without internet connection to the original source of the so called “download”.

        The worst thing about this crap is those poor kids in the pic don’t care at all. They lack the ability to figure out

  13. I would like to download an app like that just as an experiment (not tied to my insurance), just to see how much I could swing that graph into the red. Could be fun and make for some good bragging rights on the social medias.

    • They exist. I started to search but most of the apps seem to borrow from automotive terminology for other uses (Track Day used to be one, but that search term seems to be taken over by the day timer and menstrual cycle people). I have a Garmin action camera that logs position and IMU data that can be overlaid after the fact, and I believe most modern GoPros will log too. Works well as a dash cam too, although it is missing a lot of the dash cam specific tools that make them useful.

  14. People are dumb. Yeah, I said it. When your vendor tries to lure you with sweet rewards, points, promises of savings, etc. it isn’t for your benefit, but theirs. The information they collect from you is worth more to them than the $10 off coupon you receive quarterly.

    Anybody notice how many places now want to scan your ID? Why? The better question is why are you letting them? I was very proud of my parents recently. My mother loves her wine and orders it worldwide. Of course, it usually arrives UPS or FedEx. Well, my parents were working out in the yard when FedEx rolls down their driveway. My father goes up to the truck to retrieve the package. The Gen Z driver tells my 70 + year old father he needs to see his ID because this package contains alcohol. My father laughs and states “do I honestly look like I am younger than 21?” The kid doesn’t budge and repeats the demand. My father, who was a long way from the house, tells the kid “ I am not walking back and getting my ID.” The kid repeats the request again. At this point my father has had enough shrugs his shoulders and says “I don’t give a shit, it isn’t my package” and walks away. The kid drives off with the bottles of wine still on the truck.

    The next day my mother gets a phone call from FedEx that they want to redeliver the package, but they have found my parents home “inhospitable”. My mother, who was in agreement with my father, explains that they were working out in the yard and a long way from the house and why did they need this information. The customer service rep states that they must scan the person who signs DL. My mother then responds “forward the wine back to the vendor.” Of course, the agent seems taken back by her response. My mother then asks what do you do with my DL information? Sell it to some third party? The agent starts sputtering and is unable to answer why FedEx needs to scan the card. My mother says “your company has delivered to us for years and the gray hair on our heads was enough evidence to show we were not under 21.”

    The package returns the next day for delivery….no ID required.

    Moral of the story. Realize that you are the customer. Without you there is no business. Refuse to supply them anymore information than what is needed.

    • Excellent, RG!

      I dealt with a similar experience a few months back; same crap. The delivery driver wanted to see my DL and scan it in order to leave the package at my house, where I answered the door. As I’ve done for the past 20 years I’ve lived here and been receiving packages without being pestered to show ID.

      I told him he could see my ID while I held it if he wanted to play this stupid game, to confirm my face matched the picture – but that he was not going to scan anything. I was rolling around in my head just taking the package – as it’s my property, that I paid for – but that didn’t become necessary as he gave up and handed over my package.

      • Interesting bits. Reminds me of the lawyer in an online video talking about how once you hand over the payment while standing at a checkout line in a store the items are instantly – legally – yours – so when you walk out the doors of the store you Do Not have to show the receipt (or, bill of sale?) to the security guard, or whatever, blocking your way out the door & you can tell them to pound sand & keep walking. Most people don’t know this.

        How this delivery nonsense is any different, I don’t see how.

        Yah, Gen-X gray hair here, too. Quite a few times we have left shopping carts full of groceries at the checkout line because some twerp young enough to be my grandchild demanded to see & scan our ID.

        Fuck ’em & feed ’em fish heads if they are That retarded.

        …Don’t even get me started on having to show ID to buy lead pellets for a pellet gun or cans of spray paint.

      • As far as I know, ‘wearing off’ the barcode on your DL does not invalidate it. You can live that scan free life then.

      • Soon it will all be done with facial recognition….then they can identify you where ever you are, or whenever you buy something…all run by AI….so there will no one to argue with….maybe an 800 number connected to the AI….lol

        Already in place in China…their model for the new society….your future…24/7 surveillance, social credit scores….instance fines from your bank account…soon to be CBDC….

        their model for the new society…the control group’s preferred system to manage/control slaves…CCP China….

    • Kudos to your parents, RG.

      Yup. Always call their bluff. Always! If they don’t back down, tell them to F themselves. I have very few needs in life. I can usually do without or find an alternative.

    • I love your parents persistence. I have gotten to the point where I do not want to shop at stores who ask for my id or phone number each time I make a purchase (so I can get my discount). I go to a little natural foods store in my neighborhood that asks your name each time. They were stunned when I said I did not feel like giving my name that day. Did not care to get a discount that day. Just sick of feeling monitored each time. I told the owner she should name by now if she was interested as I had been shopping there for several years. Whole Foods. Do not plug in my Amazon id to save $5 or whatever. Pay on cash. It makes me feel better.

      • It really throws them for a loop when they ask for your phone # and you tell ’em, “I don’t have a phone”.

        Dead stop, pivot.

        • I’ve learned to use the number of someone I know already has an account and tell them I’m using the “family discount”. They never turn me down and as an added bonus their customer model gets blown up trying to meld multiple people into one tracked customer.

        • Lol. Well some of these refusals start to seem ridiculous but I think it is a natural and inevitable reaction to people being over monitored. People liked it when it was all about convenience then as the intrusions become more ubiquitous and in our faces its like no! I never used to be bothered by a lot of th8s stuff now I find myself ramdomly going out of my way to be under the radar in radar. Internally my mentality has flipped to get out of my face, I don”t want to be watched while I walk, drive shop, live my freaking life. My bank knows I withdraw cash each week I’ll be damned if they know where I am spending it if I can help it. And all types of people adore getting paid in cash it is very appreciated.

      • Hi RS,

        I always use a fake name. Sometimes I am Annie, Roberta, Daisy…whatever I feel like that day. I just have to remember what it is when they call it out. 😁. Let’s be honest, most stores don’t care who we are.

        As Bob Seger sang,
        To workers, I’m another drone,
        To Ma Bell I’m another phone

        I don’t think a truer song has ever been written and this was in 1978!

        • Yes thats a good one. If I’m really feeling reactionary I mess around saying something that seems compliant yet totally illogical like “gosh my accounts were hacked when my phone got lost a few days ago so i need to get everything reconnected. I’m headed over to the Apple store right now”. They tell you how sorry they are then ring you up which is kind of entertaining.

    • Hell, RG, I have to show ID at the grocery store to buy a bottle of Nyquil of all things. That, thanks in part to the damned meth heads, who use an ingredient in it to make their meth. I was so damned mad the first time the checker asked for my driver’s license, I just about walked out. Never mind that I could fill a bag full of the stuff and walk out he door without paying for it, and they (per their policy) would not do anything about it. So much for being an honest citizen. I swear it costs more than being a criminal.

  15. Shape up, little citizens:

    ‘The shuttering of government offices during the pandemic caused disruptions and delays in routine bureaucratic functions like processing car registrations, and many states extended deadlines.

    ‘“This is one aspect of a much larger problem,” said Jonathan Adkins, chief executive of the Governors Highway Safety Association. “We are giving the public too much permission to flout rules.

    https://sg.news.yahoo.com/expired-paper-license-plates-multiplied-115124052.html

    Which, in turn, creates entrepreneurial opportunities:

    ‘In states like Georgia and New Jersey, some obscure dealerships issued tens of thousands of temporary tags — amounts that far exceed the number of cars they could have possibly sold.

    ‘The sham license plates can then be sold to drivers, often in different states, officials say, allowing them to avoid tolls and evade cameras that enforce speeding rules. The bogus plates also allow drivers to avoid paying insurance, registration fees and taxes.

    ‘Car buyers in Missouri are issued a temporary tag by a dealership and then have a few weeks to pick up the official plates from the state’s DMV where they also pay the sales tax on their car purchase. Many people are willing to risk getting a ticket for an expired tag, which can total more than $100, rather than paying the sales tax, which can total more than $1,000.’

    Perverse incentives: ‘roll dirty,’ as our colleague Norman Franklin says, and save ‘up to’ one thousand Biden bucks. You can’t lose! 🙂

    • Hi Jim,
      Recently saw an “investigative report” on cars with obscured/damaged plates that couldn’t be read by the Big Brother toll cameras. Turns out that most of those cars belonged to….wait for it…. Cops! More proof that the AGW’s are above the laws made for us serfs.

    • The late Steve Jobs of Apple computer never plated his cars. At the time, it was completely legal, even in nutty rule bound California. They gave you six whole months to get a plate on your car. So he never drove a car longer than six months, and always drove on a temp tag. He knew the danger of being tracked, even though his company is helping make the tracking possible.

      So if you are rich or connected enough, you don’t have to do what the peons have to do. And yes, California has closed that loophole.

  16. hmmm I think your article has answered a mysterious question I’ve had for the last year or so……..that being the increasingly amount of drivers who barely drive the speed limit on a given road and usually lower than that limit. It’s like an epidemic around here in the Detroit area IMO. Maybe quite a few of these “clovers” have the dongle or the app enabled and they’re trying to shave a dollar or two from the ridiculously high insurance we pay here in Michifornia?

    • I would have no doubt that is happening.

      Guessing it’s nearly impossible to get a real discount because of it, because you are going to have to hard brake or gun it in order to avoid a collision fairly often. That is what gets me, that hard braking is a bad thing, would they prefer I gently brake and then get crashed into?

      They also seem to forget that sometimes you avoid crashes by doing other things than braking too. Oh, you should always brake to a stop (but don’t think about doing it hard!!). Well what happens when there isn’t enough braking room and you manage to steer around something instead? You avoided a crash, you would have gotten into because you tried to stop (and probably get rear ended to boot!).

      Another thing that drives me crazy, speed. Speed is not the bad guy. It’s people doing stupid things like pulling out when they shouldn’t, or just being incompetent. It doesn’t matter if you are going 1mph or 100 you are going to get run into by someone doing something stupid.

  17. So get a burner phone for the app and put it in a drawer. Pull it out once a week and drive to a church parking lot. Maybe swing by a restaurant that doesn’t serve alcohol after “services” and then drive straight home.

    “No sir, I only drive this vehicle on the weekends. Here’s the proof.”

    You think anyone’s going to verify the app report? That takes expensive people. There goes the high margin. Nah, most people will just follow the rules and accept their “up to 30%” discount that will turn out to only be about 10%. A few might complain and get an extra 5% off for a month or two just to shut them up and get them off the phone.

    • Hi RK,

      “Up to” – per Jim, below – is maliciously false advertising and ought to be criminal. What ought to be legal is: Do this and you will get at least (insert number/percentage here) off.

    • Yes, a burner phone can be very helpful to the extent that apps are demanded. The best ones are phone where the battery can be removed (although these are getting more difficult to find).

        • The removable battery is good but you never know with these things. I’m probably paranoid but I always get the sense that when products like this are marketed for privacy they are really not doing what they say. Turn off this or that functionality, who knows, really? I remember stories of old flip phones where if the battery was “dead” you could still call 911 or some such due to some other small “reserve” power source within the phone.

    • Ok, but I dislike the “burner” phone terminology. It lends an air of criminality to what is merely a privacy retention action. Maybe call it a second phone or one of your phones.

      Privacy and private property have been and continue to be under attack. Seems to be lots of stories of Zhivagoan squatters these days. Squatters’ “rights” I think they call it. Even privacy on your own property. I had to put up several privacy screens on my property because a new neighbor a few houses down was driving past my house 20+ times a day and staring at me and my family/property like some Cholo gangbanger (guy is whiter than snow and 70+ btw). Other neighbors were like “why did you do that?” What’s your problem? With the implication of what are you hiding (a la a “burner” phone. Some people are really too damn watchy watchy these days.

  18. @Eric – Didn’t Flo’s dongles cause fires, which forced the company to shift to sail phone apps?

    The OBD-II port was never designed to have a device plugged in for hours at a time.

  19. Don’t be fooled by the folksy schtick. Capo Gecko is seriously invested in the mass adoption of devices, from his large stake in Apple to the now wholly-owned subsidiary Pilot/Flying-J, with a newly voter-approved slush fund out of the state surplus of Texas to pay for the power infrastructre as the service centers rebuild complete with Dairy Queens and his various retail operations to occupy those waiting the hour or more needed for their devices to recharge.

    Insurance just provides the seed capital for the Capo.

  20. Has Geico marketed this scheme as “Safe and Effective!”? That term shall forever be questioned the next time Big Pharma, Big Media, Big Government, or some other big special interest peddles that narrative, be it for some other experimental pharma product or demented idea they’re pushing.

    Also, in 2021, people who were zealously pushing “COVID jabs for all!” might have advocated making these apps MANDATORY to track driver compliance with local or federal COVID jab mandates, as these people also tried comparing unvaxxed drivers with drunk drivers, which never made any sense.

  21. Insurance companies are all scam artists. They have to collect more than they pay out, of course, but since you MUST buy car insurance (and medical insurance), why not charge a lot more than you pay out?

  22. Carrying a cell phone in case the car breaks down….there is no payphones left….not worth the surveillance now….

    Or get a cell phone with an alternate operating system….

  23. The parasites are killing the host. There are so many parasites now, that survival of the fittest really only means survival of the richest / most connected / exempted congress members / victim group of the day.

    • Exempt from… the injections, climate change lockdowns, ice car bans, etc….

      Who is on the exempt list?…..same as the last one…..

      1. The White House 2. The CDC 3. The FDA 4. The WHO 5. Pfizer 6. Moderna 7. Johnson & Johnson

      ATTENTION: in Australia all doctors are exempt…..I would bet the doctors in lots of other countries are exempt too, that explains why they don’t say one word

      a scientist working on gene modification says he only has a piece of paper saying he is exempt….sounds like the scientists are exempt…

      The Governor of Virginia……He has EXEMPTED POLITICIANS AND JUDGES, so it looks like that group are exempt too.

      Members of Congress, their staff, and federal court system employees are exempt from the Biden administration’s new mandates,

      another exempt group: U.S. postal service

      NBA players exempt

      6 million foreign Chinese students exempt

      NOTE: All illegal immigrants or non citizens are exempt

      NOTE: if you have a lot of money you can probably buy an exemption

      NOTE: here is another exempt group …the billionaire elite:….gates and other .0001% rich families

      the ruling elite nobility control group…exempt

  24. I guess there is an advantage to owning a flip phone which I generally leave off and using a combinations of maps and an ancient Garmin that I updated with open source maps from openmapchest.org (free but may may miss some locations). Never forget that “your” technology can be a useful servant or a terrible master.

    Also never forget that when they track you it’s for their benefit and not for yours. Better to follow the state motto of New Hampshire: “Live free or die”.

    • Hi Landru,

      I don’t even have a Garmin. I do have an old Randy McNally state by state map that was made around 1995. 🙂 Sure, some roads were added since then, but if I am going somewhere new I actually go to Mapquest.com/Directions and print out the directions to take with me. I do have to pay extra attention, but hopefully, it keeps my mind young.

      • The ultimate “in hand navigation system” the paper map. For us bikers, the laminated foldable panel version holds up well in a saddle bag and also post ride bourbon spills and cigar ash.

        Seriously that big paper spread out is very useful – where you started, where you are, and where you’re going all right there no scrolling back and forth.

      • Hi RG. I always carry paper maps and generally drive the route I know best while the GPS says recalculating repeatedly until the last mile or so when you get into convoluted side streets. That said, some of my maps are so old they list Philadelphia as the capitol….

  25. My insurance company offers this “service”. Here are some snippets from the website advertising it.

    “Enroll and Save Up to 10%.”
    “The App shows you how well you’re driving and how you can improve. ”
    “Get Up to 30% off. At renewal, we’ll let you know any discount you’ve earned and we’ll reset your driving score so that you have a fresh start for your next policy period.”

    “Will my driving score cause my overall premium to go up?” “No. We will only use your driving information to calculate your discount. Your driving score won’t have any negative impact on your auto insurance policy rate, although your rate may vary based on other factors not related to your participation.”

    Anyone believe any of this? My insurance premiums keep going up regardless of a good driving record.

    • That sounds like Liberty Mutual’s pitch to me, word for word, a couple of years ago. ‘Up to 30% off’ applies if you park your vehicle in the garage for 6 months and drive zero miles. ‘Up to’ is the weasel word that accompanies every number. This is maliciously false advertising.

      In other breaking news, you may have won ‘up to’ a $1,000,000 jackpot from Publishers Clearing House. Download the app today to check your prize! /sarc

    • Well, considering the rate increases we’ve seen this year are up an average of 22% on net they’re not going to go broke with “up to” 30% discounts.

      https://www.marketplace.org/2024/04/17/youre-not-imagining-it-car-insurance-costs-22-more-than-it-did-last-year/

      They have their reasons. I haven’t calculated how much my policy has increased but it is noticeable. For the same actual coverage. Same $5000 deductible, same $300K medical, same $50K property. But somehow it costs more. Oh, they’re going to tell me that I don’t have enough coverage too. That $300K is all they’ll pay out even if there’s more “inflation.” So why are they charging me 22% more?

    • It is probably illegal…but…like everything else…with your consent…they can do it….so the discount carrot is to get your consent….

      no consent?…no insurance….no driving….like the bat germ hoax…no injection…you can’t travel, work, go to restaurants or anything else…..

      with CBDC…it will be….can’t buy anything…including food…..

      debit cards/credit cards will all be an app on a phone soon…no phone…no food….

      app on a phone…easier to cut off…no power or internet…climate change lockdown…starvation….

      slaves getting put in a smaller and smaller cage…..

  26. A different mafia cracks down:

    ‘Texas will soon require dealerships to issue temporary metal plates when a car rolls off the lot, replacing the oft-abused paper tags.

    ‘The rise in fake or expired plates has been robbing governments of needed revenue and making it harder to enforce traffic laws, which the American driver seems more emboldened than ever to ignore, part of a larger erosion of social mores.

    ‘The crackdown on “temp tags” comes in response to problems that exploded during the pandemic. Fatalities from car crashes rose, while pedestrian deaths in 2021 reached their highest level since the early 1980s.

    “From what I am seeing, there is a real breakdown in automotive law and order,’’ said Dan Borgmeyer, the mayor of St. Charles, Missouri who encouraged citizens to report expired tags in his St. Louis suburb.’ — NYT

    https://archive.ph/8ZD3Z#selection-7101.0-7101.303

    ‘Automotive law ‘n order’ — that’s a good one! Ol’ Spiro Agnew would approve, if he were still around.

    As the US empire cracks up, and its permawars develop ‘not necessarily to our advantage,’ no one should be surprised as our former Happy Motoring morphs into grim Mad Max conditions.

    With ‘Biden’ in charge, anything goes and nothing matters. Looking to hire a full-time tail gunner to ride in muh pickup bed.

    • Good morning. Jim!

      It’s an interesting thing, isn’t it? Ordinary and formerly “law abiding” people are getting tired of obeying laws – and paying fees – while Pedro and Xi and Mustafa come across the border as they like, get a loaded debit card and do as they like.

      This is deliberate. Foment the disintegration of order in order to establish a new order.

      • The replacement slaves for the existing slaves….

        Or a 5th column…invading army…. to get rid of the existing slaves…..

      • They don’t have anything to lose. If they get caught driving without insurance, or driving without a license on expired tags, what’s going to happen? People don’t get hauled off to the grey bar hotel for violating motor vehicle laws, they get a piece of paper and a court date. If they don’t show up, what then? Send a summons to their last known address? Does that travel trailer out behind the ranch house even get mail?

        Out here we used to have ski bums. They’d couch surf or share an old trailer with a few friends. Get up early to chase first tracks, ski ’til 2:00, then head to their dishwashing or bartending job from 3:00 to 2:00. Spark up a bowl, get a few hours sleep, repeat. Good fun and a great gap year you’ll remember forever. A few would stick around and get jobs with Vail or Aspen SkiCo. A few others might hook up with a nice local and get respectable jobs in her dad’s construction business or their real estate license. A few would overstay their welcome and burn out, becoming part of the local “color.” They’re all gone these days, the towns have all gone corporate. You can’t hire a dishwasher under the table unless they’re living off grid, and even then they better have some kind of documentation.

        The ski bums these days are social media influencers, many paid by the brands they wear to promote products. They still live pretty much hand to mouth, but now they’re more like little entrepreneurs. And instead of hitting the slopes for epic powder, they’re rehearsing their lines all morning and editing all night. But it beats washing dishes, I guess.

    • “‘Texas will soon require dealerships to issue temporary metal plates when a car rolls off the lot, replacing the oft-abused paper tags.”

      From Texas insisting on temporary metal plates to insurance companies pushing smart-phone tracking, it probably won’t be long until everyone is required to have some kind of transponder — like those carried by aircraft — that will actively broadcast each driver’s license, registration, speed, blood-alcohol level, and other “helpful” facts to those authorized to receive it. More primitive passive toll transponders have been in use for some time.

    • “…….robbing the government of needed revenue….” 😆😆 I love that! The shoe pinches when it’s on the other foot, how dare the serfs try to keep their own money. More power to them!

  27. ‘One of the Five Families tried to get me to download their app – for the sake of convenience.’ — eric

    Here’s a different tack, used by the Gambino Liberty Mutual family. They offered a discount of ‘up to’ 30 percent, by using their app for 90 days. But despite driving v-e-r-r-r-y gently and slowly, and very few miles, I earned only a 10 percent discount — the ’30 percent’ probably being a flat-out lie.

    The sting came six months later, when Liberty Mutual hiked the premium by 30 percent, despite no tickets / no accidents / no claims. ‘Teaser rates’ are now standard mafia business practice, putting cost-conscious customers on an endless carousel of having to move all their insurance coverage (including homeowners, for the package discount) to a different crime Family at least annually.

    It gets tiresome, comrades — the time suck; the sleazy underworld personalities.

    • “It gets tiresome, comrades — the time suck; the sleazy underworld personalities.”

      Yes it does. Insurance is a scam – all of it. I’m to the point of having the mere minimum liability on the car, house and NO health insurance. Every year I think of dropping the home insurance as the house is paid off. I’ve never made a claim on the car or house insurance and when I had health insurance I never used one bit of it for years. The money I save by not paying premiums gives me savings for the “big” claim that MAY someday happen. That’s how life used to work back in the day before the insurance mafia sprang up after WWII.

    • Liiiiimu Emu … and Doug.

      If you install one of the mafia’s apps on your sail phone, make sure to examine the access permissions very carefully.

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