Mazda Cries Uncle, Too

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Depressing news. Mazda – one of the very few major car brands to not embrace the electric car tar baby – just did.

The same company that – just a year ago – said that “driving matters” has now officially announced it will “electrify” all of its cars by 2030.

You should know why.

It’s not because there’s huge demand for “electrified” cars. There is in fact almost no demand for them. Only about 1 percent of all cars sold last year were “electrified” and those were sold almost entirely in California and Arizona, states where car companies are forced to build them in order to comply with “zero emissions” car quotas. These cars are economic throw-ways. Built because the government requires it, then unloaded (and written off) at a loss, the costs transferred to buyers of cars for which there is real market demand.

So why is Mazda – why is every major car company – tripling down on “electrification?

It is because of the fuel efficiency fatwas I have been ranting about for years and which are on the verge of becoming the tool by which the government will not only force Mazda and every other car company to manufacturer “electrified” cars for which there is no natural market, but will force us to buy them since there will be no more option not to buy them.

As the trade magazine Automotive News styles it – in the approving argot of a the captive car press: “The plan, announced Tuesday, signals a diversification away from the Japanese carmaker’s dependence on traditional internal combustion engines as it reacts to increasingly stringent fuel economy rules.”

Note the language.

The “carmaker’s dependence on traditional internal combustion engines…”

Its “dependence”?

This language is the same species of lunatic reality reversal on display during the Kavanaugh inquisition – in which the man (leaving aside the issue of his politics) was faulted for displaying anger at being publicly accused of gang raping women while a woman who publicly accused the man of a vile act with no evidence to back her up was practically deified as Joan d’ Arc incarnate  on the  basis of her . . . “sincerity.”

How many fingers. Winston?

The implication of AN’s lingo – the same lingo used by the car press, generally – is that internal combustion is bad and it is therefore not good to be dependent on it. The car press never points out that the market wants internal combustion – because it works and because it is within their financial grasp whereas “electrified” cars are not.

But the fuel economy fatwas – they are not “rules” – will force them onto the market, regardless.

Because “electrified” cars are the only means by which these “increasingly stringent” fatwas can be complied with.

If you’ve been following this issue, you already know that the fatwa threatens to almost double to more than 50 MPG on average within ten years from now (hence Mazda’s depressing “commitment” to “electrify” by 2030). Trump held in abeyance the federal fatwa hurled by the federal regulatory ayatollahs during the final months of the lame-duck Obama regime. But then California and other states decided – that is to say, the ruling elites in those states decided –  that they would impose their own fatwas, exceeding even the federal ones.

And most of the car industry signed right up – and not because they care – about gas mileage or emissions or their carbon footprints – but because they have already invested enormously in “electrified” vehicles and don’t want to see that investment pissed away and even more important, don’t want to give Mazda and any other car companies which haven’t yet embraced the electric tar baby a competitive advantage.

Without the 50-plus MPG fatwa, Mazda and other companies would have no problem selling affordable internal combustion-powered cars – while “electrified” cars would languish on dealer lots, unmovable absent massive give-away incentives as is currently the case and always will be the case unless and until “electrified” cars  make more economic sense than cars powered by internal combustion, which maybe will happen someday but isn’t even close to happening today.

Or, probably, tomorrow.

So, they must be made artificially competitive – largely by stomping out of existence the internal combustion engine via regulatory fatwa.

Even full-size trucks will be “electrified” – Ford’s 2019 F-150 will be the first such – which makes as much sense as a thong party in Anchorage. Outside.

In January.

But “electrification” is the only way to even begin to approach a 50-plus MPG mandatory minimum MPG average. The only current cars which achieve this are small hybrids like the Toyota Prius and the Hyundai Ioniq. The most “efficient” non-hybrids can achieve just over 40 MPG – on the highway. Their average is in the mid-low 30s.

The only feasible option to pump those numbers up, given other fatwas (the saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety fatwas, which have made it illegal to build small/lightweight IC-engined cars that could achieve 50-plus MPG) is to  . . . “electrify” pretty much everything.

But this will entail a lot of expense – something the car press habitually avoids discussing as much as it avoids discussing the lack of demand for “electrified” cars. Even part-time “electrified” cars like the hybrid Prius and Ioniq cost several thousand dollars more than otherwise equivalent non-hybrid cars. Fully electric cars cost tens of thousands more.

They will never save you money, even if they do save gas – and since when did it become the government’s rightful business to forcibly decree how much gas we’re allowed to buy – which is ultimately what this comes down to.

The issue would crystalize more clearly in the bluntskulls of the American volk if the government began fatwa’ing how many sodas they were allowed to buy – and how large. Whoops, that’s already being done. And more such to come, unless the principle behind such things is stomped three feet up the colon of the people who presume to dictate such things to the rest of us.

Maybe there is hope. Kavanaugh did manage to get confirmed – much to the carpet-chewing exasperation of those who believe we are obliged to believe… anything they say.

Maybe enough of us have finally had enough.

If so, the time to fight back is right now – because it is almost too late.

. . .

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86 COMMENTS

  1. Just you’re regular reminder that until coal stops being a purpose source of electricity electric cars are not good for carbon emissions. Given that the supposedly green fatwa-writers ignore this we can assume they don’t give a CO2.

  2. How are all these car companies designing/developing/buidling all these electric cars that NOONE IS BUYING or will EVER buy??? All these car companies going electric are going to go BANKRUPT.

    The ONLY way to do electric cars is to have them run on a gas generator with no battery at all, otherwise… BANKRUPT.

    It just goes to show how overpriced our gas cars/trucks are right now — if all these car companies have so much money to burn that they waste so much money on developing all these toy electric cars.

  3. I see no problem with hybrid cars, or all-electric cars, being developed to satisfy a FREE MARKET demand, instead of one spurred by crony capitalism or misguided Federal and/or State “Fatwas”, designed to achieve a nebulous goal of either fuel efficiency or tailpipe emissions, never mind if it’s contrary to the wishes of the motoring public and/or lacks scientific merit. It’s interesting that RICH (libtards) benefit the most from the tax incentives profferred to spur sales of “low” or “zero” emissions vehicles. Yet another anecdote of liberal hypocrisy.

    As for now-Justice Kavanaugh, it’s more for whom opposed him and WHY that I’m grateful that he was confirmed to the SCOTUS. It’s not as if he’s ideal, especially from a Libertarian viewpoint, indeed, I fear that he’ll be weak on 4A issues and fairly much give the cops free reign to trample on our rights. But at least he’ll likely uphold the 2A. As good as we can expect from a Trump presidency. It was almost entertaining but still disgusting to see the spectacle, and note how the libtards had a complete meltdown!

    If nothing else, Eric, I myself have been the victim of a FALSE accusation by a “female”, which had to play out in the legal process before I could slam-dunk it to oblivion, which I did! Still, wasn’t a process that promoted sleep nor healthy digestion! It shows the sad state that runaway Feminazism has put this country into; when a lying cretin with a vagina can utter all manner of incredulous falsehoods, and between the cops and courts, all willing to pounce on another “client” of the police-prison-industrial complex, and the idiot feminazis whom actually in their demented brains believe that males are the cause of ALL evil, that they can be put into only three camps: gays(they don’t pick on them!), those stomped on and adjudicated GUILTY, and those YET to be apprehended and duly found guilty. It kinda reminds me of that Disney cartoon where Pluto has a bad dream that he gets led into a feline kangaroo court, where the Prosecutor (a cat,of course!), tells him…”We’re gonna put you on trial today, for the crimes that you’ve committed…and we’re gonna prove ya guilty! Just try and get acquitted!”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUT0PYEeH6o

    • Its a good disney short. There used to be the presumption of innocence. All thats gone. The kavanaugh hearings showed that but in almost any situation if youre a white straight male you are presumed guilty if charged by anyone not a white straight male. Ive gone through it twice in completely made up discrimination complaints in my business. its quite frightening overall.

  4. Maybe this new electric car will give mazda space for the mazdaspeed models. Bring the RX-9 into fruition. It needs to be turbocharged if its a rotary, there is just not enough torque in a NA rotary. I had a 88 Rx7 N/A. Great first car for a 16 year old. I was getting into drifting before my engine seized. No oil. I didn’t know a thing about the rotary then. This was before the internet really took off. My dream is still to get a FD rx7 and convert it to a single turbo. If they come out with a sexy rx9 ill definitely aim for that one. The rx8 looks great in person but awkward in photos not sexy like the last gen rx7.

  5. Life is a nightmare now.

    You’ll be wiretapped if you make a phone call and tracked by license plate readers if you drive.

    If you go to a baseball game or Disneyland, you’ll need to give your fingerprints, be molested, and be made to carry a microchip.

    We’re all slaves living in a prison.

    Who would want to be born into this world?

    Americans are no better than Nazis now.

    The world has turned upside down now. All the rules have changed.

    Clean-cut, moral Americans who were taught to love peace, hate debt, oppose Communism, be hard-working, be responsible, respect free speech, support religious freedom, defend gun rights, oppose warrantless searches, seizures, and torture must be in a state of shock to watch the USA become Socialist.

    Life is meaningless now that everything is illegal, hard work is punished with taxes and regulations, laziness is rewarded with welfare, the USA has become a ghetto overrun with 3rd world immigrants, and the US is an immoral bankrupt warmongering police state.

    The collapse of the USA is disgusting and shameful.

  6. I own a Mazda6 sadly this will be my last Mazda. Eric, did you see the Lexus advertisement that has the electric cult leftists foaming at the mouth? Toyota is resisting the battery brigade and embracing hybrids and hydrogen.

  7. OK. All electric. Which means Gasoline sales will be forced down to hurt the evil Oil Companies. But lower gasoline sales means lower gasoline taxes to collect. So what to do? Charge by the mile? People won’t drive as many miles (part of the control freak agenda) so less miles to tax. All the state and federal agencies that get gasoline tax money will need a new source of revenue. But from where? I don’t know. It won’t be from mass transit because that is a huge black hole of losses just about anywhere it is implemented. Maybe from road use taxes for bicyclists and pedestrians?

    • I can come up with a few ideas. I almost hate to bring them up, in case some loony-bin political hack is reading this, but here goes.

      They’ll raise the taxes on electricity, even if we are getting it from solar installations on our own roofs. They’ll raise the tax on natural gas, which is the largest source of electricity in the United States today. They’ll install mileage-meters with direct connections to the NSA, who will forward our mileage records to the IRS so that we can be billed by the mile.

      One consideration about the oil companies: Governments prefer a smaller number of large businesses instead of a large number of small businesses. It requires less manpower to track fewer users. And if everyone is forced into using electricity for transportation? They’ll mostly be getting it from your friendly local electric utility.

      Currently, in my state, CNG and LNG is not taxed by the unit, even if used for vehicle transportation purposes. Instead, the buyer pays sales tax, which is not applied to gasoline purchases.

      In the end, there is one thing I will guarantee you: You will pay more for electricity in the future.

  8. This electric car fatwa is all about pure, uncontrolled federal power – “Hey, look what we can make the peasants do! They like their cars, huh? Well, f— ’em, they’ll drive what we tell ’em to drive, and if they don’t like it, TS.”

    The end result of this vile bureaucratic attitude could well be the break-up of our nation into a series of independent republics. Th fops, dandies, fruits, and nuts in CA, NJ, NY, etc might put up with it, but those in the Heartland, no way. And if these limp-wristed bureau-fags think today’s Army or Marines will fire on their own, they’ll be in for a very rude surprise.

    • John, the heartland ain’t what it used to be. Farmers now basically work for the government- getting subsidies and price supports for growing or not growing certain things; they (and every other blue-collar person in the heartland) send their kids off to liberal colleges, where they learn to become hippie fag environmentalists who will end up working for some government agency or multi-national corp.

      They’re becoming indistinguishable from NYers and CAers- which is why IL is now a blue state; and KS and NB and IA aren’t far behind….

      Mass government indoctrination (“education”) and nationwide media are getting everyone on the same page…and it’s a fart-stained booger-smeared red-tinted page….

      Go to any town in the heartland- no matter how small- and you’ll see no lack of the daughters of these people shacking up with and procreating with niggers. That pretty much says it all.

      • Agree.

        And the military and its academies (one of which is my alma mater) have become social engineering labs for the anti-White, anti-male, multi-cultural, multi-racial (eventually to be melded into one brown low-IQ race ) NWO agenda. Like the police and federal LEA’s, they are no friend of freedom-loving Heritage-American men.

        The officer corps is thoroughly pozzed. The enlisted ranks are being filled more and more with feminists, trannies, gang members, aliens, and hostile minorities. Perhaps a small segment of the senior NCO cadre would join our side in the coming travails. Trump seems to be garnering loyalty from a few active and retired senior generals, but they are strident, Israel-first, anti-Russian hawks.

        Sorry to sound so black-pilled, but as a disgruntled old boomer that’s how I see it for now. Hope I’m proven wrong.

        • Mack,

          I believe what you describe is by design, because the enemy they’re being trained to fight, is…..us- the average traditional American citizen- and especially straight white Christian males.

          Who better to destroy us than these conscienceless rabble?

          This is why I’ve always maintained that the only hope for those of us who want to continue living, and enjoying a decent degree of freedom, is expatriation.

          One day we’re going to wake up, and it’s going to be too late- just like it was in Nazi Germany. No matter how bad and how blatant it gets, people just don’t want to accept what’s happening, until it slaps them in the face.

            • Ain’t THAT the truth, Mark!

              And what’s funny, is that the overlords are destroying the very world empire that they are in the process of building. They think they can replace us savages; and that after they use the savages to destroy our culture and us, bodily, that they can then assimilate them into a cohesive society of slaves and mercenaries- but what they haven’t noticed, apparently, is that the savages are not as easily controlled as those whom they are replacing; and that the overt violence needed to control them, will make for a pretty messy place- continually.

              Those of us who don’t extricate ourselves from this mess now, while it’s still in the early stages, will just end up being victims and pawns of one side or the other, in an atmosphere where no side respects liberty, civility, property, or life itself.

              They train the fuzz to slay monsters; if you’re not a victim of a monster, you’ll be a victim of the monster-slayer[the more likely scenario being the latter].

      • Actually, outside Cook County, the capital Springfield, and East St. Louis, Illinois is quite “RED”. But that’s where enough votes reside, along with the legacy of the Daley political machines (where even the dead voted “early and often”, and always for Daley or whom he wanted), so the Land of Lincoln is a Libtard hell.

        • Trouble is, Dooglas, the exponentially increasing taxes (caused by all the corruption and libtard policieis, and union pensions); the over-the-top tyranny; influx of immigrants; ever-increasing tyrannical laws; big Ag. etc. are driving all of the old suburban and rural conservatives out of IL.

          It’s changing quickly. It’s now right up there with CA. and NY. in number of long-time residents who are fleeing in droves. And the areas you mention already make up so much of the state’s population, that the others really no longer even count.

          In places like IA and BE. they may still be officially conservative….but the big changes have been occurring through ‘education'[indoctrination] initiatives and such, so that even they are rapidly liberalizing. Maybe not quite Hitlery Clinton libtard yet…but definitely modern Repugnantcan libtard-lite, and fast heading towards Hitlery.

          • Twenty years ago, DuPage County (western suburbs) was solidly Republican. Now, not so much. Hillary won in 2016. It isn’t growing rapidly anymore either.

            • Yeah Rich. The part of NY I came from has been having a mass exodus too- only there, they’re bringing in enough immigrants (sanctuary county) to effectively counter the loss, so that it shows no net loss. IL on the other hand, is showing a big net loss of people- if I’m not mistaken, it has THE biggest net loss of people of any state (People are fleeing CA. like rats, too- but like NY- CA. brings in enough immigrants to counter the loss).

              And there are lots of Repugnantcans in upstate NY and rural and northern CA.- but they’re dwarfed by all of the libtards in the big cities and metro areas.

              This just shows the absurdity and destructiveness of government though. The very idea that the states would do things so repugnant to their productive citizens, and so economically destructive, that it would drive mass numbers of long-time residents away- and rather than changing the things which are driving their best residents away, they instead continue in their folly, and just replace those residents with people of lower quality- who in most cases will prove to be dependent, rather than productive- is just the height of inanity- but yet they are doing it!

              It’s funny- these states, which were not long ago the very epitome of wealth, prosperity and culture, are quickly transforming themselves, through their own greed, corruption and ineptitude, into third-world slums.

              • Nunzio,

                The trouble with these socialist hellholes is that, once they take over, they so hopelessly RIG the voting that it’s well nigh impossible to defeat them. Shoot, in CA, they have ballot harvesting! Just the name sounds fugazy, doesn’t it? But yeah, after the socialists gain control, the take measures that make it impossible to eject them via peaceful means. There are three boxes for solving these problems: the soap box, ballot box, and ammo box. In socialist utopias such as CA, the ammo box is the only option left…

                • Heck, MM, even in the smaller cities and towns these days- everyone’s on the dole in part or whole….they’ll keep voting themselves largess. The Repubs have caught-on, and are playing to that hand too. And now with massive unemployment everywhere thanks to the Corona Response….so goes everywhere else.

  9. Electrics will be a great and awesome thing, once we have compact, lightweight fusion reactors or magic batteries to run them.

  10. In Austin, we frequently see the new cars sold in Mexico, and, increasingly, the vehicles look like they’re from another planet.

    The fatwas will have to extend south of the border or the situation will be akin to East Germany in the 80s — the repressed will look across the barbed wire and see that their neighbors are not driving Trabants.

  11. Speaking of electric cars:
    https://youtu.be/Qb7vg08zluQ

    Yep that’s right the way for more range is hauling a trailer with another battery pack. At this point why not just haul a gas generator around?

    In the video pay attention when they talk about how Tesla won’t sell owners parts and how to get around it by ordering them from Toyota or others. It’s like they are messing around with 20+ year old cars 20 years ago.

    • Hi Brent,

      Doesn’t it boggle you that one almost never hears anyone in the media ask… why?

      Gas is cheap, IC cars work brilliantly. They are objectively superior in every objective way. There is no need for electric cars… so… why?

      • Why? Because they are still regurgitating the same 20+yr old lies. They are hell bent on major social engineering and major control of everyone’s life, in every area of life. As a result, they will attempt to force them upon everyone. Don’t like it? Go without is their reply as well as ultimate goal. “The report is set to lay out four scenarios that could result in Earth’s average surface temperature stabilising at 1.5C. The most ambitious—dubbed the “low energy scenario”—would see a radical draw down in energy consumption coupled with a rapid shift away from fossil fuels and a swift decline in CO2 emissions starting in 2020.
        It would not require a temporary “overshoot” of the 1.5C threshold, and does not depend on sucking vast quantities of CO2 out of the air, known as carbon dioxide removal, or “negative emissions.” A second pathway emphasizes the need for changing our consumption patterns—eating less meat, traveling less, giving up cars, etc.—along with an overhaul of agricultural and land-use practices, including the protection of forests.’
        http://www.climatedepot.com/2018/10/07/new-un-reports-grim-reading-avoiding-climate-chaos-means-unprecedented-change/
        Their theme for the world is ‘pre-industrial’. In other words, forced reduction of lifestyle for the West for an imaginary ‘useful idiot’ boogie man. Now taught in grade school on up. This confirms it: http://deliberatedumbingdown.com/ddd/2018/10/04/your-childrens-futures-and-that-of-a-free-usa-are-dead-education-week-report/. Teaching the kiddies to love their servitude.
        Yes, it has everything to do with what you will drive (and what ‘choices’ will be offered) and how you will be allowed to live. That includes cars ownership and the freedom to travel very far.

        • Pre-industrial/ a world made by hand of course means in actuality mass starvation and elimination of us kulaks on an industrial scale.

        • Don’t blame the warmists, if it were about CO2 the last thing we’d see is a push to use more electricity, which effectively means more coal. They impose controls because THAT’S WHAT THEY DO. Fish gotta swim control freaks gotta control.

          • Hey Michael, I think you nailed it there. For a long time I wondered at the near 100% rate of governmental controls always making things worse. I mean, just by accident they should get good results sometimes! As you say, fish gotta swim, and if you put out a pile of sugar, the ants will come. Centralized, massive points of political power naturally attract people who love to wield power. People who love power always make harmful laws. Why? Because populations want to better their own lives, there is no power in telling them they must do something that would make their life better. The only time power hungry sociopaths REALLY can enjoy power and control is when they FORCE people to do something against their own desires. The exercise of power is by definition the opposite of persuasion, education, or negotiation, and thus every expression of power makes the average person worse off. The motto of the control freaks is “Sure it hurts, but I’ll force you to do it!” Control freaks are sadists by nature.

      • I think the ‘why?’ is because they have to keep changing the game so the ‘lesser’ manufacturers can’t keep up. The reason for the crazy Tier 3 then 4 diesel regs that made diesel way more money to run, was because the 3rd world manufacturers were catching up. At a small fraction too. Gotta keep changing the rules or the big boys go down.

        Roxor is one small answer to this nonsense, if you can get a plate for it. Most rural places in USA you can.

      • Dear Eric, the real “WHY?”: Because the powers-that-be do not want you and me to have ANY freedom of movement.
        And the only thing way to turn things around is revolution. Violence on themselves is the only thing the ruling elite understands!

      • they’ll say why occasionally. The meaningless platitude whys and the scam. The real why they’ll never mention. They don’t even know it in the media. It’s not like even one out of a 100 in that business will even read agenda 2030 or an IPCC report or anything our “betters” put out that make the real why clear as day.

      • Can’t tell you why bit I can tell you what isn’t the answer. Greenhouse gases. The Tesla effectively runs on coal 27.4% off the time and natural gas 35.1%. So it’s a lot worse for greenhouse gases.

        My theory they just like controls it’s just how they are.

  12. Oh great! So now the last driver-oriented car company is throwing up the “white flag”, just as they were on the verge of making a huge breakthrough in ICE technology with their upcoming “Skyactiv-X” engine.

    At this rate, within 40 years, ICE’s will officially be outlawed.

    • Morning, Bluegrey –

      If it takes 40 years,I’ll be startled. Within ten, this is going to be over… one way or the other. The car industry – and car ownership – is either going to be fundamentally transformed into “mobility as a service” – and most people will no longer own cars at all – or, not.

      There is no middle ground. This agenda will destroy cars as we have known them – and driving, too.

  13. Step back and view the big picture. Think about what will happen after ICE cars go out of production and soon thereafter get banned……

    At that point, The Overlords will declare that too much environmental degradation is caused by the production of electricity. Electrical power is essential of course. But it will be deemed too environmentally damaging to be squandered on something as frivolous as individual automobiles. The next step is the banning of any and all automobiles. Mass transit only for us commoners.

    Don’t get too hung up on ICE alone. Formulate your opposition strategy based upon the enemy’s ultimate objective.

    • The ultimate objective is to herd everyone into “Human Habitation Zones”, and return rural and suburban areas back to wilderness How will they get all of us to fit into the handful of “Human Habitation Zones”? Eugenics. Smart growth. Sustainable development. You and your way of life are obsolete.

      • Yes I agree. That’s why you see huge apartment buildings going up on every available piece of land. The apartments in the buildings are incredibly small. City councils are sending out notices asking building owners and small and medium business owners if they want to be on the list for their property to be developed into huge apartment complexes.
        I wonder if many of them will be forced to sell to developments either way. Many said no, but several said yes as they think they will get rich and retire off the “profits” I have a feeling it will not be that simple. I am seeing very “scary changes that are happening very, very rapidly. I guarantee you in 5 years or less things in the USA will look and operate very differently and not in the Free Republic way we have the rights to live by, but in the ever growing facist society being created around us until we are all sucked into the circle. In 10 years or so no one will be driving cars, they will be riding in public or private controlled vehicle movement transportation. It may not happen across the USA as fast as it will happen in the major metropolitan cities, LA or New York will be first. Everytime I put the pieces of the puzzle together I see how far they have advanced Agenda 21/31, and its quickly gaining momentum into smaller cities. Why is Agenda 21/30 moving so quickly, well because human greed creates the sellouts who do not care what happens to the great Republic and its populace and lots of them are currently sitting on your local city councils, which is where Agenda 21/30 gains it’s traction. The best way to stop it is to attend your council meetings everytime there is one and to have honest people who cannot be bought run for a place on the council.

    • Your scenario of finding an excuse to ban private vehicles could happen sooner than you think. In North America and Europe, let alone the rest of the world, electric grids have been near capacity for decades. New plants don’t happen because of environmentalists and NIMBYs. The result will be blackouts once millions of electric cars are plugged into that grid. Then the bureaucrats will move to ban cars to preserve the grid.

      The scary part is that I suspect the powers that be know this will be the outcome.

      • Hi ek,

        It’s a pincer movement – obvious now, to anyone who cares to see. First, impose conflicting regs (saaaaaaaafety, which adds weight – then emissions masquerading as fuel economy) in order to make it all but impossible to build and sell other than hybrid and electric cars. Once that has been achieved, ration electricity. “Nudge” most of the population into urban proletariat apartment complexes.

        The Grand Dream is on the verge of being realized.

      • The powers that be want to control energy usage. They have since progressivism absorbed technocracy. Technocracy is a centrally managed system by where everyone has a certain amount of energy credits per unit time. Look at the carbon taxes, crypto currencies, electric cars, and more. It’s all about control.

        There won’t be any new electric capacity for the electric cars. Electricity will simply be rationed. The smart meters, the home area network, the robot cars, the per mile taxes, the entry permits, and much more. It just keeps going. Ordinary people simply won’t have private automobiles or use them much if they do.

        The era of the human resources wandering the range is becoming the age of the feed lot.

  14. Mazda however is going to use a rotary engine as a “range extender”. Perhaps in some way a middle finger to the uncle.

    I’ve noticed that mobility, having children, living life, is being made ever more expensive through regulation and law. All for our own good supposedly. Meanwhile it keeps people with their nose down, having fewer kids, etc and so on and pushing dependence.

      • Hi Mooeing (and Brent) –

        I’ll be very surprised if Mazda manages to get a rotary – as an adjunct to a hybrid system or not – past emissions, especially durability testing…

        • The rotary in this application would likely be very small and remember that emissions standards are in g/mile. An engine that is off produces no emissions. It all come down to fine details and I figure fed gov will have to rewrite the tests to thwart Mazda there.

          • Morning, Brent –

            Yup. I doubt it will ever see daylight. Mazda and other innocents may not understand that the issue is not “emissions.” It is to get rid of cars, period.

      • I still remember the commercial from the 1970s…”Piston engine goes, “boing, bong, Boiing”! but the Mazda goes “Hmm….”!

  15. And now VW is running these sickening radio ads about how “cool” electric cars are supposed to be and that we all need to “plug into the future.”

    Worst part is I have to hear this boolsheet in the middle of classic country music.

  16. I hope the Kavanaugh kangaroo court confirmations is a call to arms for libertarians and conservatives to vote this November. In our culture today; anything you say can and will be used against you if you hold views contrary to the left.

    • Ditto, Hans!

      This vile business may end up being a blessing as it really displayed the hand of the authoritarian left and exactly what those creatures are up to.

    • They could have shut Kavanah down easy. Just ask him to explain his role in the Vince Foster “suicide”. But that we never going to happen, because while having him on the court was their nightmare, having the truth come out was their hell.

    • That’s why you document the dog shit out of where you go and what you buy and what with. An upside to this is that it shows young lads the upside to leading a moral life and treating their young lady peers as LADIES.

      Ya know, there was a time that if a 15 y.o. high school girl went ALONE to parties where there were boys that she got a “reputation”. Yes, I know it was a “double standard”, but likewise, if some “greaser” showed up to pick up “Suzy” for the sock hop, wearing the leather jacket and a pack of smokes rolled up in his T-shirt sleeves, “Suzy’s” Dad would unceremoniously grab him by the scruff of the neck and boot his ass to the curb! Boys and Girls were CHAPERONED for a reason, it’s not as if only since the Sixties, where this current generation of idiots now in Congress grew up, that sex was discovered!

      • Hi Doug,

        I remember those days, too. They existed as recently as the ’80s. Ms. Blasey-Ford appears to have been very much a party girl, back in the day. See her redacted yearbook, among other things. But it is not ever mentioned. The opposite, in fact. She is portrayed as Saint Blasey-Ford. A poor innocent girl who somehow ended up at a party where bad things just happened to her (which she can’t quite remember anything specific about, except whom she claims with absolute certainty did them to her).

        Meanwhile, Kavanaugh – whatever his politics – is crucified for partying.

        Feminism has taught women that they are “equal” – and to act accordingly. This does not work out well, because men and women are different. There are biological facts which no amount of Feminist Theory can obviate, including the sexual market value of women vs. that of men.

        A woman who sleeps around with different men gets used up; men will use such a woman but do not want a relationship with one. By the time such a woman reaches her mid-30s, her sexual market value is depreciating fast. She will soon hit the wall and be the equivalent of the discounted steaks with the almost expired “use by” stickers you can pick up for half price at the supermarket, just prior to their being thrown away.

        But a man can sleep around and it does not diminish his sexual market value because his value is not biologically dependent. It is dependent on his success/affluence and so on. A single/divorced man in his 40s or 50s is in a very different position than a woman in her 40s and 50s.

        Who would want Blasey Ford? What sort of man could she attract now? But if Kavanaugh were single he could be dating 26-year-olds. Hot ones.

        This drives Feminists – who are almost always ugly and bitter and long ago hit their wall – absolutely batty.

        • Eric I don’t appreciate you saying bad things about a girl so mentrally retarded she doesn’t know how to contact her Senator. Sure she might ave been easy in high school but now that her surfboard hit her head so hard she can’t google “how to contact the senate” we should have some pity.

  17. I can’t wait till Ca. legislates 50% of all new vehicles to be EV’s. Oh, the fun will start. While ERCOT protects Texans against the rest of the country and we now have a huge surplus of energy, we’ll get to see what the most populous state does……in the dark. Those night-time satellite pics of vast areas of darkness should be priceless.

    How long does it take to build huge transmission lines from every state that can’t fight them off? I envision an fight of epic proportions between the Fed.gov and ERCOT. Maybe the TNM will 10 fold it’s membership and we’ll get rid of our association with the US. Texas has everything to gain and nothing but debt and taxes to lose. That wall Trump wants to build at the border, we’ll have to extend all the way around Texas. ERCOT doesn’t control the panhandle though. It will be interesting what those people there do. If you’ve ever known any of them, they are an eclectic, individualistic kind, not big on big brother types of people.

    • Morning Eight!

      I have this gut feeling something big is about to happen. The Kavanaugh thing broke the ice – so to speak. The sides are lining up; battle is about to be joined. Literally, I suspect. Watch what happens if the GOP cleans house in November. Or, the reverse…

      • eric, the Kavanaugh thing indeed. I never thought I’d see as big a coward as Ollie North but Kavanaugh proved me wrong. He must have been in the 100 plus heat all day hauling 120 lb bales of hay to need that much rehydration he imbibed and his facial tic started out as a tic or two and then grew…almost exponentially. Even his tongue got into the act. If you think you never saw a liar just by their actions and speech, then you hadn’t seen Kavanaugh.

        When a “man”(sic) begins repeating himself and stammers and cries it can only mean one thing, he’s lying. Kavanaugh was under the gun, the one his controllers hold over him and he’s scared shitless he won’t get to “rule” the way they want. What a piece of shit he was. I knew his record(horrible, wanting to rewrite the Constitution)but I’d never have know what a stupid(yes, stupid)a-hole he was if he hadn’t opened his mouth.

        Anyone with any morals in his situation would have simply withdrawn and been done with it. And the 9 senators who deferred to not demand his accusers to testify before congress and swear an oath to the Constitution should have all been shot between the eyes. If ever N Korea had a nuke capable of reaching CD it was that day he testified they should have used it. Of course it wouldn’t have been to Their advantage, only to everyone who is a true patriot. No doubt the world watched and eventually spat at the same moment.

        Ron Paul sent me a missive today saying we’re on the verge of being in a huge shitstorm(my words). He didn’t condense it as I do but that’s what he said.

        Yep, RON, it’s about to hit the fan. In the infamous words of Texas Tech’s battle cry…..”GUNS UP”.

        I was looking for some eyewash for the wife today and dug to the bottom of my “traveling tote” where I found a travesty, a ziploc full of 5.56X45 rounds……and no mags to be found for them. That’s my bad and I intend to rectify it “toot sweet” as the Frenchies would say ha ha.

  18. We have a powerful weapon in this fight – nostalgia. While not accessible to everyone, those of us who possess an older ride need to get it out there and be seen. We need to take the time to talk with, and educate those who take interest.

    To most people, seeing these older vehicles evokes memories to the people they looked up to, myself included. My granddad and my uncles all drove ½ ton Ford and Chevy pickups and they went everywhere and could do virtually anything. When I drive the ’64 C10, I hear the same stories from people of all walks of life – my dad, or grandpa, or whomever had one just like it……
    The hot rods bring back memories of cruising on Friday night – no “sail fawns”, no stress – just girls, cars and fun. Freedom with 4 wheels – and it can be had for relatively little money.

    I read an article about “Harley Davidson is dying” the other day, blaming millenials for their disinterest in motorcycles. Nowhere in the article did it mention that Harley “culture” has become enough of a joke to merit a (rather epic) episode of South Park. In a similar vein, the “street rodders” with their $30,000 paint jobs and “billet” everything have done a disservice by reveling in their manufactured, inauthentic world.

    Get them out there and be seen…..most people don’t want to live in a bad sci-fi movie, but they don’t realize that they have a choice. Old cars are NOT inaccessible hobbies for rich people – TV just made it seem that way.

    • Morning, El Guapo!

      You nailed it, amigo… I think we are vibing… I took the Trans Am out today. I am sitting here in my coffee shop dive, looking at people looking at it.

      And I have also corrupted at least one teenager – my protege, who is driving a ’74 Beetle!

      • I took the C10 to Dairy Queen for lunch the other day, and I watched as an older man (he’d seen the better side of 70) stopped and gently ran his hand across the bed rail for a couple of minutes before getting into a nondescript white blob with a couple in their 30’s. I bet that they heard about his “old Chevy like that” for quite a few miles.

        I just took on a new “apprentice” myself. Grandpa gave him a pretty clean little ’84 C10 Stepside for his 16th birthday. Cleaned out some shop space for him to spruce it up (also see what we can do to give that vile 305 some guts) and maybe learn a few things in the process.

        • Morning, El Guapo!

          I dig this… it’s a top drawer way to get the message across, or at least get them thinking. I wish my niece – who is 13 – did not live on the other side of the country. As I have no kids of my own, I must find a worthy to inherit my various Barchettas some day. Plus, she is female and getting her over to the Dark Side – maybe even getting her on an old motorcycle – would truly gladden my heart of darkness!

      • Hello Eric,
        El Guapo is right. The SF bay area air cooled VW crew was in full force last Sunday at the Presidio in SF for the Blue Angels show. I didn’t count, maybe 50-70 VDubs? I’m involved in many VW clubs and we have meets in parking lots (my local, south bay club) and seasonal cruises constantly. When I’m just driving around solo I get so much reaction to my Bug, just like you do with your T/A! I realize that you’re kind of small town, I don’t know if you have any local weekly hang out for hot rodders, but, if you do, there might be some Sally Field type that wants to hang out with the Bandit! Maybe you might have to take a longer road trip to get to a larger “Meet Up”, but it would be worth it to get out and enjoy your Red Barchetta!

    • El Guapo, 20 years ago I couldn’t read most american car magazines any longer because everything was a damn perfect whatever and often way overdone. I started reading UK publications even though I had no interest in most of the cars they featured but because every article showed an old car that some sort of real life with real struggles against the demon known as rust. Most cars were no where near perfect. How to articles showed non-ideal conditions. They didn’t make me feel like a loser because I didn’t have a perfect car.

      • Moring, Brent!

        C&D and R&T lost me when they became mirrors of CR. Metrosexuallly staffed and “concerned” with all the things metrosexuals are “concerned” about.

        I revered Brock Yates and guys like him when I was a kid. Those guys are all gone now. And me? I am an Aurochs, too. When I used to attend “long leads” (I don’t get invited much anymore) I was the only one there not dressed like an accountant and who didn’t give a flip about the latest self-parking crap and openly derided it.

        Hence no more long leads for me.

        • Thankfully there’s been some shining examples of the real world injected into media. The 24 hours of LeMons “series” has been attracting loads of attention, and the guys at Hot Rod had a masterstroke of brilliance with their creation of Roadkill.

          I’ve recently made the decision to partner up with our local “economic development coordinator” in an effort to put our community as a “car culture destination”. Winning hearts and minds is an important step in winning the war.

        • It was much later that american new car mags like C&D and R&T started to become skims for me. In the 1990s most of the old guard was still writing. But once they went away… How I got the way I got was that I learned of the scam that was “speed kills”. Once I saw the construction of that scam I can see them all. They are all built the same way. Same design. Even the global warming scam is constructed fundamentally the same as the 55 NMSL. Creatively analyzed data, a government funded priest class and social pushers, for our own good, and more.

          I’ve mentioned it before, it was Yates and the rest that got me to see those driving related scams. The regulatory scams too. Can’t go back once curtain is pulled back.

          • Hi Brent,

            Similar deal for me. I was the kid who was always asking… but, why? From my earliest memory, I could not abide arbitrary authority, rules “just because.” It seemed retarded to me, at first. Then, later, evil – as I realized it was fundamentally just about controlling people for the sake of controlling them.

            • Routine selective punishment by authority has made me into an outward rule follower. But I will end up in the camps none the less for my subversive thoughts and words. Not to mention my actions by which I will deliberately follow rules to the letter so things get mucked up.

    • Hi David,

      Allegedly, it’s still in the pipeline . . . but the factors weighing against are considerable. Compliance costs are not only becoming prohibitive, they are rendering moot the diesel’s efficiency advantage by dint of the added expenses associated with compliance. VW was the only car brand selling an affordable diesel-powered car. Mazda threatened to join the ranks. That presents a major threat to the EV Agenda being pushed by people who want us out of cars, period – and who are using the EV Agenda to further that aim.

      The other problem Mazda is facing with regard to diesels is the same problem all IC engines are best by: The “carbon footprint” bogeyman. C02 is suddenly an “emission”- and fuel economy fatwas have somehow become synonymous with “pollution control.”

      If that is not beaten back, the IC-powered car (gas or diesel) is doomed – as a mass-produced product which ordinary people can afford. The elites, of course, will drive whatever they like…

      • eric, I doubt the average person has any idea of what’s going on.

        First, selling petroleum to foreign buyers was verboten till Trump got into office and the first thing that was done was to do away with this law. Kinder-Morgan saw the writing on the wall(helped write it)years ago and began building, in the US, a fleet of double hulled tankers. This got around most of the laws to ban foreign sales of oil produced in the US but not the final one.

        Now we’ve begun to ship Texas Tea as fast as we can via Kinder-Morgan for the most part, to countries all over the world, mostly European countries where the price of fuel is at the least, quadruple of our prices.

        By the end of 2018, Texas will be the largest producer of oil of All countries….and that includes the rest of the US.

        Trump doubled down on Saudi Arabia to increase their output. Why? They can….and this will keep the price of oil along the $70/bbl range, ensuring plenty profits in the US and foreign countries but not to the point of gouging the consumers in this country.

        I see a parting of the ways in the future between the Saudi’s(one family)and the US since other countries are ready to come to their aid. War? Oh, what a wonderful life it would be if DC could keep BIG wars going all over the world.

        Right now there is US involvement (war)in 134 countries and friends, profits couldn’t be better although some will claim they’re not enough.

        War truly is the state of the economy….not the economy you and I desire but the economy the “state” desires meaning the very wealthy of the world.

        NE yankees like this shit, believing in the USA and all the hoopla…..but it’s beginning to dwindle. Too many families and their kin have seen the lie of 9/11 and actually become disillusioned(imagine that).

        eric, you and I lie on the same philosophical and historical line of freedom, the Mason/Dixon line for one and the lie of Lincoln for another plus we both believe in the right of individuals to be free in every way.

        The problem being for Trump, and congress, regardless of affiliation(Dems, Reps)that people are catching on.

        Even the RRRT, that bastion of Republicanism has turned somewhat(other than myself who never abided by any of that shit)to libertarianism…..and even those who don’t want to turn the corner have had to admit we’re mainly fucked, even those who gave big bucks to Trump. Well, that wasn’t a hard one to decide but now they’re having to watch what their money has bought, and it ain’t what he said it would buy in his run for prez.

        Of course, I never believed him in the first place…..just like Obamer and those that came before. I am forever in the debt of an old friend who was a member of the Christians in Action who tried to withdraw from the organization and lived through an assassination attempt. He told me back in 90 when Bush and Clinton were vying for prez and I asked what he thought each would do. He looked me in the eye and said “They’ll both do the same thing”.

        I thought long and hard about that but knowing what Bush 1 was and knowing what his father did, I voted for Clinton….and found out he was right and the Clinton administration was more like Republicans than anyone would have guessed. It was my comeuppance and one I didn’t want to repeat. It would spell the end of my voting….except in local elections.

        Later one I would be singled out and my voting rights would be taken away because I became a “bad guy” according to Garp….or who the fuck ever it was including feds, state and their bitches, the county. I can now vote…….ain’t that a laugh?

        • Morning, Eight – and, agreed. On all counts.

          There is an upside to Trump, though. He has provoked and so exposed the militant left and that has angered – and awakened – lots of folks. The problem, of course, is that most of them are turning hard right. I see a battle line forming up – red vs. brown. The same old battle lines.

          I almost hear it… und du, kamerad?

          I want no part of either as I’m sure most here don’t.

          I wish my Trans-Am could generate a gravity field and skip-hop somewhere far, far away…

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