Higher Gas Mileage – No Matter What it Costs You

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A court just ordered that you will pay more to use less gas.

The court did not put it quite that way, of course – courts specializing in not putting things directly, much less honestly.

Like the government – which the courts serve.

The issue at hand was whether car companies should be triple fined by the government for not “complying” with regulatory decrees pertaining to how many miles the cars they make can travel on a gallon of gas. And how much higher those minimums are to be – as well as how soon.

The mandatory minimum number of miles new cars must travel per gallon – or else –  has been increasing each decade since the ’70s, when the government first got into the business of telling car companies how far their cars must go – and how much you’ll pay to get there.

These MPG mandates – and attendant fines for not meeting them – cost you in other ways, too. They killed off large family sedans and station wagons, which were replaced by large SUVs and pick-ups which cost much more than the extincted-by-the-regs large family sedans and wagons. For a time, trucks and SUVs were subject to lower mandatory MPG minimums by an accident of regulatory categorization – they were “light trucks” rather than “passenger cars” – and so the car industry built more of the former to satisfy the market demand for the latter, thwarted by the regs.

But the government caught up – and that’s why trucks and SUVs got so expensive. They are going to become largely unaffordable – and so, very scarce.

Because the mandatory minimum is back on track to almost double from what it originally was when CAFE – Corporate Average Fuel Economy – regulations were first imposed, to an average of nearly 50 miles-per-gallon by about five years from now.

The fines for not meeting that “goal” are to be tripled – from $5.50 for every 0.1 MPG they fall below the standard to $14.

The cost of these fines to be passed on to you, too – in the obvious form of more expensive cars and the subtle form of fewer choices. There are only a couple of non-electric cars on the market right now that can travel 50 miles on a gallon of gasoline and they are almost electric cars.

Hybrids, like the Toyota Prius and the Kia Niro – which also cost several thousand dollars more than an otherwise equivalent non-hybrid car.

There are no full-size trucks or SUVs on the market that can travel 35 miles on a gallon of gas and no car larger than a compact with an engine larger than a small four can travel 40. The reason so many cars – even larger ones – now come with small fours is because of mandatory MPG minimums. As these minimums increase, there will be fewer cars – and much more expensive SUVs and pick-ups.

Also more electric vehicles – since they are essentially exempted from CAFE even though they burn through petrochemicals, too. Just at a distance. And, at a cost – not merely in money, either.

EVs cost time and convenience – also paid by you, not the government.

The Orange Man made an attempt to “roll back” both the mandatory minimums and the fines for not meeting them. This triggered the usual chorus of outrage – and litigation. The Orange Man’s actions were also characterized as the equivalent of dumping used motor oil down the storm drain, as gas mileage mandates have been conflated with exhaust emissions – much in the way that “cases” are being conflated with illnesses – and deaths – even in the absence of any symptoms.

The reportage largely runs the same: Orange Man doesn’t care about the air; he is giving “polluters” the green light. The problem here is the same basic problem we have with “the cases! the cases!”– which is that both are free of facts. Or – more precisely – the facts are grotesquely exaggerated, in order to use fear as the argument and guilt as the cudgel.

It is true that a car powered by an internal combustion engine produces emissions. It also true that all cars built since the ’90s – which are 30 years in the rearview and so essentially all cars on the road today – produce almost no harmful emissions. Just as a Face Diaper prevents no transmissions.

The percentage of the exhaust stream that contributes to smog and so on is a fraction of the total, which is why further “reductions” are functionally meaningless. But they are always touted as Great Leaps Forward – by characterizing a reduction of half a percent as a 50 percent reduction – never qualified.

It is also why carbon dioxide became an “emission” – which it is in a technical sense since cars do “emit” it – but which it isn’t in terms of smog formation and so forth. But it is a useful emission in that there is no way to reduce them except by increasing gas mileage, providing the new pretext for not “rolling back” the CAFE mandatory minimums and tripling the fines imposed for not complying with them.

This is presented, despicably, as an air quality issue – just as Face Diapering is presented, also despicably, as a health issue.

Both deserve deconstructing.

The premise underlying CAFE is that car buyers’ desire for “efficient” cars – at any cost – is ignored by the car industry, which must be coerced via regulations to provide it regardless of cost. In other words, the car industry must be forced to build that which people are otherwise unwilling to pay for.

Just as people who aren’t sick must be forced to wear Face Diapers.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit saith: “We reject the (Orange Man’s) argument that . . . the increase (in mandatory MPG minimums and fines) would create a negative economic impact. . . “

Ignoring economics.

Things cost. There is no free lunch. You pay more for gas – or you pay more for a car that uses less gas.

Orange Man good. He tried – and deserves credit for at least that much since no one else in a position to do something even made the attempt.

And he may get another shot – on our behalf – if he manages to hold onto the spray tan booth at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I hope he does, because there’s no hope at all if he does not.

. . .

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191 COMMENTS

  1. Gates wants to eliminate all CO2. Therefore, there will be no fossil fuel energy companies and no gas cars. We won’t need roads either. Most jobs will be done by robots or from home, if at all. Everything will be shut down so there will be no place to go. Not even to another country. There will always be another fake virus of some kind invented to scare you and keep you locked down anyway.. That way, government can control you, and the very excluded few will enjoy the freedoms you once had. You will not be able to afford an EV as the government will pay you $1,000 a month to stay home and watch CNN all day to get all the brain stimulation you need. This will lead to massive suicides. Thus, the socialists (governments) will eliminate having to pay out promised pensions for which they have no money and that is part of the problem. Poison vaccines will be forced upon you to eliminate those who are frail and old and who cost too much too keep alive….anyone past age 60 perhaps. MPGs and all the rest of it are mute points. The Great Reset will see to that. It might come down to complete servitude and desolation before the people have a will to resist. By then, it will be too late. Connecting the dots, this is the picture of our future if certain monsters are not stopped…STONE COLD!

  2. I reviewed all the comments in the above thread. The common question seems to be “why” all this makes no sense. Bad for everyone. The answer is Demons. They exist, they are real they are agents of Satan. Demoncrats are one example. Most higher up Republican are also demons or bought by the demons or controlled by one means or another. It’s a losing game to contest them in Mordor. Just gotta hope the ring gets tossed into the volcano. That said any wrench tossed into their jaws will help. Not very smart and not very flexible because of the top down control. So keep fighting the demons.

    • There’s a lot of truth to that, Ugg. Jesus said it…the rulers of this present world were given their power by Satan, who has not yet been deposed. If there’s one thing I can see clearly (even through my Coke-bottles), and which has been hammered home to me innumerable times over the past 4 decades, is that the levels and scale of fiendishly devious conspiracies which operate intricately at so many levels, are far too complex and far-reaching, even down to the smallest details, to ever be successfully pulled-off by mere men- and yet here we are…….

      The goal of Satan has always been to “be like God”-(Not in character, but in the sense of being worshipped and obeyed, and having ultimate control and influence)- and who or what do we see today that is delegating to itself the power and authority of God? The GOVERMENTS of this world!

      • Correct-a-mundo, Eric. This idea that we are at the mercy of supernatural beings who create all of the evils of the world flies in the face of reason. It’s basically a copout, another way of looking for scapegoats. (“The devil made me do it!”)

        There is no shortage of evil in the hearts of men on their own, and no need for supernatural bogeymen to explain the patterns of history. Human nature does not change, only technology changes. Thus the old saw, “History repeats itself.” It does, and there is nothing supernatural about that, nor is there a conspiracy of demonic-possessed villians thousands of years old – just people doing what they do time after time after time.

        Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. It is not up to skeptics to “disprove” such claims, the responsibility lies with the claimant. In other words, it’s up to the purveyors of demons and satans to provide proof that such entities exist if they are to convince others. They have failed to do so. (I have found over the years that one of the most difficult things for deeply religious people to understand is that their particular holy writings do not constitute “evidence” to those who are not already Believers.)

        • Jason, the human tendencies to greed, power, etc. has always been in evidence across every strata of society, from homies in the ‘hood to kings and industrialists- The thing is, it is those very tendencies that tend to prevent long-term and widespread conspiracy on a very large scale, and which can infiltrate every little aspect of life.

          At some point, something changed, so that now we see many unrelated things on a worldwide scale all conspiring to effect a single goal- even from the littlest most innocuous things which aren’t controlled by government, the “elite” or the media and their various outgrowths- to the point where such a vast web of influence which guides the thoughts and actions of most people now exists that it is simply beyond the scope of humans with their various foibles to have instituted.

          ERverything, from the unrelated developement of all the various technologies, to the lyrics of some garage-band songs- and all coming about within the space of a few generations just recently, whereas no such confluence of events has ever happened before in human history. And the thing is, the foundations of these things and their convergence was not planned by anyone, but all came about seemingly organically.

          One either has to believe in the possibility of the convergence of literally 100’s of millions of “coincidences” all occurring just at the right time relative to each other….or something else beyond the scope of what mere humans are capable of.

          I see the latter as the only viable explanation. (I wish youse guys would demand this “extraordinary proof” from the prognosticators of the theoretical “sciences”!) -And it’s not even like the affiliation to the real masters is even hidden anymore- what with our own government (under Obozo) promoting actual Baal worship, and the disgusting show which was put on in Sweden at the opening of the world’s biggest supercollider, in which participants costumed themselves as demons and leaped forth from the hole in the earth, and many more such things…..WHY on earth would seemingly rational, intelligent promoters of “science” do such things? And even a Marxist pope now, who promotes paganism!

          This does not add-up if viewed as merely the actions of secular rational people; It would be absurd for animals to even behave in such ways.

          • Nunz, just as a free market controls/directs itself (and is thus much more effective than a command economy), human actions don’t require some supra human entity of evil, to explain how things work out.

            Technology is much the same. Insights compound, and amplify each other. Study of the history and development of science, and mathematics demonstrates that. The development of Calculus iis just one example of such incidences.

            As for conspiracies, they are as old as humanity itself. Human nature, is more than sufficient explanation for all of the virtues and vices, on display in both history and today.

            • Yes, BJ, conspiracies are certainly nothing new, BUT the very human foibles which motivate people to conspire also tended to limit the cooperation necessary to maintain those conspiracies, they have always been limited in size and scope.

              Something has apparently changed, as now we see a conspiracy of such size and scope- and which is often at odds with the very interests of many of it’s participants- but which nonetheless has permeated every level of society worldwide.

              What has changed? It is not the human foibles of the conspirators which has changed; That is obvious, because it is the existence of those foibles which motivates the very conspirators……

              As we have discussed in other discussions, the ideologies which motivate most human actions and thoughts, are essentially of a religious nature, and are predicated upon faith and obedience (even amongst those who believe they are atheists)- The question is merely allegiance- to whom or what does one have faith in and obey. (And consequently, why we see a concerted war against the traditional values represented by Christianity).

      • Actually Eric, its those fiendish, shape shifting Lizard people who are behind this. They escaped from their doomed home world, into our world by inter dimensional portals. They are also behind the creation of the 5G network (which is going to cook our brains), and the orbital mind control lasers… ^^

  3. More evermore efficient use of the cattle-zinery.

    Ultimately, the aim, the so-called Soylent Green Resetvolution, & the ourobors liquefaction-into-calories scene in The Matrix.

    Guys in Fawkes masks – or faces — alone & assembled is & will as always be Fawked…all hopium to the contrary that, among all the other denial’ing of what the specious species is all about (but for a few rule-proving exceptions), the “Dallas moment” isn’t the Groundhog Day eternal that it is, & that that eternal day does *not* end with enlightened grubby getting the Andy trophy.

    But Camus sez got to assume Fawkes likes it.

    Put rhymely, Trumpe-l’œil is all the moments post-Dallas moment, which in the currently configured neck of these noosed woods was sometime prior to 1776.

    Which means-sez some are so far behind curve that its snaked back ‘round & is so far up their assess that the mandibles chewing & swallowing is working their mandibles so as to appear talkin’ in lip synch ventriloquy…

    …Which as another affirms no fiction writer could ever make up.

  4. Hey eric,

    Re: “tried – and deserves credit for at least that much since no one else in a position to do something even made the attempt” Which would you prefer: those who exercise supreme will and effort only to fail, or those who make no effort, yet are a resounding success? Do you want a President that will try to do the right thing, or do you want a President who will do the right thing?

    When you start talking about getting credited with doing something you didn’t actually do, you may not be aware of this, but you’re articulating one of the aspects of the Christian doctrine of substitutional atonement.

    As the apostle Paul points out, to try is to fail. Milton backs it up by pointing out that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

    The problem is that Trump is actually just decent enough for the Dems to steal the election away from him in November. They’re openly admitting it already. Biden, Hilary, etc. are all openly pointing out that they’re going to contest it if Biden loses. They’ll simply claim that Trump fixed the election and have the government (which is not on Trump’s side to begin with) eject him from office. The CIA, the Secret Service will not stand by Trump. They will simply open the gates to let Biden into the White house.

    My point is that there comes a time when one can retain hope in a political candidate, but must simultaneously look for another plan; one that doesn’t rely upon the political process at all, or anyone else for that matter.

    How’s your garden doing? Did you say you have chickens as well? I’m trying to get my nearest neighbors to start growing anything. One set up a hydroponics greenhouse, but he only had lettuce, and tomatoes, and even though he was a success, he suddenly gave up altogether.

  5. Having lived in Germany for a few years this asinine article is only feeding the lie that you cannot get good mileage out of a SUV or larger car when in fact all the German cars get upwards of 60 plus miles per gallon and a few get over 70, I owned two while there and the worse gas mileage was 64 miles per gallon! So stop with the lie and start rattling the cages of the big oil companies and other huge money conglomerates that do not want their profits touched!Clover

    When you import a nice Mercedes Benz or BMW from Germany and ship it here to the states they impound the car and have the guts removed and replaced with the crap they use here before you get your car back and they charge you for the alteration….

    I lived next door to one of the export people that worked for Daimler, they make the BMW, and he said that they hated shipping to the US because they would have to retrofit every car to the US specks before they could ship them! You all have been lied to for years and they are stealing from you by forcing you to buy one of those crappy cars that get no mileage!

    Get a life and investigate the facts and start a grass roots movement to stop this stupidity!

    • Hi Ernie,

      There is no currently available non-hybrid car that even approaches 60 MPG. The only non-hybrid cars available during the past decade or so that were capable of achieving 50-something MPG (on the highway, not on average) were the diesel-powered versions of small cars like the VW Golf, Beetle and Jetta. None of which have been available for sale in the US for years.

      There has never been an SUV capable of approaching even 50 MPG.

      Please cite actual MPG data that supports your claim. You won’t because there isn’t any.

      In Europe, there are more diesel-powered cars and they do get higher mileage. But not 60 – and not if they are large and forget large SUVs, which largely do not exist over there because of the cost of owning and driving them.

      Diesels have effectively been outlawed here, by the way. So the best mileage delivered by any new car that isn’t a hybrid is low 40s on the highway – and these are small cars with small engines. The typical highway average is about 35 MPG. The large SUVs and trucks popular here average in the mid-highs 20s.

      Your assertion that the German cars imported to the US have their “guts” removed is ridiculous. You clearly know nothing about the car business or the cars available today.

      You speak of “big oil” and their profits. Do you seriously assert that there are no costs to the buyer associated with forcing cars to meet higher MPG standards? If people end up paying thousands more for a car in order to use less gas, how do they save money?

      And: There are other costs, which I explained in the article but which you drive right by. Such as: You cannot make a full-sized truck (or even a mid-sized) truck or an SUV based on the same general layout that is full-sized (or mid-sized) and does what buyers of such vehicles expect them to do and achieve 50 (let alone 60) or even 40 MPG without massively compromising one or more of the foregoing attributes or massively increasing the cost of the vehicle.

      • I luv our Kia Soul and Sportage, way over 30 mpg in the econo mode. We have done our extensive travelling thry the decades, and now stay in our community.

      • Heh, yeah- I think Ernie TJ is either smoking something powerful, or is a little confused about liters per 100 Km vs. MPG. There are a few vehicles in Germany that can get close to 60MPG- but they are tiny little things…certainly not Benzes and SUVs! Germany actually has about the highest fuel consumption rates in all of Europe.

      • British gallon used in liquid and dry measurement equivalent to 1.2 U.S. gallons, or 4.54 liters
        their gallons are bigger in europe, so you do get more mpg. And bigness is relative. Here in usa, everyone drives huge pickups & suvs, but over in europe they drive small cars, so in usa, a forester feels small, and in europe it feels big.

        I looked it up a few years ago. A 6spd manual diesel forester got about 50 mpg exurban which is over 40 us mpg. Zippy too with about 6 second 0 to 100km/h

        We are being oppressed by diesel regulations. And very few people even use pickups regurlarly. The only reason huge cars are “needed” is cause the government subsidizes shitty food that makes people fat, and the economy is so fucked over with stimulus here, cash for clunkers there, and bad regulations everywhere.

        • All true, Anon –

          What’s been done to diesels is nothing shy of criminal. I’ve been saying so for years. VW, specifically, was attacked not so much for “cheating” but rather because it was selling an entire lineup of affordable diesel-powered cars. These made electric cars look ridiculous.

          And that is why they had to go.

          • Ditto, Anon! I’m 58, and weigh 3 lbs more now than I did in high-school (And I wasn’t fat then!)…but I love my trucks, ’cause they can haul groceries in the rear seat; lumber and bags o’cement in the bed, etc. etc. all on one trip to town…and they’re safe (Pull out in yer car in front of my 7500 lb truck and you will lose!) and comfortable; I can use the tailgate as a workbench; I can pull my tractor out of a sinkhole with it (Done that)….carry all the crap around my place to do fencing, trim trees; use the bed sides as a scaffold (Handy when putting up 22′ roof trusses singlehandedly)….. I have no use for mere cars.

            • I might even weigh less now than I did in HS.

              We just traded off our little 30+ mpg car for a 4runner, that won’t have to sit parked for 6-8 months of the year because the road is too muddy or snowy. Also we have two 4wd full size pickups and an old Jeep.

              A couple more drivers and we could have our own Trump Parade LOL

    • You’re doing your unit conversions incorrectly Ernie. While Germany has a lot of 1.6L engines in cars due to tax issues the cars do not get 60-70mpg. They simply don’t. link to the manufacturer estimated fuel economy for these vehicles you’re talking about and I will convert them to mpg and we’ll see what it really is.

        • Hi Anon,

          Do you know whether the stated MPG is in Imperial, or US gallons? I read the article and could not find this info. Perhaps I didn’t delve deeply enough. Anyway, it matters a lot. A real MPG of 63 in Imperial gallons equals a real MPG of 50.4 MPG in US gallons.

          Cheers,
          jeremy

        • Besides the difference between a UK imperial gallon and US gallon there’s this in the article:

          “In reality, drivers find it very hard, if not impossible to reach these MPG figures as the NEDC test is conducted in very specific conditions and does not reflect the real-world. Thus it should be seen as a comparative figure, rather than an absolute figure.”

          Then they say their actual is something they calculated.

          Basically the numbers are entirely BS.

          That’s what I mean in the past about CAFE either being used to force battery EVs or becoming a meaningless compliance calculation.

          BTW gasoline in the UK is sold in terms of the imperial gallon 4.54609 litres while in the US a gallon is 3.785411784 litres. So shockingly a car goes further on more fuel!

  6. I take issue with your contention that with Trump in the White House there is hope, of a sort. I understand you are juxtaposing Trump and Biden.
    There is no hope with either one, if by hope you mean a return to sanity, reason, and principle. There is only the choice between the Gradual Big Decline, or the Giant Leap Into The Abyss. I prefer a massive systemic societal/political/economic catastrophe, fast and hard. Only those who are forced to live through hell can appreciate heaven. Just ask any immigrant who escaped tyranny to live in America.
    Hope is the elixir sold by politics. Vote for us, this time we’ll do it right, haha hehe hoho!
    Burn it all. Build a new republic from the ashes.

    • Hi Andy,

      I understand your position and sympathize with it; however, I’d prefer the U.S. to peacefully reorganize in the manner of the old Soviet Union, which didn’t erupt into a Lord of the Flies scenario. My faith – and I use that word deliberately, because I recognize it for what it is – lies in my hope that there are still enough sane and decent people left in this country to prevent the horror which the country clearly seems bound to live through. Which result in many deaths, much hardship. Such a purgative may indeed be necessary. My prayer is that it’s not.

      • Hi Eric,
        **”I’d prefer the U.S. to peacefully reorganize in the manner of the old Soviet Union, which didn’t erupt into a Lord of the Flies scenario.”**

        Eric, as long as the decent people think that the dictator in charge is ‘one of them’ and that he is saving them from the [other] bad guy, they’ll NEVER reorganize, because they’ll be too comfortable with the tyranny as long as they percieve it is coming from “their guy”. They’ll just accept it as ‘necessary’ to ‘make America great again’ and to ‘preserve what we have so that the other side doesn’t take over”- even though the actions and results will be identical no matter which puppet is elected.

        This can be illustrated, for just example, by Trump saying “Just take the guns and worry about due process later”, and nobody flinching- whereas if a libtard had said the same, the reaction would have been MUCH different.

        THAT is the whole premise of the political theater charade- to pacify people and keep them participating. It has always worked in the past…and it will continue to work. It is not until people start personally experiencing immanent threats that they may then start to actually do something. As long as they are comfortable, they will tolerate anything- and all that is needed to make them comfortable, is someone saying what they want to hear, even as he does the very opposite of those words.

        This is why, despite the fact that the Repugnantcans always speak the nicer wordes…we always end up experiencing the most destruction of our basic liberties under their admins. Nixon, Reagan, Bush I, Bush II and now Trump just pander to the decent people, rather than the rabble- and as long as those decent people continue to “believe”, they will tolerate anything….even much more than they would have if the openly-communist ones were ‘in’.

        The decent may speak of limited government and fiscal conservancy and Constitutional rights…..but as long as a “friend” is in office, they could seem to care less or even notice that his actions are the same or worse than those of the ones who openly mock those things.

        If Biden wins…the decent may start taking action to protect their liberties and communities. If Trump wins…they go back to sleep and wear hats. I would love to see a non-violent, non-destructive course of action taken to do what is necessary- but sadly, it seems liberty is never won that way- and in reality…no matter who wins in November, there is going to be upheaval, and we are going to lose.

        The choices put before us as far as candidates, did not just happen byu random or whim…they were engineered to create a certain outcome. Do you REALLY think that anyone would run demented Biden and Krazy Kamala because they think that they could actually win an election?

        And sadly, even when action is taken, it will be for liberty- because even if these events were real and spontaneous (They are not! It is part of the NWO agenda to break up the US into 10 smaller superstates, in order to erase it as a self-directing superpower) but even if it were “real”, as with all revolutions, a vacuum of power would be created, which would be filled by something just as bad or worse than what we have, because the vast majority of people alive today are STATISTS who believe in the legitimacy of government, authoritarianism and collectivism- and until and if such beliefs change in the mind and hearts of a sufficient number of people, history will just keep repeating itself, barring Divine intervention.

        • Morning, Nunz!

          It is hard picking the peanuts out of the shit, isn’t it? I reiterate: I am not a supporter of OM. Rather I am less opposed to OM because of the alternative, which is objectively worse. I have gone over this before, but here are the bullet points:

          If the Hair Plugged Man is elevated to the Decidership, he has promised to impose National Face Diapering – a federal mandate. Implicit in this is a federal Vaccination mandate. The Orange Man may of course do the same things – but he has not said so and that means there is at least a chance he will not.

          If the HPM is elevated, it is certain the massive fines for non-compliance with Obamacare will be restored. That will cost people like you and I who refuse to buy “coverage” thousands of dollars. The OM rescinded the fines for non-compliance. This action rendered Obamacare essentially optional and has saved people like you and I thousands of dollars.

          He recently attacked – and temporarily rescinded – federal withholding taxes. This is astounding and astoundingly good. It is much more than a temporary reprieve from taxes; it is an attack on the concept of withholding itself and could trigger a massive tax revolt when people are “asked” to repay what they “owe” – and will have to actually cut a check to pay.

          OM “denies” the Climate Change religion and has done more than merely mock it. He pulled this country out of the Paris Climate Åccords and has pursued a policy of energy independence based on real energy (e.g., oil and coal and natural gas).

          He opposes and has fought to pull EV subsidies and federal MPG mandates.

          I know you can adduce lots of things the OM has said and done which are not good. I don’t dispute this. But the HPM is universally evil. There is nothing good to adduce.

          And that is the difference.

        • Nunzio, in my opinion the essence of the problem is that people today have been lied, media’d and government-schooled into believing that important decisions must be made through politics. It never crosses their minds that it has not always been and does not need to be this way.
          Politics is zero-sum. The only way one side wins is if the other side loses. Voting on stuff and then forcing the result on everybody is a recipe for never-ending conflict. I try to point this out to people as often as I can. I explain that the alternative – you choose what you want, I choose what I want, and we pay for it ourselves – is always win-win, and results in peace.
          People generally nod and then go back to arguing about politics.

          • Exactly, Roland! In short, people have been taught to “believe in” collectivism- vs. individual action. Under such a belief, everything must be mandated, in order to force everyone to comply with what has been collectively consented to as being “the best or most logical course”- and they assume that that legitimizes whatever has been so decreed, as it becomes the basis of their ‘morality’.

            I heard it put very bluntly by someone, in one of those videos where they read Reddit posts, where the libtard whose post they were reading said: “We must make sure to elect the right person, to ensure that the people whom we hate will not be able to do as they please”.

            People aren’t content to have the liberty to live their own lives as they please….instead, they feel a need to compel everyone to adapt to the model of what they envision that ‘society’ should be- and of course, not only does that result in a world where a majority can control everyone else, but it is impossible unless a significant number of people are all thinking and saying and believing the same things. Enter the great depersonalizing face diaper! “We’re all in this together”!

            The Kool-aid has not only been distributed…but it has been drunk by 99% of the population.

            Just portray something as the “accepted norm” by repeatedly showing it on TV…and it becomes the accepted norm. The reversal of the taboo of homosexusality in just ONE generation is a perfect example. People just don’t organically do a 180* flip on long-standing traditional views; Everyone just doesn;t wake up one morning and say “We used to find homosexuality repulsive, but now we find people who view homosexuality as abnormal and abhorrent to be repulsive!”. Ditto inter-racial marriage; hjaving children out of wedlock, etc. just portray it in some sit-coms, and make the participants seem ‘nice’, and…voila! Media magic! And those are just the most blatant examples- it works even better on the more subtle things, where people do not even realize any perceptible overt message.

        • Hey Nunzio, I think you’re once again spot on with everything you say. However, I was intrigued by these claims of breaking up the US into little super states. Do you think this is a bad idea? I think breaking it up into the more pieces the better as that seems to be a process that is conducive to more local autonomy. At the very least, wouldn’t it offer us more choices? I’m assuming that all of these smaller states wouldn’t be identical as that doesn’t present any effective difference to what we have now.

          • Hey Shnark!

            If the break-up were organic, it might have the possibility of doing some good- but since it is a long-planned part of the NWO agenda, which we are about to see executed….and thus it’s purpose is to effect greater control and less collective power/autonomy- and that the Constitution will be null and void, since the “union” will officially be dissolved….I don’t think it’s gonna be a good think under those circumstances.

            I mean, how much freedom will we have if the break-up is ultimately being precipitated by the usual suspects who truly run this world, and who think nothing of causing civil war/revolution, with all of it’s death and destruction, to effect this plan?

            Of course though, it will be portrayed as organic- the natural outgrowth of the shenanigans we about to experience due to the soon-coming election- which is a concocted perfect storm (Why else would the D’s run Batshit Biden and Krazy Kamal?)…and I’m sure the “leaders” for the movement have long-ago been selected, and are standing in the wings just waiting to be “the champions of the people”.

            Just by the way the current puppets are printing-up and spending the ludicrous amounts of phony money ever conceived is pretty much proof that they know that the US is going extinct, ’cause no sane or half-way intelligent people would dare do such a thing if they were expecting their nation to continue- ’cause even a fool knows that no nation could or ever has survived the wholesale devaluation of it’s currency. They’ve thrown in the towel…just haven’t told us…and apparently, many of the indoctrinated pawns haven’t caught-on.

    • I agree, Andy. How can we expect a return to sanity from the very administration which has presided over the very greatest departure from what remnants of sanity still remained? They allowed it/caused it to happen…and we’re supposed to think that somehow things will be different if that admin continues? That somehow the one who is already pimping “a vaccine” and has indicated that he will use the military to distribute it will save us from the other ‘choice’ who will obviously do the same?

      • Hi Nunz,

        I’m cynical – and suspicious of everything any politician says. However, there is a difference between “distributing” and “requiring.” As far as the military: OM also used it to establish field hospitals and so on. It wasn’t a forced on people thing. OM could have openly disputed the whole hysterical WuFlu narrative, but consider what he was up against. I don’t recall a concerted Fear Campaign of this magnitude in history. Ever. It came on like a juggernaut and I think it caught the OM off balance. Yes, he could have responded differently. It is possible he wasn’t able to.

        Regardless, the bottom line is this: If Hair Plugged Man is elevated, we lose for sure. If OM remains in the spray tan booth, there is a chance we may not lose everything. Which isn’t quite winning, of course. But much better than the other option.

        • Hey Ya, Eric!

          Ah, but that’s just the point- it’s not until it becomes obvious to most sane people that they/we have indeed lost, that there can be any hope of any real positive action being taken.

          We’ve already lost…..it’s just not as blatantly obvious yet, because the prospect of “the other guy making it even worse” is dangled before us- so we accept current circumstances as preferable…and do nothing- but ultimately the same agenda plays out….just slower- so everyone gets used to it “because it could be worse”.

          • Hey Nunzio, I was having trouble trying to figure out why they would prop a slurring, sputtering, stuttering vegetable up as a candidate. I was also having trouble grasping how anyone in their right mind could seriously be suggesting that he’s the best candidate out there.

            The more I read what you’re posting, the more I am beginning to see what’s going on. By presenting the country with a vegetable as a viable candidate, it literally shocks the mind into a state of cognitive dissonance. it’s completely preposterous. It’s a blatant farce. It can’t be taken seriously by anyone with even the most rudimentary critical thinking skills.

            If he wins, well we all know the whole game is rigged. If he loses, then the whole vegetable salad bowl gets tossed into a blender making a mess that will take years to clean up.

            Everyone, the media, the government, etc. will go along with the whole narrative that Trump stole the election which is completely asinine, but the bottom line is that they win because they effectively shut down Trump. Either way, they win. He’s reduced to an impotent caricature.

            Does anyone not see the writing on the walls yet? Voting is a joke. We are choosing between a clown and a vegetable.

            • Hi Schnarkle!

              Leaving aside the politics for a moment, I have been watching – and listening to – Hair Plugged Man with interest. As some here know, my mom has dementia. I’ve observed its progression firsthand and because I have, I am very attuned to the mannerisms of those suffering from this illness, including the loss of focus mid-stream and the almost choking attempt to find the word, then mouthing jumbled non-sequiturs just to fill the gaps.

              I am not a doctor but I would bet $100 (big money for me right now) that HPM is in the early stages and has been diagnosed. One of the many frightening things about dementia is that the decline is often not linear. A person can go from being largely functional, with some impairment of memory, to a complete disconnect from objective reality in the space of just a few weeks.

              I know because I have witnessed it.

              • Agreed Eric. But at this point they literally do not care. They are so convinced that their Cheat by Mail system is fool proof, that they think it doesn’t matter who they run.

                Even if Trump wings by a landslide, all they need to do is pump in enough bogus “votes” to flip the various states, and then use lawfare to run out the clock.

                They don’t care how many people actually vote for Trump. With the corporate mass media, Big Tech and legions of lawyers on their side, they plan to steal the election right in front of our eyes.

                • Hi BJ,

                  You are probably right – and it will end up triggering the war. Our 1688. Choose a side; roundhead (Biden) or Cavalier (Orange Man).

                  I will choose OM, if I must make that choice.

  7. “As a part of wide-ranging reforms to civil penalties ordered in 2015 by Congress, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued rules to raise fines to $14 from $5.50 for every 0.1 mile per gallon.”

    How telling that no one suggested “writing to Klowngress” to ask them to fix the mess they made.

    When we were just lads in short pants, Klowngress actually conducted “hearings” on technical subjects like automotive mileage and saaaaaaaaaaafety.

    Now they just pass emergency legislation negotiated at 3 am between Mitch McClownell and Nancy Pestilosi, with dozens of unpredictable random mandates stirred into the toxic stew. 533 other rank-and-file nonentities passively oink their assent to one “must pass” bill after another.

    If our worthless rubber-stamp parliament were closed down, filled three feet deep with slop, and turned into an experimental hog farm, WOULD ANYONE NOTICE???

    • Replacing congress with a hogfarm? How could you not notice. That would be a huge improvement. And id be sure to bring some delicious treats to lobby those hogs to sign some good legislation.

    • Nunzio,

      I read that article, and there are problems with it. One, it says that Trump is at war with the press when all he does is criticize them. It totally GLOSSES OVER what Obama did! He had the NSA and other intelligence agencies go after journalists Sharyl Attkison and Jason Cohen. What was their crime? They dared to criticize The One! They dared to say that BHO may not be “all that”.

      Secondly, if you check the writer’s bio (Caitlin Johnstone), she comes right out and says she’s a socialist! Right in her own bio, in her own words, she says she’s a Bogan Socialist and anarcho-psychonaut. Anyone saying they’re a socialist is FOR Antifa, BLM, and the violent overthrow of the country. You can read more here: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/about/

      That said, she’s right about freeing Julian Assange.

      • True, MM- but the fact remains…..Trump is continuing Assange’s persecution/prosecution- no different than what any other administration does to true journalists who expose the truth. His criticism of the media” , while sounding good, is really just a pretext for censorship and control. In reality, no puppet wants the actual truth revealed- and Trump is no different. (And why does LRC so often pimp Johnstone’s articles?!)

        • Nunzio,

          I have a SERIOUS PROBLEM with DJT fucking over Assange; if not for those Hillary e-mails appearing on Wikileaks prior to the 2016 election, DJT wouldn’t have won! AFAIC, DJT owes one to Julian Assange, and therefore has a moral obligation to do what he can to free the man.

          I’m disappointed in DJT on a couple of other fronts. One is the tech censorship. Another is the failure to do anything about Antifa and BLM.

          If DJT wanted to do anything about the tech censorship, it’s really simple. Don’t mess around with an anti-trust action; don’t mess with Section 230, either. Even though both are viable, legal avenues, they take too damn long. What COULD’VE been done was nail the Big Tech CEO’s for lying to Congress.

          Remember the hearings from 2018? Remember how the Big Tech CEO’s all proclaimed that they weren’t censoring anyone? Remember how they said this AFTER having deplatformed Alex Jones and Laura Loomer? Seems like it would’ve been a slam dunk to me! Granted, that wouldn’t have punished Big Tech for censorship, per se, but they would’ve been punished just the same; that would’ve reined ’em in, and put a stop to what’s happening now. Nailing the Big Tech CEO’s for lying to Congress would’ve been akin to getting Al Capone for tax evasion; though they weren’t punished for what they REALLY did, they’d have been punished just the same. So, why didn’t DJT and his AG do that?

          Then, WHY haven’t DJT and AG Barr not designated Antifa and BLM as terrorist organizations? Weren’t they causing trouble during the 2016 campaign? Weren’t they causing trouble on Inauguration Day of 2017? Haven’t they engaged in rioting and other violent acts since then? So, WHY didn’t DJT designate them terrorist organizations the moment he lifted his hand off the Bible? Why?

          I could go on, but you get my point. I was a big supporter of Donald Trump too; I jumped on the Trump Train early back in 2015 after Gov. Scott Walker dropped out of the race. Though DJT will be better than Creepy Joe Biden, that’s like saying a minor flood is worse than a major one.

          • GREAT points, MM!!!!

            I didn’t even think of how Assange likely won OM the election!

            Didn’t OM even hint of pardoning Assange, during his first campaign? (“Pardon”? He should make him a national hero!)- And many of OM’s supporters at least seemed to think that he would pardon him- but instead we get THIS!

            I have to admit, even I was tempted to go out ande vote for the first time in my life in ’16 (for OM)….sure glad I came to my senses and didn’t though, ’cause I’d likely off myself if I had given my consent to all of this folly!

            • I stopped voting after 2004, Nunzio. I was so DISGUSTED with the Chimp and the whole system that I simply stopped voting after 2004. I let my registration lapse. The added benefit was I’d never get nailed for jury duty, either.

              I only renewed my registration to vote for DJT. After what’s transpired since 2016, a part of me is sorry I bothered…

            • Nunzio, you do realize that there is a BIG difference between running for office, and governing? Once in office one needs to deal with the realities of power. That reality is that without the co operation of a LOT of people, nothing ever seems to get done (or it takes a LONG time). Lord knows I’m no real fan of God Emperor Trump, but he has serious limitations that many people appear to ignore.

              Power at that level is a series of trade offs. First one has to appease ones own faction. Trump is the face of one of the Oligarch factions. Keeping them appeased is his first priority. Then there are any allied factions, with their agendas. Then come rival/enemy factions and their actions (just one of which is The Resistance). After eight long years of the reign of bad king Obama, most of the federal system has been even more corrupted than it started out.

              Keep in mind, that while the heads of the agencies serve at the will of the president, the vast majority are civil service. Which means its almost impossible to fire them. All too
              many of them are part of The Resistance. Which means that
              everything gets slow walked, mishandled, and other wise
              obstructed.

              That’s just inside of the executive branch. Then there is the constant lawfare of the judicial branch, and the endless “investigations” of the two houses of congress.

              Not to mention a corporate mass media, that isn’t even making a pretense about being anything but a propaganda arm of the DNC.

              Honestly, I’m surprised that he has managed to not only stay in office, but get as much done as he has.

              The last four years have been the Progs and the Never Trumpers, constantly trying to remove him from office, and then run out the clock when that failed. Couple all of that with him not having been a politician before (and having to learn on the job), and he’s done much better than I’d expected.

              • Thanks for that summary, BJ – it’s what I would have done. Much as I, like many, would very much like a complete rollback of Universal Government, I will take a bit less of it rather than more of it. And that’s what OM has been promising and – in several noteworthy instances, delivered. I’ve mentioned several key ones previously – including taking the teeth out of Obamacare, which never would have happened otherwise. Yes, I wish he had repealed the thing entirely. But it counts that he did manage to gut the “individual mandate,” which has saved “coverage” refuseniks thousands of dollars. He just recently attacked the withholding tax – and that alone is sound reason to support the OM. And he seems to be signaling that he isn’t a Face Diaper Enforcer while we know what the HPM is.

                I understand the frustration expressed by Nunz, but the choice we have is to dodge a .22 fired by an indifferent marksman vs. a .45 fired with intent by someone who knows how to shoot.

                • **”but the choice we have is to dodge a .22 fired by an indifferent marksman vs. a .45 fired with intent by someone who knows how to shoot.”**

                  Eric, trouble is, most around us will cheer that they are only being shot at with a .22; If the .45’s were flying, maybe then thay’d start shooting back…..

                  If Trumps wins, the provocateurs will ensure that the loony lefties go nuts, and they in conjunction with Uncle will be lobbing those ’45s.

                  If Biden stea…err…’wins’, the decent may finally be moved to action. Either way, there will be conflict. I’d much rather the good guys be the ones doing the shooting.

                  More likely though- regardless of any plausible scenario…the tyranny will just continue…only with the added feature of whatever conflict ensues being used to accomplish the agenda of breaking the US up into 10 more ‘manageable’ superstates (As opposed to genuine organic secession ).

                  By voting, all we do is signal our consent to be ruled, and our consent of what “our guy” does if he wins.

              • BJ,

                Alex Jones often mentions this. He talks about his operation, InfoWars. He says that he has 100 or so people working for him. Even though they’re on the same page and trying to row in the same direction, mistakes, miscommunications, and misunderstandings inevitably happen. This, of course, gums up the works. AJ says that, even with a good team that’s on board with what he’s doing, managing his operation is challenging, thanks to the aforementioned factors. AJ then goes on to say that, with the thousands of people working AGAINST him, it’s a wonder DJT has been able to do what he’s done.

                That said, I think DJT could’ve done more WRT Big Tech censorship and George Soros.

              • Short answer, BJ: Yes.

                But really- look at Trump just as one example:
                Always rushing to “make a deal” and in so doing, giving up most of the core issues of his platform without so much as a whimper, much less a fight. (e.g. Repealing Obozocare; staunching the flow of invaders, etc. etc.)- Thus, he essentially allowed the very same things the Dumbocraps would have done…while pretending to support their opposite.

                Same with his choosing of Neocons, RINOs and other Swamp Creatures for key positions, and his failure to oust many Obozo admin libtards from many positions- which he absolutely could have easily done…and which virtually every other new admin does.

                Same with failure to even make an even half-hearted attempt to prosecute the Hildabeeest.

                Are ya gonna tell me that someone is making him persecute Assange?

                Trump had unprecedented opportunity and ability to do a LOT…if he only really were sincere.

                It’s all a show, for those who choose to believe endless lies. So here he is, with that unprecedented opportunity and ability….but the only unprecedented thing we’ve seen, is the most unprecedented assault on our personal liberites, and the most unprecedented conjuring-up of funny money in our lifetime. Yet, so many seem to believe that somehow this course will be reversed if he is re-elected.

                It’s certainly not that he doesn’t know how to fight or is afraid to- as he certainly does so when it comes to fighting for more Swamp Dwellers to appoint to key positions…he just fights for the wrong ones…and against us.

                We’re all naturally afraid of Biden getting in, because of what he’ll do. Why can’t Trump do things? Apparently because he doesn’t want to…unless it’s something which benefits those who pull the strings of the false dichotomy we call “both sides”.

                He has no problem spending billions to build a stupid wall (corporate welfare), even though such is strenuoiusly opposed…but yet he acts like a little girl when it comes to anything that would actually staunch the flow of invaders? Makes zero sense, unless one actually believes the false dichotomy.

        • Nunzio,

          I could continue what I said. WHY hasn’t George Soros not been arrested? Why hasn’t he lost his US citizenship, hmmm? Why haven’t his assets been frozen? Hasn’t he tried to overthrow the country? Why haven’t the assets of Antifa and BLM not been frozen? How long could they continue their rioting and destruction if their funding were cut off?

          • MM, it just goes to show what a ‘show’ this all is.

            Read a headline last night which indicated that at the most recent Trump rally, his supporters, referencing Obama’s spying on Trump prior to the election, were chanting “Lock him up!”.

            I literally LOLed at the religious fervor of people so deluded, that they would not only heartily believe in and support someone who has NOTHING to prosecute the Clinton Bitch; NOTHING to take down the major players involved with Erstein, nor those who offed him, and all the rest that you mentioned….but that their ‘faith’ is still so undisturbed that they would now imagine that their orange savior is somehow magically going to start meting-out justice if given more time…..

            It defies all sanity! We are truly living among a nation of clueless mental patients….and the sad thing is, that the above-referenced ones are the saner ones, compared to the complete lunatics who support the lefties!

            We are truly screwed.

            • I know, right! I noticed something about DJT’s speeches: they’re all the same! Other than tailoring the speech to the local audience (e.g. mentioning local officials or local industries), he always gives the same speech.

              That mindless support might explain why a couple of people are still on Twitter, while I got booted off. I’m thinking of this woman, Cindy Kendrick, who’s a RABID DJT supporter; in her profile, she says she’s just on there to support him. She had like 47K followers the last time I checked. Granted, she’s critical of Nancy Pelosi, but never of DJT. OTOH, I was critical of DJT at times, in addition to goring leftist sacred cows; even so, with only 520 followers, I got booted.

          • MarkyMark, why hasn’t Soros been dealt with? Because he is one of the Oligarchs. They and their factions rule the world. The politicians are just the fronts to keep the rubes pacified. While its Good to be the King. Its even better to own the King. That way, when the peasants come for the King, their owners slip away into the shadows, and wait for the next King to arise. Rinse, repeat. Endlessly.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DxJ-zUtl60

            • Hi BJ,

              In re Soros (and others of his species, such as Kissinger): I have long been puzzled as to why these ancient reptiles continue to machinate. Soros is almost literally a corpse; also Kissinger. And yet, they continue to grift and wheedle and lust for power and money, neither of which can be of much use to either anymore. Unless… unless it’s true that these people aren’t actually people. That they are something else. This sounds batty – I realize. But how to account for the ongoing lust for things which don’t matter when you’re dead and almost are?

              • There is something really wrong with people like that. If I had even a few million dollars I would simply indulge my interests for the rest of my life.

                Elon Musk I understand, he’s using his billions and cronyism to live out boyhood dreams. Who wouldn’t want to have a car company and a rocketship? If he wasn’t a damn crony capitalist I would be on his side because I get spending your billions to have a car company and a rocketship. I find cronyism to be very distasteful and evil however.

                • Amen, Brent –

                  If I had half a million dollars, I’d also indulge my interests for the rest of my life; write the books I never have time to work on, for instance.

                  Elon would not annoy me if he used his own billions to finance his passion. But his passion seems to be gaming the system to line his pockets – not making cars.

                  • In my view he’s financing boyhood dreams through gaming the system. Because without gaming the system the whole thing collapses under its own weight or he’s making five very expensive cars a month as a hobby.

              • Uh perhaps evil is real. Perhaps there is a Satan, nah can’t be true. Otherwise things wouldn’t make any sense. Gosh maybe they are reptiles per David Icke.

                • Hi Ug!

                  No question in my mind that evil is real; my question is whether evil requires the supernatural. Stalin was real and a really evil person. But was he more than just an evil person? It’s possible, but can it be proved?

                  • Hey Eric!
                    There are Democrats who are evil (Try finding one who isn’t!)
                    There are Republicans who are evil.
                    There are movie producers, actors, Hollywood moguls, etc. who are evil.
                    Etc. etc..

                    Anyone can embrace evil- but when someone endowed with superior intelligence and or ability does so, and recruits other to participate in the agendas- often under some pretext…..in order to resist such evil, one must be able to identify it and counter it. Shy of that, one either cooperates unwittingly(If they are not consciously trying to advance evil) or willingly (If they are)- but the point is, evil can originate from many sources- it’s not as if it just comes from one place or one entity- but rather by anyone who advocates and practices it- but just like politicians and Hollywood moguls, some are just better at recruting and organizing, and thus can accomplish far more evil through their efforts.

                  • Evil is a partial spelling (that’s about all it takes to burn olfactory bulbs off scent & into the dark dead end). Full spelling is weevil. And, made up tho it is, it takes the stupornatural weevils’ belief in things they don’t (& can’t) understand – cue Stevie Wonder – to keep paving this superstion ain’t the way.

                    The dynamic is bottom up. Not top down. “Top” is just bottom nearer up. “Leaders” are just followers nearer the front. If that seems debatable, & you wasted life watching “the debate,” you just might be a weevil yourownself.

                    Just back from two weeks in the western wilds…which had been conquered, from within, into a zoo long before I got there. WY, MT, ID, UT, CO. Yellowstone, Teton & Glacier.

                    WY “leaders” have not unmasked mandates…but went into a Green River starbucks for my preferred drive-bev, iced café mocha, & was told I would not be served sans mask. “National chains,” explained my partner. Which brought on the flash re that studly sounding bite “may your chains rest lightly…”.

                    Dunno bout ya’ll, but the “national chains” feel way heavier than the Pequod’s anchor chain (& I ain’t even one of those tons of small businesses that were “mandated” away whilst the big boxes kept right on pumping) & wish it tho I may, I ain’t Moby (tho if I were, I’d sink the bitch). But that’s it for starbucks – I am done with that link in the chain.

                    MT has got more CA license plates than MT ones. And the CA’s are buying RE with both cash-filled fists. In or near any cities/towns, & pretty spots, at least. Bozeman. Missoula. Whitefish. Kalispell. Even Pohlson. Spoke to a maskless 4th gen couple in Bozeman who said they are feeling-being displaced, angry about it, thinking of selling out: fleeing “progressives” are an infestation bent on recreating what they’ve just fled.

                    SLC not bad, except, well, it’s SLC. But Moab – forget it, totally infested. And Arches was “full.”

                    There’s a popular BBQ joint in tiny Marble CO. Drove by it, saw an antisocially spaced & masked line out the door & into the street. Just kept driving.

                    Signs (signs) everywhere (signs). You walk in & are either ignored, or challenged, & maybe asked to leave.

                    Carbondale Italian (mostly) restaurant we like, first said anything maskless (out in the blocked off street), was already reserved, but guess chef liked the idea of boxing his stuff to go even less than I did, retreated us to a round barely two-top that could have been salvaged from Sanford & Son – malcontents table, in the corner, but no conical hats. The tapas place in Basalt accepted no masklessness, even outside, said they’d already been shut down once, were just trying to stay in business (same refrain from a Missoula hotelier). Last stop out of Carbondale. A gas station. Went inside to piss. Weevilgrrrl behind the counter said I had to wear a mask. “Goin’ to the bathroom,” I said as I kept on walking (I bought their gas, I wasn’t going to be denied the toilet.)

                    Finally figured the right word combo: just enough to change the color. Otherwise, coffee, which you mostly can’t cream yourself anymore, everywhere was latte w/o the foam. Sky was, too, lots of places. First pass thru Bitterroot Valley was like driving thru cream-atorium’d coffee. Second pass, south down into ID, the sky had cried some prior, washed out the smoke for awhile.

                    Glenwood canyon was clear, but blackened (with green stuff already poking up), but cresting over to the front range, here came the smoke again. Thicker than summertime smog in Phx, LA. Cue Ohio Players contra that room temp stuff that went down in Cleveland…flashing, too, on the flamethrower scene in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. But like Elton sang, I’ve Seen This Movie, too, too many times already. It ain’t, never is, “different, this time.”

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=1xqMY8UAGgg

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39GTH8UlXK8

                    • Ozy, the Zombie Plague is spreading through out the land. These poor fools flee that which they created. Of course, bringing their cursed mentality with them.
                      Its particularly bad in Texas. Entire sections of the state are lost to the Prog plague. A modest proposal would be, that you can’t vote in any state or local elections, until you have lived there for two years. ^^

                    • Nunze…It ain’t celluloid depicted books Legends of the Fall with A River Running Through It anymore, that’s for sure. It prolly ain’t even those 3 (I think) Bourdain episodes anymore. Definitely not Jimmy Buffet’s Livingston Saturday Night (15, goin’ on statuatoryily active, may get you 20 indeed, but for most the sentence is & always has been life) either, now the land’s filling up with cheesey cheese-eater/cutting rancho mcmansion burger deluxes…trajectory of weevily Weus! crowds, well there’s only one tragedy of the commons trajectory, tho the drop’s faster if the mob be self-entitled/hating nouveau riche…or panem et tu brutus circenseseatwarmers (& ain’t that just the whole cross sectioned continuum, but for a few exceptions out in the tail-lands?). Murray Hotel bar bars the maskless, so I was not welcome (Peckinpah woulda’ loved that…prolly to pieces…”Give ‘em hell, Pike!” And the mex army “wins” again anyway.).

                      Speaking of whom…. Peckinpah, among so many other indicative actions, was fired from the Liberace show for refusing to wear a tie (it’d *really* be fun to see his reaction to face diapers). His Straw Dogs (the original one, with Dustin Hoffman) was at least partially inspired by Ardrey’s books African Genesis & The Territorial Imperative (which were given to him by “what we got here, is failure to communicate” Strother Martin), which argued that man is essentially a carnivore who instinctively battles over control of territory. This position, undeniable as it is, pissed off Ashley Montague (born Israel Ehrenberg) & continues to piss off other race-gender-politics cumbayah-is-attainable tabula rasa (blank slate) cultural determinism types that have been such a metastatic-malevolent part of the so-called long march through the institutions (which are themselves tumors). All of this links to the culture canard, that I overheard (yet again) while waiting for coffee in mobbed Moab: a young hiker-woman (with the almost requiste canine companion) was going on, standard memorized spiel style, to a young hiker-man, who was remote digital workforcing on an applelap, about how much she loved the culture/s local to grand junction, moab, ouray, silverton…and I thought to self again, but in new faceting, that culture & veneer are synonyms…go thee to the huge ikea big box (which prolly got the color of law veneer to continue operations that the mom & pops did not qualify-permission for) & walk & walk & walk to find the veneers that are just so compelling & interesting & desirable whilst ignoring that that thin petrochemical coating covers the same glue & chemical infused pressed sawdust beneath…that stuff ain’t even furniture, is just more of the nuthin’ out there that projectors gotta project into…it’s humanimal – not mama — nature that abhors (mis)perceived vacuum-voids.

                      And so this familiar Mason-Dixon re the weevils:

                      The Territorial Imperative caused significant scientific and popular controversy. In it Ardrey restated and developed his challenge to the reigning methodological assumption of the social sciences, that human behavior is fundamentally distinct from animal behavior. As he writes in The Territorial Imperative, “The dog barking at you from behind his master’s fence acts for a motive indistinguishable from that of his master when the fence was built.”[3] Robert Wokler wrote of Ardrey’s challenge to the established life sciences:

                      What ought to be studied, according to Ardrey, are the relations between individuals that stem from the innate and universal attributes of animal life, whereas cultural anthropologists who detect a fundamental discontinuity between mankind and other zoological species are just impervious to the revolutionary ideas of Darwinism which have reverberated throughout all the life sciences apart from their own.[4]

                      In 1968, two years after the publication of The Territorial Imperative, Ashley Montagu organized fourteen scientists to write essays in opposition to Ardrey’s work (and the similarly aligned work of Konrad Lorenz, On Aggression). That volume became Man and Aggression.[5] Montagu would eventually edit another volume in opposition to Ardrey,[6] and the increasingly heated debate served to further stir popular interest in human origins. By Carmel Schrire’s account, “Ashley Montagu edited two collections of writings aimed at countering the views of both Ardrey and Konrad Lorenz. … Despite this, Ardrey’s popularity did not flag, and his writings opened the fields of paleoanthropology, ethnology, and anthropology to a wide readership.”[7]

                      The opposition of these two viewpoints became a major theme in the social science of the time. Robin Fox, who authored The Imperial Animal (1972) with Lionel Tiger, wrote of the opposition:

                      I was a great friend of Robert Ardrey, and had been known publicly to defend his name and honor from the assault of the anti-Ardreyites, including Ashley Montagu. … Ashley Montagu always carefully distanced himself from what he thought were our erroneous conclusions about human aggression. We returned the favor, even calling him and his school “the Christian Scientists of anthropology” for their refusal to accept the reality of human evil: that it was an essential part of being human and could not be just wished away. We in turn were included eventually among the villains in his “new litany of innate depravity.” And so it went.[8]

                      Some essays in the Montagu volume, as well as much other criticism of Ardrey’s work, claimed that, because it asserted the role of instinctual aggression in determining man’s behavior, his work excused aggression or saw the human as innately evil. Ardrey insistently refuted these critiques, claiming instead that an awareness of human nature was necessary to truly pursue civilization. For example, Ardrey, in a 1971 Penthouse interview, asserted “I don’t think human beings are that bad at all—I think they are absolutely marvellous. We’ve got to stop kidding ourselves, stop lying to ourselves, living with a delusion about ourselves.”[9]

                    • bj…Saw tons of trumpence signs in the hinterlands, tons bidenharris signs in cities/towns. One guy put a large wooden sign aback his p/u urging purging socialist democrats by votin’ again for socialist repub trump. Votin’s carnivorous red in tooth & claw violence that subs out the wetwork instead of DIY – or it would be that, if was actually what it purports to be…which it ain’t.

                    • The elites are probably delirious with laughter, seeing that ‘Mercans are actively campaigning for and willing to vote for these clowns- not only entrusting the assholes with great power, but actually thinking that they will be their saviors!

                      Nothing so brilliantly illustrates the utter insanity and retardation of the public at large…….

                      At this point, they could run a sponge, and an old tire, and people would wave flags, erect signs, and vote for one or the other.

  8. It’s probably a good time to forego “Draining the Swamp” and take a different tack? Maybe it’s time to drown the lurkers? Make it rain.

    • Hi Anon,

      Churchill and others were right – people get the government they deserve. Americans – not all, but many – want this suffocating omnipresence that micromanages their lives – which would be okay with me, if I could be left out of it!

      • eric…Analogous to saying milk & beef cattle get what they deserve. Except getting what you are is more apt. Aurochs are gone, bred out of existence, domesticated out of existence…so in the land of milk & beef, honey, its mostly Morlocks in their bunkers & Eloi in “their” feedlots above.

          • eric…Auroch on wich your bad self, then. & try to take out the picadors first. Make the method actor matador do some real life – preferably quickly gore-shortened.

    • Ozy, I’ve no doubt of that. Most around here have well and truly boarded the Trump train, which as we both suspect has a questionable destination. This being the campy movie that it is, none of the extras seem to have noticed the dull red glow, approaching from over the horizon. As for “social science” I do try not to snicker (too loudly) when that subject arises (like a bad moon). But as you say, Stat’s have tails, which tend to sweep things under carpets. Figures can lie, and liars can figure as you well know. Future cloudy, ask again later, as the oracle of the eight is fond of saying. Speaking of Tabula Rasa, I still miss it.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyVhqbq1ihM

      • bj…Boarding was/is the “question” – & the answer.

        How many cycles now have been dominated by the rule of thumb (that legal, but not lawful, stick with which to beat wives) “we/us – both “sides” — have no choice but to vote the lesser evil”?

        The good cop & the bad cop is a psyop Cyclops with its eye never not on the prize…& the ones stared at is, mostly, stared down, submissively avert their gazes. (Recall the immortal point of the blades in Highlander; Queen sings it, below). The sweet science social science, that puts pugilists-not in the ring with brutal Sonny Liston, like christians in the coliseum with lions, is the copper’s prisoners’ dilemma-memorium.

        TR*…if what you miss were ever there to be missed, new soviet mao-man, etc, would have been made fully manifest long ago.

        Correlation don’t cause, & those slates that claims are laid to filling in were already just as filled in as “if masked lockdowns hadn’t been imposed, things would be even worse…” correlates with the viral cycle (spring-summer sunlight smacks ‘em to the mat, ramps V-D, etc…masking tape in place got nada to do).

        Another TR, whose “national parks” (nationalized real estate with nationalized real estate – a fractal fucktal, could say) I drove through recently, was so aptly characterized by Gore Vidal thusly: “Give a sissy a gun & he will kill everything in sight.”

        And then he’d commit suicide. Even if only unintended consequentially. More social science, bittersweet, that.

        Murder-suicide is the plot that fills the plots in the domesticated pet cemetery. Stephen King just borrowed the reality, & swapped consonants, s for c.

        Kurgan’s Theme:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf4UhPuwoGE

        *written-responsive before I saw your link, which did not make my inbox along with your rest…but…cleaning blackhats’ clocks *still* requires pre-filled slates that can, & so/because must, run those balls….

        • **”The good cop & the bad cop is a psyop Cyclops”**

          Psyop cyclops….Ima gonna steal that ‘un! (Don’t tell the cops- they’ll want a piece of the action!).

          That’s it, though- the creation of a scenario in which no matter which artificial side ya choose, you end up furthering the agenda of the ones who created both sides by effectively doing nothing- only with the illusion that you have some power to choose, and that by choosing one of those sides you are somehow doing something positive.

          Vote for bully A, who steals your lunch money and calls your sister a whore…or bully B, who steals your lunch money, but who is the enemy of bully A, and doesn’t call your sister a whore- either way, your lunch money is gone…and when you’re not around, A & B are splitting the loot.

          “But at least B doesn’t call my sister a whore!” [B proceeds to rape your sister]

          • Hi Nunz,

            The latest is the Orange Man was on oxygen “for about an hour.” The whole story stinks. I am beginning to suspect it’s another show. Orange Man “tests positive.” Orang Man has miraculous recovery. . . because of “terrific” and “incredible” drugs . . . i.e., vaccine.

            I am hanging by a thread. If he walks around with a Diaper, that’ll cut the last one for me. He can eat the got-damned Diaper right of HPM’s rectal hole.

            • Hey Eric,

              It all seems too convenient, doesn’t it? Almost like it was….scripted.

              What better way to ensure that candidates will be singing the song on their master’s number-one charade, and the thing which will please 97% of the public?

              I dunno though, Eric- if all of the other things The Orange Dingleberry has done hasn’t burned that cord yet for ya….seems like masking would pale in comparison. It may be the issue that affects us the most- but considering all of the other evils he has continued/prolonged/enabled, it’s probably one of his least.

              Ah well…makes no difference anyway. Our vote carries no more weight than that of the socialist rabid feminist 18 year-old down the street, or the welfare queen or AGW, or Neocon Evangelical.

              • Nunzio, its obviously part of The Plan™… This entire silly mess, is just a massive simulation, that has been run endless times, for the amusement of some advanced space alien teenager… ^^

                You of all people, must understand the importance of hope, and the sin that is despair. What ever happens, we will deal with it as best we can. Keeping our principles foremost in our minds, to guide our thoughts and actions.

                • bj…Hope, last evil in Pandora’s Box, is important. It does much to keep the whole scheme pyramid-building. Hope, & denial, are the two sides of the there can be only one coin realm•e in.

                  • Ozy, that is certainly one perspective. But I consider it to be self defeating. I like the odds better, when I’m not ganging up on myself… ^^

                    Coins come in various denominations, contents and origins. Use and application may vary. Mind the vind mills, sharp edges a head…

                    Approaching Reality! (Warning Void where prohibited by Law)

                    • bj…Well, uses & misuses of solipsism lenses the whole humaniverse, makes/unmakes markets, marks to markets, & x marks the punched out bullseyes.

                      Or, the truth ain’t negative, positive, defeating, conquering, etc.

                      Hope/denial’s fiat, acceptance is gold – wo/man’s gotta know the limitations/prerogatives, *& accept them*: refusal to do so, or constitutional inability to do so, well, say hello to that little psycho Cuban friend, again, denial, that’ll just have to keep hoping doing the same’ll outcome different *this time.*

                      ~ Dirty Harry Callahan (was luckier, at least in some respects, in, & on, the draw than the punks)….and even if/when Mr. T does just so happen to set you free, out into the less, or non, institutionalized world, “Brooks was here” is just as often, probably more often, the more comfortable freedom than Zihuatanejo is for a few others.

                      Seeing real as self-defeating is just a perspective, in other words.

                      Seeing swaddling stories as improving the odds is, well, you know.

                      I like what I got in the lottery…the gang’s all here & not a gangster in sight. What are the odds? Long, apparently.

                      And…(not so)long run, odds is 100% for all, anyway…why waste time, unless its slated you must?

                      Have I told the experience of the trader who, about to lose all (including his parents house) finally nick of time saw the light & commenced to counterintuitive Opposite-George’ing every one of his trades? He’s the one who coined the golden “hopium.”

                      The hopioid epidemic ain’t new at all. Same as meth(od actor)heads ain’t new.

              • Morning, Nunz!

                Diapering, for me, is intolerable. I will not submit to it. I stopped flying because of the TSA but was able to go on living without feeling like someone’s bitch by avoiding airports. But Diapering is another matter. They will have to kill me, should it come to that. Thus, if the Orange Man’s continued Decidership means a chance of remaining Undiapered and so, alive, I will support him over the over.

                • Ditto, Eric. Never diapered, never will!

                  You and I and many others here have been avoiding the various tyrannies not because we voted for some tyrant who offered some nebulous possibility of perhaps possibly not mandating what has already become the accepted norm amongst the sheeple- but because we ignore and resist their BS.

                  Supporting any of these creeps is like saying “Yeah, I know Tyrone The Homie mugged an old lady, and car-jacked a pregnant woman, and robbed a gas station, but as long as he doesn’t leave his gum under my table I’ll continue to be friends with him”.

                  This orange prick is no different than any other sociopath who fester in the Roman architecture- Like the others, he is responsible for the outright deaths of many good and innocent people, and the perversion of justice, and the further empowerment of the government, military, pigs, surveillance, economic destruction, globalism, etc.- which things are all the very opposites of the liberty which we advocate and support. It makes no sense to support ANYONE who does these things, just because he may possibly throw us one small bone amongst all of the evils he will continue to do- much less when he has never indicated that he would throw us such a bone, and even if he had, such a promise would likely be as worthless as all of his or any other politician’s promises.

                  We’re not going to better our lot- much less win any wars, by giving our consent and participation to the very system which is our very enemy……

                  Think OM will offer us a little respite from the insanity? How has that worked out the last 3.5 years?

                  Hell, instead of “Locking her up”, the son-of-a-bitch stood idly by as the Clinton’s enemy and #1 witness was disposed of….and I guess we’ll never hear of that again- so really, you think there is really any difference between the two sides/candidates?

                  I saw a vid of some Trump supporters at one of his first 2020 rallies months ago, chanting “Lock her up! Lock her up!”. -Those are the kind of people whom this political theater is designed for; Lie to their faces and do the very opposite of what ya say ya stand for….but they’ll still believe, and shout the slogan, just like the Jonesian Kool-aid drinkers.

                  I’d like to think that at least WE are smarter than that.

                  But it’s Orange Kool-aid!!!!! 😀

          • nunze…Intellectual property’s a Liliputian thread. A practice to deceive web weave.

            Here we are on this practice to ensnare interwebweave, invented by the DO”D”, & Al Gore, & you make a funny ‘bout stealin’. Good one.

            There can be only one thread – some too many weave e. pluribus unum straightjackets in commie plaid, others too few Technicolor dreamcoats.

            Pull that string.

            • Ozy(buenos)dias,
              I think the Al-Gore-rhythm has his carbon footprints all over this thing, but it’s too late to antisocial-distance by mannin’ the bunkers, ’cause ol’ Archie & Edith are dead; so we’ll have to man-up while everyone ’round us is manning-down; and it ain’t over till the fat lady sings, but the fat lady has a bad case of the farts, and we’ll all be dead before we can hear her sing “I Am Woman”- thank goodness!.

              Oh…dear goodness- I think I’ve become afflicted by what you’ve got!

              • Heard of Helen Reddy’s (& Mack Davis’) passing on the roadtrip radio. I felt it, since I sing △ Dawn in the shower damn near daily-decades. I got what I got at conception, same as you, so that’s a whole lotta’ △.

                • Awww, I hadn’t heard. Bet Helen wasn’t ready, yet. Sounds like Ruby done took big ol’ red dress to town, even though Kenny Rogers told her not to- Fred Rogers seconded it, too!

                  • (She was) 78, addisons & dementia & “no cause”…maybe those are death sentences because trillions are spent, wasted, on lawfare-warfare death-dealing.

                    We know who wore the mask of the red death dress-pants in the house KR sang about…& that generalizes & scales.

                    Not that it’s a socially constructed gender thing.

                    Her&himaphrodites’ll gladly set your hair afire – well, they’ll order-pay somebody to do the arson — but PelosiTrumps is gonna get the best coiffure’ing stolen $ can buy, no matter what.

                  • Ready?… Nunz, there are (or should be) states (of mind) that Punz like that would get you whipped with a wet noddle! Ruby is as Ruby does (Jack all), But really, there is no place like Om.

              • Welcome to the Club Nunz! Its about time you learned to rhyme! ^^ Not many people in the club that seeks to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the Comfortable. Just mind the back splash. and always remember, the only way out is through.

        • Ozy, some of these movies are sleepers. Many of the cell iold types still around from dem old dayz. But is their style motiv ation or activ ation?

          TR did say one thing that I’ve found useful Lind obviously agrees. ” do what you can, with what you have, where you are”.

          Filled slates need not apply, as they are too brittle, and not expansive. Attrition is hell on filled slates. But its one hell of a racket, with the vollies ranging across centuries. Always compounded by the interested Parties, for further amusement and enrichment.

          As for the game, it was great fun, while it lasted. Too bad that General British had his eyes on orbit, rather than on design.

          • bj…H1 I could agree sleeps. The sequels & tv series spinoffs I can only style motivated to activate refilling the troughing machine as many times as possible. (And/But heard recently that the movie biz has been a laundry for dirty/er money for just about forever. Adds up, given the jewish mobsters what wrested it from Edison. Seen “squeaky clean” Stevie Mnuchin’s screen credits for ostensibly not so dirty money?) Killer Queen lyrics aligns with the movie, & the plot under discussion here – & from a sweet social science pov to boot. (Interesting you’ve got so much disrespect for that quiet kid that says so much, all of it really, albeit just not verbally.)

            What TR said that you & Lind agree with can only be/done if its already slated…& stars align (luck ain’t got no discount rate). “INTJ” libertarians are born, not made, to pick a random example. Self-shorning sheeple too, to pick another.

            But who knows if this particular compensating sissy had landed-born into less cushy circumstances would he still have been as bumper sticker’ish?

            States (countries, nations) are lies, before even coming into existence – from which sinking to even lower lies is inevitable. Hit it where it lies? Or make up a rule called “mulligan”?

            Politicians (& not just the nationstate ones), particularly dynasties of them with the begatted scions scuttling forward, are all two-faced (at the least). Read this Dalrymple piece, see if it fleshes a scarecrow’s bones…or should that be brains?: https://www.takimag.com/article/the-two-eisgrubers/

            A couple snips me-quipped:

            “As any psychiatrist will tell you, people who fake madness for long enough end up mad for good and all. A fake becomes what he fakes. This is hardly surprising; everyone knows that habit becomes character.”

            But strike madness, or any other fill-in-the-blank. A faker becomes – if s/he wasn’t that all along (which I’d argue was, & is, always exactly the case) – a fake. So, “becomes.”

            “The latter should not rejoice too soon. Seemingly to have won an argument is not to have won anything else, and rationalization is in any case hydra-headed. One should not forget that the educated part of society is now largely comprised of Dr. Eisgrubers.”

            As is the uneducated part of “society.” Is why I am disinclined, in real, face-to-face, life – as opposed interweb jousting — to explain. Cuz explanatory-pearls before swine. As another put it, “Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time & annoys the pig.” That’s on top of (or rather, behind) the fact I don’t owe any would-be challengers (Piggy’s with their conch shells, or governor’s mandates – a Lord of the Flies reference) the time of day, let alone any explanation, at all.

            https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/07/10/sing-pig/

            Questions beg & abound, tho. TR’s what-what-where doesn’t cover all the context bases – as I’d hardly expect such a one’s pithiness proffers to do. What about a moral code? And how many of those are there, really?

            “There can be only one,” said all the players in the H1 continuum, Kurgan to Mcleod. The designated hero seemed to have the one moral code that heroes need to have to script receipts. Do politicians have the one?

            And even if an outlier here & there, like a Paul say, do have the one, can the offsetting naivete debit that erases that credit really be left unaccounted for? Is sacrificial martyrdom to a fake ideal, this one perhaps named “constitutional republic,” a credit? Not in my codex arithmetic.

            The seen & the unseen (& the broken windows on the world eyes squeezed shut denial “unseen”), saith Bastiat & others. What’s the net? And is it in your hands, or over your head?

            And, cell (aneupl)oid(y)* actors, rounding back to James Dean’s silverscreen life looking a lot better that his real one (that Eagles tune) again, get lost in “method” all the time. “Don’t lose your head,” was the first rule in H1.

            “That guy believes his own bs,” is a pass…filled with snow…like the ones the Donner party got stuck the other side of. Yum-yum cannibalisum games ensue, complete with designated diners & designated dinners.

            * Oncogenes Aneuploidy & AIDS – A Scientific Life & Times of Peter H. Duesberg

            If the peanut’s brittle, that too’s cuz it was so slated. Everybody gets what they get before the get-go is even recognized’able. Then many take the correlation is causation credit. “I *really* pull’t myownself up by my bootstraps…hell, I drove my DeLorean back from the future & introduced my mom to my pops, & hit the road back further still to instigate *their* parents pregnancies, & back & back & back ∞.”

            Orbits eyein’ Babel Tower storeys without end indeed. Except trees, let alone towers, don’t grow to the sky.

            The great fun never ends…which is the problem with Viagra overdose libido dominandi boners…too much of a good thing & too few refraction period lenses so’s Johnny can see clearly now whilst drivin’ his Nash…to the DeLorean dealer…or the coke dealer…or the onestopshop that merch-moves both.

            But driverless electric planes, trains, & automobiles’ll prolly solve all that. Cuz people’s just tech deficient, including tech’d up vaccines, is all, eh?

            • Ozy, as lack of money is the rot of all (or most) weevils, substance ab use is merely symbolic of a deficit on the wall of the Cave. Mean while over in Munchkin land, its not a question of good witches or bad fiat, but a shadow play that would make the Cave weep with envy. Question, is the BlackRock within or without the Cave?

              Hollyweird has nothing on that crowd (other wise the Sweet Deals would spoil, if left out on the counter argument).

              Ozy, you wound me! Its not so much disrespect, as pity for their sorry plight. The limitations inherent to using the tools at hand (or mind) to comprehend the state of others tools, has so many sharp edges that it gives all new meaning to bleeding edge. This at best is an Art (which is to take nothing away from that worthy endeavor). Simply addling stats into the mix, and expecting a General Theory is akin to what that rogue JMK did, and we’ve seen the wrack and ruin, that has run rampant from that day to this.
              Fiat from C to shining C, has been the result of such Keynesian voodo. But when one worships at the shrine of Aggregate Demand, one ends up with bogus GDP.

              Lind is rather fond of speaking of opportunity costs. That is why filled slates are less than useful. One has to empty ones cup, before fresh tea can be poured. Over flows tend to be messy, and impede objective progress.

              As for the sheep, the 4th industrial revolution (keeps coming around and around) looks to provide self shearing
              sheep. Something that the “educational” system is the early stages of. No self respecting Over Lord would be without such “sustainable” futures (options sold separately).

              Nature or nurture, sounds like the next episode of Red in Tooth and Claw (coming soon to a nation state near you!).
              Personally, a diamond stays a diamond, even if the angles don’t align. Opportunities don’t knock, they have to be force choked into submission.

              Ah, interesting. But what is fake madness? Intent and intention paired into a already unstable (aren’t we all) system, might well derange sufficient internal processes to alter the base state. But the jury is still out (to lunch) on the hows and whys. Many brilliant people have devoted life times to these questions. But countless suppositions a science doesn’t make.

              Explaining to me, is a natural process of learning. But time is of the essence (time is money friend!), so once, perhaps twice, and then I’m on to the next opportunity.

              Its more like There is only One (but by all means keep your head). All is One. Alpha is Omega (just to start/finish). Knowing oneself and ones enemy is vital. But knowing One is critical.

              Peanuts are brittle, but butter can flow. Under pressure character or its lack is revealed (or was that reviled?)

              Bebal tales of the past, are like waxen wings in the sun. Those who stray too close to the truth get burned. But is that self inflicted or collective?

              In the end, its all a matter of Style.

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xiAbDkXDgg

              • That gnarly moneyroot can grow too far “both” ways.
                The billionaire boys club is as weevilly as it gets.
                Formerly apparently stable lotto winners that go all perforated is a cliché.
                Grapes of wrath & or followed by grapeshot o’ wrath is genetically memorized by those slates having those coding & non-coding bits.

                Moneyroot, depending on terroir-slate – always that — can be a most invasive species, if a particular species exemplar’s slate is already spread-legged to be invaded (wasn’t Moneypenney similarly always open to being Bonded?).

                And moneyroot’s a substance of abuse, for obvious sure, for slates so scored, scared, scarred.

                Wet caves dry holes continuum. What light can’t pass thru it shadowboxes for another round another time: the way out is through don’t necessarily or even often mean immediately. Answer: the black rock is still in the car (I kicked one out of the soil, by a bench, in Marble, CO, where I was sitting & taking in the Fall leaves.)

                We’re closing. Art is best. Rote’s artifice is the other end of the line. This art’s about comprehending the players first & most, what’s in their toolhands, second, taking their chips not third, but a side effect (to extent it isn’t side effect, it’s fake – perhaps a bout for another day).
                Sales.
                Poker.
                Sociopathy.
                Spectrums abound; it ain’t just for autistics anymore.

                The real social scientists are artists. And have more things in their heaven & earth than are dreamt of in Horatio Alger philosophies & I-caused-my-correlations aggrandizements (“so give me the prize!”).

                Well, C-for-constraint notes when they was goldbacked. So, confiscate that barbarous stuff said the scabrous stiffers. And manipulate hell outta’ the metals “market” to keep that fiat sea a-filled & floatable a little longer. The gold fix is in, “officially” twice a day, & unofficially all the other increments of indivisible time the rest of the days (other pm’s too, but gold’s the calf the new old testament god knew to single out for eradicating divestiture…otoh, when hasn’t London Bridge been falling down on the dwellers beneath?).

                Speaking of “science,” some worship always begets some warship, & those shrines become impaling shrikes…despite how perfectly consistently what goes around comes back around. This is not the smartest specialist in the jungle, in the main. Arguments from authority worship requirements are a supposition suppository I will insert right after I assent to ol’ Microsofty’s telegraphed jab.

                Cups of tea are no analogee. Except unless you see slate cup you, others too, for what it is, was from conception, & will be. The best part of waking up may well be Folgers in your cup, but cup is cup. I start most days with a double Darjeeling. A little later, strong coffee, almost espresso, halved by decaf, goes in the cup, along with some collagen, MCT oil, ½&½, & cacao.

                Nature “versus” nature is the bargain basement plastic frame that mightright injustices, or “plausibly” denies responsibility for lynching, for institutionalizing, the art. Nature, the artist – & no socio-cultural construct — comes first. Second nurture is then its medium. And it doesn’t do to speak of, let alone regret, the opportunity costs of conception. Or nurture. Spilt semen, & milk… &/but social sighentist therapists’ peanuts & butter.

                Personally, to many Madison avenued (like railroaded, but “consensually”) – but impersonally to me, since I don’t have a one & never will – diamonds are a grrrls best friend & so a slavish manish’s who wants those grrrls best friend too, cuz DeBeers warehoused much of the shiny rock supply & hired Madison Ave to pump & flog for cartel.

                But I do have that black rock I mentioned. Oh, & some marbles (but not from CO). Those are for the slingshot. David’s story, like that Braveheart boulder & rock scene, weren’t scientific, but it were sweet science. Know thyself & them as would false assertionally authoritize thyself, indeed.

                Better yet, is a fake rhetorical a methodical madness? Base state is slated, including merely apparent – the change! the change! ~ that fantasy island suicide midget – alters…& altars ego’d, too.

                Explaining to me-myself-& I is that to me, too. But my song re this is All The Time In The World, by the Sub Dudes. Time is value unqualified, but time & the world don’t run out until I do (solipsism slicing skills), whilst money’s value is getting harder & harder to scope…but its anti-value is plain as day, if you just raise the periscope outta’ that sea of shining on C’s.

                Yes, we have no compartments. But “compartmentalize” ye must. Lines on maps & figures of speech traversing & traducing one big banana slippered in that slippery peel that could care less whether this one or that one can hold the true in one hand & the “true” in the other & still keep cranial pressure below blowing skyhigh. No start or finish despite start & finish lines on maps, on tracks, on my face. Catch-22. ‘Bout 96% of the time those little hunks of lead get “caught” in the teeth, simultaneously make & fill cavities, & dental science owns the patents on the neurotoxins & the color of law liabilityless clauses too. Gold ain’t the only fix that’s in.

                Slate is slate (original fix is in sin•cure & syncope many find uncopeable, cuz they’s slated culpable). Under felt, with even the least ocular pressure, its character can be felt…if you’re so slated. Cue Werewolves of London, & that Color of Money scene. (Red, right? The color. Bloodmoneyroot.)

                Past? What prologue? Selves alone or in gangs don’t inflict feet of clay, the firing oven, or the return to sherds & dust. The slate do (as the slate shadow knows).

                In the beginning, so-called, too. Finger ain’t the moon & stylus ain’t the tune. But it’s sure nice talikin’ to you, dad, it’s been sure nice talkin’ to you.

                *Jack Burton’s got (still?) a vineyard in CA. Sells memberships. Those include a party with the man himself. I told him only if Val’s Doc Holiday is there, too. Seen The Battered Bastards of Baseball? Goliath lost again. Of course. That type of big fooker hates itself. Slated.

              • Aggregate demand is bought & paid for apologist economist-speak for the beast of burdener’s whip agg’in on demand to consume as much as possible not least the own cannibalized selves assembled.

                That’s it & that’s all & the protestant work ethicists, rendering unto Caesar that fat which is caesars which is whatever s/he’zer the seizer says it is doth not protest “enough”….cuz, say it with me: scriptslate disallows the contest o’ protest, let alone divest, & gods gift o’ free will’ll never free pre orc•a•strated Willies. They *like* livin’ captivida loca in C World – it’s nat•habitat (& its arrogate-called C•ivilization).

                Too is liked very much that *everybody* be in the tragicomedy commons aquarium.
                It ain’t paranoia if they’s after ya’.

                And barreled fish is easier to shoot whilst hologramming wholesale the safety in numbers notion “it’ll never happen to me” even as it is happening to all en-weus’d me’s simultaneouslee@appomattoxlee courthouse o’ public opinion insemination.

                e. pluribus unum, ya’ll (that’s latin for “welcome to the gangbang, honored guest”), “The One” really big shoe on its own we owe it to us “the one” really big neck, forever, amen/omen•us…& even Neo’s just ganged up with that other, “alternative,” One.

                Matrix to the left o’ me, mirrormatrix to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle witchoos, maybe…or maybe not.

    • Hi Swag,

      Definitely. Also with GM’s “partnering” on the EV thing and the general “commitment” of other OEMs to make more EVs. This “commitment” involves a lot of money – and a lot of virtue signaling. It doesn’t matter, of course, that there’s no market for mass-market EVs. The OEMs are now appendage of the government; it is hard to tell which is the arm and which is the leg. They’re all the same beast, essentially.

  9. So, trucks and larger vehicles will become prohibitively expensive. Not many will sell. Trucks make up most of the new vehicles being sold. People are not getting smaller, kids are still the same size. You can’t squeeze a family with three large teenage boys into some electric mini car. People still need to tow around stuff like boats and RV’s. Financing is at its breaking point. Who in their right mind will make car payments for 84 months? Cost to lease a vehicle is out the reach of the most middle class families. And these lease agreements often have low milage restrictions, limiting how much you can use your leased vehicle. So Eric…what do you think is going to happen in the near future???

    • Oskar, given current trends, within 10 to 15 years very few people will be able to afford to own personal vehicles. Those available will be so expensive, that other alternatives will have to be used. Not to mention that working from home is going to become part of the “New Normal” for a great many people.

      EV’s will continue to advance in terms of technology. One of their main bottle necks is their limited range, and how long it takes to recharge them. There are several very promising new advancements, that could address both of those. But its going to take a few years for them to be tested and scale up.

      Given the Progs hysteria over “Climate Change”, and their infestation of large parts of various governments, I don’t see this ending well for anyone (including them…). If they get their way, ICE’s will be banned in most applications over the next 10 years or so. I’m hoping that cooler heads will prevail, but at this point, I’m not seeing many of those.

      • Hi BJ,

        This sums it up, pretty much. Vehicles are already largely unaffordable, with an average transaction price close to $35k -which is about half the average family’s annual income. EVs (and CAFE) will make owning a personal car something only the very affluent will be able to afford. The rest of us will be forced off the road, via saaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety and “climate” edicts, which can be hystericized to achieve “compliance” very much in the same manner as has been done with the Wuflu and Face Diapers.

    • Hi Oskar,

      I think the whole point of this is to gradually make personal vehicle ownership for the average person so cost-prohibitive that the average person – and family – will no longer own a personal vehicle. The car companies are open about this. They want to sell you a subscription to transportation – not a car.

      Everything that is happening right now trends in the same direction – toward a neo-feudal system in which the masses own nothing but exist on a day-to-day basis, paying rents to the handful of elites who own everything.

    • 3 large teenage boys? Is to laugh. You obviously don’t understand the goals of Gates, Planned Parenthood et. al. It won’t be long before GovCo will decide who can reproduce and who can’t and at what rate. You think the Covid-1984 vaccine will only kill a cold cootie? Think again. The Gates foundation and forced sterilization in Kenya is all part of The Grand Plan and The Great Reset…

      https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/disease/gates-eugenics-end-goal-population-control/

      • Hi Mark,

        Indeed. Perhaps the biggest problem liberty-minded people face is conveying the truth of psychopathy to normal people, who have difficulty even entertaining the idea that such motives are behind all of this.

        • I know many if not most will not appreciate it but, if you believe in God, and The Devil, it does make sense. Whether the story of Job or the temptation of Christ, Satan is at work in THIS world. Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacey, Ted Bundy, Hitler, Stalin and on and on and on. By rejecting God we also reject His antithesis…at our own peril. As one who was a-theist for about 30 years I know it’s hard for some to grasp. But, if we could have Heaven on Earth they would not be two distinct concepts and places. Yes, it’s hard to understand how such evil could be in people in this world but, it is understandable if you understand God’s Word. There is nothing new under the Sun, humanity is stuck in a feedback loop of Tyranny, Rinse and Repeat…sadly.

          Ironically, pop culture in the 60’s addressed quite nicely in the Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil. Read the lyrics, you might get a chill…

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgnClrx8N2k

        • Exactly, Eric. Think the Germans of 1933 would react any differently had you painted the picture of their nation just 12 years hence?

          We are in the beginning stages of just such a trajectory. Try selling that message to the typical American now and get the blank stare…they dont even know history much less understand it.

        • Exactly Eric. Most people have a difficult time, really understanding that not only do these psychopathic monsters exist, but the true depths of their evil. Some of their goals are so over the top, that they sound like something that one of the Bond villains or even Doctor Evil would come up with.

          Attempting to explain what is going on, makes one sound like one of those infamous Internet Conspiracy Nuts. Most people simply can not conceive of how bad things really are, and how much worse they are going to get.

          • Hi BJ,

            Yup. In my conversations with people – non “political” friends – a common theme is discernible. They assume the best; that the lockdowns were a well-meant but excessive thing; that Diapers are no big deal. I try to explain but mostly get the look I see in my chickens’ faces every morning. A kind of startled, uncomprehending stare.

    • What do you need a truck or a boat for? Or any kind of a vehicle for that matter? Work from home shop from home school from home but with the satanic public school curriculum over zoom. No vacations or road trips or resturants, got Coronavirus out there, might infect you. Get back inside, or your going ro the quarentene camp for recklessly walking through the.park or whatever

      • Hi Guv,

        That’s it, exactly – Quarantine Life, ongoing. The WuFlu is the means by which the Green New Deal is sold to the public, without telling them what they are buying.

  10. Some Basics: The president, or congress, or federal agencies, have no legitimate authority over vehicle fuel economy or emissions or most everything else. The Orange Man has legitimate authority, as commander-in-chief, of the military, he also has authority over federal employees, and federal lands.

    There are 454 federal agencies https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies – all but possibly three (defense, treasury, state) are illegitimate. Attempting to correct individual agency injustices, in the face of lawlessness, is pointless.

    As a start towards reform, holding the president to his oath of office (job description) seems logical.

    “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

    • Hi libertx,

      All political authority is inherently illegitimate. Words on paper can neither grant such authority, nor constrain those who claim to act under such authority.

      Cheers,
      Jeremy

      • Very true Jeremy. But the illusions/delusions that created that authority, also created their enormous power. It has been said (wrongly) that might makes right. Might simply makes able. But simply because one can do a thing, does not mean that one should do that thing. We face the consequences of a reality based on power, hidden agendas, and rule by psychopaths. It was always going to come to this point, eventually. Now the relatively sane, have to survive, so that the future isn’t as dark as its intended to be.

      • Jeremy,
        To be clear: We The People have inalienable rights that no piece of paper or unlawful “authority” can deny. The Constitution does not grant “rights” but is intended to protect all the natural rights of the people.

        • Hi liberty,

          I agree, except for the last clause. I no longer believe that the Constitution was “intended to protect all the natural rights of the people.”

          Cheers,
          Jeremy

          • Hi Jeremy!

            I’ve long though the Founders never really fleshed out what a “right” actually is. They made a number of rhetorically beautiful references to them, but the definition was always gauzy – or asserted on a Because God basis. But what does it mean, precisely to have a right? We’ve discussed this here many times. To me, a right is an expression of property – the property we all have in ourselves. Which is (to use Jefferson’s phrase) the self-evident thing. Not “happiness.” Self-ownership, and what logically follows.

            If we own ourselves, then no one else does. In whole or in part. Which implies, pretty obviously, that any assertion of claim to the work product of ourselves, our bodies and our minds, is an assertion of ownership by others, which is to say, slavery.

            I ought to got at this at greater length. Need more coffee!

                • Not when I’m done with it (whatever the miscegenation in the pot & cup & mug).

                  Nothing optimistic or pessimistic about it, I’m an automatic affirmative action pissist, for sureshot, & by design I had no hand in.

                  Life “gives” me coffee, “I” make lemonaid. Sort of.

                  But, to conserve the well water that makes all those oily black-brown beauty beans beverage, I only flush every 2nd or 3rd time.

                  Don’t eat the king in yellow snow…unless that’s your thing-compulsion.

                  Heard the unexpected thing just the other day. Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Magic Johnson used to be known as the black pack & they all like boys.

                  But MJ was poofter proof positive held aloft back in the day that hiv was a shiv & that it was in every dark alley, just lurking to ambush us all & kill us all dead as zed said the king in yellow snowblowers.

                  To which the magic Johnson swallowers swallowed.

                  More things change the more thingalings remain the throat-sheathed same.

                  Mask those genitalia, those faces, those sex prefs {have 10 kids!}, mask everything.

                  WHO was them masked wo/men? “Dunno” – they was masked.

                  But Zerros & Robbin’ Hoods say self-estranged strangers make for a strange land, & those is easier to control & mulct & murder & mahem in…which the self-estranged was born to adore, too.

            • If the Founders words were sincere (They’re no more sincere than the pithy platitudes used by contemporary politicians) they surely would not have enshrined the trampling of the most basic of all rights -that of the right to property and self-ownership- by giving *some men* the right to levy taxes. Taxation is slavery- and so it is fitting that some of those Founders owned actual human slaves.

              If we regard the Constitution as the source of our rights, we are not only only thinking that a document which gives *some men* the right to enslave us can somehow guarantee our liberties…but we are trusting the words of those who said that they were seeking to preserve our liberties, but who actually physically and personally owned other humans!

              It’s thus rather fitting that the nation built uponj the foundation of such a document has become a plantation of mass enslavement….with equality for all! (We are all equally slaves!)

              But we are all so steeped so deeply in indoctrination, that even I used to be a Constitutionalist! Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees…with ropes in them!

              • Tsk,tsk,tsk…but I dig the alliteration: nunzio the nihilist. Where be the local chastiser? Nunz done defamed the da’ family’s founding fookers!

                  • Calling faery stories out for the denial they is ain’t nihilism, but plenty of (lemming over the)cliffnoteswits will always insist otherwise.

                    Cuz they was paid-read the official fiat scrip•ture, paid-graded to memorize it, been atta’ boygirl-paid regurgitating those lines ever since. ♫ coulda’ been actors but wound up steers.

                    & nunz said hissownself he’s neilist…that that armstrong walk was just more strongarm talk…foundering framing fookers, flashing framing mooners, just variations on vaccinations…& still, after everything, nobody expects the Spanish vaccination.

              • Nunzio,

                As ORIGINALLY DRAFTED, the COTUS didn’t have any direct taxes on the people; the fed gov’t was funded by tariffs, excise taxes, etc. Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founders, said that things were set up so that the ordinary American would nave have to INTERACT with gov’t! Thanks to the orginal drafting of the COTUS, most folks could and did ignore the feds.

                However, with the onset of Abe Lincoln’s administration, that all changed. Then, with the Wilson Administration and its merry band of “Progressives”, that all changed. Remember, it was WW’s administration that brought us the 16th and 17th Amendments.

                Our problems don’t arise from the COTUS; it’s a Divinely inspired document. No, our problems arise from not FOLLOWING it…

                • Shortest distance connecting two points may be the proverbial direct straight line jab, but hooks that connect still connect…and are more punishing than any jab.

                  All taxes, by whatever name change to protect the guilty, pass through to “the people” in the price collected at the divine right o’ ka-king register.

                  A freerider do-nation would be alright…

                  …but wouldn’t feed all the alwrong donutax-eaters, & so there it is. Was.
                  Will be.
                  Que sera, serrated…
                  …by S&P, Moodys, Fitch, the victor {Frankenstein} history writers, & all the other booty bought & paid fors….

                  • Yes, all revenue and tax bills must originate in the House of Representatives. That said, capitation type taxes are prohibited by the COTUS; that’s why there was a 16A

    • It will first be appealed to the full panel. Then it will head to SCOTUS. I have little doubt that the full panel will over turn the tribunal.

  11. Carbon dioxide is magically *not* a pollutant when you concentrate and inhale it with a face diaper. It was magically not a pollutant 500 million years ago when there was three times as much (or more) in the atmosphere and was at least partly responsible for the Cambrian explosion.

    Ultimately I blame the car companies. Did any of them sue to stop this crap when it started? Have they since? They all went tamely along with it the same way other businesses or industries go along with the fatwas, instead of fighting tooth and nail against them. They all figure that they’ll be able to game the rules to their own advantage and at the expense of their competitors. Businesses have been doing it for over 150 years, and they’ve been willing to trade their own freedom for the chance to see their opponents leashed. The people with the most resources available to fight government control and the most at stake have been the first to lick the hand slapping their faces.

    • Indeed, D –

      I saw it happen. I began writing professionally back in the ’90s and personally saw the industry shift from opposing to embracing and even anticipating the mandates. Many stories, but here’s one: I attended an R&D session held by one of the majors to demonstrate parking “assist” technology. It wasn’t – isn’t yet – mandatory, but they wanted it to be. So they could virtue signal and also make money by adding this idiot-proofing crap to their cars. I raised my hand and asked: If a person can’t park their car, do they have any business driving it?

      You’d think I’d just dropped my drawers and left a deuce on the floor.

  12. Wasn’t it Andy Jackson that said something like ‘the court has made its judgement; now let it try to enforce it” ????

    The court is totally out of its jurisdiction here. If one administration can make an order then the next administration can reverse it.

    People are calling Trump “Hitler” when he’s more like Chamberlain.

    • Hi Anon,

      You make a sound point; but the broader problem is the car companies (FCA excepted) are hook, line and sinker in favor of this, because they’re too afraid to contest it and too eager to be seen as “virtuous.”

      • We just might have a “different” president no matter who wins the election.

        Second term and all that … what are they going to do, impeach him? LOL

          • I strongly suspect that every single POTUS since Kennedy have been paid a visit by the CIA, and/ or Alphabets of similar persuasion, and shown the Zapruder film, just in case they had any ideas about making any substantial changes in the ongoing government assault on those they pretend to serve. They mean to enslave us, no more and no less. Any and all who oppose such are in immediate peril. We are under the thumb of the Psychopaths In Charge, which by their very psychosis do not qualify as human beings. They have no moral or ethical foundation whatsoever. They are not capable of remorse, guilt, or conscience. Whatever evils people suffer to oblige their completely self serving goals are not even considered, much less regretted. I see no way out of this without tremendous pain and sacrifice, but remaining where we are, and where we are headed, will be far worse.

            • Hi JWK,

              I’ve wondered about this as well; about what they may have on Trump. Or what they have used to control Trump. His reaction to the WuFlu hysteria perplexes me given it’s obviously the latest attempt to get rid of him – and he fought off the others vigorously.

              Perhaps they did show him the Zapruder film… from a different angle.

              • I suspect someone clever finally snuck one past the Don. It happens to every human. In this case, he got rolled on Wu Flu by the catastrophic projections of millions of dead Americans and the Chi-Com psy op. Once it happened he had no choice but to walk slowly down that path fighting for time to find a way out. Unfortunately one of the most viable ways out of a political trap is war

              • Also, you have the hidden global directors. Every country in the world has been pushing the same absurdity at the same time. And there is money involved. Someone is paying every media company, celebrity, and “scientific” publication to promote things. Cnn literally captions their reporter standing in front of a burning city as peaceful protests. But science is about accepting whatever the head science priest says today.

                Jesus warned to not be decieved, but I throught that might be difficult. Its clear that people are willfully decieved, they shut truth out of their minds. There is no truth in them.

                • Hi Anon,

                  Indeed. A very large piece of the puzzle is that much of the population literally cannot think. I do not mean they are stupid – in the low IQ sense. I mean they never developed the critical faculty; the ability to reason. They are trained automatons who can in many cases perform highly skilled work – but they are almost retarded in terms of elaborating principles, drawing inferences and making deductions. This is deliberate. What Carlin once said about obedient workers.

          • I was expecting the Dallas Moment after the impeachment failed, but we got Bat Flew and Riots instead. Plot twist!

            I once had aspirations to write fiction but I can’t keep up with Reality 😉

          • Eric, what makes you think it hasn’t already been tried? Keep in mind that the OM is the face of one of the Oligarch factions. They hold a great deal of power within the Deep State. Attempting to grassy knoll one of their people, would not go unopposed. It could also explode in their faces.

            • Exactly, BJ- You can only pull the same tactics so many times- especially when past ones are burned in current popular consciousness- hence why no new 9/11…..they have to come up with something new every once3 in a while….so now they’ve spun the flu as something new. (But they HAVE to do something every 20 years or so, to keep the fear alive in the minds of the current generation on whom the impact of past ops does not hold the same sway, since they didn’t “experience” them ‘personally’ through the TV of their day……

            • Hi BJ,

              Indeed; quite so. I have often wondered about this. Just as I have wondered why Justice Roberts went through such contortions to certify forcing the American people to buy the services of a private business “constitutional.” I figured they have pictures of him with a goat or some such.

              • Eric, that made me smile. ^^ Its been my experience that “law and order” types tend to run afoul of some type of sex related scandal. Roberts is obviously compromised. Tracking back his vote on issues critical to the Progs, gives us some idea who is holding that evidence. Likely the Wicked Witch of the East, or her machine.

                • Hi BJ,

                  Yup; I can come up with no other explanation for his tortured “reasoning” in the Obamacare case. It was as if he had to find some way to “constitionalize” what is obviously, egregiously, not. The idea that the Constitution grants the federal government the power to force Americans to buy health insurance is so absurd that only “we have the negatives” can account for Roberts’ opinion.

    • Got to love Andrew Jackson. Lived with two bullets in his chest for years, kicked the hell out of an assassin, and stymied the central banksters of his day.

      Would love to see a cross between Jackson and Trump. Hilariousness.

  13. Every law every state passed in the “name of safety/for the children,” should be viewed as an out right lie to further control or oppress people with some new centralized system and series of duties/taxes. At best it’s some of the more inept, sociopathic people who genuinely think they can heal the world and save us all.

    At this point (and probably most points in history) the only thing government/bureaucratic agencies actually excel at is killing people, lying, stealing and in general making life suck more.

    • CAFE was never about the FE, it was always about the power. “Nice little car company you have there, same if something should happen to it. Just take our regulation, and we’ll make sure nuttin bad happens. We’ll even tro in a couple bankruptcy bailouts for free!”

      If it was about the FE, why did the Gauleiters in DC not let the most effective forces take care of the problem, the free market pressuring Ford, GM, etc. to do what the EPA says is the right thing? Of course we can’t do that, says Herr Gauleiter. Because what they want is NOT the “right thing”, what the market will itself efficiently direct, but something entirely different. Power. Camel’s nose at first, but now…see how they have the ring in the auto execs noses? And the rest of us must buy what they direct. Dirigisme, in French, or National Socialism, as it was known in Germany. It’s all the same power trip. Control = Power.

      How to fix it? Well, we know what we can do in November to keep it from getting worse. After that…

      • Just so, Crusty –

        And the irony is there were more fuel efficient cars on the market 40 years ago. Because there were fewer regulations, especially those pertaining to saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety. These added hundreds of pounds of deadweight to the average new car such that the current average weight of a compact-sized economy car is comparable to that of a mid-sized family car of the early 1980s. Which is why the mileage of today’s compacts, despite all their technology, is about the same and often a bit less than the mileage of today’s compacts.

        • Todays compacts are as big as the midsize or fullsize 80s cars. Every time I rent a car I get the cheapest one. A versa or an elantra is as roomy and more comfy than oldsmobuick sedans if i remember it correctly. that 1.6 whips faster than the 3.8 and it stops and turns 1000x better while delivering 40 mpg. And the speakers dont sound blown out either.

          • **”Todays compacts are as big as the midsize or fullsize 80s cars.”**

            The interiors may be….but those old cars used to have large trunks or cargo areas; Most of the SUVs today hardly even have any cargo area- and cars and even wagons? You’d be hard-pressed to stow a 5-gallon bucket or a tackle box and a rod.

            • Actually the nissans have huge trunks. Can fold the rear seats down, throw in a pad and sleep comfy. Or pack a lot of luggage and haul 4 people pretty comfy.

              Heavy – yes but that strong chassis with noise dampening, climate control, and comfy seats is able to accelerate way faster and remain more stable for more miles than those old cars. It took a minute to peg the 85 mph speedo on the oldsmobuick, but the rentals hit 85 mph on the highway onramp still delivering 35+ mpg, and they are stable and comfy. The oldsmobuick was scary in a straight line at 85 mph. Bugs couldnt even go 90 mph unless you put in a aftermarket engine and drove them off of a cliff.

          • Hi Anon,

            In terms of interior passenger space, yes, a modern compact is as roomy as a mid-sized/even full-sized car of the ’80s. But bear in mind that the mid-sized/full-sized cars of the ’80s were downsized – like all cars of that era. Today. there is almost nothing generally available that is comparable to a full-size American car of the ’60s or early-mid ’70s. The closest to them is something like a Benz S-Class or Audi A8, which are six-figure cars and they have smaller trunks!

            Also, today’s compacts – all of today’s cars – are grotesquely overweight. A Fiat 500 weighs around 2,400 lbs. My ’74 Beetle weighed about 1,600 lbs.

            • But if the old shaggin wagon hit your bug at 15 mph while you were at a stoplight, you would have been crippled. Also you can always buy used. I once picked up a drivable 90s bmw 740 for $800 I flipped it, so dont know how long it lasted for the small town pimp who who bought it, but was drifty & fast with only minor non drivability problems.

              • The main thing is, with old cars, they were simple enough that as long as ya could keep them from rusting away, you could keep them virtually forever, ’cause everything could be repaired or replaced, economically- even the engine and the tranny.

                NOW, there are so many things to go wrong, from the plethora of computer modules, to delicate wiring to carry 0.5V signals….to monstrously complex clusterphook 10-speed automatic transmissions to 24V engines with VVT and DI with 2 fuel systems and turbos…yada yada…..that once even little things start “going” the hassle and expense never seems to end…and if the more major components go, they can cost many thousands of dollars to fix or replace, exceeding the value of the car for just one repair.

                Thus, modern cars are disposable. A lot of people haven’t figured that out yet- so they unfortunately learn the hard way- buying a modern used car, 7 or 10 or 12 years old….and then either having to sink a lot of money into it, in quick succession on short order….or having to give up on it…in which case they then often buy a new car.

                The car companies think they’re slick, forcing people to have to buy new cars via this planned obsolescence, and at the same time not having to fight Uncle to stay out of their business….but this will soon backfire on them, because the fewer people who drive (due to the demise of cheap older functional vehicles…or even economically feasible newer ones…or brand new ones which have any hope of lasting over the years) the more people will start relying on “mass transit” and such, and before long, the road infrastructure will be neglected more and more; associated businesses and services that cater to drivers will become rarer; laws punishing driving and mulcting drivers for an ever-increasing share of taxes to make up for there being fewer drivers, etc. etc. will all conspire to make driving so distasteful and expensive, that the benefits and scale of economy of mass production will disappear, and so will the car manufucturers.

                Heck, we’re halfway there already!

                Gimme a ’63 Fairlane with a straight-six, and I’ll happily drive it the rest of my life! Just a vinyl bench seat’ll do ‘er…don’t need no heated leather seats and carpet on the floor! Ya could roll down the manual windurs just fine, ’cause you weren’t packed-in like a sardine, but could actually move and turn your body. It was glorious freedom! But it largely disappeared by the time I was old enough to drive. Sad thing is, the young’uns today don’t even KNOW what they’re missing!

              • Hi Anon,

                Certainly – one took a risk driving a flimsy little car like the old Beetle. But isn’t it my right to assume that risk? If I decide that slight risk is outweighed by the tangible benefits of light weight/low cost? There is no law forbidding people who want big, heavy cars that can take a hit better than small light ones from buying them. But there are laws – for all practical purposes – outlawing small/light cars.

            • ….And why do we need to go from 0-60 or 80 in 2.3 seconds? In the scheme of things, is it that important to save a few seconds? It only matters because those around us have cars that now accelerate so quickly and go so fast…and the roads are designed for such (At the same time they try and force us to “save gas”, and ticket us for using a car’s potential).

              Life was so much better when the average car took anywhere from 12 to 20+ seconds to do 0-60. I mean, I like the quick acceleration of my V-10 Excursion with 4.33’s….but in the scheme of things, is it worth the cost we pay (in every way- not just financially) for these vehicles today?

              What happens when the Tesla-style EVs take over, and we’re all forced to then have vehicles can keep up with them?

              • Hi Nunz!

                Well, it’s fun to get to 60 in 3 seconds… but your point is well-taken. It is less fun when such quickness is commonplace – and when you dare not make use of it because of the repercussions. Owning a Hellcat is one thing. Using it another. It is like marrying an exceptionally hot woman you dare not touch.

  14. NHTSA is an agency of the Executive Branch. Trump is the executive. But I suspect he will shrug and say “Oh well, I tried,” and call it good enough.
    My pessimism is backed by his failure to end the stupid wars. He is the commander-in-chief. On his first day in office, he could have issued the order to every soldier in Afghanistan and Iraq: “Get on the airplane. You are coming home.” It really is that simple. But he didn’t.

    • Same with his lack of control over other executive bureaucracies. Like the CDC or NIH regarding Wuflu. In DC, the swamp drains you.

    • In theory you are correct Roland. In practice, not so much. Especially with someone who has never been a politician before. He certainly has experience running business operations. But thats very different from political operations. US foreign policy is much like a super tanker. Its damn near impossible to turn it around in a short period of time. There are countless factions involved in the military and civilian sides. Not to mention the political sides. Stepping on all of those toes at once, could prove to be bad for ones health. JFK found that out the hard way. Running for president is one thing. Governing is quite another. There are rules for rulers, just as there are for anything.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs

      • Yep, the pressure “in practice” is real. But caving to the pressure makes Trump a coward. Ron Paul would not have caved, because he is not a coward. He would have carried out his promise: “We just marched in; we can just march out.” (I’m not wild about the first-person plural, but the intent is spot-on.) Unfortunately, as we saw, non-cowards are not electable.

        • Your last is all too true. Ron Paul would not cave, which is why he would NEVER be allowed to win. Make no mistake, this system is totally rigged. When your gang can plunder *Trillions* from the productive class, year after year, decade after decade, and then spread that around to your friends and allies. You make damn certain that ONLY those you own get into those top positions of power.

          The two rules of “democratic” systems are. Rule One; I don’t care who does the electing, as long as I do the nominating. Rule Two; Those who cast the votes determine nothing. Those who count the votes determine everything.
          Put those together, and you own any “democratic” system.

          What the Progs are counting on, is their Cheat by Mail system. It doesn’t really matter how many people vote for Trump. The Progs can just inject enough bogus “votes” into the key states to flip them, after the fact. Then use lawfare to run out the clock. This applies to the other races as well. This election is for all the marbles.

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