Mulcting-by-the-Mile

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The government has been pushing “fuel efficient” cars on the public for decades – and now  intends to punish the public for driving them.

By taxing them by the mile. To make up for their fuel efficiency. Ostensibly, to make up for the loss of “revenue” that isn’t being collected – via the tax on fuel. Which, of course, will still be collected, in full – in addition to the tax on driving.

This tells us the object of the exercise isn’t to reduce fuel consumption.

It is to reduce driving. By making it more and more expensive to drive.

Not just by taxing it by the mile, either.

This tax will inevitably morph into taxing by time – as of day. This is called “congestion pricing” – and it means taxing people for when (and where) they drive – as during “peak” times, such as the morning drive and the evening drive home. So as to discourage people from driving when they need to drive and encourage them to ride . . . government forms of transportation: The ever-unpopular bus or train, which can only become popular by making it too expensive to drive.

This has been the underlying goal all along but now it’s becoming explicit. The recently (s)elected Biden regime’s secretary of transportation recently came out – so to speak –  in favor of mulcting-by-the-mile at the federal level and in states such as Oregon, there is legislation afoot to impose the same idea at that level.

The Oregon legislation would impose a tax-by-mile on “fuel efficient” vehicles beginning in 2026.

Which vehicles qualify as “fuel efficient” enough to have their gas mileage advantage become a tax liability? Any car that achieves 30 MPG or more – as well as electric cars and hybrid cars – the irony of which is probably lost on the people who bought them thinking at least in part about how much money they were going to save on gas.

This business being of a piece with the surprise now being enjoyed by people who lined up for the Holy Jab thinking it would mean they’d be allowed to remove the Holy Rag . . . who now find that they must still wear the Rag (in Oregon, legislation is afoot to make Rag Wearing permanent, Holy Jabs notwithstanding).

Supposedly, the mulcting-by-the-mile is merely a necessary to offset the supposedly unforeseen diminution in motor fuels tax receipts – an assertion that relies on an assumption of near-sighted stupidity almost beyond believability, even as regards the government. Could these Wise Central Planners – as they see themselves – truly not see that by forcing (via regulations and mandates) cars to become ever-more “efficient” – and even to be so “efficient” that they use no gas at all – viz, the electric car – that gas tax revenue would decrease?

Notwithstanding the increase in the cost paid by the people who buy these “efficient” cars.

Electric cars aren’t cheap, if you haven’t noticed – and even hybrid cars cost several thousand dollars more than their non-hybrid equivalents. Which many buyers of these cars paid forward, assuming they’d pay less down the road.

Someone’s arguably due a refund.

Maybe there is a case to be made for a class-action suit directed at the very government that encouraged the purchase of such cars, specifically to “save on gas.”

But you can’t sue Uncle. He has “sovereign immunity” – like the Baron in Ye Olden Days who could have his way with the daughters of the village he lorded over.

Maybe the thing to do is drive the gas-hoggiest SUV or muscle car you can find. Then at least you’ll be exempt from mileage-mulcting. Except of course you won’t be, as this will – per above – become a mulcting for driving, applied to everyone.

There is also a question that is begged but almost never asked when mulcting-by-the-mile comes up: What happened to all the money that was supposed to go toward “the roads”?

OberBefehlsHaber der Transport Buttigieg says – and the same is said in Oregon and other states that are licking their chops to mulct-by-the-mile – there just isn’t enough money for “the roads.” What they do not say is that this is so not because of “fuel efficient” vehicles – which are being driven more, thus paying more gas taxes – but rather because the money collected via gas taxes is being used for things that are not roads – such as bike lanes, in some cases where a road (or travel lane for cars) used to be. Or for random dragnet “safety” checkpoints, where you don’t have to be drunk to be obliged to prove you aren’t.

Which – incidentally – is another disincentive to drive. You can actually be drunk – and not obliged to prove you’re sober – on the government’s bus or train.

Pass the Smirnov, comrade.

Money that is supposed to fund roads is also being diverted to finance what is oilily being styled “infrastructure” – which used to mean things like roads and bridges and such. Just as “emissions” used to mean pollution (it now means carbon dioxide, a “pollutant” in the same way that FICA taxes are “contributions”).

“Infrastructure” – in BidenSpeak – means all kinds of things that have nothing to do with roads and bridges, except as regards the diversion of funds away from them. For example, $10 billion to fund a Civilian Climate Corp. How about another $20 billion to “Advance Racial Equity and Environmental Justice”? There is also an Everest of money – $175 billion – to further subsidize “fuel efficient” electric cars.

Whose sucker owners will then be mulcted-by-the-mile, to make up for it. Plus – almost certainly – further mulctings, as by increases in the taxes applied to electricity.

Plus the gas taxes – which they’ll also still be paying, even if they aren’t driving – via the increased cost of food and other necessaries brought by commercial vehicles that will still be paying it and then making everyone pay for it.

And keep in mind that it’s not just the money that’s on the table. It’s mobility.

They not only aim to make driving more expensive, in order to discourage it, they aim to control it – which they’ll be able to do electronically, remotely, automatically. Whenever they don’t want you to drive, they’ll simply send out the signal – which modern connected cars will receive – to stay parked, even if you can afford to be mulcted by the mile.

No Face Diaper? No “vaccine”?

No driving.

It’s coming.

. . .

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74 COMMENTS

  1. Correction suggestion:
    “Supposedly, the mulcting-by-the-mile is merely a necessary to offset”

    The word “nesessity” is a better fit.

  2. It is ironic, to me at least, that here in the People’s Republic of California, the Insurance Commissar has decreed it illegal for insurance companies to base auto insurance premiums partly on miles traveled.
    State Farm, my insurer, once offered this as a voluntary option, which for me made good sense. I walk across the hall to go to work. So, with zero commuting miles, I probably drive less than the average. It makes sense to me that would present less risk to the insurer, and they were happy to pass on a discount to their insureds. The State has now outlawed that practice. Go figure.

  3. I don’t see many Spandex bikers around here. Nor kids riding bikes. Probably sitting at home playing video games. Too dangerous to venture off the block anyway and parents who allowed it would be charged with something. About the only people I see riding bikes are homeless or semi-homeless men who can’t afford cars or shouldn’t be driving because of previous bouts with alcohol and drugs.

    Back in the 1960’s “Science & Mechanics” magazine ran an article about a garage mechanic who put together an electric car. There were all the usual projections of mass production, public enthusiasm, easy home charging, etc. None of which came to pass, of course. But the final paragraph mentioned that California legislators were worried about loss of fuel tax revenues and were thinking of some sort of fee to slap on this “gasless little cutie”.

    Any interaction with the DMV is an exercise in futility, expense and frustration. Imagine having to report periodically to have some politician’s moron brother-in-law or girlfriend read your odometer.

    While I support freedom of speech, any politician who utters this mileage tax proposal should have his mouth shut.

  4. Well thanks for more “good news” regarding “Murikans” future….Diaper wearing and travel restrictions becoming increasingly onerous…terrific!

    One more reason I’m progressing apace with Plan B…recently scored my second passport and about to do a “Deep Dive” into my top expat destination…the Dominican Republic….Oh heaven forbid, why would any self respecting Yanqui ever go to that 3rd world S…hole?

    Easy, I love studying World Geography e.g. (naming all the countries in Africa in 2 minutes or less, always leaves the Bartenders agape when I claim my 1st beer bet, naming all the capitals of Africa in the same 2 minutes kicks them in the ass and gets me my second free beer, as well….PLUS THEY USUALLY LEAVE ME A TIP..NO SHIT).
    Knowledge is Power!

    My girlfriend is Venezuelan…and the DR triggers the highest Comfort/cost index overall, given my present circumstance…
    Will be extensively checking out the area between the northeastern coast cities of Cabarete and Cabrera…
    lots of organic farming no GMO Monsanto (presently)…. looking forward to hanging out at beautiful beaches and checking out my Grandfather’s farming roots from Latvia..(pun intended)

    Scoring a 2 to 4 acre “Krash Pad ” domicile in the area should suffice..

    Onward through the fog….Good Luck…given the way things are going ..you will need it!

    Semper Fi Mac!

  5. Back in the good old days of the 70’s and 80’s I use to hear the chattering classes go on and on about how to “end Americas love affair with the automobile”
    I think they figured it out – make it too expensive for the plebes to drive.

  6. If I survive the fake pandemic, masking into eternity and killer gene scrambling therapies which seem to have no safety or efficacy factors associated with their usage, then I will next have to give up driving? Since all the big cities will be burnt down by peaceful antifa and blm riots, that will leave only the countryside to live in. Maybe that would be ok with being self-sufficient. Then they can turn off the power grid and keep EV’s grounded and their surveillance systems inoperative. And of course the financial system would become extinct. The Deagal.com site, some kind of military related info offering, says that US population will by under 99 million by 2025. So, there will be no need for many vehicles or much of anything else. It looks like it’s back to the stone age and hopefully dinosaurs make a comeback also…maybe within the DC swampland.

  7. Just think of all the highway funds they can stick in their pocket if people stop driving. Just in case you didn’t think government was a for profit institution.

  8. Jim H. If people paid attention they would see this type of thing you mention – exec diktat. This is unreal – I live in CA and the things the legislators propose and pass without the people’s vote is astonishing. We do not live in a democracy – people have lost control of the government a long time ago. But as George Carlin said ‘ They don’t care about you at all — at all — at all. And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on; the fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant’.

    • 1UnknownSubject,

      Always good to see the Prophet George Carlin quoted.

      Anywhere. Anytime. Any subject.

      Bravo 👏👏👏.

    • Hi 1UnknownSubject,

      “We do not live in a democracy…”

      Democracy, a system of government that grants the perpetual appearance of legitimacy to those in power and the illusion of control to those subject to that power.

      We most certainly live in a Democracy.

      Cheers,
      Jeremy

  9. I’m sorry Eric, don’t mean to be disrespectful, but can’t we move on to other issues? I’m tired of reading/writing about electric cars and diapers. There are so many other issues that we could be discussing. Trade with China, the economy, the fed, race relations, white supremacy, Democrat power grabs over DC statehood, packing the Supreme Court, telling Ukraine we’ll back them up if they go to war with Russia, UBI, Medicare at 50, illegal immigration, climate change bullshit, 30-40 trillion dollars debt, on and on. Enough already with the face diapers and the anti electric car stuff. We get it. But they are hardly the biggest problems we face right now. There are a whole lot of other things that threaten our lives and liberty, let’s talk about some of this other stuff! I don’t need to hear anymore about electric cars, eventually they will fail on their own, and the face diapers will go away. But, there are a lot of other issues that might really fuck us up, let’s talk about those!

    • Floriduh man,

      “I’m tired of reading/writing about electric cars and diapers.”

      Ever do the axe Eric thingy?

      Peters pays the bills so he can write about sticking boogers under the seat if he wants.

      AND, it would still be within the framework of the website’s name.

      “As goes Detroit so goes the world” was still a thing when I first started reading his prose.

      I wager a fancy sum of your money that if you could, even remotely, tie one of the many crisis you listed to cars/Motown you would end up with something different to read and comment on.

      If you’ve read him for any length of time you’d know that his path to excommunication began many decades ago. Probably very shortly after he started writing for what you’d call a major publication.

      I had a neighbor, a much older guy, who was a typesetter for the Detroit Free Press. He was a braggart union kind.

      Whenever we would be shooting the shit over the fence he would claim he read “that article forward and backward.” And he really could read anything in a mirror as fluently as you are reading this.

      Since he was a union guy, I liked to fuck with him. Eric never did put a Freep philosophical spin on things like the other writers there.

      My neighbor always said he wasn’t right in the head.

      I could probably tie 80% of the suggested topics you listed to the auto industry without any hesitation.

      Can you? Give it a shot.

      • Wow, Tuanorea. I have commented on this site many times over several years. I have always respected Eric’s opinions, I agree with him on almost every issue, and I believe he is one of the most intelligent and articulate writers I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I merely suggested that there are other topics besides electric cars and face diapers, both of which seem to be prevalent here lately. As for your response, I can only say, “watchu talkin bout Willis??”

    • Hi Floriduh,

      I consider the weaponization of hypochondria to be the issue of our time; I think you’d need to go back to the antebellum contretemps over slavery to come up with anything more likely to forever shape the future of this country. I write about it because it is important. I write about electric cars because that is the automotive issue of our time.

      But I’m surprised to discover you think that’s all I’ve been writing about. The latest article has to do with taxing and controlling driving; EVs are a part of this story but not the story. There’s a review of the new Subaru Ascent. There’s a “nostalgia” article about old cars; there’s another article about motorcycle maintenance. There’s the article about “defensive” driving. The article about speed limits.

      That’s five articles about other-than-Diapers and electric cars over the past week or so. Plus this one, the latest: https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2021/04/23/bicycle-licensing-for-openers/

      I do what I can!

      • I appreciate it, Eric, and as I mentioned, I really do respect what you do. You are one of the most articulate writers I’ve ever read, and you definitely expand my vocabulary – I have to look up a lot of words when reading you! I’m just tired of this whole thing, everywhere I look or listen, it’s COVID COVID COVID, Tesla Tesla Tesla. Guess I’m just venting, and wishing we could put all this behind.

        • Start your own web site. Nothing stopping you but friction and gravity. I agree with Eric. The tyranny of the Medical Industrial Complex is the issue of the day. The threat of nuclear war ranks second, with Climate Change a close third. So, Eric is covering two of the top three. What more could you possibly want?

          • >The tyranny of the Medical Industrial Complex is the issue of the day.
            I agree.
            I was thrown out of my (now former) ophthalmologist’s office last week, because I insisted on walking home (easy 20 minute walk) from planned PRK in one eye. Hey, I walked over here, I can walk home.
            Sorry, chump, you do not control my life. Once I leave your office, what I do, where I go, and how I get there is my own damned business, for which I assume all liability.
            His minion indicated to me their concern was “medical liability.” Not my well being, you will note. I indicated I would be perfectly willing to sign an affidavit promising not to sue Dr. Schneider, but that was not good enough. I was told (by the female minion) that my “behavior was inappropriate,” and that I would have to leave, which I did without incident, after informing her that I thought *her* behavior was inappropriate. Dr. Schneider lurked 10-15 feet in the background, within sight and earshot, but let his (female) minion do the talking.
            When I got home, I wrote a short letter stating it was abundantly clear to me I was not welcome in his office, thanked him for his previous services over the past thirty years, and stated that he was welcome to remove my name from his patient rolls and destroy all records of our previous interactions.
            Within a week, I received a “lawyer letter,” a form letter on his attorney’s letterhead, with my name filled in by hand as the addressee, informing me he would no longer provide his services to me. Well, I already told you that, chump (although our letters may very well have crossed in the mail).
            I an acutely conscious of professional liability. In my line of work, an error in design, detailing, fabrication or erection has the potential to kill many humans at once. Structural failure is everyone’s nightmare in the structural steel industry. Fortunately for humanity it is fairly rare, due to stringent quality control at every stage from preliminary design to final inspection. But we all live with the knowledge of the harm which could result if someone screws up and a critical error does not get caught in time. Every complex engineering endeavor lives with the same knowledge. Can you say “space shuttle,” “Hyatt Hotel mezzanine,” or “Tacoma Narrows bridge?”
            If you get down to it, professional liability insurance for engineers and some other professionals is more expensive than for physicians, because doctors can only kill people one at a time.
            So, I don’t want to hear how tough you have got it, Doc.
            Save it for the Easter Bunny.

            • Same thing happened to me last summer. Scheduled for a dr visit which required in-person. Called a few days out to find out what their policy was for masks and if any accommodations are made (cited ADA but it shouldn’t matter). Was told I must wear a mask. Sent the PA a link to Dr. Denis Rancourt’s compilation of decades worth of research that shows that MASKS DON’T WORK. Of course, that was ignored, and no medical rebuttal offered to justify this new medical intervention of making EVERYONE wear masks. They even went to far as to tell me that their staff has ALWAYS worn masks when they aren’t feeling well. Funny, that must have happened on days when I wasn’t in the office, and I told them I had never seen such a thing in my many years on this earth (LIARS). I have been a patient there for decades, and politely agreed at their suggestion to leave the practice. Canceled my appt a couple of days out. A week later, I received a certified letter (they actually spent $7 to send me this) stating that I am being DISMISSED from their practice for NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THEIR COVID-19 POLICY).
              Again, I did not set foot in their office, so couldn’t “non-comply.” I had already said I would leave the practice so no need to “dismiss” me. I got a lawyer to send them back a letter, which they responded by saying they “wished me well.” Sent one more from the lawyer (which I wrote for him 🙂 ), pointing out that they were trying to punish a long-term patient merely for asking for medical information to establish informed consent.

              I am glad they showed me what liars they are. I haven’t been to a dr since, and have felt the best I have in years!!

              • I got the “we’ve always worn masks” line from a friend who is a nurse-practitioner. But I have spent quite a lot of time in the medical building where she works, since my wife used to be employed in the lab there. Except for the surgical area, I don’t recall ever seeing patients or staff wearing masks before 2020, and on the few occasions when I had an appointment myself, nobody so much as hinted that I should put one on. That’s because until this was dragged into the sewer of politics, it was not controversial that they don’t work for controlling respiratory viruses.

            • Don’t you worry about quality assurance in the engineering field. Rest assured the equality police are making sure, as I type this, that many less qualified women and “people of color” are jumping ahead in the line to fill the empty spots.

        • Floriduh
          There’s only one way the dis-info and brainwash scheme is gonna stop.
          It will happen when no-one turns on the msn and eats up thier garbage. Those pretty presstitutes, of all the different sexes? only get paid because of the ad revenues collected by their bosses. And the ad revenues only get paid if there is somebody eating the garbage being distributed. When there are no eaters there are no ads.
          But anyone with a brain knows that that ain’t never gonna happen is it?
          Eric writes for a certain group who do have the ability to think for themselves. So think for yourself and thank him for some honest info and just the simple fact that he CARES about something important. And besides that he takes in homeless kitties and loves them dearly.
          rog

  10. “This tells us the object of the exercise isn’t to reduce fuel consumption.
    It is to reduce driving”

    Who benefits? I suggest it is about increasing budgets & therefore power.

    All else is secondary, though yes, they will relish the opportunity to use that power to control your unenlightened life.

    There is a lesson here. The suggestion of this policy is only possible due to the complacency of the avg dopey american to allow the govt courts to decide what is the extent of govt power.

    Eventually this will succeed, just like covid decrees. Then we will be stuck with them forever.

    Another reason to dissolve the US into smaller countries ASAP. Let the crazies do their own crazy things.

  11. After reading this article, I read another article from the “mainstream”, called “Making Driving Dangerous Again”.

    The author is, at least, partially correct, but is advocating for most of the wrong reasons:

    https://www.outsideonline.com/2360451/make-driving-dangerous-again#close

    The author, unlike Our Libertarian Car Guy, is more an Authoritarian Anti-Car Guy, or a “bike snob” as it says at top.

    His goal is the same as that of the villains in Eric’s article: get people out of cars for good, and onto a bicycle, in this guys case.

    Make no mistake, they’re out there, and as you said, Eric, “No driving. It’s coming.” …If we let it.

    • Well, let’s see.
      Spandex faggots who ride bicycles wear clothes made from oil.
      Motorcyclists wear clothes made from the hides of dead animals.
      Which one is greener?

      • Hi Turtle,

        I hesitate to even touch this third rail – but what the Hell. It’s what I do, after all! I have never grokked the spandex thing. As a libertarian, I support everyone’s right to wear whatever they want to wear; it used to be a free country and I wish it were, again. But – Jesus Christ! – the sight of groups of guys stuffed into sausage-casing spandex is as unaesthetic as hugely overweight women in Daisy Dukes, their cottage cheese rippling from the seams. I like to ride bicycles myself but no Spandex for me. I wear normal shorts, usually cutoffs. As I did when I was a kid. I know I’m not Lance Armstrong and don’t try to look like him! I get that the Spandex – so I’m told – keeps the stuff in place. But so does a Speedo and I’m not wearing one of those, either!

        Curiously, when America was a much freer country – the ’80s and prior, some will recall – almost no one rode bicycles while wearing sausage-casing outfits…

        • Morning Eric,

          I wear plain, black cycling shorts when I ride for a very simple reason, they’re much, much more comfortable, when riding, than anything else. If you spend a couple of hours in the saddle with cut-offs, you’ll be numb and sore; do it a few days in a row, you’ll be chafed, really sore, and won’t be able to ride at all for a week. Sure, they look ridiculous, and I don’t get the bright colors that some cyclists favor but, not wearing them out of concern for how ridiculous they look, would be really stupid.

          In the 80’s, everyone who was more than a casual cyclist wore cycling shorts. The difference was almost everything available was black, so they didn’t stand out as much.

          Cheers,
          Jeremy

        • LOL.
          Yeah, I have a Japanese made 10 speed which I ride occasionally.
          No helmet, natch, and ordinary, comfortable street clothes.
          Mind not to catch the trouser leg in the chain.
          I do see these packs of avid cyclists out for a spin, which is great.
          Great exercise, if you don’t get run over by callous motorists.
          And bright colors *do* make sense, for visibility.
          Every now and then you read a sad story of a lone bicyclist who was run over and killed by a motorist. Usually, in these cases, the motorist has hit and run, cowardly scum that he is. So, it makes sense to stick together. In numbers there is strength, for bicyclists as for motorcyclists. So, good for them.
          That said, I like to poke fun at hypocrisy, as do you, as well as most who comment here. It puzzles me why such “virtue signalers,” who generally get very self righteous about their small “carbon footprint,” choose to clothe themselves in fabric made from petroleum, or some other synthetic fiber. What happened to good old cotton, linen, wool, or silk? Nature’s own, in other words.
          Speedo, eh?
          Reminds me of a joke about a potato, but I’ll save that for another time.
          And as far as “natural” goes, if we are not s’posed to eat animals, how come they are made of meat? Bill Gates is welcome to eat all the insects he likes..

    • I can see it now. One or a few states nullify these ridiculous federal mandates, however the populous blue areas keep automobile manufacturers from manufacturing real vehicles. Interstate automobile smuggling becomes something that happens as older real vehicles are attracted to free states.

      Also, not all cyclists think cars should not exist! You can have libertarian values and ride a bike! Some are jerks, but some of us know we are slower, more vulnerable, and harder to see, and that is on us to compensate for as much as possible if we take to the two-lanes or car lanes. Increasingly this idea is less feasible due to smartphone usage.

      • Hey Slug,

        Yeah, I ride bikes, too, for fun and exercise. And no, there is no Spandex involved, haha. Jesus, how quickly things go off the rails here.
        I even like electric bikes, and will enjoy the next one I build. That doesn’t mean I want cars swept from the Earth, nor do I want any governmental control over their construction.
        Mostly I was initially pleased that someone (besides Eric) was advocating for the removal of all of the ridiculous “safety” garbage off of cars. That elation was quickly extinguished when I saw what purpose the author had in mind. Also, I’m not saying these “safety” features shouldn’t be available per se, but that they shouldn’t be mandatory. I think they’d be rather less popular than car manufacturers might think.

        • If you are a fan of Jay Leno’s Garage, check out his show with Graham Reid, who restores old Minis at his shop in Costa Mesa, CA.
          There is a *world* of difference between the old Mini Cooper S and the new, overweight models.
          There *are* some of the original Minis (both stock and modified) still in service, so if you get a chance, check one out, up close and personal.
          You might be amazed (unless you used to own one, in which case you already know what I am talking about.

  12. I shouldn’t be required to install electronic devices that tell insurance companies or government where I have been and how I got there.

    • Hi J,

      I agree – it shouldn’t be legal. But then, we have no rights the government or corporations are obliged to respect; just conditional privileges that can be (per Darth Vader) altered at their whim.

  13. If you assume the government must build roads and pay for them with taxes, why don’t they simply tax electricity at car chargers in the same way that they tax gasoline? This would not require tracking anyone other than at the “pump”.

    Electrics should pay more per mile in tax than gasoline cars due to the extra weight. Road wear goes up as square of the weight. A 5000lb electric tears up the road at more than twice the rate of a similarly sized 3500lb gasoline car.

    • ‘Road wear goes up as square of the weight.’ — Opposite Lock

      A mathematical formula with an exponent?

      Dude, you just lost nine-tenths of Clowngress. 🙁

    • Opposite,

      “ why don’t they simply tax electricity at car chargers in the same way that they tax gasoline? ”

      And how, exactly, do you expect them to track your every move?

      When the implant is required to trade we’ll hear the same old “I don’t consent.”

      Don’t any of you know who owns the car you are allowed to drive?

      Don’t you know who own you?

      DISCLAIMER: Those are strictly rhetorical questions and not meant to offend. Please do not attempt to answer them. Even thinking about them may cause severe consternation and sudden disappearance.

    • Thanks for posting this, Anon –

      I know it won’t persuade the Faithful – the people who reverence the Orange Man with the same pathological incapacity to see facts when they contradict their beliefs as the Diapered – but it’s nonetheless worth publicizing.

      He’s one of them.

      • First, doubts are increasingly being erased about the role this con man was to play and did play. Second, I hate the pejorative term “anti-vax”. I’m not per se anti-vax, though I am anti-this-vax. Language matters. What about being pro-informed consent? I’m informed, I don’t consent.

  14. You just know that the mile reader will be sophisticated enough to give the government all the info on you it wants. However, not sophisticated enough to not charge you by the mile when you’re on a toll road. So yet another double tax.

    The urban “planner” in my neck of the woods (northwest Indiana just outside Chicago) is very open about his desire to limit (yours, but not his) driving. He would like to HALVE the amount of (the current) driving in the region.

    Never mind the region is completely un-centralized spread over basically five counties. Never mind that the public rapid transit (which isn’t rapid, it’s actually quite slow) is used by almost no one. Never mind that most people living here would probably buy a larger, not smaller piece of real estate if they could afford it.

    But yet he thinks that is the thing to do.

    It’s no secret, they aren’t even trying to hide what they want to do to us.

  15. It’s long past time to hoist the black flag and start slitting throats.

    The sheep deserve their abbotoir.

    We wolves may well have the same fate but it will have a decidedly different path.

    Patton was right about everything.

  16. The US Navy uses 16 percent of all the diesel fuel consumed on the planet, somebody has to pay for that indulgence.

    You have to pay the government to drive under any and all circumstances.

    How can you get away from any of the encumbering regulations, stupid laws, fees, fines, everything, just to drive down the road? Holy smoke.

    Google is following you everywhere you go, .gov can use that data and send you an invoice, 60 days to pay in full. All the idiots have to do is ration gas, you’re stuck. Too stupid to figure that one out, I suppose.

    The gov is dumber than I look.

    Then the gas thieves will surface and there’ll be gray/black market for fuels.

    You’ll get your 50 percent reduction in carbon monoxide with gas rationing, which is good. Complete combustion results in carbon dioxide, but there are obstacles preventing complete combustion, particulates, and you don’t get complete combustion with carbon dioxide in the equation, there is carbon monoxide every time.

    Start your car in the garage with all doors and windows closed and see what happens. har

    Low level carbon monoxide poisoning has physical symptoms of nauseousness and eczema.

    Carbon monoxide is serious business.

    Brakes, turn signals, lights for night driving, an engine, four wheels, a gas tank, drive the ’54 Ford four door sedan up the road-less hill full throttle. The good times can come back.

    Unless you don’t become licensed and insured, don’t register your vehicle, just drive it out on the prairie trails, mountain roads, beach sands, straightening the curves, flattening the hills, just drive an old beater with no obligations, be unfettered and alive. lol

    You’ll be kind of an outlaw, but who isn’t anymore. Jesus H. Christ on a crutch, beam me up.

    • “The US Navy uses 16 percent of all the diesel fuel consumed on the planet…” and I’m sure the US Air Force uses a similar portion of all the jet fuel and aviation gas. Can’t allow the serfs to use up fuel that Uncle needs to garrison the world; all this BS about being “green” doesn’t apply to the military or all the other AGW’s, just another restriction on the life of the average Joe.

  17. I alway felt that stupidity should be expensive. Virtue signaling (a species of stupidity) is, in fact, expensive, if not costly. As always, sucks for the rest of us pulled along by the current, but no sympathy to the leftist swine and their Teslas being relieved of a bit more of the contents of their piggy bank. They voted for it, let them enjoy the fruits of their beliefs.

    • Hi BAC,

      “Virtue signaling (a species of stupidity)”.

      Oh no, virtue signaling is not stupid. It is a very effective means of indulging in cruelty, while reaping social and psychological rewards.

      Cheers,
      Jeremy

      • Hi Jeremy

        All true. I submit, though, that being cruel to other people, especially for one’s own psychological or social benefit, is stupid and, when sustained long term, is self-destructive – also stupid.

        • Hey BAC,

          In that sense, I agree. But, unlike other types of self-destructive behavior, virtue signalling is encouraged and socially approved.

          Cheers,
          Jeremy

    • The road to serfdom is painted with plutonium?

      Say it ain’t so Jeremy.
      Say it ain’t so.
      That’s not what I wanna hear, Jeremy.

  18. So now you have reason 1,745,628 why most of oregon east of portland and its surrounding suburbs wants to join Idaho. Seriously this orgeon diktat would be the death knell to hybrids in the state. Noone is going to pay 3 or 5 grand more at the dealer just to be nailed by both gas and mileage taxes. Also depending on how far you drive that ev isn’t going to be as exciting at an extra 5 to 10k than say something that gets 25mpg. This “tax” by the mile will end up like every sin tax or income tax as the planners expect X amount of money to come in from the new tax only they never anticipate the fact that this is not a vacum. People will adjust to pay as little as possible and the results are significantly less taxes than expected. This will result in lower and lower mpg considered “fuel efficient” to satisfy the expected taxes.

  19. After all, they are the government’s roads, cars, and daughters.

    The Devine Right of Kings would necessarily apply.

  20. What happened to all the money for the roads? Same thing that happened to all the property taxes that were supposed to pay for the schools. The money went into administrative overhead and pensions. Pensions because promises were made and backed up by elected officials who are put in place by the bureaucracy (both union and management), and of course because the solution to every economic woe for the last 50 years has been to throw as much fake money at it as possible, so much so that very soon the pension promises will overtake all other expenditures -which is already the case in states like Illinois. To keep track of all this you need lots of administrators to spread the blame around. And to make sure that every penny that comes across their desk is accounted for, at least until it comes to actually auditing anything, then you need “outside” auditors… and more overhead.

    Pretty amazing wealth destruction system considering the modest abilities of the people running it. Mr Keynes would be so proud of his disciples.

    • ‘The money went into administrative overhead and pensions.’ — RK

      Beautiful summary, RK.

      Let us note that despite trillions of extraordinary spending in the past year, and more trillions proposed for ‘infrastructure,’ NOT ONE PENNY is proposed to bail out the largest defined benefit pension scheme on the planet, Social Security.

      Its own trustees project that the Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2035, as they have been stating for years in their annual report.

      What’s happening to Social Security is the same effed-up thing that happened to three tall buildings at the World Trade Center: CONTROLLED DEMOLITION.

  21. ‘taxing them by the mile’ — EP

    Washington state knuckles under to the liberal green freaks in Seattle:

    OLYMPIA, Wash. – Lawmakers have passed a bill that includes a goal of sharply reducing the number of new gas-powered vehicles in Washington state starting in 2030, if certain conditions are met.

    If signed by Gov. Jay Inslee, the Clean Cars 2030 initiative would make Washington the first state to include tangible goals that could drop the number of new gas car sales – five years ahead of planned gas vehicle bans in California and Massachusetts.

    It would also make Washington the first state to ban gas-powered vehicle sales through a bill passed by lawmakers, rather than by executive order – which would make it harder for future governors to undo.

    The measure would only take effect if the state approves a TAX ON VEHICLE MILES TRAVELED, which would help pay for new transportation infrastructure in the state.

    https://komonews.com/news/local/lawmakers-vote-to-ban-new-gas-vehicle-sales-in-wash-state-by-2030

    Many readers won’t even notice the startling third paragraph, admitting that Washington state’s IC vehicle ban would be the first one actually passed by an elected legislature.

    So much for America’s endless poseur chest-beating about ‘democracy.’ When the biggest change in transport policy in 120 years is unrolled by executive diktat in populous states such as Taxachusetts and Commiefornia, you may know for damned sure that ‘democracy’ is an empty, sick joke played on credulous rubes and suckers.

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