Choice Antipathy

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A long, long, time ago – none apparently remember – people could decide to buy an electric car if that’s what they wanted and weren’t punished if they didn’t want one. They were free to choose.

What a concept!

Americans have, to a sad extent, forgotten what that was like and many are actively hostile to the concept for reasons that are psychologically interesting.

A psychologically healthy person does not care what kind of car his neighbor drives, provided his neighbor pays for it. A psychologically disturbed person cares very much what kind of car his neighbor drives and wishes to make him pay for it. He seeks to punish him for driving a car he does not like, as via exorbitant taxes sicced on his neighbor’s car or the fuel it uses or perhaps restrictions on where he is allowed to drive it.

Yes, of course – there is the putative nostrum about non-electric cars “changing” the “climate”  – a transparently non-specific, non-objective assertion that is of a piece with the one made about people who aren’t sick possibly spreading a sickness they might have. It is a wonderfully elastic, open-ended and difficult to “deny” thesis – which is precisely how it serves its intended purpose.

If it is accepted that vague assertions are synonymous with facts.

The “climate” is “changing”? How, exactly? How much, exactly? It is because people are not driving electric cars? How, precisely? Prove that people who are not driving electric cars are “changing” the “climate” and then prove that this “change” is something that is causing harm.

No vague if scary assertions, please. One can assert all kinds of things. As for instance 3 million dead from the ‘Rona. As for instance “asymptomatic” spread. If assertions, however scary, are to be the justification for impositions than any imposition can be justified by painting a scary picture – as Al Gore did, literally – in his now-ancient movie that asserted we’d be under water by now or at least treading it.

A fact, on the other hand, is objective. Something is  – or it is not. It did – or did not – happen. Like the coastlines going glub-glub-glub under water, for instance. There is no need to argue about it because it just is (or isn’t) and that is the elegance – and justice of it.

If it can be shown – if it is a fact – that not driving an electric car “changes” the “climate” in a way that is harmful then it is not unreasonable to favor it. But it is the definition of unreasonable to demand it when there is nothing more behind it than assertions based on projections; on scary pictures like Al Gore’s movie and Greta Thundberg’s twisted visage.

Meanwhile, how about choice? Let those who want to buy an electric car buy an electric car and let those who don’t, alone. This includes not forcing them to subsidize the buying of electric cars by those who do want them, as via the higher taxes they are forced to pay in order that those so favored – those who buy electric cars – pay lower taxes as the government’s “gift” (grift, actually) for their doing so.

Let the manufacturers of cars respond to buyer’s wants, as expressed by their willingness to buy – as opposed to using the government (via mandates and regulations and other artificially-induced mechanisms) to alter by force what would otherwise have been the market’s natural inclinations.

This was the case, once – about 120 years ago.

At the dawn of the automobile age there were a variety of different kinds of automobiles and not just electric and internal-combustion-powered. There were also external combustion-powered cars. Steam-powered cars, as made by Stanley. Or you could buy a Baker electric car. Or not.

Whatever suited.

Each was free to compete on its merits, which applied the discipline of the market to what was manufactured. At first, steam and electric-powered cars had the advantage. They were easier to use, quieter and simpler. They sold better, accordingly.

Until internal combustion engines improved and offered greater flexibility, range and lower cost. They quickly outsold their steam and electric-powered brethren. Does it have a familiar ring?

A century down the road, the electric car – though much improved in terms of its short-burst performance, which is superior to that of an internal combustion-powered car – is still afflicted by the same problems (higher cost, lower range, longer waits) that caused the Baker electric car and its brethren to yield right, pull over and leave the road, ultimately, to the internal combustion-powered car.

With the difference in our time being that government is now refusing to accept the verdict of the market and the manufacturers of cars have become rent-seeking adjuncts of the government, banking on forcing (via mandates and regulations) people to buy what they don’t really want by using the government to prevent them from having the alternative of being free to buy what they do want.

This is outrageous on its lonesome. But the tragedy is that if the government weren’t interfering and if the car companies were subjected to the discipline of the market – if they had to successfully design an electric (or steam or whatever-powered) car on the merits, it is very probable they’d be making a car that people would want – without the need to force them to buy it, by using the government to deny them alternatives to it.

Such an electric car would by definition also be affordable, which government mandated electric cars are not. You’d think people like Greta and Al would be in favor of that, as it would mean more people driving the kinds of cars they say they want them to drive.

Unless, of course, the true object is to throttle back on their driving – by arranging it such that most can no longer afford to.

. . .

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54 COMMENTS

  1. Lack of choice: a local tv station just ran a glowing article about tech being developed to put alcohol sensing devices in all cars, whether you’re a convicted drunk or not. It will be “offered” to us all, although I’m not sure it’s an offer if you can’t say no, but that’s life in the good old USA these days, no?
    It’s at wthr.com
    “It’s helping save lives’ | Vehicles will soon have built-in sensors to prevent drunk driving” if anyone wants to read it.

    • Hi Amy,

      Yup; I wrote about this a year or so ago. It’s another natural evolution of the Safety Cult. Inevitably, driving itself will be prohibited on the same basis (it will “save lives” to eliminate the human variable).

      God damn these people.

    • More guilty-until-proven-innocent bullshit. It all must stop. These people want to control everything. We must eventually show them that control is an illusion. They never had control. And when we start revoking the consent of the governed, we’ll shatter their illusion as well.

    • It’ll start out as a “novelty” and be trumpeted as “getting drunks off the road”, so, if like Captain Kirk in “Star Trek V”, when he doubts that the mysterious being putting on the light show is really “Gawd” (i.e., what does “God” want with a spaceship?), and says, “Excuse me…?”, the lightning bolts fired out of the eyes don’t start…YET. The magic device will be promoted as “S-A-A-A-F-T-E-E-E”, especially for the CHILDREN, and if you oppose it, why you must be some degenerate DRUNK.

      Then the insurance mafia gets involved, as they lobby the Congress critters to mandate these devices, at first on new vehicles, then to require their being retrofit on all US vehicles titled and registered. Naturally, the patent for the magic device was sold (or stolen) by an electronics merchandising outfit, or Amazon, of which a great deal of its stock is owned by…guess WHO? So, now everyone has to “blow” in order to “go”, and we see some ridiculous slogans, the stuff of much snickering, on highway billboards and in PSAs.

      Then, of course, the devices are set up to “tattle” on YOU…not only if you show ANY BAC at all (even it was just the one beer you had with lunch with your buds at work at 12:00, and it’s now 1:15 as you’re headed back to the “orfice”), but ANYWHERE you go. As within proximity of the home of some “person of INTEREST” who dares question the “Narrative”. Next we’ll hear of it being required even for some Amish dude driving his horse-drawn buggy, and some 17 y.o. the recipient of a “hut-hut-hutting”, involving a royal ass-kicking by AGWs, b/c, nervous about his date with the hot cheerleader, he swished too much Listerine to kill the halitosis and it lit the breathalyzer up like the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center!

      I dunno if it was Orwell, or CS Lewis, or even Heinlein, but I’ve heard it said that the worst sort of tyranny is promulgated by those that sincerely believe they’re doing it for our own “GOOD”!

  2. Is there any aspect of gov.com which doesn’t operate under the assumptions of the ‘might cause harm’ dogma? I can’t think of one off-hand.
    On the other hand, gov which deals only in ‘does actually cause harm and we can prove it’ would have banned tobacco, alcohol, pre-EPA vehicles, no-fault divorce, most industrial processes, wars, and so on.
    Is that what we want? And does gov or someone/something have a duty to protect the commons, since destruction of common resources most definitely harms people?

    • The problem being, the Sociopaths In Charge do nothing that does not benefit them, and to hell with what it costs the rest of us. Such is the nature of the sociopaths that run the government, whether they are elected or selected by the sociopaths further up the political food chain. The duty of the government is to protect our rights. One might argue that access to those common resources is one of those rights, depending on exactly what those resources are determined to be. Clean water may not be objectionable, but the product of someone else’s efforts would be. There are many who think both are. But the SIC don’t give a damn for either. Every single government on the planet is based on the assumption they have authority to kill you if you don’t go along. There is no such thing as a good one. No sane moral person would participate in such assumption.

      • Rule 1: All government is evil.
        Rule 2: The stronger the capabilities of its citizens, the more evils government perpetrates, and for longer.
        Rule 3: Government grows until it destroys the civilization it is built on.
        https://www.theburningplatform.com/2021/04/11/the-pied-piper/

        A malevolent force, the curse of humanity, the bane of all that’s good and fair and right and just. But it seems civilization can’t survive without it.

        • Unfortunately, civilization can’t survive with it either. Throw in nuclear weapons and the effing biosphere might not survive with it.

  3. Matters not to me if everything they say is true. Global Warming. Pandemics. Emissions. Lead paint. Lung cancer. Costs too much. Whatever, nothing justifies the destruction of our basic humanity, or the destruction of hard won legal protections against tyranny. Nothing. Is death worse than losing what makes life worth living? Millions of soldiers fighting for freedom over the centuries, untold thousands pledging their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to establish a system of legal liberty, millions of individuals standing on principle throughout history come what may; none of them held life more dear than that which makes life worth living.

    So what if 600,0000 really did die from a germ? Are we to relinquish the last vestiges of liberty left to us, our birthright handed down through the ages, do we just hand it over? History is our teacher; power is never returned after the emergency is over; freedom lost is gone forever, until a people more deserving than us rises to take it back.
    What happens to a people without freedom? They die! North Koreans, Chinese, Russians, South Africans, American Indians…(we all on the reservation now)… Give me liberty or give me death! – P. Henry was right. Life without liberty is just a slow, inexorable death. Individuals, families, and finally the collective populace. East Germany, so many people were dying, they stopped keeping track. Death of the spirit, soul death, whatever you call it, when people are restrained from exercising their agency, restrained from living according to their own values, well my friends, what is the point?
    Sorry I’m ranting, I am very sorry. I am saddened beyond the point of caring any more about myself. A woman I was hoping to spend the next 20 years with, a great gal and caring person, is so traumatized by this pandemic madness that I fear we may never get started in life together. I am driving down to Florida to visit her one last time, but she is beyond hope, maybe. Was lucky to find her, now, not so much. Time will tell, I guess, how we turn out. But this Covid-19 craziness is destructive beyond measure, we will never be able to quantify it, much like the destruction caused by the war on terror.

    Freedom is flickering out around the globe. Some smaller nations are actually more free now than any Westernized First World nation.
    I hope I have the courage to lose my job, go to prison, and possibly even die for what I believe in.

    • Hi X,

      It’s sad, indeed. And different from, say, the passing away of the steam locomotives – which were replaced because diesel electric engines were better for the job (if not the soul). This is an entirely force-driven, artificially induced regression to something worse.

      I wish I’d studied math more and had the brainpower to design a viable FTL drive. Perhaps there is hope on Prox B or some such…

      • A very good analogy. The free market, not the government, chose diesel-electric locomotives.

        I’ve very troubled by how “they” have all completely accepted an EV future, it is a fait accompli imposed from the top down, and you and I simply have no say in the matter.

        When they put EVs in the marketplace, they didn’t sell. But “they” decided that’s what you’re going to have anyway, like it or not.

        I have no objection to EVs in principle. If I could buy a new EV that outperforms an IC vehicle for less money, I would. Let’s say I could get a brand-new EV with a range of 400 miles that could recharge in ten minutes for, say, twelve or fifteen thousand bucks OTD. Sure, I’d do it! But of course I can’t. “They” are going to tell me that I will have to buy one with less performance for more money, PLUS I will be forced to subsidize the damn thing and subsidize the grid they’re going to have to build and subsidize GM with my tax dollars.

        It is going to be like paying for Amtrak in the jet age — except I won’t have the option of booking a flight on a jet any more.

        • Indeed, X –

          I also have no issue with EVs, as such – though I am often accused of being a “Luddite” and of “hating” them. Nonsense. I may not like them, personally – but if someone else wishes to buy one and if someone wants to make one that people want to buy, it would be outrageous of me to stand in the way (assuming I had such power and wished to use it). My objection is as yours, that EVs are being force-fed to people, who would prefer not to buy or subsidize them – and that is what’s outrageous.

        • If the Government had been involved as to the choice of locomotive power (hint: it was very much involved with the railroads, but it was THEY that used the Government powers of eminent domain to grant them land they wouldn’t have to PAY for, hence why railroad companies became some of the large players in REAL ESTATE!), likely a consortium of boilermakers, pipe fitters, and colliers would have collaborated to retard the conversion to diesels, or even find some reason why they weren’t “SAFE”. Nowadays, they’d just say the diesels are “polluters”, much as they’ve been wrongly maligned for automobiles and trucks, and bad for “Mother Gaia” or similar horseshit reasoning.

      • Proxima Centauri B might have a wee issue with (1) being tidally locked and (2) Proxima itself is a “flare” star, so the planet in its habitable zone might never have formed at atmosphere. Only one way to find out!

        The thing is, IF you could devise some FTL propulsion method, you wouldn’t necessarily be lauded by folks, and certainly NOT the PTB. If anything, they’d do their worst to either co-opt the gadget, under the dubious legal doctrine of “born ‘secret’ “, or at minimum, dirty tricks would be resorted to in order to frustrate you, even if attracting investors didn’t prove problematic.

        I’m reminded of one of the short stories from Bradbury’s “Golden Apples of the Sun”. One of them involves some Chinese guy that invents a workable glider or “kite” that can transport a man. The Emperor’s soldiers see the glider flying about, and are amazed, and when the man lands with his contraption, they’re brought to the old Mandarin, who orders the inventor-pilot beheaded, and his glider burned to ashes. When the pilot protests, saying, “why are you punishing me for this wonderful thing I’ve invented? I’ve done nothing ‘wrong’ !”. The Emperor’s reply, “your intentions are laudable sir, but you DID do something..’wrong’. You introduced an idea that is DANGEROUS. While you simply enjoyed flying over the Great Wall, who is to say another man, with ‘evil’ in his heart, will not also fly over it, but carrying great stones to drop on it? That, sir, is a risk I cannot ALLOW.”

        Don’t kid yourself about the Mandarins that’d try to stop YOUR progress out of fear.

  4. The truth is that the climate is such a powerfully dynamic, enigmatic, chaotic force, that has been changing ever since there was one, often rapidly, radically, and sometimes both at once, that its beyond human comprehension. The attempt to claim our paltry increase in the CO2 content of the air has a profound effect on such an engine is ludicrous. I would more likely believe that short of nuclear weapons we couldn’t significantly change it if we tried. Before you could legitimately claim our CO2 is a significant factor, you would have to know what the climate was doing in the first place, and we don’t. For all the “experts” know we should all be burning tires every night to keep it warm.

  5. “There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.” Robert Heinlein

  6. I can only see one reason to buy an EV. If I lived in commiefornia I’d be very tempted to buy an old EV with a dead battery and graft in an engine and transaxle from a totalled car. Emissions tests are a nightmare. Carpool lane use would be a bonus.

  7. While it is a fact that excess carbon dioxide from combustion process of all kinds is a component in today’s warming climate (without CO2 in the atmosphere, we’d be on a frozen rock), the degree to which it will actually drive the global temperature higher is still in debate, and recent papers have been more tepid about the alarmism.

    What is singular to me is the fact that there is ONLY one answer to the “crisis” from climate alarmists, and that is centralized control… Of EVERYTHING.

    The truth of the matter is this: Decentralization, in all its facets, would be helpful to the environment, including in the needless generation of CO2. Decentralized production of food and energy would have a MUCH greater effect at limiting CO2 emissions than taking away your F150.

    But these solutions are usually pidgen-holed. Why? Because they mean greater freedom, self-reliance, and the limitation of gov’t control. Can’t have that now, can we.

    Well, I WILL have it, and soon.

    And if, in a few years, gazzuline is made illegal, you can get your boot-leg synthetic gazzuline from me!

    • Not to mention the greatest CO2 emitter on the planet, the US military.
      Centralized control is always inefficient. Inefficiency causes waste. Waste creates disproportionate CO2 emissions.

      • Oh, without a doubt, John! Ruthlessly inefficient, both fiscally and energetically.

        And let’s not forget the billionaires driving a lot of this poppycock. I fly commercially maybe once every two years, although maybe never again the way things are. These bastards are continuously gallivanting all over the globe in their private jets and jet helicopters, and they want to lecture US about our carbon footprints.

  8. The latest insanity, You cannot buy a new Dell Alienware computer in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont or Washington due to power consumption regulations. Yet There is a full on push for everyone to drive EV”s?

    • Dude, you can’t buy some LED light bulbs here because they’re not efficient enough:

      https://www.waveformlighting.com/home-residential/why-cant-these-light-bulbs-ship-to-california-an-overview-of-california-energy-commissions-title-20

      These guys make really good light bulbs which have near-incandescent levels of light output, but they’re not legal in CA. They’re far more efficient than compact fluorescents, which are legal here. It makes no sense.

    • Pfff, WHAT??!! Hahaha… Meanwhile they have enormous NSA server buildings recording and processing data 24/7. Yeah, your gamer laptop is a problem.

    • The same morons at CARB (California AIr Resources Board) ASSumed the authority to regulate the sale of auto parts and related items, including paints, solvents, etc. In restoring that 1966 Plymouth Fury II, my boy and I actually found out we could NOT order a hood latch…yes, a BODY part, from here in Northern Cali(porn)ia from the supplier in Sparks, NV, because it’s PROHIBITED per CARB regulations. A hood latch! They may as well just come out and say it: restoring vintage Detroit iron “ist Verboten”!

      Fortunately an old chum of his who lives in Carson City helps him out by getting his wanted stuff on the occasional foray into the Reno/Sparks metro area, and brings it to him when he visits his family in the Bay Area. As long as at that “AGRICULTURAL Inspection” station on I-80 (and there’s one on US 50 as well) hasn’t increased its scope to search for such “contraband”, we’ve got a way to get around those annoying bureaucrats.

      For that matter, I’ve seen, at Maverik gas station, some 88 octane “clear” gasoline, i.e., no ETHANOL…Shit, what a CONCEPT…Gasoline that’s actually ALL “gasoline”! I’d like nothing better than to haul a 500 gallon tank on a trailer and “fill ‘er up”, and run my rides off it until the next Nevada trip, but somehow, I’ll just bet such a scheme, never mind that I know about displaying appropriate placards and all, would seriously run afoul of Federal and state DOT regs, as well as likely, even if the Highway Patrol or the Inspection stations didn’t stop my rig, if Cali(porn)ia got work I was bringing in “out of state” gas, even strictly for consumption in my personal rides, they’d have a conniption fit! Sure, they’d cite “emissions” as the reason, but the rea one would be all those exorbitant fuel TAXES not paid to them!

      • Here in Michigan we have “recreational gas” for boats, agricultural equipment, etc. It is priced a few cents more than premium, but with NO ETHANOL.

        • Since it’s 100% gasoline, instead of 85% to 90% (and don’t kid yourself that even THAT isn’t “fudged”), you’re actually getting a better value. BTW, ethyl alcohol is ALSO an “octane booster”, just like tetraethyl lead used to be, so “premium” grades are NOT “hotter”, if anything, there’s slightly LESS heating value per gallon than with regular grade gasoline, and definitely less than the “pure” stuff. So using mid-grade or premium when your vehicle recommends 87 Octane “regular” is not only wasting money, it’s also self-defeating. Modern ECMs handle engine timing quite well, and the “low-tech” method to deal with annoying, and potentially engine-damaging “knock” was to simply retard the distributor a few degrees until the engine didn’t ping anymore.

  9. Gasoline is being phased out for another reason…
    Gasoline is one of the few substances that is readily available that can be used for purposes besides fuel for internal combustion engines.
    Gasoline was used to “weaponize” the antifa riots of 2020 in urban areas.
    The “powers that be” cannot allow this volatile substance to be in ordinary hands, hence, the “push” for electric vehicles.
    When the SHTF…

    • Wait until rioters figure out they can roll an ev into a building and puncture the battery for an unstoppable chemical fire.

    • Reminds me of a traffic stop I endured many years ago for speeding. The first words out of the enforcer’s mouth were “do you have any weapons in the vehicle”, to which I replied, “of course. I have a jack and a tire tool., several heavy blunt objects in my tool box, and enough gas in the tank to blow up the Sheriff’s office.”
      He was speechless for a moment, then sent me on my way, no ticket.

    • Something is wrong, and it has something to do with the refineries. Common industrial solvents (i.e., petrochemicals) are no longer available, with no reason given. Shortages of jet fuel. Something is fishy, I just don’t have all the pieces to be able to tell what.

      I hope it’s a Galt moment, but whatever the case it’s a symptom of something that isn’t quite right.

  10. Well, actually, we do have one personal choice we CAN make. At least the real females among us can. Whether to have an abortion or not. Of course, the central planners may decide that they should make that decision for us too, in our REAL self interest. That is actually their self interest.

  11. My goodness Eric, how the hell is central planning going to work if we all make choices in our perceived best interest? Don’t you know that central planning is the only way that our REAL self interests, as determined by the central planners, can ever be realized? Never mind that our REAL self interests are defined as living in a mud hut and farming our half acre of beans with wooden tools, if there is a sufficient centrally planned supply of such wooden tools. Never mind that the central planners require half of your bean production so they can continue with the wildly successful central planning. After all, is not weight loss a good thing, even if you are looking a bit emaciated?
    One would think, and I know that’s a challenge for many, that after extensive experimentation with central planning, and ZERO success, that folks would start to get the picture. Central planners are completely focused on THEIR self interest. Being sociopaths, yours is of no consequence to them.

  12. The only prediction I made about covid in March 2020 was that when it’s over, the politicians will say, “It would have been so much worse if we hadn’t acted.” Of course that can’t be proven or disproven, so most people will believe it.
    Same with climate change. After they’ve inflicted massive suffering on mankind, they will say, “It would have been so much worse.” Don’t agree? How dah you!
    Meanwhile, if you have a Chevy Bolt, don’t charge it to more than 90%, don’t discharge it to less than 70 miles remaining, and park it outside. Like really far away outside.
    https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2021/07/23/gm-recall-bolt-electric-vehicle-batteries-fire-risk/8063433002/

    • Who would’ve thought, a company that made lethal ignition switches would make incendiary golf carts. Gremlin Motors is a total failure and should have been deep sixed a long time ago. Heres hoping their commitment to an 100% electric fleet does them in this time.

  13. A climate facts website, No Tricks Zone, had a story about electric vehicles and a German couple who traveled 765 km in a VW ev. 26 hours later they arrived at their destination. It was not a good experience for them. 475 miles at an average speed of 18 miles per hour, 0 to 60 in three seconds is far out, but 18 mph for 26 hours is a nightmare.

    https://notrickszone.com/2021/07/21/horror-trip-german-retired-couple-need-26-hours-to-make-765-km-vacation-trip-in-e-car/

    There was a comment that told of a man who bought a Tesla for his wife. His wife got fed up with the Tesla, “Get rid of the fu*king tesla and get me a real car”. She realized a Tesla is not what it is cracked up to be.

    It was a come to Jesus moment for her, good guess anyhow.

    Live and learn. Takes time to get back to the real reality of the real world. lol

    • This is actually a feature not a bug. Being old-ish I remember even back in the 70’s you could hear the chattering class constantly whine about “ending Americas love affair with the automobile” Of course back then it was fears of a new ice age and global cooling, mass starvation all the usual bugaboos.

      Well they finally figured out a way to do it, make driving an automobile so expensive and so inconvenient you’ll be happy to take the bus. Don’t even think about flying, that is for the elite, you know your betters, not the unwashed hoi-polloi.

      • The same Gott-damned “social engineers”, largely of a CERTAIN tribe, that had grandiose ideas about remarking mankind as THEY saw fit. Cars? Why did anyone “NEED” their own automobile when we have buses and trains? For that matter, why did folks “NEED” to live out in suburbia, away from the “rich cultural heritage” of the inner city, and so on? The same types of kosher kommunists who’d “kevetch” that you couldn’t find a decent “delicatessen” in Austin or Salt Lake City, and pined for the “Old Neighborhood” in Brooklyn, or the “Lower East Side”, or Baltimore or “Chi-Kaw-Go!”.

        • For that matter, who needs private jets. mega yachts, waterfront property in Malibu or an apartment at the Dakota with a park view?

          • What does need have to do with it? A half acre, some beans, and some wooden tools is all we need. Build your mud hut when you can find time. Of course the Sociopaths In Charge have more “needs” than we do. That’s obvious.

          • Because, like Al Gore, in all their “collectivist” hypocrisy, they’re your BETTERS, that’s why. Just as our current “Guv”, “Gabbin Nonsense” with his dinner at the swanky Wine Country Frog restaurant with his cronies and their wives/ squeezes / “one that receives”, rules are for YOU, not THEM.

  14. ‘Meanwhile, how about choice?’ — EP

    Ain’t no choice allowed in Democratic Peoples States, comrade:

    ‘California will soon require state employees and all healthcare workers to provide proof of COVID-19 inoculation or get tested at least once a week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday as he vowed that the the Golden State will have the “strongest vaccine verification system in the US.”

    “Too many people have chosen to live with this virus,” Newsom said during a press briefing where he announced the new vaccination requirement, which will take effect next month.

    The Democratic governor added, “We’re at a point in this epidemic, this pandemic, where individuals’ choice not to get vaccinated is now impacting the rest of us in a profound and devastating and deadly way.”

    ‘At least 2 million healthcare workers and 246,000 state employees fall under the mandate, according to the Associated Press.’

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/newsom-vows-california-will-have-the-strongest-vaccine-verification-system-in-the-us-as-mandate-is-announced/ar-AAMAkzb

    Every Communist must grasp the truth, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party. — Mao Zedong

    • “The Democratic governor added, “We’re at a point in this epidemic, this pandemic, where individuals’ choice not to get vaccinated is now impacting the rest of us in a profound and devastating and deadly way.”
      So, the vaccines don’t work, and somehow that must be blamed on those who don’t want a vaccine with zero testing for long term safety, right?

  15. This article reminded me of a chat I had with my daughter one day after school. I asked her what she did that day, and one thing they did in science was something called “interesting facts”. That ay it was about the ocean. So i asked her to tell me some… it started with some actual facts but then became more fluffy…. like that great garbage patch in the pacific, as a “fact”…. and the worst was “by 20xx there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish” said “how is that a “fact”. Daughter was like the teacher told me… i explained to her what a “fact” was and told her nothing abstract in the future can be a fact, its a projection or forecast, with certain limitations and assumptions. I also told her about how the great garbage patch story is unlikely to be a fact either because nobody has every shown any proof of it !! and for a fact you need proof….
    but heres the thing – the way language itself is being twisted to push these narratives, especially in the minds of children….. its crazy…

  16. ‘A psychologically healthy person does not care what kind of [computer] his neighbor drives.’ — EP

    The madness metastasizes: California — home of Silicon Valley — prohibits the sale of certain powerful gaming PCs, says ZH.

    A specific example is the Alienware Aurora R12 gaming desktop. The base model retails for $1,099 — not an exotic price. Add more RAM, a bigger SSD, and a faster graphics card, and the price can jump to $1,929, then $2,409. No matter: all are mala prohibida in Cacafornia.

    Why? The 5-page Title 20 fact sheet — California Appliance Efficiency Regulations: Computers — is a head-exploding exhibition of babbling climate-freak Luddism.

    ‘A computer’s “expandibility score” (ES) considers the number and type of interfaces offered. There are also allowances for additional energy use if the computer offers additional functionality, including:• Add-in Cards• Additional Hard Disks• Graphics Cards• High Bandwidth System Memory• High-speed Ethernet Capability• Integrated Display• Refresh Rates Above 300 Hz (monitors)• System Memory• Video Surveillance Cards• Wired Ethernet or Fiber Cards.’

    An ES of 690 or higher is prohibited. No extra memory or SSD bays for you, digital serf. You’ll just have to stay on a frequent replacement cycle to have nice things like that.

    As a commenter aptly observed, ‘Welcome to the Stone Age, Caltards!

    • Dell won’t ship these to the Soviet of Washington either. Cali starts this nonsense and it travels north and lapped up by the morons here.

      We copied Cali emissions for cars 2009 and on also.

    • Sounds like a business opportunity for someone just across the border in Arizona or Nevada to sell these computers so they can be “smuggled” into Commifornia.

    • That’s where I have a “straw purchaser”, i.e. #2 son in Henderson, NV, buy it FOR me, and I cart it home when I come visit. WTF is Cali(porn)ia gonna do, inspect EVERY Gott-damned vehicle for illicit, “energy hog” PCs? Not that I’m into gaming, I’m into buying whatever the fuck my budget and my abilities will sustain.

      As I’ve often referenced in the past, the 1993 film “Demolition Man” was eerily prescient:

      SAPD OFFICER JOHN SPARTAN: Wait a minute. You’re the guy outside Pizza Hut.
      “SCAPS” LEADER EDGAR FRIENDLY: Yeah. What do you want?
      SPARTAN: I guess, you weren’t part of the Cocteau plan.
      FRIENDLY: Greed, deception, abuse of power. That’s no plan.
      SPARTAN: That’s why everybody’s down here?
      FRIENDLY: You got that right. See…according to Cocteau’s plan, I’m an enemy because I like to think. I like to read. I’m into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I’m the kind of guy who likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, “Gee, should I have the T-Bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with a side order of gravy fries?” I WANT high cholesterol. I want to eat bacon, and butter and buckets of cheese, okay? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section. I want to run through the streets naked with green Jell-o all over my body, reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to, okay pal? I’ve seen the future. You know what it is? It’s a 47-year-old virgin sitting around his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake and singing “I’m an Oscar Meyer Wiener”. Live up top, you live Cocteau’s way. What he wants, when he wants, how he wants. Your other choice: Come down here. Maybe starve to death.
      SPARTAN: All right, why don’t you take charge and lead these people out of here?
      FRIENDLY: I’m no leader. I do what I have to do. Sometimes people come with me. All I want to do is bury Cocteau up to his neck in shit and let him think happy-happy thoughts forever.
      SPARTAN: Then I got bad news. I think he wants to kill you.

      • I don’t need one. I have no use for one, that isn’t well served by the equipment I already own.

        I didn’t want one, until I found out California banned them.

        Now I want ten of them.

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