Where is Ralph Nader when he might actually be useful?
It’s fascinating that the self-appointed “safety” advocate has had nothing to say about the numerous safety problems that attend the pushing of battery powered devices – EVs – onto the roads.
Including that the roads – and guardrails – were not designed to safely handle them. See for yourself what happens when a three-ton EV such as the Rivian R1T runs into a guardrail that wasn’t designed to absorb the force imparted by a three-ton device:
It tears through the guardrail as if it were made of papier mache – which it might as well be when it comes to trying to halt the progress (and arrest the kinetic energy) of a three ton device impacting it at 40 or 50 MPH.
Imagine what the impact would do to you.
Imagine what it’s going to do the insurance you’re forced to buy – even if you don’t own one of these dangerous devices. Because others do.
And you might get hit by one of them.
If you’ve recently been hit with what the insurance mafia styles an “adjustment” – which is to say, a rate hike – even though you’ve not hit anyone else, you already know all about it.
The mafia – all of the various families – has been sending out “adjustments” across-the-board. Everyone is paying more for the cost imposed by these dangerous devices. Including – inevitably – the costs incurred by your town or county for upgraded fire-fighting equipment, to deal with EV battery fires – including spontaneous combustion. In the past, a car generally had to be struck – as in an accident – before it caught fire.
But devices catch fire while parked. Including in people’s garages.
Now there’s this new cost, which we’ll all be paying for, too.
Guardrails will have to be updated – to be capable of absorbing the impact of three-ton devices. This will probably mean removing and replacing close to 100 percent of the existing guardrail infrastructure, because probably close to 100 percent of it is inadequate. Just the same as your local fire department is probably not equipped to handle a several-thousand-degree chemical fire (along with the toxic smoke produced).
“The concern over the weight of electric vehicles stretches beyond vehicle-to-vehicle crashes and compatibility with guardrails,” an AP news story relates. “The extra weight will affect everything from faster wear on residential streets and driveways to vehicle tires and infrastructure like parking garages.
“A lot of these parking structures were built to hold vehicles that weighed 2,000 to 4,000 pounds — not 10,000 pounds,” the AP piece observes.
Someone’s going to have to pay for all of that.
Guess who?
Beyond the cost, there’s also the meretriciousness of the saaaaaaaaaaaaafety cultists, of whom, Nader is the John the Baptist figure. This self-appointed “consumer safety advocate” – whom no one elected to “advocate” – has been as silent as the grave with regard to the serial dangers presented by battery powered devices, which establishes he’s not really “concerned” about “safety” except insofar as it is useful. As in the furtherance of an anti-car (and anti-driving) agenda.
Rest assured that if those pushing EVs are successful – and only EVs are available and only EVs are allowed – they will then be “concerned” about their “safety.”
Nader could not be shut up – when it came to the falsely maligned Chevrolet Corvair. This car was not so much “unsafe at any speed,” as Nader claimed, but simply different. It was a rear-engined car (like the VW Beetle) and so had less weight over the front wheels, which made it easy to steer without needing power steering. But it was important to maintain the factory specified tire pressure, which differed front-to-rear. Unlike most cars of the time, which were front engined and rear-drive. These latter specified the same tire pressure for all four tires. Some Corvair owners assumed it was the same with their Corvair. It wasn’t. Combine improperly inflated tires with a driver who lacked the skill to handle a rear-drive car’s handling differences and you had a dangerous situation.
The car, itself, was not.
With its tires inflated to the specified pressure and driven by someone who knew how to drive a rear-engined car, it handled better than most of the cars of its time.
Nader and his minions didn’t stop there, either. Their “advocacy” resulted in the de facto banning of (among many others) the original VW Beetle, which VW was unable to continue selling in the United States after 1979 because a car designed back in the 1930s could no longer meet the “safety” standards imposed by the federal government, which by then was loaded with people like Nader, including the air bag fraus – Joan Claybrook and (later on) Elizabeth Dole.
These two nags insisted it was “unsafe” to drive a car that lacked air bags – just as their fellow apparatchiks insisted it was “unsafe” to drive a car that lacked “5 MPH” bumpers and that had a roof strong enough to support the weight of the car if it rolled onto its roof. They also insist that all vehicles be equipped with back-up cameras because it’s possible someone might otherwise not be able to see a child in the way of their backing up (a safety problem created by impact-resistance standards that have dramatically raised up and fattened up the rear ends of modern vehicles such that it is now much harder to see what’s behind them without a camera system).
But they and theirs say nothing about the multiple dangers presented – imposed on us – by battery powered devices. The latter italicized to emphasize the fact that no one was forced to buy a rear-engined Corvair or a Beetle without air bags that might not hold up as well if you got into a wreck with it.
As opposed to the ongoing effort to force us all into close proximity with the dangerous devices called EVs.
. . .
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True Story – Ralph was a tenant in our building at 2001 S Street, NW, Washington DC back in the late 1980’s. He wasn’t paying his rent. Our Exec. VP paid him a visit. RN, “I’m not paying you anything.” EVP, “Why? You signed a lease and you owe us the money.” RN, “Because I’m Ralph Nader, and I don’t get pushed around by anyone.” EVP, “Okay, I will tear up the lease right now and you can get the hell out of my building, right now.” Ralph exited quickly.
Here is the definition of an idiot with more money than brains. He should thank Ralph Nader for all his hard work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIXfp7pVFV4
Holy cats Folks,
Never realized …”Nader, was such a Nadir”!… to the automotive industry..
His “museum of horrors” is located in Winsted CT …with a Corvair in the front lobby.
“Good morning Mr Phelps, your mission…should you decide to accept it…is to plant a ripe “”San Francisco””..i.e. Free range fecal deposit..on the front steps of the Tort Museum..645 Main St Winsted CT
should you or any of your IMF force be caught or killed, The Secretary will disavow any knowledge ..
THEREFORE JUST START SCREAMING ANTIFA…then score a free get out of jail free card”
Easy Peazy
Welcome to Earth!
More on Ralph Nader – lengthy read.
https://nader.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AutoSafetyReport2021.pdf
Wow, that is pretty violent. That it goes right through the guardrail at an angle is testament. Nothing will be done. Unless they need another ‘make work – print money’ episode.
Have a guardrail at the end of my driveway. It get’s hit, and destroyed, every year or worse. Little cars destroy it. I asked the crew last time ‘why fix it, this happens all the time’ ‘the cars lose grip (snow) at the same place every time and this guardrail makes the damage far worse’.
“we just replace what was here”
I also recall Ralph Nader calling GM on the carpet for “planned obsolescence” with both constant styling changes; e.g., Cadillac’s tail fins being changed every year, as well as poor build quality, and how wasteful GM was being by trying to get people to buy new cars every three years.
At least 50 years ago, you didn’t HAVE to buy a new Cadillac just because the tail fins changed. In fact, the mechanicals basically didn’t change. You could keep your 1959 Cadillac going for a loooong time if you didn’t care about the tail fins.
But with EVs, planned obsolescence is baked in. First, because of the batteries. Next, because the software might no longer be supported/all the software upgrades actually downgrade the vehicle’s functionality. And finally, because of their inherent fragility as compared to IC vehicles.
During the 2000 election, Nader had a campaign stop at a local Cracker Barrel. His campaign of course didn’t bother asking the management if that was ok. They just showed up in a bus. The GM of the CB was quite pissed when all these people were around, but not being customers. I happened to be there at the time and Nadar was sitting like a douche in one of those rocking chairs CB sells. What a s******w that was, his “regime” if elected would have been run like that as well.
What day is this?
The scene in Ground Hog Day when Phil Connors drove the Chevy pickup over the cliff into the deep gravel pit below and caught fire, a good one to remember.
Wakes up the next morning and it is still Ground Hog Day.
In another scene, Phil dives off a building to the street below, wakes up again on February 2.
How it is every day these days, Covid Day again, deja vu all over again.
Covid vaccines, unsafe at any dose.
Nader is clearly a Luddite. Lives in denial 24/7, an idiot. I don’t drive, why do you? Points with pride and views with alarm.
Another (expletive redacted) who wants to tell you what to do. One of those ‘do as I say, not as I do’ self-righteous judgmental assholes. Expletive required there.
“OK campers, rise and shine…”
‘EVs likely crash more because only an idiot would buy an EV.’ — Arthur
You can drop the ‘likely’ qualifier:
‘Insurance analysts at LexisNexis found that, when vehicle owners switch from gasoline-powered cars to electric cars, they tend to crash more. The frequency of insurance claims rises by about 14.3% while the severity of claims, or the amount that has to be paid out, increases by 14.5%, according to the data.
‘The increase in incidents is highest during the first year or so after drivers get the new electric vehicle, but then tapers off after that, according to LexisNexis, presumably as people get used to driving the new model.
“Electric vehicles” largely means Teslas. That suggests there may be something about Teslas that’s causing people to crash more than other cars. But LexisNexis researchers previously noticed similar trends in China, where there are many more EVs – including more that aren’t Teslas.’
http://tinyurl.com/4cfx7w98
As Ralph Nader would say, EeeVees are ‘unsafe at any speed.’ Even the insurance mafia gets it: EeeVees ain’t makin’ them any money.
Soon even the last people on earth to get a clue — Congress Clowns — will be feeling the heat from pissed-off proles, furious at having to subsidize rich, la-di-da toffs in Commiefornia … where the grapes-of-wrath hoi polloi point the horn ornament northward or eastward, and drive till the last palm tree fades in the rearview mirror.
So adios to California
Nothin’ to do but turn around
I always thought there’s someone coming for you
Only way you’d leave this town
— John Hiatt, Adios to California
‘hood ornament’
Wow that’s quite the crash test! Won’t see that on the climate cult believers TV news show, instead we got the great news this morning Jaydolf Dimslee our esteemed climate cult governor crowing about all the new charging stations going in here in WA.
“Jobs! Jobs for electricians, masons! Great news WA!” Funded by the carbon tax scam he got passed a couple years ago which now means we pay .85 to 1.10 over the national average per gallon. So, Dems for the little guy? Hum. Tax the hell out of motor fuels so a barely surviving workin stiff now faces unplanned drastic increase in fuel costs – to support infrastructure for vehicles he or she can never afford?
Re: road barrier safety, gone are the guardrail ends curved off and buried in a dirt berm from 40 years ago. WA now using blunt ends with a couple feet of crumple and a wire rope retainer somehow is supposed to prevent a jousting intrusion in a crash? Worse they brought back wire rope median “barriers” supposed to prevent cross median into oncoming lanes. These were outlawed here in the ‘60s as way too dangerous. Looks like instant death for a motorcycle rider, wire rope fillet. To hell with logical safety engineering just do it cheap! That 3 ton truck would make quick work of the lame designs here.
Sparky……
Nothing personal..But after the 2020 election year nonsense….chaz?
Coupled with ridiculously rainy/ foggy weather most of the time ….
Buddy unless you’re a dedicated Sasquatch hunter….
How many more “ THANK YOU SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER “ strikes against WA do you need to “ get out of dodge “?
Ps don’t forget daily Vitamin D supplements!😂
Forgot to mention I don’t consider Seattle all that attractive… must be worse now with the homeless BS… the eastern part of the state..
Save some cool shots of the Columbia river gorge… is generally very nondescript . Then the cascade coast and Olympic national park …wonder what’s “ glowing “ on at the leaking Hanford Nuclear storage site tanks…
I could go on but , I’ll take the rain any day over woke cultist infestation!
I burn with hatred toward Nader for his vanity project of being on the ballot in several states in the 2000 presidential election, thus pulling enough votes away from Gore to inflict us with the Chimp. Not that Gore was any good, but at least he wasn’t a strutting warmonger chickenhawk.
Hi Mike,
And then we would have been infiltrated with the “Green New Deal” even earlier.
I agree with you that we ended up with a NeoCon…and a dumb one at that, but Harry Browne and Howard Phillips were good choices.
We need to broaden our horizons…we can do better than R or D. It is just the same snake with two heads.
Hi RG,
Howard Phillips! I worked for him (briefly) at the Conservative Caucus, part-time while I was at GMU.
He was great. I voted for him in 1996. In 2000, we got Pat Buchanan and he should have been president. He would have been the best president in modern history.
‘The mafia – all of the various families – has been sending out “adjustments” across-the-board.’ — eric
The AP article linked by Eric identifies one cabal of EeeVee pushers: the Alliance for Transportation Electrification. Conveniently, ATE lists its members here:
https://evtransportationalliance.org/about-us/members/
Electric utilities make up the largest number of members, followed by contractors and auto makers (Ford, GM and Honda, but not Toyota or Nissan).
Just for perspective, electric utilities are a heavily regulated industry, like bankstering and the insurance mafia. Operating as a regulated monopoly under the heavy hand of state government attracts some of the most bureaucratic, purblind, hidebound managers you can imagine.
But they have a nose for sucking more loot out of their captive customers with mandatory EeeVees.
ATE, the self-designated alliance of EeeVee pushers, is an Enemy of the People. My brain-dead utility is a member. I’m going to continue bashing the shit out of them, as I’ve done for years owing to their gobsmacking incompetence.
Here are some interesting articles on his “website.” I’m pretty sure he has some computer savvy person upload this garbage. I’m not sure that he even writes them, but, you can tell what the son of a bitch is thinking.
https://nader.org/2023/09/21/insurers-can-be-sentinels-for-health-and-safety/
https://nader.org/1995/11/13/speed-limit/ (this one is old)
https://nader.org/2015/12/07/your-safety-and-your-congress-in-1965-and-now/
https://nader.org/2023/10/06/prevention-of-dangers-mark-of-a-compassionate-society/
https://nader.org/2023/09/08/second-and-third-stage-consequences-of-fossil-fueled-climate-disruptions-emerging-fast/
I remember in my playground days that someone would try to be the shot-caller and inevitably (and it often was me) said “who says?” Why we can’t ask that simple question, which is asking someone who thinks they’re in authority to justify that authority, is beyond me.
Who made Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook and Elizabeth Dole the “safety” gurus? Why should we believe or trust them?
Same with the goons at the World Economic Forum. Who appointed them the “masters of the universe?” I didn’t vote for them. They seek the immiseration of countless millions so they can have the power of life and death over people they perceive as beneath them. It was pretty funny when John F$%#ing Kerry got pissed when he was asked about his carbon footprint.
Yep.
At least the kings of old semi-plausibly claimed divine right.
The WEF clowns don’t believe in god, so they can’t even hide behind that 🤡.
They’re just a bunch of assholes and control freaks. The only difference is, they have money and power whereas you and I don’t. They have the money because they have and exercise power, and they only have power because other people do as they are told. Sometimes in exchange for money, and sometimes not even that.
Screw ‘em. Ignore ‘em. Leave ‘em in their doomsday bunkers, they’ll be fine. The more of us regular people who choose to do that, the better off we all will be in the long run.
This is Ralph.
Ralph is a bad driver.
Ralph is overeducated.
Because Ralph is an overeducated bad driver,
Ralph assumes you have to be a terrible driver, because you’re stupid.
Hi RK,
It’s even worse than that – in re Nader. He apparently didn’t even drive when he accused the Corvair of being “unsafe” to drive. As the former owner of a ’64 Monza 110, I know Nader was full of shit. That car was remarkably nimble and easy to drive. It was only “unsafe” if the driver was an idiot. Give one of those an old 911 (same basic design) and see what happens.
Nader had to be an awful driver. The last car he drove was some 1950 Nash. I don’t know how long the son of a bitch drove for, but he is a despicable scum. I won’t be sorry with his passing.
Another government program brought to you by do-gooders who don’t understand the consequences of their actions.
“VW was unable to continue selling in the United States after 1979 because a car designed back in the 1930s could no longer meet the “safety” standards imposed by the federal government,”
Someone stated that the VW beetle was the greenest car ever made…so they banned it and are pushing the most environmentally destructive vehicle ever made…the new 1000 lb lithium fire bomb battery 5000 lb EV……….
The beetle had a tiny carbon footprint….it used very few resources and very little energy in it’s manufacture…it was very simple and light…it only weighed about 1800 lb…..it was built like a tank and was very reliable, so used few parts to keep it running for decades and 100,000’s of miles…..it was very easy and simple to repair so didn’t use up much money/resources to keep it running….
it lasted a very long time so didn’t need to be replaced every 10 years …….it was very economical, it used very little fuel driving down the road…it was easy to recycle because it was just made of steel…the beetle was so good it is collectible now…people recondition them and keep them on the road…out of the landfill…..
The EV is the opposite of the VW beetle….the most environmentally destructive vehicle ever made…..it’s carbon footprint just in it’s manufacture is worse then an ice car over it’s entire lifetime…..add in all the fuel it burns…in the production of the huge amounts of electricity it uses…even just parked…..and it is multiple times worse then an ice vehicle……EV’s catch fire and these fires cause 50X the damage of a tiny ice vehicle fire…..which can be put out in minutes, not days…..
An EV is very unreliable compared to an ice vehicle so it will use more resources to keep it mobile over it’s very short lifespan….after 8 years or 100.000 miles the battery is unusable …so the residual value is zero because the battery costs $22,000 to $40,000……it will be scrapped….thrown into the landfill……where it will catch fire…..causing more environmental destruction……A tiny ding in an accident can cause the EV to be scrapped thrown in the landfill….because the battery is fragile and dangerous….
EV’s eat tires because they are very heavy….this causes the biggest pollution….tiny particles of rubber polluting the air and water…..Ev’s wear out the road more quickly because of their weight….wasting more resources for road repair……
The most environmentally destructive vehicle ever made…the new 1000 lb lithium fire bomb battery 5000 lb EV…..is the worse thing ever invented….it is a curse…..by design….
I agree, Anon –
I’ve owned several Beetles and they were the embodiment of their name (people’s car). Anyone could afford one. Anyone could afford to drive and maintain one. My ’74 Beetle – which I paid $700 for back in the late 1980s – saved me thousands I would otherwise have spent on a more expensive car. The money I saved helped me afford the down payment on my first house. It’s no wonder so many young people today cannot afford house. They can’t afford a car, either.
EV’s crash more, probably because they are so heavy…..and they have been marketed as having quick acceleration…..so the drivers accelerate hard to feel the torque and crash into things…..while texting….. because the EV is supposed to be self driving….lol…
EV’s have been marketed as having quick acceleration….that is all about safety….lol
Actually EV’s are very slow so they were marketed as being fast…..
The elapsed time from A to B….especially in very hot or cold weather or towing something…..when you include all the long recharge times ….is very long…so the average speed from A to B is very low…..a horse and cart might be quicker……
EVs likely crash more because only an idiot would buy an EV and idiots tend to make other bad decisions especially when choices are coming at them at a hundred feet per second.
You can still buy one and drive it for way less than a new car.
https://bringatrailer.com/volkswagen/beetle/
“In the past, a car generally had to be struck – as in an accident – before it caught fire”
Or the subject of a Dateline NBC hit piece.
I never thought about the impact to guardrails, parking decks, etc. due to the ridiculous weight of EVs vs normal cars.
I remember reading about some parking garages not allowing Ev’s to park in them due to their inherent fire hazard. Funny thing is that you don’t hear much about hybrids catching fire. Is that because of a smaller battery pack?
Hi Landru,
In re hybrids:
First, hybrid packs are (generally) are not set up for DC high voltage “fast” charging, which is induces a lot of heat and so increases the fire risk. Second, they are not as large and not as powerful and their charge state is kept much more within parameters that reduce fire risk.
Interesting point about the Corvair tire pressures, Eric.
Many years ago, driving my VW bug and coming home from work, i momentarily fell asleep on I95. (night shift can be terrible on sleep)
I awoke with a start, instantly reading my exit sign and turning the wheel way too sharply. Fully awake by now, i immediately tried to correct my steering in the other direction, but it was too late.
The VW Bug started rolling off of the highway and into the outskirts of a marshland. The appearance of the shadowy landscape rotating ahead of my windshield was quite bizarre. Expecting the worst, i grabbed the wheel with white knuckles and pushed myself against the seat. Miraculously missing trees and shrubbery, I finally came to a stop…and landed on my passenger side door!
After pondering my plight for a few seconds and trying to absorb what had just occurred, I finally rolled down my driver’s side window and pulled myself out of the vehicle, reflected a bit more, then walked home.
The next morning i contacted my buddy (also working nights) and, with rope and chains, went back to retrieve the Bug in his GTO.
We couldn’t find it at first, but eventually tracked it down to the police station lot. The Bug was quite banged up and had 2 flat tires. The glass was all intact, however! We pumped up the tires and they actually held air. I inserted the key and turned the ignition switch…the Bug started right up!
We decided to attempt to drive it home, with my buddy Jim following behind in his GTO. Aside from the fact that the engine was struggling,
the return trip was without incident.
I suspect that the unique shape of the Vw Bug may have enabled me to escape injuries or worse that night!
Is Nader still alive? I thought he died a long time ago. These government grifters sure live a long time. Even God doesn’t want to deal with them.
Hi Pug,
Unfortunately, yes. Adrenochrome keeps these croakers around forever.
It might not be the Adrenochrome keeping them going but just a contact with Satan.
Who says it can’t be BOTH Adrenocrhome and Satan keeping these cretins alive?
“I have created a new ring.” – Dante
Yes, he is 89 years old. Soon to be 90. He runs his own podcast in DC. I haven’t listened to it. He could get his message across if he was interested in highway safety anymore. I’m certainly not, except to get the rules rolled back to what they were in 1965. The last 60 years have been a huge lie.
I had no idea he was still consuming oxygen either….the Corvair was way before my time, even though I’m old enough to remember AMC Gremlins and the original VW Bug being on the road.
Probably the only EV he will ever be driving these days is a mobility scooter!
Speaking of the VW Bug, I had no idea why they just disappeared beginning in the 80’s. When I was a child I had a friend who’s mother had one, no idea what year. But the doors and hood were emblazoned with a jumbo sized Cool cigarette ad. It was like those wraps they put on cars today. The actual paint color of the car was a mint green to match the Cool logos. We just called it the “Cool car”…
Hi Lee,
Yup. And (related) Porsche eventually had to stop selling air-cooled engines for the same basic reason.