If you live in a state – like mine – you already know, probably, what this article is about. Virginia and a number of other states require that vehicles display ear tags – styled license plates – front and rear, so that the cattle (that’s us) are easier to keep track of. Tax ranchers – you know, those guys who “pull over” the cattle for inspection and to extract a pound of flesh for “violations” – have an easier time of it when they can see (or scan) your ear tags coming as well as going.
Every new vehicle is designed to accommodate the rear tag. But many new vehicles are not designed to accommodate the front tag. Affixing one to the front end often means mutilating the front end, very much in the same way a cow’s ears are mutilated by punching holes through them, to affix their tags.
This is both unsightly as well as costly in that it isn’t cheap to fix screw holes drilled through a vehicle’s plastic front end, to hold the ear tag in place. A vehicle that has a mutilated front end is likely to be less appealing to potential buyers, down the road, than a vehicle that hasn’t been mutilated.
It is certainly less appealing to its owner.
The most interesting aspect of this is the general indifference to the government-required mutilation of our property. This goes to show who is really the owner of what we like to pretend to ourselves is our property. It is of a piece with the way we are told what we may and may not do with “our” land and “our “homes”- which we’re also required to pay the government endlessly for, to avoid being evicted from what we like to pretend to ourselves is “our” land and “our” home.
You may have read about Stockholm Syndrome – a term conjured by psychiatrists to describe a victim who no longer gets that he’s a victim. Such a person has been so psychologically diddled that he will defend his victimizer. The classic example of this being Patty Hearst, the heiress of the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. She was kidnapped (and raped) by members of something called the Symbionese Liberation Army back in the early ’70s. After she had been sufficiently psychologically diddled-with, Hearst became a member of the SLA – participating in armed robberies and such.
We saw the phenomenon expressed again during the “COVID” episode. The majority of the population participated actively or passively in the abuse of the minority that resisted the abuse. Psychologically diddled-with people harangued and even chased down people who defied the abusers by refusing to wear a “mask” or “practice” the various strange rituals they were hugely pressured to pretend “worked” to “stop the spread.”
There is a common thread tying all of these things (and many others that are of-a-piece but not mentioned here) together. It is the psychological diddling of the population, which for the most part not only accepts its own diddling but will defend it – and attack the few who object to or actively resist the diddling.
Another example is the way most people will express indignation when someone admits they don’t always obey all traffic signage, just because there is a sign – as by not coming to a complete stop at a Stop sign when they can see there is no reason to come to a complete stop, other than obeisance to signage. That is to say, obeisance to authority. This can be put another way:
Acceptance of ownership.
Over themselves as well as their things, such as their vehicles as well as their homes, which aren’t really theirs as has already been explained. It is the mental outlook of a slave who does not comprehend that he is in fact a slave, the greatest psychological diddling imaginable. The chattel slave of pre-1865 America understood his status perfectly and resented it. He may have kept his resentment to himself, a function of his largely powerless-to-do-much-about-it situation. But the fact that he did resent his status was healthy.
His body may have been shackled but his mind hadn’t been diddled.
Today’s slaves – for that is what we are, however much we prefer to pretend to ourselves that we are other than that – are in far more degraded state because many do not want to see much less admit their status to themselves, at least.
But it can be seen all around us – including on the front ends of our vehicles, which are “ours” to the same extent “our” land and homes are “ours.”
We can see just how “free” we are if only we choose to open our eyes (and minds) to see it.
. . .
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It would be a small step that would cost little. If we had a real town square, the non compliance over this might spread like wildfire. If enough people did it, the mad-hatters in charge would probably feel the need to exercise crushing overreach toward such an uppity attitude from we humble Smurfs. And the blowback to that kind of overreach, is the thing revolutions are born of.
‘A quiet transformation of U.S. Customs and Border Protection into something more akin to a domestic intelligence operation [is underway]. CBP is now poised to get more than $2.7 billion to build out border surveillance systems such as the license plate reader program by layering in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
‘The result is a mass surveillance network with a particularly American focus: cars. Today, predictive surveillance is embedded into America’s roadways.
‘Chat logs show Border Patrol agents and Texas sheriffs deputies trading tips about vehicles’ travel patterns — based on suspicions about little more than someone taking a quick trip to the border region and back. Over time, the agency has amassed databases replete with images of license plates, and the system’s algorithm can flag an unusual “pattern of life” for human inspection.’
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-border-patrol-surveillance-drivers-ice-trump-9f5d05469ce8c629d6fecf32d32098cd
Check out the photo of a fedgov spy camera, hidden in an orange-and-white traffic cone on AZ-85 in Gila Bend. They are all over Cochise County, AZ. The article says the fedgov spooks have at least four license plate readers in the Phoenix area, too.
Is your ‘pattern of life’ beyond reproach, comrade?
My pattern of life is beyond reproach, comrade. My quarterly visits to Nogales or Algadones, to score drugs, which are legal in the US, but still requiring a prescription, is not breaking any ‘laws.’
Good to know about those cones containing cameras, I’ll remember that late at night as I pull off the road for a piss break.
I moved from a 1 plate state to a state that recently went to a 1 plate state. When getting new plates, the lady made sure to advise me, as if I was truly concerned and stressing, that a front plate is no longer needed in Alaska. Which is good, because I do not have a provision for a front plate.
There are no tolls here that I know of. When I resesrched why Alaska dropped the front tag requirement, it was because of new vehicle tech and not blocking sensors and such.
So get on the horn with congresscritters and scream about how front tags ruin saaaaaafety and to get in line with other states that care about their citizens saaaaaafety.
The speed limit sensor (and subsequent signage on the dash) is located behind the rear-view mirror. Nothing like a piece of black coloured duct tape to screw with the sensors. Albeit, there is still that fin/shark sensor that is on the back side of the roof. My newer vehicle still has the set-up for a front-license plate. But with only needing one, and only receiving one set of stickers, meh, why bother with the front one?
Front plates are about feeding toll road systems. VDoT/Transurban cannot bill a toll tag transaction without a clear corresponding plate image on file, either front or back.
Texas also has a lot of toll roads and front license plates.
Point of interest: the photo at the top shows an Ohio plate, on the front of the car. In 2020, Ohio became a one-plate state. I promptly removed the front plate from my vehicle. I was very surprised that not many other people did so. Even now, you see a lot of cars with front plates. For new plate issuances, only one is now provided.
Reminds me of, the elephant & the chain.
https://medium.com/blitzkrieg-motivation/the-elephant-and-the-chain-4f12aab102d8
For the great state of VA, my logical reasoning tells me that you get two sets of stickers, with one per plate. Yes, since the rear license plate makes more sense from a visual detection point of view, what is to stop someone from illegally putting their 2nd valid plate (with sticker) onto the rear of a second car? I used to live in MD which had two plates, but gave only one sticker to put on the rear license plate. Since VA gives two stickers, they are much more anal about seeing the front plate, with sticker. YMMV
Your comment, made me think of: stand on one foot, rub your belly and…
Land of the flea.
Colorado requires a front plate. I talked to several cops from different branches in CO and they all said they only use it as an add on charge if you act like a dick to them. In six years without a front plate on the Miata, I got pulled over 3 times for…let’s call it egregious acts of speed. Because i pulled over instead of running and did a lot of yes-sir/no-sir, not one of them charged me for anything other than speeding. As an aside, when I went to court 2 of them where reduced from a 4 point speeding offense (over 100mph) to a 1 point “driving to fast for conditions”, and the 3rd the officer reduced from 25 over to 9 over and when I paid within 2 weeks online it never even went to my insurance.
That happens whenever you fight em, get a reduction. Then it’s oh thank you Massa, thank you Massa for GIVING a break.
Yah, I got that too, “they only use it as an add on charge if you act like a dick to them.”
…Butt, if you kiss their ass and are someBody special?
Psft. Insouciant.
Many of the officers and officeressis around here were in the military. I find that if my first response to their questioning is an honest and humble yes sir, no ma’am, it tends to disarm them. Calling them their proper pronoun, like trooper, or deputy also helps. Many sheriffs and state troopers are still imbued with the military mindset, and just like me, they work for a living, so we can quickly dispense with the sir/Ma’am BS. Only admit guilt in an oblique manner, ‘yes deputy, I know I was going fast, had no idea was going that fast.’
Have been stoped nearly a dozen times in the last decade for all manner of infractions, still no tickets, only warnings. Being calm, and even slightly respectful, works like a Jedi mind trick on most of them. ‘No, I am not the speeder you are looking for.’
I can get an $80 workaround for my 2017 Mustang that will hold the front plate in place via a bracket that bolts on to something under the front end. But then I just moved to AZ so now I do not have to buy it.
I haven’t had a front plate in over a decade in NJ, last time I got stopped was by a rookie cop who tried to talk tough but stopped when I showed I was having a medical emergency. I drive in said town daily, and probably passed him up countless times since
Considering its a $50-100 fine and I only paid for it once (One of those “I wanna let you go but I can’t so here’s a slap on the wrist”), I’ll take my chances considering its only once in the decade. A GR86 and Bronco look terrible with front plates anyway
Not only are cops looking for untagged vehicles, the state of Nevada is running a turn in your neighbor program!!
https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/traffic/nevada-dmv-spotter-program-gets-nearly-15k-reports-after-1st-month-3583211/
15k people reporting untagged vehicles……
I think if I lived in Nevada I would look for government cars with messed up plates and report those ha ha…… People suck and need to mind their own damn business.
And no matter how often an enforcer says an out of state plate is illegal, it doesn’t make is so.
Jeebus don’t give WA any ideas! They have/had a “one 800 HERO” number to report carpool lane violators. They’d make bank if ever enforced the missing front plates and expired tags.
Yeesh, a nation of snitches, too.
Murderous snitches.
What could possibly go wrong?
What? The various mulcting entities in WA State aren’t generating enough cash from “distracted driving” laws?
Those were just getting started when we left in 2014. The heroes can pull you over at their discretion if you aren’t, in their opinion, paying attention to the road.
Pretty much post Covid they’ve given up. Also, with “equity/restorative justice” in full swing “why bother”. Too many vibrant types get pulled over then the protests and lawsuits boil up and the chief has to get grilled on the evening news.
Today they announced “emphasis patrol” in central/eastern WA to hassle the college kids out on the road heading home for the holidays. That’s OK since it’s mainly white cohort with assets to ticket.
Sometimes here in NJ it seems like half the people don’t have a front plate on. A good chunk of them have it on the dashboard which in my opinion looks worse than being on the front of the car. Half the cars also have out of date inspection too. Often years out of date. This has been going on since around COVID times when the police around here basically stopped enforcing laws. Tesla drivers almost always have no front plate. What’s the point of the law if it seems optional?
“What’s the point of the law if it seems optional?”
Arbitrary “enforcement” is a feature, not a bug, in our society. It keeps the populace from knowing exactly what is expected. Hence, you’re always wonder “what if”. Today we’re gonna crack down on “speeders”. Tomorrow, the same action by a driver is ignored. It’s all just to keep you off balance.
To whit, I know what the speed limit is on every road but, no one knows what it is. The actual speed LIMIT is 1 mph below the speed at which you get a ticket.
People don’t much care what the law is, they just go about their business.
So, you set the law to prohibit something that everyone does. Ta-da!!! Now you can harass (pretty much) whoever you want, but it looks legit!
OK it doesn’t work thatway all the time. But I guarantee that it doesn’t not work that way.
Oh, a whole article is in your guy’s brief comments.
…Today: 10 m.p.h. over the speed limit is okay, Well, except, unless, and, of course.
I just keep my plates on the side of my passenger seat. In the last 10 years, only been stopped twice for it, and only one time led to a ticket (abit a “I wanna let you go but I can’t so here’s a slap on the wrist”)
I’ve driven by countless cops with tints, no front plates, and sometimes underglow or color changing drl’s, and they don’t react. If you do get in trouble, you can tell its a new guy. It’s also a fine, so if I have to pay $50-100 every once in a pink moon to not ruin my front, so be it
In WA you can apply for a State Patrol granted “exception” if the front of the vehicle isn’t accommodating of a front plate. Ahh, why bother. Nothing is enforced here lately. I blew past a cop on I90 yesterday at 78 or so in a 65, didn’t even look my way.
There were 4 or 5 of us in a group maybe he figured why bother. I’ve been lucky the last two trips, eastbound always a group just wanting to leave dystopic western WA far behind and the faster the better.
To keep the public off guard and distrustful of everyone whether a LEO or your neighbor. Reward the dutiful slaves and punish the rebels. Divide and conquer. It is the oldest strategy in the book and it works well.
A social media campaign of “take the front plate off” could cause enough people to do it. Mass non-compliance has thwarted much more serious encroachments by government.
Personally, I’m much more concerned with the Flock Safety (they don’t even try to hide it) AI tracking cameras. If I was a younger fella, me and my friends would be chopping these things down wherever they pop up. I can’t understand why the youngsters allow it. They’ve all (mostly) been beta’ed, it seems.
Re: social media.
That’s a really good idea, but they also need to claim ‘global warming and cry’
Paintball guns. What we need are more young people armed with paintball guns. Faces hidden, under the cover of night “obstructing” these spy devices one by one. Much less dangerous than chopping them down and I doubt there is the money or the will to keeping cleaning them over and over.
The British spray can on a stick is a pretty effective thing too. Easier to aim.
Why stop with just the front plate?
Why must we announce ourselves everywhere we go?
Blaring obvious: RE: “Why must we announce ourselves everywhere we go?”
…Cause, we are owned.
That’s what it means to be free.
Why else would they be fighting over ‘there’ but to make us free? Just like, over there? Idk.
Sparton Kid,
I just checked my USA State checklist……And, it appears I missed several,
to wit; HI , ND , SD
With respect to “ooee, ooee Hawaii”….I went (“SOPAC ” not “NOPAC”)
i.e. French Polynesia (Tahiti., Bora Bora ..etc, etc ) thus F.. it.
Anyhoo, You’re in the “Cornpone Flyover State of Iowa”…
And this hapless desolate wasteland aka “Terra Incognita”(ND, SD) on the world Atlas appears quite proximate..to your location……
The optimal target time for your area visit would be ….September..
Before it gets cold…..
Would love to try that jam you you were yakking about and meet my
“Caracas Squeeze !
Semper Fi
You can now include Alaska in the one-plate list, Jim. For years, one received two plates in these parts, but the one sticker always went on the rear plate. Now, we only receive one plate-which goes on the rear bumper-no mutilation required.
Patrick Wood, who runs the Technocracy News site, posted an update on those Flock ALPRs that seem to be everywhere in the country. Unsurprisingly, these cameras have been used for scamming our tax dollars and stealing our data…..at least people are starting to push back against the Technocrats pushing crap like those Flock cameras……
https://www.technocracy.news/flock-camera-update-how-arch-technocrats-are-scamming-your-tax-dollars-stealing-your-data/
Some people just prop the front plate up on the dash. Maybe they get a ticket maybe they don’t, depends on how bored the Enforcer is that day. I’ve also seen license plates that use the factory tow bolt location to mount a plate.
Back in the day when cars had chrome bumpers GM had license plate brackets that bolted to the underside of the bumper and if your state didn’t require them you just took them off the car leaving you with a less cluttered front end.
I’ve always had an idea on how to get rid of front plates. Efficiency or better ‘climate change’ or ‘mpg’ or anything that says they are hurting the climate……….
I can’t believe no one has done a study on how much energy that plate takes to push through the air at 65mph. I bet a measurable amount. Probably would save more than ASS, haha..
I also can’t believe the car Manuf. lobbyist haven’t gotten rid of them. Manuf. spend big bucks on making their cars aerodynamic then ruin it with a front plate.
My wife refuses to put it on her blackwing. It does ruin the front looks of the car. I said you’re going to get a ticket, she doesn’t care and hasn’t yet. But we know most of local cops that we helped raise.
Hmm. “But we know most of local cops that we helped raise.”
Sad commentary. And, it didn’t help, they still went to The Dark Side.
Turn the page, I guess.
About 6-8 kids practically lived at our house through school. They didn’t have the best parents, or struggles with divorce, etc… and we had lots of property for them to play with dirtbikes and excavators, hunt, etc… plus the support around the dinner table, etc…
3 of them became cops, 2 local, one state. We love these kids, men now.
I don’t know how that is sad. Because they became cops? The large majority of cops are good, only the bad one’s get attention. We could argue the ‘system’ problems, and do here often.
It’s the difference between police and law enforcers. One is a necessary evil and occasionally a good guy, and one is Gestapo/Savak/FBI, a parasite who lives by subjugating his fellow man to arbitrary rules.
In an ideal world, there would be federal police dedicated only to seeing that state authorities obeyed the law (US bill of rights and US Constitution). There would be state police doing the same function only for city/town/local authorities. And there would be local police/sheriffs who dealt with actual crimes where there was an injured party.
But what we have is multiple levels of enforcers to keep the niggers in line. Just to be clear, they think we’re ALL the niggers.
Another biggie is why do we move our clocks back and forth an hour 2 times a year? I have never talked to anyone that thinks it is a good idea. Lots of reasons why it’s a bad idea. Yet we still do it. Why?
My conclusion is it’s Satan. That’s how he gets his jollies.
it was created for school kids to have light going to school. That’s what I’ve been told anyway.
Oh man, all you guys got it wrong.
‘How railroads standardized time in the US’
“Before 1883, every city and town set its own time, but that was no way to run a railroad” …
https://www.trains.com/trn/railroads/history/how-railroads-standardized-time-in-the-us/
It started during WWI to supposedly save energy and seems to have taken on a life of its own, despite every study showing it does the opposite. I would love to be rid of it. Daylight is going to get shorter in the winter no matter how much you play with clocks, so just adapt to it.
It was originally called War Time and was dreamed up by idiot politicians in WWI as a way to ” conserve energy and promote national security during wartime,” according to Google. The reason they’ve never dispensed with it is because Washington is always on “war time” and so-called Daylight Savings Time is a subtle way of reminding us of that.
I’ve assumed the states that require front license plates had more toll roads and needed them for plate readers. I’ve lived in 3 states in my nearly 70 years on this rock and all of them have required a front plate, so never really gave it much thought. For the first handful of decades in my driving life we got new plates every year, so I have an impressive stack of old plates (great source for scrap metal!), the accumulation of which slowed when they went to a new annual sticker.
Hi Stig,
The front plate thing has always chafed for me because I have always liked and owned cars that had to be mutilated to accommodate the front plate. For example, the several second-generation GM F cars (Firebirds and Camaros) that had endura (painted) front bumpers long before these became commonplace. You were forced to drill holes in the bumper to hang the ear tag – and I have resented that for decades!
Oh, yeah, I’m in agreement that they can be a pain. I live on some land with a small food plot, so both plates are trashed on my truck. The front takes a beating, both from use around the homestead but also the cow crap, mud, rocks, bugs, road rock salt constantly peppering it. When they were steel they’d rust, then they went to aluminum, which fared better. Now they’re aluminum with a printed sheet on them, which starts to peel off after a couple of years. If they’re trying to use it for plate readers, well, good luck.
We also got a taste of who really owns us just a few years ago, when the Biden regime tried to FORCE MILLIONS of American workers to take an experimental COVID “vaccine” to keep their job. I’m not aware of anything in the Constitution that says the government can ORDER their citizens to take an experimental pharma product. Had the Supreme Court not ruled against the regime a few months later, it would have likely emboldened the government to try other Big Pharma experiments on the American citizenry, as criminals in that cartel wanted to create other “vaccines” for Monkey pox, Bird flu, etc. I’ve also come to the conclusion that even children are cattle for the government and Big Pharma, as numerous public schools throughout the country have their own vaccine mandates for children to attend, mandates which vaccine zealots long wanted to expand to adults.
My baby brother and his baby momma don’t care. “The .Gov will fix everything”.
Both their babies got, The SHot. …They are owned, now.
Twenty-nine states require front plates; 21 do not. The former list includes all of America’s classical communist regimes: California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Oregon — more commies than you can shake a stick at. But, incongruously, it also includes red states Idaho, South Dakota and Texas.
Meanwhile, the one-plate states include Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. (Hanging on the walls of my office as I type are scenes of the Grand Canyon, Jackson Square in New Orleans, and an Amish funeral in Lancaster County, PA — all one-plate states.) But again, incongruously, this shorter list also includes Democrat-plagued Michigan, and poor-and-socialist New Mexico.
https://1800lionlaw.com/which-states-require-a-front-license-plate/
For me, the ultimate image of slavery comes from the Texas of my childhood, where license plates alternated each year from black letters on white background to the inverse. Tax slaves had to personally visit the DMV, collect the year’s new plates, and install them by April 1. One April 1, when my dad gave priority to his own affairs (imagine that) and missed the deadline, he debated whether he could get away with driving three blocks to the nearby convenience store to purchase a gallon of milk for his family, without being nabbed by the armed, uniformed tax collectors.
Slavery takes different forms these days. But its essence — ownership by others — remains the same.
This was well said: “Slavery takes different forms these days. But its essence — ownership by others — remains the same.”
I actually refused to move to VA for just this reason.
Front plates and those god awful stickers on the windshields and on the side of my motorcycles?
I think not. If I can help it.
I’m sure some will say this is such a trivial matter, why bring it up. However, it’s another tile in the mosaic of tyranny. It’s another in a long train of abuses, no matter how benign in its effect.
It’s the mentality of the authoritarians that rule us.
Thanks, Mark –
Exactly. That’s why I brought it up!
Some “laws” were meant to be broken, such as this
If its a fine, why should I submit.
Guess the states figure why charge for one when two will bring twice the price.