Tag Archives: regulations

At the Crossroads . . . , by Eric Peters

Posted on December 30, 2022 | Leave a comment

Regulators of both cars and human health want to continuously reduce certain metrics regardless of how much it might cost to do so and negative ramifications. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

 
 

Nostalgia is more than just fondly remembering what was. It is a kind of lamenting what is. Sometimes, it can be both at once, as when what was and what is cross paths, the one arriving – the other, fading away.

Cars you can still realistically screw around with yourself, for instance. These are still around and many people still drive them daily. They are vehicles like my 2002 Nissan pick-up, which I recently relieved of one of its two factory installed catalytic converters. You may ask – why would I do such a thing? Hold that thought a moment. The point is I could do it.

I do not mean just that I could physically do it – though that is part of it. The important part is that I could do it without electronic repercussions. Shorn of the second of its two factory installed cats, the truck’s computer did not sound the alarm. Or rather, flash it. The “check engine” light (which is really a check emissions controls light) did not come on because the computer could not tell I had cut off the second cat, there being no sensor aft of where the cat had been. The one just ahead of it – which is still there – was probably installed where it was to assure that the exhaust gasses passing by had been chemically converted sufficiently by the first cat, snugged up close to the engine.

In any event, what the computer doesn’t know won’t hurt me is the point. I was able to get rid of the second cat without the truck policing me for doing it. The truck runs noticeably better now, too – which brings me to the why I did it.

The cat I cut off was as old as the truck and likely half-choked by accumulated carbon. By removing it, I restored the flow that had been lost and probably at least partially made up for the restriction of flow created by the first cat, still snugged up close to the engine, where it, too, has been accumulating carbon build-up within its honeycomb lattice of platinum and palladium for lo these past 21 years.

I also nixed the probably restrictive factory muffler for a much less restrictive (and much better sounding) “turbo” muffler.

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Posted in Business, Environment, Government, Law, Medicine, Politics, Propaganda

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The War on Crypto Privacy Intensifies. Automatic Reporting of All Trades and Transactions Soon Mandatory. by Wesley Thysse

Posted on October 24, 2022 | Leave a comment

The regulators are coming after cryptocurrencies big time. From Wesley Thysee at DecentralizedLegalSystem.com:

Massive overreach of international regulators to force all service providers in the industry to:

  • Record ALL crypto trades on exchanges, DEFI and DEXs;
  • Record (large) purchases from private wallets;
  • Record all transfers to cold storage and make lists with private wallet addresses;
  • Send all this info annually to the (tax) authorities;
  • And finally, force governments to pass these rules into domestic law.

The war on privacy continues. The aim: to tackle anonymous spending and exchanging of crypto.

As you’ll discover, these new regulations force upon us a system of complete surveillance and control.

This report explains exactly what to expect from the latest developments launched in October 2022…

What is Going On?

​ Last year, the crypto world was shaken to its core when the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), acting in behalf of the G20, released their guidance on virtual assets.1)

This document laid out a set of rules regarding stablecoins, distinctions between private and hosted wallets, extensive KYC requirements, the tackling of privacy tools, and more.2) FATF has also provided a final definition of the type of service provider tasked with reporting on crypto: the Virtual Asset Service Provider.

Fast forward to today, and these rules are quickly being implemented across the world.3) But as usual, it didn’t stop there. Another international regulator, the OECD, is already building on this framework in an attempt to massively increase the grip of authorities on crypo.

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Posted in Business, Civil Liberties, Currencies, Governments, Law, Taxes, Tyranny

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Smithfield Foods, Citing “Escalating Costs,” To Shutter California Meat-Packing Plant, by Tyler Durden

Posted on June 13, 2022 | Leave a comment

California looks like it is reaching its long-term objective: make it impossible to do business within the state. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Meat-packing giant Smithfield Foods announced a 1,800-person pork processing plant in California would shutter operations next year, citing the rising cost of doing business in the liberal-run state.

Smithfield, owned by Hong Kong-based pork conglomerate WH Group Ltd., “will cease all harvest and processing operations in Vernon, California in early 2023,” the company said in a Friday press release.

“Smithfield is taking these steps due to the escalating cost of doing business in California,” the company continued.

WSJ explains the company’s reasoning behind winding down operations at the Vernon plant is due to a multitude of factors, including the cost of energy to power plants is 3.5x higher per head to produce pork than any of its 45 other US plants.

“It’s increasingly challenging to operate efficiently there,” company spokesman Jim Monroe told WSJ. “We’re striving to keep costs down and keep food affordable.”

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The utter Orwellian stupidity of masks on airplanes, by Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D.

Posted on November 20, 2021 | Leave a comment

Masking isn’t supported by real science (as opposed to the garbage the Covid commissars peddle) and the masking rules are downright bizarre. From Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D. at americanthinker.com:

I recently traveled across the country to Hillsdale, Michigan.  My wife and I sat for five hours each way on airplanes with a mesh mask pressed across our faces.  It made the absurdity of the mask mandate we live under both clear and depressing.  The charade in which we are all forced to participate is not only totalitarian in nature, but also a big Orwellian lie.

I am sure most of the passengers on the planes were either COVID-19-vaccinated or COVID-19-recovered.  While few speak about the thousands of people who have had COVID-19 and survived, they are turning out to be an important group in the ongoing battle against the virus.  I myself am COVID-recovered after a bout with the disease a couple of months ago.  I now have natural immunity to the disease.

Forcing someone like me to wear a mask makes no scientific or health sense.  There are no studies to show that mask-wearing on an airplane can stop a respiratory viral illness.  If that were the case, we would expect pilots always to wear masks while in the cockpit.  But they don’t.  Maybe the recirculated air on airplanes keeps them safe from onboard viruses.  Furthermore, if mask-wearing on an airplane were critical to preventing the spread of the disease, why are we allowed to remove our masks for extended periods of time while eating and drinking?  I wish someone would pose that specific question to Dr. Fauci.

The requirement to wear a mask when entering or exiting a restaurant, but leaving it off while eating and drinking, also makes absolutely no sense.  Do the authorities suppose that the COVID-19 virus stops seeking new hosts to infect only when we are unmasked but not eating or drinking?  Do these bureaucratic geniuses really believe that the virus plays fair, observing equivalent rules to those invented by the Marquess of Queensberry for boxing?  I think the COVID-19 virus is more likely to play by Fight Club rules!

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Posted in Business, Civil Liberties, Collapse, Government, Horseshit, Law, Medicine, Politics, Propaganda, Science, Tyranny

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Minimising Government’s Dominance over Your Life, by Jeff Thomas

Posted on November 3, 2021 | Leave a comment

If you really want to at least partially rid yourself of government, you’re probably going to have to move. From Jeff Thomas at internationalman.com:

Recently, whilst having lunch with several successful businessmen, the value of formal education was being discussed and one said, “When I got out of school, I thought I was fully educated and ready to take on the business world, but actually, I was clueless.”

The others laughed, recalling their own introductions into business. All agreed that, although they had taken all of the requisite courses, formal schooling prepared them not at all in the understanding of commerce.

That is, all except one. He, as a boy, had been encouraged by his parents to take on a paper route, open lemonade stands, cut lawns for neighbours, etc. Although his parents couldn’t afford university for him, by the time he graduated high school, he thoroughly understood the principles of commerce.

The bicycle that he rode in his early teens was bought out of profits from his early business ventures. Later on, he bought his first car out of his earnings. And so, when he left school, he hit the road running and was ahead of his “luckier” peers who were then at university.

When they graduated, each had an advantage the others didn’t have. Yet, at the lunch meeting mentioned above, each university graduate agreed that understanding commerce, which they had had to learn on their own, after graduation, was the central lesson that enabled their later success.

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Posted in Banking, Business, Civil Liberties, Economy, Governments, Investing, Taxes, Tyranny

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Let Us Count the Ways, by James Howard Kunstler

Posted on October 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

When does Democratic economic and political stupidity proceed to the point where the whole shebang collapses? From James Howard Kunstler at kunstler.com:

What America really wants to know is: after those months of “family leave,” did Pete Buttigieg get the hang of lactating? Hey, if sexuality is just a “social construct,” then the functions of sexuality must be teachable. So now Pete can move on to ovulation lessons and become the “birthing person” of his dreams. Pete’s dreams are America’s dreams, you see.

In the meantime, though, America has a little transportation problem that a Secretary of Transportation might look into if he wasn’t so busy performing a gender reeducation parable for the Woke family values crowd. Namely, that federal rules combined with California Air Resource Board regulations are destroying the trucking industry, a major link in the broken supply-chains for the gazillion products and parts that an advanced technological economy needs to keep on keeping on.

Under the rules, for example, California wants to phase-out tractor trailer rigs more than three years old, and eliminate all trucks that run on fossil fuels by 2035. Now, it happens that most of the truckers who service the ports of southern California are independents. They have to buy their own rigs, on which many make the equivalent of a mortgage payment, because a semi-rig can cost as much as a house. Of course, the rig must be allowed to operate for the duration of the loan. The new government regulations cancel that financial formula, and with it, the trucking industry. So much for the good intentions of the eco-wonks.

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Posted in Business, Civil Liberties, Collapse, Economics, Economy, Environment, Government, Law, Politics, Propaganda, Tyranny

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How California’s Cities Strangle the Permit Process, by John McNellis

Posted on May 9, 2021 | Leave a comment

One huge business cost that rarely gets mentioned is the costs imposed by government bureaucracies. From John McNellis as wolfstreet.com:

If cities don’t start seeing the forest for the trees, our business landscape—if it hasn’t already—will irretrievably change.

California’s cities want to do the right thing. They’ve been telling us all the right things since the Covid mess began: promising to speed building permits for struggling landlords and tenants, to slash red tape, to help small businesses—particularly retail—through to the other side. But somewhere between our public employees’ enthusiastic adoption of remote working and city Zoom calls that resemble a high school yearbook, that right thing is proving elusive.

Like they say in Jersey, I know a guy. This guy has a small apartment portfolio in San Francisco. He wants to convert some of his garages into studios; that is, he wants to create accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Because a garage-turned studio is by definition lower income housing, the state of California has mandated that all cities swiftly approve ADUs to help with our housing crisis. The approvals for his conversions should have been a piece of cake.

They weren’t. This guy applied to the San Francisco Planning Department for permits more than a year ago. The approval process flat-lined, leaving his ADUs still hung up today. He said, “We were even told the permit was ready to be issued for one, we paid the invoice, went to pick it up at Planning, only to hear, ‘It isn’t ready yet’. Weeks later and we have no idea why we can’t get this permit.”

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What’s Yours Is Now Mine: America’s Era of Accelerating Expropriation, by Charles Hugh Smith

Posted on April 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

The smaller the pie the higher the probability that somebody will resort to theft. That somebody includes the government. From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:

The takeaway here is obvious: earn as little money as possible and invest your surplus labor in assets that can’t be expropriated.

Expropriation: dispossessing the populace of property and property rights, via the legal and financial over-reach of monetary and political authorities.

All expropriations are pernicious, but the most destructive is the expropriation of labor’s value while the excessive gains of unproductive speculation accrue to the elite that owns most of the nation’s wealth.

In a nation in which the leadership has finely honed the art and artifice of legalized looting and financial legerdemain, it’s not surprising that the expropriation of labor’s value takes many forms. For the self-employed and small business proprietor, the list is practically endless:

1. Proliferating junk fees for permits, licence renewals, applications, late fees, penalties, fines for violating obscure regulations, etc. (Never mind if you’re losing money; by definition, as a business owner you’re “rich” and deserve petty expropriations. If you’re Amazon, however, we’ll shower you with subsidies and tax breaks.)

2. Sky-high liability insurance, disability insurance and workers compensation insurance, because all the fraud and friction in these systems adds expense and you’re the one who will pay for it all.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Crime, Debt, Economics, Economy, Government, Law, Politics, Propaganda, Taxes

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Better Than Banning, by Eric Peters

Posted on March 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

Governments bent on denying things to their subjects often find that it’s easier to make ownership prohibitively expensive rather than an outright ban. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

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Bans are problematic when the thing being targeted is already in wide circulation. Gun being an obvious example. They can decree no new sales but what about the ones already sold – already possessed – by literally millions of people?

Door-to-door confiscation risks physical resistance and is logistically difficult regardless. It is much easier and equally effective to not ban possession of guns outright but rather to require that those who wish to continue continue possessing them pay for the privilege.

That they pay a lot for it. Not just once, either.

An annual registration fee, for instance. With the threat of criminal repercussions for failure to pay, if discovered (as during a “routine” traffic stop, for instance).

Also make ammunition expensive – as via heavy taxes. Not illegal, per se. Just generally unaffordable.

Presto! You have banned without actually banning.   

This method will likely be applied to cars that aren’t electric cars and – most particularly – cars that are not modern cars; i.e., those without built-in spyware (marketed as “apps” and “concierge services”) which present the threat – to the electric car agenda – of  being an alternative to them.

The electric car agenda is about more than just electric cars. It is about connected cars – and electric cars are the apotheosis of connectedness.

The source of motive power is almost incidental to the fact that the powers-that-be can remotely control a connected electric car. Its range, for example, can be increased over-the-wire via a “software update.” It ought to be obvious what this implies. If the range can be extended, it can also be reduced.

To zero.

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Posted in Energy, Environment, Government, Law, Politics, Taxes

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The Late Great State of California, by Jeffrey Harding

Posted on October 19, 2019 | Leave a comment

Our family left California seven years ago and we’ve never looked back. Lots of people have followed. From Jeffrey Harding at mises.org:

My family moved to California in 1950, part of the post-WWII westward migration. My widowed mother, tired of Boston’s dreary winters, felt the westward pull. My eldest brother, a WWII Navy veteran, had heard good things about San Diego from sailors who had been stationed there during the war. So, California, here we come.

I would like to think those were the golden years, at least for us. California was new, bright, warm, and full of promise. The East was old and cold. And San Diego was thriving. Defense and aerospace jobs were plentiful. Land was cheap, homes were cheap. A building boom met the housing needs for optimistic migrants. You could get things done in California.

It’s not that California anymore. We are overregulated and overtaxed and people aren’t so optimistic. People want to leave.

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