Tag: Evil Bastards

Cutting The Cord

Diplomacy, Gummint

…of the Belt and Road initiative.  A simple Q&A:

Should the United States continue to fund China’s aggressive military buildup?
— No.

Should the United States make every effort to move U.S.-based manufacturing out of China?
— Yes.

Should the United States make every effort to encourage alternatives to Chinese manufacturing?
— Yes.

Will the United States government actually do any of this stuff?
–Of course not.

Should the United States government be hanged en masse for endangering the welfare of the nation?
–Of course they should.

Here’s the background to all the above.

Too Much Automotive Bullshit

Drive Time, Technology

I’ve ranted on and on about how I hate the intrusion of technology into the simple act of driving, but my ire is approaching volcanic levels.  Try this little snippet (via Insty, thankee, Squire):

While it’s often easier to sync your phone to a vehicle, it doesn’t allow the company you purchased the vehicle from to maximize its data harvesting capabilities. It also lets you circumvent their operating system to a large degree and any apps that might be tied to commerce, which is why automakers are now trying to sweeten the pot. The ultimate goal is to basically convert your vehicle into something that can sweep up just as much information about you as your smartphone — if not more.

“If you’re using Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, then you’re kind of limited [for use of applications]”, Alexander Schoenhals, a Mercedes-Benz engineer working on third-party apps, explained.

Do they even realize how sinister this all sounds?  Every time I read shit like this from MB, BMW or VW, I want the 8th Army Air Force group to be re-constituted just to fly over and bomb their fucking factories into rubble (and repeat with Detroit on the return leg), simply to weed this bullshit out and force the aforementioned data harvesters to start from scratch all over again.

I’m unlikely to buy a new car anytime soon, if at all — more likely, I’ll be driving New Wife’s Fiat 500 forever, once my non-technological Tiguan has breathed its last drop of 89 octane unleaded.

But mark my words;  I will never drive some information vampire like the modern breed.

I’d rather find a way to get my hands on something from the pre-technology era (1970s) like a VW Thing, a Jeep CJ5 or others of that ilk (other suggestions in Comments), and deal with their discomfort and unreliability.

As for modern car manufacturers:  fuck ’em, and the motherboard they’re surfing in on.  I want no part of their shit.

Gooder And Harder

Elections, Third World

…to quote Insty.  I see that Chicago has replaced Abject Failure Lori Lightweight with her male counterpart Brandon Johnson in the mayoral elections just held.

Of course, things are going to go from worse to worser:

Johnson is a paid agitator for the teachers union and a ‘defund the police’ type.

…and Chicago slithers ever closer to the abyss within the abyss into which it’s already fallen.  Just watch as the exodus flow of businesses and their executives changes into a flood, and the city moves closer to Detroit-style bankruptcy and failure.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of socialist assholes.

I note that the vote total was just over half a million people out of a voting population of over two million, so clearly 75% of Chicago residents just don’t give a fuck.  And there ya go.

Don’t Mess With East Texas

Good Stuff, Law and Order

While not a Righteous Shooting (an ordinary citizen wasting a goblin), this shooting is certainly righteous.

Executive summary:  Scumbag waves a gun in a woman’s face as she’s sitting in her car.  She calls her husband and the cops.  Cops arrive, find said scumbag who points the gun at them, whereupon they shoot his ass dead, tra-la, tra-la.

I know that part of East Texas quite well.  This is not a population you would want to mess with.  As the goblin discovered.

Terminology Check

Politics

So FinnPM bubble-headed party girl Sanna Marin got tossed out of office over the weekend, which would be a Good Thing, except that — wait for it! — it portends Something Bad:

EU warned of far-right ‘domino effect’ after Sanna Marin’s defeat

Finland’s main conservative party claimed victory in parliamentary elections Sunday in a tight three-way race that saw right-wing populists take second place, leaving Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Social Democratic Party in third, dashing her reelection hopes. The results sparked worries in the EU over far-right The Finns party’s infamous anti-EU sentiments. Speaking to Express.co.uk, Dr Helena Ivanov, research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, pointed out that after the Italian and Swedish election results, the bloc is increasingly moving towards the right in a seeming “domino effect”.

Just so we’re all clear on the concept, being “anti-EU” is not congruent with “right-wing”, although to the EU they may appear the same.

What makes my nuts ache is that the European definition of “far-right”, in traditional American terms, would be the equivalent of “centrist Democrat” — e.g. John F. Kennedy — because they have veered so far to the left as to tilt the whole political table almost vertical.

I, and I suspect most of my Readers, would be considered “ultra-Right wing”, when in fact we’re just conservatives with a few libertarian tendencies.  (And by “libertarian”, I really mean the “leave me the fuck alone” principle.)

Anyway, it looks like Finland is at least moving towards Italy and Hungary in the Eurosceptic sphere, and good for them, say I.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

From Ben Shapiro:

“As it turns out, the logic of the Left is now that, if you are a trans person who murders a bunch of Christian school kids, this is the fault of the society that refuse to accept you for who you truly are.”

Don’t get me started…