This Week in the New Normal #103
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. Cars – the latest subscription service
Volkswagen announced, this week, that some of their electric models would now come with optional upgrades – not as a one-off purchase, but as a subscription. The BBC reports:
German car making giant Volkswagen (VW) has introduced a subscription for UK customers wanting to increase the power of some of its electric cars.
Those who buy an eligible car in its ID.3 range can choose to pay extra if they want to unlock the full power of the engine inside the vehicle.
VW says the “optional power upgrade” will cost £16.50 per month or £165 annually – or people can choose to pay £649 for a lifetime subscription.
Disregard the specifics, the concern here is clearly the precedent such a model sets. How long before these schemes spread? Or increase in price to “decrease traffic” or “encourage public transportation”?
It’s not hard to image how this could be abused. Malignant subscription models have already massively increased the cost of owning a printer, or photoshop, or watching TV. All part of the plan to make sure people own nothing.
2. Denmark’s Deepfake Legislation
Ten days ago, Denmark became the first country to grant your digital likeness – face and voice – protected status as intellectual property. Essentially, in Denmark, you now own your face.
There’s a thorough breakdown of the new law here, which is worth reading if you’re into that kind of thing.
There’s nothing that stands out as particularly bad, so far. As much as its touted as an anti-deep fake law, it maintains the “fair use” exception, which permits use for satire or parody purposed. That will likely save most deep fake manufacturers.
More importantly, I think, the burden of proof is on the complainant to prove the footage is faked or manipulated. That, theoretically, should prevent frivolous suits brought by companies or celebrities trying to hide footage behind a “fake video” defence.
I’ve not decided if this is good or bad yet, but it is interesting.
3. Facial Recognition Tech Rollout
London’s Metropolitan Police are moving forward with plans to use facial recognition technology during this year’s Notting Hill Carnival, despite reservations from the UK’s human rights watchdog.
In a classic example of liberal faux-opposition, the mainstream criticism of the technology is focusing on supposed racial or gender biases, not the general principle.
This means all the police have to do is “prove” the technology is not biased, and suddenly it’s OK to have our faces scanned 24/7 because we’re all being oppressed equally.
The whole framing of the debate, including the use of FRT during Notting Hill Carnival is designed to win-over the right wing by playing into racial and identity politics.
Transparent.
BONUS: Intriguing speech of the week
Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank and ex-Prime Minister of Italy, gave a speech this week lamenting Europe’s recent failings. From failing to effectively stand up to Trump’s tariffs, to yielding to defense spending demands, to standing helplessly by as conflicts rage in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere.
Draghi argues that the EU can no longer rely on economic weight alone to be a player on the world stage, and suggests a solution: The United State of Europe, all the nations of the EU merging into a federation. Big if true.
It’s not all bad…
Infamous website 4chan is refusing to pay any fines levied under the UK’s new Online Safety Act. 4chan’s owners have previously stated they would not be requiring users to prove their age.
Non-compliance is always good to see.
On a more personal note, any of you that listened to the most recent IMA panel will have heard me mention that my cat has gone missing. He is still lost, and I miss him every day.
But, there’s still good to be gleaned. I have been walking the neighbourhood, putting up fliers, knocking on doors, interacting with neighbours and near-neighbours more than the last ten years combined. It makes you realise…most people are nice.
An older gentleman patted my shoulder and told me everything was going to be alright. A lady with small children and two cats of her own volunteered to walk with me. Every phone call is someone eager to help. It’s a welcome antidote to well-earned cynicism.
The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.
Ernest Hemingway
*
All told a pretty hectic week for the new normal crowd, and we didn’t even mention our “golden age of lab grown meat” or the latest made-up Covid nonsense.
There’s a lot of change in the air, a lot of agendas in the works, if you see a headline, article, post or interview you think is a sign of the times, post it in the comments, email us or share it on social media and we will add it to the next edition.
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https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/england-flag-talk-to-kids_uk_68b0202ee4b0bbcc3f8e3a3c
That a bunch of Rosicrucians are masquerading as nationalists….
BTW these crosses are all over the place here.
Dublin, Dundee, Humberside
Sorry to hear about kitty.
I think the car manufacturers will struggle with this deliberate hamstringing unless maybe they ally with insurers. A young driver reined in by the optional extra in exchange for cheaper insurance. (Ruinously expensive for those first few years.)
Your average petrol head wants and needs to show their car is a bit special, not just GT but GTX. I don’t know that the GT-1 will advertise their status in quite that way.
Yes indeed…
…Statistically speaking, the chance that most of these nice and responsive people you meet will be similar to us here, for example, sharing the view of a scamdemic plandemic, is very slim. On the other hand, the chance that most of them are not like the most of us is extremely high. It is very likely that most/significant part of them are regular viewers of the mainstream. Which, for great luck and pleasure, has given you a great opportunity to see them in their “good light” when they are not subjected to a dystopian attack that brings out their true face (unless you think that the truth about a person is evident in moments of calm and pleasure, and domestic neighborhood situations such as the safe search for a lost cat). Most likely, they also don’t know what you do, and it’s unlikely that you will walk around with an “Off-Guardian owner” badge, because otherwise…
…”Hey, isn’t that the one with the fake news?”… “Who, the one who has a website against vaccines?”…”It’s him! HE IS!”… “He makes money from gullible readers by lying that there is no climate change!”…”Yes – he spreads disinformation, writes against digital identification and instills fear of a ‘digital dystopia’!”…”PEOPLE – THIS ONE WROTE THAT THERE WAS NO COVID, WHILE IN THE SAME TIME PEOPLE WERE DYING LIKE FLIES!!”…”FU*K YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH, YOU AND YOUR FU*KING CAT!!!”….
Well, not so much, approximately.:)
(I hope it’s not too cynical. 🙄 I’m just a little distrustful of the nice people who have shown their best side in a completely safe, cozy, neighborly situation. Maybe I’m just a cynical person, and maybe bad.)
Kitt, I take it it’s you who wrote this?
I so identify, I had a missing cat for a whole week and was beside myself with worry. The little ones (pets and children) need us to mind them.
It’s the one thing that binds us.
Every blessing to you and hope and pray you find the little one.
Owen.
AI Artificial Intelligence wrote it. AI knows you are a sentimental old chap who needs to feel goody goody about yourself and your relationship to the animal world.
You left out the UK military actively helping the Israelis to genocide Gazans. The UK is a party to genocide, kind of similar to when the UK bombed Dresden. The British have a streak of uncivilised cowardice that runs through their history; shameful.
Gain of Function Applied to Bird Flu Continues Worldwide & in Pennsylvania
https://jonfleetwood.substack.com/p/nih-funded-pennsylvania-researchers
The results are horrific. Can’t we do something to stop it?
Eat more pills. The more happy the establishment and our commie community will be.
It means the virus is not deadly but can be held down with frequently injections of vaccines and/or pills.
The depopulation theory was a scam. You will not die, that is the most important message to take home!
I have mixed feelings about facial recognition. When I go through the Chinese and Hong Kong airports, facial recognition is fantastic, you get through the whole process without any waits. No need to show a boarding pass, no need to even show a passport in some places (they keep your face and passport on file) and all the rest is super simple.
Surveillance is another thing all together; in China and (growing in) Hong Kong, there are government surveillance cameras in busy places; generally not in less busy places, rare in the countryside. Facial recognition and they record sound (so I have been told, but have no proof of that), but if you jay walk in front of a camera, your mobile will go “ping!” before you reach the other side of the street.
While your government needs its people, the good sides of facial recognition become a real boost, but when your government feels that it does not need the people, then facial recognition can easily be used to oppress people. It depends on your government as to whether it is a good or bad thing.
I’m not troubling to look it up, and it may be a figment of my abiding cynicism– but surely there’s a “Somebody or Other’s Law” asserting that any technology or system that can easily be used to oppress people will, sooner or later, be employed for exactly that purpose. 🤔
This is what we all dream of.
Yes, indeed. You really say what you say, I don’t imagine it.
If only the elites in Europa, N. America and all the five eyes had the same good intentions as the Chinese (and Russians, for example), oh, what a life we would live..
*By the way, are you writing this from WeChat?
Hunky dory now, but wait till a mission impossible type face prostheticised terrorist makes it on board and sets fire to his underwear…
What does the CCP party has that neither Labour, Democrats let alone Conservatives or Republicans etc. have?
Its own foreign policy department stronger than the national foreign policy ministry.
That is apart from its own army, the PLA “of-course”, so actually more the Party’s Lifeguard Army.
They found Trump’s ultimate weakness: desire for historic fame in the form of a Nobel peace prize. Why an intelligent American President wants to equate himself with a predecessor that sabotaged him with a Russiagate is comprehensible, or a joker like Al Gore.
Turning red with laughter…. The United States of Europe! But first, Canada must become the 51st state. I can’t breathe! If Canada can levy 30,000 dollar fines on it’s citizens for walking a trail in the woods, then the U.S. can fine flag burners the same. Woods or not. Especially, if Canada becomes a state. A precedent.
Solution to all Europe’s and many of the world’s problems would be for all as a unit to declare neutrality.
It is British colonies, all of them. Canada, EU, Australia, SAHEL, ME, Africa, Hong Kong,
New Zealand Even US is a (former influenced) British colony.
Fines in the size of $30000 for a walk in the park is typical British.
(Colloseum – Walking in the Park)https://youtu.be/_YuYJNPD0Xk long version.
or shorty https://youtu.be/0deM8pMQun4 .
How times have changed, growing up anytime something went missing as in the local pet dog cat etc we would always blame the local chinky.
Comment of the year contender.
When actually the offender was Italian…
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/bin-bag-containing-severed-cats-7626419
Yes the shitheads continue their filthy agenda, fuck ’em, i go my own way.
Your link to the latest kovid nonsense was the most interesting. Whenever i see these articles i obviously insert Vax-that was-not-a vax-but-a-Mengele-DNA-expermeriment-on-us-by-fuckheads where they say ‘covid19 infection’
This aging of the arteries is consistent with what was said about how the spike protein from the ‘vaxx’ operates. Its mechanism of action. Damaging the arteries, causing blood clots etc.
The greatest failure in my life was not being able to convince my mom from taking 2 filthy fucking shots from pfizer, the criminals.
She is now 85, has dangerously high blood pressure and has polycythemea, which is when the bone marrow produces far too many red blood cells, causing her blood to become more viscous causing the higher blood pressure. So this ‘aging of the blood vessels’ that is mentioned in the article may be an important lead for me in trying to mitigate this disaster. She is still to get the result of a whole barrage of new blood tests. So thanks for the link.
If anybody may have any other leads to holistic remedies or food that would be beneficial for this condition, it would be greatly appreciated.
I will take any more traditional medical leads too but will treat it with extreme skepticism.
Dr Ryan Cole mentioned a link with the vax infecting the bone marrow in an interview i found from 2022 or 2023, but the poor man has been hammered i think.
Saw a recent interview he gave but he seemed a bit timid was yabbering on about viruses so i stopping watching.
Aside, The interwebs feels different of late, harder finding things, searches bring narrower results….not sure how to describe it. Maybe its the algorithm bubble forming around me and we all probably have different bubbles forming around each of us.
So you may be able to reach info that i can’t…well thats for sure…
Anyways, keep it real folks.
Not sure if this will be permitted here but, if not, perhaps OG could pass it on to “bohdi”.
Polycythemea and Echinacea (a herb)
As inflammation (also caused by the Covid shots) increases blood viscosity, here is evidence that Echninacea decreases inflammation and increases anti-inflammatory markers
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589936821000396
Here a brief mention of echinacea and other herbs:
Alfalfa, Aloe Vera, Burdock Root, echinacea, flax, ginseng and garlic
https://www.lybrate.com/topic/polycythemia-vera
Even a patent!
https://patents.google.com/patent/EP1278533A2/en
and Curcuma longa (turmeric) – in capsule form – high dose – to thin the blood (not if given drug blood thinners! – have INR values monitored if combined)
Used to prevent high-altitude polycythemea
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12279741/
“Medicinal plants and their historical use in hematopoietic disorders”
There’s a table of useful medicinal herbs, incl. Echinacea and Turmeric:
https://www.bonemarrowjournal.com/articles/ijbmr-aid1019.php
Go seek a qualified naturopath; there may be a whole lot of other things going on with your mum.
Wow! Thank you kindly! I will forward all this to her immediately and go through it in detail. Much appreciated & much ❤
bohdi, this post is a bit technical but I found it fascinating. Explained a lot about blood concentrate and flow.
Sasha Latypova.
https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/antibodies-or-what-do-vaccine-injuries
I also noticed a change as of a few weeks ago in some search engines! sites or youtube channels that used to be found are no longer included in the results! at least one of the now-missing items was related to historical analyses that the mainstream would sharply condemn
the algorithms change periodically, and they’re a complete black box, proprietary and likely subject to centralized ideological control
yet for the vast vast majority of web surfers, or even people in general, that’s their entire window to the world
Yes! particularly in revisionist history which i am finding fascinating of late. ie a truer explanation of events in history. The whole covidian fraud really opened my eyes to the blatant lies on which we have shaped our world view.
One of many historical events i am looking into is the Russian ‘Revolution’. I now see it as a brutal talmudic coup d’etat directed from London, World war two and the founding of the zionist entity are all intimately connected.
Fascinating is Pete Quinones reading Solzhenitsyn’ ‘200 years together’ with commentary by Dr Matthew Johnson. Of course there is no official translation of this critical book into english yet and what a hoot it is reading the results that duckduckgo comes up with if you type any salient words from this paragraph into their rapidly deteriorating ‘search engine’. I cant even imagine where a Googlag seach will direct you towards….
I do however take this on board from wiki:
“Solzhenitsyn emphatically denies that Jews were responsible for the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. At the end of chapter nine, Solzhenitsyn denounces “the superstitious faith in the historical potency of conspiracies” that leads some to blame the Russian revolutions on the Jews and to ignore the “Russian failings that determined our sad historical decline.”[8]
We are all complicit in our historical decline.
I am reminded of the line from Metallica,
“You, do my dirty work, scapegoat!” – Sad but true
Ideology. We can put the blame on ideology if we are too much cowards to admit our own laziness and cowardice.
“Whenever i see these articles i obviously insert Vax-that was-not-a vax-but-a-Mengele-DNA-expermeriment-on-us-by-fuckheads”
Do you not mean:
“Whenever i see these articles i obviously insert Vax-that was-not-a vax-but-a-Mengele-DNA-expermeriment-on-the-gullible-guilty-fuckheads-by-fuckheads”
?
Gullible yes or maybe naive but why would you say guilty ? but yes, many of the vaxxed sure did became dreadful ‘petty tyrants’ as Carlos Castaneda called them …
These b’stards would be the ones holding me down for the mandatory monkeypox3 jab.
They’d be killing Palestinians, Jews, Germans, Iraquis, Muricans etc etc etc if told “the country” was under attack or going on crusades to wipe out sundry other religions … while incarcerating the conscientous objectors.
And that’s just for startes.
This week:
Trump is under the illusion he controls the FED. In reality, with approximately $100 trillion in debt, (including pensions), the Fed effectively controls the Government.
It is not the real Trump, Trump got cloned.
What would you do if you had the entire US Congress, FED, The Republican party, The European Elite begging you for more war, The Democratic Party calling you a rat piper, The Zionist movement, Elon Musk, Gates, Fauci, Bush Family, Rockefeller Foundation, The City of London, trying to manipulate you to do their bidding, your wife and your children, the American people’s expectations, hanging on your shoulder?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-wave-warning-hospital-patients-b2811110.html
Or as it’s otherwise been known for centuries… autumn.
Truly sorry about your cat. I lost mine recently. Best friend I ever had…
“Four years and a second COVID-19 diagnosis later, Laurie said the events of the 2020s are still hard to believe at times.
But these days, the couple say, life is pretty much back to normal.
“I don’t dwell on it at all,” Cheryl said. “I don’t think about it from day to day. I certainly don’t worry about it.”
‘4 years after N.L.’s first case of COVID-19, this couple recalls being part of an early outbreak
… Journalist unknown
Mar 14, 2024
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/nl-covid-4-year-anniversary-1.7143864
–
“Phase 1 of the program begins Oct. 1 and will provide free COVID-19 shots to eligible Albertans, while Phase 2 makes vaccines available to everyone else, though they must pay a $100 administration fee per dose.
Phase 2 will begin Oct. 20, pending vaccine availability.
Article content
Those exempt from paying the $100 fee include health-care workers; residents of continuing-care homes and senior living accommodations; home-care clients; individuals with underlying medical conditions and compromised immune systems; individuals experiencing homelessness; and seniors (65 and older) who receive the Alberta Seniors Benefit.
Article content
“We’ll see how it goes this year and when we report back, we’ll be very transparent about how many of the doses get used and how many of them get trashed,” Smith told listeners. “And then people will make a judgment on the policy at that point.”
Health-care workers were not originally eligible for a fee exemption, but were included in Phase 1 after union pushback.”
‘We can’t keep doing it this way’: Smith defends province’s decision to charge $100 for COVID shots
Scott … Stresser
Published Aug 23, 2025
https://calgaryherald.com/news/smith-defends-provinces-decision-to-charge-100-for-covid-shots
–
“It is an area which we call ” … canada
https://youtu.be/If3SXJeZzMQ
As they got covid two times in the lock down period something could indicate that they lied about their willingness to take all the jabs and boosters.
Therefore everybody who claim they got jabbed and boosted and afterwards got covid in order to claim sick leave and prolonged medical treatment and absence many days from work to his sit down strike at home, should pay $1000 in fine for jeopardizing our society and pulling a leg on Public Authorities.
I have the right to have my opinion because we live in a free country and NOT in a dictatorship!
Yes, it’s all sixes and sevens and why this house hasn’t fallen down around oure ears is a miracle to me.
In any case, I hope that your cat is safe and warm wherever it is, though I know you must miss him. Thank you for sharing your very simple, basic, back-to-humanity story. There is good.
On the car thinggy – I read a few years back that BMW were going down this road, they will sell you a model say 3 or 5 series and if you wan extras you pay for them and they activate them in your car, but the catch is that you pay for them on a monthly subscription – and when you sell the car BMW removes the upgrades you paid for, and the next owner needs to pay a monthly subscription to get them back and so on.
Some good news
“Burkina Faso has suspended a project funded by the Gates Foundation aimed at curbing the spread of malaria in Africa, amid concern that it could be misused to advance population control on the continent.
The Target Malaria research team, based at the Burkinabe Institute of Health Sciences Research (IRSS), is working to alter mosquito genes to render the insects incapable of transmitting the disease, which the World Health Organization says killed 569,000 people in Africa in 2023. The non-profit consortium, which also receives funding from Open Philanthropy, operates in Ghana and Uganda as well.
In a statement released on Saturday, Samuel Pare, Secretary-General of Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI), said Target Malaria has been ordered to halt all activities in the West African country.”
On the face thinggy – that’s going to open up a legal nightmare, for anyone taking photos and posting them online.
As for facial recognition is has been stealthily rolled out in Britain for years – via supermarkets and shops – now its being rolled en masse to plot our every move, mind you our phones do that right now – Britain is now an authoritarian regime.
After seeing the EU leader sit like little chaste school children at the headmasters desk (Trumps desk) – its now pretty obvious that the EU kowtows to Washington, and with Trump saying that he wants the EU to send weapons to Ukraine – (bought from the USA’s MIC) I fully expect EU and British citizens to fork out even more public cash, to prop up the Neo-Nazi dictatorship in Ukraine, causing more suffering and pain and economic hardship for EU/UK citizens.
On the positive side of things, Trump sent Ursula van der Lying & Cheating out of the room, like a naughty child, at the recent EU leaders meet-up with Trump because she was not an elected leader of a EU country.
Neonazi mosquitoes, sir, these are the neonazi fascist killer mosquitoes of Bill Gates and Trump. Down with the fascist Nazis. And the mosquitoes.
The real movement:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq87497v8ypo
“Usually, authorities are not allowed to sell off assets in order to fund day-to-day services such as bin collections or social care.
But increasing numbers of councils in financial trouble are now being given powers to do so by the government.
Known as “capitalisation directions” they also allow councils to take out short-term loans to pay for day-to-day services – but add millions to the debt pile in the process.
….
what was public value is now passing into private hands and that won’t come back.”
And note this re. The Croydon Council:
“When the Covid pandemic hit, it lost millions and could not repay its debts.”
Also,
“Though that grant has increased in the years since the pandemic, core spending power for local authorities is around 18% down per person compared to 2010, the Institute for Fiscal Studes found.”
Since the pandemic, eh?
And I’m sure that if some money may still be inconveniently available for public need, it can be frittered away on another Pride march.
The sly, insidious sell off of public infrastructure.
Corparasitic cancer eating everything.
Dont forget money to Women’s Global Liberty, Disabled people’s right to park anywhere at any time they want,,Gay’s Liberty Frontier, Black Lives Also Matters, and Erik Nielsen’s Foundation For Freedom For Our Children (born outside marriage).
no.2 The face will be linked to the corporate legal person identity MR JOHN DOE
thereafter you are fkd.
Hey Spuds !
I see Devo are still at it, the remaining ones..
They are doing a podcast, who isn’t, and fixing up the old videos.
Here’s a good one.
Freedom Of Choice (Official Music Video) – YouTube
The new Devo docu is great too.
Upgrades to “unlock the full power of the engine” used to be IBM’s strategy. Its competitors described its general approach as FUD: fear, uncertainty and doubt for customers who considered trying alternatives.
Perhaps also with in-built errors and then comes the subscription to anti-“virus” software to supposedly keep you e-vehicle ticking over but more likely to inject additional faults to keep the whole upgrade shebang going until you give up and buy an old-fashioned bicycle or walk.
I hate to admit it, but I had a chip put into my beloved cat’s ear when he was a kitten – 16 years ago – so I could find him if he ever became lost. So far, happily, he never has been lost but I like the security it gives me.
It is one thing choosing voluntarily to chip your cat, but it is another when government makes it a legal requirement, as happened in the UK recently. Also, in Spain and other countries before that.
Since when has government cared so much about pets?
A domestic cat does not need a chip, it is not dangerous like a lion, a tiger or a pitbull terrier. It is part of a softening up agenda. Next it will be children playing on the fear of them going missing, then the elderly for the same reason and then the rest of us, just because we accepted it in the first place with pets. It is so transparent.
The problem is an adult cat dont get lost.
If it stays away it is because life is more interesting outside your boring and shitty home.
A cat is wise enough to get back to home if it is clean and comfortable.
In Australia it’s not even an option. You adopt a pet from the pound or breeder and it comes fully pre-vaxxed and microchipped and you have to register it with the local council.
Your cat might just be locked in someone’s garage or shed. I had the exact same experience with one of my cats: fliers, phoning vets, local newspapers etc. I got her back. I too find that ordinary people are the antidote to cynicism. I also believe that cat owners (friends) are the antidote to authoritarianism.
The pet microchip is I think not quite what some people imagine it to be. Is isn’t a real time tracking device. It’s basically a scannable identifyer, like reading a collar badge. I was able to recover a couple of beloved kitty cats when they were picked up by the SPCA after my previous partner passed away. Considering that her final wishes were that the cats were fed and well looked after, I guess it worked out about right for these two.
FACIAL RECOGNITION has always been about, it just now they tell people what most people knew anyway.
Non-compliance is always good to see. then lead by example OG and dont pay your council tax or taxs,
thought not.
I sincerely hope your feline companion returns safe and sound.
It’s finally getting through to some that the ‘post-WW2 economic boom’
was an historical anomaly… Concessions were made, now they’re being
clawed back… Political participation was extended, now to end the delusion…
So why extend The Vote to sixteen-year old hoomins ?
24/7, the young look on at all the goodies the Boomers were able to amass
during the Boom Years. Living precariously, daily the young feel envy and
resentments at the Boomer’s Entitlements attitude…
There are innumerable politicians milling about looking for A Cause to make
A Name for themselves. and yer cant be a politician if yer dont know how
to exploit resentments and envy…
An Intergenerational War is in the making – the first meme-shots have been
fired:
https://covidsteria.substack.com/p/sociopathsteria-best-boomer-memes-after-me-the-flood
Work harder. Its my standing comment to those Iphone 5G junkies
How quickly you delude yourself.
“It makes you realise…most people are nice.”
No they’re not.
Though I once believed so as well.
Never again.
It was only 5-years ago.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
“But, it’s for your own good.”
In the new normal:
you’ll own things, but if you want them to work, you have to rent them;
you’ll even own your own face, but if you want to keep it, you have to give it to a machine;
the police state will protect you, and your face, from discrimination by rounding up everyone;
and Europe may stand up to the United States by becoming the United State of Europe.
“The future ain’t what it used to be.” (Yogi Berra)
(See also Orwell: doublethink.)
It’s crazy knowing there is no way I will like my next car. But there is no way. They have legislated away everything I like about them. When I finally got a 2010 BMW 3-series in 2013 after wanting one since high school in the 1980s, I was just buying the badge. My favorite Beemers were the 2000 to 2006 models, but no bank will finance something that old and dealers are increasingly announcing they will no longer service old models. New cars are too big and heavy and overly complex and the leather is fake on the seats (leatherette). Old Beemers and Benzes had cache and were distinct from American and Japanese cars. Now all cars are the same. They are big and heavy and overly complex with touch screens. Touch screens instead of leather and mahogany and burled walnut is a huge ripoff. A Ferrari 308 still turns heads. A 1974-1990 Countach turns heads. A 1980 Mercedes 450 SL turns heads. I have never turned around for a new model from any one of these manufacturers. You have to look at the badge to tell what a car is now because they all look roughly the same. Speaking of leather, I wanted to buy my lady a nice purse. That’s when I discovered all of those three and four thousand dollar bags in Saks Fifth Avenue are now pleather, or as they call it, “sustainable leather”. Three grand for pleather. I got burned on a Versace belt, and had to cut off the buckle and have a leather one made. Same with high end wallets. Also any shoes that aren’t traditional dress shoes. Prada is a really bad offender. So is Dolce. They charge thousands for plastic. And now that real leather jackets are back, I’m not seeing any for less than a grand. I remember when there were always cheap ones for $200, and the designer ones started at five, because it was in the 2000s. Analog cars and leather. I never imagined they’d be gone one day.
Goodness gracious, how will you cope?
I feel with you. A fantastic car they only made in the good old days. Today’s digital plastic electric shit are dangerous for everybody who comes near them.
I couldnt afford a BMW at that time and today even less. But leased instead a Honda Accord, nice looking too and the best car I ever had and sat in.
A small quantity of those used cars are still available 10-15km/l to an affordable price. In 5 years I guess they are all gone.
New cars are now full of what they call ‘vegan leather’, or they incorporate a little genuine leather on the seat front and the rest is synthetic. It is such a scam, charging the same for what should be genuine leather but very often is not even an option anymore.
By calling it vegan leather the manufacturers hope to appeal to those who like the ethical credentials, never mind the fact that the synthetic materials use petrochemicals and need to be processed.
Whenever a store salesperson tries to sell their vegan leather product I just tell them “Oh, you mean cheap plastic”. The look on their faces is priceless.
Most Folks are nice.
It’s the ambitious, self serving $uiturd$ that are fucking the planet up.
These people here were the ones from your neighbourhood. Smiling and friendly people, always prepared to help when a cat has disappeared. https://yandex.ru/video/preview/12053128010542028396 Abu Ghraib (warning, stark pictures of really nice ordinary people).
Associated sales traps: The Greedemons $alivate over them.
I think l saw your cat Kit (?). It was fleeing the U.K., looking for a safer haven.
Nothing is new,
nothing is normal,
the latest is the same as the earliest
and the week is wroughted weak when viewed from the circle of eternity.
Cats will be cats,
… exemplifying love and non-attachment to ownership.
Hope you find your cat safe and sound soon, Kit.
If neighbours have sheds or garages ask them to look inside. Cats have a habit of going where they shouldn’t.
The famous MSM media grift of my cat gone missing scam.
Milo recently pulled this off and got 25.000$ in donations towards the reward of the cat.
Does that mean that amount is dded to Nestle’s ESG contribution? So sweet of them.
And they can get trapped in cupboards and cellars, and not make a sound.
True, even cynicism is getting harder to maintain…
Have I understood this? The car subscription is along the lines of: You can buy the car but you’ll have to pay extra if you want it to go above 30 mph? 40 mph? etc.
Leading eventually to:
You can buy the car but you’ll have to pay extra if you want it to actually work.
The most obvious con since “value added tax” – since you were already paying for the value. Indeed that’s the definition of payment.
Perhaps it’s just like a car purchased with a differently powered or cylindered engine as in the old days – except for the subscription part. THAT is nasty. We want to own, not subscribe.
At any rate, as far as ebikes is concerned there are lots of places where you can go and have the speed limiter removed from the imposed slow speed that these bikes are permitted to be ridden on. Those workshops will surely also pop up for speed-limited e-cars.
I love my 25 year old toyota. Nothing beeps. There are handles to wind up the windows. Mechanics also love it – so easy to service – and it never breaks down. Can’t be tracked either and I usually leave my de-googled mobile at home.
Its probably causing climate change (not). I wonder how long they will let me keep it on the road?
Looking for a car right now. I love the old models. Have no interest in a new model. All the bells and whistles give me the shudders.
I found a 2002 with both a cassette player and a cd player.
No computer.
What you find now, unfortunately, is that a lot of these old cars have had the original radios and cd players replaced with the big computer screen. Sad.
But, alas…
If I had a car with a computer screen I’d paste a piece of cardboard over it. I think they’re dangerous and take your eyes off the road.
More money means more exemptions: tinted windows and outriders for the high and mighty, short or no queues at airports, no security checks for personal planes.
It’s like buying an airline ticket now and having to pay extra for a seat.
And baggage.
And snacks.
I’m not even sure the movie’s included.
Ryanair announced a £1 charge to use the toilets.
It was probably a stunt but it wouldn’t surprise me !
It’s normal for you to miss him, he’s a great cat. Well-mannered and loving. A little while ago he ate a whole fresh trout and now we are watching TV. If you want to see him again, on the first of September, put all donations (in small, unmarked coins) from the reporting period 01-31 August in a colorless old sack and leave them in the abandoned newspaper stand next to the train station at 8:30 in the morning. We can all be satisfied in the end.
Not impressed with Trump over this.
Hopefully we can follow suit like in the U.K and do migrant student residence hall demo’s.
Trump says he’ll allow 600,000 Chinese students into the U.S
https://x.com/disclosetv/status/1960028207605825615
You clicked on offguardian.org a domain which is for sale. Suggesting that OffG don’t own that domain name.
When I tried it, DDG – which nobody should be using as a search engine – still shows the correct off-guardian.org (with a hyphen) as the first result when typing in the search bar the words off guardian (two words) or offguardian (one word). The incorrect unhyphenated one is the second result.
Next time type click on the correct link in the search results.
Yeah yah. But I’m saying the search results have changed. You don’t get a simple link direct to offguardian at the top of the search. They’re making it harder.
You do get a simple link to the correct website. I typed offguardian, same as you said you did.
First result is the correct one...try it. The second one is the dead link, to a domain for sale.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=h_&q=offguardian&ia=web
Thats why we have bookmarks.
Re: Denmark’s Deepfake Legistration
Lemme guess: For your digital likeness to be protected, it needs to be registered in a national likeness database, similar to a patent register. And it wil only be a matter of time before Palantir has access to it.
And they are saying you don’t already own your face, your DNA (remember the Covid swabs), your body (coerced vaxxing), etc.
Charging extra for a software update to get more power existed with normal engines too.
Car manufacturers make different power levels via software and that’s where tuning comes from originally where people would flash the higher level factory tune on their base level car with the same physical engine.
Now I see why they do it.
When you run an electric car or combustion engine at higher limits, it has risks of wearing out quicker.
That increases their risk as they have a warranty period.
So they charge more for the wear that would cut into their warranty claims.