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V. Agnelli Jr's avatar

Gard, well done as always, however, I'm going to focus here on your Number one and Number two stories. There is a nexus between them. You see, I've been a car guy for a long time. I was building bracket cars from 1978 through 1981. I've been fighting the standards for the same period. For example, the catalytic converter was just another crony capitalist handout. Air bags were as well. Carburetors were the reverse kind of handout for the unions. They held us up from widely adopting fuel injection for years. Follow the money?

Back when Big O took over from little W, the first beg re-jiggering of the the auto industry was on its way. One of the plants to close was Ford's Norfolk assembly plant. They mostly built import versions but had dealers in the Mid_Atlantic they were able to sell to. I can still remember seeing the last of the unfinished frames on flatbed trailers, headed West of I-64 towards an MO assembly plant.

The UAW told their employees that the plant would open back up again. Oops. The Big and the Blue Oval didn't see it that way.

But, let us back away from that picture for a second. Back in the late 1980's, the US furniture manufacturing started to be replaced (and I say replaced by unfair competition from Asia, which was allowed by Congress) by Imports. Rather than close the factories lock stock and barrel here and replaced them with cheaper labor over there, a facade must be created to make it appear that our companies were just not doing well enough to stay at full strength. Rather than close it all up and make things look like a crash dive that nobody could come out of, they closed the US furniture business slowly. What also closed off, was the extraction of the hardwoods from VA, WV, NC, TN and KY. By the late 80's, wood pellet stoves were all the rage. Cutting your own wood was made to look nasty and to laborious. The Pellet industry was born.

Bring on the Al Gore brigade and not only was Crony Capitalism expanded but had a new revenue stream created. The ability for Global politicians to invest in companies, which existed outside of the laws of ethics. This included the Carbon Credit exchange. It's the American version of "Belt and Road" more like "Oak and Road".

So let us bring the two stories together, and I can do this because I am life long Virginian who has family and friends who live in that part of the state. In fact, sitting in my carport as I speak, is 1984 F-150 with 80K miles on it. It has a small oval sticker on the passenger side of the rear window. It says it was built at the Norfolk, VA Assembly plant and it was purchased at Bowditch Ford in Newport News, VA. My father-law purchased it new when he retired from the Newport News Shipbuilding yard.

That plant was converted to a wood pellet plant, to make pellets to be used in UK Power Plants, who were earning "Carbon Credits", by making smoke from wood and the wood they were using, was the same wood we used to harvest to make furniture with here those previously mentioned states. With the exception that the amount of wood they were taking to make pellets, far out-stripped the ability of these great trees to grow. Who is really helping the environment? Not the Carbon Credit bastards.

They also are leaving nothing for us to revive our furniture industry with as well. OH and Guess what Biden was pushing? You got it! Cut-Baby-Cut down those trees!!!

Here are a few links for you check out if you get the time:

https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/7124/ford-ceases-production-at-norfolk-assembly-plant

and you can't find anything on the conversion today. You could find all over the web a few years ago, when the Republican lead Virginia government put the deals together to convert the old Paint Plant into a Bio-Fuels center.

oh look! "BIO" fuels are all the rage two years ago! They can "mitigate high risk wild fires". Oh, I guess they mean the forest land that the US Forest Service used to control and then stopped for some unexplained reason (I wonder where that executive order came from?)

https://www.fastmarkets.com/insights/enviva-to-double-pellet-production-will-rank-fourth-among-us-wood-users/

and

OOPS! Times, they aren't as good as they once were. I wonder if they'll sell the old paint shop that's left in Norfolk back to Ford? I'd bet somebody at the UAW would throw it into the wind.

https://apnews.com/article/enviva-bankruptcy-wood-pellets-c07cee17ef6cd8a00e317a3f9a53d87b

and

https://www.southernenvironment.org/news/selc-95-other-orgs-warn-president-biden-about-dangers-of-biomass-energy/

Ain't that nice? They get to hid from bankruptcy and restructure. I wonder what they did at Ford and Lane, Pennsylvania House and Broyhill and so many more names and faces. Hundreds of Thousands of Americans from the coke pits and the forests and the mills, shops, plants, rail roads, wholesalers and retail stores and even banks and gas stations and hardware stores to support them.

The raping and pillaging of the South by Mr. Lincoln continues into the 21st Century with the Royal Families, leading the way.

Yours in Liberty,

Vince

ps. remember the ending of the movie Three Days of the Condor? The last story told it all. Crony Capitalism is the game and we are the pieces on the game board. Just like 1775. Think about it.

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