LF: Kill People, No Problem… Just Don’t “Cheat” Uncle

A VW engineer may be going to prison – and has already been professionally (and probably personally) ruined… for having “cheated” the EPA. Which is like expelling a picked-on kid who outsmarted the playground bully.

Which, of course, is what often happens now.

Whether it’s the schoolyard bully – or the EPA (or other “agencies” of Uncle) – we are supposed to take it, never resist it – and may the motor gods have mercy upon you if you ever “cheat” it.

The engineer’s name is James R. Liang. He’s worked for VW since 1983, but not anymore. Bye-bye career (and pension) and hello Federal prison. Which he’s facing on account of having been a member of the engineering team that developed “defeat” software for VW’s TDI diesel engines. The software made the engines “compliant” when emissions tested by Uncle but less-than-compliant when driven by customers.

As I’ve written about several times before, this sounds bad but really isn’t.

The EPA’s tests are both arbitrary and Pecksniffian – meaning much ado about not much. The media continues to parrot the line that VW’s diesel engines produced “up to 40 times” more pollution (specifically, oxides of nitrogen) than the EPA’s standards permitted.

Maybe so. But – so what?

It continues to boggle sensible minds (if any still exist) that EPA hasn’t had to produce any evidence that harm has been caused by this. Not one crying baby, even. Probably because the “up to 40 times more” the media keeps squawking about amounts to less than 1 percent’s difference in the composition of the “cheating” car’s exhaust gasses.

The only thing that’s been established is that VW “cheated” – which is a legalism.

The German officers who conspired to get rid of the Fuhrer in July of 1944 were certainly guilty under the law. But did they do wrong? History has vindicated them (too late for them, of course).

Maybe events will be kinder to Liang. Maybe it will occur to his lawyers to ask the Never Asked Question: Where is the victim of this alleged crime?

Just one.

Arguing anything else is a loser. VW, via painful-looking public hairshirted writhings,has already admitted to “cheating” EPA. Now it is just a question of begging for mercy – which will never be given. EPA is like Al Sharpton who has found a “racist.”

Never forgive. Never shut up.

Liang himself has already begged for mercy – and is cooperating with Uncle’s Inspector Javerts in exchange (he hopes) for “leniency” when he is eventually sentenced for “violating U.S. clean air laws” and “conspiring to commit wire fraud.” The indictment handed down against him states that Liang and other engineers at VW “…quickly realized the diesel engines they were designing for vehicles target at the U.S. market could not meet government clean air standards while appealing to customers.”

Italics added.

Yes, exactly. VW’s “crime” was building engines that appealed to its customers – rather than building them to placate EPA. For this “crime,” Liang will probably spend time in a prison cell. It may not be hard-core prison and he may “get away” with house arrest, an ankle bracelet and probation – along with a healthy does of financial ruin and (as a result of all the foregoing) a ruined marriage. But consider his fate as opposed to some of the Wall Street crony capitalists of the Late Implosion (back in ’08) who caused actual harm to millions of people and who for the most part walked away with not so much as a parking ticket and in many cases, a golden parachute strapped to their backs.

And what about the war criminals in the government – the same government that is hounding engineers like Liang – who (The Chimp, for instance) are directly responsible for the calculated, deliberate murder of tens of thousands of people (low estimate) and who now (as The Chimp likes to) sit at home doing watercolors?

These actual harms triggered no consequence to speak of. Because their perpetrators did not commit the only crime that Uncle will not tolerate: Failing to obey.

That is Liang’s – and VW’s – fatal offense. They could have designed and sold shoddy cars that resulted in accidents and fatalities – actual harm caused to actual real people – and the worst that would have happened would have been recalls and lawsuits. They’d have lost some money, perhaps. But it is not likely anyone would have been criminally prosecuted.

Speaking of which: Ever wonder why that old bag Joan Claybrook (and Elizabeth Dole, wife of Bob, who, as Secretary of Transportation back in the ’80s, was also directly responsible for the harm that ensued) were never indicted for getting people killed by forcing the first-generation air bags onto the market, even though they knew ahead of time – because the engineers told them – that these bags were not just potentially but assuredly dangerous to small children, older people and people generally?

These bags – which were not “de-powered” and lacked sensors in the seats to adjust the force of deployment based on the weight of the occupant, to reduce (but not eliminate) the potential harm caused by the force of the bag’s explosive deployment – did in fact kill and maim. Real people were really hurt.

But Claybrook and Dole were never held accountable – because in their death-dealing they were Uncle manifested. And Uncle never indicts – much less convicts – himself. Or his minions.

But woe unto him who “cheats” Uncle.

So the article is saying that he did indeed break the law but he shouldn't be charged because the EPA standards are arbitrary?

Well, I think a speed limit of 55 is arbitrary. I'm an excellent driver and I should be allowed to go 85.

I think the arbitrary age requirement for owning a handgun should be eliminated. There are many responsible 12-year-olds that should be allowed to carry a handgun.

Obedience is the essence of the Rule of Law, which is the foundation of civilization.

So yes, 'Failure to Obey" is THE intolerable crime, in ALL organizations, whether they be governments, businesses or families.

People do not like to be subordinated to other people. But they are. That is a fact of life. When people are insubordinate, families, businesses and countries start to fall apart.

In this case, the guy used his intelligence to create a computer program to thwart the express purpose of government. He devised an elaborate scheme to commit fraud, and he and his company got caught.

That's not just "failing to obey", it's deviously plotting to feign obedience. Of course that's going to get called out and punished.

When Malum in Prohibitum becomes arbitrary and corrupt, law becomes the tool of oppression and oppressors.

Balancing on the beach ball is hard, and it's always unstable - like keeping a helicopter in a steady hover: it's a lot of work for the pilot.

Our air pollution regulators have been excessively aggressive. Nobody wants to breathe dirty air, but the EPA has gone much too far. That said, to fix that is a political issue, to be addressed by political means.

The election of Trump is the political answer to over-regulation. Devising fraudulent computer programs is not.

I have never thought our tax structure to be fair. I do not believe that its unfairness, which I do think is within the range of tolerability, and therefore tax cheats should be punished.

In other words, our tax code is unfair, but the unfairness is not so egregious as to justify a a tax revolt. I think the same thing about our environmental laws. They are excessive. But not so excessive as to justify intentional fraud to evade them.

Our legal system is bad and our laws are bad. But they are not SO bad that I believe we are justified in disobeying them (for the most part), and I certainly don't believe that we are justified in devising fraudulent schemes to systematically evade them. I still think that their badness is within the range that is properly addressed by elections and lawsuits.

Where is that line crossed? I'm not sure that I could bright-line it. But I am sure that the environmental laws that VW evaded are not SO bad that they should be fraudulently evaded. After all, Mercedes and Toyota, Nissan and Ford and GM and Chrysler, Audi and BMW and Peugeot and Hyundae all obeyed these excessive laws. I don't think that VW deserves a pass here.

You believe bringing a lawsuit before the same corrupt system that has brought this plague upon us will result in a cure. Never happen. We've lost every battle for more than five decades.

The only thing that’s been established is that VW “cheated” – which is a legalism.

The victims of the crime are GM and Toyota, Ford and Chrysler, and all of the other car companies who spent the money to obey the law but faced a competition from VW juiced by the illegally retained profits that the other companies spent on complying with the law.

VW motors were a little bit peppier because they didn't really have the environmental protections, so people thought more highly of VW than was warranted by a fair playing field. They gave business to VW that they would not have otherwise, and deprived VW's competitors of that business, because VW cheated and they didn't.

WHAT??????? The PAULTARD cult cares about a "pension"? Oh, to YELLA up a journalistic article they do. I see.

The EPA and other bureocratic organizations aren't required to produce evidence. All they are reqired to do is whip up public relations hysteria to buttrass their careers.

No just hanging out at a couple of other websites with the rest of my adopted family.

“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul

Those who most loudly denounce Fake News are typically those most aggressively disseminating it.