Joe was right.

Joseph Goebbels is attributed with the saying “if you tell a lie long enough, loud enough and often enough people will believe it.” Or words to that effect. We see it often enough with Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and now Barrack Obama with regard to racism and we see it in the debate on what to do about the “ride sharing” services being offered around the country.

Now, let’s just be frank about it, if you’re not sharing the ride with someone it is not “ride sharing.” So, let’s all just stop pretending that this is anything beyond a new way to dispatch a taxicab that was clearly predicted in this column years ago. It is a wonderful idea that UberX and Lyft are providing transportation services in an open market. I very much agree with that. That said, why do jurisdictions impose regulations on taxicabs that put them at a competitive disadvantage with bogus ride sharing schemes designed to fool no one with their transparency?

Expensive medallions, vehicle limitations, on board card swipes, meters, refusal to convey statutes, and all of the other “feel good” rules various jurisdictions come up with to please their constituents are all swept aside because the vehicle is dispatched via telephone?

Cities like to pretend that Uber et al are providing citywide service, but that’s just not the case. They get to be selective as to what neighborhoods they service, what cards they accept, sorry no cash, and reel in those key demographics the advertising gurus tell us about. Meanwhile, the taxicab industry is left, as we say here in Texas, sucking hind tit. Let’s get a set of rules, same for everybody, not just for those who can’t pay off the right people.

Yes, but it feels good.

Quebec Transport Minister Robert Poeti is shocked, nay stunned, to find out that, although convicted felons aren’t allowed to drive, nobody is checking before issuing potential drivers a license. Oops. The issue came to light when women started complaining that some drivers were acting inappropriately toward them.

The good minister, an ex-police officer, said, "we simply don’t know if convicted felons are driving or not." Got it. Now, he didn’t say that there was a single shred of evidence to suggest that a convicted felon was driving, or that any of the complaints on lewd behavior were connected in any way to convicted felons, or that this crackdown was in any way going to move the ball on lewd driver conduct, but it sure sounds like something.

The local government is springing into action! Of course, drivers who have only been in country for a few years from countries that allow nine year olds to marry may not actually have a conviction for anything sexually related. Any potential victim/plaintiff may have already been stoned to death for adultery. It’s comforting to see good government in action. Is Jerry Kozubal still a bigot?

Raise your hand if you’re sure!

San Diego International Airport is having a problem: some of the taxicab drivers stink. Rules have now been put in place that require drivers not to stink. The drivers are in an uproar because they see the whole thing as stereotyping foreign born drivers as smelly. Of course, truth be told, ungroomed drivers come in every color and nationality.

Having actually dealt with taxicab drivers over the years I found a few things about them, get in their pocket and they’ll toe the line and they hate change. Kick a few of them out of line for smelling and the bathing will commence.

Perhaps, it’s cultural. If you come from a region that is arid it may confuse you somewhat that we use drinking water to flush our toilets here in the US. What really had me hysterical in the entire discussion was the faux rage expressed by Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. She is reported to have said her face reddened with anger with which I share something in common since mine reddened with laughter.

Is it her contention that a customer should be forced to pay to ride in a taxicab smelling like a weight room on a summer day? Get serious! These drivers are grownups and nobody should have to tell them to bathe, whoever they are and wherever they come from. However, it appears that someone has to. Rather than being ashamed of this type of behavior, these people are defending their right to smell terribly.

If these are the leaders in the taxicab industry then I’d best add that Uber app on my phone pretty quickly because the public will eventually catch on that you can ride with a regular bathing Uber driver or take the metered sewer pipe from the San Diego airport. Perhaps, I was overly optimistic about the survival of the industry.

There’s no place like home.

Reports are that Uber is clobbering the taxicab industry in tech savvy San Francisco. The average number of fares per taxicab is reported to have fallen from 1424 per cab in March of 2012 to 504 in July of 2014. Makes you wonder how those medallions are selling there in the city by the bay. I would speculate that the business traveler has pretty much abandoned the taxicab in San Francisco. The companies there have been protected by regulation for so long that there may end up being no survivors. Time will tell.

The other shoe drops.

Last month I mentioned SheRides and the potential issues of discrimination based on sex and refusal to covey. Well, those issues have apparently been resolved with some company policy statements and a short delay to gather more drivers.

It seems that the app dispatched company was starting with one hundred drivers and demand was too high. The truly interesting part of the story, for me, was that Stella Mateo, wife of Fernando Mateo, New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers spokesman, was the creator of the app. Hmm, let me see, app based dispatching is crushing the taxicab industry and the spokesman for the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers' wife is starting an app based company?

I read Fernando’s comments regarding the startup as being “a civil rights issue” and wondered if he was commenting on the exclusion of drivers and passengers based on their sex until I read the part about it being his wife's start up. Conflict of interest? No! What? Where do you get that stuff?

Just because the group that Fernando is the spokesman for stands to lose a big chunk of business to his wife’s company doesn’t mean that he can’t speak to the needs of the predominantly male driver’s group. Uh huh. Gimme a break.

Is something broken?

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission is studying new rules regarding drivers affiliated with rival bases from being dispatched by a different base unless the rival base gives permission in advance. What? Barring drivers from being dispatched by whoever they please essentially makes them employees of the base that is “allowing” them to be dispatched by another base.

So, let me get this straight, Uber, who breaks every rule ever written for the ground transportation industry, wants the TLC to make rules protecting them? Are you serious? An independent contractor driver should be allowed to sign up to drive for every base in the city and the TLC needs to stay out of the protectionist racket.

Making Uber drivers slaves to that company isn’t in the driver nor riders best interest. If Uber wants to claim to be competing in a free market let them compete. I am absolutely stunned that they would whine to the government to protect them the first time something didn’t go their way. What a bunch of crybabies.

Could be a problem.

It seems that Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport has a problem keeping their Gestapo, er airport police in line. In the age of iPhones you would think that everyone assumes they’re being recorded. However, these police dunces smack talk the good citizens of the area simply because the people they smack talk about and hold in such low esteem are taxicab drivers.

While the social commentary is unprintable here it certainly exhibits the attitude that seems to be more and more prevalent in government servants toward their public masters. One must assume that the police employees of the airport were actually the "masters" and that the term “public servant” is really a joke being foisted on the public.

More and more we see our police "servants" lording over the public with laws and regulations designed to increase the government’s control over us and enrich those in power and their cronies. The “police” officers making these comments to members of the public are unfit for duty and any excuse to keep them as “public servants” is a joke.

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Speaking of public servants, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank departing Attorney General Eric Holder for his stellar service. In my 62 years as a citizen of the United States of America never have I witnessed an attorney general of such low moral fiber with the possible exception of John Mitchell. The difference, I believe, is that Mitchell at least knew he was doing wrong.

Holder has no such moral compass. It is my considered opinion that Holder should serve at least as much time as Mitchell in the same places upon his graduation. So, thanks Eric for showing us how poorly the office can be handled and what real discrimination looks like. The use of your office as an attack dog made Nixon look like a Chihuahua.

If you have any comments regarding this or any of my articles please feel free to contact me at don@mcacres.com. —dmc