…is a horrible plastic bottle destroying the world, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is The Right Scoop, with a post on Trump warning Iran.
It’s orange week!
Read: If All You See… »
…is a horrible plastic bottle destroying the world, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is The Right Scoop, with a post on Trump warning Iran.
It’s orange week!
Read: If All You See… »
Happy Sunday! Another great day in Returned America. Getting a little well needed rain, the Dodgers are kicking butt, and my ankle is almost back to normal. This pinup is by Bill Medcalf, with a wee bit of help, and, no, per an email, I’m not trying to make the addition perfect. That’s always the point. The wonderful pinups take precedence.
What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15
As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014, so, most are hosted internally). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your Pinups for Vets calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me. I’ve also mostly alphabetized them, makes it easier scrolling the feedreader
Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!
Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?
Two great sites for getting news links are Liberty Daily and Whatafinger.
Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »
I have to wonder: would the NY Times be in favor of rolling back regulations if they were directly on the NY Times? Would the Fish Wrap be fine with Democrats using the law to roll back Trump regulations?
Republicans in Congress Use Obscure Law to Roll Back Biden-Era Regulations
As President Trump moves unilaterally to slash the federal bureaucracy and upend longstanding policies, Republicans in Congress have embarked on a spree of deregulation, using an obscure law to quietly but steadily chip away at Biden-era rules they say are hurting businesses and consumers.
In recent weeks, the G.O.P. has pushed through a flurry of legislation to cancel regulations on matters large and small, from oversight of firms that emit toxic pollutants to energy efficiency requirements for walk-in freezers and water heaters.
To do so, they are employing a little-known 1996 law, the Congressional Review Act, that allows lawmakers to reverse recently adopted federal regulations with a simple majority vote in both chambers. It is a strategy they used in 2017 during Mr. Trump’s first term and are leaning on again as they work to find ways to steer around Democratic opposition and make the most of their governing trifecta of the House, the Senate and the White House.
I can’t find anywhere in the NY Times where they complained about Democrats using the CRA during the Biden years. The LA Times cheered the use of the CRA by Democrats, as did NBC News.
But this time, Republicans are testing the limits of the law in a way that could vastly expand its use and undermine the filibuster, the Senate rule that effectively requires 60 votes to move forward with any major legislation.
Because resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act need only a majority vote, they are some of the only legislation that can avoid a filibuster in the Senate. This allows them to circumvent the partisan gridlock that stands in the way of most significant bills.
See, it was OK when Democrats did it during the Biden years, but, not OK for Republicans.
Now Republicans are trying to go much further with the law, including using it to effectively attack state regulations blessed by the federal government. The House this week passed three disapproval resolutions that would eliminate California’s strict air pollution standards for trucks and cars by rejecting waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency that allowed them to take effect.
Those state rules have national implications and involve interstate commerce.
Either way, experts warned that Republicans may come to regret reading the statute so broadly. Michael Thorning, the director of the Structural Democracy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonprofit think tank, said doing so could hand Democrats a powerful tool to undo regulations that they dislike when they one day return to power.
They already did this during the Biden years. Funny these same people weren’t worried about the lawfare against Trump and his people but are now bothered when Republicans do the same.
Read: Bummer: Democrats Upset Republicans Are Using An Obscure Law To Roll Back Over-Regulation »
I’m unclear why they are called loans, when the money is rarely repaid. These are handouts, for which Biden was giving them to friendly companies, with little expectation of results, and virtually no oversight
Energy Chief Says US Won’t Move Forward With With Billions in Biden-Era Loans
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said his agency doesn’t plan to move forward with billions of dollars worth of Biden-era loans as the Trump administration reviews the department’s $400 billion-strong green bank.
Wright, speaking during a Bloomberg Television interview Friday, criticized former President Joe Biden’s administration for issuing billions of dollars in loans and grants between the time President Donald Trump was elected and inauguration day.
“We’ve got a lot of reasons to be worried and suspicious about that,” Wright said in response to a question about the department’s loan program. “Some of these loans will go forward, some of it, it’s too late to change course. A lot of them won’t go forward, but that’s a very careful review process that we’ve just put in place and just got a team to execute on.”
The department recently started a review of its Loan Programs Office, which has financed nearly $70 billion in energy projects and made more than $41.2 billion in conditional commitments that haven’t been finalized. The latter include $1.46 billion to biofuel maker Gevo Inc. and $4.4 billion for a high-voltage transmission line project spanning Kansas to Missouri.
In my mind, one of the major things they should be doing is auditing the “loans” and grants. Let’s see how the money was spent. What were the results? Were the projects completed or on their way to completion? How much money went to the projects and how much into people’s pockets? Are the projects sustainable, or, just simply being done on a whim, and will soon collapse generally putting money in people’s pockets)? Does anyone remember Solyndra, and all the other failed projects from Obama’s green slush fund? How about
Interesting
(AIE) “It” was the Ivanpah solar power project in the California Mojave Desert, and it was none of those things. Beginning operations in early 2014 to thunderous applause from all of the usual suspects—left-wing environmentalists, ideologues opposed to fossil fuels and modern economies, crony capitalists, federal bureaucrats, journalists credulous and lazy, and politicians eager to cut ribbons—it was a monstrosity combining huge costs, huge subsidies, huge environmental damage, and justifications hugely spurious. It never achieved its advertised electricity production goals even remotely, even as the excuses flowed like wine, as did the taxpayer bailouts.
And now, despite all the subventions, it is shutting down about 15 years early as a monument to green fantasies financed with Other People’s Money, inflicted upon electricity ratepayers in California denied options to escape the madness engendered by “climate” hysteria supported by no actual evidence.
The performance was so bad that PG&E, not exactly known as a carefully operating entity (lots of wildfires started due to negligence), terminated the contract. So, it’s closing 15 years early. And will soon be rusting in the desert.
Anyhow, now we wait for Democrat friendly judge to demand the Trump DOE spend the money willy nilly.
Read: Energy Secretary Says Not Moving Forward With New “Green” Loans »
…is an area flooded by too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is Gates Of Vienna, with a post on Sweden going boom again.
Read: If All You See… »
The Trump admin should send all the illegals they’ve picked for deportation and hold them in Denver while awaiting repatriation
Trump administration sues Colorado and Denver for allegedly interfering in immigration enforcement
The Department of Justice sued Colorado and Denver on Friday for allegedly interfering with federal efforts to enforce immigration laws, the latest attempt by the Trump administration to crack down on what some call sanctuary cities and policies.
The lawsuit claims the state and its most populous city, Denver, have passed “sanctuary laws” violating the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“The United States has well-established, preeminent, and preemptive authority to regulate immigration matters,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Denver. (snip)
Justice Department attorneys argue Colorado’s “sanctuary policies” allowed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to seize control of an apartment complex in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
Local officials have called Trump’s claims that the gang had taken over large swaths of the city exaggerated, but acknowledged the apartment complex was terrorized, including by people linked to Tren de Aragua.
Friday’s lawsuit lists as defendants Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, the state Legislature, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.
Well, this should be fun. And more fun is how the AP and other media outlets are suddenly fine with cities and states working against federal immigration enforcement. Remember when they went to bat for the Obama admin shutting down Arizone’s SB1070, the “show me the papers” law?
Meanwhile, Peak TDS
It’s a straight video, nor article, but, has this little blurb
US President Donald Trump is pressuring the Mexican government to crack down on Mexican cartels, blaming them for fomenting America’s drugs crisis. He’s threatened tariffs and even military strikes. Mexico has sent hundreds of troops to the state of Sinaloa, where a war rages between two factions of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel, putting civilians at risk. CNN’s Isobel Yeung visits the region – speaking to a member of the Sinaloa cartel, meeting families impacted by the violence and seeing the work soldiers are doing to destroy drug production in the rural countryside.
CNN has seriously made the infighting between a violent, deadly, destructive cartel about Trump.
Read: Consequences: DOJ Sues Colorado And Denver For Interfering With Immigration Enforcement »
Well, see now, they can do it on their own, rather than on the taxpayer dime
Wait, I don’t have global heating on here?
After the Trump administration dismissed nearly 400 scientists who compile the nation’s major quadrennial report on the impacts of climate change in the U.S., two scientific groups announced a plan to publish a special collection focused on the subject to ensure the scientists’ work can be accessed.
The American Geophysical Union, the world’s largest association of earth and space scientists, and the American Meteorological Society, the professional society for atmospheric and related sciences and services, announced they would be inviting climate scientists and researchers to submit their work for what they said would be a “first of its kind” collection.
The groups say their collection isn’t meant to replace the National Climate Assessment, but would complement it, since the dismissal of hundreds of scientists suggests that the next National Climate Assessment may not be as extensive as the previous ones. The Trump administration is legally obligated to produce the assessment, but the White House told CBS News that it’s evaluating the scope of the assessment that it will publish. (snip)
The American Geophysical Union and American Meteorological Society told CBS News in an email that their new effort will be a “collection of scientific papers from across multiple journals that address a particular topic,” and the focus on the collection will be climate change in the United States.
Well, have at it. Of course, it won’t have the backing of the federal government, the stature, the force, which is what they really want. They want their names on it with the government saying “you lower level governments need to do X, whether your citizens want it or not.”
Read: Climahysteric Groups Say They Will Publish Work Of ‘Climate” Scientists Fired By Trump »
Of course, these children have to be found first, since the Biden admin shipped them all over and didn’t keep track of them
Congress considers ending legal help for migrant children after judge orders restart
Just before a judge ordered it to do so, the Trump administration agreed to resume paying for attorneys for migrant children who come to the United States alone.
But groups that have been struggling to keep such unaccompanied children from being deported said the legal help is still in jeopardy under a Republican proposal put forward in a House committee Wednesday.
“I have been doing this work for a very long time, and what I read in this bill took by breath away,” said Jennifer Podkul, vice president for policy and advocacy at Kids in Need of Defense. “This bill not only makes it impossible for children to access protection in the United States, but it would make the government responsible for putting children in even more compromised and dangerous conditions.”
The White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and the House Judiciary Committee, which considered the measure, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguin, in California’s Northern District, issued a preliminary injunction late Tuesday ordering the administration to resume the money for the legal assistance, which it had stopped in March.
Pretty nice scam: Democrats open the border, entice parents to send their kids on long, dangerous journeys to America, then left wing groups get tons of taxpayer money to represent the kids, in an attempt to make sure they do not get deported and that their parents are then brought to the US. Was this money appropriated specifically by Congress? Or, was it just open money given to federal agencies who then gave it to these private companies with zero oversight?
But how long the funding will last could depend on what Congress does in the budget legislation currently being written. The measure considered by the House committee would omit money for attorneys for unaccompanied children, which Congress has paid for since 2009, according to immigration and anti-trafficking groups that reviewed the legislation, attorneys with the groups said.
But, I’m not seeing any line items specifically for this. Regardless
The measure also proposed a number of fees that would charge unaccompanied children and their parents or guardians whom they could end up with in the United States. They included $5,000 for arriving at the border between legal ports of entry, as well as sponsorship fees of up to $8,500.
Why should the US taxpayers foot the bill? If lawyers want to represent them let it come from donations from the open borders groups. Or pro-bono. But, really, at this point, the number of arrivals at the border is extremely low, so, there aren’t many unacompanied kids showing up, because the parents have been told “border’s closed, don’t come.)
Read: Crazy Judge Orders Trump Admin To Start Paying For Legal Help For Illegal Children »
I’m not sure how I feel about this: if it is not a power expressly delegated to the federal government than it is reserved for the States and the People, and, if they want to do stupid cult stuff, that’s on them. But, is this something that would be part of the duties of Los Federales? Let’s take a look
Justice Department sues Hawaii, Michigan, Vermont and New York over state climate actions
The U.S. Justice Department filed lawsuits against four states this week, claiming their climate actions conflict with federal authority and President Donald Trump’s energy dominance agenda.
The DOJ on Wednesday filed lawsuits against Hawaii and Michigan over their plans for legal action against fossil fuel companies for harms caused by climate change. On Thursday, the DOJ sued New York and Vermont, challenging their climate superfund laws that would force fossil fuel companies to pay into state-based funds based on previous greenhouse gas emissions.
“These burdensome and ideologically motivated laws and lawsuits threaten American energy independence and our country’s economic and national security,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement, noting the office hopes to stop “these illegitimate impediments to the production of affordable, reliable energy that Americans deserve.”
The DOJ lawsuits, which legal experts called unprecedented, mark the latest of the Trump administration’s attacks on environmental work and raises concern over states’ abilities to retain the power to take climate action without federal opposition.
The DOJ’s four filings said the state efforts undermine the federal government while “increasing energy costs and disrupting the national energy market.” It said the states’ plans and policies are unconstitutional, violate the federal foreign affairs power and are preempted by the Clean Air Act — a federal law authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air emissions.
Now, since fossil fuels mostly come into those states from other states/nations, that would be part of Article I section 8 “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” If those states want to do deal with companies that take fossil fuels from the ground in the state and sell it in the state without the product ever leavign the state, than, sure, lawsuits. If they want to deal with product come from outside the state? The power of Los Federales.
The DOJ argued the act “creates a program for regulating air pollution in the United States and ‘displaces’ the ability of States to regulate greenhouse gas emissions beyond their borders.”
OK, that gives me a hearty laugh, because the Trump DOJ just used the Democrats own words against them, in that the climate cult Dems have stated that the law gives sole power to the federal government.
“This lawsuit is at best frivolous and arguably sanctionable,” Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement Thursday. Nessel noted that Michigan hasn’t yet filed its lawsuit, but confirmed her intent to, and said the White House and the oil industry “will not succeed in any attempt to preemptively bar our access to make our claims in the courts.” A spokesperson for Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office deferred to Nessel when asked for comment.
I have a solution: ban the sale of all fossil fuels in your states. That is your power. Which would mean that all you Elites, like Nessel, Whitmer, and the others from the affected states, would have to stop taking all those fossil fueled flight and SUV trips. Whitmer’s husband wouldn’t be able to use his fossil fueled boat. Real shame, eh?
Read: DOJ Sues Several Democrat States Of Climate Scam Policies »