#NetNeutrality: Verizon Throttled California Firefighters Or Something

By William Teach August 24, 2018 – 6:49 am

The supporters of the Obama era Net Neutrality, which would have turned the Internet into a public utility the same was the 1940’s wired phone service was, think they totally have the perfect example as to why Net Neutrality is needed. Here’s big NN supporter (and unhinged lunatic) Alyssa Milano

Let’s see that story which is causing her, her followers, and other NN supporters to freak out

As wildfires burned over a million acres in California this summer, one San Francisco Bay Area fire department used its cellphone network to coordinate trucks and personnel from all over the state – until the department reached its data limit and its service provider slowed down data speeds.

This week, in documents submitted as evidence in a lawsuit over the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules, Santa Clara County Fire Chief Tony Bowden detailed how Verizon’s rules over what happens when customers go over the data limits on its plans disrupted devices essential to his department for coordination of firefighting resources.

Bowden said in the declaration, first reported by “Ars Technica,” that the Santa Clara County Fire Department had an unlimited data plan with Verizon but internet service slowed to 1/200th normal speed after the SCCFD reached 25 gigabytes of data usage.

Verizon refused to lift the restrictions on data speeds until the fire department upgraded to a more expensive service plan, Bowden said.

We totally need Net Neutrality, how dare they slow the speed down….wait, what was that part about slowing down after reaching 25GB?

Slowing down data speeds after a customer reaches its monthly data limit is a common practice among internet service providers and cellular carriers that’s known as throttling. Users can still access the cellular network for basic services like email or web browsing, but speeds are often too slow for activities like video streaming.

You get what you pay for. Providers often offer plans where you are unlimited, but only so much is at high speed. After that, it’s at a slower speed. This is exactly what the Santa Clara County firefighters had. It’s right there in the plan

The slowing stopped after the fire department paid Verizon for more data.

Your car isn’t moving till you put more gas in it. Not a perfect analogy, but, hey, it’s 645am, and you get the idea.

The repeal of the Obama-era Open Internet Order ended the previous consumer protections that prevented Internet service providers from blocking or slowing legal traffic, or charging for faster delivery of some content. Under the new law, ISPs are required to disclose any blocking, throttling or prioritization of their own content or from their partners on customers’ broadband connections, and more of the burden falls to the consumer to complain or simply switch providers. Verizon and other major telecom and Internet providers lobbied to overturn the old rules, saying they were unnecessarily burdensome.

Even with Obama’s NN this would still occur, as that was the plan the firefighters signed up for.

That all said, was still rather a dick move by Verizon, which could have earned itself some good will by giving the firefighters a temporary boost while fighting the fires.

Read: #NetNeutrality: Verizon Throttled California Firefighters Or Something »

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Next Warmist/Enviroweenie Target: Halogen Light Bulbs

By William Teach August 23, 2018 – 4:44 pm

This is For Your Own Good

Europe to ban halogen lightbulbs

After nearly 60 years of brightening our homes and streets, halogen lightbulbs will finally be banned across Europe on 1 September.

The lights will dim gradually for halogen. Remaining stocks may still be sold, and capsules, linear and low voltage incandescents used in oven lights will be exempted. But a continent-wide switchover to light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is underway that will slash emissions and energy bills, according to industry, campaigners and experts.

LEDs consume five times less energy than halogen bulbs and their phase-out will prevent more than 15m tonnes of carbon emissions a year, an amount equal to Portugal’s annual electricity usage.

Sure, you could save more money. But, that should be your own choice, not Governments.

But that has not stopped a perennial tabloid crusade against interference from Brussels – and the revival of timeworn Brexiteer campaign themes.

Jonathan Bullock, Ukip’s energy spokesman in the European parliament told the Guardian: “The EU’s attempt to ban halogen bulbs is wrong because consumers will suffer financially and it’s always the poorest who suffer most from these kinds of policies.”

“Customers should have the freedom of choice in bulbs and it shouldn’t be imposed by the EU.”

They should. Halogens are actually sort of incandescents, just a bit more energy saving. They are used extensively for auto headlamps and lights, in under-cabinet lights, and many other applications. Personally, I try and avoid them for the home, as they put out heat more than other bulbs, and I choose to use LEDs and CFLs (I have a bunch of nice ones, and use the Phillips Hue bulbs in several lamps, so they are voice activated, I can set a time, and have different types of light output). But, it’s a choice. Not a government mandate controlling your behavior.

Read: Next Warmist/Enviroweenie Target: Halogen Light Bulbs »

Posted in Enviroweenies, Global Warming | 12 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 23, 2018 – 1:00 pm

…are boats which will soon be needed when the seas rise up to meet the mountains, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Political Clown Parade, with a post on Chicken ala Venezuela.

Read: If All You See… »

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Iowa Democrats Still Sticking With Pro-Illegal Immigration Platform

By William Teach August 23, 2018 – 10:45 am

Just like the national Democratic figures, those in Iowa are uncaring that people who shouldn’t even be in this country are harming US citizens, and will stick with their pro-illegals stance

Iowa Dems reject ‘partisan fight’ over Mollie Tibbetts as platform opposes enforcing federal immigration laws

The killing of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, allegedly at the hands of an illegal immigrant, has placed a spotlight on the state’s Democratic party, which this summer denounced federal immigration laws and called for local officials not to enforce them.

But Iowa Democratic party officials on Wednesday would not say whether they stood by their immigration platform, and instead characterized the matter as a “partisan fight.”

“The Iowa Democratic Party is going to honor the wishes of the Tibbetts family to let them grieve in private and will not turn this senseless tragedy into a partisan fight,” Iowa Democratic Party chairman Troy Price told Fox News.

The national uproar over Tibbetts’ slaying also threatens to upend two key House races underway in the state, which are considered potentially pivotal to Democrats’ chances of retaking the House in November’s midterm elections.

The 2018 Iowa Democratic Party platform, in a section entitled “Statement of Issues,” reads: “We oppose: detaining undocumented minors, immigrant detention/deportation quotas, locally enforcing federal immigration laws, mass raids/related enforcement practices, religious exclusion, ‘papers please,’ unnecessary travel-bans, abrogating birthright-citizenship, separating minor children from their parents when they are trying to enter the country, internment and concentration camps.”

The Iowa Democrats and the people running to unseat Republicans are hoping this all blows over, because being pro-illegal alien certainly won’t help their chances of winning those seats. And it just goes to show that Democrats prioritize illegal aliens over U.S. citizens.

Read: Iowa Democrats Still Sticking With Pro-Illegal Immigration Platform »

Posted in Democrats, Illegal Immigration | 21 Comments | Trackback URL

Who’s Surprised That Hurricane Lane Is Being Linked To ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach August 23, 2018 – 7:48 am

It really is utterly unsurprising that members of the Cult of Climastrology would link Hurricane Lane to ‘climate change’: it’s what they do. But, look who we catch first

Then

Holthaus is a massive roll.

There’s plenty of good material, some of which even blames volcanoes and earthquakes on anthropogenic climate change. And there are many articles, too, such as this one by Vox

The state of Hawaii is facing a rare threat: A Category 4 hurricane is moving toward it, with hurricane watches and warnings in effect for most of the islands.

Hawaii is no stranger to natural hazards like volcanic eruptions (remember Kilauea?). But due to high-pressure weather patterns over the central Pacific, and a lot of deep, cool water around the islands, tropical storms usually steer clear.

It’s unclear if the storm — which is currently howling with 155 mph winds — will just graze the islands as it approaches on Thursday, or if it will make landfall. It’s expected to weaken a bit over the next day, but will remain “a dangerous hurricane as it approaches the islands,” the National Weather Service warns.

In fact, only two hurricanes have hit Hawaii in modern history, Dot in 1959 and Iniki in 1992. Obviously, though, Lane is ‘climate change’

As CNN reports, a named storm passes within 60 miles of Hawaii every four years or so. But it’s also the case that the Pacific waters around the islands are about a degree Fahrenheit warmer than usual, which is helping to fuel Lane’s powerful wind speeds.

Scientists will have to do careful work to model whether this storm was made bigger and more powerful by climate change. We already know many storms are made wetter by climate change, and the science predicts that bigger and more powerful storms will become more frequent in the future.

This is the way many, many news outlets are positioning Lane. Skirting the edges, but planting the seeds that this is all your fault for eating that moo cow steak the other night.

https://twitter.com/polisci321062/status/1032306790321598471

https://twitter.com/MMK5258/status/1032284144917794816

She’s a disgrace to pirates.

Read: Who’s Surprised That Hurricane Lane Is Being Linked To ‘Climate Change’ »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

NY Times Goes On Impeachment-palooza

By William Teach August 23, 2018 – 7:23 am

The NY Times is having a complete meltdown over the Manafort guilty decisions and Cohen pleading guilty, along with his accusations. Because this was the entire point of Muellers misbegotten investigation. There was no collusion to find. If there was, you’d think they would have had something by this point. So, we get

all based on process crimes, most of which have zero to do with Trump. But, they won’t give up, because Trump beat Hillary fair and square according to the rules, and they just cannot get over it. But, there’s another opinion piece at the Times of interest by Charles R. Kesler

Breaking Norms Will Renew Democracy, Not Ruin It

Hardly a day goes by without President Trump being accused of breaking a presidential norm or two, doing something that no president has ever done — nor, it’s implied, ever ought to do.

He tweets. He runs down the F.B.I., the intelligence community, his own attorney general. He makes fun of other politicians. He hires and fires cabinet secretaries, lawyers and communications people with abandon. He revokes a former C.I.A. director’s security clearance. He fails to disclose his tax returns. He picks his Supreme Court nominees from a list prepared by outside groups. He alternately threatens and sweet talks foreign despots.

Guilty as charged — but so what? All norms are not created equal. Hence breaking norms is neither good nor bad except as the norms themselves are good or bad. We elect presidents partly to separate the wheat from the chaff: to energize government by shedding or retiring norms that no longer serve the public good, and by adopting fresh ones that do.

What follows is a discussion of the U.S., the Constitution, and norms and conventions. For instance, Thomas Jefferson decided that giving a yearly speech to Congress was to monarchy, and just sent his yearly address on paper. Presidents did the same for the next 112 years. Most presidents didn’t leave the nation to conduct diplomacy. And much more, worth the read. Then we get to

Most of Mr. Trump’s alleged transgressions, measured by those standards, seem picayune. They offend against the etiquette of modern liberalism and modern liberal governance, not the Constitution. For example, choosing from a list of potential Supreme Court nominees prepared by outside experts at his request, before deliberating with his advisers and interviewing several finalists, hardly amounts to a dereliction of presidential duty. And haven’t several Democrats subsequently called for a new court-packing plan to retake control of the judiciary — a far greater norm-buster than anything Mr. Trump has done or proposed?

Disturbing our NATO allies’ slumber seems more like due diligence than recklessness. Mr. Trump’s manner of treating members of his own administration is often regrettable, but then for his entire term so far he has been entangled in a pitched battle with elements of the executive branch nominally under his own authority — a frustration no previous president has had to face. Must he, in addition, acquiesce in the permanent security clearances of the previous administration’s spymasters, when they seek to wield these as licenses to kill his foreign policy and his whole presidency? Hard to imagine Jackson or F.D.R. sitting still for that.

Besides, future presidents will be free to ignore or repudiate Mr. Trump’s views and his blunt manner of doing business. This occupant of the White House seems to enjoy breaking norms, and he has been conspicuously more successful at breaking them than at devising and blessing new ones for our troubled times.

At the end of the day, Liberals are just unhinged that Trump is in the White House and doing things they do not like. Because they are only tolerant when people toe their rigid line.

Read: NY Times Goes On Impeachment-palooza »

Posted in Donald Trump, Unhinged Tools | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

Cult Of Climastrology: Government Needs To Kill Off The Modern Automobile

By William Teach August 22, 2018 – 4:40 pm

Warmists who mostly refuse to give up their own use of fossil fueled vehicles are vexed that the automobile industry hasn’t abandoned the manufacture of fossil fueled vehicles, which is a shocker in itself, because we all know that consumers are clamoring for expensive vehicles that can barely get us to work and back, right?

The modern automobile must die

Germany was supposed to be a model for solving global warming. In 2007, the country’s government announced that it would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by the year 2020. This was the kind of bold, aggressive climate goal scientists said was needed in all developed countries. If Germany could do it, it would prove the target possible.

So far, Germany has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 27.7 percent — an astonishing achievement for a developed country with a highly developed manufacturing sector. But with a little over a year left to go, despite dedicating $580 billion toward a low-carbon energy system, the country “is likely to fall short of its goals for reducing harmful carbon-dioxide emissions,” Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. And the reason for that may come down not to any elaborate solar industry plans, but something much simpler: cars.

“At the time they set their goals, they were very ambitious,”Patricia Espinosa, the United Nations’ top climate change official (who takes lots of fossil fueled car and plane trips), told Bloomberg. “What happened was that the industry — particularly the car industry — didn’t come along.”

It’s almost like car manufacturers are making the vehicles that consumers mostly want. Heck, Ford is going to do away with almost all their cars in favor of SUVs and trucks because they think consumers no longer want fuel efficient sedans. Other US manufacturers are doing the same.

Anyhow, we get lots of typical Warmist whining, before

For Germany to meet emissions targets, “half of the people who now use their cars alone would have to switch to bicycles, public transport, or ride-sharing,” Heinrich Strößenreuther, a Berlin-based consultant for mobility strategies told Yale Environment 360’s Christian Schwägerl last fall. That would require drastic policies, like having local governments ban high-emitting cars in populated places like cities. (In fact, Germany’s car capital, Stuttgart, is considering it.) It would also require large-scale government investments in public transportation infrastructure: “A new transport system that connects bicycles, buses, trains, and shared cars, all controlled by digital platforms that allow users to move from A to B in the fastest and cheapest way — but without their own car,” Schwägerl said. (snip)

The most effective solution would be to combine these policies. Governments would require drastic improvements in fuel efficiency for gas-powered vehicles, while investing in renewable-powered electric car infrastructure. At the same time, cities would overhaul their public transportation systems, adding more bikes, trains, buses and ride-shares. Fewer people would own cars.

You vill comply, Herr Comrade.

Read: Cult Of Climastrology: Government Needs To Kill Off The Modern Automobile »

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If All You See…

By William Teach August 22, 2018 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible hot tub which is bad for global warming, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is DaTechGuy’s Blog, with a post on what a reporter’s real job is.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Super Socialist Ocasio-Cortez Visits Spot Going Out Of Business Due To Policies She Supports

By William Teach August 22, 2018 – 10:25 am

Utter self-awareness fail, as highlighted by the Investor Business Daily editorial board

Ocasio-Cortez Mourns Restaurant Driven Out Of Business By Minimum Wage Law She Backs

Economic Illiteracy: This week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “swung by” to say goodbye to a restaurant where she used to work. What she didn’t say is that it is closing because the owners can’t afford New York City’s soon-to-be $15 minimum wage — the very job-killing policy Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow Democrats want to impose nationwide.

“The restaurant I used to work at is closing its doors,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Monday. “I swung by today to say hi one last time, and kid around with friends like old times.”

She was referring to the popular Coffee Shop in Union Square, which was frequented by A-list celebrities and featured on “Sex and the City.” Despite its popularity, the Coffee Shop is going out of business. Why?

Co-owner Charles Milite told the New York Post that the main reason was “the minimum wage is going up and we have a huge number of employees.”

When you impose a government cost of labor increase of 36%, well, you end up laying off over 150 people.

When TV host Trevor Noah asked Ocasio-Cortez whether a $15 national minimum wage would stifle economic growth, here was her answer:

“Raising the minimum wage to a living wage will expand the economy. It will create wealth in our economy. And it will increase economic activity in this country.”

Except, this ends up causing the closure of many outlets, along with limiting the hours of full time and part time workers, stopping overtime, turning full time workers into part time workers, and so much more.

Obviously, AOC isn’t the only one: virtually all Democrats support this increase. Their policy hurts everyone.

Read: Super Socialist Ocasio-Cortez Visits Spot Going Out Of Business Due To Policies She Supports »

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Because You Use An Ice Maker, ‘Climate Change’ To Make Droughts And Floods More Common

By William Teach August 22, 2018 – 8:44 am

This is all your fault

Drought and floods will become more common as global warming causes weather to ‘stall’

Scorching summer heatwaves and floods are set to become more extreme in the northern hemisphere as global warming makes weather patterns linger longer in the same place.

According to a study published by Nature Communications, growing temperatures in the Arctic have slowed the circulation of the jet stream and other giant winds, affecting pressure fronts across continents.

This summer, parts of Europe were hit by heatwaves and wildfires including Sweden, Greece and Spain.

The research found that high and low pressure fronts are becoming “stuck”, while the weather is increasingly less able to moderate itself.

These extreme systems could turn sunny days into baking heatwaves, tinder-dry conditions into wildfires, and rainwater into floods.

The research paper warned that the mixed colliding pressures could lead to “very extreme extremes”, that happen when abnormally high temperatures linger for an unusually prolonged period.

“Could lead”

https://twitter.com/OneLaneHwy/status/1032085964523495424

And there’s still no proof that this is mostly/solely caused by mankind’s release of greenhouse gases. But we can fix it with a tax/fee!

Read: Because You Use An Ice Maker, ‘Climate Change’ To Make Droughts And Floods More Common »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL
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