Killing Net Neutrality Will Be A Death Blow For Innovation Or Something

By William Teach November 28, 2017 – 2:41 pm

Which is why all the really big tech/Internet companies who already have all their own power and stuff really, really want to keep Net Neutrality around. This comes from the insane people at Salon who are oh-so-supportive of the free market, you know

Killing net neutrality is a death blow for innovation

…

On Cyber Monday more than 200 internet companies and businesses including Twitter, Reddit, AirBnB and Tumblr sent a letter to the FCC imploring them to keep net neutrality intact. It stated, “An internet without net neutrality protections would be the opposite of the open market, with a few powerful cable and phone companies picking winners and losers instead of consumers.” This followed Pai’s release of a plan to kill the Obama era rules if he gets the support of the rest of the commission in a vote that is scheduled for December 14.

Net neutrality is an attempt to keep the internet on a level playing field. Without the rules, advocates worry that Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) will use tricks like paid prioritization, charging websites and companies more for speed and essentially creating fast and slow lanes online.

And, that’s pretty much their entire case. Which is surprising, since Salon articles tend to go on and on and on and on and on. But, then, Lefties have been given their marching orders, so, they really do not need any pesky details. Just slogans to screech in the streets and on Facebook and Twitter.

There’s really just one question they need to answer: how did the Internet innovate all those years prior to 2015, when there was no NN?

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Posted in Progressive Goals, Web/Tech | 27 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 28, 2017 – 1:00 pm

…is a glacier melting due to Other People driving fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Political Clown Parade, with a post on Trump Vs. Pocahontas.

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Judge Dismisses Motion By Illegal Aliens Separated From Their Kids

By William Teach November 28, 2017 – 10:41 am

This is actually a pretty darned by precedent

El Paso judge denies motion of immigrant parents separated from children

U.S. Magistrate Judge Miguel Torres denied Monday an unprecedented motion to dismiss criminal charges against four Central American parents and one grandmother for illegally crossing the border and who were separated from their accompanying children as a result.

The Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Texas argued that prosecuting potential asylum seekers and removing their children violates the U.S. Constitution because they are pleading guilty under duress to be reunited with their kids.

The government contended that the separations had nothing to do with the criminal accusation at hand of entering the country without authorization. Dismissing such charges could encourage adults to bring minors simply to avoid such prosecutions, it said.

Immigrant advocates say criminal prosecutions for crossing the border enable President Donald Trump’s administration to bypass a landmark 1997 federal settlement, known as the Flores Agreement, that bars the prolonged detention of migrant children even when they are with their parents. Critics say the settlement has led to a practice of arresting and releasing migrants with no consequence, encouraging illegal immigration.

At the end of the day, they came to this country illegally. They blew off our laws intentionally. As such, they should be processed quickly, and all should be deported without delay. The government is exactly correct: dismissing the charges would entice more illegals to use their kids as props to avoid prosecution. And then they disappear into America, scofflaws from justice. Then whine when they are caught. It’s time to put our foot down hard on illegal aliens. And those who hire them and shelter them.

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Processed Food Is Bad For ‘Climate Change’ Or Something

By William Teach November 28, 2017 – 8:01 am

It’s a global health crisis, you guys

Processed food is a global health crisis

One of the most potentially far-reaching agreements at the UN’s COP23 summit on climate change in Bonn was the decision to link farming methods to climate change, and to explore a framework of solutions.

It was a “notable, yet low-profile outcome”, according to Carbon Brief. The international community agreed to work on the links between agriculture and climate change, and to agree which issues should be included by March 31, 2018. Future technical talks on the two issues will take account of each strand.

The decision is not just a huge step towards tackling greenhouse gas emissions from farming. It also offers hope for future breakthroughs in sustainable diet, because poor diet and environmentally damaging agriculture are linked, as a new paper from New York based policy thinktank Brighter Green shows.

This part of the article is probably the most concerning, as we see that the Cult of Climastrology is coming after control of food production. They aren’t just simply pimping their notions of going vegan or giving up meat a few days a week, they want significant control of overall food production in the hands of government, well beyond simply making sure it is up to quality controls.

“The ‘Western-style diet’ – replete with salt, sugar, cheap vegetable oil, and animal fat – is inextricably linked to the fast-rising increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs)” in low and middle income countries,” it says.

Dietary changes are taking place at “unprecedented speed,” and people in emerging economies such as South Africa, Brazil, and Mexico are suffering a rise in what used to be “diseases of the rich” – diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and cancers.

There’s no doubt that this is not good, right?

The report details how the agricultural needs of Big Food contribute to global warming, through increased production of meat production and feed for livestock. Vast tracts of land turned over to livestock, corn and soybeans have led to massive soil erosion, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions, it says.

Agriculture (including transport and packaging) contributes from 20% to 30% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG); the global livestock industry produces 14.5% of all GHGs. Methane from livestock is less abundant than CO2 overall, but has a stronger greenhouse effect.

Palm oil, found in many products from snacks to toiletries, is a particularly worrying example as the trees thrive on peat-rich soil. Far more CO2 is released in planting them than is sequestered in the canopy, as the Union of Concerned Scientists warned in a 2013 paper ‘Palm Oil and the Environment.’ The nutrition transition is harming both people and the environment, the report says.

They consider Big Food to be the companies like McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, etc. And then they go down the rabbit hole of ‘climate change’, rather than letting the notion of “these foods aren’t particularly good for us and lead to obesity” stand on its own. Because these wackadoodles always have to bring ‘climate change’ into everything.

They even included palm oil, a pet environmental hatred of mine (and others). What they forgot to mention was the clearcutting of forests and the loss of biodiversity, as the animals, bugs, and reptiles are wiped out.

Interestingly, though, these same people who talk about obesity, and people just being overweight, are usually the same people putting forth the “body positive” yammering, who think it’s great that people who are overweight should celebrate their different body designs. Sigh.

Regardless, go back to the beginning, and be worried that these nutters are quietly attempting a full takeover of the agriculture sector.

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Posted in Global Warming, Progressive Goals | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Trump Pumps Up The Christmas At The White House

By William Teach November 28, 2017 – 7:36 am

The Washington Post seems almost shocked that Trump would be going with “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holidays”, as we saw with the previous president.

Trump vowed to end the ‘war on Christmas.’ Here’s how the White House is decorated this season.

The sparkle of the holiday season comes to the White House every year, but Donald Trump had promised the country more than twinkling lights and decked halls. As a candidate on the campaign trail, he pledged to end the perceived “War on Christmas.”

“You go to stores, you don’t see the word Christmas,” Trump said last year. “It says ‘happy holidays’ all over. I say, ‘Where’s Christmas?’ I tell my wife, ‘Don’t go to those stores.’ . . . I want to see Christmas.”

Melania Trump seemed to be taking cues from her husband’s desire for a traditional notion of Christmas when she unveiled the White House holiday decorations on Monday. It was all doused with an extra smattering of Trump-style cheer: (photo at the WP)

Gone were the “Season’s Greetings” that the Obama family placed on their Christmas cards. The Trump family’s official Christmas card reads: “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.” The dominant color scheme is an old-school red, green and gold. And the official hashtag? #WHChristmas.

It’s very nice

The decorations include natural details such as magnolia leaves, amaryllis and pine cones. More than 150 volunteers from 29 states helped to put up the displays. In the Green Room, framed presidential silhouettes are strung on garlands and placed on antique tables. Red-and-white peppermint candies fill jars in the Red Room, which also features two traditional cranberry trees — Nancy Reagan’s favorite holiday decoration.

And this

But first, the Trumps will host more than 100 open houses and other receptions at the White House. The first lady’s office expects more than 25,000 visitors will take part in public tours. But even in Donald Trump’s White House, it won’t be all Christmas all the time: There is an official Hanukkah celebration, too.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with “Happy Holidays”, because you have Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s. However, Progressives used Happy Holidays as a way to shame people into not saying Merry Christmas. They were apoplectic regarding the notion that Christmas is a Christian holiday (though almost none refused to not take the day off and/or refused holiday pay). They do not want anyone to see religion in public (well, the Christian and Jewish religions. They’re cool with Islam).

I’m betting there are no Chairman Mao, drag queen Hedda Lettuce, nor Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore ornaments.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Bummer: ‘Climate Change’ To Make Thunderstorms Larger And More Frequent

By William Teach November 27, 2017 – 3:32 pm

You know what this soothsaying by the AP’s resident hyper-Warmist Seth Borenstein means, right? That thunderstorm activity is going to immediately become much, much less

(News-Press Now)  Summer thunderstorms in North America likely will be larger, wetter and more frequent in a warmer world, dumping 80 percent more rain in some areas and worsening flooding, a new study says.

Future storms also will be wilder, soaking entire cities and huge portions of states, according to a federally-funded study released Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The U.S. in recent years has experienced prolonged drenchings that have doused Nashville in 2010, West Virginia and Louisiana in 2016 and Houston this year. The disasters cost about $20 billion a year in damage.

By the end of century if emissions aren’t curbed, these gully washers will be much worse because they will get bigger, said Andreas Prein, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, who led the study.

First, they still can’t prove this is mostly/solely man-caused/linked. Second, this is just another prognostication for which they cannot provide proof. These same as all the others. They can’t, and won’t attempt to, tell you what the weather will be like in the short term. But they’re sure in a bit over 80 years! When no one can backcheck them. It’s all such bullshit.

Read: Bummer: ‘Climate Change’ To Make Thunderstorms Larger And More Frequent »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 13 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 27, 2017 – 1:00 pm

…is horrible carbon pollution created heat snow, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Bookworm Room, with a post on The Atlantic lying in regards to claims that Trump supporters are raaaaacists.

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Oh Noes: Latest Poll Shows More Americans Are Concerned About Global Warming

By William Teach November 27, 2017 – 11:30 am

Obviously, this totally upholds what the Cult of Climastrology are pushing

(Clean Technica) Opinions are like noses — everyone has one. While opinions aren’t really worth much — I am of the opinion that I am one of the world’s best writers, for instance, but few share that view — they are important indicators of how people may vote in upcoming elections. In a poll conducted by the Yale Program On Climate Change Communication and the Center for Climate Change Communications at George Mason University entitled “Climate Change In The American Mind, October 2017,” respondents indicated a heightened awareness of climate change issues and an elevated level of concern for the future. The Executive Summary reproduced below tells the story in detail.

The big takaway?

Seven in ten Americans (71%) think global warming is happening, an increase of eight percentage points since March 2015. Only about one in eight Americans (13%) think global warming is not happening. Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not by more than 5 to 1.

Here’s the problem: the question asked makes no reference to causation. From page 29 of the poll we see

Recently, you may have noticed that global warming has been getting some attention in the news. Global warming refers to the idea that the world’s average temperature has been increasing over the past 150 years, may be increasing more in the future, and that the world’s climate may change as a result.

What do you think: Do you think that global warming is happening?

By not defining this as anthropogenic, natural, or some mix, they intentionally set up a situation where they get an answer they want, and then can use that as PROOF that they are right, and we need to Do Something (usually involving taxes, fees, and restricted liberty and freedom). However, most Skeptics would answer “yes”. I would. Because we have had global warming. Even if Warmist scientists have over-estimated the actual warming, there has been warming. Because this is what happens. You have periods of warmth and periods of cool. We’ve seen this throughout the Holocene.

We do learn that 54% in this survey believe it is mostly caused by Humans. Again, though, how much? 51%? 100%? What they do not ask is what Believers are willing to do in their own lives to help stop it.

We also learn that idiots actually believe it has made extreme weather worse, which is scientifically false. And

Large majorities of Americans think of global warming as an environmental (78%), scientific (71%), agricultural (66%), severe weather (65%), health (62%), economic (60%), or political issue (60%). Fewer think it is a moral (41%), national security (29%), poverty (28%), social justice (26%), or religious issue (9%).

More and more are understand that this is a political issue. Back to Clean Technica

Will these opinions have an impact on American politics? The next Congressional elections are now less than a year away. If Americans continue to support climate change deniers when they vote, opinion polls like this one will be relevant only to those who make their living designing, conducting, and interpreting polls. If the news media won’t tell Americans about climate science, it becomes incumbent on each of us individually to spread the word and sound the alarm.

Typically, when Warmists push these issues, and even pass them, they lose at the polls. Because, remember the old saying “everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it”? Well, all these Warmists talk about ‘climate change’, but few of them ever do anything in their own lives about it. And few are willing to pay more than a few bucks to Do Something about it. They’re fine with Someone Else paying the piper. Never themselves.

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Posted in AGW Idiocy, Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Arresting Illegal Aliens At Courthouses Undermines Democracy Or Something

By William Teach November 27, 2017 – 7:19 am

The New York Times gives César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a tenured associate professor of law at the University of Denver, who is big into protecting people who are unlawfully present in the United States, a platform to fear-monger. He thinks that

ICE’s Courthouse Arrests Undercut Democracy

At the door of the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse in Denver one Friday in April, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tackled a man to the ground. A chilling video shows the man — who, according to his lawyer, was there to deal with a traffic ticket — yelling “No!” “My hand!” and “Why?” in Spanish. Sheriff’s deputies order passers-by to stand back, and the violent arrest continues.

Except, the video does not actually show anything but the illegal alien on the ground being arrested. It does not show him being tackled. However, he was certainly taken to the ground, which usually occurs when the arrestee resists.

This type of arrest is on the rise. Lawyers and judges in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington all reported in the first year of the Trump administration that immigration officials were breaking with tradition to descend upon their courthouses. Such arrests in New York have increased by 900 percent in 2017, according to the Immigration Defense Project.

This is a deeply worrisome trend because arrests at courthouses don’t just derail the lives of the unsuspecting people who are detained, they threaten the very operation of our judicial system. Such arrests scare people away from the courts, keeping them, for example, from testifying at trials or seeking orders of protection. By using this tactic, the nation’s lead immigration law enforcement agency is undermining a pillar of our democracy.

By “scare people”, he’s referring to illegal aliens. As for “unsuspecting people”, well, every single illegal should have a clue that they could be detained by law enforcement at any time for being unlawfully present. Personally, I’m more concerned with safeguarding our law enforcement folks over the feelings of illegal aliens. There is a much lower chance that an illegal will be armed at a courthouse, versus getting them out in the streets, their homes, where they work, etc.

Courthouse arrests by ICE deter not only undocumented immigrants but also people who are here legally but are nervous that they might have somehow compromised their status (or that an officer will think they have). That’s a nuance that is next to impossible for the average person to discern, and those complicated legal questions are exactly what immigration judges spend a lot of energy trying to answer.

Really? People who are here legally should know if their status is compromised.

In El Paso, ICE arrested a woman moments after she requested a court’s help keeping away an abusive partner. Fear and uncertainty caused by this type of courthouse arrest are already keeping people away from the halls of justice.

Hernandez forgets to mention that she was a previously deported illegal. Six times. After arrests for crimes including possession of stolen mail, false imprisonment, domestic assault, and assault.

Regardless Hernandez goes on and on, but, never actually makes a case that detaining illegals at courthouses undercuts democracy. Just that he’s upset that ICE would arrest illegal aliens.

The harm this causes is bigger than the people whom ICE arrests. United States citizens are not immune to the impact of ICE activity in courthouses. All of us — including those of us who could easily prove our immigration status — depend on courts to do their job, and all of us suffer if the fear of ICE keeps people away.

The last time I was in a courthouse was about 8 years ago, for jury duty. Beyond that, for a speeding ticket (that was thrown out) almost 20 years ago. The notion that ICE would be there to arrest illegal aliens wouldn’t deter me in the least. How about you?

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Posted in Barking Moonbats, Illegal Immigration | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Silly Person Sues President Trump To Block Interim Appointment To Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

By William Teach November 27, 2017 – 6:54 am

Someone had a major snit fit, and is going to look silly at the end

(Fox News) A federal official filed a lawsuit on Sunday challenging President Trump’s decision to appoint his budget director as interim director of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, claiming Trump has no authority to make the appointment.

Leandra English, the official who was named the successor to the top position at the agency by its outgoing director, is asking for a declaratory judgment and a temporary restraining order to block White House budget director Mick Mulvaney from taking over the bureau.

The federal official argues that the Dodd-Frank Act, a law championed by Democrats that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, prohibits the White House from naming the director for the agency.

English, who is the deputy director of the bureau, said she became the acting director of the bureau under the law after Richard Cordray, the now-former director, resigned last Friday.

If that was the case, it would be amazing. We talk about unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats, but this would take the cake, where the POTUS would have no power to fill the top vacancy in an Executive office agency. It would perpetuate a complete insider agency, with zero accountability. And, wouldn’t this mean that the appointment of Richard Cordray by Obama was illegal? Well, no

The White House argued in an opinion issued Saturday by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that it is within the president’s right to appoint an acting director. Steven A. Engel, newly confirmed head of the office, wrote that while the deputy director could serve as acting director under the statute, the president has the power to make appointments under the Vacancies Reform Act.

In fact, the Consumer Finance Monitor wrote in July

The Vacancies Act provides that its three ways are “the exclusive means” for filing a vacancy unless Congress has expressly provided by statute who should “perform the functions and duties of a specified office temporarily in an acting capacity” when a vacancy occurs or the President fills the vacancy through a recess appointment.  In general, the Vacancies Act permits a temporary appointment to continue for up to 210 days after the vacancy is created, with the time suspended when a nomination has been submitted to the Senate and confirmation is pending.

The Dodd-Frank Act provides that the CFPB “shall be considered an Executive agency, as defined in section 105 of title 5, United States Code.”….

It appears Congress did not expressly provide in Dodd-Frank for how a vacancy should be filled if the CFPB Director were to resign…

The Vacancies Act authorizes the POTUS to be able to appoint an interim director. That person must meet certain qualifications (as laid out in the Consumer Finance Monitor), for which White House budget director Mulvany fills the bill. Even the CFPB’s top lawyer agrees that President Trump is within legalities to appoint Mulvany as interim director.

This suit will certainly not help English in the future. Heck, Trump may have been thinking to interview her for the top job. You can bet that’s off the table.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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