GOP Introduces Bill Which Would Gut Parts Of EPA

By William Teach February 11, 2017 – 7:29 am

I’m personally against doing away with the Environmental Protection Agency. When the Environmental Protection Act was first passed, it was a worthy piece of legislation, which bound the nation together to do what we can to clean the air, land, and water. The created agency was not dictatorial, and worked hard to protect the environment.

Since then, though, like so many other government agencies, it saw massive mission creep, moved to be a hard left activist group pushing progressive (nice fascist) goals, and grew to be a giant, unaccountable bureaucracy.

(The Hill) A House Republican is sponsoring legislation to do away with large portions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including environmental justice and greenhouse gas programs.

Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) introduced the Wasteful EPA Programs Elimination Act on Thursday, saying it would save $7.5 billion annually. That would leave the agency with a budget of less than $1 billion.

Major EPA climate change programs would be eliminated under the measure.

The legislation would also close all of the EPA’s regional offices, halt new regulations on ground-level ozone pollution and require the agency to lease unused property.

Rolling back the power of the EPA without doing away with the agency is a good thing (and would be great for most federal agencies). They assume power, often based on the shadiest of rationales as provided by legislation (legislation needs to also be less open ended, which gives federal agencies the ability to do power grabs and create rules and regulations out of almost thin air).

The legislation would keep a goodly chunk of the EPA’s power intact, but erase the mission creep. The EPA should act more like FEMA, where they direct state and local agencies to deal with the situations.

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Mexico Warns Citizens In United States Illegally To Take Precautions

By William Teach February 11, 2017 – 7:12 am

This is actually a good thing. Sadly, the entire story, which I have saved in Pocket, has utterly changed without any footnotes or explanation, barely touching on what appeared in the original. Here’s from the rewrite

(CNN) Earlier Friday, Mexico warned its citizens living in the United States to “take precautions” and remain in contact with consular officials, following the deportation of an undocumented mother while she was on a routine check-in with US immigration authorities.

From the original

Mexico warned its citizens living in the United States on Friday to “take precautions” and remain in contact with consular officials a day after the deportation of an undocumented mother following a routine visit with US immigration authorities. (snip)

“The case involving Mrs. Garcia de Rayos illustrates a new reality for the Mexican community living in the United States, facing the most severe implementation of immigration control measures,” Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.

Mexican consulates “have intensified their work of protecting fellow nationals, foreseeing more severe immigration measures to be implemented by the authorities of this country, and possible violations to constitutional precepts during such operations and problems with due process,” the statement said.

Warning illegals in this manner, which will surely be noticed by non-Mexican illegals at the same time, puts them on notice that they could be arrested and deported at any time, that no longer will the U.S. government turn a blind eye to people in the U.S. illegally. These warnings will help deter people from coming to the country illegally, along with those who overstay visas. It will also cause many to leave on their own. Which is exactly what is needed, even more than a wall. Create the conditions to deter illegal immigration.

And arresting them certainly helps, as well

(Washington Post) U.S. immigration authorities arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in at least a half-dozen states this week in a series of raids that marked the first large-scale enforcement of President Trump’s Jan. 26 order to crack down on the estimated 11 million immigrants living here illegally.

The raids, which officials said targeted known criminals, also netted some immigrants who did not have criminal records, an apparent departure from similar enforcement waves during the Obama administration that aimed to just corral and deport those who had committed crimes.

They’re here illegally, regardless of whether they have criminal records, and need to be deported quickly. This has obviously driven the pro-illegal crowd nuts, with all sorts of invective flowing, along with protests, blocking ICE vans (that’s a felony, blocking a law officer from doing their job), getting out in the streets. The fact that illegals hurt wages and take away vital service money from the poor citizens that the Democrats proport to represent.

But, they’re aiming their rage at the wrong president

(Fox News) Immigration arrests across Southern California over the past week were planned before President Trump took office and could be compared to similar operations the occurred last summer, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said.

The Los Angeles Times reported that authorities arrested more than 160 people in the five-day sweep, most of  whom have criminal histories.

So, blame Obama. Under Obama, though, the ones caught up would usually be let go. Under Trump? Not anymore. At least that we’re aware of.

And then there’s this

(Fox News) Several towns, cities and counties around the nation are caving to President Trump’s threat to pull funding, and abandoning their “sanctuary” pledges to shield illegal immigrants from federal authorities.

Dayton, Ohio, dropped a policy that restricted the city’s cooperation with immigration officials pursuing illegal immigrants arrested for misdemeanors or felony property crimes, according to the Dayton Daily News. Police Chief Richard Biehl said federal authorities will no longer be impeded by the city when pursuing illegal immigrants being held by his department.

Other communities that have dropped policies of shielding illegal immigrant suspects from Immigration and Customs Enforcement include Miami-Dade and Dayton, are Saratoga, N.Y., Finney County, Kan., and Bedford, Penn., according to The Center for Immigration Studies, which keeps a list of sanctuary communities.

It shouldn’t be necessary to resort to threats to get lower level U.S. governments to obey the law, however, this is what it has come to. And this shows further efforts to create the conditions where people will not come to our country illegally.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Surprise: Now That Boy Scouts Have Capitulated On Fake Girls, Feminists Demand They Let In Girl Girl

By William Teach February 10, 2017 – 3:30 pm

In his book SJWs Always Lie, Vox Day laid out a few principles on how to deal with Social Justice Warriors. One of them is to never, ever, give in, because they’ll use that to beat you up and demand even more. It would have been good advice for the Boy Scouts, who have already capitulated to demands to allow gay scouts and scout masters, then on allowing the gender confused in

Women’s Group Calls On Boy Scouts To Allow Girls To Join

Is a Boy Scout still a Boy Scout when the scout is a girl?

That’s the question facing the Boy Scouts of America, which recently opened their ranks to gay and transgender boys and now faces another long-simmering membership dispute: a long-shot campaign to let girls join the BSA so they have a chance to earn the prestigious status of Eagle Scout.

While girls are allowed into some programs, they are still banned from competing for the Eagle Scout rank, joining Cub Packs or Scout Troops, joining the Boy Scout honor society, and earning Merit Badges.

Just last week, after the BSA announced it would admit transgender boys, the National Organization for Women issued a statement urging the youth organization to allow girls to join.

Man, if only there was some sort of organization that girls could join that did stuff. What’s their name? Now, boys can join the Girl Scouts….if they are gender confused. Not if they identify as boys.

It’s also not the first time that SJWs are attempting to force the Boy Scouts to allow girls in, because, why not? I can understand the appeal for some who are more tom-boys, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But, why can’t males have their won clubs if they want them? If men tried to force female only clubs, gyms, etc, to accept them, think there would be a big stink and all sorts saying “no, stop it!”?

This is what happens when you give SJWs an opening.

The group released a statement urging the federal government to “prohibit any federal support for the Boy Scouts until the organization ends its discriminatory ban against girls.”

So, should we take away federal support from the Girl Scouts? There are plenty of groups that are discriminatory in one form or fashion that receive federal support. People need to stop being victims, and stop pushing their faux victimhood on everyone else.

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If All You See…

By William Teach February 10, 2017 – 1:00 pm

…is killing of wildlife in a carbon pollution flood world, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Raised On Hoecakes, with a post on why we get riled up about free speech.

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California’s New Cap And Tax Proposal To Include Social Justice Issues

By William Teach February 10, 2017 – 10:24 am

But, remember, this is all a science, and it has nothing to do with politics in the least

(LA Times) Caifornia lawmakers are moving to reshape the state’s climate change policies by focusing on social justice issues such as alleviating local pollution and creating job opportunities, laying down a marker in conversations about the future of the cap-and-trade program.

The new measure, which will be introduced on Thursday by Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) and Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), represents another step by Latino lawmakers to tie environmental policies to community-level concerns. The approach was a key part of last year’s successful effort to set a new, tougher goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The cap and trade program has mostly been a failure so far, though, the supporters will say it has reduced “air pollution”, which is the way they refer to carbon dioxide, which is true, as businesses have left the state, gone out of business, or had to reduce their activities. But, as we can see from above, this is really all about pushing far left political agendas while saying “it’s for your benefit.” Progressivism has been defined as “nice fascism”, which means “fascistic/authoritarian government which knows what’s best for you.” And this is all linked in with Progressivism.

(Gov Gerry Brown) He wants a two-thirds vote in both houses of the Legislature, the threshold for approving taxes, to safeguard the program against legal challenges and preserve an important source of money for building the bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Brown has pledged to hold back cap-and-trade revenue, which is generated when the state auctions off pollution permits, until the vote happens.

Funny how so much of the science becomes policies of leftism, bigger government, and spending tax payer money on idiocy.

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NY Times Seems Pretty Upset Over An Illegal Alien Felon Being Deported

By William Teach February 10, 2017 – 7:16 am

We learned yesterday that Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos was finally arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during one of her check ins. Liberal supporters of illegal alien felons had fits, blocking roads and ICE vehicles, but, still

Well, the Editorial Board of the NY Times is having a snit fit

‘Bad Dude’? No, but Deported Anyway

By no standard of common sense or decency should Guadalupe García de Rayos have been a priority for deportation. Ms. Rayos, a 35-year-old mother of two, was arrested on Wednesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Phoenix. On Thursday she was deported to Mexico, a country she left 21 years ago. Her devastated family, including her American-born children, remains in the United States.

She wasn’t a priority: this had been going on for years and years, till the system finally caught up with this felon. Martha Stewart wasn’t a bad dude, either, yet she spent time in a federal penitentiary. Same as many people who commit certain crimes that do not make them “bad dudes.”

President Trump persists in the absurd claim that America will be safe and great again only after an assault on “bad dudes” and “criminal aliens,” whom he has promised to arrest and remove by the millions.

But Ms. Rayos fits no such definition and was no threat, though she had been living in the United States illegally since she was 14. She had been known to the authorities since she was caught in a workplace raid in Phoenix in 2008. In the years since, she would check in regularly with immigration officials, who chose not to deport her, having more important things to do.

Nowhere does the screed mention she was a convicted felon, her crime being identity theft, which, while certainly not the same as felony assault, is not a victimless crime. There’s no telling the problems faced by the person(s) she stole the identity from.

Of course, Ms. Rayos is simply a vehicle for the NYTEB to bash Bush Trump

What was always most alarming about Mr. Trump’s posturing on immigration wasn’t the wall, which will never be built in the way he describes it. It is instead the prospect of ramped-up enforcement that promises to increase misery on both sides of the border. The criminalizing of law-abiding immigrants who have lived in the United States for years, and of the migrants from Central America who arrive desperate for refuge. The households sundered, the jobs lost, the brutal idiocy of it all.

She’s a convicted felon.

It is time to watch closely what Mr. Trump says, and what he and his administration do. Watch Mr. Sessions, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, agencies with rogue officers who have abused immigrants and broken the law, and local law enforcement, like the Phoenix police, whose officers abetted ICE in subduing protesters who tried to block Ms. Rayos’s removal.

The horror! They all did their jobs! How rude!

But for countless innocent immigrant families, the hard question is what to do now. Advocates were mobilizing on Thursday night after reports of scores of immigration arrests across the country, from Southern California to Texas. Ms. Rayos’s lawyer, speaking to reporters on Thursday, said immigrants should realize that what happened to her could easily happen to them. He suggested they use great caution in dealing with ICE, and consider the possibility of seeking sanctuary in a church.l

First, illegals should realize what can happen when they are in the country illegally and commit any crime, especially a felony. Second, the NYTEB is suggesting that they continue breaking the law by seeking sanctuary. They are advocating for lawlessness. Such is the state of the Liberal News.

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Trump Is Vexed By Challenges Of Government Or Something

By William Teach February 10, 2017 – 6:53 am

He’s totally surprised that government doesn’t run like a business. Just another attempted hit piece, featuring tons of anonymous sources

Trump vexed by challenges, scale of government
The new president’s allies say he has been surprised that government can’t be run like his business.

Being president is harder than Donald Trump thought, according to aides and allies who say that he’s growing increasingly frustrated with the challenges of running the massive federal bureaucracy.

In interviews, nearly two dozen people who’ve spent time with Trump in the three weeks since his inauguration said that his mood has careened between surprise and anger as he’s faced the predictable realities of governing, from congressional delays over his cabinet nominations and legal fights holding up his aggressive initiatives to staff in-fighting and leaks.

I’m betting that Barack, who had no experience running anything, had some issues as well. Even those with experience running government, such as George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan, among others, surely had difficulty, particularly with an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy.

The administration’s rocky opening days have been a setback for a president who, as a billionaire businessman, sold himself to voters as being uniquely qualified to fix what ailed the nation. Yet it has become apparent, say those close to the president, most of whom requested anonymity to describe the inner workings of the White House, that the transition from overseeing a family business to running the country has been tough on him.

Seriously, it has been three weeks, guys. Three weeks. These things do not happen overnight. They do not happen that fast in the private sector, either. Even taking over a small store doing the same as you did at another small store can take time. If this is still happening in a year, then it would be a problem.

But, the idea here is to paint things negatively for Trump, because that’s what out professional and totally unbiased media does.

There’s this anonymous quote, that anonymous quote, most of which are designed to make Trump look bad.

Last week, Trump told an associate he had become weary of in-fighting among — and leaks from — his White House staff “because it reflects on me,” and that he intended to sit down staffers to tell them “to cut this shit out.”

That, though, despite the negative portrayal, sounds like someone who’s in charge, and is trying to implement a typical theme from the private sector about “getting on board with the changes.”

There are two actual quotes from people among all the negative anonymous nellies

Christopher Ruddy, a Trump friend and the chief executive of the conservative Newsmax Media, said “Running the federal government is something new for him, for sure.” But, Ruddy added, “I think if he’s demonstrated anything in his life, he is a very fast learner and adapts very quickly. The man is not to be underestimated.”

“I’m not disappointed in the President’s work so far – he operates like many great CEO’s I know – and I hope he continues to manage the country in a manner worlds apart from the way we’ve seen in the past,” said Michael Caputo, who was a Trump campaign aide. “It’s about time.”

Running the country is no easy business, especially when Trump is attempting to change the way it runs. And, it’s just been three weeks, for goodness sakes.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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If All You See…

By William Teach February 9, 2017 – 1:00 pm

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

The blog of the day is MOTUS AD, with a post on the vexing of Snowflakes.

Read: If All You See… »

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Say, If Anthropogenic Global Warming Is Real, Why Do Scientists Keep Cheating?

By William Teach February 9, 2017 – 10:40 am

Periodically, I like to make sure we are talking about the correct thing and on the same page. Climate change is real. Global warming is real. There has been warming since the mid-1800’s. The question as posed by most Skeptics is not on whether there has been warming, it is on the causation. Warmists say it is mostly/solely caused by the action of Mankind, particularly “carbon pollution”. They can barely even admit that nature plays any part. Except where a Pause is concerned, then they say that nature is masking the symptoms. Hence, we refer to it as AGW, anthropogenic global warming, anthropogenic climate change, and ‘climate change’, among others. When they say global warming and climate change, they mean man caused. Which leads to

If Global Warming Is Real, Why Do Government Scientists Have To Keep Cheating?

A few decades back, an upstanding member of the global warming alarmist community said that if the public was going to take the threat of man-caused climate change seriously, the alarmists were going to have to exaggerate the evidence.

It was in 1989 that Stephen Schneider wrote in Discover magazine that in order “to capture the public’s imagination . . . we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have.”

Let’s not forget that the late climatologist was first a believer in global cooling in the 1970s. He was worried that a new ice age was coming.

Of course the alarmist community has followed Schneider’s script. It’s spent much of the last three decades trying to spook the public into a panic.

Which, of course, led to ClimateGate, ClimateGate 2.0, and many other issues, including the current one being mostly embargoed by the media, as scientist John Bates has accused NOAA of failing to follow science and ruled in publishing the Karl paper, which was designed to make the climate look worse as they headed to Paris for the UN IPCC conference.

Please don’t be surprised. Government-paid researchers are desperate to perpetuate the climate shock. They know that if there is no warming as they have predicted, the generous public funds that support their work will eventually dry up.

It is in their financial interest to keep the public tied up in knots of anxiety and to dupe politicians, who are eager to assume the posture of caring guardians of the environment so they’ll to continue to hand them money

And it fits right in with the other evidence problems that undermine the global warming narrative, such as the hopelessly flawed temperature record, the unreliable models that can’t even predict the past, and the possibility that as many half of the alarmist research papers could be wrong.

I, and many others, have said it before and I’ll say it again: if the science is so sound, why the need to adjust the data, smooth the data, manipulate the data, manufacture the data? Why does the data not stand on its own? Why the need for doomy prognostications? Why are publicly funded “scientists” advocating for Big Government policies that will harm the lower and middle classes, while increasing the power of government? Why are they acting more like an advocacy group than scientists?

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Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 18 Comments | Trackback URL

Illegal Alien Felon Arrested In Phoenix, Liberals Go Apoplectic

By William Teach February 9, 2017 – 8:08 am

If you’re here illegally, you shouldn’t be here. If you’re here illegally, and you’ve committed any crime, especially a felony, you definitely shouldn’t be here. This LA Times headline says it all: illegally

Longtime Phoenix resident in U.S. illegally detained in early display of Trump executive order’s reach

A Phoenix woman in the country illegally who was considered a low priority for deportation by the Obama administration has been taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Immigrant advocates say her detention reflects the severity of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, 36, had lived in the country since she was 14. She was arrested in 2008 during a workplace raid ordered by then-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio at Golfland Sunsplash amusement park in Mesa, Ariz., and convicted of felony identity theft for possessing false papers.

Identity theft hurts actual, real people. It’s not a victimless crime.

ICE officials confirmed the detention on Wednesday. “Ms. Garcia de Rayos is currently being detained by ICE based on a removal order issued by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review which became final in May 2013,” the agency said in a news release.

Garcia de Rayos’ detention is an early indication of the reach of an executive order by President Trump on Jan. 25, which expanded deportation priorities to include any immigrants in the country illegally who had been convicted of a criminal offense, regardless of its severity. Previous orders by President Obama prioritized violent offenders.

Last time I checked, Obama was president in 2013, so, that would be an order under his regime. Because, contrary to opinion, Team Obama was deporting people like Guadalupe left and right. Yes, the focus was on violent criminals, but, they would deport those who had other felonies. It just takes time to get around to many of them.

But, it’s right there in the headline: in U.S. illegally.

The NY Times forgets to mention that she was convicted of a felony, though they do mention her bust for using a fake SS number and such. Just suspicion. One interesting thing they get around to near the end

In 2013, an immigration court ordered that she be sent back to Mexico, but her case had been on hold since the federal authorities — under the Obama administration — decided not to act on the deportation order.

So, a judge told her vaya con dios back to Mexico, and Team Obama decided to hold off for the time being. We keep being told that we should keep the good illegals. A convicted felon wouldn’t be one of the good ones.

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