Category: Comment O’ The Day

Comment O’ The Day
No government has ever seen an area of human activity they couldn’t make worse given sufficient budget. This is an important first step in misallocating vast oceans of human and monetary capital.

Soon we will look back fondly at today’s straightforward and streamlined regulatory environment as “The good old days, when it was fast and easy to get stuff done”.

FCC proposes new bureau for space activities

WASHINGTON — The chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission announced plans Nov. 3 to reorganize the agency and create a bureau devoted to the its increasing work with space systems.

In a speech at a Satellite Industry Association event, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced her intent to reorganize the commission’s International Bureau into a new Space Bureau and a standalone Office of International Affairs. That reorganization, she said, would give satellite licensing and regulatory work greater prominence and access to more resources.

“The organizational structures of the agency have not kept pace as the applications and proceedings before us have multiplied,” she said, saying that the FCC has applications under consideration for systems totaling 64,000 satellites. “You can’t just keep doing things the old way and expect to lead in the new.”

Having a bureau devoted to space, she said, would go hand-in-hand with efforts to increase staffing and develop new regulations for space systems. “This organization will help ensure that the new Space Bureau and the Office of International Affairs stay relevant, efficient and effective over time.”

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Comment O’ The Day
They’re idiots, and when you put idiots in charge, the result is disaster.

Massachusetts offshore wind project “no longer viable.”

A wind energy company named Avangrid has been in the process of developing a massive offshore wind farm called the Commonwealth Wind project, working with the support of the state of Massachusetts for several years. When completed, it was to be a 1,200-megawatt energy source. A second offshore project from Mayflower Wind was to produce an additional 400 megawatts. But now, the companies behind both of these projects have asked the state to put the plans on hold.

The reason given was that the projects are “no longer viable” under the current conditions and they will be unable to move forward for the time being. But the reason for hitting the brakes has little to do with technology or weather and a great deal to do with the economy. (New Bedford Light)

A major offshore wind project in the Massachusetts pipeline “is no longer viable and would not be able to move forward” under the terms of contracts filed in May. Both developers behind the state’s next two offshore wind projects are asking state regulators to pause review of the contracts for one month amid price increases, supply shortages and interest rate hikes.

Utility executives working with assistance from the Baker administration last year chose Avangrid’s roughly 1,200-megawatt Commonwealth Wind project and a 400 MW project from Mayflower Wind in the third round of offshore wind procurement to continue the state’s pursuit of establishing cleaner offshore wind power. Contracts, or power purchase agreements (PPAs), for the projects were filed with the Department of Public Utilities in May.

As noted above, these wind farms aren’t being put on hold because the wind suddenly stopped blowing offshore. (Though that does happen from time to time.) Nor were the developers running into problems with their turbines, or at least no more than usual. As with so many things in American politics and the industrial sector… it’s the economy, stupid.

The problems being cited by the developers are no doubt familiar to almost all of you by now. They are describing global commodity price increases, sudden increases in interest rates, and supply chain woes that are slowing production and driving up costs. Declining labor force levels are adding additional concerns. All of these factors are combining to make the construction of the project unsustainable.

There’s an obvious bit of irony in seeing the same state and federal government actors who have pushed “green energy” down everyone’s throats sitting on this particular sideline. Those same people whose policies helped drive this collapse in the supply chain and the labor market, along with the spike in the prices of pretty much everything, are now watching as one of their signature “clean energy” achievements falls victim to the conditions they created.

In their brief, the developers suggested possible solutions to get them back on track. These included cost-saving measures and government tax incentives. But the only way these projects ever got off the ground initially was because the government was already massively subsidizing the wind energy industry in general and these proposed wind farms in particular. Wind energy is not profitable in and of itself without huge government subsidies. And now that the economy has largely collapsed over the past two years, those chickens are coming home to roost, assuming they avoid getting chopped up in the blades of a wind turbine like the eagles.

Here’s an exit question for the peanut gallery to consider. Has anyone checked to see how well these turbines would hold up if a category 4 or 5 hurricane blew through? It doesn’t happen often off the coast of the northeast, but I’m sure that the people there still remember Sandy. I did some checking, and the developers claim that those sorts of weather events have been “taken into consideration.” But those towers look rather spindly to be standing tall in 150-mile-per-hour winds. But hey… maybe that’s just me.

Comment O’ The Day
“Looking at the news today, if Elon wants an idea of what else Twitter can do, setting up a Twitter Book Mart and selling books (including, or especially those dropped by amazon) would be a good and useful one. The actual physical distribution of books is straightforward; publicizing them is the hard part. And the one thing Twitter does really well is publicize.”

Amazon Fascists Ban Another Book That Leftists Hate.

The battle for the freedom of speech is heating up this week, with Elon Musk chasing out the Twitter fascists and beginning to open up the platform for free discussion and dissent (amid howls of rage from the Left), but the other social media giants are showing no signs of retreating from their fascism. New English Review Press announced Sunday that a book it published back in 2017, The Islam in Islamic Terrorism: The Importance of Beliefs, Ideas, and Ideology by the renowned ex-Muslim scholar Ibn Warraq, has been pulled for sale from Amazon without explanation or the possibility of appeal.

It’s a strange move. I have the privilege and honor of having known Ibn Warraq for many years and calling him my friend. I’ve also read The Islam in Islamic Terrorism. Before I met him, his groundbreaking and courageous work Why I Am Not A Muslim was a powerful influence on me in the 1990s and had a great deal to do with my beginning to write about jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women myself. Ibn Warraq is a gentle soul, a careful scholar, a superb writer, and a profound and original thinker. The Islam in Islamic Terrorism is not some flame-throwing hate screed but a carefully documented exploration of the elements of Islam that jihad terrorists use in order to justify violence and make recruits among peaceful Muslims.

Amazon, however, is run by Leftists, and for Leftists, any criticism of Islam, including any hint that it may have some connection to Islamic terrorism, is “Islamophobic” and thus to be rejected out of hand without any discussion of the actual evidence. For years now, the notorious far-Left smear machine, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), has defamed opponents of jihad violence and Sharia oppression as “hate group leaders,” and Amazon has banned counter-jihad 501c3 charitable organizations from its Amazon Smile charity program on the basis of the SPLC’s “hate” listings.

Amazon has also shown a readiness to ban books that counter the Left’s nonsense. A few years back, the Leftist behemoth banned Ryan Anderson’s When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. It has also banned other books that jihadis and their allies would find offensive, such as Peter McLoughlin’s Easy Meat: Inside Britain’s Grooming Gang Scandal, and Mohammed’s Koran by McLoughlin and British activist Tommy Robinson.

Leftists will say, as they always say to criticism of the social media giants, that Amazon is a private company that can do what it wants and that if patriots don’t like it, they can start their own bookstore. Remember bookstores? There used to be many in every American city. They all had different selections, based on the owners’ perspectives and interests. But now they are almost all gone. Amazon dominates the book market, and Barnes & Noble takes most of the rest. If Amazon decides that your book is not acceptable, then most people who are interested in books will never have the opportunity to see it at all.

In earlier, less polarized times, the U.S. government determined that several monopolies — Standard Oil, American Tobacco, AT&T — were not in the public interest and compelled them to break up. It would be a great boon for the freedom of speech if Big Tech were subjected to this treatment, but the U.S. government as it is currently constituted is more likely to act against Musk for protecting the freedom of speech on Twitter than against the other social media giants for suppressing that freedom. The American people would also benefit immensely from the breakup of Amazon and reconstitution of bookstores that reflect differing points of view with selections that reflect not just Amazon’s doctrinaire Leftist line, but other points of view as well.

The Islam in Islamic Terrorism can still be found here. But it’s clear that Amazon is intending to shut down debate on a highly controversial issue. Even if you don’t care for the works of Ibn Warraq (which would be odd, as it would mean you don’t care for lucid, elegant prose, compelling reasoning, and a broad command of the salient facts), make no mistake: anytime Amazon pulls a book for political reasons, we are all threatened. The precedent has been set by the only bookseller that really matters today that books that are offensive to the Leftist elites can be deep-sixed at will. This precedent is dangerous and corrosive to a free society. In this age of the Biden regime’s creeping authoritarianism, it’s ominous in the extreme.

For the year 2020:
Population of Philadelphia: 1.6 million
Population of Pennsylvania: 13 million
Homicides in Philadelphia: 499
Homicides in Pennsylvania: 1,009

When gun laws are the same throughout the state, and your city accounts for 12% of the state population but nearly half of all homicides in the state, the problem isn’t guns……

Caryn Sullivan: A societal storm is brewing and we must stop it
We have the power to hold fast to American values and traditions by casting out the politicians who show even an inkling of wanting to move our country away from them.

Early this month, Hurricane Ian blew into Florida, leaving a swath of destruction. In a matter of hours, life changed dramatically for many residents. As I watched from afar, I was reminded of the importance of having a plan.

Nearly 13 years ago, I became a widow and single mom, after my husband suffered a fatal heart attack. Recognizing how hard it is to make decisions in the middle of an emotional storm, I executed a will, set up a trust, and bought a cemetery plot so my kids wouldn’t have to pick up the pieces after I was gone.

When I took those steps, I had a sense of what the future would hold. But that’s no longer true.

These days, I’m watching as a societal storm picks up speed. I’m watching as the metaphorical roof is ripped from homes; as limbs blow off branches; and vehicles submerge in rushing water.

Writing for Alpha News on Saturday, Julie and Allen Quist put my feelings into context. In a comprehensive piece, they walked readers through the way in which critical race theory and neo-Marxism are replacing the pillars upon which our nation was established. They explained how it’s all part of a plan to dramatically alter our country. Bit by bit, our culture is being scuttled, replaced by a wholly undesirable way of life we’ve witnessed in other countries.

Over the past six months, I’ve written about how our language is changing, about how students are asked to identify their pronouns, about how free speech has been undercut — and more. These are some of the elements the Quists highlight in their commentary. I recognized the road markers; I just couldn’t see the destination.

But it’s clearer now. I’ve had a reluctant reckoning, for this is not something I imagined would come to be in my lifetime. But George Orwell’s novel, “1984,” feels more like reality than fiction every day.

COVID provided the perfect cover for a burgeoning neo-Marxist movement. We were told to stay home, mask up, and take a novel vaccine — because it was for the greater good. And most of us did.

Though I never imagined we would live through a pandemic, it’s not hard to envision another crisis in our future. And, if — or when — one comes to pass, it’s not hard to imagine that the draconian measures we endured — and the compliance we experienced — will come to be again.

Which begs the question, how do we prepare for the worst-case scenario — another lockdown; government-run media; or, God forbid, civil war? I don’t have the answers, but we can begin by remembering that the best offense is a good defense, as we saw this past weekend.

Recently, PayPal announced a new policy whereby it would fine customers $2500 for spreading misinformation. Horrified customers quickly cancelled their accounts. And the stock price plummeted.

On Friday, the Florida surgeon general shared that a recent study demonstrated young men who take the mRNA vaccine experience an alarmingly high incidence of cardiac-related deaths. Twitter exercised its muscle by blocking him, stating he was spreading misinformation.

But people pushed back. PayPal reversed course and the surgeon general’s post reappeared on Twitter.

It was an encouraging example of how, though it’s constantly tested, we haven’t lost our power. We need to continue to summon our courage and exercise it boldly.

We still have the power to stop this neo-Marxist movement by voting for politicians who reject that course. We have the power to hold fast to American values and traditions by casting out the politicians who show even an inkling of wanting to move our country away from them.

When we head to the ballot box, we need to be mindful of the impending storm and, in the vein of ‘hope for the best and prepare for the worst,’ we must vote as if our lives and our country’s future depend on it. Because they do.

In response to:
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Representative Madeleine Dean (D-PA), and workers union-owned Amalgamated Bank are pushing payment processors to make a new Merchant Category Code for gun and ammunition sales, allowing for easier tracking of these purchases. MasterCard, Visa, and American Express have so far not given an opinion on the matter. 

Brandon Soderman comment on Facebook

They’re going this route because they’re losing in court. This is an act of desperation.
I’ve read a lot of good analysis on it and you will increasingly see the gun prohibitionists now attempt to utilize the private sector to chill the Second Amendment since they can’t use governmental power to do so.
Over the next year when magazine bans and AWBs are struck down in the courts under the THT test you will witness a push to shame gun manufactures (we’ve seen a taste of that in congress), push shippers to refuse to ship firearms and accessories that democrats want to ban but can’t, and push the banking system to make gun purchases are difficult as possible.

The battle will now be shifting from the court system to the court of public opinion, it’s all they have left. We’re on the offensive now and they know it. Don’t take this as a sign of weakness on our side, but as a sign of their desperation as they get pushed back into the hole they crawled out of for another generation.
They don’t have the broad buy in from the public to reinterpret the Second Amendment, and the AWB would be overturned by the next Republican administration and congress just as it was in 2004 (assuming the court didn’t stop them). Eliminating the filibuster to narrow the votes to pass it would only make it easier to undo it later. Similarly, conservative justices would no doubt restore any attempt to overturn Heller the moment its viable.

They’re desperate, take this sign for what it is and hold on tight. You’re about to witness a lash out like you’ve never seen. I think the next national push should not be neutrality (like how republicans allowed blue states to pass their own local bans), but instead push to make it illegal federally to ban commonly-owned weapons, regardless of what the court does (forcing the supremacy clause against blue states). It needs to be total war if they push the filibuster issue to pass a partisan ban, which is the only way they could ever achieve it.

Comment O’ The Day

When a sitting President calls for a prime-time television address to speak to the nation as a whole, and then spends the entire address calling me an enemy of the state — I listen and I believe him.

When he later tries to “walk back” or “ameliorate” or “explain” that he meant something else, I do not believe him.-alien

ALL IS PROCEEDING AS ANY IDIOT COULD HAVE FORESEEN.

  1. Canada socializes healthcare.
  2. Canada legalizes euthanasia.
  3. The Canadian government-controlled health care establishment realizes, “Hey, wait a minute, it’s cheaper if these people die, let’s pressure them into it.”
  4. “Euthanasia” is now Canada’s sixth-leading cause of death.

Comment O’ The Day

At no point does it seem to have occurred to anyone that giving the government strong financial incentive to want you dead was a bad idea.

So basically, if you in any way praise or uphold the mentality that founded the American nation, federal law enforcement considers that a red flag?

On their list of “extremist phrases” is “All enemies foreign & domestic” That same phrase is in the US MILITARY ENLISTMENT OATH

The Betsy Ross flag? Seriously?

It’s weird I don’t see an antifa flag anywhere on there, they must work for the Feds

Not a single symbol or flag representing the groups that burned cities.

 

There are millions of Dickens and Rittenhouses across America and they’re the reason why the left, media and government hate the right to bear arms.

American society doesn’t allow enforcement, or even encouragement of any standards anymore. Parents who try to modify the behavior of a troubled child are at risk of government intervention up to including criminal charges.

The same parents dare not try to get involved with the school education indoctrination program and anyone with any sort of unusual urges is encouraged to “celebrate” them, while everyone else is bullied into accepting it and often forced into celebrating with them.

Any individual shortcoming is somebody else’s fault.
Any punishment is racist or misogynist or  – insert here – shaming.

“For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” was a warning not a game plan

Comment O’ The Day
The gun-buying spree was a RESULT of the murder spike and a reaction to the demonstrated knowledge that if mostly peaceful pink-haired Antifa Zombies came crawling through your window, the police would not only be unable to help, but would refuse to do so if the opportunity arose.

The New York Times Uses a CDC Report on Homicides As an Excuse To Attack Private Gun Ownership

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday issued a report on the recent surge in the U.S. gun homicide rate, which rose by a third between 2019 and 2020, from 4.6 to 6.1 per 100,000 residents. The article, which was published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, notes that “several explanations have been proposed,” including “increased stressors (e.g., economic, social, and psychological) and disruptions in health, social, and emergency services during the COVID-19 pandemic; strains in law enforcement-community relations reflected in protests over law enforcement use of lethal force; increases in firearm purchases; and intimate partner violence.”

The New York Times predictably plays up that passing reference to “increases in firearm purchases.” The rise in gun homicides, the Times says, “corresponded to accelerated sales of firearms as the pandemic spread and lockdowns became the norm.” The Times explains that “Americans went on a gun-buying spree in 2020 that continued into 2021,” although sales have since returned to their usual level. It cites an estimate by gun violence researcher Garen Wintemute that “there remain roughly 15 million more guns in circulation than there would be without the pandemic.”

In 2017, according to the Small Arms Survey, American civilians owned more than 393 million firearms. Purchases in 2018 and 2019 added an estimated 27 million guns to that stock of weapons. If sales in 2020 had been similar to sales in the two previous years, they would have added another 13 million or so. Assuming Wintemute’s estimate is in the right ballpark, the “gun-buying spree” that worries the Times amounted to a further increase of about 3.5 percent. Although Times reporters Roni Caryn Rabin and Tim Arango seem to think that’s a plausible explanation for a 33 percent increase in the gun homicide rate, it’s not clear why.

It is demonstrably not true that more guns in circulation automatically results in more homicides. The number of guns owned by Americans rose steadily throughout the period, beginning in the early 1990s, when the U.S. homicide rate fell precipitously, a downward trend that has only recently abated. As the CDC notes, the reasons for the 2020 jump are unclear, although it is widely assumed that the massive disruptions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic had something to do with it.

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Comment O’ The Day

The goal is not to save our planet from climate change, it’s to create a crisis which will give goobermint more control over the people.
It’s the perfect catastrophe hoax to coerce the population into being submissive and obedient to ‘authority’.
There’s no end to climate change, therefore there’s no end to the goobermint’s use of it for propaganda purposes.
Hungry, fearful, and destitute people don’t worry about rights or freedoms, but simply surviving, thus they can be more easily controlled to do the goobermint’s bidding.

Comment O’ The Day
I used to feel sorry for him, but not anymore. He has no idea what country he is in much less to lead the people. We are the laughing stock of the entire planet
–Steve H

Biden Was Just Asked About Ending Title 42 For Illegal Immigrants And Instead He Rambled About Masks On Planes.

Observation O’ The Day
So you can see where his demented mind went; Title 42 is a COVID policy. It was instituted by Trump to prevent illegals from bringing COVID in across the border. He put that COVID policy together with the most likely thing he’d been briefed to handle – the mask mandate suspension  – and voila!, you have this incoherent mingling of parts of both. 

Comment O’ The Day

“As a mother of seven, I am used to distractions and sometimes even outbursts,” 

Biden is clueless about inflation ‘FIFY

Comment O’ The Day

We now have the answer to how quickly can electing (installing) the wrong person (and party) as President destroy a country.
The answer: About one day.
Biden started his destructive policies on day one by issuing several executive orders and everything he has done since then has just added to the problem.

Comment O’ The Day

The Left are suspicious of the government on defense and law & order.
The Right are suspicious of the government on welfare and education.
Both are correct.
Alice Smith; great-great-great-granddaughter of Adam Smith.