2024
No Connection
11/03/24 17:07
Brendan Carr: Biden Has Not Connected One Person with High-Speed Internet with $42.5 Billion from Infrastructure Bill
Sean Moran - June 15, 2024
Breitbart News
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr on Friday wrote that President Joe Biden has not connected one American with high-speed internet with $42.5 billion in funding from the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill.
“In 2021, the Biden Administration got $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of Americans. Years later, it has not connected even 1 person with those funds. In fact, it now says that no construction projects will even start until 2025 at earliest,” the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner wrote.
“Meanwhile, the Biden Admin has been layering a partisan political agenda on top of this $42.45B program – a liberal wish list that has nothing to do with connecting Americans. Climate change mandates, tech biases, DEI requirements, favoring government-run networks + more,” he continued.
Carr is specifically slamming the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which allocated $42.45 billion to support broadband infrastructure and adoption.
The program was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), otherwise known as the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill. The bill had no conservative victories and had many leftist carveouts, as Breitbart News detailed.
Congress passed the infrastructure bill in 2021, which would mean that the BEAD program has had little success in its two years since Biden passed the bill.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also struggled to explain why Biden has only built “seven or eight” electric vehicle charging stations, which the funding also came from the IIJA.
“The timeline is bad. The policy cuts that the Biden Administration have made are even worse. The Biden Administration has set up a $42.45 billion program that is poised to miss the mark and leave rural communities behind,” Carr said in a statement to Breitbart News.
Carr continued, saying that the BEAD program fails to close the “digital divide,” or the gap between with those with high-speed internet and those without.
“The Biden Administration is barreling towards a broadband blunder. Congress has appropriated enough money to end the digital divide, but the Biden Administration is squandering the moment by putting partisan political goals above smart policy,” the FCC commissioner explained. “It is doing so through rate regulation, through union, technology, and DEI preferences, and through a thumb on the scale for government run networks. All of this threatens to leave rural communities behind.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
To Charge or Not To Charge
11/03/24 17:01
$7.5 Billion and 2.5 Years Later, Only Eight Charging Stations Have Been Built
Rick Moran - June 1, 2024
PJ Media
The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act appropriated $7.5 billion to build 500,000 charging stations across the U.S. That's roughly half the number that would be needed if the government achieves its goal of half of all new car sales by 2030 being EVs.
How much has that $7.5 billion purchased? How many of the 500,000 charging stations have been built? There have been 8 charging stations across the country built with that $7.5 billion.
There are actually two kinds of chargers. The first uses a plain old alternating current and takes several hours to charge. The second is called Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC) and can send an EV car on its way in about an hour.
Why the slow pace of building charging stations? If you took "Federal Spending" for $500, you'd know the answer is...
Building a charging station "comes with dozens of rules and requirements around everything from reliability to interoperability, to where stations can be located, to what certifications the workers installing the chargers need to have," according to Reason.com.
Alexander Laska of the center-left Third Way think tank thinks the regulations are just grand.
Laska says regulations "are largely a good thing—we want drivers to have a seamless, convenient, reliable charging experience—but navigating all of that does add to the timeline."
"Add to the timeline"? Why do leftists think that by downplaying massive government interference it somehow doesn't make it look so bad?
Taking 2.5 years to build a lousy eight stations isn't "adding to the timeline." It's indicative of a project bogged down in red tape and regulations. If we're going to be tooling around in EVs in five years, wouldn't it be a good thing if, you know, there was a place to plug it in so we didn't have to push the car for ten or twenty miles just to get a charge?
Hopefully, the private industry will come to our rescue.
The True Nature of Democrats
06/01/24 17:50
Democrats: A Long History of Dishonor and Disservice to America
Jeff Davidson - May 31, 2024
©2023 Townhall
In the continuing travesty of justice in New York, it's just as well that Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts. For those citizens in the know, it solidifies just how corrupt the Biden Administration, the George Soros-appointed district attorney, and the judge are, and how biased the 12 ‘impartial’ jurors happen to be. Many people don't understand, however, that the Democrat party has a long history of dishonor and disservice to America while being adept at covering its tracks.
The Bonds of Assassins
With the control of the big three television networks, the handful of major newspapers in the U.S., National Public Radio, the internet, and other tech giants, and all the other ways in which the Left can manipulate public opinion and create narratives out of whole cloth, who among us has a true and accurate understanding of the Democratic Party?
For example, who murdered Abraham Lincoln? Almost anyone can tell you it was John Wilks Booth, but what is little known is that he was a member of the Know-Nothing group, affiliated with Democrats. Who murdered John F. Kennedy? Lee Harvey Oswald, and whether or not he was a patsy for the CIA, he was a Socialist and in league with Marxists.
Who murdered Martin Luther King? James Earl Ray. Whether acting alone or as a patsy for the FBI, Ray was a Southern segregationist. Hence, all three of these assassins leaned Left, or at the least, had affiliations with Leftist groups.
Stifling the Rights of Others
Who owned slaves throughout the southern U.S.? It was Democrats. Generally speaking, Republicans or those who leaned Right did not own slaves. Who lynched blacks and white abolitionists? It was the Democrats. Some 4,200 people in the U.S. were lynched between the years 1882 and 1968, 3/4 of them black and 1/4 of them white, those who supported the Black Freedom Movement.
Who created the Confederacy? Democrats. Who launched the KKK? Although one cannot say that the Democratic Party initiated the launch, many members of the KKK were Democrats, some high-ranking, and had strong affiliations with the Democratic Party. Republicans did not join the KKK, had no affiliations, and loathed the institution.
With Jim Crow and all of the indignities that went with it, including separate bathrooms, white versus colored drinking fountains, and such, it was Democrats. Who delayed women’s suffrage – women's right to vote – for more than 100 years? Democrats. Look up the history of women voting in America, and you will see that Democrats stifled the process at every turn.
Who interned Japanese-American citizens? It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his administration, Democrats. Who upheld segregation from the 1930s straight through the 1960s? Democrats, not Republicans. Governor George Wallace was a Democrat. Senator Strom Thurman initially was a Democrat. Former Klan member Senator Robert Byrd was a Democrat.
True Natures Revealed
Who enforced integration at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas? The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, on May 17, 1954, that segregated schools are "inherently unequal." Later, in September 1957, with the backing and protection summoned by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, nine African-American students enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Who said, “These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.”
“For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again.” It was Democrat President Lyndon Johnson.
About Barack Obama, who said, “A few years ago this guy would have been getting coffee for us?” It was a Democrat, former President Bill Clinton.
Deemed Racist, Really?
Paradoxically, which party in the U.S. is deemed racist? Generally speaking, it is Republicans. Why? The Democrats control the narrative. The mainstream media is virtually in bed with them, carries their water, and espouses whatever prevailing narrative top Democrats choose to have widely disseminated. It has been this way for decades. In the words of Malcolm X, “The Democratic Party is more racist than the Republican Party.”
Whether racist, treasonous, or law-breaking, Democrats have been at the forefront throughout our history.
Jeff Davidson - May 31, 2024
©2023 Townhall
In the continuing travesty of justice in New York, it's just as well that Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts. For those citizens in the know, it solidifies just how corrupt the Biden Administration, the George Soros-appointed district attorney, and the judge are, and how biased the 12 ‘impartial’ jurors happen to be. Many people don't understand, however, that the Democrat party has a long history of dishonor and disservice to America while being adept at covering its tracks.
The Bonds of Assassins
With the control of the big three television networks, the handful of major newspapers in the U.S., National Public Radio, the internet, and other tech giants, and all the other ways in which the Left can manipulate public opinion and create narratives out of whole cloth, who among us has a true and accurate understanding of the Democratic Party?
For example, who murdered Abraham Lincoln? Almost anyone can tell you it was John Wilks Booth, but what is little known is that he was a member of the Know-Nothing group, affiliated with Democrats. Who murdered John F. Kennedy? Lee Harvey Oswald, and whether or not he was a patsy for the CIA, he was a Socialist and in league with Marxists.
Who murdered Martin Luther King? James Earl Ray. Whether acting alone or as a patsy for the FBI, Ray was a Southern segregationist. Hence, all three of these assassins leaned Left, or at the least, had affiliations with Leftist groups.
Stifling the Rights of Others
Who owned slaves throughout the southern U.S.? It was Democrats. Generally speaking, Republicans or those who leaned Right did not own slaves. Who lynched blacks and white abolitionists? It was the Democrats. Some 4,200 people in the U.S. were lynched between the years 1882 and 1968, 3/4 of them black and 1/4 of them white, those who supported the Black Freedom Movement.
Who created the Confederacy? Democrats. Who launched the KKK? Although one cannot say that the Democratic Party initiated the launch, many members of the KKK were Democrats, some high-ranking, and had strong affiliations with the Democratic Party. Republicans did not join the KKK, had no affiliations, and loathed the institution.
With Jim Crow and all of the indignities that went with it, including separate bathrooms, white versus colored drinking fountains, and such, it was Democrats. Who delayed women’s suffrage – women's right to vote – for more than 100 years? Democrats. Look up the history of women voting in America, and you will see that Democrats stifled the process at every turn.
Who interned Japanese-American citizens? It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his administration, Democrats. Who upheld segregation from the 1930s straight through the 1960s? Democrats, not Republicans. Governor George Wallace was a Democrat. Senator Strom Thurman initially was a Democrat. Former Klan member Senator Robert Byrd was a Democrat.
True Natures Revealed
Who enforced integration at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas? The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, on May 17, 1954, that segregated schools are "inherently unequal." Later, in September 1957, with the backing and protection summoned by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, nine African-American students enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Who said, “These Negroes, they're getting pretty uppity these days and that's a problem for us since they've got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we've got to do something about this, we've got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.”
“For if we don't move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there'll be no way of stopping them, we'll lose the filibuster and there'll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It'll be Reconstruction all over again.” It was Democrat President Lyndon Johnson.
About Barack Obama, who said, “A few years ago this guy would have been getting coffee for us?” It was a Democrat, former President Bill Clinton.
Deemed Racist, Really?
Paradoxically, which party in the U.S. is deemed racist? Generally speaking, it is Republicans. Why? The Democrats control the narrative. The mainstream media is virtually in bed with them, carries their water, and espouses whatever prevailing narrative top Democrats choose to have widely disseminated. It has been this way for decades. In the words of Malcolm X, “The Democratic Party is more racist than the Republican Party.”
Whether racist, treasonous, or law-breaking, Democrats have been at the forefront throughout our history.
Lawfare run amok
05/31/24 17:37
The conviction of President Trump in the sham New York trial is a double-edged sword that will surely come back to bite Democrats and our entire constitutional government for decades. Democrats rarely, if ever, consider the consequences of their actions. Yes, they can now call President Trump a "convicted felon", but at what cost to our nation? They've opened a Pandora's box that can never be closed. They have totally ignored the fact that Republicans can now pursue Democrats' criminal behavior - watch out Hillary and Joe!
And, just as an aside, The Pheebot thinks that the Democrats have now guaranteed the election of Donald Trump in November. Americans are sick and tired of the idiosies of the Progressive socialists.
And, just as an aside, The Pheebot thinks that the Democrats have now guaranteed the election of Donald Trump in November. Americans are sick and tired of the idiosies of the Progressive socialists.
Climate Change Hoax
05/31/24 16:02
A CBS News Report From Over 40 Years Ago Proves Global Warming Is the Ultimate Hoax
Matt Vespa | May 28, 2024 7:00 AM
©Townhall
As loyal Townhall readers, you already know about the media hysterics over global warming. Still, digging up old clips proving how wrong the experts were about this subject is constantly refreshing. Based on their timelines, we’re supposed to be dead. Based on their advice, the only way for us to survive is to be poorer and let more people from thirdworld nations die from preventable diseases. That’s the nasty undercurrent within the population control folks. If it’s not Matt Vespa | May 28, 2024 7:00 AM that, these so-called activists are obsessed with controlling the means of production in the industrialized world to save Mother Earth. It’s backdoor communism when you boil it all down.
The green folks want us to sacrifice trillions in economic activity to save the planet. That’s the byproduct of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, which aims to ban the internal combustion engine. Anyways, here’s a 1982 CBS News segment on the subject, where the godfather of fake news, Dan Rather, anchors the end times projections from these environmental clowns, who predicted that 25 percent of Florida would be underwater. Also, our agriculture centers would have to relocate to Canada. Look out for an appearance by a young Al Gore:
Watch on X
In 1975, Newsweek published an article about global cooling, in which re-glaciation was projected to hit the North American continent. Massive granaries were advised to be built since food shortages could be rampant. This event never happened. The same folks warned that the Arctic Ice Cap could melt by 2013. It didn’t.
Matt Vespa | May 28, 2024 7:00 AM
©Townhall
As loyal Townhall readers, you already know about the media hysterics over global warming. Still, digging up old clips proving how wrong the experts were about this subject is constantly refreshing. Based on their timelines, we’re supposed to be dead. Based on their advice, the only way for us to survive is to be poorer and let more people from thirdworld nations die from preventable diseases. That’s the nasty undercurrent within the population control folks. If it’s not Matt Vespa | May 28, 2024 7:00 AM that, these so-called activists are obsessed with controlling the means of production in the industrialized world to save Mother Earth. It’s backdoor communism when you boil it all down.
The green folks want us to sacrifice trillions in economic activity to save the planet. That’s the byproduct of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, which aims to ban the internal combustion engine. Anyways, here’s a 1982 CBS News segment on the subject, where the godfather of fake news, Dan Rather, anchors the end times projections from these environmental clowns, who predicted that 25 percent of Florida would be underwater. Also, our agriculture centers would have to relocate to Canada. Look out for an appearance by a young Al Gore:
Watch on X
In 1975, Newsweek published an article about global cooling, in which re-glaciation was projected to hit the North American continent. Massive granaries were advised to be built since food shortages could be rampant. This event never happened. The same folks warned that the Arctic Ice Cap could melt by 2013. It didn’t.
Insect Apocalypse - Not!
04/14/24 16:51
Ward Clark
April 13, 2024
RedState.com
Link
Here in the Great Land, the year is punctuated not only by the four seasons (June, July, August, and winter) but also by other seasons - such as salmon season, grouse season, moose season - and mosquito season. In another month or so, Alaska's 20-some species of mosquito will start making their presence felt, and I use the term advisedly; I'm sure some Alaska mosquitoes are big enough to show up on air-traffic radar. Ask any Alaskan, or for that matter people from plenty of other mosquito-rich locations, and I'm sure most of them would be happy to get rid of mosquitoes once and for all.
Plenty of insects, however, are not only innocuous but downright helpful. They clean up organic junk in the environment and pollinate plants, including a lot of our food crops. So if insects in general were to suddenly disappear, it would be a pretty bad thing.
So, when climate scolds and environmental activists start shouting about an "insect Apocalypse," plenty of folks sit up and take notice. There's just one problem: What the scolds are shouting about just isn't happening. On Friday, Jon Entine of the Genetic Literacy Project dropped some facts on us.
Insect Armageddon, another popular phrase, is now one of the most common tropes in science journalism. As I’ve chronicled numerous times in recent years, (including here, here and here), many journalists have echoed claims by environmental activists advancing a succession of insect- and animal-related environmental apocalypse scenarios over the last decade—first honeybees, then wild bees and more recently birds. In each case they fingered modern, intensive farming, particularly crop biotechnology and pesticides, as the culprit, and warned of the terrible consequences in store for the Earth, including the mass extinction of pollinators and the global famine that would surely follow. In each case, small or poorly executed studies predicting imminent catastrophes were ballyhooed by many in the media; in each case, as more research came to light, the hyped claims were eventually retracted or dramatically readjusted.
Here's where the activists and flawed models go wrong:
Researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Leipzig University and Martin Luther University led by first author Dr. Roel van Klink analyzed almost a century’s worth of data from 166 long-term insect surveys in various parts of the world. While the far-reaching study has certain limitations (which I will address farther on), it needs to be reckoned with by anyone seriously concerned about the ecological future. A short list of the topline findings: Overall, terrestrial insects are declining much less rapidly (3 to 6 fold less) than other recent high-profile studies had suggested, and even this likely overstates the trend. Freshwater insect populations are actually increasing. “Crop cover,” which means things like corn, soybeans, sorghum, cotton, spring and winter wheat, alfalfa and hay, is associated with increases in insect populations. There is no association between insect population trends and global warming. The only clear association with insect declines is with urbanization, likely caused by habitat destruction, light pollution and waste pollution. This is how science is done, folks: an open, reproducible examination of data, which in this case ends up largely debunking the claims of environmentalists - who, again, seldom listen to those of us who live out in the actual environment, where there are assuredly plenty of bugs.
That's not to say that human activities don't have an effect. There can't help to be some effect on insect populations when you consider the use of agricultural pesticides, which are, after all, intended to kill insect pests that can destroy crops. But the cover crops described in this piece actually increase insect populations, and from personal experience, I can tell you that a place with lots of rice fields, like southern Japan, where I lived and worked for a while, produces mosquitoes and other insects in prodigious quantities. It's not just mosquitoes, either; the spectacle of millions of Japanese fireflies over the rice paddies at night in Kansai is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in all my travels.
Read this entire article; there is a lot of specific debunking that is beyond the scope of this piece to discuss in detail.
Insects are amazingly resilient critters. They adapt quickly to changing conditions, and in general they're even amazingly resistant to radiation. Developers of agricultural and household pesticides are constantly in a biological arms race with insect populations that rapidly develop resistance to new chemical agents.
Insects have been around at least since the Ordovician, about 485 million years ago. They'll be around long after we're gone. They have survived every variation in climate the Earth has tossed at them, and they'll survive anything the Earth throws at them in the future, no matter what the climate scolds and environmentalist Chicken Littles claim. So grab the Deep Woods Off and get ready to start slapping, because mosquito season is on the way, and it's going to be coming around every summer for as long as humans are around to slap and scratch.
April 13, 2024
RedState.com
Link
Environmental Activists Warn of 'Insect Apocalypse' That Isn't Actually Happening
Here in the Great Land, the year is punctuated not only by the four seasons (June, July, August, and winter) but also by other seasons - such as salmon season, grouse season, moose season - and mosquito season. In another month or so, Alaska's 20-some species of mosquito will start making their presence felt, and I use the term advisedly; I'm sure some Alaska mosquitoes are big enough to show up on air-traffic radar. Ask any Alaskan, or for that matter people from plenty of other mosquito-rich locations, and I'm sure most of them would be happy to get rid of mosquitoes once and for all.
Plenty of insects, however, are not only innocuous but downright helpful. They clean up organic junk in the environment and pollinate plants, including a lot of our food crops. So if insects in general were to suddenly disappear, it would be a pretty bad thing.
So, when climate scolds and environmental activists start shouting about an "insect Apocalypse," plenty of folks sit up and take notice. There's just one problem: What the scolds are shouting about just isn't happening. On Friday, Jon Entine of the Genetic Literacy Project dropped some facts on us.
Insect Armageddon, another popular phrase, is now one of the most common tropes in science journalism. As I’ve chronicled numerous times in recent years, (including here, here and here), many journalists have echoed claims by environmental activists advancing a succession of insect- and animal-related environmental apocalypse scenarios over the last decade—first honeybees, then wild bees and more recently birds. In each case they fingered modern, intensive farming, particularly crop biotechnology and pesticides, as the culprit, and warned of the terrible consequences in store for the Earth, including the mass extinction of pollinators and the global famine that would surely follow. In each case, small or poorly executed studies predicting imminent catastrophes were ballyhooed by many in the media; in each case, as more research came to light, the hyped claims were eventually retracted or dramatically readjusted.
Here's where the activists and flawed models go wrong:
Researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Leipzig University and Martin Luther University led by first author Dr. Roel van Klink analyzed almost a century’s worth of data from 166 long-term insect surveys in various parts of the world. While the far-reaching study has certain limitations (which I will address farther on), it needs to be reckoned with by anyone seriously concerned about the ecological future. A short list of the topline findings: Overall, terrestrial insects are declining much less rapidly (3 to 6 fold less) than other recent high-profile studies had suggested, and even this likely overstates the trend. Freshwater insect populations are actually increasing. “Crop cover,” which means things like corn, soybeans, sorghum, cotton, spring and winter wheat, alfalfa and hay, is associated with increases in insect populations. There is no association between insect population trends and global warming. The only clear association with insect declines is with urbanization, likely caused by habitat destruction, light pollution and waste pollution. This is how science is done, folks: an open, reproducible examination of data, which in this case ends up largely debunking the claims of environmentalists - who, again, seldom listen to those of us who live out in the actual environment, where there are assuredly plenty of bugs.
That's not to say that human activities don't have an effect. There can't help to be some effect on insect populations when you consider the use of agricultural pesticides, which are, after all, intended to kill insect pests that can destroy crops. But the cover crops described in this piece actually increase insect populations, and from personal experience, I can tell you that a place with lots of rice fields, like southern Japan, where I lived and worked for a while, produces mosquitoes and other insects in prodigious quantities. It's not just mosquitoes, either; the spectacle of millions of Japanese fireflies over the rice paddies at night in Kansai is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in all my travels.
Read this entire article; there is a lot of specific debunking that is beyond the scope of this piece to discuss in detail.
Insects are amazingly resilient critters. They adapt quickly to changing conditions, and in general they're even amazingly resistant to radiation. Developers of agricultural and household pesticides are constantly in a biological arms race with insect populations that rapidly develop resistance to new chemical agents.
Insects have been around at least since the Ordovician, about 485 million years ago. They'll be around long after we're gone. They have survived every variation in climate the Earth has tossed at them, and they'll survive anything the Earth throws at them in the future, no matter what the climate scolds and environmentalist Chicken Littles claim. So grab the Deep Woods Off and get ready to start slapping, because mosquito season is on the way, and it's going to be coming around every summer for as long as humans are around to slap and scratch.
Dems attempt to "fix" gerrymandering
01/26/24 19:13
DEMOCRATS WANT TO "FIX" IMAGINARY GERRYMANDERING WITH REAL GERRYMANDERING
Voters approved process by 70% but Donkeys demand more fixed wins
By John Fortney
January 26, 2024
Gerrymandering - It’s the Democrat's new answer for everything…
Traffic was bad. Gerrymandering
The pancakes were cold. Gerrymandering
We didn’t win the election. Gerrymandering
It’s the new breakfast cereal for today’s Democratic party.
They wish it was Lucky Charms, but unluckily for them, candidates, campaigns, and issues matter.
A recent column by former Columbus Dispatch Co-Publisher and former State Representative Mike Curtin, a Columbus Democrat, was yet another unsurprising example of the media’s effort to convince voters that the reforms they approved in 2015 and 2018 aren’t fair to, you guessed it, Democrats.
Curtin accused the Republicans of a “bait and switch,” thwarting the will of more than 70% of Ohioans who passed two Constitutional Amendments reforming the redistricting process for both the General Assembly and Ohio’s Congressional districts. He blamed “statehouse leaders” who “ignored repeated Ohio Supreme Court rulings…”
What he failed to mention was that the Ohio Supreme Court’s rulings were based on a series of 4-to-3 decisions from a deeply divided court, with a majority led by the person now conducting the campaign to change the process to guarantee fixed wins for the left. Or that she tried to force a separate branch of government to draw maps based on criteria that doesn’t appear in the Constitution as approved by the voters.
This problem was compounded by the fact that good faith negotiations were impeded by far-left organizations like the National Democratic Redistricting Commission (NDRC) headed by Barack Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder. Make no mistake, the NDRC and its far-left Ohio advocacy groups pressured state Democrats to sabotage the process and good faith negotiations, then blamed Republicans through an all-too-complicit media. And if they didn’t comply, those Democrats would face a well-financed opponent in the primary.
When the United States Supreme Court finally showed these groups the hand writing on the wall of justice, state Democrats were free to negotiate in good faith, and the groups that filed the lawsuits suddenly decided that both the Congressional map and the maps for the General Assembly were okay.
In fact, this fall the Redistricting Commission voted 7-0 to approve new maps for the General Assembly that did the following:
Produced compact districts following the requirements under the law.
Kept all the big cities within one district (with the exception of Columbus, which surpassed the population limit.)
Ended the sprawling, oddly shaped districts like the “Snake on the Lake.”
In the end, good faith negotiations created opportunities for Democrats to be competitive and potentially win more.
Of course, that’s where candidates, campaigns, and issues matter.
That’s the difference, and how competitive districts are won. Currently, Democrats have an advantage in 15 Senate Districts. However, Republicans won 8 of those districts. If you can't even win in the districts where you are favored, then gerrymandering is not your problem.
You don’t see Eric Holder’s NDRC filing lawsuit after lawsuit in California, Michigan or Maryland. Wonder why? Well, because the system, to use Curtin’s words, is clearly “rigged” to help Democrats in spite of the wonderful citizen commissions he promotes.
Who appoints citizen commissions? Buried somewhere within the 200 page ballot plan pushed by former Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, you learn it would be retired judges. You’ve heard the term judicial activism, well, wait until it is backed with millions of dollars in out-of-state campaign money organized by these same far-left groups.
In reality, Ohio voters already told these ultra-liberal groups what they thought of their gerrymandering narrative in November of 2022. They told them to get lost, by electing Republicans to every statewide office in a landslide, and by denying their effort to ordain a Democrat as Chief Justice who made her entire campaign about, you guessed it, gerrymandering.
To be fair, Mike Curtin is a respected statehouse historian and very nice guy.
He’s just wrong.
Voters approved process by 70% but Donkeys demand more fixed wins
By John Fortney
January 26, 2024
Gerrymandering - It’s the Democrat's new answer for everything…
Traffic was bad. Gerrymandering
The pancakes were cold. Gerrymandering
We didn’t win the election. Gerrymandering
It’s the new breakfast cereal for today’s Democratic party.
They wish it was Lucky Charms, but unluckily for them, candidates, campaigns, and issues matter.
A recent column by former Columbus Dispatch Co-Publisher and former State Representative Mike Curtin, a Columbus Democrat, was yet another unsurprising example of the media’s effort to convince voters that the reforms they approved in 2015 and 2018 aren’t fair to, you guessed it, Democrats.
Curtin accused the Republicans of a “bait and switch,” thwarting the will of more than 70% of Ohioans who passed two Constitutional Amendments reforming the redistricting process for both the General Assembly and Ohio’s Congressional districts. He blamed “statehouse leaders” who “ignored repeated Ohio Supreme Court rulings…”
What he failed to mention was that the Ohio Supreme Court’s rulings were based on a series of 4-to-3 decisions from a deeply divided court, with a majority led by the person now conducting the campaign to change the process to guarantee fixed wins for the left. Or that she tried to force a separate branch of government to draw maps based on criteria that doesn’t appear in the Constitution as approved by the voters.
This problem was compounded by the fact that good faith negotiations were impeded by far-left organizations like the National Democratic Redistricting Commission (NDRC) headed by Barack Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder. Make no mistake, the NDRC and its far-left Ohio advocacy groups pressured state Democrats to sabotage the process and good faith negotiations, then blamed Republicans through an all-too-complicit media. And if they didn’t comply, those Democrats would face a well-financed opponent in the primary.
When the United States Supreme Court finally showed these groups the hand writing on the wall of justice, state Democrats were free to negotiate in good faith, and the groups that filed the lawsuits suddenly decided that both the Congressional map and the maps for the General Assembly were okay.
In fact, this fall the Redistricting Commission voted 7-0 to approve new maps for the General Assembly that did the following:
Produced compact districts following the requirements under the law.
Kept all the big cities within one district (with the exception of Columbus, which surpassed the population limit.)
Ended the sprawling, oddly shaped districts like the “Snake on the Lake.”
In the end, good faith negotiations created opportunities for Democrats to be competitive and potentially win more.
Of course, that’s where candidates, campaigns, and issues matter.
That’s the difference, and how competitive districts are won. Currently, Democrats have an advantage in 15 Senate Districts. However, Republicans won 8 of those districts. If you can't even win in the districts where you are favored, then gerrymandering is not your problem.
You don’t see Eric Holder’s NDRC filing lawsuit after lawsuit in California, Michigan or Maryland. Wonder why? Well, because the system, to use Curtin’s words, is clearly “rigged” to help Democrats in spite of the wonderful citizen commissions he promotes.
Who appoints citizen commissions? Buried somewhere within the 200 page ballot plan pushed by former Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, you learn it would be retired judges. You’ve heard the term judicial activism, well, wait until it is backed with millions of dollars in out-of-state campaign money organized by these same far-left groups.
In reality, Ohio voters already told these ultra-liberal groups what they thought of their gerrymandering narrative in November of 2022. They told them to get lost, by electing Republicans to every statewide office in a landslide, and by denying their effort to ordain a Democrat as Chief Justice who made her entire campaign about, you guessed it, gerrymandering.
To be fair, Mike Curtin is a respected statehouse historian and very nice guy.
He’s just wrong.
Plastic Bag Ban... redux
01/24/24 19:28
Some time back, The Pheebot asked the question… it's OK to wrap your garbage in single use plastic bags, but not your groceries?
Here's what happened in New Jersey!
Here's what happened in New Jersey!
By Emma Colton Fox News
Published January 24, 2024 4:00am EST
Blue state’s bag ban meant to protect environment backfires at staggering rate: study
New Jersey banned retailers from providing single-use plastic bags to customers in 2022
January 24, 2024 4:00am EST
Canadian grocery store shames customers for plastic bag use
Plastic consumption in New Jersey spiked by nearly three times following the state’s implementation of a strict ban on single-use plastic shopping bags, a study found.
"Following New Jersey’s ban of single-use bags, the shift from plastic film to alternative bags resulted in a nearly 3x increase in plastic consumption for bags," Freedonia Custom Research (FCR), a business research division for MarketResearch.com, reported in a study published this month.
New Jersey implemented a ban on single-use plastic bags in 2022, the strictest ban on bags in the nation at the time, billing it as an effort to cut back on the plastic one-use bags piling up in landfills.
"Plastic bags are one of the most problematic forms of garbage, leading to millions of discarded bags that stream annually into our landfills, rivers and oceans," Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said after signing legislation in 2020 that authorized the bag ban. "With today’s historic bill signing, we are addressing the problem of plastic pollution head-on with solutions that will help mitigate climate change and strengthen our environment for future generations."
NEW JERSEY LAWMAKERS CONSIDER TWEAKING PLASTIC BAG BAN AS REUSABLE BAG PLAN CAUSES 'PROBLEM'
Phil Murphy delivering address to NJ state legislators
Gov. Phil Murphy delivers the State of the State Address at the New Jersey State House in Trenton on Jan. 10, 2023. (Aristide Economopoulos/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The ban took effect in May 2022, forbidding larger retail, grocery and food service stores from providing single-use plastic bags to customers. Instead, shoppers may purchase reusable bags made of woven and non-woven polypropylene plastic, or can bring their previously-purchased reusable bags to the store.
It didn't take long, however, until shoppers started airing their grievances to local media that the reusable bags were stacking up in their homes due to repeatedly purchasing reusable bags at the grocery store, or due to home grocery delivery services using new reusable bags each drop-off.
NEW JERSEY'S PLASTIC BAG BAN: WHAT TO KNOW
"I keep them in the basement," one New Jersey mom told NJ Advance Media in 2022. "I have another bag by the door in case I go out to the farmer’s market. Most of them are brand new, even have the tag on them. I use them one time but don’t throw them out."
Man sitting next to plastic shopping bags
A man sits on a bench beside plastic shopping bags. (Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images )
Some Garden State lawmakers soon acknowledged the issues of shoppers not reusing the reusable bags and simply throwing them out, floating proposed amendments that have since apparently stalled, such as requiring home delivery services use cardboard boxes or paper bags instead of the heavy reusable plastic bags.
PLASTIC BAG BANS HALTED IN SEVERAL CITIES DUE TO CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Instead of having the intended beneficial impact on the environment, the reusable bag ban has actually backfired, data reported in the study show. Plastic consumption in the state has nearly tripled, with New Jerseyans previously consuming 53 million pounds of plastic before the ban, compared to 151 million pounds following the ban, FCR researchers reported.
Shopper carrying reusable plastic bags
A shopper leaves a story with their goods in reusable plastic bags. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images )
Reusable bags made of non-woven polypropylene are much thicker than the typical single-use plastic bags typically found at grocery and convenience stores, using roughly 15 times the amount of plastic, the study reported. Though the bags are built for repeated shopping trips, most New Jerseyans only reuse the bags two to three times before they're discarded.
NEW YORK'S PLASTIC-BAG BAN FRUSTRATES MANY SHOPPERS
"[Six times] more woven and non-woven polypropylene plastic was consumed to produce the reusable bags sold to consumers as an alternative. Most of these alternative bags are made with non-woven polypropylene, which is not widely recycled in the United States and does not typically contain any post-consumer recycled materials. This shift in material also resulted in a notable environmental impact, with the increased consumption of polypropylene bags contributing to a 500% increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to non-woven polypropylene bag production in 2015," the study reported.
Man holds plastic bags while looking at 'say no to plastic bags' sign to his left
A man carries goods in plastic bags outside a department store. (Romeo Gacad/AFP via Getty Images)
In order to have a positive impact on the environment and the state’s plastic consumption, researchers found shoppers would have to reuse the bags a minimum of 16 times.
Reusable bags have also resulted in windfall profits for retailers since the ban took effect, with the researchers finding the average retailer could make $200,000 annually at a single location.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News Digital reached out to Gov. Murphy’s office for comment on the study, but did not receive a response by time of publication.
New Jersey is just one of a handful of states that have implemented plastic bag bans in an effort to stymie plastic consumption and benefit the environment. States such as Vermont, Oregon, California and others have their own versions of bans on single-use plastic bags.
Climate Alarmism
01/24/24 19:10
Exclusive: Climate Expert Calls ‘Three Strikes’ Against Climate Alarmism
Catherine Salgado4:26 PM on October 13, 2023
(Dominic Steinmann/Keystone via AP)
Facts and data show “three strikes and climate alarmism should be out,” climate truth-teller Steve Milloy told PJ Media. “But it’s still at bat and swinging,” propped up by the “fake news media.”
Junk Science’s Milloy explained the three biggest truths undermining the mainstream narrative in exclusive comments to PJ Media. “We are 35 years into climate alarmism, and we’ve had no global warming since 2015 despite 450 billion tons of emissions; no type of natural disaster correlates with emissions or warming; and no apocalyptic climate prediction has ever come true,” Milloy stated.
It’s time to admit the fraud. “That’s three strikes and climate alarmism should be out. But it’s still at bat and swinging because the fake news media shares its leftist agenda and will not call it out,” Milloy added. After all, governments can use climate change as a convenient excuse for increasing their power and control.
Milloy’s comments followed the publication of a new report. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), The Heartland Institute, the Energy & Environmental (E&E) Legal Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, the International Climate Science Coalition, and Truth in Energy and Climate issued their “Climate Fact Check: September 2023 Edition.” Milloy posted the report at ClimateRealism.com.
The first myth the groups attacked was the media apocalypse prophesying on “global warming.” They looked at data to determine if September really did have record heat.
Based on NASA satellite data, September 2023 had the highest temperature anomaly (i.e., difference from average) on record. It was 0.9C warmer than the 1991-2020 average.
In contrast, the Temperature.global compilation of actual temperature measurements from surface stations has September only slightly warmer than the average monthly temperature of the past 8 years and 9 months, and far from the warmest month since January 2015.
Which data is more accurate and reliable? “NASA admits the surface stations are. There has still been no global warming since January 2015,” the report insisted. It also stated that “average global temperature” is “not an actual physical metric,” but merely a “flawed notion” used to fuel climate alarmism.
The report went on to analyze and fact-check multiple media claims about the past month’s weather. Did the huge downpour in New York City actually break records, and was it due to climate change? No, the groups said, citing the New York Times’s own records to disprove the claims. Is rainfall across the country becoming “more fearsome” due to global warming, as The New York Times asserted? The problem with that claim is that warmer air doesn’t cause “more intense rainfall,” the groups explained. Are Alpine glaciers melting at a concerning rate? Perhaps, but it’s not because of man-made “emissions;” the report noted that the Alps were free of ice thousands of years ago, and the current receding has been ongoing for years, prior to modern industrial society.
Exclusively for our VIPs: Climate Expert: Biden Policies, Not ‘Climate Change,’ Are Costing Americans Money
The report further fact-checked claims around hurricanes, Antarctic ice, emissions and the “hottest summer” propaganda, Norwegian glaciers, and allegedly human-driven global warming. It ends by providing context to an analysis supposedly proving man-driven global warming. If you add in the warming caused by “the series of El Niños,” it’s highly questionable that fossil fuels have warmed Earth “to any discernible extent at all.” In fact, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data showed earlier this year that there hadn’t been global warming for eight years.
The “climate crisis” is an unscientific political crock.
Catherine Salgado
Catherine Salgado is a contributor for PJ Media. She also writes for The Rogue Review, Media Research Center, and her Substack Pro Deo et Libertate. She received the Andrew Breitbart MVP award for August 2021 from The Rogue Review for her journalism.
Catherine Salgado4:26 PM on October 13, 2023
(Dominic Steinmann/Keystone via AP)
Facts and data show “three strikes and climate alarmism should be out,” climate truth-teller Steve Milloy told PJ Media. “But it’s still at bat and swinging,” propped up by the “fake news media.”
Junk Science’s Milloy explained the three biggest truths undermining the mainstream narrative in exclusive comments to PJ Media. “We are 35 years into climate alarmism, and we’ve had no global warming since 2015 despite 450 billion tons of emissions; no type of natural disaster correlates with emissions or warming; and no apocalyptic climate prediction has ever come true,” Milloy stated.
It’s time to admit the fraud. “That’s three strikes and climate alarmism should be out. But it’s still at bat and swinging because the fake news media shares its leftist agenda and will not call it out,” Milloy added. After all, governments can use climate change as a convenient excuse for increasing their power and control.
Milloy’s comments followed the publication of a new report. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), The Heartland Institute, the Energy & Environmental (E&E) Legal Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, the International Climate Science Coalition, and Truth in Energy and Climate issued their “Climate Fact Check: September 2023 Edition.” Milloy posted the report at ClimateRealism.com.
The first myth the groups attacked was the media apocalypse prophesying on “global warming.” They looked at data to determine if September really did have record heat.
Based on NASA satellite data, September 2023 had the highest temperature anomaly (i.e., difference from average) on record. It was 0.9C warmer than the 1991-2020 average.
In contrast, the Temperature.global compilation of actual temperature measurements from surface stations has September only slightly warmer than the average monthly temperature of the past 8 years and 9 months, and far from the warmest month since January 2015.
Which data is more accurate and reliable? “NASA admits the surface stations are. There has still been no global warming since January 2015,” the report insisted. It also stated that “average global temperature” is “not an actual physical metric,” but merely a “flawed notion” used to fuel climate alarmism.
The report went on to analyze and fact-check multiple media claims about the past month’s weather. Did the huge downpour in New York City actually break records, and was it due to climate change? No, the groups said, citing the New York Times’s own records to disprove the claims. Is rainfall across the country becoming “more fearsome” due to global warming, as The New York Times asserted? The problem with that claim is that warmer air doesn’t cause “more intense rainfall,” the groups explained. Are Alpine glaciers melting at a concerning rate? Perhaps, but it’s not because of man-made “emissions;” the report noted that the Alps were free of ice thousands of years ago, and the current receding has been ongoing for years, prior to modern industrial society.
Exclusively for our VIPs: Climate Expert: Biden Policies, Not ‘Climate Change,’ Are Costing Americans Money
The report further fact-checked claims around hurricanes, Antarctic ice, emissions and the “hottest summer” propaganda, Norwegian glaciers, and allegedly human-driven global warming. It ends by providing context to an analysis supposedly proving man-driven global warming. If you add in the warming caused by “the series of El Niños,” it’s highly questionable that fossil fuels have warmed Earth “to any discernible extent at all.” In fact, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data showed earlier this year that there hadn’t been global warming for eight years.
The “climate crisis” is an unscientific political crock.
Catherine Salgado
Catherine Salgado is a contributor for PJ Media. She also writes for The Rogue Review, Media Research Center, and her Substack Pro Deo et Libertate. She received the Andrew Breitbart MVP award for August 2021 from The Rogue Review for her journalism.
Broken Toys
01/24/24 19:08
Environmentalists' broken toys
Environmentalists’ broken toys
Issues Insights Editorial Board
We’ve recently written quite a bit about electric vehicles’ many flaws – the reasons to hate them, their evil nature, the entire EV con. But they’re not the only green plaything that’s being exposed for the debacle they are. Windmills are just as troubled.
“All over the world, rural people are reacting with fury at the encroachment of large wind and solar projects on their homes and neighborhoods,” writes energy author Robert Bryce.
Last month, “thousands of Druze residents in the Golan Heights,” says Bryce, “rioted to stop the installation of a large wind project on their traditional lands.” Before that, a wind project in Colombia was “canceled after it met fierce opposition from the indigenous Wayuu communities.”
Bryce noted last week that over the last 10 days in the U.S., “local governments in Illinois, Ohio, and Iowa have rejected or restricted wind and solar projects.” According to his database, that makes 574 rejections or restrictions of solar and wind projects in less than a decade. Most of them, 407, have been wind projects.
Bryce predicted the growth of resistance four years ago when he wrote in The Hill that protests in Hawaii then were “a harbinger of more clashes to come if governments attempt to install the colossal quantities of wind turbines and solar panels that would be needed to fuel the global economy.”
There are a number of problems with wind farms:
They eat up far more land than any of the conventional forms of energy production, as well as nuclear. It takes a 6.7 million acre wind farm to produce the same amount of power that a nuclear plant could on 230,000 acres and a natural gas plant will on 150,000 acres. Bryce pointed out in a paper he wrote for the Center of the American Experiment that it would take the land equal to two entire Californias “to meet America’s current electricity needs with wind energy.”
Due to rising costs and logistical headaches, “developers and would-be buyers of wind power are scrapping contracts, putting off projects and postponing investment decisions,” the Wall Street Journal reports. It’s “an industry in crisis.”
Wind turbines, writes energy consultant Ronald Stein, “are now becoming an eyesore, a hazard, and a significant environmental threat” in a policy piece that asks if wind farms generate more waste than they do electricity.
Wind farms have to be built in open spaces where power isn’t needed. Moving the electricity to where it’s eventually used destroys the landscape in between.
In Scotland, 16 million trees, each one of them with their names surely written on every environmentalists’ hearts, have been felled to open ground on which to build wind farms.
The late physicist David MacKay, who said “you know I love wind turbines,” believed that building wind farms is “actually a waste of money.”
Even the government is an obstacle. Reason reported not quite a year ago that “construction on what could be a massive offshore wind farm in Massachusetts has been held up for years due to” federal reviews.
We could go on, and also apply almost all of what we’ve said about wind power to solar energy, but it would be exhausting. That said, we will continue to emphasize green transition failures in hopes that one day we will help break the misleading climate narrative.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Republished with permission from TIPP Insights
Environmentalists’ broken toys
Issues Insights Editorial Board
We’ve recently written quite a bit about electric vehicles’ many flaws – the reasons to hate them, their evil nature, the entire EV con. But they’re not the only green plaything that’s being exposed for the debacle they are. Windmills are just as troubled.
“All over the world, rural people are reacting with fury at the encroachment of large wind and solar projects on their homes and neighborhoods,” writes energy author Robert Bryce.
Last month, “thousands of Druze residents in the Golan Heights,” says Bryce, “rioted to stop the installation of a large wind project on their traditional lands.” Before that, a wind project in Colombia was “canceled after it met fierce opposition from the indigenous Wayuu communities.”
Bryce noted last week that over the last 10 days in the U.S., “local governments in Illinois, Ohio, and Iowa have rejected or restricted wind and solar projects.” According to his database, that makes 574 rejections or restrictions of solar and wind projects in less than a decade. Most of them, 407, have been wind projects.
Bryce predicted the growth of resistance four years ago when he wrote in The Hill that protests in Hawaii then were “a harbinger of more clashes to come if governments attempt to install the colossal quantities of wind turbines and solar panels that would be needed to fuel the global economy.”
There are a number of problems with wind farms:
They eat up far more land than any of the conventional forms of energy production, as well as nuclear. It takes a 6.7 million acre wind farm to produce the same amount of power that a nuclear plant could on 230,000 acres and a natural gas plant will on 150,000 acres. Bryce pointed out in a paper he wrote for the Center of the American Experiment that it would take the land equal to two entire Californias “to meet America’s current electricity needs with wind energy.”
Due to rising costs and logistical headaches, “developers and would-be buyers of wind power are scrapping contracts, putting off projects and postponing investment decisions,” the Wall Street Journal reports. It’s “an industry in crisis.”
Wind turbines, writes energy consultant Ronald Stein, “are now becoming an eyesore, a hazard, and a significant environmental threat” in a policy piece that asks if wind farms generate more waste than they do electricity.
Wind farms have to be built in open spaces where power isn’t needed. Moving the electricity to where it’s eventually used destroys the landscape in between.
In Scotland, 16 million trees, each one of them with their names surely written on every environmentalists’ hearts, have been felled to open ground on which to build wind farms.
The late physicist David MacKay, who said “you know I love wind turbines,” believed that building wind farms is “actually a waste of money.”
Even the government is an obstacle. Reason reported not quite a year ago that “construction on what could be a massive offshore wind farm in Massachusetts has been held up for years due to” federal reviews.
We could go on, and also apply almost all of what we’ve said about wind power to solar energy, but it would be exhausting. That said, we will continue to emphasize green transition failures in hopes that one day we will help break the misleading climate narrative.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Republished with permission from TIPP Insights
Old Time Commercials
01/18/24 18:49
If you love Old Time Radio, you may enjoy The Pheebot's new page – Celebrity Commercials – audio tracks of celebrities promoting all kinds of products… and government propaganda messages as well!
Check back often… new tracks being added as the mood strikes… LOL!
Check back often… new tracks being added as the mood strikes… LOL!
The Pheebot is Back...
01/11/24 18:52
The Pheebot website has been parked for several months – but now The Pheebot is back on-line and ready to add more conservative thoughts, commentary, and helpful links to other conservative commentators for your edification and consideration.
Love editorial cartoons? The Pheebot really does! Watch for great and thoughtful panels you'll very probably enjoy… or not!
Love editorial cartoons? The Pheebot really does! Watch for great and thoughtful panels you'll very probably enjoy… or not!