Episode 915 – Kicking the Ball Down the Road

Jamaal Bowman has proved himself to be a classless, stupid human being after getting his ass kicked in his primary.

The Supreme Court kicks the ball down the road.

And AOC’s policies are coming to life. Maybe we shouldn’t have laughed at her idiocy 7 years ago.

Dumbass of the Day

All Class

Much Ado About Nothing

According to the Daily Wire:

The GOP-ledĀ HouseĀ voted on Wednesday to defund Homeland Security SecretaryĀ Alejandro Mayorkas, a Biden administration official who was impeached by the lower chamber earlier this year in a rebuke of hisĀ handling ofĀ theĀ border crisis.

A group of 193 Republican lawmakersĀ voted to passĀ the amendment that Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) sponsored for appropriations legislation that aims to provideĀ tens of billions of dollarsĀ to the Homeland Security Department (DHS) in the next fiscal year.

All voting Democrats, 172 of them, and one Republican opposed the measure. Seventy-two members, including 28 Republicans and 44 Democrats, did not cast a vote on the amendment when it was brought to the House floor.

ā€œThe House just passed my amendment to defund the office of the DHS Secretary,ā€ BiggsĀ saidĀ in a post to X. ā€œAlejandro Mayorkas ā€” who was impeached earlier this year ā€” doesnā€™t deserve a single penny from American taxpayers.ā€

https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-votes-to-defund-mayorkas

Maybe AOC Wasn’t Crazy?

According to U.S. News:

Denmark is poised to become the first country to tax farmers for the greenhouse gas emissions from their livestock in an effort to combat climate change by targeting one of its top sources ā€“ methane.

The proposed carbon tax ā€“ which still needs to be approved by the Danish parliament,Ā according to The Associated PressĀ ā€“ would go into effect in 2030, when DenmarkĀ aimsĀ to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% compared to 1990 levels. The U.N. Environment ProgramĀ saysĀ methane is the second-biggest contributor to global warming, and theĀ gas is releasedĀ in part by farts and belches from livestock such as cows and pigs.

The proposal announced this week is the result of negotiations among the parties of Denmarkā€™s ā€œGreen tripartite,ā€ a coalition that includes, for example, government ministers and representatives from industries such as agriculture and conservation.

ā€œThe agreement will make Denmark an international leading country for future green land management,ā€ Henrik Dam Kristensen, chairman of the coalition, said in aĀ translated statement. ā€œWe can all be proud of that.ā€

Here are the important things to know about the interesting proposal by the Scandinavian country.

The carbon tax will amount to 300 kroner (or $43, per AP calculations) per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent starting in 2030, which will increase to 750 kroner ($108) by 2035. The effective tax, though, will be 120 kroner (about $17) starting in 2030 because of an accompanying 60% income tax deduction, according to the AP and a translatedĀ news release published by the countryā€™s economic ministry.

Additionally, the Danish government said proceeds from the tax will be returned ā€œto support the green transition of the industryā€ in 2030 and 2031. The handling of the proceeds will then be revisited in 2032.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2024-06-26/explainer-denmarks-proposed-tax-on-flatulent-livestock

A Big Loss

According to Reason:

In today’s ruling inĀ Murthy v. Missouri, the Supreme Court dismissed claims that various federal agencies violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media firms to restrict posts, on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing to file a lawsuit. Because the Court didn’t reach the merits, itĀ didn’t make any ruling on the substance of First Amendment free speech doctrine. It certainly didĀ notĀ rule that what the government did here was legal. But the restrictive approach to standing adopted by the majority might make it very difficult for victims of indirect government coercion to get their free speech claims into court.

The plaintiffs in this case are people who allege that federal agencies (particularly the White House, the Surgeon General, and the CDC) pressured social media firms like Facebook and Twitter to bar posts about the Covid pandemic, vaccines, and some other issues, which the agencies regarded as harmful “misinformation.” The plaintiffs argue some of their posts were taken down or barred as a result. The lower courts ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on some of their claims, because they found extensive evidence that federal agencies did not just engage in persuasive “jawboning,” butĀ threatened the social media firms with coercion, if they refused to comply. As the Fifth Circuit decision in the case put it:

On multiple occasions, the officials coerced the platforms into direct action via urgent, uncompromising demands to moderate contentā€¦.

And, more importantly, the officials threatenedā€”both expressly and implicitlyā€”to retaliate against inaction. Officials threw out the prospect of legal reforms and enforcement actions while subtly insinuating it would be in the platforms’ best interests to comply. As one official put it, “removing bad information” is “one of the easy, low-bar things you guys [can] do to make people like me”ā€”that is, White House officialsā€””think you’re taking action.”

The Supreme Court, however, ruled that the resulting restrictions on posting did not create an injury caused by government action and redressable by judicial action, sufficient for standing, because 1) the plaintiffs did not have sufficient proof that the social media firms’ content restrictions were a result of government pressure, as opposed to the firms’ own independent judgment, and 2) they were seeking “forward-looking” relief in the form of an injunction against future government pressure on social media firms, but they didn’t have evidence of “an ongoing pressure campaign,” as opposed to one that was largely ended in 2022.

Fox News Jonathan Turley, a free speech absolutist hit it on the head:

.https://reason.com/volokh/2024/06/26/the-supreme-courts-dangerous-standing-ruling-in-murthy-v-missouri/

Of Course It’s Someone Else’s Fault

According to the Daily Wire:

California GovernorĀ Gavin NewsomĀ (D) blamed the political Right for the failures of his state during the 2024 State of the State address that critics said sounded like a campaign launch event.

In his 28-minute speech, Newsom claimed that right-wing forces were ā€œthreatening the very foundation of Californiaā€™s successā€ and that Californiaā€™s culture was ā€œthe antidote to the poisonous populism of the Right, and to the fear and anxiety that so many people are feeling today.ā€

ā€œThe California way of life we recognize is under attack,ā€ he claimed. ā€œFor conservatives and delusional California bashers, their success depends on our failure. They want to impeach the very things that have made us successful, as a tactic to turn America toward a darker future. They do so in the name of ā€˜libertyā€™ and ā€˜freedom.ā€™ They want to roll back social progress, social justice, racial justice, economic justice, clean air, clean water, and basic fundamental fairness. They would cleave America from the principles of freedom and the rule of law. And in the process, throw our economy and, in many respects, society as weā€™ve known it, into chaos.ā€

Newsomā€™s claims are not tethered to reality in any meaningful way as they ignore basic realities, like the fact that more people have been leaving California than any other state in the country. Newsom also has recklessly spent the stateā€™s resources and is now running a massive multibillion-dollar budget deficit every year.

He claimed that California has led the way with dealing with President Joe Bidenā€™s border crisis, a false claim that reporters haveĀ called him outĀ on in the past.

Newsom claimed that California was leading the way with fixing ā€œAmericaā€™s homelessness problem,ā€ even though his state hasĀ by far the largestĀ homeless population in the country.

He claimed that ā€œwall-to-wall right-wing media coverageā€ about the crime epidemic in his state was completely false and that his state was safer than Florida, which isĀ false.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/newsom-blames-conservatives-and-delusional-california-bashers-for-his-states-failures