Ah yes, the technocratic Administrative State “experts” that get bewildered when we Normals blow them off? Once again, a sterling example of the wide divergence of opinion of Who Is In Charge from Treehugger – that bastion of Environmentalism crossed with Big Government:

Eric Reguly on how self-driving cars will kill cities, not save them

I lived in Boston for 7 years as I went to school and I also have family in Southie.  However a “walkable” town it may have been, I have no compulsion to return – too noisy, too dirty, too smelly; country folks are nicer, the pace slower, and the wide open spaces allow for, wait for it….., quiet.  The woods, the lakes, the mountains, and the open fields – sorry, city folks and Treehuggers!  Anyways, this was a post about autonomous cars that would wreck ALL of the “urban planners” that know better than we do are now seeing their vaunted transportation plans for the rest of us about to go out their collective tailpipes (emphasis mine):

However since that time a lot of skepticism has crept in. Being seriously into walkable urbanism and cyclable cities, I began to worry about how self driving cars will interact with pedestrians. Whether they would promote sprawl. Whether they will be the worst thing to hit our cities since, well, the car. Whether Jon Orcutt is right: a car, whether uber or self-driving or electric, is still just a car. Others are worried about the same thing; Patrick Sissons talked to a few planners for Curbed. Don Elliot, a planner in Denver, tells him:

“I’ve seen the blood run out of people’s faces,” he says when talking about the impact of automated vehicles on transportation, land use, and real estate. “For years, planners have been fighting for a 1 or 2 percent change in transportation mode [getting more people to use transit or bike instead of drive]. With this technology, everything goes out the window. It’s a nightmare.”

Sissons worries that “the convergence of three new technologies—automation, electrification, and shared mobility—has the potential to create a whole new wave of automation-induced sprawl without proper planning and regulation.”

Oh God spare us a future without the guiding hand of Government experts (many of which reject the guiding hand of God, or so studies show)!

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Treehuggers want Government to use force to get the rest of us to get in line. They are just blind to the fact that they keep proving the phrase Watermelon Environmentalists – ostensibly “green” on the outside but Red on the inside (the old political version for communism/socialism):

Why plastic straws should be taxed

Plastic straws.  In this case, over plastic straws and a failure to persuade (emphasis mine, reformatted).

A small charge has helped people move away from plastic shopping bags, so why not the same approach for straws?

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This is going to push the “all abortion all the time” Democrats over the edge. It is from the HHS 2012-2022 Strategic Plan.

Mission Statement

The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to enhance the health and well-being of Americans, by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services.

Organizational Structure

HHS accomplishes its mission through programs and initiatives that cover a wide spectrum of activities, serving and protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception. 

Here’s a link to the HHS PDF. THe document is also embedded below.

H/T NRO

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Yesterday, Meet The Press (MTP) was no better than the Concord Monitor on the insurance bailouts, and it was quite clear, right from the start, that this was going to be nothing more than a Trump bashing and it was clear why.

MTP shows its journalistic bias just as clearly as the Concord Monitor. Chuck Todd is the host/moderator as well as the starting narrator/voice-over (former Democratic staffer to Senator Tom Harkin; married to Kristian Denny Todd – a former communications person for the Democratic Party):

This Sunday, trying to undo the Obama presidency. On Obamacare, President Trump moves to eliminate subsidies to help low-income Americans.

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JUST DO SOMETHING!

No, that is, in a lot of cases, the WRONG thing to do.

The only knock that I have on Tucker Carlson as an interviewer is that he allows his guests to talk over him especially when they are refusing to answer a pointed question that they know will ruin their narrative.  Other than that, he does really well in getting the Liberal “I can beat Tucker at his own game” in either slipping up or making fools of themselves.

This is one of those latter cases.  Richard Painter, law professor in Minnesota, was an “ethics” lawyer in the Bush Administration and it is clear that at least on the topic of guns, believes that Big Govt, especially the part with guns, should know every detail of your life if you own guns.  And, truth be told, as a Progressive Republican, he’s no better than the Progressive Totalitarians like Democrat Diane Feinstein.  In this case, it is clear that he doesn’t want ANYone to have them.  Yet, this raving nitwit (don’t believe me?  Just watch the whole thing) of a lawyer is absolutely fine with disregarding that whole “shall not be infringed” bit from our Bill of Rights:

OK, let’s parse and unwrap what he wants:

• Tired of “NRA blood money” funding politicians’ campaigns – DO SOMETHING!
• Fix our permissive gun laws and protect us – DO SOMETHING!
• Those of us that disagree with him have blood money on our hands

Is that last bit akin to being a “climate denier”?  Those of us that don’t agree with him are morally bankrupt?  That seems to be the standard M.O. – accuse their opponents on any issue of not just being wrong but morally corrupt – “Othering” those that simply disagree, especially those than can quote real facts that put their emotionally laden talking points to shame. His remedies?

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In a piece over at The Hill.com, two writers outline why Mr. Trump’s Iran Speech matters. The Obama deal was a sham with a payoff.

President Obama promised that on his watch Iran would not get nuclear weapons. Obama achieved this by cutting a deal that effectively paid off Iran upfront to delay a nuclear breakout until after he left office. He did this at the cost of greatly fortifying Iran’s predatory, Islamist regime, without ending its nuclear program. That is what Trump has inherited. As he accurately summed it up: “We got weak inspections in exchange for no more than a purely short-term and temporary delay in Iran’s path to nuclear weapons.”

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Our democratic Republic depends on a number of things and one of the major ones is that elected officials will (GASP!) follow the law themselves.  They are role models, like it or not, and what they should be modeling at the very least is adherence to The Rule of Law.  But it seems that Manchester wants to be like Chicago’s – law?  What law – it just gets in the way of “getting things done”.  Sorry, but the means NEVER should justify the end.  Without transparency, there can be no Trust and without that, well, anything goes.  ‘Grok friend Rich Girard as a take on the Progressives on the Board doing a “taking” of their own:

Another View — Rich Girard: Breaking the rules, and getting away with it

It is with some sense of amazement that I write this. On Monday, Sept. 25, the Manchester Board of School Committee did two things that actually made my jaw drop.

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Frankly, he’s doing better than any other modern era Republican.  Didn’t hurt that Dirty Harry (Reid) paved the way for the destruction of the Liberals hold on the judiciary.  Emphasis mine – and note that at the bottom of this quote:

The media remains so caught up with the president’s tweets that it has missed Mr. Trump’s project to transform the rest of the federal judiciary. The president is stocking the courts with a class of brilliant young textualists bearing little relation to even their Reagan or Bush predecessors. Mr. Trump’s nastygrams to Bob Corker will be a distant memory next week. Notre Dame law professor Amy Coney Barrett’s influence on the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could still be going strong 40 years from now.

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After all, there is no “middle ground”, NH State Senator Jeff Woodburn, on the part of Democrats on abortion is there?  Either an innocent unborn baby is alive – or it is dead.  Yet there is NO allowance by the Democrats for compromise on this issue – it is either full on on-demand abortion at any time (even to the point where adults other-than-the-girl’s-parents can take a girl to an abortion mill) or, well, no – that’s the only option. The ONLY option.  Right, Jeff? Would you even consider giving up abortion if the Right gave up the death penalty for convicted felons?

I didn’t think so. Back to your NHPR interview.  Seriously, you want to go to “middle ground” but FIRST you INSULT us?  Way to go, dud(e), in trying to influence people.  Did you spend anytime in Hollywood before coming to NH?

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Governor Moonbeam Jerry Brown’s open borders, sanctuary state is in the news again.

California Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday declared a state of emergency to control a hepatitis A outbreak.

Last month, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency declared local outbreaks in September. The Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency began issuing health alerts about the virus in May.

A third world problem comes to a first world sanctuary state? No kidding, really?

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“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.” – President Obama, Inauguration (2009

Politically lazy or political cowardness?

“House Speaker Paul D. Ryan backed away Wednesday from legislative action to ban ‘bump stocks,’ the device a mass shooter used in Las Vegas earlier this month to create machine-gun-like rapid fire from his legal semi automatic rifle, killing 58,” washingtonpost.com reports. “Instead, Ryan and many of his fellow House Republicans hope the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will act administratively to outlaw the devices, which the agency ruled legal in 2010.” Translation . . .

“Administratively“? Congress is supposed to legislate and the Executive Branch is supposed to, well, execute those laws. Period.  If one is to be true to the Constitution there should be no discussion.  This is a really damning statement from a Republican whose Platform says that the GOP believes in a limited Government and that Ryan has said the same thing on multiple occasions. The GOP and Ryan has made much of the Constitution and that the government’s governance is governed by it. Yet, go back and read that bolded part again and ask yourself “cognitive dissonance, or trying really hard to not stand up, trying not to lead, trying to avoid a hard situation, wanting to punt it elsewhere, and not wanting  (eventually) to take a vote”?

THIS is one reason why he got elected both as a US Rep and as Speaker – to do all those things that now seem to be giving him the shakes.  He wants the ATF to make the decision?

As Glenn Reynolds keeps saying we are blessed in having the worst political class ever!

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The Trump administration has issued its final warning to a handful of ‘jurisdictions’ is claims are still in violation of federal law.

The Justice Department has issued a final warning to five of the 10 jurisdictions it accused of having “sanctuary” policies that defy federal immigration laws, saying they have until Oct. 27 to submit additional evidence proving compliance or risk losing grant money.

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Yesterday, news broke that New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu was doing us all a huge favor by offering Speaker Shawn Jasper a job as the Agriculture Commissioner. This would mean Jasper is stepping down from his Statehouse seat and relinquishing the Speaker’s chair.

I think Jasper will take up the Governor up on his offer.

So who will replace him as Speaker?

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