CEI Commends EPA for Reviewing CAFE Rules | Competitive Enterprise Institute

CEI Commends EPA for Reviewing CAFE Rules | Competitive Enterprise Institute
"... the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the result of its mid-term evaluation. As a result of the EPA’s review and analysis, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced the current greenhouse-gas emission standards for light-duty vehicles for model year 2022-2025 are not appropriate and should be revised.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) commends Administrator Pruitt for taking this step forward to ensure the future of automobiles will be cars that are safe, affordable, and what consumers want to buy. 
CEI has followed the CAFE issue for decades, which includes a major court victory in 1992 regarding CAFE's lethal effects. 
CEI experts said the following about today’s announcement.

CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman on CAFE’s mandates and safety: 

CAFE’s lethal effects on vehicle crashworthiness were documented by analysts and a federal appeals court years ago. Despite this, CAFE has remained in force, getting even more stringent and more deadly over the years. We hope that the Trump Administration will finally take account of those effects and start to liberalize this program.

Director of CEI's Center for Energy and Environment Myron Ebell on CAFE’s impact on consumer choice:

EPA’s announcement is good news for consumers who care about safety, performance, and size, as well as fuel economy in the vehicles they drive. This is the first step in many years toward reducing government control over what kinds of cars people can choose to buy. 

CEI Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis on CAFE’s costs and impact on climate:

Fuel economy mandates restrict consumer choice, add thousands of dollars to the cost of new vehicles, and limit vehicle safety. Contrary to the program's original rationale, the world is not running out of oil. And even if you worry about global warming, fuel efficiency standards are a stupendously inefficient climate change mitigation strategy. Congress should end the reign of bureaucrats and put consumers back in charge of telling automakers what kinds of cars and trucks to produce.

More from CEI on the CAFE issue here. 

You ought to know!

Amending the Constitution is a Hard Thing to Do | National Review

Amending the Constitution is a Hard Thing to Do | National Review:

"Article V outlines the procedure by which amendments to the Constitution may be adopted. It is, to put it bluntly, a high bar to clear:
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution . . . which . . . shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof.
You read that correctly: two-thirds of both chambers plus three-fourths of the state legislatures must approve an amendment before it becomes law. Repealing the Second Amendment is not going to happen any time soon.
Of course, everybody knows it won’t be repealed — there is no need to belabor the point."

Why are they getting tax dollars from us?-----Planned Parenthood's political group failed to accurately disclose $120G in support of Clinton, Dems, FEC says | Fox News

Planned Parenthood's political group failed to accurately disclose $120G in support of Clinton, Dems, FEC says | Fox News:
"Planned Parenthood’s political arm in Wisconsin has been fined for failing to appropriately report nearly $120,000 in independent expenditures allocated in support of Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Russ Feingold during 2016 elections.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) found discrepancies in Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin’s October 2016 report that claimed over $133,000 worth of expenditures on political candidates, an FEC report said.
Nearly $120,000 spent in August on Clinton and Democrat Feingold -- who tried but failed to unseat Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in 2016 -- were never shown in any previous 48-hour filing up until the October report, two months later when it was required..."
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AM Fruitcake

History for April 5

History for April 5 - On-This-Day.com:
Thomas Hobbes 1588, Elihu Yale(slave trader, university founder) 1649, Joseph Lister 1827 - British surgeon, inventor (Listerine mouthwash)


Booker T. Washington 1856 - Educator, author (Up From Slavery), Bette (Ruth Elizabeth) Davis 1908 - Actress ("Dangerous", "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"), Gregory Peck 1916 - Actor ("To Kill a Mockingbird [1962]", "The Guns of Navarone", "Captain Horatio Hornblower")


1614 - American Indian Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.


1792 - U.S. President George Washington cast the first presidential veto. The measure was for apportioning representatives among the states.


1887 - Anne Sullivan taught Helen Keller the meaning of the word "water" as spelled out in the manual alphabet.


1923 - Firestone Tire and Rubber Company began the first regular production of balloon tires.


1951 - Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for committing espionage for the Soviet Union.


1955 - Winston Churchill resigned as British prime minister.


1985 - John McEnroe said "any man can beat any woman at any sport, especially tennis."


1998 - The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan opened becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world. It links Shikoku and Honshu. The bridge cost about $3.8 billion.

LIBERTY REVIEW

LIBERTY REVIEW:

https://libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2018/04/april-4-2018-revolutionary-changes-by.html

Revolutionary Changes

By Tammy Derouin

Sometimes it can be difficult to notice changes in our circumstances or our surroundings, especially if they occur slowly and over time. Sometimes it takes removing ourselves from the situation to see the difference. If we live in an area for a long time we understand and are aware of changes. To someone who has moved away and comes back, the changes may seem more monumental. By living in the location and watching the changes take place, day by day, we adapt and accept our evolving surroundings.

Changes can be both good and bad. The key is identifying the difference between the two. What may seem harmless at the time could be the beginning of a disaster. It's sort of like getting a minor cut. You know if you don't take care of it, clean it and wrap it, it could become infected and turn into something much worse. We all ignore the little things from time to time. When we look back, we realize how much easier life would have been had we just addressed it and moved on. It's those little reminders which have a way of keeping us in check.

Unfortunately, there has been a big push, over the past too many years, to alter what we know is right. Those who have an agenda to completely alter the American way of life and the foundation of our beliefs have tried to slip many unhealthy changes into our society. They want to alter how we think, hoping it will change how we believe and act.

New ideas can be the start of revolutionary changes. New ideas or concepts should be debated. Facts need to be presented and understood as facts for a healthy debate. Make believe and false information to push an agenda hurts everyone in the long run......

The way we were-----Gary Lewis and the Playboys - This Diamond Ring

Boob-tube-----TV Censored Bloopers (1981) Dick Clark

State Opioid Taxes Would Needlessly Harm Patients | Economics21

State Opioid Taxes Would Needlessly Harm Patients | Economics21:
"Americans face a daily barrage of news of the latest casualties in the deadly scourge of opioid addiction.
The estimated 115 opioid overdose deaths that happen in the United States every day cut across demographic and class lines, affecting communities across the country.

More than two million Americans are caught in the grips of a dependency on prescription painkillers and street pills, with little sign of decline in most states.
...wide-scale taxation is a recipe for increased suffering and black market activity.  
In addition to these unintended consequences, any increase in medication costs will raise the costs of Medicaid and Medicare.
Over the past few months, lawmakers in some of the states most affected by the opioid epidemic have proposed taxing pharmaceutical companies for bringing painkillers to market.
...Within the overwhelming majority of opioid users that are not addicted, most patients would either absorb the higher cost or endure increased pain. 
An “effective” opioid tax, then, would punish millions of Americans for whom opiods are the only cure for immense physical pain..."
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Michigan Funding Its Pensions, Using More Realistic Numbers [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

Michigan Funding Its Pensions, Using More Realistic Numbers [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"The level of underfunding in Michigan’s public school pension system increased again last year, but this time it wasn’t because officials failed to deposit the right amount into the system.
Unfunded liabilities in the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System increased from $29.1 billion to $29.4 billion in 2017, according to the annual report released by the state.
The increase was due to using a more conservative estimate of future investment returns.
The estimate is used when determining how much needs to be contributed to the fund now to make future pension payouts, so a more conservative one leads to more realistic contribution levels.
“The assumed rate of return on the pension plan was lowered from 7.50 percent to 7.05 percent, which is a smart fiscal decision that reduces risk to the system,” said Kurt Weiss, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget, in an email..."
Read on!

DNC Vice Chair Suggests It's Time Democrats Push To Repeal The Second Amendment | Daily Wire

DNC Vice Chair Suggests It's Time Democrats Push To Repeal The Second Amendment | Daily Wire:

"The Left has insisted that although they'd like to severely regulate the sale and use of guns in this country, they have no designs on repealing the Second Amendment, which, according to recent Supreme Court decisions, guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms.
That, in fact, may be changing. A Vice Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee tweeted over the weekend her support for repealing the Second Amendment, linking to a piece written by former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens explaining how the time had come to eliminate the Constitutional right to self-protection once and for all."

Arnold Ahlert: Breaking Up the Public School Monopoly — The Patriot Post

Arnold Ahlert: Breaking Up the Public School Monopoly — The Patriot Post:
“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted."—Vladimir Lenin
Every serious problem this nation currently endures can be traced back to a single source.
To be blunt, we’re creating legions of useful idiots in public schools across America.
At least two generations of Americans can no longer add and subtract simple numbers in their heads, know next to nothing about the nation’s history or government, and cast a jaundiced eye toward inalienable rights guaranteed by the Constitution — all while remaining well-versed in progressive ideology. 
The time for complaining is over.
It’s time to do something about it.
"One of President Trump’s promises to the American people was that he would provide billions to fund private school choice for parents, especially low-income families,” writes columnist Glenn Delk.
“By allocating zero dollars for school choice, congressional Republicans, in their $1.3 trillion spending bill, made it crystal clear, to both the President and families with school-age children, that they have no intention of ever fulfilling that promise.
Given the congressional slap in the face, President Trump should now order Attorney General Sessions to file suit on behalf of the United States against all 50 states seeking to break up the monopoly known as public schools.”
Americans should be clear on this point.
Despite education being controlled by the states, public schools remain monopolistic, unionized fiefdoms of unaccountability that have promised — and failed — to deliver reform for over 40 years..."
Read on!

Man Exposes Himself To Child In Target Women's Bathroom | Daily Wire

Man Exposes Himself To Child In Target Women's Bathroom | Daily Wire:

"Openly-progressive Target prides itself on allowing biological men to enter the women's restroom if that is how they self-identify. The policy, enacted in 2016, outraged conservatives for fear it would put women and girls at risk.
According to NBC Chicago, police are now on the hunt for a man who exposed himself to a child in the women's restroom at a Target store in the South Loop.
"A mother was with her young child at about 4:08 p.m. in the women’s restroom at the Target at 1154 S. Clark when the man entered and insisted he had to go to the bathroom, according to Chicago Police," reports the outlet."

Lunch video-----This Is What Mass Mind Control Looks Like

Noon-toon

Border Patrol agents back Trump wall, survey finds - Washington Times

Border Patrol agents back Trump wall, survey finds - Washington Times:

"Border Patrol agents say they can’t be much clearer: They want more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In a new survey conducted by the National Border Patrol Council, the agents’ union, they overwhelmingly backed adding a “wall system” in new strategic locations, saying it will boost their ability to nab or deter would-be illegal immigrants.
Agents also said they need the government to change the “catch-and-release” policy that means even after they arrest illegal immigrants at the border, they often have to immediately release them in the U.S., giving them the chance to disappear into the shadows with the 11 million other illegal immigrants already here."

Michigan’s Top School Pension Payouts [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

Michigan’s Top School Pension Payouts [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
"During Barbara Fowler’s final year working as superintendent of the Troy School District in 2014, she had 42 years of experience in public schools and was earning a salary of $222,054.

Now retired, Fowler collects an annual pension of $145,140 as a member of the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System, or MPSERS.

...Individual MPSERS pensions get a 3 percent annual cost-of-living increase every year. 
To illustrate the value of those increases, The Detroit News reported that former Forest Hills Public Schools Superintendent Jon Washburn was collecting $136,027 in 2011. 

That was then the second-highest school pension payout in the state. 

By 2016 Washburn’s payout had grown to $161,124, a $25,097 increase over a five-year period, making it the third highest in the state...

Here’s a list of the top eight MSPERS pensions as of 2016:

• Albert Lorenzo, former president of Macomb Community College, $204,264
• Thomas Svitkovich, former superintendent of Genesee Intermediate School District, $188,448
• Jon Washburn, former superintendent of Forest Hills Public Schools, $161,124
• Donald Newport, former president of Alpena Community College, $148,836
• Iris Salters, former president of the Michigan Education Association, $147,924
• Barbara Fowler, former superintendent of Troy Public Schools, $145,140
• Mark Eckhardt, former superintendent of the Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District, $144,012
• James McCann, former superintendent of the Lamphere School District, $142,728

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RANT: Accurate portrayal of me listening to David Hogg speak--Combat Wounded Purple Heart Recipient and Decorated Army Veteran Derek Weida

(7) Conservative Political Cartoons Daily - Posts:
"RANT: Accurate portrayal of me listening to David Hogg speak. Look, I’m sorry dude, sincerely. 
It is horrible... School shootings. That said, you have to watch what you say. 
I’m Derek, I got shot on a house raid in Iraq. 
My getting shot didn’t make me a professional on war, international relations, house raids (obviously🤷🏻‍♀️), or guns. 
This horrible thing happened to me but I didn’t come home and protest the war... 
Even though I do kinda have these feelings that Iraq was errr... Questionable. 
😂 But it ain’t my place. 
I did my part. 
So, I empathize with you and your peers because whereas I signed up to be shot at, none of you did. 
(Not exactly sure you actually got shot AT but that’s not the point here). 
...I guess I just want to say don’t be so quick to talk. 
Don’t be so quick to think YOU are somehow the ONE person who has things figured out. 
You want to make a change? 
Cool!! 
But... Try to be less of a cunt about it.
Love and respect,
Combat Wounded Purple Heart Recipient and Decorated Army Veteran Derek Weida"
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#1 This day 1965-----Freddie & The Dreamers - I'm Telling You Now (HQ Stereo, 1965)

The FBI’s Long List of Failures – Da Tech Guy Blog

The FBI’s Long List of Failures – Da Tech Guy Blog:
"The FBI has a long history of errors, miscalculations, and outright failures that make the current allegations almost pale by comparison.

As a young journalist, I trekked back and forth through the FBI “cordon” around Wounded Knee in 1973, where Native American activists had taken over the site in South Dakota of a famous massacre of Indians by federal troops

• A few years later, I wrote about the virtual execution of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, two Black Panther leaders in Chicago. The duo had been a target of the FBI failed counter-intelligence program of radicals in the 1960s and 1970s.

...But there’s far more than my personal experience with the bureau.

• Ruby Ridge, near my birthplace of Boise, Idaho, ended with the death of the son and wife of Randy Weaver and an eventual big cash settlement. The siege started over Weaver’s failure to appear for a firearms charge in 1992. More important, the rise of the militia movement happened as a direct result of the confrontation. The incident was so poorly handled that the FBI agent-in-charge was sentenced to 18 months in prison for obstructing an investigation into the FBI’s incompetence...
• The 51-day confrontation with the Branch Davidians ended with 76 people dead in 1993 in Texas in an ill-conceived assault that led to a massive fire. Again, the incident added fuel to the militia fire.
• The FBI and other law enforcement officials failed to understand the significance of Ruby Ridge and Waco to a growing militia movement, which ultimately led to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. So much so that the FBI initially thought Oklahoma City was carried out by Middle Eastern terrorists.

...Here are a few other mistakes: https://www.ranker.com/list/top-10-greatest-fbi-fails-of-all-time/autumn-spragg

You ought to know!