Category: Great Moments In Socialism

SCOTUS: Deep State vs Citizenry

Boom!

The Supreme Court’s third (but not last) decision is SEC v. Jarkesy. By a 6–3 vote, the court holds that when the SEC seeks civil penalties, the defendant is entitled to a jury trial in federal court.

This sounds technical but it’s huge.

SCOTUS’ decision is Jarkesy may well hobble many federal agencies’ ability to bring meaningful enforcement actions against wrongdoers. Not just the SEC. Neither the executive branch nor the judiciary have the time or resources to try all these cases before a jury. Nowhere close.

Today’s decision in Jarkesy could kneecap enforcement by the FCC, the FTC, the NLRB, the Department of Labor, and more—it goes WAY beyond the SEC. This is a massive blow to the federal government’s ability to enforce regulations against lawbreakers.

The ruling is here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-859_1924.pdf

More from Benjamin Weingarten;

Justice Gorsuch — with whom Justice Thomas concurred — details more administrative state tyranny. We’ve been de-sensitized to an unelected, unaccountable, awesomely powerful branch of government that’s, shall we say, hard to square this with the Constitution

And another: The Supreme Court granted applications for a stay, effectively halting the enforcement of the EPA’s “good neighbor” policy. The decision underscores the limits of the EPA’s regulatory authority, emphasizing state sovereignty in managing local environmental issues.

We Need Another Lockdown

Longer and harder this time. And more taxes. And more regulations…

Calgary Herald- Canada’s ‘productivity emergency’ called the most widespread in history outside the pandemic

Outside of Quebec and Ontario, gross domestic product per person is not only lower than before the pandemic, it is lower than the peak in 2014-15.

“That means many people outside our two biggest provinces feel worse off today than they did 10 years ago,” he said.

Don’t Think Of It As “Your” Information, Think Of It As “Our” Information

Blacklocks- Feds Likes Payroll Data Scoop

“The vision of ePayroll in Canada is a service through which Canadian employers can securely send payroll, employment and demographic information to a protected Government of Canada repository,” said the Briefing Binder. “Government departments and agencies could then access the information when they need it.”

“The scope and scale of the ePayroll project are massive,” said the Policy Brief. “It would impact every employer and every worker in Canada.”

“The sheer volume of data would be enormous, roughly equivalent to the amount of information submitted at year-end being received every two weeks,” said the Payroll Institute. “Public buy-in is essential,” it cautioned.

If It Wasn’t For Government

Who would make it too much of a pain in the ass to celebrate Canada day?

Montreal Gazette- Organizer cancels Canada Day parade in Montreal

Nicholas Cohen said the decision was made after he found it increasingly difficult to obtain the needed permits and funding from different government authorities over the past year.

“Cowen was faced with rules that changed at the last minute and requests that made organizing the parade virtually impossible,” it said in the news release.

If You’ve Got Nothing To Hide

It shouldn’t be a problem for you.

CBC- Public servants uneasy as government ‘spy’ robot prowls federal offices

Bruce Roy, national president of the Government Services Union, called the robot’s presence in federal workplaces “intrusive” and “insulting.”

“People feel observed all the time,” he said in French. “It’s a spy. The robot is a spy for management.”

Francisco- While we’re at it the all of the information collected should be readily available to the public via the internet. In the interest of “transparency” of course.

You Didn’t Think They’d Stop Did You?

Blacklocks- Gov’t Rethinks Climate Claim

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday banned the sale of lightbulbs once touted by his department as climate-friendly energy savers. Compact fluorescent bulbs in fact contained toxic mercury blamed for poisoning the environment.

Cabinet earlier promoted compact fluorescent bulbs as an energy-saving alternative to traditional, mercury-free Edison bulbs. A 2003 Project Porchlight campaign gave away 200,000 compact fluorescents as good for the environment and drove sales to 27 million mercury bulbs a year.

Govern Me Harder!

I can vividly recall my frustration at having to see Frances Russell’s and Val Werier’s leftist screeds populating the editorial pages of the Winnipeg Free Press back in the 80s. Fast forward to the present day, where technology continues to level the media playing field, introducing informational symmetry in ways I could not have dreamt of in my youth. But some people remain deeply dissatisfied with that. Apparently, the latest technology is just making us, well, ungovernable.

So, the telephone was great, the postal system was great. Social media is not like those earlier innovations.

They don’t want to see the lion and the Christian making nice; they want the one to kill the other. That’s what Twitter is often like.

I am very concerned that there is no longer any source of authority. There is no trusted authority, there is no way to find consensus on truth. It seems that the truth-seeking mechanisms, including the courts, came up with the answer that the last presidential election in the U.S. was not stolen. But there’s no real way to spread that around to the large portion of society that believes that it was.

Loud And Proud, You Say?

Atlantic columnist is oppressed by expectations of politeness and basic consideration:

Ms Gonzalez, who repeatedly mentions how “minority” and “of colour” she is, also tells us how she, “just wanted to be around people in places where nobody told us to shush.” Say, when being a late-night annoyance to roommates and neighbours, a thing that by her own account happens repeatedly, or when playing music in a library. Where other people are trying to study:

“One day, when I accidentally sat down to study in the library’s Absolutely Quiet Room, fellow students Shhh-ed me into shame for putting on my Discman… I soon realised that silence was more than the absence of noise; it was an aesthetic to be revered. Yet it was an aesthetic at odds with who I was. Who a lot of us were.

A bold admission. One, I suspect, that reveals more than intended. Also, the claim that one can sit down in a library accidentally.

Oh, there’s more. And a plot twist of sorts.

“Not Weaponized” (Yet)

During the next pandemic they can harass farmers in the middle of nowhere for not wearing a mask while greasing their cultivator.

Calgary Herald- ‘Game-changing’: RCMP testing crime-fighting drones in rural Alberta

The drones are purely used for observation, according to RCMP, and aren’t weaponized. Some can be equipped with loud speakers, emergency lights and sky hooks to carry emergency equipment. Officers on Friday said pre-recorded messages can be blared from certain drones equipped to do so, making them a communication tool in emergency situations.

No Payments, No Interest, Forever

You don’t have to dig far into the details to find out that this “loan” is really just a giveaway, or, in modern parlance, a “special-purpose vehicle”.

The government sent a letter to First Nations groups last year proposing a special-purpose vehicle that would hold a stake in the pipeline, and individual groups would be able to choose whether to opt in. For those that want a piece of the action, the government intends to provide risk-free access to capital, the letter said, without providing details such as how big of a stake it would sell.

 

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