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Biden proposes 30% climate change tax on cryptocurrency mining
The White House is trying to persuade Congress to pass a 30% tax on the electricity used in cryptocurrency mining in the next federal budget in order to minimize the nascent industry’s impact on climate change.
“Cryptominers’ high-energy consumption has negative spillovers on the environment, quality of life, and electricity grids where these firms locate across the country,” the president’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) argues in a blog post that will appear on the White House website on Tuesday, to which Yahoo News gained advance access. The post will lay out the case for the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax, which the CEA writes is an “example of the Administration’s efforts to fight climate change and reduce energy prices.”
“Currently, cryptomining firms do not have to pay for the full cost they impose on others, in the form of local environmental pollution, higher energy prices, and the impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions on the climate,” the CEA writes in its post. “The DAME tax encourages firms to start taking better account of the harms they impose on society.”
Burning fossil fuels to create electricity accounts for 25% of annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and releases harmful air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter.
7 found dead in Oklahoma field during search for 2 missing teens
Seven bodies have been found on a property in Henryetta, Oklahoma, KOCO reported Monday.
The discovery was part of a search for two teenagers that had gone missing early Monday morning in eastern Oklahoma.
An alert went out Monday morning for 14-year-old Ivy Webster and 16-year-old Brittany Brewer, saying that it was believed they were with 39-year-old Jesse McFadden. The teens are believed to be among the bodies found, though identities have not yet been confirmed.
The Okmulgee County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that deputies took the missing persons report that revealed Webster left during Saturday evening, April 29 to spend the weekend with a friend. She was set to be home by 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 30. She never returned home.
“Webster was reported to be staying with 39-year-old Jesse McFadden, who, along with two other family members, were believed to be heading to McAlester to work on a ranch,” the report said. But no one from the family went to the ranch and there hadn’t been any contact with them since Sunday.
Brewer was picked up along the way on Saturday evening.
Federal Judge Orders School District To Allow After-School Satan Club
A federal judge on Monday ordered that a Pennsylvania school district must allow The Satanic Temple (TST) to use school property for its clubs, according to the ruling.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit against Saucon Valley School District (SVSD) after it allegedly denied an application from TST to host its “After School Satan Club,” despite having accepted the request earlier. A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued a preliminary injunction Monday, requiring the district to allow the club while the lawsuit continues, according to the ruling.
“When confronted with a challenge to free speech, the government’s first instinct must be to forward expression rather than quash it,” the ruling read. “Here, although The Satanic Temple, Inc.’s objectors may challenge the sanctity of this controversially named organization, the sanctity of the First Amendment’s protections must prevail. Indeed, it is the First Amendment that enumerates our freedoms to practice religion and express our viewpoints on religion and all the topics we consider sacred.”
From Russia to the U.K. and With a UFO Society in the Middle of All the Chaos
“The Aetherius Society is an international spiritual organization dedicated to spreading, and acting upon, the teachings of advanced extraterrestrial intelligences,” its members state. They continue: “In great compassion, these beings recognize the extent of suffering on Earth and have made countless sacrifices in their mission to help us to create a better world. The Society was founded in the mid-1950s by an Englishman named George King shortly after he was contacted in London by an extraterrestrial intelligence known as ‘Aetherius.’ The main body of the Society’s teachings consists of the wisdom given through the mediumship of Dr. King by the Master Aetherius and other advanced intelligences from this world and beyond. The single greatest aspect of the Society’s teachings is the importance of selfless service to others.”
UFO researchers David Clarke and Andy Roberts say: “The Aetherius Society were never a huge organization, indeed their numbers rarely totaled more than one thousand members worldwide…The Aetherius Society was not for everyone but, for those seekers who wanted or needed a spiritual dimension to their saucer beliefs, they provided a philosophy, structure and network of sincere like-minded souls.” George King suffered a heart-attack in 1986, underwent a multiple heart bypass in 1992, and died in Santa Barbara on July 12, 1997. The Aetherius Society, though, continues to thrive. Now, it’s time to address matters relative to the Aetherius Society, nuclear weapons, Russia, the U.K.’s Communist Party, and the secret surveillance of ufologists.
Media Matters’ LGBTQ director accidentally admits book she and Chelsea Clinton want on school shelves is pornographic
Chelsea Clinton took to Twitter to complain that conservatives are asking schools and libraries not to shelve books containing pornography and pornographic themes in children’s sections.
In Clinton’s view, these books with pornographic content are simply part of the emerging canon of books with “with LGBTQ+ characters & themes.”
Bans of books like Gender Queer, by trans-identified female author Maia Kobabe, Clinton said, are dangerous for kids who won’t be able to see themselves reflected in their pages.
In response to Clinton’s tweet, Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon posted photos of pages from Gender Queer, which is the graphically illustrated story of a young girl coming of age, realizing she’d rather be male and experience sex from a male perspective, and then engaging in oral sex with strap-on penises and other kinks.
Dillon also quote tweeted Clinton, saying “Chelsea Clinton has come out in favor of porn for kids.”
In response, Media Matters’ trans-identified LGBTQ Program Director Ari Drennen, accused Dillon of masturbating to gay porn for kids. Dillon then shared some of the content of the Kobabe’s book with Drennen, who said “you just sent me an unsolicited drawing of a blowjob.”
Drennen admitted to Dillon, and to Twitter, that the very book Drennen and Clinton were advocating be made available to children contained drawings of a “blowjob,” which Drennen appeared to find offensive.
“Porn is for DMs and children,” wrote Seth Dillon, summing up Drennen’s view.
New York Legalized Marijuana, but a Legal Typo Is Hindering Implementation
The cannabis legalization bill that New York enacted in 2021 included a provision that was supposed to help people convicted of marijuana felonies by downgrading their records in line with current law. But a typographical error made that relief harder to obtain than legislators promised.
The section of the law dealing with prior marijuana convictions describes two situations. Paragraph 2(a)(i) refers to a person convicted of a marijuana offense that “would not have been a crime” had the 2021 changes been in effect. Paragraph 2(a)(ii) refers to a person who “would have been guilty of a lesser or potentially less onerous offense” under current law.
Paragraph 2(b) says a court that receives a petition from someone convicted of a marijuana offense that no longer exists “shall….grant the motion to vacate such conviction.” It adds that a court “may substitute, unless it is not in the interests of justice to do so, a conviction for an appropriate lesser offense” when “the petition meets the criteria in subparagraph (i) of paragraph (a).”
Whoops. That clearly should have been “the criteria in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (a),” since it makes no sense to substitute “a conviction for an appropriate lesser offense” when no such offense exists. Because of that mistake, people with marijuana felony convictions cannot use the streamlined relief process the law was supposed to provide.
Under prior law, someone caught with eight ounces to a pound of marijuana was guilty of a felony. Under current law, possessing that amount in public is a violation punishable by a maximum fine of $250, while possessing five pounds or less at home is legal. Public possession of one to five pounds, which used to be a felony, is now a misdemeanor.
Twitter Fact Check Confirms Book Chelsea Clinton Promoted For Children Contains Graphic Sex Acts
A Twitter fact check of a Chelsea Clinton tweet in which she complained about LGBTQ+ books being ‘banned’ for children pointed out that the book shown in the tweet contains graphic sexually explicit material.
Awkward.
The controversy began after Clinton tweeted, “Over 50% of the attempted book bans last year involved books with LGBTQ+ characters & themes. Books are a vital way that children, adolescents and adults learn about themselves and our world. Bans such as these are nothing but harmful.”
Aside from the erroneous claim that the books are being ‘banned’ (they’re simply being removed from school libraries), the very book shown in the tweet has every reason to be kept away from children.
A community note added to Clinton’s tweet revealed the awful truth.
“Gender Queer”, the book shown in the photo, features sexually explicit material. This book contains visual depictions of oral sex, masturbation and adult sexual contact with a minor,” said the fact check.
Multiple people had informed Clinton of this fact shortly after she posted the tweet, but the daughter of sex pest Bill Clinton has yet to update, clarify or retract her original tweet.
C.S. Lewis on facts…
The War on Free Speech Is Really a War on the Right to Criticize the Government
“Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us? The constitutional theory is that we the people are the sovereigns, the state and federal officials only our agents. We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet.”— Justice William O. Douglas
Absolutely, there is a war on free speech.
To be more accurate, however, the war on free speech is really a war on the right to criticize the government.
Although the right to speak out against government wrongdoing is the quintessential freedom, every day in this country, those who dare to speak their truth to the powers-that-be find themselves censored, silenced or fired.
Indeed, those who run the government don’t take kindly to individuals who speak truth to power.
In fact, the government has become increasingly intolerant of speech that challenges its power, reveals its corruption, exposes its lies, and encourages the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices.
This is nothing new, nor is it unique to any particular presidential administration.
For instance, as part of its campaign to eradicate so-called “disinformation,” the Biden Administration likened those who share “false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information” to terrorists. This government salvo against consumers and spreaders of “mis- dis- and mal-information” widens the net to potentially include anyone who is exposed to ideas that run counter to the official government narrative.
In his first few years in office, President Trump declared the media to be “the enemy of the people,” suggested that protesting should be illegal, and that NFL players who kneel in protest during the national anthem “shouldn’t be in the country.”
Then again, Trump was not alone in his presidential disregard for the rights of the citizenry, especially as it pertains to the right of the people to criticize those in power.
President Obama signed into law anti-protest legislation that makes it easier for the government to criminalize protest activities (10 years in prison for protesting anywhere in the vicinity of a Secret Service agent). The Obama Administration also waged a war on whistleblowers, which The Washington Post described as “the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration,” and “spied on reporters by monitoring their phone records.”
Part of the Patriot Act signed into law by President George W. Bush made it a crime for an American citizen to engage in peaceful, lawful activity on behalf of any group designated by the government as a terrorist organization. Under this provision, even filing an amicus brief on behalf of an organization the government has labeled as terrorist would constitute breaking the law.
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