Posted on

Elon Musk vs. Big Government: Can Cutting Waste Save the Economy?

High time I confessed 3925367589

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Washington DC, the Department of Government Efficiency is making waves, and Washington, D.C., isn’t happy about it. The media backlash against proposed agency cuts has been swift, but I support Elon Musk’s stance on streamlining government operations.

Continue reading Elon Musk vs. Big Government: Can Cutting Waste Save the Economy?

Posted on

Former Biden White House Antitrust Expert Tim Wu Attacks the First Amendment in New York Times Op-Ed

Screenshot 2024 07 06 9.53.39 AM e1720274192259

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Tim Wu, the former Biden White House “antitrust expert” known for coining the term “net neutrality,” has sparked a heated debate with his recent op-ed in the New York Times. The piece, headlined in a way that underscores the apprehensions of the progressive left, addresses what Wu sees as the judiciary’s mismanagement of the First Amendment.

Continue reading Former Biden White House Antitrust Expert Tim Wu Attacks the First Amendment in New York Times Op-Ed

Posted on

Big Brother is Watching: Voters Fears U.S. Government Almost as Much as Foreign Spies

domestic-spying

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, a majority of voters are worried that their government is spying on Americans – almost as much as they fear spying from foreigners.

Continue reading Big Brother is Watching: Voters Fears U.S. Government Almost as Much as Foreign Spies

Posted on

FCC’s chairman, Ajit Pai, Subject of almost daily Name Calling from Bigots

ajit-pai-titleII-net-neutrality-secret-viaTwitter

January 12.2018

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, FCC’s chairman, Ajit Pai, became the subject of almost daily persecution by left wing loons and bigots. It seems no figure has been as controversial since Al Gore discovered the Internet in the early 90’s.

alGore_1515233c

It all started with the FCC’s decision to scrap an Obama-era rule implemented in 2015 deemed “net neutrality.” The end of net neutrality will allow internet service providers to, if they choose, privilege the content of providers that they own or support. Pai has been since the target of a campaign of harassment that amounts to a national scandal.

HBO lefty host John Oliver was among the first mainstream cultural figures to organize a net-neutrality campaign, which he dubbed “Go FCC Yourself.” He encouraged followers to bombard the FCC’s website with comments supporting the regulation, and so they did.

According to the NY Post , “Those comments were peppered with claims that Pai was a pedophile, a “dirty, sneaky Indian” who should self-deport and reminders that anonymous online hordes maintain the “power to murder Ajit Pai and his family.” Oliver was eventually compelled to release a video urging his followers to dial back the racism and death threats.”

Matt Rooney of the Save New Jersey blog , ” the Internet survived (and thrived) from the day Al Gore invented it up until 2015 when the Obama Administration imposed so-called ‘net neutrality.’ I suspect it’ll function just fine now that the FCC is rolling back those regs.”

The fact is Net neutrality is misnamed. There’s nothing “neutral” about it. The government controls it. The government regulates it. If you like government regulation, if you like how government regulation retards things, slows things down, gums things up, causes mistakes to be made, then by all means support net neutrality. Net Neutrality was an attempt by the federal government to regulate and control your internet browsing and control your internet feed  and curtail the number of independent information outlets like the Ridgewood blog.

“Net Neutrality” was nothing more than using “Big Brother” as a gate keeper for the internet.Protesting for Net neutrality is like protesting for high taxes , for less freedom , perhaps a trip to social paradise Venezuela will warm you heart instead.

Posted on

The Internet is Once Again Free to Grow and Innovate

FCC Chairman Pai

December 15,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Washington DC, The FCC voted 3-2 on Thursday to approve chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to repeal “net neutrality” rules backed by the Obama Administration that reclassified internet-service providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Title II prohibits “any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services.”

The Net Neutrality rules effectively deemed the internet a utility, former chairman Tom Wheeler turned the FCC ie the Federal Government into a political gatekeeper. The rules prohibited broadband providers from blocking, throttling and favoring content, which Mr. Wheeler ostensibly intended to help large content providers like Google , and Netflix gain leverage against cable companies.

Bans on throttling content may poll well, but the regulations have created uncertainty about what the FCC would or wouldn’t allow. This has in tern  throttled investment. Price discrimination and paid prioritization are used by many businesses. Netflix charges higher prices to subscribers who stream content on multiple devices. Has this made the internet less free?

Mr. Pai’s rules require that broadband providers disclose discriminatory practices unlike now. Thus cable companies would have to be transparent if they throttle content when users reach a data cap or if they speed up live sports programming. Consumers can choose broadband providers and plans accordingly. The Federal Trade Commission will have authority to police predatory and monopolistic practices, as it had prior to Mr. Wheeler’s power grab.

Despite the screams from the left Mr. Pai’s net-neutrality rollback will also support growth in content. Both content producers and consumers will benefit from increased investment in faster wireless and fiber technology. Apple is pouring $1 billion into original content to compete with Amazon, Netflix and YouTube.

Disney is buying the 21st Century Fox assets in an effort to compete with Netflix and other streaming services, build leverage with cable companies and establish a global footprint. Netflix has more than 47 million international subscribers and streams in nearly every country. Fox will keep its news and main sports channels, which can offer “live” content to consumers. The antitrust concerns should be negligible.

More positively consumers will also benefit from the speeding up of the breakdown of the cable monopoly as they offer more customized “bundles” like Hulu or a Disney stream that may cost less and no longer force large expensive packages of channels on customers  Americans will also enjoy new distribution options, which could have been barred by the old net-neutrality rules.

This week T-Mobile announced its acquisition of Layer3 TV, a Denver startup that streams high-definition channels online and will compete with AT&T’s DirecTV Now. Verizon Wireless last month said it will start delivering high-speed broadband to homes over its wireless network late next year. Google and AT&T are experimenting with similar services that will be cheaper than digging dirt to lay cable. This could be a boon for rural America.

Google, YouTube and Facebook have vigorously promoted net neutrality in theory but less in practice. While Google says it remains “committed to the net neutrality policies,” the search engine like Facebook uses opaque algorithms to prioritize and discriminate against certain content, sometimes in ways that undercut competitors. Net neutrality for thee, but not me should be Google , YouTube and Facebooks mantra . In simple terms these providers till search results to favor politically correct view points. Google, YouTube as well as Facebook should be far more transparent about these discriminatory practices.

Technology and markets change faster than the speed of regulation, which Ajit Pai’s FCC has recognized by taking a neutral position and restoring the promise of internet freedom.

Posted on

How many members of the opposition party did the previous administration surveil?

Obama-Golf

By
James Freeman
Updated May 12, 2017 5:42 p.m. ET

Another day brings another series of tweets from President Trump that have his opponents—and even some of his allies—expressing shock and outrage. In one particularly incendiary missive this morning Mr. Trump wrote, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” It’s no surprise that Mr. Trump is once again dominating the news via Twitter, but reporters might also want to pay attention to presidential use of a much more powerful set of electronic tools.

.https://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-trump-and-surveillance-1494624812.

Posted on

Trump: ‘In America we don’t worship government, we worship God’

church sky theridgewoodblog.net 1

BY PAULINA FIROZI – 05/13/17 11:10 AM EDT

Trump: ‘In America we don’t worship government, we worship God’
TheHill.com

Speaking to a friendly crowd at the country’s largest Christian university on Saturday, President Trump told the graduating class that “in America, we don’t worship government, we worship God.”

“America has always been the land of dreams because America is a nation of true believers,” Trump told those gathered at Liberty University.

“When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, they prayed. When the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, they invoked our creator four times. Because in America, we don’t worship government, we worship God.”

“It is why our currency proudly declares, ‘In God We Trust,'” Trump continued. “And it is why we proudly proclaim that we are one nation, under God, every time we say the Pledge of Allegiance.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/333252-trump-in-america-we-dont-worship-government-we-worship-god

Posted on

Reader says Off to the reeducation camp with you!

big-brother-poster

Oh come on James – don’t you know the American flag represents racism, homophobhia, misogyny, transphobia, islamophobia, bigotry etc etc.?

Seems like you have not yet been trained to think like a progressive. Off to the reeducation camp with you!

“He was back in the Ministry of Love, with everything forgiven, his soul white as snow. He was in the public dock, confessing everything, implicating everybody. He was walking down the white-tiled corridor, with the feeling of walking in sunlight, and an armed guard at his back. The longhoped-for bullet was entering his brain.

He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”

Posted on

The last thing N.J. needs is another entitlement

Baby-3

Editorial: The last thing N.J. needs is another entitlement

April 2, 2017 at 3:00 AM

State Senate President Steve Sweeney, the sponsor of New Jersey’s 2009 paid family leave law, wants to expand the program. Giving workers paid leave from their jobs to care for a sick relative or a new baby — and paying for it with a small, capped payroll deduction — proved to be a sound idea.

Abuse has not been widespread, employers’ worst fears have not been realized and some studies have contended that companies benefit from the program.

But there is no compelling reason to expand this new entitlement, as Sweeney (D-West Deptford) is unfortunately proposing now.

Oh, wait. There is one compelling reason: To boost Sweeney’s and fellow Democrats’ chances in November, when the entire Legislature is up for election. The Democrats shouldn’t need that much help this year. But Jersey pols, Democrat and Republican, never forget what keeps them in office — giving gifts to prized constituencies.

Sweeney, in particular, is in a bit of a jam, with the powerful New Jersey Education Association, miffed by his pushback on teacher pensions, vowing to fight him. Hence, a renewed commitment by lawmakers to dangle popular proposals in front of voters — like, say, expanding the paid family leave program.

https://www.njbiz.com/article/20170402/NJBIZ01/170339943/editorial-the-last-thing-nj-needs-is-another-entitlement

Posted on

$611,318,000,000: Individual Income Taxes Set Record Through February

IRS individual taxes paid

By Terence P. Jeffrey | March 10, 2017 | 4:15 PM EST

(CNSNews.com) – The federal government collected a record of approximately $611,318,000,000 in individual income tax revenues through the first five months of fiscal 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016 through the end of February), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

That is about $6,733,300,000 more than the $604,584,700,000 in individual income taxes (in constant 2017 dollars) that the federal government collected through the first five months of fiscal 2016.

Despite collecting a record amount in individual income taxes, the Treasury still ran a $348,984,000,000 deficit in the first five months of this fiscal year.

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/611318000000-feds-collect-record-income-taxes-through-february-still-run-348984000000

Posted on

Obama Quietly Signs The “Countering Disinformation And Propaganda Act” Into Law

big-brother-poster

by Tyler Durden
Dec 26, 2016 4:01 PM

Late on Friday, with the US population embracing the upcoming holidays and oblivious of most news emerging from the administration, Obama quietly signed into law the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which authorizes $611 billion for the military in 2017.

In a statement, Obama said that:

Today, I have signed into law S. 2943, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017.” This Act authorizes fiscal year 2017 appropriations principally for the Department of Defense and for Department of Energy national security programs, provides vital benefits for military personnel and their families, and includes authorities to facilitate ongoing operations around the globe. It continues many critical authorizations necessary to ensure that we are able to sustain our momentum in countering the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and to reassure our European allies, as well as many new authorizations that, among other things, provide the Departments of Defense and Energy more flexibility in countering cyber-attacks and our adversaries’ use of unmanned aerial vehicles.”

Much of the balance of Obama’s statement blamed the GOP for Guantanamo’s continued operation and warned that “unless the Congress changes course, it will be judged harshly by history,” Obama said. Obama also said Congress failed to use the bill to reduce wasteful overhead (like perhaps massive F-35 cost overruns?) or modernize military health care, which he said would exacerbate budget pressures facing the military in the years ahead.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-24/obama-signs-countering-disinformation-and-propaganda-act-law

Posted on

Big Brother Really is Watching You

big-brother-poster

U.S. to disclose estimate of number of Americans under surveillance

By Dustin Volz | WASHINGTON

The U.S. intelligence community will soon disclose an estimate of the number of Americans whose electronic communications have been caught in the crosshairs of online surveillance programs intended for foreigners, U.S. lawmakers said in a letter seen by Reuters on Friday.

The estimate, requested by members of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, is expected to be made public as early as next month, the letter said.

Its disclosure would come as Congress is expected to begin debate in the coming months over whether to reauthorize or reform the so-called surveillance authority, known as Section 702, a provision that was added to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 2008.

“The timely production of this information is incredibly important to informed debate on Section 702 in the next Congress— and, without it, even those of us inclined to support reauthorization would have reason for concern,” said the letter signed by 11 lawmakers, all members of the House Judiciary Committee.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-surveillance-idUSKBN1452FX?il=0

Posted on

The war on ‘fake news’ is all about censoring real news

2015 01 18T130346Z 1 LYNXMPEB0H07H RTROPTP 2 BRITAIN USA

By Karol Markowicz

December 4, 2016

Scrambling for an explanation for Donald Trump’s victory, many in the media and on the left have settled on the idea that his supporters were consumers of “fake news” — gullible rubes living in an alternate reality made Trump president.

To be sure, there is such a thing as actual fake news: made-up stories built to get Facebook traction before they can be debunked. But that’s not what’s really going on here.

What the left is trying to do is designate anything outside its ideological bubble as suspect on its face.

In October, President Obama complained that we need a “curating function” to deal with the “wild-wild-west-of-information flow.” Who would be doing this “curating” is unclear — but we can guess: “Obviously,” Noah Feldman writes at Bloomberg View, “it would be better if the market would fix the problem on its own . . . But if they can’t reliably do it — and that seems possible, since algorithms aren’t (yet) fact-checkers — there might be a need for the state to step in.”

https://nypost.com/2016/12/04/the-war-on-fake-news-is-all-about-censoring-real-news/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPFacebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow&sr_share=facebook

Posted on

CENSORSHIP : Zuckerberg reveals plans to address misinformation on Facebook

facebook-dislike-1

Zuckerberg reveals plans to address misinformation on Facebook

Posted yesterday by Kate Conger (@kateconger)

Facebook’s fake news problem persists, CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged last night.

He’d been dismissive about the reach of misinformation on Facebook, saying that false news accounted for less than one percent of all the posts on the social media network. But a slew of media reports this week have demonstrated that, although fake posts may not make up the bulk of the content on Facebook, they spread like wildfire — and Facebook has a responsibility to address it.

“We’ve made significant progress, but there is more work to be done,” Zuckerberg wrote, outlining several ways to address what he called a technically and philosophically complicated problem. He proposed stronger machine learning to detect misinformation, easier user reporting and content warnings for fake stories, while noting that Facebook has already taken action to eliminate fake news sites from its ad program.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/19/zuckerberg-reveals-plans-to-address-misinformation-on-facebook/