CITY OF MESA CARBON-NEUTRAL BY 2050????

Enjoy the Over-Hype!!

Mesa becomes first to max out SRP energy-efficiency rebates

Business News | 5 hours ago | AZ Business Magazine

"It isn’t an easy feat. A milestone no other city in Salt River Project territory has ever reached, until now. SRP launched its Business Rebates in 2009 and the City of Mesa is the first municipality ever to earn the maximum of $300,000 annually in energy-efficiency rebates and incentives.

___________________________________________________________________________

SAY WHAT: Americans want to be carbon neutral, don’t want to take needed steps

Intro: Sort yourselves out -- Obviously, if you refuse to admit that there's a problem, you're not likely to support a policy meant to address it.

There are some obvious problems here with people not having a firm grip on reality. People still don't think humans are causing climate change, or they somehow refuse to recognize that reducing fossil fuel use will lead to cleaner air. But those have been issues for a while, and the people who believe those things are unlikely to support a pathway to carbon neutrality anyway.

The larger problem is that even the people who claim to support putting the US on a path that leads to carbon neutrality don't seem to realize the sorts of changes it requires. Given that, many of them are unlikely to support the policy changes that are needed to get there.

 

Americans want to be carbon neutral, don’t want to take needed steps

The country hasn't come to grips with what carbon neutrality actually means.

Reaching carbon neutrality would involve a number of dramatic steps, including the elimination of most fossil fuels for generating electricity and transportation and the development of carbon capture to offset emissions that can't be avoided.

The most obvious routes to those goals would include the electrification of vehicles and the rapid expansion of renewable power sources like wind and solar. . .. A large majority of Democrats expected to see improvements to air and water quality and an increase in job opportunities in the energy sector. Republicans were evenly split between expecting the same thing or not foreseeing any significant changes. . .

_____________________________________________________________________________

“The City of Mesa has been a strong partner of SRP’s for a very long time and one of our most-involved municipal partners,” said Brian Bednar, SRP strategic energy manager. “It took tremendous effort and commitment to implement the multitude of energy-efficient upgrades completed by the City. We applaud and celebrate all of their incredible achievements. It exemplifies the City’s commitment to support the broader health of the electric grid, while making important investments for their residents that will continue to pay off for years to come.”

For Mesa, the “best part” of hitting the milestone for the community they serve is on-going energy savings and carbon reduction. 

With more than half-a-million people living in the second-largest city in the Phoenix-metropolitan area, Mesa is focused on sustainability and Climate Action. Participating in SRP’s Business Rebate program is beneficial, both financially and environmentally, and in perfect alignment with the City leaders’ vision for the future. 

“We are all excited about this huge achievement because it brings Mesa closer to our goal of becoming a carbon neutral community by 2050. A key pathway to achieve carbon neutrality is to reduce energy use as much as possible and use clean renewable energy,” said Laura Hyneman, City of Mesa deputy director of Environmental and Sustainability, “It’s been a mutually beneficial partnership because it supports SRP’s Sustainability Goals and the City of Mesa’s Climate Action Plan.

THE CITY OF MESA HAS NOT YET PRODUCED DATA OR FACTS THAT CAN DETERMINE IF ITS OVER-HYPED STRATEGIES ARE WORKING

In addition, our Energy Resources department and SRP continue to add significant amounts of clean, renewable energy to our residents.”

Here’s how they did it.

Greenfield Water Reclamation Plant (GWRP) Variable Frequency Drives (VFD)

GWRP is one of the largest and newest “end-of-the-line” water reclamation plants in the Phoenix-metro area. The sewage treatment plant is running greener and better than ever now that new VFDs were installed. The VFDs run the plant’s equipment at an optimal setting, which saves energy and extends the life of equipment. Without VFDs the pumps at the facility run at 100 percent regardless of the amount of water coming into the facility to be processed. VFDs enable the plant operators to adjust the speed of the pumps to save energy. The upgrades are part of a larger facility expansion, which is run by the City of Mesa, but also includes the Towns of Gilbert and Queen Creek.

“The energy saved at the Water Reclamation Plant exemplifies the water-energy nexus. By taking steps to operate efficiently, the plant avoids using more than 1 million gallons of water in electricity generation,” said Chris Brady, Mesa City Manager.

Energy Savings: 2.4 million kilowatt hours (kWh) annually, which is enough energy to power more than 270 homes (based on the average U.S. household consumption of 10,715 kWh per year).

Reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: 1,701 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)

SRP Business Rebate received: $261,000

Falcon Field Airport LED Lighting Upgrade

The Falcon Field Airport is much brighter and more energy efficient these days thanks to SRP’s LED lighting rebates. The City of Mesa replaced inefficient interior and exterior light fixtures with efficient LED bulbs at 66 hangars and the Arizona Museum of Natural History.

The new lights will provide enough energy savings to power 18 homes per year and has a simple payback of less than five years.

Energy Savings: 196,000 kWh

Reduction of GHS emissions: 132 metric tons of CO2e

SRP Business Rebate received: $7,100

AZ Labs Central Plant

The researchers and engineers at AZ Labs now have a much cooler place to work and the City of Mesa will save money for years to come with new high-efficiency chillers, cooling towers, pumps and VFDs for the pumps and cooling tower fans.

Energy Savings: 170,753 kWh annually, which is enough energy to power 16 homes.

SRP Business Rebate received: $23,000

Brown Road Water Treatment Plant (BRWTP) LED Retrofit – Phase 2

Out with the old and in with newly upgraded, more-efficient LED lighting. Phase two of the energy-efficient upgrades to the BRWTP means even more indoor and outdoor space are equipped with efficient, durable long-lasting LED fixtures at the facility, which has the capacity to treat up to 72-million gallons of water per day.

Energy Savings: 134,851 kWh savings annually, which is enough energy to power 12 homes.

Reduction of GHS emissions: 115 metric tons of CO2e

SRP Business Rebate received: $5,300

AZ Research Labs – Preliminary Assessment

AZ Labs is a unique campus, owned and managed by the City of Mesa, made up of seven buildings designed to support up to 250 researchers and engineers. With the assistance from SRP Business Rebates, an old, inefficient chiller that had reached the end of its life was replaced with a new efficient chiller that serves multiple buildings. The new equipment will save 176,000 kWh per year and has a simple payback of about five years.

The City of Mesa also used an additional SRP incentive to conduct an initial assessment of future energy-efficiency projects at AZ Labs. The custom preliminary assessment conducted by the Qualified Service Provider, McKinstry, evaluated potential heating, ventilation and air conditioning and controls upgrades to help the City is determine its next steps to save.

SRP Business Rebate received: $23,000

In addition to the SRP Business Rebates, the City of Mesa also participated in and received SRP’s Business Electric Vehicle Charging and Fleet Assessment Rebate. The $20,000 incentive provides a complete study for businesses to convert their fleets to electric.

To learn how to make businesses of all sizes more energy efficient and sustainable to conserve precious resources and save money, visit savewithsrpbiz.com.

 

NEW ERA FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT + MULTILATERAL COOPERATION

Intro: Set against a complex geopolitical backdrop that includes war in Europe and growing economic decoupling between China and the US, the 2022 summit provides Beijing with a timely platform to promote its vision for how international relations should be conducted, according to analysts.    

This year’s agenda covers a range of topics, but particular emphasis will be given to renewing multilateralism for global economic recovery, deepening coordination on climate action, and strengthening coordination on pandemics and public health.

BRICS expansion

China proposed expanding the BRICS grouping during a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in May. Though the suggestion was welcomed by other member countries, there have been no official announcements of who the new members might be.

At BRICS summit, China sets stage to tout its governance model

Chinese state media has praised the bloc of emerging economies for promoting ‘non-Western styles, forms and principles’.

[Image caption: China is expected to use the upcoming BRICS summit in Beijing to tout its development and governance models [File: Alexey Nikolsky/Kremlin via Reuters]

 

Liam Gibson

aljazeera.com |

"China will host the 14th BRICS Summit on Thursday in what analysts see as a chance for Beijing to promote its governance and development model at a time of global instability.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will join with the leaders of Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa via video link to discuss issues of mutual concern as part of the summit themed around ushering in a “new era” for global development.

Ahead of the summit in Beijing, Chinese state media have praised the BRICS – an acronym for the five emerging economies that together account for about one-quarter of the global economy – for boosting “multilateral cooperation with non-Western styles, forms and principles,” and stressed the importance of the bloc at a time when “the US (is) pulling its Western allies to ‘rebel’ against globalisation”.

In May, Xi called on the group to “reject Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation, and work together to build a global community of security for all”.

Despite their substantial differences, the leaders of the five countries maintain a certain distance from the United States-led liberal order.

None of the leaders of Brazil, China, India, or South Africa openly condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for his country’s invasion of Ukraine earlier in the year.

Set against a complex geopolitical backdrop that includes war in Europe and growing economic decoupling between China and the US, the 2022 summit provides Beijing with a timely platform to promote its vision for how international relations should be conducted, according to analysts.

“BRICS is a kind of diplomatic counteroffensive by China to both the revival of NATO and the increase in Indo-Pacific mechanisms that are designed to keep its power in check,” Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera.

“Beijing is feeling increasingly isolated right now, as tensions with the US and its allies continue as a result of its tacit support for Russia’s invasion.”

Phar Kim Beng, former director of the Political-Security Community at ASEAN’s secretariat in Jakarta, said Beijing would use the summit to “highlight and criticize the ubiquitous nature of American sanctions that are imposed on thousands of individuals and entities around the world”.

“This is particularly relevant at a forum focused on the Global South,” Phar Kim Beng told Al Jazeera. “Through BRICS, China continues to draw on its legacy of ‘always siding with the third world,’ as Deng Xiaoping famously said. So I expect they’ll use this as another chance to critique American economic sanctions and to try to say ‘stop it’.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on emerging economies to ‘reject Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation, and work together to build a global community of security for all’ [File: Greg Baker/AFP]

Other than criticising the US, China is also expected to highlight its own role in the global economy. . .

. . .

“In terms of the issue area that’s most important for Beijing right now, I think it is about global economic recovery, and keeping markets open,” Stephen Nagy, an Indo-Pacific specialist and senior fellow at the MacDonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, Canada, told Al Jazeera.

“China’s economy depends on international trade for its prosperity. What we’re seeing is states consciously diversify their supply chains away from China and form new standards-setting agreements such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or proactively create coalitions that are trading with each other to ensure safe and reliable flows of energy-critical material, minerals, as well as rare earth materials,” Nagy said, referring to US President Joe Biden’s signature economic initiative unveiled last month in Tokyo. . .

[.    ]

“We can get a sense of which countries might be invited by looking at their position on Ukraine and their voting behaviour regarding the conflict at the United Nations,” Huang said. “Those developing countries who abstained or supported Russia may be recruited to join.”

Yet China may have its work cut out for it to make BRICS an attractive option as rivals compete with it for influence over emerging economies, according to some analysts.

“Much of what China is promoting through BRICS is attractive to emerging countries, but the challenge for Beijing is there is a growing number of alternatives for them … whether it is the free and open Indo-Pacific Vision with emphasis on infrastructure connectivity, standard setting, healthy infrastructure, tools for good governance, or alternative financing, as well as Japan-led and EU-led infrastructure connectivity projects,” Nagy said.

“There are a lot of different projects and initiatives that can allow emerging countries to drive development and make them less reliant on the Chinese,” he added.

“This competition could push China to be more transparent and more rules-based about its agreements along the BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] and through the ADB [Asian Development Bank], which I think will be important in diluting their geopolitical influence from the outside.”

Reference::https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/6/22/at-brics-summit-china-seeking-stage-for

THE MAGNIFICENT 7: Yesterday's News from Techdirt

Here are the seven, in chronological order starting at 06:27 AM

About Techdirt.

Started in 1997 by Floor64 founder Mike Masnick and then growing into a group blogging effort, the Techdirt blog relies on a proven economic framework to analyze and offer insight into news stories about changes in government policy, technology and legal issues that affect companies’ ability to innovate and grow. As the impact of technological innovation on society, civil liberties and consumer rights has grown, Techdirt?s coverage has expanded to include these critical topics.

The dynamic and interactive community of Techdirt readers often comment on the addictive quality of the content on the site, a feeling supported by the blog’s average of ~1 million visitors per month and more than 1.7 million comments on 73,000+ posts. Both Business Week and Forbes have awarded Techdirt Best of the Web thought leader awards.

You can also find Techdirt on Twitter and Facebook.

____________________________________________________________________________

1 06:27 AM 15 Comments Expand Collapse

Dish’s New 5G Network, Created By Trump Regulators To Justify Rubber Stamping T-Mobile Merger, Looks Like A Silly Dud

Failures

from the dysfunction-junction dept

Tue, Jun 21st 2022 06:27am - Karl Bode

"A few years ago the Trump DOJ and FCC rubber-stamped the Sprint T-Mobile merger without heeding expert warnings that it would stifle competition, kill jobs and slowly raise rates. Working closely with T-Mobile and Dish, the FCC and DOJ “antitrust enforcers” unveiled what they claimed was a “fix” for these problems: they’d cobble together a fourth major replacement wireless carrier in Dish Network.

As we noted a few times, the proposal was never likely to succeed. One, because Dish had no track record in this space outside of a parade of empty promises. Two, because the remaining three providers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile) and Wall Street want less price competition and would be incentivized at every step to ensure it fails. And three, because an incompetent and feckless FCC (displaying various degrees of said incompetence and fecklessness under both parties) would not likely dole out more than wrist slaps should Dish miss major build out milestones. . ."

 

2 09:35 AM Impossibility Theorem Strikes Again: YouTube Deletes January 6th Committee Video

Content Moderation

from the impossibility-theorem-never-fails dept

Tue, Jun 21st 2022 09:35am - Mike Masnick

"Content moderation at scale is impossible to do well says my impossibility theorem. And, basically every day we see more examples of this in action. The latest is that the NY Times reports how YouTube took down a video that the January 6th House Select Committee had posted to the site, detailing many of the lies Donald Trump made about the 2020 election.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot has been trying to draw more eyes to its televised hearings by uploading clips of the proceedings online. But YouTube has removed one of those videos from its platform, saying the committee was advancing election misinformation. . ."

 

3 10:48 AM UK Approves Extradition Of Julian Assange, Allowing The US Government To Continue Criminalizing Journalism

Free Speech

from the publishing-leaks?-that's-a-prosecuting. dept

Tue, Jun 21st 2022 10:48am - Tim Cushing

"It appears all but inevitable that Julian Assange will be receiving an all-expenses-paid (except for his defense!) one-way trip to the United States to face espionage charges for, mostly, performing acts of journalism.

The Wikileaks founder has done plenty of self-inflicted damage to his reputation over the past few years, but his organization was instrumental in uncovering plenty of abusive behavior by the US government that had been perpetrated in secret.

Leaks are an instrumental part of government accountability, even if governments often treat leaks as criminal acts. And while it’s abhorrent to see the government punish whistleblowers who found the accepted whistleblowing routes inadequate, it’s even worse to see the US government engaged in a prosecution that threatens press freedoms in the home of the First Amendment. . .

[    ] Why the Biden Administration is allowing this to continue isn’t clear. Perhaps the Biden DOJ feels the espionage charges are legit. Maybe it feels it should silence Assange before he does any more damage to the federal government. Maybe it feels it should punish an ally of Trump (and a seeming supporter of Russian disinformation campaigns) before he can wreak any more havoc on democracy in general.

Whatever the case, the prosecution continues. And, as Trevor Timm points out in his post for Freedom of the Press Foundation, you don’t have to be a supporter of Assange to understand extradition and prosecution over the publication of leaked documents will do severe damage to journalists in the United States, and anywhere else in the world the US government has extradition agreements in place.

You don’t have to like Assange or his political opinions at all to grasp the dangerous nature of this case for journalists everywhere, either. Even if you don’t consider him a “journalist,” much of the activity described in the charges against him is common newsgathering practices. A successful conviction would potentially make receiving classified information, asking for sources for more information, and publishing certain types of classified information a crime. Journalists, of course, engage in all these activities regularly.

There’s precedent for this, unfortunately. But it’s the sort of precedent the Biden DOJ shouldn’t willingly embrace. Timm notes that the extradition announcement falls on the anniversary of the Pentagon Papers trial, one instigated by a president whose downfall was the result of journalists publishing leaked documents.

What many do not know is that the Nixon administration attempted to prosecute Times reporter Neil Sheehan for receiving the Pentagon Papers as well — under a very similar legal theory the Justice Department is using against Assange.

Thankfully, that prosecution failed. And until this one does too, we continue to urge the Biden administration to drop this prosecution. Every day it continues to further undermine the First Amendment.

You’d think any administration would actively avoid replicating nearly anything instigated by the Nixon Administration. But here we are, fifty years later, experiencing deja vu as our government spends millions of our dollars to threaten long-held First Amendment protections."

Filed Under: 1st amendment, espionage act, extradition, free speech, journalism, julian assange, leaks, uk
Companies: WikiLeaks

 

4 12:14 PM Giant Private Prison Company Goes To Court To Try To Get Lawyer To Stop Tweeting About Them

Free Speech

from the you-can't-control-speech-outside-of-prison-too dept

Tue, Jun 21st 2022 12:14pm - Mike Masnick

"CoreCivic is one of the nation’s largest private prison companies. And while it should already be concerning that we even have private prison companies, CoreCivic appears to be particularly awful. Just last week, CoreCivic was in the 9th Circuit appeals court trying to overturn a dismissal of its SLAPP lawsuit that it filed against investment firm Candide Group and a Forbes writer, Morgan Simon, for making claims about the company that turned out to be pretty accurate. In the process, CoreCivic is trying to undermine California’s useful anti-SLAPP law by saying it can’t be used in federal court (something the 9th Circuit has already allowed in other cases).

But, back in Tennessee (CoreCivic’s home state), the company is looking to suppress speech in a different way: literally asking a court to issue a gag order on lawyer Daniel Horwitz, who is representing the family of Terry Childress, who died in one of CoreCivic's hellholes. . .

. . .

Yeah, maybe the reason news organizations are picking up on them is that they are newsworthy? Is CoreCivic really arguing that news organizations can’t cover a case or it will prejudice a jury? There are easy ways to deal with that during the voir dire process in determining whether or not any potential juror follows Horwitz or has seen any of these news stories.

Anyway, CoreCivic needs to learn that while it may be able to shut up the prisoners in its private prisons, outside of those prisons free speech still exists."

Filed Under: 1st amendment, anti-slapp, daniel horwitz, free speech, marie newby, prior restraint, private prisons, public records, slapp, terry childress
Companies: corecivic

 

5 01:38 PM Senators Ask Amy Klobuchar To Fix The Content Moderation Loophole In Her Antitrust Bill

Content Moderation

from the just-do-it dept

Tue, Jun 21st 2022 01:38pm - Mike Masnick

We’ve been pointing out for a long time now that the main antitrust bill making its way through the Senate has a hidden content moderation trojan horse in it. Indeed, it seems likely the main reason the bill has significant Republican support is that they know the bill will be abused to file vexatious lawsuits over content moderation decisions, attempting to get around Section 230 by claiming the decisions were actually anti-competitive. Senator Ted Cruz has admitted he supports the bill because it will “unleash the trial lawyers” to file lawsuits about content moderation against internet companies.

The Democrats supporting the bill more or less know this. The bill’s author in the Senate, Amy Klobuchar, had a chance to fix these issues, but instead chose to pander even more to Republicans by carving out the finance and telco sectors from the bill’s impact, while leaving in the problematic language that will be abused for content moderation  purposes. . .

 

6 03:39 PM Twitter Successfully Quashes Sketchy Copyright Subpoena Over Billionaire’s Critic On Twitter

Copyright

from the call-me-anonymity-protection-bags dept

Tue, Jun 21st 2022 03:39pm - Mike Masnick

You may recall that, last fall, we wrote about a truly bizarre legal fight, in which a little-followed pseudonymous Twitter account @CallMeMoneyBags had tweeted out some images of a woman, suggesting a few times that the woman was the mistress of billionaire Brian Sheth. The account put out lots of tweets generally mocking people in the private equity space, including Sheth. Sometime after the tweets including those photos, Twitter received a DMCA subpoena from a company called Bayside Advisory, which had basically no presence online, claiming it held the copyrights in those photos and demanding identifying information on Money Bags.

The most obvious assumption was that Bayside was connected to Sheth and this was a way of finding out who this anonymous critic was. Twitter stepped in to the case to seek to quash the subpoena, noting that this did appear to be an attack on anonymity - and also noting that this was an obvious fair use of the images . . .

. . .So whoever is actually behind Bayside remains a mystery. But, thankfully, so too is whoever is behind Money Bags.

Now, the question is whether or not whoever is behind Bayside wants to push their luck, and appeal to the 9th Circuit…"

Filed Under: 1st amendment, 512h, anonymity, brian sheth, callmemoneybags, copyright, criticism, dmca, free speech, lawrence hadley, supboenas
Companies: twitter

7 08:00 PM Appeals Court Tells Police Union Its Contract Doesn’t Supersede State Public Records Laws

Legal Issues

from the it's-the-people-that-own-you,-not-the-other-way-around dept

Tue, Jun 21st 2022 08:00pm - Tim Cushing

Cops love secrecy. When a citizen does something wrong, it’s a public record. When cops do the wrong thing, union contracts, internal policies, and multiple public records exemptions often allow law enforcement agencies to keep the public from learning about misconduct.

Things have been changing, though. California recently amended its public records law, making police misconduct records publicly available for the first time in the state’s history. New York recently repealed a law that allowed law enforcement to keep misconduct records secret.

The same thing happened in Connecticut. Shortly after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the legislature passed a law that nullified state Freedom of Information Act exemptions that allowed law enforcement agencies to withhold certain misconduct records. . .

. . .The Appeals Court says the public’s interests were being served by the state legislature — a legislature that was understandably compelled to increase accountability and repair the damaged trust created by years of lax oversight and law enforcement’s tendency to control the narrative by restricting access to misconduct records. All the law did was undo the damage done by the union contract. And that’s simply not enough to create a constitutional violation."

Filed Under: 2nd circuit, connecticut, foia, transparency
Companies: cspu

ORDER IN THE HOUSE: FISSURES ERUPT IN 'FAITH-AND-FREEDOM': Andy Biggs + Rusty Bowers

As most readers know by now the Arizona State House of Representatives Chairman received a Profile in Courage Award.

Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs in the U.S. House of Representative has made no secret of his allegiance to former President Donald Trump

REPORT FROM DESERET NEWS:

Here’s what this Arizona Latter-day Saint told the Jan. 6 committee about why he resisted Trump

Rusty Bowers said Trump, Giuliani, and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked him to do something he knew was not right

By D. Hunter Schwarz [month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone] 

Deseret News | Tuesday, June 21, 2022 | 

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers testified in front the Jan. 6 committee Tuesday that former President Donald Trump, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., all reached out to him about not going forward with certifying the 2020 election.

Bowers, a Latter-day Saint and Republican who represents a district in Mesa, said he supported Trump in the 2020 election but that President Joe Biden won the state. He said he got a call from the White House one Sunday and that Giuliani and Trump wanted to speak with him. Bowers said he was asked to hold an official hearing and told that there was a legal theory that states could remove the electors for Biden.

“I said, that’s totally new to me,” Bowers recalled saying in response. “I’ve never heard of any such thing.”

Bowers said on multiple occasions he asked for evidence of fraud, like the names of people who Trump’s team alleged voted in Arizona despite being dead or in the country illegally, but that evidence never came.

He said he was being asked to do something “that is counter to my oath when I swore to the Constitution to uphold it.”

“It is a tenant of my faith that the Constitution is divinely inspired,” Bowers said. “For me to do that because someone just asked to is foreign to my very being. I will not do it.”

[    ]

Trump claimed in a statement Tuesday that Bowers had told him Arizona’s 2020 election was rigged, but Bowers denied it, saying during the hearing that if “anywhere, anyone, anytime has said I said the election was rigged, that would not be true.”

Bowers, who received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award this year for defending the election, said there was no chance he would have done otherwise.

“You’re asking me to do something that’s never been done in history, the history of the United States, and I’m going to put my state through that without sufficient proof, and that’s going to be good enough with me?” Bowers said. “No sir.”

------ Reference: https://www.deseret.com/2022/6/21/23177261/what-arizona-rusty-bowers-told-trump-guiliani-and-the-jan-6-committee-lds-mormon-faith

 

Top stories

 

The Recount on Twitter: "Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R ...

twitter.com › therecount › status › video

41 minutes ago · ALEC Alumni Arizona U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs played a key role in planning the January 6 event according to #StoptheSteal founder Ali Alexander.

 

Rusty Bowers stood tall. Too bad so many Arizona politicians refused

www.azcentral.com › story › opinion › op-ed › laurieroberts › 2022/06/21

1 hour ago · House Speaker Rusty Bowers stood tall in his testimony before the Jan. ... Andy Biggs plotted to throw the state's election to Trump

 

Rusty Bowers Says Trump, Andy Biggs, And Eastman All ... - YouTube

www.youtube.com › watch

4 hours ago · Rusty Bowers Says Trump, Andy Biggs, And Eastman All Pressured Him To Disobey ...
Duration: 9:50
Posted: 4 hours ago

 

 

Bowers says Biggs asked him to sign letter to decertify state’s electors

The Hill 5 hours ago

Arizona House speaker Rusty Bowers said Rep. Biggs pressed him on decertifying electors

Axios 13 hours ago

Jan. 6 hearing features Arizona’s Rusty Bowers and reaction to Trump ask

Deseret News 3 hours ago

>

CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICAL FAR-RIGHT CHRISTIANS WANT TO KICK-SOME-BUTT IN NOVEMBER

Evangelical Christians are re-treading some old GOP lines. Several speakers made a point of quoting from scripture.

Trump, who forged an unlikely alliance with evangelicals to win the presidency, told the audience: “This is going to be the biggest turnout in midterm history, we think without question, and it’s going to have conservative Christians all over the place.”     

Critics say there is some irony in the Republican party capitalising on economic woes to brand itself the party of competence, noting that George W Bush presided over the Great Recession and Trump left office with the worst labour market in modern American history.

Republicans exude confidence at Nashville event as midterms loom

[Image caption: Donald Trump speaks at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s ‘Road to Majority’ conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on 17 June. Photograph: Seth Herald]

David Smith

Mon 20 Jun 2022 03.30 EDT

Last modified on Mon 20 Jun 2022 03.31 EDT

the Guardian |

Party officials, prominent supporters, lawmakers and Trump took the stage at the ‘Road to Majority’ Conference, but were vague on how they would ‘rescue America’

 “It’s the time to take this country back,” proclaimed Senator Rick Scott. “I’m here to tell you the American people are going to give a complete butt kicking to the Democrats this November!” The audience of religious conservatives clapped and whooped. No one felt that the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee was making an empty boast. Going into the midterm elections, the party has opinion polls, economic worries and history on its side. . .

> Scott had good reason to scent opportunity. History shows that the party that controls the White House tends to lose seats to energised opposition in midterm elections. This November Democrats face an added sense of malaise, with gas prices at $5 a gallon, a shortage of baby formula and some business leaders predicting recession.

Republicans are ready to pounce. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina told the conference: “Inflation is crushing American families and the White House tells us that inflation could be good for our economy. Excuse me? … Gas prices, inflation, economic instability. We have to be the party that saves our economy by looking back to 2016 to 2020 when we were in charge.”

Scott predicted: “I believe that we’re going to win the House and bring it back to the right. I believe that we’re going to win the Senate and bring back it back to the majority. I have a dream that with the House on our side and the Senate on our side and the White House back on our side, we will show America what leadership looks like.”

The Florida senator highlighted a 12-point plan to “rescue America” that appears designed to “trigger” liberals and has proved controversial even in his own party. But it offers an insight into likely rightwing priorities for Republicans if they gain majorities in the House and Senate.

Rick Scott at the ‘Road to Majority’ event. Photograph: Mark Humphrey/AP

Point one states: “Our kids will say the pledge of allegiance, salute the flag, learn that America is a great country, and choose the school that best fits them.”

Point three: “The soft-on-crime days of coddling criminal behavior will end. We will re-fund and respect the police because, they, not the criminals, are the good guys.”

Point four: “We will secure our border, finish building the wall, and name it after President Donald Trump.”

Point seven: “We will protect the integrity of American Democracy and stop leftwing efforts to rig elections.”

Point nine: “Men are men, women are women, and unborn babies are babies.”

Republicans exuded confidence this week at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference in Nashville, Tennessee, eager to regain power after a punishing few years that saw them shut out of the House of Representatives, Senate and White House.

Party officials, prominent supporters, senators, representatives and former president Donald Trump took the stage – set in a faux classical temple – in triumphal mood, denouncing Joe Biden for presiding over inflation and rising gas prices, though they were more vague on how they would fix it.

> Ronna McDaniel, chairperson of the Republican National Committee, added: “I can’t think of an election where we will have economic issues play such a big role, which we know they will with the gas prices and inflation. And also our values and our cultural issues will be on the ballot.” . .

> Few believed that the televised congressional hearings into the Trump-inspired insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 will provide much counterweight. . .

The gathering, held at a sprawling resort near the Grand Ole Opry House in the home of country music, also heard from former ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressmen Dan Crenshaw and Jim Jordan. But former vice-president Mike Pence, a devout Christian, did not attend after falling out with Trump over the 2020 election and being booed at last year’s event.

Attendees agreed that economic concerns are paramount . .

The conference also underlined the important role that religious conservatives still play in Republican politics. Attacking abortion rights was a popular applause line, although an imminent supreme court decision on Roe v Wade received few mentions than might have been expected.

Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, told the Politico website: “In the Republican presidential nominating process, evangelical Christians today, in the Republican party, occupy a position of criticality and centrality that is analogous to the role that African Americans play in the Democratic party.”

Several speakers made a point of quoting from scripture. Trump, who forged an unlikely alliance with evangelicals to win the presidency, told the audience: “This is going to be the biggest turnout in midterm history, we think without question, and it’s going to have conservative Christians all over the place.”

The former president elicited one of the biggest cheers of the day when he said: “Above all else, we know this. In America we don’t worship government, we worship God.” Hearing the reaction, he joked: “I think this room loves God a lot.”

The Senate is a close call in November but opinion polls suggest the question is not whether Republicans win a majority in the House but by how much. A 35-seat gain would give the party its biggest majority in more than 90 years. An 18-seat gain would eclipse the one it secured in 1995 when Newt Gingrich first became speaker.

Such an outcome would enable Republicans to block Biden’s legislative agenda and aim to turn him into a lame duck president. . .And ominously the new intake is likely to include numerous election deniers who back Trump’s “big lie”.

Trump speaks at the ‘Road to Majority’ event. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

> Such a prospect gave Trump loyalists at the Nashville event a renewed sense of swagger. Hogan Gidley, a former White House official, said: “The whiplash effect of all the prosperity that people were feeling just two years ago versus the effect of the bad policies is what’s going to drive people out to the polls in the midterms.

“It’s the juxtaposition of the success now with all the failures, and the braggadocio of the Biden administration saying, ‘Look, we’re doing everything opposite, we’re doing everything that Donald Trump didn’t do, we’re changing everything.’ Well, the effects of those policies matter to the American people and they’re hurting families in this country.”

Gidley, now director of the Center for Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute think-tank, added: “They can try to shift blame all they want to. These aren’t things that are happening to Joe Biden; they’re happening because of Joe Biden. That’s why I think a lot of people show up to events like this. They’ve never been more excited. They’ve never been more engaged. They’ve never been more willing to put skin in the game.”

Critics say there is some irony in the Republican party capitalizing on economic woes to brand itself the party of competence, noting that George W Bush presided over the Great Recession and Trump left office with the worst labour market in modern American history.

Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University in Washington, observed: “The Republicans don’t have any answers to the economy or to inflation, It’s not as if oh, if we vote Republican, that’s going to solve it all. That’s ridiculous. But if you lose your democracy, you’re not getting it back. That’s infinitely more important than come-and-go inflation.”

ANOTHER CLOUDFARE OUTAGE...Not a good look for a company that advertses its services as a way to reduce down-time

O Lordy! Cloudflare has experienced similar issues in the past such as in July and August 2020.

Update June 21st, 4:36AM ET: Updated with Cloudflare’s confirmation that the issues have been resolved.

A Cloudflare outage broke large swathes of the internet

By Jon Porter@JonPorty Jun 21, 2022, 3:34am EDT

The Verge |

Cloudflare experienced an outage on Tuesday morning, according to its status page. Cloudflare’s technology powers numerous other sites and services across the internet, and the outage seemed to impact a range of different sites, including Discord, Shopify, Grindr, Fitbit, and Peleton, according to Downdetector. Reports of issues started at around 2:30AM ET. Cloudflare reported that it resolved the issue at 4:06AM ET.

The issues were most problematic for users of Cloudflare’s own DNS lookup service. Multiple Verge staff members found they were unable to access any websites at all during the outage as a result of using Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 DNS service. Thankfully, the fix here is simple: change your DNS configuration. I found that simply switching back to using my ISP’s default DNS settings resolved most of my issues. . . "

Next Up In Tech

• The world’s first PlayStation 5 ‘Slim’ now exists thanks to a YouTuber
• Today I learned you can identify plants and flowers using just your iPhone camera
• Sony could have a trio of new gaming headsets on the way
• Philips Hue gets a new Tap dial switch, customizable track lighting, and more
• There has to be a better way to binge
• You’ll be able to bet against Bitcoin with an ETF, before you can buy a Bitcoin ETF