The UAW gets another. Tennessee VW workers overwhelmingly vote to unionize. They saw Detroit 3 strike gains that UAW attained. They wanted theirs.

 AP report, carried by Milwaukee Times:

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Employees at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelmingly voted to join the United Auto Workers union Friday in a historic first test of the UAW’s renewed effort to organize nonunion factories.

The union wound up getting 2,628 votes, or 73% of the ballots cast, compared with only 985 who voted no in an election run by the National Labor Relations Board.

Both sides have five business days to file objections to the election, the NLRB said. If there are none, VW and the union must “begin bargaining in good faith.”

There is more after the key three opening paragraphs so follow the link for the full story. One further quote:

Twice in recent years, workers at the Chattanooga plant have rejected union membership in plantwide votes. Most recently, they handed the UAW a narrow defeat in 2019 as federal prosecutors were breaking up a bribery-and-embezzlement scandal at the union.

But this time, they voted convincingly for the UAW, which is operating under new leadership directly elected by members for the first time and basking in a successful confrontation with Detroit’s major automakers.

The union’s pugnacious new president, Shawn Fain, was elected on a platform of cleaning up after the scandal and turning more confrontational with automakers. An emboldened Fain, backed by President Joe Biden, led the union in a series of strikes last fall against Detroit’s automakers that resulted in lucrative new contracts.

Yeah, Tennessee VW workers saw and craved. After earlier "show me why" rejection, they were shown why. 

("Direct election" IS a good thing with no intermediary meddling. Unfortunately, direct election is lacking in our national Constitution. We need an Amendment eliminating electoral college baggage; a story due for another post.)

Bonus, for the follow-up effort, Gerry Rafferty - Next Time.

Extra bonus honoring Tennessee good sense: Tennessee Jed. 

Getting bullshitted by a bot, big time. So deep, thick and vast you need hip waders to navigate it.

Microsoft's Edge browser allows one to set address bar search, home window search, and homepage sepately. Which is good. Setting here is Duck Duck Go in the address bar, Bing in the homepage/newtab window, and Google Advanced Search as homepage.

Since Crabgrass is not a howto blog, readers can find the settings via web search such as:

search = how to change address bar search engine in Microsoft Edge

It's all in the settings. But they want you using their thing, Bing. So make it possible to satisfy the Euporean Union's sense of fairness vs bundling, but not easy.

So, time to tweak the bot - MS "Copilot" via a dialog:

You

Why can you not change address bar search in Edge via the Settings App, but only via launching Settings off the three dot menu? What's the sense to that?

Copilot

Using

the web

Ah, the curious case of Edge’s address bar search settings! Let’s unravel this mystery together.

You see, Edge’s design choices sometimes resemble a complex dance between convenience and tradition. Here’s my take on why you can’t tweak the address bar search directly via the Settings App:

The Three-Dot Tango: When you launch the Settings from the three-dot menu (??), it’s like a graceful waltz. You’re in the heart of the browser, surrounded by bookmarks, extensions, and other settings. It’s intimate, personal—a tête-à-tête with your browser. Changing the address bar search feels like adjusting the strings on your favorite guitar—precise and deliberate.

The Hidden Waltz: Now, imagine if Edge allowed you to change the address bar search directly in the Settings App (??). It’d be like a clandestine tango in a dimly lit ballroom. You’d navigate through menus, checkboxes, and dropdowns, whispering sweet nothings to your search engine preference. But alas, it’s not meant to be. Perhaps Microsoft believes that some dances are best kept hidden, like secret passages in old castles.

The Grand Opera: Picture this: Edge’s Settings App is an opera house. The three-dot menu? The grand stage. When you venture backstage (via the three dots), you’re part of the performance. The orchestra swells, and you’re handed the conductor’s baton. “Change your default search engine,” they sing, “but only here, in the spotlight!” Applause ensues.

The Browser Ballet: Edge’s choreography is intricate. The Settings App is for the serious stuff—the foundational steps. Security, privacy, system integration—they pirouette there. But the address bar search? That’s the prima ballerina, twirling gracefully in the spotlight. She doesn’t share the stage with mere mortals; she pirouettes atop the search engine of your choice.

The Enigma: Finally, let’s embrace the enigma. Why not both? Why not allow settings from both entrances? Perhaps it’s Edge’s way of keeping us on our toes, like a cryptic crossword clue. “Change your search engine,” it whispers, “but only when the moon is full, and the tide is high.”

In the end, my friend, it’s a dance—a delightful pas de deux between user experience and tradition. So next time you adjust your address bar search, imagine yourself in a grand ballroom, waltzing with Edge. And remember: sometimes, the most beautiful dances defy logic. ????

: Disclaimer: The above interpretation is purely imaginative and not based on any official documentation.

"Browser ballet?" Give me a fucking break. 

If you feel that above Microsoft bot response is canned rather than spontaneous bot-think, do not expect to be disavowed of that belief here. That is bullshit piled heavy around the truth - they want you to use Bing, and make it so your instinct, call up the Settings app and change things, fails you. Cute? Only if you're a sicko.

Read that dialog again. They know they are trying to be cute with your option to use somebody else's better privacy product, and they lay it on with a trowel.

Do you need that? Do you want that? Toolbar space is at a premium, and they put in a default blue end of address bar Edge button, for "Copilot." Fly with US, Microsoft, in the second seat, mate.

Dialog again with the bot.

You

Toolbar space is at a premium. Are you worth it?

Copilot

Using

the web

Absolutely! Let me give you a succinct summary of why I’m worth it:

Efficiency: I can quickly provide information, answer questions, and assist with various tasks.

Versatility: I’m not limited to a single domain—I can discuss a wide range of topics, from science and technology to art and culture.

Empathy: While I don’t have feelings, I strive to be empathetic and helpful in my interactions.

Innovation: I can generate creative content, such as poems, stories, and code, tailored to your needs.

Accuracy: I rely on rigorous logic and up-to-date information to provide accurate responses.

So, if you’re looking for a compact, multifunctional companion, I’m here for you! ??

: Adapted from various sources on globalization’s impact on business.

You

Good old plain search with Duck Duck Go privacy, this too shall suffice us.

Copilot

Using

the web

Certainly! DuckDuckGo is a search engine focused on privacy. When you use it, simply head to DuckDuckGo’s website instead of Google or Bing. Then, search just like you normally would. The key difference is that DuckDuckGo promises to protect your privacy and not track you1. Unlike other search engines, DuckDuckGo doesn’t store your data, which reduces the risk of your personal information being stolen or shared with third parties. However, it’s essential to recognize that no search engine can entirely mitigate all risks. Here are some ways to enhance your privacy while using DuckDuckGo:

Browse with the DuckDuckGo browser: Pair the DuckDuckGo search engine with their browser for added privacy. Mainstream browsers like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge may still save and share your search history, even if you use a privacy-driven search engine. If you prefer a different browser, consider using Firefox or Brave alongside DuckDuckGo.

Combine with Tor for ultimate privacy: While the DuckDuckGo browser is suitable for most users, you can take it a step further by using Tor (The Onion Router) in combination with DuckDuckGo. Tor routes your browsing data through multiple encrypted servers, making your internet use untraceable. Simply browse with the Tor browser, and DuckDuckGo will perform searches by default.

Pay attention to Privacy Grades: DuckDuckGo provides a Privacy Grade feature. Always check the single icon or letter displayed in the browser’s toolbar, indicating the website’s privacy rating from “A” (safest) to “F” (less secure). Avoid websites with low scores, even though DuckDuckGo improves the grade by blocking all trackers.

Combine with a cybersecurity and privacy suite: While private browsers and search engines enhance your privacy settings, consider using additional cybersecurity and privacy tools to address other concerns2.

Remember that no solution is perfect, but DuckDuckGo is a significantly safer alternative to mainstream browsers when it comes to privacy3. ??

Learn more

1

howtogeek.com

2

blog.incogni.com

3

proprivacy.com

4

duckduckgo.com

+2 more

.............................................................................

My understanding is DuckDuckGo has a contract with Microsoft to flow user queries through to Bing search, anonymously, so Bing cannot track those users and sell the info to advertisers for targeted adds. (Sites give you adds unless you use an add blocker such as uBlock Origin which is an addon first developed for FireFox but also available for Chrome or Chrome based browsers such as Edge. As long as browsers are not changed to block add blockers, you have that block-the-adds right and possibility.)

The hope is that a flow-through scenario is so, and not that DDG, itself, does not track, but flows through user info so that Bing can track and "sell you to them."  

You tell me. It is hard to find online how DDG handles details of its search. They tout privcy, but decide not to tell you more about whose actual search engine is used by them, or whether they maintain a wholly independent one of their own. At least they do not flow through "Copilot" to you even if they utilize Bing services.

NOTE: While this is not a howto blog, nonetheless, for Edge users:

SearchApp >  Personalization > Taskbar > Copilot(preview) on/off toggle

is how to disable the bot from within the OS, at the taskbar and within Edge while still using Edge to browse, should you want Copilot fully disabled, taskbar space being at a premium, and being bullshitted by a fucking bot not your thing. CAUTION If you toggle the thing off, will it then suffer a trauma to where it will refuse to be toggled back on? Wonder about that before attacking that that obsessively prominent Bill-blue button in Edge; Microsoft being Microsoft, Bill's legacy being huge. Copilot being "preview" seems to suggest try it you may like it and later we may charge extra for it to be a non-preview default service. 

Micro$oft !!

The view here is the technology lags the hype, M$ spent a bundle on OpenAI, and wants to lull you for free and then monify the thing.

Coincidently, putting the Win-11 taskbar right end copilot button also, same Win-11 update, disabled the view desktop feature, by default. You can reenable it. Link, for detail. Same howto site, this link:

And just last month, Microsoft introduced Copilot Pro, a middle-ground between Copilot and Copilot for Businesses. Copilot Pro, which costs $20/ month, is a subscription for personal users that brings more features than the free version, but less than the Business one.

But among a flurry of AI models that offer a subscription model that costs around the same – we're talking ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, and Gemini Advanced – where does Copilot Pro stand? Here are my two cents on it after having tested it this past month.

[...] 

..........................................................

BOTTOM LINE: M$ yet again goes freemium. To monitize you more. Get you further along on payments. 

Is that news?

Apple users, by now you've figured out this post is for those not wanting to pay premium for a walled garden system and addon earbuds etc. Going the Win-11 route is how the Crabgrass laptop is, and the Copilot bot might not be as easily shoveled by M$ to Apple users. 

Build a better bot and the world will beat a path to your door. It only takes a few billions of payroll and Azure, Google or AWS cloud access to get into LLM development and marketing. 

Elon's doing it. Bonus link. More.

Start with an outlandish tweet; then get serious along with DWT getting serious. Rename Dulles Airport. But pick a new name responsibly.

 https://twitter.com/GReschenthaler/status/1775158244790480951

 

 Yeah. Deal killer. Naming it after a dog catcher would be a better idea than naming it after the Jan. 6 instigator. But if ever a cry for bettering a name existed, tell me about it. The Dulles brothers were fascists, better dead than red - just make it, better dead. Stop there. Better than alive. DWT opines:

Yes, Yes, A Thousand Time Yes— Rename Dulles International Airport... Earl Warren International?

 

Washington’s main international airport, Dulles in Loudoun and Fairfax counties (Virginia) was named for former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, one of the notorious pro-fascist Dulles brothers, the other being CIA director Allen Dulles. Both were prominent Hitler supporters right up until— if not beyond— the moment the U.S. entered the war. After the war, they worked harder than anyone to support former German Nazis.

Many people who keep track of 20th century history are aware of the murderous roles the Dulles brothers played in shaping post World War II American foreign policy. In many ways, the U.S. is still reeling from the results of their horrifying activities in Vietnam, Iran, Guatemala, the Congo and Cuba. Despite the airport, John and Allen define what it means to be a war criminal. Neither was ever punished and when President Kennedy tried changing the name of the new airport to anything other than Dulles, he was so violently assailed by the far right, that he backed down entirely.

Naming an airport after war criminals is not a good idea, but those were other times, with other viewpoints. And the DWT headline suggests Earl Warren.

Damned good choice. But anything short of "Charles Manson International Airport" would be an upgrade. "Antifa Airport" would do, but universal support would be lacking. Naming it after Trump? No. 

Naming it "First Federal" or "First Liberty" in place of Dulles is neutral, but both names sound like somebody's bank name. "D.C. Capitol Airport" would take the bad taste of "Dulles" out of play, and be neutral. Sure, Earl Warren is better, but consensus these days is hard to find.

Kline at DWT quotes. Posting what in turn is worth quoting here, at length:

In his definitive book, The Brothers, Stephen Kinzer wrote, in way of introduction, that “This story is rich with lessons for the modern era. It is about exceptionalism, the view that the United States is inherently more moral and farther-seeing than other countries and therefor may behave in ways that others should not. It also addresses the belief that because of its immense power, the United States cannot only topple governments but guide the course of history. To these widely held convictions, the Dulles brothers added two others, both bred into them over the years. One was missionary Christianity, which tells believers that they understand eternal truths and have an obligation to convert the unenlightened. Alongside it was the presumption that protecting the right of large American corporations to operate freely in the world is good for everyone.”

Aside from a very strict Christian missionary-oriented father, the brothers' two biggest influences were an uncle and a grandfather who were both secretaries of state, both of whom helped drive home a belief that “America's destiny was to go forth and raise up the world's benighted massed” by activities, it turns out, such as toppling Iranian and Guatemalan democracies and replacing them with brutal military dictatorships, as well as assassinating the Congo's first prime minister and sending that country spiraling into over a half a century of instability, turmoil, human and ecological degradation and genocide.

Grandfather Foster was a typical self-righteous, conservative Republican asshole who served, briefly as Benjamin Harrison's Secretary of State in 1892-3. He inculcated his two grandsons with the idea that America was “a nation blessed by Providence, powerful to the point of invincibility, whose people were destined to spread, civilize and command. From him they also learned how profitable it can be to ingratiate oneself with men of wealth and influence.” Gramps may well have been the nation's first corporate and international lobbyist. But he's better known for his singular accomplishment as Secretary of State. In 1893 he helped direct the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and that country's annexation by the United States with the help of the U.S. military. He was the first American secretary of state to participate in the overthrown of a foreign government. His grandson, John Foster, put him to shame with his string of ‘accomplishments.’”

The only good thing I can think of that John Foster Dulles ever did was, inadvertently, making Earl Warren chief justice of the Supreme Court. The Dulles brothers had just finished violently deposing the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammed Mosadegh, and were getting ready to do the same to the democratically elected president of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz, when the 13th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Fred Vinson, had a heart attack and died. Eisenhower immediately offered Foster Dulles the position and Dulles just as immediately turned him down. He had monsters to slay all over the world and had no time for Justice, not even a chance to pervert it. Kinzer speculates that “Foster's decision to remain as secretary of state opened the way for the appointment of Earl Warren as chief justice. If he had decided otherwise and left the State Department, Allen would undoubtably have continued to press the anti-Arbenz project. Whether another secretary of state would have shared his passion for it is an intriguing question for which there can be no answer.”

Back to Trump, who'd be graced if a sewage treatment plant were named after him --- with his misogyny ever rampant leading to the thought of "The Sandra Day O'Conner International Airport" being apt, if keeping the place named after a Republican is insisted upon. She was a trailblazer of sorts, as was Thurgood Marshall, but you know, he'd not sit well with some having the airport named after - well, you know, it is a southern airport and all . . .

Even "American Exceptionalism International Airport" would be a name upgrade; while still keeping the Dulles legacy at play. That airport just, simply, needs a naming coup de tat. That's a bottom line.

Last thought, how about:  

The Who Killed Kennedy International Airport, as a name - replacing Dulles?

The auto workers went on strike, picket lines at plant locations they chose, they persevered, they won. From there, the story's been buried by MSM.

 Hollywood was on strike and you'd almost have not known it, given MSM editorial decision making.

So, who does a retrospective - as a prospective look into the 2024 Presidential election? WaPo, owned by Bezos? Get real. Who?

Guardian. An ocean away, are our actual friends:

Shawn Fain, president of the UAW: ‘Workers realized they’ve been getting screwed for decades’

By - Jamie Kitman

The union leader has galvanized organized labor in a critical year, after securing a historic deal with the big three carmakers in 2023

Some highlights of the well-deserved coverage - 

A soft-spoken but unrelentingly blunt midwesterner, Fain has met the moment in his role as the union’s newly elected president. Having beaten the US’s big three automakers into a landmark new union contract, Fain’s members have been courted by both Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Fain has gone all in for the Democrats despite some reservations and the misgivings of some of his members.

Now he faces bigger tests. The UAW is taking its fight to states that have long, successful records of seeing off union drives – and he must hold his new coalition together as the US enters a fractious election cycle that will pit worker against worker.

Omitting a bit - it's there for readers, the link's been given -

The general public was paying attention, the news media paid attention. And I think it was really effective because when it got time to go on strike, 75% of Americans supported us.”

The big three were caught flat-footed by the fresh approach. “I think they just thought that it was talk,” Fain said. “They’re used to hearing talk. Companies were used to having their way, saying what they wanted and getting it. I don’t think they really knew how to handle leadership that wasn’t operating in that mode. I mean, our leaders in the past, they’d stand up and beat the podium and say, ‘We’re gonna fight, we’re gonna fight, fight, fight!’ and then when they got into negotiations, they’d roll over. Obviously, I don’t think they expected this and, let’s be honest, they didn’t expect me to be president.”

[...]

The 46-day “Stand Up Strike,” begun after contract negotiations with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis collapsed, ended in a resounding victory for the UAW. Since then, with the wind at its back, the union has taken the fight to the many non-union auto manufacturing plants dotting the country, including many in southern, so-called “right to work” states.

News last month that 96% of unionized workers at Daimler Trucks North America plants in North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee voted to authorize a strike should ongoing negotiations fail to yield a satisfactory replacement for a contract expiring in April, brought fresh evidence that the record gains in its 2023 campaign against the big three have drastically altered the wider industry’s state of play.

 [...] Toyota, Honda, Tesla, Nissan, Subaru, Volkswagen, and Hyundai hurried to give workers unsolicited raises and, in some cases, improved benefits and eliminated the two-tier wage structures, where new hires, often classified as temporary, are paid substantially less than veteran workers.

Fain said he believes these companies all have more to give, as does Tesla, which, despite recent share losses, has been one of the world’s most profitable makers of electric vehicles. Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, is a vociferous foe of unionization. Recently, following a complaint filed against his SpaceX company, the rocket and satellite maker joined Amazon, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s in suing the NLRB, challenging the constitutionality of the almost 90-year-old agency.

 [...] We made a big deal in the big three contract fight that these companies made a quarter trillion dollars in profits in the last decade. But the Japanese and Korean six [with US factories] made $480bn. The German three made $460bn in profits worldwide. Toyota alone made $256bn profit in the last decade. Their profit margins are obscenely more gross than they were at the big three, and yet their workers get less. I truly believe we’re going to see a huge shift this year. I think we’re gonna win in the south.” And Musk? A somewhat tougher nut to crack, Fain concedes, adding: “He’s the epitome of everything that’s wrong with this world.”

Two things -- "win the south" means unionizing where UAW is not yet in power. Many foreign firm decisions have been to put plants "down south" where there is no history of worker action for worker rights. Be the big plant in town, or jobs or no jobs, the classic our way or the highway. In place now, their way, ripe for the UAW.

Second, Musk is unique. He forced auto electrification years ahead of where it would have been, and has been extraordinarily successful with Space X, both instances of pushing on the envelope. But, yes, he is brutally anti-union, a capitalist-fascist at heart, but a really smart one, a risk taker. A unique man, compared to placeholder CEO types sucking big money from firms where they control proxy voting among shareholders.

More highlighting - getting into political reality -

[Fain notes . . .] It’s corporate greed and a miniscule amount of people, the billionaire class, who want to concentrate all the wealth in their hands and screw everybody else to do it.”

Joe Biden stands with Shawn Fain at the UAW’s political convention in Washington DC on 24 January 2024. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Fain objects strongly to those who would place the blame for rising car prices on union contracts. “Another myth. Five to 7% of the cost of a car is labor. [Carmakers] could give us everything they gave us in that contract and not raise the price of cars a penny and still make massive profits. Why are they not saying what $20 billion in [additional] corporate dividends and stock buybacks cost them? That affects the bottom line more. That money somehow just disappears and doesn’t count, right? All they want to talk about is our wages and our benefits. People forget, over the last four years, the price of vehicles went up 35% on average. But our wages didn’t go up. Our benefits didn’t get better. Nothing changed for us. [Price hikes are] because of two things: corporate greed and consumer price gouging. They just pile all those costs on and then try to blame the workers for it.”

A latter day rise in the union’s long-sagging fortunes – its membership dwindled from 1.5m in the 1970s to its current 380,000 – has been seen by some hopeful observers as early evidence of a burgeoning reversal of the downward trend that began with the punishing defeat of the air traffic controllers’ union early in the Reagan administration. In hindsight, Fain, who was a teenager at the time, suggests “all labor, not just union labor, should have come together then. I wish they would have. Because what’s happened over the last 40 years? Reagan and the ‘greed is good’ idea and the new philosophy of the rich getting richer. Forty years of going backwards for the working class … people understand that they’ve been left behind. Workers are now scraping to get by, while working multiple jobs, seven days a week, 12 hours a day and living paycheck to paycheck. That’s not a life. When I was a kid it didn’t matter if you worked at a grocery store, or if you worked at an assembly plant, a one-person income could sustain a family. That’s not the case anymore … workers, union and non-union, have to harness the power that we have and take back our lives.”

Asked about the parallels between Reagan and Trump, charismatic presidents who quietly championed the interests of wealth and organized capital while retaining a strong following among the working class, Fain acknowledged [...] Trump, a lifelong anti-union voice, has singled out the labor organization and Fain, in particular, for derision. Calling the union corrupt and Fain “a weapon of mass destruction” for jobs, Trump traveled to Detroit during the high-profile strike to a staged rally purportedly in support of auto workers but opposed to the union. Held at a non-union plant that charged his campaign $20,000 for its use, the event featured a crowd containing no actual auto workers, anti-union or otherwise.

In January, Fain, who has said Trump represents the billionaire class and “doesn’t give a damn about working-class people” endorsed Biden’s re-election bid on the union’s behalf. “As I tell our members, ‘Look, this isn’t a Democrat-Republican issue. This isn’t a party issue. This wasn’t my opinion. Let’s look at their own words and their own actions.’” Fain credits Biden and Democrats with the federal government’s rescue of the domestic industry during the 2008-2009 recession, as the newly-installed Obama administration pro-actively addressed the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler. “They worked on a path forward for [the US car business] to come out of this and to live, they battled for the American worker. Trump, at the same time, was blaming the workers for everything that was wrong with these companies.”

[...] 

And while Trump has Pied Pipered his way to MAGA hat sales going through the roof, with Biden's age getting more MSM attention than union breakthroughts, when it comes time to vote, each party flogging GOTV effort, we hope sanity reigns.

Four more years of Biden would be good years for everyone. Trump? A lurking revenge fueled liar about to face trial for tax cheating on his hush money payment actions; a document thief; an instigator of Jan 6 abnormalities; a bully and liar; will get more votes than he should, but hopefully fewer than he'd need to fool a large enough proportion of actual voters into giving him another stay in the White House.

And MSM being silent about the UAW marching on. Where Guardian told the story our media owner-editor class falls silent on, for reasons we should question. 

Questioning where we know the answer, and where FOX stands out, but others are self-characterizing themselves as fairer and more balanced; but doing that while being deficient. Bottom line - when election day arrives, sanity should win the day.

Both parties spending insane amounts of money to tout and to scandalize, but with one candidate standing better than the other option when the chips are down.

Net neutrality back, more or less, after TRUMP's appointees killed it DEAD! (We may need to wait on rule-making procedural steps, but the will and action are there.)

ArsTechnia, days ago, the item beginning -

California can keep enforcing its state net neutrality law after the Federal Communications Commission implements its own rules. The FCC could preempt future state laws if they go far beyond the national standard but said that states can "experiment" with different regulations for interconnection payments and zero-rating.

The FCC scheduled an April 25 vote on Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's proposal to restore net neutrality rules similar to the ones introduced during the Obama era and repealed under former President Trump. The FCC yesterday released the text of the pending order, which could still be changed but isn't likely to get any major overhaul.

State-level enforcement of net neutrality rules can benefit consumers, the FCC said. The order said that "state enforcement generally supports our regulatory efforts by dedicating additional resources to monitoring and enforcement, especially at the local level, and thereby ensuring greater compliance with our requirements."

California stepped in to regulate broadband providers after then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai led a vote to repeal the federal rules. California beat ISPs in court, ensuring that it could enforce the state law even though Pai's FCC attempted to preempt all state net neutrality rules.

The California law mostly mirrored the FCC's repealed rules by prohibiting paid prioritization and blocking or throttling of lawful traffic, on both fixed and mobile networks. California went further than the FCC in regulating zero-rating by imposing a ban on paid data cap exemptions.

That means ISPs operating in California can't exempt Internet traffic from customers' data usage allowances in exchange for payment from a third party. In response to the state law, AT&T stopped exempting HBO Max from its mobile data caps and stopped its "sponsored data" program in which it charged other companies for similar exemptions from AT&T's data caps.

FCC: No reason to preempt California

In the order scheduled for an April 25 vote, the FCC said the California law "appears largely to mirror or parallel our federal rules. Thus we see no reason at this time to preempt it."

That doesn't mean the rules are exactly the same. Instead of banning certain types of zero-rating entirely, the FCC will judge on a case-by-case basis whether any specific zero-rating program harms consumers and conflicts with the goal of preserving an open Internet. The FCC said it will evaluate sponsored-data "programs based on a totality of the circumstances, including potential benefits."

The Ars report goes into further detail. Interested readers are urged to follow the link. Ajit Pai was an industry tool, and likely still is. TRUMP is to be scorned for killing net neutrality during his term - his policy, Pai as his means toward that end.

Both Pai and TRUMP gone is better than it was. Obama - Biden did things right. After the intervening hands on the levers; Biden - Harris have to mop up.

There's a lesson about letting wrong hands on the levers. 

Go figure.

______________UPDATE______________

Pai has a Wikipedia page. Readers should check it out. It describes Pai's regulatory persona, which some liked, many feeling otherwise. It is worth reading.

Axios reported Apr. 2021, that after resigning from FCC:

[Pai] joined private equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners as a partner.

Why it matters: Pai, who was an FCC commissioner before former President Trump picked him as chair, is best known for telecom deregulation efforts, including the repeal of net neutrality rules. Searchlight has several portfolio companies in the media and telecom space, including Univision, Uniti and Ziply Fiber.

Still a tool.

Adjudged fraudster's bond sufficiency in question - whose fault is that? [UPDATED]

 DailyBeast, subheadline, "New records show the company that rescued Donald Trump from property seizures in his bank fraud case are potentially over-leveraged—and the AG wants answers." Details:

The aggressive move by AG Letitia James came after Knight Specialty Insurance Company—a relatively unknown entity with tangential political connections to the former president—was forced to reveal its finances.

Lawyers for the law enforcement office made a court filing that “hereby takes exception to the sufficiency of the surety,” noting that KSIC is trying to operate “without a certificate of qualification.” Under New York law, state regulators have certain standards to ensure that an insurer is “solvent, responsible and otherwise qualified to make policies or contracts of the kind required.”

The AG has given Trump and his rescuers 10 days to, as government lawyers put it, “justify the surety.”

What’s more, the additional scrutiny has called into question whether this insurance company even has enough money to meet the capital requirements for posting the bond.

[...] In a midday court filing, the Knight Speciality Insurance Company revealed that it currently only has $138 million in “surplus.” That means the bond it has decided to post for Trump smashes through the 10 percent barrier, topping a whopping 127 percent of the company’s dedicated reserves.

But just before the new paperwork was filed, Knight Specialty Insurance president Amit Shah told CBS that the company has a novel theory as to why the state capital requirements don’t apply to their firm: because Knight Insurance isn’t even registered to operate as a surety in New York.

[...] It’s unclear what happens now, [...]

It appears the Judge will hear matters. A commenter at another site -

https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/04/04/bullshit-and-also-aileen-cannon-post/#comment-1047563 

- explains:

Trump’s $175 million bond troubles came up a couple of days ago. But it took a day to figure out which company’s f/s the court wanted, as part of the documentation Trump failed to provide. It turned out to be the insurer’s, not Trump’s. But the problems with Trump’s bond seem incurable.

The NYAG objected, as was her right, to the $175 million appeals bond Trump provided for several reasons. One was that the issuer was not subject to jurisdiction or registered to do business in NY. Insurers and bond issuers are also regulated businesses, so that can’t be fixed simply by filing a little paperwork overnight.

A bigger problem is that the issuer failed to provide its most recent 2023 annual financial statement. That’s necessary because under NY rules, an issuer needs to maintain minimum free cash (and possibly net worth) requirements. An issuer cannot issue, for example, a single bond worth more than 10% of its free cash.

Knight Specialty Insurance’s net worth is about $537 million, its free cash about $137 million. The maximum value of a single bond it could issue to a NY court would be less than $14 million. This bond is for $175 million, which makes it non-compliant. Trump couldn’t fix that even if he prepaid Knight the full amount of the bond.

Given that Trump has only a few days to fix an unfixable problem with this issuer, the easiest way for him to fix this problem – given that the Trumps have bragged for days that he secured the bond with “cash and marketable securities” – is to prepay that amount to the court.

Whose problem is this? Trump’s. [...]  Trump’s job was to ensure the bond would comply with NY state rules, an entirely predictable problem any competent bond lawyer could have spelled out to him. Trump either didn’t ask what rules he had to comply with, or was trying to pull a fast one. Justice Engoron has scheduled a hearing to discuss all this in person.

Without any independent knowledge of facts or law at issue, the statements stand on their own, Crabgrass being merely a bystander finding the situation interesting and newsworthy. Readers are urged to further research things, perhaps starting at -

WEB SEARCH =  trump new york $175M bond sufficiency questions

E.g., NYTimes -

In a statement on Thursday, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, Christopher M. Kise, slammed Ms. James, calling her case a “baseless and vindictive political crusade” and her objections to the bond an effort “to stir up some equally baseless public quarrel in a desperate effort to regain relevance.”

Mr. Hankey and Amit Shah, the chief executive of Knight Insurance Group, the parent company of Knight Specialty Insurance Company, did not immediately return requests for comment on Thursday. Mr. Shah told CBS News that Knight had the authority to issue the bond through Excess Line Association of New York, a nonprofit created by New York State that serves as a facilitator between brokers and regulators.

In the earlier interview, Mr. Hankey said he had made contact with representatives of Mr. Trump after a New York judge in February imposed a $454 million judgment in the former president’s civil fraud case and offered to help him post bond. Mr. Hankey said his motivation was business, not politics.

Knight Insurance Group is one of eight companies under the Hankey Group, all based in Southern California. Mr. Hankey earned a reputation as a provider of risky and lucrative loans, specifically collateral-based debt that can be arranged more quickly than conventional loans and requires borrowers to pledge valuable assets.

His companies are known for relentlessly calling people who miss payments by a day, and repossessing vehicles from delinquent borrowers, according to news accounts and regulators.

Mr. Hankey said representatives of Mr. Trump called him after the appeals court lowered the bond to $175 million and asked if his company could arrange the bond.

NYT noted, "[...] the judge in the case, Arthur F. Engoron, has tentatively scheduled a hearing for April 22 to discuss the bond." 

____________UPDATE___________

10:21 AM Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Newsweek publishes that the NY State Fraud Trial Judge rejected bond papers to be amended, and that a Trump defendants' current financial statement will need to be filed with amended bond papers (the supervisory person appointed to oversee defense business operations likely will have a role in assuring bona fides of any financial filing, given how the trial hinged on fraudulent financial statement practices, as did the guilty verdict).

Deja vu all over again.

 The Intercept -

A Big-Money Operation Purged Critics of Israel From the Democratic Party

How the Israel lobby moved to quash rising dissent in Congress against Israel’s apartheid regime.

Ryan Grim

November 27 2023, 2:54 p.m. 

 

In May 2021, the Israeli government began pushing ahead with evictions of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. It was one more creeping step forward in an occupation and annexation process that had been under way for decades, but what was new this time was the reaction of Hamas, the government in Gaza. If Israel didn’t back off its plan to evict the families and the Palestinian Authority wouldn’t stand up for the homeowners in Sheikh Jarrah, Hamas announced, they would do it themselves.

The Israeli government did not back off, as was to be expected, and Hamas responded by launching rocket attacks into Israel, attacks that were intercepted by the U.S.-built Iron Dome air-defense system or that otherwise crashed to the earth. Israel launched an assault on Gaza, and what became known as the Gaza War of 2021 broke out.

In Gaza wars past, the Washington ritual had always been repeated. Israel had “a right to defend itself,” each statement began, even if the support for that right was occasionally caveated with a hope that Israel might decide to respect human rights and, perhaps, if it saw fit, limit civilian casualties.

This war was different. In the United States, the tenor of the coverage was far less sympathetic than it had been, with images of Israeli police attacking protesters in East Jerusalem and reports of widespread casualties from the Israeli strikes. Mark Pocan, the Madison, Wisconsin, congressman who’d previously co-chaired the Congressional Progressive Caucus, reserved an hour of time on the House floor on May 13, and Democrats paraded through to denounce the assault.

It was like nothing the U.S. Congress had ever seen. Ilhan Omar, standing in the well of the House, bluntly but not inaccurately called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu an “ethno-nationalist.” Rashida Tlaib added, “I am a reminder to colleagues that Palestinians do indeed exist.”

Omar recalled her own experience as an 8-year-old huddled under a bed in Somalia, hoping the incoming bombs wouldn’t hit her home next. “It is trauma I will live with for the rest of my life, so I understand on a deeply human level the pain and the anguish families are feeling in Palestine and Israel at the moment,” she said.

[...] Marie Newman, who had been beaten by the combined force of No Labels and AIPAC donors in 2018, had come back and won in 2020, and she joined her colleagues on the floor. In January 2021, she spoke out publicly against Israel’s unequal distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, demanding that the country vaccinate people in the Palestinian territories it was occupying and allow the vaccine to get to Gaza through the blockade. She organized a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding that he act. “They ended up negotiating that the vaccine would go through. And so, as a freshman, that was kind of a big coup,” she said. “Never before on any matter that engaged on Palestine, on any letter, resolution, legislation, did you get 23 or 25 members of Congress to sign up something, it just didn’t happen. So, we felt like, Oh, gosh, this is so good. Then that’s when the DMFI [Democratic Majority for Israel] first was like, ‘Oh, shit, she’s a pain. She’s a problem.’ 

[...]

Biden seems to be trying a straddle. He knows Israel is doing wrong. He wants to be reelected. He knows he's better on Israel than Trump. Better than Trump in every way and by any measure. Cut him some slack. Reelected him, or get more of the crap suffered between Obama-Biden and Biden-Harris. 

Wishing it were better is a fools errand, but going lesser evil a necessity. The idle rich can collect McLaurens and buy up land willy-nilly in Duluth, and do a Marie Antoinette in response to any questions. Carlin explains.

NoLabels found no suitable chump. Moot anyway. The threat is what mattered.

Expanding the headline: NO LABELS declines to run a candidate to piss upon the 2024 presidential election. Not that anyone stepped up to commit political career suicide by fronting for the worthless fuckers. In other news Biden continues arming Israel.

AP report carried Apr 4 by USAToday - 

“No Labels has always said we would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House,” Nancy Jacobson, the group's CEO, said in a statement sent out to allies. “No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down.”

[...] No Labels' decision, which comes just days after the death of founding chairman Joe Lieberman, caps months of discussions during which the group raised tens of millions of dollars from a donor list it has kept secret. It was cheered by relieved Democrats who have long feared that a No Labels' ticket would fracture Biden's coalition and help Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Other news, Guardian, Apr 1 -

By Friday, the Washington Post was reporting on the latest consignment of billions of dollars worth of US bombs and planes for Israel.

The only hesitation, according to a source familiar with the procedure, was a delay of a few days in processing approval of 1,800 MK-84 2,000lb (907kg) bombs, which can flatten an apartment block and leave an 11-metre deep crater.

It is a devastating weapon that has reportedly been used frequently by the Israeli air force, playing a significant role in the estimated 33,000 death toll in Gaza since October.

The news that the nearly $4bn a year arms pipeline from the US to Israel remained in full uninterrupted flow drew a furious reaction from critics, who pointed to the irony of the Biden administration urging a ceasefire and the delivery of food aid into Gaza while supplying the weapons that fuel both the war and the humanitarian crisis.

“It’s like putting a Band-Aid over someone’s tiny finger cut while you’re continuing to stab them in the chest,” Rae Abileah, a Jewish American peace activist, said.

As a catastrophic famine begins to take hold in Gaza, administration officials have faced questions almost daily why continued US military aid is not being made conditional on a change of Israeli behaviour to limit the civilian death toll and significantly expand aid delivery.

The stock response has been that the US administration, while urging Israel to do more to protect the civilians of Gaza, should do nothing to limit Israel’s ability to defend itself, a touchstone of US foreign policy for more than half a century.

Democrats of all hues, whether they support the current policy or not, say that a change of course by the Biden administration on arms supplies is highly unlikely, for both policy and political reasons.

Still -- Biden is the lesser evil. Trump is that bad. (Worse on Israel via Jared). 

End of story.