MaxRedline

Politicians Move To Protect Their Own

California is moving toward an all-out rat poison ban statewide. AB-1788 cleared the State Assembly earlier this summer. But the problem with the ban is that some California cities are being overrun by rats. Kiet Do reports.

Of course, in many species, poisons become ineffective over time as the targets develop resistance, so from that perspective they may have a point.

But they've already had outbreaks of typhus and other diseases associated with Medieval times in L.A. and S.F., so it's probably not the best time to ban control measures.

Avoid Dunedin (Or Dune-Dumb)

DUNEDIN, Fla. – Kristi Allen read the letter and thought it had to be a scam.

It said she owed $92,600 in fines for overgrown vegetation and a stagnant swimming pool at a house she no longer owned. She must pay in two weeks, the letter said, hinting that she could be sued if she didn't. Including interest charges and other fees, her debt swelled to $103,559, about twice her yearly income.

Dunedin, a small seaside city outside Tampa, cracks down on code violations, saddling homeowners with massive fines while its revenue grows. In 5½ years, the city has collected nearly $3.6 million in fines – sometimes tens of thousands at a time – for violating laws that prohibit grasses taller than 10 inches, recreational vehicles parked on streets at certain hours or sidings and bricks that don't match.

The Supreme Court ruled in February that local governments can't impose excessive fines. The decision is among the first constraints by the federal government on how much money cities and states can charge people for everything from speeding to overgrown lawns.

Of course, they didn't define the term, "excessive".

The city fined a man nearly $30,000 because of a “chronic” overgrown yard.

It fined a couple $31,000 for fixing their roof without a permit after a tree fell on it during a hurricane.

After a tree smashed a corner of the roof of Picot’s rental property during Hurricane Irma two years ago, he bought $300 worth of wood and other supplies at Home Depot and fixed the damage himself. The city fined him $200 a day for fixing the roof without a permit. The fines racked up while Picot scrambled to find a locally licensed roofer who would sign off on his repairs. He and his wife owe about $31,000.

According to Chad Orsatti, a lawyer who deals with these issues:

“It’s almost Gestapo-like,” Orsatti said. “You can have a screw in the wrong spot. It’s an easy fix, but until you get that contractor to come back out there and sign off on it, those fines are running every day.”

In Florida and elsewhere, unpaid fines can be attached to someone’s property through liens. That allows cities to foreclose and take the property to collect what they’re owed.

Hard-to-pay fines spring up seemingly everywhere, as cities look for ways to punish violations and collect money without raising taxes. Doraville, Georgia, fined one homeowner $1,000 for stacking firewood in his backyard, according to a lawsuit that accuses the city of aggressive ticketing practices.

“What we have seen is an increasing tendency of municipalities to criminalize, or at least heavily fine, behavior that not many people would describe as bad,” said Joanna Weiss, co-director of the Fees and Fines Justice Center. “Letting your lawn grow too high arguably is not the most serious offense.”

Fines in some cases have become so big that they make it impossible for people to pay, let alone fix the violations that got them in trouble, said Robert Eckard, a Tampa lawyer representing another Dunedin homeowner. “It’s like setting someone up for failure,” Eckard said. “It’s deprivation and punishment for people who don’t have the income to remedy the problem.”

And of course, there's generally no actual problem - it's just a way for lifer bureaucrats to "justify" their government salaries and benefits.

 

Oregon Drivers Beware

Portland - and Oregon's so-called "leaders" hate you. We're not talking mere disagreement here; they really hate you.

The City Council approved the appointment of an advisory group to help the Portland Bureau of Transportation develop a plan to charge motorists to drive on some streets and bridges to reduce congestion and greenhouse gas emissions on Wednesday, July 10.

Why have a "Bureau of Transportation" if they need an "advisory group" of car-haters? The purpose of the "advisory group" is supposedly to discourage driving. But the real purpose is to add more taxes in order to force modification of your behavior to conform to what these really fart smellers have decided must be done in order to Save The Planet™. The plan is to simply raid your wallet even more, rather than to achieve anything that might even remotely impact the global climates. But it makes them feel righteous, which is all that matters.

Of course, the fleets of government vehicles would be exempt. What a surprise!

As for the state itself:

State government is once again supplying just what residents have come to expect from state programs devised to make Oregon green: failure.

Might be time for government (Democratics) to just leave people alone, for a change.

 

There Oughta Be A Law!

No worries; chances are that it's already on the books as a federal offense:

In America’s early days, the law was fairly simple. The Constitution specifies just three federal crimes: piracy, counterfeiting and treason.

Since then, however, the number of no-no’s has expanded by the millions, encompassing everything from how many beers you can drink while riding a bike in a national park (zero) to what shape margarine pats must be served in restaurants if they aren’t clearly labeled as margarine. (For God’s sake, triangles! A Hartford, Connecticut, restaurant owner was arrested in 1952 for serving square pats of margarine.)

Because watery ketchup isn’t really ketchup at all, the government regulates how thick the sauce must be.

The flow rate is measured by an instrument called a Bostwick consistometer. Basically, the ketchup is allowed to flow down a trough and an observer measures how far it can travel in 30 seconds. Any farther than 14 centimeters and it ain’t ketchup.

Ketchup that’s too runny must be slapped with a conspicuous “substandard” in 12- or 14-point type, according to the Feds.

And the government even regulates how to spell ketchup. Turns out there are just three permissible spellings: Ketchup (definitely!), Catsup (Ok, sure) and Catchup (sorry, wut?).

Statute 18 U.S.C. § 336 makes it a federal crime to issue “any note, check, memorandum, token, or other obligation for a less sum than $1” in lieu of money.

Title 21, Part 139, of the Code of Federal Regulations sets rigid standards for the specifications of noodles — though on just four varieties.

It requires macaroni to be tube-shaped and have a diameter between 0.11 and 0.27 inches.

Monkeying with the weather is strictly prohibited.

The rule has its origins during the Vietnam War, when the United States spent millions trying to figure out how to create downpours over strategic enemy sites.

When that information leaked in the press, Congress enacted 15 U.S.C. § 330a, which says that “no person may engage, or attempt to engage, in any weather modification activity in the United States” without notifying the secretary of commerce. Violators could be slapped with a fine of up to $10,000.

Swiss cheese must have holes developed throughout the cheese; failure to manage that is a violation of federal law.

I firmly believe that for every new law that goes into the books, two should be removed.

 

Obscure Politician Grandstands

Massachusetts congressman and 2020 presidential candidate Seth Moulton expressed opposition for the Hyde Amendment by comparing federally-funded abortions to funding the U.S. troops. Moulton slammed former Vice President Joe Biden, who expressed his support for the Hyde Amendment that outlaws federally-funded abortions with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, urging the Democratic frontrunner that he "should change his position."

If he supports abortion, let him pay for them.

 

Now California's Considering Going After Priests

California is considering a proposed law that is nothing less than an attempt to jail innocent priests. California Senate Bill 360 seeks to change its law to force a priest, when he hears of sins in the confessional regarding sexual abuse, to make a choice. He must choose to either maintain the confidentiality of the sacrament and face possible imprisonment or to betray that confidentiality and violate his deepest conscience and the laws of God and the Roman Catholic Church. No priest I know would choose the latter. 

First they came for the Catholics....

 

Burn, Baby, Burn

Material supposedly meant to be recycled is piling up now that China has seriously cut back on accepting such materials from the USA. So now a lot of the stuff is simply being landfilled - or burned:

The New York Times reported this weekend the problem has spread across the country. As the costs of handling recycled materials mount, many of them are being burned or thrown in dumps. "Philadelphia is now burning about half of its 1.5 million residents' recycling material in an incinerator that converts waste to energy," the Times reported.

Personally, I've never cared much for mandatory recycling programs that have been in vogue among Oregon politicians for years now. I occasionally take bottles and cans to one of those stupid "BottleDrop" locations, but those are a crashing pain: drive for several miles, lug your returnables in, wait until a machine is available, then place the containers in - one at a time. It was much more convenient when the machines were at stores; particularly the ones where you could just dump a sack-full of cans into the hopper. Now, not so much. And what about all the dreaded greenhouse gases you emit as you drive past the stores that used to have deposit return machines as you drive further to a "BottleDrop" place? How "green&sustainable" is that?

 

Colorado Bureaucrats Fold

Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission announced Tuesday that it will dismiss its latest charges against cake artist Jack Phillips. You might remember Phillips from his victory at the US Supreme Court last summer. 

After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Phillips, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission decided to attack him on this new charge. Instead of watching another case slowly creep through the courts, attorneys at the Alliance Defending Freedom went on the offense, suing the bureaucrats for their anti-religious bias.

Well if that's the way they're going to play, the bureaucrats decided, then they'll just take their ball and go elsewhere.

They really don't see why the guy and the attorneys backing him don't just play by the bureaucrats' rules, but having been burned badly during the last dance, they've decided not to do-see-do with those folks again.

Finally, bureaucrats have some sense pounded into them!

 

Company, Halt! About-Face!

Ann Arbor won't have all that much in the way of arbors in the future; the city council of "Tree City USA" is planning a new law establishing solar access boundaries on properties, and looking at vegetation trimming standards and building setback requirements. Why?

Because they want people to spend money sticking solar panels on the roofs of their homes, and the darned trees will eventually interfere with that grand plan. It's amusing; here in Green&Sustainable Portland, you have to spend hundreds  to thousands of dollars for a permit to trim or remove a tree on "your property" - and if you remove a tree, you must replant one from the city's approved tree list. If you don't, they'll do it and bill you $500 whether you like it or not. Ann Arbor seems to be moving in a diametrically opposite direction.

They don't want people's trees or structures throwing shade on the solar arrays of the neighbors. Property rights? What are those?

 

Oregon Democratics: Going After The Little Guy, As Usual

The carbon tax bill, HB 2020, also known as Carbon Cap-and-Trade would have a big price tag for Oregon small businesses and their customers.

Residential customers in Oregon who use natural gas are likely to see their rates increase by 11 percent—or $74—in 2021, the first year Oregon’s new climate policy and cap and spend bill takes effect, and by 53 percent, or $567, in 2040.

At least I've got a good supply of firewood....