For those would-be ground-breaking attorneys looking to set a landmark case in terms of the rampant censorship by social media tech giants — yes, private companies — here’s a novel approach.
In 1946 the US Supreme Court decided the case of Marsh v Alabama, in which a Jehovah’s Witness was arrested for trespassing because she was distributing religious literature in Chickasaw, Alabama, a town that was wholly owned by the Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation.
Marsh argued that because the town’s roads and sidewalks were the only means by which she could exercise her freedom of speech — and because the town of Chickasaw had been open to public use in all other respects — the trespassing arrest violated her rights under the First Amendment.
In a 5-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Marsh’s favor. Justice Hugo Black decreed that private entities do not have the right to ban speech on their property if they happen to own a monopoly on the means by which speech can take place.
Black also argued that the more private entities open their property up to public use, the fewer rights they have to ban or control what people do on that property.
Given that Google, Twitter, Apple, Facebook, and other edge providers are publicly-accessible entities that have deliberately pushed for monopoly control over the internet, it becomes clear that Marsh v Alabama prohibits them from censoring right-wingers.
The statute would also apply to ISPs, since they wield a monopoly over internet access.
All it would take to shut down online censorship is a halfway-decent attorney arguing that these left-wing big tech companies are literally violating the First Amendment.
Nigel Farage also has an interesting take in terms of restoring equality to the internet and removing Leftist bias.
Like a cat with the trots, we just need to think a bit more “out of the box.”
Gauntlet hurled to some enterprising Conservative attorney.
Featuring Right thinking from a left brain, doing the job the American Media Maggots won’t, embracing ubiquitous, sagacious perspicacity and broadcasting behind enemy lines in Occupied Fornicalia from the veritable Belly of the Beast, the Bill Mill in Sacramento, Fornicalia, I continue to proffer my thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to utilize their studio and hijack their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays, thanks to my shameless contract — as well as appear on the Sack Heads: Against Tyranny Show every Wednesday night.
Make no mistake:until November 6th, I’ll be doing my best to point out the obvious: there is great news out there for Conservatives. We must remain positive, and we must get out and vote.
We cannot afford to be smug or complacent with the win involving Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. This is the time to double down on resolution, to commit to supporting anything and everything that isn’t a Demorat, a Leftist or the American Media Maggots.
We can’t afford to listen to the bad news Leftists are going to ratchet up and continue to spew about Conservatives and our chances in November. We know they lie, they are biased and they publish falsehoods with impunity. The American Media Maggots are nothing more than the publishing arm of Demorats and Leftists.
We have to vote red in November. We have to keep the House, and we have to keep the Senate. We must mail in our absentee ballots. We can let nothing deter us from appearing at the polls on November 6th, no matter the circumstances, no matter the weather.
Leftists, Demorats and the American Media Maggots want to destroy Conservatives and Conservatism, eliminate us, hurt us both politically and, these days, physically as well. We cannot let this stand.
Commitment. Resolution. Fortitude. Stand up for America and for the US Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
Because if you don’t?
No one else will.
Vote red on November 6th.Keep America great.
Hour 1:BZ “connected the dots” about the Mueller investigation, the Deep State, and the Soft Coup against a presidential nominee, a president-elect and a sitting president. Then: how PG&E screwed over its customers in the name of “climate change” in order to ameliorate wildfire lawsuits
Hour 2:BZ proffered more Happy Stories and emphasized that we must all VOTE RED ON NOVEMBER 6th.
If you care to listen to the show in Spreaker, click on the yellow button at the upper left.
If you care to watch the show on the SHR Media YouTube channel, click on the red start button below. We kindly ask you to SUBSCRIBE to the SHR Media channel. Please NOTE: For DISH subscribers: your Hopper has recently been wired to play YouTube videos. You can now toss ol’ BZ onto your massive flatscreen TV and watch him in all of his obese, biased and politically-egregious, lamentable goodness — for free!
Please join me, the Bloviating Zeppelin(on Twitter @BZep, Facebook as Biff Zeppe and the Bloviating Zeppelin, and on Gab.ai @BZep), every Tuesday and Thursday night on the SHR Media Network from 11 PM to 1 AM Eastern and 8 PM to 10 PM Pacific, at the Berserk Bobcat Saloon — where the speech is free but the drinks are not.
As ever, thank you so kindly for listening, commenting, and interacting in the chat room or listening later via podcast.
Please remember we only monitor the chat room at SHRMEDIA.COM — though there is chat available on both Facebook and YouTube. Come on over to the SHR chat room where you’ll meet great friends!
Want to listen to all the Berserk Bobcat Saloon archives on Spreaker? Go here.
Let there be no mistake. BZ has had a house in the Sierra Nevada Mountains since 1993. I’m at about the 4,000-foot level just below Blue Canyon. It’s a gorgeous and scenic area with great local people. I moved there because, as a law enforcement officer, I wanted to get away from the insanity and chaos of my job. I’ll work in an urban rat cage because I’m paid; I just didn’t want to live in an urban rat cage any more.
I’m also a PG&E customer — Pacific Gas & Electric.
Of course, this being California, I have loads of choices for my utility companies, right? Uh, no. I have one. PG&E. I get my power from PG&E or I rely solely on solar or a generator. Solar is out because my house is obscured by trees. And, for example, a Generac generator is out because they’re very expensive. So I have neither.
Let’s just say that PG&E has a monopoly on my power and leave it at that. However, I’m not alone. A great deal of PG&E customers don’t have a choice of power companies either. PG&E is, well, pretty much “it” in certain areas of California. I’m suspecting that’s by design. But what do I know?
That’s why what happened is important and why more people need to listen up and wake up. Things in California aren’t going to get any better. They’re only going to get worse, if for no other reason than those who “lead” California are unmitigated Leftists who have no concept of so-called unforeseen consequences (which in California are always foreseeable if one’s eyes are actually open) and who live in their own bubbly, insular and purple-skied environments.
So what did happen to PG&E customers? From USAToday.com:
PG&E keeps nearly 60,000 Northern California customers in the dark to reduce wildfire risk
Pacific Gas and Electric planned to restore power to 70 percent of affected customers in the North Bay and Sierra Foothills late Monday night. As crews inspect lines for safety by helicopter, vehicles and on foot, the remainder will have power sometime Tuesday.
While it was the first time the company shut off power for public safety, PG&E announced its criteria and procedures for such an event in June, said spokesperson Paul Doherty. After wildfires devastated Northern California’s wine country last October, he added, PG&E developed its community wildfire safety program division to make power grids and communities more resilient.
Translated: we got our arses sued off. So we’re compensating for our shareholders.
Didn’t hear about the suits, did you? Here are a few insights.
Cal Fire: PG&E equipment caused 12 Northern California fires during October firestorm
by Julie Johnson, Robert Digitale and JD Morris
Cal Fire investigators said Friday that equipment owned and operated by PG&E ignited 12 wildfires that raged in hot, dry weather and high winds across Northern California in October, charring hundreds of square miles in Sonoma County and beyond, destroying thousands of structures and killing 18 people.
The utility was in violation of state code on eight of those fires, failing to clear brush around its lines and properly maintain its power equipment, according to state fire investigators.
Cal Fire found violations in the Norrbom, Partrick, Pythian, Adobe and Pocket fires that burned in Sonoma and Napa counties; the Atlas fire in Napa County; the Sulphur fire in Lake County; and the Blue fire in Humboldt County. The agency forwarded its reports to district attorneys in those jurisdictions for review.
PG&E Power Lines Blamed For Northern California Wildfires
by Richard Gonzales
Downed power lines owned by utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric are being blamed for a dozen Northern California wildfires last fall. The findings by state officials could have a significant financial impact on PG&E.
The report by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection links electric power and distribution lines with 12 fires that killed 18 people. The trouble started when trees and branches came into contact with power lines and wind gusts of up to 70 mph pushed wildfires faster than firefighters could respond.
Here is the report’s summary of two of the deadliest fires that claimed 15 lives:
“The Redwood Fire, in Mendocino County, started the evening of Oct. 8 and burned a total of 36,523 acres, destroying 543 structures. There were nine civilian fatalities and no injuries to firefighters. CAL FIRE has determined the fire started in two locations and was caused by tree or parts of trees falling onto PG&E power lines. …
“The Atlas Fire, in Napa County, started the evening of Oct. 8 and burned a total of 51,624 acres, destroying 783 structures. There were six civilian fatalities. CAL FIRE investigators determined the fire started in two locations. At one location, it was determined a large limb broke from a tree and came into contact with a PG&E power line. At the second location, investigators determined a tree fell into the same line.”
State law says utility companies can be held liable for the costs of firefighting, even when they haven’t violated safety rules.
PG&E is facing more than 50 lawsuits filed by fire victims arguing that the utility is responsible for fires that scorched the wine country counties of Napa and Sonoma last year.
An earlier investigation found that PG&E’s failure to clear or trim trees near power lines caused three wildfires in Butte and Nevada counties in the fall.
PG&E, of course, wasn’t taking that liability crap laying down. They pressed for changes in the law. From Reuters.com:
California lawmakers pass bill on PG&E wildfire liability
by Jim Christie
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California’s legislature passed a bill late on Friday that could help the utility Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation (PG&E) avoid potentially crippling liabilities for wildfires that ravaged northern parts of the San Francisco Bay Area last year.
The bill, passed 29 to 4 in the Senate and 45 to 10 in the Assembly, requires approval by Democrat Governor Jerry Brown.
Some fires in the north of the Bay area were caused by trees toppling into or making contact with PG&E power lines, a report released by state officials in June said. Analysts estimate PG&E, the state’s biggest utility, could face several billions of dollars in liability as a result.
Democrat State Senator Bill Dodd said the bill was needed to spare customers from big increases in energy costs. “Without it, ratepayers will be left holding the bag and communities will needlessly suffer,” he said.
You see what’s going on here, yes? PG&E is saying that you must let them off the hook or “your rates will rise.” Threats, anyone, table for 16 million ratepayers?
But here’s the scalding truth that PG&E doesn’t want you to know, from CapRadio.org:
California’s Wildfire Liability Law Won’t Change This Year, Dealing Setback To Utilities Like PG&E
by Ben Adler
Pacific Gas and Electric has spent millions of dollars in hopes of saving billions as it battles to change California’s wildfire liability law.
But PG&E and other investor-owned utilities in California appear to have lost the battle, at least for this year. The Legislature adjourns on August 31.
“I think it’s safe to say that ‘inverse condemnation’ is off the table,” Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) told CapRadio Friday evening, referring to the state’s current liability law that the utilities have been fighting so hard to change. Dodd co-chairs the joint Senate-Assembly conference committee tasked with crafting wildfire preparedness and liability legislation.
Read this:
Inverse condemnation is based on the tenet that, because utilities are allowed to build and place equipment wherever they see fit — even if they need to seize property from a private landowner for public use through eminent domain — they must also take responsibility for damages.
If a utility is found to have been negligent, its shareholders must foot the bill. Otherwise, it can pass the costs on to its ratepayers.
Gov. Jerry Brown released a proposal last month that sided with the utilities. He wants to require a court to weigh in as to whether a utility’s actions were reasonable and to “to balance the public benefit of the electrical infrastructure with the harm caused to private property.”
It would also require the court to take into account a utility’s “proportionate fault” in causing a fire. Currently, because utilities must pay even if not at fault, they bear the entire liability burden whenever its equipment was involved in a fire’s cause.
PG&E said even that proposal — labeled by opponents as a “utility bailout” — did not go far enough.
Now you know why PG&E has reacted thusly. It is not yet protected, so it must make its customers suffer in the uncovered interim. Literally suffer.
This is a new and novel approach, utilized by PG&E, in order to make customers “pay” for their lawsuits — literally and figuratively. Their tactic appeals to Leftists because they’re convinced to their very souls that (once called Global Warming) “climate change” is killing the planet.
Note to Leftists: the climate always changes. And weather always cycles.
Score one for PG&E. Their tactic benefits them because, well, if PG&E had to feel some pain, the customers who instigated those lawsuits should have to feel their own pain as well.
After all, let’s realize the obvious: the bulk of PG&E customers constitute a captive audience. It’s not like they can unplug from PG&E. They can’t. Not if they like electricity.
It’s a win/win for PG&E. They shut down your power during “questionable times.” By doing this they may avoid some lawsuits. So in the name of “climate change” and “doing the right thing for the planet” PG&E gets to potentially avoid lawsuits — which is primary — and customer cash still gets sent to them. In the meantime your medical devices crash, you can’t cook meals, you lose all the food in your refrigerators or freezers, you lose your water supply, your communications, your electric way of life and — oh yeah — your means of transportation if you have an electric car. Everything these days depends upon a constant flow of electricity. Everything.
And trust me. This is going to be the new “normal” from now on in California. Once various utilities see this working — those utilities who may be in a like wildfire situation, no matter where they may be — the plan will be implemented. Southern California Edison already thinks it’s a stellar idea whose time has come.
This is how stupid California has become. It wants all electric vehicles by 2040. Gas vehicles would be banned by then.
Cal ISO in Folsom, California — the Independent Systems Operator having control of electricity in all of California — already can’t handle the load on certain hot days now. What makes anyone think the load will lessen? The electrical load will only increase at a rapid rate because of the illegals flooding into California in order to partake of its largesse. Infrastructure is taxed. That includes electricity. That includes PG&E.
Of course, in order to reach the lofty goal of all electric cars by 2040, California has now committed to building at least one new electric generation station per five years until then. Correct?
Hardly. California has already decreed that’s its last nuclear plant will close in 2025.
Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E) decision to shutter its 2,200 MW Diablo Canyon nuclear facility by 2024 or 2025 leaves a gaping hole in capacity that needs to be filled. The utility proposed a $1.3 billion energy efficiency investment as part of a 2016 agreement with renewable energy advocates over shuttering the plant.
Of course, California has a massive host of alternative power plant construction plans lined up and shovel-ready. Right?
As an aside: Democrat Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants the US to abandon fossil fuels entirely. Apparently she’s never heard of this thing called plastic. Amongst others.
Make no mistake. This is most definitely a proverbial “cautionary tale,” ladies and gentlemen. Let California be a continuing example of what not to do in this and many other situations. Learn from the stupidity, excess and vast-Leftist influence of those who control California.
In the meantime, the stupidity and the fleecing marches on.
For those would-be ground-breaking attorneys looking to set a landmark case in terms of the rampant censorship by social media tech giants — yes, private companies — here’s a novel approach.
Vote red on November 6th. Keep America great.
If you care to listen to the show in Spreaker, click on the yellow button at the upper left.
Guilty. I can’t. Thank God the Demorats keep doubling down on extra-crispy helpings of ridiculously stupid.