Supreme Court declines to hear challenges to Obama-era net neutrality rules

The Supreme Court declined to take up legal challenges to the Obama-era net neutrality rules, effectively ending the legal dispute over implementation of the 2015 Internet regulations. The court rejected Monday requests from the telecommunications industry and related groups for the justices to throw out a lower court ruling upholding the net neutrality rules, which were designed to ensure all content on the Internet is treated equally by Internet service providers. The Federal Communications Commission had voted 3-2 along party lines in December to repeal the net neutrality rules.

Under the rules, adopted by the FCC in 2015, Internet service providers were prohibited from blocking, throttling, or interfering with traffic from certain websites. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, appointed by President Trump to the court, did not participate in the consideration or decision regarding the petitions to the high court. Kavanaugh heard a challenge to the net neutrality rules while serving as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted the petitions but sent the case back to the lower court with instructions to dismiss the cases as moot. The new regulations approved by the FCC are being challenged in federal court.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/courts/supreme-court-declines-to-hear-challenges-to-obama-era-net-neutrality-rules

Trump says Jeff Sessions gave him no warning on Obamacare lawsuit

Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not notify President Trump that the Department of Justice would join a lawsuit challenging Obamacare's rules on pre-exising conditions, the president told Axios on HBO. "No, he didn't," Trump said when asked whether Sessions had given him the head's up about the decision. That claim goes against Sessions' recollection of events — he told House Speaker Paul Ryan in June that Trump approved of the move.

The lawsuit was filed by 20 Republican state officials, who have asked that all of Obamacare be thrown out as a consequence of the new tax law, which zeroed out a penalty on the uninsured. The officials argued that the fine was central to making the rest of the law work, and that without it, the rest should crumble.

The Department of Justice joined the lawsuit but asked specifically that the rules on pre-existing illnesses be struck down. These rules prohibit health insurance companies from turning away sick customers, from charging them more for their illness, or from refusing to cover medical services associated with managing their condition. The lawsuit is awaiting a decision in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, and is likely to be appealed. It has been a major rallying cry for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, who have seized on the lawsuit to warn voters that Republicans will go after their healthcare.

But Trump said in the interview that "it wouldn't matter" if the court throws out the rules, because a Republican replacement will protect pre-existing conditions. "If we terminate it, we will put pre-existing conditions back in," Trump said, promising to "get it done." Republican replacement plans in Congress have contained similar language as Obamacare for protecting sick people, but omit other portions to make coverage affordable to them. The protections poll well, but because of the way Obamacare was written, certain customers are priced out of the market entirely. Conservative groups have recommended that Republicans go about the protections entirely differently than Obamacare by setting up a fund that would directly pay for the sickest customers. Democrats have offered certain proposals that would funnel more government funds to the market, and others that would put more people onto public coverage.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/trump-says-jeff-sessions-gave-him-no-warning-on-obamacare-lawsuit

Democrats are desperate for a job-killing, cost-increasing carbon tax — they just won't tell you

Thanks to Republican reforms like the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Americans across this country are keeping more of their hard-earned dollars and business is booming. Just this month, America was named the world’s most competitive economy. Clearly, keeping taxes low and empowering Americans and businesses works.

But as we head into Election Day, Democrats have been united in their calls for new tax hikes. Not only do they hope to take more from your hard-earned paychecks, Democrats have long looked at energy taxes as a way to fund their big-government agenda. Not only would this raise the cost of energy for families across this country, it would place an incredible burden on small businesses and kill jobs in the energy sector.

This summer, I, Rep. Steve Scalise, introduced a resolution calling on all members of Congress to stand against a job-killing carbon tax. Most Republican members of Congress voted for this resolution, saying they would never, ever, ever, vote for carbon tax. Democrats flat-out voted against this resolution either in a sign of their support for such a tax or to publicly leave the door open. This vote highlighted the contrast between the two parties on energy taxes. While the official Democratic platform endorses a carbon tax, the official Republican platform states unequivocally, “We oppose any carbon tax.” Voters now know where their elected representatives stand on an energy tax that would raise the cost of gasoline, home heating and air conditioning, and everyday goods at the grocery store. Politically, the carbon tax has been viewed by many Democrats as a costless form of “oil and coal are bad” virtue signaling when they are in the minority. Under President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled House and Senate, there was no obvious attempt to pass a carbon tax. In 2009, House Democrats passed a more hidden energy tax, a “cap and trade” scheme. Sixty-three House Democrats lost their jobs in the 2010 election. Democrats know the energy tax is a political loser and behind closed doors will acknowledge as much. In 2015, a carbon tax memo prepared for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton concluded that a carbon tax would be devastating to low-income households. “As with the increase in energy costs, the increase in the cost of non-energy goods and services would disproportionately impact low income households,” the memo states. “The cost of other household goods and services would increase as well as companies pass forward the higher energy costs paid to produce those goods and services on to consumers.”

Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook wrote in an email, “to be clear: it’s lethal in the general, so I don’t want to support one.” John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, put things more bluntly, writing, “We have done extensive polling on a carbon tax. It all sucks."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/steve-scalise-grover-norquist-democrats-are-desperate-for-a-job-killing-cost-increasing-carbon-tax

List: 15 Democratic attacks, assaults, threats on Republicans

The crude Saturday Night Live attack on the looks and battle-taken right eye of GOP House candidate Dan Crenshaw was just the latest attack and threat against Republicans this year by critics, some of whom have called for violence against their political opponents. Both sides have been talking about violence, the latest from Mika Brzezinski of the MSNBC Morning Joe show. She hit President Trump last week: “The rhetoric of this racist, heartless, soulless man will lead to more violence. Yes, I said that.”

Some Democrats and Trump critics in October were sent suspicious packages and pipe bombs. Nobody was injured. Meanwhile, several Republicans have been pushed around and worse, like the shooting at a GOP baseball practice last year. With both sides predicting that the violence will continue after Tuesday’s congressional midterm elections, Secrets takes a look at the examples this year of what the president and GOP call “mob violence” targeting Republicans: 1. Last year, House Republicans practicing for a congressional baseball game were shot by a liberal supporter and volunteer for 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Sanders said he was “sickened” by the shooting and recently dismissed liberal charges that Trump was to blame for the Pittsburgh synagogue slayings.

2. In June, California Rep. Maxine Waters called for threats and attacks on Trump team members. She said, "If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere." 3, That month White House Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders and her group had to leave a Virginia restaurant because of their work for Trump. “This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals,” said Red Hen Restaurant co-owner Stephanie Wilkinson. 4. White House top aide Stephen Miller was verbally assaulted at two restaurants, in Washington, D.C. 5. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was met with shouting protesters at a Washington restaurant, part of a social media pop up assault. 6. Sen. Ted Cruz and his wife were shouted out of a restaurant by anti-Brett Kavanaugh protesters. 7. Democratic Sen. Cory Booker in July urged liberal advocates to “Get up in the face of some congresspeople." 8. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Democrats shouldn’t be civil to Republicans until they win back control of Washington. She said, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.” 9. Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder junked former first lady Michelle Obama’s call for civility when he told supporters, “Michelle always says, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ No. No. When they go low, we kick them,” he said, adding, “That’s what this Democratic Party’s about. We’re proud as hell to be Democrats. We’re willing to fight for the ideals of the Democratic Party.” 10. The wife of Republican Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner said that she received a graphic text message with a video of a beheading after he voted to confirm Kavanaugh. 11. When Kavanaugh arrived at the Supreme Court to take his seat, a mob pounded on the doors of the Supreme Court. They yelled, “No justice, no peace.” 12. During the Kavanaugh hearings Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins received a potentially deadly mailing of Ricin at her home. “Today’s incident is the latest in a series of threats against Senator Collins, her loved ones, and her staff,” said spokeswoman Annie Clark. 13. The campaignmanager for Nevada GOP gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt was allegedly grabbed and yanked by an operative for American Bridge 21st Century, funded by liberal billionaire George Soros. “Politics is a little bit aggressive these days, but this is just insane. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said a bruised Kristin Davison. 14. Two Minnesota state GOP candidates say they were attacked, punched by political foes. 15. The Laramie, Wyo. Republican office was set on fire, a case of arson, according to police.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/list-15-democratic-attacks-assaults-threats-on-republicans

>>3741642

Q already did, read the drops from today

>>3741638

Not Finding it anywhere…Unless you have an inside track you can share, this is a slide…

>>3741696

>>3741717

You are correct, it was posted last night…it's a slide..was then is now..