July 1 Safe Tech International News and Notes

WORLD EHS DAY, US Court Ruling, FL Fish

I’m reading Vanessa Machado De Oliviera’s book Hospicing Modernity - Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism. “Driven by expansion, colonialism, and resource extraction and propelled by neoliberalism and rabid consumption, our world is profoundly out of balance.” “Vanessa Machado de Oliveira presents us with a challenge: to grow up, step up, and show up for ourselves, our communities, and the living Earth, and to interrupt the modern behavior patterns that are killing the planet we’re part of.” In part, she asks us to; Interrupt our satisfaction with modern-colonial desires that cause harm: and create space for change driven neither by desperate hope nor a fear of desolate hopelessness. Highly recommended (thank you Kate)

There are divides, politically, re: medicine, re: climate, etc. in the Safe Tech community, and some news is politicized, spun, and polarizing in tone. Please hold neutrality and only take what you value. This effort is intended to keep you informed and supported as a deep thinker, but not triggered or overwhelmed, - and also to reduce the time that you need to spend on a screen. (If you click on the title of the stack it will take you to an on-line version that is wider, easier to skim, and better for your eyes.) That being said, if you see a helpful offering please consider posting a like or a comment. It adds to the growing power of increasing consciousness and community. Gratitude to those supporting this effort.

Thank you for being a part.

FEATURED

FEATURED: World EHS Day Symposium Cece Doucette, Courtney and Amelia Gilardi, Rev. Jenny Gregg, Shelley Wright, Mikko Ahonon PhD, Deb Chandler, Laurie Wodin reading for Christine Daddario, Tim Maurer, Deb Hodgdon, David DeHaas, Allison Teague, Barb Payne, Roger Moller, Ken Gartner reading for George, Nancy Perlman, John and Anne Bunner, August Brice, Bryan Stearns PhD, Paul Heroux PhD, JP Saleeby MD, Sheena Symington, Godelieve Richards Video World EHS Day Symposium June 24, 2024 (youtube.com) 2 HOURS 11 MINUTES, Transcript, timeline, and more resources HERE 24 PAGES Many thanks to all those who created this offering.

FEATURED:

CHILDREN: READ AND WATCH: CHILDREN’S HEALTH DEFENSE The Health Risks of Wireless Tech! - Children's Health Defense (childrenshealthdefense.org) WITH 3 SHORT VIDEOS -Children, Injuries, Standards

FEATURED:

Keith Cutter of EMF Remedy interviews Shannon Rowan, author of WiFi Refugee, Plight of the Modern Day Canary. Gaslighting, Earthing, Resilience & Sensitivity: Shannon Rowan, WiFI Refugee 1 hour HERE

NEWSLETTERS:

EMFSA June 2024 Newsletter (South Africa) Bioelectromagnetics: "Experimental and numerical dosimetry for 5G and 6G" Call for Papers; Prospective cohort study on non-specific symptoms, cognitive, behavioral, sleep and mental health in relation to electronic media use and transportation noise among adolescents (HERMES): study protocol, Smart Meters, COSMOS. 15-minute cities, noise pollution, tattoos, MORE HERE

NEWS AND NOTES

ACTIVISM MAX WILBERT: First-Responder Trauma: A New Framework for Activists Effective movements to transform our world will emerge from cultures that integrate both resistance and healing. “Heal to be more human — and more effective” Most people today are experiencing ecological trauma. Many of us also suffer the acute stress of front-line organizing. Direct action activists, water protectors, and community organizers are first responders. We go towards tension and danger. This is psychologically, physically, and spiritually stressful, and can result in trauma and burnout. [] without resilience and the ability to heal, stress can transform from a transient experience into a long-term health emergency. [] chronic stress often leads to self-isolation, shame and doubt, loss of trust, bitterness, breakdown of relationships, self-medication, and addictive behaviors. [] Rather than looking at addiction as a rare problem, I now see it as almost ubiquitous in modern society. Dissociation is our cultural default: numb the pain rather than feeling it. Dr. Gabor Maté, in his book “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction,” describes addiction as a survival technique — a form of dissociation — that people use to deal with stress. I used to believe that addiction meant drug or alcohol abuse. But, it is also possible to be addicted to food, sex, unhealthy relationships, shopping, gambling, emotions (like anger, confusion, or indignation), dopamine-inducing technology like social media, video games, pornography, TV, and many other things. HERE (Max Wilbert is co-founder of Protect Thacker Pass and co-author of ‘Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It.’ (To my knowledge Bright Green Lies did not address smart meters and smart grids or RF/EMF but has been helpful re: other big tech green-washing issues)

AUSTRALIA Max’s article hyperlinks re; Dopamine to the site for the documentary film Stare into the Lights my Pretties by Australian film-maker Jordan Brown. “We live in a world of screens. The average adult spends the majority of their waking hours in front of some sort of screen or device. We’re enthralled, we’re addicted to these machines. Stare Into The Lights My Pretties investigates these questions with an urge to return to the real physical world, to form a critical view of technological escalation driven by rapacious and pervasive corporate interest. Covering themes of addiction, privacy, surveillance, information manipulation, behaviour modification and social control, the film lays the foundations as to why we may feel like we’re sleeprunning into some dystopian nightmare with the machines at the helm. Because we are, if we don’t seriously avert our eyes to stop this culture from destroying what is left of the real world.” Stare Into The Lights My Pretties (jore.cc) 2 hours

ACTIVISM LEGAL: Big Oil’s Plan To Criminalize Pipeline Protests Fossil fuel companies and trade groups are using essential pipeline safety legislation to further criminalize pipeline protests. Big Oil’s Plan To Criminalize Pipeline Protests (levernews.com)

AI and ACTIVISM: What Today’s Workers Can Learn From Machine-Breaking Luddites Brian Merchant Blood in the Machine LISTEN OR READ: So this very enduring framework we have for criticizing technology, for thinking about the future in ways that are critical of how technology develops, especially casting people who would recklessly try to profit at the expense of others, like Dr. Frankenstein, in unleashing technologies, as being the go-to knee-jerk skepticism and criticism. I think we have the Luddites, at least in some part to thank for that. So the Luddites actually did a great deal and they won more than anybody, most of all Silicon Valley elites, want to give them credit for. [] I really appreciated this opportunity to reflect on the history of the Luddite movement, and to think about what lessons we might draw from that history. I am grateful for everyone who is organizing against Big Tech, and for activists across the course of history who have broken things that needed to be broken, in defense of life, liberty and dignity. This is a time to resist domination by the owners of “obnoxious machinery” and defend our collective humanity. If you’re unsure what that looks like, I think finding other people to think, learn and organize alongside is a good start. I especially appreciated Brian’s point about how tech titans weaponize dystopias, and I want us to be cognizant of those narrative moves. [] we are conditioned to accept dystopian conditions as an acceptable part of the landscape. https://truthout.org/audio/what-todays-workers-can-learn-from-machine-breaking-luddites/ (Remembering that 5G activists were widely and successfully portrayed during the pandemic as low intelligence right-leaning arsonists under the sway of Russia and conspiracy theories, and although I don’t endorse breaking things, I am appreciative of Blood in the Machine author/tech journalist Brian Merchant and this interview with Kelly Hayes, a Menominee author and organizer,)

“ [] we shouldn’t frame the current moment as one where AI or robots are threatening our jobs, but as one where people are destroying our jobs. Can you talk a bit about the importance of that framing? [] “Will the robots kill our jobs? Will AI take everyone’s jobs? And will the future be job…” It’s a framework that completely absolves management, that absolves executives, absolves power from actually making the decision to eliminate jobs. This is always a choice. There’s no sentient AGI or AI or all-powerful robot that is pressing a button and saying, “Okay, X number of jobs are gone from marketing, because I decree it to be so.” As much as Silicon Valley would love this fiction of an AGI, of an all-powerful AI to be true today, to be real, it is not.”

AI: How the AI Tech Boom Is Obliterating Resources at Record Rates (msn.com) Slide show: One of the worst culprits is large language AI models like ChatGPT. Research shows that Microsoft used more than 700,000 litres of water to cool the machines that trained ChatGPT-3 at its data facilities. The technology industry has worked and operated under secret conditions for decades. Consumers often don't know what it takes to create and produce complicated machines en masse. One of the main concerns is the environmental impact of creating physical items like microchips and screens, as well as the massive energy needed to host websites.  Along with outrageous water intake, these large companies need to mine large amounts of lithium and cobalt, both of which are used for microchips and batteries.  The extraction process, which occurs in many third-world countries, involves destroying land and using harmful fracking chemicals, and it is known to pollute nearby air and water.  How the AI Tech Boom Is Obliterating Resources at Record Rates (msn.com)

AI: Study reveals why AI models that analyze medical images can be biased As of May 2024, the FDA has approved 882 AI-enabled medical devices, with 671 of them designed to be used in radiology. [] shortcuts can arise in AI models when they use demographic attributes to determine whether a medical condition is present, instead of relying on other features of the images. [] "If you debias the model in one set of patients, that fairness does not necessarily hold as you move to a new set of patients from a different hospital in a different location," Zhang says. This is worrisome because in many cases, hospitals use models that have been developed on data from other hospitals, especially in cases where an off-the-shelf model is purchased, the researchers say. The findings suggest that hospitals that use these types of AI models should evaluate them on their own patient population before beginning to use them, to make sure they aren't giving inaccurate results for certain groups. Study reveals why AI models that analyze medical images can be biased (medicalxpress.com)

AI Brian Merchant Blood in the Machine; The most powerful takedowns of generative AI, from those who know its impacts best It's knives out for AI: Engineers, artists, educators and other workers are raising the alarm more loudly than ever before. Here are 8 of their must-read broadsides against the tech. A curated reading list of protests, critiques, and polemics by experts and workers who are watching generative AI tear at the fabric of their own fields. HERE

AI: The need for a President that speaks AI natively Last night was a travesty, but that is just the beginning of our problems We need a President who can recognize when corporate leaders are promising things far beyond is currently realistic, who can sort truth from bullshit, in order to develop AI policies that are grounded in reality. We also need a President who can stand up to big tech, and resist regulatory capture. And we need a President who can get Congress (which has this far dithered) to recognize the true urgency of the moment, since Executive Orders alone are not enough. And above all else, we need a President who understands and appreciates science. Last night wasn’t promising. Gary Marcus thinks we have maybe one shot to get AI policy right in the US, and that we aren’t off to a great start. His forthcoming book Taming Silicon Valley lays out a blueprint for what we need. HERE

AI: AI Companion Chatbots Blur the Lines Between Fantasy and Reality Companion Chatbots Make It Easier to Get Too Attached - Bloomberg

AI: AI is exhausting the power grid. Tech firms are seeking a miracle solution. A ChatGPT-powered search, according to the International Energy Agency, consumes almost 10 times the amount of electricity as a search on Google. One large data center complex in Iowa owned by Meta burns the annual equivalent amount of power as 7 million laptops running eight hours every day, based on data shared publicly by the company. [] A recent Goldman Sachs analysis of energy that will power the AI boom into 2030 did not even consider small nuclear plants or futuristic fusion generators. It found data centers will account for 8 percent of total electricity use in the United States by 2030, a near tripling of their share today. New solar and wind energy will meet about 40 percent of that new power demand from data centers, the forecast said, while the rest will come from a vast expansion in the burning of natural gas. The new emissions created would be comparable to that of putting 15.7 million additional gas-powered cars on the road. AI is exhausting the power grid. Tech firms are seeking a miracle solution. (msn.com) and at https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/06/21/artificial-intelligence-nuclear-fusion-climate/

CANADIAN UPDATE: Barbara Payne from Barbara’s Substack, New tower, power generation community buzz, more HERE

CENSORSHIP: Alternative Media Giants Sue The Censorship Industrial Complex In a new lawsuit, Webseed and Brighteon Media have accused multiple US government agencies and prominent tech companies of orchestrating a vast censorship operation aimed at suppressing dissenting viewpoints [] The defendants include the Department of State, the Global Engagement Center (GEC), the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and tech giants such as Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), Google, and X. Additionally, organizations like NewsGuard Technologies, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) are implicated for their roles in creating and using tools to label and suppress what they consider misinformation. As the case progresses, it promises to shine a light on the complex interplay between government agencies, tech companies, and the tools used to control the flow of information in the digital age. The outcome could have significant implications for the future of free speech and the regulation of online content. Alternative Media Giants Sue The Censorship Industrial Complex (greenmedinfo.com)

CENSORSHIP/SURVEILLANCE Three Justices Dissented in Landmark Censorship Case — Here’s What They Said and Why It Matters The Biden administration’s coercive censorship of social media — as exposed in the Murthy v. Missouri case — was “blatantly unconstitutional, and the country may come to regret the Court’s failure to say so,” according to dissenting Supreme Court Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/three-justices-dissented-landmark-censorship-case-what-they-said-why-it-matters/

CHILDREN: Take a Stand Let's raise the kids phone free Shah’s Substack

CHILDREN: Kids given 'digital pacifiers' to calm tantrums fail to learn how to regulate emotions, study finds https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-kids-digital-pacifiers-calm-tantrums.html More information: Cure for tantrums? Longitudinal associations between parental digital emotion regulation and children's self-regulatory skills, Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2024). DOI: 10.3389/frcha.2024.1276154 AND CHILDREN: Parenting Study warns using screens to stop tantrums harms a child’s development Scientists say it could prevent them from properly learning how to regulate their emotions. Why using screens to stop tantrums harms a child's development (talker.news)

CHILDREN SCHOOLS How Schools Can Help End The Phone-Based Childhood Five lessons for secular schools, from our experience in Jewish Day Schools. How Schools Can Help End The Phone-Based Childhood (afterbabel.com)

CONSUMER PRODUCTS: Companies Keep Getting Burned For Bricking Products. Don't Expect Them To Stop. Companies regularly get burned by hasty decisions to kill off and brick smart products. But bad PR won't change their behavior. Also: a TikTok-er calls out automakers for locking out repair techs. There’s a “dark pattern” that’s emerging in the smart electronics space: manufacturers that sell pricey, connected products are arbitrarily declaring their products “obsolete” and “dead,” then passing the news along to their customers who - surprise, surprise - don’t agree…sending perfectly functioning hardware to the landfill was about the least sustainable thing imaginable…And it’s what happened more recently with the music streaming service Spotify. That company’s first experiment in hardware, the Car Thing, allowed owners of older model cars to use Spotify in their vehicles. It launched in 2021. Within a year, however, Spotify declared that it was discontinuing sales of the Car Things after considerable losses. Then, in May, 2024, it informed customers that it was ending support of the device, closing down the cloud based services that Car Thing relies on and - essentially “bricking” the device…toothbrush maker Oral B that it was discontinuing software support for a pricey, $230 "smart" toothbrush that was integrated with Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant and that it launched in 2020. The company’s decision effectively killed off a range of smart features, including voice recognition and AI-powered oral care advice, that convinced owners to pay a premium for it…Consumers in the United States collectively dispose of more than 500 pounds of electronic waste each second, with e-waste one of the fastest growing forms of pollution. However, as it stands, there is little disincentive for manufacturers to continue to brick and abandon products they no longer with to support. No laws or regulations govern arbitrary decisions to cut off support and effectively kill off functioning hardware. And in most states, the cost and onus for disposing of manufacturer-abandoned smart devices falls entirely to consumers and local communities, rather than the manufacturers who designed, built, marketed and sold the devices. That simmering crisis may take on entirely new dimensions next year, when Microsoft ends support for its Windows 10 operating system- a business decision that could condemn more than 200 million electronic devices to the landfill. What’s needed are guardrails for manufacturers and software makers - guidelines around both the creation and long term management of smart, connected devices that takes not only their corporate bottom line and “shareholder value” into consideration, but also the rights of consumers, the useful life of hardware and the environment. HERE

CONSUMER PRODUCTS: 10 Reasons Your Kids Shouldn’t Use AirPods Written By: GreenMedInfo Research Group Wireless earbuds like AirPods use Bluetooth technology, which emits radiofrequency radiation near the head and body for prolonged periods. Experts caution that children and teenagers, due to their thinner skulls and more absorbent brain tissue, are especially vulnerable to health risks, including brain cancer, neurological damage and hearing loss. 10 Reasons Your Kids Shouldn’t Use AirPods | GreenMedInfo | Blog

EMF: Why It’s Still Worth It to Wire Your House for Ethernet Yes, everything is wireless these days. But if your walls are open for another project, running some ethernet wire is still a good idea. First—and most importantly—ethernet is always faster than wifi. Studies show that wifi is less than half as fast as an ethernet connection, with a typical wifi network in a home managing just 42% of the speeds achieved with a hardwired connection. That’s due to simple physics: Cat 6A cables are rated to transfer data at 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) in a consistent, steady manner, whereas radio-base WiFi 6E only has a “theoretical” maximum speed of 9.6 Gbps and a practical throughput of much less. Yes, everything is wireless these days. But if your walls are open for another project, running some ethernet wire is still a good idea. Why It’s Still Worth It to Wire Your House for Ethernet (msn.com)

ENERGY: American Support for EVs, Solar and Wind Energy Wanes, Pew Says American Support for EVs, Solar and Wind Energy Wanes, Pew Says (msn.com) STUDY: How Americans View National, Local and Personal Energy Choices Most Americans want more renewable energy, but support has dipped. Interest in electric vehicles has also declined How Americans View Energy Policies and Personal Choices | Pew Research Center

5G: Your Phone's 5G Connection Is Vulnerable to Bypass, DoS Attacks Wireless service providers prioritize uptime and lag time, occasionally at the cost of security, allowing attackers to take advantage, steal data, and worse Your Phone's 5G Connection Is Vulnerable to Bypass, DoS Attacks (darkreading.com)

5G: NEW YORK CITY TOWERS ICYMI: Refers to previous article: Brewer Opposes 5G Towers Planned for Upper West Side Five gigantic 5G towers may soon be coming to the Upper West Side, but not if Council Member Gale Brewer has anything to say about it. [] More than 150 32-foot 5G towers already dot the city, but most are in the outer boroughs with a few on the east side of Lower Manhattan. The towers sit on top of and power the kiosks that provide Wi-Fi, USB charging and phone service to citizens who need it. The first 5G tower in NYC went up in Long Island City in 2022. A New York Times report says more than 2,000 additional towers are planned for the city.

5G Towers Coming to UWS. When the Rag reported city plans to install several 5G towers on the Upper West Side to provide more high-speed, free Wi-Fi service, comments flooded in. A few welcomed the towers and their promise of better Wi-Fi, but quite a few raised aesthetic objections – none more direct and succinct than Joan’s. Joan They are just plain ugly. Our story reported that UWS City Councilmember Gale Brewer had used the “ugly” theme in a letter to city officials, in which she argued the towers would mar the historical integrity and beauty of the neighborhood. Brewer’s letter did not mention another issue raised by some commenters: Sabrina Rosen I wonder if there is an increase in cancer risk that comes with an increase in 5G poles? I am worried for our children. Sabrina got a quick, succinct response. Steen Reply to  Sabrina Rosen There is not. It seemed safe to move on, but there was more S.L. There are documented cancer clusters that have been linked to 5G towers. Why are the towers concentrated in 2 areas? Two towers between 94 and 97 Street along Columbus Ave. Two towers between 61st and 63rd streets along Broadway. Is NYC going to pay for oncology treatment if cancer clusters occur in those 2 areas? And some helpful reading suggestions: A. E. People need to do research on the safety of these cell phone towers.. Start with this article: https://westviewnews.org/2023/01/11/new-york-city-a-sorcerers-garden-of-5g-cell-towers/westview-news/ and this one: https://www.propublica.org/article/fcc-5g-wireless-safety-cellphones-risk? Kudos to Gale Brewer for speaking out about the aesthetics, which might be our only hope for banning these monstrosities, though the safety issue is more of a concern, in my opinion. The ProPublica article A.E. recommends is quite long, but a good, investigative examination that questions government assurances of the safety of the technology. “[A] growing body of international research asserts that there is reason to worry about harms — many of them unrelated to cancer — from wireless radiation,” according to ProPublica. Bottom line: like so many things in life, there’s no “beyond a doubt” answer. Commenting on the Comments: Chickens; 5G Towers; and Anonymity (westsiderag.com)

HEALTH RESEARCH: Epidemiological exploration of the impact of bluetooth headset usage on thyroid nodules using Shapley additive explanations method

HEALTH EMF The Power Couple: ELECTRICAL ILLNESSES Is diabetes an electrical illness? Mitochondria | Dirty electricity | UV as therapy

Is diabetes an electrical illness?

INDUSTRY: Surfing the Internet on Mars is a Thing Having the internet on Mars seems a long way off. However, an ultra-high definition video featuring a cat named Taters has already been streamed from nearly 19 million miles away (or about 80 times the Earth-Moon distance) in a laser communications demonstration by NASA. The agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment aboard the recently launched Psyche spacecraft sent the 15-second video, which features an orange tabby cat chasing a red laser, back to Earth. https://insidetowers.com/surfing-the-internet-on-mars-is-a-thing/ courtesy Kate

INSPIRATION THE POWER COUPLE: How to go analog in the digital age Eric Francis Coppolino - Astrological implications for technology How to go analog in the digital age (substack.com) 1 HOUR 2O MINUTE PODCAST

LEGAL: THE US COURT RULING: CHEVRON

When asked about the significance of the ruling in reference to the court’s 2021 remand to the FCC about safety, (which the FCC has ignored) Odette Wilkins Esq of the National Call noted, The Supreme court decision doesn't change anything with the 2021 decision.  Already in that 2021 case the court refused to defer to the FCC ruling that the FCC failed to take a "reasoned" approach otherwise required under the Administrative Procedures Act when it failed to review the documents in its docket. That the court ruled against the FCC even with the Chevron doctrine still intact means that the FCC acted pretty egregiously.

LEGAL: Supreme Court guts agency power in seismic Chevron ruling The Supreme Court on Friday curtailed the executive branch's ability to interpret laws it's charged with implementing, giving the judiciary more say in what federal agencies can do. Why it matters: The landmark 6-3 ruling along ideological lines overturns the court's 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine. It could make it harder for executive agencies to tackle a wide array of policy areas, including environmental and health regulations and labor and employment laws. Driving the news: Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the opinion of the court, argued Chevron "defies the command of" the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs federal administrative agencies.

• He said it "requires a court to ignore, not follow, 'the reading the court would have reached had it exercised its independent judgment as required by the APA.'"

• Further, he said it "is misguided" because "agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do."

• Context: The ruling marks another major victory for conservatives, who for decades have sought to limit the federal government's ability to regulate businesses.

  • In the wake of the court's ruling, it's expected that more federal rules will be challenged in the courts and judges will have greater discretion to invalidate agency actions.

  • The decision comes one day after the Supreme Court curtailed federal agencies' use of administrative law judges in another blow to the administrative state.

  Supreme Court guts agency power in seismic Chevron ruling (axios.com)

AND: What SCOTUS just did to broadband, the right to repair, the environment, and more Even when Capitol Hill is not mired in deep dysfunction, the speed at which Congress and the courts operate no longer seems suitable for modern life. Both industry and ordinary people look to the administrative state, rather than legislators, for an immediate answer to their problems. And since 1984, the administrative state largely ran on one Supreme Court precedent: Chevron USA, Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). [] That decision has now been overturned. Admin law is not always interesting, but the simple fact is when it comes to the day-to-day, agencies are the most impactful part of the federal government. The true scope of this ruling will not be immediately felt, and what replaces Chevron deference is still unclear. The regulatory state has been under steady attack from an increasingly conservative judiciary for a long time. Some of the agencies we follow most closely were kneecapped even before this decision — one expert we talked to said that Chevron had been a “dead letter for quite some time.” [] While the practice had been in place for decades before, it came to be known as Chevron deference after a 1984 case: Chevron v. NRDC. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Chevron, allowing the Ronald Reagan administration’s industry-friendly Environmental Protection Agency to stick with a lax interpretation of the Clean Air Act. Over the years, Chevron deference has enabled federal agencies to tackle all sorts of issues that legislators have yet to cover — from addressing greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change to regulating broadband access. As the conservative legal movement to disempower the administrative state grew, Chevron deference became — in certain circles — shorthand for government overreach. According to the major questions doctrine, a federal agency shouldn’t have the leeway to craft regulation on an issue of major national significance if Congress hasn’t explicitly allowed it to do so in legislation. When two cases calling for an end to Chevron deference worked their way up to SCOTUS, the writing was on the wallM [] It’s not yet certain what has replaced Chevron, though some of the wording in the decision suggests we may fall back on a doctrine known as Skidmore deference — a weaker deference, meaning that judges have more power to block agency rules. The downfall of Chevron deference could completely change the ways courts review net neutrality, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Matt Schettenhelm. [] ITIF said the FCC’s November 2023 digital discrimination order — which allows the agency to fine telecom companies when they fail to provide equal connectivity to different groups without a good reason — could also be in danger. “Now, the Commission will no longer have the refuge of statutory ambiguity to shield this overreach from judicial scrutiny,” ITIF director of broadband and spectrum policy Joe Kane said in a statement. What happens to the push to regulate Big Tech Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan has made no secret of her ambitions to use the agency’s authority to take bold action to restore competition to digital markets and protect consumers. But with Chevron being overturned amid a broader movement undermining agency authority without clear direction from Congress, Schettenhelm said, “it’s about the worst possible time for the FTC to be claiming novel rulemaking power to address unfair competition issues in a way that it never has before.” What SCOTUS just did to broadband, the right to repair, the environment, and more (msn.com)

AND: FCC: Supreme Court Curbs Power of Regulatory Agencies Like FCC The decision could have a big impact on two pending cases involving the Federal Communications Commission. WASHINGTON, June 2024  -  In a closely watched case, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that federal courts do not need to defer to regulatory agencies in disputes over the correct reading of vague laws passed by Congress. Chevron deference became controversial because it had the twin effect of denying courts their historic role of deciding the meaning of laws and enhancing the power of administrative agencies that knew they would rarely lose in court. Joining Roberts’ opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo were Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Elena Kagan filed a dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson in part. The decision could have a big impact on two pending cases involving the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC’s new digital discrimination rules included a disparate impact standard that can hold broadband Internet Service Providers liable for unintentional discrimination in the rollout of broadband infrastructure. The FCC's rules are now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis. Broadband ISPs have also challenged the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules and have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to stay them by July 15. In both cases, the ISPs have said the FCC acted based on an incorrect interpretation of federal laws. Before Friday’s Supreme Court ruling, the Chevron Doctrine would have required courts to accept the FCC’s rules if found to be reasonable and not arbitrary or capricious. Public Knowledge issued a press release critical of the court's ruling. The progressive organization said the decision "jeopardizes Net Neutrality." Free State Foundation President Randolph May issued a statement saying "the practical effect of the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper should be to rein in overly aggressive statutory interpretations by agencies." The court’s ruling Friday was not a constitutional holding. It did not say Chevron violated a constitutional clause or amendment, only that it did not conform with the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946. That means Congress could pass a law restoring the Chevron Doctrine. In fact, bills have been introduced on Capitol Hill to defend or abolish Chevron deference. Even though the Supreme Court majority said Chevron deference was “fundamentally misguided,” it said its decision Friday would not impact prior cases in which agency regulations were upheld under the Chevron Doctrine. “By overruling Chevron … the court does not call into question prior cases that relied on the Chevron framework,” Roberts’ opinion said. https://broadbandbreakfast.com/supreme-court-curbs-power-of-regulatory-agencies-like-fcc/

AND POLITICO: In a 6-3 decision that fell cleanly along ideological lines with the court’s three liberal justices dissenting, the Supreme Court ruled that judges no longer have to defer to agencies’ interpretations of federal statutes when making regulations. That means judges will have far more authority to intervene in regulatory matters regarding the environment, technology, education and any number of other subjects. As POLITICO’s Alex Guillen and Josh Gerstein pointed out in their report on the decision this morning, during January’s oral arguments for the case Justice Elena Kagan said artificial intelligence could be a sensitive area where judges might get over their skis when it comes to effectively making policy. POLITICO’s Mohar Chatterjee wrote today as part of a story examining the potential policy implications that the decision is likely to fuel legal efforts by conservative critics and industry groups to push back on President Joe Biden’s administration’s AI regulation efforts. Shobita Parthasarathy, director of the University of Michigan’s program on science, tech and public policy, wrote on X that the decision “is a disaster for science and tech policymaking,” and that “it says that legal expertise trumps technical expertise and agencies will have to wait for Congress (gridlocked) or courts to address new challenges and regulate new technologies.” HERE

AND VOX: The Supreme Court just made a massive power grab it will come to regret Welcome to hell, SCOTUS. []before Loper Bright, the Court’s Republican majority already had the power to overrule any agency action that garnered political controversy, effectively replacing a Democratic president’s policy with one preferred by the GOP. After Loper Bright, the Court is now the final word on a broad range of policy questions that hardly anyone cares about, but that are very important when taken in the aggregate, and that often involve hyper-technical questions that are far beyond the justices’ expertise. Federal courts will soon be inundated with lawsuits forcing them to decide questions like these, which, under Chevron, have been the ken of federal agencies. And there’s simply no reason to think that some guy with a juris doctorate and a judicial commission will know how to handle these questions. Instead of leaving questions about, say, cable TV rates to officials in the Federal Communications Commission who have spent their careers studying those questions, they’ll now be resolved by lawyers who know little, if anything, about telecommunications. Because lower court judges typically have no real expertise in any of these questions, moreover, policy questions that have historically been resolved by agencies are likely to cleave the federal courts down the middle, forcing the justices to resolve countless disagreements among federal circuit courts. The Supreme Court just rewrote America's separation of powers, in Loper Bright v. Raimondo - Vox

MORE NEWS AND NOTES

MILITARY: Report Sounds Alarm Over Growing Role of Big Tech in US Military-Industrial Complex April 17, 2024, Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/news/military-industrial-complex-big-tech

MILITARY: Top-secret US aquatic drone weapon ‘Manta Ray’ spotted on Google Maps for all to see Satellite photos showing the “Star Wars”-looking vessel docked at Port Hueneme naval base in California went viral Sunday, its unmistakable profile standing out in stark contrast to its dockmates. Produced by Northrop Grumman as part of a US Navy project to develop long-range underwater weapons, Manta Ray is a sophisticated underwater drone capable of hibernating on the sea floor for “very long periods” without refueling. Top-secret US aquatic drone weapon 'Manta Ray' spotted on Google Maps for all to see (nypost.com)

NATURE EINAR NORWAY EINAR: Insect death: The Ministry of Climate and Environment will investigate whether radiation is behind it This year, KMD will initiate an investigation into whether electromagnetic fields – i.e. radiation from mobile phone and radio masts, high-voltage wires, WiFi, AMS meters, etc. – play a role in the insect death that we are currently witnessing. This is in the Action Plan for 2021-2028. This shows that it is useful to spread knowledge and to challenge public administration, even if it is progressing despairingly slowly. The action plan can be found here: https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/5797b01a43fa4cdd8b220afb3df68791/212216-kld-tiltaksplan-web.pdf Insect deaths: The Ministry of Climate and Environment will investigate whether radiation is behind it | I have something on my mind... (einarflydal.com)

NATURE: Hope, then heartbreak, as first ‘spinning’ sawfish dies in Tampa Bay The current scientific thinking is that the area of concern remains in South Florida. Sawfish are swimming in the Florida Keys and contracting whatever is causing them to act erratically. But then those fish are swimming miles as they head north during the summer. They have episodes of bizarre whirling and thrashing along the way. [ ] It’s not just sawfish: More than 50 species have been affected by the bizarre event, including stingrays, sharks, crabs and groupers. People have sent at least 500 eyewitness reports of abnormal behavior and fish kills to state wildlife hotlines, according to the latest Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission data. Heath and his team of fellow sawfish biologists are monitoring the calls daily. Hope, then heartbreak, as first ‘spinning’ sawfish dies in Tampa Bay (msn.com)

NOTE: Arthur Firstenburg reported this phenomenon in April, 2024: Whirling fish, bees, worms, sheep, turtles, penguins, April 16, 2024 as webpage: MORE THAN FIFTY SPECIES OF FISH CIRCLING AND SPINNING UNTIL THEY DIE https://cellphonetaskforce.org/whirling-fish-bees-worms-sheep-turtles-penguins/ “No cause for this has been found. There is no evidence of a red tide, low oxygen levels, high temperatures, or parasites in the dead fish. I was skeptical that RF radiation from cell towers could be causing this because water reflects the radiation and it shouldn’t be killing fish like it is killing birds. But I decided to investigate. Because the greatest number of reports have come from a 10-mile-long stretch of the Keys between Big Pine Key and Sugarloaf Key, I wondered if there is a military facility in that area, and there is, or was. On Cudjoe Key, located between Big Pine Key and Sugarloaf Key, there was an Air Force Base that is now operated by the Department of Homeland Security. And above Cudjoe Key floats a radar blimp, called an “aerostat”, that is part of U.S. border surveillance and scans an area around it for 200 miles in every direction. Powerful radar can injure fish when they swim to the surface in these shallow waters, called the Florida Keys flats, where the water is only a few feet deep. Local residents call this blimp Fat Albert.” HERE

NATURE OT: CNN CAPE COD DOLPHINS In what the IFAW described as possibly “the largest single mass stranding event” in the organization’s 26-year history, 125 Atlantic white-sided dolphins were located stranded early Friday in shallow mud flats of Wellfleet in an area called the “Gut,” or Great Island at the Herring River. More than 100 Atlantic white-sided dolphins stranded off Cape Cod, Massachusetts | CNN (Note: Cape Cod hosts: Air Station Cape Cod is located in Sandwich, The Joint Base Cape Cod (JBCC) a full scale, joint-use base home to five military commands training for missions at home and overseas, conducting airborne search and rescue missions, and intelligence command and control. “Cape Cod Air Force Station is the only land based radar site providing missile warning for the eastern coast of the United States and southern Canada against intercontinental and sea-launched ballistic missiles.”)

SMART METERS TECH FIRES More Loss of life in the Smart Meter Saga NORMAN LAMBE The latest tragedy we have to deal with comes our way from South Korea. An explosion took place in a factory which was packaging lithium ion batteries for shipment around the world. A fire official on scene stated that, “The fire started when a series of battery cells exploded.”  It is still unknown at this time what caused the explosions to begin. The death toll at this writing is 18 Chinese workers, one Laotian and two South Korean workers as perishing in the explosion and ensuing fire. A fire and disaster prevention instructor from Daejeon University in South Korea, Kim Jae-ho stated that “Battery materials such as nickel are easily flammable, often there is not enough time to respond compared to a fire caused by other materials.” Nickel is a component of lithium batteries. A major problem confronted the firefighters as a lithium fire apparently reacts intensely with water; as a result, firefighters had to use dry sand to extinguish the fire.  Can a lithium battery fire be put out with water? HERE

SMART METERS NORWAY: AMS and dirty electricity: The grid companies are looking for an "amicable settlement" that the customer will pay for The electricity meter is just one of many sources of voltage noise in your home. Examples of other sources of voltage noise are: Power supplies in all electronic equipment, PC chargers, Mobile chargers, Light dimmers, Fluorescent and compact fluorescent lamps, LED bulbs, Induction cooktops, Motors in household appliances, Radio Receivers, TVs, Rectifiers in EV chargers Einar F: It is true that these are sources of dirty electricity, and perhaps stronger than from an electricity meter. But people who are electro-hypersensitive and others who want to reduce dirty electricity, can remove or turn off all these sources, possibly only use them for short periods, and many do just that. You can't do that with the electricity meters without losing power in the house. This is therefore not a relevant argument. AMS and dirty electricity: The grid companies are seeking an "amicable settlement" that the customer will pay for | I have something on my mind... (einarflydal.com)

SURVEILLANCE AUSTRALIA: Senators move to repeal Australia's new Digital ID laws citing 'human rights' concerns Australian Government figures show that the federal Digital ID system, myGovID, is already used by 10.5 million Australians to access more than 130 government services. Australians can sign up for Digital ID with documents such as a visa, driver licence or Medicare card. Biometric data from a selfie photo can be uploaded to create a stronger Digital ID, after which the government states that the photo will be deleted. The recently passed Digital ID legislation is intended to expand and strengthen this existing framework. This will include centralising access to federal, state and territory government services, streamlining and strengthening identity verification for citizens, and improving accreditation schemes for service providers Digital ID is used in numerous countries, including Estonia, Singapore, India, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Nigeria. The vaunted benefits of Digital ID systems include streamlined access to services, tighter digital security, and reduced paper storage requirements. However, challenges to Digital ID systems include identity theft, data breaches, privacy concerns, variations in digital literacy, and the need for public trust. JUST IN: Senators move to repeal Australia's new Digital ID laws citing 'human rights' concerns (rebekahbarnett.com.au)

UTILLTIES: America’s electric grid is on the brink with Biden’s Clean Power Plan 2.0 BY SEN. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R-W.VA.) AND REP. TROY BALDERSON (R-OHIO), OPINION CONTRIBUTORS - America's electric grid is on the brink (thehill.com)

EVENTS

ACT MONDAY: LANDLINES CA: AB 2797 TO BE HEARD IN STATE SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES & COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE TUESDAY JULY 2
Read and use these user-friendly alerts from TURN and AARP to understand AT&T's sneaky end-run attempt and send your own message. https://secure.turn.org/page/69223/petition/1
https://action.aarp.org/secure/protect-landline-phone-service