The Morning Roar: PA Judges Shut Down Uber & Lyft, Rand Paul Spars With Hannity Over Iraq, Wind Turbine Lands Couple In Jail
Welcome to your Thursday edition of The Morning Roar!PA Judges Shut Down Uber & LyftTwo administrative law judges ordered Uber and Lyft to halt operations in Pennsylvania until they are licensed. The directive by the judges, Mary Long and Jeffrey Watson, allows the Public Utility Commission to pursue administrative actions against the companies, while forcing them to cease operations.The Pittsburgh based Tribune Review reported the reactions to the ruling made by Lyft, Uber, and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.
The decision hurts people in Pittsburgh who seek transportation or the opportunity to make extra income as a driver, said Lyft spokeswoman Paige Thelen.“We remain committed to finding a path forward for ride-sharing in Pennsylvania and are working with elected officials to ensure that consumers continue to have access to peer-to-peer transportation,” she said.Uber spokesman Taylor Bennett said the order is “baffling,” particularly in advance of the July Fourth holiday when ride-sharing could reduce incidences of drunken driving.“While we plan to continue our commitment to reliable and safe service in Pennsylvania, we look forward to continuing to work with the PUC to find a permanent home for ride-sharing in Pennsylvania,” he said.Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto in June wrote to the PUC, complaining about “overbearing enforcement activities” aimed at shutting down the companies' operations.“This is a disappointing ruling, but the mayor remains committed to innovation and providing safe and popular transit options for Pittsburgh,” Peduto spokesman Tim McNulty said.
For those of you that have been long time readers of Lions of Liberty you probably know by now that I call Pittsburgh my hometown, so this story hit close to home. Although I have not used Uber or Lyft, I think their business models are brilliant. These companies provide for a market deficiency and are not committing a crime by providing a consensual service to the people of the Pennsylvania, and many other cities in the country.The state of Pennsylvania on the other hand is committing a crime by threatening these businesses with fines if they fail to comply with orders to halt service. This threat is extortion any way you look at it. If this was not bad enough, the intervention by the State will make the people of Pennsylvania less safe this Fourth of July weekend, as individuals are forced to deal with the removal of two alternatives to drinking and driving. If you have ever been to Pittsburgh, there are very few taxi cabs in the city. Without Uber and Lyft a huge void is left in the supply of sober drivers during a holiday weekend.This should outrage everyone that will be on the roads this Fourth of July weekend.When the State steps in and takes away a service that the market demands, it is natural to be curious why authorities, tasked with keeping the public safe, would do something that makes the public less safe and goes against the wishes of the majority. The knee jerk reaction is to exclaim, “Those power hungry busybodies just HAVE to be in control!”It is probably true that some of the individuals in positions of authority have been attracted to their current posts by the allure of power, but it is the people that they “serve” who are responsible for allowing the abuse continue.In order to justify the suspension of these ride sharing services the judges cited a 1930 situation in Pittsburgh when striking cab drivers used personal vehicles to provide transportation. These laws should not have been on the books in 1930 and they certainly should not be on the books today!You can blame the judges or the authorities that support utilizing extortion to sideline companies that provide a service to consenting individuals, but the real blame lies with the people for allowing a Public Utility Commission to exist and control the market by forcing companies to comply with ridiculous licensing requirements.Rand Paul Spars With Hannity Over IraqWhen you carry water for the war party, reason and logic often find themselves removed from discourse with regards to the foreign interventions of the United States government. It can be a pretty ugly scene to watch a loyal war party water-carrier like Sean Hannity completely ignore facts and place all of the blame on Barack Obama for the ISIS (or ISIL or whatever the heck they are calling themselves now) taking over Iraq.During a normal day in the life of Sean Hannity, he is permitted to create his own reality and his fellow neoconservative guests and callers play along. Sometimes a guest will call him on his illogical or outright untruthful assertions. This rarely happens, but it happened on Monday when Rand Paul was a guest on Hannity’s show.Rand Paul and Hannity share a seemingly cordial relationship, at least publicly. Paul could have steamrolled Hannity and skewered him for omitting facts that would have inconveniently derailed his “Obama ruined Iraq narrative.”Paul could have drilled Hannity for not truthfully stating that Obama was only following Bush’s timeline when he removed troops from Iraq, but he didn’t even mention this well documented fact. Paul did state that the ISIS is stronger in Iraq because the United States armed them in Syria, but he neglected to mention that the US has a history of arming terrorist organizations and meddling in the affairs of other nations. Paul agrees with Hannity that the surge worked, but chooses to ignore that the surge "worked" by paying-off opposing sides during a civil war and assisting in genocidal acts. Paul also said he wouldn’t send his sons to war because the Iraqis won’t defend their territory, but did not raise any disagreement with using tax payer dollars to fund another war.You be the judge. Did Rand Paul take it easy on Sean Hannity?Wind Turbine Lands Couple In JailLibertycrier.com provided coverage regarding a couple residing near Lake Minnetonka that could end up in jail for six months because they erected a home-made wind turbine in their backyard.
The fight may be less about green energy and more about bad energy between neighbors. No fewer than a dozen lawsuits have been filed, and on Wednesday, a judge decided he may hold the homeowner who built the wind turbine in contempt. Meanwhile, Jay Nygard contends he is fighting for his rights.It’s clear that Nygard is on a crusade. He refuses to take down the 30-foot wind turbine in his back yard even though the city of Orono has sued him over a zoning violation. A judge has already ordered him to take it down because it was too close to property lines and the correct permits hadn’t been pulled.
Once again, like the first story in today’s Morning Roar, this incident or disagreement seems to be incorrectly linked to the government’s insistence upon issuing permits and the public’s penchant to acquiesce to this protocol. Why on earth should the government be in the business of issuing permits that dictate what you can and cannot have on your property? Instead of settling a dispute with a neighbor or community member cordially, too many in society lean on the State’s authority to solve their problems.The knee-jerk libertarian might argue that in a libertarian society, it is not your neighbors business if you have a wind turbine on your property. They would be wrong.A closer look at the situation reveals possible property rights infringement. A wind turbine that pollutes the surrounding neighbors property with sound or light could be categorized as an infringement upon the property rights of a neighbor. The only way to settle this disagreement, if it cannot be settled by compromise, would be to take the accusations of property rights infringements to an unbiased arbitrator.If any of the impacted property owners are unhappy with the arbitrator’s decision, then they are free to move to another piece of property and try their luck with different neighboring property owners.Read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
