GOODY: FCC Opens Up More Spectrum for Starlink, Low-Earth Orbiting Satellites.

On Thursday, the FCC unanimously voted to open 1,300 megahertz of spectrum in the 17.3 to 17.8GHz bands to non-geostationary satellites, which would include Starlink satellites that operate closer to Earth.

The goal is to foster competition and expand “the ability of satellite operators to deploy advanced services, including high-speed internet access to unserved and underserved areas,” the FCC says. The order specifically enables non-geostationary satellites to harness the 17GHz bands for downlinking purposes or to send data from space down to Earth. The spectrum would also be shared with higher-orbiting geostationary satellites, which got access in 2022.

So it’s possible the new rules could lead to a significant download speed increase for Starlink. During the vote, FCC staff explained the order will allow both stationary and in-motion devices to receive signals from satellites using the 17GHz spectrum. But it sounds like companies will first need to receive a license from the FCC.

SpaceX and Amazon’s Project Kuiper have been among the companies in support of freeing up the spectrum.

In the two-plus years I’ve had Starlink, download speeds have crept up from about 100 Mbps to 230-250. Latency is low enough that my teenage sons have never complained about lag on their PlayStation online games. Honestly, 100 Mbps met the needs of my very online family of four.

So I’m not sure what I’d do with even more speed but — bring it on!

EXCLUSIVE: How $1M From China-linked Groups Oiled New York Politics.

Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) once declared a “President An Quanzhong Day” in her congressional district to honor the China-born businessman’s work for his Chinese hometown association in New York—while her campaign took thousands of dollars in donations from An.

Today An and his daughter—a green card holder and a U.S. citizen, respectively, at the time of their arrest—are among seven people facing charges of acting as foreign agents for allegedly colluding with Chinese officials to try to force a U.S. resident back to China against his will.

Another prolific donor to New York politicians was U.S. citizen Lu Jianwang, one of two men arrested for allegedly hosting a clandestine Chinese police station in Manhattan. Meng, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul all got thousands of dollars in donations from Lu and his brother.

A months-long Newsweek investigation has uncovered donations to leading New York politicians by dozens of U.S.-based community groups and their leaders with close ties to the United Front Work Department or to a wider “united front system” operated globally by the Chinese Communist Party. The department reports directly to the Central Committee of the CCP. The donations stretch back decades; recipients have included former New York senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton—and Meng’s campaigns received over $270,000 from such groups and their leaders since 2006, Newsweek’s review shows.

Are there any Democrats not in thrall to China?

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Biden-Harris Set Another Booby Trap for Trump 47 But It Will Hit You Right in the Wallet. “With apologies to Stanley Kubrick, the Biden administration has ordered, ‘Gentlemen, you can’t drill in here! This an oil field!'”

HILLEL NEUER:

I just took the floor now at the United Nations Human Rights Council:

Mr. President,

Today I come before the United Nations, to address a stark reality: our moral compass is faltering.

The West, once a bastion of justice, now hesitates when good triumphs over evil.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the response to Israel’s recent actions against Hezbollah, a terror group that has wreaked havoc on civilians for decades. Ask the Syrians — they will tell you.

And since October 8th, Hezbollah fired 9,000 missiles at the people of Israel, expelling 70,000 from their homes.

Israel, a small nation of 9 million, has taken a stand against barbarism. Its young soldiers are on the front lines in a battle that once would have united Western coalitions. Yet today, much of the West fails to support Israel in its existential fight against groups like Hezbollah and Hamas—both backed by Tehran, which tramples its own people, and races toward a nuclear bomb.

No less alarming is the West’s response. In Washington, we hear calls to avoid “escalation,” while in Europe, the UK’s David Lammy just said climate change is a greater threat than terrorism. Incredibly, some have turned against Israel entirely, condemning its efforts to defend itself.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a battle over land; it is a battle of civilization against tyranny. Hezbollah, armed with 150,000 missiles aimed at civilians, must be stopped. To criminalize Israel’s right to self-defense, while ignoring the atrocities of its enemies, is a grave injustice.

We must stand with Israel. We must stand for democracy, for the rule of law, and for the right of every nation to protect its people from terror.

I thank you.

No, thank you for saying what needed saying.

SHE’S A WOMAN OF FEW WORDS BUT, DEAR LORD, THE TURNOVER: Good News: Kamala Harris Wants to ‘Inspire Us by Helping Us to Be Inspired.’

GOING OUT, NOT WITH A BANG, BUT WITH A WHIMPER: What Biden’s Latest Anti-Gun Executive Orders Might Mean.

Earlier this week, it was announced that President Joe Biden would be putting forward more executive orders on guns. Considering his history on guns and executive orders, absolutely nothing seemed off the table.

But it was really just an announcement about an announcement. It was light on details.

Well, now we know what’s up, and on the surface, it looks like no big deal. It’s when you consider the implications that things get concerning.

Details at the link.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: However Sincere, Mark Zuckerberg’s Mea Culpa Moment Is a Bit Late. “If the Dems hadn’t revealed themselves to be a bunch of raging anti-Semites after October 7, 2023, would Zuckerberg ever have felt bad about being a Soviet-style propagandist in 2020? I have my doubts.”

GOOD GRIEF: Continental Gaslighting: EU Releases Alarming Report – Europe Is Too ‘White’ and ‘European.’

The report, which dropped yesterday, is an astounding masterpiece of projection and natural gas. Europe’s problems, the ECFR concludes, have nothing to do with the sacrosanct status of the European Union and their dictatorial, authoritarian wielding of power.

In point of fact, part of the problem – the disconnect, as the report moans – is what the authors attribute as the main drivers of populism and dissatisfaction with the European collective. These are mistakenly driving innocent young people away from appreciating the glory of continental unification aka EUROPEANISM.

WHAT IS THREATENING TO RUIN THE EUROPEANISM BORG

Of course, it’s nothing Brussels has done. It’s all because of too much “white” and too much of the national identity stuff.

Hence the Great Replacement which I’m still assured by the very best people is a conspiracy theory whipped up by mouth-breathing reactionaries.

Somehow, it’s racist when a people in their own country want to keep their own country. But none dare call it colonialism when millions of foreigners set up shop in a new country with no intention of assimilating.

HISTORY REPEATS, THE SECOND TIME AS FARCE: Team Biden Can’t Understand How It Blew Middle East Peace, and I Can’t Stop Cry-Laughing.

SPACE IS HARD. SO ARE SUBMERSIBLES: China’s Newest Nuclear Submarine Sank, Setting Back Its Military Modernization.

The U.S. doesn’t know if the sub was carrying nuclear fuel at the time it sank, but experts outside the U.S. government said that was likely.

Undersea technology has long been an area of U.S. advantage, but China has been pushing hard to narrow the gap.

China has been moving to diversify the production of nuclear-powered submarines. Production has been centered in the northeastern city of Huludao, but China is now moving to manufacture nuclear-powered attack submarines at the Wuchang Shipyard near Wuhan.

Beijing had 48 diesel-powered attack subs and six nuclear-powered attack subs at the end of 2022, according to a Pentagon report issued last year on China’s military power,

That report said that China’s aim in developing new attack submarines, surface ships and naval aircraft is to counter efforts by the U.S. and its partners to come to Taiwan’s aid during a conflict and to achieve “maritime superiority” within the first island chain, a string of territory from the Japanese archipelago through Taiwan and the Philippines to the South China Sea.

The Zhou-class vessel that sank is the first of a new class of Chinese nuclear-powered subs and features a distinctive X-shaped stern, which is designed to make the vessel more maneuverable.

The sub was built by China State Shipbuilding Corp., a state-owned company, and was observed alongside a pier on the Yangtze River in late May when it was undergoing its final equipping before going to sea.

After the sinking, large floating cranes arrived in early June to salvage the sub from the river bed, according to satellite photos of the site.

Exit quote: “In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defense industry, which has long been plagued by corruption.”

KRUISER: Trump Derangement Syndrome Meltdown of the Week — NY Times Editorial Board Fills Its Diaper AGAIN. “This regurgitation of anti-Trump feelings should have been titled, ‘GUYS…WHY WON’T YOU LISTEN TO US?!?’ and been accompanied by a coupon to get a discount on tissues and adult diapers. It will be lapped up by the people who already hate Trump, but it’s a flimsy pitch to anyone out there who is still undecided.”

WHISTLEBLOWER: The Biden-Harris Administration Is Sabotaging Trump’s Campaign.

IT CERTAINLY SEEMS LIKE NETANYAHU RECENTLY GAVE MOSSAD A HUNTING LICENSE WITH NO BAG LIMIT:

Vahid Haddab, the Iranian Host of an Internet Program linked with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, revealed recently that Israel conducted a Covert Operation last month inside of Iran, which resulted in the Assassination of a Senior Iranian Figure and the Theft of several… pic.twitter.com/eF4sfvLE82

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) September 26, 2024

More to come, I’m sure.

Update: And another one down.

Muhammad Hussein Sarur, the commander of Hezbollah's drone unit, was ELIMINATED today in Dahiya.

Previously, the Saudis had identified him as the key figure responsible for training the Houthis in Yemen to launch drone strikes into Saudi territory.

He is no longer a threat. https://t.co/Eqy5ufttCc pic.twitter.com/6uGiKGr3wN

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) September 26, 2024

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Is free speech just for nice speech? Students (and adults) need to know civics.

Less than half of Americans can name most of the rights protected under the First Amendment, according to a May survey by Penn’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. Freedom of speech — which includes speech that some might consider misinformation or hate speech — is the best known at 74 percent; freedom of religion is second at 39 percent.

Schools need to get back to teaching civics, argues the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy in a new report.

Beginning in the 1960s, as “the Vietnam War and then the Watergate scandal eroded the public’s faith in government,” schools moved away from civics education as a way to assimilate a “nation of immigrants” to a common culture, the report says. Critics saw civic education “as a form of cultural imperialism” that ignored students’ diversity.

Instead of protecting diversity, schools fostered ignorance and intellectual conformity. Which, if it wasn’t the initial goal, that’s what it quickly became.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Team Biden Can’t Understand How They Blew Middle East Peace, and I Can’t Stop Cry-Laughing. “‘This entire administration is naifs, weaklings, idiots, and Marxists,’ I posted at Instapundit earlier this week about a different Middle East report but today’s news proves that my estimation was entirely too optimistic.”

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Radian Aerospace begins tests of spaceplane prototype.

Radian Aerospace, a company with ambitions to develop a reusable orbital spaceplane, has started flight tests of a prototype vehicle.

The Seattle-based company announced Sept. 25 that it performed an initial series of taxi tests of a prototype flight vehicle it calls PFV01 at an unidentified airport in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The tests included what it called “short hops” by the vehicle as it tested its handling characteristics for takeoff and landing.

PFV01 is designed to test the aerodynamics of the company’s proposed Radian One, a spaceplane that would take off horizontally using a rail sled system more than three kilometers long and reach orbit using rocket engines before returning to a runway landing. The vehicle, as currently designed, could carry up to five people and 2,270 kilograms of cargo to low Earth orbit and return with up to 4,540 kilograms of cargo.

Plus: “The company performed the tests in Abu Dhabi with the support of an unnamed partner there. The airfield where the tests took place was a ‘good, permissive environment,’ Holder said, that gave the company access daily.”

Was that a slap at the Biden-Harris FAA?

YES. NEXT QUESTION? The Great Man Theory: Is Modern Liberalism a Zombie Faith?

ACCIDENTALLY? THEY WANT YOU COWED:

Holy shlit. Democrat delegate to the US House of Representatives accidentally says the quiet part out loud.

She admits the DOJ and FBI are weaponized to go after people with opposing views.

The DOJ and FBI "serve as a check against white nationalism, great replacement… pic.twitter.com/KRIVtAwCkM

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 25, 2024

Here’s a possibly tangentially related post concerning the charges NYC Mayor Eric Adams was just slapped with:

Be careful what you wish for, and pay very close attention to who’s celebrating loudest right now.

Hint: It’s not people with the best interests of the city at heart. I’ll have a full statement on the Adams situation soon, but the progressives who are salivating right now pose…

— Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) September 26, 2024

Abolish the FBI or, better yet, take off and nuke the entire J. Edgar Hoover building from orbit.

HEH: Harris’s Big Economic Speech an Endorsement of Trump.

FASTER, PLEASE: Bipartisan ‘Ships for America Act’ Building Support in Congress, Say Sponsors.

A comprehensive bill to restore U.S. shipbuilding capacity, build back its shipyard workforce and crew those ships with American mariners will soon be introduced in both houses of Congress with strong bipartisan support, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Airland subcommittee said Wednesday.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy, said the 200-page bill called “Ships for America Act,” has more than 200 members from both houses supporting it and will likely be introduced following the November election.

Kelly and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), chair of the House Armed Services Readiness subcommittee, have been meeting “with industry – shipbuilding, operators, labor” to gain support for the bill.

They also were leaders in writing “Congressional Guidance for a National Maritime Strategy,” released this spring, which laid the groundwork for the bill. Waltz called the document “a not so gentle nudge” to the Biden administration and future administrations that the “strength of the Navy will be underlined by the strength of our maritime industry.”

Waltz, appearing with Kelly on the U.S. Naval Institute’s and the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Maritime Security Dialogue webcast, pointed to USNS Big Horn (T-AO-198) as evidence that U.S. shipbuilding needs immediate attention. With at least one rudder damaged and its main engine space partially flooded, the oiler had to be towed to a port in Oman for repair.

The best time to get serious about our naval capacity crisis was at least 20 years ago. The next best time is right now.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: RFK Jr Wants to Get into Your Pantries. “Former Democrat longshot presidential contender — hell, former Democrat — Robert F. Kennedy wants to get into your pantries and make everything better. That’s ‘pantries’ with an R, I swear, even though this is a Kennedy we’re talking about.”

THREAD:

A friend just asked me how she gets away with 3.5 yrs of doing nothing/making things worse and now gets treated seriously while carrying on that she can fix it. She gets away with it because it's all fake. … I feel a rant coming on. https://t.co/kapJbZezLL

— Elizabeth Scalia (@TheAnchoress) September 26, 2024

A rant did come on — and it’s a good one.

KRUISER: Apocalypse No — Resisting the Dems’ Attempts to Make Us Despair. “There is a heaviness to politics in the best of times. The deep divide that mainstream media hacks like to portray as unique to the Trump years has actually been plaguing us since the turn of the century. Bush vs. Gore in 2000 turned the Democrats into election deniers and got them more focused than ever on what kind of un-American anomalies they could brew up in their election interference witches cauldron.”

WHY THE REGRET? I NEEDED THE LAUGH: I regret to inform you that Kamala Harris attempted to pronounce the name of a book of the Bible.

THE KIDS ARE NOT ALL RIGHT: ASU Snowflakes Melt Down at Sight of MAGA Hats. “These are young lefties we’re talking about here and, when it comes to the slightest exposure to differing viewpoints, they’re like the Boy in the Bubble getting shoved into the basement of a Wuhan virus lab that just failed its third consecutive safety inspection.”