Might Brandon Declare A Climate (scam) Emergency For The Election?

It would be a shady, patronizing attempt by the Biden regime to placate their weak minded voters and entice them to get out and vote

REPORT: Biden’s Latest Reelection Gambit May Be Declaring National Climate Emergency

White House officials are weighing whether to declare a national climate emergency several months out from the 2024 election, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

President Joe Biden’s top advisers have returned to conversations about declaring such a national climate emergency, though those in discussion appear to be divided on the move, the sources told Bloomberg. While the move, the sources say, would stunt offshore drilling and curb greenhouse gas emissions, others think the move would help energize youth voters, particularly those with a focus on climate, Bloomberg reported.

“President Biden has treated the climate crisis as an emergency since day one and will continue to build a clean energy future that lowers utility bills, creates good-paying union jobs, makes our economy the envy of the world and prioritizes communities that for too long have been left behind,” White House spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez told the outlet while not commenting directly on the reported discussions. (snip)

Ahead of the 2024 election, such a move could help Biden win over some of the youth vote as the president trails hypothetical matchups with former President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported.

The Sunrise Movement, Fridays For Future USA and the Campus Climate Network, all youth climate activist networks, are planning protests surrounding Earth Day in an effort to put pressure on the president to declare a climate emergency, Bloomberg reported.

Yes, these would all be the youts who mostly use tons of energy, travel around to get their selfies and vids, constantly order delivery, buy fast fashion, and consume quite a bit. From that Bloomberg article

Emergency declarations could enable the president to halt or limit crude exports for at least a year at a time, suspend offshore drilling, and throttle the movement of oil and gas on pipelines, ships and trains. Industry experts have warned that such a measure would discourage investment in domestic oil production and stoke higher retail prices.

Yeah, he might energize the youts a bit, but, when energy prices skyrocket people will directly blame Biden, so, the declaration would have to come early enough to get the youts to vote but late enough that the energy pain would come after election day.

Read: Might Brandon Declare A Climate (scam) Emergency For The Election? »

WWIII Watch: Iran Threatens To Target Israeli Nuclear Sites

Update before the scheduled post even posted:

Israel has carried out a strike inside Iran, US official tells CNN, as region braces for further escalation

Israel has carried out a military strike inside Iran, a US official told CNN, as blasts were heard near the city of Isfahan early Friday in a potentially escalatory move Iranian government officials have so far sought to play down.

The US was given advance notification Thursday of an intended Israeli strike in the coming days, but did not endorse the response, a second senior US official said.

Iran’s air defense systems were activated in several locations after three explosions were heard close to a major military airbase near the Iranian city of Isfahan, state media reported early Friday morning.

The NY Times claims that the strike hit an air base near Isfahan. The Natanz nuclear weapons development site is near there, so, will this set Iran off? Because on to the original post

Perhaps Biden shouldn’t have been so weak, shouldn’t have utterly messed up the Afghanistan withdrawal, shouldn’t have coddled Iran, shouldn’t have given them billion of dollars, shouldn’t have blown up all the growing peace accords in the Middle East, hadn’t equivocated after Hamas attacked Jewish civilians

Iran threatens to target Israeli nuke facilities; Middle East on ‘precipice’ of bigger war

The Middle East is on the “precipice” of a broader war that can be averted with a two-state solution allowing Israel and Palestine to exist side-by-side with Jerusalem as a shared capital, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday.

However, that solution won’t come from immediate U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state after the U.S. vetoed in the Security Council a draft resolution to that effect Thursday.

Guterres’ comments came as Tehran warned it has the ability to strike Israeli nuclear sites if Israel targets Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Guterres said a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis is the basis of U.N. resolutions, international law and previous agreements. The current Israeli government, however, has shown little interest in relinquishing control of the occupied territories.

The so-called Palestinians would be able to run Gaza as they see fit if they’d stop attacking Israel. And, let’s be honest, the Palestinians do not want a two state solution, they want it all from the river to the sea.

Guterres called on Israel as the “occupying power” to protect the Palestinian population in the West Bank against violence and intimidation and to allow safe passage for humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“Let me be clear ? the risks are spiraling on many fronts,” he said. “We have a shared responsibility to address those risks and pull the region back from the precipice.”

These anti-Semites always blame Israel but never the UN designated terrorist groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Which entices the Islamist terrorist groups, which are backed by Iran, to continue attacking Israel, continuing their provocations.

Iran could alter its peaceful “nuclear doctrine” and if Israel targets Iranian nuclear sites “we will surely and categorically reciprocate with advanced missiles against their own nuclear sites,” a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Thursday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is considering retaliating against Tehran for its weekend missile and drone attack.

Tehran has repeatedly claimed its nuclear program is for civilian purposes. Israel has accused Iran of attempting to obtain nuclear strike capability and has long pledged not to allow that to happen.

Seriously, everyone knows they are trying to get nuclear weapons, hence why Obama with Biden as VP did the terrible no good nuclear deal. We are getting that much closer to WWIII. What’s the over/under that Biden blows out of D.C. today and heads to Delaware, probably his beach house?

Read: WWIII Watch: Iran Threatens To Target Israeli Nuclear Sites »

PRC Comes Up With New Idea: $25 Minimum Wage For Health Workers

Gee, what could possibly go wrong?

California Health Workers May Face Rude Awakening With $25 Minimum Wage Law

Nearly a half-million health workers who stand to benefit from California’s nation-leading $25 minimum wage law could be in for a rude awakening if hospitals and other health care providers follow through on potential cuts to hours and benefits.

A medical industry challenge to a new minimum wage ordinance in one Southern California city suggests layoffs and reductions in hours and benefits, including cuts to premium pay and vacation time, could be one result of a state law set to begin phasing in in June. However, some experts are skeptical of that possibility.

The California Hospital Association brought a partly successful legal challenge to Inglewood’s $25 minimum wage ordinance, which barred employers from taking those sorts of steps to offset their higher costs.

“Layoffs, reductions in premium pay rates, reductions in non-wage benefits, reductions in hours, and increased charges are consequences of an employer having less money to spend—which will necessarily be the case given the significant increase in spending on wages due to the minimum wage,” the association said in its lawsuit. Additional examples include reducing health coverage and charging for parking or work-related equipment.

All those results are a wee bit more important than when it happens in the food industry, eh? I wonder if they realize that a lot of health workers are employed by the local, county, and state governments, who would have to raise taxes/fees and/or reallocate money from other budget sectors? The Inglewood suit is interesting, in that their law stated private businesses could no longer make their own economic decisions despite the increased costs.

Providers could reduce the services they offer, pare back charity care, and cut or delay capital investments, Spetz said. In the long term, she expects some combination of spending cuts and revenue increases.

Both the state law and local ordinance cover far more than doctors and nurses, with a definition of health worker that includes janitors, housekeepers, groundskeepers, security guards, food service workers, laundry workers, and clerical staff.

So, pretty much everyone. I wonder how many are part of unions that give to Democrats? And will soon understand that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions?

“The minimum wage an employer has to pay its employees will invariably affect the total amount of compensation it is able or willing to pay,” he wrote “This will then invariably affect the number of employees it can retain and the number of hours those employees will be scheduled to work.”

Lawmakers should be required to take Economics 101, well, Democrats, anyhow. Then have to spend at least several hours a week following around business owners and bookkeepers to understand How Economics Works.

(KTLA) Some fast food restaurant chains have raised menu prices by as much as 8% since California’s $20 an hour minimum wage law took effect April 1, according to a new report.

Wendy’s has hiked prices by roughly 8% while Chipotle has raised prices by 7.5%, according to data from Kalinowski Equity Research and cited in The New York Post.

Taco Bell raised menu prices by 3% and Burger King hiked prices by 2%, the report found.

Seattle-based Starbucks increased prices by about 7% in California.

Huh.

Read: PRC Comes Up With New Idea: $25 Minimum Wage For Health Workers »

If All You See…

…is a place where people can work off their fat, which is Bad for ‘climate change’, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Maggie’s Farm, with a post on the unlawful administrative state.

Read: If All You See… »

Democrats Continue To Look For Ways To Regulate Free Speech

Politico gives a platform to Steven Brill, CEO of fact check site Newsguard, one of the main people who failed to take the Hunter Biden laptop story seriously, calling it a “hoax“, hence, refusing to do the job of the news media, which is investigate. They’d rather just suppress information they do not like and can be inconvenient

How to Regulate Social Media Without Hurting Free Speech

You can’t use a mega-sound system to hold a political rally in front of a hospital in the middle of the night. You can’t pack a theater so full of people that no one can reach the fire exits without being trampled. In the physical world, these kinds of noise control and fire safety regulations uneventfully coexist with our First Amendment free speech and free assembly rights. They’re accepted as common-sense ways to keep us safe and preserve our sanity.

The same ideas can be applied to social media. By reverse engineering the noise and lack of crowd control that has overrun social media platforms, we can make the internet a more peaceful, reliable, less polarizing place.

And we can do it without the government policing speech. In fact, Congress does not have to do anything. It doesn’t even need to touch Section 230, the now infamous 1996 law that gives social media platforms immunity for the harmful content — from healthcare hoaxes to election misinformation to Russian and Chinese state-sponsored propaganda — that has created a world of chaos and division, where so many people don’t believe even the most basic truths. Instead, the Federal Trade Commission and other consumer protection regulators around the world could enforce the contracts the platforms already have with their users.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, already promises users that it will enforce “community standards” that prohibit, among other abuses: inciting violence, “inauthentic” behavior such as setting up fake accounts, promoting suicide, bullying, hate speech, graphic or sexually explicit content, human exploitation and misinformation “that will cause imminent physical harm, health-care misinformation and misinformation about elections and voting.”

Except, the FTC was created by an act of Congress and is funded by the federal government, hence, under the mandate of the 1st Amendment. It’s not up to them to determine what is considered Free Speech. If they tried, any on-line company can simply update their terms of service to avoid any FTC crackdown

The FTC’s website explains that “the Commission may use rulemaking to address unfair or deceptive practices or unfair methods of competition that occur commonly, in lieu of relying solely on actions against individual respondents.” Accordingly, the commission could enforce the content promises in these terms of service by promulgating a rule that any digital platform must prominently and clearly spell out in its terms of service what content it will allow and not allow — and then, as with their privacy assurances, make sure they keep those promises.

What Brill and the other lefties want is a return to censoring anyone who criticizes government and isn’t following exactly what Democrats want.

The FTC has the regulatory authority to proceed on its own without Congress to enforce the platforms’ own contractual promises. And you can encourage the commissioners to do just that. The FTC website invites consumers to report fraud. Although this is clearly meant for specific complaints about some online scam or unwelcome robo-call, if you think your social media company is not keeping its promises about preventing harmful content, you can report them.

Harmful in Liberal World means “information that upsets my world-views.” Information that is Wrongthink. Because there are easy answers: block the people you do not like. Stop using the service, which is usually free. Stop being so sensitive, you’re an adult. Democrats very much want to institute censorship wherever and whenever they can, because they do not want to have to compete on ideas.

Funny how the same people call Trump a Fascist while they look for ways to suppress Speech and other 1st Amendment provisions they do not like.

Read: Democrats Continue To Look For Ways To Regulate Free Speech »

Unsurprise: United Arab Emirates Flooding Blamed On Global Boiling

There is article after article after article on this, but, the amazing thing is that there hasn’t even been time to do proper research to make any true scientific determination as to causation, much less Blaming it on humanity (photo by Christopher Pike/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Historic rainfall in the United Arab Emirates sparks cloud seeding concerns. But experts say climate change is likely to blame for flooding.

The United Arab Emirates and Oman saw record levels of rainfall this week. The UAE, a desert nation, witnessed the heaviest rainfall in 75 years on Tuesday, with about 10 inches in one day, according to the country’s National Center of Meteorology.

Cars were submerged on major highways, while the deluge flooded Dubai’s international airport, disrupting flights at the world’s busiest airfield for international travel.

Oman’s National Committee for Emergency Management recorded about 9 inches of rain between Sunday and Wednesday, while several people were confirmed dead, including schoolchildren in a vehicle swept away by floodwaters.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up: heaviest in 75 years (there’s some amazing photos at that link above)? I’ll be honest, I gave up trying to search how much there was in 1949 (which was in the cooling time during the Modern Warm Period) because there are so many links to the current flooding that mention 1949 but do not give how much. Page after page after page.

Many have speculated that cloud seeding operations by the UAE were to blame for the extreme weather, though experts have said the likely culprit is climate change.

Interesting: “experts” immediately discount cloud seeding, but, can claim that it is ‘climate change’? Was it cloud seeding? Probably not. But, we do not know yet. Was it simply an outlier storm which could have links to the notion that the Earth does, in fact, go through warm periods, and it was made worse by Dubai really not having the infrastructure to move that rainfall out, not having the drainage? Most likely. In Cult Science it is always your fault, regardless of if any scientific investigation has been done.

I sure hope they captured and retained a lot of that rainfall.

Read: Unsurprise: United Arab Emirates Flooding Blamed On Global Boiling »

Congress Introduces Sorta Bipartisan Anti-Semitism Bill

Speaker Johnson needs to bring this up for a vote quickly. Or, if we want to blow the Democrats up, do it as the election approaches to scuttle the chances of many Democrats on The Squad, who are pure Jew haters

US bill on fighting antisemitism draws rare bipartisan support in Congress

Republicans and Democrats in US Congress are uniting to pass a bill that would create a national coordinator of the fight against antisemitism — though it faces competition from another Republican-backed bill that seeks to define antisemitism.

The bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act, introduced last week, is meant to advance US President Joe Biden’s national strategy to fight antisemitism, rolled out nearly a year ago. The plan focused on action across the executive branch, demanding reforms in federal agencies from the Education Department to the Department of Agriculture.

The national coordinator would help see through those reforms. The coordinator would also receive an annual assessment of violent antisemitism nationwide from law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The position would be a counterpart to the State Department’s antisemitism envoy, who focuses on anti-Jewish bigotry abroad.

Rep. Kathy Manning told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the bill was in the works before the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, but that the ensuing rise in antisemitic incidents and rhetoric made it more urgent.

“We have seen it spread on social media, the protests on college campuses are beyond what anyone expected, “ she said. Manning, a North Carolina Democrat, is one of three lead sponsors of the bill, along with Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat and Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican. Manning and Rosen are Jewish.

What the bill is not meant to do is criticize legitimate criticism of Israel. Of course, it was the hyper-criticism of Israel that has led to so many on the Left becoming Jew haters. Here’s the thing: like so many other types of “hate speech”, is it the role of Congress to stop it? The 1st Amendment is pretty specific about speech, is it not? But, consider

The D’Esposito bill, while endorsed only by Republicans, expands on a separate bipartisan bill that was introduced shortly after October 7 but has yet to be advanced. That bill would codify the IHRA definition when enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which denies federal funding to institutions that discriminate against several protected classes and has emerged as a preferred tool of activists fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism on college campuses.

There are two things to unpack, the first being no federal funding can go to Jew hating institutions (I wonder if this applies to federal agencies full of Jew hating Democrats?). The second being the endorsements: no Democrats other than sponsors are endorsing it. However, there’s not much information on it yet on the record, so, we’ll see how many Democrats sign on. About half of the 42 cosponsors of a similar bill, HR 6090, are Democrats.

Manning said she realized early on that she needed language in the bill to address how both Republicans and Democrats see the threat of antisemitism.

“The language we have in the bill was very carefully negotiated,” she said. “The interesting thing about the composition of the Congress right now is if you actually want to get something passed, you have to have something that you can get Republicans in the House willing to lead, and Democrats in the Senate willing to lead. So that calls for a truly bipartisan approach.”

I wonder why it was necessary to placate so many of her Democrat colleagues on the language? Should be interesting to see how many actually vote for this.

The Manning-Rosen bill may still face controversy: A substantial portion is devoted to combating antisemitism on American campuses, and activists on the left worry that the fight against campus antisemitism is sometimes used as a way to shut down criticism of Israel.

Yeah, well, that’s where they learn to hate Israel and Jews. It should also focus on places like Minneapolis and Dearborn. And maybe Loyola

Squad members like Tliab, Omar, and Bush, among others, will just put it more diplomatically.

Read: Congress Introduces Sorta Bipartisan Anti-Semitism Bill »

Who’s Up For “Green Islam”?

Hmm, looks like Islam is also being corrupted by the Cult of Climastrology

What Can ‘Green Islam’ Achieve in the World’s Largest Muslim Country?

The faithful gathered in an imposing modernist building, thousands of men in skullcaps and women in veils sitting shoulder to shoulder. Their leader took to his perch and delivered a stark warning.

“Our fatal shortcomings as human beings have been that we treat the earth as just an object,” Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar said. “The greedier we are toward nature, the sooner doomsday will arrive.”

Then he prescribed the cure as laid out by their faith, which guides almost a quarter of humanity. Like fasting during Ramadan, it is every Muslim’s Fard al-Ayn, or obligation, to be a guardian of the earth. Like giving alms, his congregants should give waqf, a kind of religious donation, to renewable energy. Like daily prayers, planting trees should be a habit.

The environment is a central theme in the sermons of Mr. Nasaruddin, the influential head of the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, who has tried to lead by example. Dismayed by the trash sullying the river that the mosque sits on, he ordered a cleanup. Shocked by astronomical utility bills, he retrofitted Southeast Asia’s largest mosque with solar panels, slow-flow faucets and a water recycling system — changes that helped make it the first place of worship to win a green building accolade from the World Bank.

The Grand Imam says he is simply following the Prophet Muhammad’s instructions that Muslims should care about nature.

Those are actually not bad ideas, but, this has nothing to do with ‘climate change’. Keeping a cleaner environment is a good thing.

He is not alone in this country of more than 200 million people, the majority of them Muslims, in trying to kindle an environmental awakening through Islam. Top clergy have issued fatwas, or edicts, on how to rein in climate change. Neighborhood activists are beseeching friends, family and neighbors that environmentalism is embedded in the Quran.

Sigh. Religious leaders using a cultish scam. But, if they aren’t issuing fatwas to blow people up, that’s a good thing. How soon till this fanaticism in ‘climate change’ merges with the violence?

Read: Who’s Up For “Green Islam”? »

If All You See…

…are wonderful low carbon sailboats, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Federalist, with a post by David Harsanyi entitled “The World Is Paying A Deadly Price For Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy Legacy”.

Read: If All You See… »

Modern Socialism Fail: LA Mayor Begs Rich People To Buy Homes For Homeless

What happens when a city becomes a haven for the homeless, protects them, nurtures them? What happens when they’ve invited them, legal residents and illegals? What happens when they’ve overspend their already high budget on initiates, including homeless, and still do not have enough money to deal with the issue?

LA Mayor pleads for wealthy to help buy housing for the homeless: ‘Unprecedented partnership’

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass pleaded with “the most fortunate” to help fund housing for the homeless as part of a new strategy to tackle the crisis during her State of the City address on Monday.

“We will not hide people but what we will do is house people,” the Democratic leader touted as she began her remarks on the city’s struggle to house over 40,000 homeless people. “The crisis on our streets is nothing less than a disaster.”

Bass touted the success of her signature Inside Safe program, which moved over 21,000 homeless people into temporary shelters, according to The Associated Press. She insisted this “strategy” and “system” moving the homeless into temporary housing would eventually end the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles.

Acknowledging the costliness of this endeavor, Bass asked the wealthy to help “speed up” housing purchases for the homeless.

“Right now, we’re working to move past nightly rentals,” she continued. “We are asking the most fortunate Angelenos to participate in this effort, with personal, private sector and philanthropic funds – to help us acquire more properties, lower the cost of capital and speed up housing.”

“This is the mission of our new capital campaign, LA4LA.”

In 2023, Bass allotted $1.3 billion for the homeless in her budget proposal. The city is spending billions and billions each year, to go with all the money the state is spending. And they were spending an eye popping $837K per person to house them in 2022. Even with the cost of real estate and homes in California this is nuts. So, now the city turns to begging the “most fortunate”…how soon till these Modern Socialists say that anyone who has housing is “most fortunate”?….to fund the issue that the Democrats have caused. And, how many of these “most fortunate” have voted for the Modern Socialist initiatives which helped create the outsized homeless issue? Of course, how many have abandoned the city due to crazy policies?

Taking care of all the homeless, and giving them homes, will simply entice more homeless to come to LA, especially when the city mostly goes easy on them. Anyhow, have fun, because you know the city will soon look for ways to force the “most fortunate” to fund this.

Read: Modern Socialism Fail: LA Mayor Begs Rich People To Buy Homes For Homeless »

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