Trump To Sign EO On Ending Plastic Straw Bans

By William Teach February 7, 2025 – 3:00 pm

Bet you didn’t see this one coming

Trump says he’ll sign order promoting plastic straws

President Trump said Friday he plans to sign an executive order promoting plastic straws after his predecessor sought to phase out single-use plastics from government operations.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!”

The post appears to be referring to former President Biden’s goal of phasing out single-use plastic — like plastic straws — in federal food service by 2027 and government operations at large by 2035.

Plastics are produced using oil and gas, and promoting the use of the material could be a win for Trump’s allies in the energy industry as well as the plastics industry.

When the Biden goals were announced, the White House said plastic was “littering our ocean, poisoning the air of communities near production facilities, and threatening public health.”

And the climate cultists have been dead set against anything made with petroleum, because they’re wackos.

Microplastics have become omnipresent in the environment. Human exposure to these tiny plastics have been linked to brain development and reproductive development issues in animal studies.

These aren’t necessarily microplastics. The better, wiser, and more responsible thing to do would have been to push for private citizens and corporations to develop alternatives that works as well, not those horrible paper straws, and annoying metal ones. As a true environmentalist I’m all for reducing plastic pollution. Of course, we still have India, China, and other Southeast Asian countries who are big time polluters to deal with. But the cultists and enviro-weenies, often one and the same, do not care about using science, they’re more about political power.

While it’s not totally clear what material straws, if any, would have replaced plastic in federal use, other types, including paper, may also pose environmental and health concerns. A 2023 study found that compounds known as PFAS, which make materials water resistant but can be toxic, were found in almost all types of straws, including paper and bamboo.

Oops.

What would have been funnier is if Trump had said was 100% against plastic straws and utensils, that the paper and alternatives were big and wonderful and great: the Leftists would have then opposed him and would want plastic back. You cannot tell me I’m wrong.

Read: Trump To Sign EO On Ending Plastic Straw Bans »

Posted in Donald Trump, Global Warming | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 7, 2025 – 1:00 pm

…is an area flooding from too much carbon pollution driven Bad Weather, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is American Greatness, with a post on Trump forcing the world to face it’s hypocrisies on the Palestinians and Gaza.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 17 Comments | Trackback URL

NY Times Moonbats Over Trump’s “Power Grab”

By William Teach February 7, 2025 – 10:30 am

See, it was no problem when the Biden-Harris admin was grabbing power in telling schools they had to allow gender confused in women’s sports and bathrooms, that manufacturers had to make EVs which would be the only things consumers could purchase, that consumers could only purchase Approved washers, dryers, and other home appliances, and so much more

Trump’s Power Grab Defies G.O.P. Orthodoxy on Local Control

In the space of two weeks, President Trump threatened to halt a congestion pricing program intended to reduce traffic in New York City and intervened in California as it confronted ruinous fires, overruling local officials as he made decisions about how to manage the state’s complicated water system.

Well, how were the local officials doing with that water management in the People’s Republik of California?

He signed one executive order cutting off federal aid to elementary and high schools that allow transgender athletes to play in women’s sports, and another intended to end funding to medical institutions that use puberty blockers or hormones in gender-affirming treatments. On Thursday, his administration sued the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois in federal court, claiming that sanctuary laws are obstructing the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration policies.

Forcing cities to comply with federal law is now a power grab? I don’t remember the Times freaking out when Obama went after Arizona on SB1070. Not funding life altering medications for minors is a power grab? Well, if it is, I’m good with that.

For decades, the Republican Party, more than the Democratic Party, presented itself as an advocate of federalism, yielding authority and power to state and local governments. But this once-central tenet of Republican thought has seemingly been scrapped, with little debate, as Mr. Trump remakes the Republican Party in his name.

“Republicans believe in federalism, of deferring to the states and the government closest to the people,” said Karl Rove, who was a senior adviser to President George W. Bush. “Not clear how much he shares that view.”

If they want those federal dollars then there are conditions. Perhaps, if Democrats want to do crazy things, then the power and scope of the federal government should be reduced back to where it should be, including all that money.

The president’s attempt to dictate actions by the states — particularly the blue states — is the latest instance in which Mr. Trump has scrambled what remains of Republican orthodoxy. He has forced the party to abandon some of its ideological foundations on questions of foreign policy, deficit spending and, increasingly, respecting the rights of states to govern themselves and resist federal intervention.

That’s not what’s really going on, but, they really do not like Trump returning sanity to federal policy. Blowing up Democrat ideology. Liberal tears taste great.

Read: NY Times Moonbats Over Trump’s “Power Grab” »

Posted in Donald Trump, Wonky Media | 15 Comments | Trackback URL

Climate Cult Scientists Feeling “Stress And Fear”

By William Teach February 7, 2025 – 7:00 am

If they were doing things the right way, doing neutral science rather then being partisan cult advocates, they’d be fine

US scientists feeling ‘stress and fear’ as sweeping Trump orders hit funding

Scientists around the US have described experiencing distress, disruption to their work and interruption of payments in the chaos following Donald Trump’s executive orders affecting federal grant money.

Among the funds caught in limbo in recent days were millions of dollars of congressionally appropriated research awards and grants across the vast networks of publicly funded scientific departments at universities, businesses and non-profits across the country.

Trump’s order hit a payment gateway operated by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a top funder of research in the US with an annual budget of about $10bn.

It was back online this week following a five-day outage that ended on Sunday – but not before affecting many scientists who expressed alarm about what the moves could mean for the future as they try to navigate Trump’s orders on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), climate and gender. (snip)

Only a few were willing to go on the record. One Nasa climate scientist said she had been having trouble sleeping. Most said they hadn’t been able to get much work done over the past few days and had been formulating contingency plans with their research students and staff to prepare for potential lingering gaps in funding or enhanced political oversight.

How dare there be oversight into their research and practices, with what they are doing with taxpayer money. Go work in the private sector, see how that works out. That they want results, and employees best not go off the reservation. That they are not in charge and just can’t do whatever they want.

“We have been told to document the ways that we’re changing our grant-funded work to remove DEIA, which is hard because all of our research is related to deaf people,” said a scientist who works at an east coast university.

Maybe do proper research, not mix in DEI woke garbage.

Some scientists were in the process of establishing secured, private communications channels among themselves in an effort to coordinate their actions to maintain academic freedom under an increasingly restrictive presidential administration.

If they’re doing this as a government employee their in violation of federal regulations. Heck, if they are doing this in the private sector with it violates Sarbanes-Oxley for record keeping, and if there are federal grants are involved it could be defrauding the feds.

Macias’s work is intended to improve the resilience of semi-arid forests across the south-west US to drought and climate change – and could help inform Trump’s stated goals to improve forest management and reduce the impact of wildfires. Macias also participates in the Pinyon Community Climate Action (Picca) project, a research partnership among the University of California, federal agencies, NGOs and tribal members of the region.

But, you know that the papers and research aims are along climate cult lines, rather than just saying the climate has warmed, it doesn’t matter the causation, here’s what can be done. And how much of the grant money disappeared into the shady arms of the NGOs?

Read: Climate Cult Scientists Feeling “Stress And Fear” »

Posted in Global Warming | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

LOL: AG Bondi Pauses Funding For Sanctuary Cities

By William Teach February 7, 2025 – 6:45 am

If they do not want to comply with federal law then there should be no federal money (really, Los Federales shouldn’t be funding cities to start with, but, we are where we are)

‘Tough decisions’ in store for ‘sanctuary’ cities after Bondi turns off federal funding spigot

With Attorney General Pam Bondi ordering a pause on federal funds for so-called “sanctuary cities,” Fox News Digital asked leaders of both parties in states likely to be affected their thoughts, and whether they believe their cities can handle the dearth of funding.

Bondi also directed the DOJ probe instances of jurisdictions that are impeding law enforcement, and that they be prosecuted when necessary.

In Pennsylvania, at least two major cities have enacted sanctuary policies, while leaders in a third have signaled opposition to working with federal immigration authorities. (big snip)

State Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Allentown, said Bondi is totally within her rights to give cities this ultimatum.

“I can’t imagine that losing that funding would be easy to manage for Philadelphia and imagine that they’re going to have some tough decisions to make,” said Coleman, who chairs the state’s panel on government operations.

It would be so seriously easy for these Democrat run cities to simply call ICE when they arrest someone for a crime. What could it hurt? They could even play a game when they only call for the felony and high level misdemeanor ones, the violent ones, and conveniently forget for ones with things like shoplifting. But, no, they want to protect

(ICE) Mr. Romero-Bisos was initially arrested October 17, 2019, for the criminal offenses of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion, unlawful contact with a minor/sex offense, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault without consent, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of minors, indecent assault of a person less than 13 years old, reckless endangerment of another person and harassment. Also on October 17, 2019, the Philadelphia Police department charged Mr. Romero-Bisos in a second scheme of criminal conduct with unlawful restraint with serious bodily injury, indecent assault without consent, simple assault and harassment.

ICE logged a detainer, and the Philly police still let this guy go. A rapist who has contact with a minor. Do they really want to die on this hill? Apparently, they do in Democrat cities

But, what about these?

Federal agents take Coral Springs undocumented migrant into custody with guns drawn

Around a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents dressed in camouflage, with rifles, guns and shields, took a Coral Springs man into custody on Wednesday.

His son was visibly in distress as Lopez followed his attorney’s advice and stayed inside.

But Wednesday, Lopez’s daughter Camilla Lopez said he was shaking.

“They sounded mad,” she said. “They were yelling. I saw my dad, he was in fear.”

Camilla Lopez said her dad opened the door, and neighbors were recording as agents took him into custody.

Oh, that was so mean! Which is exactly the way the liberal media wants to portray it. They even mention at the end that he has “no criminal election.”

We spoke to Dante Lopez earlier this week. He told Local 10 News how he was once deported after his visa expired and re-entered the U.S. illegally after his life was threatened by guerrilla warfare in his native Peru.

That makes him a felon. Under 8 U.S. Code § 1326, it’s a federal crime, a felony, for which a person can be sentenced for a minimum of 2 years in jail. It’s not the fault of ICE, Trump, or the federal government: it’s the fault of Dante Lopez, and maybe his daughter will understand consequences of one’s action at a future date.

Read: LOL: AG Bondi Pauses Funding For Sanctuary Cities »

Posted in Illegal Immigration | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Washington Post Is Super Bummed That The Social Cost Of Carbon Is Going Away Under Trump

By William Teach February 6, 2025 – 3:01 pm

I’ll write it again: people thought I was nuts back in the early 2000’s when I said the whole global warming, now ‘climate change’, movement was a grift that was meant to increase the power of government. That it is about authoritarianism. And this is just more proof that I was completely correct from my little perch

The most important number you’ve never heard of was just gutted

With the deluge of executive orders in the initial weeks of the second Trump administration, an important directive flew under the radar. It requires the federal government to consider abandoning “the social cost of carbon,” potentially undercutting all climate policymaking.

That is a technical way of signaling something simple and false: Climate change is not real. If the social cost of carbon is treated as zero, then greenhouse gas emissions inflict no damage. Regulations that reduce those emissions have no benefits, which suggests that those regulations should be eliminated.

The social cost of carbon has often been described as the most important number you’ve never heard of. The metric is meant to capture the harm caused by a ton of carbon emissions, making it a foundation of national climate change policy. A lower value would justify weaker regulations, while a higher one would warrant more aggressive policies.

Under the Obama administration, in which I served, the social cost of carbon was relatively modest: around $50. As the Government Accountability Office found, the interagency process that led to that valuation was emphatically apolitical. The calculation, whose use was upheld in federal court, helped support numerous regulations involving fuel economy, energy efficiency and power plants.

At the end of the day, though, this is a control on you. This was always something meant for government to put a control on you peasants, via taxation/fees and restriction mandates. Not for the elites, of course. And it has always smacked of Modern Socialism (you can call it communism, Marxism, Fascism, whatever). China loves this type of stuff.

President Donald Trump’s executive order presents a dramatic shift and a potentially lawless abandonment of the whole enterprise.

But, nowhere can this opinion piece point to what law was potentially broken. Because there is none. Guidance from OMB is not law.

The simplest reason to use the global figure is moral. If one country is imposing harms on another, its policymaking should take those harms into account. Morality aside, leading economists have insisted that the global number, or something close to it, is the right choice for the United States’ self-interest, too.

If it is so immoral to not do the communist cost of carbon, why do so few Warmists practice what they preach?

There’s a lot that can be done to rethink the social cost of carbon, but one thing is clear: The U.S. government cannot treat that number as if it is zero. Climate change is real. No president, and no federal agency, has the authority to pretend otherwise.

Yes, it can. Trump won. When Obama won we were told to sit down and shut up. Same with Biden. Well, elections have consequences. Suck it up, Comrades.

Read: Washington Post Is Super Bummed That The Social Cost Of Carbon Is Going Away Under Trump »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 6, 2025 – 1:00 pm

…is a mud pit from too much carbon pollution driven extreme weather, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Watts Up With That?, with a post on solar farms and bird deaths.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

Reuters: Hey, Is DOGE Going After Government Waste Legal?

By William Teach February 6, 2025 – 10:30 am

I was intending to do something different, maybe illegal immigration or terrorism, but, this is beyond batguano insane, and you almost only need the first paragraph

Explainer – Is Elon Musk’s government efficiency drive legal?

Elon Musk is testing the limits of legal and ethical restrictions on the role of special advisers in U.S. presidential administrations, according to some legal experts and lawmakers who oppose the billionaire’s mission against what he deems wasteful government spending.

Think about that: these legal “experts” and lawmakers (meaning Democrats) are against reigning in government waste, against not using your forcibly taken hard-earned money for idiocy, graft, scams, and their own personal beliefs. They think you are their personal piggy bank, and they can take that money for whatever the hell they want for this and that and the other, all over the US and world. And their pockets. Perhaps Reuters should have asked We The People how we feel about the government doing all the nutty things they do with our money. About wasting it.

The White House says Musk is a special government employee, meaning he does not get paid and is only allowed to work 130 days or fewer in a year. He is subject to some but not all conflict-of-interest and ethics rules for federal employees.

Legal experts disagree over whether Musk’s widening role in government means he needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a cabinet officer. Generally, officials who report directly to the president and enjoy high levels of autonomy over major decisions need to be Senate-confirmed.

I wish I could find an article I read yesterday, which discussed how no one was questioning John Kerry’s role, at least legally, as he was in the same position as Musk, a special government employee. Which is fully legal. Presidents have the legal ability to do this.

Some lawmakers, legal experts and advocacy groups say Musk has no authority to shut down or interfere with the work of agencies set up and funded by Congress.

Did Kerry have the authority to negotiate climate (scam) agreements? Yes, he actually did, for better or worse. You won’t find one thing in my archive saying what he was doing was not legal.

That order mandated it to modernize federal technology and software “to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” but Musk and his aides appear to be doing much more than simply making recommendations.

Musk’s actions have already sparked multiple lawsuits. Public interest groups sued DOGE alleging its structure violated fairness and transparency rules, and government employee unions have sued to block the Treasury Department from disclosing their personal and financial information to DOGE.

Some legal experts and government ethics groups say Musk may be violating at least three privacy laws: the Federal Information Security Management Act, the Privacy Act and section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Service code.

They’re throwing everything at the wall in order to stop DOGE from stopping the government from wasting your money. Have they really considered their position on this? One comment under the article reads

If you are writing an article on this and not the corruption, you may be part of the problem. How/Why do civil servants get wealthy. The salary is a comfortable salary. How are they millionaires?? You can argue what you like, but we have problems in America that need to be solved first. We should be aiding the homeless, aiding the poor, trying fix the education system. Our infrastructure too.

There was a time when people said “you don’t go into government, into being a public servant, or the money, though the benefits are great. You go in because you want to help people.” Nowadays they go in for the money, the even better benefits, and the power. They aren’t trying to help Americans, they’re trying to help themselves and take taxpayer money for their own beliefs and benefits. Not all. Some, maybe most, are good people, at least not doing shady things. Americans have complained about the inefficiency of government for decades and decades. About it wasting money. We got rid of earmarks. And now the money is even worse.

If your kid or spouse were taking money from your wallet and then wasting it, would that be acceptable?

Read: Reuters: Hey, Is DOGE Going After Government Waste Legal? »

Posted in Government | 12 Comments | Trackback URL

Judge Deals NJ Climate Shakedown Suit Mostly Fatal Blow

By William Teach February 6, 2025 – 7:15 am

Obviously, this doesn’t mean the the climate cult will give up. They never do

NJ lawsuit claiming oil companies cause climate change dealt massive blow in court

The climate change movement was issued a massive blow on Wednesday after a trial judge permanently closed a Democrat-charged lawsuit claiming that big oil was to blame for climate-caused damages in the state.

In 2022, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin filed a lawsuit against the country’s largest oil companies, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Shell, as well as the American Petroleum Institute, claiming that the fossil fuel industry was worsening the effects of climate change, and therefore, causing damage to the state.

However, the case was tossed out on Wednesday by New Jersey Superior Court Judge Douglas Hurd, who ruled that lawful oil companies could not be held liable for worldwide emissions. The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be reopened.

“Plaintiffs seek to regulate the nationwide—and even worldwide—marketing and distribution of lawful products on which billions of people outside of New Jersey rely to heat their homes, power their hospitals and schools, produce and transport their food, and manufacture countless items essential to the safety, wellbeing, and advancement of modern society,” said Hurd, who issued the ruling.

Essentially, NJ cannot seek damages for nationwide and international emissions, as their claims cannot be governed by NJ state laws.

“Because Plaintiffs seek damages for alleged harms caused by interstate and international emissions and global warming, their claims cannot be governed by state law. Under our federal constitutional system, states cannot use their laws to resolve claims seeking redress for injuries allegedly caused by out-of-state and worldwide emissions,” Hurd said in the decision.

This suit is done, but, you can bet that the Warmists in NJ will try their climalawfare in some other way.

Read: Judge Deals NJ Climate Shakedown Suit Mostly Fatal Blow »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Bummer: DOGE Going After Medicaid And Medicare

By William Teach February 6, 2025 – 7:00 am

Obviously, this will make Democrats very upset, but, what if DOGE finds lots and lots of, let’s just call it mismanagement? And they find lots of extra money which can go into helping Americans rather than graft fraud theft shady mismanagement?

DOGE officials home in on Medicare, Medicaid offices

Representatives of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have turned their focus to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency confirmed Wednesday.

It was unclear which systems DOGE had access to and whether any sensitive medical information was part of the efforts.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Wednesday that DOGE aides had been granted access to key payment and contract systems.

“CMS has two senior Agency veterans – one focused on policy and one focused on operations – who are leading the collaboration with DOGE, including ensuring appropriate access to CMS systems and technology,” the agency said in a statement. “We are taking a thoughtful approach to see where there may be opportunities for more effective and efficient use of resources in line with meeting the goals of President Trump.”

The CMS is essentially the federal government’s insurance provider. The agency sets payment rates for doctors, hospitals and insurers, while also overseeing Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act — programs that provide coverage for more than 150 million people.

As The Hill points out, CMS spent $1.5 trillion in 2024, which is 22% of the federal budget. Was it all on the up and up? Was there waste? Overspending? Paying employees way to much? Moving money to where it doesn’t help? Expenditures that do not help Americans with medicine but enrich some pockets? Even if it is just $100 million, that can go far, right?

“Obviously, everybody’s private health information needs to become private, but I think they need access and to see where we can be more efficient, effective. There’s a lot of money been spent by CMS,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) told reporters Wednesday.

This is just one step in auditing the entire federal government.

Read: Bummer: DOGE Going After Medicaid And Medicare »

Posted in Donald Trump, GOP, Government | 14 Comments | Trackback URL
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