If All You See…

By William Teach September 19, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…are horrible fossil fueled vehicles causing global boiling, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Victory Girls Blog, with a post on Trump’s changing abortion stance.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Some Companies Are Marketing Themselves As “Woke-Free”

By William Teach September 19, 2023 – 10:30 am

I can’t quite tell if the NY Times is upset or not that some companies are taking the route of not going political, not going SJW, not virtue signaling

Some Businesses Make ‘Woke Free’ a Selling Point

Jonathan Isaac is a forward for the NBA’s Orlando Magic, but he is perhaps better known as someone who chose not to protest police brutality against Black Americans during a summer of widespread activism involving racial injustice.

Isaac, who is Black, turned that singular moment in July 2020 — when he decided not to join many other NBA players in kneeling during the national anthem as the league restarted in a COVID-19 “bubble” setting in Orlando, Florida — into a platform as a conservative political activist. In 2022, he spoke at a rally of Christian nationalists and anti-vaccine Americans and wrote a book about why he did not join the protest. This year, he started Unitus, an apparel company centered on “faith, family and freedom.”

“I wanted my values to be represented in the marketplace, especially when it came to sports and leisure wear,” Isaac said in an interview.

Most companies used to do everything they could to avoid political controversies and, by extension, risk alienating potential customers. No longer. Seemingly everything in the United States is political now, including where you shop for socks and leggings.

Which means the company will be despised by the Left, much like Hobby Lobby

Unitus is one of a growing number of companies — from clothing retailers to pet care businesses — trying to appeal to those who have recoiled from what they see as corporate America pushing a progressive, liberal agenda. Unitus is featured on PublicSq., an online marketplace aimed at promoting companies it calls “pro-life,” “pro-family” and “pro-freedom.” PublicSq. began in July 2022 and now has more than 65,000 small businesses on its platform, noting a spike in numbers after the Bud Light and Target disputes.

The platform offers “a nice, refreshing sort of break” from companies that have voiced more progressive views, said Michael Seifert, the founder and CEO of PublicSq., mentioning businesses like Target, Ben & Jerry’s and Bank of America.

I’ll be honest, I’m not so sure I like companies pushing anything other than their products and services, unless the company is specifically about those values. I do not need a side of something else. That said, most of these companies will simply say their values, and not push them on consumers, much like Chik-fil-A, a Christian based company, which does not preach, they just serve food. And close on Sunday.

Since Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, large corporations have faced heightened scrutiny — both from potential customers and their own employees — concerning their values. This includes everything from how companies publicly reacted to policies like Trump’s ban on immigration from several Muslim-majority countries to political donations by companies or their top executives.

You had to know they would mention Trump, right? This “values” thing, which is mostly just posturing to please moonbat activists over the majority of their customers, started long before, especially with ones proclaiming allegiance to the climate cult as far back as the Bush43 administration. For the most part, companies should just do their job, sell their products and services, without the side of unrelated issues.

Read: Some Companies Are Marketing Themselves As “Woke-Free” »

Posted in Economy | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

Your Fault: Fight Against AIDS, Malaria, And TB Endangered By Climate Crisis (scam)

By William Teach September 19, 2023 – 7:00 am

This is a new one. It’s almost like Reuters said “hey, let’s find things that haven’t been blamed and worked it in”

Climate change hitting fight against AIDS, TB and malaria

Climate change and conflict are hitting efforts to tackle three of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, the head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has warned.

International initiatives to fight the diseases have largely recovered after being badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Fund’s 2023 results report released on Monday.

But the increasing challenges of climate change and conflict mean the world is likely to miss the target of putting an end to AIDS, TB and malaria by 2030 without “extraordinary steps”, said Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund.

For example, malaria is spreading to highland parts of Africa that were previously too cold for the mosquito carrying the disease-causing parasite.

The world warms, and the use of DDT could do wonders.

Extreme weather events like floods are overwhelming health services, displacing communities, causing upsurges in infection and interrupting treatment in many different places, the report said. In countries including Sudan, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Myanmar, simply reaching vulnerable communities has also been immensely challenging due to insecurity, it added.

They do not explain at all how this dovetails into AIDS and TB. There have always been weather disasters. Perhaps if they spent time explaining that the main way to avoid getting HIV/AIDS is to not have unprotected sex, especially with men who have sex with other men. Perhaps, instead of spending all that money on the climate scam, they can spend it on TB drugs. The vast majority occurs in Southeast Asia and Africa. Stop trying to force them to have wind turbines and get them the proper drugs.

But, this is simply a way of injecting the climate cult into the issues, because the cult wants every issue under their banner.

Read: Your Fault: Fight Against AIDS, Malaria, And TB Endangered By Climate Crisis (scam) »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Raleigh Downtown “Scary For Visitors And Workers”

By William Teach September 19, 2023 – 6:45 am

I actually did not realize that the Raleigh downtown area, really, the center part if you look at a map, was slowly getting dangerous like so many other Democrat run cities. I rarely go down that way, and, if I do, it’s specifically to someplace during the day. I do not go there to eat or the bars. I haven’t been in that area at night since the early Obama years. Closest I might get is the 42nd St Oyster Bar (very good). Apparently there are issues

‘Something every night’: Raleigh’s downtown has turned scary for visitors and workers

Kirstin Mulqueeny, a bartender in downtown Raleigh, sent us a letter that was more than a comment.

It was a plea.

She wrote, “Raleigh appears cut from the pages of a dystopian post-apocalyptic film, and the people who will be casualties are screaming from the rooftops for help. No one hears us.”

Mulqueeny works at Zenith, a bar on Fayetteville Street in the heart of Raleigh’s business district. The once-booming area has struggled to recover from the loss of office workers and foot traffic since the pandemic hit in early 2020.

With cranes rising over downtown Raleigh as residential high-rises are constructed, the old bustle may yet return. But for now, Mulqueeny said, the street after dark is an unsettling mix of roving youths, homeless people, panhandlers and people selling and using drugs. She said the police are rarely seen.

Mulqueeny, a 38-year-old mother of three who has worked at Raleigh bars for years, said the district feels unsafe as a place to work or visit. Anger and fear moved her to write to the paper.

It’s not quite Portland, Seattle, or San Francisco, and, if the Democratic mayor doesn’t do something she might well find herself gone. She so far hasn’t appeared to be a far-far left crazy like in the other cities, so, we’ll see.

Alexis Himes, 27, quit her bartending job at Zenith’s neighboring bar, The Big Easy, out of frustration with what she called the “sketchy” environment. Groups camp out at the bar’s patio tables and employees are afraid to ask them to leave. One man threatened to stab her. Last week, a group of masked men, at least one of them armed, invaded The Big Easy just after closing time and forced the manager to empty the safe.

What is the city recommending? This is where it gets dumb

“We’ve received a number of complaints from downtown businesses and residents,” mayor Mary Ann Baldwin said. “Many have asked if private security is an option.”

She tells them it is. The city is working with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, a group supported by downtown businesses, to contract with a private security company to provide additional patrols in the district.

They won’t be armed, so, the youths and others will ignore them, and, maybe assault them

Other steps are planned. Street lighting will be added and community organizers will be recruited to give young people an alternative to roaming the district.

Baldwin said mayors across the nation have told her her they’re facing similar problems in downtown districts that have lost activity since the pandemic. But letting the vacuum foster criminal behavior isn’t an option.

“This is all unacceptable and we’ve got to do something about it,” she said.

There should already be lots of street lights. That’s what we pay taxes for. Community organizers? They’ll get beat up. If she wants to do something, well, surge the police. Stop and frisk. Arrest and charge, prosecute. You don’t have to necessarily jail them, but, how about some community service, doing things like cleaning the streets and hard labor? When the youths make accusations against the cops, well, you have the body cams and you can have those community organizers videoing to say “yeah, the youths are lying.”

In fairness, it’s still safer than most Dem run cities, especially ones like Durham.

Meanwhile

Read More »

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Posted in Dems in Charge: Now What?, NC News | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

Wind Farms In Brazil Endanger Big Cats

By William Teach September 18, 2023 – 3:00 pm

Nothing like fighting a (fake) environmental issue by creating another

Brazil’s Big Cats Under Threat From Wind Farms

Weighing more than 100 pounds, big cats have long reigned over this hot and semi-arid region of Brazil, developing tougher paws for the scorched earth and reaching speeds of 50 miles an hour to bring down wild boar and deer.

But nothing could have prepared for them the 150-foot blades now slicing up the deep blue sky above them.

Jaguars and pumas are facing extinction in the Caatinga, Brazil’s northeastern shrublands, as Europe and China pour investment into wind farms, puncturing the land with vast turbines that are scaring the animals away from the region’s scant water sources.

Particularly sensitive to changes to their habitat, the jaguars and pumas abandon their lairs as soon as construction work on the wind farms begins, said Claudia Bueno de Campos, a biologist who helped found the group Friends of the Jaguars and has tracked the region’s vanishing feline population. They then roam vast distances across the dusty plains in search of new streams and rivers.

The weakest perish along the way. Others venture closer to villages, where locals have started laying traps to protect their small herds of goats and sheep, often their only form of survival in this impoverished region.

A lot of the Caatinga area is scrubland, as mentioned. It is not jungle or forested. So, it seemed like a perfect area for lots and lots of wind turbines. I guess not. And how many other species are being negatively affected by the construction and operation? They could have put up a small natural gas energy plant and generated more energy at a lower cost and consistent without endangering all the animals

But by helping to solve one problem—climate change—the wind industry risks creating others, warn conservationists. Indigenous groups recently staged protests in Brazil over the installation of turbines on lands they say are rightfully theirs, while environmentalists have also raised concerns that wind farms installed on compacted sand dunes on the northern coast could have damaged underground water reservoirs.

If it’s not one thing it’s something else.

Elbia Gannoum, head of the Brazilian Wind Power Association, said the wind farms aren’t to blame for the shrinking population of big cats, noting that regular visits to the otherwise deserted areas by employees of the wind power companies help deter illegal hunting.

“Yes, the wind farms force jaguars and pumas into different areas, but after the construction phase, they tend to come back,” she said, adding that conservation projects run by the companies should help to boost the big cat population.

Environmentalists disagree.

The abject poverty of the region means that local governments give wind farms the green light with few conditions, they assert.

Well, you have to break a few eggs to save the world from boiling, right?

Read: Wind Farms In Brazil Endanger Big Cats »

Posted in Environment, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach September 18, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…are palm trees that will soon grow in Antarctica, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Independent Sentinel, with a post wondering why impeaching Biden over the border is not on the table.

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Posted in If All You See | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

Chicago Considers City Owned Grocery Stores To Replace Those Which Closed Due To Crime

By William Teach September 18, 2023 – 10:30 am

Da, what could possibly go wrong, Comrades?

Chicago mayor considers creating city-owned grocery store after Walmart, Whole Foods close stores in the city

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announced last week that his administration is exploring a city-owned grocery store as a means of promoting “equitable” access to food, though the plan has drawn criticism from skeptics of a government owned and operated store.

Chicago would become the first major U.S. city to implement a municipally owned grocery store to address food inequity if the proposal advances, the mayor’s office said in a release. Johnson’s office said Wednesday that it’s working with the Economic Security Project, a non-profit group, on a feasibility study that “will help inform the Johnson administration’s emerging food retail strategy, which will receive input from experts, community leaders, and Chicago’s Food Equity Council.”

“All Chicagoans deserve to live near convenient, affordable, healthy grocery options. We know access to grocery stores is already a challenge for many residents, especially on the South and West sides,” Johnson said. “My administration is committed to advancing innovative, whole-of-government approaches to address these inequities. I am proud to work alongside partners to take this step in envisioning what a municipally owned grocery store in Chicago could look like.”

It’s a challenge in those areas because the crime is out of control. It’s a problem of their own making, both the citizens for the criminality and the city for not having the police necessary and for not prosecuting. How would this actually work, though? Does the city have people who are familiar with running stores? Understanding the supply chains? How much money will the city spend with all the money they do not have? How much money will the stores lose because of theft and mismanagement? Of course, if they go forward with the plan, it will take years and years, because they will do studies and such

The mayor’s office said in a release that it intends to pursue “values aligned funding opportunities” for the city-owned grocery store initiative such as those from the Illinois Grocery Initiative, which commits $20 million for grants and technical assistance for grocery stores in the state. The city didn’t provide a timeline for the study.

Paying a few people a huge amount for studies, rather than talking to people who can get this done quickly.

It cited data from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture estimated that 63.5% of residents in West Englewood and 52% of East Garfield Park residents live more than half a mile from their nearest grocery store. It added that “food access and security link directly to environmental and racial justice. 37% of Black residents and 29% of Latine/x residents are food insecure, compared to 19% of residents overall.”

Half a mile? The horror! How many grocery stores does the USDA think there should be? I have zero within that range. I have 6 within two miles. There are only so many places one can be.

Walmart announced the closure of three stores in Chicago’s South and West Side neighborhoods this April, in addition to one store in the more affluent North Side after years of challenges with profitability despite investing in upgrades to the facilities. Those closures occurred after Walmart CEO Doug McMillon warned in December that its stores across the country were grappling with shoplifting to a degree that, “If it’s not corrected over time, prices will be higher, and/or stores will close.”

“The simplest explanation is that collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago – these stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years,” Walmart wrote in a post announcing the closures. “The remaining four Chicago stores continue to face the same business difficulties, but we think this decision gives us the best chance to help keep them open and serving the community.”

If they are not profitable, and are losing double now, why keep them open? That’s why Whole Foods and others have closed. They aren’t charities. Add in the danger to the employees and patrons, and it’s a big loser. But, you know what? I’d love to see Chicago give this Soviet Union style experiment a whirl. Every experiment needs an experimental group, right?

Read: Chicago Considers City Owned Grocery Stores To Replace Those Which Closed Due To Crime »

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People’s Republik Of California Sues Fossil Fuels Companies

By William Teach September 18, 2023 – 7:00 am

Don’t expect Gavin Newsome, Attorney General Rob Bonta, the PRC elected officials, or state government employees to stop using fossil fuels themselves. This is more of a cash grab using ‘climate change’ as the backdrop

California sues major oil companies, claiming they deceived on climate change for decades

California sued some of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies on Friday, alleging that they misled consumers for decades about their products’ role in contributing to climate change.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court by Attorney General Rob Bonta, accuses five major oil companies of mounting a “disinformation campaign” beginning in the 1950s to conceal the harm of fossil fuels and delay the transition to a low-carbon future.

“For more than 50 years, Big Oil has been lying to us — covering up the fact that they’ve long known how dangerous the fossil fuels they produce are for our planet,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement ahead of his expected announcement on Sunday during a climate conference in New York. “Wildfires wiping out entire communities, toxic smoke clogging our air, deadly heat waves, record-breaking droughts parching our wells. California taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill.”

Well, now you actually have to prove it, first in a long, long suit in state court, then in federal appeals courts, then to the Supreme Court. And at no time will Gavin et all stop using fossil fuels.

The state has requested a judge order the oil companies to pay into a fund that California would use to finance future climate mitigation and adaptation efforts to protect against pollution and climate change-fueled events.

Told you it was a shakedown.

The targets of the suit are BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell. The lawsuit also names American Petroleum Institute, an oil industry trade group.

Chevron criticized the lawsuit in a statement Saturday, saying in a statement that the case would have “no constructive or constitutionally permissible role” in changing energy policy.

For the life of me I don’t understand why these companies don’t just say “fine, we won’t sell our products to you.” Would you do business with an entity that was suing you? How much fun would it be if they California government was not being sold fossil fuels, and had to go to the regular gas stations rather than govt depots? Too bad their gas stations cannot refuse to take government credit cards. Could they refuse to serve govt vehicles from fueling? It would be tough.

They should also be highlighting all the fossil fuels the California government purchases, and all the fossil fueled trips Gavin Newsome takes.

Read: People’s Republik Of California Sues Fossil Fuels Companies »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 19 Comments | Trackback URL

Bummer: Those With Student Loans Might Have To Give Up Their “Fun Budget”, Which Could Tank The Economy (more)

By William Teach September 18, 2023 – 6:45 am

The NY Times is really trying to make a case for doing away with all the student loan debt, but, really, this is really not the argument they’re looking for

Will Restart of Student Loan Payments Be the Last Straw for Consumers?

Mykail James has a plan for when payments on her roughly $75,000 in student loans restart next month. She’ll cut back on her “fun budget” — money reserved for travel and concerts — and she expects to limit her holiday spending.

“With the holidays coming up — I have a really big family — we will definitely be scaling back how much we’re spending on Christmas and how many things we can afford,” James said. “It’s just going to be a tighter income overall.”

In October, roughly 27 million borrowers like James will once again be on the hook for repaying their federal student loans after a three-year hiatus. President Joe Biden tried to use his executive powers to forgive about $400 billion in student debt last year, but the Supreme Court overruled that decision in June, and payments kick in again in October.

Fun budget? They knew this was coming, and they also legally took out the loans. There’s lots of us with mortgages and other loans who plan accordingly, knowing that those payments come before concert tickets, unlimited-data phone subscriptions, streaming media subscriptions, fast fashion, dining out regularly, international travel, craft beers, lots of energy drinks, expensive foo-foo coffees, tattoos, all their selfies, weed, vape pens, etc. These are all considered “basic expenses” by many of those complaining about having to repay student loans. This is not a good argument for cancelling the debt.

Now there are big questions about how those people — many of whom had expected to have at least some of their debt erased — may change their spending habits as they budget for student loan payments again. It could crimp the economy if a large share of consumers cut back simultaneously, especially because the resumption in payments comes just as the retail and hospitality industry begin to eye the crucial holiday shopping season.

Not a great argument. But, hey, you know, if the government would cancel our mortgage and car debt we could spend that money on fun, too! Except, up, didn’t the Experts tell us that it was all that spending money post-COVID that was causing the economy to over-heat? So, maybe we make those people pay what they owe and reduce interest rates.

But the student loan payments will also restart at the same time consumers face a number of other headwinds, including shrinking savings piles, a cooler job market and higher price levels after two years of rapid inflation. It could also coincide with major strikes; Hollywood actors and writers have been locked in a work stoppage all summer, and the United Auto Workers began a targeted strike Friday — one that economists warn could be disruptive if it lasts. Adding another source of looming uncertainty, Congress could fail to reach a funding agreement by the end of this month, forcing a government shutdown.

The NY Times is working hard, unintentionally, to tell us the economy is not good

The resumption of student loan payments for a retailer like J.C. Penney, which caters to middle-income consumers, would be the latest unwelcome squeeze on their budgets. Their core customer makes an annual income of $55,000 to $75,000 and has had their monthly household expenses increase by $700 from two years ago. The department store chain said 17% of its credit card customers have student loans.

$700 a month. Bidenomics.

And some borrowers may simply not pay, at least for a while. Because missing payments will not be reported to credit reporting agencies for a year — the so called “on-ramp” period — households have wiggle room, said Constantine Yannelis, an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Wiggle room to continue with their Fun Budget? Good grief.

Read: Bummer: Those With Student Loans Might Have To Give Up Their “Fun Budget”, Which Could Tank The Economy (more) »

Posted in Economy, Joe Biden | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach September 17, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…is an area flooded from too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The OK Corral, with a post on a criminal picking the wrong restaurant to break in to.

It’s Jeep week!

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 10 Comments | Trackback URL
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