Bidenconomy: Many Americans Facing “Hunger Crisis”

On the plus side, the government is funding huge numbers of electric vehicle chargers (for cars the average American cannot afford) and funding lots of new IRS employees to go after The Rich (but, really, the working and middle class are easier targets)

Many Americans face “hunger crisis” as food insecurity rises

Anti-hunger advocates say the U.S. is facing an “unprecedented” rise in food insecurity amid persistently high inflation in the grocery aisle and cuts to the food-stamp program earlier this year.

The rise in food insecurity — lacking enough food to live a healthy, active life — comes as the nation has ended the pandemic emergency and the economy, by many measures, continues to be strong. The unemployment rate is near a 50-year low, while wages have been rising for many workers.

The economy is so strong that there’s an unprecedented rise in food insecurity. The most recent Gallup poll has only 16% saying the economy is excellent/good, with 47% saying it is poor and 37% saying only fair. Back in April CNN wrote

Americans’ views of the economy are the best they’ve been in more than a year, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS – but they’re still pretty bad, with 7 in 10 saying it’s in poor shape. Closer to home, 50% say their own financial situation is worse than it was a year ago.

About 3 in 10 Americans, 29%, call the country’s economic conditions good. That’s up from 22% in CNN’s polling last fall but well below the 54% majority who said the same in April 2021. Compared with last fall, the share now saying the economy is good has risen 15 points among Democrats and 10 points among independents, with little change among Republicans.

If CNN can’t spin it, things are bad.

The research jibes with findings from the U.S. Census, which for three years has asked households about their food consumption. The number of Americans who say they sometimes don’t have enough to eat has jumped 23% — from 15.8 million prior to the pandemic to 19.2 million in the most recent survey, taken in late April and early May.

Hey, you morons voted for Biden over Trump, and this is your result.

In the meantime, low-income Americans are increasingly making tradeoffs and experiencing broader hardships as they cope with the rising cost of groceries and cuts to their food aid, research shows. Eviction rates for food-stamp recipients soared by 40% from April to May, while 11% of respondents had their utilities cut off in the last month, a 24% jump from the prior month, Propel found.

Housing costs have skyrocketed, and, I’ll be honest, that does seem a scam, to some degree, but, consider that for a long time no one could work to build, because of lockdowns, and the materials were not being made, and Biden and the Democrats have worked to make energy costs more expensive, which also contributes to rising food costs. Any Democrat complaining should consider what their vote got them.

Read: Bidenconomy: Many Americans Facing “Hunger Crisis” »

Climate Change Today: Banks And Ketchup

Say, what’s the carbon footprint of ketchup companies, say, the one owned by John Kerry’s wife?

Climate Change Is Threatening Ketchup. AI Could Help Save It

Hold on to your Heinz. The latest looming food shortage is likely to include ketchup, coming hard on the heels of last year’s potato chip crisis and runs on mustard (in France, at least). Three summers’ worth of unprecedented high heat in the world’s key tomato-producing regions—Australia, Spain, and California’s central valley—have led to a precipitous decline in tomato paste stocks, the key ingredient for ketchup and other condiments. California, which produces a quarter of the world’s tomatoes, and 95% of the tomatoes used in U.S. canned goods, delivered nearly 5% less than the expected crop in 2021, and 10% less in 2022 due to the ongoing drought, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Record-setting precipitation earlier this year helped with drought conditions, but it also flooded fields, forcing farmers to postpone planting, which could lead to reduced yields this year as well.

It’s always some sort of doom with these people, and always your fault. You have to go to the 7th paragraph (and most are long ones) before AI comes into play

Alvarez’s version of assisted evolution relies on a simpler strategy. Instead of using genetic modification, which targets specific genes, his team uses machine learning models to seek out desirable traits—like drought or heat tolerance—in both cultivated plants and their wild cousins. Then an AI-enabled recommendation system suggests which crossbreeds might produce the best results for taste, ease of production, and resilience.

So, the climate cult is trying to pull AI into their cult.

Activists are looking to banking regulations to combat climate change

Historically the federal government has done very little to push banks to address climate risk in the financial system. The last major wave of environmental legislation passed in the 1960s and 1970s, when banks were nowhere near as big as they are now. Back then, the primary targets of anti-pollution laws were corporations that were actively generating emissions or had dumped toxic waste that needed to be cleaned up. This made sense, given that manufacturing and chemical firms were still at the top of the Fortune 500 list in 1977, while financial firms were not. Banks simply did not receive the same scrutiny as firms in the industrial sector.

Changes in the banking sector over the past half-century have produced dramatic consolidation, making a handful of big banks outsize financial engines in the fossil fuel industry. So long as these large banks and financial firms continue funding major fossil fuel development, environmental activists argue, addressing climate change will be impossible. And policymakers are now beginning to heed their calls.

Funny how it always seems to come down to Warmists pushing government to apply force, eh?

Read: Climate Change Today: Banks And Ketchup »

If All You See…

…are mountains that lost all their glaciers due to ‘climate change’, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is IOTW Report, with a post on a large group of teens attacking a couple of Marines.

Read: If All You See… »

Bidenconomy Forcing Many Older Americans To Unretire

I wonder how many of the older folks who are getting crushed by inflation and going back to work will again vote Democrat and Biden, the ones who made COVID-induced inflation worse and are doing little to slow it?

Reckless spending and inflation are forcing many Americans to ‘unretire’

Older Americans are increasingly ‘unretiring’ to deal with elevated prices and rocky financial positions. Unfortunately, financial insecurity from inflation may be here to stay.

Rising costs have turned grocery staples like eggs into luxuries for many people on a fixed budget. Prices seemed to be coming down, but recent data signal that the end of elevated inflation remains elusive. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 4.9% in April from a year prior. This is below the generational high of 9.1% in June 2022. However, overall CPI was flat from March after months of slowing price increases.

Prices are coming down? Not on most things. Eggs did come down, as the spike was due to a brief shortage with bird flu, and have now come back, but, still higher than normal. I can’t think of anything else that is coming down.

Shelter prices are up 0.4% from the last month, with overall housing costs at 8.1% higher in April compared to a year earlier. Shelter, which is responsible for a third of CPI weighting, was a key factor driving CPI higher despite declines in other categories.

Unlike other discretionary spending, housing is not optional. Increasingly, Americans are spending more on rent, and this disproportionately impacts low-income people and older adults, especially those on fixed budgets. Nearly 10 million households headed by people aged 65 or older pay more than a third of their income on housing, and half of these pay more than 50%. Renter households tend to have lower incomes than owner households and are more affected by income and rental price changes.

The story continues to be the same month after month after month during the Biden years, eh? Except now it’s about retired folks having to go back to work.

An average of 10,000 Baby Boomers reach retirement age each day. Unfortunately, the inflation-driven affordability crisis and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes meant to combat inflation have driven housing costs higher. As a result, retirees are moving back into the labor force. According to a survey by Paychex, 55% of retirees who went back to work said they did so because they needed more money, and 1 in 6 retirees is considering returning to work.

Their work ethic is welcomed by employers, and their presence may alleviate worker shortages. However, postponing or ending retirement is a hard choice to make.

Welcomed by employers, because so many young folks have a crummy work ethic. Unfortunately, many do have to return to work. Anyhow, if you thought the headline was weird about reckless spending, well, the USA Today actually covers this

The cost of bad policy in the Biden administration

People have connected the dots between ill-advised government policies and harsh economic outcomes. Spending nearly $2 trillion dollars on government transfers to nearly every household at a time of supply-chain disruptions and exacerbated labor shortages caused inflation to accelerate. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and other production disruptions worsened it.

The Biden administration and congressional Democrats passed a climate change bill that they falsely labeled the Inflation Reduction Act in hopes of fooling Americans, especially seniors. The bill never addressed rising food, housing, or energy prices — the most basic and critical needs of households. Any climate savings would take years to come to fruition and could be offset by new costs for households — tens of thousands of dollars — on new electric vehicles. Meanwhile, the green subsidies cost more than three times what the law’s supporters claimed.

Wow, someone actually did Journalism 101 and the USA today editors allowed it. It’s rare.

Read: Bidenconomy Forcing Many Older Americans To Unretire »

Walking The Talk: King Charles Turns Down Pool Temperature For The Hired Help

It’s just a little thing, but, this is what the Elites in the climate cult do: force others to live climate cult life

King Charles Fights Climate Change by Freezing His Servants

st greta carIf you haven’t heard, Great Britain’s newly-anointed monarch, King Charles III, is a committed environmentalist — so committed, in fact, that he’s sacrificing his servants’ body temperatures for his cause. Brave!

As sources recently told The Times, King Charles has kicked off his reign with an effort to conserve energy by turning the heat on the palace pool way down. As a result, the servants who once enjoyed the water feature — a notable-sounding perk of working at the palace — have been left shivering.

“A few people using the pool have noticed that the temperature of the water has dropped, and it is quite a bit cooler than it used to be,” an anonymous palace source told the Times. “They have been told the King has had the heating turned down.”

A sacrifice indeed, but rest assured, it’s one that Charles is willing to make. After all, someone’s gotta save the planet — and skimping on the heated pool ought to offset those private jet emissions, right?

Yeah, he’s willing to make it for others. Is he turning down the heat for Buckingham Palace? Will he forgo all those fossil fueled flights? Only ride in electric vehicles? What was the carbon footprint of the coronation, with people flying in from all over the world, including on private jets?

It’s kinda like the British government trying to force the subjects to use heatpumps, while not using them in government.

Read: Walking The Talk: King Charles Turns Down Pool Temperature For The Hired Help »

Crazytown: Women Marrying Themselves Out Of Self Love

The best part is no one in the media is saying “this is nuts.” Or is it that this isn’t the craziest thing going on in America?

CNN: Women Marrying Themselves as ‘Symbolic Expression of Self-Love’

CNN spoke with four women who “married themselves” — a self-marriage officially referred to as “sologamy.”

The left-leaning news outlet painted “sologamy” as pertaining more to mental health and “self-love.” rather than an extension of living an “auto-sexual” lifestyle — being sexually attracted to oneself — which has been addressed in other news articles on the topic.

“The concept of self-marriage, or sologamy, has been around for years…No data exists on how many people celebrate sologamy with ceremonies, but the practice has been explored in a handful of recent news articles,” CNN reported.

The women interviewed “described the act as a symbolic expression of self-love and an affirmation of a deep meaningful relationship with one’s self.”

Sounds like a continued extension of Crazyville. Which is fine, as long as they aren’t trying to spread the crazy. Or until they get all militant and go full on mental.

One of the women, body image coach Danni Adams, told the outlet she took several years to invest in herself, go to to therapy, and “break generational curses” and “process trauma” before she decided she was ready to marry herself.

After the pandemic she married herself in front of roughly 40 people. The event included nine bridesmaids at a cost of $4,000. A friend officiated the ceremony, and Adams read her vows in front of a full-length mirror, according to the report. Following her self-wedding, she honeymooned in Tulum, Mexico.

So, a woman who’s pretty much telling other women that it’s just fine to be fat spent $4k and did the rest? Is this normal?

CNN noted that critics say self-marriage, which is not recognized by law in the United States, is narcissistic. In response, the outlet quoted a therapist who believes sologamy could be the manifestation of a “healthy form of narcissism.”

“It is actually a lack of self-love that leads to unhealthy narcissism,” therapist John Amodeo claimed. “We are then constantly needing validation from other to fill our inner emptiness.”

Well, I guess it’s better than putting these people around children and animals.

Read: Crazytown: Women Marrying Themselves Out Of Self Love »

Surprise: 17 Deaths On Mt. Everest Blamed On ‘Climate Change’

So, how does one climb Mt. Everest? Well, lots and lots of training. Then a long fossil fueled flight to Nepal. Most will take a fossil fueled flight from Kathmandu to Lukla, then start trekking. It requires a lot of goods and products and material support. Maybe Nepal should just ban people from climbing their mountains

Climate change to blame for up to 17 deaths on Mount Everest, experts say

Experts say this is likely to be one of the deadliest years on record on Mount Everest, with variable weather caused by climate change being blamed as one of the main reasons for the deaths of up to 17 people.

A total of 12 people have now been confirmed dead during Everest expeditions this season and another five are missing, presumed dead, as no contact has been made for at least five days in all cases, according to the Himalayan Database, which tracks mountain fatalities.

The figure was confirmed by Yuba Raj Khatiwada, the director of Nepal’s tourism department. “Altogether this year we lost 17 people on the mountain this season,” he said. “The main cause is the changing in the weather. This season the weather conditions were not favourable, it was very variable. Climate change is having a big impact in the mountains.”

It would make this year one of the worst on record for deaths on Everest, matched only by the events of 2014 when 17 died, most of whom were local sherpas killed in an avalanche. On average, between five and 10 people die on Everest every year but recent years have seen a spike.

It could be that there are more trying to climb, and more who are not qualified, people who are trying to do something post-COVID.

Among those who lost their lives climbing Everest this year were Jason Kennison, a 40-year-old mechanic from Australia who had overcome spinal injuries to climb to the top but could not make it back down, a Canadian doctor, Pieter Swart, and three Nepalese sherpas who died in an avalanche in April.

Sorry, but, Kennison was probably not ready. Avalanches happen. It’s a mountain, weather changes, and there are earthquakes, including lots of tiny ones.

The Nepal government has been criticised for issuing 479 permits this year, the highest number ever. At £12,000 each, they are a major income generator for the small cash-strapped country, and the government has been reluctant to scale back numbers.

More permits, more dead.

Experts and celebrated mountaineers have warned that Everest, which tops 8,848 metres, is now seen as a “tourist destination” and a playground for the thrill-seeking rich, even those with little experience of climbing at high altitude, who are willing to pay upwards of £48,000 to be guided to the summit.

Alan Arnette, a mountaineer who climbed Everest in 2011 and now writes regularly on conditions, said this year had been “chaos”. “The root cause of the high number of deaths lies with inexperienced clients who push themselves too hard and do not turn back soon enough,” he said.

So, not climate doom? Huh

There had also been concerns that the increased human activity at Everest base camp, which is located on the Khumbu glacier, is making it unstable and unsafe, exacerbating dangerous conditions already created by global warming. According to a recent survey, Everest’s glaciers have lost 2,000 years of ice in just the past 30 years.

Warming happens. Now you put way too many people in the area, leaving lots and lots of trash and adding heat to the area, well, it’s not the climate apocalypse.

Read: Surprise: 17 Deaths On Mt. Everest Blamed On ‘Climate Change’ »

If All You See…

…is a damp looking day from too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Geller Report, with a post on how much money Woke companies are losing.

Read: If All You See… »

Florida Furry Convention Goes 18+ Due To Law About Exposing Children

Hmm, seems like others have learned that it’s not a good idea to expose children to adult performances. Of course, we haven’t really heard about furries grooming kids, though, there have been some cases where young wackos think they’re animals

(Fox News) An upcoming “furry” convention in Florida will restrict its attendees to adults over 18 in response to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ law prohibiting children from attending “adult live entertainment.”

Megaplex, an Orlando-based convention dedicated to “people who enjoy dressing up as or making art of anthropomorphized creatures,” originally released a statement regarding their decision on Wednesday.

“Many have raised concerns about recent changes in Florida legislation. After reviewing Florida SB 1438 it has been decided that for legal reasons and protection of our attendees, our venue, and the overall convention, Megaplex 2023 attendees must be 18 years of age at the time of registration pickup,” the statement read.

The Protection of Children Act (SB 1438) specifically prohibits a person from “knowingly admitting a child to an adult live performance.” An adult live performance is defined as “any show, exhibition, or other presentation in front of a live audience which, in whole or in part, depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities.”

Or, they could do away with stuff that is meant for adults. Obviously, they’re getting ahead of this. Would law enforcement actually take action?

The Rolling Stone blasted the news from Megaplex, attacking DeSantis for “sucking the pleasure” out of “joys” like the furry convention.

“Florida Gov. and GOP presidential nominee Ron DeSantis has successfully sucked the pleasure out of many of life’s little joys, from drag brunches to Disney adult TikTok. And thanks to the passage of SB 1438, or the Protection of Children Act, DeSantis may now be bringing the ax down on furries,” senior writer E.J. Dickson wrote.

Yes, nothing more joyful than exposing children to adult acts that depict or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities, right? Of course, Rolling Stone, which went all in on the gender confused fad, is not worried about furries, but, the gender wackos.

“Many furries are marginalized in some way: In addition to many identifying as LGBTQ, a sizeable percentage of furries are also neurodivergent. As a result, they tend to view the community as a safe haven of sorts. Over the past few years, children have increasingly been gravitating toward the fandom for this reason, as Rolling Stone has previously reported,” she wrote.

Dickson continued, “The rise of furry influencers on platforms like TikTok has led to the fandom becoming increasingly popular among young people, with the Pittsburgh-based conference Anthrocon reporting that 16 percent of its attendees in 2019 were under the age of 19.”

Perhaps we shouldn’t be going along with children suffering mental illness and acting out in this manner. Instead, we should be seeking proper mental health therapy. Being a furry, though, is certainly less damaging than pretending to be the opposite sex and taking all those drugs and cutting off genitals and breasts and such.

Why must these wackos push this on children, especially ones too young to know?

Read: Florida Furry Convention Goes 18+ Due To Law About Exposing Children »

Fixit Culture Is Now Linked To Climate Crisis (scam)

Now, there are some points here. Things like the right to repair, and not disposing of so many products which end up in landfills, which is an environmental issue. But, the climate cult likes to link everything to their cult

Fixit culture is on the rise, but repair legislation faces resistance

Americans are responsible for throwing out more stuff than any other nation in the world. According to the Public Interest Research Group, people in this country generate more than 12% of the planet’s trash, though we represent only 4% of the global population.

“We keep going at this pace and we’ll reach the heat death of the earth in a few hundred years,” said Adam Savage, the leader and host of Tested, a popular YouTube channel and website aimed at makers, and an outspoken advocate for repairing the things we own rather than trashing them. “So time is of the essence.”

Throwing things away comes with an environmental cost. Manufacturing processes and decomposing products in landfills emit significant levels of climate warming pollution. Some materials, like plastic, never decompose. Savage said it’s time human beings reminded themselves that throwaway culture is a relatively new phenomenon. It started about a hundred years ago with the rise of mass manufacturing.

They also have a slight point there, namely that landfills are an issue with releasing methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, though it doesn’t last as long in the atmosphere. I’ve long stated that mankind is responsible for a small portion of anthropogenic global warming, and landfills are part of that. But, seriously, do we need to make everything about ‘climate change doom? Seriously, heat death of the Earth because of throwing out products?

“We have been repairers and restorers for millennia longer than we’ve been profligate thrower outer of things,” Savage said, as he worked on mending the hulking wood-and-metal-shaping lathe that occupies a corner of the professional tinkerer’s cavernous workshop.

It’s a lot easier to repair a horse drawn cart than your coffee maker, fridge, TV, etc. Sadly, products aren’t made to last as long as they used to.

Nevertheless, the appetite for fixing things is on the rise. From patching jeans to replacing phone screens, U.S. consumers are showing an increased interest in prolonging the life of the things they own, rather than getting rid of them.

Unfortunately, it’s often less expensive to replace than repair, or, in other cases, not that much more expensive to replace. If a new coffee maker costs $30, and $25 to repair (can you even find someone to repair it? Does anyone fix TVs anymore?), do you repair the old one or replace?

This points to a shift in how Americans are defining what it means to be a responsible shopper as global consumption continues to contribute to climate change.

Sigh. But, yes, I would like products to last like they used to. I’ve had the same washer and dryer since 1994. The same JVC receiver since about 1988. I recently took a tube TV from about 1989 to the dump. It still worked fine. Nobody wanted it. An acoustic guitar since the early 80’s. But, I have an electric that would cost a lot to fix, as the locking wammy bar is toast, and electronics are not great. Great guitar, but, is it worth it? Or, just get a new one? The neck is still perfect.

Daniel Leong was among the crowd attending one such event at the San Francisco Public Library. The San Francisco resident has brought two bikes along for the volunteer bike repairers to repair. His wife’s has a flat tire; his son’s, malfunctioning brakes.

“We don’t know much about repairing bikes,” said Leong. “We just ride every so often.”

A basic bike tune-up in San Francisco can cost well over $100. Leong said he’s a fan of fixit days because the service is free. But it’s about more than the unbeatable price.

Yeah, well, if you’re trashing a bike because you can’t take it to someplace like a bike shop, or Dick’s sporting goods, you’re a moron. That’s not really fixit culture. It’s easy. Of course, the climate cult wants all you peasants out of your cars and onto bikes. I repair a lot of stuff myself, from plumbing to toilets to this and that where I can. Electronics? I do not have the parts. If a laptop goes toast, less expensive to replace.

Anyhow, the climate cult stuff ends in the previous excerpt, and is an interesting read.

Read: Fixit Culture Is Now Linked To Climate Crisis (scam) »

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