Media Really Pimping Biden Hard To Use 14th Amendment For Debt Limit

By William Teach May 8, 2023 – 10:30 am

The same people screaming about Democracy! on a constant basis and call Trump a Fascist also keep wanting Biden to do things on his own without the duly elected Legislative Branch

14th Amendment emerges as last-ditch fix to ward off default

Top political figures are swirling the possibility that President Biden could use the powers of a clause in the 14th Amendment as a last-ditch effort to ward off the looming threat that the U.S. could default on its debt as soon as next month.

When asked about possibility of invoking the amendment, President Biden as recently as Friday appeared to leave such an option on the table when he told MSNBC in an interview he had “not gotten there yet.”

But Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday sounded the alarm, calling it a “constitutional crisis” should the president rely on the 14th Amendment, which obscurely addresses the nation’s debt in a way that legal scholars believe allows the president to continue issuing debts without lifting or suspending the ceiling.

“There is no way to protect our financial system in our economy, other than Congress doing its job and raising the debt ceiling and enabling us to pay our bills and we should not get to the point where we need to consider whether the President can go on issuing debt. This would be a constitutional crisis,” Yellen said on ABC’s “This Week.”

So, even Yellen knows that Biden really doesn’t have that power. Obama’s White House likewise stated that they did not have the legal power. The relevant clause states

“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.”

The point, as applied to debt, was to do away with Confederate debt, and, notice the part that says “authorized by law.” That means only the Legislative Branch may do something, not the Executive, which is tasked with enforcing laws. Constitutional scholars says it’s really, truly sketchy for the Executive to say that he’s paying the debt by essentially borrowing money unilaterally.

Biden and his administration have spent the past few months insisting they won’t negotiate and want a “clean” debt limit increase but Republicans won’t budget on the stance that an increase has to come with a promise of spending cuts, though the GOP has been short on details on just where they want to see the federal budget be slashed.

Isn’t one of the major points of politics negotiation? To try and come to some consensus? A give and take? How about passing a budget that is responsible, that doesn’t spend The People’s money on stupid stuff, and doesn’t over-spend on others? Try being irresponsible with the money of your company, see where that gets you.

Read: Media Really Pimping Biden Hard To Use 14th Amendment For Debt Limit »

Posted in Constitution, Wonky Media | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Good News: Threat From AI Is Pretty Much Minimal, Plus, Green Energy Is Garbage

By William Teach May 8, 2023 – 7:15 am

So says the AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton

AI pioneer says its threat to world may be ‘more urgent’ than climate change

Artificial intelligence could pose a “more urgent” threat to humanity than climate change, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

Geoffrey Hinton, widely known as one of the “godfathers of AI”, recently announced he had quit Alphabet after a decade at the firm, saying he wanted to speak out on the risks of the technology without it affecting his former employer.

But he is now among a growing number of tech leaders publicly espousing concern about the possible threat posed by AI if machines were to achieve greater intelligence than humans and take control of the planet.

“I wouldn’t like to devalue climate change. I wouldn’t like to say, ‘You shouldn’t worry about climate change.’ That’s a huge risk too,” Hinton said. “But I think this might end up being more urgent.”

He added: “With climate change, it’s very easy to recommend what you should do: you just stop burning carbon. If you do that, eventually things will be okay. For this it’s not at all clear what you should do.”

He’s calling AI an existential threat, but, really, if it’s on par with the threat from ‘climate change’, it’s a great big nothingburger. It’s nothing to worry about. Just go on with your lives.

Meanwhile, from the NY Times

Backup Power: A Growing Need, if You Can Afford It

When frigid weather caused rolling blackouts on Christmas Eve across North Carolina, Eliana and David Mundula quickly grew worried about their 2½-week-old daughter, whom they had brought home days earlier from a neonatal intensive care unit.

“The temperature was dropping in the house,” said Ms. Mundula, who lives in Matthews, south of Charlotte. “I became angry.”

But her husband pulled out a small gasoline generator a neighbor had convinced them to buy a couple of years earlier, allowing them to use a portable heater and restart their refrigerator, keeping them going for much of the five-hour outage. (snip)

As climate change increases the severity of heat waves, cold spells and other extreme weather, blackouts are becoming more common….

And here we go

Energy experts warn that power outages will become more common because of extreme weather linked to climate change. And those blackouts will hurt more people as Americans buy electric heat pumps and battery-powered cars to replace furnaces and vehicles that burn fossil fuels — a shift essential to limiting climate change.

Soooooooo, replacing reliable, dependable, affordable gas and electric furnaces and gas power cars with heat pumps and EVs will make things worse? Huh. On a personal note, I’d get an EV before a heat pump. They would be terrible for anyone except in a very narrow range of temperatures.

The most recent power crisis in North Carolina, the one on Christmas Eve, occurred when the temperature fell to 9 degrees Fahrenheit in the Charlotte area.

That’s your fault for refusing to take public transit or biking, you know.

Solar panels paired with batteries can provide emissions-free power, but they cost tens of thousands of dollars and typically cannot provide enough to run big appliances and heat pumps for more than a few hours. Those systems are also less reliable during cloudy, rainy or snowy days when there isn’t enough sunlight to fully recharge batteries.

Now they tell us?

Really, my interest in this article was over the Times’ tweet, which seemed to recommend people purchasing fossil fuels powered generators, but, the more you read, the more you realize that all these “green” replacements are garbage.

Read: Good News: Threat From AI Is Pretty Much Minimal, Plus, Green Energy Is Garbage »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Illinois Sees Ballooning Cost Of Insuring Illegals

By William Teach May 8, 2023 – 7:00 am

This is apparently complicating state budget negotiation. There’s an easy answer. Can you guess what it is?

Ballooning cost of insuring undocumented immigrants complicating state budget negotiations

unintended consequencesThe $49.6 billion budget Gov. J.B. Pritzker introduced in February estimated the cost of a program that provides state-funded health insurance to adult immigrants who are in the country without legal permission at $220 million.

Just three months later, that estimate has grown fivefold, swelling to $1.1 billion and threatening to blow a hole in the Democratic governor’s proposal for the budget year that begins July 1, the first of his second term.

At the same time, revenue flowing to the state appears to be slowing, putting further pressure on Pritzker and the Democratic-controlled legislature as they try to assemble a spending plan that continues the financial progress made during the past four years. The General Assembly’s spring session is scheduled to adjourn May 19.

Illinois created a program in 2020 that provides Medicaid-style coverage to immigrants 65 and older who are in the country without legal permission or who have green cards but haven’t completed a five-year waiting period and are therefore ineligible for the traditional health insurance program for the poor, which is jointly funded by the federal government. The program has been expanded twice, now covering those 42 and older.

Even as enrollment has far outstripped expectations, some Democratic lawmakers are pushing to further expand coverage, opening the program to people 19 and older, which the Pritzker administration estimates would cost an additional $380 million in the first year.

So, let’s get this straight: Illinois created a program to give older illegals healthcare, off the backs of the legal taxpayers. That’s ballooned around 4 times more as costs rose due to Wuhan Flu and illegals streaming into the state. So they lowered the age to 42, and now want to lower it to 19. What could possibly go wrong?

Oh, right, people and companies are getting the hell out of Illinois, eroding the tax base, to compliment inflation.

When the program was introduced for those 65 and older in 2020, the budget for the entire year was spent in the first month, according to a briefing the Department of Healthcare and Family Services gave lawmakers earlier this spring.

“The initial cost overrun should’ve raised alarms with HFS, and the Pritzker administration should’ve shared this information with all of the members of the General Assembly,” state Rep. Norine Hammond, a Macomb Republican, said at a news conference last month where she was joined by other members of the House GOP.

Surprise, surprise, surprise! If you offer free stuff to illegals you incentivize them to come to your state.

Siegel (campaign director for Healthy Illinois, a coalition that advocated for the program’s creation and also backs the proposed expansion) said arguments against the program and its expansion are “fueled by a lot of, unfortunately, tired and typical talking points around immigrants taking our resources.”

No one really has to make an argument: the factual budget numbers speak for themselves. But, hey, it’s nice that illegals in the USA for a week can get free healthcare while US citizens have to pay for it, along with their own high rates.

Read: Illinois Sees Ballooning Cost Of Insuring Illegals »

Posted in Democrats, Illegal Immigration | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 7, 2023 – 1:18 pm

…is a massive sunburn from an overheated carbon pollution world, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Weasel Zippers, with a post on Biden knowing more than everyone else. So he thinks.

It’s cosplay week!

A couple things. Let’s tone down the personal insults, they’re getting out of control again. Thank you.

If you have a Dell computer and notice that your WiFi speed stinks, go and disable SmartByte Network Service. I was wondering why my WiFi on my laptop was testing so low. Was testing a lot earlier last week, there’s a problem with the Spectrum internet, there’s a problem with the big unit at the street that serves multiple townhomes, they have to replace it. Before disabling I was running between 15 and 30mbs, now typically 170-250mps (not stable because of that unit).

Interestingly, I found out that using an ethernet cable was not optimal. Most TVs, including mine, and Kindle Firesticks are only CAT5, so, no more than 100mbs, but, will mostly be under 20-25mbs. More stable, yes, but, I’m noticing better TV resolution with the WiFi now. If speed tests would peg near 100, I’d be fine, that’s more than enough for what you need for streaming up to 4K. Really only need about 40-50mbs.

Anyhow, have a great week, everyone!

Read: If All You See… »

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

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach May 7, 2023 – 9:00 am

Patriotic Pinup

Happy Sunday! Another fine day in the Once And Future Nation Of America. The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I figured out why my WiFi is so damned slow on my laptop (if you have a Dell, turn off and disable Smartbyte Network Service. Went from around 20-30mbs to well over 200). This pinup is by Arthur Sarnoff, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Green Jihad notes artists destroying art to save the world
  2. Watts Up With That? covers turbulence claims without actual data
  3. Climate Depot discusses 19 states banning woke banks
  4. Da Techguy’s Blog covers what’s worse than the military recruiting crisis
  5. Geller Report notes the Dutch looking to ban farmers from farming
  6. IOTW Report shows where Jill Biden was seated for the coronation
  7. Legal Insurrection says the culture war is interested in you
  8. Moonbattery highlights post-COVID ghost cities
  9. neo-neocon wonders if Republicans can win another presidential election
  10. Newsbusters covers the difference in news coverage on Thomas vs Sotomayor
  11. Pacific Pundit discusses gay bars boycotting Bud Light
  12. Powerline thinks Slow Joe’s meds are not working
  13. Sultan Knish covers bankrupt Detroit paying reparations to itself
  14. White House Dossier notes Biden and Kamala bolting a cabinet meeting to get tacos
  15. And last, but, not least, The First Street Journal wants you to remember back when we were told it was no one else’s business what people did in their bedrooms

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your Pinups for Vets calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me. I’ve also mostly alphabetized them, makes it easier scrolling the feedreader

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?

Two great sites for getting news links are Liberty Daily and Whatafinger.

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

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Shock: Most Americans Do Not Support Gender Crazy For Children

By William Teach May 7, 2023 – 7:00 am

Of course, Hollywood A-listers are super happy to support this stuff

Drag isn’t dangerous. For adults. Leave the kids alone. They aren’t allowed in bars, strip clubs, or porn shops/theaters

Majority of Americans oppose gender-affirming care for minors, trans women participating in sports: poll

A majority of Americans oppose allowing gender-affirming care for minors and transgender women participating in women’s sports, a poll found.

A Washington Post-KFF poll found that 68 percent of adults oppose access to puberty-blocking medication for transgender children ages 10-14 and 58 percent oppose access to hormonal treatments for transgender kids ages 15 to 17.

More than 60 percent said transgender women and girls should not be allowed to compete with other women and girls in youth, high school, college and professional sports.

The results come as Republicans in states across the country have pushed for bills to restrict minors’ access to gender-affirming care and ban transgender women from competing on sports teams in line with their gender identity.

No matter how many times they call it “gender affirming care”, it’s about placating and accommodating kids who are mostly going with a fad, one that will see their lives ruined with the drugs and surgeries, one that will see them have serious mental health issues and suicidal thoughts and attempts if the adults go with it, rather than having them seek qualified, competent mental health counselors.

And Americans are not buying into this trans madness. They do not want boys competing against actual girls, nor want them in their bathrooms, changing rooms, showers, and locker rooms.

A majority of adults surveyed in the poll, 57 percent, said a person’s gender is determined by their sex assigned at birth, while 43 percent said it can be different from their sex assigned at birth.

So, 43% of Americans are bat-guano insane and do not understand basic science.

Obviously, the younger the crowd the more they approve of trans-madness, because they’ve been indoctrinated.

Read: Shock: Most Americans Do Not Support Gender Crazy For Children »

Posted in Current Affairs | 24 Comments | Trackback URL

Climate Cult Now Hoping Malaria Will Be Next Pandemic

By William Teach May 6, 2023 – 3:00 pm

You know, because a slight temperature increase is going to make Canada like Panama, and these people are doomsday cultists, after all

Felled By A Warming World: Will Malaria Be The Next Pandemic?

The next global health crisis might not be another pandemic caused by a novel respiratory infection. Instead, we could see climate change dramatically increasing the threat from an existing infectious disease–for example, malaria, a disease that kills one child every minute of every day.

If only hysterics hadn’t created the conditions where countries most vulnerable couldn’t use DDT

Malaria, like other vector-borne diseases, reacts quickly to changes in climate, with epidemiology of the disease evolving rapidly in response to shifting rainfall patterns and warmer temperatures. Already we are seeing malaria cases at higher altitudes in places like Ethiopia and Kenya, where up to now low temperatures offered protection from mosquitoes. The increasing frequency of extreme weather events, such as violent cyclones and unforeseen floods, lead to sudden surges in malaria infections and deaths. After the devastating floods in Pakistan, malaria infections more than quadrupled. Despite massive efforts, including additional emergency funding from the Global Fund, deaths from malaria soared, far exceeding the number of people who died from drowning or otherwise directly from the floods. Countries like Malawi and Mozambique, hit by Cyclone Freddy in February 2023, know that the floods and stagnant water resulting from such a storm create ideal locations for mosquitoes to breed and can quickly lead to sharp increases in malaria cases.

As always, it’s the poorest and most vulnerable who are the most exposed to such dynamics. There’s already an almost perfect overlap between the communities designated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as “highly vulnerable to effects of climate change” and those most heavily hit by malaria. Ninety-five percent of malaria infections and 96% of malaria deaths occur in the World Health Organization’s Africa Region. Children under 5 account for over 80% of deaths, with pregnant women being the most at-risk adults.

If there wasn’t an effective ban on DDT, it could have been updated and made better and less dangerous to other insects. But, no, the extrem-enviros happened, along with a bad, anti-science book.

Influenced by these environmental changes, we are also seeing shifts in where different species of mosquito live and thrive. For example, Anopheles stephensi, until recently found largely in Asia, has now been identified across multiple parts of Africa. The Anopheles stephensi species adapts more easily to urban conditions than most mosquitoes, and unlike the Anopheles species currently most prevalent in Africa, can carry both types of malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. So malaria control programs in Africa now have to contend with both a new mosquito and a new malaria parasite.

That has nothing to do with Hotcoldwetdry and everything to do with global travel and trade. Also, how do these cults think life spread around the globe?

Confronted with such a perfect storm of simultaneous challenges, we face a frightening risk of seeing many of the hard-won gains of the last two decades of fighting malaria rolled back, with infections and death rising across the world, in places already hard hit, in those that thought they were rid of the disease, and in places that never suffered from it.

And this is all your fault. How dare you!

Read: Climate Cult Now Hoping Malaria Will Be Next Pandemic »

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

If All You See…

By William Teach May 6, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…is lots of debris driven onto the beach for Bad Weather created waves, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Chicks On The Right, with a post on (lying liar) CDC Director Walensky stepping down.

Doubleshot below the fold, check out Cold Fury, with a post on Rand being right.

Read More »

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Mayorkas Claims Border Is Totally Secure

By William Teach May 6, 2023 – 10:30 am

This is like reading a transcript from a totally 80’s boardroom meeting with all the newspeak

Mayorkas: ‘Not Worried About Title 42’ Ending — ‘The Border Is Secure Because We Are Maximizing Our Resources’ for ‘Most Effective Results’

During portions of an interview with NBC News Homeland Security Correspondent Julia Ainsley aired on Friday’s broadcast of “NBC Nightly News,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he is “not worried about” the expiration of Title 42 and that the Department of Homeland Security has planned and executed on its plans. Mayorkas also argued that “The border is secure because we are maximizing our resources to deliver the most effective results to our border with the most extraordinary workforce in the world.”

Ainsley asked, “Are you worried about Title 42 lifting next week?”

Mayorkas answered, “I’m not worried about Title 42 lifting. We recognize the challenge at the border.”

He also said, “Our responsibility is to plan and to execute on those plans, and that is indeed what we have done and continue to do.”

The plan does not seemingly include sending people caught crossing illegally on their way

In another part of the interview, Ainsley asked, “Is our border secure?”

Mayorkas responded, “Our border is secure.” And also said, “The border is secure because we are maximizing our resources to deliver the most effective results to our border with the most extraordinary workforce in the world.”

It’s one thing to try and paint a rosy picture, it’s something else to be utterly deluded and lie about what’s going on.

Meanwhile

Border Patrol Union blasts ‘clown’ Kamala Harris, Biden’s handing of immigration after surge of migrants

The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) mocked Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday, calling her a “clown” as Title 42’s expiration date looms.

“In 6 days the massive crush of illegal aliens coming through our border will make the last 2 years look like amateur hour,” the Border Patrol Union wrote in a Twitter post.

Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows the swift expulsion of illegal immigrants from the U.S., will expire on May 11 and tens of thousands of migrants are expected to seek entrance into America after it is lifted.

“Biden doesn’t have one clue about how to contain what he’s unleashed. He has a clown running DHS and a worse clown as VP. Watch what happens,” NBPC said in an effort to draw attention to the ongoing crisis at the southern border.

Will we see what happens from most of the national media? Doubtful. Unless they can Blame Trump.

Read: Mayorkas Claims Border Is Totally Secure »

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Surprise: Study Shows EVs Only Really Benefit The Rich

By William Teach May 6, 2023 – 7:15 am

This comes from that vastly right wing outlet (sic), the San Francisco Examiner, so, it must be disinformation

Study: EVs do help air pollution, but really only benefit the wealthy

A new study shows that electric vehicles are helping make the air cleaner in California. But it’s only benefiting the wealthy.

From a purely real environmental POV, yes, EVs do not put out the pollutants that gas powered vehicles do. They would definitely decrease things like smog.

The study published on Wednesday was done in collaboration between the University of California at Berkeley, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Miami.

Researchers measured more than 400,000 rebates from 2010 to 2021 to determine how successful California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) has been in actually reducing emissions.

The study found that electric vehicles have been successful in reducing emissions of nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, but the benefits are primarily only in wealthy communities, leaving lower-income communities in the dust.

From a purely real environmental POV, yes, EVs do not put out the pollutants that gas powered vehicles do. They would definitely decrease things like smog. And that’s what is mentioned. Cleaner air in those rich folks areas. Because the working and middle class really can’t afford EVs.

Of the 1.1 million or so zero-emissions vehicles on the road in California last year, more than 340,000 were in the Bay Area, according to state data. Seven of the 10 wealthiest counties in the state are in the region, according to census data, with San Francisco having the fourth-highest median household income.

Shouldn’t they be taking mass transit, walking, and biking, being huge leftists and Warmists? I guess that’s only for the peasants, especially since the Elites want nothing to do with the homeless, those on drugs, criminals, and poop in the streets.

But the study found that the distribution of these rebates highly favored people in wealthy communities, at around 46%, while lower-income communities had only around 7%.

Because they can afford them. It’s really that simple. Even if there was charging capacity, they still cannot afford the vehicles.

Read: Surprise: Study Shows EVs Only Really Benefit The Rich »

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