Good News: Americans Legally Purchased 60 Million Guns During Pandemic

By William Teach April 21, 2023 – 10:30 am

It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with Americans seeing rioting in the streets of American cities for months on end from BLM/Antifa, with government authorities doing pretty much nothing, could it? Or all the smash and grabs, the looting, the violence?

Americans bought almost 60 million guns during the pandemic

One-fifth of U.S. households purchased guns during the pandemic, a national arming that exposed more than 15 million Americans to firearms in the home for the first time, academic studies show.

Americans purchased nearly 60 million guns between 2020 and 2022, according to an analysis by The Trace, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that tracks gun violence. Yearly gun sales are running at roughly twice the level of 15 or 20 years ago.

All the new weapons may be fueling a historic surge in gun deaths, which reached record highs during the same period.

Is it or is it not? That’s a hell of an allegation while providing zero proof.

“It’s not a rifle stored away somewhere that you take out twice a year to go hunting. It’s a handgun, probably a semiautomatic handgun, that you keep in your bedside table or in your glove compartment, or that you maybe carry around with you.”

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a run on gun shops, part of a larger national spasm of panic-buying that gripped the country at a moment when many Americans thought society might collapse.

“There was fear, and real concern, about what happens to the country during a global pandemic,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president of law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control nonprofit.

No, The Hill will not mention all the violence from Democrat voters in mostly Democrat run cities, which is one of the main causes of purchases. However, the government authoritarianism during Wuhan Flu certainly enticed some to purchase a firearm for protection. All the calls to defund the police was another reason

More Americans died from gun violence in 2020 and 2021 than in any prior year on record. Gun-related homicides and suicides totaled 48,830 in 2021. Shootings of children nearly doubled during the pandemic.

How many were committed by those who legally purchased a firearm, particularly during the COVID years? They don’t say

The link between rising gun ownership and rising gun violence is hard to prove. Yet, “gun ownership rates track very closely to gun fatalities,” Fleegler said. “If you want to know where people are dying by guns, look where the guns are.”

See? I told you they had zero proof. Just an allegation.

Read: Good News: Americans Legally Purchased 60 Million Guns During Pandemic »

Posted in 2nd Amendment, Wonky Media | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Doom: World Could Maybe Possibly Face Record Temperatures This Year

By William Teach April 21, 2023 – 7:00 am

Nice of the “climate scientists” to make this prognostication almost 5 months into the year, especially as an El Nino forms

World could face record temperatures in 2023 as El Nino returns

The world could breach a new average temperature record in 2023 or 2024, fuelled by climate change and the anticipated return of the El Nino weather phenomenon, climate scientists say.

Climate models suggest that after three years of the La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean, which generally lowers global temperatures slightly, the world will experience a return to El Nino, the warmer counterpart, later this year.

During El Nino, winds blowing west along the equator slow down, and warm water is pushed east, creating warmer surface ocean temperatures.

“El Nino is normally associated with record breaking temperatures at the global level. Whether this will happen in 2023 or 2024 is not yet known, but it is, I think, more likely than not,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Climate models suggest a return to El Nino conditions in the late boreal summer, and the possibility of a strong El Nino developing towards the end of the year, Buontempo said.

OK, so, it’s something entirely natural that happens on and off. No need to drag witchcraft, er, anthropogenic climate change into the mix. But, they will

Friederike Otto, senior lecturer at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute, said El Nino-fuelled temperatures could worsen the climate change impacts countries are already experiencing – including severe heatwaves, drought and wildfires.

“If El Niño does develop, there is a good chance 2023 will be even hotter than 2016 – considering the world has continued to warm as humans continue to burn fossil fuels,” Otto said.

So, what happens if this doesn’t happen? Notice in the excerpt and other parts of the article that they are all using weasel words: could, could, could, suggest, suggest, good chance. This gives them an out so they aren’t actually making a prediction that can be held against them if it fails.

Read: Doom: World Could Maybe Possibly Face Record Temperatures This Year »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Good News: It’s Already Too Late To Evacuate Americans From Sudan

By William Teach April 21, 2023 – 6:45 am

This would include embassy employees. The capabilities of the Brandon regimes are just running on all cylinders, eh? (via Hot Air)

U.S. positioning troops ahead of possible Sudan embassy evacuation

The Pentagon is positioning U.S. forces in Djibouti in anticipation of a potential mission to evacuate U.S. Embassy personnel in Khartoum, two people familiar with the military plans said.

The security situation in Sudan’s capital has cratered over a week of fighting, as two rival generals — Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, in charge of the nation’s armed forces, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dalago, who leads the Rapid Support Forces military group — battle for control of the country. The heavy fighting in Khartoum has left many stranded in the city of 5 million people, including embassy staff who are sheltering in place at the compound eight miles from the international airport. (snip)

The American mission in the capital warned Thursday that “due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport, it is not currently safe to undertake a U.S. government-coordinated evacuation of private U.S. citizens.”

Also on Wednesday, Molly Phee, the top State Department official for African affairs, told congressional staffers that it was too late to order a departure of the mission because of the deteriorating security situation that has already led to around 300 deaths and about 3,000 more wounded, two congressional aides said.

US military assets are being moved to the African nation of Djibouti, pretty much because the Biden admin always seems to be behind the curve. But, hey, maybe he learned that from Obama, who always seemed to learn of things from the news. As Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey notes

It’s clearly far too late to evacuate the 19,000 American citizens. The better question is why it took this long to get the evacuation process started. It has been three weeks since signs that a power struggle between General Abdul Fattah al-Burhan and RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Daglo had become “unstoppable,” and that war would almost certainly erupt in Khartoum:

Perhaps if our intelligence and military and State departments were less worried about Woke and more on doing their jobs they could have seen this coming. You know, the same people who failed with Afghanistan. Ed goes on

Was the State Department asleep at the switch? Did it really take three weeks to catch up to the risk and start an orderly evacuation of Americans and American personnel? According to the State Department website’s Sudan page, they didn’t even address the situation publicly until April 15, after fighting had already begun in Khartoum.

If this goes completely tits up, with Americans being hurt or killed, how will they Blame Trump? Anyhow, consider that most of the State Department weenies in Sudan probably voted for Biden, they should keep their complaints to themselves. They’re getting what they voted for.

Read: Good News: It’s Already Too Late To Evacuate Americans From Sudan »

Posted in Current Affairs, Joe Biden | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

NJ Star Ledger Editorial Board Demands NJ Force Residents Into EVs

By William Teach April 20, 2023 – 3:38 pm

I have to wonder if the SLEB understands how many people who live in NJ drive quite a bit for commuting, heading into the city, going down to Atlantic City, heading down to the Shore. I also wonder if the members of the SLEB have switched over to EVs themselves. Further, when they are going to do away with the use of fossil fueled vehicles to gather and deliver the news

This action on climate cannot wait | Editorial

Last month, a UN study reminded the world that we are entombed in a cosmic hothouse, and that the window is about to slam shut. The dire conclusion from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: If we do not slash greenhouse gases 50% by 2030, it substantially raises the risk of a catastrophic rise in heat that threatens humanity itself.

Yeah, they’ve been saying Doom for 30 years, we’re still waiting

Transportation is the primary contributor to this problem in the US, the second-largest polluter in the world, so eliminating tailpipe emissions is the last, best chance at making the planet inhabitable.

Accordingly, the Biden Administration sent out an ambitious plan last week that will impose penalties on the car companies that don’t move fast enough to curtail emissions. California, meanwhile, has adopted the “Advance Clean Cars II” rule, which will phase out the sale of gas-powered vehicles entirely by 2035, and five states – including New York – quickly jumped aboard.

New Jersey, however, is still on the sidelines, and that’s problematic.

Gov. Murphy’s stated goal is to join the California initiative and require all new cars and light-duty truck sales in our state to be zero-emission vehicles or plug-in hybrids by 2035, but time is already running short in the effort to stay on that trajectory. And when it comes to doing our part in cooling the climate, time is a luxury we can no longer afford.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, funny how it’s always about forcing Other People to comply, yet, nowhere in this piece is it mentioned that the members have switched to EVs.

The Department of Environmental Protection has held its public engagement meetings, but it has not laid out a specific plan to meet the governor’s mandate. That typically takes months, and in a state where only 1.5% (90,000) of its 6 million vehicles are electric, this failure to establish a timeline does not exactly meet the urgency of the crisis.

You know why it’s just 1.5%? Because of how much people commute. The Garden State Parkway becomes a parking lot. God help you if you make the mistake of going south of the Eatontown exit on a Saturday after Memorial Day. When I grew up there, we took back roads. Why don’t these people just leave everyone alone to live their lives?

These are not bold steps when you weigh them against the consequences of inaction. President Biden is proposing a climate agenda that has teeth, but it still starts locally. New Jersey must get moving.

I don’t see Biden traveling around in an EV. Do you?

Read: NJ Star Ledger Editorial Board Demands NJ Force Residents Into EVs »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Democrats, Global Warming | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach April 20, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…is an evil plastic bottle, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Lid, with a post on a State dept official saying lockdowns helped the environment.

Read: If All You See… »

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

NC House Passed Bill To Ban All Trans Women In School Sports

By William Teach April 20, 2023 – 10:30 am

This has made all the people who want to ban real, biological women very upset. They do not want to protect real women

NC House passes bill to ban transgender women from girls’ sports through college

An injured high school athlete from western North Carolina urged state lawmakers to pass a blanket ban prohibiting transgender women from playing on girls’ sports teams in middle school, high school and college as bills sped through the legislature.

The House passed its version of the bill Wednesday afternoon with all Republicans present voting for the bill along with at least three Democrats. The Senate could vote on its version of the bill, which does not impact college athletics, as soon as Thursday.

Payton McNabb, a volleyball and softball player at Hiwassee Dam High School in Murphy, told lawmakers about the injuries she suffered after being hit by a spike from a transgender athlete on the other team.

“Due to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association policy allowing biological males to compete against biological females, my life has been changed forever,” McNabb said of the September incident. “I suffered from a concussion and a neck injury that, to this day, I am still recovering from.”

McNabb said she suffers from impaired vision, partial paralysis on her right side, headaches, anxiety and depression as a result of the play. She said she was unable to finish the volleyball season and is unable to perform at her previous level on the softball team.

“I’m not here for me because I know that my time playing is coming to an end,” she said. “I’m here for every biological female athlete behind me, my little sister, my cousins, my teammates. Allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous. I might be the first to come before you with an injury but, if this isn’t passed, I won’t be the last.”

Here’s what it looked like

But some legislative Democrats and trans supporters insisted the bills discriminate against a vulnerable segment of the population.

“This kind of legislation has recently been rejected by conservative governors in other states, because it is discriminatory on its face and wholly inconsistent with basic civil rights recognized by our highest courts,” said Rep. Vernetta Alston, a Durham Democrat. “This bill is a pretext for bigotry. It’s a part of what I think is a larger effort to ban transgender people from living their lives openly.”

It’s bigotry to not allow biological men play acting with mental illness that they’re women, and beating up real women in sports that the men did not do well in when competing against men.

Trans supporters, including parents, counselors and others who spoke against the bill in public testimony, argued that the law and others like it could have harmful impacts on transgender children.

“Laws like this send a clear message to trans people that we are not accepted, not wanted and not welcome,” said Cat Salemi, a counselor who works with transgender and non-binary patients.

They aren’t wanted in women’s sports. They aren’t wanted in female locker rooms, bathrooms, and showers. They should not be allowed to take earned wins away from real women, nor potential scholarships. What really harms these “transgender children” is parents, schools, and others who are extolling the kids thinking they’re the opposite sex, pushing them to continue, helping them, advising them, giving them positive reinforcement, rather than getting them a counselor who lives in reality and knows this is really bad for children. They aren’t wanted in women’s areas and sports. They do not belong there.

The House bill says any student “who is deprived of an athletic opportunity or suffers or is likely to suffer any direct or indirect harm as a result of a violation of this” can sue for relief as well as damages within two years of the date that the harm occurred. The same goes for representatives or employees of schools, as well as anyone who faces retaliation for reporting a violation, according to the bill.

This is a wise addition, making it so that the unhinged trans supporters cannot run roughshod over the biological women who object to the trans in their spaces. Some version of this will pass, once the Senate and House reconcile their versions, and there are enough votes to override a veto by Governor Cooper, who’s a Democrat.

Read: NC House Passed Bill To Ban All Trans Women In School Sports »

Posted in NC News | 17 Comments | Trackback URL

Caribbean Island Of Dominica Looks To Be World’s First Climate Resilient Nation Or Something

By William Teach April 20, 2023 – 7:15 am

It’s one of the most at risk places from climate doom. Just like every other place the media pimps as at risk

A Caribbean island’s quest to become the world’s first climate-resilient nation

(Starts out with a story about a guy)

“The weather announcer said we should prepare our things and get ready to move to the shelter, which is the primary school,” he tells me as we sit in a classroom at that shelter – his home since 2017.

Frederick grabbed some clothes, papers and his artwork and headed over. There were only a few hours to spare.

The storm was first announced to residents of the small island as a tropical depression on 16 September, but within two days heightened ocean surface temperature and low wind shear led it to intensify to a category five superstorm, the strongest possible hurricane, which was named Hurricane Maria.

ZOMG, hurricanes never happen in the Caribbean! Certainly not Dominica. Definitely not all the way back to 1780, and one called the Great Hurricane Of 1780 (category 5). It’s probably your fault.

Dominica is one of the most disaster-vulnerable countries on Earth, meaning the country faces a choice between building resilience or risking becoming locked in an unsustainable cycle of destruction and rebuilding from hazards that could eventually make living there unfeasible.

Well, considering that they are prone to storms being out on the fringes of the Caribbean and Atlantic, and prone to earthquakes and volcanoes (there’s a plate boundary, a subduction zone type right there), well, they should build better, right?

After two of the country’s most costly natural disasters struck within two years of each other (2015 and 2017), Dominica’s prime minister declared the country had found itself “on the front line of the war on climate change” and announced plans to make Dominica “the world’s first climate-resilient nation“. Building resilience into every facet of society was essential to ensure the island remains habitable, he said.

Will they also be doing away with the use of fossil fuels? No longer allowing tourists to come on fossil fueled ships and planes, rent fossil fueled vehicles (25% of their GDP is tourism)? How about all the products, including foods, brought in by fossil fueled ships and planes?

Among the key measures to mainstream resilience is Dominica’s early warning system – a means to warn residents in advance about dangerous weather events, allowing them time to make what can be life-saving preparations, such as moving to higher ground. Dominica’s unique system includes a grassroots approach of support and communication using traditional conch shells.

Wouldn’t that be a good idea to start with? One would think people who live on an island all the way out were it is would keep an eye on the weather. Still your fault.

It is an urgent mission. Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Dominica’s sister island Barbados, has warned that large-scale migration from the small states of the Caribbean will be a reality in the next decades without emissions cuts and finance for robust climate and resilience projects.

Surprise: give us money.

Read: Caribbean Island Of Dominica Looks To Be World’s First Climate Resilient Nation Or Something »

Posted in Climate Cult, Global Warming | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Good News: Biden Rule Will Add Money To Mortgages For Those With Good Credit

By William Teach April 20, 2023 – 7:00 am

I have to wonder, where does Biden get the statutory authority for this? Has it been expressly authorized by the duly elected Legislative Branch? Or, do Brandon’s people just pull this out of some minor legislative language that really wasn’t meant to do this, but, they’ll take the power? How does he have the power to institute a levy on a person’s private loan?

Biden rule will redistribute high-risk loan costs to homeowners with good credit

A Biden administration rule is set to take effect that will force good-credit home buyers to pay more for their mortgages to subsidize loans to higher-risk borrowers.

Experts believe that borrowers with a credit score of about 680 would pay around $40 more per month on a $400,000 mortgage under rules from the Federal Housing Finance Agency that go into effect May 1, costs that will help subsidize people with lower credit ratings also looking for a mortgage, according to a Washington Times report Tuesday.

“The changes do not make sense. Penalizing borrowers with larger down payments and credit scores will not go over well,” Ian Wright, a senior loan officer at Bay Equity Home Loans, told the Times. “It overcomplicates things for consumers during a process that can already feel overwhelming with the amount of paperwork, jargon, etc. Confusing the borrower is never a good thing.”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees federally backed home mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has long sought to give consumers more affordable housing options. But those who work in the industry believe the new rules will only serve to frustrate and confuse people.

“This confusing approach won’t work and more importantly couldn’t come at a worse time for an industry struggling to get back on its feet after these past 12 months,” David Stevens, a former commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration during the Obama administration, wrote in a social media post responding to the new rules. “To do this at the onset of the spring market is almost offensive to the market, consumers, and lenders.”

Is it a lot of money? On the surface, no. Let’s say $20 a month for a $200K loan. That’s $7200 for a 30 year loan that you, with good credit and down payment, are paying for the whim of a Progressive a-hole who’s been rewarded quite well for his time in government (and is getting a free wall at his beach house).

Under the new rules, consumers with lower credit ratings and less money for a down payment would qualify for better mortgage rates than they otherwise would have.

It’s like rebooting a bad TV show, as we’ve seen this before, and it helped lead to a worldwide recession in 2008. Foreclosure rates were up 116% in 2022 over 2021 and 2023 is on pace to be over 100% compared to 2022. If this rule doesn’t get destroyed in the legal process, 2008 will happen again. How many years will it take to get there?

And, you’ll probably see homes rise in cost even more, with people getting loans for homes they cannot really afford. But, hey, Progressives love redistribution, regardless of outcomes. Wait till those with good credit realize they’ll be footing the bill. It reminds me of this old Obamacare article, in which we read ““Of course, I want people to have health care,” Vinson said. “I just didn’t realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.””

Read: Good News: Biden Rule Will Add Money To Mortgages For Those With Good Credit »

Posted in Economy, Joe Biden | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Trans Lunatics At U Of Pittsburg Have Demands

By William Teach April 19, 2023 – 3:00 pm

There’s a very interesting part in this

University of Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ task force makes demands, including trans-inclusive health care, housing

The University of Pittsburgh’s LGTBQ task force posted several demands for the university to implement, including expanding housing and health care to transgender students.

The task force published its list of demands on Instagram alongside a call to organize a “walkout” on Tuesday.

“These centers need to not be buried deep in an org chart. LGBTQIA+ staff hired NEED to have some level of autonomy over collaboration, programming, and resource sharing. No more of this BS departmental/division gate keeping,” the task force posted on the caption.

The task force demanded that the University of Pittsburgh provide three fully staffed, in-person resource centers dedicated to the LGTQIA+, disability and BIPOC communities, expand trans-inclusive health care and housing, including additional medical leave for trans-related health care, and de-escalate crises on campus through trained mental health providers.

That’s interesting. Why do they need all this mental health help? It couldn’t be due to the trans folks having terrible mental health, could it? And that they are way more likely to have suicidal thoughts, and attempted suicides than people who are not gender confused? It’s also very interesting that these people always want special accommodations.

“No more cops for mental health crises!” they added.

Should be people in white coats who are going to take them to mental hospitals for psychiatric treatment. 5150 holds, because they are danger to themselves.

Crazy people

Read: Trans Lunatics At U Of Pittsburg Have Demands »

Posted in Barking Moonbats | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

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

…are horrible fossil fuels pumps, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Irons In The Fire, with a post on insanity in Portland.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 30 Comments | Trackback URL
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