Biden Signs COVID Declassification Bill, Will Withhold Some Information

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

Who wants to bet that the documents he withholds will be the pertinent ones?

Biden signs COVID declassification bill, hints at withholding some information

President Biden on Monday signed a bill directing the federal government to declassify intelligence about the origins of COVID-19.

The bipartisan legislation allows the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify intelligence related to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. The cites potential inks to research at the facility and the outbreak.

“My Administration will continue to review all classified information relating to COVID–19’s origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Biden said in a statement. “In implementing this legislation, my Administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security.”

What information about a disease could harm national security? Perhaps how it was gathered and by who, but, that you could certainly leave out. Starting out with the notion of withholding information shows that Biden has little intent to actually be honest with the Congress and the American People on what the federal agencies know.

“It’s been three years since COVID-19 upended our lives, and we’re still asking basic questions about the origins of this virus. That’s unacceptable,” Chairman Mike Gallagher of the newly-formed House Select Committee on China, previously told Fox News Digital.

“The question of how this pandemic began is the most important question in the world, and we should not continue to waste precious time waiting for the Chinese Communist Party to suddenly cooperate with U.S. officials and open up access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” he added. “It’s time for Congress to act and force the administration to declassify the relevant intelligence surrounding the pandemic.”

It is unacceptable, and you can bet that documents linking Fauci and the NIH will be hidden, along with other information that makes government look bad and authoritarian.

Meanwhile, the mask cult is still alive and kicking

Guest: Oklahoma could have avoided 70% of COVID deaths with a temporary mask mandate

Three years of COVID-19. Nearly 7 million worldwide deaths. About 18,000 deaths here in Oklahoma. Thank God, it is waning. What have we learned about the science, about humanity, about the government’s role, and about how we (or future generations) prepare for the next pandemic? (snip)

Looking back at June 2020, after we started reopening, if we would have had a temporary statewide mask mandate (until the vaccine became widely available), we could have avoided 70% (the effectiveness of reasonable masks) of the deaths over those nine months or so. We could have avoided 5,000 deaths.

I’d like to see that study, which is not cited in the article by Dr. Ervin Yen, who is an Oklahoma City resident who was an Independent candidate for governor of Oklahoma in 2022. If masks are so great, why did more people die from COVID when masks were required all over the U.S. and vaccines were available? Why did Sweden, which had no mask mandate, have such a low mortality rate? Nor did Sweden have all those restrictive mandates, which Dr. Yen mentions as loving and totally supports.

Read: Biden Signs COVID Declassification Bill, Will Withhold Some Information »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus, Joe Biden | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Surprise: New Yorkers Will See Sticker Shock On Their Utility Bills

By William Teach March 21, 2023 – 7:15 am

This is what happens when you replace affordable, dependable, reliable, easily obtainable energy with expensive, unreliable energy at the whim of Government. I mean, great, the green energy is more expensive but less reliable!

Sticker shock awaits New Yorkers’ utility bills to fund renewables

New York is eager to move away from fossil fuels. Customers, though, will feel the switch in their wallets.

The state has largely funded the recent investments in clean energy, electric vehicle chargers, heat pumps and new transmission lines incrementally through piecemeal decisions by the quasi-independent Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities.

But larger bills for the aggressive transition are increasingly coming due, and it has the potential for sticker shock for ratepayers — a byproduct of the tremendous complexity of shifting from from fossil fuels to heat and power homes and businesses.

Some of the costs are already impacting utility bills, but more are set to hit in the coming years as projects come online.

“Financing them exclusively through rates, particularly on residential, is the least progressive mechanism for financing anything. We make no judgment whether you have the money to pay or you don’t have the money to pay,” John Howard, a commissioner on the Public Service Commission, said at last month’s meeting.

In other words, if your bills skyrocket and you cannot afford them, well, the Progressive NY government is saying f*** you. Deal. Suck it up. Freeze. I wonder if they have considered that citizens will start using more wood from cutting down trees, bringing in propane and natural gas from outside the state, or, simply packing up and leaving, bringing their tax dollars and businesses with them?

It will lead to blackouts and brown-outs. An inability to provide power during inclement weather, like snow and rain. And the extra cost for the energy for businesses will be passed on to the consumer, so, consumer goods, appliances, services, food, clothes, you name it will just go up up up. Great move!

One day the world will be in a spot where we can do away with polluting energy sources, but, it is not now.

And not one reporter will ask NY Governor Kathy Hochul if she herself has given up her own use of fossil fuels.

Read: Surprise: New Yorkers Will See Sticker Shock On Their Utility Bills »

Posted in Energy, Global Warming | 25 Comments | Trackback URL

So, Will The Politicized Prosecution Of Trump Happen Today?

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

Democrats have been playing a very dangerous game in their attempt to Get Trump, one that could easily boomerang back on Democrat

Trump probe: law enforcement don’t expect arraignment until next week, virtual option off the table

Law enforcement officials met behind closed doors Monday to discuss the logistics of arraigning former President Trump following his possible indictment over hush-money payments made on his behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign.

A law enforcement source told Fox News Monday that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and different branches of law enforcement discussed the logistics of closing down streets and putting lights up with generators, extra barriers, and extra police.

The source said law enforcement does not expect the former president to be arraigned until next week as the Manhattan grand jury – which has been meeting secretly to hear evidence for weeks – has another witness on Wednesday. A virtual option was apparently ruled out as the District Attorney is opposed to it.

The source told Fox News that law enforcement is concerned about safety. If the former president does come up to Manhattan, there will be a major police presence and the area will get shut down. Trump has called on his supporters to protest ahead of a possible indictment.

Beyond whether this happens, will they overreach by going and arresting him, or, allow him to turn himself in? I really wouldn’t bet against the unhinged Trump Deranged to go perp-walk Trump.

The grand jury has been probing Trump’s involvement in a $130,000 payment made in 2016 to the porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public about a sexual encounter she said she had with him years earlier. Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, through a shell company before being reimbursed by Trump, whose company, the Trump Organization, logged the reimbursements as legal expenses.

Federal prosecutors in the U.S. attorneys office for the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019, even as Cohen implicated him as part of his deal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

This is the best they got? No one considered charging Bill Clinton over his hush money to Paula Jones. There’s also a big case issue on whether the statue of limitations has passed.

(MSDNC) The first problem, though not at all insurmountable, is that this is an old case. The actions giving rise to this case took place years ago. In fact, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, has already been sentenced to federal prison and served time for his part in this alleged conspiracy. Right before the 2016 presidential election, Cohen, through a shell company, paid Daniels $130,000 not to share her claims that she had had an affair with Trump. A hush money payment in and of itself isn’t illegal. The problem here was that it was done to influence the 2016 presidential election and should therefore be viewed as an undisclosed campaign contribution that was way over the applicable limit of $2,700 per donor per election.

Proving intent to defraud, if this is kicked up to a felony, will be a seriously difficult task, much harder than getting a far left grand jury to indict, especially when the feds have refused to indict. Back to the beginning of that piece

If the rule of law and the idea that no person is above the law mean anything, we must hold the man who tried to destroy our government from the inside to account; former President Donald Trump must face criminal indictment. But if New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicts Trump on charges related to his hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, it could threaten every other investigation against him. That’s why, for some of Trump’s biggest critics, the prospect of an indictment related to the Daniels case leads to little but existential dread. That’s not because the facts show Trump engaged in no wrongdoing; quite the opposite. It is because of all the legal cases Trump faces, this one may be the hardest to prove.

If Trump successfully defends himself against an indictment for his role in the payment to Daniels, we can predict he will use it as vindication that any and all charges brought against him are merely so-called witch hunts. It doesn’t take much to imagine Trump’s ceaseless gloating about a loss by the New York prosecutors. And this could have a cascade effect, not only emboldening Trump’s false claims that he has done nothing wrong, but also making other prosecutors skittish about charging Trump in other cases.

It’s just going to look beyond partisan politics

(Breitbart) Andrew McCarthy, former chief assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who has never been a fan of Trump’s, over the weekend blasted Bragg’s case against the former president as “nonsense” and a “blatantly partisan exercise of raw power.”

“This is a classic, invidious selective prosecution. It is being launched strictly for political purposes,” he wrote in a column for the National Review Online.

“It is hard to think of anything that will more rile up Trump’s base and anger other Republicans who, regardless of their distaste for Trump, will find this maneuver despicable,” he argued.

This is not going to go well.

Read: So, Will The Politicized Prosecution Of Trump Happen Today? »

Posted in Donald Trump, Unhinged Tools | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

United Nations Says We Only Have Till The Early 2030’s To Stop Hotcoldwetdry Doom

By William Teach March 20, 2023 – 3:00 pm

We had 12 years per the UN in 2018. But, then it was 18 months in July of 2019. And now

From the link (which you can avoid the paywall by saving it to Pocket)

Earth is likely to cross a critical threshold for global warming within the next decade, and nations will need to make an immediate and drastic shift away from fossil fuels to prevent the planet from overheating dangerously beyond that level, according to a major new report released on Monday.

The report, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the United Nations, offers the most comprehensive understanding to date of ways in which the planet is changing. It says that global average temperatures are estimated to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels sometime around “the first half of the 2030s,” as humans continue to burn coal, oil and natural gas.

So, we went from 2030 to mid-2030s. When does it move to late 2030’s, then 2040s?

That number holds a special significance in global climate politics: Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, virtually every nation agreed to “pursue efforts” to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Beyond that point, scientists say, the impacts of catastrophic heat waves, flooding, drought, crop failures and species extinction become significantly harder for humanity to handle.

“Global climate politics”. Because this is not about science.

Read: United Nations Says We Only Have Till The Early 2030’s To Stop Hotcoldwetdry Doom »

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

If All You See…

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

…is an ocean which will rise dozens of feet by 2050, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is This ain’t Hell…, with a post on the Navy Secretary declaring ‘climate change’ a top priority.

Read: If All You See… »

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WWIII Watch: Putin Sees His “Anti-US World Order Take Shape”

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

Will they blame this on Donald Trump? Biden has been president for two years and the world is turning to crap, and against the United States

As Xi visits Russia, Putin sees his anti-U.S. world order taking shape

For Vladimir Putin, the state visit to Russia by Chinese President Xi Jinping, which begins on Monday, provides a giant morale boost and a chance to showcase the much-vaunted new world order that the Russian leader believes he is forging through his war on Ukraine — in which the United States and NATO can no longer dictate anything to anyone.

Xi’s visit to Russia, just after cementing his precedent-breaking third term in power, brings together two men who have positioned themselves as leaders for life — and it sets the scene for global confrontation, with Beijing willing to use its partnership with Moscow to counter Washington, even if that means granting tacit approval to Putin’s brutal, destabilizing war.

“The grim outlook in China is that we are entering this era of confrontation with the U.S., the gloves are off, and Russia is an asset and a partner in this struggle,” said Alexander Gabuev, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

It remains to be seen whether this confrontation will heat up, pushing three nuclear powers to the brink of World War III, or merely marks the opening chords of Cold War 2.0. But Xi’s visit shows sides being taken, with China, Russia and Iran lining up against the United States, Britain and other NATO allies — in a competition for global influence and for alliances with nations such as South Africa and Saudi Arabia, which seem ambivalent but up for grabs.

Well, Saudi Arabia is mostly blowing Biden off. Remember when they wouldn’t take his calls, along with the UAE?

As the Chinese president lands in Russia, amid Putin’s feverish anti-Western rhetoric, the world is at a dangerous crossroads. The Russian leader has suspended New START, the only remaining arms control accord with Washington, and has staked his country’s future on what is now likely to be a long, unpredictable war, despite the staggering economic costs and misgivings of his own elite. The West, in turn, is sending more powerful arms to Ukraine, including tanks and fighter jets.

Yes, let’s move closer to WWIII.

It is also a warning, he said, to Washington on the need to negotiate with Beijing and to Europe on China’s importance as a major global power. He added that the visit sends a message to Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East that China is a more viable source of support than the United States.

China has been making quite a few inroads with African nations, as has Russia. That goes back to during the Obama admin. And let’s not forget that many nations, like India, are ignoring the sanctions on Russia. As are a goodly chunk of Central and South American nations.

Putin and Xi have much in common: their own self-serving definitions of democracy and market economics; a disdain for human rights; a fear of civic engagement by the general public; and, most of all, a desire to end U.S. global dominance and to reshape international organizations and norms to suit Russian and Chinese interests.

And Biden is doing what, exactly, to counter this? Spending most weekends at home in Delaware? Or, how about tonight, when “The President and The First Lady welcome Jason Sudeikis and the cast of Ted Lasso to the White House to discuss the importance of addressing your mental health to promote overall well-being.”

Read: WWIII Watch: Putin Sees His “Anti-US World Order Take Shape” »

Posted in Current Affairs, Joe Biden | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Older Americans To Blockade Banks That Fund Fossil Fuels On Tuesday Or Something

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

See, they already had a lifetime of traveling with fossil fuels to their hearts content. All the planes, boats, vehicles. All the benefits of petroleum to make things like shoes, paint, cassettes, solvents, golf bags, perfume, fishing lures and rods, deodorant, denture adhesive, tennis rackets, cortisone, dentures, golf balls, refrigerators, telephones, and so much more. Around 6,000 products. But, now they’re upset

‘We have money and power’: older Americans to blockade banks in climate protest

Climate activists across the US will on Tuesday blockade branches of banks that finance fossil fuels, cutting up their credit cards in protest and holding rallies featuring everything from flash mobs to papier-mache orca whales. Unusually for such a spectacle, the protests won’t be led by young activists but those of a grayer hue.

The protests, across more than 90 locations, including Washington DC, are billed as the first set of mass climate demonstrations by older Americans, who have until now been far less visible than younger activists, such as the school strike movement spearheaded by Greta Thunberg. In a nod to the more seasoned age of participants, older people in painted rocking chairs will block the entrances to some of the US’s largest banks to highlight their funding of oil and gas extraction.

“So far the kids have had to do all of the work and they’ve done an amazing job but it’s not fair to ask 18-year-olds to solve this problem,” said Bill McKibben, the veteran climate campaigner who co-founded the Third Act group last year, which is designated for people aged over 60. The group has gathered momentum, attracting more than 50,000 members and recently holding a test-run protest in New York City, where participants marched under a banner reading “fossils against fossil fuels”.

“Older people have got money and structural power coming out of our ears,” said McKibben, who is 62. “We have to show young people we have their back. I’m going to be dead before the climate crisis is at its absolute worst, but being nearer the exit than the entrance concentrates one’s mind to notions of legacy and we are the first generation to leave the world in a worse place than we found it.

“I understand why people say ‘OK boomer’ – it’s not like we have done an amazing job in protecting the world.”

And how many of those older folks are willing to give up their own use of fossil fuels? No more flights, no more vehicle trips, no more boats and cruises? How many will be traveling to these protests in fossil fueled vehicles?

Oh, and how many of them made a lot of money by having fossil fuels companies and companies that use petroleum in their portfolios? Also, as someone in the comments points out “50k people is insignificant compared to the 100 million or more who prioritize affordable energy, particularly reasonable gas prices.” How do you make those 6,000+ products without petroleum?

Read: Older Americans To Blockade Banks That Fund Fossil Fuels On Tuesday Or Something »

Posted in Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

WHO Puts China On Notice That They Need To Manufacture Raccoon Dog Data

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

The WHO has pretty much been in the pocket of China throughout the Wuhan Flu years, and now they’re essentially telling them to manufacture the necessary data to push back on the lab leak intelligence

WHO Accuses China of Hiding Data That May Link COVID’s Origins to Animals

The World Health Organization rebuked Chinese officials Friday for withholding research that may link COVID-19’s origin to wild animals, asking why the data had not been made available three years ago and why it is now missing.

Before the Chinese data disappeared, an international team of virus experts downloaded and began analyzing the research, which appeared online in January. They say it supports the idea that the pandemic could have begun when illegally traded raccoon dogs infected humans at a Wuhan seafood market.

But the gene sequences were removed from a scientific database once the experts offered to collaborate on the analysis with their Chinese counterparts.

“These data could have — and should have — been shared three years ago,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. The missing evidence now “needs to be shared with the international community immediately,” he said.

According to the experts who are reviewing it, the research offers evidence that raccoon dogs — foxlike animals known to spread coronaviruses — had left behind DNA in the same place in the Wuhan market that genetic signatures of the new coronavirus also were discovered.

Right, right, rebuked. If WHO knew about it then, why did they say nothing? Why did they wait three years? Why does the WHO really, really want it to be a pure accident, rather than from the laboratory investigating coronaviruses right down the road? One that has had other issues with leaks? Which is more probable, especially since we know Fauci and the National Institute Of Health were funding gain of function research at Wuhan?

Read: WHO Puts China On Notice That They Need To Manufacture Raccoon Dog Data »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus | 24 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

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

…is an Evil fossil fueled vehicle, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Other McCain, with a post Stockholm Syndrome and white liberal guilt.

It’s Asian ladies week!

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach March 19, 2023 – 9:41 am

Patriotic Pinup Arthur Sarnoff

Happy Sunday! Another fine day in the Once And Future Nation of America. The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, and Spring is almost here. This pinup is by Arthur Sarnoff, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. The First Street Journal notes the feds are trying to intimidate J6 folks to plead guilty
  2. The Gateway Pundit covers Clinton paying Paula Jones hush money and never being charged
  3. The O.K. Corral has a feel good story on an Indian man making a friend for life
  4. The Other McCain wonders what China got for it’s Biden money
  5. Pacific Pundit covers SF news being robbed again while doing a story on crime
  6. ne0-neocon discusses the long awaited indictment of Trump
  7. Moonbattery notes yet another hate hoax
  8. Legal Insurrection highlights NY lowering minimum scores for math and English
  9. Dissecting Leftism discusses the government censorship machine
  10. Da Techguy’s Blog covers the Navy’s abortion policy mess
  11. Climate Depot covers Biden’s appliance war leading to dirtier, smellier clothes
  12. Chicks On The Right notes that it’s raaaaacist and sexist for your pantry to be organized
  13. Blazing Cat Fur has an interesting take on why Trump may be arrested
  14. Watts Up With That? notes that ‘climate change’ isn’t making drought and flood worse
  15. And last, but, not least, Real Climate Science has failed climate doom predictions

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 »

Posted in Patriotic Pinup | 3 Comments | Trackback URL
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