Bummer: Florida Iguanas Are Adapting To Cold Weather

Apparently, cold weather is happening so often in Florida due to ‘climate change’ from you refusing to keep your heat at 62, that they are adapting

Look out for falling iguanas as temperatures drop

Watch out for falling iguanas in South Florida this Christmas. Seriously.

This week, a massive storm system is forecast to bring blizzard conditions, wind chills and Arctic cold to the Lower 48. Nearly 70 million people are under winter storm watches or warnings in the Midwest, Great Lakes and Appalachians, while 90 million are under wind chill alerts.

The frigid air is also expected to immobilize coldblooded animals. Iguanas sleeping in trees may lose their grip and drop to the ground. Sea turtles may stun and blow ashore from Texas to New England.

“You change the environment, and the organisms that are going to feel it first and hardest are the ectotherms [coldblooded animals] because their entire fitness is thermally dependent,” said Martha Muñoz, an evolutionary biologist at Yale University.

What Martha means is that you should have moved into a tiny apartment in a Democratic Party run city, only taking the train, bus, and bikes.

But researchers and animal experts say the cold spells don’t seem to incapacitate the iguanas like they used to, suggesting that animals are adapting to the chilly weather. People may still see iguanas dropping during the upcoming cold blast, but not as many as two to three decades ago, said Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill.

“With each year when we get a cold streak, I see less and less of those iguanas falling out of trees and being cold-stunned … and it’s not because there are less and less iguanas,” Magill said. “It’s just indicative that these animals are, in fact, adapting. Less and less of them are succumbing to this type of temperature differential.”

So, the ones that survive the cold snaps are passing those genes on because it’s happening so often. Shouldn’t heat trapping gases make it warmer? Oh, right, heat trapping gases cause massive cold snaps.

Speaking of iguanas in Florida

(Daily Beast) After a brutal hurricane season, people across Florida have grown freshly accustomed to power outages. But at least four times in the last two months, Lake Worth Beach residents have been plunged into darkness thanks to a very different kind of culprit: iguanas.

“Some answer has to be devised to thwart these scaly chompers!” Susannah Amygdalitsis, one of the approximately 1,400 residents affected by an iguana-tripped power outage earlier this month, told The Daily Beast.

She noted it was the second time she dealt with a reptile-related blackout.

They’re getting into structures, including power boxes and substations.

This year alone, residents have been subjected to at least 16 outages triggered by the reptile—which is considered an invasive species in the state of Florida—according to city spokesperson Ben Kerr. That number actually represents a downtick from the recent past: in 2020, the city saw 28 outages caused by lizards. In 2021, Lake Worth saw 20 iguana-triggered blackouts.

Still, interviews with residents suggest the city is littered with the massive green reptiles, which grow up to six feet long with a row of spikes on their neck, back, and tail. And experts say climate change could help explain the surge–with disturbing implications for the fate of infrastructure in Florida and beyond.

Seriously, a piece on iguanas messing with the power supply, and by the 6th paragraph they have to jump to ‘climate change’.

Read: Bummer: Florida Iguanas Are Adapting To Cold Weather »

Dems Say Releasing Trump Taxes Wasn’t About Trump Or Something

This isn’t just about an unhinged response from Democrats: it’s about The Hill and reporter Tobias Burns failing to do proper journalism 101 and challenging this narrative, failing to ask hard questions

Why Democrats released Trump’s tax returns

After years of fighting for Donald Trump’s tax returns, Democrats finally got a hold of them and released them to the public through two congressional reports published this week. But Democrats stress their decision was not about Trump himself but rather about oversight of the IRS and about the U.S. tax system more broadly — even though Trump was the first president since Watergate not to release his returns before assuming the presidency.

Sherman Potter Bull Cookies

The report from the Democratic-led Ways and Means Committee found Trump wasn’t audited during his first two years in office. His first audit as president came only right when the IRS was asked directly by Congress to produce Trump’s tax returns.

That could be a violation of IRS policy, which states that “individual income tax returns for the President and Vice President will be subject to mandatory audit examination” and that they’ll receive “normal pipeline processing” and be subject to “regular filing and retention procedures.”

“The IRS has failed to administer its own mandatory audit program policies,” Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said Thursday in the House, introducing legislation that bumps the presidential audit program up from the level of IRS policy to the level of federal law.

So, because the IRS failed, they’re going to release the private, personal tax records of a person who is, at this time, a private citizen? Who just happens to be a thorn in their sides? I can think of many questions, starting with “are you Democrats putting us on? Are we supposed to believe this rationale?”

While Democrats have couched the release of the returns in a broader policy discussion, it’s just as much about politics and defeating a political rival.

Trump incensed Democrats during his presidency for the ways he broke presidential norms that extended beyond his refusal to release his tax returns. His prolific use of social media and his public castigation of judges and other public officials whom presidents usually don’t criticize changed the tone of political discourse in the country, much to the anger of the opposition party.

Good on Burns to write this, because, come on, that’s the entire reason. There is no other. But, he fails to ask Democrats questions, such as “well, will you release your tax records?” How about “how did Pelosi made over $100 million while serving in Congress?”

Anyhow

Read: Dems Say Releasing Trump Taxes Wasn’t About Trump Or Something »

Still Your Fault, But In Peppermint: This Christmas Weather Isn’t Typical

There’s a post way, way back in the archives, and, the gist of the Washington Post piece was about moonbat Bush haters waking up and trying to decide what type of hit piece they’d write about

In the angry life of Maryscott O’Connor, the rage begins as soon as she opens her eyes and realizes that her president is still George W. Bush. The sun has yet to rise and her family is asleep, but no matter; as soon as the realization kicks in, O’Connor, 37, is out of bed and heading toward her computer.

“WAKE THE [expletive] UP,” she writes next, and this time, instead of pausing, she keeps going, typing harder and harder on a keyboard that is surrounded by a pack of cigarettes, a dirty ashtray, a can of nonalcoholic beer, an album with photos of her dead father and a taped-up note — staring at her — on which she has scrawled “Why am I/you here?”

Can’t you see the climate cultists at this point?

Climate change and the polar vortex: Winter storms are normal, but this string of severe Christmas weather isn’t typical

The calendar flipped to winter this week and promptly ushered in what the National Weather Service is calling a “once-in-a-generation type event” that will hobble holiday travel by air and road on some of the busiest days of the year.

While it may seem contradictory, climate change may be contributing to more extreme winter weather. Snow, wind and bitter wind chills for the states that are used to them are not news. But the fact that these events persist even while Earth is warming is a baffling phenomenon that some scientists are linking mostly to increased precipitation in a warmer atmosphere.

I’m not going to bother with their Typical Cultist Reasons why a warming world due to you driving a fossil fueled vehicle is causing big cold snaps and snowstorms. Cults always have Reason why everything supports their cult beliefs. Polar vortex breaking down, blah blah blah, and so many other sites are aping this same line, that this is not normal, and it’s all the fault of tens of thousands taking fossil fueled trips to climate change conference your fault.

Read: Still Your Fault, But In Peppermint: This Christmas Weather Isn’t Typical »

If All You See…

…is an Evil wood burning fireplace, which kills trees, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Moonbattery, with a post on the word “America” being struck from the Newspeak dictionary.

Read: If All You See… »

Senate Passes Insane $1.7 Trillion Short Term Bill

It’s so wonderful

See, Tillis doesn’t have to worry about re-election till 2026, and he’s expecting North Carolinian’s to have forgotten stuff like this. I mean, where to even start? There’s so much insane in there, and so many perks for Democrats, almost nothing for Republicans. Let’s look at just one insane thing

Senate passes $1.7 trillion government funding bill that would overhaul U.S. election law

The Senate voted Thursday to pass a $1.7 trillion government funding bill, sending it to the House to avoid a holiday shutdown. (snip)

The bill also includes nearly $45 billion in aid to Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a joint meeting of Congress that U.S. support is “crucial” in helping it fend off Russian aggression. The package includes $9 billion for weapons and more than $15 billion in economic and humanitarian aid.

The war folks loved this. No Title 42 protection, a section that limits the operations of Custom And Border Patrol in regards to illegal aliens, $20 million for an abolish ICE group, and more dumb

The legislation also includes a rewrite of an 1887 federal election law to close loopholes that then-President Donald Trump and his team sought to exploit on Jan. 6, 2021, to make it harder for presidential candidates to steal elections. It would also grant extra funds to the Justice Department for Jan. 6 prosecutions. (a couple paragraphs of Trump being Trump)

Proponents of the changes say that the 1887 law is poorly written and that it was never intended to give the vice president such power — and that the new legislation would make that abundantly clear.

“It’s going to stop the kind of stuff we saw on Jan. 6, where a sitting president tried to take the election and become dictator of this country,” Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, a moderate Democrat, said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It’s an important piece of legislation that was worked on in a bipartisan way.”

It’s just unhinged stuff that is unrelated to funding the government, because Democrats are deranged over J6. Right now it requires one each in the House and Senate to object. The update would require one-fifth of lawmakers from both chambers of Congress to disrupt the certification process. There’s just so much insane in this “funding” bill, little of which will actually help Americans. Except those private businesses given earmarks because they have a hookup in Congress.

Read: Senate Passes Insane $1.7 Trillion Short Term Bill »

A Climate Crisis (scam) Christmas Lyric And Other Unhinged Warmist Ravings

The amazing this is that these are adults losing their minds (I’m reading it via Pocket. Not sure if it will work for others)

Music Historicity | “A Climate Change Christmas”

For your holiday reading amusement, please enjoy the third annual Music Historicity Christmas song lyric rewrite, to the tune of “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.” Feel free to look up the original, a 1979 novelty song by the husband and wife duo Elmo & Patsy.

The Earth’s gettin’ run over by the Climate,

Santa isn’t sure what he can do.

He says there’s too much carbon dioxide,

And in the end it’s up to me and you.

Driving his team of eight reindeer,

He’s bringing presents, house to house.

But Rudolph’s also got a problem,

Emitting lots of methane, same as cows.

It’s very long, very silly, and very culty. If you can’t read the rest in Pocket, let me know, I’ll see about posting the rest, I usually do not like to post full articles.

Elsewhere, we have a

A Christmas Climate Reading Booklist

With Christmas just around the corner, I would like to take the opportunity to recommend some climate books to read over the holidays. Finally, when we entered a state of normalcy post Covid-19, although although we are now experiencing a new surge, the discussion on climate change could finally reenter into the spotlight.

The theme of this year’s Open Access Week was for instance Open for Climate Justice. Since then we have had a UN Climate Change Conference summit (COP27) in Egypt acknowledging loss and damage and a UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Canada ending in an agreement to guide global action on nature through to 2030.

The books look rather dull, and include St. Greta’s new book.

Eco-conscious mum of two buys all of her kids’ Christmas presents second hand after climate change epiphany

A mum-of-two has said she buys her kids second-hand presents and wraps them in sustainable wrapping paper after climate reports left her with an overwhelming sense of doom.

Naomi Spirit-Hawthorne, 43, who lives in Skelmorlie, Scotland, with her husband, Derek, 45, and children, Nina, 12, and Leon, 10, was horrified when she read a UN report in 2017 that described climate change as “a threat to human wellbeing and health of the planet”.

She overturned her life to be more sustainable from that moment, transforming her family’s everyday routine to be as environmentally friendly as possible and setting up a blog to share tips with others trying to be eco-friendly.

Naomi has ditched Christmas cards for good, makes wrapping paper and gift tags, and will even use vinegar to clean her house over the festive period. However, the mum-of-two refuses to ditch her fake tree for a new one as she does not want to create any more waste.

This is what members of cults do. I just wonder, though, is she buying stuff for herself firsthand?

Read: A Climate Crisis (scam) Christmas Lyric And Other Unhinged Warmist Ravings »

Brandon Has A Different Vision For U.S. Economy Or Something

The guy is clueless, and I seriously doubt that he actually wrote this piece for Yahoo News himself

Biden: Looking back at 2022, I feel more confident about America than ever

Americans have been through a tough few years, but I am optimistic about our country’s economic prospects. Americans’ resilience has helped us recover from the economic crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic, families are finally getting more breathing room, and my economic plan is making the United States a powerhouse for innovation and manufacturing once again.

Well, he’s one

It’s not all bad, but, that’s what happens when the economic issues of start fading due to getting beyond COVID

We entered this year with inflation still too high and families concerned about prices. Tackling inflation and giving families more breathing room was and is my top economic priority. We are making important progress transitioning from historic recovery to stable, steady growth. For the last several months wages have been increasing faster than prices, gas prices are at their lowest levels since last summer, and year-over-year inflation has been slowing.

Gas is still higher than when he took office. Almost every metric shows that costs are higher than wages. And, sure inflation has slowed, but, it’s still high

I ran for office not just to address the economic crisis we faced in January 2021, but to rebuild the middle class and grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out. The heart of my economic strategy to strengthen the middle class is to rebuild the backbone of our economy — our nation’s industrial strength. To be a country where we make things, where we continually innovate at the cutting edge, and help create new products at lower costs for our economy and the world. To bring back the forgotten places in this country with jobs that pay a good salary and don’t all require a four-year college degree. To make everyday life more affordable, because if Americans have just a little bit of breathing room, the middle class can grow and build the strongest economy in the world.

And most know he’s failing miserable. Oh, and we really didn’t have an economic crisis in 2020.

I have a different vision for our economy. A vision based on the simple idea that, when we grow our economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not only do the poor and the middle class have a ladder up, the wealthy do too.

So, the people at the bottom grow the economy how, exactly? They don’t have the money.

Thanks to the economic agenda I have signed into law, Americans are getting to work rebuilding our roads and bridges, connecting every household to high-speed affordable internet and removing lead pipes across the country. American workers are manufacturing fiber-optic cable and steel for infrastructure projects coast to coast. We are fighting the climate crisis and creating good-paying manufacturing jobs for the clean energy future. We are investing in semiconductor manufacturing, bringing back critical supply chains from overseas, and lowering the prices of everything from cars to dishwashers. Businesses are investing billions of dollars across the country in new manufacturing lines, creating thousands of good-paying jobs.

In other words, he loves those blue collar, education not needed jobs. Elites always need their peasants.

There’s no denying that it’s been a rough few years, with a global pandemic and global inflation that have lasted longer than almost anyone expected. But as we look back on 2022 — and look forward to what lies ahead — I have never been more confident about what the American people and the American economy can achieve.

Well, that makes one who’s confident.

Read: Brandon Has A Different Vision For U.S. Economy Or Something »

“Experts” Say Not To Joke About Cold Weather And Global Warming

They just can’t help themselves

Tempted to joke about global warming amid a blizzard? Here’s what experts say about that.

Climate change is real despite winter storms, snow and cold. But when -50 degree windchills are in the forecast, global warming may seem to some like less of a threat — or maybe even something to laugh about.

Just like clockwork, the emails, tweets and Facebook posts start flowing during the winter.

Maybe it’s a joke, maybe it’s a snarky critique, maybe it’s a meme. The words change, but the format is familiar: If global warming is real, why is it so cold out?

We asked experts to weigh in on the winter weather trope. Here’s a few thoughts on what winter means in an era of global warming. (snip)

Global temperatures have risen 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. That doesn’t mean it’s hotter everywhere all at once but that the entire system is becoming more volatile.

“As you add energy to the system, both extremes grow. You can have Texas ice storms as well as 33 million people displaced in Pakistan due to heat and flooding,” said Julio Friedmann, chief scientist at Carbon Direct, a carbon-management firm and a former professor at Columbia University. “These sorts of changes were predicted in 1996, it’s not news that this is happening.”

I’ll reiterate: the debate is not about warming, because there has been. It’s on causation. And, if the Warmists say it’s mostly/solely caused by Mankind, then why are they continuing to do the things they say are bad?

Read: “Experts” Say Not To Joke About Cold Weather And Global Warming »

If All You See…

…is a rising sea that will displace all who live near the coast, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Outside The Beltway, with a post on getting sucked into the debate on Elon Musk being the African American of the year.

Read: If All You See… »

With Police Departments Shortstaffed, Activists See A Chance To Change Departments

Here’s the question: was the whole defund the police movement just something that blew up and it unintentionally led to this point? Or was it planned behind the scenes, knowing that officers would quit after all the vitriol thrown their way, after being denigrated, after being limited in their ability to do their jobs, after being targeted by lunatic left wing politicians?

‘It’s changing’: As officers quit in droves, departments see an opportunity for police reform

Police departments across the country are hemorrhaging officers faster than recruiters can find qualified applicants.

Seattle has lost more than a quarter of its police force in the past 2.5 years. The Fairfax County police chief in Virginia declared a personnel emergency on July 28, instituting mandatory overtime. Three small towns — Kenly, North Carolina, Melbourne Village, Florida, and Springfield, Colorado — experienced mass resignations this summer: The entire department in each community called it quits.

Advocates pushing for defunding or abolishment of police may see fewer officers as an encouraging sign. But some city officials said it affects the communities the police serve.

In Seattle, the mayor in July declared the department could no longer promptly and effectively provide essential services.

Most of these activists do not even live in the areas affected by the inability to service areas. The politicians will live in the more upscale areas that police will be tasked with protecting

Some police departments aren’t doing much to change the dynamic in terms of who they hire, but others are trying harder to change the process and attract candidates who better reflect the communities they serve, with a concentrated effort on hiring more women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I don’t think there’s a way to solve the recruiting crisis by sticking with the status quo,” said Maureen McGough, chief of strategic initiatives for the Policing Project at the New York University School of Law. “And so much of the recruiting crisis is the result of the status quo that I don’t think people are going to have a choice pretty soon.”

In other words, these people want to turn police departments into extensions of their Social Justice movement, focused less on doing the hard job of policing and more on wacky stuff. Was this planned, or, are they just taking advantage? Never underestimate the ability of Progressives to implement long term plans and see them through.

Officer Terry Cherry, a recruiter for the Charleston Police Department said exits aren’t always bad, especially because police culture typically resists change.

“Sometimes that leaving an organization makes way for new ideas and different types of thinking,” she said. “So you have these new people coming in, they’re excited. They’re excited because they’ve seen the world. They know about Ferguson. They know about George Floyd. They know about body cameras.”

And they’re ready to fight for what they believe in to change and innovate, Cherry said, adding that she’d rather see her department short staffed than filled with officers who harm the profession.

Isn’t the job to enforce the law? Certainly, there are many who really do not belong in law enforcement, just like in every profession. But, if their first thought is about virtue signaling and squishy social justice, they aren’t doing the job of law enforcement

study published in 2021 indicated diversity in officer demographics can make a difference. Researchers used Chicago as a case study and found Black and Hispanic officers made far fewer stops and arrests and used force less often relative to white officers in communities of color, and that female officers use less force than males within all racial groups.

In other words, they’re ignoring violations of the law. It’s a very, very, very long piece, which highlights that many Democratic Party run cities are attempting to not hire the best, but, the Social Justice. Here’s a comment a the link that is interesting

Saw this in education for years. Everyone in a hurry to find young and excited teachers… then they ended up being worse… Mainly because they didn’t have either the work ethic or self security to endure bad days. Too much work. Some hadn’t even grown out of the same social media/ drama that their students are immersed in. More young teachers involved in relationships with students. Experienced Police may have some issues, but their motivation and work ethic isn’t easily replaced. Young people, because of the constant drum of “America is bad”, don’t have the pride in self and community… and it’s too much work. It doesn’t help that the pay is so low compared to the dangers. In short, police will look better when the rest of the community steps up and calls out their own for their behavior. In a world of unaccountable victims, I’m not holding my breath

And what do we see about these teachers all the time from sources such as Libs Of TikTok and Clown World? These utter lunatics who should be nowhere near your children, who focus less on teaching and more about whatever social justice issue(s) they care about.

Read: With Police Departments Shortstaffed, Activists See A Chance To Change Departments »

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