…are stairs degrading from too much humidity in an overheating world, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is The Right Scoop, with a post on the fired Bills punter being exonerated after being falsely accused of rape.
Read: If All You See… »
But, see, we keep being told that Liberal groups do not want to ban all guns (well, maybe just those icky assault weapons), they just want common sense gun control
I’m literally part of the shooting club at my college and was in a skeet competition just a few weekends ago. That day I used well over 100 shells, then disassembled, cleaned and locked up the 12 gauge I used. Please save it. No one is coming for your guns. pic.twitter.com/BTv76crFlj
— David Hogg ???? (@davidhogg111) May 7, 2023
See, no one is coming to take your guns
Moms’ Gun Control Group Urges Colorado Governor to Ban All Guns
Here 4 the Kids, a gun control group comprised of mothers, is urging Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) to use an executive order to ban all guns in the state.
The mothers are hoping a “group of 25,000 will come together for a sit-in at the state Capitol” on June 5 to demand all guns be banned, 9 News reports.
The homepage on the Here 4 the Kids website says, “We demand that Colorado Governor Jared Polis sign an executive order to ban guns and buy them back.”
Another section of their website explains, “We are not an organization. This movement is an unexplored and unprecedented action, led by black and brown women with a team of white women working behind the scenes, to end gun violence in the United States.”
And, as typical, they separate themselves by skin color. Perhaps they should read the Colorado Bill Of Rights
Section 13. Right to bear arms. The right of no person to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall be called in question; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to justify the practice of carrying concealed weapons.
Seems pretty clear. Perhaps the black and brown moms should teach their kids better, since, just like nationally, black and brown people are murdered/shot with guns and are the shooters way, way, way more than their population.
Meanwhile
(Axios) President Biden is again asking Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines following a mass shooting in Allen, Texas, on Saturday.
“Too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables. Republican Members of Congress cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough,” he continued.
Biden asked that Congress work quickly to send him a bill that would require safe storage for guns and enhance universal background checks for those seeking to buy guns.
“I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe,” he said.
Well, let’s start with banning the Secret Service and all those who protect the White House, Biden, Harris, Congress, and all Executive Office agencies, excluding the military, from carrying assault weapons. No rifle that has a pistol grip, flash suppressor, front grip, folding or telescopic stock or has a magazine that holds more than 5 rounds. Nothing automatic. No 50 caliber. All those that show up in 1994 ban and any recent bans. We’ll try this for 5 years, see how they enjoy it.
Read: Colorado Moms Gun Grabbing Group Wants To Ban All Guns »
Will the idea be to hold the next IPCC COP virtually, rather than having tens of thousands of Warmists take fossil fueled travel, along with the hundreds who fly in on private jets? Maybe the U.N. will recommend that all Warmists give up their own use of fossil fuels?
Phasing Out Fossil Fuels Hasn’t Worked. Europe Has a New Idea for COP28
Near the end of the United Nations climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh last year, European Union climate chief Frans Timmermans offered a grand bargain to break the deadlock in the two-week negotiations.
The 27-member bloc would consent to the creation of a finance facility to pay for loss and damage caused by climate change, fulfilling a demand made by developing countries. But the EU’s support would come only if all countries agreed on a stronger commitment to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. The loss-and-damage fund promise made it into the final deal at COP27; the stronger agreement to phase out fossil fuels did not. (big snip)
Al Jaber said at last week’s climate event that diplomats should focus on phasing out emissions from oil and gas, rather than eliminating those fuels themselves. That’s seen as leaving the door open for burning oil and gas while scaling up carbon capture technologies.
So, technologies that do not work, to allow people to continue using reliable, dependable, affordable fossil fuels.
So the question is how the EU will go about its goal to speed up the pace of emissions cuts. In Sharm El-Sheikh last year, the bloc was part of a push by India to expand language adopted at COP26 on phasing down coal to gas and oil. Timmermans also wanted a pledge to peak emissions from the energy sector by 2025. The effort failed amid lobbying from Saudi Arabia, China and Russia, which convinced the summit’s Egyptian presidency to drop the idea.
Has anyone considered actually asking the peasants whether they like this plan? Because they’re the ones who will suffer. And, of course, most polls show that citizens do not want any of these cult initiatives to negatively affect their own lives.
In the meantime, a separate global goal to boost energy efficiency could be easier to achieve, according to a European official familiar with the matter. The EU has already agreed on a target to reduce energy consumption. This official said that at COP28 there may be a push for a global goal that instead focuses on lowering energy intensity, or the amount of energy needed to generate a unit of output.
“Why aren’t we more forthcoming in here about the reduction of our energy use?” Timmermans said at last week’s climate event. “Especially the major emitters, the major industrialized countries. There is much, much more that we can do on energy efficiency than we are doing now.”
Of course, what they really means is that you peasants will be forced to reduce your own use of energy. Sounds fun, right!
Read: Since Phasing Out Fossil Fuels Hasn’t Worked, A New Idea For COP28 »
It’s all fun and games, proclaiming to be a sanctuary city and Supporting all things illegal alien, right up till it’s not happening over their, but, in your own backyard
Mayor Adams’ office is ordering all city government agencies to identify properties they own that can be converted into emergency housing for asylum seekers as the local migrant crisis continues to deepen.
Camille Varlack, Adams’ chief of staff, issued the directive in a Sunday letter to all agency heads. The letter, which was obtained by the Daily News, also asks all agency brass to check if they have any employees who’d be willing to help staff new migrant housing facilities.
“With more asylum seekers arriving daily, this influx has pushed our shelter system to a breaking point and we need to create emergency temporary sites,” Varlack wrote.
Sites that could be retrofitted into migrant housing must be at least 10,000 square feet, have running water and feature “open layout spaces” where rows of bunk beds can be set up, according to Varlack’s missive. Sites should have “no known health hazards,” she added.
Varlack asked agency leaders to submit a list of sites that could potentially be repurposed as housing by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
I wonder how many they will find that qualify. Almost none, I’m guessing, because these illegal alien supporters want Someone Else to deal with the issue, preferably far away from NYC. I also wonder if the NY Daily News will follow up to see which sites reported they were capable and had staffing. Hey, will they be using their mayor’s mansion?
It’s a plus if workers can speak Spanish, and Varlack said they will be eligible for “overtime/flex-time” pay.
Easy money, eh? Which will spike NYC’s spending more. But, this is what they wanted when they proclaimed sanctuary city status, right? They should be ecstatic that their hard earned tax dollars will be going to support illegal aliens instead of city services.
Meanwhile in Maine
(Portland Press Herald) Dozens of asylum seekers have arrived in Sanford in the past week looking for assistance, but local officials say they cannot provide any more emergency housing and are asking others not to come to the city.
Last week, 23 families showed up at City Hall. Another 30 people arrived over the weekend. But officials say it’s not clear why asylum seekers are turning to Sanford for help. The city does not have a shelter or other resources to deal with a large influx of homeless people. Its hotels are already full.
Some came from Portland, where an emergency shelter at the Expo Center set aside for these families has been full for nearly a month.
Suck it up, buttercups. You supported this, now you got it.
Read: LOL: NYC Agencies Ordered To Use Their Property And People For Illegal Aliens »
Illinois is just working to drive citizens away, and raising the cost of living for the ones who don’t, eh?
Illinois lawmakers pass bill to require new homes be equipped to handle EV charging stations
Newly constructed homes in Illinois would be required to include the infrastructure needed for electric vehicle charging stations under a bill now on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.
The “Electric Vehicle Charging Act,” passed by the state House Thursday on a party-line 69-38 vote after earlier approval by the Senate, requires that new single-family or small multifamily homes offer at least “one EV-capable parking space for each residential unit that has dedicated parking.” A large multifamily residential building must “have 100% of its total parking spaces EV-capable.”
“This is a bill that reflects our future, and future-proofs the future with electric vehicles in this state,” Democratic state Sen. Sara Feigenholtz, who represents Chicago’s Lakeview community and was the chief sponsor of this bill, told the Tribune. “This sort of trickles down to my constituents.”
This will make housing more expensive, especially apartment buildings. Did anyone in the news media ask Pritzker and the people who voted for this if they themselves are driving EVs now?
Republican state Rep. Travis Weaver took issue with that reasoning from Feigenholtz, noting that it was led in both chambers by lawmakers who represent parts of Chicago’s North Side and does not suit the interests of all Illinois residents.
“If less than 1% of cars on the road are EVs, and less than 0.1% of cars in my district are EVs, I just don’t see why we’re having people in downstate Illinois pay for this infrastructure,” said Weaver, who represents a swath of central Illinois.
Climate cultists do not care
Gabel said that would not be considered, and clarified that developers would only be required to pay for the wiring that could allow for a charging system to be installed. She said the cost for that is minimal.
“Less than $1,000 is what we’ve been told,” she said.
Or, bear with me here, homeowners could pay to install it themselves if they get an EV. Where it will really hurt is apartments.
Pritzker has been a strong advocate for clean energy. In 2021 he signed a bill that increases incentives aimed at increasing EV production and he has stated a goal of ensuring that there are 1 million electric cars in the state by 2030.
Yet, I cannot find anywhere that says he drives one.
Read: Illinois Looks To Make Homes More Expensive By Requiring EV Infrastructure »
…is a mountainside collapsing from too much Bad Weather, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is Victory Girls Blog, with a post on AOC race grifting on NYC subway killing.
Read: If All You See… »
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 »
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 »
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
The $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.
…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… »
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