Pelosi Says Democrats Need To Get Better At Talking About Inflation Or Something

Even if Democrats had an actual positive record to talk about, it’s pretty much too late, what with early voting having started in quite a few states and election day less than 20 days away

Nancy Pelosi says Democrats need to get better at talking about inflation — but Republicans ‘ain’t got nothing’

With the midterms looming, soaring inflation is bringing down voters’ moods — and potentially tipping them towards Republicans. Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems well aware of that.

Polling consistently shows that the economy and inflation are top of mind as Democrats and Republicans duke it out for the House and Senate. Right now, Democrats are barely clinging to razor-thin majorities in both chambers, and economic concerns could push voters to the right.

In an interview with Punchbowl News, Pelosi — who’s previously expressed confidence that Democrats will pick up seats in the House — said Democrats need to make their message on inflation better.

“Inflation’s an issue, but it’s global,” Pelosi told Punchbowl. She asked what Republicans’ plan to address it is: “They ain’t got nothing.”

Of course, nowhere in that interview did Pelosi offer any ideas or explain what the Democrats have done to address inflation. She did yammer about turning out the vote, because that’s all they have

She noted that inflation tends to go up when unemployment comes down, and that’s certainly been the case in the Biden administration’s pandemic recovery efforts. In September, unemployment fell even lower than economists had anticipated, as the country added a robust 263,000 payrolls. Ironically, that’s bad news for the broader economy, since it means the Federal Reserve may have to step in even more to try and bring inflation down.

Employment, huh?

Inflation is pushing half of Americans to consider second jobs

Stubbornly high inflation is pushing more than half of American workers to consider taking a second job, according to a new study from technology company Qualtrics.

The survey of more than 1,000 adults with full-time jobs found that 38% have looked for a second job, while another 14% plan to do so, the company said. That means “more than half of working Americans have considered holding multiple jobs to pay for their living expenses,” the company said in a statement.

Of course, elites like Pelosi, who make money off high inflation, do not have these worries.

The typical U.S. household is spending $445 more a month due to inflation. Here’s how to reduce the bite

Inflation is causing American households to spend $445 more per month buying the same items they did a year ago, according to an estimate from Moody’s Analytics.

Consumer prices jumped by 8.2% in September versus the same month in 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday. That rate is down from 9.1% in June, which marked the recent peak, but is still near the highest levels since the early 1980s.

Wages for many workers haven’t kept pace with inflation, meaning they’ve lost purchasing power. Hourly earnings fell 3%, on average, in the year to September after accounting for inflation, according to the bureau.

None of the ideas they offer are things elites like Nancy have to engage in, especially when government pays for her travel.

Read: Pelosi Says Democrats Need To Get Better At Talking About Inflation Or Something »

Bummer: Concern Over Climate Doom Shrinks Globally

People are worried about their economies. They’re worried about feeding their families, being able to heat their homes. Worrying about the climate crisis scam is popular in theory, not practice, so, when real world things happen, it becomes less concerning

Concern about climate change shrinks globally as threat grows – study

Concerns about climate change shrank across the world last year, a survey shows, with fewer than half those questioned believing it posed a “very serious threat” to their countries in the next 20 years.

Only 20% of people in China, the world’s biggest polluter, said they believed that climate change was a very serious threat, down 3 percentage points from the previous poll in 2019, the survey by Gallup World Risk Poll showed on Wednesday.

Globally, the figure fell by 1.5 percentage points to 48.7% in 2021, it said.

The COVID-19 pandemic and concerns about more immediate issues such as health and livelihoods may partly explain the drop, the survey, based on over 125,000 interviews in 121 countries, showed.

Of course, even those who take it seriously do little about it in their own lives. Kinda like sports: so many of us are Very Concerned over how our sports team is doing, but, we aren’t out their playing, right? Most Warmists do little to nothing in their own lives. They just advocate for Governments to pass laws, and, now that those laws are damaging the energy supply, they’re a bit concerned. When those laws mess with food production, they’re concerned. When those laws mess with housing, they’re concerned. But, not concerned with the climate crisis scam.

Here’s an interesting comment from the article

It’s the extremism that is turning people off. When every weather event becomes climate change and foolish laws, like banning straws become the norm, people stop believing it is serious. Especially when a lot of Europeans are going to die this winter because of lack of fuel.

Perhaps if they weren’t as batshit insane, we could do some stuff. If this wasn’t all about authoritarian politics, we could do something. They are nuts

And this

(MyNorthwest) If a Seattle police officer sees someone snorting cocaine with a plastic straw, they will take the straw but will leave the cocaine, right?

They’re not busting people for possessing small amounts of drugs. The straw has got to go, but the cocaine — you can keep that. Snohomish County has said that it won’t charge you for possessing less than 2 grams of drugs, and Seattle has a de facto legalization of possession.

We are truly the bizarro city. We’re going to have the heroin death site ice cream trucks going up and down the street, and now you can snort cocaine, but not with a plastic straw. It’s really, really an interesting place these days.

Seattle — you can shoot up heroin, you can snort cocaine, but if you use a non-compostable fork — you’re off to the jailhouse.

But, banning the straws saves us from ‘climate change’, right?

Read: Bummer: Concern Over Climate Doom Shrinks Globally »

If All You See…

…is a horrible, concrete intensive pool, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Da Techguy’s Blog, with a post on potential rolling blackouts in the New England states.

Read: If All You See… »

Americans Are Very Concerned Over The Economy, Trust GOP Over Dems To Fix It

In fairness, it’s a rather small sample of voters, but, this poll just keeps confirming that the economy is always the number one issue

Voters are more worried than ever about the economy — and they think Republicans can fix it

The midterms are looming over the halls of Congress, and the economy might prove to be the issue that pushes Democrats’ razor-thin majority into the arms of Republicans.

A new poll from the New York Times/Siena College, which ran from October 9 to 12, asked 792 voters across the country how they feel about different parties and issues. Among those voters, one issue stands tall above the others: The economy. According to the Times, 44% of the likely voters answered that “economic concerns were the most important issues facing America.” That’s a big jump from 36% in July, and echoes other recent polling.

In September, economic concerns ranked first as the “most important problem facing the country today” among Americans surveyed by Gallup. That’s consistently between the most important problem throughout the summer and fall, but ticked up yet again in September.

When citizens see the continued issues with the cost of food, housing, energy, and so much more, they become concerned. When gas prices start ticking up again, and are already way higher than under Orange Man Bad, they’re concerned. When they see interest rates jumping up, they’re concerned. When it costs a whole heck of a lot more to feed their families, they’re concerned. When those Fall/Winter clothes for the kids are more, they’re concerned.

But the Times poll also shows that dour views on the economy may spell trouble for Democrats and wins for Republicans. The voters they surveyed who were the most worried about the economy also “overwhelmingly” leaned Republican. Broadly, 49% of all the likely voters surveyed said they were more likely to vote Republican, with just 45% saying they would vote for Democrats.

Some Democrats have been sounding on the alarm on how important it is to rally around the economic issues facing Americans, especially with inflation still sky-high. In an opinion piece for the Guardian, Sen. Bernie Sanders said that Democrats should put focus on the economy in the lead-up to the midterms.

Even if Democrats wanted to start talking about it, they’re aren’t doing anything about it, and, their record shows they’ve been working against it. Do you think the talking points about the IRA bringing down the energy prices of working and middle class folks if they spend tens of thousands on solar panels and they spend huge on an EV works well? Or shows Dems completely out of touch? Dems have been focused on abortion on demand and class warfare.

The GOP will retake the House. Whether they can get to 51 in the Senate is the question. Regardless, they can stop the insanity of the Democrat agenda with control of the House, refusing to pass the Dems agenda. If they’re smart they’ll avoid tax cuts and other legislation, and simply focus on basic legislation to enable energy and measures that help reduce inflation, ones that free up business sectors.

Read: Americans Are Very Concerned Over The Economy, Trust GOP Over Dems To Fix It »

Green Socialist Planning Can Save Us From ‘Climate Crisis’

All that’s necessary is for you to give up your money and freedom!

The Capitalist Market Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis — but Green Socialist Planning Can

Governments and central banks are increasingly presenting green or sustainable finance as the solution to the climate crisis. This approach claims that we can address a problem caused by the capitalist market by relying on that very same market. It exploits pervasive feelings of anxiety about climate change to lead us toward a new frontier of capital accumulation, where complex financial instruments will determine how we realize our environmental goals.

Yet there is another side to green finance that has not received the attention it deserves, and which has major implications for the Left. The investment scenarios designed to facilitate this project are a form of unacknowledged economic planning, whose advocates still promote the virtues of the market in theory while recognizing its limitations in practice.

In fact, those scenarios ultimately derive from the socialist calculation debate of the early twentieth century, which sought to lay the intellectual foundations of an alternative to capitalism. Technology has finally caught up with those who argued that computerized data collection and processing could liberate us from dependency on the market as a calculating tool.

So far, however, this version of planning is being used to prop up the existing social order rather than to construct a new one. We need to bring it under democratic control so that we can impose a very different set of priorities.

That’s Modern Socialist speak for “government being heavily involved in all aspects of the economy, up to and including owning the means of production.” It means them controlling your company, controlling what the government allows you to purchase, where you can go, what you can do. It’s a very long piece, but, you get the idea, and, in case you weren’t aware, Jacobin Magazine is a hyper-leftist, uber-socialist magazine, which, weirdly, relies on capitalist things like subscribing monthly, and they have their own store! You can pay, using the capitalist system, for things like tote bags, t-shirts, a book called The Socialist Manifesto, and, even a great ball cap!

$30, huh? Not free?

Read: Green Socialist Planning Can Save Us From ‘Climate Crisis’ »

Credentialed Media Seems Shocked That DeSantis Got Sanibel Causeway Open So Fast

Also, rather dismayed that DeSantis not only responded so well to Hurricane Ian, but, continues to bring success in Florida’s response

How did Sanibel Causeway open early? 4,000 tons of asphalt and an ‘ambitious road map’

The Sanibel Causeway opened for public access to the storm-damaged island on Wednesday morning.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced from the bridge that the roadway to the island, which was damaged and made unusable from Hurricane Ian on Sept. 28, was repaired days ahead of schedule and would allow public crossings beginning at 11 a.m. Wednesday. (snip)

Last week, DeSantis announced that earlier temporary repairs allowed work crews access to Sanibel by land and teams from Florida Power & Light, Lee County Electric Cooperative and others headed to Sanibel by land. He said that the causeway would be open for civilian use on Oct. 21.

The causeway has opened two days ahead of schedule.

“You need to get people over there on vehicles,” the governor said, adding that the Sanibel Causeway had “more significant damage than the Pine Island bridge.”

This is not the permanent repair, but, it gets residents to the island, along with all those work crews for repairs to homes, businesses, and infrastructure, as well as things like food and water. I mean, look at the before and after

https://twitter.com/Heminator/status/1582850494937980928

Can you imagine a Democrat city or state being able to do this? Oh, wait, what was that first part?

S.F. is spending $1.7 million on one public toilet: ‘What are they making it out of — gold?’

The toilet — just one loo in 150 square feet of space — is projected to cost $1.7 million, about the same as a single-family home in this wildly overpriced city. And it won’t be ready for use until 2025.

Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) secured the $1.7 million from the state for the toilet after hearing “loud and clear” from the community that families needed a bathroom. The plumbing is already there, added when the plaza was constructed six years ago, but there was never money for the actual bathroom. Until Haney stepped in.

Why is it so expensive? Well, it’s San Francisco, and

“It’s important to note that public projects and their overall cost estimates don’t just reflect the price of erecting structures,” the statement said. “They include planning, drawing, permits, reviews and public outreach.”

For a toilet? Apparently so.

An architect will draw plans for the bathroom that the city will share with the community for feedback. It will also head to the Arts Commission’s Civic Design Review committee comprised of two architects, a landscape architect and two other design professionals who, under city charter, “conduct a multi-phase review” of all city projects on public land — ranging from buildings to bathrooms to historic plaques, fences and lamps.

Good grief

The web-page describing that process states the point is to ensure “that each project’s design is appropriate to its context in the urban environment, and that structures of the highest design quality reflect their civic stature.”

Double good grief.

The city said the $1.7 million estimate “is extremely rough” and budgets “for the worst-case scenario due to the onerous demands and unpredictable costs levied by PG&E,” the possibility code requirements could change during the project and in case other unexpected circumstances come up.

So, it’ll probably end up around $2.4 million. You really have to read the entire piece. Welcome to Liberal World.

Read: Credentialed Media Seems Shocked That DeSantis Got Sanibel Causeway Open So Fast »

Your Fault: Prairie Birds Chirping Could Get Quieter From Hotcoldwetdry

If only you would trade in your fossil fueled vehicle for a much more expensive EV, put solar panels on your home, and genuflect to the climate gods

Climate change could quiet prairie birds’ chirping

A bird sings on the prairie and nobody can hear it. Forget whether it makes a sound—biologists want to know why it went unheard. Drier conditions intensified by climate change might be responsible, a new study finds, because birdsong doesn’t travel as far in dry air. That could have harmful consequences for birds trying to defend their territories or find a mate.

The study is one of the first to examine the bioacoustic implications of climate change, says Jacob Job, an acoustic ecologist who was not involved with the work. It is “at the forefront” of this emerging research question, he says.

As global warming progresses, droughts are predicted to become more frequent and severe in prairies and grasslands across the southwestern United States. A team of researchers at the University of Oklahoma (OU) wanted to know how these dry conditions might affect the way birds communicate.

To find out, the researchers simulated a prairie environment inside a computer and populated it with virtual birds. Each bird was given a set territory, within which it was allowed to rest, move, or sing. Their simulated birdsong was governed by real-world acoustic rules, meaning it carried farther in moist air than in dry air. The birds also sang less often in hotter, drier conditions in order to avoid dehydration. Finally, the researchers calculated how many of these virtual birds could successfully communicate with their six closest neighbors under different climate scenarios.

So…..there were no real world birds involved? Nothing other than a computer simulation based on doomy input? No listening to birds over years, doing real world experimentation? Good grief.

So far, these impacts have been explored only in the virtual prairie. The question now, Job says, is whether drought-induced communication problems “actually occur in bird species in the wild and whether it matters to them.” Pandit is now trying to answer that question by analyzing recordings of bird songs collected in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. By comparing these acoustic data with climate predictions, the research team hopes to learn how drier conditions in the future could threaten prairie chirps and cheeps.

They’re coming up with doomy prognostications and they have zero idea if it is actually happen for real? And they call this science? It’s a cult.

Read: Your Fault: Prairie Birds Chirping Could Get Quieter From Hotcoldwetdry »

If All You See…

…is a tree killed by too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Common Cents Blog, with a post on Kari Lake bringing receipts on Democrats denying elections.

Read: If All You See… »

Index Of U.S. Military Strength Rates Military As Weak

This is the result of eight years of Obama and a year and a half of Biden. And, even Trump was only able to do so much with all the Woke lunatics involved at high levels of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The only one that’s not a poop-show, yet, is the Marines

US military rated as ‘weak,’ may not be able to win one war, as tensions grow with China, Russia

The US military may not be able to win one war — let alone two — as the Pentagon struggles to keep its forces equipped against potential threats from China and Russia, according a new report on American military strength.

Years of underfunding and “poorly defined priorities” has led the military to become “weak relative to the force needed to defend national interests on the global stage,” the conservative Heritage Foundation said in its annual “Index of U.S. Military Strength.”

“[T]he current U.S. military force is at significant risk of not being able to meet the demands of a single major regional conflict,” the report said. “The force would probably not be able to do more and is certainly ill-equipped to handle two nearly simultaneous [major conflicts.]”

At the same time, the possibility of two-front fighting has increased as Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine and China grows increasingly aggressive in the Pacific, according to the report.

“In the aggregate, the United States’ military posture can only be rated as ‘weak,’” the report said.

Caring more about things like teaching CRT, allowing the gender confused in the military, reducing standards, worrying about ‘climate change’, and driving away the manly men who used to make up the backbone of the fighting force has not gone well

Across the services, the report rated only the Marine Corps as “strong” in the think tank’s assessment of force capacity, capability and readiness. While the Army achieved a “marginal” rating, the Space Force and Navy were labeled “weak” and the Air Force bottomed out at “very weak.”

Wonderful. But, hey, our nuclear forces are still rated as strong, so, that’s a good thing, right? The Army, Navy, and Air Force are having a lot of trouble with recruitment. The Marines, not as much. I wonder why?

(Deseret News) While none of the military spokespeople mentioned politics as a reason for recruitment troubles, influential conservatives have said they are frustrated with the military over a perceived turn toward “wokeness.”

In an email to Deseret News, conservative writer Rod Dreher said military policies on racial and LGBTQ issues reflect “radical leftism,” and that military leaders are no different than other “American elites.”

“One senior officer who has left the military told me that within the ranks, there is a sense that politicians are using the forces to carry out political and cultural agendas. There is a sense, I’m told, that the armed forces are the playthings of politicians, and that policies can change with each passing administration. There is no stability there,” he said.

Dreher said he has spoken to many friends who have left the military because of politics.

“I spoke only last week to an old friend who was a high-ranking officer, and who took early retirement. Why? Because, he said, the officer corps has become highly politicized, and to the left. He said he feels he can no longer be effective as a leader,” Dreher said. “And, he said, the politicization is harming readiness.”

Not mentioned that often is retention, which is also taking a big hit among those who’ve served for years, who’ve had a lot invested in their training, so, essentially a “brain drain”.

(13 News Now) Among the cited reasons are the pandemic, the economy, and the strenuous requirements for recruits to get into the Army in the first place.

“Currently, only 23 percent of 17 to 24-year-old Americans are fully qualified to serve,” said Lieutenant General Douglas Stitt, Army Deputy Chief of Staff.

He added: “The top disqualifiers for service are obesity, addition, conduct, test scores, medical and behavioral health conditions.”

And that’s what you get when too many leftists are trying to join: they don’t qualify.

Army’s Misplaced Priorities : Recruitment Shortfall vs. Climate Change

The Army’s plan, among other things, contains the requirement to modify unit designs to account for soldiers and civilians that hold “approved climate credentials.”

There is direction to incorporate climate change into “strategic and operational-level wargame and exercise designs.” And the most damning of all is a requirement to “ … produce a digital handbook of potential unit-level collective training modifications that would reduce direct Army [greenhouse gas] emissions.”

Reading between the lines, the Army is considering modifying its unit training programs to reduce greenhouse gases.

It’s a very long article, but, the end result is that the Army (the Army National Guard and Army Reserve are also having problems) is short of it’s manpower goal, is having trouble recruiting, and having trouble retaining, as the focus on things that do not help the mission, and drive away the people who make up the backbone of the fighting force.

Read: Index Of U.S. Military Strength Rates Military As Weak »

Bummer: 2020 PRC Wildfires Ruined Their Climate Apocalypse Actions

Well, this is a bummer. Because the People’s Republik Of California and it’s citizens have been utterly irresponsible in managing their forests and not setting fires, things are doomy

2020 wildfire season in California wiped away 16 years of climate gains

The wildfires that have scorched the West in recent years are not just a consequence of climate change, they also are an increasingly sizable driver of the problem, according to a new study.

The research paper, published Monday in the journal Environmental Pollution, finds that California’s wildfires in 2020 caused twice the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that the state successfully cut between 2003 and 2019. In other words, 2020’s wildfire season, which set a record for the number of acres burned in the state, essentially wiped out 16 years of progress California had made on climate change through efforts such as replacing fossil fuels with clean energy.

Well, except for the Elites of the PRC, including folks like Gavin Newsom and his fossil fueled vacation, who drive in their big limos/SUVs, take lots of private fossil fueled flights, and live in giant mansions.

Since wood is full of stored carbon dioxide — the most prevalent greenhouse gas — it is emitted when the wood burns. As average temperatures have grown warmer, California and other Western states have experienced more heat waves and droughts, which are risk factors for wildfires. Currently, a 22-year megadrought is parching the West, forcing water authorities in parts of California to institute water usage limits for residents. The state is also experiencing intensified heat waves.

Consequently, wildfires have become more prevalent. Eighteen of the 20 largest wildfires in California’s history have occurred since 2000. The eight largest have all been since 2017, five of them in 2020 alone. The biggest fire in state history, the August Complex Fire in 2020, burned more than 1 million acres of land.

The West tends to be dry, and historical data shows that there have been points during previous Holocene warm periods of prolonged drought and wildfires. Nowadays, the eco-loons make sure that brush and dead wood cannot be cleared, sue over fire-breaks, and sue over modernization of things like transmission lines. Pretty much every wildfire can be traced back to incompetence, often with electric infrastructure, mistakes with camping fires, and straight up arson.

Now, we also know how much emissions were created by all that burning wood, and they accounted for 30% of California’s total emissions, making wildfires the second-largest source of emissions in the state, after transportation.

Well, looks like the big wigs in the PRC need to start restricting the peons from taking fossil fueled travel, require turning the heat down and the AC up, limiting their use of appliances. Just to be sure.

Read: Bummer: 2020 PRC Wildfires Ruined Their Climate Apocalypse Actions »

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