Brandon Surprised That No One’s Really Supporting His Debt Stance

By William Teach May 5, 2023 – 6:45 am

He has a stance beyond “it’s my way or the highway” and “spend baby spend”?

White House Surprised by Lack of Support for Its Debt Stance: Report

Biden Brain SuckerAs President Biden prepares to meet next week with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders to discuss raising the debt limit, The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein reports that the White House has been surprised that business groups and budget hawks that it thought would be in its corner in this fight are instead siding with Republicans.

The White House has insisted that Congress should raise the debt limit without conditions, as it has done before, and that the risk of a debt default should not be used as leverage to force spending cuts, which can be discussed as part of budget talks. Republicans insist they won’t raise the borrowing limit without some concessions to address the country’s fiscal outlook.

Stein cites a range of groups, from the Business Roundtable and Chamber of Commerce to the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, all of which have come out in favor of negotiations between the administration and House Republicans. None have pushed for the clean debt limit increase that Biden is seeking.

Um, what made Biden and his regime folks think that budget hawks would take his side? Biden’s all about spending willy nilly with no repercussions. Why would budget hawks want that? Why would business groups want extreme spending which will jack up inflation and the cost of living, which will cause Americans to spend less on goods and services? Are those in the regime that divorced from reality? Yeah, I guess that’s rather rhetorical.

He adds that administration officials were “stunned” by a statement from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget calling the House Republican debt limit bill a “realistic and extremely welcome first step.” Biden officials reportedly saw that as encouraging further brinkmanship over the debt limit. “We were livid,” one told the Post.

Or, the Biden regime could come to the table and work on a reasonable and responsible budget, considering this comes from the taxes taken from the American citizens.

Republican strategist Liam Donovan told the Post that the White House made a bad bet on GOP dysfunction. “But with the passage of a GOP debt limit proposal, any industry group or think tank that is more interested in keeping the economy on the rails understands that the path of least resistance is for Biden to sit down with McCarthy and come to a deal that allows everyone to save face,” he said.

This is rather hard when Biden only works about 30 days a week and is gone every weekend.

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LA Times Is Very Upset Over Dumping Bolt For SUV EVs

By William Teach May 4, 2023 – 3:00 pm

Interestingly, the LA Times editorial board fails to mention if they have replaced their own fossil fueled vehicles with EVs. Also, a pretty big admission

Editorial: Replacing the Chevy Bolt with electric SUVs would be a climate tragedy

Electric vehicleCan we pour one out for the Chevy Bolt?

When the small electric hatchback came onto the market six years ago, it was a game changer: The relatively affordable battery-powered vehicle with 238 miles of range on a single charge demonstrated the mass-market potential for EVs.

The Bolt has only grown in popularity, as its range improved, gas prices spiked and sticker price cuts made it one of the cheapest electric vehicles on the market. If you can find one for the suggested retail price of $26,500, you could get it for less than $20,000 dollars, after the $7,500 federal tax credit.

But last week, General Motors CEO Mary Barra announced the company will end production of the Bolt at the end of the year as it reconfigures the Michigan plant where it is made to build large battery-powered pickup trucks. Not only does it echo GM’s decision a generation ago to kill off the EV1, its first fully electric vehicle, but the Bolt’s demise is a disappointment for consumers and a step backward in the fight against climate change, including President Biden’s goal of cutting the nation’s air pollution in half by 2030.

Would this be the same Biden who takes a huge amount of fossil fueled travel weekly, and doesn’t travel in an EV?

Discontinuing a small, lower-cost EV like the Bolt to make room for bigger, more expensive models will make it harder for Americans to afford to go electric. This the wrong direction to be heading when the U.S. needs to replace polluting gas- and diesel-powered cars and trucks with clean, zero-emissions vehicles quickly.

In other words, the LATEB is telling us that EVs are mostly too expensive for most people to afford, unless you get a tiny vehicle (the Bolt is 163 inches long with an interior space of 67 cubic feet. The Honda Civic sedan is 169 inches, with 99 cubic feet) with a small combined range of 259 miles. When completely optimal. And it slow charges.

“The industry has decided that if they’re going to have to make EVs, they might as well make the same gigantic behemoths that they’ve been making before,” said Dan Becker, who directs the Center for Biological Diversity’s Safe Climate Transport Campaign.

As far as SUVs go, that’s what people want. Most do not want sedans. I personally think it is a mistake ending the Bolt. Maybe redesign it, make it a bit bigger. The Bolt is the size of a subcompact, which most manufacturers have stopped making in the US due to low sales.

That’s not too reassuring. Consumer groups are right to be worried that discontinuing lower-priced models like the Bolt will reduce options and shut out an entire segment of drivers who want to buy electric cars but won’t be able to afford them.

So what can be done to push back against ballooning sizes and price tags?

Obviously, more government!

That makes it more important than ever that California continue to modernize and streamline its clean vehicle rebate programs, which have been hampered by long waiting lists, inconsistent and insufficient funding that have prevented people from buying electric cars. The state recently increased incentives for low and moderate-income Californians to buy zero-emission vehicles, allowing them to apply for rebates of up to $7,500. But more can be done to smooth out these programs, such as making them redeemable at the dealership or point of sale rather than forcing car buyers with limited incomes to wait months for reimbursement.

Nice to know that the EB doesn’t understand how tax incentives work. Most will not get $7,500 in cash. Does anyone think the dealers want to take what are essentially vouchers, knowing that it will take months for them to get reimbursed? And where is all this cash coming from?

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Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 4, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…are tropical trees that will soon grow wild in the Arctic, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is American Greatness, with a post on Sotomayor taking $3 million from a book publisher and not recusing herself.

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Companies Are Fighting Back Against The War On Woke Or Something

By William Teach May 4, 2023 – 10:30 am

The question rarely asked is “why the need to go Woke?” Why not simply just sell your product/services?

It’s Not Just Bud Light. How Companies Are Fighting Back Against the War Over ‘Woke.’

A Bud Light is no longer just something you grab when you feel like a beer. A conservative outcry over Bud’s marketing campaign with a transgender activist has put the brand into the center of a culture war over so-called corporate wokeism.

To many people, Bud was simply getting with the times by embracing activist Dylan Mulvaney, recognizing LGBTQ consumers, and following the lead of brands such as Coca-Cola (ticker: KO), Nike (NKE), and Hershey HSY -0.03% (HSY). But the conservative backlash against Bud Light produced a 26% drop in beer sales in a week.

Companies from BlackRock (BLK) to Walt Disney DIS 0.26% (DIS) are under siege as political attacks on progressive corporate policies heat up ahead of the 2024 elections. Some companies are fighting back—notably Disney—and there is scant evidence of firms retreating from environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, initiatives.

Well, what happens is their sales drop. People just want the products/services without all the extra stuff. What’s happening with Anheuser Bush wasn’t so much about patronizing the gender confused, but, first, featuring a deranged wackjob pretending to be a little girl in a manner that completely mocks women, and women were not happy. Second, their idiot marketing head dissing the people who make up the core of Bud’s sales, instead of attempting to add more who’ll drink it. Third, they didn’t really apologize, so, people do not forgive.

Do these brands think it helps to replace women with gender confused men?

The kerfuffle over Bud Light illustrates the growing challenge for companies as they try to expand sales with new customers without alienating core consumers or political constituencies. Bud parent Anheuser-Busch put two executives who had come up with the marketing campaign involving Mulvaney on leave. That, in turn, prompted calls on the left to boycott the company’s products. When it comes to Disney, patrons wonder why their kids are being exposed to trans madness and adult sexual issues? They do not want sexual stuff regardless of whether it is straight or LGBT shown to kids, much less indoctrination material. They want their kids to be kids.

Why the need to go Woke to attract new customers? Figure out a way without pissing off your existing customers.

While episodes like this blow over, they can have a chilling effect on companies’ willingness to talk about social or environmental goals. A study released in October by South Pole, a climate consulting firm, found that 72% of the 1,200 private companies it surveyed had set emissions targets in line with global climate goals—but a quarter of those businesses don’t plan to publicize their plans or achievements “beyond the bare minimum.” South Pole dubs this behavior greenhushing and says it makes climate targets “harder to scrutinize.”

Does anyone believe that most of the companies are doing more than paying lipservice? Are any giving up the use of fossil fuels for their operations? Anyhow, it’s a long, long article, worth the read.

And, speaking directly on Bud Light

‘There’s No Game Plan’: Bud Light Sales Collapse amid Backlash to Dylan Mulvaney Campaign

In-store sales of Bud Light dropped 26 percent in the final week of April following consumer pushback in the wake of the company’s decision to partner with transgender social-media personality Dylan Mulvaney.

Figures released by Bump Williams Consulting, a firm that specializes in the alcohol beverage market, found Bud Light sales have progressively slumped throughout the month of April. In the second week of the month, they were down 11 percent and plummeted 21 percent the following week.

The idiots in marketing said “hey, this sounds good” without considering the impacts.

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House Oversight Committee Would Like To Know About High Flying John Kerry’s Travel

By William Teach May 4, 2023 – 7:15 am

But, see, Kerry is Spreading Awareness, so, he apparently gets a full pass for his climahypocrisy

Climate Envoy John Kerry’s Jet-Set Spending Is Getting Plenty of Cloud Cover

John Kerry climateJohn Kerry leads an international jet-set life that might exhaust a runway model. If President Biden’s special envoy for climate was not in Washington or relaxing at his mansion near Nantucket Harbor, he could be found in Brazil, Panama, the Bahamas, or Germany. And that’s just in February and March.

While Kerry trumpets his meetings and appearances around the world, the State Department wraps the rest of his efforts in a cloak of secrecy usually reserved for CIA black box operations. It has refused to specify lists of people he is meeting with and who is advising him as he circles the globe. His office has stonewalled requests for budget and staffing information from legislators and government watchdog groups. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed last year by RealClearInvestigations for a breakdown on how the climate envoy’s roughly $16.5 million 2022 budget was spent, the State Department said it could not comply with the request until April 2025, months after both the 2024 election and the expiration of President Biden’s current term.

Didn’t Biden say his administration would be uber-transparent? Here’s the White House on Feb 4, 2021 on their core principles

(b) Transparency. In a democracy, the public deserves as much transparency as possible regarding the work of our national security institutions, consistent with legitimate needs to protect sources and methods and sensitive foreign relationships. The revitalization of our national security and foreign policy workforce requires a recommitment to the highest standards of transparency.

Hmm.

The secrecy surrounding Kerry’s work is reaching a boiling point with the threat of a congressional subpoena.

Frustrated that Kerry’s office ignored two previous requests for detailed information about its budget when his party was in the minority, Republican Rep. James Comer, who now heads the House Oversight Committee, sent what he labeled a final courtesy letter on April 25 and added that a subpoena would accompany the next request if Kerry’s “powerful, unchecked position” continued to hide the information.

“The State Department has not provided any meaningful updates to Committee staff inquiries on the status of producing these documents,” Comer wrote. “Envoy Kerry is engaging in activities that skirt congressional authority, threaten foreign policy under the guise of climate advocacy, and could undermine economic health. Yet, Envoy Kerry and his office are refusing to be transparent about their activities, spending, and staffing with the Committee – and the American people.”

Like with the document on Biden’s bribery, it’ll be a tough slog to get cooperation, and Republicans will have to play hardball. But, will they?

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Whistleblower Says Biden Took Bribe While Vice President

By William Teach May 4, 2023 – 7:00 am

Is this something? Is this something that will go somewhere, or, will the Congressional Republicans go wimpy like usual? Obviously, most of the big U.S. media, like the NY Times, Washington Post, ABC News, et al, are either not covering this or putting it way down the page

Whistleblower accuses Joe Biden of taking bribe from foreign national

Two senior Republicans are demanding the FBI release a document in which a whistleblower alleges Joe Biden took a bribe from a foreign national when he was vice president.

Iowa senator, Chuck Grassley and James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, claim the document “includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose”.

Congressman Comer, whose committee is investigating the Biden family’s business dealings, has issued a subpoena for the document.

“The information provided by a whistleblower raises concerns that then-Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national,” he said.

Mr Comer added: “The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself.

“Senator Grassley and I will seek the truth to ensure accountability for the American people.”

And how long will the FBI stonewall Congress? Grassley doesn’t have the power, as he’s in the minority in the Senate, but, the GOP can hold FBI officials in contempt if they refuse to pony up the subpoenad document toot sweet.

Speaking on Fox News, Mr Grassley added: “We really need to know what steps did the Justice Department and FBI take to investigate and to vet the document to determine if it’s accurate or not?

“And did the Justice Department and the FBI follow normal investigative procedures, or did they let political calculations interfere?”

Please. They probably demoted any agents involved and threatened them. We’ll see if this has legs.

Read: Whistleblower Says Biden Took Bribe While Vice President »

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Climate Cult Trying To Use A “Misreading Of The Bible”

By William Teach May 3, 2023 – 3:00 pm

I can’t find in the Bible where it says to force Other People to practice what you preach while you don’t

Opinion: How a misreading of the Bible fuels many Americans’ apathy about climate change

Christian theology and global politics can make strange bedfellows. Consider the intimate relationship between fundamentalist expectations of Jesus’ return and market-driven disregard for the environment.

The affair became public back in 1981, when Ronald Reagan’s newly minted Interior secretary, James Watt — once known for suing the department he went on to lead — was testifying before a House committee. Watt was asked whether he was committed to “save some of our resources … for our children?”

You know if there’s a long setup, then the whole thing will be wackadoodle cult mule fritters. Several more paragraphs and

The Watt hearing brought public scrutiny to the relationship between religion and environmental policy, but it was not the end of the affair. American evangelicals are still disproportionately uninterested in climate change and other environmental issues. Their apathy is driven not only by their well-documented distrust of science but also by a specific eschatological belief that Jesus is coming soon to bring history to a rather climactic end. Most evangelicals believe this is simply what the Bible teaches, especially in the Book of Revelation.

Sigh. These people

And it’s not just evangelicals. Popular evangelical culture — including Hal Lindsey’s bestselling 1970 book “The Late Great Planet Earth” and, more recently, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins’ blockbuster “Left Behind” novels (with movie spinoffs) — has led many more Americans to believe the Bible predicts our imminent end. Although evangelicals emphatically believe these predictions, and non-evangelicals decidedly do not, it’s broadly assumed that this is indeed what the Bible predicts.

In fact, Scripture says no such thing, either in Revelation or in any other book. This is widely known among historical scholars of the Bible but scarcely at all outside our ranks.

Most people are not looking to the Bible on ‘climate change’. They’re looking at what the leftists are reading and following, The Communist Manifesto, and realizing this is an authoritarian, doomsday cult scam.

If a significant portion of the voting public believes the end of our civilization is just 40 years off, why worry about the environment? Why support the Paris climate agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050? It’s no surprise that believers in the Second Coming are significantly more likely to oppose governmental attempts to fight climate change.

That this view is based on a misinterpretation of the Bible suggests that religious expertise has never been more crucial to humankind. Who would have thought that serious biblical scholarship could help preserve the ice caps and stem the rising seas? Could it thereby contribute to our collective salvation after all?

It can only help. Let’s spread the word before it’s too late.

Why would any of us believe your cultists when you do not practice what you preach?

Read: Climate Cult Trying To Use A “Misreading Of The Bible” »

Posted in Climate Cult, Global Warming | 21 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 3, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…is a pineapple which will soon grow in Canada due to ‘climate change’, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is 90Ninety Miles From Tyranny, with a post on parents needing to vet their child’s doctor.

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Constitutional Carry Moves Forward In NC House

By William Teach May 3, 2023 – 10:30 am

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if I agree with this, at least in terms of not requiring a training class

Concealed carry permit bill advances in NC House committee

House lawmakers in the Judiciary 2 committee debated House Bill 189, otherwise known as the NC Constitutional Carry Act on Tuesday morning.

The proposed bill looks to allow anyone 18 or older, barring certain disqualifying offenses or events, to be allowed to carry concealed without a permit in North Carolina.

“This bill is the opposite of what people are demanding,” said Rep. Marcia Morey, a Democrat who represents Durham.

Rep. Laura Budd, a Charlotte-area Democrat, said she had received “hundreds (of calls, emails) in opposition and almost none in favor of the bill.”

Well, of course she did. Republicans won’t bother writing to a Democrat, because you know she’s against anything involving the peasants being armed. But, she does have a small point: are people asking for this? They weren’t clamoring against it, though. No one was really mentioning it.

“It creates an issue,” said Johnston County resident Greg Johnson. “Somebody gets upset, there’s a gun involved. Somebody gets hurt badly. It’s just something that I think creates more problems than it solves.”

“We consider this bill a threat to public safety,” said Jennifer Copeland with the North Carolina Council of Churches, which represents more than a dozen denominations. “We believe if you weaken gun laws on who, how, and where we’re allowed to carry guns — we will ensure that more people will carry guns and more guns will get stolen.”

First off, if you are carrying the gun itself it won’t get stolen. Interestingly, though, you have all these leftist organizations and people who are upset about relaxing the rules for the law abiding, but, never complain about enforcing the laws, and cracking down, on the actual criminals. Because that’s who Democrats support. Criminals.

“An honest, law-abiding citizen does not by nature become a criminal. And people that want to carry concealed lawfully are not going to suddenly become criminals,” said Andy Stevens, the director of the North Carolina chapter of Gun Owners of America. “The criminals don’t care about this law at all because, of course, they don’t follow it to begin with.”

Exactly. And this would make NC the 28th state with Constitutional Carry

Under current law, those who want to carry concealed must complete classroom training and qualify, undergo a background check, and submit fingerprints. Lawmakers in favor of HB189 said the concealed carry permit system would still be in place for anyone who wants one — such as in the case of North Carolinians who want to legally carry outside of the state in other states that currently recognize North Carolina’s concealed carry permit.

That last one’s a big one: if you want to carry in states with reciprocity you must have the permit. I’m trying to determine which gun I like best for concealed, and, once I get it, I’ll take the class and get the permit.

The question now is, are there are enough votes to override a possible veto by Gov. Roy Cooper?

Read: Constitutional Carry Moves Forward In NC House »

Posted in 2nd Amendment, NC News | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Europeans Are Super Excited To Do Something About Hotcoldwetdry, With One Caveat

By William Teach May 3, 2023 – 7:15 am

Can you guess what that stipulation is? It’s the same one that always crops up when asked

Many Europeans want climate action – but less so if it changes their lifestyle, shows poll

Many Europeans are alarmed by the climate crisis and would willingly take personal steps and back government policies to help combat it, a survey suggests – but the more a measure would change their lifestyle, the less they support it.

The seven-country YouGov survey tested backing for state-level climate action, such as banning single-use plastics and scrapping fossil-fuel cars, and individual initiatives including buying only secondhand clothes and giving up meat and dairy products.

The responses, from the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Spain and Italy, suggested many people were happy with measures that would not greatly affect the way they lead their lives, but bigger steps that may be necessary were unpopular.

They’re super happy for little changes

Measures entailing no great lifestyle sacrifice were popular, with between 45% (Germany) and 72% (Spain) backing government tree-planting programmes and 60% (Spain) and 77% (UK) saying they would grow more plants themselves or were doing so already.

Similarly, there was fairly solid support – from 28% in Germany to 43% in Italy – for the idea of limiting meat and dairy intake to two or three meals a week; between 24% (in the UK) and 48% (in Italy) would back government legislation to that effect.

Unsurprisingly, government subsidies to make homes more energy efficient were wildly popular, with support ranging from 86% in Spain to 67% in Germany, while covering the costs personally was rather less so (19% in Germany to 40% in Spain).

They’re good with the government giving them money, failing to realize they’re the ones who will paying for it. The funny thing is, are those same people yammering about, say, meat, doing this themselves now? Only walk, cycle, or take public transit? It’s easy to commit to Someone Else planting more trees and a frequent flyer levy when you do not fly that much, not so much when it personally impacts your own life and money.

Read: Europeans Are Super Excited To Do Something About Hotcoldwetdry, With One Caveat »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 9 Comments | Trackback URL
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