NY Times Worries That Inflation Is Bad News For The White House

If Trump, or any Republican, was in the White House, it would be stated that this is bad news for Trump or the Republican. Apparently, Biden doesn’t really exist. More importantly, this is apparently not that bad for you the American citizens (you can read the piece not paywalled here)

Inflation is unrelenting, bad news for the Fed and White House

Prices continued to climb at a brutally rapid pace in September, with a key inflation index increasing at the fastest rate in 40 years, bad news for the Federal Reserve as it struggles to wrestle the cost of living back under control.

Overall inflation climbed 8.2% over the year through September, according to the latest consumer price index report Thursday, a slight moderation from August but more than what economists had expected.

Even more worrisome, underlying inflation trends are headed in the wrong direction. After stripping out fuel and food — which are volatile and removed to get a better sense of the trajectory — prices climbed 6.6% over the year through September. That was the quickest rate since 1982.

Inflation has been rapid for a year and a half now, and it is proving stubborn even as the Fed mounts its most aggressive campaign in generations to slow the economy and bring price increases under control. Fast inflation has also triggered the highest Social Security cost-of-living adjustment in decades — an 8.7% increase in benefits to retired and disabled Americans, a move that was announced Thursday.

Again, this is what it looks like

Part of the problem is that the generic version of many foods have disappeared. So, the eggs are double at Lidl. Gas? It’s $3.50 here in Raleigh, was just over $2 when Trump left office. Used cars? Not sure where that number came from. Ones you could get for $17k to $18k even through mid-202o are now running around $25K.

Inflation is also a stumbling block for President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats before the midterm elections. The report Thursday was the final consumer price index release before the Nov. 8 elections, and Republicans wasted little time in excoriating Biden for his handling of the economy. While Americans are keeping up their consumption, many of the nation’s most vulnerable are struggling with rising food, fuel and housing costs — and most people are seeing their paychecks eroded by the cost increases.

See? It’s bad for Joe.

Biden said that the report showed “some progress” in combating the increases, noting that costs have climbed by less over the past three months than they had in the prior three months. But he also acknowledged that inflation remained painfully high.

“We have more work to do,” he said in a statement after the release.

He actually has to do work. For which he really hasn’t done much at all to help. Climbing less from a high point isn’t a big helper.

Read: NY Times Worries That Inflation Is Bad News For The White House »

Holy Cow, That Active Shooting Was Just A Couple Hundred Yards Away

I don’t want to give up where I live, but, it’s damned close. Many of the helicopter shots showed my home (I really need to powerwash the parking space)

I heard about it from a coworker who was near my area, was going to hit some golf balls. Said cops were streaming into my area. This was around 530pm. I soon learned it was an active shooter. There’s a greenway that runs along the Neuse River very close to me. I left early, kinda took a back way to get in line. Sat there for a while, they started letting cars in, but, was blocked to my area. Finally turned around and got dinner (BTW, El Tapatio off New Bern is awesome. I’ve surprisingly never been there).

Started heading home around 915, took a while, cut down two “back roads”, as a coworker who lives down the street tried. Got kinda close, had to park up the street and walk down. Slowly. In the middle of the road. Officer allowed me to walk home, finally around 10. Waited outside to talk briefly to an officer, as they were going door to door. Nothing I could tell him. There are 8 police cars on my little section of road, and more around the corner. My heart is pounding. Not sure how they deal with all those flashing lights.

He was apprehended a few miles away, apparently having used the greenway and then going through the woods, then to some roads (possibly, still very woody there), before being captured off of McConnell Oliver Dr.

https://twitter.com/ThePriceReport/status/1580727819445104641

Yeah, that’s the main road that leads to the back part. Just that one road.

Read More »

Read: Holy Cow, That Active Shooting Was Just A Couple Hundred Yards Away »

Say, When Will The World End From Climate Doom Or Something?

No, no, this isn’t took wackadoodle or cultish, right?

When Will the World As We Know It End From Climate Change?

climate cowThe climate crisis is already here. Extreme weather has become more common across the globe, and estimates suggest that current levels of warming may have already crossed the threshold for irreversible change in several of the Earth’s key climate systems.

If nothing is done to curb greenhouse gas emissions, temperatures are likely to rise by 2.1 C to 3.5 C compared with pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. Earth has not been this hot for over 3 million years. These temperatures are not unprecedented, but the difference now is the speed at which global temperatures are rising and the role humans have played in this process.

Normally, Earth’s climate systems exist in equilibrium—if we give them a small push, they return to their natural state. However, after a critical threshold is crossed, these changes become irreversible and self-sustaining, with devastating effects on animals and plants. These thresholds are called tipping points.

Actually, according to NOAA, it was warmer than now 3 million years ago. And mostly warmer on Earth, excluding snowball Earth.

“Once a tipping point is crossed, ‘positive’ (i.e. amplifying) feedback loops become powerful enough to keep driving change in the tipping element until it reaches a totally new state,” David A. McKay, a research consultant at Georesilience Analytics and a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Center, told Newsweek.

Really, the rest of the article doesn’t match the doomy headline. It’s all about the “tipping points”, which happen. It’s how we saw multiple warm and cool periods during the Holocene. It’s how the last glacial age started and ended.

Read: Say, When Will The World End From Climate Doom Or Something? »

If All You See…

…is a field that would be perfect for a solar farm, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Greenie Watch, with a post on more COVID hypocrite doctors going maskless after demanding everyone wear one.

Read: If All You See… »

Black Farmers Sue Feds Over Loss Of Promised Debt Relief

Well, Democrats sure made a mess of this with their virtue signaling

‘We’re facing extinction’: Minority farmers sue government over scrapped plan to give $5B in aid

John Boyd Jr., who has been a farmer for over 40 years, said Wednesday that the promises made in the American Rescue Plan Act gave farmers of color hope and finally addressed the racial injustices Black farmers have experienced for decades.

But when President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) into law in August, the legislation repealed Section 1005 of the ARPA, directly affecting farmers of color.

Whoops! Probably should have read the legislation, considered the implications of what it would do, prior to voting on it

In a statement Wednesday, the Department of Agriculture said they were prepared to provide funding to farmers of color under the American Rescue Plan Act, but court challenges to the program prevented the government from providing the payments.

“USDA strongly supported the ARPA Section 1005 program and was ready to make payments to direct-loan borrowers. However, the $5 billion that was intended to help farmers was frozen by three nationwide injunctions that prevented USDA from getting payments out the door. The government vigorously defended this program in the courts but because of these injunctions, the $5 billion provided in ARPA remained frozen. This litigation would likely have not been resolved for years,” Marissa Perry, Department of Agriculture press secretary, told Yahoo News.

Court challenges, eh? I wonder why

In response, midwestern white farmers filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming that ARPA was discriminatory because they couldn’t participate in it. The plaintiffs of the suit included farmers from Ohio, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Ohio, according to ABC News.

“Were [the] plaintiffs eligible for the loan forgiveness benefit, they would have the opportunity to make additional investments in their property, expand their farms, purchase equipment and supplies, and otherwise support their families and local communities,” the lawsuit said. “Because [the] plaintiffs are ineligible to even apply for the program solely due to their race, they have been denied the equal protection of the law and therefore suffered harm.”

Yeah, it violated the Constitution. While there may be some racism in modern farming, most is simply perceived, meaning, it’s not happening, it’s just business. The IRA, which does nothing to reduce inflation, now allows any to apply based on social justice perceived discrimination.

While farmers of color have been disadvantaged for decades, the new debt relief does not solely focus on Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Alaskan native, Asian American and Pacific Islander farmers.

“They believed the U.S. government’s promises. They took Congress and the administration at their word, expecting that the government would pay off their debt, as the USDA promised in writing. Instead, it was 40 acres and a mule all over again, 150 years later — broken promises that doomed generations of Black farmers to become sharecroppers and robbed Black families of billions in intergenerational wealth,” Crump said.

In other words, it’s reparations for things that happened a long time ago to other people. Nowhere in this story does it lay out what those racial injustices are, other than the 40 acres and a mule thing from back just after the Civil War.

Read: Black Farmers Sue Feds Over Loss Of Promised Debt Relief »

Politico Europe Names Putin Number One On It’s Best Green List

Nothing gets in the way of a cult, not even a brutal dictator who’s invaded Ukraine, threatened nuclear war, and is round up dissidents

From the cult screed

It took a war criminal to speed up Europe’s green revolution.

By invading Ukraine and manipulating energy supplies to undermine European support for Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved something generations of green campaigners could not — clean energy is now a fundamental matter of European security.

The political response from the EU was swift: Within weeks of the February 24 invasion, a plan was sketched out aimed at unhooking the Continent’s energy ties from Moscow. It leaned on three pillars: cutting oil, gas and coal supplies from Russia; getting gas and other fossil fuels from elsewhere; and massively speeding up the roll out of renewable power and energy saving measures.

“Renewables give us the freedom to choose an energy source that is clean, cheap, reliable, and ours,” EU Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans said less than two weeks after Putin’s tanks rolled in.

Seriously, where does one go with this? I’ve seen some seriously wackadoodle stuff from the climate cult, this is definitely up there

The green acceleration doesn’t mean Europeans will avoid a succession of brutally cold and expensive winters. This crisis also means that governments across the bloc have been preoccupied with short-term measures to stave off blackouts, rather than doing their utmost to aid the longer-term energy shift. (snip)

While Ukrainians are the primary victims of the war, Europeans have been hit hard by Putin’s weaponization of energy. But the consequences mean an EU that becomes greener, faster, than before Russian troops marched across the Ukrainian border. That impact will be more than a footnote in the history of the war.

Meh, f*** those Europeans, they can just suffer to get the “green” economy, and Politico will thank Putin for it.

Of course, let’s consider that Warmists are, at their hearts, authoritarians, and want to force Everyone Else to do as they say.

Read: Politico Europe Names Putin Number One On It’s Best Green List »

Good News: Bidenflation Driving Cost Of Veggies Even Higher

But, hey, remember, the Inflation Reduction Act is going help climate!

None of the other tweets mention the IRA bringing down inflation, cost off food, etc

No Veggies for You! Food Inflation Surges as Eggs, Pasta, Vegetables, and Grains Get Even More Expensive

Food prices surged in September, propelling the producer price inflation gauge higher than expected.

The Department of Labor said on Wednesday that its producer price index rose 0.4 percent compared with the prior month, twice what economists had expected. A big part of the gain stemmed from a rapid rise in food prices.

Consumer food prices rose a seasonally adjusted 1.1 percent compared with the prior month. Compared with a year ago, consumer food prices are up 12.1 percent.

  • Fresh and dried vegetables: up 15.7 percent for the month and 40.2 percent for the year.
  • Grains: up 10.7 percent for the month and 30.4 percent for the year.
  • Fresh eggs: up 16.7 percent for the month and 97.3 percent for the year.
  • Bakery products: up 0.8 percent for the month and 14.0 percent for the year.
  • Pasta: up 1.1 percent for the month and 34.1 percent for the year.
  • Processed fruits and vegetables: up 2.6 percent for the month and 16.0 percent for the year.
  • Dairy products: down 1.6 percent for the month but up 18.2 percent for the year.
  • Fresh fruits and melons: down 1.2 percent for the month but up 20.7 percent for the year.
  • Turkey: up 0.5 percent for the month and 38.2 percent for the year.

Not all food prices are soaring. Beef and veal prices fell for the second consecutive month and are down 23.0 percent. Fresh chicken prices fell 3.7 percent but remain 4.6 percent higher than the year ago level. Shortening and cooking oils fell 1.9 percent but are still up 12.4 percent from the year ago level.

Democrats like to yammer about “food deserts”, areas where people cannot easily get affordable, healthy foods like fruits and veggies. They’re trying to turn everywhere into one. Should make Thanksgiving dinner fun

(CNN) Just 22% of Americans rate economic conditions in the country as good, with 41% calling conditions somewhat poor, and another 37% saying they’re very poor. The percentage saying conditions are good is a slight uptick from 18% this summer. The public’s short-term outlook is somewhat more positive, with 40% expecting that economic conditions in the country will be good a year from now, and only 26% expecting them to remain very poor. That optimism is driven mostly by Democrats, 63% of whom expect economic conditions to improve to that level by next year. Most independents and Republicans, by contrast, expect conditions to remain poor over that time.

That does not bode well for Democrats in the mid-terms.

Biden’s ratings for dealing with economic issues, while improved from CNN’s last survey, remain lower than his approval rating overall. Just 32% of the public approves of his handling of inflation (up from 25% in summer) and 36% of his handling of the economy as a whole (up from 30%). Roughly 4 in 10 Americans currently approve of Biden’s handling of gun policy (37%), immigration (38%), helping the middle class (41%) or foreign affairs (42%), with a 55% majority approving of the way he’s handled the Covid-19 pandemic.

There’s a lot more bad news in that poll on a range of other issues, but, this is about the economy. And people see this every day when they go to the grocery store.

Read: Good News: Bidenflation Driving Cost Of Veggies Even Higher »

If All You See…

…is a wonderful forest, ripe for a carbon pollution caused wildfire, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Victory Girls Blog, with a post on the Brandon admin suddenly knowing what a biological male is.

Read: If All You See… »

UK House Of Lords Recommends Using COVID Lessons For Climate Crisis (scam)

All the lessons, like “wash your hands, keep your distance, don’t touch your face, cover your coughs”, or, “lock people down, don’t even let them in their front yards, treat them like criminals“? Or maybe “fill in skateparks”? Arrest people paddleboarding on the ocean with no one anywhere near them? Restrict their movements? Assault them for refusing to wear a mask? Or, perhaps, dictate what the plebes must do while doing differently as a big wig?

Use Covid lessons to curb climate change, Lords tell government

Information campaigns like those used in the Covid-19 pandemic would help individuals act on climate change, a House of Lords report has said.

To meet climate goals, a third of cuts to UK emissions by 2035 must come from people changing their behaviour, it says.

It calls the government’s current approach “seriously inadequate”.

In response the government said it is fully committed to its legally binding net zero climate goals.

The House of Lords report also advises government to financially support people to move to greener diets, transport and homes.

But calls to drive behaviour changes are at odds with Prime Minister Liz Truss’s focus on not intervening in people’s lives.

So she says, but, government is government

“People will have different lifestyles and make different choices about what changes they need to make, but we’re quite clear that people need to be helped to take this forward,” Baroness Kate Parminter, chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, which wrote the report, told BBC News.

In other words, they want to make this happen. Remember, COVID started with the recommendations, including stay at home as much as you can, and quickly morphed into government mandates

The Covid-19 pandemic provided important lessons in how to communicate clearly, using science, to the public, she said.

“Covid was a crisis, the climate is a crisis. We can learn some very important messages around the communications and the scale of the problem,” she adds.

Transport, food and energy are the key areas where we will need to change our behaviour, the report says.

They might start with nagging campaigns (despite people mostly having never moved from theory to practice after 35 years of spreading awareness): how soon till it truly moves to force? A lot of those bits of force are already in place in the UK, among others.

Read: UK House Of Lords Recommends Using COVID Lessons For Climate Crisis (scam) »

Brandon Admin Proposes New Gig Worker Rule That Will Harm Small Businesses

They didn’t learn the lesson from the fiasco in California (AB5 then Prop22), which created all sorts of problems and reduced the number of gig workers? The government needs to stop messing with things they do not understand, things that are working

Biden’s proposed gig worker rule could deal a major blow to small businesses

The Biden administration has proposed a new rule that could re-classify millions of gig workers as employees, a move that could deal a significant blow to small businesses across the country.

The Labor Department on Tuesday unveiled a new proposal that would make it more difficult for companies to classify their workers as independent contractors — a change that could have major consequences for ride-hailing, delivery and other industries that depend heavily on gig workers.

Companies are required to provide certain benefits and legal protections to employees but not contractors, making employment of those types of workers more expensive. That includes minimum wage, overtime, Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation insurance.

In determining whether a worker qualifies as an independent contractor or not, the Labor Department said it would take into consideration the worker’s “opportunity for profit or loss, investment, permanency, the degree of control by the employer over the worker, (and) whether the work is an integral part of the employer’s business,” among other factors.

Which would require a heavy hand from the federal government over small businesses. Which would mean a lot of small businesses would simply opt out of using gig employees. It won’t give millions employment status, it will give them unemployment

While the proposal could give millions of workers employee status, it could also have potentially catastrophic consequences for small businesses already struggling with the hottest inflation in four decades and a persistent labor shortage.

“This is a rule that’s only going to make it more challenging for small businesses to operate in today’s already difficult economy,” Beth Milito, executive director of the National Federal of Independent Business’ legal center, told FOX Business.

Businesses say their operating costs could surge if they are required to classify gig workers as employees, and as a result, employers could be forced to cut payroll or freeze hiring in order to keep their bottom line strong. They have also noted that some employees like the flexibility that gig work provides, including the option to work for different companies if they choose to do so.

It could raise operating costs 20%-30%, meaning fewer employees. And small businesses will just simply not want to deal with it all, because they just do not have the time. It could mean that many would be limited to part time hours to avoid all the benefits. It’ll be a big mess.

And, beyond that, this seems more of making law with such a huge, encompassing law, something that the duly elected Legislative Branch should do. At least in California the general assembly passed AB5, then Proposition 22 via direct voting of the citizens. The Supreme Court has already ruled that major, heavily impactful rules are unconstitutional, should go through the Legislative Branch.

Read: Brandon Admin Proposes New Gig Worker Rule That Will Harm Small Businesses »

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