Sorta Blogless Patriotic Pinup

Patriotic Pinup Peter Driben

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in the Once And Future Nation Of America. The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the Dodgers are even further ahead of the Padres, even after the big Soto trade. This pinup is by Peter Driben, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Common Cents Blog covers Arizona deciding to build their own border wall
  2. Geller Report notes JK Rowling getting death threats from Islamists
  3. Jihad Watch covers an Islamic woman storming a cockpit screaming Allahu Akbar
  4. Legal Insurrection discusses Germany cutting heating supplies
  5. Moonbattery highlights turning Joan Of Arc non-binary
  6. Outside The Beltway discusses the IRA not reducing inflation
  7. Pacific Pundit wonders if the Russia hoax Crossfire Hurricane documents were the FBI target
  8. The First Street Journal discusses the government being here to help
  9. The Last Refuge covers Democrats already reneging on Manchin’s energy development
  10. The Lid highlights most Americans worried about Biden’s mental health
  11. The O.K. Corral covers a moron nearly leaping to his death
  12. The Right Scoop notes how many documents Obama took and never got raided
  13. This ain’t Hell… discusses the FBI report on the Alec Baldwin shooting
  14. Weasel Zippers laughs at leftist yammering about Trump being indicted
  15. And last, but, not least, No Tricks Zone highlights how the Arctic sea ice is doing

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your Pinups for Vets calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me. I’ve also mostly alphabetized them, makes it easier scrolling the feedreader

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?

Two great sites for getting news links are Liberty Daily and Whatafinger.

Read: Sorta Blogless Patriotic Pinup »

Young Climate Cultists Demand More After Passage Of “Historic” IRA Bill

It’s always interesting that any bill or executive order from Democrats is “historic”, eh? Is the Inflation Reduction Act historic because it has virtually nothing to do with inflation reduction, and, instead, is mostly about climate scam measures, increasing the size of the IRS, and taxes which will hit the working and middle classes? It hasn’t even been signed by Let’s Go Brandon (who’s on vacation again) and the youths want more (paywalled NY Times piece here)

As Historic Climate Bill Heads to Biden’s Desk, Young Activists Demand More

For the septuagenarian lawmakers who wrote the historic climate bill that Congress passed Friday, and the 79-year-old president who is about to sign it into law, the measure represents a “once-in-a-generation” victory.

But younger Democrats and climate activists crave more. They look at the bill as a down payment, and they worry a complacent electorate will believe Washington has at last solved climate change — when in fact scientists warn it has only taken the first necessary steps.

“This bill is not the bill that my generation deserves and needs to fully avert climate catastrophe, but it is the one that we can pass, given how much power we have at this moment,” said Varshini Prakash, 29, who co-founded the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate activism group.

Prakash became aware of climate doom at the age of 11 when a tsunami from the 2004 Indonesian earthquake, which, of course has zero to do with any sort of climate change, so, she’s working off false info

Christina Tzintzun Ramirez, 40, president of NextGen America, which is focused on young voter participation, said it was not lost on her that the climate deal was crafted largely by older men and included some concessions to the fossil fuel industry.

“We are very clear that it took so long because our Congress and Senate doesn’t look like the American people,” said Ramirez, whose group is working to elect more young progressives committed to attacking global warming. “The climate crisis is going to unfold on the majority of young people. Most of these congressional representatives will be dead by the time we face the consequences of their inaction.”

She’s as far left as AOC, and doesn’t seemed to have restricted her own use of fossil fuels, traveling around quite a bit. She’s also 40, so, not exactly a “youth”. Anyhow, the article doesn’t offer any ideas from these “youths” or their Progressive (nice Fascism) groups, but, the uber-Warmist NY Times writes offer

To reach his 2030 goal, Biden would still have to impose new regulations on emissions from power plants, vehicle tailpipes and methane leaks from oil and gas wells. State and local governments would have to set new standards to compel the rapid adoption of electric cars, wind- and solar-powered electricity, and energy-efficient buildings to make up the last percentage points.

For the far heavier lift — essentially eliminating the nation’s fossil fuel emissions in the next two decades — Congress would need to enact even more ambitious legislation than the historic bill just passed by a razor-thin majority, experts said.

To zero out emissions by 2050, Congress would have to take on the politically difficult burden of taxing, penalizing, banning or phasing out the coal, oil and gas pollution that is driving global warming.

Climate cultists can give up their own use of fossil fuels voluntarily, right?

Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, 56, who leads the House progressive caucus, said in addition to deeper cuts in emissions, young and racially diverse climate advocates want new provisions that also protect low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, which are disproportionately affected by climate impacts.

“They’re really talking about it from this integrated perspective of jobs, justice and decarbonization,” she said.

OK, let’s put all sorts of restriction in Democrat run cities, see how they like it. And when does Jayapal stop taking fossil fueled flights and car trips? She can buy an EV and drive from Seattle, or take the train.

Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist, said she believes the political support for a carbon tax could grow, particularly as millennial and Generation Z voters enter office.

Let’s start by putting one on all the Gen Z and Millennials, see how they feel about it.

Rhiana Gunn-Wright, 32, director of climate policy at the Roosevelt Institute, a liberal think tank, and an architect of the Green New Deal, said she is worried a sense of complacency will settle in after passage of the climate bill.

“Over the next seven or eight years, there will still, unfortunately, be extreme weather events, and we still need to keep pointing out the cause of those: carbon emissions. And from where? Fossil fuels,” she said.

Over the next 7 to 8 billion years, a point at which real scientists think our Sun will die, there will be extreme weather events. If Gunn-Wright is so concerned, she should advocate for all the Warmists to give up their own use of fossil fuels. Practice what you preach. It is interesting that everything these climate cult groups push all require Government force and will hurt the working and middle classes, while almost none of the activists mention the measures they’ve taken in their own lives.

Read: Young Climate Cultists Demand More After Passage Of “Historic” IRA Bill »

Bummer: Stupid Cat Videos Are Killing The Planet

The hyper-cultists are a bunch of miserable people. Who probably watch the same videos. Possibly to make themselves more upset, which makes them happy, which makes them mad

Stop watching ‘stupid cat videos” right now if you want to save the planet

Cat videos may not be the first thing that comes to mind when contemplating climate change, but its something researchers warn could have a serious environmental impact.

“We do have to stop watching these stupid cat videos if we’re serious about saving the planet,” Emma Mohr-McClune, service director at GlobalData, said in a new podcast.

Okay, it’s not the cat videos themselves that are the real culprit behind climate change. Instead, McClune explains that videos of kittens discovering that they have four paws are a symptom of something worse: telecommunication companies’ insistence that consumers consume more and more stuff.

She made the comments during a wider discussion about how telecoms are attempting to achieve their environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets. ESG encompasses areas ranging between climate change and human rights to risk management and treating workers fairly.

These people must be fun at parties, eh?

Read: Bummer: Stupid Cat Videos Are Killing The Planet »

If All You See…

…is a sea that will soon rise up dozens of feet, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Chicks On The Right, with a post on Boston hospital pushing surgical options for the gender confused.

Just as a sidebar, these kinds of photos amuse me, because you know the person got up very early, did the makeup and hair, adjusted the clothes just right, have the props, just for the photo. Look at the angle of the light. It’s very early in the a.m.

Read: If All You See… »

Herr Fauci Seems Upset That Americans Are Unhappy With Forced Masking

Dictators in waiting gotta dictator in waiting

Fauci vents about Americans’ opposition to forced masking: ‘It’s almost inexplicable’

Dr. Anthony Fauci complained during a talk Tuesday evening that many Americans see forced masking policies as a violation of their liberties.

During the talk, Fauci, who is President Biden’s chief medical adviser and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, expressed concern about Americans’ aversion to both forced masking and receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. He characterized individuals’ concerns with such policies as “inexplicable.”

“When you tell people they need to mask in an indoor congregate setting when you’re in a zone that has a high dynamic of infection — that is looked upon by a lot of people, not everybody, as an encroachment on your freedom,” Fauci remarked during the event hosted by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center campus in Seattle.

Because masks are not theater, you know

So much that he’s not wearing a mask indoors when he himself was telling people to wear a mask indoors. How many times did we see Fauci not wear a mask? He’d show up with it on then take it off, much like Biden and Biden’s staff

Wearing it and uncovering your mouth makes a mask worthless, right? There are plenty of shots from that same meeting where he’s not wearing it at all while speaking, because COVID19 is not a threat while you have the podium, you know.

Anthony Fauci Did Not Wear a Mask in Private—Kellyanne Conway

Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci did not wear a mask amid the pandemic during private meetings but “like magic” would put one on if a photographer entered the room.

The claim from Conway is made in her new memoir, Here’s the Deal, excerpts of which were published by The Washington Poston Tuesday ahead of its release.

“No masks was standard fare in the White House Situation Room, where Dr. Fauci was more likely to wear ‘Dr. Fauci’ socks than a mask,” Conway said.

“Then, like magic, when D. Myles Cullen, the vice president’s photographer, came into the room, masks would suddenly appear.”

It’s all theater. One would have thought he would know that cloth and doctor masks made almost no difference. Yet, for most of the time he had on a cloth mask. For show.

Some schools of all grades are requiring masks, some are optional. With the nag parents who force their kids to wear a mask screeching that other kids are not being forced to wear them. Some teachers are apoplectic, such as at Temple, that students aren’t being forced to wear the worthless masks. It has become a cult. When you’re out in public, you can pretty much tell what party the person is in by them wearing a mask (and often wearing it wrong, with their nose exposed, and sometimes their mouth). If you feel that a mask protects you, wear it. Stop trying to tell the rest of us to wear one. Mind your own business.

Read: Herr Fauci Seems Upset That Americans Are Unhappy With Forced Masking »

Your Fault: Hotcoldwetdry Making Diseases Worse

All you had to do was give up your fossil fueled vehicle and travel, agree to pay all sorts of taxes, and offer your freedom, liberty, and life choices to government and this wouldn’t be a problem

Climate change is making hundreds of diseases much worse

Climate change has exacerbated more than 200 infectious diseases and dozens of non-transmissible conditions, such as poisonous-snake bites, according to an analysis1. Climate hazards bring people and disease-causing organisms closer together, leading to a rise in cases. Global warming can also make some conditions more severe and affect how well people fight off infections.

Most studies on the associations between climate change and disease have focused on specific pathogens, transmission methods or the effects of one type of extreme weather. Camilo Mora, a data scientist at the University of Hawai?i at M?noa, and his colleagues scoured the literature for evidence of how ten climate-change-induced hazards — including surging temperatures, sea level rise and droughts — have affected all documented infectious diseases (see ‘Climate hazards exacerbate diseases’). These include infections spread or triggered by bacteria, viruses, animals, fungi and plants (see ‘Mode of transmission’). The study was published in Nature Climate Change on 8 August.

“Looking at basically all the climate effects and all the infectious pathogens in one paper is extremely ambitious,” says Josh Colston, an epidemiologist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville. “They synthesize a tremendous amount of information very well.”

Doom!

Mora and his colleagues examined more than 77,000 research papers, reports and books for records of infectious diseases influenced by climatic hazards that had been made worse by greenhouse-gas emissions. More than 90% of the relevant papers had been published after 2000. Ultimately, the team found 830 publications containing 3,213 case examples.

The researchers discovered that climate change has aggravated 218, or 58%, of the 375 infectious diseases listed in the Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Network (GIDEON), and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. The total rises to 277 when including non-transmissible conditions, such as asthma and poisonous-snake or insect bites. The team also identified nine diseases that are diminished by climate change.

Hmm, so they just looked at other studies, and simply deemed that 58% are worse? How much worse? Can they prove this is different from previous Holocene warm periods? And most from 2000 and after? Seems rather un-scientific, but, this isn’t about science, it’s about scaring people into complying.

Ancient Arctic Anthrax Has Returned, as Climate Change Impacts Spread of Diseases

Climate change can make diseases stronger, or weaken humans and their ability to fight infections, researchers say. And another consequence of climate change, the melting Arctic permafrost, released ancient frozen bacteria that were frozen for thousands of years. Erik Franklin, professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, joins LX News.

The rest is simply a video, but, one has to wonder, do these cultists ever stop and think “hey, it was warm enough at one point for the anthrax to be around, then it got cold: why was it so warm?”

Read: Your Fault: Hotcoldwetdry Making Diseases Worse »

Brandonflation Driving Food Shoppers Away From Walmart

Considering that Walmart typically has better food prices that the regular grocery stores, like Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Shoprite, Lowe’s Foods, and whatever else you have in your area, how are they doing when shopper are going even lower cost?

Inflation steers budget shoppers away from Walmart. Bringing them back may not be easy

Walmart Inc could face an uphill battle to reclaim U.S. shoppers who opted for the neighborhood dollar store or Aldi rather than driving farther to a Walmart Supercenter when gasoline was $5 a gallon.

While gasoline prices have dropped nearly 20% over the past month, there are no signs shoppers are returning to the nation’s biggest retailer, according to foot traffic data reviewed by Reuters and analysts.

Inflation remains at a 40-year high, devouring a large chunk of the grocery budgets of many Americans, especially Walmart’s legions of cost-conscious shoppers.

Foot traffic at Walmart’s 3,573 U.S. Supercenters and its 370 discount stores (as of Jan. 31, 2022) fell 2.7% on average from June 1 through July 25 versus a year earlier, according to data from Placer.ai, a location analytics firm.

Meanwhile, traffic rose 11.5% at Aldi, owned by German discount grocer Aldi Süd, and the number of shopper visits climbed 4.1% at Dollar General.

Interesting. Aldi isn’t necessarily less expensive than Walmart for many things, and, certainly aren’t as many nationwide. That more Americans are shopping at Dollar General should be very concerning to the government, but, really, people like Biden couldn’t care less about you peasants

McMillon recently told investors that shoppers – especially from lower-income households – bought fewer items in the three months through April 30, even they also consolidated their trips to the store in response to higher fuel prices.

So, Bidenflation is really hitting the lower class, who couldn’t afford to drive and purchase quality food (if you’ve never been in a Walmart supercenter, you’re missing out. I love tomatoes, and there are lots and lots to choose from. Fresh baked breads and cakes and all sorts of stuff. It’s really good).

Both Walmart and Target Corp issued profit warnings over the past two months, noting that U.S. shoppers responded to the rising cost of living by buying primarily lower-margin food and other essentials, while skipping aisles filled with clothes and sporting goods.

Walmart’s warning in late July was “a diagnostic look at the average American household,” Jefferies analyst Stephanie Wissink said. It showed the squeeze on shoppers’ monthly budgets that also led many to cut back on their trips to grocery stores, she said.

One Target I know has a pretty good grocery experience, the one in Knightdale is hot garbage. Their produce is terrible. Regardless, Bidenflation is causing lots of problems, especially for food. He’s doing such a great job.

Read: Brandonflation Driving Food Shoppers Away From Walmart »

If All You See…

…are wonderful low carbon sailboats, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Blazing Cat Fur, with a post on what the FBI was supposedly looking for with their Trump raid.

Read: If All You See… »

Great News: Democrats 100% Partisan Climate Bill Gets Us Most Of The Way Out Of Climate Doom

And you thought this was all about inflation reduction. That’s so last week

The US is making a big down payment on climate change. Here’s what needs to come next.

st greta carWith the U.S. House expected to pass the most consequential climate change legislation in the nation’s history on Friday, environmentalists and advocates are chilling the champagne for a surprise victory.

Just a month ago, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 appeared doomed after an apparent breakdown in Senate negotiations. But an unexpected deal emerged, prompting a party-line vote Sunday that promised $369 billion for incentives to move the nation away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy sources while putting more drivers in electric cars and making more homes energy efficient.

Expert analysis projects the measures will get the U.S. most of the way toward a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030. Market momentum and regulatory tweaks could take care of the rest.

Hmm, that means there’s no need to do anything else, right? The climate nags can stop agitating for more measures, and go buy EVs for themselves, take the train instead of a fossil fueled flight, purchase solar panels for their homes, replace all their AC systems with heat pumps, and pay for new insulation, right?

Yet it may be premature to pop the cork just now. The ice, after all, is still melting.

Yeah, that’s what happens during a typical Holocene warm period

As remarkable as the turnaround has been, the promise of the Inflation Reduction Act was never meant to solve climate change on its own. A bigger test comes in 2050, when climate scientists say essentially all of the world needs to reach net zero emissions, a point of equilibrium where the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere stops growing and the climate stabilizes before it reaches a critical warming threshold of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

Piss off. Go mind your own business, leave the rest of us alone.

So is Robbie Orvis, senior director of energy policy design at the San Francisco-based climate think tank Energy Innovation. Orvis envisions a scenario in which the bill does the heavy front-end lifting by researching new technologies, developing industrial solutions and bringing down the costs of renewables and electric cars. Then, market forces and some additional government intervention combine to push the transition across the finish line.

If this was so promising companies would be dumping their own money into it.

If anything goes wrong – Americans don’t adopt new technologies quickly enough, supply chain or workforce limitations fail to meet demand – then the bill’s incentive-laden policies could fail to deliver in time. Saha said that creates a need for the Biden administration to quickly follow up the bill with regulations forcing greenhouse gas reductions in sectors of the economy like energy generation and transportation.

Well, hey, all the Warmists are going to rush out and buy EVs, right?

Read: Great News: Democrats 100% Partisan Climate Bill Gets Us Most Of The Way Out Of Climate Doom »

CDC Loosens Wuhan Flu Guidance, Mentions Natural Immunity

The changes are supposed to be an admission of reality

Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology at Northwell Health and the chief of infectious diseases at North Shore University Hospital and LIJ Medical Center, thinks changes like these are partly an “admission of reality” from the CDC.

“I can’t speak for the CDC, but I think in this particular case that their guidelines have to be, at least somewhat, in touch with what people are doing regardless of what their guidelines are,” he said.

In other words, most people haven’t bothered with CDC guidance in quite some time. They’ve moved on to live with COVID19. Except for politicians who love the power

CDC ends recommendations for social distancing and quarantine for Covid-19 control, no longer recommends test-to-stay in schools

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the nation should move away from restrictive measures such as quarantines and social distancing and focus on reducing severe disease from Covid-19.

Most of us have

In new guidelines released Thursday, the agency no longer recommends staying at least 6 feet away from other people to reduce the risk of exposure — a shift from guidance that had been in place since the early days of the pandemic.

The shift is a sign of how much has changed since the beginning of the pandemic more than two years ago. Nearly the entire US population has at least some immunity through vaccination, previous infection or, in some cases, both.

“The current conditions of this pandemic are very different from those of the last two years,” Greta Massetti, who leads the Field Epidemiology and Prevention Branch at the CDC, said Thursday.

“High levels of population immunity due to vaccination and previous infection and the many available tools to protect the general population, and protect people at higher risk, allow us to focus on protecting people from serious illness from Covid-19.”

Wait, hold on, what was that?

As SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to circulate globally, high levels of vaccine- and infection-induced immunity and the availability of effective treatments and prevention tools have substantially reduced the risk for medically significant COVID-19 illness (severe acute illness and post–COVID-19 conditions) and associated hospitalization and death

That’s from the CDC guidelines. For what, 2 years, they told us that natural immunity really wasn’t a thing, particularly after the vaccines were released. Now they say it is thing.

Anyhow, there are lots of changes in terms of contact tracing, isolation if exposed but no symptoms, and doing away with the 6 foot rule (bummer, I like to keep my distance and do not like to shake hands. I’ll continue doing that. Don’t forget, the chances of getting it come more from people you know getting close than strangers. I’ll also continue washing my hands a lot, but, I did that before COVID)

But the guidance does keep some measures the same. It encourages testing for people with symptoms and their close contacts. It also says people who test positive should stay home for at least five days and wear a mask around others for 10 days. It also continues to recommend that people wear masks indoors in about half the country.

Huh? Masks don’t work. If you’re still sick, stay home. Keep away from the rest of us, just like if it is a flu or a cold.

Chin-Hong thinks some states, like California, will continue to go beyond the CDC’s guidance in their own recommendations, but by and large, he thinks these reflect the prevailing attitudes toward the pandemic. He sees it as a move by the CDC to try to regain the public’s trust.

That’s because Government likes controlling the citizens

A recent survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center shows that most Americans (54%) are no longer masking indoors, and about 4 in 10 say they’ve fully returned to their pre-pandemic routines — up from 16% in January.

Where are these 46% who mask indoors? Around my area, I’d put it at 5-10%, and half of them are either wearing a worthless mask, like a cloth or medical one, not a K-95, and half of all, regardless of type of mask aren’t wearing it properly, leaving openings and uncovering their noses and even mouths.

The agency removed the recommendation that kids in different classrooms avoid mixing, a practice known as cohorting. It also removed advice that kids who are contacts of someone who tested positive for Covid-19 take regular tests — and test negative — to remain in the classroom, which was known as test-to-stay.

But, schools being the uber-liberal hotbeds they are, will probably force kids to do things like masking, even as the guidance was loosened a while ago. They love that power. But, really, most of us have moved on to some degree.

Read: CDC Loosens Wuhan Flu Guidance, Mentions Natural Immunity »

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