Guy Who Wants To Force Americans On To Trains Mentions How Often They Derail

By William Teach February 17, 2023 – 7:15 am

Kinda weird, doing back to back posts on the Ohio train derailment, but, this goes more to ‘climate change’ (and incompetence)

Buttigieg notes Ohio getting ‘particularly high amount of attention,’ while trains derail ‘1000’ times a year

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg emphasized to Yahoo! Finance Live the large number of train derailments in this country while the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, has gotten the most “attention.”

Buttigieg continues to face backlash after he was slow to discuss the train derailment causing toxic chemicals to pollute the East Palestine and the surrounding region. He finally addressed the disaster on Monday night, 10 days after the train crashed.

Buttigieg was asked by Yahoo! Finance about what the Transportation Department is doing.

“Look, rail safety is something that has evolved a lot over the years, but there’s clearly more that needs to be done because while this horrible situation has gotten a particularly high amount of attention, there are roughly 1,000 cases a year of a train derailing,” he said.

Is Pete right? Actually, he undercounted them

(The Hill) From 1990, the first year the BTS began tracking derailments and injuries on a yearly basis, to 2021, there have been 54,539 accidents in which a train derailed. That’s an average of 1,704 derailments per year.

Dude! In 2022 they came off the tracks 1,044 times, and, really, back in 1975 there were 6,328 derailments. But, even 1,000 is pretty wild. How often do you hear about them? Unless there is a lot of damage or someone is killed, it’s not even really news. And, in my business, which uses trains to ship pretty much every vehicle, I’ve never heard of it happening. I tend to read NJ.com, mostly going for Devils and Giants news, but, I’ll see the other stuff, plus the NY Times and NY Post, yet, I almost never see anything about derailments.

That said, this is an administration which is chock full of climate cultists who want to force Everyone Else into taking mass transit and out of fossil fueled vehicles and planes, including trains, lite rail, high speed trains, and metros. Sure, there are way more auto accidents, but, there are way more cars. Rail doesn’t seem all that safe, to go with it taking a heck of a lot longer to get anywhere.

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Good News: Brandon Denies Emergency Assistance For Ohio Train Disaster

By William Teach February 17, 2023 – 7:00 am

Biden is totally into accountability

Biden administration vows accountability over train derailment as Ohio senators press for action

Which means he’s going to blame Everyone Else. Which, in fairness, the derailment isn’t his fault. The garbage response is, especially since Los Federales have huge control over railroads, for better or worse

Biden admin turns down Ohio’s request for disaster assistance after toxic derailment

The Biden administration turned down a request for federal disaster assistance from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in the aftermath of the train derailment in the state earlier this month that led to a large release of toxic chemicals.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) told Ohio’s state government that it was not eligible for disaster assistance to help the community recover from the toxic spill, Dan Tierney, a spokesperson for DeWine, told Fox News Digital on Thursday. Tierney explained that FEMA believed the incident didn’t qualify as a traditional disaster, such as a tornado or hurricane, for which it usually provides assistance.

“The DeWine Administration has been in daily contact with FEMA to discuss the need for federal support, however FEMA continues to tell Governor DeWine that Ohio is not eligible for assistance at this time,” DeWine’s office said in a statement earlier in the day. “Governor DeWine will continue working with FEMA to determine what assistance can be provided.”

FEMA isn’t really offering details on why, and, perhaps it isn’t covered, though, of course, FEMA always seems to pony up for just about everything. And Biden doesn’t seem to be particularly engaged to ask Congress to help out.

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Who’s Ready For The “Doom Loop” From Climate Apocalypse?

By William Teach February 16, 2023 – 4:08 pm

The cult induced fearmongering just never stops. Say, I wonder when the Washington Post will stop using fossil fuels to run their whole operations?

Beware a climate ‘doom loop,’ where crisis is harder to solve, report says

Sherman Potter Bull CookiesThe devastating effects of climate change on Earth could become so overwhelming that they undermine humanity’s capacity to tackle climate change’s root causes, researchers warned Wednesday.

They are calling it a “doom loop.”

The self-reinforcing dynamic, outlined in a report jointly published Wednesday by two British think tanks, warns of a spiral effect: Governments risk expending so much money and attention on merely coping with the impacts of climate change that they neglect efforts to reduce global emissions, exacerbating the crisis.

“We’re pointing to a potential situation where the symptom of the climate and ecological crisis — the storms, the potential food crises, and things like this — start to distract us from the root causes,” report author Laurie Laybourn, an associate fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank, said in an interview. “You get a feedback that starts to run out of control.”

Obviously, the Washington Post reporter did a reporter’s job and was skeptical, asking tough questions, demanding that the doomsaying “scientists” prove their allegations. Let’s see them

…

Oh, I guess not

The report’s authors do not believe that climate change has already triggered a global “doom loop” that is irreversible, but warn that in some places the dynamic could begin to take hold.

“We could get to the point where societies are faced with relentless disasters and crises, and all the other problems that the climate and ecological crisis is bringing, and will increasingly distract them from delivering decarbonization,” said Laybourn.

Meh. The zombie books I read have much better plots and are more believable.

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If All You See…

By William Teach February 16, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…are trees dying from too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is 357 Magnum, with a post on the Democrats catch and release policy and the MSU shooting.

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Bidenflation: People Putting Of Medical Care Over Rising Costs

By William Teach February 16, 2023 – 10:30 am

I love this NY Times article, because the word “Biden” appears exactly zero times despite being the president. Now, just imagine how many times Trump would have been blamed if he was still in office

Higher Bills Are Leading Americans to Delay Medical Care

Megan Swanson has warily watched the erosion of her family’s savings as inflation chips away at a reserve for emergencies.

I’ve been reliabily informed by People In Charge that inflation isn’t harming people

She often postpones any regular doctor’s appointments, including her yearly dermatology appointment, even though annual skin checks are typically recommended for residents of sunny Florida, where she lives in Naples with her husband and their three children.

“Each month we are seeing our costs go up, but not our bank account,” she said. (snip)

Rising out-of-pocket costs are weighing heavily on the scale, pushing aside tests or procedures when troublesome symptoms emerge. And these days, the grocery list (and even the price of eggs) feel more pressing to many families. While some people avoided seeking medical care during the worst of the pandemic, worried about the risk of infection or unable to get an appointment because hospitals and doctors were overwhelmed, now many are finding that inflation and the uncertain economy have thrown up another barrier.

“We are starting to see some individuals who are putting off some care, especially preventive care, due to the costs,” said Dr. Tochi Iroku-Malize, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the chair of family medicine for Northwell Health in New York. Choosing between going to the doctor or paying for rent and food, “the health issue is no longer the priority,” she said.

Remember, some un-named guy is getting inflation under control. In fact, it’s that previous guy’s fault according to the People In Charge

The inability to afford medical tests and treatment, a perennial concern in the United States, began emerging as a much more striking issue last year. Nearly four of 10 Americans said they had put off care in 2022 because of cost, the highest number since Gallup started asking people about delaying care more than 20 years ago. The percentage reporting they or a family member delayed health care because of cost rose to 38 percent from 26 percent in 2021.

Probably Trump’s fault, right?

With the prices of prescription drugs, hospital stays and other treatments expected to increase significantly this year and next, some doctors expect families to have an even harder time affording medical care. A recent report from the Commonwealth Fund found that 29 percent of people with employer-based coverage were underinsured, because they had such high out-of-pocket costs even with insurance. The coming roll back of health coverage under the state-federal Medicaid program will very likely lead many people to become uninsured.

And what, exactly, is Biden doing? The New York Times doesn’t bother asking, just tells us how bad things are

The cost of treatments is also likely to rise next year as hospitals, many of whom reported losses in 2022, will raise their rates, said Sean Duffy, the co-founder and chief executive of Omada Health, a company in San Francisco that provides virtual care and coaching to people with chronic health conditions like diabetes. The company’s employees were already starting to see an increase in patients wrestling with how to pay for medicine and healthy food.

Welcome to Bidenflation.

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Oh, Good, The UN Held A Debate On Sea Rise That’s Your Fault

By William Teach February 16, 2023 – 7:15 am

It’s definitely not the fault of the Elites who take lots of fossil fueled trips and live high on the hog

UN Security Council holds first-ever debate on sea level rise from climate change

Members of the United Nations Security Council held their first-ever debate on sea level rise Tuesday, according to a UN press release.

Hosted in New York, the debate was titled “Sea-Level Rise: Implications for International Peace and Security.”

Council members addressed the various implications of rising seas, such as increased competition for water and land, compromised economies and livelihoods and the destruction of homes and states.

“The impact of rising seas is already creating new sources of instability and conflict,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who opened the meeting.

By “debate”, they mean people yammer about doom and those yammering about DOOM! It reminds me of that bit from the Blues Brothers movie, where they ask the bartender lady at the country bar “what type of music do you have here, Ma’am?” and she answers “oh, we have both types: country and western.”

Guterras cited the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which stated that global average sea levels have risen faster since 1900 than over any preceding century in the last 3,000 years.

Which is complete horseshit, since the seas rose a whole hell of a lot more and faster during the 12,000 years from when the last ice age started to end. It rose hundreds of feet in the span of a 1,000 years at one point. The average for the 20th Century was around 7 inches, which is exactly average for sea rise over the last 8,000 years.

According to the WMO, the rate of sea level rise has doubled since 1993, with a 10 millimeter (0.4 inch) increase since January 2020 to a new record high in 2022.

“Although this is still measured in terms of millimetres per year, it adds up to half to 1 meter (1.6 to 3.1 feet) per century and that is a long-term and major threat to many millions of coastal dwellers and low-lying states,” the WMO said.

Nice try, but, the measured data doesn’t support that. However, about 1.6 feet would be the expectation during a Holocene warm period. Anyhow, the UN is very enthused about empowering government to take over your lives, while the elites keep on living theirs as if nothing is going on. Heck, even if the current warm period was mostly/solely caused by Mankind, why are all the policies around authoritarian government?

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Support For Ukraine Keeps Dropping: 38/38 Split On Sending Money

By William Teach February 16, 2023 – 7:00 am

Maybe if we knew what the money was actually being used for, where it was going, if there was some accountability, the support numbers wouldn’t be going down

Trump attacks Haley on Medicare, Social Security cuts

A new poll shows that Americans’ support for sending weapons and economic assistance to Ukraine has dropped since the onset of Russia’s invasion of the country last year.

According to the poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 48 percent of Americans support sending weapons to Ukraine, a significant drop from May 2022, when about 60 percent supported sending Ukraine weapons. Twenty-nine percent in the new poll said they were opposed to sending weapons, while 22 percent said they did not support or oppose it.

Well, this war just keeps going and going and going. Not sure what’s going through the minds of the 22 percent

When asked about sending government funds directly to Ukraine, Americans were about evenly split, according to the poll. Thirty-seven percent said they supported sending funds, 38 percent said they opposed it and 23 percent said they neither were in favor or opposed to it.

That’s down from 44%, and a 5% rise in those who are against sending funds.

Only 19 percent of Americans in the survey released Wednesday said that they have a “great deal of confidence” in Biden to address the war in Ukraine, while 37 percent reported some confidence in the president and 43 percent said they hardly had any. Along party lines, 40 percent of Democrats said they had a “great deal of confidence” in Biden’s handling, 50 percent reported some confidence in Biden and just 9 percent have hardly any.

They should have asked the question “are Biden, other world leaders, and other nimrods trying to start WWIII?” Even support for economic sanctions has dropped from 71% to 63%. From that link in the first excerpt

“I am sympathetic for Ukraine’s situation and I feel badly for them, but I feel like we need to first take care of priorities here at home,” said Joe Hernandez, 44, of Rocklin, California.

Hernandez, a Republican, added that it’s difficult to support generous U.S. spending on military and economic assistance to Ukraine when many American communities don’t have the resources to deal with the ramifications of migrants crossing into the U.S. at the southern border, a rise in drug overdoses caused by fentanyl and other lab-produced synthetic opioids, and a homelessness crisis in his state.

We just keep sending more and more money while not taking care of our own. Seriously, what’s the plan to get Russia out of Ukraine? Is there one? How does this really help America? It’s not like the leaders in Ukraine are the best of people.

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Climate Doom Means People Can’t Fall In Love Or Something

By William Teach February 15, 2023 – 3:10 pm

This is a new one. Who says cults are moribund and can’t come up with new stuff. The sad part is that major news outlets, in this case, the LA Times, publish this cult crap

When climate change looms, how are you supposed to fall in love?

I asked a man to marry me once. Until I met him, I had never known the way that love could provide the magnetic pull of a bearing. Like a pulse through the air, I felt the idea of him everywhere.

For three years, we had been living in the eastern Sierra Nevada. I was as enchanted by our mountain home as I was by him — but it was a demanding affair.

Each summer, there were little losses. A camper left without realizing his fire’s embers remained warm, and what was started for s’mores spread, igniting nearby brush. An acre burned. A mountain biker leaned too far right into a tight turn; their pedal struck rock and sparked. One hundred acres burned. My favorite trail was buried in a landslide. I set out to climb a glacier, only to find that it had melted and was gone.

So, a biker (hey, don’t Warmists want Everyone Else to ride bikes instead of fossil fueled travel?) accidentally caused a fire, and we’re supposed to what, give up our modern lifestyles?

From atop the high ridge we walked one evening, I stretched out my finger and traced along the horizon the part of the valley most likely to be destroyed when the inevitable wildfire came. “Don’t you think there are better places to live through this?” I asked him, touching my nose to his nose. It would be hard for him to leave our tiny town. He was an immigrant; his status was tied to his work. “We could get married,” I offered, kicking up snow. Little crystals sprayed around his knees. At home later, we finished two bottles of Grüner Veltliner, maps unfolded around us, pointing out new places we could go.

By the next morning, he had changed his mind. He asked me to leave without him — to leave him.

Illegal or legal? Maybe if you hadn’t freaked out you wouldn’t have had a…checks notes…breakup like has happened since the dawn of Mankind. You aren’t special, it it has nothing to do with ‘climate change’. Anyhow, she became a “journalist”. Looks more like an activist. Skipping forward

An increasing body of research affirms the worry that human-caused global warming may rob us of a future — or one that is pleasant and survivable for most species, anyway. Depending on who you ask, we have somewhere between six and 10 years left until the planet’s atmosphere will cross an atmospheric tipping point beyond which there is no return. Some argue it’s a line we’ve already crossed.

It does not spark joy.

Visit a qualified mental health professional so you can be deprogrammed.

The climate crisis takes so much from us: cool summer nights and the ability to chit-chat with Trader Joe’s cashiers about the weather without wanting to suddenly weep, yes — but there’s also the bigger, harder-to-name thing. What do we do if our love cannot withstand these ever-worsening storms that disrupt our dreams and uproot our lives?

Good grief.

In my work, I have spoken to many people in the midst of an emergency’s fulcrum, fighting to survive unprecedented heat waves, ice storms or floods. Not one of them has made it through on the might of a single relationship. Neighbors install sprinkler systems to point to each other’s roofs in case of fire; community networks deliver life-saving medical equipment days before emergency managers could have. I recognize a bone-deep yearning in these orchestrations. My understanding of what a bond can accomplish is stretched. Such relationships might make here good and elsewhere possible.

So a warming world causes ice storms which means we can’t have relationships? How did people have them during the previous Holocene warm and cool periods? Wackjob cultists.

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If All You See…

By William Teach February 15, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…is an Evil carbon polluting refrigerator, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Greenie Watch, with a post noting that natural gas is a major source of fertilizers that keeps people eating.

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Brandon Admin Doing A Poor Job Of Informing Congress On Balloons

By William Teach February 15, 2023 – 10:30 am

His administration is doing a pretty piss poor job with informing the public, as well

Administration scrambles to quell Congress’s frustration over balloon, UFOs

Senior administration officials scrambled Tuesday to quell frustrations expressed by lawmakers about a lack of timely information concerning several flying objects and a Chinese spy balloon shot down over the past two weeks.

In a classified briefing on Tuesday, the officials offered an update on the three aerial objects shot down Friday afternoon and last weekend. Separately, officials said they believed the objects were not threats to national security and were benign balloons.

It’s unclear just how much the briefing calmed lawmakers, as senators say they didn’t get answers to several questions, including who launched the objects that were shot down in recent days, whether they were military or commercial vehicles and what they were doing in the sky.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said after the briefing that Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) will lead an investigation into why the balloons weren’t detected earlier.

“We still have questions about why they didn’t discover these balloons sooner, these objects sooner,” Schumer told reporters after the weekly Democratic caucus meeting. “Sen. Tester is going to lead our caucus in investigating this. It’s a good question. We need to answer it.”

“Senior administration officials.” Because there is almost nothing from Biden.

The U.S. military has yet to recover the vehicles shot down over Alaska, Canada and Lake Huron, leaving much unknown about them.

It might be nice to know why the U.S. military had to act to shoot the one over Canada. Don’t they have an air force? Meh, maybe that’s a discussion for the Canadian parliament to ask PM Trudeau.

Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), a senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the administration can still be more transparent and forthcoming about its handling of balloons and other aerial objects entering U.S. airspace.

“I think it can be done without compromising, in intelligence lingo, ‘sources and methods,’” he said.

Biden is uninterested in being transparent. And Senators are pretty unhappy that they really aren’t getting much information.

(CBC) Former Pentagon official Elbridge Colby said intelligence sensors have been adjusted to detect objects they wouldn’t have been able to see before, which could be why we have seen the recent discoveries.

That means it’s still possible we could see more news of unknown objects in our skies or being shot down.

One would have thought the U.S. military and intelligence agencies would have used their enormous budgets to look for anything, but, I guess they have been distracted by their march towards Woke.

(NY Post) After four “balloon” shootdowns in nine days, plus official denials after one general said this might be a space-alien thing, only one thing is crystal clear: The Biden administration needs to get out a lot more facts and explanations, or conspiracy theories will run rampant.

The White House said Monday that President Joe Biden has no intention of explaining his decisions. Ridiculous.

Are more balloons suddenly coming, or has US policy changed to a “down them all” approach — and if so, why? You have to fear the White House is simply desperate to show toughness after it got caught trying to let the initial Chinese espionage craft proceed safely.

Don’t expect to get answers from Biden anytime soon.

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