FBI Conducted Almost 3.4 Million Warrantless “Wiretaps” In 2021, Media Mostly Silent

By William Teach April 30, 2022 – 10:30 am

Remember when this occurred during the George W. Bush administration? When they were listening to international calls involving potential terrorists and bad people? How most of those calls were between non-US citizens? But, some ended up coming into the U.S.? And a few involved U.S. citizens, so, the NSA retroactively obtained warrants? And the U.S. Credentialed Media, along with civil rights groups like the ACLU, went ballistic? How it was constantly in the news? Constant opinion pieces? Of course, that ended when Obama came into office, and his DOJ thought this was fine. Some lefties raged, but, the media pretty much ignored it. And now that Brandon is in office?

Intel report states FBI conducted nearly 2 million searches of US data related to cyberattacks in 2021

The FBI conducted up to 3.4 million warrantless searches of Americans’ electronic data last year including 1.9 million related to a cyber threat from Russia, according to an annual transparency report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday.

The report is the first time that the US intelligence community has disclosed even an approximate number of the FBI’s searches of American data using the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The law is focused on threats emanating from outside of the United States, but also allows the FBI, the CIA and others to search data for Americans’ information provided there is a validly predicated foreign intelligence purpose.

The report does not suggest that the FBI acted improperly. The report highlights the big trove of intelligence data that the bureau can tap in pursuing hackers, spies and terrorists.

More than half of the FBI’s queries were related to attempts to compromise US critical infrastructure by foreign cyber actors in early 2021, according to the report. That includes about 1.9 million queries related to one particular cyber threat from Russia against US critical infrastructure, according to the FBI.

There’s only a few more paragraphs in this CNN piece, which is written 100% as straight news. Now, imagine this was the Trump admin admitting to this: the piece would have been an opinion piece, blasting Trump personally for allowing the FBI to search American’s data without a warrant. Heck, they would have been upset that foreign national terrorist’s data was searched without a warrant. The NY Times, Washington Post, ABC News, etc would have front page stories and opinions. The ACLU would be up in arms. Lefty blogs would be screeching about Orange Hitler Man Bad. Pelosi and other elected Dems would be taking to the Congressional floor calling Trump The Worst and considering impeachment again.

Now? Crickets.

Mind you, I have zero problem for those who are not American citizens and not on American soil. They aren’t afforded protections from the Constitution.

I delved into the old Surrender Monkey folder, that was a graphic used for some of the posts during the Bush admin over this subject.

Read: FBI Conducted Almost 3.4 Million Warrantless “Wiretaps” In 2021, Media Mostly Silent »

Posted in Joe Biden, Wonky Media | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

Republican States Petition Supreme Court To Block “Social Cost Of Carbon” Rule

By William Teach April 30, 2022 – 7:15 am

If Brandon wants the rule he should start with the activities of the White House. Stop using fossil fuels. But, you know that the wants of the climate cult always apply to Other People

GOP-led states ask Supreme Court to block key Biden climate accounting measure

A group of Republican-led states on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to reinstate a court order blocking a key climate accounting measure put in place by the Biden administration amid a legal dispute with potentially high stakes for climate change regulation.

Led by Louisiana, the GOP-led states urged the justices to revive a federal judge’s February ruling that temporarily stopped the Biden administration’s use of a metric known as the “social costs” of planet-warming gases to quantify the climate costs and benefits of regulatory actions.

That ruling, by Trump-appointed U.S. Judge James Cain in Louisiana, was halted last month by a New Orleans-based federal appeals court.

In court papers filed Thursday, Republican attorneys general from 10 states trained their fire on the metric at issue, formally known as the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gas Estimates, which was first implemented under then-President Obama.

“The Estimates are a power grab designed to manipulate America’s entire federal regulatory apparatus through speculative costs and benefits so that the Administration can impose its preferred policy outcomes on every sector of the American economy,” the group of GOP-led states wrote in their brief.

It warms my heart that so many Republicans are getting that this is not about science, but, Control. Even if the climatic changes were mostly caused by “carbon pollution”, it’s interesting that most of the climate cult’s solutions revolve around authoritarian control of, well, everything and everyone.

Read: Republican States Petition Supreme Court To Block “Social Cost Of Carbon” Rule »

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Good News: Disposable Personal Income Fell Yet Again

By William Teach April 30, 2022 – 7:00 am

The Brandon economy is just doing so wonderful, eh?

Real Personal Income Fell in March as Bidenflation Soared

Joe Biden Ice Cream AfghanistanDisposable income fell in March after adjusting for inflation, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Real disposable personal income, which is income after taxes and inflation, fell 0.4 percent in March compared with February. This was the seventh time in the last eight months that disposable personal income in the U.S. fell from the previous month. It rose in February by 0.15 percent.

In nominal terms, disposable personal income rose 0.5 percent but consumer prices rose 0.9 percent, swamping the income gain.

Does anyone think Brandon cares?

Heading for an election wipeout, Joe Biden is doubling down on every failed policy

As Joe Biden’s Hindenburg of a presidency continues its fiery descent into historically low popularity, the whiz kids at the White House think they have a solution. Their answer, amazingly, seems to be to double down on their cavalcade of failed policies and get Mumbly Joe out in front of the American people more.

That’s right, the man who rode to the presidency hiding in his basement is supposed to electrify voters and save the Democrats in the midterm. (snip)

On the economy, inflation is so high that a trip to the grocery store almost requires taking out a second mortgage. Biden’s answer: To that is to spend and print more money, which is obviously how we got here in the first place. Meanwhile the Gross Domestic Product is in the red by 1.4% all while the president pretends he’s doing a fantastic job with his American comeback. In addressing this stark decline in the economy the president blamed “technical factors.” Technical factors? This is meaningless gibberish at a time when Americans are financially suffering.

The only question now is “is this just incompetence, a complete lack of caring, or, intentional for some nefarious reason?”

Read: Good News: Disposable Personal Income Fell Yet Again »

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Unhinged Groomer Florida Teachers React to The Parental Rights Bill

By William Teach April 29, 2022 – 6:01 pm

I’m still waiting for any who support teaching all this sexual insanity to kids to explain why

‘Hurtful and insulting’: Florida teachers react to the ‘don’t say gay’ bill

Clinton McCracken, an art teacher in Orange county, Florida, grew up in a small midwest town where he didn’t experience a person out as LGBTQ until he went away to college. He’s concerned Florida’s recent controversial “don’t say gay” bill is dangerous, hateful legislation that poses many risks to LGBTQ youth in the state.

“I wasn’t able to walk to any classroom and see rainbow stickers on the door that says this is a safe place where you can be who you are,” said McCracken. “We have that now. That’s what we’re trying to create for our students. This law, I see as an effort to take away the years that we’ve put in trying to make this a better place for kids so they don’t have to grow up like I grew up, where I thought I was all alone and then I barely made it through high school.”

Why, exactly, is an art teacher getting involved in any of this? Isn’t the job to simply teach art? Why do we need any rainbow stickers? What aboyt for those kids who are straight? Why are they being left out? How about we just leave all that stuff outside of the government funded schools, and just do your job?

The bill, called the Parental Rights Education bill by its Republican authors, prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as well as any instruction characterized as inappropriate – vague language that has incited concerns the bill will be used to suppress and intimidate mere acknowledgment of the LGBTQ community in public schools.

“Don’t say gay” also grants parents the right to sue for damages and attorney fees if a school district doesn’t resolve their complaint about a child’s education, which essentially forbids discussion of LGBTQ issues or identities. A teacher in St Johns county was reprimanded by their school district after a parent complained about his T-shirt, which said “Protect Trans Kids.”

You know, realistically, it forbids teachers from really talking about anything sexual to kids up to grade 3. Even straight stuff. Because teachers really do not need to discuss anything with young kids. It’s not their job.

“The vagueness of the language in this bill opens an unfortunate door into allowing bigotry to continue,” said Caitlin Pearse, an elementary school music teacher in Hillsborough county, Florida. “What we’re talking about here is the right to be seen and represented in classrooms. We have lots of books in elementary school showing heterosexual couples, they have parent characters that are moms and dads, things like that. We want to be seen the same way that straight couples are seen in media.”

Exactly why does an elementary school music teacher need to be discussing anything sexual with kids of any age?

“This bill, for me, is a sign of pure hatred,” said Javier Gomez, a high school senior at iPrep Academy in Miami, Florida, and president of his school’s Gay-Straight Alliance club. “They’re targeting a demographic that can really benefit from all these teachings about gender identity and sexual orientation, about differences in cultures, and learning about accepting themselves for who they are, because a lot of kids at a very young age know who they are. I knew that I was gay at five years old.”

Bullshit. Kids have zero idea at that age. And, this is stuff for the parents, not unrelated teachers.

“I’m gay too so this hits me doubly hard,” said Jean Eckhoff, a history teacher of middle school and high school students in Live Oak, Florida, for 17 years. “I’m 52 years old, and I’ve never seen anything like this in my lifetime.”

Just teach history. Anything else and that’s outside your bailiwick. And sounds quite a bit look grooming

Read: Unhinged Groomer Florida Teachers React to The Parental Rights Bill »

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Doom: Ocean Could Maybe Possibly See Mass Extinction

By William Teach April 29, 2022 – 3:00 pm

If it’s a day ending in a Y it means it’s a great day to pimp/prognosticate some sort of Doom

Ocean animals face a mass extinction from climate change, study finds

Not since an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs — along with at least half of all other beings on Earth — has life in the ocean been so at risk.

Warming waters are cooking creatures in their own habitats. Many species are slowly suffocating as oxygen leaches out of the seas. Even populations that have managed to withstand the ravages of overfishing, pollution and habitat loss are struggling to survive amid accelerating climate change.

Cooking? Yeah, this is nothing related to science. Just batshit insane cult. And a news outlet engaging in non-news practices.

If humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, according to a study released Thursday, roughly a third of all marine animals could vanish within 300 years.

Oh, 300 years? Well, that’s convenient for the timeline. How about the Washington Post and all the other outlets pimping the “study” make their operations carbon neutral? There are easily hundreds of news articles on this.

The findings, published in the journal Science, reveal a potential mass extinction looming beneath the waves. The oceans have absorbed a third of the carbon and 90 percent of the excess heat created by humans, but their vast expanse and forbidding depths mean scientists are just beginning to understand what creatures face there.

Excess heat? A whopping 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1850.

Yet the study by Princeton University earth scientists Justin Penn and Curtis Deutsch also underscores how much marine life could still be saved. If the world takes swift action to curb fossil fuel use and restore degraded ecosystems, the researchers say, it could cut potential extinctions by 70 percent.

“This is a landmark paper,” Malin Pinsky, a Rutgers University biologist who did not contribute to the paper, said in an interview. “If we’re not careful, we’re headed for a future that I think to all of us right now would look quite hellish. … It’s a very important wake-up call.”

Yeah, basically it’s an activist paper, based on climate cult dogma, not science.

Using climate models that predict the behavior of species based on simulated organism types, Deutsch and Penn found that the number of extirpations, or local disappearances of particular species, increases about 10 percent with every 1 degree Celsius of warming.

And there we go, garbage in/garbage out computer models.

The researchers tested their models by using them to simulate a mass extinction at the end of the Permian period, when catastrophic warming triggered by volcanic eruptions wiped out roughly 90 percent of all life on Earth. Because the models successfully replicated the events of 250 million years ago, the scientists were confident in their predictions for what might happen 300 years in the future.

There were no fossil fueled vehicles then: what caused it? And why can’t today’s warming be mostly caused by nature? Oh, right, sorry, I’m a heretic for daring to ask.

Read: Doom: Ocean Could Maybe Possibly See Mass Extinction »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach April 29, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible plastic straw causing the world to burn, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Animal Magnetism, with a post student loan news.

Read: If All You See… »

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Even CNN Notices That They Economy Is Not Good

By William Teach April 29, 2022 – 10:30 am

CNN’s Chris Cillizza isn’t particularly concerned with the problems for average Americans, it’s more about concern for Democrats retaining power

Today is a disastrous day for Democrats’ 2022 chances

Joe Biden Ice Cream AfghanistanThe news that the US economy unexpectedly shrank over the first quarter of the year is an absolute body blow to Democrats already reeling amid growing economic concerns ahead of the 2022 midterm election.

The country’s gross domestic product fell at an annualized rate of 1.4% between January and March — a stunning reversal from the 6.9% GDP growth that the US recorded in the final quarter of 2021. (The GDP is seen as a broad guide to the overall health of a nation’s economy.)

And in a decidedly ill omen, the GDP shrinkage was the worst performance of the measure since the economy went into recession amid the shutting down of the country in the spring of 2020.

Addressing recession fears on Thursday, President Joe Biden said: “Well, I’m not concerned about recession. I mean, you’re always concerned about recession, but the GDP, you know, fell to 1.4%.”

On one hand, it’s expected that presidents stay positive, as going negative can cause bad reactions in the economy. On the other hand, Biden’s not worried because it won’t effect him, nor the big shots who donate.

The GDP news comes on the heels of newly released polling data from Gallup that suggested that economy confidence is extremely low among the American public.

More than four in ten (42%) of Americans said that economic conditions in America were “poor,” while another 38% said that they were only “fair” in Gallup’s April survey. Just 2% said economic conditions were “excellent,” while 18% said they were “good.”)

More than three in four — 76% — of Americans said that the economy was getting worse, compared to 20% who said it was improving.

Considering you’d be hard pressed to find a realistic article showing that the economy is getting better, those 76% are correct, especially as they see it in their own lives.

The 7th store was the charm. A couple weeks ago I had to hit 3 Lowe’s grocery stores to try and find the Lipton decaf tea mix I like (I mostly avoid caffeine, gives me migraines, don’t need caffeine, and do not like to be that jacked up at night), ended up 25 minutes from home.

The economy — as you might expect from those desultory numbers — is a top-of-mind issue for many Americans. Around four in 10 Americans told Gallup that economic issues were the biggest problem facing the country, with inflation topping that list. (The Consumer Price Index hit 8.5% in March, the highest that number has been in 40 years.)

Add all of those factors up, and you get an absolutely toxic political environment facing Biden and Democrats as they prepare to defend their House and Senate majorities in November.

See? It’s all about how bad it is for Biden and the Democrats, not that you’re paying a lot more for food, energy, having a tough time finding products.

Read: Even CNN Notices That They Economy Is Not Good »

Posted in Democrats, Economy, Joe Biden | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Your Fault: ‘Climate Change’ Might Fuel Future Pandemics

By William Teach April 29, 2022 – 7:00 am

Of course, this is way in the future, and, you’re willing to give up your money and freedom to stop this, right?

‘Potentially devastating’: Climate crisis may fuel future pandemics

There will be at least 15,000 instances of viruses leaping between species over the next 50 years, with the climate crisis helping fuel a “potentially devastating” spread of disease that will imperil animals and people and risk further pandemics, researchers have warned.

As the planet heats up, many animal species will be forced to move into new areas to find suitable conditions. They will bring their parasites and pathogens with them, causing them to spread between species that haven’t interacted before. This will heighten the risk of what is called “zoonotic spillover”, where viruses transfer from animals to people, potentially triggering another pandemic of the magnitude of Covid-19.

The inference here is that the climate crisis (scam) had something to do with Wuhan Flu, rather than someone screwing around with coronaviruses in a lab.

“As the world changes, the face of disease will change too,” said Gregory Albery, an expert in disease ecology at Georgetown University and co-author of the paper, published in Nature. “This work provides more incontrovertible evidence that the coming decades will not only be hotter, but sicker.

“We have demonstrated a novel and potentially devastating mechanism for disease emergence that could threaten the health of animals in the future and will likely have ramifications for us, too.”

Albery said that climate change is “shaking ecosystems to their core” and causing interactions between species that are already likely to be spreading viruses. He said that even drastic action to address global heating now won’t be enough to halt the risk of spillover events.

It’s always some sort of doom with these people, bases on cult dogma and computer models.

Read: Your Fault: ‘Climate Change’ Might Fuel Future Pandemics »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 17 Comments | Trackback URL

White House Seems Surprised That Anyone Would Oppose A Ministry Of Truth

By William Teach April 29, 2022 – 6:45 am

Seriously, who would possibly be opposed to a government “board” cracking down on the free speech of citizens that the government disagrees with?

White House defends DHS ‘disinformation’ board: ‘Not sure who opposes that effort’

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday defended a recently-announced Department of Homeland Security effort to combat “disinformation” on issues related to COVID-19 and elections.

Asked by Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich for more information what DHS’ Disinformation Governance Board would be doing specifically, Psaki said, “I really haven’t dug into this exactly, I mean, we of course support this effort but let me see if I can get more specifics.”

The White House announced its support for an effort from the DHS to crack down on what it considers to be online disinformation.

“We know there has been a range of [disinformation] out there about a range of topics, I mean, including COVID for example, and also elections and eligibility,” Psaki said, adding that she would check for additional information on what the board plans to do.

Why does the WH press secretary seem to not have much of an idea what the WH is doing? Isn’t that her job? Oh, she’s intentionally hiding what the Biden administration is doing.

Asked by Heinrich about prior statements made by Jankowicz and how the administration can “assuage concerns” over her appointment to lead the effort fairly, Psaki responded, “It sounds like the objective of the board is to prevent disinformation and misinformation from traveling around the country in a range of communities. I’m not sure who opposes that effort.”

That’s really not the government’s job, especially since we all know it will be about going after Wrongthink.

“Rather than police our border, Homeland Security has decided to make policing Americans’ speech its top priority,” Republican Sen. Josh Hawley wrote in a tweet. “They’re creating a Disinformation Board. No, really. And take a look at the views of the leftist radical running it.”

No one has a problem with a board of unelected, beyond partisan bureaucrats policing American’s speech, right?

Read: White House Seems Surprised That Anyone Would Oppose A Ministry Of Truth »

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Climate Cult Prognosticates Double The Number Of Major Hurricanes And Typhoons By 2050

By William Teach April 28, 2022 – 3:00 pm

Pretty much all of their prognostications on tropical systems have failed, so, why not one more? Especially putting it out 28 years

Climate change could double the number of major hurricanes and typhoons by 2050, study finds

Thanks to climate change, the number of hurricanes and typhoons rated as Category 3 storms and higher could double by the year 2050, a new study concludes.

Using computer modeling, the study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, concluded that, as global air and water temperatures continue to rise due to excess greenhouse gas emissions, the increase in the number of major hurricanes and typhoons will affect a larger number of people.

Computer models? That’s a joke, right?

According to the new study, climate change will help increase the wind speeds of major hurricanes by as much as 20% over the next 28 years, as well as the overall frequency of Category 4 and 5 storms by more than 200% in some parts of the world.

“Our results also reemphasize that regions that currently have a (very) low risk could start to be really impacted by tropical cyclones under climate change,” Nadia Bloemendaal, a climate scientist at the University of Amsterdam and the study’s lead author, told CNN. “We found it shocking to see the disproportionate amount of developing countries at risk for future climate change.”

Who’s held responsible if this fails to materialize? Oh, right, no one will remember this in 2050, it’s meant to scare people now to Do Something. Things that the Warmists won’t do voluntarily in their own lives.

Meanwhile

Broken climate promises

The world observed Earth Day for the 52nd time last week, but there was a shadow on the celebration. Earlier in the month, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its latest report on efforts to stop global warming. It showed a “litany of broken climate promises” was “putting us on track towards an unlivable world,” in the words of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The report is an indictment of governments, corporations and investors who have signed on to the “net-zero carbon” goal but have put little or no concrete effort behind their pledges. “Government and business are saying one thing and doing another,” Guterres said. “Simply put, they are lying.”

Who’s surprised? Most Warmists fail to keep to their pledges. Citizens might clamor for them, but, once instituted, they are not happy with the effects on their own lives. They thought all the bad stuff would apply to Other People. Corporations and investors are going to care about their bottom lines.

Read: Climate Cult Prognosticates Double The Number Of Major Hurricanes And Typhoons By 2050 »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 5 Comments | Trackback URL
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