Brandon Threatens China With Sanctions And “Global Backlash” If It Backs Russia Against Ukraine

By William Teach March 19, 2022 – 10:30 am

He’s trying to get all big and bad, you know

Joe Biden warns Xi Jinping of ‘consequences’ if China backs Russia

Joe Biden spoke for nearly two hours with Xi Jinping as the US sought to dissuade China from backing Russia’s war on Ukraine.

A White House account of the call on Friday said that the US president “described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians”.

A senior administration official said there would be consequences “not just for China’s relationship with the United States, but for the wider world”, but would not give more details on whether Biden had gone into specifics on possible sanctions, other than to point out what had happened to Russia as an example.

“The president really laid out in a lot of detail the unified response from not only governments around the world, but also the private sector to Russia’s brutal aggression in Ukraine,” the official said. “The president made clear that there would likely be consequences for those who would step in to support Russia at this time.”

The problem with getting all big and bad is that the person you’re fronting up to might be big and bad, as well, and not care, finding you actually weak. Russia didn’t care. Those supporting Russia didn’t care. The Taliban sure didn’t care about any threats from Biden. They all see the weakness.

That would be his 36th trip to his home for the weekend. Rather hard to take Joe serious when he doesn’t take the job serious.

In fairness, others aren’t doing so well, either

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, both had hour-long conversations with Putin on Friday morning,

According to Scholz’s office, the German leader had “put pressure on [Putin] to introduce a ceasefire as soon as possible, to improve the humanitarian situation and to make progress in the search for a diplomatic solution for the conflict”.

The solution should be that Russia leaves Ukraine and pays reparations for their invasion, at a minimum.

Read: Brandon Threatens China With Sanctions And “Global Backlash” If It Backs Russia Against Ukraine »

Posted in Current Affairs, Joe Biden | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

DOD Wastes $2.6 Million On Climate Scam Study

By William Teach March 19, 2022 – 7:15 am

Oh, sure, it’s only $2.6 million. Of taxpayer money. For silly stuff. That could have been used for military equipment and training

$2.6M in DOD Grants to Fund Studies of Climate Change Impact on Security

Two University of Maryland researchers have received awards totaling $2.6 million to study how national security and climate change intersect in the United States and around the world.

Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham, professor and co-director of graduate studies in the Department of Government and Politics, and Distinguished University Professor Arie Kruglanski in the Department of Psychology were among 17 researchers nationwide to be named recipients of the grants from the Department of Defense’s Minerva Research Initiative, a university-based social science research program.

Cunningham received about $1.6 million to lead a three-year project to study the role that state and non-state actors play in a country’s management of climate change. The focus is Mozambique, an East African nation that has a diverse array of environmental hazards along with a history of non-state actors, ranging from non-governmental organizations to rebel groups, engaging with the population in different ways.

The study will examine people’s understanding of the risks of climate change and how non-state actors involve themselves in governing such issues, said Cunningham, who is working with researchers from Emory University, Texas A&M, Penn State and Carleton University.

Good grief, that is a huge waste of money, basically pet projects of no value.

“We’re also interested in explaining the conditions under which actors, state or non-state, try to leverage the idea that different agencies, people, and organizations are responsible for managing the hazards of climate change—when is it that a rebel group might be able to use government failures of managing climate change to their advantage; who do they assign blame to when things go wrong; and who do they reward when things go right?” she said.

How does this actually help the US Military defend the U.S.A.?

“It’s exciting to see people studying climate change from different angles,” said Cunningham of their fellow Minerva grant recipients. “This will hopefully lead to some interesting cross-pollination.”

So, do it with your own money. Get private funding.

Read: DOD Wastes $2.6 Million On Climate Scam Study »

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

Democrats Vote On Important Stuff: Hair Discrimination

By William Teach March 19, 2022 – 7:00 am

Because the interest groups which run the party care about this stuff, and, they need to patronize their base

House Democrats Vote on Alleged Anti-Hair Discrimination amid Ukraine Crisis, Rising Inflation

House Democrats voted on legislation on Friday that would combat alleged anti-hair discrimination while there remains a war in Ukraine and Americans grapple with soaring inflation and gas prices.

The House passed H.R. 2116, the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act of 2021, 235-189.

Democrats overwhelmingly supported the legislation, and Republicans opposed the bill.

The legislation would prohibit alleged discrimination based on a person’s hair texture or hairstyle that is commonly associated with a particular race or national origin.

As Republicans pointed out, federal law already prohibits discrimination, but, you know, Democrats Are Serious People. The best part is “alleged discrimination”, which actually appears in the text of the bill. In other words, all it would take is someone having a feeling. They wouldn’t need to prove anything.

“Black women are 1.5X more likely to be sent home from work because of their hair. Discrimination against Black women and girls because of their natural hair is far too common in our workplaces and schools. I’m proud to sponsor the #CROWNAct, which would ban this racist practice,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) wrote.

Well, if they aren’t in compliance with company policies, yeah.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) said on the House floor ahead of the vote that the CROWN Act may prevent employers from regulating hairstyles for safety purposes.

It may mean that employers will pass on hiring women who’s hair could be a problem within existing corporate policy.

SEC. 6. EMPLOYMENT.

(a) Prohibition.—It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer, employment agency, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee controlling apprenticeship or other training or retraining (including on-the-job training programs) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against an individual, based on the individual’s hair texture or hairstyle, if that hair texture or that hairstyle is commonly associated with a particular race or national origin (including a hairstyle in which hair is tightly coiled or tightly curled, locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, and Afros).

But, they’ll have to prove it. It’ll mean lots of black women will be passed over for jobs.

Read: Democrats Vote On Important Stuff: Hair Discrimination »

Posted in Barking Moonbats, Democrats | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

Jimmy Page Vs Eddie Van Halen

By William Teach March 18, 2022 – 6:30 pm

Something different. And interesting enough to post it. It’s a tough one.

First there’s Page: one of the original rock gods, starting back in the 1960’s. Lead guitarist for the greatest band in rock and roll. One of the greatest songs in R&R history, Stairway to Heaven. Every single LZ album is at least an A. Extremely innovate, bringing all sorts of themes and styles. He played many guitars, including the double neck with the 12 string. He could also play the mandolin, dulcimer, theremin, bass (he started with the Yardbirds on bass), banjo, harmonica, dobro, sitar, keyboards, tambourine, tambura, hurdy gurdy, and pedal steel guitar. His written music is often more complicated than it sounds.

EVH: one of the fastest guitar players ever. Innovative with the sounds he could create with the guitar. One of the most influential guitarists of the 80’s and forward. Also plays the keyboards. Overall, probably a bit better on consistently great solos than Page. Incredible themes.

Tough choice. Gotta go with Page. What do you think?

Read: Jimmy Page Vs Eddie Van Halen »

Posted in Music | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

Your Fault: Hailstorms To Maybe Possibly Get Worse

By William Teach March 18, 2022 – 3:00 pm

We can stop this if only you would buy an EV for your trips to go get a soy burger

Hailstorms and climate change: What to expect

When people think of the most dangerous threats spawned by thunderstorms, tornadoes typically come to mind. Yet in terms of total damage, hail really ought to be front and center. U.S. hailstorms cause far more property damage than tornadoes, and their toll is rising fast. Climate change may only accentuate the trend.

Insured U.S. hail losses now average from $8 billion to $14 billion per year, or $80-140 billion per decade, as noted by the Insurance Information Institute. This hefty bill far outpaces the total of around $14.1 billion in insured U.S. property loss from tornadoes over the decade from 2010 to 2020.

Each year since 2008 has produced at least $10 billion (USD 2021) in U.S. insured damage from severe weather, according to the reinsurance firm Aon. That’s more than four times the inflation-adjusted damage rate of the 1980s. Hail is typically the largest single culprit in such losses, according to Aon’s Steve Bowen, who called the trend toward more costly severe weather “definitely a new normal.”

One reason the financial impact of hail is getting worse: there are increasingly more things to damage in hail country.

Well, yeah. More houses, buildings, vehicles

Trends in hail-producing storms themselves are also part of the picture. Hail-producing thunderstorms are localized by nature, and databases of hail reports are imperfect. Still, there’s at least some evidence that the largest, most destructive hailstones could become more common in hail country. Climate-model projections indicate this apparent enlargement trend may continue in at least some hail-prone areas as the century unfolds.

That’s right, computer models as stand ins for crystal balls.

In contrast to some other widely documented trends in line with a warming climate – e.g., the intensification of extreme rainfall, or the increase in record-high versus record-low temperatures – researchers haven’t found a consistent trend in hail evolution around the world. Any such trends would be difficult to ferret out because of hail’s overall rarity and because of regional and temporal variations in how hail is measured.

So, they’re purely guessing

Though there’s no sign of a broad global shift toward more hail, there are hints that hail is becoming more severe in at least some areas. A 45-year analysis in northeast Italy found a 2% rise per year in the kinetic energy (a proxy for destructive power) delivered by 90th-percentile hailstorms, or the most intense 10% of all hailstorms, even though the total number of hailstorms did not change dramatically.

Hints are not scientifically gathered data to show a trend.

Hail may become less frequent, but trending larger when it does happen

Oh, good grief. Same garbage prognostication as with hurricanes. It’s a cult.

Read: Your Fault: Hailstorms To Maybe Possibly Get Worse »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach March 18, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…are the colors of a big carbon polluting nation, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Gen Z Conservative, with a post on the groomer Left losing to Florida and Desantis in the polls.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

NY Times Is Suddenly Very Concerned Over Loss Of Free Speech

By William Teach March 18, 2022 – 10:30 am

I wonder what prompted this editorial. Did someone try and cancel one of the editorial board members or someone they know?

America Has a Free Speech Problem

Bill Of RightsFor all the tolerance and enlightenment that modern society claims, Americans are losing hold of a fundamental right as citizens of a free country: the right to speak their minds and voice their opinions in public without fear of being shamed or shunned.

This social silencing, this depluralizing of America, has been evident for years, but dealing with it stirs yet more fear. It feels like a third rail, dangerous. For a strong nation and open society, that is dangerous.

How has this happened? In large part, it’s because the political left and the right are caught in a destructive loop of condemnation and recrimination around “cancel culture.” Many on the left refuse to acknowledge that cancel culture exists at all, believing that those who complain about it are offering cover for bigots to peddle hate speech. Many on the right, for all their braying about cancel culture, have embraced an even more extreme version of censoriousness as a bulwark against a rapidly changing society, with laws that would ban books, stifle teachers and discourage open discussion in classrooms.

Ah. That’s it. They’re upset that Republicans do not want what are essentially porn books in grade schools, and do not want teachers telling young children things they do not need to know at that age, especially about adult sexual issues, nor that they are evil if they are white.

However you define cancel culture, Americans know it exists, and feel its burden. In a new national poll commissioned by Times Opinion and Siena College, only 34 percent of Americans said they believed that all Americans enjoyed freedom of speech completely. The poll found that 84 percent of adults said it is a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” problem that some Americans do not speak freely in everyday situations because of fear of retaliation or harsh criticism.

We’ve all been in situations where we hold our tongues because we feel it’s inappropriate to say what we’re thinking, what we really want to say, right? Sometimes we just do not want to offend someone else, be it a friend, family member, coworker, or person you don’t know. It’s the adult thing to do. That’s different from holding our tongues over something that would usually be non-offensive because some leftist lunatic will start ranting and raving and try and get us cancelled. Get us fired. Destroy our lives. All because we disagree

This poll, and other recent surveys from the Pew Research Center and the Knight Foundation, reveals a crisis of confidence around one of America’s most basic values. Freedom of speech and expression is vital to human beings’ search for truth and knowledge about our world. A society that values freedom of speech can benefit from the full diversity of its people and their ideas. At the individual level, human beings cannot flourish without the confidence to take risks, to pursue ideas and express thoughts that others might reject.

Interestingly, the NY Times has typically taken the side of shutting people down for their expression, such as with climate change skeptics.

Most important, freedom of speech is the bedrock of democratic self government. If people feel free to express their views in their communities, the democratic process can respond to and resolve competing ideas. Ideas that go unchallenged by opposing views risk becoming weak and brittle rather than being strengthened by tough scrutiny. When speech is stifled or when dissenters are shut out of public discourse, a society also loses its ability to resolve conflict, and it faces the risk of political violence.

Think how the NY Times has treated those on the Right who thought the 2020 election was stolen. Who were skeptical on a lot of things COVID related.

The Times Opinion/Siena College poll found that 46 percent of respondents said they felt less free to talk about politics compared to a decade ago. Thirty percent said they felt the same. Only 21 percent of people reported feeling freer, even though in the past decade there was a vast expansion of voices in the public square through social media.

There are certain people I will not have political conversations with, because they lose their crap and get personal. Also, I avoid them at work. Even when we’re slow and bored. Don’t want the drama.

But the old lesson of “think before you speak” has given way to the new lesson of “speak at your peril.” You can’t consider yourself a supporter of free speech and be policing and punishing speech more than protecting it. Free speech demands a greater willingness to engage with ideas we dislike and a greater self-restraint in the face of words that challenge and even unsettle us.

There are things you say in a Polite Society, and things you should probably keep internally. Sometimes it’s just plain respect.

But, yeah, this is really about not wanting certain books and curriculum in schools as espoused by Republicans, something which the majority of parents agree with them on. Seven of the last 8 paragraphs deal with this, including

These bills include Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which restricts what teachers and students can talk about and allows for parents to file lawsuits. If the law goes into force, watch for lawsuits against schools that restrict the free speech rights of students to discuss things like sexuality, established by earlier Supreme Court rulings.

It’s not called that, the word gay doesn’t appear, and it doesn’t stop kids from bringing it up for discussion. How many kids 8 and under will start a discussion on transgenderism or anal sex without prompting? Are these things kids care about? Think about? No. And most parents do not want these discussions in school. They do not want adults with agendas grooming their kids. Discussing blowjobs, anal sex, trying to convince them they are a different sex.

Jumping back up higher in the article

It is worth noting here the important distinction between what the First Amendment protects — freedom from government restrictions on expression — and the popular conception of free speech — the affirmative right to speak your mind in public, on which the law is silent. The world is witnessing firsthand, in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the strangling of free speech through government censorship and imprisonment. That is not the kind of threat to freedom of expression that Americans face. Yet, something has been lost; the poll clearly shows a dissatisfaction with free speech as it is experienced and understood by Americans today.

Interestingly, no mention of what Canada did to the Freedom Truckers. No mention of school boards shutting down parents. However, the text of the 1st Amendment is all about Government not being able to pass a law that shuts down the right to speak out against the government. Teachers are government employees. The government has a right, an obligation, even, to stop them from inflicting their personal biases on young children. Teachers are not engaged in speaking out against government, but, in telling children things better left to the parents.

Read: NY Times Is Suddenly Very Concerned Over Loss Of Free Speech »

Posted in 1st Amendment, Wonky Media | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

Doom: Allergy Season Getting Longer Due To Climate Emergency

By William Teach March 18, 2022 – 7:00 am

Man, that 1.5F increase in global temperatures since 1850 is a bummer

The Big Sneeze: Climate change to make pollen season nastier

Climate change has already made allergy season longer and pollen counts higher, but you ain’t sneezed nothing yet.

Climate scientists at the University of Michigan looked at 15 different plant pollens in the United States and used computer simulations to calculate how much worse allergy season will likely get by the year 2100. It’s enough to make allergy sufferers even more red-eyed.

As the world warms, allergy season will start weeks earlier and end many days later — and it’ll be worse while it lasts, with pollen levels that could as much as triple in some places, according to a new study Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

Warmer weather allows plants to start blooming earlier and keeps them blooming later. Meanwhile, additional carbon dioxide in the air from burning fuels such as coal, gasoline and natural gas helps plants produce more pollen, said study co-author Allison Steiner, a University of Michigan climate scientist.

Oh, so, this is all in the future per computer models? Huh.

It’s already happening. A study a year ago from different researchers found that from 1990 to 2018, pollen has increased and allergy season is starting earlier, with much of it because of climate change.

Allergists say that pollen season in the U.S. used to start around St. Patrick’s Day and now often starts around Valentine’s Day.

Well, this is what happens during a Holocene warm period. Perhaps these cultists would prefer the much shorter seasons during the Little Ice Age?

With moderate cuts in greenhouse gas emission from coal, oil and natural gas, pollen season would start 20 days earlier by the end of the century. In the most extreme and increasingly unlikely warming scenario, pollen season in much of America will start 40 days earlier than when it has generally started in recent decades.

So, give up your money and freedom and reliable, affordable, dependable energy and we can solve this! The talking points went out

There are plenty more. Me? I’m allergic to oak, so, that gets me, but, also dust mites, so, it’s pretty much all year that I take allergy pills.

Read: Doom: Allergy Season Getting Longer Due To Climate Emergency »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

COVID Forever: Media Trying To Stoke Fear Over Latest Breakout In Europe

By William Teach March 18, 2022 – 6:45 am

They just can’t let go of the Fear Porn, eh?

Is Europe’s new COVID surge coming to America next?

While many Americans have decided the pandemic is “over” as it pertains to their own lives — a full 37 percent, according to the latest Yahoo News/YouGov poll — those who’ve been paying close attention to the latest COVID-19 developments overseas are now asking themselves two troublesome questions.

What the heck is happening in Europe? And is it about to happen in the U.S. too?

Over the last two weeks, COVID cases have shot up more than 25% across the European Union. In several European countries, the curve is even steeper: The United Kingdom (120%), Finland (88%) Switzerland (83%), Belgium (62%), Austria (59%), Germany (53%), Italy (49%), the Netherlands (45%) and France (27%). Hospitalizations are starting to rise as well.

And it’s not just this new trajectory that’s alarming; it’s the fact that it’s coming so quickly on the heels of Europe’s previous wave of infection — an Omicron surge that was even larger, and peaked even later, than the one in the United States. (snip)

So does this mean the United States is about to experience yet another huge surge at precisely the moment when our last modest safety measures — namely, indoor mask requirements in public places and schools — have been lifted?

The answer is … complicated.

Because masks totally stopped the rise of Delta and Omicron…..oh, wait

The issue, then, is probably less about whether U.S. COVID cases will rise in the coming weeks and more about how much. The BA.2 subvariant of Omicron — which is almost certainly aggravating the situation in Europe due to the fact that it’s at least 30 percent more transmissible than its sister lineage — is now gaining steam in the U.S. as well, accounting for 30% of new cases. U.S. wastewater surveillance also shows sharp increases in coronavirus RNA levels in sewage at 53 of the 419 sites where it was conducted between Feb. 24 and March 10.

That could be a leading indicator of a big new wave, but it’s not a guarantee. As Topol noted, the Alpha variant — which was 50 percent more transmissible than the original version of the virus — decimated the U.K. last winter, prompting fears of a spring surge in the United States. Yet while the proportion of U.S. Alpha cases kept going up, the total number of COVID cases kept going down. Ultimately, Michigan was the only state where Alpha really caught fire. The rest of the country was largely spared.

After seeing so much fearmongering over the past 2 years, it’s hard to determine if this is simply proper information meant to make sure people have what they need, or, stoking fear to increase government control over people’s lives (and make a profit off of it). The news outlets in the UK aren’t too concerned with it, thinking that the surge will end before the end of March. Even the far left BBC barely mentions the surge, same with the UK Guardian.

And

Read: COVID Forever: Media Trying To Stoke Fear Over Latest Breakout In Europe »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus, Wonky Media | 20 Comments | Trackback URL

Oops: California Climate (scam) Group Gives State A “D”

By William Teach March 17, 2022 – 3:00 pm

All that climavirtue signaling, all the taxes, fees, and mandates, and this is what you get (besides skyrocketing energy prices, cost of living)

Environmental group gives California a poor grade on climate change

The group’s recent report gave California’s political leaders their first “D” letter grade for 2021 over what it called “inaction” in addressing the climate crisis last year.

The group said the state failed to pass significant climate legislation in the past three years and is not on track to meet the state’s own stated climate goals.

A statement from CEO Mary Creasman, singled out “climate delayers” in the State Senate, specifically 18 Democrats, who received failing grades on the group’s legislative scorecard along with all of the Republican senators. Many Republicans received scores of less than 50.

Creasman complained that the legislators, “talk about climate change but don’t back up those words with action.”

The group, since there seems to be a bit missing, is Envirovoters, who should all be asked if they’ve traded their fossil fueled vehicles for EVs and stopped taking fossil fueled flights. If they’ve moved into tiny homes, hand wash and line dry their clothes, given up meat, and so forth. Which leads to

The runaway cost of virtue-signalling

(Batya Ungar-Sargon discusses many things, particularly the gaslighting from Joe and his Dem Comrades on gas, before getting to)

Take the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have connected the Alberta tar sands in Canada to oil refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas, but was blocked by Biden on his first day in office. On Friday, the president pooh-poohed the idea that his cancellation of the pipeline has impacted the price of fuel. ‘The Keystone Pipeline was two years away’, he said. ‘It had been two per cent finished. Give me a break.’ It’s a facetious argument, though. In shutting down the pipeline project, Biden sent a message to the oil industry – that its investments were not secure. This then translated into a market reality.

With a commodities market intentions will be read, and can positively, or negatively, affect those commodities, like oil.

It’s not just the pipeline, either. The fracking industry, which progressive environmental torchbearer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced legislation to ban, also offers jobs that provide significant upward mobility for those employed in it. The fracking boom has massively reduced income inequality in places like North Dakota, while a national ban on fracking would cost upward of 14million jobs that provide security and a middle-class lifestyle to millions of Americans.

The elites do not care

If you want to see how environmental policy furthers inequality, look no further than California, which is the state most committed to decarbonising its energy supply. It is now the most energy efficient state – as well as the state with the highest poverty rate in America. Twenty per cent of Californians live in poverty, and a growing number of academics have been tying that poverty to the cost of living – including to the cost of energy. Since 2011 the cost of electricity in California has increased five times as fast as the rest of the US.

Rising electricity prices in California have disproportionately impacted low-income families. In practice, this means that black and Latino households are spending 20 to 40 per cent more of their household incomes on energy than white households, the esteemed environmental lawyer Jennifer Hernandez found in a 2021 paper titled ‘Green Jim Crow’. In 2020, nearly four million California households – or 30 per cent of Californians – faced energy poverty. Meanwhile, more than two million households were forced to spend between 10 and 27 per cent of their total income on home energy.

Can you imagine how bad this would be if California got a grade higher than “D”?

‘Loosening environmental regulations won’t lower prices. But transforming our economy to run on electric vehicles, powered by clean energy, will mean that no one will have to worry about gas prices’, President Biden tweeted last week. Electric cars have become the ‘Let them eat cake’ of 2022.

It’s easy for the rich to buy an EV, because they want to. For most Americans, they can’t make that choice. Did the Envirovoters make a choice to get one themselves?

Read: Oops: California Climate (scam) Group Gives State A “D” »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Democrats, Global Warming | 2 Comments | Trackback URL
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