If All You See…

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

…is land turned to desert from carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Bunkerville, with a post on a German city turning off hot water due to the Russian gas crisis.

Read: If All You See… »

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

Senate Inflation Reduction Act Doesn’t Seem Much About Inflation Reduction

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

I’m having a tough time finding any article that shows that the Manchin/Schumer Inflation Reduction Act will reduce inflation, at least in the next 2-4 years. Meaning, it will pretty much not reduce inflation ever

unintended consequences(NTU) A closer look at the timing of the new spending and tax cuts in the bill (versus the timing of reduced spending and revenue increases) suggests that the bill won’t reduce inflation in the next few years because, on net, the Inflation Reduction Act may spend more than it saves in some of the early years. Any front-loaded deficits will increase interest payments on the national debt. As a rule of thumb based on CBO data, each $100 million increase in spending in 2023 will add $27 million to debt interest costs over the decade.

Only in FY 2027 do deficits start to decrease substantially, likely well beyond the immediate period of elevated inflation based on CBO estimates and consumer expectations. (FY 2022 is almost over, so it is likely that the IRA has no practical effects on government spending or revenues in FY 2022.)

We still do not have actual legislation for anyone to go for, just lots of talking points, press release, which lead to lost of fanboying over….oh right, this is really all about the climate crisis scam, almost everything else is a distraction

‘Absolutely historic’: Senate budget deal would be biggest climate change action ever

The Inflation Reduction Act, as the newly renamed budget reconciliation bill is known, could help reduce consumer prices on goods. If it passes, however, it will undoubtedly have an even bigger impact on climate change.

“Could.” How? This article spends no time explaining how. And, if it is all about inflation reduction, shouldn’t it, and the legislation, tell us how it will bring down prices, not that it “could”?

The major climate components of the bill, which has yet to win final approval in the House or Senate, include tax incentives for wind, solar, hydrogen and nuclear power. There will be $20 billion in loans for electric vehicle manufacturing and $30 billion in tax credits to boost the manufacturing of solar panels and wind turbines and the mining of minerals used in electric vehicle batteries.

Electric car manufacturers and consumers looking to save money at the pump would be big winners. The bill would add a new $4,000 tax credit for buying electric vehicles to the existing $7,500, though it would be limited to trucks, vans and SUVs that retail for less $80,000, cars below $55,000 and only families with adjusted gross incomes below $300,000 per year.

So, basically, it’s hooking up the rich upper middle class folks to get them to buy EVs, even though they can easily afford one without any tax credits. As for nuclear, you know there will be zero movement on this, and Democrats at the federal and state level will work to block any attempts to build nuclear plants

There are also major investments in climate justice, which means ensuring that low-income communities are not disproportionately harmed by the effects of climate change and that clean-energy economy opportunities are fairly distributed. The bill would spend $3 billion for climate justice block grants and $3 billion to reduce air pollution at the nation’s ports. It would also establish the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion bank that would distribute funds to nonprofits and state and local governments to help reduce their carbon footprints by advancing rooftop solar, for example, or switching to a clean-vehicle fleet.

So, mostly a slush fund for Democrat voting groups, though, you can bet that screwing around with ports will increase the price of consumer goods that come in through the port. So, what else is in it other than the climate crazy in what they’ve been told will be a 725 page piece of legislation?

What’s in, and out, of Democrats’ inflation-fighting package

…

Launching a long-sought goal, the bill would allow the Medicare program to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, saving the federal government some $288 billion over the 10-year budget window.

Remember when Democrats refused to work with Trump to do this?

The bill would extend the subsidies provided during the COVID-19 pandemic to help some Americans who buy health insurance on their own.

Under earlier pandemic relief, the extra help was set to expire this year. But the bill would allow the assistance to keep going for three more years, lowering insurance premiums for people who are purchasing their own health care policies.

Which will keep health insurance and care prices up. And, that’s it, besides the climate scam garbage and tax increases that won’t work. How does any of this reduce inflation? Anyone?

Read: Senate Inflation Reduction Act Doesn’t Seem Much About Inflation Reduction »

Posted in Democrats, Economy, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

LOL: DC Mayor Wants National Guard Deployed Over Influx Of Illegal Aliens

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

The continuation of the education of hardcore Democrats on the fallout of their own policies

Washington mayor requests troops to aid with migrant arrivals from Texas and Arizona

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has requested the deployment of military troops to assist with migrants arriving on buses sent by the Texas and Arizona state governments, according to letters sent by her office to U.S. military and White House officials.

Bowser, a Democrat, has clamored in recent weeks for federal funds to provide shelter and services to migrants arriving on buses from the two Republican-led states, which sought to make a political statement by sending border crossers to Washington.

“Our ability to assist people in need at this scale is very limited,” Bowser said in a letter to White House officials, adding that non-profit organizations welcoming migrants in Washington are “overwhelmed and underfunded.”

Democrats are super excited to advocate for all sorts of policies that cause problems, to say the least, for Other People, but, are upset when those same policies boomerang back on themselves. It’s super easy to advocate and agitate for open borders when those foreigners are in border states, not so easy when they’re shipped to D.C., right?

Migrant advocates and Washington city council members have called on Bowser to devote city funds to the reception effort, but the mayor has said the federal government must step in.

So, this is Biden’s fault? She wasn’t particularly concerned with all the border towns having do deal with this.

Read: LOL: DC Mayor Wants National Guard Deployed Over Influx Of Illegal Aliens »

Posted in Democrats, Illegal Immigration | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Your Fault: Midwest Could See More Sharks

By William Teach July 28, 2022 – 2:00 pm

If only you would give up you modern lifestyle, agree to higher taxes and fees, and give your liberty, freedom, and life choices up to government

Could shark sightings in the Midwest become more common?

Sharks are, for the most part, ocean animals. Tens of millions of people living in the landlocked Midwest may have never even seen one in person. However, there are some sharks, like the bull shark, that are able to thrive in freshwater, and they could be coming farther inland than ever before.

“[Bull sharks] are, depending on what study you read, usually in the top three in terms of [being] dangerous to humans, but they’re beautiful animals,” Kevin Feldheim, manager of the Pritzker Laboratory at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, told AccuWeather National Weather Reporter Emmy Victor. He said there were two known sightings in the Mississippi River over the past century: one in Alton, Illinois, in 1937 and another in Missouri in 1995. (snip)

Feldheim said other sharks can tolerate low levels of salt in their environment, but they can’t swim through rivers or lakes like the bull shark. This — combined with summers that could warm by as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century due to climate change — gives them the chance to swim out of the ocean and far into the north-central U.S.

Good grief. Really? I have to wonder, what makes a reporter like Accuweather’s Wyatt Loy even ask about this. Where did it come from? Seriously, this is truly out of the blue. Was it “hey, there are a bunch of shark attacks on the coasts, could sharks go up the Mississippi?” And very, very silly.

“We’re seeing them shift their ranges. Some of these cold-blooded species are being found further north, compared to where they used to be found,” said Mike Heithaus, a marine biologist at Florida International University. “Bull sharks and their use of freshwater could change as the climate does.”

Heithaus said that even though the sharks’ behaviors may change, the risk of someone seeing one so far from the ocean is very small.

So, basically a complete bullsharkshit piece, meant to scare people who will most likely never make it past the first couple of paragraphs. Or even the headline.

Read: Your Fault: Midwest Could See More Sharks »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach July 28, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is an inland sea from carbon pollution Bad Weather extreme rain, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is 90Ninety Miles From Tyranny, with a post on Biden’s weird declaration of recession-free America.

Read: If All You See… »

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

Manchin Agrees To Slimmed Down Build Back Broke Deal

By William Teach July 28, 2022 – 10:30 am

Did someone have something on Joe Manchin, causing him to agree to legislation that will make inflation worse?

Lawmakers react after Manchin, Schumer agree to reconciliation deal: ‘Build Back Broke’

Republicans are not pleased with the prospect of a revived version of Build Back Better after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced they came to an agreement on a reconciliation package.

While some details of the reconciliation package are unclear, Manchin said in a statement that the bill will contain a minimum 15% tax on companies worth more than $1 billion and will also have investments in energy, which include nuclear, renewables and fossil fuels.

Manchin said the bill will be titled the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.”

“I now propose and will vote for the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Rather than risking more inflation with trillions in new spending, this bill will cut the inflation taxes Americans are paying, lower the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, and ensure our country invests in the energy security and climate change solutions,” Manchin said. “President Biden, Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi have committed to advancing a suite of commonsense permitting reforms this fall.”

In other words, it will increase the price of all

The two senators said the bill will raise $739 billion in revenue by IRS tax enforcement, closing the carried interest loophole and establishing a corporate minimum tax. Roughly $433 billion will be spent on energy and climate provisions, as well as an expansion of the Affordable Care Act.

Companies will either pass on their higher taxation to consumers or move their headquarters out of the U.S. to reduce their tax liability. It almost never works out well when taxes are increased. In fairness, even Donald Trump wanted the carried interest tax provision (there’s almost no such thing as a “loophole”: Congress wrote the tax law, and should have done their research. It’s simply a provision). You can make cases for it and against it

They want to do this via reconciliation, avoiding the need for the 60 vote threshold to move it forward. Will the Congressional parliamentarian deem it legal for reconciliation? Many other Dem bills failed that.

What’s specifically in the bill? So far, it’s just a talking point. There is no submitted legislation, and only some yammering on Joe Manchin’s webpage. Will it be very specific and targeted, or simply leave most of the details up to unelected bureaucrats?

“I support a plan that will advance a realistic energy and climate policy that lowers prices today and strategically invests in the long game. As the super power of the world, it is vital we not undermine our super power status by removing dependable and affordable fossil fuel energy before new technologies are ready to reliably carry the load. This legislation ensures that the market will take the lead, rather than aspirational political agendas or unrealistic goals, in the energy transition that has been ongoing in our country. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 invests in the technologies needed for all fuel types – from hydrogen, nuclear, renewables, fossil fuels and energy storage – to be produced and used in the cleanest way possible. It is truly all of the above, which means this bill does not arbitrarily shut off our abundant fossil fuels. It invests heavily in technologies to help us reduce our domestic methane and carbon emissions and also helps decarbonize around the world as we displace dirtier products.

You know that there will be no actual investments in fossil fuels and nuclear. Those will either get cut in the final product, or, the Executive Branch will spend zip on them. If Joe thinks this will play well in West Virginia, that’s highly doubtful. And none of it will help with inflation. For one thing, most actions will be years in the making. Second, change the carried interest provision, and companies will simply change the pay structure to something else. Do Manchin and Schumer not think highly paid and very smart tax accounts cannot figure something else out?

Read: Manchin Agrees To Slimmed Down Build Back Broke Deal »

Posted in Democrats, Economy | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

“SUV Tires Fall Prey To Gen Z Eco-Activists” Or Something

By William Teach July 28, 2022 – 7:15 am

Yeah, it’s like no big deal to the UK Guardian. Hey, it’s like public shaming!

‘Like a public shaming’: a night with the eco-activists deflating SUV tires

On a searingly hot night in New York City, a group of mask-wearing activists grasping bags of lentils set out to stage the biggest blitzkrieg yet upon a new target for climate campaigners in the US – the tires of SUVs.

The group – a mixture of ages and genders – split up as midnight approached, heading down the streets of the Upper East Side, lined by some of the most expensive apartments in the world and a gleaming parade of high-end, parked SUVs. This type of vehicle is the second largest cause of the global rise in carbon dioxide emissions over the past decade.

The Tyre Extinguishers, as they call themselves, furtively hand around bags of lentils ahead of their raid (the legumes are jammed into a tire valve to release its air slowly overnight) and size up their quarry.

A hulking Land Rover, sporting a parking permit for a Hamptons beach, is an obvious initial target, but a loitering doorman from a nearby apartment complex unnerves the group. They scurry down the street, then double back and settle upon an Audi.

One of the group kneels down, unscrews the tire valve cap, stuffs a lentil inside and puts the cap back on. The tire immediately lets out a startled “pfft” noise, a leaflet is slapped on to the windshield and the group melts back into the night.

Huh. So, the UK Guardian reporter Oliver Milman was hanging with young folks engaged in vandalism? Yes, this is actually a violation of the law, even if the tires are not damaged, and could be on the hook for the costs to tow or fix the tires, especially since many won’t know what the problem is and have a shop check the tires, which costs money and takes time.

America has embraced large SUVs like no other country, even in liberal, walkable areas like the Upper East Side, so the activists face a steep task in attaching stigma to the supersized cars that now dominate US streets. But Tyre Extinguishers’ nascent US operation has been flooded with insults and even death threats. One message vowed to “deflate your lungs” while another critic, in a nod to the British roots of the campaign, wrote: “Damn you, Redcoats!”

It’s utterly not surprising that a left wing news outlet will support leftists acting in a criminal manner.

“The amount of damage from a flat tire is nothing compared to climate change,” said one member of the group as we moved away from the first deflation, Central Park looming into sight through the dark. “Why do you need an SUV, especially in New York? It’s a vanity thing. You have freedom of choice, sure, but you don’t have freedom from consequences.”

It’s going to get very ugly when these people get caught in the act by the vehicle owners.

“It is like a public shaming,” said Dana Fisher, a sociologist at the University of Maryland who has researched environmental protests since the 1990s. “The target of public shaming is very unlikely to change their opinion from the shaming, so the question is, what’s the point? It’s an innovative, simple tactic to take the air out of someone’s tires, it’s not harmful, it’s just annoying. It’s like the training wheels to something confrontational.”

See? It’s just shaming. And it’ll be fun and games until they are caught and charges are pressed that cannot be dismissed. Or, a homeowner beats the ever loving shit out of one of them. Or plugs them with a 9mm.

Read: “SUV Tires Fall Prey To Gen Z Eco-Activists” Or Something »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

Senator Ernst Spikes Democrats Birth Control Bill

By William Teach July 28, 2022 – 7:00 am

It’s so horrible, right? It’s sent most of the Credentialed Media outlets into a tizzy

GOP Sen. Joni Ernst Blocks Bill Protecting Right To Birth Control

Democratic legislation that would protect the right to birth control and other contraceptives was blocked by Senate Republicans on Wednesday, a little more than a month after the Supreme Court reversed nearly 50 years of precedent and overturned abortion rights.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) objected to a request to pass the bill via unanimous consent. If any senator opposes such a request on the Senate floor, it is rejected.

Ernst claimed the Democrats’ bill “purposefully goes far beyond the scope of contraception” and said it could fund abortion providers and protect abortion-inducing drugs.

The House passed the Right to Contraception Act last week amid fears that the high court may come for reproductive health care next. Democrats pointed to an opinion from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suggesting the court should reexamine precedent that guaranteed the right to contraception.

Well, see, it rather does attempt to make an end around States Rights regarding abortion

(Catholic News Agency) In a letter to Congress ahead of the vote, SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser cautioned against the bill that seeks “to bail out the abortion industry, trample conscience rights, and require uninhibited access to dangerous chemical abortion drugs.”

“The bill states that contraceptives include drugs, devices, or biological products intended for contraception, ‘whether specifically intended to prevent pregnancy or for other health needs,’” Dannenfelser wrote. “This could include noncontroversial applications of the drug but could also include the use of the drug to induce abortion.”

The bill also overrides the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The 1993 law clarifies the standards that should be used in judging religious freedom disputes involving the First Amendment’s free exercise clause. That clause says that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.

The bill directly criticizes state conscience protections for health care providers who refuse to provide contraception.

Worth reading that whole piece. See, Democrats could have simply gone for a straight-forward, above board legislation, but, not, they tried to get all sorts of tricky. Back to the original piece

Ernst on Wednesday sought to pass her own bill that would expedite over-the-counter access to birth control. Democrats objected, saying it wouldn’t prevent states from restricting or even banning access to birth control.

“Her bill would not ensure access to birth control, and it fails to codify the constitutional right to birth control across the United States,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said.

Democrats do not want easier access to birth control, because then groups like Planned Parenthood would lose money. And then more women would use it, which is bad for the abortion on demand business.

Read: Senator Ernst Spikes Democrats Birth Control Bill »

Posted in Current Affairs, Democrats | 19 Comments | Trackback URL

It’s A Cult: Tech Workers Quit To Fight Climate Apocalypse (scam)

By William Teach July 27, 2022 – 2:00 pm

The question not really asked: what are they doing in their own lives to match their Beliefs?

Why tech workers are quitting great jobs at companies like Google to fight climate change

electric vehicleTech workers are walking away from high-paying jobs with great perks to help fight what they believe is the greatest existential problem of our lifetimes: climate change.

In some cases, that has meant taking a pay cut. But Sandy Anuras, who recently joined home solar provider Sunrun as its chief technology officer, says a big paycheck sometimes comes with a price.

“The tech giants have had these huge compensation packages. And it’s hard to say no to a huge compensation package,” Anuras told CNBC. “You just realize there’s a little bit more to life than maxing out your comp package. And I think people are realizing that now — and especially with some of the decisions that their companies have made to prioritize profits over democracy, for example.” (snip)

That’s how it was for software engineer Tom Melendez, too. He worked at Google for five years before leaving in 2019 to take a job at MethaneSAT, an affiliate of the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, which processes satellite data to measure emissions of methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas.

“I was proud to be at Google. While I was there, especially in the beginning, I enjoyed the work I was doing,” Melendez told CNBC. But eventually he started to feel disenchanted. “At the end of the day, you can’t help but feel like the sole purpose of this is really just to make money. I am not making anything better — or not really. The metrics that I’m rated on are important to the company, but they’re not really important to me.”

Nope, nothing about the changes they made in their own lives. Huh

For example, since the climate jobs website Climatebase launched in June 2020, more than 600,000 people have used it, poring over more than than 40,000 job listings from more than 3,000 climate tech companies and environmental organizations, according to co-founder Evan Hynes. Climatebase has also had over 3,000 applications for an educational fellowship the company runs. (Disclosure: I was one of the fellows in the founding fellowship earlier in 2022.)

A Slack channel for job seekers called Work In Climate has more than 10,000 members, up more than fourfold in the last year, said the list’s co-founder, Eugene Kirpichov.

Seems like a scam. Other than jobs where they try and force their beliefs on Other People, what are they doing?

Kirpichov decided to leave Google to pursue work full time on climate and he shared the email he wrote to colleagues on LinkedIn:

“The reason I’m leaving is because the scale, urgency and tragedy of climate change are so immense that I can no longer justify to myself working on anything else, no matter how interesting or lucrative, until it’s fixed,” Kirpichov wrote. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I think others, who have the privilege of being able to do so, should follow suit. I like to frame the problem positively as ‘how much can we save,’ and every one of us can have a hand in saving something.”

Still nothing on personal changes to match the Beliefs. Anyhow, privilege?

Because he (Melendez from first excerpt) had earned a high Google salary for years and owned his home, he was financially able to take the step-down in pay that came with his move to MethaneSAT. Having a steady housing situation ends up being a key factor in whether people can move to a lower salary in exchange for work they find meaningful.

So, rich folks able to pretend to be climate warriors.

“I was thinking about my family, being from Thailand and Southeast Asia. We know Southeast Asia is going to get hit really hard with climate change. And so I’m really thinking a lot about folks who don’t have the privilege that I have, where I can say, ‘Oh, I’m going to be in Seattle, where it is so cool and climate change is not impacting us in such a severe way,’” Anuras told CNBC.

“As a privileged technologist, where should I be spending my life?” Anuras said. As she realized that Anuras realized she can use her skills to combat climate change, the answers to her own questions became increasingly clear.

“What problems do I want to look back and say I helped solve: One of the greatest problems humanity has faced, or I worked on selling some widgets in the metaverse? It just didn’t compute for me.”

Nope, still nothing on lifestyle changes. Just a big scam.

Read: It’s A Cult: Tech Workers Quit To Fight Climate Apocalypse (scam) »

Posted in Climate Cult, Global Warming | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach July 27, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is an Evil fossil fuels pump, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is 357 Magnum, with a post on a victim-selection failure.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 1 Comment | Trackback URL
Pirate's Cove