If All You See…

By William Teach January 3, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is an evil fossil fueled vehicle, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Flopping Aces, with a post on Beverly Hills enjoying armed robberies.

Read: If All You See… »

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Who Would Have Guessed That Cloth Masks May Not Provide Protection Against Omicron?

By William Teach January 3, 2022 – 10:30 am

Or, really, just about any version of the Chinese coronavirus

Cloth masks may not protect against omicron, report says

Single-layer cloth masks may not provide adequate protection against the very infectious omicron variant of COVID-19, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.

Many infectious disease experts noted people prefer cloth masks because they are more comfortable and fashionable to wear, but these masks can only block larger droplets of COVID-19, not smaller aerosols or particles that can also carry the virus.

The Mayo Clinic is now requiring all patients and visitors to wear surgical masks, N95 or KN95 masks, so if anyone wears a single-layer, homemade cloth mask or bandanna, they will be given a medical-grade one to wear over it, the report said.

Surgical masks block the COVID-19 virus through its polypropylene electrostatic charge characteristics, while N95 masks have a tighter mesh of fibers than surgical or cloth masks with also electrostatic charge characteristics, which allows the mask to be most efficient at blocking inhaled and exhaled particles.

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, still recommends N95 masks only for health care workers, advising people instead to wear instead cloth masks that have two (or more) layers of fabric that completely cover the face and mouth, fit ‘snugly’ against the sides of the face (without any gaps) that also has a nose wire to prevent air leaking from the top of the mask.

And, almost no one wears two layers, even the mask fetishists. Let’s also not forget that the CDC didn’t update their mask guidance till the end of May 2020, and, based on the infection numbers, really hasn’t made a difference since

But Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, said, “If everyone is just wearing a cloth mask or just a surgical mask, it won’t make any difference” against the omicron variant.

“If you really want no exposure, you have to wear the right type of mask.”

But, few will do this. They are expensive, they are supposed to be worn once, and then disposed of. Or, just ignored, if you’re a Democrat escaping from the cold northeast city you represent with all those restrictions for a nice, warm, restrictionless Red state

Meanwhile, Commie Squad member Ayanna Pressley tested positive for COVID, as did Sec of SortaDefense Lloyd Austin. Both are boosted, both wear masks, and the latter is forcing all military members to get vaccinated.

Read: Who Would Have Guessed That Cloth Masks May Not Provide Protection Against Omicron? »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus, Democrats | 34 Comments | Trackback URL

Bummer: New England Is One Cold Snap From Energy Doom

By William Teach January 3, 2022 – 7:00 am

This is all your fault….oh, wait, no, this is the fault of all the climate cultists who keep voting to do away with reliable, dependable, affordable energy

New England Is One Cold Snap Away From An Energy Crisis

(skip through a bunch of paragraphs that are weird)

Consider Boston, Massachusetts, the unofficial capital of New England (for our international readers, New England consists of six states in the US Northeast, namely Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont). Given its northern latitude, the citizens of Boston experience cold and sometimes brutal winters, but more reasonable summers. Globally, far more people die from exposure to cold than to heat, and this makes winter energy policy especially consequential. In the chart below, we’ve plotted the daily average high and low temperatures for the city and overlaid the thermal comfort zone for easy reference. Not surprisingly, the coldest months of the year are December, January, and February. During these months, an enormous amount of energy is consumed as the population seeks to achieve thermal comfort, and the amount of energy needed to do this is bounded by the laws of physics – it scales with the delta from the thermal comfort zone – and, as a practical matter, the tactics deployed at the extremes are highly inefficient.

In her excellent book Shorting the Grid: The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid, Meredith Angwin describes how a combination of bad policy, complicated governance, and dense bureaucracy has made the entire electric grid of New England incredibly vulnerable to collapse, especially during winter cold snaps (you can buy Angwin’s book here and follow her Twitter account here). She tells the story of how Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) like ISO New England have evolved to oversee bulk electric power systems and transmission lines, and how producers of electricity must subordinate their natural gas consumption for use in home heating during extreme cold weather events. Of course, the demand for electricity skyrockets during these same extreme events as people supplement their home heating needs with electric space heaters, further exacerbating the problem.

Angwin goes on the tell the story of how New England’s electric grid nearly collapsed during cold snaps in late December 2017 and early January 2018. In the book, she quotes from an op-ed she wrote for the Valley News shortly after the incident (emphasis added throughout this piece):

Huh. Bad policy? Who would have thought that with so many Warmists running things in New England

You would think that the near-collapse of their energy grid would have motivated the good people of New England to get serious about shoring up their energy needs ahead of future cold snaps. You would be wrong. Instead, they have set about the task of systematically dismantling existing critical infrastructure and blocking the development of proven technologies. In 2019, the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station was shuttered, leaving New England with only two nuclear power facilities. There are no plans to build more.

In other words, they got rid of nuclear, coal, oil, and natural gas, while blocking new construction of oil and gas, while slapping up solar panels and wind turbines which freeze and don’t really work at night.

“As activists become more adept at enlisting government in their war on oil and gas pipelines, even small projects are becoming difficult to build.

Last month, voters in Longmeadow, Mass., approved a non-binding ballot measure encouraging the town to buy land to block a local natural gas metering and transfer station.

This past Earth Day, the mayor of Holyoke, Mass., announced his opposition to a proposed 2.1-mile, 12-inch natural gas pipeline that would increase capacity to meet rising demand. He asked federal regulators to reject the pipeline.

There’s quite a bit more in this piece, but, you get the idea. And, any winter weather collapse is on them. They to not complain, suck it up, and reflect on their choices.

Read: Bummer: New England Is One Cold Snap From Energy Doom »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Energy, Global Warming | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

Progressives Super Worried About “Rights” They Will Lose If The GOP Takes Control

By William Teach January 3, 2022 – 6:45 am

First off, even if the GOP regains the House and Senate, Biden will still be able to veto everything he doesn’t like. Second, they’re really letting the cat out of the bad on the way they think

The Rights Blue States May Lose If the GOP Returns to Power

At the moment, the two major parties in the U.S. are polarized on the role of the federal government. Democrats, as has generally been the case since the civil rights era, favor federal activism to establish certain rights and living conditions nationally. Republicans have more and more uniformly adopted the states rights posture the GOP was initially founded to oppose in the mid-19th century.

So, Democrats want to invent rights and use the power of the federal government to force these “rights” on everyone, in violation of the Constitution, which gives The People the power. Sounds rather like an authoritarian system.

But it would be a mistake to assume that this is the “new normal” in American politics, with Democrats perpetually attempting to extend their policies to those living in red states and Republicans focusing on state under their control and implicitly accepting that they have little control over what goes on elsewhere. If Republicans secure their own governing trifecta – which could happen as soon as 2024 – they will be tempted to abandon their passion for states rights and impose the policies they favor nationally, a development that Brownstein calls the “darkest scenario for Democrats.” Here are some types of federal laws and regulations that Republicans could very conceivably enact in that scenario, which would curb rights even in blue states.

Hold on to your butts!

Fetal personhood protections that restrict abortion nationwide

Obviously, the 1st thing on the mind of a Democrat is the killing of the unborn, because these people are irresponsible when they have sex.

“Election integrity” laws that keep states from expanding voting rights

Obviously, Dems are upset about any law that makes a person identify themselves, makes sure they only vote once, and only vote where they’re supposed to vote. And stops illegal aliens from voting. And stops felons and those in prison from voting. And stops people from being forcibly registered to vote against their wishes

Parental rights laws that undermine national education standards

That should scare every single parent out there, that Democrats want to take away any parental input into the education of their children, in what goes on in schools. How far will this extend with Democrats in charge? Control of your children when they are outside of school?

Bans on state and local efforts to stop climate change

Probably not, at least not in states not run by Republicans. They certainly won’t stop Dem states from ruining their own economies and education sectors.

Filibuster reform that further empowers the GOP

The claim here is that the GOP might do away with the filibuster to jam stuff through. Nice little bit of projection.

This is all Democrats have, spreading fear and doom. But, that’s how you get compliant minions advocating for things that are bad for them.

Read: Progressives Super Worried About “Rights” They Will Lose If The GOP Takes Control »

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If All You See…

By William Teach January 2, 2022 – 1:30 pm

…is a sea wall necessary to stop the seas rising dozens of feet, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The O.K. Corral, with a post on FJB moving the goalposts again.

It’s shorts week!

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 21 Comments | Trackback URL

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach January 2, 2022 – 9:19 am

Patriotic Pinup ice skating

Happy Sunday! Another great day in the Once and Future Nation of America. Getting some much needed rain, the fish are doing well after getting hit by some disease, and it’s a new year! Will it be 2022 or 2020 II? Let’s work on making it the former. This pinup is by Fritz Willis, with a wee bit of help.

What’s happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Green Jihad covers Germany closing 3 of 6 nuclear power plants
  2. Jo Nova calls 2022 the year of inflation
  3. Blazing Cat Fur notes being un-boosted the same as un-vaccinated
  4. DC Clothesline says Omicron will spike prices even higher
  5. Gates Of Vienna notes how the migrants acted in Milan on New Year’s
  6. Gen Z Conservative covers just how bad Brandon’s 1st year has been historically
  7. IOTW Report wonders who’s up for Flurona
  8. Jihad Watch covers making COVID testing racist
  9. Legal Insurrection discusses AOC’s crazy “Republicans can’t date me” meltdown
  10. Pacific Pundit highlights how Omicron was rather mild in South Africa
  11. The First Street Journal covers how things are going in the Democrat run city of Killadelphia
  12. Gateway Pundit shows Italians defying the New Year’s ban on fireworks
  13. The Last Refuge covers a Holocaust museum requiring approved travel and vaccination papers
  14. The Other McCain discusses Never Trumper Jonah Goldberg yammering about Elites
  15. And last, but not least, The Right Scoop shows the horror of the Rose Bowl parade “Vaccinate Our World” float

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

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

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

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

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

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Experts Seem Upset That U.S. Is “Moving Backwards” From COVID Restrictions

By William Teach January 2, 2022 – 7:49 am

Citizens are less likely to accept restrictions. I mean, wasn’t that the whole point of taking the vaccine? To get our lives back? And locking down 15 days to stop the spread?

Much has changed since the start of the pandemic. But the nation’s public health system remains fractured.

Mask mandates. Remote classes. Outdoor dining.

As 2022 dawns, it’s beginning to look a lot like March 2020 – so much so that President Joe Biden sought to reassure Americans they would not return to those dark days, instead promising a future made safer by vaccines and tests.

Yes, the tests developed under President Trump, as well as the vaccines, which Biden said wouldn’t happen anytime soon.

Those breakthroughs, along with genomic sequencing that can identify new variants and the promise of powerful antiviral pills, represent a revolutionary assault on the coronavirus. But biomedical advances are only half the battle, experts say.

“We have seen it isn’t enough to have testing and vaccines; you have to have a public health system that can deliver testing and vaccines,” said Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In other words, a Central Government health system. Here’s the big one, though

The country is at a pivotal moment, Sharfstein said, full of opportunity if the lessons of the past two years lead to a new focus on getting shots in arms, swabs up noses and pills into mouths.

But some experts contend that the imbalance between the country’s scientific advances and its public health response is starker than ever, looking back in wonder on spring 2020 when a largely compliant population submitted to wide-ranging restrictions.

“We are going backward,” said Alfred Sommer, an epidemiologist and former dean at Hopkins.

“People are infinitely less responsive now,” said Sommer, who has tackled outbreaks of cholera and smallpox around the world. “This is different from anything that any public health person I know would have predicted in March 2020.”

Well, yeah, people are less responsive, because they were told if they took the vaccine, they’d get their lives back. We’ve seen all the studies that scientifically show that masks are mostly ineffective. We were told we only needed to wear a mask when we were going to be in close proximity with other people, then they put in mask mandates for everyone when inside. And told to wear a mask even if vaccinated. We were told to keep 6 feet apart, then, suddenly, we were told don’t bother. That disappeared. People have rather had enough 2 years on, and Big Government advocates and politicians are rather upset about this.

For anybody who trusts science, this is “vastly different than March 2020,” said Francis S. Collins, who in December stepped down as director of the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s medical research agency. But those who don’t trust science and haven’t been vaccinated are in a vulnerable place, he said, endangering everyone around them.

Why is there a mandate for companies with 100+ employees, not all companies? That seems rather silly. So does the scaremongering, blamestorming, and other denigration of those who are vaccine resistant, who read the scientific studies which say that most masks barely make a difference.

Those organizational shortcomings are coupled with incomplete and sometimes contradictory messages. There was, for example, the early assertion that the general population would not need to wear masks and, later, a months-long disagreement among federal officials about the importance of booster shots, Winsten recalled.

That’s because this was a rather revolutionary pandemic, and no one really knew what to do, here in the U.S. and in other nations. They were trying to get a handle on it, and the science said that masks were barely effective. For boosters, we were told that the initial shots were all that were necessary, then we learned that they are really just 6 month flu shots. Israel saw that much earlier, requiring boosters way before any other country.

The rest of the Washington Post piece is more about softly pushing for a Big Government solution to controlling the healthcare system and the people.

Read: Experts Seem Upset That U.S. Is “Moving Backwards” From COVID Restrictions »

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Surprise: Warmists Sue To Block Nevada Geothermal Plants

By William Teach January 1, 2022 – 3:00 pm

Warmists are super excited about “clean, green energy” right up to the point it moves from theory to practice

Lawsuit seeks to block 2 geothermal power plants in Nevada

Conservationists and tribal leaders are suing the U.S. government to try to block construction of two geothermal plants in northern Nevada’s high desert that they say will destroy a sacred hot springs and could push a rare toad to the brink of extinction.

The lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe says the project would turn a “pristine and unique location of ecological value and spiritual significance” into an industrial site.

It’s the latest public lands conflict pitting green energy production against potential harm to wildlife habitat or cultural resources in the biggest U.S. gold producing state, where legal challenges traditionally target things like hard-rock mining.

Environmentalists nationally have rallied around President Joe Biden’s ambitious renewable energy agenda, which embraces solar, wind and geothermal production.

Wait, what was that part about being an “industrial site”? Anyhow, did anyone consider the impact of building it there, where it would mess with hot springs sacred to Indians and the toads? Why are most of these things built far, far away from where Warmists can see them? How about we build them right there in the big cities?

The Biden administration approved the project last month even though the center’s petition to list the toad as a U.S. endangered species is still pending before the Fish and Wildlife Service. (snip)

“We strongly support renewable energy when it’s in the right place, but a project like this that threatens sacred sites and endangered species is definitely the wrong place,” Patrick Donnelly, the center’s Nevada state director, said about the geothermal plants.

It rarely ever seems to be “the right place” in practice.

Tribal Chairperson Cathi Tuni said the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone’s ancestors have lived in the Dixie Valley region for thousands of years and long recognized the hot springs as “a sacred place of healing and reflection.”

“The United States has repeatedly promised to honor and protect Indigenous sacred sites, but then the BLM approved a major construction project nearly on top of our most sacred hot springs. It just feels like more empty words,” she said.

Way to turn on the Indians, Brandon!

Read: Surprise: Warmists Sue To Block Nevada Geothermal Plants »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming, Joe Biden | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach January 1, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is a perfect field, far from the big cities so you don’t have to see it, for a solar or wind farm, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Not A Lot Of People Know That, with a post on using children to sue governments over ‘climate change.’

Read: If All You See… »

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Democrats Think Not Giving Free Money For Student Debt Could Hurt Their Midterms

By William Teach January 1, 2022 – 10:30 am

Such is the state of Democratic Party politics, where they have to give oodles of money away in order to get people to go to the ballot box

Progressives warn inaction on student debt could hurt Democrats in midterms

While the Biden administration has once again extended the pause on student loan repayments, some progressives have said that unless more is done, it could cost Democrats in the midterms in 2022.

The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is sounding the alarm over potentially losing voters and subsequent races if the campaign promise of canceling student loan debt goes unfulfilled by the Biden-Harris administration.

Before the pause was extended, several prominent Democrats voiced their concerns about payments starting again and how it could cost them the midterms.

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., tweeted, that “forcing millions to start paying student loans again” will cost Democrats the midterms.

Perhaps they shouldn’t have been promising to cancel the debt of people who legally signed for it, knowing that it had to be repaid, particularly when so many used the money to get worthless degrees. No one is worrying about those with home loans, auto loans, or other loans. Why is it necessary to take care of those who signed to take the student loans as adults? Just because they are demanding it? If it causes Democrats problems in the midterms, that’s the fault of the Dem elites, who should have been telling those people “you took it, you pay for it. Stop ordering food delivery every day. Reduce your expenses.”

The total amount of student loan debt in the U.S. currently stands at $1.75 trillion.

The average student debt right now is $37,693. In 2020 dollars, debt in 2001 was $24,680. Perhaps Democrats should be looking at ways to lower the cost of college, which has skyrocketed due to Democratic policies at Democratic Party run colleges.

Natalia Abrams, president of the Student Debt Crisis Center, a nonprofit focused on ending the student debt crisis, told ABC News that “Democrats and lawmakers need to be careful because this is something the public has said they want.”

“If you can afford to pause student loan payments over and over again, you can afford to cancel it,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson tweeted after President Joe Biden announced his administration would extend the federal pause on student loan repayment for the third time in December.

What’s that old saying about people voting themselves money and the end of the Republic?

Vice President Kamala Harris responded to Ocasio-Cortez’s comment in a recent interview with CBS News, saying that Secretary of Education Cardona is looking into what the Biden administration can do to alleviate the pressure that borrowers are enduring from student loan debt. However, Harris also acknowledged the impact student debt is having on individuals across the country.

“Graduates and former students across our country are literally making decisions about whether they can have a family, whether they can buy a home,” she said.

That’s life for everyone, not just people who have student loans debt with a degree in Feminine Studies who can only get a job at a coffee house.

Back in July, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a press conference that President Biden does not have the legal authority to use executive action to cancel federal student loan debt.

“People think that the president of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness; he does not,” said Pelosi. “He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power, that has to be an act of Congress.”

Remember that.

Read: Democrats Think Not Giving Free Money For Student Debt Could Hurt Their Midterms »

Posted in Democrats | 22 Comments | Trackback URL
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