Bummer: Smash And Grab Targeting Cannabis Shops

Well, this is a hell of a kerfuffle

https://twitter.com/DireWolfGrl/status/1467251430021115905

From the link

Cannabis shops across the San Francisco Bay Area have been thrown into dire straits as gangs of thieves broke into more than 15 shops throughout November during the series of ‘smash-and-grab’ robberies that are plaguing California.

Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong told reporters that ‘hundreds’ of vehicles targeted marijuana stores in Oakland last month, firing 175 shots and stealing about $5 million worth of products.

Alphonso ‘Tucky’ Blunt, owner of Blunts and Moore, told MJBizDaily that his store lost about $25,000 during a November 22 raid, where more than a dozen burglars ransacked the store.

‘I know 25 or so businesses that got hit … and out of all those, the percentage I know that told me that they may not be able to reopen is about 50 percent. That’s scary,’ Blunt said.

‘I was safer, and had more money, (selling) on the street, illegally.’

Who saw that coming?

(NY Post) Usually at this time of year, San Francisco’s luxury stores are decked with holiday garlands. Instead, they’re boarded up after widespread “flash mob” looting turned Union Square — the city’s most fashionable shopping district — into an area resembling a blighted neighborhood in Detroit.

“It’s a ghost town,” said Michelle Tandler, a San Francisco native and high-tech entrepreneur, whose photos of the stores barricaded in plywood went viral on social media this week. “Every store has a security guard. People are going to lose their jobs. And these things have a ripple effect.” (snip)

“This is traumatizing for our associates and is unacceptable,” said Best Buy CEO Corie Barry four days before yet another outlet was ransacked on Black Friday in a Minnesota mall. “We are doing everything we can to try to create as safe as possible environment.”

This ends up hurting the middle and lower classes, as they are terrorized, assaulted, and lose their jobs. Those who would make commissions will see a big reduction as customers just stay away and order even more online. Good job, progressives.

Read: Bummer: Smash And Grab Targeting Cannabis Shops »

Your Fault: Antarctica Could Become As Warm As When It Was A Rainforest

If only you’d be willing to buy an EV and give all your money and freedom to government, we could stop this

Antarctica was once a rainforest. Could it be again?

Not far from the South Pole, more than half a mile below the ocean in a region that was once covered by ice, a layer of ancient fossils tells a surprising story about the coldest continent on Earth. Today, the South Pole records average winter temperatures of 78 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. But roughly 90 million years ago, the fossils suggest, Antarctica was as warm as Italy and covered by a green expanse of rainforest.

“That was an exciting time for Antarctica,” Johann P. Klages, a marine geologist who helped unearth the fossils, told Vox. “It was basically the last time the whole continent was covered by vegetation and probably also wildlife — dinosaurs, and all that.” (snip)

As climate change warms Antarctica and shrinks its enormous ice sheet, many scientists are wondering whether history could repeat itself. But relatively few research teams have the tools to work in a place where Titanic-sized icebergs pepper the ocean.

Yes, this was like 75 million years ago. And Antarctica was not at the South Pole. It was getting there, but, not quite. Anyhow, the rest of the Vox piece is an interview with the people involved

That was the final question we asked ourselves. Such a diverse environment with such mild temperatures — temperatures that today you have in northern Italy, for example. What is necessary to maintain that for a long stretch of time 90 million years ago?

Therefore, we invited some climate modelers into our team. They came up with [a carbon dioxide concentration of] at least 1,100 parts per million CO2, which is four times preindustrial [the CO2 concentration before the Industrial Revolution]. This was needed, at least, to meet the conditions we reconstructed.

We knew this period was the warmest in the last 145 million years. Now we had much better numbers on the CO2 content.

The model still has a problem: It can’t really simulate well enough the gradient between lower latitudes and high latitudes. We now know that the gradient was very shallow.

Models. LOL. There couldn’t have possibly been other conditions at play in the Climate Cult world. Question: even if it was primarily CO2, what caused that concentration?

This is now what brings it to the significance for the future of the climate, if we drift into a high-CO2 future. We are doing that right now. We are 420 parts per million CO2, something around that. If we go to this high-CO2 future, we know that models struggle. This is a chance to use moments in Earth’s past to calibrate those models, to improve their predictive capabilities for tomorrow.

So, Doom.

Read: Your Fault: Antarctica Could Become As Warm As When It Was A Rainforest »

If All You See…

…is snow caused by Extreme Weather from carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Small Dead Animals, with a post on the new definition of anti-vaxxer.

It’s horrible heat snow week!

Read: If All You See… »

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

Patriotic Pinup Al Buell Skating

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in the Once and Future Nation of America. The Sun is shining, the fish tank is still doing well, and more and more are ignoring the COVID cult’s demands. This pinup is by Al Buell, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. The Gateway Pundit features a Washington Post pundit saying the press is tougher on Brandon than Trump
  2. The First Street Journal notes that some news is not fit to print for the NY Times
  3. Sultan Knish covers justice reform enabling stealing from the poor
  4. Powerline points out that Pajama Boy now rules in Australia
  5. Patterico’s Pontifications highlights how abortion support drives them crazy
  6. neo-neocon says Australia used to be such a nice place
  7. MOTUS A.D. discusses the latest jobs report
  8. Moonbattery covers Pope Francis being denounced as a heretic
  9. Legal Insurrection says Alec Baldwin’s interview reinforces this being involuntary manslaughter
  10. Jihad Watch notes Muslims slaughter dozens of Christians in Nigeria after Joe made an interesting move
  11. Gen Z Conservative discusses the communist plan for taking over America
  12. Flag And Cross notes Twitter slapping the American Heart Association with a warning label
  13. DaTechGuy’s Blog features Stacy Abram channeling Monty Python (make sure you switch to their new URL)
  14. Cold Fury notes an interesting milestone reached
  15. And last, but not least, Real Climate Science covers Canada starving people into submission

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 »

COVID Forever: Oregon Looks Towards Permanent Indoor Mask Mandate

But, see, it’s not permanent permanent, just temporarily permanent. Perhaps like 15 days to stop the spread?

Oregon Health Authority moves to implement ‘permanent’ indoor mask mandate

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) assembled a Rules Advisory Committee (RAC) earlier this week to address a permanent indoor mask mandate in the state. Oregon is one of a few states that still retain one nearly two years into the pandemic.

The committee included several community stakeholders, including representatives from the hospitality industry, the business sector, and faith communities, according to local ABC affiliate KATU.

I bet every single one of those are from a far left organization which favors authoritarian governance, and will completely leave out those in the suburban/rural GOP areas. This won’t make them push even harder for get several counties to leave Oregon and join Idaho, eh (there’s a total of 8 looking to secede now)?

Dr. Paul Cieslak, the medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations with OHA, explained to KATU that OHA’s potential “permanent” indoor mask mandate is not necessarily permanent because it can be repealed.

“Permanent means indefinite. It doesn’t necessarily mean permanent,” Cieslak said. “We can repeal it as well, but we are only allowed to have a temporary rule for 180 days, and anything that goes beyond 180 days, we cannot extend it.”

Well, doesn’t sound like a temporary rule for 180 days. Governor Kate Brown has seemingly overstepped her lawful authority to enact masking requirements, and the far left judges in the state will surely say “yeah, law, but, we need to think of safety first.” It would also not be that hard for the Democrat dominated general assembly to pass a law which allows this. But, hey, if they do pass it, they can repeal it, right? I wonder how many will get an exemption, like in the general assembly building and the governor’s residence?

The public will be permitted to offer comment when OHA proposes the indoor mask rule formally, the date of which has yet to be announced.

That’s a very strange way to put that. “Permitted.” It just seems so “oh, sure, we’ll let you peasants say something. Doesn’t mean we will listen or give you much time.”

Gov. Kate Brown, D-Ore., reinstated an outdoor mask mandate in the state amid the surge of the delta variant in August. The OHA repealed the outdoor mask mandate in November, but kept it in place indoors.

“We continue to see a concerning pattern of COVID-19 spread throughout the state, with the heaviest concentrations found in counties with lagging vaccination rates,” OHA Director Pat Allen said at the time.

Why is Oregon seeing these infection rates? States with no mask mandates, like Alabama and Florida, are doing better. Not a ton better, but, they had a big spike in September and now see much lower rates. Despite Oregon having all these rules in place and being made up of fanatical Democrats. And higher vaccination rates.

“We may have a baseline rate of COVID cases hovering around where they are now in the Southeast forever,” Makary said in a November interview. “We are entering an endemic phase and the question we need to ask as a society is, do we want a perpetual society with people masked?”

Makary added: “And the marginal benefit of masking is diminishing as the prevalence declines. Also, in many instances we’re requiring masks of people at the absolute lowest risk and by insisting on throwing the kitchen sink at virus transmission we will have to pay the piper somehow. That may come in the form of a loss of human connection, more increased mental health problems, and in children a series of problems including issues in development and speech development and other downsides.”

Yes, yes they do. It’s not about science, it’s about control through over-reaction.

Read: COVID Forever: Oregon Looks Towards Permanent Indoor Mask Mandate »

Your Fault: Stone Age Civilization Collapsed From Climate Change

Were they driving fossil fueled vehicles back then?

Stone Age Liangzhu civilization collapsed due to climate change – study

A Stone Age Chinese civilization known as Liangzhu collapsed as a result of climate change, according to new research published last Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances.

The researchers, led by geologists Haiwei Zhang and Hai Cheng of the Institute of Global Environmental Change at Xi’an Jiaotong University, determined from geological records from Shennong and Jiulong caves as well as archeological data that the primary cause of the collapse of the Liangzhu culture was probably climate change-induced flooding and inundation.

Do Warmists have any idea that this kind of stuff undercuts their Belief in anthropogenic climate change? Because we keep learning that previous civilizations had problems with climatic changes, none of which would have been caused by “carbon pollution.” At least they didn’t yammer on about how this gives us clues as to the fate of our current civilization.

Meanwhile, you’ve heard about the volcano popping off in Indonesia, right?

Fortunately, there are few climate cult nutjobs doing this today, vs the blizzard warnings in Hawaii yesterday.

Read: Your Fault: Stone Age Civilization Collapsed From Climate Change »

If All You See…

…is a wonderful low carbon transportation, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Victory Girls Blog, with a post on AOC saying smash and grab is a hoax.

Doubleshot below the fold, to clean out the last country girl photo, check out The Other McCain, with a post on a Philly prosecutor releasing a carjacker, who then became a murderer.

Read More »

Read: If All You See… »

Abortionistas Point Out What Happens If Roe v Wade Is Overturned

Once again I ask, how did the Democrats become the party of abortion, where the number one belief is in killing the unborn, and how they feel that abortion is now birth control? Nothing else is more important to them. If you said “you can keep abortion legal throughout the U.S. but have to give up the Senate, House, and White House for 20 years”, they’d choose abortion. It’s more important than ‘climate change’, raising taxes, gun control, everything

If Roe v. Wade is overruled, here’s how access to abortion could be affected in your state

The Supreme Court’s blockbuster abortion case is centered on a Mississippi law that bans the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy, but a ruling by the court will almost certainly have sweeping implications for states across the country.

“The real-world effects of overruling Roe and Casey would be severe and swift,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court on behalf of the Biden administration. “Nearly half of the states already have or are expected to enact bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, many without exceptions for rape or incest.”

But that is precisely the argument that Mississippi, anti-abortion advocates and several conservatives on the court have embraced: Because abortion is such a controversial issue, they say, decisions about whether to permit it should be left to individual states.

That’s what the Constitution says. It did not give the federal government power, hence, the power is reserved for the States and the People

To a large extent, experts note, that has already happened. Dozens of conservative states have already imposed “trigger” bans to prohibit abortions if the high court overturns Roe v. Wade. Many liberal states, meanwhile, have affirmatively protected the right to abortion, meaning the procedure would remain available within their borders even if Roe is overturned.

Nine states, including Alabama, Arizona, Wisconsin and West Virginia, adopted abortion bans before the Supreme Court decided Roe, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. An additional eight states, including Idaho, Kentucky and Tennessee, approved “trigger bans” to prohibit the procedure if the court overturns Roe.

Four states, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas, have both a pre-Roe ban and a trigger ban on the books, according to Guttmacher.

And lots of Blue states have laws protecting abortion on demand, a procedure used mostly for convenience, because people were too irresponsible to use birth control. Rarely is it for saving the life of the mother, or rape and incest.

If the court overturns Roe v. Wade, the impact on individual states would be relatively clear based on existing law. But if the justices reached for a middle ground – allow Mississippi’s 15-week ban to remain in place, say, but also rule people still have a constitutional right to abortion – experts say that would lead to a flood of new laws, and lawsuits.

Of all the rulings, I’d give that one the highest rank, where they try and thread the needle to avoid getting rid of it altogether. The second choice, which I’d rank just behind threading the needle, would be to say that regulation abortion is not in the purview of the federal government, but, the choice of a state and the people. If that passes, despite all the triggers, you may well see most Red states take a soft approach, and mimic the law of Mississippi, not banning it, but, restricting. I can see the Court also saying that States cannot stop or criminally charge citizens for crossing state lines to have one, as the power is also reserved for The People.

One very interesting aspect of this, if they go for the States Rights method, is that this will lead to a whole host of lawsuits for a wide variety of issues for which the federal government has passed laws that are not in their assigned duties, attempting to return power back to the states and the people. Where it belongs in our system, rather than an authoritarian central government.

The current standard, set down in Roe and a subsequent Supreme Court case from 1992, is viability, or the point when a fetus can survive outside the womb – roughly 24 weeks. The Supreme Court could throw out viability as the cutoff, but such a move would raise a big question that has vexed the court for decades: Where to draw a new line?

I don’t think they will want to go there, and, it’s doubtful there are enough Conservatives to vote for keeping Roe. Mississippi’s solicitor general made one hell of a case, based on our system of government. Time will tell, and liberals will be losing their minds next summer. They may well regret that, thinking that all Democrats are big supporters of killing the unborn.

Read: Abortionistas Point Out What Happens If Roe v Wade Is Overturned »

Western U.S. States Could Maybe See Snow Disappear Or Something

Won’t anyone think of the children? Remember when the Independent published a story about snowfalls being a thing of the past, including the line “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is”? (you can see the entire article preserved here) And then yet another prediction here. And a few others. And here we have yet another prognostication of the end of snow

Snow may vanish for years at a time in Mountain West with climate warming

A new study provides a glimpse into the future of Western U.S. snow and the picture is far from rosy: In about 35 to 60 years, mountainous states are projected to be nearly snowless for years at a time if greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked and climate change does not slow.

Well, that’s convenient. 30-60 years. What happens when this doesn’t come to fruition? Who’s held liable for the doommongering?

Due to rising temperatures, the region has already lost 20 percent of its snowpack since the 1950s. That’s enough water to fill Lake Mead, the nation’s largest human-made reservoir. It stands to lose another half, and possibly more, later this century, from the Rockies to the Sierra Nevada and into the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest, according to a literature synthesis conducted in the study leveraging dozens of peer-reviewed climate model projections.

The current snow situation in the West offers a preview of what the future may hold. Snow water equivalent, or the liquid water from snowpack, is much lower than normal in much of the Western United States. Snow cover across the nation is only at 6 percent — the lowest since records began in 2003.

Yet, snow cover was above normal last fall. Regardless, this is the type of thing one would expect during a Holocene warm period. No need to attribute witchcraft, er, human causes to this.

Such years are projected to become chronic and persistent, occurring for prolonged periods of five to 10 years at a time. By the end of the century, the majority of years (78 to 94 percent) could be nearly snowless in much of the Western United States, according to one model projection in the study.

So, give up your modern lives now. Take a 20 year loan out on an EV. Give your money to government, along with your freedom, liberty, and lifestyle choices.

Read: Western U.S. States Could Maybe See Snow Disappear Or Something »

Norwegian Party Called Superspreader Event For Omicron, Even Though Everyone Was Vaccinated

This doesn’t bode well when it comes to how politicians react, because it may well mean the reinstitution of rules against big gatherings

Omicron outbreak at Norway Christmas party is biggest outside S. Africa -authorities

At least 13 people in Oslo have been infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus following a corporate Christmas party described as a “super spreader event”, and their numbers could rise to over 60 cases, authorities said on Friday.

The outbreak took place at a Christmas party on Nov. 26 organised by renewable energy company Scatec, which has operations in South Africa where the variant was first detected.

“This party has been a super spreader event,” Preben Aavitsland, a senior physician at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, told Reuters by email.

“Our working hypothesis is that at least half of the 120 participants were infected with the Omicron variant during the party. This makes this, for now, the largest Omicron outbreak outside South Africa.”

The outbreak led the Norwegian government to reintroduce some nationwide restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The first person in Oslo confirmed as infected had attended the party, where at least one employee had just returned from South Africa. All the attendees were fully vaccinated and had tested negative before the event.

Perhaps having a party where someone just came back from South Africa wasn’t the best of ideas? Even though everyone was vaccinated? Maybe they should have said “bro/broette, how about sitting this one out, and, stay away from the office for a week?”

Health authorities said the individuals infected were so far displaying mild symptoms, with none hospitalised.

“It is still too early to say whether the clinical picture of the disease is different in Omicron infections than in Delta infections,” Aavitsland said.

“None of the patients has severe symptoms; none is hospitalised. However, this is not unexpected given the young age of the participants.”

So far it looks like very few are hospitalized, which is the good news. Any area that has a mask mandate, expect that to be extended for at least several months. And for The Powers That Be to push restrictions.

Read: Norwegian Party Called Superspreader Event For Omicron, Even Though Everyone Was Vaccinated »

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