House Passes Non-Infrastructure Infrastructure Bill, $1.75 Reconciliation Passes Rule

By William Teach November 6, 2021 – 7:07 am

The infrastructure bill, which is only around 10% infrastructure, passed because of squishy Republicans

House passes bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill after progressives drop opposition

House lawmakers passed President Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill late Friday night, securing a key victory for his administration and breaking a weeks-long deadlock between moderates and progressives that threatened to derail the legislation. The vote was 228-206, with 13 GOP lawmakers crossing party lines to join Democrats in voting in favor of the legislation.

The bill, which provides funding for physical infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, water pipes and broadband internet, will now advance to President Biden’s desk for final approval. Senators already voted 69-30 to approve the legislation in August.

“The Squad,” a group of high-profile progressive lawmakers, were the only six Democrats to vote against the bill. The group includes Reps. Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley.

Without those 13, it doesn’t pass, and many Republicans promised payback, mostly in the form of primarying these people. And, because it has already passed the Senate, it now goes to Dementia Joe’s desk for signature.

House Advances $1.75 Trillion Build Back Better Act

The House passed the rule providing for the consideration of the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act, President Joe Biden’s signature legislation, late Friday night.

The House passed H. Res. 774, the resolution that provides the rule for the consideration of the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act.

The resolution passed 221-213, featuring all Democrats in favor of the bill and Republicans unanimously against the resolution. (snip)

Leftists and moderates struck an accord late Friday night.

Moderates pledged to vote to pass the Build Back Better Act after they see a Congressional Budget (CBO) score the week of November 15. Subsequently, progressives voted to pass the bipartisan bill Friday night.

And what happens when the CBO score comes back and is awful? Do the moderates continue their support of it? What if the House Parliamentarian rules against it? We know most Democrats will ignore public sentiment and polling, but, what of the moderates in the House who are in close call districts? What of moderate Dems in the Senate up for re-election in 2022? Since it will be several weeks, Republicans can pound it, describing all the taxes it will cost the middle and lower classes, all the rising costs of living. And all the amnesty. And, as Steve Scalise said

“Then you go down the line. There’s more, unfortunately. Let’s look at, we’ll comb through, IRS agents! How many of us have our phones ringing off the hooks with people calling, saying, ‘Please add 87,000 more IRS agents to the rolls’? Not one of us has probably gotten that call. Yet, they put it in the bill. They call this ‘infrastructure.’ They call this ‘equity.’ Whatever they want to call it, it’s an army of IRS agents that are going to come for your bank account.

Anyone calling their Representatives and Senators for this? Scalise ripped through the reconciliation bill, worth a read.

Read: House Passes Non-Infrastructure Infrastructure Bill, $1.75 Reconciliation Passes Rule »

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HotCold Take: COP26 Mess Up Shines Light On Impact Of Climate Change On Disabled

By William Teach November 5, 2021 – 3:00 pm

This is a serious HotCold Take: linking a serious blunder into something about the whole

COP26 incident shines light on impact of climate change on disabled

An Israeli cabinet minister’s inability to access the COP26 climate summit in her wheelchair has fueled criticism that the conference is part of the problem on many of the inequalities it was meant to address.

Karine Elharrar, Israel’s Energy Minister, uses a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy and was unable to access an entrance at the summit Monday.

“It’s sad that the United Nations, which promotes accessibility for people with disabilities, in 2021 doesn’t worry about accessibility at its own events,” Elharrar tweeted.

Now, I saw this the other day, and the first thing that came to my mind was “aren’t there laws in the UK that require handicap access?”, because there are a lot of nations which do not have the disability laws that the U.S. does. And, yes, in fact, they do. So, why weren’t they in place for COP26?

But, see, this is a doomsday cult with Climarettes (they have to involve climate doom in everything), so,

While Elharrar was able to attend the conference on Tuesday, and has accepted British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s apology, the incident illustrated a recurring concern at the summit: that even as the conference seeks to address the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities, it risks boxing out those very people.

Lisa Dale, a faculty affiliate with Columbia University’s Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes, said the episode “eerily mimics” the implication of climate disasters for disabled people.

In those cases, she told The Hill, “wealthier able-bodied households are more likely to evacuate, find safety, and bounce back afterward. Poorer or disabled individuals will be hit much harder by the same weather event.”

“This is the very definition of vulnerability, a key component of how we understand risk,” she added.

Got that? They truly messed up at COP26, violated UK law, in fact, so, the Warmists will make this about everything climate cult

“It’s of course unfortunate that [Elharrar] was left out… and it’s right that attention’s being paid to it, but what’s really more of an issue is the way people with disabilities have been left out of the climate change agenda and dialogue,” said Michael Stein, executive director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability.

So, wait, the Elites have blown off the disabled? Huh.

Read: HotCold Take: COP26 Mess Up Shines Light On Impact Of Climate Change On Disabled »

Posted in Climate Ghouls, Global Warming | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 5, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is the flag of a Bad carbon polluting nation, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Legal Insurrection, with a post on Progressives raging at white women over the Virginia loss.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

Even The NY Times Editorial Board Thinks Democrats Are Denying Political Reality

By William Teach November 5, 2021 – 10:30 am

The NY Times editorial board doesn’t actually think Democrats will listen, do they? It won’t happen as a political party overall. There will be some who will listen and understand

Democrats Deny Political Reality at Their Own Peril

Tuesday’s election result trend lines were a political nightmare for the Democratic Party, and no Democrat who cares about winning elections in 2022 and the presidential race in 2024 should see them as anything less.

Familiar takeaways like “wake-up call” and “warning shot” don’t do justice here because the danger of ignoring those trends is too great. What would do justice, and what is badly needed, is an honest conversation in the Democratic Party about how to return to the moderate policies and values that fueled the blue-wave victories in 2018 and won Joe Biden the presidency in 2020.

Except, 2018 saw lots of nutters, like Alexandria O’Casio-Cortez, elected, and Biden “won” because he was Anybody But Trump. Regardless, the NYTEB makes a good point about returning to moderation, which would look more like the Clinton admin, which, no matter what you say about Bill Clinton personally, understood how to read the nation’s mood, and to pivot and back off when necessary. But, that’s where this whole thing breaks down

Given the stakes for the country, from urgent climate and social spending needs to the future of democracy, Americans badly need a rolling conversation today and in the coming weeks and months about how moderate voters of all affiliations can coalesce behind and guide the only party right now that shows an interest in governing and preserving democratic norms.

Do they think these things, which require dictatorial and authoritarian government, are moderate? Yes, they do, and this kind of yammering emboldens the Democrats to not take away the right lessons from the election. Including that paragraph blows the EB’s narrative

Bill Clinton’s mantra from 1992 of “it’s the economy, stupid” is rarely out of vogue, and it certainly isn’t now. But Democrats, looking left on so many priorities and so much messaging, have lost sight of what can unite the largest number of Americans. A national Democratic Party that talks up progressive policies at the expense of bipartisan ideas, and that dwells on Donald Trump at the expense of forward-looking ideas, is at risk of becoming a marginal Democratic Party appealing only to the left.

Pushing ‘climate change’ and a Nanny State won’t help the economy. Democrats have pretty much abandoned all bipartisan ideas.

Many in the president’s party point to Tuesday as proof that congressional Democrats need to stop their left-center squabbling and clock some legislative wins ASAP by passing both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and a robust version of the Build Back Better plan, the larger social spending and environmental proposal. They believe this will give their candidates concrete achievements to run on next year and help re-energize their base.

But Tuesday’s results are a sign that significant parts of the electorate are feeling leery of a sharp leftward push in the party, including on priorities like Build Back Better, which have some strong provisions and some discretionary ones driving up the price tag. The concerns of more centrist Americans about a rush to spend taxpayer money, a rush to grow the government, should not be dismissed.

The lesson the Democrat leadership, along with the crazy Progressive base, is that they need to jam through their agenda before the 2022 mid-terms. They know that, even if they do lose the House and Senate in 2022, Republicans can do nothing to get rid of the Crazy the Democrats pass, not with Joe in the White House. Clinton might have gone along with killing the Crazy off. Not Joe. And, even if they keep Congress and get a Republican to win in 2024, it might be too late to kill some stuff off, and Senate Democrats will then use that filibuster they’ve been raging about.

Jesse Waters said

“Right now, AOC is in this little Queens bubble, the Met Gala bubble, the Washington, D.C., social media bubble,” he said. “She doesn’t have a clue what the rest of the country wants. [Sen.] Manchin knows, Manchin can read the room, so Manchin wants to give us what we want, and AOC is not going to let us have it.”

Yes, AOC is clueless, as are many of her Comrades. But, if if they weren’t, they don’t care. Their lesson says to jam stuff through. The question now becomes “will more than just Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema block the Dems agenda in the Senate?” What about Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.? They’re both up for re-election in 2022. And Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont, Chris Coons, D-Del., Tom Carper, D-Del., and Angus King, I-Maine?  What about moderate Dems in the House? There are still some, who just tend to mostly vote party first, but, might rethink that.

Read: Even The NY Times Editorial Board Thinks Democrats Are Denying Political Reality »

Posted in Democrats, Politics, Progressive Goals | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

We Can Beat The Climate Crisis (scam) If We Do One Thing Or Something

By William Teach November 5, 2021 – 8:28 am

It really is just super simple, folks

We Can Beat Climate Change If We Do One Thing Fast

Now, finally, much of the world has become convinced, first-hand, that global warming is not only real but heating up more rapidly than we expected, unleashing irreversible impacts. Many people feel despair and helplessness in the face of doomsday predictions already in evidence. And yet, I’m optimistic that we can solve this problem in time to keep our planet livable for future generations.

Otherwise, it’s not livable? It’s a doomsday cult

Squinting at the data, I see a way forward, but the urgency can’t be underestimated. The answer is actually quite simple and requires no miracle technology: we must electrify everything, fast. That means not just the supply-side sources of energy; we’ve got to electrify everything on the demand-side—the things we use in our households and small businesses every day, including cars, furnaces, stoves, water heaters, and dryers. I’m optimistic because over the last two decades the advances and cost reductions in electric vehicles, solar cells, batteries, heat pumps, and induction cooking mean that what we need can now be purchased at roughly price parity with the fossil fuelled incumbent.

But we are not yet at scale. In 2020 only half of the heating systems installed in the U.S. are electric. Only 2% of vehicle purchases were electric. We need a massive, World War Two Arsenal-of-Democracy-style mobilization to get these clean machines manufactured and into our homes and onto our roads. We need a similar effort on the supply side with wind turbines, solar farms, hydroelectric, geothermal and nuclear facilities to make the extra electricity.

Interesting. Most Warmists are 100% against nuclear power. Geothermal is not the best solution for America, and small units can be costly. Hydroelectric dams? Extreme enviros sue to not only stop them, but, to tear down existing ones. They often sue to stop solar and wind farm, along with the transmission lines. Where would we put all this?

And where would we put all the stuff the Government deems Bad? All the old gas stoves, hot water heaters, vehicles, and more?

People who are relying on governments to solve this problem don’t understand the power they have in their own hands and homes to fight global warming.

…in the U.S., 42% of our carbon emissions come from our homes and personal vehicles—our fossil-fuel-burning cars, stoves, heaters, water heaters, clothes dryers, barbecues, and other appliances. It jumps to 65% if we include the small businesses and offices and vehicle fleets of the commercial sector.

Wait, so they’re even going to Ban your gas barbecue? Is this the power the People have, to get government to be dictatorial?

None of this will be easy. In order to meet our climate goals, we will need a 100% adoption rate of electrified technology, starting with our homes. Said another way, we cannot achieve a 1.5 or even 2 degrees warming target unless every household in America is replacing every fossil fuel-burning machine as it is retired with an efficient, electric one within the decade. That doesn’t mean replacing everything in your home at once—which would cost the average homeowner in the U.S. about $70,000. But it does mean that our next car must be electric. Our next stove must be an induction stove (which cooks much more efficiently, with more precise temperature adjustments than a gas stove). Our water and space heaters have to be replaced with heat pumps, a wonderfully efficient technology. In order to make the switch, we will likely have to upgrade our breaker box so it’ll be ready when your water heater goes out and you need a new one tomorrow. This is true for single family homes and multi-family rentals. It is true for new construction. The planet does not care about house size, location or who lives inside. It needs the one billion new machines in our basements, kitchens, utility closets, garages and driveways to be electric, and powered by renewables, in order to heal.

“Must be replaced.” Who says? Why don’t these people mind their own f’ing business. And that doesn’t even account for the cost of an EV, but, then, most people won’t be able to afford one, unless they get a 10+ year loan.

On climate, it turns out that the household is where individual and collective action come together. I’m hopeful that individual property owners will take the concern they’ve spent on recycling, eating less meat, and driving less to make a far more significant impact on our carbon emissions by simply replacing their gas appliances with electric ones. And it is a moral imperative and just economic common sense for Washington to help them do so. It is time for us to all come together and mobilize to achieve the one way forward to save the planet.

Why don’t climate cultists do this on their own? Why is force of government required?

Read: We Can Beat The Climate Crisis (scam) If We Do One Thing Or Something »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Energy, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

OSHA Releases COVID Vaccine Rule, Calling It A “Grave Danger”

By William Teach November 5, 2021 – 8:15 am

It’s such a grave danger than the rule won’t kick in till January 4th. Here’s Marty Walsh, the U.S. secretary of Labor and Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator and counselor to the president in an op-ed in the USA Today

Employer COVID-19 vaccine and testing mandate will protect workers and boost U.S. economy

spite houseOur nation is at an inflection point in our fight against COVID-19. About 70% of American adults are fully vaccinated, and cases and hospitalizations are down over 50% since early September. This is real progress, but the virus remains a threat to unvaccinated individuals, particularly America’s workers.

Although COVID-19 is not exclusively an occupational disease, transmission can and often does occur in workplaces – affecting employees and their health, families and livelihoods. In fact, more than 4.6 million American workers missed work in early September because they or someone they loved had COVID-19.

In other words, COVID-19 continues to hold back our workforce and our economy – and it will continue to do so until more Americans are vaccinated.

Interestingly, the economy was starting to do quite well before Joe Biden took office, even though very few had been vaccinated.

American workers deserve and expect a safe and healthy workplace. That’s why Thursday, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a rule that will protect workers from the grave danger posed by COVID-19. The new OSHA rule requires businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure each of their employees is fully vaccinated or undergoes weekly COVID-19 testing.

Employers have until Jan. 4 for each employee to get their shots or begin testing at least once a week. The new rule also requires employers to provide paid time for workers to get vaccinated, eliminating one of the major barriers that keeps workers from starting or completing their vaccinations.

How is that a barrier? People have days off. It literally cost me about an hour to drive to the vaccination site, get the shot, wait around for adverse reactions, then drive home. This is not a thing, but, then, Democrats live in their own little world, thinking that companies will screw their employees on even things like this.

This rule covers more than 80 million workers and will have a huge impact, saving thousands of lives and preventing 250,000 workers from hospitalization over the next six months alone.

Why not companies under 100 then, if we are going to protect workers? Don’t they matter? Why wait till now to release this rule?

And because people want to work where they feel safe, vaccination policies could lead to up to 5 million Americans reentering the workforce, according to Goldman Sachs. That’s good for workers and business alike.

That might not be the best report to cite, as it estimates that “7mn affected workers report that they will definitely not get the vaccine, and vaccine mandates imposed by health care providers earlier this summer caused some workers to leave their jobs”, though they say those people might get jobs at smaller firms.

It is called a “grave danger” many, many times in the rule (here it is an all its 490 pages). And

Masks are mentioned hundreds of times, yet, the text, way down in Section VI, part I Face Coverings, does say just that. That completely undercuts masking for all vaccinated people.

It is huge because there is lots and lots of blather, most likely included to make it tougher for lawsuits. And you can bet the lawsuits will be filed soon. Lots of them.

Read: OSHA Releases COVID Vaccine Rule, Calling It A “Grave Danger” »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus, Joe Biden | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Climate Cult Fail: California Looks To Natural Gas Due To Lack Of Energy

By William Teach November 4, 2021 – 3:00 pm

Much like so many nations in Europe who embraced unreliable, expensive “green” alternatives, and ended up burning more wood and going back to natural gas, and even coal, Californians are learning a valuable lesson

California looks to natural gas to keep lights on this winter

stop global warmingAfter years of restricting the growth of fossil fuel infrastructure, California is looking to natural gas for power generation this coming winter after drought and wildfires leave the state with few other options to keep the lights on.

California has spent years moving away from fossil fuels to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. But U.S. states like California and Texas have faced notable challenges to their electrical grid in recent months, and worldwide power crunches have forced other countries to ramp up output of coal and other fossil fuels to maintain power.

This year, the state has leaned more on gas fired-power plants as extreme drought has cut hydropower output by more than half, while frequent wildfires often shut electricity imports from other states.

Drought is typical in California. Probably not the best of ideas to depend on hydroelectric dams to provide 11.24% of California’s power. Why don’t they just slap up more solar panels and wind turbines? Or, just have everyone turn their stuff off? Suffer for their beliefs. Oh, right, Warmists only want the Bad stuff to happen to other people.

Gas supplies have been tight in Southern California for years due to pipeline limitations and reduced availability of Aliso Canyon (a NG storage facility), resulting in curtailments to power generators and higher prices for consumers.

Environmental groups want the facility closed entirely and oppose the proposals.

“Instead of pursuing clean energy solutions that can eliminate the need for Aliso Canyon entirely, California is proposing to expand this dangerous facility – putting communities at greater risk of another catastrophic leak,” said Alexandra Nagy, California director of Food & Water Watch.

I agree with the “enviros”: they should close it and let the chips fall where they may. Of course, many of those same enviros can be a problem

Read: Climate Cult Fail: California Looks To Natural Gas Due To Lack Of Energy »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Energy, Global Warming | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 4, 2021 – 1:00 pm

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

The blog of the day is Jihad Watch, with a post on the Taliban wanting in on that sweet, sweet, strings free climate cash.

Read: If All You See… »

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

Axios: Vaccine Deadlines Hit With A Whimper

By William Teach November 4, 2021 – 10:30 am

It could be due to a lot of people not wanting to lose their jobs

Vaccine deadlines for millions of workers hit with a whimper

Mandatory vaccine deadlines have now come and gone for millions of workers — and most of them have either bit the bullet or taken advantage of wiggle room offered by their employers.

Why it matters: These mandates have become one of the most polarizing policies in America, but predictions that they’d drive workers away in droves, voluntarily or not, simply aren’t coming to fruition. (snip)

Many large employers that imposed their own vaccine requirements — from Disney, Citigroup and AT&T to big airlines, hospitals and cities — say compliance has been high, and there’s little risk that they’ll end up losing any significant share of their workforce.

What’s considered significant? How much does it cost to recruit and train new workers?

Yes, but: There are pockets of staunch resistance: In New York, more than 10,000 workers defied last Monday’s deadline to get vaccinated; and in Los Angeles, L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva vowed not to enforce a countywide mandate.

Hospitals across the country reported that only handfuls of workers — often about 1% to 2% of their workforces — chose to leave due to mandates, Axios health care editor Tina Reed reports.

But many of them also reported higher-than-usual rates of medical or religious exemption, often around 4% to 6%.

In Maine alone, hundreds of health workers have left their jobs rather than getting the vaccine (around 800). Now they have to be replaced when medical facilities were already shorthanded. Now do that across the country. These health workers will go to friendly states, and health care will suffer. It might not seem like much, but, consider the problems with fast food joints and them being low on employees.

What’s next: There’s a Dec. 8 deadline for federal contractors and subcontractors to comply with the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate Additional deadlines for federal workers and school employees to be vaccinated are scattered through November and December.

Yeah, and then there’s the military

Troops who refuse COVID vaccines won’t be guaranteed veterans benefits, officials warn

Troops who refuse the coronavirus vaccine won’t see any extra protections or leniency in how their dismissals are handled, Defense and Veterans Affairs officials confirmed Wednesday.

Instead, decisions on whether to give those individuals other-than-honorable discharges — potentially blocking them from a host of veterans benefits — will be left to local commanders, and their cases won’t receive any preferential evaluations for veterans’ benefits eligibility, despite recent lobbying from Republicans lawmakers for a less punishing approach.

In other words, the military is going to hose the troops who refuse to take the vaccine, and it will be harder to recruit.

Read: Axios: Vaccine Deadlines Hit With A Whimper »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

St. Greta Is Unhappy About Greenwashing Or Something

By William Teach November 4, 2021 – 7:09 am

Maybe she should be unhappy about all her cult Comrades taking long fossil fueled flights

Greta Thunberg, other climate change activists in Glasgow slam ‘greenwashing’ and ‘false solutions’

St. GretaClimate activist Greta Thunberg stormed out of an event at the U.N. Climate Change Conference on Wednesday afternoon, where officials and business leaders were discussing how to ensure that markets for trading carbon offsets actually achieve the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Swedish teenager, who was in the audience at a panel discussion, left the venue saying, “Thanks for greenwashing,” after a moderator thanked her for attending the session.

When Thunberg said “greenwashing,” she was using an environmentalists’ term for an organization’s false portrayal of itself as environmentally friendly. Some activists contend that corporations and governments participating in the climate summit, also known as COP26, are guilty of just that, by paying lip service to combating climate change while continuing to use the fossil fuels that cause global warming. (snip)

Earlier on Wednesday, hundreds of protesters from the group Extinction Rebellion gathered in the center of Glasgow, just under 2 miles from the official conference venue, to show their concern over what one protester described as “false solutions” to the climate crisis.

The crowd included one activist dressed as a tree who spoke angrily about deforestation, while another was in costume as a green blob — he said the outfit was the embodiment of greenwashing — and said, “Companies say a lot of nice things, but then they don’t do any of them.”

And what are St. Greta and her Comrades doing, exactly, other than attempting to force Other People to do things she and the others won’t do? They talk a big game, and, that’s about it. Isn’t that also greenwashing?

Read: St. Greta Is Unhappy About Greenwashing Or Something »

Posted in Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL
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