Hot New Idea To Force Vaccine Compliance: Businesses Charging More For Health Insurance

By William Teach August 10, 2021 – 10:30 am

See, this idea is not really coming from business owners, but from government nags and advocacy groups (the original article is behind a USA Today paywall, but, available in full at Yahoo News)

Won’t get a COVID vaccine? Some bosses may charge you $20 to $50 more for health insurance on every paycheck

Tyson Foods, United Airlines, CNN, the U.S. military.

A wide variety of employers such as those four are imposing COVID vaccine mandates on their workers, and experts believe they’ll have a lot more company soon after the Food and Drug Administration gives the shots its full approval.

Some employers aren’t ready to impose mandates but may still penalize workers for not getting vaccinated, possibly by requiring them to pay an insurance surcharge costing several hundred dollars a year.

“I think they’ve decided that in order to get that needle to move, they need to do something more,” said Wade Symons, leader of the regulatory resources group at Mercer, an employee benefits consultancy. Big snip)

Could I face other penalties for not getting vaccinated?

Yes. This could include a surcharge on your health insurance.

Mercer’s Symons said clients have been contacting him asking about how to charge vaccinated employees more for their insurance to cover the costs of massive hospital bills.

“It’s something we’ve just started getting questions about in the last couple of weeks,” Symons said. “The number of questions has been surprising in the volume. This is something they’re more willing to take on. It’s less than a mandate.”

Symons estimated that some workers could face an additional $20 to $50 per paycheck, though he said he would expect it to be on the lower end of that scale.

The unvaccinated would then be looking at hundreds of extra dollars a year for failing to Comply. BTW, how would they know? Those vaccination records are supposed to be private and not shared with companies or health insurance providers.

Could vaccine mandates backfire on employers?

Definitely. Employers recognize that resistance is particularly strong in some quarters. Nearly 3 in 10 American adults still haven’t gotten at least one dose.

Because vaccinations have become a political issue for a portion of Americans who continue to refuse them, employers could face mass resignations if they require shots. (Other employees are hesitant due to safety concerns and other fears.)

On the flip side, where do they go if lots and lots of employers in their field require vaccination, especially when the FDA approves the vaccines? Meanwhile, what the hell is this?

PS: I recommend people get vaccinated. I’m not in favor of use of force to do so. You make your decision, I’ll make mine.

Read: Hot New Idea To Force Vaccine Compliance: Businesses Charging More For Health Insurance »

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St. Greta Chimes In On UN’s Doomy Climate Report

By William Teach August 10, 2021 – 7:11 am

It’s nice to hear from a climate scientist like St. Greta, eh? Oh, right, she mostly blew off school, and has zero degrees. I thought her 15 minutes was up, that the Credentialed Media had used her up and spit her out, but, I guess she’s still a Useful Idiot

Greta Thunberg: Dire U.N. climate report confirms ‘we are in an emergency

The Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg said she wasn’t surprised by a blistering report released Monday by the United Nations, which concluded that the Earth is warming at a rate faster than previously thought and that the window to avoid a climate catastrophe is rapidly closing.

The report, issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned that the climate crisis is a “code red for humanity.”

“The new IPCC report contains no real surprises,” Thunberg tweeted. “It confirms what we already know from thousands [of] previous studies and reports — that we are in an emergency. It’s a solid (but cautious) summary of the current best available science.

“It doesn’t tell us what to do,” she added. “It is up to us to be brave and take decisions based on the scientific evidence provided in these reports. We can still avoid the worst consequences, but not if we continue like today, and not without treating the crisis like a crisis.”

What’s this “we” stuff? Most climate cultists refuse to do much more than change a few lightbulbs. It’s not science, it’s activism. What is it telling “us” to do?

What The U.S. Can Do About The Dire Climate Change Report

….

Climate scientist Allison Crimmins heads the National Climate Assessment, a government report that evaluates how the U.S. is doing on issues related to climate change. She spoke with NPR’s Noel King about her takeaways from today’s report. (snip)

“It’s not a policy statement but just a scientific statement, that if we want to limit global warming and we want to limit those sorts of impacts that are affecting Americans right now, we need strong rapid, sustained reductions in carbon dioxide and in methane and in other greenhouse gasses,” she says. (snip)

Crimmins says the report confirms that it’s going to require “significant, sustained action” to cut down on emissions.

She envisions that action as a combination of standards, investments and justice.

“I think we can hit these sort of emission targets and transform our energy system, transform the way we use energy and the way we get around, our transportation, the way we run our homes,” she says. “And I think we can do that while also making a safer, healthier, more just future.”

In other words, the government is going to force people to change their lives. They’re going to act as dictators. There will be a hell of a lot of surprised climate cultists, who expected the Bad Things to apply to Other People, not themselves.

Read: St. Greta Chimes In On UN’s Doomy Climate Report »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 19 Comments | Trackback URL

Helped By Idiots, Democrats Poised To Pass Their “Infrastructure” Bill Then Pass Their $3.5 Trillion Bill

By William Teach August 10, 2021 – 6:58 am

I don’t get it, I really, really don’t get it. You had Republicans negotiating the so-called infrastructure bill, which gives Republicans virtually nothing and gives Democrats lots of their wish list, like all the climate scam garbage, green this and green that, electric cars, trains, etc and so on. You’ve seen the crazy. Yet

Schumer: ‘We have come to an agreement’ on infrastructure bill, vote expected Tuesday

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Senate has “come to an agreement” on the infrastructure bill after months of deadlock.

“In a few minutes, I will announce that we have come to an agreement for final passage of the bipartisan infrastructure proposal,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on Monday night. “This will do a whole lot of good for America.”

Schumer laid out two tracks for the infrastructure bill: “One dealing with traditional infrastructure,” the bipartisan package some Republicans are likely to support; and “one dealing with climate and the problems American families face,” a more partisan Democratic measure.

There are apparently enough idiot Republicans to vote for this piece of garbage, which will be remembered come election time, and have Republicans sitting out in 2022. Especially since they all have to know they are being played. Schumer said so

Senate Poised to Pass Infrastructure Deal, Then Turn to Democratic Budget

The Senate is expected on Tuesday to pass a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, capping off weeks of intense negotiations and debate over the largest federal investment in the nation’s aging public works system in more than a decade.

The legislation, which still must pass the House, would touch nearly every facet of the American economy and fortify the nation’s response to the warming of the planet.

Sounds great, right, the people who cannot work on a budget, overspend on most things, probably couldn’t account for the money they spend, and want control of the economy want to pass something that touches on nearly every facet of the American economy

But as soon as the bill clears the Senate, Democrats are expected to take up a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint that will unlock their ability to muscle through an expansive social policy package over unanimous Republican objections.

Under the fast-track budget reconciliation process, that blueprint, if passed with a simple majority, will dictate the parameters of a transformative package expected to provide funding for health care, climate change, education and child care, and to increase taxes on wealthy people and corporations.

Democrats are simply going to use the $1 trillion infrastructure bill as a means to pass the unhinged, Progressive, wish list $3.5 trillion bill (universal pre-K, amnesty and support of illegals/migrants, more taxes, free community college, and so much more). Republicans are literally helping the Progressive party (nice Fascism) pass their agenda.

Read: Helped By Idiots, Democrats Poised To Pass Their “Infrastructure” Bill Then Pass Their $3.5 Trillion Bill »

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WSJ: Climate Crisis Scam Has Destroyed Journalist Standards

By William Teach August 9, 2021 – 3:00 pm

It’s also destroyed scientific standards. Anyhow, it’s a shame this one is behind the firewall

Climate Change Has Consumed Journalistic Standards
Reporters used to be hard-bitten skeptics. Now they aspire to be part of the authoritative expert class.

St. Greta‘Is this the end of summer as we’ve known it?” a New York Times headline asked the other day, with characteristic hysteria. (It’s an old truth in journalism circles: when a newspaper headline asks a question, the answer is almost always no: “Has This Man Found a Cure for Baldness? Are We All Going to Be Vegans? Is This the Start of a New Era for the Jets?”)

In this case the self-evidently refutable proposition framed as a question was prompted by the summer of meteorologically fraught events we’ve been experiencing: record temperatures and wildfires, droughts and ocean surges, wild storms and flash flooding. Just when we were looking forward to a well-earned summer of escape from the misery of the last 18 months, forget it: Climate change means fire and brimstone forever.

It’s been noted elsewhere that in the modern media’s received taxonomy, we don’t have weather anymore. We have climate. Specifically, man-made climate change.

We used to have weather. A cursory knowledge of human history suggests extreme weather events did not arrive in the few short years since the saintly Greta Thunberg became incarnate. The Bible is full of them. Herodotus tells us that the massive Persian fleet sent to conquer Greece lost half its ships to a freak storm before it met its fate at the Battle of Salamis in 480 B.C. In 1935 flooding of the Yangtze River in China killed as many as half a million people.

But in the annals of modern journalism we stopped having weather around 1999. Now all we have in our skies, rivers, seas and forests are episodes that confirm climate change…..

And that’s where the paywall hits (no way around it). But, you get the point. Perhaps Gerald Baker gets around to blasting so-called reporters, or soft shoes it. It seems most reporters are advocates now, activists, and most seem to be card carrying members of the doomsday Cult of Climastrology. They don’t ask inconvenient questions, especially about climahypocrisy. They do not ask anyone to prove their assertions on climate. They just take it for granted. They don’t ask about funding and special interests links between government, scientists, and advocacy groups. There are zero journalistic standards. They refuse to be cynical and skeptics. They mostly disallow any Skeptic to be on their networks and in their papers anymore. This is who they are, and, of course, it applies to most stuff where they are Believers.

Read: WSJ: Climate Crisis Scam Has Destroyed Journalist Standards »

Posted in Global Warming, Journalistic Malpractice | 25 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 9, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a wonderful Progressive big city at danger from sea rise, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Hayride, with a post on GOP senators betraying their voters once again.

Read: If All You See… »

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The Solution To Eviction Bans Is Government, You Know

By William Teach August 9, 2021 – 10:30 am

I’m actually surprised that landlords didn’t simply refuse to renew leases. They still have to pay their bills to the mortgage holder. In cases where things like water, power, and/or cable are included they still have to pay. Meanwhile, many tenants are working, buying cars, new phones, paying their cell phone bills, ordering meal delivery, and more. But, hey, there’s a solution

Eviction bans can’t last forever. What are long-term solutions?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday extended a ban on evictions in areas of the country experiencing “substantial or high levels” of coronavirus transmission, categories that include about 80 percent of counties in the United States.

The new extension replaces a nationwide eviction moratorium that the CDC issued in September under the belief that allowing people to stay in their homes — and not forcing them into crowded living situations like homeless shelters — would help stem the spread of the virus. While there’s evidence that the ban did help reduce community transmission, there have been heated debates about the merits of keeping it in place as the number of COVID cases has dipped from the winter peak.

The emergence of the Delta variant informed the decision to issue another extension, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said. President Biden added that the new order will give states more time to distribute the $45 billion set aside by Congress to help struggling Americans pay off rental debt. Due to bureaucratic delays and lack of awareness of the program, only a small percentage of those funds have been distributed.

I’m shocked, isn’t government super-efficient? Also, the extension violates the law and Constitution. Anyhow

One of the most common suggestions for directly addressing housing insecurity is a dramatic expansion of vouchers, a system where government funds help cover a portion of rent for low-income households. There are also widespread calls for stronger protections for renters who are facing evictions, like a guaranteed right to counsel or eviction diversion programs that help resolve landlord-tenant disputes outside of a courtroom. Others say tenant protections must be accompanied by aid to landlords who lose rental income when tenants can’t pay.

Many experts also argue that preventing the millions of evictions that happen each year will require more dramatic tackling of the fundamental cause of housing insecurity: Rents are simply too expensive for a huge share of Americans. Addressing that problem could include raising the minimum wage to changing zoning laws that limit construction to investments in affordable housing and dramatically increasing the supply of government-owned homes.

Government already has many of these systems in place for low-income folks: they’re called government housing, for one. The other are rent controlled properties. And both tend to be more dangerous, with lots more crime, and often look like shitholes, with trash everywhere, ill-maintained yards and buildings. But, Progressives want even more, like a government paid lawyer to gum up the works for people being evicted for non-payment of rent. Which seems pretty cut and dry.

Raising minimum wage? Just increases costs, like rent. Requiring the construction of low income housing, which would simply mean companies will not build because they won’t get their money back. Increasing government owned homes, which also means nationalization. Government giving people money for rent. Where’s it coming from?

Housing should be treated as a fundamental right defended by the government

“We should move our housing billions out of the private market and into social housing, built on a foundation of full public-sector ownership and management. In so doing, we will commit to democratic control of housing, which will minimize costs and include mechanisms to remedy race and income segregation.” — Fran Quigley, Jacobin

A government takeover. Surprise!

A limited ban should be made permanent and paired with relief for landlords

“An enduring ‘not-my-fault’ defense should apply only to tenants who did nothing wrong and who have no other housing option. It should be paired with relief on the landlord side of the ledger. After all, the landlord isn’t to blame for a tenant’s sudden hardship.” — Juliet Brodie and Larisa Bowman, CNN

So, no evictions at all. These people are insane.

The ban is only making the long-term eviction problem worse

“The economic emergency has long passed and many landlords are struggling to pay their mortgages and utilities. … The moral imperative now is to let landlords collect rent so they can stay in business and avoid bankruptcies that would lead to cascading damage throughout the rental housing market.” — Editorial, Wall Street Journal

Government would like this, because they’ll just take over the properties.

Read: The Solution To Eviction Bans Is Government, You Know »

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World Is On Brink Of Catastrophe From ‘Climate Change’ Or Something

By William Teach August 9, 2021 – 8:25 am

The lastest UN IPCC doom piece is being released, so we get

There are plenty more doomy articles across the Credentialed Media outlets. Did you know that the seas were about 3 meters higher than today about 5,000 years ago? Darned citizens of Atlantis driving fossil fueled vehicles. Anyhow, doom

From the screed

The world is getting “dangerously close” to running out of time to avert catastrophic climate change, Cop26 President Alok Sharma has said.

Mr Sharma – who is tasked with making a success of the upcoming climate talks in Glasgow – said failing to limit warming to 1.5C would be “catastrophic”.

In an interview with the Guardian, Mr Sharma said a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, due to be published on Monday, would be the “starkest warning yet” about what the future could hold.

“You’re seeing on a daily basis what is happening across the world. Last year was the hottest on record, the last decade the hottest decade on record,” he said.

He said Cop26 “has to be the moment we get this right”, adding: “We can’t afford to wait two years, five years, 10 years – this is the moment.”

None of this proves anthropogenic causation, just that members of a cult are invested in their cult and want to scare people into giving up their money and freedom to government. They’ve been saying this stuff for 30+ years, and really, almost none of their prognostications have come to fruition.

The former business secretary came under fire this week for the volume of flights he has taken since new year in a bid to hash out a deal with countries dragging their feet on emissions targets.

But despite cries of “hypocrite” from political rivals, green groups refused to condemn him and the Government was robust in his defence.

Mr Sharma told the Guardian: “I have every week a large number of virtual meetings, but I can tell you that having in-person meetings with individual ministers is incredibly vital and actually impactful.

See, it’s fine for high ranking poobahs in the climate cult to use lots of fossil fuels, which really should make everyone else think “if they aren’t willing to modify their own lives to accord with the beliefs they say government should implement, why should I even believe this is real?”

Read: World Is On Brink Of Catastrophe From ‘Climate Change’ Or Something »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

Iceland, Model For COVID Response, Sees Large Spike In Cases Among Vaccinated

By William Teach August 9, 2021 – 8:13 am

Iceland was the media’s model for COVID response

Now, understand, I’m not making fun of Iceland. The small nation went hardcore on early testing and contact tracing, requiring isolation for those in contact with COVID positive people rather than imposing lockdown. Almost no businesses were closed. They didn’t mask up. Of course, it is a small nation, not a big population, contact tracing would have been very tough here in the U.S. and many other nations. But, they were also lauded for their vaccination rates as a model for the rest of the world. And now

What Iceland’s rising Covid-19 case count tells us about vaccine efficacy

COVID dancing penguinsIn Iceland, 96% of females and 90% of males 16 years or older have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. Its vaccination rate, one of the highest in the world, makes it a particularly interesting place to look at the incidence and severity of breakthrough infections.

Covid-19 vaccines were first administered in Iceland at the end of 2020; by mid-July, every resident over the age of 16 was offered a shot. Yet tests show an alarming number of domestic Covid-19 infections are still happening with the onset of the delta variant.

In the US, where vaccination rates are lower, officials have described the virus’s ongoing spread as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” But given the lopsided numbers of vaccinated versus unvaccinated people in Iceland, the island country is currently seeing more cases of Covid-19 among the vaccinated than the unvaccinated. (snip)

That there are hardly any deaths accompanying the rising case count is a good sign. The data show that vaccinated people who are getting the virus are generally recovering without serious illness.

Iceland provides a case study for how an effective vaccine rollout perhaps doesn’t guarantee herd immunity but prevents hospitalizations and deaths.

Sadly, that last part will not be noticed by the un-vaccinated, they’ll just say “we told you the vaccines don’t really work, people are getting COVID.” Not sure about you, I’d rather feel like I have a mild cold rather than take a risk of ending in the hospital.

What this also shows is that COVID doesn’t care if it was virtually eliminated: it’s changing so fast that it can break through. Which gives high credence to it being created in a lab, not just randomly created by someone eating a bat or pangolin in a wet market and spreading around the world like wildfire. And they’re already talking about Lambda variant, which they think is vaccine resistant, with the head of the “notorious” Wuhan institute warning of even more. Well, he would surely know. Fauci thinks the FDA could give full approval to the vaccines in August, which would mean lots and lots of mandates coming soon.

Read: Iceland, Model For COVID Response, Sees Large Spike In Cases Among Vaccinated »

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Biden’s New EV Goals Are “An Edsel Masquerading As A Tesla” Or Something

By William Teach August 8, 2021 – 3:36 pm

A goodly chunk of the people reading the USA Today article have no idea what an Edsel is. Regardless, take a guess where this piece goes

Biden’s new electric car goals are an Edsel masquerading as a Tesla.

The United States needs to urgently slash global warming pollution with strictly enforced standards that phase out sales of new gasoline-engine cars and trucks by 2030 and dramatically boost fuel efficiency until then. But the emissions cuts in the auto plan President Biden issued Thursday are too timid – and rely too heavily on automakers’ voluntary commitments to produce electric vehicles. They won’t cut it. (snip)

The plan ballyhoos electric vehicles, touting a hoped-for new-vehicle fleet that could be up to 50% EVs in 2030. But automakers gave Biden no commitment that they would reach even that inadequate target. Voluntary pledges from auto companies make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight look like a legally binding contract. Because automakers have demonstrated they can’t be trusted (See: Volkswagen diesel-gate), compliance with every element of the package must be written in stone. (snip through a lot of complaining about those mean auto makers producing vehicles that people actually want to buy)

Automakers have long had the technology needed to achieve real improvements: electric motors; safe, high-strength lightweight steel and aluminum; continuously variable transmissions, and aerodynamic designs, for example. With them, consumers would save more at the pump than the improvements would cost.

But rather than make full use of the gas- and dollar-saving improvements, carmakers pumped $14 billion yearly into TV and web ads and other marketing to ramp up production of gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups. For years they’ve saddled customers –who often haul little more than a cappuccino from Starbucks – with truck markups of as much as $35,000.

You mean the vehicles that people want to buy? Huh. BTW, the vast majority of 4 cylinder vehicles have CVTs. That 2.0 Turbo meant to replicate a 6 cylinder? It’s a 4 cylinder with a CVT. Better fuel economy, less change of hearing “you need a new transmission.” Better on hills. More consistent power. Most use high strength body materials for the unibodies. No frames. And aerodynamic designs. Are climate cultists Dan Becker and James Gerstenzang been living under rocks for the last 15 years?

To fend off the worst climate catastrophes, Biden has set a goal of near-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Because some vehicles remain on the road at least 20 years, we can’t reach that crucial target unless we phase out sales of new gas-powered cars and light trucks by the end of this decade.

What’s this “we” stuff? What if the majority of us don’t? How about you cultists stop using them?

Biden’s auto standard is an Edsel masquerading as a Tesla. Before it becomes final later this year, he must strengthen it. Global warming is burning forests, roasting the West and worsening storms. Now is not the time to propose clunker rules for today and promise strong ones for tomorrow. The stakes are too high to aim low.

They want Biden to act as a dictator in forcing you, the Free Citizens of the USA, to comply. Surprise?

Read: Biden’s New EV Goals Are “An Edsel Masquerading As A Tesla” Or Something »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 8, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is coffee which will soon disappear due to ‘climate change’, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Legal Insurrection, with a post on the Texas fleebaggers filing suit against Gov Abbott for causing them “mental distress.”

It’s brunettes week!

Read: If All You See… »

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