CNN: It’s Just So Terrible That Republican States Aren’t Following Sleepy Joe’s Agenda

It is terrible, because Democratic Party run states totally listened to Donald Trump and followed his agenda, right?

America’s partisan fireworks will be hard for anyone to put out

While July Fourth is the holiday that most directly celebrates Americans’ common heritage, this year it comes as their extreme divides underscore how difficult it has become for any president to set a unified direction for the country.

From vaccination rates to voting rights, from immigration policy to racial equity, blue and red states are hurtling in antithetical directions at staggering speed, even amid President Joe Biden’s persistent calls for greater national unity and his attempts to foster more bipartisan agreement in Washington. Across all of these issues, and more, Republican-controlled states are pursuing policies that amount to a wholesale effort to counter Biden’s direction at the national level — even as they look to block some of his key initiatives with lawsuits.

Seriously, where is Joe being bipartisan? The so-called bi-partisan infrastructure deal barely involved the White House, and, remember, Joe went off the reservation and yammered about forcing all the left wing garbage back into it immediately after a press conference with Republican and Democrat senators. Other than Joe’s apparent love of ice cream, what is he pushing that is bipartisan? Is it the amnesty for illegals? Opening the borders? Destroying the military with sweeps for right wing “extremists”, allowing the gender confused, teaching critical race theory, focusing the mission on ‘climate change’, etc? Nominating left wing extremists for executive office positions? Insert your own

In some ways, the red state recoil from Biden’s agenda echoes the “resistance” that exploded in Democratic-controlled states to Donald Trump’s tumultuous presidency; in other ways, today’s actions in red states may constitute even greater evidence of the country pulling apart. Especially striking is that, as during last year’s lockdowns and mask mandates, the separation between red and blue America is occurring not only at the level of government policy, but also in individual behavior, with all studies showing Republicans are being vaccinated against the coronavirus at a much lower rate than Democrats.

See, blue states did this during Trump, but, it’s totally worse now. They don’t really say how, probably because it’s super mean to oppose Biden’s extremist agenda which he says is bipartisan. And, yeah, most Republican states avoided the authoritarianism of the COVID lockdowns.

Taken together, these centrifugal pressures call into question not only the ability of any president to unify the nation, but also his or her ability even to chart a common course for more than roughly half of the country — either red or blue America. This divergence, across a wide range of issues and personal choices, is rooted in the continuing political re-sorting that has divided the parties more sharply than ever along demographic and geographic lines and produced two political coalitions holding inimical views on the fundamental social and economic changes remaking America. And that destabilizing process shows no signs of slowing, much less reversing, even after Trump — who fomented division as a central component of his political strategy — has left the White House.

I distinctly remember CNN opposing everything Donald Trump. And George W. Bush. But, when Dementia Joe is in office (or Barack Obama), Republicans are suddenly supposed to follow the agenda.

“One of the most important reasons why Democrats and Republicans intensely dislike each other is that they intensely disagree on a wide range of issues including the size and scope of the welfare state, abortion, gay and transgender rights, race relations, climate change, gun control and immigration,” Abramowitz writes. “As long as the parties remain on the opposite sides of almost all of the major issues facing the country, feelings of mistrust and animosity are unlikely to diminish even if Donald Trump ceases to play a major role in the political process.”

Well, yeah. Let’s also not forget that a good chunk of Democrats loathe the United States and all her symbols. They want to change everything about the nation, rather than simply leaving. How is there possible agreement? Skipping to the end

The Declaration of Independence that Americans celebrated over the weekend begins with the confident assertion that it is “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” Today, it is unclear what set of principles, if any, America’s fractious 50 states might agree on across the widening red-blue divide.

Not to get all Political Theory, but, there was a reason why the federal government was simply supposed to be a unifying government on very, very specific issues, like national defense, immigration, monetary policy, and cross border economics: every state was different, every state had different concerns, and every state was pretty much the size of the old European nations, each of which had their own concerns. It’s why there is a 10th Amendment. Why senators were appointed by state general assemblies, to specifically do the business of the states, not the people nor the national parties. The notion of a national split is moving from a conspiracy theory to reality.

Read: CNN: It’s Just So Terrible That Republican States Aren’t Following Sleepy Joe’s Agenda »

Climate Cult Thinks “Communities Of Color” Cannot Survive Without A Helping Hand

This sure seems a bit racist to me

Communities of color are the ‘first and worst’ hurt by climate change; urgent action needed to change course

climate change joke

Last week’s heat wave was a miserable, deadly, wake-up call.

While the details continue to emerge and the human cost is still being tallied, we know that hundreds of people lost their lives in the Northwest during the heat wave, one that climate scientists say is a manifestation of climate change. In Oregon alone, the early count of heat deaths — which are likely to rise — exceeded the total from the last 20 years combined.

We all felt the impacts of the scorching heat, but it was not felt equally.

According to research published in Nature Communications, people of color are disproportionately exposed to urban heat. Landlocked areas with high amounts of concrete and low numbers of trees and shade are known as “heat islands.” The researchers found that in nearly all urban areas, the average person of color — regardless of income — lived in an area with higher heat island intensity.

Local research on the same phenomenon done by the city of Seattle and King County found that the differences between the hottest and coolest parts of comparable Seattle areas measured at the same time can differ by up to a shocking 23 degrees, due to disparities such as tree canopy and location of industrial areas.

Unsurprisingly, the areas with the hottest heat islands are also the areas where people of color are concentrated. They also correlate to areas with the highest environmental health disparities as well. My Rainier Beach neighborhood, for example, has the highest possible health disparity score of 10.

It is simply great that climate cultists always think that “communities of color”, meaning blacks, primarily, are always in more dire circumstances than anyone else, and need Government to fix everything. Of course, these CoC always seem to be stuck in crummy parts of Democratic Party run cities, like Seattle. And the solution is always the same government that stuck these people in these supposedly bad situations.

The interesting part here is that what is being discussed is not “global warming/climate change’, but the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI), whereby areas will be artificially hotter than others. Get outside Seattle into the suburbs and rural areas and the temperatures will go way down. Get into the crap parts of town and the temperature skyrockets. UHI.

Many of these disparities can be traced back to the legacy of housing segregation, neighborhood redlining and environmental racism, such as placing polluting businesses in communities of color. One study found that formerly redlined neighborhoods in nearly every city were hotter than those that were not redlined, according to NPR. Consequently, Scientific American reported that extreme heat and air pollution are a leading cause of death for communities of color.

Which Party was doing this? Which Party runs these cities?

Read: Climate Cult Thinks “Communities Of Color” Cannot Survive Without A Helping Hand »

If All You See…

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

The blog of the day is Weasel Zippers, with a post on who that armed standoff in Mass. was with.

Read: If All You See… »

Say, Can Unhinged Pro-Crime Progressive Prosecutors Survive The Crime Wave They Helped Create?

Usually, we just hear about things happening when it comes to crime. Rarely are faces put to it

Can progressive prosecutors survive America’s crime wave?

Two months after Sheria Musyoka was killed in San Francisco, his family buried him in the Kenyan village where he had been born and raised. Musyoka’s sisters “wept uncontrollably” during the ceremony, a local outlet reported. Some “fainted as they eulogised their brother.”

The 26-year-old Musyoka had come to the United States to study at Dartmouth College. After graduating at the very top of his class, he married an American woman and settled with her in Connecticut. In late 2020, after a year of pandemic lockdowns, they decided to move across the country, to San Francisco. They had a 3-year-old son named Theo.

On the morning of Feb. 4, 2021, Musyoka was jogging near San Francisco State University when a stolen 2003 Ford Explorer flew through a red light at Lake Merced Boulevard and Higuera Avenue, crashing into seven other cars. The crash killed Musyoka and injured three other people.

The Explorer had been stolen in San Jose by a man named Jerry Lyons, who had proceeded to drive north to San Francisco, where he lived.

Lyons had only recently left prison, only to fall back into the same patterns that had seen him cycle through the criminal justice system for years. In October 2020, he was arrested for allegedly stealing a car and possessing methamphetamine, but San Francisco’s district attorney, Chesa Boudin, decided not to bring new charges against him, even though Lyons was in violation of his supervised release from prison.

Lyons was arrested again in December for drunken driving, again in a stolen car. He spent the better part of that month in jail, but Boudin’s prosecutors — many of whom were, like him, former public defenders — did not move quickly to press new charges, effectively letting the case languish. Lyons was thus set free. The next time he would come to Boudin’s attention, it would be for killing Musyoka.

That puts a face to the pro-crime policies of people like Boudin. You hear about the massive wave of shoplifting due to declaring that theft under $1000 won’t be prosecuted, you see the stories about Walgreen’s and Target stores closing in San Francisco. You see the videos. What you don’t usually hear about are the people affected directly. Those who are robbed and the police go “meh” because they know the perps won’t be prosecuted. Those who close their businesses because of the crime.

Across the country, more and more prosecutors had run or were running on near-identical platforms. They were anti-prosecutors, in a way, steeped in social justice interpretations of policies like Rockefeller drug laws and stop-and-frisk. They saw traditional prosecutors as enablers and abettors of aggressive policing, which in turn they saw as enforcing systemic racism. The new prosecutors vowed to redress these injustices by serving in the very offices that had perpetuated some of them.

Those promises are increasingly imperiled by rising crime rates across the country, including in every major city. Boudin is facing two separate recalls, which on some days has him sounding like the very type of law-and-order prosecutor he promised he was never going to become.

But, really, don’t feel bad for a goodly chunk of the people affected, because they voted for this with their progressive beliefs. Progressives usually believe the Bad Things will affect Someone Else. They rarely stop to think what the policies will do in their own lives. And now that they’re seeing the results of their policies, they want to recall the folks doing what they were elected to do.

Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner, probably the nation’s most prominent progressive prosecutor, spent the spring fighting off a primary challenger. His rival was supported by the city’s Democratic establishment, which had refused to endorse Krasner, the incumbent. Speaking a few days before that election, Krasner told me the backlash was nothing more than “Trumpian bullshit.”

He went further, saying that far from being embattled, the progressive prosecutorial movement was just beginning, supported by a society that has become increasingly aware of racial inequalities. “You can see it in the music. You can see it in the movies,” Krasner said. “You can see it in the books. You can see it in popular culture. You can see it in the marches and the discussions that are going on. So there’s a tremendous cultural shift happening here, which is essential for any successful grassroots movement.”

Yeah, scroll through the First Street Journal, which provides plenty of Krasner’s results. Such as these ones. But, hey, the people of Philly re-elected Krasner, so, let them deal with the consequences of their votes.

It’s a very long article. Have at it.

Read: Say, Can Unhinged Pro-Crime Progressive Prosecutors Survive The Crime Wave They Helped Create? »

Hotcoldwetdry Take: Buildings Were Constructed For A Different Climate

And this means Doom is coming

Most buildings were designed for an earlier climate – here’s what will happen as global warming accelerates

Climate change will affect every aspect of our lives – including the buildings we live and work in. Most people in the US, for example, spend about 90% of their time indoors. Climate change is fundamentally altering the environmental conditions in which these buildings are designed to function.

Architects and engineers design buildings and other structures, like bridges, to operate within the parameters of the local climate. They’re built using materials and following design standards that can withstand the range of temperatures, rainfall, snow and wind that are expected, plus any geological issues such as earthquakes, subsidence and ground water levels.

When any of those parameters are exceeded, chances are some aspect of the building will fail. If there are high winds, some roof tiles may be ripped off. If, after days of heavy rain, the water table rises, the basement might flood. This is normal, and these problems cannot be designed out entirely. After the event has passed, the damage can be repaired and additional measures can reduce the risk of it happening again.

But climate change will breed conditions where these parameters are exceeded more often and to a far greater degree. Some changes, like higher average air temperatures and humidity, will become permanent. What were previously considered once in a century floods may become a regular occurrence.

After many paragraphs of Doom, we see what this is all about (I bet you already guessed)

The tragic recent collapse of an apartment building in Miami in the US may be an early warning of this process gaining speed. While the exact cause of the collapse is still being investigated, some are suggesting it might be linked to climate change.

Suggesting is now science. You knew the Cult of Climastrology wasn’t going to give up on this narrative, even as more information comes to light showing improper construction and lax upkeep. But, see, it doesn’t matter if the Surfside building (someone explain to The Conversation that the building was not in Miami) collapse wasn’t climate change

Whether or not the link to climate change proves to be true, it is nevertheless a wake up call to the fragility of our buildings. It should also be seen as a clear demonstration of a critical point: wealth does not protect against the effects of climate change. Rich nations have the financial clout to adapt more rapidly and to mitigate these impacts, but they can’t stop them at the border. Climate change is indiscriminate. Buildings are vulnerable to these impacts no matter where in the world they are, and if anything, the modern buildings of developed countries have more things in them that can go wrong than simpler traditional structures.

Doom!

Read: Hotcoldwetdry Take: Buildings Were Constructed For A Different Climate »

Thank You President Trump: Sleepy Joe Says We’re Closer To Declaring Our Independence From COVID

Thank you for spearheading Operation Warp Speed, President Donald Trump, which allows Dementia Joe to give a speech like this

‘A sacred day’: Biden’s July 4th party celebrates end of pandemic, recognize lives lost

Biden Brain SlugAs Americans gather to celebrate Independence Day across the country, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden hosted their own party on the South Lawn of the White House.

“Today, we celebrate America. Our freedom, our liberty, our independence. The Fourth of July is a sacred day in our country. A day of history, of hope, remembrance and resolve, of promise and possibilities,” Biden said in remarks ahead of a fireworks display. (except at Mt. Rushmore, since Biden nixed them)

The president struck an optimistic tone, promising that the U.S. is “closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus” while cautioning that “COVID-19 has not been vanquished.”

He also highlighted several signs of a return to normalcy, including the reopening of schools, faster than expected economic recovery and resumption of many in-person activities.

Not sure about you, I declared my independence months ago. Joe’s economic recovery includes a spike in the cost of living. As for being sacred, perhaps Joe should talk to his progressive allies who used the day to poop all over America

Toure’ wrote “F*ck America”, and then it got worse. Marvel Comics has Captain America saying the American dream is a lie. Maxine Waters goes off on the Declaration of Independence, NPR calls it racist. The Nation says exceptionalism = racism. The Washington Post says the Statue Of Liberty a symbol of hypocrisy. Those are just a few of the hot takes, all of which forget that in a goodly chunk of countries that are not the USA they’d never be allowed to say and write stuff like this. Their freedom gives the the ability to be a-holes while sleeping under the very freedom the USA provides.

Biden further praised Americans for their individual roles in defeating the coronavirus, which he called “one of the most remarkable achievements in American history,” before urging people to get vaccinated and to see it as a patriotic act.

Thank you President Trump!

“The best defense against these variants is to get vaccinated. My fellow Americans, it’s the most patriotic thing you can do. So please, if you haven’t gotten vaccinated, do it now. For yourselves, for your loved ones, for your community,” he urged.

Oh, good grief, here we go with the patriotism thing. Sigh. From people who don’t seem to actually like America.

Read: Thank You President Trump: Sleepy Joe Says We’re Closer To Declaring Our Independence From COVID »

Not Your Fault: Engineers Think Surfside Building Had Less Steel Reinforcement

All the climate cultists had to do was wait a bit for actual evidence and facts to come to light regarding the collapse of the Surfside condo building. But, no, they immediately jumped to anthropogenic climate change

Condo Wreckage Hints at First Signs of Possible Construction Flaw

Engineers who have visited or examined photos of the wreckage of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex have been struck by a possible flaw in its construction: Critical places near the base of the building appeared to use less steel reinforcement than called for in the project’s original design drawings.

The observation is the first detail to emerge pointing to a potential problem in the quality of construction of the 13-story condo tower in Surfside, Fla., that collapsed last month, killing at least 24 and leaving up to 121 still unaccounted for.

Reached by phone, Allyn E. Kilsheimer, a forensic engineering expert hired by the town of Surfside to investigate the collapse, said the investigation was still in its early stages. But he confirmed there were signs that the amount of steel used to connect concrete slabs below a parking deck to the building’s vertical columns might be less than what the project’s initial plans specified.

“The bars might not be arranged like the original drawings call for,” Mr. Kilsheimer said in an interview. He said he would need to inspect the rubble more closely to determine whether in fact the slab-to-column connections contained less steel than expected.

Well, you know the Warmists will still link it to ‘climate change’, because that’s what they do. They’re bound to say “oh, well, yeah, it did have less reinforcement that there should have been, but, Bad Weather and sea rise made it happen quicker” or something like that.

Now we wait for more evidence of causation. There’s a lot more information and graphics at the article.

Read: Not Your Fault: Engineers Think Surfside Building Had Less Steel Reinforcement »

If All You See…

…is a flag of a big climate polluter, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is IOTW Report, with a post on Happy ‘You Know, The Thing’!

And Yankee Doodle Mouse, one of my favorites

Read: If All You See… »

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup – Independence Day Edition

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in the Once And Future Nation of America. The Sun is shining, the mockingbirds are singing the songs of lots of other woodland creatures, and it is Independence Day. This pinup is by Tristan Thompson, no addition needed.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Sultan Knish notes a black woman abandoned by her black father and raised by her white mother calling white people awful
  2. The American Conservative covers the defining question for Americans on the 4th of July
  3. White House Dossier features Excitable Jen Psaki saying you don’t like hot dogs if you poo-poo the 16 cents Biden has saved you
  4. The First Street Journal covers Sleepy Joe yammering on about “heat inequity”
  5. The Hayride notes that extremism in defense of liberty is no vice
  6. The Lid recommends reading the Declaration of Independence
  7. The People’s Cube has People’s Karaoke, feature the Madman In The Corner
  8. The Right Scoop discusses what Unhinged Liz Cheney voted for and is joining
  9. This ain’t Hell… features a Gold Star mom discussing Independence Day
  10. Virtual Mirage discusses this day of celebration
  11. Powerline highlights a judge ordering Minneapolis to hire more police (good luck with that)
  12. Pacific Pundit covers CNN providing Chinese Communist Party propoganda
  13. MOTUS A.D. straight up says Happy Birthday, America!
  14. Moonbattery covers French President Macron worried about imported Wokeness from America
  15. And last, but not least, Legal Insurrection shows Americans choose travel and freedom over Delta variant panic

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.

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?

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup – Independence Day Edition »

Happy Independence Day: NY Times Says American Flag No Longer Unites

How many of you are surprised at all that the Paper Of Record would find a way to crap on the flag and the nation on Independence Day?  Many news outlets are finding ways to get a bit moonbat for July 4th, because they are leftist America haters, such as the Washington Post, which trots out

Readers tell how they will choose to celebrate or ignore the Fourth of July

The NY Times takes the cake for major media outlets with this

A Fourth of July Symbol of Unity That May No Longer Unite

The American flag flies in paint on the side of Peter Treiber Jr.’s potato truck, a local landmark parked permanently on County Route 48, doing little more, he thought, than drawing attention to his family’s farm.

Until he tried to sell his produce.

At a local greenmarket where he sells things like wild bergamot, honey and sunflowers, he had trouble striking a deal until, he said, he let his liberal leanings slip out in conversation with a customer.

“She said, ‘Oh, whew. You know, I wasn’t so sure about you, I thought you were some flag-waving something-or-other,’” Mr. Treiber, 32, recalled the woman saying and citing his potato truck display. “That’s why she was apprehensive of interacting with me.”

He paused: “It was a little sad to me. It shows the dichotomy of the country that a flag can mean that. That I had to think, ‘Do I need to reconsider having that out there?’”

If you don’t like the flag, a major symbol of our nation, why are you here? Leave.

Politicians of both parties have long sought to wrap themselves in the flag. But something may be changing: Today, flying the flag from the back of a pickup truck or over a lawn is increasingly seen as a clue, albeit an imperfect one, to a person’s political affiliation in a deeply divided nation.

What party affiliation does it denote?

Supporters of former President Donald J. Trump have embraced the flag so fervently — at his rallies, across conservative media and even during the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — that many liberals like Mr. Treiber worry that the left has all but ceded the national emblem to the right.

What was once a unifying symbol — there is a star on it for each state, after all — is now alienating to some, its stripes now fault lines between people who kneel while “The Star-Spangled Banner” plays and those for whom not pledging allegiance is an affront.

Conservatives aren’t embracing the flag any more than normal. We respect the flag, we love the flag, and we love what the flag stands for, the federal republic of the United States Of America. It stands for freedom, liberty, a “can do!” attitude, for a country that rose from breaking away from the British empire and becoming the most powerful nation on Earth within less than 200 years, one of the few which truly guarantees Free Speech, Religion, Protest, and Petitioning for Redress Of Grievance. Yes, America has flaws and problems, just like ever person, city, and nation.

It’s Democrats who seem to hate the flag, because they hate America. At lest the unhinged, barking moonbat base is in apoplexy. But, the standard, “I’m just a Democrat” voter is becoming more and more anti-flag as time goes on, and are willing to tell you so.

And it has made the celebration of the Fourth of July, of patriotic bunting and cakes with blueberries and strawberries arranged into Old Glory, into another cleft in a country that seems no longer quite so indivisible, under a flag threatening to fray.

So leave. Don’t let the red, white, and blue door hit you in the ass on the way out.

About 70 percent of Americans say the flag makes them feel proud, according to a recent survey by YouGov, a global public opinion and data research firm, and NBCLX, a mobile information platform. The sentiment was shared by about 80 percent of white Americans, just under 70 percent of Hispanic Americans and slightly less than 60 percent of Black Americans.

While the Times attempts to tell us just how darned controversial the American flag is, the poll shows it isn’t that bad. From that poll

About seven in 10 (72%) Americans say the American flag makes them feel proud. Americans under 35 (56%) are less likely than those who are 35-to-54 years old (71%) or 55 and older (67%) to say the flag makes them feel proud.

There are also differences when it comes to race: most white Americans (79%) say the flag makes them feel proud, while fewer Hispanic Americans (67%) and Black Americans (59%) feel the same way.

Similarly, Americans who are white are more likely than Black and Hispanic Americans to say they feel comfortable walking through a neighborhood with a lot of American flags displayed. While 56% of white people say they are very comfortable with this, fewer Hispanic people (39%) and Black people (26%) feel as comfortable doing so.

I’m 100% comfortable with walking in a neighborhood with tons of American flags. The poll does not break that part down by Party affiliation.

Republicans are considerably more likely than Democrats to associate the American flag with the adjectives patriotic (77% vs 54%), proud (67% vs 46%), and normal (49% vs 32%).

So, just 54% of Democrats find the flag to be patriotic. Let that sink in. Take the poll in a few years, especially when a Democrat isn’t in the White House, and see if that drops.

Read: Happy Independence Day: NY Times Says American Flag No Longer Unites »

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