…is a rapidly rising ocean meeting land turning to desert, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is Common Cents Blog, with a post on the trust in media.
It’s women with hats week!
Read: If All You See… »
…is a rapidly rising ocean meeting land turning to desert, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is Common Cents Blog, with a post on the trust in media.
It’s women with hats week!
Read: If All You See… »
Happy Sunday! Another wonderful day in Returned America! The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, and my new Overdrive pedal is freaking awesome! Maybe I’ll write about it at the end of this post or another one. This pinup, something a bit more modern, is by Joe Chiodo, with a wee bit of help.
What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15
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, so, most are hosted internally). 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.
Regarding the foot pedal, it can be tough to find ones, because there are only so many at the guitar stores, and, really, if you go to Guitar Center they are all expensive. Can’t go to Sam Ash stores anymore. So, Internet stores. I’m not that good at guitar anymore, but, I try. I love playing. I wanted a pedal to give me some distortion. The Fender amp, a G-Dec Junior (if you can get one they are one of the best values), has a lot of choices for this, but, I wanted more control. I tried a distortion pedal, but, it goes quickly from 80’s hair metal to just mush, where you can barely tell the notes on chords. Single notes, fine. Chords? Nope.
So, an overdrive. Something that can give you nice, easy OD like a Jeff Beck to more like Hendrix and Page up to Black Sabbath and Judas Priest (Tony Iommi actually never used a pedal. Like most he overdrove the amplifier). All you can do these days is listen to videos. And there are tons. Joyo has 19 OD pedals. Caline has like 9. Other brands have multiple. You have British style. American style. Blues. Standard OD. Too many. The Mellow sounded great, and, after 20 minutes of playing it is the one. It is not really mellow. It is smooth. I can get all the distortion I want for all the stuff I play. I can even get much harder metal, like Megadeath, Slayer, Opeth, and more. The voice nob gives great control. And you can really hear the notes when playing chords, even with heavy OD.
BTW, the others from Caline were very interesting, especially the Orange Burst, which is a little harsher. Pure Sky goes even harsher, but, can give a nice OD. The Green Mamba sounds more like the hardcore Yamaha green.
Have a great Sunday.
Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »
Do you have sympathy? I don’t. When these groups decided that they were going live at the taxpayer teet for their funding, and make lots and lots of cash for producing little, I have no sympathy
Groups frozen out of $20B in EPA cash fear bankruptcy
Eight nonprofits caught in a legal crossfire over $20 billion in Biden-era climate grants are racing toward a funding cliff.
The groups have been shut out of their accounts at Citibank since Feb. 18 because of a still-unexplained freeze imposed amid criticism from President Donald Trump’s administration.
On Tuesday, the standoff enters a new phase — groups will no longer have grant money to make investments or basic needs such as payroll and rent.
It’s the latest fallout from the Trump administration’s effort to claw back tens of billions of dollars from former President Joe Biden’s massive climate and clean energy agenda, including money that agencies had already legally contracted and even placed in bank accounts for recipients to spend. A senior federal prosecutor resigned last week after saying Justice Department officials had pressured her to launch a criminal investigation into the $20 billion in Environmental Protection Agency climate grants, despite a lack of evidence of wrongdoing.
The $20 billion comes from a program, called the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, that was intended to ramp up clean-energy technology finance in low-income communities.
OK, so, here’s the question: what have they succeeded at with the money so far? Anything?
One awardee told E&E News that it won’t be able to make payroll and would begin defaulting on contracts with project partners by March 7. It is trying to raise funds to cover the shortfall.
OK, so, try and get a loan. Reach out to like minded climate Believing companies, charities, and individuals.
The leader of one grant recipient, a coalition of nonprofits called Power Forward Communities, told POLITICO this week that it still intends to deploy its initial $539 million disbursement from the grant, saying he’s “confident” Citibank will honor its funding agreements. Citibank did not respond to requests for comment.
Uh huh. The money comes from the Climate Scam Act Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed by President Brandon in August of 2022. Power Forward Communities was created in October 2023. What expertise do they have? It’s made up of
Enterprise Community Partners: An affordable housing group
Rewiring America: A nonprofit that aims to electrify homes and reduce fossil fuel use
Habitat for Humanity International: A well-known nonprofit
Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC): A nonprofit that specializes in financing projects in areas that struggle to attract private-sector investment
United Way Worldwide: A well-known nonprofit
So, what is the purpose of the over-arching group? Where is the money going? BTW, this is the group that moonbat lefty Stacey Abrams and $2 billion was linked to. Seems more like a shell company, like so many others, where money comes in, they take a cut, it gets spread around to the other companies, who take their cut, then contract out, and they take their cut. And there are a shitton of partners to spread the money around too. So far, everything is about “will be making investments”, nothing about “have made” or “have done”.
The other groups are not named. And the Politico article makes zero reference to what any of these groups have actually done. That should be the primary focus: what have they done so far. How many were created simply to glom onto the slush fund from the IRA.
Read: Climate (scam) Groups Worried About Bankruptcy After Trump Admin Cuts Cash Flow »
…are horrible Bad Weather clouds, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is Legal Insurrection, with a post on the State Dept ending funding to rebuild the Ukraine power grid.
Slight editorial: why would anyone try and rebuild the grid when an active war is going on? Seems rather wasteful.
Read: If All You See… »
Realistically, the cuts to spending and personnel that the Trump administration has imposed so far are drops in the bucket. The budget is almost $7 trillion. The “work”force is around 2.4 million. Getting rid of some has driven Democrats mad
The U.S. government is attempting to dismantle itself.
President Donald Trump has directed the executive branch to “significantly reduce the size of government.” That includes deep cuts in federal funding of scientific and medical research and freezing federal grants and loans for businesses. He has ordered the reversal or removal of regulations on medical insurance companies and other businesses and sought to fire thousands of federal employees. Those are just a few of dozens of executive orders that seek to deconstruct the government. (snip)
Our recent book, “How Government Built America,” shows why the administration’s aim to eliminate government could result in an America that the country’s people have never experienced – one in which free-market economic forces operate without any accountability to the public.
Where’s the accountability for government? How often do we actually see it? If a company is doing Bad Things what happens when they get caught? They get in big trouble. Maybe they get fined. People get fired. Maybe someone goes to jail.
What happens when government employees do bad things? Quite often, nothing. If they’re taking allocated money and giving it to an NGO which takes a big cut to pass it on to another entity which takes their cut and then on to more entities which all take their cut so that a pittance of the allocation makes it doing what it’s supposed to do? Who gets fired? Who goes to jail for defrauding the government? How much ends up back in the pocket of the government workers? How much gets used for totally unrelated activities?
How about government workers who do not actually work? Who are faking it? Who are out protesting instead of doing their jobs? Agencies which have too many redundant employees? Who think that it is their job to implement their own personal beliefs on Americans, who act as little dictators?
Government funding and regulation have yielded countless economic benefits for the public, including the launch of many efforts later capitalized on by the private sector. Government funding delivered a COVID-19 vaccine in record time, many of the technologies – GPS, touchscreens and the internet – that are key to the functioning of the cellphone in your pocket, and the highway system that enables travel throughout the country.
Might not want to mention the Bat Soup Flu “vaccine”, which, also, if memory serves, Democrats said would not happen for years or decades. How about government telling citizens that they will only be able to drive an EV soon? Passing extra, unnecessary regulations that make housing overly expensive? Jumping in to tell people what they are allowed to do with the little pond in their backyard? Arresting people for paddleboarding on the ocean with no one within hundreds of yards during COVID? Treating agencies as their own little fiefdom and going after people they accuse of Wrongthink?
Admittedly, there is wasteful spending – as much as $150 billion a year in erroneous payments. That is a lot of money, but it’s a tiny sliver – just 2.2% – of the $6.75 trillion the federal government spent in the 2024 fiscal year. And government has not always been a positive force in society, either.
Do you want to die on the 2.2% figure? $150 billion is real money to Americans. And that’s just erroneous payments. Anyhow, it’s a long, long piece, which misses that government has grown too big and too powerful. It has forgotten who it works for. It is unaccountable. If bureaucrats do bad things against citizens, what can the citizen do? Virtually nothing. And, a thing I find funny is that there are often more unnecessary employees in unnecessary positions while others (say, the FDA) are underfunded and have too few employees. Investigating sub-prime mortgages.
Whenever I think of government, I think of this: “a light touch” (around 1:35)
Democrats would prefer control like China….well, at least as it pertains to Other People. They want government to take a light touch in their own lives.
Read: Saturday Funny: Trump Trying To End Meaningful Government »
It’s always something with this cult
A looming ice age? Scientists find a striking pattern in Earth’s history.
A group of scientists think they can now predict when the next ice age could grip Earth, but don’t worry, it’s not for a very long time.
An ice age should begin in about 10,000 years, but its onset is most likely delayed due to man-made climate change, an international team of scientists found in their analysis published this week in Science.
Scientists have long known that small changes in how Earth orbits the sun influence glacial cycles over thousands of years. This analysis is the first time anyone has been able to determine which orbital characteristic has the most influence on the start and end of ice ages, according to a news release from the University of California at Santa Barbara. The team found that the changes in the Earth’s climate, from ice ages to warm periods like today called interglacial conditions, synced up to the orbital behavior. (snip)
“But such a transition to a glacial state in 10,000 years’ time is very unlikely to happen because human emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere have already diverted the climate from its natural course, with longer-term impacts into the future,” said study co-author Gregor Knorr, of the Alfred Wegener Institute’s Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany.
Read: Your Fault: The Next Ice Age Will Be Delayed Because You Drive A Fossil Fueled Vehicle »
President Trump fires hundreds of climate hoaxers at NOAA. https://t.co/f2A6jOau4e pic.twitter.com/JIrsv8YQxp
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) February 28, 2025
Let me ask: does the NOAA really need 12,000 employees? Heck, do they need 6,000 for what they do?
Weather forecasting: NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) provides weather, water, and climate forecasts and warnings.
Climate monitoring: NOAA monitors climate change and helps with climate adaptation.
Marine resource management: NOAA manages and conserves coastal and marine resources.
Severe weather preparedness: NOAA helps communities prepare for severe weather, such as flooding and heavy rain.
International shipping: NOAA supports international shipping.
Aquatic invasive species: NOAA works to prevent the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species.
They had around 11,000 in 1990. Is this justified? Is this necessary? From the link
The Trump administration has fired hundreds of workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the US’s pre-eminent climate research agency housed within the Department of Commerce, the Guardian has learned.
On Thursday afternoon, the commerce department sent emails to employees saying their jobs would be cut off at the end of the day. Other government agencies have also seen huge staffing cuts in recent days.
The firings specifically affected probationary employees, a categorization that applies to new hires or those moved or promoted into new positions, and which makes up roughly 10% of the agency’s workforce.
“The majority of probationary employees in my office have been with the agency for 10+ years and just got new positions,” said one worker who still had their job, and who spoke to the Guardian under the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “If we lose them, we’re losing not just the world-class work they do day to day but also decades of expertise and institutional knowledge.”
What are they providing? Perhaps a better approach rather than wholesale termination would be to do employee reviews and see who provides value, who’s working, who’s doing good things, who’s working for the taxpayer, and who is working for the climate cult and their own personal beliefs.
It is not only laid-off employees who will be harmed by the cuts, the second worker said. Ordinary Americans who rely on Noaa’s extreme weather forecasts, climate data and sustainably monitored fisheries will also suffer.
There are plenty making the forecasts. Also, they rely on computers, and AI can do a good chunk of their job. Further, most local TV stations have their own forecasting. I look at the local folks, not NOAA.
“There is no plan or thought into how to continue to deliver science or service on weather, severe storms and events, conservation and management of our coasts and ocean life and much more,” he said. “Let’s not pretend this is about efficiency, quality of work or cost savings because none of those false justifications are remotely true.”
So, if they have 11,000 instead of 12,000, will that make that much of a difference? 11,000 cannot make storm predictions and send out alerts? Get over yourselves.
…is a wonderful low carbon bike, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is Jo Nova, with a post on higher sea levels.
Read: If All You See… »