NC Gov Vetoes School Reopening Bill, Could Be Overriden

By William Teach February 27, 2021 – 7:35 am

Schools in many states, mostly Republican run ones, are open and have been open, and there have been no reports of COVID incidents. You can bet the ranch that if there had been a big spread it would be top-line news. I’m guessing the gov is responding more to the teacher’s unions than the citizens

Gov. Cooper vetoes school reopening bill; Legislature could override veto

Gov. Roy Cooper (D) has vetoed a bill aimed at forcing K-12 public schools to offer the option of in-person learning saying it “threatens public health.”

Senate Bill 37 had been sitting on Cooper’s desk since it was passed by the House on Feb. 17 by a 77-42 vote.

Cooper has said he takes issue with the bill allowing school districts to choose whether to follow the state’s minimal or moderate social distancing plans as they reopen.

“Students learn best in the classroom and I have strongly urged all schools to open safely to in-person instruction and the vast majority of local school systems have done just that. However, Senate Bill 37 falls short in two critical areas. First, it allows students in middle and high school to go back into the classroom in violation of NC Department of Health and Human Services and CDC health guidelines. Second, it hinders local and state officials from protecting students and teachers during an emergency,” Cooper said.

Other schools are able to open, why not ours? Some businesses have been open the whole time. Many businesses have reopened. Lots and lots of teachers want the schools opened. Their unions get in the way.

The bill passed with enough support from Democrats that the legislature could override Cooper’s veto.

Sen. Deanna Ballard (R-Watauga), who was a primary sponsor of SB 37, said there is no legitimate excuse for the veto with teacher vaccinations in full swing.

“At the same time the Governor boasts of teacher vaccinations after giving them a higher priority than cancer patients, he vetoes this school reopening bill because it offers school districts the flexibility to operate under the plan that best suits their on-the-ground needs.

“The far-left NCAE owns the Governor’s mansion. Thankfully, Senate Bill 37 passed with enough bipartisan support to override Gov. Cooper’s veto, and we expect to bring it up for an override vote,” Ballard said.

Cooper literally just relaxed the rules, especially on bars and events. People can now go to sporting events like the Carolina Hurricanes at 15% capacity, more people can be in bars and stay their a bit later. Social gatherings can now be up to 25 people inside. So, sure seems like schools could be open.

Meanwhile

As schools reopen, are teachers prepared to meet the emotional needs of all their students?

As debates around reopening schools heat up, parents and teachers can’t afford to ignore the social and emotional crisis threatening to overwhelm America’s children.

A recent report from Mental Health America tells a saddening story: the proportion of kids aged 11-17 who accessed depression and anxiety screenings in 2020 rose 9% over the year before. And that’s just the ones who asked for help: it doesn’t account for kids with underlying emotional and developmental disabilities exacerbated by the pandemic, nor does it wholly capture the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on students of color and those in under-resourced communities.

These are the schools that mostly Democrat leaders and teacher’s unions have kept closed despite the science showing they should be open. And despite the vast amount of money allocated to schools to make them safe to reopen provided in previous COVID bills.

These issues will come to a head when students return to physical classrooms. Unfortunately, educators — exhausted and overwhelmed themselves — have struggled to make room for the social and emotional learning (SEL) programs that can address students’ psychological wellbeing and combat narcissism. Back in July, a survey showed just 7% of educators were prepared to meet the SEL needs of students during COVID-19.

You know, a goodly chunk of us have been working the whole time. Outlets like the USA Today don’t seem to care about that. Anyhow, open the schools and the kids will be back to their normal, anxiety ridden, crazy selves. They’ll put the pandemic mostly behind themselves.

Read: NC Gov Vetoes School Reopening Bill, Could Be Overriden »

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Hot Take: Miami Would Replace Palm Trees To Solve Climate Apocalypse

By William Teach February 26, 2021 – 3:00 pm

I guess they’ll ship all the palm trees to Canada, because cult doctrine says Canada will soon be as warm as Cuba

Miami Beach Climate Change Plan Would See Iconic Palm Trees Swapped Out For Canopy Trees

climate change joke

The city of Miami Beach is looking ahead in hopes of solving some of their climate change concerns.

Part of the city’s new plan calls for a reduction in the number of palm trees, adding instead more canopy trees.

“As we’re thinking about planning for our city, green infrastructure is going to be a part of that solution. Our tree canopy is that first piece of green infrastructure,” said Elizabeth Wheaton, Miami Beach’s environment and sustainability director.

Wheaton said they have earmarked $5 million for a citywide reforestation plan that will not only change the area’s skyline but also help the environment.

“We’re in the process of going through a major reforestation effort, with a goal to plant 5,000 trees by the next 10 years,” Wheaton said, “That is one major step in adding more canopy into our green spaces, our parks, as well as our roadways.”

She said planting more canopy trees will help with carbon reduction, absorb more rain water and help provide shaded streets. But the plan has come under fire because it calls for the reduction of palm trees.

Ya think?

“We would actually go from 57% tree canopy of palm trees, which we currently are, to 25% by the year 2050. A lot of that would be adding shade trees, which can be very positive, if done correctly. But, it also calls for the removal or relocation of 1,500 palm tree,” said Vice Mayor Steve Meiner. “The palm trees an iconic, beautiful tree. And it’s a symbol. It’s actually in the symbol of Miami Beach and I think such a reduction from 57 to 25%, I’m concerned could have a serious negative impact on our cultural, historical and economic brand.”

They say they’ll replant the palms elsewhere in the area, but, this is just typically Crazy by climate cultists. If these Warmists were so darned concerned about doom from ‘climate change’ you’d think they would ban fossil fueled vehicles and get rid of the airports. And move elsewhere.

Meanwhile

Annapolis sues 26 oil and gas firms alleging they ‘concealed’ knowledge of climate change

City officials in Annapolis, Md., filed a lawsuit Monday accusing 26 companies including Exxon, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute of failing to warn state officials about the dangers posed by man-made climate change.

The lawsuit, filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, alleges that the named companies knew “for decades that climate change impacts could be catastrophic, and that only a narrow window existed to take action before the consequences would be irreversible,” yet failed to warn relevant state officials.

I still say those companies should refuse, at a minimum, to sell their products to the city government. Let’s see how well the city operates without fossil fuels.

Read: Hot Take: Miami Would Replace Palm Trees To Solve Climate Apocalypse »

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If All You See…

By William Teach February 26, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a city area flood from carbon pollution Extreme Weather, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Jihad Watch, with a post on Iran saying it expects China Joe to repay the $1 trillion it lost under Trump’s sanctions.

Read: If All You See… »

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House Passes Super Radical “Equality” Act

By William Teach February 26, 2021 – 10:30 am

The crazy Equality Act, which will certainly end up in front of the Supreme Court for violating the 1st Amendment regarding the religion clause (providing it even gets enough votes to make it past the 60 vote threshold), is chock full of crazy. And we still don’t have the $1,400 checks for Americans

7 Radical Demands in the Equality Act

House Democrats have passed the radical Equality Act once again, claiming it will merely amend federal civil rights law to ensure sexual orientation and gender identity are protected classes, even though the Constitution already provides protection for the rights of all American citizens, regardless of their “identity group.”

If enacted, however, the Equality Act would have a major impact on children and their parents, potentially upending the culture as American families now know it. Lawsuits filed against Americans who adhere to the science of biological sex and the First Amendment rights of citizens would now have a federal law backing them up that states gender identity supersedes biological sex.

Below are seven radical demands in the Equality Act: (there’s quite a bit of discussion at the article on each one)

  1. The bill would end the federal legal recognition of complementary male and female sex in favor gender identity.
  2. The bill would eliminate the traditional right to privacy of women and girls in public facilities, in favor, instead, of gender identity.
  3. The Equality Act would eviscerate women’s and girls’ sports.
  4. The Equality Act would be used to mandate school curricula that affirm and promote sexual orientation and gender identity views.
  5. The Equality Act would be used to remove custody rights from parents who refuse to have their minor children undergo transgender medical interventions and procedures.
  6. Since the Equality Act exempts itself from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, religious schools, hospitals, and adoption agencies could face federal sanctions for upholding their teachings with regard to life, sexuality, and marriage under the legislation.
  7. The Equality Act’s text that names a form of “discrimination on the basis of pregnancy” would be used to punish healthcare providers who refuse to perform an abortion or to outlaw policies that ban funding for the procedure.

Ryan Anderson, president of EPPC, called the Equality Act “legislative malpractice that turns equality on its head.”

“It isn’t drafted as a shield to protect vulnerable minorities from unjust discrimination, but as a sword to persecute those who do not embrace new sexual and gender ideologies,” he asserted.

It’s also designed to destroy Christian religious beliefs (because Democrats are afraid to go after Muslim ones, because that would lead to violence). If this manages to pass the Senate and China Joe signs it, the lawsuits will be flying all over the place, and some will ask for an immediate ruling from the Supreme Court into the Constitutionality of the religion measures. If the crazy bill doesn’t include severability, it is done. And so much of it is wrapped up in controlling and limiting religion.

Read: House Passes Super Radical “Equality” Act »

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European Court Demands EU Governments Prove They’re Doing Something About Climate Crisis (scam)

By William Teach February 26, 2021 – 8:04 am

In a rational world, one where the Cult of Climastrology was treated as the cult it is, the EU governments would say “sure, cool, no problem, we’ll remove all funding for energy and fossil fueled vehicles/flights for the court, disallow all meat in the court building, and remove anything which puts out “carbon pollution.” Of course, since all these CoC European countries were so thrilled to sign the Paris Climate (scam) Agreement, why do they need to prove they are Doing Something?

European court: governments must prove climate change effort

A top European court is forcing 33 governments to prove they are cutting emissions in line with the requirements of the 2015 Paris climate accord.

The European Court of Human Rights has also rejected an attempt by those governments in the same case to overturn its decision to fast-track an ambitious climate change action brought by six young Portuguese activists.

The activists allege that the countries’ efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions are inadequate.

The governments had asked the court to drop its priority status for the case and hear their argument that the case is inadmissible, the activists’ legal representatives said in a statement Friday.

But in the latest legal victory for the activists, the court dismissed the governments’ arguments against an urgent hearing and denied their application to defer scrutiny of their climate policies, the statement said.

The governments now have until May 27 to submit their legal defense.

“This is another major step toward securing a decision from the court which compels (the) governments to take the urgent action necessary to safeguard the futures of the youth applicants and their generation,” said Gerry Liston of the Global Legal Action Network, an international nonprofit organization that challenges human rights violations and which is assisting the activists.

Interesting. The governments wanted the case basically dismissed. I thought they wanted to have to do all this climate crazy stuff? No? It’s more about ClimaVirtue Signalling, because they know it would destroy their economies? That their good with certain measures meant to control their citizens and others that are “look, we’re Doing Something” but do not want to go too far, which is what these Youths want and Paris demands?

The countries named in the complaint include the 27 member nations of the European Union plus the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

If the activists win their case, the countries would be legally bound to cut emissions in line with the requirements of the Paris climate accord. They would also have to address their role in overseas emissions, including by their multinational companies.

Remember, Paris was “historic”. Funny how the majority of nations that signed it aren’t actually anywhere close to being in compliance. The governments should, in a non climacrazy cult world, would turn off all power to the schools that doesn’t come strictly from “renewables” and take away all funding for fossil fueled vehicles and flights. Let the kiddies charge their phones and such with solar power, limit their streaming of shows and all their narcissistic videos (because that’s Bad for ‘climate change’). See how the Youths like it.

Read: European Court Demands EU Governments Prove They’re Doing Something About Climate Crisis (scam) »

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Despite Ruling That Minimum Wage Hike Is Against Rules, Pelosi Vows To Keep It In COVID Bill

By William Teach February 26, 2021 – 7:46 am

Rules? Pfffft. Rules are for Other People, not Democrats

Pelosi vows to keep minimum wage provision in House bill; Harris could act

The Senate’s chief parliamentarian ruled Thursday that a federal minimum wage hike should not be included in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, but that seemed to do little to deter House Democrats from pursuing the plan — against impossible odds.

In a statement obtained by Fox News, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough’s decision “disappointing.” Pelosi, like most Democrats, insisted that the wage-hike provision be kept in the bill and said it would “remain in the American Rescue Plan on the Floor tomorrow.”

Vice President Harris, as president of the Senate, can override the parliamentarian’s ruling, but the move is considered unlikely. Ron Klain, President Biden’s chief of staff, said in an interview this week that a Harris override was “not something we would do.”

MacDonough’s decision was seen as a devastating blow by the chamber’s nonpartisan arbiter to the Democrat cause. Senate Democrats wanted to avoid having to deal with a Republican filibuster and employ a process called budget reconciliation. Under the process, Democrats would be able to pass the bill in the Senate with a simple majority. But budget reconciliation comes with additional rules, including what provisions can be added to these bills.

The NY Times reports that this is a “critical defeat for Democrats in their bid to preserve China Joe’s $1.9 trillion bill as it cut a crucial piece backed by Progressives (nice Fascists)”. Excitable Rachel Maddow at MSDNC is freaking out about Republicans trying to kill the minimum wage hike that most Americans want. Isn’t there an old saying about the People voting themselves money? In this case, it wouldn’t be from the public treasury, but, from Other People’s businesses. Which would lead to reduced hours, reduced jobs, no overtime, more part time positions, fewer perks, cost of goods/services increases, and more.

Let me ask: if a $15 minimum wage increase is just so darned popular, why is that the Democrats have to include it in a bill that is so partisan that they have to attempt to pass it by using the shady reconciliation form? If it’s so darned popular, why not with a simple stand alone bill? Why would they blow off the Senate Parliamentarian ruling that explicitly states that it would be against the rules? Put it up for a separate vote. Have a debate on the House and Senate floors.

Because there are lots of things in the COVID relief bill that really doesn’t have that much in COVID relief in it. Unless you work for the federal government

Let’s have a debate on that, too.

Read: Despite Ruling That Minimum Wage Hike Is Against Rules, Pelosi Vows To Keep It In COVID Bill »

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COVID Today: Hero Pay In L.A., Double Masking, And California Variant

By William Teach February 26, 2021 – 6:00 am

Hey, remember what happened when Long Beach, California passed a hero pay for grocery store workers law? That’s right, lots of stores announced their immediate closure. How’s this going to work in a whole county?

Los Angeles County passes ordinance requiring $5 ‘hero pay’ for grocery workers

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday to adopt an urgency ordinance requiring national grocery and drug retail employers in unincorporated areas of the county to pay frontline workers an additional $5 per hour hazard or “hero pay” for the next 120 days.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger voted against the measure, to take effect at midnight Feb. 26, citing unintended consequences and a concern that the ordinance only covers a “small sliver” of the essential workforce.

Supervisors Hilda Solis and Holly Mitchell co-authored the motion calling for the temporary “urgency” ordinance that would apply to union and non-union store chains that are publicly traded or have at least 300 employees nationwide and more than 10 employees per store.

Solis pointed to store profits as one justification, though she referenced an analysis that includes retailers like Amazon and Home Depot, rather than just grocers and drug retailers. However, some of the national grocers listed, like Kroger and Albertson’s, enjoyed even higher profits, according to the Brookings Institution study.

Gross profit is not net profit, and lots of people where binge purchasing. It’s very easy to tell Other People what to pay their employees (while at the same time wanting to spend taxpayer money to hook up the teacher’s unions, right?), and perhaps their hearts are in the right place, but, that’s a heck of a lot of cost increase

“I have concerns about the unintended consequences that will result from this board directing salaries in the private sector. Stores can pass on additional labor costs to the public through price increases. However, they may also reduce the hours of the impacted workers or decrease the number of employees that they hire,” Barger said.

You can bet they’ll eliminate OT, reduce hours, and not fill job openings during that 6 months. Provided they do not close. This applies to the non-incorporated areas of Los Angeles county, so, it wouldn’t apply to the actual cities.

“Extra pay mandates will have severe unintended consequences on not only grocers, but on their workers and their customers,” CGA President and CEO Ron Fong said Tuesday. “A $5/hour extra pay mandate amounts to a 28% increase in labor costs. That’s huge. Grocers will not be able to absorb those costs and negative repercussions are unavoidable.”

We’ll have to see what happens.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio: Wear Two Masks Until June

On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio encouraged New Yorkers to wear two masks at least until June.

De Blasio urged citizens in the Big Apple to add a second mask to their personal protective equipment arsenal in a morning press conference. “Through June, keep doing exactly what you are doing,” he said. “Not just wear a mask, wear two.” De Blasio further obscured the timeline for the practice, admitting the local government may “continue that guidance for quite a while depending on what is going on.”

Will Bill make it mandatory? It sure seems rather threatening: “wear 2 masks or we’ll keep the lockdowns going”. But, hey, this is the type of government New Yorkers voted for, so, they get what they wanted.

California’s coronavirus strain looks increasingly dangerous: ‘The devil is already here’

A coronavirus variant that probably emerged in May and surged to become the dominant strain in California not only spreads more readily than its predecessors but also evades antibodies generated by COVID-19 vaccines or prior infection and is associated with severe illness and death, researchers said.

In a study that helps explain the state’s dramatic holiday surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths — and portends further trouble ahead — scientists at UC San Francisco said the cluster of mutations that characterizes the homegrown strain should mark it as a “variant of concern” on par with those from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.

More reason to keep Big Government controlling us, eh? BTW, doesn’t it seem rather strange that COVID19 mutates so darned easily and fast? It’s almost like it was, dare I say, developed.

Read: COVID Today: Hero Pay In L.A., Double Masking, And California Variant »

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China Joe’s SEC To Come After Companies For Failing To Disclose Climate Scam Risks

By William Teach February 25, 2021 – 3:00 pm

In the Democracy model of Political Theory 101, Socialism is to the Left, and features limited government interference in citizen’s lives (not like today’s Socialism), few restrictions on voting (you’ve heard of Direct Democracy, right?), and the primary part is Government having massive control of all things Economy, up to and including owning the means of production. Progressivism (nice Fascism), as part of the Authoritarian model, coincidentally includes massive control of the economy. Either way, using the climate crisis scam as a platform to achieve government dominance over private entities is ready made for them

SEC Opens Review of Corporate Climate Change Disclosures

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday said it would review how companies are disclosing the risks they face from climate change, as the agency looks to refresh its more than decade-old guidance on the issue.

The regulator will evaluate and speak with companies about the extent to which they are complying with current climate disclosure guidance, first issued in 2010, and eventually update it to build “a more comprehensive framework that produces consistent, comparable, and reliable climate-related disclosures,” the SEC said.

“Now more than ever, investors are considering climate-related issues when making their investment decisions,” acting SEC Chairwoman Allison Herren Lee said in a statement. “It is our responsibility to ensure that they have access to material information when planning for their financial future,” she said. (snip)

The SEC’s move Wednesday is part of a wider shift by financial regulators and policy makers regarding climate change, a priority for President Biden, who has called for companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and get the U.S. to net-zero emissions by 2050.

Well, this should be a good four years with the Biden administration destroying companies for an imaginary problem, eh?

Read: China Joe’s SEC To Come After Companies For Failing To Disclose Climate Scam Risks »

Posted in Global Warming, Joe Biden | 12 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 25, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a wonderful small greenspace far away from an actual rural area, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Doug Ross @ Journal, with a post on the 5 D’s of D.C.

Read: If All You See… »

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Somehow, Young Blacks Shooting Each Other Is A “Racial Disparity”

By William Teach February 25, 2021 – 10:30 am

Let’s blame guns and raaaaacism, because this is really about using data for something else

Young Black men and teens are killed by guns 20 times more than their white counterparts, CDC data shows

Young Black men and teens made up more than a third of firearm homicide victims in the USA in 2019, one of several disparities revealed in a review of gun mortality data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The analysis, titled “A Public Health Crisis in the Making,” found that although Black men and boys ages 15 to 34 make up just 2% of the nation’s population, they were among 37% of gun homicides that year.

That’s 20 times higher than white males of the same age group.

Of all reported firearm homicides in 2019, more than half of victims were Black men, according to the study spearheaded by the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Sixty-three percent of male victims were Black.

This is nothing new. We’ve known for decades that 50% of the homicides are committed by 13% of the population. That 50% of people shot are black, and 95% of the shootings of blacks are committed by other blacks.

Black women and girls are also at higher risk. Black females had the highest risk of being killed by a firearm than females of any other race or ethnicity, and they were four times more likely to be victims than white females.

“Gun violence has for the longest time been a public health crisis in the Black community,” said epidemiologist Ed Clark of Florida A&M University’s Institute of Public Health.

So, let’s blame guns. That makes sense. Perhaps they should study exactly why blacks are much more likely to shoot people, especially other blacks. The gun doesn’t simply put itself in their hands and make them pull the trigger.

The gun violence expert said a “holistic approach” is needed to reduce gun fatalities and injuries.

“That should include really viewing gun violence as a public health issue. The business of public health is population wellness – looking at how we can decrease the disease burden or the threat of injury to the population at large,” he said. “And gun violence is definitely a problem that should be looked at through that lens.”

Perhaps we should be looking at the conditions for black who predominately live in cities run by Democrats. When you see that 8 were shot in Chicago Wednesday, one fatally, you start looking up the victims and realize that the majority are black, and, when they catch the perps (which is rare, because no one will snitch), they usually turn out to be black. So, why such a disparity? Why do blacks turn to guns for violence so much more?

“Despite the limitations, gun death data are the most reliable type of gun violence data currently available – but gun deaths are only the tip of the iceberg of gun violence. Many more people are shot and survive their injuries, are shot at but not hit, or witness gun violence,” the analysis reads. “Many experience gun violence in other ways, by living in impacted communities, losing loved ones to gun violence, or being threatened with a gun.”

Still blaming the gun. This type of study really doesn’t care at all about why blacks are so prone to picking up a gun and shooting each other, it’s to be used to gun grab. From law abiding people. Which leaves the criminals with their illegally possessed firearms still with those firearms. And still shooting each other. Because Democrats are racists. Why do you think they want so many abortion providers in black areas in Democratic Party run cities?

Read: Somehow, Young Blacks Shooting Each Other Is A “Racial Disparity” »

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