Warmists Now Want OSHA To Safeguard Us From Climate Crisis (scam)

By William Teach January 26, 2022 – 7:58 am

This would be the same OSHA that overstepped it’s bounds with it’s vaccine mandate (as demanded by Brandon, to be sure), and has now given up on the rule

How Can OSHA Better Protect Workers from Climate Change?

A major culprit is the lack of a federal occupational heat safety standard. Unlike other workplace hazards with their own specific and enforceable rules, such as ladders, noise, and cotton dust, unhealthy levels of heat are loosely regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under a vague part of federal law called the General Duty Clause.

That clause states

The General Duty Clause from the OSHA Act of 1970 requires that, in addition to compliance with hazard-specific standards, all employers provide a work environment “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” Workplace violence is a recognized hazard within the healthcare industry and as such, employers have the responsibility via the Act to abate the hazard. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) relies on the General Duty Clause for enforcement authority.

A slight increase in the global temperature is not a hazard or likely to cause death or serious physical harm

That could soon change. After many years of advocacy by labor, faith, health, environmental, and other leaders, the Biden administration announced last September that OSHA would begin working on a federal heat injury and illness prevention standard. The public comment period for the first stage of rulemaking ends today. A clear, detailed, legally enforceable set of heat-related requirements for employers would help protect workers from restaurants in the Pacific Northwest, to construction sites in Texas, to warehouses in Maine, to farm fields in Florida.

And will increase the cost of doing business, which will increase the cost to the consumers as it’s passed on, all for a scam. But, the real intent is to give the federal government even more control over private businesses.

Here is the TL;DR version of the public comments NRDC submitted to OSHA today about proposed heat standards. ADD LINK TO PDF

  • Heat affects the workforce with everything from missed wages, to debilitating injuries, to premature death.
  • We don’t have the full picture of how heat harms U.S. workers because of chronic underreporting across federal and state health data systems. OSHA can and should use multiple data sources to better understand the scope and scale of heat-related harms to workers—but still consider those estimates as conservative.
  • The current situation will worsen as the United States gets hotter, so heat standards must protect workers from current heat hazards and the future effects of climate change.
  • Heat hurts outdoor and indoor workers across every major industry, so OSHA’s heat safety standard needs to protect all workers—not just those at the hottest outdoor worksites.

They forgot to add the link to the PDF, but, regardless, this is all about prognostication of doom for the future, to take control now. Which should receive quite a few lawsuits if passed.

Workers themselves must be involved in developing and finalizing a heat standard. They’re the ones suffering nose bleeds during heat waves, sneaking sips of water lest they be fired, and  collapsing in the heat. They should have a voice in creating the solutions that will work best for them.

Who immediately thought “this is about empowering unions, and creating more unions”?

We recognize that OSHA is chronically underfunded and understaffed, not to mention more than a little busy with COVID-19. That’s part of why NRDC supports the Build Back Better Act, which includes a $700 million investment in OSHA’s ability to uphold its core duty to U.S. workers. But workers simply can’t wait for years for better heat stress protections. We urge OSHA to urgently develop and enforce a strong standard that recognizes occupational heat harms for what they are: preventable.

That whopping 1.5F increase in global temperatures since 1850, which most people won’t notice, is super doomy, right?

Read: Warmists Now Want OSHA To Safeguard Us From Climate Crisis (scam) »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

Democrats Search For New Messaging With Lots Of People Being Done With COVID

By William Teach January 26, 2022 – 7:45 am

Will they search for a new way to push Government control of citizens? The NY Times is Very Concerned

With Some Voters ‘Ready to Move On,’ Democrats Search for New Message on Virus

When the coronavirus pandemic first swept Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf closed stores and schools and ordered millions of citizens to stay home. Even four months into the crisis in 2020, all but “life-sustaining” businesses in much of the state were locked down.

Today, the virus is ravaging Pennsylvania again, like much of the country, with hospitalization numbers nearing or exceeding those during the worst months of the pandemic.

Yet Wolf, a Democrat whose party desperately wants to keep control of his seat in the midterm elections, has no intention of returning to the strict measures of two years ago. There are no plans for mask mandates or more virtual schooling. Pennsylvanians, the governor said, crave a return to normalcy.

Look at New Jersey, a deep blue state: there are no mask mandates, and the governor, who was just re-elected, barely, has no intention of re-instituting a state wide mask mandate. Gov. Cooper here in North Carolina was not quite as bad as many of his Democratic Party comrades, but, also has zero intention of putting in a mask mandate.

Around the country, Democratic elected officials who in the pandemic’s early phase shut down cities and states more aggressively than most Republicans did — and saw their popularity soar — are using a different playbook today. Despite the deadly wave fueled by the omicron variant, Democratic officials are largely skipping mask mandates and are fighting to keep schools open, sometimes in opposition to health care workers and their traditional allies in teachers’ unions.

Who did their popularity soar with? Hardcore progressives? They’re seeing that voters are done, that kids need to be in school. That people will blow off masking, because the science says that anything less than an N95 will only help about 10%.

The shift reflects a potential change in the nature of the threat now that millions of Americans are vaccinated and omicron appears to be causing less serious disease. But it is also a political pivot. Democrats are keenly aware that Americans — including even some of the party’s loyal liberal voters — have changed their attitudes about the virus and that it could be perilous to let Republicans brand the Democrats the party of lockdowns and mandates.

Locking the barn door after the peasants have already left.

“You’ll see more Democratic elected officials say that this is our forever now and we can’t live our lives sitting rocking in a corner,” said Brian Stryker, a partner at the polling firm ALG Research, whose work on Virginia’s elections last year indicated that school closures hurt Democrats. “We’ve just got to live with this virus.”

Which is what a lot of Republicans have been saying the whole time. A lot of us said “be careful, wash your hands, keep your distance”, and even “get the vaccine”, ones like me, but, don’t overdo it.

Today Biden’s overall approval, which has fallen into dangerous territory for any party in a midterm election year, is being kept down in part because of disappointment over his performance on coronavirus. Fewer than half of Americans approved of his handling of the pandemic in a CBS News/YouGov survey last week, down from 66% who approved in July.

In a lot of polls that approval is much lower, yet, Biden is still pushing for vaccine mandates. And sending N95s and test kits? Won’t really make a difference.

Now that vaccines have been proven effective, Americans have lower tolerance for restrictions, strategists and elected officials said. While schools are largely open in the United States, many families are still dealing with the fallout of two years of classroom disruptions, including loss of learning, mental health problems and millions of parents who were driven out of the workforce.

Problems not really seen much in Republican run states. But, see, this is all about the 2022 midterms, and protecting Democrats. Democrats want to pivot to seem more reasonable

“They will pay the price in the next election,” said Lou Barletta, a Republican candidate for governor in Pennsylvania who blames Democrats, rather than the virus, for damage to businesses and loss of learning. “Nobody’s going to forget businesses who couldn’t open again or people who lost their jobs. That doesn’t get erased from memory. Not to mention a year’s education was stolen away from our children.”

And you can bet they’ll pivot right back to their Progressivism (nice Fascism) right after the mid-terms.

Read: Democrats Search For New Messaging With Lots Of People Being Done With COVID »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus, Democrats | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Anyone Seeing Lots Of 500 Type Errors?

By William Teach January 25, 2022 – 4:17 pm

Let me know if you are seeing lots of downtime errors, usually some type of 500 type, in which you see “Cloudfare” in the middle.

I’m getting hit by a lot, and I mean a lot, of bots hitting the blog, particularly the admin login page and one other backend. Like the tune of over 49K a day, so, I’ve implemented a few plugins to try and limit this. They won’t get in, my password is too long and too random, and I stopped allowing registration years ago because of this.

But, I’ve seen a couple Cloudfares myself. I might have to turn it off.

For those using WordPress, check out Blackhole and Wordfence, which are the two others I’ve implemented. Had to add Yost SEO to update a file required by Blackhole. Might have to implement WPS Hide Login.

Thanks!

Read: Anyone Seeing Lots Of 500 Type Errors? »

Posted in Pirates Cove, Web/Tech | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

Good News: Biden To Make Mobile Homes More Green, Price Them Out Of Purchase For Low Income Americans

By William Teach January 25, 2022 – 3:39 pm

Is this what the climate cultists mean by ‘climate change’ affecting low income people the most?

After decades, Biden plans to make mobile homes greener. But it’s sparked a fierce debate.

…..Spurred by a court order, the Biden administration is proposing long-awaited updates to energy-efficiency standards for manufactured homes that it projects will save mobile-home owners thousands of dollars and prevent millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere in the coming decades. But the new standards, due in May, have also sparked a fierce debate about costs, equity and the future of manufactured housing.

The changes that the Biden administration has put forward include updates to insulation and windows, as well as heating and cooling systems.

Some say the Energy Department’s plan goes too far. “We believe in the importance of energy efficiency,” said Lesli Gooch, CEO of the Manufactured Housing Institute, a trade organization. “We just don’t think that this proposal is going to have the desired impact. And in fact, it’s going to have a negative impact on the supply of affordable, manufactured housing.”

“To us, the primary metric needs to be the upfront cost of the home,” added Mark Weiss, president of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform, another industry trade association. “Our concern is that these new requirements are going to make them substantially more costly.”

Most who purchase manufactured homes aren’t doing it as a 2nd place down at the beach which they use on the weekends (lots trailer parks at the NC shore like this): it’s a cost thing. Make them more expensive and they can no longer afford

Others argue that energy savings and better quality homes with higher resale values would cover any extra costs. They would like to see the Energy Department set even stricter standards.

That means zero if they cannot afford them up-front. Certainly, it is good to weatherize them better, but, this type of high-cost regulation does not help. Of course, it’s easy for a rich guy like Biden, who figured out how his sons can make him a lot of cash from Ukraine and China, selling shady artwork, etc, all while living in nice, big, rich homes.

Read: Good News: Biden To Make Mobile Homes More Green, Price Them Out Of Purchase For Low Income Americans »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming, Government, Joe Biden | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach January 25, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is an area that will soon be flooded by rising seas, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Daley Gator, with a post on the Left’s obsession with releasing violent people.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Who’s Up For An Omicron Offshoot?

By William Teach January 25, 2022 – 10:30 am

This one is super stealthy

New Omicron Offshoot BA.2 Arrives In U.S. After Spreading In U.K., Denmark, India

Just as the Omicron wave may have broken across the U.S. comes word of another version of the more transmissible variant, dubbed BA.2. It’s been nicknamed by some “stealth Omicron” because it seems to evade identification better than its predecessor.

While other new variants that seemed worrisome — like Mu or Lambda — have had little impact, and details remain sketchy, early indications are that BA.2 seems to be spreading even in countries where the original Omicron lineage, BA.1, is dominant.

In Denmark, a country whose Covid policies are often contrasted with the U.S., BA.2 now accounts for nearly half of the test samples sequenced. In the final week of December, according to data from Statens Serum Institut under the auspices of the Danish Ministry of Health, the subvariant accounted for 20% of all Covid cases in Denmark. By the second week of January, its share had risen to about 45% of the total.

An initial analysis instances of BA.2 in the country “shows no differences in hospitalisations,” according to SSI. It’s also unclear how effective the current vaccines are against the subvariant.

The map at the article shows that BA.2 is hitting the U.S. as a medium, on a scale of meh, medium, and big. Has anyone heard of this before?

BA.2 “has been designated a variant under investigation” by the UK Health Security Agency. The new version of Omicron was first detected in the UK on December 6, 2021, per a HSA report. To date, there have been 426 confirmed cases, with the greatest concentration centered around London.

426. That’s what they’re getting worked up about? Britain is in the big category on the map. Is this something important, or a way to continue sowing fear to control the population?

One anonymous Biden administration official, however, told the Washington Post on Monday that “there is concern about the omicron BA.2 variant.” Because of the increase in cases overseas, the person said the U.S. is gearing up and “paying close attention to the BA.2 variant.”

I’m leaning towards fear.

New York judge strikes down state mask mandate

A New York judge struck down the state’s mask mandate on Monday, one week before it was due to expire, ruling the governor overstepped her authority in imposing a rule that needed to have been passed by the state legislature.

Judge Thomas Rademaker of New York State Supreme Court on Long Island found that the state legislature last year curbed any governor’s ability to issue decrees, such as a mask mandate, amid a declared state of emergency.

Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, vowed to fight back, saying in a statement, “We strongly disagree with this ruling, and we are pursuing every option to reverse this immediately.”

“My responsibility as Governor is to protect New Yorkers throughout this public health crisis, and these measures help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and save lives,” Hochul said.

She can yammer about her responsibility, but, she must follow the law. Period.

Read: Who’s Up For An Omicron Offshoot? »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Paris Needs To Unbury A River To Save Itself From Hotcoldwetdry

By William Teach January 25, 2022 – 7:00 am

Time Magazine unintentionally tells a good chunk of the truth

Paris Buried a River 100 Years Ago. Now The City Needs To Resurface It to Combat Climate Change

In 1899, a writer for French newspaper Le Figaro surveyed the damage Parisians had done to the Bièvre, a river that for hundreds of years had snaked up through southern Paris, joining the Seine near the Jardin des Plantes. “It flows slowly, oily and black, streaked with acids, dotted with soapy and putrid pustules,” the writer observed. “In the sparse and sordid grass, peeled like the back of a worn-out horse, parasitic plants grow in abundance.” (snip)

Paris’ last stretch of the Bièvre was sealed up in 1912. Since then, a deep-rooted cultural fascination with the lost river has powered several heritage campaigns to reopen it. But none have succeeded: its waters no longer even run under the city, having been cut off at towns closer to its source, 13 miles southwest of Paris.

Today, though, the Bièvre has an unlikely ally: climate change. The same industrial activity that destroyed the river has helped drive global warming, with Paris’ average temperature already 4.1°F (2.3°C) higher than in Rabelais’ day. The urban heat-island effect, in which buildings and paved roads absorb more heat than vegetation and water do, is making matters worse, driving Paris’ temperature up by as much as 14.4°F (8°C) than nearby rural areas during heatwaves. By the mid-21st century, according to local government estimates, Paris could have a climate resembling the much hotter city of Seville in southern Spain.

UHI, eh? Which is the reality, along with land use, for the majority of the effect mankind is having on the climate. Not global, local.

Bodies of water, just like trees and plants, help to cool down their surrounding areas: water absorbs heat from the air, and when water particles evaporate, they carry the heat away with them, lowering the ground-level temperature. They can also mitigate floods by giving excess rainwater somewhere to go, and make cities a more pleasant place to live. So it makes sense that Parisians would welcome the return of a long-lost waterway. Paris’ Green Party proposed “the rebirth of la Bièvre” during the campaign for elections last year, and Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s Socialist Party agreed to pursue it as part of a coalition deal. A feasibility study is underway and Lert expects to complete the first section within city limits by the end of the mayor’s current term in 2026. It will join several stretches of the Bièvre uncovered over the last few years in smaller towns, in parks and other underdeveloped areas.

Land use. This is not man-caused global warming, it’s simply artificially increasing the localized temperature. But, hey, why not jack up taxes and give your freedom to government for a scam, right?

Read: Paris Needs To Unbury A River To Save Itself From Hotcoldwetdry »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

LA Times Seems Surprised That There’s No Debate On Rising Cost Of Single Payer Push

By William Teach January 25, 2022 – 6:45 am

What, exactly, did they expect? When you vote for and elect far left Progressive (nice Fascism) fanatics, you aren’t electing public servants: you’re electing people who Know they are better than everyone else, so, the peons will do as they say (direct LA Times piece here behind the paywall)

Column: No debate on skyrocketing cost of California single-payer bill? So much for good government

Things don’t always go as hoped. A prime example is the Democrats’ push for single-payer healthcare legislation.

A good-government hope was that this effort would result in a thoughtful, substantive legislative debate worthy of the monumental issue of universal healthcare.

That hope was dashed Thursday in a legislative fiscal committee, which failed to carry out what should be its primary duty: to dig into the innards of a spending bill and examine whether it makes financial sense.

The contentious bill, AB 1400, sailed through the Assembly Appropriations Committee on a party-line 11-3 vote without any discussion at all. Shameful.

This measure, after all, would completely change healthcare coverage for Californians. Insurance companies would be shoved aside. People would be switched from their current coverage — whether private, federal Medicare or Medi-Cal for the poor — to a new state-run plan called CalCare.

Californians always seem surprised that they get what they vote for, eh? Hey, this uber-progressive DA is awesome, he/she will Do Something. Hey, why is my car getting broken into/stolen constantly? Why are people constantly robbing my business, and the cops do nothing? Why are my power bills so high? They said green energy would be cheap.

But it would require by far the largest state tax increase in history, estimated at $163 billion. The state would also have to find an additional few hundred billion dollars. No one knows how much. Washington would need to be persuaded to turn over to Sacramento all the federal Medicare and Medicaid (Medi-Cal) money now spent in California.

Any questions?

How about: Is this state government remotely capable of pulling off such an ambitious endeavor? Is it fiscally attainable and sustainable?

How about “suck it up, this is what you voted for.”

Particularly a bill that a committee staff analysis estimated could cost between $314 billion and $391 billion annually if it were in effect now. The analysis also cited a study showing that $222 billion in employer and household healthcare spending would need to be replaced.

To put those numbers in perspective, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year totals $286 billion. He’s neutral on the single-payer legislation.

If they think it will come from those Rich People and Big Businesses, just wait till they blow out of California. So many of them are for these progressive measures, they just don’t want to be the ones who pay for it.

Read: LA Times Seems Surprised That There’s No Debate On Rising Cost Of Single Payer Push »

Posted in Democrats, Healthcare, Progressive Goals | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Indiana Lawmakers Missed A Big Chance On Teaching Kids About ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach January 24, 2022 – 3:00 pm

This really could have been a big learning moment for the youths

Indiana students demand action on climate change. Lawmakers respond with hard ‘no.’

It’s obvious to a lot of people. To the Indiana cities that are taking steps to cut their emissions. To the Hoosier farmers who are seeing reduced crop yields from wetter springs and hotter summers. To the high school students who are scared for what their future may look like, demanding Indiana leaders make a change.

And yet, the state legislature seems to have blinders on when it comes to climate change, according to environmental experts and advocates.

Three pieces of legislation have been proposed this session. Two bills would create task forces to tackle climate change issues. The other is a resolution that says “the Indiana General Assembly acknowledges climate change as a serious problem for Indiana.”

This is actually in the news section, not opinion where it should be.

Neither the bills nor the resolution, however, have even been scheduled for a hearing in the environmental committees they’ve been assigned to. The deadline to do so is this week.

Environmental groups across the state are frustrated, but not surprised.  (snip through some whining and explanation of the bills)

The driving force behind these bills is a student group called Confront the Climate Crisis, which launched in West Lafayette in 2020. The student-run organization now has students from communities across Indiana including Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and Gary.

They could have looked to pass laws that would have put a lot of restrictions on young kids, see how much they like it. Take it from theory to practice. Even if they weren’t serious about passing the bills, how about things that restrict the sale of fossil fueled vehicles to anyone under 30? Disallow serving any meat at publically funded schools, from elementary school through college? Deeming that AC shall not be lower than 78 and heat no higher than 65 at the schools? And so much more. See how they like it when this directly affects these students.

Read: Indiana Lawmakers Missed A Big Chance On Teaching Kids About ‘Climate Change’ »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach January 24, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible carbon pollution infused beer, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Political Hat, with a post on Canada outlawing telling someone they might not be queer.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 14 Comments | Trackback URL
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