If All You See…

By William Teach July 5, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…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… »

Posted in If All You See | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

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

By William Teach July 5, 2021 – 10:30 am

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? »

Posted in Current Affairs, Democrats | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Hotcoldwetdry Take: Buildings Were Constructed For A Different Climate

By William Teach July 5, 2021 – 7:15 am

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 »

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

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

By William Teach July 5, 2021 – 7:00 am

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 »

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

By William Teach July 4, 2021 – 4:11 pm

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 »

Posted in Climate Ghouls, Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach July 4, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…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… »

Posted in American Flag, If All You See | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup – Independence Day Edition

By William Teach July 4, 2021 – 9:16 am

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 »

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

By William Teach July 4, 2021 – 8:17 am

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 »

Posted in American Flag, Barking Moonbats | 25 Comments | Trackback URL

To Stop Climate Crisis (scam), Americans Must Reduce Their Energy Use By 90%

By William Teach July 3, 2021 – 3:00 pm

Who’s going to make this happen?

To Stop Climate Change Americans Must Cut Energy Use by 90 Percent, Live in 640 Square Feet, and Fly Only Once Every 3 Years, Says Study

In order to save the planet from catastrophic climate change, Americans will have to cut their energy use by more than 90 percent and families of four should live in housing no larger than 640 square feet. That’s at least according to a team of European researchers led by University of Leeds sustainability researcher Jefim Vogel. In their new study, “Socio-economic conditions for satisfying human needs at low energy use,” in Global Environmental Change, they calculate that public transportation should account for most travel. Travel should, in any case, be limited to between 3,000 to 10,000 miles per person annually.

Vogel and his colleagues set themselves the goal of figuring out how to “provide sufficient need satisfaction at much lower, ecologically sustainable levels of energy use.” Referencing earlier sustainability studies they argue that human needs are sufficiently satisfied when each person has access to the energy equivalent of 7,500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per capita. That is about how much energy the average Bolivian uses. Currently, Americans use about 80,000 kWh annually per capita. With respect to transportation and physical mobility, the average person would be limited to using the energy equivalent of 16–40 gallons of gasoline per year. People are assumed to take one short- to medium-haul airplane trip every three years or so.

You’re down with all this in your own lives, right, Warmists? You’re happy to comply, right?

In addition, food consumption per capita would vary depending on age and other conditions, but the average would be 2,100 calories per day. While just over 10 percent of the world’s people are unfortunately still undernourished, the Food and Agriculture Organization reports that the daily global average food supply now stands at just under 3,000 calories per person. Each individual is allocated a new clothing allowance of nine pounds per year, and clothes may be washed 20 times annually. The good news is that everyone over age 10 is permitted a mobile phone and each household can have a laptop.

Still good, Warmists? You want to live this life, right? Who is supposed to make all this happen? The study avoids mentioning the answer.

Vogel and his colleagues are undaunted by the fact that there are absolutely no examples of low-energy societies providing decent living standards—as defined by the researchers themselves—for their citizens. So they proceed to jigger the various provisioning factors until they find that what is really needed is a “more fundamental transformation of the political-economic regime.” That fundamental transformation includes free government-provided high-quality public services in areas such as health, education, and public transport.

There aren’t any, not during this time period. What might have been considered decent living standards hundreds of years ago with no energy aren’t these days.

“We also found that a fairer income distribution is crucial for achieving decent living standards at low energy use,” said co-author Daniel O’Neill, from Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment. “To reduce existing income disparities, governments could raise minimum wages, provide a Universal Basic Income, and introduce a maximum income level. We also need much higher taxes on high incomes, and lower taxes on low incomes.”

Two things that humanity for sure doesn’t need according to the study are economic growth or the continued extraction of natural resources such as oil, coal, gas, or minerals. Vogel concluded: “In short, we need to abandon economic growth in affluent countries, scale back resource extraction, and prioritize public services, basic infrastructures and fair income distributions everywhere.” He added, “In my view, the most promising and integral vision for the required transformation is the idea of degrowth—it is an idea whose time has come.”

Oh, so a completely political study. Who’s actually making money which low energy and no travel? Where’s it coming from for all this stuff with no economic growth? What would really be massive devolution of economies.

Read: To Stop Climate Crisis (scam), Americans Must Reduce Their Energy Use By 90% »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 16 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach July 3, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrendous fossil fueled vehicle causing buildings to collapse, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Raised On Hoecakes, with a post on “Hercules” explaining the 400,000 reasons why you should stand for the national anthem and respect the flag.

Going right into Independence Day weekend in appropriate style.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 1 Comment | Trackback URL
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