Biden Tells Iran Regarding Retaliation Against Israel: “Don’t”

It’s nice that Biden is telling Iran this, but, there’s a problem

Biden’s message to Iran about retaliatory strike on Israel: ‘Don’t’

President Joe Biden told reporters Friday afternoon he expects an Iranian strike on Israel to occur “sooner than later” amid urgent concerns that Iran was about to retaliate for the bombing of its consulate in Damascus, Syria, earlier this month.

Asked for his message to Iran in the tense moment, Biden was blunt, saying simply, “Don’t.”

“Would the U.S. respond?” ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked repeatedly as the president walked away after the end of an unrelated event. He paused, thought for a moment and then returned to the lectern.

“We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said.

I’m not sure what they consider the “unrelated event.” The are really only two things on his schedule today. First, he “delivers virtual remarks at the National Action Network Convention.” So, he wasn’t even there. So, it must be “The President departs the White House en route to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware”. I doubt the White House press was there when he arrived.

So, a. the media is shady in not bothering to mention he was taking the weekend off at the beach yet again and b. this was simply an off the cuff remark, which, unfortunately, won’t make Iran think twice. But, in fairness, Iran wouldn’t listen if this was an official press room comment, unless Biden truly threatened retaliation.

At the same time, the U.S. was moving troops and other assets to the Middle East as Iran readied a large number of missiles and drones for a potential strike against Israel, according to U.S. officials.

The deployment of American troops was intended to try to deter Iran from launching a large-scale attack and protecting U.S. troops in the region

According to one U.S. defense official, the assets being moved to the region include both “ships and aircraft.”

I hope the US military is ready to shoot down any missiles launched. But, at least Biden did say something.

Read: Biden Tells Iran Regarding Retaliation Against Israel: “Don’t” »

ICJ Receives 91 Statements On Whether “Climate Polluting” Nations Must Pay

Obviously, these are pretty much all 2nd and 3rd World nations who are looking for some sweet, sweet, no strings attached moola

International Court Receives 91 Written Statements In Climate Change Opinion

The International Court of Justice has announced that a record high 91 member states and organizations have submitted written statements on its advisory opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change. At the request of the United Nations General Assembly, the ICJ will determine the existing financial liability of countries for their contribution to climate change. Parties have until June 24 to submit responses. The Court states that the written statements will not be made public until the beginning of oral arguments. This is the first time the Court has indicated that oral arguments will occur on this opinion.

On March 29, 2023, the UNGA asked the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion on the legal obligations of countries in preventing climate change. The opinion, while non-binding, will give an indicator of how the Court may interpret future climate related litigation and guide future legislative development.

The UN sent an initial package of relevant laws and treaties. The Court determined that members states and international organizations should also be given the opportunity to weigh in on their legal arguments and opinions through written statements.

Last time I check, the UN had no sovereignty over the United States and other 1st World nations, so, they can all go jump in a lake.

It is unknown what international organizations were denied the opportunity to submit written statements, as the Court only announced organizations that were approved. The Court has authorized the African Union; the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS); the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law; the European Union; the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA); the International Union for Conservation of Nature; the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG); the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS); the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC); the Pacific Islands Forum; the Parties to the Nauru Agreement Office (PNAO); and the World Health Organization to participate in the proceedings.

Hmm, they denied some organizations the opportunity to submit statements? Weird, especially since the ICJ is keeping most of this secret. Anyhow, notice that most of these groups, outside the EU, would be attempting to get the US and the other 1st World nations to pony up. And the EU high muckety mucks couldn’t care less how this affects the European peasants.

Read: ICJ Receives 91 Statements On Whether “Climate Polluting” Nations Must Pay »

If All You See…

…are Bad Weather clouds from carbon pollution approaching, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is American Greatness, with a post on the Post Office considering raising the price of a stamp to 73 cents.

Read: If All You See… »

California Labor Group Pushing For $20 Restaurant Minimum Wage For All Workers

Even after watching the results of the restaurant wage bill, with all the layoffs and price increases, the head honchos will get the peasants to push for this. Which is easy, because the peasants see easy money for low skilled work and head honchos won’t lose their own cushy, over-paid jobs

Labor group demands California’s $20 minimum wage for fast food workers extend to all sectors

A fair wage advocacy group is demanding that California’s new $20 minimum wage law for fast food workers be extended to all sectors to help working-class people who are struggling with the state’s high cost of living.

FOX Business spoke with Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage to discuss what she described as the skyrocketing levels of home insecurity and food insecurity post-pandemic.

Fast food workers winning a $20 minimum wage, she said, “was just the beginning.”

Jayaraman pointed to the exorbitantly high cost of living in the Golden State where, in some counties, an individual would need a $40 an hour salary to live comfortably.

“People are leaving the state or are not having children, not having families. These are all the very basics we should be thinking about for humans living in California and needing to survive,” Jayaraman told FOX Business. “I mean the level of crisis that people have been enduring since the pandemic is severe.”

Which comes first, the government intervention which causes prices to rise or the prices rising causing government to interfere and make the situation worse? Either way, government interference in the manner the Democrats in California tend to implement always makes things worse, in the manner of “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” And the governments, from local to county to state, of the People’s Republik Of California will almost always listen to the left wing labor groups, because they bring in big money and votes to the politicians.

Jayaraman has dismissed these concerns (of layoffs and job losses), arguing that such dire predictions have not been born out in past minimum wage increases.

“That is the argument they always make. Every single time the minimum wage goes up, they always say it’s going to kill business, jobs will be lost, and we’ve never seen it happen. Not in California, not in any other state. It has never happened,” said Jayaraman, who is also the Director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Except, it’s actually happening right now. Not too mention the price increases, which is a big part of previous increase. There is a point of labor cost where companies just cannot afford the full staff, and have to take measures. Previous wage increases have seen prices rise and some workers replaced with automation. This one saw massive decreases in labor and companies simply closing.

(Fox Business) With hot inflation numbers to prove it, one hacked-off Gen Z American took to TikTok, where he detailed a “struggle to survive” and pay for everyday items.

“Can somebody explain to me in crayon-eating terms why I make over three times the federal minimum wage and I cannot afford to live?” the user allegedly named Nic started to say.

“And I do not want to hear the ‘Pull yourself up from your bootstraps, work 90 hours a week.’ That’s not the goal, guys,” he continued ranting. “A one-bedroom apartment, $1,800. Two-bedroom apartment, $2,200. Who the f*** can afford that? It is embarrassing to come out and say that it is a struggle to survive right now. But I know so many people are struggling.”

Meanwhile, consumer price index data released by the Labor Department on Wednesday showed inflation accelerated in March for the third straight month, keeping prices painfully high for millions of Americans and likely delaying any interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. (snip)

Housing and gasoline costs were the biggest drivers of inflation last month, accounting for more than half of the total monthly increase.

Well, you can bet the Gen Z voted Democrat and supports all the Democrat initiates, and got what he voted for. The inflation started with the Chinese coronavirus, then exploded thanks to so many governments in the U.S. and around the world shutting down industry, then Biden doing everything wrong to deal with the aftermath. You voted for this. And you’ll probably vote for it again.

Read: California Labor Group Pushing For $20 Restaurant Minimum Wage For All Workers »

Hawaii Water Shortage From Climate Doom Puts Them On “Verge Of Catastrophe” Or Something

Perhaps if they’d shut down all their airports things would get better

Hawaii is “on the verge of catastrophe,” locals say, as water crisis continues

In Hawaii, one of the most important sayings is ola i ka wai, “water is life” — a phrase that not only sums up what it means to exist on an island, but what it means to live, period. But now, one of the largest of the island chain’s land masses is facing a triple threat to its sole freshwater source, and if it isn’t addressed soon, one community member says, “we’re in deep trouble.”

Despite being surrounded by seemingly endless ocean, freshwater on Oahu, the third-largest of Hawaii’s six major islands, is not easily accessible. The island relies on an underground aquifer for its water supply. Replenishing that aquifer is a decades-long natural process, as it takes a single drop of water roughly 25 years to make it there from the sky.

And recent years have seen compounding problems: less rain, leading to significant droughts, and repeated jet fuel leaks and PFAS chemical spills contaminating water systems. All of this significantly limits available water use for locals, many of whom say tourism is only worsening the situation. Just months ago, the world’s largest surfing wave pool opened up on the island — filled with freshwater.

Why would they need a wave pool in Hawaii? Anyhow, if they’d just ban all those fossil fueled airplanes bring tourists and goods to the island, as well as the ones, along with helicopters, which shuttle people around. And all those fossil fueled ships bringing goods. And all the fossil fueled boats ferrying tourists and catching fish. They could get rid of all those giant, water intensive hotels, since there would be no tourists or companies coming for vacations and conferences.

The state could also ban the use of fossil fueled vehicles for all residents, right?

Currently, the entire island of Oahu is considered “abnormally dry,” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. “Severe and persistent droughts,” prompting water conservation measures, are not uncommon, Giambelluca said. While officials could work to desalinate ocean water, “that’s not the preferred way to get drinking water,” he added.

“It’s very energy-intensive, and so that would be in opposition to our goals of reducing our dependency on fossil fuels in Hawaii, reducing our emissions,” he said.

And as global temperatures continue to rise, that will only get worse — not just on Oahu, but across Hawaii.

Well, sorry cupcakes, things change on Earth, as warm and cool periods come and go.

Read: Hawaii Water Shortage From Climate Doom Puts Them On “Verge Of Catastrophe” Or Something »

Sanctuary City Denver To Cut Police, Fire Department Budgets To Cover Illegal Aliens

Let’s not forget that SCD has already cut hours for Parks and Recreation and the DMV (weird that that’s not a state function), and are even cutting some employees hours to zero (though it is not a “layoff”). What’s next?

(Daily Caller) The Democratic-run city of Denver, Colorado, plans to defund its police department to pay for illegal immigrants.

Denver, which is commonly referred to as a “sanctuary city,” announced on Wednesday that it will spend $89.9 million on services for incoming illegal migrants, pulling some of the funding from roughly $45 million in public programs and services. Denver’s police department will be hit with an $8.4 million reduction — about 1.9% of its total operating budget, the city confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Denver became the top destination per capita for incoming migrants in 2023, having had more than 40,000 arrive that year alone — putting the total migrant population at roughly 710,000, according to NBC News. Denver already spent over $42 million in 2023 in housing and medical services for migrants and plans to spend over $100 million on similar costs in 2024.

The fire department will also suffer a $2.5 million reduction, or about 0.8% of its total operating costs, the city told the DCNF. Half of those reductions will also come from vacant positions.

It might not seem a lot, but, you probably think Denver is a safe city, right? The city leaders want to keep it safe because it’s a big vacation city, right? Except, it’s not. Neighborhood Scout considers it a 1, meaning it is safer than 1% of U.S. cities. Both violent crime and property crime are out of control. You have a 1 in 16 chance of being the victim of a property crime. It’s crime rate is worse than Baltimore, which is a 3. One would think increasing the police budget would be wiser.

One of the most severe cuts will come from Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston’s office, which will lose about $335,155 in funding for the plan, or about 9.6% of its total operating budget, according to 9 News. Among other cuts being made are a budget reduction of 2.2% to the Sheriff’s Department, 1.9% to the Department of Public Health and Environment, 2.4% to the Executive Director of Safety and 3.8% to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, according to Fox 31 Denver.

Why not just increase taxes, such as property and sales? The residents overwhelmingly vote Democrat and were happy to call the city a sanctuary for illegals, so, they’ll be happy to pay more, right? Must suck when your beliefs come back and smack you with the cold dead mackerel of reality.

Read: Sanctuary City Denver To Cut Police, Fire Department Budgets To Cover Illegal Aliens »

Good Grief: Biden To Send $100K In Taxpayer Money To Teach Pakistani Leaders About Hotcoldwetdry

Sure, it’s not that much money in terms of government expenditures, but, why are we wasting taxpayer money in Pakistan like this? How about spending the money so that they aren’t so extremist?

Biden administration to drop up to $100,000 teaching Pakistani leaders about climate change

The Biden administration is set to spend between $70,000 and $100,000 on a little-known program teaching religious leaders in Pakistan how to fight climate change, federal funding documents show.

The taxpayer-backed initiative is through the State Department and is expected to begin in October 2024 for at least one year, according to the records. It is aimed toward “50 religious leaders” because “they have the moral authority to call on people and businesses to consider the environmental impact of their activities, to reduce their carbon footprints and to find ways to cope with the growing impact of climate change,” the Daily Caller reported.

“The project intends to educate clerics and religious leaders of different faiths — including Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, etc. — in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa about climate change and to create awareness about its impact,” the State Department said in grant documents. “These clerics will serve as messengers, imparting the knowledge to congregations through Friday sermons, Sunday masses and other religious gatherings. By seamlessly integrating climate change education into religious discourse, the project will promote sustainable practices and a culture of environmental consciousness throughout KP.”

Does the Biden regime understand that over 96% of Pakistanis are Muslim? Because that’s a pretty stupid statement from the federal government agency that should kinda know this stuff. Sikhs? There are supposedly about 20,000, but, no one really knows, because Pakistan excluded them from the last census. Anyhow, considering that the climate cult has done a great job in turning people into haters of the 1st World, might this cause Islamic extremists to hate the 1st World more and attack more Western individuals and companies because they are “bad for ‘climate change'”?

“Religious leaders play influential roles in approving government initiatives and social norms,” the State Department said. “Credible and trustworthy, these clerics are respected opinion leaders and can play a larger role in effective outreach to combat climate change.”

Pakistan is certainly one of the nations most involved in Islamic extremism from the Sunni point of view. They certainly tolerate a wide range of Islamist groups, and still find that apostasy is grounds for death. This is who Biden is giving money to.

Read: Good Grief: Biden To Send $100K In Taxpayer Money To Teach Pakistani Leaders About Hotcoldwetdry »

If All You See…

…is a palm tree that will soon grow in Antarctica, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is A View From The Beach, with a post on Thursday tanlines.

Read: If All You See… »

LGB Regime To Close So-Called “Gun Show Loophole”

As Bearing Arms notes, almost no criminal is getting their gun via private sellers at gun shows. There really aren’t that many at gun shows (I’ve been to a few at the State Fairgrounds), and many times they are selling older stuff. But, could there be something more nefarious at play?

Biden Administration to close ‘gun show loophole’

The Biden Administration on Thursday announced they are closing what is often known as the “gun show loophole,” by tightening up the definition of what it means to be “engaged in the business” of selling firearms.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) has just implemented a change in the federal register language, which was previously more specific to who was selling guns, and the agency did it in accordance with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was passed in 2022.

The administration rolled out the proposed rule in September 2023, taking in over 300,000 comments from the public.

Prior to the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, those “engaged in the business” of firearms dealer were required to register to become a federally licensed firearm dealer, according to the language previously used. The definition that ATF is implementing on Thursday is more specific to better regulate the market in accordance with the new federal law, according to the White House.

The rule now explicitly lists the types of commercial activities that indicate whether a person should become a federally licensed dealer and thus be required to run a background check; prevents people from evading the licensing and background check requirements by claiming that they are just selling a few guns, according to the White House; and prevents people from falsely claiming that guns are part of a personal collection and exempt a seller from running a background check on a buyer.

The thing here is, the rule may well cover a person selling their guns to people they know or others outside of a gun show. The rule covers pretty much an financial transaction if a profit is being made.

“This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons. And my Administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives,” he said. “Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now.”

Look, I’ve never been against requiring a background check for any gun transfer, but, can the Biden Regime provide hard data that guns sold without a check are getting into bad people hands?

There are over 80,000 licensed gun dealers in America. The Department of Justice estimates that there are over 20,000 unlicensed sellers who are selling firearms through online advertisements, gun shows and other means, according to the White House.

Estimates? They’re passing a rule without data? Huh. Over to that Bearing Arms article

Hidden in the text was a bit that basically paved the way for bigger and more intrusive restrictions. In particular, a bit that seemingly set the stage for universal background checks via executive fiat.

How does the DOJ and other federal agencies know about a transfer unless they know who has what guns?

This is about making things more onerous for law-abiding, responsible citizens who want to buy and sell pieces of their collections to other law-abiding, responsible citizens. It’s about making it look risky for us not to go through an FFL, thus creating a paper trail that can, in time, potentially be turned into a gun registry.

That’s the only way. And criminals, thugs, and gang members will still get their guns through means like theft.

Read: LGB Regime To Close So-Called “Gun Show Loophole” »

Your Fault: Ants Are On the Move, Loons Are In Trouble

Have you ever noticed that the doomsday climate cult’s Media virtually never offers up any good news? How it’s always doom and gloom?

Ants in Colorado are on the move due to climate change

On a hot summer day in 2022, Anna Paraskevopoulos found herself trekking through forests and shrubs in Gregory Canyon near Boulder, flipping over rocks and logs to look for any signs of ants.

About six decades before that, a team of entomologists had walked on the same trails to record the local ant species, but what Paraskevopoulos saw was very different. Over the past 60 years, climate change has forced certain ant species, unable to tolerate higher temperatures, out of their original habitats in Gregory Canyon.

The resulting biodiversity change could potentially alter local ecosystems, according to Paraskevopoulos, a doctoral student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at CU Boulder. Her research findings appear April 9 in the journal Ecology.

Like all insects, ants are ectothermic, meaning their body temperature, metabolism and other bodily functions depend on the environment’s temperature. As a result, ants are sensitive to temperature fluctuations, making them a good marker to study the impact climate change has on ecosystems.

It’s like these cultists expect everything to always stay the same. What did the ants do during the Little Ice Age? How about during the previous Holocene warm periods? If you cannot offer that data than the study is incomplete.

Climate change threatens loon population, new study shows

Famous for their nocturnal calls, loons are aquatic birds often described as icons of the Northwoods. But new research shows climate change impairs their ability to feed their young.

A climate-induced decrease in water clarity could be a cause for the loon population decline in Wisconsin and more broadly across the northern United States, according to a new report from the academic journal Ecology.

Researchers used satellite imagery to study water clarity in 127 lakes across northern Wisconsin from 1995 to 2021. Increased rainfall in July each year reduced water clarity in loon territories. Over that time period, water clarity fell by about 16%, and chicks lost about 10% of their weight. Adult loons have also dropped weight each year since 1995.

The findings suggest that a decline in water clarity hurts loon reproductive success. Since loons are visual predators, they depend on high water clarity to hunt fish underwater and feed their chicks. With a reduced diet, chicks have lower survival rates.

Could. Suggests. They’re looking at things that happened and making assumptions without the facts. Typical climate cult science.

Read: Your Fault: Ants Are On the Move, Loons Are In Trouble »

Pirate's Cove