“Advocates” Push To Make California Minimum Wage $20 For All

By William Teach April 30, 2024 – 10:30 am

This is hilarious, because the advocates think people are leaving California because they cannot afford to live there, so they need more money, but, raising the minimum wage makes things more expensive

Advocates gather at California Capitol to push for raising minimum wage

unintended consequencesAdvocates gathered at the California State Capitol on Monday, calling for a statewide minimum wage of at least $20/hr.

The group supports an assembly bill that calls for a study on raising the minimum wage.

“They’re leaving because the wage is not $20 an hour,” said Saru Jayaraman of One Fair Wage. “$20 an hour would be a way to keep them in California because they’d finally be able to afford to live.”

In April, the minimum wage for many fast food workers in California was raised.

Following the victory for fast food workers, advocates urge state lawmakers to consider comprehensive wage policy reform.

How’s that victory working out?

(ABC News) It’s been nearly one month since California raised the minimum wage at certain restaurants, which has put a spotlight on a course correction that many see as long overdue.

But for some — and not just fast food franchise owners — the newly raised bar for compensation also marks a pivotal point for restaurants to remain competitive in an already difficult post-pandemic landscape. The industry with famously thin margins is once again being pushed to make monetary and operational adjustments to stay afloat, all without compromising consumer expectations.

Some customers have already felt the pinch of costs being passed onto them, as recently reported by the Wall Street Journal, which restaurant owners and executives at chains like Chipotle and McDonald’s warned could come as a result of the state voting to increase the minimum from $16 to $20 an hour at restaurant chains with at least 60 locations nationwide.

So, it costs more to eat

(Washington Times) In response to recent minimum wage increases in California, fast food restaurants across the state are shifting to automation to get rid of wage-earning humans.

The move to making customers place orders at digital kiosks alleviates what owners say is the financial strain of rising labor costs after the minimum wage for the state’s fast food workers increased on April 1 from $16 to $20 per hour.

Harsh Ghai, a Burger King franchise owner who manages 140 outlets along the West Coast, is leading the transition to automation. He plans to introduce digital kiosks across all his restaurants within months — a drastic acceleration from his original timeline of five to 10 years.

So the minimum wage will be $0, because the jobs will dry up. People who have no real skills/work ethic will be unemployed with a lot fewer opportunities. Those who are looking for part time work will likewise find the opportunities diminished. And this is what will happen all across California if they pass $20 as the minimum wage. Which I think they should do. Because every experiment needs an experimental group, right? We should see what they outcomes are. Unfortunately, this will cause ripples across the country when it comes to certain product, like produce, since so much is grown in the People’s Republik of California.

Read: “Advocates” Push To Make California Minimum Wage $20 For All »

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Your Fault: ‘Climate Change’ Could Be Messing With The Lifecycle Of Cicadas

By William Teach April 30, 2024 – 7:00 am

By this time, everyone knows that two different groups of cicadas are coming out of the ground, right? So, of course, the climate cult has to jump in

For cicadas, it’s safety in numbers. Is climate change throwing off their timing?

A cicada in sync with its brood is a cicada with a chance.

The insects’ synchronized emergence is an evolutionary strategy, scientists say. Birds, raccoons and other predators can eat only so many of them. So the more cicadas emerge together, the better the odds that more will live on to reproduce and pass along their genes.

“They have the safety-in-numbers strategy,” said Chris Simon, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut who studies the insects. (snip)

This summer, the number of periodical cicadas is expected to be extra large, as two broods emerge at the same time. The last time these two emerged together was in 1803. Tens of billions of the insects are predicted to surface. Users of the Cicada Safari app, which is designed to report cicada sightings and help scientists track the insects, have tallied more than 1,000 sightings in Georgia and hundreds in North Carolina and Alabama.

And the next time will be in the 2200’s. BTW, 1803 was during the Little Ice Age.

What’s more, scientists say they’ve noticed some changes in the insects’ rhythms, which has led to hypotheses that rising temperatures may be rewiring the internal clocks of some periodical cicadas.

Gene Kritsky, an entomologist and cicada expert at Mount St. Joseph University in Ohio, said that as average temperatures have climbed higher because of global warming, the dates of emergence have shifted earlier in the calendar year.

“Cicadas are insects of the climate,” he said, adding, “They’re now emerging almost 10 days to two weeks earlier than they did in 1940.”

ZOMG, no!!!! Seriously, big woop. Things get warmer during a Holocene warm period.

Simon has a theory about how climate change may be playing a role: She thinks rising temperatures are lengthening the growing seasons of the plants that cicadas feed on, supercharging the insects’ development underground. That, in turn, may cause many more “stragglers” to emerge early. Eventually, she said, the entire population will adapt and shift timing.

Simon predicted that 17-year cicada broods will shift to become 13-year cicadas. And 13-year cicadas might emerge every nine years.

Will Simon put his/her job and reputation on the line with this prognostication? Anyhow, it’s just another case of the climate cult involving itself in every issue.

Read: Your Fault: ‘Climate Change’ Could Be Messing With The Lifecycle Of Cicadas »

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

Jewish Students Sue Columbia Over Anti-Jew Hatred

By William Teach April 30, 2024 – 6:45 am

Columbia has pretty much let this go on for weeks. It was easy to see, as the Jew haters were upfront with their beliefs, and the constant reports of Jewish students being harassed and attacked were real. Columbia was also promising to Do Something all Monday, yet, never did. They’re getting what they asked for

Jewish student files class action lawsuit against Columbia for failing to guarantee safety

A class action lawsuit against Columbia University was filed in federal court on Monday morning on behalf of a second-year Jewish student who alleges the school could not guarantee their safety.

“We support peaceful protests but when a sliver of them invites and engages in violence including saying all “Zionist’s” (read “Jews”) should be killed and calls for terrorists attacks on American soil, that has no place in our country,” Jay Edelson, the attorney representing the students, said in a post on X.

According to Edelson, the lawsuit alleges Columbia needs to enforce its policies and let students feel free to study, take finals and otherwise be students “without worrying they will be assaulted.

“We are proceeding on a breach of contract theory and are seeking immediate injunctive relief,” Edelson wrote on X.

And that’s where it’s going to go badly for Columbia, in that the school has refused to enforce it’s published code of conduct. As has been said, if “protesters” were doing this against blacks or LGBTs, the school would have shut it down and expelled any students involved and terminated employment for any employees.

The lawsuit says many individuals at Columbia are exercising their constitutionally protected right to protest and express their views about Israel, but there’s a subset of protestors who have gone beyond engaging in free speech and have “menacing goals” including committing acts of violence and intimidating and harassing Jewish students and faculty members.

Many are, even though they are dupes and morons, taking the side of Islamic extremists. Any wearing an Intifada keffiyeh are supporting Jew killers.

The lawsuit accuses the Gaza Solidarity Encampment of being the center of “round-the-clock” harassment of Jewish students who have been punched, shoved, spat upon, blocked from attending classes and moving freely about campus.

“These extreme demonstrators are not engaging in constitutionally protected free speech. Instead, they are openly inciting violence against Jewish students,” according to the lawsuit.

And all of this is easily provable with video and photos. We’ve seen massive banners and signs––with statements such as: “Death to the Jews”; “Long live Hamas”; “Globalize the Intifada2”; “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution” (invoking Hitler’s “final solution” of killing all Jews); “Hamas we love you.” Columbia will soon be paying quite a bit of money. And many pro-Hamas students and employees are going to have their faces splashed in the news.

Read: Jewish Students Sue Columbia Over Anti-Jew Hatred »

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Washington Post: Those Darned Republicans Are Seizing On College Kids Being Jew Haters

By William Teach April 29, 2024 – 3:00 pm

It was just a matter of time, right?

It’s a pretty hard paywall at the WP, no reprint at Yahoo News yet, but, you get the idea. But, yeah, pretty peaceful, except for all the threats against Jews and Israel, the support of a U.S. State Department designated terrorist group, the calls for a world-wide Intifada, chants of death to America, assaulting Jews, blocking them from going places, resisting arrest, assaulting law enforcement, etc, along with all the vandalism

It’s a long thread of photos.

Here’s one of my favorites

Read More »

Read: Washington Post: Those Darned Republicans Are Seizing On College Kids Being Jew Haters »

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If All You See…

By William Teach April 29, 2024 – 10:30 am

…are Bad Weather clouds from carbon pollution rolling into a city, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Lid, with a post on some states refusing to cooperate with Biden’s extreme Title IX trans rules.

Read: If All You See… »

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Interest Rates Staying High Blamed On “Affluent Americans”

By William Teach April 29, 2024 – 10:30 am

See, it’s not that the policies of Biden and Democrats, such as too much spending and borrowing money, are causing issues. Nope, it’s you older rich Americans

Affluent Americans are driving US economy and likely delaying need for Fed rate cuts

I did that BidenSince retiring two years ago, Joan Harris has upped her travel game.

Once or twice a year, she visits her two adult children in different states. She’s planning multiple other trips, including to a science fiction convention in Scotland and a Disney cruise soon after that, along with a trip next year to neolithic sites in Great Britain.

“I really have more money to spend now than when I was working,” said Harris, 64, an engineer who worked 29 years for the federal government and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

So, taking normal trips is now bad? What about the Democrat Congress critters who are taking a large number of flights to D.C. from their homes each month? This is silly

Older Americans like Harris are fueling a sustained boost to the U.S. economy. Benefiting from outsize gains in the stock and housing markets over the past several years, they are accounting for a larger share of consumer spending — the principal driver of economic growth — than ever before.

And much of their spending is going toward higher-priced services like travel, health care and entertainment, putting further upward pressure on those prices — and on inflation. Such spending is relatively immune to the Federal Reserve’s push to slow growth and tame inflation through higher borrowing rates, because it rarely requires borrowing.

Affluent older Americans, if they own government bonds, may even be benefiting from the Fed’s rate hikes. Those hikes have led to higher bond yields, generating more income for those who own such bonds.

It’s not like they’re going out and buying lots and lots of big ticket items. It’s more like they’re simply the recipients of the Feds policy of higher rates

Wealth is also disproportionately held by older Americans. People ages 55 and over now own nearly three-quarters of all household wealth, up from 68% in 2010, according to the Fed. In percentage terms since the pandemic, household net worth has also surged for younger households. But because younger adults started from a much lower level, their gains haven’t been anywhere near enough to keep pace with older Americans.

Well, yeah, because they worked for it. They weren’t getting worthless degrees which make it hard to get a good paying job. They aren’t putting on too many visible tattoos and face piercings which makes it tough to employ them. And having a poor work attitude. So, the wealth has to go somewhere, and the Millennials and GenZers haven’t put in the work to increase the pie and put it in their pockets

One result of the Fed’s higher rates has been a kind of bifurcated economy, by age. Older, wealthier Americans who already own homes and cars have been much less affected by the Fed’s rate hikes. By contrast, younger Americans are enduring a combination of expensive home prices and high mortgage rates, making it much harder to buy a first home.

Well, yeah. And, so far, has it really helped?

(Daily Caller) The U.S. economy is showing signs of stagflation as growth slumps down and prices continue to surge for average Americans, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

U.S. annual economic growth measured just 1.6% in the first quarter of 2024, following a report of persistently high inflation in March of 3.5% year-over-year. The combination of both low growth and high inflation, in conjunction with continuously high amounts of government spending and debt, has led to signs of stagflation in the U.S. economy, which wreaked havoc on U.S. consumers throughout the 1970’s, according to experts who spoke to the DCNF.

Well, we’ll see. There are lots of reports like this, but, unemployment isn’t spiking, and low growth is not happening quarter after quarter. Anyhow, the media will do anything to avoid blaming Biden and Democrats for their policies and reckless spending.

Read: Interest Rates Staying High Blamed On “Affluent Americans” »

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Bummer: Ford Loses $1.3 Billion In First Quarter On EVs

By William Teach April 29, 2024 – 7:00 am

Ford violated one of the main rules of any company that sells products to consumers: listen to what the consumer wants. The number who wanted EVs was low. And do not sell at an overall loss

Ford Loses $1.3 Billion on Electric Vehicles in First Quarter of 2024, Delays Plans to Make More

Ford Motor Company reported a whopping $132,000 loss on each electric vehicle (EV) sold during the first three months of 2024, amassing a $1.3 billion loss.

The auto manufacturer’s electric vehicle unit revealed Thursday that they experienced a 20 percent decrease in sales volume and were forced to slash prices due to low consumer demand, CNN reported.

The revenue for Ford’s EV car, the Model e, plunged by 84 percent to about $100 million, which the company blamed on EV price cuts across the auto industry.

“That resulted in the $1.3 billion loss before interest and taxes (EBIT), and the massive per-vehicle loss in the Model e unit,” the publication noted.?

The recent figures are part of a trend of loss for Ford, with their Model e reporting a full-year EBIT loss of $4.7 billion on the sale of 116,000 units. This is an average loss of $40,525 per vehicle — and even that is just a third of the per-vehicle loss seen in the first three months of 2024.

Now, company officials are estimating that their EV division will lose a grand total of $5 billion this year, up from $4.7 billion last year.

There’s nothing wrong with Ford making EVs: there is a demand for them, even if small. But, they moved too far too fast, far exceeding demand, leaving them with lots and lots of inventory that couldn’t be moved. And leaving dealers with expensive burdens on their lots, which they were forced to purchase from Ford.

“Americans don’t want EVs at levels Biden’s climate hysteria require,” author and businessman Andy Puzder wrote on X. “Ford’s EV Q1 losses soared to $1.3 billion — a ridiculous $132,000 per EV sold. All Ford’s profits came from combustion engine vehicle sales. Collectivist policies destroy prosperity.”

Well, yeah. After the initial interest in the “Mustang” that died down, and many sold them off and get a gas vehicle, either straight petrol or hybrid. And, quite frankly, it’s often difficult to get people into a hybrid. Heck, it’s still sometimes the money. When my lease is up next April the Civic hybrid will be here. I’ll look at the lease values of it and the straight petrol versions. I drive less than 10K a year, so, unless the hybrid lease price makes sense I’ll just stay with the regular.

Read: Bummer: Ford Loses $1.3 Billion In First Quarter On EVs »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 18 Comments | Trackback URL

Pro-Hamas Protesters Want Amnesty, Records Wiped To Avoid Future Consequences

By William Teach April 29, 2024 – 6:45 am

Last I checked, every single one of these Jew hating Hamas loving “protesters” were adults and made the choice to go out there and chant things like “death to America,”, “death to Israel,” “death to Jews”, and all the other things

College protesters want ‘amnesty.’ At stake: Tuition, legal charges, grades and graduation

Maryam Alwan figured the worst was over after New York City police in riot gear arrested her and other protesters on the Columbia University campus, loaded them onto buses and held them in custody for hours.

But the next evening, the college junior received an email from the university. Alwan and other students were being suspended after their arrests at the “ Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” a tactic colleges across the country have deployed to calm growing campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.

The students’ plight has become a central part of protests, with students and a growing number of faculty demanding their amnesty. At issue is whether universities and law enforcement will clear the charges and withhold other consequences, or whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students into their adult lives.

Questions about their academic futures remain. Will they be allowed to take final exams? What about financial aid? Graduation? Columbia says outcomes will be decided at disciplinary hearings, but Alwan says she has not been given a date.

“This feels very dystopian,” said Alwan, a comparative literature and society major.

Dystopian? You literally put yourself in this situation. Here she is laughing and smiling

Even if the charges are dropped and records cleared, will companies want to hire someone involved with all the violent rhetoric against Jews and taking the side of a terrorist organization? All these kiddies do know that the Internet is forever, and recruiters will see them wearing Intifada keffiyehs, a symbol of murdering Jews and attacking Israel, right?

For international students facing suspension, there is the added fear of losing their visas, said Radhika Sainath, an attorney with Palestine Legal, which helped a group of Columbia students file a federal civil rights complaint against the school Thursday. It accuses Columbia of not doing enough to address discrimination against Palestinian students.

“The level of punishment is not even just draconian, it feels like over-the-top callousness,” Sainath said.

You’re a guest in our country. If you want to play terrorist games, well you get prizes you won’t like, but, you earned them. Every single one of the people at these protests who can be identified should be given the J6 treatment: hunted down by law enforcement, and, if not a citizen, deported immediately. If they are naturalized or a permanent resident, well, those statuses should be revoked and be removed. Consequences are a bitch! Have fun with future employment!

Read: Pro-Hamas Protesters Want Amnesty, Records Wiped To Avoid Future Consequences »

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If All You See…

By William Teach April 28, 2024 – 1:20 pm

…is a see that will soon rise dozens of feet by 2050, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Right Scoop, with a post on a really bad poll for Biden from CNN.

It’s an easy bikini week.

Read: If All You See… »

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Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach April 28, 2024 – 9:20 am

Patriotic Pinup

Happy Sunday! Another great day in the Once And Future Nation Of America! The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the NY Giants had a good draft. This pinup is by Peter Driben, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Chicks On The Right covers the only trans military chaplain in Canada suspended for sexual misconduct
  2. Climate Depot discusses NOAA’s data not supporting a climate emergency
  3. Da Techguy’s Blog notes real Islamophobia in action
  4. Gates Of Vienna highlights honor killings in Islamist Italy
  5. Geller Report laughs over COVID kids who missed high school graduation potentially missing college graduation due to Hamas protests
  6. LMAO discusses the one time laws are actually important in L.A.
  7. Legal Insurrection covers Adam Schiff’s luggage being stolen
  8. Moonbattery has a profile in counter-moonbattery
  9. neo-neocon covers Columbia’s president committing academic fraud
  10. Never Yet Melted notes another chicken coming home to roost
  11. Pacific Pundit features Gretchen Whitmer boo’d at the NFL draft
  12. Sultan Knish discusses Victimhood and relative rights
  13. The First Street Journal covers green virtue signaling
  14. The Gateway Pundit features Joe Biden doing interesting things during a speech
  15. And last, but, not least, Hot Air wonders about our tanks in Ukraine

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014, so, most are hosted internally). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your Pinups for Vets calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me. I’ve also mostly alphabetized them, makes it easier scrolling the feedreader

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?

Two great sites for getting news links are Liberty Daily and Whatafinger.

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

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