Your Fault: Worst Wine Harvest In 62 Years Blamed On Climate Doom

By William Teach April 27, 2024 – 7:00 am

Can any remember what was happening in 1962?

Worst wine harvest in 62 years blamed on ‘extreme’ weather and climate change

Global wine production reached a historic low in 2023 and climate change could be to blame, a new report has revealed.

The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) says the drink hit its lowest level since 1962. This intergovernmental organisation has 50 member states, representing 75 per cent of the world’s vineyard area.

Experts blame “extreme environmental conditions” including droughts and fires that have been driving the downward trend in production.

Though climate change is not entirely to blame, the OIV says, these conditions are the greatest challenge the industry is facing. Vines are often cultivated in areas around the world that are strongly affected by and incredibly vulnerable to changes in climate.

Oh, so, it’s pretty just natural variability and other factors, rather than Mankind dooming the planet with boiling temperatures.

Seriously, everything is doom and gloom with these people. Weather changes. It’s not exactly the same every year. And, the Earth goes through warming periods, just like cooling ones. And micro-cooling ones, just like what was happening in 1962. The British were growing fantastic wine during the Medieval Climate Optimum while the French were having issues. These Warmists are almost as bad as flat Earthers.

Read: Your Fault: Worst Wine Harvest In 62 Years Blamed On Climate Doom »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Major March Against Anti-Semitism In UK Cancelled Due To Threats

By William Teach April 27, 2024 – 6:45 am

Funny how the pro-Hamas marches do not have to be cancelled from threats, eh?

Major UK anti-antisemitism march canceled over threats, policing concerns

Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a charity in the United Kingdom, announced on Friday that they were forced to cancel their Saturday Walk Together march after threats caused concerns for participant safety.

The march would have seen large numbers of observant Jews walk for hours on Shabbat to demonstrate against antisemitism and the repeated scenes of pro-Hamas rhetoric during the weekly pro-Palestinian marches.

CAA Director CEO Gideon Falter made headlines last week, when a Metropolitan Police officer threatened to arrest him for being “openly Jewish” near a pro-Palestinian march. The policeman claimed that Falter’s presence may antagonize the protesters. (snip)

“Due to the thousands of people now intending to join and then walk where they please – something that we used to take for granted in London as Jewish people without having to discuss with police ahead of time – we still do not have confidence that people would be safe,” CAA explained.

The decision came in the wake of numerous threats and the organization claimed to have identified “hostile actors who seem to have intended to come to any meeting locations that we announced.”

So, you have two things going on: incoherent and hostile decrees by the police and threats from the pro-Hamas folks. And you know that it’s not all the Muslim immigrants let into the UK, but, hardcore Leftists who have been taught to hate Israel and Jews. Winston Churchill and other previous leaders would be disgusted with the hatred of Jews and Israel by British citizens, as well as how the country is importing the means of turning the nation in an hotbed of Islamic extremism.

And here in the U.S.

That would be Khymani James, who even the NY Times couldn’t figure out a way to defend. If the GOP had any cajones they’d move to boot Islamic terrorism supporter and Jew hater Ilham Omar from Congress. They booted George Santos for less. And, if the citizens in AOC’s district had any self respect, especially those who are Jewish, they’d vote against her this Fall, as she visited the anti-Jew protest.

Read: Major March Against Anti-Semitism In UK Cancelled Due To Threats »

Posted in Dhimmitude, Israel | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

4.3 Million Workers About To Learn That Demanding OT Doesn’t Always Work Out Like They Expect

By William Teach April 26, 2024 – 4:31 pm

In fairness, there certainly are issues with deeming some employees as “exempt”, meaning they are salaried and cannot get OT. Some companies will deem supervisors at the low end exempt to avoid paying them OT when they do not really have much in the way of power. Still, this may not go well

4.3 million more workers will soon get OT pay. Here’s who qualifies.

About 4.3 million U.S. workers who previously didn’t qualify for overtime pay could soon receive time-and-a-half for working more than 40 hours a week thanks to a new rule from the Biden administration.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday unveiled a new rule that will extend overtime pay to salaried workers who earn less than $1,128 per week, or $58,656 annually. Previously, only workers who made $684 or less each week, or $35,568 annually, were eligible for OT.

Businesses are required to pay workers 1.5 times their pay if they work more than 40 hours a week, but that protection has been limited to hourly workers and lower-earning salaried employees. Because of the salary cutoff, many salaried workers were performing the same duties as their hourly coworkers, but weren’t able to qualify for overtime, Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in a statement.

Most who are making $58K annually really do have supervisory status, and shouldn’t qualify for OT. They knew what they were getting into when they took the job. They knew they could, and probably would, be working over 40 hours a week. Going forward, companies could scale that pay back and refuse to let them work more than 40 hours a week.

The new rule could result in an additional $1.5 billion in pay for employees, according to an estimate from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

“Employers will be more than able to adjust to the rule without negatively impacting the overall economy,” wrote EPI director of government affairs and advocacy Samantha Sanders and President Heidi Shierholz.

Well, it’s easy to say for people who aren’t having to run a business and make payroll, eh?

Who won’t qualify for OT?

First, overtime pay isn’t available to salaried workers who are considered “executive, administrative or professional” employees.

That makes sense

Some researchers have pointed out that corporations give fake titles to low-ranking workers like “grooming manager” for a barber in order to make them appear like managers.

The new rule stipulates that only “bona fide” executive, administrative or professional employees are exempt from the expanded OT rule.

I do agree with that. But, really, how many of these folks are actually working 20-30 hours extra a week? That seems extreme and very rare.

Some industry groups are pushing back against the overtime rule, saying that it will harm their operations and lead to job cuts. Some are also threatening legal action.

“We fear many hoteliers will have no option other than to eliminate managerial jobs that are long-established paths to advancement,” American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) interim President Kevin Carey in a statement. “AHLA is reviewing all available options, including litigation, for defeating this ill-advised regulation.”

This rule is mostly about pandering to workers in order to receive votes, with no consideration of the consequences, as passed by people who mostly never worked in the private sector and never ran a business. Those 4M workers are about to go from salaried to hourly positions and have their hours cut under 40 per week which will end up being a massive pay cut. Bidenomics.

Read: 4.3 Million Workers About To Learn That Demanding OT Doesn’t Always Work Out Like They Expect »

Posted in Economy, Joe Biden | No Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach April 26, 2024 – 1:00 pm

…are palm trees which will soon grow in Alaska due to global boiling, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is bluebird of bitterness, with a post on a feel good story.

Read: If All You See… »

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

Statists On FCC Vote To Restore Obama Era Net Neutrality

By William Teach April 26, 2024 – 10:30 am

This was always a bad solution in search of a problem. But, it’s also about the authoritarians gaining control over the Wild West Internet

Net Neutrality Returns to a Very Different Internet

The Federal Communications Commission has voted—once again—to assert its power to oversee and regulate the activities of the broadband industry in the United States. In a 3-2 vote, the agency reinstated net neutrality rules that had been abandoned during the height of the Trump administration’s deregulatory blitz.

“Broadband is now an essential service,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday in prepared remarks. “Essential services—the ones we count on in every aspect of modern life—have some basic oversight.”

Why? Things worked just fine prior to Obama’s leftist FCC enacting NN in 2015, and just fine after Trump’s freedom loving FCC killed it off in 2017. Is anyone complaining about the Internet being throttled, or any of the other issues NN is suppose to solve? No? Huh

The rules approved by the agency on Thursday will reclassify broadband services in the United States once more as “common carriers” under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, subjecting broadband to the same public-utilities-style scrutiny as telephone networks and cable TV.

That distinction means that the agency can prevent internet service providers from blocking or throttling legal content, or letting online services pay ISPs to prioritize their content with faster delivery speeds. But it’s difficult, particularly in an election year, to say whether net neutrality is here to stay or whether the FCC’s vote is just another inflection point in a regulatory forever-war.

NN makes Internet the same as a home phone, someone most people do not have anymore.

“Net neutrality rules protect internet openness by prohibiting broadband providers from playing favorites with internet traffic,” Rosenworcel says. “We need broadband to reach 100 percent of us—and we need it fast, open, and fair.”

Yet, there have been no issues with this since 2017 or before 2015. Weird, right?

Though banning the creation of “pay-to-play internet fast lanes” remains a priority, the reasons for reclassifying broadband are not limited to warding off the industry’s well-documented predatory practices. The new order also gives the FCC the ability to more closely examine industry behavior; how, for instance, companies respond (or fail to) in the event of widespread network outages.

In other words, the federal government is going to seriously be in the business of providers with all sorts of regulatory BS. Which can increase costs.

(ABC4) “The pandemic proved once and for all that broadband is essential,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday. “After the prior administration abdicated authority over broadband services, the FCC has been handcuffed from acting to fully secure broadband networks, protect consumer data, and ensure the internet remains fast, open, and fair.”

Yeah, handcuffing the federal government from involving themselves unnecessarily on things that they do not need to regulate heavily simply because they want power that they did not have the statutory authority to involve themselves in is a good thing. And when the FCC applies the heavy hand of government and costs go up and development is stifled, don’t complain to the companies.

Scientific American has a pretty good explanation of why NN is not a positive. Too be honest, I’d have to go back and read up on this again, because I’ve forgotten most since I thought this issue was dead. But, Statists will never give up on ideas to increase state control.

Read: Statists On FCC Vote To Restore Obama Era Net Neutrality »

Posted in Web/Tech | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

EPA Announces New Standards Which Will Raise Energy Prices

By William Teach April 26, 2024 – 7:00 am

It doesn’t really matter to the Elites who makes these rules (do they have the statutory authority to do this?) because they tend to be rich so it doesn’t bother their pocketbooks. To the working and middle class? This will hurt in a time when energy is already high

EPA to announce new energy standards aimed at cleaner air and curbing climate change

The Environmental Protection Agency released long-awaited updated power plant standards Thursday, aiming to further reduce air pollution that makes people sick and the greenhouse gases emissions warming the planet.

Federal officials said Wednesday that the rules would deliver on the Biden administration’s commitment to provide health protections for communities, including those confronted with decades of environmental injustices.

“Since the start of this administration President Biden has made it clear that we are committed to the integrated priorities of ensuring U.S. energy security, protecting people from pollution and fighting the climate crisis,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.

How much air pollution and “carbon pollution” is released by Biden constantly flying to and from his Delaware homes/Camp David? All those jumbo jets, helicopters, fighter jets, and SUVs?

Together, the rules are expected to provide up to $370 billion in climate and public health net benefits over the next two decades while providing a more predictable regulatory outlook for power companies, the officials said. The EPA said it doesn’t expect any erosion of electricity generation or grid reliability.

Yeah yeah yeah. How much more will it cost them? These are the 4 rules

  • Require all coal-fired power plants that plan to run in the long term, and all new natural-gas-fired plants, to control 90% of their carbon pollution.
  • Strengthen and update mercury and toxic air standards for coal-fired power plants, tighten the emissions standard for toxic metals by 67%, and reduce emissions of mercury and other contaminants that are important for children and others who regularly consume fish with high levels of pollutants from power plants.
  • Reduce pollutants discharged through wastewater from coal-fired power plants by more than 660 million pounds a year by setting wastewater discharge standards.
  • Require the safe management of coal ash placed in areas previously unregulated at the federal level, including at previously used disposal sites.

They sound good, but, most have been running safe levels for decades. This just makes it so stringent, along with “carbon pollution” (again, not even a scientific term, but, a political term), that coal plants will have to shut down, with almost nothing to replace them. Democrats need to keep their mouths shut over skyrocketing power bill, because they voted for this.

Read: EPA Announces New Standards Which Will Raise Energy Prices »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Surprise: Terrorists Attack Biden’s Gaza Aid Pier

By William Teach April 26, 2024 – 6:45 am

Is there anyone other than those in the Biden regime who didn’t think this would happen?

From the link

Gazan terrorists fired mortar shells on Wednesday towards the construction work on the humanitarian pier being built off the coast of Gaza.

i24NEWS has learned that several pieces of American engineering equipment were damaged in the attack. In addition, one person was slightly injured while running to a protected area.

The United States has been building the floating pier in order to channel additional humanitarian aid that would arrive via sea route. U.S. President Joe Biden announced the plan during his State of the Union address in early March, clarifying that there would be “no U.S. boots on the ground.”

And then an and update

In an exclusive confirmation to i24NEWS, the spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has verified the i24NEWS exclusive report of an attack on the U.S.-led humanitarian pier under construction off the coast of Gaza.

i24NEWS was pretty much the first to report it, updating before anyone bothered reporting the news. Lest you think it is false, well, here’s Politico, CBC News, and Washington Post. I’m sure other Lefty news sites have a blurb of news buried, just not expected search terms, other than some Israeli sites, Daily News, and Free Beacon. They don’t want to expose Biden’s folly and that terrorists are terrorists.

Read: Surprise: Terrorists Attack Biden’s Gaza Aid Pier »

Posted in Joe Biden, RoP | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Good News: Taliban Joins In Talks With UN On Climate Crisis (scam)

By William Teach April 25, 2024 – 3:42 pm

Looks like the climate cult is getting yet another religious cult, this one a brutal, repressive, misogynistic, terroristic one, to join in

From the link

The Taliban government has entered its first talks with the United Nations, donors and non-governmental organisations over the impact of climate change in Afghanistan, organisers said Wednesday.

After four decades of war, Afghanistan ranks as one of the countries least prepared to face the effects of climate change, which is spurring extreme weather and warping natural environments.

Foreign aid to Afghanistan has dwindled since the Taliban takeover in 2021, with donors wary of backing a government considered a pariah, leaving poor and climate-vulnerable communities further exposed.

The Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC) co-hosted three days of talks ending Tuesday, country director Terje Watterdal told reporters at a news conference in Kabul. (snip)

All sides agreed that “both individual and collective action is required both inside and outside of Afghanistan”, Watterdal said.

“All government ministries committed their full support for the national and international organisations working to combat climate change and reduce the impact of climate change in Afghanistan.”

And, because the Taliban, reinstalled as the ruling power in Afghanistan thanks to Biden’s bungled withdrawal, is saying the right things on global boiling, the UN, NGOs, and nations will now start ignoring what the Taliban is and what they do, including to women. Because that’s what happens in Warmist World. Even Bin Laden was a Warmist, or, at least pretended to be one, which, I’m sure, is exactly what the Taliban is working at, so they get some breathing room for their extremism and some of that sweet, sweet, redistributed climate cash

Deputy Director of the National Environmental Protection Agency of Afghanistan Zainul Abideen Abid said “Climate change management is a priority”.

“We call upon all relevant United Nations agencies to avoid mere sloganeering and take practical steps,” he said, asking for more funding to be unlocked for the country.

Yup, a grift.

Read: Good News: Taliban Joins In Talks With UN On Climate Crisis (scam) »

Posted in Global Warming, RoP | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach April 25, 2024 – 1:00 pm

…is an area turning to desert from carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is American Greatness, with a post on Tulsi Gabbard defending religious freedom from her former party.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

Pro-Hamas Mob Chases NYPD Chief Into NYU Building

By William Teach April 25, 2024 – 10:30 am

This very much encapsulates “mostly peaceful”

NYPD chief swarmed by anti-Israel protesters and berated while seeking shelter in NYU building

Out of control New York University protesters swarmed and berated an NYPD chief and his officers – calling them “f–king fascists” – after they cuffed one of the demonstrators at an anti-Israel rally, wild new video shows.

The viral video, shared on X, shows NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy and his officers being chased and surrounded by protestors on Monday night while trying to get inside the NYU Catholic Center after arresting one of them.

“F–k you! F–k you, pigs,” the crowd could be heard shouting as they harassed the officers and demanded they release the woman in custody. (snip)

The protesters were left on the other side of the glass doors, with officers holding the entrance shut as the demonstrators banged against the doors and hurled more insults at them.

It’s pretty bad when the chief of police of the NYPD and a host of officers have to seek shelter from people who are supposed to be “just protesters”, wouldn’t you say? But, then, these people are backing an Islamic terrorist group, not exactly known for being peaceful. It might be high time to send in the National Guard, but, you can bet the Powers That Be are yammering about being concerned with escalation.

Meanwhile

(NY Post) Police peacefully arrested 93 student protesters at the University of Southern California on Wednesday, hours after police at a Texas university aggressively detained dozens in the latest clashes between law enforcement and those protesting the Israel-Hamas war on campuses nationwide. (snip)

Officers made 34 arrests at the behest of the university and Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

Yeah, the video all over the ‘net shows it wasn’t exactly peaceful at either.

Dane Urquhart, a third-year Texas student, called the police presence and arrests an “overreaction,” adding that the protest “would have stayed peaceful” if the officers had not turned out in force.

When “protesters” are talking about killing Jews, destroying Israel, and “globalizing the Intifada” while wearing keffiyehs (probably made in China) that are symbols of Palestinians killing Jews, you’ve lost free speech and protest rights

North of USC, students at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, were barricaded inside a building for a third day, and the school shut down campus through the weekend and made classes virtual.

Harvard University in Massachusetts had sought to stay ahead of protests this week by limiting access to Harvard Yard and requiring permission for tents and tables.

And, at all these colleges and others, Jewish students are being harassed and terrorized, assaulted in some cases, blocked from movement, trapped in building, hence, these are no longer peaceful protests per the US Constitution and the constitutions of the states. No longer lawful free speech. Democrats created this, tolerated this, and now are seeing the monster they created.

Read: Pro-Hamas Mob Chases NYPD Chief Into NYU Building »

Posted in Current Affairs, Democrats | 4 Comments | Trackback URL
Pirate's Cove