Super-Progressive UC Santa Cruz Terminates Graduate Students Demanding More Money

By William Teach February 29, 2020 – 4:24 pm

You know, these graduate students could have taken jobs elsewhere than the university. Heck, they could have gotten outside jobs and earned. But, no, they Demanded the college take care of them. While not working

UC Santa Cruz fires 54 graduate students participating in months-long strike

The University of California, Santa Cruz, issued termination letters on Friday to 54 graduate students who have been waging a months-long strike for a cost-of-living-adjustment amid soaring rents.

The firings came as graduate students at the University of California, Davis, and University of California, Santa Barbara, began their own cost-of-living strikes in solidarity. One of their demands is that all UC Santa Cruz graduate workers who participated in strike activities be restored to full employment status.

The 54 UC Santa Cruz graduate students who received termination letters on Friday are just a fraction of the 233 graduate student instructors and teaching assistants who have refused to submit nearly 12,000 grades from the fall quarter since December.

This month, the students’ grading strike expanded, as teaching assistants refused all teaching duties and research assistants refused additional work. Some classes and office hours have been canceled because of the strike.

The students are striking for a $1,412-a-month cost-of-living adjustment, which they say they desperately need amid a growing housing crisis in California. Most students are spending between 5o% and 70% of their $2,434-a-month salary on rent, some forced to live in substandard apartments with many roommates in order to stretch their dollars.

Now, try this at your job: refuse to work while demanding more money. What happens? You’re promoted to customer, right?

The graduate students are represented by United Auto Workers Local 2865, which negotiated a contract in 2018 that included a no-strike clause: meaning the current strike, known as a “wildcat strike”, has been taken without the union’s approval.

Huh what? Auto workers union?

“Teaching assistants who choose to withhold grades or refuse to teach are in violation of that contract,” Gordon said, adding that such actions “unfairly impact undergraduate students while doing nothing to further the conversation on how to address the challenges of the rising cost of living, with which all students and employees across UC must contend”.

Have fun trying to get jobs with other colleges after this. And, won’t look good when they try for private sector jobs. Don’t like the pay? Go elsewhere. Don’t like conditions? Go elsewhere. It is fun to see these uber-Progressive colleges crack down, eh?

Read: Super-Progressive UC Santa Cruz Terminates Graduate Students Demanding More Money »

Posted in Special Snowflake Syndrome | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 29, 2020 – 1:00 pm

…is an evil world killing fossil fueled vehicle, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is hogewash, with a post on a galaxy shattering kaboom.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 29 Comments | Trackback URL

Cult of Climastrology Wants To Change U.S. Tax Code To Solve Hotcoldwetdry

By William Teach February 29, 2020 – 12:07 pm

No, not that tax, the carbon tax one, this one

Opinion: Fix U.S. tax code to address climate change and our health

The climate crisis is here. It is real and it is hurting our health.

As physicians in Northern California, my colleagues and I see how climate change is making our patients sicker every day. We see infants and children with worsening asthma due to wildfire smoke exposure. We see adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requiring stronger and more toxic medication due to worsening air pollution caused by gas-powered cars.

Would these be the fires caused not by “carbon pollution”, but firebugs and accidents? And, yes, gas powered cars do release air pollution, but, CO2 is not pollution. And, cars are cleaner than ever. Strange that Warmists won’t give up their own fossil fueled vehicles, though, eh?

But 2019 ended with a climate whimper as Congress missed the opportunity to make a more meaningful impact on climate change than it has in the last decade by updating and extending the tax code to promote clean energy. A package of clean-energy incentives, including for energy storage, solar, offshore wind power and electric vehicles, failed to make it into Congress’s year-end government spending deal due to White House pressure.

If these things had massive potential, private companies would be dumping massive amounts of money in them, looking to make more money. Why does it always have to be Government with these Stateists? Why is it always Someone Else’s money?

Right now, our tax code strongly favors the creation of new fossil fuel projects. Large-scale clean-energy projects are possible and cost-effective. But we need to level the tax code, and hence the playing field, for clean-energy projects that rely on wind, solar and complementary energy storage to get off the ground so that we, especially our children, can be healthy.

What Dr. Amanda Millstein means by leveling the tax code is giving these things extra breaks than everything else.

The climate crisis is here and we no longer have the luxury of time. Congress needs to hear from us, as many of us as possible — Democrats, Republicans, young, old, West Coast, East Coast, farmer, businessperson, rich, poor. Our voices matter. And nothing is more important than our health.

What of the voices of those of us who do not believe in the climate crisis? Do we get a say?

Dr. Millstein should lobby the city councils in the San Francisco area, where she lives, to ban all fossil fueled vehicles. Let’s see how that goes.

Then there’s this tax in a letter to the editor of the LA Times

Planting 1 trillion trees and oil companies promising to be net-zero emitters of greenhouse gases will not be enough to fight climate change, as your editorial says. There must be a worldwide cutback on consumption.

This can partially be achieved by individual and corporate conservation, but ultimately global population stabilization is the answer.

A family with two children will have stable consumption over time. A family with three will have more. There needs to be a total restructuring of the global economy concentrating on a stable population, not ever-expanding demand based on an ever-expanding population.

One way to do this is to phase out child tax deductions over time so they apply to no more than two kids. I know this sounds grim, but so is what the world faces.

I say we place a big tax on any person who expresses a belief that climate change is mostly/solely caused by mankind if they have any kids.

Read: Cult of Climastrology Wants To Change U.S. Tax Code To Solve Hotcoldwetdry »

Posted in Global Warming, Progressive Goals | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

St. Greta: “World Leaders Are Acting Like Children” Or Something

By William Teach February 29, 2020 – 7:47 am

St. Greta of Stockholm held a rally in Bristol, and was rather Upset

It’s worth watching the video and reading the lines, because something is missing

(UK Guardian) Tens of thousands of people, many of them children skipping school, braved heavy rain to join a climate strike headed by Greta Thunberg in Bristol city centre.

The vast crowd fell silent as the 17-year-old activist told them governments were acting like children and so it fell to young people to be “the adults in the room”.

Criticising governments and the media, she said: “Once again they sweep their mess under the rug for us – young people, their children – to clean up for them. We must continue and we have to be patient. Remember that the changes required will not happen overnight.”

Wearing a yellow raincoat and woolly hat – a look copied by some of her devotees – she took to the stage to chants of “Greta, Greta” from schoolchildren and teenagers.

She told them: “We will not be silenced because we are the change, and change is coming whether you like it or not. This emergency is being completely ignored by the politicians, the media and those in power.

“Basically, nothing is being done to halt this crisis despite all the beautiful words and promises from our elected officials. So what did you do during this crucial time? I will not be silenced when the world is on fire.”

I love the look of a heavy winter jacket and wool cap to ward off the cold while being told the world is on fire. Anyhow, for all St. Greta’s screeching, she failed to offer any solutions. For all her saying that governments are the children, she failed to offer any solutions. If all you’re doing is complaining without offering solutions, you are whining. And, seriously, this is her “plan” from last fall

  • Fly less or not at all
  • Cut down on meat consumption or go vegan
  • Join an activist movement
  • Vote

That’s it. The totality of her plan. Because, like any other child, she demands that Other People do something. But, the rest of us will look back in 10 years, 20 years, and laugh about how hysterical (both ways) these Climate Cultists were, and perhaps Greta will get a degree in some discipline that makes sense.

Read: St. Greta: “World Leaders Are Acting Like Children” Or Something »

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

9th Circuit Sorta Blocks Trump’s Remain In Mexico Policy

By William Teach February 29, 2020 – 7:32 am

President’s Trump’s remain in Mexico policy rather makes sense: you want asylum? OK, we’ll process an application, but, you don’t have access to the whole of the lower 48 while applying. This has made Open Borders advocates upset

Court temporarily blocks Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, then suspends its own order

An federal appeals court has temporarily halted a major Trump administration policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts.

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Friday in a 2-1 vote to put on hold the policy that furthered President Donald Trump’s asylum crackdown.

The “Remain in Mexico” policy – known officially as “Migrant Protection Protocols” – took effect in January 2019 in San Diego and has spread across the border. Nearly 60,000 people have been sent back since the policy began.

The question before the judges was whether to let the policy take effect during legal challenges.

But, see, this wasn’t the only 9th Circuit ruling

Friday’s earlier decision, made after extensive written arguments and a hearing, found the Remain in Mexico program violated U.S. immigration law and a United Nations refugee convention, which bar the government from returning someone to a place where they would be persecuted.

So, they’re going by UN rules now? Further, I’m not sure what they’re seeing in federal immigration law, but, we don’t have to let people in willy nilly. However, the court did say that this only affects 4 southwestern states, not as a nationwide injunction.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said the decision highlighted “the consequences and impropriety of nationwide injunctions.”

“The Trump administration has acted faithfully to implement a statutory authority provided by Congress over two decades ago and signed into law by President Clinton,” the spokesperson said. “The 9th Circuit’s decision not only ignores the constitutional authority of Congress and the administration for a policy in effect for over a year, but also extends relief beyond the parties before the court.”

Open borders advocates will do anything to make the border porous. At the same time, they also had another ruling

(Breitbart) The same panel also declared that border agents must process claims for asylum made by migrants who are caught trying to sneak over the border fence far from the formal Ports of Entry.

That’s silly. Immigration law states that anyone caught attempting to enter the country/entered the country anywhere other than a designated port of entry is an illegal alien, and can be deported.

The two decisions — if accepted by a large panel of judges and by the Supreme Court — punch a nationwide hole through the border rules. The decisions will help the cartels, coyotes, and worldwide migrants to again cooperatively overwhelm U.S. border defenses and courtroom process and rush millions of migrants into U.S. job markets, housing markets, and K-12 schools.

Perfect timing, right as Coronavirus is raging, and even the NY Times says that quarantines and restrictive measures are the best idea. Shutting down the border is a good idea.

Read: 9th Circuit Sorta Blocks Trump’s Remain In Mexico Policy »

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White Supremacy Has Gone Green Or Something

By William Teach February 28, 2020 – 4:10 pm

Funny, the Warmists didn’t complain when Osama Bin Laden was yammering about his worry about ‘climate change’. Or how Islamic extremist groups are trying to co-opt the Hotcoldwetdry movement. Or how extremist nations like Iran are pushing ‘climate change’. Nope, a tiny few “far right” extremist groups (who like government authoritarianism) are joining in

White Supremacy Goes Green

As an environmental journalist, I’ve been covering the frightening acceleration of climate change for more than a decade. As a person who believes in the tenets of liberal democracy, I’ve watched the rise of white-supremacist, anti-immigrant and nationalistic ideologies with similar dread over the past few years.

But I always thought of those two trends — looming ecological dangers and the gathering strength of the far right — as unrelated, parallel crises in a turbulent time. Only recently have I begun to understand that they are deeply interconnected, an ugly pairing of forces drawing power from each other.

From France to Washington to New Zealand, angry voices on the hard right — nationalists, populists and others beyond conventional conservatism — are picking up old environmental tropes and adapting them to a moment charged with fears for the future. In doing so, they are giving potent new framing to a set of issues more typically associated with the left. Often, they emphasize what they see as the deep ties between a nation’s land and its people to exclude those they believe do not belong. Some twist scientific terms such as “invasive species” — foreign plants or animals that spread unchecked in a new ecosystem — to target immigrants and racial and ethnic minorities. And here’s what really frightens me: This dynamic is likely to intensify as climate change creates new stresses that could pit nations and groups against one another.

Beth Gardner is able to offer up just two examples

The neo-Nazi group Northwest Front, which advocates expelling people of color from the Pacific Northwest, appropriated a flag designed by a left-wing activist, reframing it with the slogan “The sky is the blue, and the land is the green. The white is for the people in between.” In Slovakia, far-right activists invoking the centrality of forests to national identity accuse members of the Roma ethnic minority of damaging them with excessive firewood gathering, Balsa Lubarda, a Central European University doctoral candidate studying the radical right, told me.

But, of course, ‘climate change’ is not about ‘climate change’, it’s about every Statist goal

President Trump tapped into this rhetoric in December. Responding to a question about the climate during a visit to London, he added a point about pollution in the ocean. “Certain countries are dumping unlimited loads of things in it,” he said. “They tend to float toward the United States.” He did not specify particular countries, but the comment echoed plastic producers’ contention that much oceanic garbage comes from a handful of Asian nations that lack effective waste management. When I listened to Mr. Trump, I realized that what he said was freighted with something more than a corporate effort to pass the buck. He was casting plastic pollution as a threat that foreigners were visiting upon the United States.

Hmm, so, Trump talks about ocean pollution, and she has a problem with this, because it’s really about stopping illegal aliens.

Some radicals are drawn to apocalyptic climate scenarios, seeing openings for authoritarianism or a complete societal breakdown. “They want to accelerate it,” said Blair Taylor, program director at the Institute for Social Ecology, a left-wing educational center, who has studied such groups. “So after the downfall they can set up their fascist ethno-states, they can be the Übermensch.” Violent actors are grabbing hold of such ideas. The killers accused of massacring Muslims and Mexican immigrants last year in New Zealand and Texas posted online manifestoes weaving white supremacy with environmental rhetoric.

There are really too many hot-takes in this opinion piece, you really have to read it from start to finish. But, I thank her for the handy dandy graphic which I will use for years to come.

Read: White Supremacy Has Gone Green Or Something »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 33 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 28, 2020 – 1:00 pm

…is a wonderful climate friendly state taxing evil fossil fuels companies, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Legal Insurrection, with a post on the NEA pushing gender confusion education in schools.

Read: If All You See… »

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

Net Neutrality: LA Times Wants To Regulate Internet Like Any Other Utility

By William Teach February 28, 2020 – 11:09 am

It’s been two years since the FCC killed of the latest version of Net Neutrality, which was never about neutrality, but giving the federal government massive new powers over the Internet, Internet companies, and what you see on the Internet. We were all supposed to die from the ending of NN, but, we’re still here, right? Doom didn’t happen. Stateists won’t give up, though, on their big government ideas

Column: It’s time to regulate internet service like any other utility

Speculation has been growing in recent days that struggling satellite-TV provider Dish Network could merge with AT&T’s DirecTV satellite service.

Dish’s chairman, Charlie Ergen, fanned the flames last week when he told financial analysts a deal with rival DirecTV is “probably inevitable” as both services navigate an increasingly challenging competitive landscape.

I don’t know about inevitable, but I suspect the smart money is on Dish, which also owns Sling TV, climbing into bed with someone (if not DirecTV, maybe Amazon?).

My typical reaction to any news of possible market consolidation is that consumers could be about to get hosed. Less competition almost always means diminished service and higher prices.

Not necessarily.

Moreover, perhaps a bigger worry isn’t that cord-cutting is taking a toll on traditional pay-TV providers. It’s that telecom companies, seeing how the wind is blowing, are responding to the rise in streaming services by jacking up prices for broadband internet access.

If their costs go up because more bandwith is used, well, yeah. Are they supposed to take losses? The cost of the LA Times has gone up, right? Anyhow, David Lazarus yammers about that, then the Sirius and XM satellite radio merger, more on Dish, till finally

Which brings us to broadband.

Telecom companies will do everything possible to protect shareholder value. For the likes of AT&T, Comcast, Charter/Spectrum and others, that means offsetting losses in TV subscribers by increasing revenue from fast-growing internet-only customers.

Spectrum, the dominant cable company in Southern California, announced last fall that the cost of its standard internet service was rising by $4 a month to $69.99. If you use the company’s gear for Wi-Fi, your monthly cost rose by $5 to $75.99.

OK. Prices rise. Costs go up.

When it comes to internet access, though, we’re not talking about a luxury, such as subscribing to HBO. We’re talking about a necessity. (snip)

Service providers should have to justify rate increases just like other utilities. If higher prices are warranted by legitimate operating costs, so be it. (snip)

It also means consumers need to be protected from price gouging for something they can’t live without. Give state public utilities commissions the power to oversee internet pricing.

You know what’s pretty much a monopoly? Water, garbage, sewer, and energy. Do you have a choice in who you pick? Nope. Government controls that. Yes, price rises in Internet service are annoying. Would you want government regulating it? Because what comes next when they get their claws into pricing? Mission creep always happens.

And you know what’s happened since NN was done away with? Nothing.

Read: Net Neutrality: LA Times Wants To Regulate Internet Like Any Other Utility »

Posted in Barking Moonbats, Progressive Goals, Web/Tech | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

Climate Anxiety Has Created A New Dating Trend: Thunberging

By William Teach February 28, 2020 – 7:03 am

These people are totally serious, not crazy, and not part of a cult. So they say.

How climate change inspired a new dating trend: ‘Thunberging’

Climate change is having a pretty big effect on our lives right now.

From impacting our decisions about having a family (one in 10 young couples cited climate change as their reason for deciding against children), to our wardrobes and our wallets.

And now our dedication to protecting the environment is infiltrating the dating world by spawning a new trend – ‘Thunberging’.

According to OKCupid, who coined the term, ‘Thunberging’ is where daters bond over their shared passion for environmental issues.

Named after climate change activist Greta Thunberg, of course, Thunberging effectively refers to singletons connecting over their desire to make a difference environmentally. (snip)

“With climate change becoming a major talking point globally, we’re finding more and more people’s passion for the planet is becoming a steamy subject,” a spokesperson for OkCupid says.

“It’s no surprise to learn that young Gen Z and millennial daters care about climate change, but within the last year alone, these singletons are matching on the basis of this topic more than ever.”

The UK Guardian has created a whole dating profile in their article. Because it’s totally sane to name a dating phenomena after an underage girl who looks 12.

OK Cupid should charge anyone who is a climate cultist an extra fee for using their site, a climate dating tax. And require that any who go on a date pay a carbon offset fee, and prove that they didn’t travel in a fossil fueled vehicle and ate no meat. Anyhow, totally not a cult, right?

Read: Climate Anxiety Has Created A New Dating Trend: Thunberging »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 23 Comments | Trackback URL

NY Times: Say, Let’s Call It The Trumpvirus

By William Teach February 28, 2020 – 6:51 am

Remember, Democrats get very upset when Trump supporters say they are using the Coronavirus for their nefarious political purposes. They’re running article after articles, opinion piece after opinion piece, telling us how Doomed we are and that Orange Man Bad. Paul Krugman has a pretty hot take about when a pandemic meets a personality cult, and the Washington Post editorial board is whining about “mixed messages”, you know, as President Trump attempts to keep people from panicking. And don’t forget about all the pieces linking Coronavirus to ‘climate change.’ But, then, there’s Gail Collins

At least during the Bush 43 years most of the Credentialed Media attempted to hide their derangement syndrome most of the time. Unless you were Maureen Dowd. Gail has lost it

So, our Coronavirus Czar is going to be … Mike Pence. Feeling more secure?

“I know full well the importance of presidential leadership,” the vice president said as soon as he was introduced in his new role.

Totally qualified. First criteria for every job in this administration is capacity for praising the gloriousness of our commander in chief.

Yeah, when you think of Mike Pence you maybe don’t think about Pandemic Fighter Supreme. But as President Trump pointed out repeatedly, he has already run Indiana.

Well, it probably could have been worse. Having a czar does make you feel there’s somebody in charge. At least Trump didn’t come before the cameras and announce solemnly, “Today I’m asking every American to cross your fingers.”

There they go, making up stuff again.

Our president had to be going crazy over a problem that involves both declining stock prices and germs. This is the guy, after all, who thinks shaking hands is “barbaric,” who is followed around by aides bearing sanitizer. During his press conference he told the story of a fever-ridden supporter who gave him a hug. Do you think it was an apocryphal fantasy? Either way, the idea has been haunting him forever.

Um, people’s hands are pretty nasty. Just look at the conditions of their smartphones. Remember, people are using their smartphones while sitting on the john, and, maybe they wash their hands, but, they are not cleaning their phones.

(lots and lots of whining which is totally not political because the media is non-political, you know)

Azar just chuckled. Actually, people, this is probably not a theme we ought to be pursuing. Chances are, if the president is encouraged to mix the subjects of coronavirus and Mexico walls, he’ll suddenly announce that we need a barrier much bigger and thicker and more expensive, so it can stop the flow of immigrant germs.

Deranged.

Read: NY Times: Say, Let’s Call It The Trumpvirus »

Posted in Donald Trump, Unhinged Tools, Wonky Media | 8 Comments | Trackback URL
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