Mr. Rogers Is A Healing Presence In The Age Of Trump Or Something

By William Teach November 24, 2019 – 8:10 am

Is it really necessary to use the Mr. Rogers movie to get all unhinged over Donald Trump? In Liberal World it is

From the brilliant #Resistance minds at CNN, here’s Sara Stewart, which is based on the Jake Tapper video, available at the link, entitled “What would Mister Rogers make of today’s political climate?”

As a critic, I’m not much for anointing “must see” movies — they’re too expensive these days, and viewers’ tastes too varied — but “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is pretty darn close to a must-see.

With Tom Hanks’ portrayal of the radically empathetic children’s show host Fred Rogers, director Marielle Heller has given our turbulent country a challenge: To re-learn to see one another as neighbors, rather than opponents. (snip)

Unlike Rogers, I didn’t grow up here. I arrived four years ago, after a long stint in New York City, relocating to the small town of Indiana, Pennsylvania, where my husband teaches at the local university. We made good friends here. We hiked in the woods and kayaked in the lake. I slowly began to recognize more and more faces around town. I felt I had a community.

Then the 2016 campaign season happened.

Cultural clashes came screaming to the forefront of daily life. I started noting frequent sightings of Confederate flags on cars. MAGA hats began to proliferate in alarming numbers; our Hillary Clinton sign disappeared from our front yard. By the time election night was winding down, I was in tears, convinced I’d unwittingly moved into a truly foreign land — one that didn’t want my kind around.

Interesting that she didn’t mention all the insanity from the Hillary supporters, which was a hell of a lot unhinged than anything Trump supporters were doing.

And, of course, some illegal alien support and aspersion casting of Islamophobia from conservatives

Likewise, I think he’d be encouraged by a sign that’s been popping up in front of houses around town for a while now. It’s a small message, but a quietly hopeful one. The brightly-colored cardboard rectangle bears three versions of a single sentence, in English, Spanish and Arabic, that might have come straight from Rogers himself. “No matter where you are from,” it reads, “we’re glad you’re our neighbor.”

It’s certainly not as bad as some bits of Trump Derangement Syndrome, it’s one of those “read between the lines” bits of unhinged. Also, can’t they just leave movies and such alone, instead of assigning political motives and attempting to suck all the fun out of them?

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Posted in Film, Unhinged Tools | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

Surprise: Kid Used Ghost Gun In California Shooting

By William Teach November 23, 2019 – 4:08 pm

Well, this is a hell of a thing. Guess we should take away all the legally acquired firearms purchased by law abiding citizens from lawfully licensed firearms dealers who put the buyer through a background check, eh?

Teen in California high school shooting rampage used ‘ghost gun’ made from parts

A 16-year-old boy who opened fire at his Southern California high school, killing two classmates and wounding three others before shooting himself in the head, used a “ghost gun” built from parts, the local sheriff said on Thursday.

Nathaniel Tennosuke Berhow pulled the .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol from his backpack on Nov. 14, his birthday, and shot students at Saugus High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita seemingly at random before turning the gun on himself. He died of his wounds the next day.

“When we did a search of the house, we encountered what’s called a kit gun. The weapon used in the homicide was also a kit gun,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told local KABC-TV in an interview.

“It was assembled from parts, had no serial number. So it becomes what’s known as a ‘ghost gun,'” Villanueva said.

Berhow was in violation of California law

As ghost guns proliferate across the state, lawmakers and police are scrambling to understand the scale of the problem, let alone remedy it. In 2016, the California Legislature passed a law requiring residents to register homemade weapons with law enforcement. A separate requirement outlawed the possession of unregistered ghost guns.

To have a “ghost gun” one must be eligible to own a firearm in the first place per California law. A 16 year old is not eligible. It must have a serial number. And it must meet certain other criteria. Oh, and a 16 year old isn’t lawfully eligible to have a handgun. Weird how some people do not follow the law.

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If All You See…

By William Teach November 23, 2019 – 1:00 pm

…is horrible, evil, terrible, terrifying snow from too much carbon pollution heat, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is A View From The Beach, with a post on Governor Blackface making a good proposal.

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Some Companies Boycott Black Friday Due To ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach November 23, 2019 – 12:36 pm

Boycotting Black Friday should be a good thing. Companies need to reign themselves in and stop with the opening super early, as well as stop opening on Thanksgiving. But, hey, they wouldn’t do it if some people wanted to shop and buy. It seriously inconveniences employees, though. But, to close for Hotcoldwetdry? Silly

Why Some Brands Are Leading A Black Friday Boycott

Beauty company Deciem is calling for “a moment of nothingness” this Black Friday.

The company, which owns cult cosmetic brand The Ordinary, will close all its stores and take down its website for the whole day on Nov. 29. The aim, according to the company, is to push back against our relentless buying of stuff.

“Hyper-consumerism poses one of the biggest threats to the planet,” reads Deciem’s Instagram statement, “and flash sales can often lead to rushed purchasing decisions, driven by the fear of a sell-out. We no longer feel that Black Friday is an earth or consumer-friendly event.” Employees will still get paid for the day, a Deciem spokeswoman confirmed.

Now, you could say that this sounds like environmental mumbo jumbo, and, let’s face it, some consumerism is bad for the environment. But, this is all code word, it’s duckspeak.

Companies actively sabotaging themselves on one of the biggest consumer days of the year may seem unusual, but Deciem is not unique. For the past five years, outdoor retailer REI has closed its stores on Black Friday, urging its 14,000 staff — who also still get paid — to spend the day outside.

Meanwhile, in France, a collective of 200 brands, organized under the banner “Make Friday Green Again,” has agreed to avoid any discounts on the day and instead donate 10% of their sales to nonprofits. “The aim is to denounce Black Friday and what’s behind it. It’s to educate consumers about a better consumption,” said Diane Scemama, the co-founder of ethical marketplace DreamAct, one of the brands taking part.

These moves fit with a trend of companies looking to take a stand on social and environmental issues: telling us to slow us down, to think carefully about our consumption, to consider whether we really need the things we buy, and in REI’s case, to prioritize time with family and in nature. And what better time to do it than Black Friday?

I’m happy to think about things to buy, I can avoid these companies. They do have a point about spending time with family. So give them kudos for that.

But when it comes to messages around environmental impact, it gets knottier. Companies can appear to deliver messages of responsible consumption, while at the same time tempting us to buy more.

REI’s anti-Black Friday marketing embraces messages around consumption and climate change. This year, it launched a campaign called “Opt to Act,” encouraging employees and customers to take simple actions to reduce their environmental impact. Deciem co-founder and CEO Nicola Kilner, meanwhile, speaks of needing “to feel comfortable in knowing that we considered the bigger impact of our actions.”

Yet, neither of these companies has ditched deals altogether. Deciem is offering a 23% discount for the whole month (apart from during the blackout). Meanwhile, REI is offering up to 30% off between Nov. 15 and 25. Both defend their sales as providing value to their customers without pushing them into rushed purchasing decisions.

Oops.

But, hey, perhaps we could back down on the consumerism, buying things simply because they are a deal, things we do not need.

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

Say, What’s The Truth About Airplane Carbon Offsetting?

By William Teach November 23, 2019 – 7:20 am

Well, it’s that Warmists are utter hypocrites, though CNN forgets to mention this

Dirty planet but a clean conscience? The truth about airplane carbon offsetting

In aviation, it would seem, claiming you’re going green is becoming as important as competing on fares.

When European budget airline easyJet released its annual results this week, they paired the report with an announcement that from November 19, it would become the world’s first airline operating net-zero carbon flights. It would achieve this, it announced, by carbon offsetting all its flights.

The airline plans to do this with “forestry, renewable and community based projects.” It has also signed an agreement with Airbus to research the possibilities of hybrid-electric aircraft.

EasyJet is the third airline to announce a carbon offset scheme this month alone. It joins Qantas, which has pledged to go net-zero on carbon emissions by 2050, and British Airways, which will carbon offset all its UK domestic flights from 2020. BA’s parent company IAG has also pledged to go net-zero on carbon emissions by 2050.

But, see, there’s a problem with this, along with all the celebrities paying for carbon offsets for their own climahypocrisy

But environmental campaigners and travel experts say that there’s just one problem: carbon offsetting doesn’t work in the way proponents say it does.

Mike Childs, head of science, policy and research at environmental campaigning organization Friends of the Earth, calls carbon offsetting in the aviation industry “a giant con.”

A 2017 report for the European Commission looking at carbon offsetting found that 85% of offset programs for the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism failed to deliver “real, measurable and additional” emission reductions, and noted that some projects would have happened anyway.

Oops? Seriously, we’ve known this is a big scam for at least 15 years, one which just enriches people, like Al Gore, who propagate/take advantage of this whole scam. Anyhow, what can you do?

Responsible Travel is pushing for a “green flying duty” to be added onto flight ticket costs in the UK. While the UK government charges Air Passenger Duty (APD) on all tickets — currently £13 ($17) for a short-haul fare and £78 ($100) for long-haul — that money goes into general government coffers.

Pay a tax! Surprise! And

Gregory Miller, executive director at the US-based Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) says that you should follow the “NERD” guidelines from the International Council on Clean Transportation: fly younger aircraft, in economy class, on a regular-sized aircraft (medium-sized jets tend to be more fuel efficient) and direct.

Well, good luck figuring all that out. Me, I’m flying the plane on the airline that’s going where I need to go at the time I need, and won’t worry about the other stuff. If Warmists are so concerned, they should perhaps stop flying altogether. And this article was in the Travel section of CNN, which is all about traveling, much of which requires fossil fueled air travel.

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Posted in Carbon Credits, Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

We Need Net Neutrality Why? Internet Is Used As Tool Of Oppression In Iran, Other Nations

By William Teach November 23, 2019 – 7:09 am

It’s a really, really good idea to turn the Internet here in the U.S. into a public utility with massive federal (and some states are trying to pass their own) control via Net Neutrality, right? Also, somehow Trump is being blamed

‘Tool of repression’: Iran and regimes from Ethiopia to Venezuela limit Internet, go dark online

Nearly a week after Iran imposed a near-total Internet and mobile data blackout amid protests over a rise in gas prices, its connectivity to the rest of the world remains limited and reflects what researchers and activists claim, disputed by Iran, is a “tool of repression” used by regimes from Ethiopia to Venezuela.

But the shutdown in Iran, which began Nov. 17 and remains below 20% of normal levels, according to NetBlocks, a firm that tracks cybersecurity, has not only allowed officials in Tehran to exert control over information about the unrest.

It has also cut off Iranians from their friends and family abroad, seemingly strengthened the Trump administration’s perception that its “maximum pressure” policy on Iran is working after Washington exited the nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions, and further obscured what’s happening and who’s to blame in a Middle Eastern nation whose political and economic isolation has fluctuated in the four decades since its 1979 revolution that ushered in its Islamic Republic.

How does Trump have anything to do with this?

Marcin de Kaminski, a technology and human rights expert at Civil Rights Defenders, a Sweden-based civil rights watchdog, said that Internet blackouts are part of a growing trend of governments trying to shut their citizens off from the world during fraught periods. “They use it to limit freedom of expression or freedom of assembly and quite often it’s connected to elections or conflict or to different forms of civil unrest. This is happening in many different contexts from Uganda to Burma (also known as Myanmar),” he said.

Ethiopia has been intermittently shutting down Internet access since a failed coup in June. Venezuela periodically blocks access to Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and other services that require Internet or mobile data access as part of an effort to stymie political opposition and prevent the efficacy of mass protests. India shut off Kashmir’s Internet access more than three months ago amid political upheaval.

Oh, see, more Blame Trump

The protests in Iran accelerated after gas prices were increased by 50% at a time when the sanctions reinstated by President Donald Trump have contributed to soaring inflation and stagnating salaries. The World Bank forecasts Iran’s economy will shrink by 8.7% this year, a consequence of plummeting revenues from blocked oil exports and restrictions on its petrochemicals, metals and mining sectors. Some consumer goods and essential medicines can be hard to get.

So, let’s see: Trump reimposes sanctions on Iran (do we really need to discuss how bad Iran is?), contributing to a horrific economy which is centrally run by a repressive, authoritarian government (isn’t that the way sanctions work?), people protest, the brutal, authoritarian government cracks down more and shuts off a goodly chunk of the Internet, so, Trump is at fault. In fact, Trump is mentioned many times in this article about Iran, their protests, and the Internet. TDS.

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Surprise: Americans Are Paying More For Healthcare Premiums And Deductibles

By William Teach November 22, 2019 – 3:30 pm

ABC News seems unsure just why

It’s a total mystery, but, I bet it still has to be Trump’s fault

(ABC News) According to a new report by The Commonwealth Fund, rising premium and deductibles contributions have outstripped wage growth over the past decade. More and more middle-class Americans are paying a greater percentage of earnings for health care.

The report analyzed survey data from 40,000 private-sector employers, as well as income data from the Census Bureau.

Median household income in the United States between 2008 and 2018 grew 1.9% per year on average, rising from $53,000 to $64,202.

But middle-class employees’ premium and deductible contributions rose much faster — nearly 6% per year over that same decade.

In 2008, middle-class workers spent about 7.8% of household income on premiums and deductibles. By 2018, that figure had climbed to 11.5%.

Strange. The phrases “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” and “Obamacare” do not appear anywhere, nor are they even alluded to.

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Posted in Healthcare, Wonky Media | 23 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 22, 2019 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible fossil fueled vehicle causing it to get so hot that it snows, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Weasel Zippers, with a post on another poll finding impeachment theater is backfiring.

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Coldplay Postpones Tour Due To ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach November 22, 2019 – 11:57 am

Well, it’s nice to see them finally walking the talk, you know, after releasing their first album in 1998 and touring all over the world ever since

Coldplay Postpones Tour for Environmental Concerns: ‘We’d Be Disappointed If It’s Not Carbon Neutral’

After touching down on five different continents playing shows in recent years, British rockers Coldplay announced they will not schedule a tour for their new album because doing so would be harmful to the environment.

The Grammy-winning band made the announcement after flying to Jordon to perform two shows based on their new album, Everyday Life.

Jordan, you say? They’re also scheduled to play in London on November 25th

“We’re not touring this album. We’re taking time to see how our tour can be actively beneficial,” 42-year-old front man Chris Martin told the BBC.

“All of us have to work out the best way of doing our job,” Martin added, adding that the band wants future tours to “have a positive impact.”

“Our next tour will be the best possible version of a tour like that environmentally,” Martin exclaimed. “We would be disappointed if it’s not carbon neutral.”

Martin added that the band has set a goal to “have a show with no single use plastic” and to be solar powered.

The band leader also touted the track, “Orphans,” that he says was inspired by refugees who are “really just young people wanting to get on with their lives.” The band also released a pro-immigration lyric video for the song “Miracles (Someone Special),” which included “Resistance” images popularized by activists protesting President Donald Trump.

So, they’re pretty much pandering to unhinged nuts all around. Good luck powering a concert with solar. Of course, does anyone believe this will all happen? They’ll be out touring next year same as usual. They’re just climavirtue signaling.

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Bonnie Prince Charles Warns We Only Have 10 Years Left To Solve ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach November 22, 2019 – 7:08 am

Whatever happened to the whole 12 years left thing, which would mean we are still 11 years off? But, hey, we’re at yet another tipping point

Prince Charles talks about climate change, says humans only have 10 yrs to ‘change the course’

CHRISTCHURCH: Prince Charles warned Friday that time is running out to address the impact of climate change as he prepares to visit one of the Pacific island nations most-affected by global warming.

As he wrapped up a six-day trip to New Zealand ahead of three days in the Solomon Islands, Charles said the need for climate action was urgent.

“We have reached a tipping point and we still have the ability to change course, but only 10 years,” said the first in line to the British throne, who has been a passionate environmentalist for decades.

He said climate change was a scientific fact, rejecting suggestions from sceptics that “scaremongering” was dominating the debate.

“We have abused nature, exploited her and given her nothing back in return,” he told an audience at Christchurch’s Lincoln University.

“Nothing is sacred anymore, we are reaping a loss of biodiversity and experiencing the impacts of climate changes. We urgently need to pay the mounting debt.”

If it’s such a fact, referring to the anthropogenic part, then why did he take a long fossil fueled trip from Great Britain to New Zealand? Does anyone think he flew commercial? And how is he traveling around New Zealand?

He and wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will have the chance to see the impact of climate change at close quarters when they make their first visit to the Solomon Islands on Saturday.

New Zealand is essentially south of Australia. The Solomon Islands are essentially north of Australia. So, looks like Charles, his wife, and their whole entorage will be taking a long fossil fueled plane trip there, as well. And climate cultists wonder why they are accused of being hypocrites? They have massive carbon footprints, refuse to reign them in, yet are out there scaremongering, always demanding government policies that are on Other People.

Oh, and when will they start trotting out 5 years left? I’ll give it till next summer.

Read: Bonnie Prince Charles Warns We Only Have 10 Years Left To Solve ‘Climate Change’ »

Posted in Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 51 Comments | Trackback URL
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