If All You See…

…is an area drying out due to Someone Else driving a fossil fueled vehicle, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Right Scoop, with a post on the cost of the Mueller investigation.

Second photo below the fold, so, check out Victory Girls Blog, with a post saying that you should care about Miley Cyrus getting divorced.

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Read: If All You See… »

Hotcold Take: Climate Action Is More Important Than Reducing Poverty

Those darned poor people are getting in the way, you know

Greening your life is all very well – but only a global climate strategy will fix this

Judging by the latest opinion polls, the public is ripe for some green austerity. Ipsos Mori says that 85% of Britons are concerned about climate change, with 52% admitting they are very concerned. These are the highest figures since the pollster started tracking opinion in 2005. Given the spate of extreme weather-related events, and the pictures of the torching of the Amazon rainforest, such concern is both logical and predictable. In this country, the climate deniers have been put to flight.

What the polls don’t show is whether the public is willing to translate this concern into action; whether similar levels of concern are present in less prosperous parts of the world; and whether it is possible to translate individual concerns into collective political action. Here, the message is a lot more mixed. The furore over the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s private jetsare a case in point. People don’t like being lectured to, particularly when those doing the lecturing fail to live by their own ethical code.

Emmanuel Macron wants the future of the Amazon rainforest to be top of the agenda at the meeting of the G7 he is hosting this weekend in Biarritz, but this is an empty gesture. There is not the remotest possibility of the G7 doing anything to rein in the activities of Brazil’s rightwing president, Jair Bolsonaro. Indeed, Macron’s own experience shows how hard it is to translate a desire to curb carbon emissions into practical action. The French president said making driving more expensive was a price worth paying in the fight against global heating but faced nationwide protests from the yellow vest movement. For the gilets jaunes, the immediate threat to their livelihoods mattered more than the long-term threat posed by the climate crisis.

For most of those “concerned”, it is theoretical. In practice, they do not want their own lives messed up.

Despite receiving a bloody nose, Macron is right when he says the climate crisis is a global problem requiring a global response. But securing international agreement is not going to be easy, in the main because the biggest increases in emissions are coming from countries where governments put a higher priority on poverty reduction than they do on safeguarding the environment.

I guess we should just let them all die, right? Seriously, how dare these government care about poor people!

Read: Hotcold Take: Climate Action Is More Important Than Reducing Poverty »

Comrade Bernie Takes Long Fossil Fueled Trip To Pimp His $16 Trillion Climate Plan

As I noted, a chunk of Comrade Bernie’s climate plan is dedicated to getting rid of fossil fuels, and doing it quickly. It would force you to give up your fossil fueled vehicle and essentially stop aviation. You could take a train or a bus, as long as they don’t use fossil fuels. But, that is only for The Little People

Sanders touts $16 trillion climate plan in fire-ravaged town

PARADISE, Calif. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders released a $16.3 trillion climate plan on Thursday before touring a Northern California town ravaged by wildfire, declaring the setting a “wake-up call for our entire nation” to the dangers of a warming planet.

“Climate change is a major, major crisis for our country, and the entire world, and one of the manifestations of that crisis is what happened here,” the Vermont senator said as he walked through a burned-out mobile home park in Paradise alongside people who lost their homes in last November’s deadly blaze.

Sanders’ climate plan calls for the United States to move to renewable energy across the economy by 2050 and declare climate change a national emergency.

So, how did Comrade Bernie travel to California, and then Paradise?

In California, scientists and policymakers have named climate change as a major contributor to the state’s worsening wildfires, which have killed more than 100 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes in recent years. Investigators determined faulty utility equipment owned by Pacific Gas & Electric sparked the fire that ravaged Paradise. Sanders said his plan would provide billions to help states and local governments better respond to disaster and strengthen firefighting resources.

That’s right, the fire wasn’t caused by climate change, natural or man-caused. It was due to faulty equipment. Nor was it made worse by ‘climate change’. Comrade Bernie forgot to mention that part.

An audience member at the town hall asked Sanders how he would practice what he preaches when it comes to fossil fuel consumption. Sanders pointed to solar panels he’s installed on his Vermont home but admitted that refusing to fly on planes powered by fossil fuels wasn’t realistic for his presidential campaign.

“I’m not going to walk to California,” he said. “We do the best we can … but I’m not going to sit here and tell you that we’re not going to use fossil fuels.”

Um, that’s exactly what his plan says. Did he read it? But, of course, he’s one of the bourgeoisie, the elites, who do not have to worry about their own laws applying to themselves.

“It is expensive,” Sanders said at a climate-focused town hall near Paradise. “But the cost of doing nothing is far more expensive.”

Read: Comrade Bernie Takes Long Fossil Fueled Trip To Pimp His $16 Trillion Climate Plan »

Pelosi Tries To Tamp Down Democrats Excitement For Impeachment

President Trump has all but dared Democrats to attempt impeachment, because he knows it is a loser issue for Democrats. He’d come out smelling like a rose, while Democrats would be hurt. Nancy Pelosi knows this, so she’s been attempting to mitigate the enthusiasm by elected Democrats to make it happen

Pelosi asks Democrats for ‘leverage’ on impeachment

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday suggested that House Democrats should refrain from pushing for President Trump’s impeachment, warning that a premature effort to oust the president could undermine her case for doing so down the road.

“The public isn’t there on impeachment. It’s your voice and constituency, but give me the leverage I need to make sure that we’re ready and it is as strong as it can be,” Pelosi told Democrats during a caucus-wide conference call on Friday afternoon, according to a source on the call.

Pelosi made the comments in response to Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), who shared how people in her district wanted to talk about impeachment.

While advocating for a cautious approach, Pelosi didn’t rule out the possibility of impeachment. The Democratic leader has faced continued pressure on the issue as the number of Democrats who have come out in support for impeachment in some form has swelled to at least 130.

“The equities we have to weigh are our responsibility to protect and defend the Constitution and to be unifying and not dividing. But if and when we act, people will know he gave us no choice. If he cannot respect the Constitution, we’ll have to deal with that. It’s about patriotism, not partisanship,” Pelosi said Friday.

Ah, but it is about partisanship, known colloquially as Trump Derangement Syndrome. And she hit the point that the public isn’t interested in playing this impeachment game. Realistically, if they don’t have evidence now, they will not be getting it in the future. They can continue on this Don Quixote journey, but, it won’t end well, and she knows it. She’s having to act like a mom to squabbling teens, tamping down expectations without hurting their feelings. Ones who aren’t listening. You almost feel sorry for Pelosi, considering all the wackos, Jew haters, and complete nutjobs who’ve been elected to the Democratic Party, but, then, you realize she and her ilk have enabled this over the years.

Especially when she does this

Great slogan: “Throw a punch for the children.”

Read: Pelosi Tries To Tamp Down Democrats Excitement For Impeachment »

Good News: We Can Have Eco-Grief Without Saying ‘Climate Change’

We can also say bat-guano insane without saying “you’re just 5 beers short of a 6 pack”

Grieving for the environment, without saying ‘climate change’

Agnieszka Wolska, a therapist in Calgary, joined an “Eco-Grief Support Circle” that meets twice a month after losing faith, she says, that nature could rebalance itself. She compares the circles to being at a wake, but it’s also where she finds hope. “Together we have less individual despair. We can just have connection instead of fear or just sadness,” she says.

Academics have begun to attach neologisms to feelings like Ms. Wolska’s: “solastalgia,” coined by an Australian philosopher in 2005, describes a form of distress caused by environmental change, or “ecological grief.” Those feelings of loss surrounding a place are becoming increasingly common, as wilder weather patterns and natural disasters are, many scientists say, becoming more commonplace. (snip)

“I remember after the flood thinking, nothing is the same anymore,” she says over coffee in her farmhouse on a recent day. “All my favorite places are destroyed.”

That refrain is becoming increasingly common, as weather patterns and natural disasters are becoming more intense. Academics have even begun to attach neologisms to the feelings: “solastalgia,” coined by an Australian philosopher in 2005, describes a form of distress caused by environmental change, or “ecological grief.”

Call it what you want, it’s still crazy. The climate is always changing, weather will always happen. Did you know that they found elephant bones on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea? That’s because it was mostly dried up during the last glacial period. It couldn’t sustain itself without the Atlantic Ocean, which was too low from being locked in ice. The Sahara was once not a desert (and is trending back that way now).

“There are many people who might deny climate change, for example, but still have really fundamentally strong relationships to their land and to nature, and that’s something we need to tap into,” says Katie Hayes, who is working on her doctorate at the University of Toronto on the psychological and social consequences of climate change, using the 2013 Alberta floods as a case study. “People can have anxiety about what’s happening to them and maybe not see that climate change is a problem that is exacerbating that ecological degradation.”

I believe the climate has and is changing. The fact that it is mostly from natural causation isn’t making me nuts.

Amy Spark trained as an environmental scientist and co-founded the Calgary-based Refugia Retreats in 2016. They run workshops focused on the intersection between ecological change and mental health. Sometimes those meetings take the form of informational sessions at universities or community centers, where she and her colleague provide an overview of the growing body of research on ecological grief. Sometimes they are spiritual retreats that help participants process their feelings about the loss of cherished spaces – a destroyed landscape or even a single tree.

The anxiety they see is often not about the changes in the present but fears about what is coming or doubts that individual action – say, eschewing plastics – will make a difference. Much distress comes from disorientation – a sense that rhythms of the seasons aren’t reliable, that birds are chirping at unfamiliar times of year, or that wildfire smoke is coming earlier.

Read: Good News: We Can Have Eco-Grief Without Saying ‘Climate Change’ »

If All You See…

…are hills with dying trees from carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Other McCain, with a post on Democrats embracing a pro-terrorist group that recycled blood libel against Jews.

Read: If All You See… »

Hot New Idea: Shadow Zones In Classrooms To Protect From Mass Shooters

What’s the cost differential between building these shadow zones and the teacher having a firearm and proper training?

Classrooms in this new school will have a ‘shadow zone’ so a gunman cannot see cowering students

Engineers in World War I dug through the earth to build serpentine trenches borne from horrifically clear logic.

If enemy soldiers ever breached it, the zigzagging pattern would prevent them from shooting in a straight line down the length of the trench — leaving only a relative few exposed to gunfire or shrapnel.

That concept has been reinvigorated a century later, in a sense, for a western Michigan high school, to dampen the killing potential of a mass shooter.

A $48 million major construction project at Fruitport High School will add curved hallways to reduce a gunman’s range, jutting barriers to provide cover and egress, and meticulously spaced classrooms that can lock on demand and hide students in the corner, out of a killer’s sight.

“If I go to FPH and I want to be an active shooter, I’m going in knowing I have reduced sightlines,” Fruitport Superintendent Bob Szymoniak told The Washington Post about the curved hallways. “It has reduced his ability to do harm.”

Yes, a mass shooter is worried about that, considering it would also be a gun free zone with little chance of anyone offering opposition. For, what, $5000 or so they could arm multiple teachers along with proper training and range time, right?

The construction in Michigan is also part of a grim reality of schools methodically preparing for massacres as if they were lesson plans and quizzes.

Jefferson County schools in Colorado have given teachers buckets and cat litter to have on hand in case children need to relieve themselves during a prolonged active-shooter lockdown. Sharpies are supplied for writing the time in which tourniquets were applied, and candy helps diabetic children with low blood sugar hiding in darkness.

Or, a teacher could shoot the shooter. Whatever floats your boat.

Classrooms will be built with a “shadow zone” where a gunman peeking in could not see students cowering along a side wall, said Matt Slagle, an architect for the project and director of K-12 projects at the TowerPinkster design firm.

Or, a properly trained school employee could pull out an easy to use “assault rifle” and shoot the perpetrator. Hell, even a shotgun loaded with beanbags could be used to knock the person senseless.

Read: Hot New Idea: Shadow Zones In Classrooms To Protect From Mass Shooters »

Private Jet Travel Is Greener Than You Think Or Something

As Yechezkel Moskowitz notes, “This is totally bonkers – the leftist propogandists will rationalize anything to defend their own.” The Cult of Climastrology will do everything they can, because this is about politics, not science. Here’s Excitable Doug Gollan

Private Jet Travel Is Greener Than You Think

Much like before and after the World Economic Forum, it was hard to avoid blaring headlines in recent weeks calling out the alleged hypocrisy of billionaires, CEOs, celebrities and environmentalists. As you may recall, they descended on Sicily in their private jets for the seventh annual “summer camp” hosted by Google, this year with a focus on sustainability.  Then as I was writing this, OMG, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were spotted using a private jet. That was several days ago and the controversy is still going strong.

Private jets are of course a popular lightning rod, easily and often used as a metaphor for excess, waste, greed, mismanagement and even criminality, which is not to say there aren’t folks flying on them who haven’t done something for which they should deservedly be taken to the woodshed. When somebody who is concerned about our planet’s future is found to be flying privately, it’s often a take no prisoners approach. Just ask the young Royals (see below). (snip)

But back the point about what I want to discuss: When it comes to the conversation about global warming, private jets are an important part of the solution.

In terms of limiting planetary damage, in some cases, more private jet travelers in place of mass tourism might even be beneficial, not only to the local economies that rely on visitors, but for the environment.

Back in 2007, I co-authored a book titled, “The Sky’s the Limit: Marketing Luxury to the New Jet Set.” At the time I was president and editor-in-chief of a magazine distributed on private jets, so we needed data that would be helpful in selling ads, although understanding the reasons rich people buy stuff ended up being a fascinating exercise, something that’s still widely misunderstood.

What he’s determined is that all these Rich Warmists bring a lot of money to the places they visit, on average $85,000 per visit, which is an Excuse for being a climahypocrite. So

Irresponsibly trying to deter air travel via flight shaming is a threat to the global economy. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the industry is responsible for 10% of all jobs around the world and some $8.8 trillion in contributions to local economies far and wide. In places that rely heavily on visitors, as much as half of all jobs are tied to tourism.

Flight shaming. Good grief.

With a spend of $85,000, it would mean those often ridiculed private fliers would have brought 250% more revenue to the local economy while emitting less than one-tenth the CO2 of a full passenger jet.

Yes, but the private jet tends to be carrying just a few people, while a full passenger jet can carry 150 or more easily. And this avoids the central proposition that these uber-Warmists are taking fossil fueled flights in the first place. He continues attempting to defend this climahypocrisy, ending with

Villanizing private aviation and those who use it does nothing to solve the global warming, and in fact, ignores the benefits users bring to the places they visit, and the impact on those who benefit economically.

No one is saying that they do not bring economic benefit. They’re noting the hypocrisy. And it is hypocrisy. Period.

That’s right, Barack and Michelle just bought a home on an island, Martha’s Vineyard. Guess the existential crisis isn’t.

Read: Private Jet Travel Is Greener Than You Think Or Something »

Chickens Roosting: Protesters Invade Pelosi Award Ceremony, Demand Impeachment

When you enable Crazy from the top down, don’t be surprised when Crazy comes back to bite you. And Democrats have enabled a whole lot of Crazy this century

Protesters Demanding Impeachment Crash Nancy Pelosi Award Ceremony in San Francisco

Progressive activists crashed an award ceremony honoring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) at a San Francisco hotel on Wednesday night, demanding she support the introduction of articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

Armed with signs that read “We can’t wait,” demonstrators stood on chairs while shouting, “Which side are you on, Pelosi? Impeach!” inside the InterContinental hotel, where the San Francisco Democrat Party members honored the longtime California lawmaker with a lifetime achievement award.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

“Impeach Trump now!” shouted activists, who initially had been quietly seated in the audience. One woman, Thais Marques, screamed into the packed room that her “people are being killed by white supremacists” across the country. She demanded action from Pelosi. Another activist said, “We are your constituents.”

Pelosi supporters tried to drown out the activists, chanting, “Let her speak” and waving signs of Pelosi’s face superimposed onto Rosie the Riveter’s likeness. Others opted to say “hush” in deep, hoarse voices, while others screamed, “Sit down!”

Pelosi continued with her remarks and quipped that the energy in the ballroom was “making me feel right at home,” a remark that was met with raucous cheers from the crowd.

While San Francisco police officers and security hauled the far-left activists out of the venue, it is unclear if any were taken into custody. Not only were protesters causing trouble inside the hotel, but outside of it as well.

That’s right, there were barking moonbats outside of the hotel on megaphones yammering their yammerings, leaving big moonbat droppings everywhere

Despite 125 House Democrats publically supporting impeachment, Pelosi has remained firmly opposed to the move, instead urging committee investigators to continue their obstruction and corruption investigations into President Trump.

“We will proceed when we have what we need to proceed — not one day sooner,” Pelosi told reporters when pressed about her position on ousting the president in July.

No matter what you might say about Pelosi, she’s not an idiot. She understands that the impeachment push hurts Democrats and helps Trump. Hot Air’s Allahpundit, not exactly a Trump supporter, notes

A brutal poll through and through for impeachment fanatics, and therefore a good one for Pelosi. There are now 130 House Democrats in favor of impeaching Trump, the most notable of which is Ben Ray Lujan, the fourth-ranking Democrat. Every time someone in the caucus speaks up to declare his or her support, a new frisson of suspense shoots through the media: Might there be a dam break?

Another question is whether it is a good idea to have impeachment investigations. 37% says good idea, 56% say bad idea. And if he is impeached by the House, knowing that the Senate has about a 99% chance of not removing him, 31% say it will help him, 36% say no change, and just 23% say it will hurt him.

(For those unaware, the graphic has Pelosi with two Surrender Monkeys, something that hearkens back to before Obama)

Read: Chickens Roosting: Protesters Invade Pelosi Award Ceremony, Demand Impeachment »

Comrade Bernie Releases His Own Green New Disaster

It’s a doozy

This thing is big and crazy, and it’s hard to know where to end as there’s so much Cult of Climastrology crazy. On the bright side, it doesn’t include the notion of “bringing climate deniers to justice”, as his plan did in 2016, which meant to prosecute Wrongthink. Though, it does mention “justice” 20 times. Here’s a bit of the overview

  • Reaching 100 percent renewable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and complete decarbonization by at least 2050 – consistent with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change goals – by expanding the existing federal Power Marketing Administrations to build new solar, wind, and geothermal energy sources. (his plan does, in fact, look to get rid of all use of fossil fuels by 2030, when you read deeper. Nutso level 1)
  • Ending unemployment by creating 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis. These jobs will be good paying, union jobs with strong benefits and safety standards in steel and auto manufacturing, construction, energy efficiency retrofitting, coding and server farms, and renewable power plants. We will also create millions of jobs in sustainable agriculture, engineering, a reimagined and expanded Civilian Conservation Corp, and preserving our public lands. (Ending unemployment. Will people be forced to work, Comrade? And there’s no need for automotive manufacturing, because fossil fuels are banned)
  • Directly invest an historic $16.3 trillion public investment toward these efforts, in line with the mobilization of resources made during the New Deal and WWII, but with an explicit choice to include black, indigenous and other minority communities who were systematically excluded in the past. (yes, he wrote $16.3 trillion. He thinks the money will come from all sorts of sources, like suing fossil fuels companies, The Rich, Wall Street, etc, never realizing that the citizens will be completely boned)
  • Justice for frontline communities – especially under-resourced groups, communities of color, Native Americans, people with disabilities, children and the elderly – to recover from, and prepare for, the climate impacts, including through a $40 billion Climate Justice Resiliency Fund. And providing those frontline and fenceline communities a just transition including real jobs, resilient infrastructure, economic development. (you get a justice and you get a justice and everyone gets a justice!)
  • Expanding the climate justice movement. We will do this by coming together in a truly inclusive movement that prioritizes young people, workers, indigenous peoples, communities of color, and other historically marginalized groups to take on the fossil fuel industry and other polluters to push this over the finish line and lead the globe in solving the climate crisis. (see?)

How to pay for it?

This plan will pay for itself over 15 years. Experts have scored the plan and its economic effects. We will pay for the massive investment we need to reverse the climate crisis by:

  • Making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies.
  • Generating revenue from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Authorities. Revenues will be collected from 2023-2035, and after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs.
  • Scaling back military spending on maintaining global oil dependence.
  • Collecting new income tax revenue from the 20 million new jobs created by the plan.
  • Reduced need for federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.
  • Making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.

Shared poverty.

We will end greed in our energy system. The renewable energy generated by the Green New Deal will be publicly owned, managed by the Federal Power Marketing Administrations, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Tennessee Valley Authority and sold to distribution utilities with a preference for public power districts, municipally- and cooperatively-owned utilities with democratic, public ownership, and other existing utilities that demonstrate a commitment to the public interest. The Department of Energy will provide technical assistance to states and municipalities that would like to establish publicly owned distribution utilities or community choice aggregation programs in their communities. Electricity will be sold at current rates to keep the cost of electricity stable during this transition.

So, the Government will own the power? All of it? Da, Comrade. He also wants a smart grid, which is code for “government having the ability to turn your power off when they need to.”

Phase out the use of non-sustainable sources. This plan will stop the building of new nuclear power plants and find a real solution to our existing nuclear waste problem. It will also enact a moratorium on nuclear power plant license renewals in the United States to protect surrounding communities.

Nuclear is actually pushed by many leading climate cultists, because it is effectively carbon neutral, and provides immense power for the size. I guess we’ll all be powering our homes with unicorn farts.

And there I will stop, otherwise this will become gigantic, because it continues on and on and on. It’s a lot of money, and it’s a lot of Central Government growth, not too mention control of citizens, businesses, the agricultural and energy sectors, essentially limiting movement of citizens, and causing their cost of living to not only skyrocket, but degrade.

Read: Comrade Bernie Releases His Own Green New Disaster »

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