More Chicago Schools Freaking Over Circle Game Photos

By William Teach May 31, 2019 – 4:20 pm

I mentioned a different Chicago school the other day. It’s almost like the kids are, get this, playing a game, not virulent white supremacists

‘Circle game’ gestures found in Oak Park middle schools’ yearbook photos

Oak Park District 97 officials are discussing their next steps after finding photos of students making the “circle game” hand gesture were found in both of its middle schools’ yearbooks.

A May 29 letter sent to families by Brooks Middle School Principal April Capuder and Julian Middle School Principal Todd Fitzgerald confirmed images showing students using the upside-down “OK” hand gesture were printed in both sets of yearbooks.

The discovery comes the same month Oak Park and River Forest High School chose to spend more than $53,000 to reprint about 1,750 student yearbooks after photos of students making similar gestures were found.

The hand gesture, commonly referred to as the “circle game,” began as part of a juvenile “made-you-look” game, but has been appropriated in recent years by white supremacists.

The article even mentions later that it was a joke to punk the media. Looks like it’s still working.

Another Chicago-area high school will reprint yearbooks because of ‘OK’ sign photo controversy

The “circle game” has turned into an end-of-year headache for Chicago’s Walter Payton College Prep, which is paying more than $22,000 to reprint yearbooks without photographs of students making a hand sign that has been co-opted by white supremacists.

In the game, people flash the “OK” sign below the waist and try to get others to look.

“Our school resources and official publication will not be the home to symbology that is now being associated with white supremacy,” Principal Tim Devine wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to students, faculty and parents. “It is repugnant and odious and has no place at all in our Payton, American, and world communities.”

This article, also by the Chicago Tribune, fails to mention the 4Chan joke. Which, again, is working, as Devine goes on to lose his mind over kids playing a game.

Funny, the same people had no problem when Black Lives Matter were throwing up black power signs and saying black supremacist things for real.

Read: More Chicago Schools Freaking Over Circle Game Photos »

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If All You See…

By William Teach May 31, 2019 – 1:00 pm

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

The blog of the day is Legal Insurrection, with a post on yet another nutty college course on “whiteness”.

Read: If All You See… »

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Good News: The New Godzilla Movie Is All About ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach May 31, 2019 – 10:30 am

Stuff like this guarantees the movie to not do well at the box office (and it still doesn’t prove anthropogenic causation)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is an unlikely climate change movie

There’s an ostensible comic relief moment in Michael Dougherty’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters that accidentally recalls weather notices in today’s headlines. “Bad news,” declares a member of Monarch, the crypto-zoological agency formed to monitor the activity and habits of giant monsters around the globe. “You can just call it news,” replies chief warrant officer Jackson Barnes (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) with a defeated pout. “It’s always bad.”

The reptilian colossus Godzilla was originally conceived by Tomoyuki Tanaka, Ishirō Honda, and Eiji Tsubaraya as a nuclear-powered bugbear; Honda’s 1954 Godzilla film reflects Japan’s acute fear of atomic obliteration, a shared cultural terror rooted in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings on August 6, 1945. In the 65 years since Godzilla introduced the radioactive behemoth to the world, he has gradually evolved from antagonist to eco-hero. Where Honda’s original film taps into Japan’s national trauma to give form to nuclear devastation, Dougherty’s film recalls America’s present-day anxieties over increasingly intense weather patterns tearing across the country from coast to coast. Tornadoes are tearing across Indiana to Ohio; temperatures are rising to 100 degrees in Jacksonville, Atlanta, Savannah, Macon, all the way up to Charlottesville, a high for the season; parts of Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas remain under flood watches. Last year, wildfires raged over northern California, taking a $3 billion toll on its inhabitants. Climate change, 2019’s collective boogeyman, is the monster whose name everyone knows but whose existence not everyone accepts.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters couches climate change fears in egomaniacal ignorance. Alan Jonah (Charles Dance), an embittered ex-Britishy Army colonel and determined misanthrope, foolishly believes humans have set Earth on a collision course with extinction, and that freeing the “Titans” — including King Ghidorah, the three-headed alien dragon serving as the film’s villain — will tip the scales in the planet’s favor. He and his team of eco-terrorists seek out the hidden locations of slumbering behemoths, wake them up, and set them loose on the world. Enter Godzilla, cranky at being disturbed from his long rest — he’s been MIA in the five years since the release of Gareth Edward’s Godzilla — and ready to rumble. Jonah convinces Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga), one of Monarch’s paleobiologists, of his perspective; the film proves them woefully offbase. Only Godzilla can tip those scales by kicking monster butt.

This continues the long-established characterization of Godzilla as a force of nature; when Earth’s natural balance is thrown out of whack, Godzilla emerges from the depths to set things right by roasting foes with his atomic breath, incurring billions of dollars in property damage in the process. Of course, sending in a monster to contain a monster is an extreme answer to an extreme problem. A positive outcome still means countless lives lost, homes and businesses reduced to rubble and ash, and iconic baseball stadiums left smushed into pavement. When the ruckus ends and mankind’s monster triumphs, the damage has already been done. It’s hard to call that a victory. In its extravagant way, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, pleads for environmental stewardship: Jackson’s “bad news” line isn’t a throwaway but a sober acknowledgement. Weather reports are rarely good. In fact, they’re usually dangerous.

It really doesn’t get any better than that in the following paragraphs. In fact, it gets worse. Nutjobs, just complete nutjobs.

Can’t we just get a good movie without a Message anymore?

Read: Good News: The New Godzilla Movie Is All About ‘Climate Change’ »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Film, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Colorado Gov Polis Signs All Sorts Of ‘Climate Change’ Bills Or Something

By William Teach May 31, 2019 – 8:35 am

There’s a couple interesting things with this. First, it will be fun when the citizens of Colorado realize how many problems this causes in their lives, from a cost of living increase to a problem with acquiring certain appliances. Second, almost no one is covering this. It is mostly a Colorado state story. You’d think this would be big nationally

Polis Signs Colorado Climate Action Plan, Other Key Energy Bills

For more than thirty years, even as scientists issued increasingly dire warnings about the urgent need to tackle climate change, Colorado, like many states, has not only failed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, but those emissions continued to rise to ever more dangerous levels. A slate of climate and energy legislation just signed into law by Governor Jared Polis aims to finally change that.

“This is about the health of our planet,” said Polis at a bill-signing ceremony today, May 30, at the JeffCo Community Solar Garden in Arvada. “Particularly in a state with climate-dependent industries like agriculture and the skiing industry, it’s important that we show leadership.”

The bills signed into law included House Bill 1261, the centerpiece of Democrats’ efforts to strengthen Colorado climate policy at the legislature this year. Dubbed the Climate Action Plan, the bill commits the state to a series of greenhouse gas emissions reductions, including a 50 percent cut by 2030 and a 90 percent cut by 2050. (big snip)

Some of the other bills Polis signed today are designed to kick-start progress on other fronts. House Bill 1231 will implement new efficiency standards for many household appliances, while House Bill 1250 requires local governments to adopt efficient building codes.

Senate Bill 236, a reauthorization of the state’s Public Utilities Commission, includes a wide variety of measures aimed at transitioning to clean energy. It creates a financial tool for electric utilities to defray the costs associated with retiring coal plants, and for the first time instructs state regulators to consider the “social cost of carbon” in their decisions.

What happens with appliances manufactured in other states/countries? Will they be disallowed to be sold? Do they expect manufacturers to comply and build models just for Colorado? Will Colorado citizens simply drive to a neighboring state and purchase the appliances there? Will the State of Colorado come after people who fail to comply?

As for the social cost of carbon, well, that’s a big red flag that people’s cost of living will soon skyrocket while the availability of reliable, dependable, affordable energy will be reduced.

Of course

That’s an ambitious goal, but some activists are worried it doesn’t go far enough. While U.N. scientists said last year that the world must cut carbon emissions 45 percent by 2030 to avert the most catastrophic effects of climate change, most realistic models for achieving such a cut require rich, developed countries like the U.S. to decarbonize much faster. Activists with the Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate, among others, have called for a more aggressive timeline.

And you can bet these activists are not practicing what they preach. They’re always just fine with messing with your money and your life, though.

Read: Colorado Gov Polis Signs All Sorts Of ‘Climate Change’ Bills Or Something »

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Ted Cruz, AOC Find Common Ground On Ex-Lawmakers Becoming Lobbyists

By William Teach May 31, 2019 – 8:14 am

Is this a big big issues? No. Is it a problem? Yes. Too many lawmakers turn their insider knowledge from even just a term or two into a career in lobbying for companies to get more taxpayer money

TED CRUZ AND OCASIO-CORTEZ FIND SOMETHING THEY CAN WORK ON TOGETHER. OTHER LAWMAKERS JOIN IN

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez found something they agree on Thursday, and other lawmakers say they will pitch in, Ocasio-Cortez announced in a Thursday evening tweet.

“Okay, with [Democratic California Sen. Brian Schatz and Cruz] we’ve got at least one D-R team in the Senate to ban members becoming lobbyists, [and] myself w/ [Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy] makes at least one D-R team in the House. And that’s just in a few hours – there will surely be more from both parties to sign on. Nice,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote with a thumbs-up emoji.

Cruz and Ocasio-Cortez bantered about their shared discontent with the so-called “revolving door of K Street” — federal lawmakers using their connections to become well-heeled lobbyists once they are out of office. Law mandates ex-House members must wait a year to lobby their former colleagues, while ex-senators must wait two.

A report finding around half of ex-members of the 115th Congress went straight to lobbying and other gigs with federal influence came out Thursday and prompted the exchange.

“Here’s something I don’t say often: on this point, I AGREE with [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]. Indeed, I have long called for a LIFETIME BAN on former Members of Congress becoming lobbyists. The Swamp would hate it, but perhaps a chance for some bipartisan cooperation?” Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wrote on Twitter Thursday.

Unfortunately, you can bet that there will be enough members who will be against this because they want to get that sweet, sweet money once they leave Congress, so they’ll refuse to vote for any legislation.

Read: Ted Cruz, AOC Find Common Ground On Ex-Lawmakers Becoming Lobbyists »

Posted in Democrats, GOP | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Landfalling Hurricanes May Become More Intense With ‘Climate Change’ Or Something

By William Teach May 30, 2019 – 3:01 pm

Sometimes I think that I should make the scaremongering headlines on ‘climate change’ all capitalized, just for the extra Doom. Regardless, you know what this prognostication means, right?

Hurricane landfalls may grow more intense with climate change

Future hurricanes may become more intense as they track toward the East Coast.

An atmospheric barrier guards much of the East Coast from powerful hurricanes, but global warming could make it less effective as soon as 20 years from now.

The protective barrier is due to strong vertical wind shear, which typically shields the coastline from hurricanes coming from the tropical Atlantic.

Scientists from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and NOAA authored a studyshowing climate change could alter wind shear in a way that sends stronger hurricanes to the East Coast.

Stronger hurricanes develop in areas with warmer sea surface temperatures and when vertical wind shear is low.

Who’s going to put this prognostication in their calendar for 20 years from now?

The impacts of stronger hurricane landfalls may show up soon as some models point to effects occurring around the year 2040.

And there’s the computer models.

They’ve tried this whole “hurricane doom” schtick after the big season of 2005, at which point hurricane activity dried up, especially for landfalling systems on the East coast. They even Blamed the dearth of landfalling tropical storm systems on the same “protective barrier” of wind shear from carbon pollution.

Thing is, even if this came to pass, it still doesn’t prove that the climate changes are mostly/solely caused by Mankind.

Read: Landfalling Hurricanes May Become More Intense With ‘Climate Change’ Or Something »

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

If All You See…

By William Teach May 30, 2019 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible world killing dog, sucking up resources, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Sonoran Conservative, with a post on impeachment coming.

Read: If All You See… »

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Another School To Reprint Yearbooks Without The OK “White Supremacist” Symbol

By William Teach May 30, 2019 – 10:30 am

This article does mention the Circle Game and the 4Chan joke, but takes it a step further in moonbattery

California middle school to reprint yearbook after photo shows students holding ‘white power’ sign

PETALUMA, Calif. — A middle school in California is now working to reprint part of its yearbook after parents noticed students flashing an offensive symbol in one of the photos.

Three students at Kenilworth Junior High are seen in the team basketball photo making an upside down “OK” sign–a sign that has become known as a symbol of white power.

Two on left and two on right are playing Circle Game

Parents and community members showed up at the Petaluma Unified School District’s board meeting Tuesday to express their concern over the image and to ask why it fell through the cracks.

“They need to understand that the symbol they’re showing has been taken over by some extreme white power people,” Sheila Morrissey, whose children go to Petaluma Unified’s Casa Grande High School, told ABC7 News. (Morrissey said her daughter’s yearbook also includes photos with students making the same symbol.)

No, it really hasn’t, except in the fevered minds of moonbat nincompoops

The use of the “OK” hand gesture can also be associated with a game played by some kids called the “Circle Game.” However, parents want students to understand it also has another meaning.

The symbol recently became associated with white power. In 2017, it started as a hoax by the website 4chan. Since then, however, some white supremacists have begun using the symbol, including New Zealand shooter Brenton Tarrant, who flashed the symbol during his court appearance.

So, when Obama, AOC, Nancy Pelosi, and so many others use the OK hand sign they are actually white supremacists? Stop, just stop. The picture clearly shows what is the Circle Game. That’s how you do it. The people who started this at 4Chan succeeded well beyond their expectations.

Read: Another School To Reprint Yearbooks Without The OK “White Supremacist” Symbol »

Posted in Barking Moonbats, Special Snowflake Syndrome | 57 Comments | Trackback URL

Who’s Up For Some “Freedom Gas”?

By William Teach May 30, 2019 – 7:40 am

I had to look to make sure this wasn’t a parody of uber-Warmist site ARS Technica. It’s not. And should make Warmists very unhappy

US Department of Energy is now referring to fossil fuels as “freedom gas”

Call it a rebranding of “energy dominance.”

In a press release published on Tuesday, two Department of Energy officials used the terms “freedom gas” and “molecules of US freedom” to replace your average, everyday term “natural gas.”

The press release was fairly standard, announcing the expansion of a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminal at the Freeport facility on Quintana Island, Texas. It would have gone unnoticed had an E&E News reporter not noted the unique metonymy “molecules of US freedom.”

DOE Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg is quoted as saying, “With the US in another year of record-setting natural gas production, I am pleased that the Department of Energy is doing what it can to promote an efficient regulatory system that allows for molecules of US freedom to be exported to the world.”

Also in the press release, US Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes refers to natural gas as “freedom gas” in his quote: “Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America’s allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy.”

It rather is, since the other big exporter of natural gas, particularly to Europe, is Russia. Though Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and Japan bought the most from the U.S.

Slate notes that the term “freedom gas” seems to have originated from an event with DOE Secretary Rick Perry. Earlier this year, the secretary signed an order to double the amount of LNG exports to Europe, saying, “The United States is again delivering a form of freedom to the European continent. And rather than in the form of young American soldiers, it’s in the form of liquefied natural gas.”

A reporter at the order signing jokingly asked whether the LNG shipments should be called “freedom gas,” and Perry said, “I think you may be correct in your observation.”

Is there anything better than inexpensive, reliable, dependable, easily stored for use at any time energy to make people’s lives better?

Read: Who’s Up For Some “Freedom Gas”? »

Posted in Energy, Global Warming | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Let’s Repeat: No Collusion, Con Conspiracy, No Obstruction

By William Teach May 30, 2019 – 7:25 am

The Democrats and all their media partners are yammering about Robert Mueller’s speech yesterday, finding things that are not there, because they desperately want to hurt President Trump. Some are very serious about pushing impeachment, others are just yammering to make people think Trump is a Bad Man. Regardless, the whole point of the charade was Russian interference in our election and whether Trump and/or his people colluded. We all know Russia attempted to interfere. No one says whether they were successful. And

Robert Mueller buries key conclusion amid ‘omissions and innuendo’

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s exhaustive report on Russian election interference marginalizes its most important finding: There was no Trump-Moscow conspiracy.

“The Mueller report continued a pattern evident in the Mueller indictments,” said Jack Langer, spokesman for Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican. “Pack the documents with vague insinuations of collusion while downplaying the actual findings that there was no collusion.”

A Washington Times analysis of a redacted version of the Mueller report shows that, among its scores of bolded headlines in the table of contents, none refers to the special counsel’s paramount conclusion. Also, in the 200-page section devoted to Russia-Trump there is no “conclusion” section.

The first words that address Mr. Mueller’s No. 1 assignment — to determine whether there was a Trump-Russia election interference conspiracy — appear in the report’s introduction on page 2, buried as the final third of a 63-word sentence.

It reads: “Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

That’s it. The words of Mueller and his team, which was heavily dominated by people who donated to Democrats. If they couldn’t find anything, that means it isn’t there.

The next reference comes on page 9, as the final sentence of a paragraph describing decisions on what was and wasn’t a crime: “Further, the evidence was not sufficient to charge that any member of the Trump Campaign conspired with representatives of the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election.”

As far as obstruction goes, for all Mueller’s words, both in the report and in his speech, you either have the evidence or not. What Mueller was saying was that, because of long standing policy and law, even if they found evidence, they couldn’t charge, because that is a political thing

In our legal system, if you do not have the evidence, regardless of any policies, then the person is innocent. Period. Stop wasting time and money on this stupidity.

Read: Let’s Repeat: No Collusion, Con Conspiracy, No Obstruction »

Posted in Current Affairs, Democrats | 30 Comments | Trackback URL
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