Mitt Romney Joins The Resistance With TDS Op-Ed

By William Teach January 2, 2019 – 7:46 am

MItt Romney has done what John McCain did: gone truly Resistance to Donald Trump, showing his Trump Derangement Syndrome. Yet, both refused to attack the policies of Barack Obama or the man himself during their general elections as well as after they lost because they were being the “nice” guy while Obama, his surrogates, and the media attacked them.

Trump’s character falls short, writes incoming senator Mitt Romney. ‘A president should unite us.’

The Trump presidency made a deep descent in December. The departures of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, the appointment of senior persons of lesser experience, the abandonment of allies who fight beside us, and the president’s thoughtless claim that America has long been a “sucker” in world affairs all defined his presidency down.

It is well known that Donald Trump was not my choice for the Republican presidential nomination. After he became the nominee, I hoped his campaign would refrain from resentment and name-calling. It did not. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the occasion. His early appointments of Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Nikki Haley, Gary Cohn, H.R. McMaster, Kelly and Mattis were encouraging. But, on balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions this month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.

It is not that all of the president’s policies have been misguided. He was right to align U.S. corporate taxes with those of global competitors, to strip out excessive regulations, to crack down on China’s unfair trade practices, to reform criminal justice and to appoint conservative judges. These are policies mainstream Republicans have promoted for years. But policies and appointments are only a part of a presidency.

To a great degree, a presidency shapes the public character of the nation. A president should unite us and inspire us to follow “our better angels.” A president should demonstrate the essential qualities of honesty and integrity, and elevate the national discourse with comity and mutual respect. As a nation, we have been blessed with presidents who have called on the greatness of the American spirit. With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring.

Romney continues to attack Trump on a personal level, again and again and again throughout the piece, which must have made the uber-leftists who run the Washington Post super giddy to publish. But, much like with Jeff Flake and the rest of the unhinged #NeverTrumpers, Romney wants to be a doormat for the Democrats and the leftist media, rather than fighting back as well as fighting for Republican policies

Furthermore, I will act as I would with any president, in or out of my party: I will support policies that I believe are in the best interest of the country and my state, and oppose those that are not. I do not intend to comment on every tweet or fault. But I will speak out against significant statements or actions that are divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions.

Seriously, can anyone remember Romney write an opinion piece taking on Barack Obama and his divisiveness? His dishonesty? His destruction of “democratic institutions”? How about targeting Republicans via the IRS? He wouldn’t do it during the general election, and he wouldn’t do it after he lost.

People like Mitt are thinking about the Old Way of doing things, where Republicans can be attacked non-stop while Democrats must never be touched. Where Republicans must work with Dems while Dems have no need to work with the GOP. Yes, there are certainly times when Trump needs to reign it in, leave it alone, step away from the Twitter, but, he hearkens back to a time when Politics was rough and tumble, where people would defend their policies and themselves forcefully. This is something the Republican base had been asking for, Republicans who would fight back.

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Media Losing Minds Over Firing Of Mostly Black NFL Coaches

By William Teach January 1, 2019 – 5:38 pm

When everything is racist, can anything be racist? But, the media likes to create Outrage where it doesn’t exist

Sports Media Outraged As Nearly All of NFL’s Black Head Coaches Fired

The NFL began the regular season with seven black head coaches. However, as of Monday, that number is now down to two.

Now out of work are Tampa Bay’s Dirk Koetter, the New York Jets Todd Bowles, Miami’s Adam Gase, Cincinnati’s Marvin Lewis, Arizona’s Steve Wilks and Denver’s Vance Joseph.

Bowles, Lewis, Wilks and Joseph are black, as is former Cleveland coach Hue Jackson, who was fired during the season. So the minority NFL head coaching number took a major hit, and this caused dismay from some reporters on social media. (snip)

ESPN’s “The Undefeated,” a website that explores the intersections of race, sports and culture, got a bit more dramatic:

NFL.com writer Jim Trotter thought the firings were a bad sign for diversity:

https://twitter.com/JimTrotter_NFL/status/1079772886427086848

This continues on for a bit, but, it’s not just the sports writers (as well as many playing the race card on social media): here’s the Washington Post

This NFL firing cycle is disproportionately affecting minority head coaches

The NFL’s recent efforts to strengthen its minority hiring practices by bolstering enforcement of its longstanding Rooney Rule have been followed by a firing cycle that has disproportionately affected the league’s African-American head coaches, significantly dwindling their ranks.

Five of the eight coaches fired leaguewide since midway through the regular season are African American. That has left only three minority coaches in the NFL as the carousel spins anew to replace those coaches just fired.

Buuuuut

Leaders of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, the diversity group that works closely with the NFL on its minority hiring practices, said Monday they are watching the current firing-and-hiring cycle closely and are not overly alarmed or concerned at this point about the number of African-American coaches being dismissed. But the decreased number of African-American head coaches does reinforce the need for ongoing efforts to ensure that fair opportunities exist for minority coaches, they said.

“We all know it’s win or go home,” John Wooten, the chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, said in a phone interview. “We’ll work at it and go on. We’ll keep looking at it and push forward for the next opportunities.”

They tried to make this a racial thing, but, failed. What they really want is people to be hired because of their skin color, not their capabilities and records. Not their coaching skills, their scheming skills. Just the color of their skin. They do not want positions to be earned. Which is a shame, because reduces qualified candidates down to their skin color.

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If All You See…

By William Teach January 1, 2019 – 1:00 pm

…is a world turning to desert from carbon pollution from other people, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Not A Lot Of People Know That, with a post on the WWF’s polar bear tours causing problems.

Starting the year off right with a skimpier bikini than I would normally post.

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A New Year’s Prediction Challenge For Climate Alarmists (And Pinup)

By William Teach January 1, 2019 – 9:14 am

Happy New Year’s! Welcome to 2019! And one year closer to End Of Life As We Know it. 2150 and 2200 are fast approaching, the primary dates that the climate alarmists always want to use to denote when Earth is going to burn, baby, burn in fire, dan dan daaaan, fire, dan dan daaaaan.

New Year’s is usually a time when we make resolutions which we abandon when we realize that chocolate, bacon, and beer are great (and bacon cooked in beer and covered with chocolate!) In the blogosphere, we often make predictions for the New Year. Instead, how about a challenge? I’ve done this every year since 2011, though I forgot last year.

Read More »

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Why A Wall Is Needed: Illegals Attempting To Cross In Remote Areas

By William Teach January 1, 2019 – 8:52 am

Not all migrants show up at or near typical border crossings to Demand asylum (which most do not qualify for and do not receive). Many are straight out illegal aliens, as they cross in very remote areas. They’ve always done this, but there is a change going on recently with the caravan folks

Migrant families shift to dangerous desert crossings

Increasing numbers of Guatemalan families trying to enter the U.S. illegally are avoiding the most popular routes in favor of more dangerous, remote desert crossings like those used by the two children who died this month in Border Patrol custody, officials said Monday.

Most people trying to sneak into the country still use long-established routes in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. But recently released government figures show a growing number of families crossing along the 268-mile stretch of border known as the El Paso Sector, which includes western Texas and all of New Mexico.

In November, the U.S. Border Patrol in that sector caught 11,617 people traveling in families — nearly 20 times the total during November 2017 and just over a fifth of all migrants apprehended on the southern border. The majority of those families were from Guatemala.

Kevin McAleenan, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, told reporters Monday that the increase in migrant families was creating an “unprecedented crisis.”

From Dec. 22 to Dec. 30 along the entire border with Mexico, the Border Patrol has referred 451 migrants — including 259 children, about half of them under age 5 — to medical providers.

“Many were ill before they departed their homes,” McAleenan said, citing cases of flu, pneumonia, tuberculosis and parasites.

Notice in that first paragraph: the parents brought the young kids across a dangerous area. The parents are putting not just themselves, but also their children, in high danger. And you can place much of the blame on members of the Democratic Party, who entice people to make the trek and make the dangerous crossing into the United States, promising all sorts of things if they just make it here. Democrats also make it harder to deport illegals, all while knowing that once released it will be much harder to find them again.

Democrats bear responsibility for any deaths that occur, and for when these illegals spread disease to Americans.

Hence, why we need a wall in remote areas. Do we want a wall, even a “beautiful” one? No. But the people sneaking into our nation and the pro-invasion Democrats have made it a necessity. Will it stop everyone? No. But, until such time comes that Democrats stop protecting illegals and agree to straight up deportation for all here illegally, it is necessary.

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It’s Time For Politicians To Force You To Make Stark Choices To Stop ‘Climate Change’ Or Something

By William Teach January 1, 2019 – 8:34 am

Happy 2019! Yet another year where the Watermelons (green on the outside, Red on the inside) will ramp up their belief in government using force on Other People to comply with the beliefs of the Cult of Climastrology

Time for politicians to make ‘stark choices’ over climate change

Politicians must persuade consumers to make dramatic lifestyle changes if devastating climate change and mass extinctions are to be averted, according to the shadow Treasury minister, Clive Lewis.

From cutting back on red meat to taking fewer flights, the MP for Norwich South said the public must face up to “real, stark choices” in the years ahead.

“If you want your children and grandchildren to avoid food shortages, to avoid power shortages, to avoid biological degradation, biodiversity loss – if you actually want a planet that’s inhabitable – then we need to make some choices together, now: and some of them are about quite dramatic changes to how we live,” Lewis said in an interview with the Guardian.

What they want to do is to attempt to scare the crap out of voters in a manner that causes them to give up their money and liberty, their choice. But, they never talk about giving up their own money, choice, and liberty.

“I think there’s a crunch point now coming for politics. You often hear there’s no leadership in politics – and this isn’t a leadership pitch, I promise you – but when you talk about leadership, there’s leadership in different forms,” he said.

On red meat, for example, Lewis said: “I’m not going to sit here and say, yeah, let’s ban red meat … but you can show leadership by asking, well actually, is it right that we publicly subsidise an industry that is contributing so much to greenhouse gas emissions, and often is a very unsustainable practice?”

He said the government’s role should be to “encourage people and show leadership as to how we’re going to shift people’s eating habits on to a more sustainable footing”.

On air travel, he said Labour was starting to work up options, including a tax “escalator”, which would have the biggest impact on frequent fliers, who tend to be the wealthiest.

And that is where the force starts coming into play, as they abandon any semblance of “persuasion.” Persuasion hasn’t worked all that well over the past 30 years of spreading awareness, even as they have moved into attempts to scare people with stories of future doom.

He said he believed countering the human threats to the environment would have to mean junking “the obsession with flat-screen TVs and consumption”.

“On their deathbed, do people think: ‘I wish I’d spent more time with my Ferrari’? Or do they say: ‘I wish I’d spent more time watching my kids grow up, I wish I’d spent more time country walking’?

“It’s about the things that matter in life, and how we have an economy that better reflects that,” he said.

While we could all certainly spend less time with the TVs and phones and more with friends and family, this is none of government’s business. The Watermelons do not care. And you can bet that many elected politicians around the world think the same as Clive Lewis.

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Extreme Weather Was A Raging, Howling Signal Of ‘Climate Change’ Or Something

By William Teach December 31, 2018 – 3:52 pm

The Washington Post “science” section has become a hotbed of opinion

Extreme weather in 2018 was a raging, howling signal of climate change

Just off the top of his head, climate scientist Kevin Trenberth can recount many of the weather disasters that hit the planet in 2018. Record rainfall and flooding in Japan, followed by a heat wave that sent tens of thousands of people to the hospital. Astonishing temperature records set across the planet, including sweltering weather above the Arctic Circle. Historic, lethal wildfires in Greece, Sweden and California, terrible flooding in India, a super typhoon with 165-mph winds in the Philippines, and two record-setting hurricanes that slammed the Southeast United States.

“Climate change is adding to what’s going on naturally, and it’s that extra stress that causes things to break,” said Trenberth, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “It takes the experience well outside anything that’s been experienced before. It crosses thresholds. As a result, things break, people die, and things burn.”

Blah blah blah. The opinion piece mentions lots of weather events, things that have always happened, and provides zero proof for the assertion that this has anything to do with the actions of Mankind. This is activist journalism.

Not to be outdone, David Leonhardt writes in the actual NY Times opinion section

The Story of 2018 Was Climate Change

Our best hope may be the weather.

For a long time, many people thought that it was a mistake to use the weather as evidence of climate change. Weather patterns contain a lot of randomness. Even as the earth warms and extreme weather becomes more common, some years are colder and calmer than others. If you argue that climate change is causing some weather trend, a climate denier may respond by making grand claims about a recent snowfall.

And yet the weather still has one big advantage over every other argument about the urgency of climate change: We experience the weather. We see it and feel it.

It is not a complex data series in an academic study or government report. It’s not a measurement of sea level or ice depth in a place you’ve never been. It’s right in front of you. And although weather patterns do have a lot of randomness, they are indeed changing. That’s the thing about climate change: It changes the climate.

I wanted to write my last column of 2018 about the climate as a kind of plea: Amid everything else going on, don’t lose sight of the most important story of the year.

Remember when they said weather was not climate? Surprise!

Yet, people still do not care enough to actually Do Something in their own lives. When with the WP and NYT stop using fossil fuels and go carbon neutral?

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Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach December 31, 2018 – 1:00 pm

…is an area flooded due to carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the days Proof Positive, with a post on the quote du jour.

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Surprise: Rising Minimum Wage Causes Prices To Rise

By William Teach December 31, 2018 – 10:43 am

A random act of journalism from the Associated Press, as reprinted at WRAL

Prices rise as the minimum wage increases in several states

At Granny Shaffer’s restaurant in Joplin, Missouri, owner Mike Wiggins is reprinting the menus to reflect the 5, 10 or 20 cents added to each item.

A two-egg breakfast will cost an extra dime, at $7.39. The price of a three-piece fried chicken dinner will go up 20 cents, to $8.78. The reason: Missouri’s minimum wage is rising.

Wiggins said the price hikes are necessary to help offset an estimated $10,000 to $12,000 in additional annual pay to his staff as a result of a new minimum wage law taking effect Tuesday.

“For us it’s very simple. There’s no big pot of money out there to get the money out of” for the required pay raises, Wiggins said.

Some will say “meh, it’s only 5, 10, 20 cents.” But, that will happen everywhere everyday. As the article points out, there are many states and cities which are raising the minimum wage, and many by a lot. Even double the federal minimum wage.

At Granny Shafffer’s in Joplin, waitress Shawna Green will see her base pay go up. But she has mixed emotions about it.

“We’ll have regulars, and they will notice, and they will bring it to our attention, like it’s our fault and our doings” that menu prices are increasing, she said. “They’ll back off on something, and it’s usually their tips, or they don’t come as often.”

Economic studies on minimum wage increases have shown that some workers do benefit, while others might see their work hours reduced. Businesses may place a higher value on experienced workers, making it more challenging for entry-level employees to find jobs.

There are many studies on this, and most do not paint a rosy picture for the workers. At best, for one from Seattle, some workers saw $10 more a week in their paycheck. Of course, that increase will just go to pay for the higher cost of living. Further, many who employ low wage workers will simply replace them with self-serv kiosks. A McDonald’s close to me, one which gets a lot of traffic being on a major Raleigh road (Capital Blvd) near a mall and near Raleigh’s outer beltline (540) just remodeled and put in 4 self serv kiosks. It’s not all about the push for a higher minimum wage, to be sure, but, you can bet it is a big part.

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You’ll Totally Care About ‘Climate Change’ If Someone Gives You A Check!

By William Teach December 31, 2018 – 7:55 am

Just like with all the climate scientists, who receive a lot of government funding so they so often seem to take a very specific position, eh?

COMMENTARY: Want citizens to care about climate change? Write them a cheque

….

Political leaders need to care about climate enough to take on polluting entities like fossil fuel companies that supply or generate the vast majority of energy, provide millions of jobs and make political contributions.

Huh. So, Warmists want to obliterate what provides most of our energy? They’d be the first to complain when they can’t turn on MSNBC because of rolling blackouts.

We argue that the apathy of political leaders reflects the apathy of their citizens. Many politicians, and the people they represent around the world, simply do not view climate change as a crisis. Even when mainstream cable channels are covering it (a rarity in itself), people seem to care more about the next sports showdown or celebrity gossip for entertainment in their daily lives.

People might care in theory, but, they do not care in action.

So how do we get citizens to care about climate?

Any energy transition will need to be preceded by a transition of vocal and influential citizens, or swing voters, away from an anti-climate position. We don’t necessarily need all citizens of diverse socioeconomic and educational backgrounds to understand climate science or proactively support it (though that would be highly desirable), we just need a politically influential section of citizens to not oppose bold climate action.

After 30 years of failure to make this happen, they essentially want to jam it thru. Here we go

If carbon pricing is going to be a significant vehicle for climate action, then the key to securing broader support is through people’s wallets.

We should take advantage of human nature. People care about personal gains like well-paying jobs and pay raises. And they instinctively oppose taxes. But would they oppose a tax if they directly profit from it?

The ideal approach would be to distribute a large portion of the carbon tax revenues back to the working class families to compensate for the higher costs of energy products and services.

This would address real concerns that carbon pricing can disproportionately affect the economically marginalized (as seen in France). But it also dangles a real incentive for citizens to actually demand a carbon tax.

See? It’s so easy! When you’re cost of living goes up up up the government will give you a bit of money to cover some of the increase, say, four fifths, according to some of these schemes offered by the Cult of Climastrology. So, you’d get a check for $40 for every $50 you cost of living goes up. Obviously, in reality, you’d never get that much back from Government. Further, the Warmists are relying on people staying stupid, not realizing that it is government which jacked up their cost of living. Are we supposed to be happy that we get a pittance back?

If the supermarket raised the price of milk by $5 a gallon but said they’d give you a voucher for $4, would you be happy to get that check? Or would you think this was a scam?

Further, what happens here is that it makes citizens way more reliant on government, which would now be supporting their lives, and what can be given can be taken away. Funny how this gives government more power over your life, eh?

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