Maine Sues Fossil Fuels Companies While Continue To Use Fossil Fuels For State Operations

By William Teach November 27, 2024 – 7:00 am

Weirdly, there is nothing in the lawsuit about the state giving up their own use of fossil fuels, nor for the Attorney General of Maine. And Democrats wonder why Trump won

Maine attorney general files lawsuit against oil companies over climate change

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey announced Tuesday that he has filed a lawsuit in state court against a handful of major oil companies because he claims they have been deceiving Maine residents for decades about the role their fossil fuel products played in causing climate change.

The defendants listed in the lawsuit include BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell and Sunoco, as well as the American Petroleum Institute, the national trade association that represents all aspects of America’s oil and natural gas industry.

Frey said the state of Maine is seeking to hold the companies accountable for failing to warn Mainers and concealing their knowledge about the devastating consequences of the increasing use of fossil fuels on the state’s people, economy and environment.

The lawsuit claims the defendants knew about the potentially catastrophic consequences an increasing use of fossil fuels would cause as early the 1960s, but decided to deploy strategic public relations campaigns designed to discredit the scientific consensus on climate change, create doubt in the minds of the public and delay the energy economy’s transition to a lower-carbon future. According to the state, this conduct has resulted in enormous financial burdens, public health impacts, property damage and other harms across Maine as a result of extreme weather, rising sea levels and warmer temperatures.

“For over half a century, these companies chose to fuel profits instead of following their own science to prevent what are now likely irreversible, catastrophic climate effects,” Frey said in a statement. “In so doing, they burdened the state and our citizens with the consequences of their greed and deception.”

The suit, weirdly, isn’t asking the companies to stop selling their products in Maine, particularly to the state of Maine, they just want money. It sure would be fun if the companies refused to sell their products to the state. It would not be fun for the residents of Maine if they could no longer get heating oil, natural gas, etc, since so many rely on it.

Read: Maine Sues Fossil Fuels Companies While Continue To Use Fossil Fuels For State Operations »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

Are US And NATO Considering Giving Ukraine Nuclear Weapons?

By William Teach November 27, 2024 – 6:45 am

Is this a case of “loose speech getting out”? Or “people are just making stuff up”? Or “we’re just throwing thoughts around but weren’t serious”? Or “yeah, we’re really considering this”?

Russia condemns “irresponsible” talk of nuclear weapons for Ukraine

Discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons is “absolutely irresponsible”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, in response to a report in the New York Times citing unidentified officials who suggested such a possibility.

The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested U.S. President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.

“Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications,” the newspaper wrote

Asked about the report, Peskov told reporters: “These are absolutely irresponsible arguments of people who have a poor understanding of reality and who do not feel a shred of responsibility when making such statements. We also note that all of these statements are anonymous.”

Earlier, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.

Well, I certainly hope this isn’t something they’re really considering, but, you never know with Joe, his advisors, and the warmongers in NATO.

(Newsweek) “We are not planning to equip Ukraine with nuclear weapons,” the White House told Newsweek, when contacted for a response to these reports and Medvedev’s comments.

Anyone else not feel any better?

{Dmitry Medvedev, the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia] continued, “Yet I must comment on the nonsense: 1) The very threat of transferring nuclear weapons to the Kyiv regime can be considered preparation for nuclear conflict with Russia;

2) The actual transfer of such weapons can be equated to an act of attack on our country under article 19 of the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence.
The consequences are obvious.”

I don’t feel better.

Medvedev also criticized President Joe Biden‘s authorization of Ukraine to use long-range weapons to conduct deep strikes into Russian territory, which began last week and have continued escalating as both countries retaliate against one another.

He said that Ukraine’s use of US-made ATACMS in an attack in Bryansk last week has led to what “can now be qualified as an attack by the bloc’s countries on Russia,” and that “in this case, the right arises to launch a retaliatory strike with weapons of mass destruction against Kyiv and the main NATO facilities, wherever they are. And this is already WWIII.”

Would Joe really want to get into a nuclear war just because he was booted out of running for re-election?

Read: Are US And NATO Considering Giving Ukraine Nuclear Weapons? »

Posted in 2996, Asides, Blogroll, Current Affairs, Dems in Charge: Now What?, Global Warming, Joe Biden, Liberal World, Midday Cute, Quizzes, Seasonal Humor | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

Your Fault: UK Homes Are Rubbish At Staying Warm

By William Teach November 26, 2024 – 3:00 pm

By your fault, I mean it’s the fault of the British elites, politicians, and climate cult groups for creating the issue

Why are UK homes so rubbish at staying warm? We asked the experts

A cold snap has swept across the UK this week, with temperatures plummeting to lows of -11c in some parts of the country.

These low temperatures are set to continue, with the Met Office issuing another weather warning as Storm Bert brings in 70mph winds, rain and snow this weekend.

While the lower-than-average temperatures continue, many of us are still hesitant to turn up the thermostat thanks to skyrocketing energy bills.

Even when we do crank up the heating, many find it difficult to keep the warmth inside leaving us reaching for an extra jumper or spare blanket.

So what is it about the UK’s heating system that leaves so many of us wanting? Here’s what we know about why the UK is so rubbish at heatings its homes properly, the challenges it faces, and how we make it fit for purpose.

They mention damp old houses and poor walls (meaning the insulation), but, then

Even though heating our homes can be a struggle, the UK now pays the highest electricity prices in the world — four times the price of the average bill in the US.

The energy price cap is predicted to rise by another 1.2% in January, making the average household energy bill £1738.

Gas prices are not much better. “We’re massively over reliant on natural gas,” Thomas said. “Other countries have a more diverse selection of heating sources being used in homes.

Why? UK government policies related to the climate scam. That 1738 pounds figure can’t be right for a month, can it? That’s $2,178 US.

“A third of people are in arrears with their energy supplier,” Simcock said.

“The average household in arrears owes about £1500 pounds for electricity and £1300 for gas.”

“We are hearing from people that they will only heat one room of the house. We’ve heard from parents who will give their bedroom to their children, and they themselves perhaps need to sleep in the living room, so that they only have to heat one room or two rooms,” Martiskainen told Yahoo News.

“We are a G7 country, one of the most wealthy countries in the world. So how is it that we are allowing six million households to live in fuel poverty?” she added.

Thank your government for joining a doomsday climate cult.

So, if the current system to heat our homes isn’t working, what are the alternatives?

Many of the experts Yahoo News spoke to voiced their support for installing heat pumps.

Which do not last that long and are expensive. How about just rolling back all the policies that make reliable, dependable energy so expensive?

Another option is district heating.

“District heating heats half of Paris and is in use quite a lot in parts of Scandinavia and parts of eastern Europe,” Thomas explained. “It is essentially where you have one massive boiler or – in the future – a massive heat pump producing very large quantities of heat that’s then pumped directly into people’s homes through underground pipes.

“You don’t have the heating source in your home, hot water is directly pumped into your home.”

And who would be in charge of this? The same government instituting terrbile energy policies? And, considering how far down the authoritarian road the UK government has gone, would you trust them to be in charge?

Read: Your Fault: UK Homes Are Rubbish At Staying Warm »

Posted in Energy, Europe, Global Warming | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 26, 2024 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible fossil fueled vehicle causing desertification, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Chicks On The Right, with a post on the Trump dance making it to women’s golf.

Read: If All You See… »

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Gibson Sends Cease And Desist Letter To Trump Guitars

By William Teach November 26, 2024 – 10:30 am

A case of Trump Derangement Syndrome or simply trying to protect their property? Or just some TDS from Rolling Stone?

Gibson Hits Trump Guitars With Cease and Desist

A guitar company touting an endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump has been hit by a cease and desist order from Gibson.

According to Guitar World, the 130-year-old guitar manufacturer confirmed that it had sent the warning to Trump Guitars owner 16 Creative “as the design infringes upon Gibson’s exclusive trademarks, particularly the iconic Les Paul body shape.”

The Trump Guitars website lists an “American Eagle Series” inlaid with Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” in “authentic pearl” up the neck of the guitar with the number “45” branded on the headstock.

Although it’s not clear if Trump owns the company, Trump Guitars claims they have the “only guitar officially endorsed by President Donald J. Trump” and the homepage shows the president-elect holding one of the guitars.

One of the acoustic guitars features Trump signing its body, and according to its product page, “Only 275 of these beautiful guitars will be signed.” While a non-signed guitar costs $1,250, a six string baring Trump’s signature runs for more than $10,000.

For anyone looking for additional ways to light cash on fire, Trump Guitars also sells the “Presidential Series” in black, gold and red finishes.

“Light cash on fire.” TDS or reality? There are plenty of Gibson, Fender, PRS, Jackson, and other guitars that are unbelievably expensive, and most people who play are not professional and have no need, but, they still buy. Personally, I wouldn’t.  From Guitar World

The Trump Guitars site indicates the guitar brand is owned by 16 Creative (pitched as a “veteran owned, multi-focused branding agency”) and says that the instruments are “custom designed and developed by a veteran-owned company with the help of a master luthier”. (snip)

In recent years, Gibson has staunchly defended its intellectual property. For instance, it remains embroiled in a long-standing lawsuit with Dean over its usage of V and Z-shaped guitar designs and the Futura headstock.

The thing is, lots of companies make guitars similar in shape to the Les Paul. Dean, ESP (the LP body in the photo looks more like an ESP from the cut), and others, including lots of off brands you can find on Amazon. 16 Creative makes LPs, acoustics

The electrics feature mahogany bodies and necks and 22-fret rosewood fingerboards. Like official Les Paul guitars, they feature two Volume and two Tone controls for their Maga ’45 ‘buckers, though unlike a traditional Les Paul-style construction it is a bolt-on neck.

It’s the two and two that could cause problems, as that is a Gibson style, while others tend to have a one and two. Using the word “buckers” is also a red flag, since Gibson/Epiphone have Burstbuckers and Probuckers. Quite frankly, they might be nice as a decoration, but, it would be a pain to play on that neck, with all the lettering, rather than the typical inlays on 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, etc. The body overlays are nice, though.

Read: Gibson Sends Cease And Desist Letter To Trump Guitars »

Posted in Donald Trump, Music | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

New Yorker Wonders If NY Can Fight Fascism With ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach November 26, 2024 – 7:15 am

I guess they missed that the climate cult is pretty much authoritarian, that it is primarily made up of Progressives, otherwise known as nice Fascists. Let’s see where this goes, because the original title, as you can see from the link, was about “renewables congestion climate”

Could New York Fight Fascism With Climate Policy?

One lesson commentators and strategists are drawing from the 2024 election is that Democrats ignore the cost of living at their peril. That has huge implications for climate policy: Even with deadly drought, wildfires and flooding hammering the working class nationwide, policies that limit this damage from climate change are too often successfully framed by Republicans as a cost to “ordinary Americans.” The clean-energy focused Inflation Reduction Act, despite its name, didn’t do enough to derail that narrative, nor address the very cost of living crisis so many Americans face. New York state, however, now has an opportunity to try to do climate policy right, and put money back into working people’s pockets.

Wednesday at City University of New York’s John Jay College in midtown Manhattan, hundreds of New Yorkers rallied before a public hearing to demand that the New York Power Authority (NYPA) fulfill the mandate set out by the groundbreaking Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA). Passed last year, BPRA commits the state to funding and building renewable energy in the inevitable event that the private sector is not on track to build enough to meet ambitious decarbonization goals that were set by the state in 2019.

OK, nothing about Fascism yet. Skipping three paragraphs ahead

After months of drought and with Prospect Park literally on fire, the state’s legislatively mandated climate goals should loom large for everyone in government. So should the BPRA’s commitment to phase out the state’s polluting peaker plants, which contribute to childhood asthma in poor neighborhoods. But with Trumpism gaining ground even in this blue state—Harris lost the votes of more New York City residents than any Democratic presidential candidate in recent history—it also behooves the Democratic governor to push NYPA for another reason: we need climate policy that resists Trumpist narratives by improving ordinary people’s everyday material conditions.

Is that the Fascism? Wanting freedom from tyrannical government?

It’s fitting that NYPA was founded by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1931, as Americans—and people worldwide—were struggling for economic survival in the Great Depression and the Nazi Party in Germany was beginning to win elections. The following year, just before Hitler came to power, FDR won the U.S. presidential election. He was savvy about how to fight fascism. “Democracy has disappeared in several other great nations—not because the people of those nations disliked democracy,” he said in 1938, “but because they had grown tired of unemployment and insecurity, of seeing their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of government confusion and government weakness…”. In NYPA, FDR’s legacy lives on and New York has an opportunity to once again fight fascism by democratizing energy.

Wow. That’s a big stretch, but, you know Warmists are nuts.

FDR and his contemporaries invested heavily in antifascist messaging, but knew that a better antidote to far-right poison was government action to improve people’s lives. New Deal era liberalism tackled energy access and transit, among many other problems of everyday life. New York has a chance to build on that deeply beloved tradition and fight the climate crisis at the same time.

One big difference between Big Government FDR and today’s Big Government Democrats: he was dealing with the Great Recession (and most likely prolonged it with his policies), but, he wasn’t trying to control everyone’s lives. Hitler and Mussolini also had lots of big government projects, and did control everyone’s lives.

Read: New Yorker Wonders If NY Can Fight Fascism With ‘Climate Change’ »

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

Report: Trump Admin To Boot All Gender Confused From Military On Day One

By William Teach November 26, 2024 – 7:00 am

They may be wonderful people. Hard working. But, transgender folks have a much higher instance of mental health problems, and especially suicidal thoughts. Do you want them around military grade weapons? Should the US military be paying for all their medical stuff? Should men with mental illness be around women? In their dorms, their locker rooms, showers?

From the link

President elect Donald Trump reportedly plans to issue an executive order on his ‘first day in office’ to ban transgender members of the military.

The controversial order would cause as many as 15,000 active service members to be ‘medically discharged’ – deeming them unfit to serve, according to The Times.

Trump seeks to issue the executive action on January 20, 2025 or Day 1 of his term, the Times said, preventing any transgender people from enlisting in the military as all branches continue to struggle with recruitment.

{Pete Hegseth] suggested that you can’t integrate trans people in as easily as people of different races were integrated ‘because being transgendered in the military causes complications and differences.”

Hegseth also said that transgender people were ‘not deployable’ because they are ‘reliant on chemicals.’

What’s the point if they cannot actually do the job? If they cannot be deployed? How many are constantly missing duty because of their condition? Well, now we’ll wait and see. The United States military is not a social experiment or a ticket for reassignment surgery.

Read: Report: Trump Admin To Boot All Gender Confused From Military On Day One »

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Who’s Up For A Climate Emotion Wheel?

By William Teach November 25, 2024 – 3:14 pm

These people are nuts, and they’re teaching the kids to be nuts

A Tool to Tackle Climate Emotions

This past spring, a colorful poster displayed a ring of emojis at a student table outside the cafeteria at Maritime and Science Technical Academy, a 6–12 school in Miami. Called the climate emotions wheel, the circle was divided into a rainbow of wedges for various emotions: anger in red, sadness in purple, fear in green, positivity in blue. The poster also included a QR code for students to complete a survey about their feelings related to climate.

Sophomore Sophia Bugarim remembers taking the survey. To the first question—“Do you experience any of these climate emotions?”—Bugarim answered “fear.” The next question narrowed down the four core emotions into more specifics. This time Bugarim selected “worry.”

“I feel worried that one day I’ll be in a situation where I have to leave my house, and I’ll come back and have no idea what it will look like,” says Bugarim, who recalled her survey answers on an October day when school had been canceled due to the possibility of storm water surge and high winds. While Miami was not in Hurricane Milton’s path, Bugarim wonders how soon the city will be in the path of another storm. “These storms are getting worse. There was a hurricane last week in Tallahassee. Next week gets me worried. It’s very unpredictable.”

Good grief

Sarah Newman, executive director of the Climate Mental Health Network, says climate change adds another layer of mental health risk for youth and can deepen existing inequities. In 2021, Newman founded the Network to provide solutions beyond traditional therapy, which can be cost-prohibitive and faces ongoing provider shortages.

She sees the climate emotions wheel as a supplement to mental health therapy and believes schools are a key place to address mental health amid a changing climate. This is a stark contrast with the conservative Project 2025, which aims to erase climate change from public education and the federal government entirely. Newman sees the importance in grassroots solutions to support individuals and communities impacted by the changing climate, regardless of what’s happening in Washington, D.C.

“Having climate anxiety is a normal response to the climate crisis, so if you respond to what is a societal issue with an individual approach, you’re isolating someone’s experience to a clinical setting,” she says. “Because it’s a collective experience, the process of navigating our climate emotions, managing them, and healing needs to be done in community with others.”

Let’s make people crazy by telling them doom is coming, then reinforce that doom with expensive therapy.

Navarro says he is still working through climate emotions, but he feels encouraged by peer support in the environmental clubs at his school. “You have the opportunity to advocate for different causes,” he says. Recently, students acted on their concerns by advocating for and landing the district electric buses. Navarro says it feels good to know that “you’re actually making a difference.”

Or, instead of dragging everyone into their climate cult world they could make their own lives carbon neutral.

Read: Who’s Up For A Climate Emotion Wheel? »

Posted in Climate Cult, Global Warming | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 25, 2024 – 1:00 pm

…is horrible meat that is bad for ‘climate change’ and should be restricted for Other People, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Vlad Tepes, with a post on Muslims in Canada wishing death on Canada.

Read: If All You See… »

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Politico: Democrats Plot Their Comeback Or Something

By William Teach November 25, 2024 – 10:30 am

How do they plot their comeback when they barely acknowledge why they lost?

From despair to action: Democrats plot their comeback

Democratic officials are combing through granular election data, reevaluating their digital strategy and reaching out to Donald Trump’s voters as they attempt to pull themselves out of the political wilderness.

In 27 interviews across half a dozen states, the party’s elected officials, labor leaders and strategists described widespread acknowledgment that Democrats must win back working-class voters, particularly Latino men, and others without college degrees who helped hand the election to Trump. And in anguished conversations in the halls of Congress and state party headquarters from coast to coast, despair over the scale of Democrats’ losses are giving way to plans to combat their crisis.

From mill towns in the swing state of Pennsylvania to Latino neighborhoods in bustling New York City, a refrain is crescendoing: The Democratic Party, which lost the presidential popular vote for the first time in 20 years, desperately needs an overhaul. And while party elders in the nation’s capital begin to debate their path as Republicans prepare to control every branch of government, state leaders are drafting their own autopsies.

Will they start talking about getting tough on illegal aliens? How about shifting from supporting women instead of men with mental illness who take the spots of actual women? Become pro-business? Pro low taxation and government? Aren’t these the same people who denigrate those in small towns and middle America as rubes in Flyover country? Hate on Christians and Southerners?

Two swing-seat Democrats who outperformed Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania and New York are urging their colleagues to lean into economic issues and border security concerns that rank top of mind for voters — and ones Republicans have effectively wielded to ignite their base and lure swing voters.

Rep. Chris Deluzio, the only swing- district House Democrat in Pennsylvania who kept his seat this year, overperformed Harris in deep-red Beaver County, particularly in old mill and factory towns.

No one actually believes this will happen, do they? Also, for those like those “swing seat Democrats”, will they actually vote the way they campaigned, or will ones like Deluzio vote hard left after campaigning more like Trump?

Back in state party headquarters across the country, Democratic officials are poring over the details of their losses in search of solutions. East Coast labor leaders are making plans to travel to Middle America to connect with voters who have left their party in the Trump era in hopes of recalibrating ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The ones these East Coast labor leaders hate?

Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Long Island moderate, beat a Republican this year in a district that was trending red by leaning into the main issue bedeviling his fellow Democrats — immigration. He promised to tighten up the southern border at a time when New York has been a hub for an influx of migrants competing with low-income residents for scarce housing and jobs. He too is urging fellow Democrats to listen to Trump voters.

Will he vote as such? Because there’s the rub: if they campaign more like a Republican but vote like a Democrat that will be remembered. Also, it can drive their unhinged Democratic Party base away, even to the point of trying to primary them.

Democrats also plan to look to their deep bench of governors and emphasize populist pocketbook policies — from expanding access to school lunches to canceling medical debt. Meghan Meehan-Draper, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, said state leaders will play a leading role in the party’s overhaul.

“They’re the best path forward because they’re the ones focused on things like jobs, health care, public safety, public education, infrastructure,” Meehan-Draper said. “And they’re the last line of defense because they also are focused on protecting their constituents’ fundamental freedoms like reproductive rights, voting rights, upholding the rule of law.”

That doesn’t look much like they’re shifting their beliefs: just how they’ll lie on the campaign trail. And, really, despair will turn to moonbattery.

Read: Politico: Democrats Plot Their Comeback Or Something »

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