Texas Gov. Abbott Follows Supreme Court Ruling On Border Razor Wire To A T

By William Teach January 25, 2024 – 6:45 am

Everyone wanted Texas Governor Greg Abbott to defy the SCOTUS ruling, but, there is no need

Texas is exploiting a loophole in a new Supreme Court ruling to keep putting up razor-wire fencing at the border

Texas is apparently taking advantage of a loophole in a recent Supreme Court ruling involving the US-Mexico border in order to keep putting up more razor-wire fencing along the Rio Grande riverbank.

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 Monday ruling delivered a huge win to the Biden administration in its ongoing legal battle with Texas over the southern border by allowing federal border agents to cut or move barbed wire fencing the Republican-controlled state installed at the border.

I wonder if the Texas lawyers argued that Texas was having to do the job of the federal government because Los Federales were failing to do their Constitutional job? Anyway

The ruling does not call for Texas to take any action in the matter — and the state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, suggested in a post to X on Wednesday that Texas will keep putting up the fencing, even if federal border agents take it down.

“Texas’ razor wire is an effective deterrent against the illegal border crossings encouraged by [President Joe] Biden’s open border policies,” Abbott said. “We continue to deploy this razor wire to repel illegal immigration.”

Meanwhile, a federal law enforcement source with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly told Business Insider on Wednesday that Texas can put up all the wire fencing it wants but that border agents have the right to cut it down if it gets in their way.

“If they put up wire, that’s fine,” the source said of Texas. “If it interferes with federal law enforcement’s ability to do its job, that’s when there’s an issue.”

Whoops! Big loophole. Texas can, and will, continue to put up razor wire. How quick can Los Federales take it down?

Meanwhile, because Democrats do not really understand, or care, about law or the Constitution, some want Brandon to federalize the Texas National Guard

Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro was the first to call for a federalization of the Texas National Guard, which as a military unit is ultimately under the command of President Biden as commander-in-chief.

Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) followed suit Wednesday in the wake of Abbott’s statement.

“I agree with Congressman Castro: if Abbott is defying yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, President Biden needs to establish sole federal control of the Texas National Guard,” said Casar.

Yeah, it actually doesn’t work that work. The POTUS can only take control of National Guard under very specific circumstances, otherwise they remain under control of the State. Under Title 32

1. 32 USC 502 (f): This statue allows member of the National Guard to be ordered to full-time National Guard duty
to perform operational activities. It was used for the Airport Security mission after 9/11 and also for Hurricane
Katrina and Rita response effort.
2. 32 USC § 901: The term “Homeland Defense activity” means an activity undertaken for the military protection of
the territory or domestic population of the U.S., or of infrastructure or other asset of the U.S. determined by the
Secretary of Defense as being critical to national security and at risk of a threat or aggression against the U.S.

There’s a few other abilities, however, they all pretty much say the same thing: for protecting the United States and enforcing the laws of the United States. It’s rather difficult to use them to stop the enforcement of the laws of the US, eh?

Read: Texas Gov. Abbott Follows Supreme Court Ruling On Border Razor Wire To A T »

Posted in Illegal Immigration, Joe Biden | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

Your Fault: Extreme Wave Hits Marshall Islands

By William Teach January 24, 2024 – 3:00 pm

See, rogue waves never happened prior to the fossil fueled vehicle and people eating meat, which really started this century, you know

Extreme wave in Marshall Islands highlights dangers of climate change, experts say

A series of extreme waves that wreaked havoc on a U.S. military base in the Marshall Islands could be indicative of more dangerous coastal behavior in the future, according to experts.

Flooding from the waves inundated one-third of the island of Roi-Namor, located in the Kwajalein Atoll in the northern Marshall Islands, according to the U.S. Army. The U.S. Army Garrison-Kwajalein Atoll base serves as a space and missile defense test range for the U.S. Department of Defense and contains some of the Army’s most sophisticated tracking equipment. (snip)

Sea level may have played a contributing factor into the severity of the waves and could cause them to occur more often in the future, Sienkiewicz said.

The Marshall Islands are considered at the very front lines of climate change, with research showing that rising sea levels contribute to powerful, destructive waves and more flooding in coastal areas as a result.

Several other factors, such as coastal topography, weather conditions and tide cycles, could have also played a role in the strength of the waves. Other causes could include a rapid change in the bathymetry, or the depth of the water, Sienkiewicz said.

I’m surprised they threw that last paragraph in, when, it’s clearly the fault of Other People buying new clothes and flying places. In fact, sea rise at the Marshall Islands is only .68 feet per 100 years, making it exactly average sea rise, when it should be much more during a Holocene warm period. Weather happens. Things are not static. Things change. That’s Earth. Climate cultists think things are always supposed to stay the same and never change.

Surprisingly, no one caught any video of the waves, just them hitting a building

I blame you.

Read: Your Fault: Extreme Wave Hits Marshall Islands »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach January 24, 2024 – 1:00 pm

…is a big city being flooded from sea rise, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Theo Spark, with a post on trusting the government.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

Excitable Chuck Schumer Super Concerned Over Zyn Nicotine Pouches

By William Teach January 24, 2024 – 10:30 am

Having solved all the big issues facing America, Chuck has Ideas

Schumer’s call for federal crackdown on Zyn nicotine pouches faces backlash: ‘Nanny state alive and well’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has called for a federal crackdown on Zyn nicotine pouches, eliciting strong backlash in return.

The Democrat lawmaker recently issued a “warning to parents” and said young people are getting hooked on the nicotine pouches from social media, CBS New York reported on Sunday.

“It’s a pouch packed with problems – high levels of nicotine,” Schumer said at a press conference. “So today, I’m delivering a warning to parents because these nicotine pouches seem to lock their sites on young kids, teenagers and even lower. And then use the social media to hook them.”

The local outlet reported Schumer is urging the Federal Trade Commission and Food and Drug Administration to investigate Zyn “for concerns relating to marketing and health effects.”

Chuckles is concerned that how Zyn markets is enticing kids. You know, the same kids that are seeing all this advertising and all these THC and similar products everywhere, including the state of New York, where “cannabis” is legal. Should kids be using nicotine pouches? Probably not, same way they shouldn’t be vaping. Probably a lot better than smoking, and certainly a whole lot better than alcohol. Most of those pouches have multiple levels of nicotine. I tend to get the lowest levels. I do not gen Zyn much, because they’re a little more expensive than others and only have 15 pouches. I tend to get On, which isn’t as good, but, you get 20 for less. Velo is good. Do not care for Rogue, they are too thick. It keeps me from smoking much (I don’t want to quit, my only vice. I rarely drink, do not do drugs), and they do not contain all those extra chemicals like cigarettes. Which kids get. Oh, and they get other things

“Joe Biden wants to ban menthol cigarettes. Chuck Schumer wants to ban Zyn. The nanny state is alive and well with today’s Democrat Party,” the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) wrote on X.

Nanny state for that stuff. But not

Huh

As more teens overdose on fentanyl, schools face a drug crisis unlike any other

Kids of all ages are dying from fentanyl, some who take it on purpose, some by accident. Even toddlers are dying from it. But, let’s worry about Zyn.

Read: Excitable Chuck Schumer Super Concerned Over Zyn Nicotine Pouches »

Posted in Barking Moonbats, Democrats | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Good News: Asheville Spent Millions On Electric Buses: Most No Longer Operate

By William Teach January 24, 2024 – 7:15 am

Electric buses cost 3 to 4 times what a regular diesel bus costs, but, we’ve been Reliably Told that they will save around $100K over the lifespan of the EBs. They have to run first

From the link

The city of Asheville, North Carolina, shelled out millions of dollars in 2018 to add five electric buses to its fleet. Now, three of the five sit idle, and city employees are telling the cautionary tale.

Asheville’s interim transportation director, Jessica Morriss, told local station WLOS-TV that the three out-of-commission buses are down due to a combination of software issues and mechanical problems, and one has had a broken door since July that can’t be replaced.

“We haven’t been able to get new doors,” Morriss told the outlet. “There’s no third party that makes a door. We’d have to get custom-made doors.”

Part of the issue is that the company that made the electric buses, Proterra, filed for bankruptcy in August. According to the News & Observer, Proterra’s operations are still shut down. The company was recently purchased by Phoenix Motor, but it is unclear when parts and services for Proterra buses will be available.

They can’t get a door. A door. Regular buses are fixed easy peasy, and you don’t have to deal with software problems.

In the meantime, Asheville is staring down losses from a major investment. Morriss told WLOS that each bus cost at least $616,000, and the city had to spend another $200,000 for the installation of each charger, another $118,000 every year to lease batteries for the buses, and nearly $45,500 annually in electric costs to charge them.

Wait, leasing batteries? Along with the cost of the buses, which are three times the average cost of a commuter bus.

She also noted that maintenance costs for the electric buses have topped $250,000. At the same time, having most of the electric buses out of operation has increased wear and tear on the rest of the 32 buses in the fleet, which either run on biodiesel or are hybrid models.

Yeah, maybe they should have just bought good old reliable diesel buses

Maintenance director John McDaniel also weighed in on the problems Asheville has had with its electric buses. He told WLOS that the two electric buses that are still in operation can only travel around 78 miles in the wintertime before needing to return to the shop and charge for hours.

What a fantastic investment.

Read: Good News: Asheville Spent Millions On Electric Buses: Most No Longer Operate »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

Hamas Declines 2 Month Ceasefire In Exchange For Hostages

By William Teach January 24, 2024 – 7:00 am

Hamas and liberals: “We want a ceasefire!”

Israel: “Sure, we’ll give you 2 months, just release the hostages”

US State Dept designated terrorist organization Hamas: “No.”

Hamas said to reject Israeli offer of two-month pause in war for release of hostages

Hamas has rejected Israel’s proposal for a two-month ceasefire during which the terror group would release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners, said a senior Egyptian official on Tuesday, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The official said that Hamas leaders have also refused to leave Gaza and are demanding that Israel fully withdraw from the territory and allow Palestinians to return to their homes.

Israel did not confirm the report. Channel 12 news quoted unnamed Israeli officials saying on Tuesday evening that Israel has not been informed of Hamas rejecting the offer. (snip)

The Axios news site reported on Monday that Israel had submitted a proposal through Qatari and Egyptian mediators that would see it agree to pause its military offensive in exchange for a phased release of the remaining 136 hostages in Gaza.

The proposal does not heed Hamas’s demand for Israel to end the war completely, but does appear to go further than Israel has gone in previous offers, two Israeli officials were cited as saying.

The leaders of Hamas, who make sure they are nowhere near any fighting, do not want the war to end. They do not care how many Palestinians are killed. They want Israel to be demonized as the Bad Guy.

The offer is relatively similar to ones that have reportedly been proffered since a seven-day truce ended nearly two months ago. Hamas has insisted that it will not agree to release any hostages unless the fighting in Gaza ceases for good — a nonstarter for Israel, as it would leave those who orchestrated the October 7 massacre in power, and with parts of the Hamas war machine intact.

These are the people Democrats back. Terrorists.

Read: Hamas Declines 2 Month Ceasefire In Exchange For Hostages »

Posted in Israel, RoP | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

Is Nikki Haley Going Climate Cult?

By William Teach January 23, 2024 – 3:00 pm

I’d love for her to answer the question “do you believe the current warm period is mostly/solely caused by humanity, and, if so, what do you propose to do about it?”

Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley Says Climate Change is Real. Is She Proposing Anything to Stop It?

climate cowIn her recent memoir, presidential candidate Nikki Haley recounted a telling anecdote about her role in pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017 when she served as the nation’s United Nations ambassador.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pleaded with her not to do it, she said. Prior to joining the Trump Administration, Tillerson was the chief executive of ExxonMobil, the world’s largest non-government owned oil and gas company, and had spent his career overseeing the extraction of the very fossil fuels that made a global climate agreement necessary. He argued that the U.S. needed to stay in the Paris agreement as part of a larger effort to save the country from Trump’s worst instincts.

Haley wouldn’t have it. In With All Due Respect, a book she published in 2019, she writes that Tillerson and other cabinet members who opposed the President’s policies were “dangerous” and “disloyal.”

But, now

Fast forward five years: Haley is now running against her former boss in the Republican presidential primary. Unlike Trump, who maintains that climate change is a “hoax,” Haley says global warming is real and needs to be addressed.

She positions herself as a moderate alternative to frontrunner Trump and the “chaos” that follows him. The American Conservation Coalition Action, a conservative environmental organization, gives the former ambassador its highest ranking among Republican presidential candidates for efforts to address climate change.

However, beyond acknowledging the reality of climate change, there is little daylight between Haley and Trump on climate policy.

Earlier this fall, Haley denigrated the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in reducing carbon emissions in U.S. history, as a “communist manifesto” of “green energy handouts” that she would repeal if elected.

Now, you can Believe in anthropogenic climate change without advocating for the Big Government authoritarian, big taxation policies of the climate cult, but, few do. Since her Nikki for POTUS website has nothing (nor any policies for anything), I had to go to the Washington Post

1. Causes of climate change
Do you believe that climate change is largely driven by human activity, including the burning of fossil fuels? If not, is there a different cause you would cite?

Yes. “Is climate change real? Yes, it is,” Haley said during the first GOP presidential primary debate in August 2023. In a 2020 video released by her advocacy group Stand for America, Haley also declared that “man-made climate change is real, but liberal ideas would cost trillions and destroy our economy.”

She’s said, briefly, that Bad Weather is caused by you driving a fossil fueled vehicle. But

3. How to address climate change
Should climate change be addressed through government action or market forces?

Market forces. In 2017, during her time as U.N. ambassador, Haley helped orchestrate President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, which seeks to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Haley has also supported efforts by the private sector to develop and deploy carbon capture technologies. “The private sector produces innovative ideas that actually work, like capturing CO2 before it goes into our air [and] reforestation — a.k.a. planting more trees and forests to soak up CO2,” she said in the 2020 video released by Stand for America, her advocacy group.

The problem here is that she might believe in market forces, but, her Belief in ACC would mean she would let federal agencies run wild with their Nanny State policies and sign legislation that enables more Big Government.

So, yeah, she’s squishy, and concerns me. I’m not a single issue voter, and she’s still be better than any Democrat, but, garbage like this could push me towards Trump. Unfortunately.

Read: Is Nikki Haley Going Climate Cult? »

Posted in Global Warming | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach January 23, 2024 – 1:00 pm

…are trees losing their leaves and getting thing from carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is This ain’t Hell…, with a post on video contradicting key cop testimony on the Oath Keepers.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Teachers Push NEA To Abandon Biden Over Supporting Israel Over Hamas

By William Teach January 23, 2024 – 10:30 am

I’m surprised it took this long since teachers have been instrumental over pushing Islamist propaganda and hating on Jews and Israel. Probably not as bad as in colleges, more subtle

These Teachers Want the Largest Union in the Country to Rescind its Biden Endorsement Over Gaza

When Israel escalated its military operations against Gaza in October, Rahaf Othman was so distraught, she said, she “couldn’t think straight.” The 45-year-old Palestinian American, who teaches social studies at Harold L. Richards High School in Oak Lawn, Ill., recalled that she “started getting nightmares from my own experiences when I was in Palestine. I was functional at work, but barely functional. My brain was mush. I was getting traumatized every time I turned on my phone.”

Excuse me, “escalated”? Like, they simply decided to attack Gaza for no reason?

“For the first month, people were asking me what we should do, but I couldn’t think, couldn’t focus.” While in this state, she said she discovered that she could lean on some of her colleagues. “Educators rallied together and created this group, Educators for Palestine. I am grateful they brought me along for the ride.”

Asking a person of a group which no other Arab nation will take in what to do is like asking a meth user if you should give up drugs. Doesn’t say much about a teacher if they cannot think, but, hey, social studies is a good way to gently indoctrinate kids into hating Jews.

Othman is a member of the Illinois Education Association (IEA) Local 218, which covers an area to the south of Chicago, part of the 3 million–strong National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor union in the United States. She is now part of a member effort to press the NEA to put real muscle behind supporting a cease-fire, one prong in a small-but-growing campaign within the US labor movement.

But the rank-and-file campaign goes beyond demanding an end to Israel’s military operations, which have killed at least 22,000 Palestinians, 12,000 of them children. Othman and other members want the NEA to revoke its endorsement of Joe Biden for the 2024 presidential race until the president secures a “permanent cease-fire,” stops “sending military funding, equipment, and intelligence to Israel,” and commits “to a fair due process for asylum-seekers and refugees.”

In other words, back the US State Dept. designated terrorist group Hamas and allow huge numbers of Palestinians who support Hamas into the U.S.

The demand is eye-catching, because Biden appeared to really want the NEA’s endorsement: The president addressed the union by video at its last representative assembly in July 2023. And first lady Jill Biden has made her long-term membership in NEA a key part of her public political identity. “You—all of you—make me proud to be a longtime member of the NEA,” Jill Biden said in an August 2023 address to educators.

Oh, please, he addressed them because they always support the Democrat and always give lots of money. When it comes to actually voting, they’ll turn out for Biden regardless.

For members of the NEA who are desperate to stop the killing of civilians in Gaza, making this support contingent on the Biden administration’s meaningful push for a cease-fire is the best leverage they have. The goal, they say, is not to help former president Donald Trump win but the opposite. “Getting President Biden to change his position on Israel will help him to beat Trump,” reads an explanatory document, circulated with the petition. “People who vote Democratic are overwhelmingly in support of a permanent ceasefire and disapprove of Biden’s handling of the situation.” Polling shows the majority of Americans want a cease-fire, including more than 70 percent of Democrats.

So, they’re overwhelmingly in support of a terrorist organization and all the Palestinians (which would be the majority) who support them and/or hate Jews and Israel? Who, in all cases, support the end of Israel as a nation?

It is a very long piece which subtly hates on Israel and Jews, making them seem to be the bad guys, but, this isn’t the first time. Back in 2021 the NEA, as pushed by Rahf Othman and others, were pushing for anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian measures to be a part of the NEA’s agenda. And the teachers, being good little leftists, will take the side of the Palestinians, a group no Arab nation will take in because of their Islamist leanings.

Meanwhile, here’s CBS being shady

Read: Teachers Push NEA To Abandon Biden Over Supporting Israel Over Hamas »

Posted in Democrats, Israel, RoP | 19 Comments | Trackback URL

Climahysterics Predict One Foot Of Sea Rise For NYC In Next Decade

By William Teach January 23, 2024 – 7:00 am

It’s pretty wild

(Salon) While doing research 12 or 13 years ago, I met Jim Hansen, the scientist who in 1988 predicted the greenhouse effect before Congress. I went over to the window with him and looked out on Broadway in New York City and said, “If what you’re saying about the greenhouse effect is true, is anything going to look different down there in 20 years?” He looked for a while and was quiet and didn’t say anything for a couple seconds. Then he said, “Well, there will be more traffic.” I, of course, didn’t think he heard the question right. Then he explained, “The West Side Highway [which runs along the Hudson River] will be under water. And there will be tape across the windows across the street because of high winds. And the same birds won’t be there. The trees in the median strip will change.” Then he said, “There will be more police cars.” Why? “Well, you know what happens to crime when the heat goes up.”

Oh, wait, wasn’t NYC’s West Side supposed to be under water already? Well, since that failed, let’s do another one

New York City sea levels could rise a foot in next decade

New York City sea levels could rise more than a foot by the 2030s, according to projections presented by a city climate panel.

The nation’s largest city will see as much as 10 percent more precipitation and temperature increases of 2 degrees to 4.7 degrees, the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) said at a presentation at the Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast. The presentation’s contents were first reported by The City.

Further into the century, “we can’t rule out” precipitation increases as high as 30 percent, said NPCC member Radley Horton, a climate professor at Columbia University, although he added that projecting precise precipitation increases “is not a strength of climate models.”

Already, “coastal New York City is experiencing a slightly higher rate of sea level rise than the global average,” Horton added, and “sea level rise, even if it doesn’t sound like much … matters an enormous amount. If you raise that baseline by a foot … the high water levels that you might see during the occasional storm, if we add a foot of water to that, we suddenly have the events that used to be very rare happening many times more than they used to,” such as high-tide flooding.

Notice that they use the squishy “could.” Will it or won’t it, guys? Let’s look at actual measurements

.95 feet per 100 years. Which is over average for the last 8,000 years (6-8 inches per century), which would encompass cool periods where you have low to negative sea rise. So, actual measurements, which do not show one foot in 100 years, will not happen in the next 10. Kings Point, which is just to the east of NYC at the most western edge of Long Island sound shows .85 feet per 100 years.

Read: Climahysterics Predict One Foot Of Sea Rise For NYC In Next Decade »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 6 Comments | Trackback URL
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