Brandon Admin Says US Citizens Should Leave Belarus ASAP

By William Teach August 23, 2023 – 10:30 am

Remember when we were told that Biden brought tons of foreign policy experience? That this would be a new age of diplomacy, a complete break from bull in a china shop Trump? That countries would love the U.S. again? That they would respect the U.S. again? Funny how these foreign crisis keep cropping up

US citizens urged to leave Belarus immediately

The Biden administration is urging U.S. citizens in Belarus to depart the country immediately and warned against travel there in a statement published Monday.

The updated travel warning comes after bordering countries Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have stepped up security along the border over concerns about Russian Wagner mercenary forces exiled in the country.

The State Department, in its warning, encouraged Americans still in Belarus to depart the country immediately and categorized the country as a Level 4 risk, the highest security warning.

Belarus’s longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko, known as Europe’s last dictator, has been a key facilitator of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, and is under a catalog of U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses and political repression against Belarusian people who challenged his claim to election victory in 2020.

The U.S. mission in Belarus is scaled down and only handles emergency American Citizen Services.

It’s like a repeat of the Obama admin, when Biden was vice president.

(Washington Times) After all, the unpredictable amateurs in the Trump administration delivered broader peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors, stronger ties with Britain and Japan, and relative calm in Afghanistan. They also put Russian President Vladimir Putin in a box, eliminated Lt. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the world’s most sinister terrorist, and kept Communist China on its side of the Taiwan Strait. But don’t worry, The Washington Post and The New York Times said — the experts would restore America’s rightful place at the Davos gabfest. (snip)

U.S. forces left Afghanistan with dozens of young service members dead and our reputation in tatters. The experts did not even have the decency to tell the British, French, Dutch and Italians that we were leaving. Boris Johnson could not get a return phone call. The whiz kids said the Abraham Accords was a public relations stunt and proceeded to hand the theocratic fanatics in Tehran $150 billion in exchange for not developing nuclear weapons until after the Biden administration departs. At the same time, the Arabs and Israelis now look to their collective defense and have even contacted the Russian dictator, Mr. Putin, because they can’t trust the administration to combat the mullahs.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping is telling the Biden administration exactly what he wants to do to Taiwan and the West. Yet the White House does not seem to believe him. Mr. Xi has plainly stated that a forced unification of Taiwan with the mainland is an option. He has already wrecked Hong Kong’s democratic autonomy. He has threatened Australia, India, the Philippines and Vietnam while militarizing the South China Sea. But Taiwan is the key. To the Chinese Communist Party, an independent, democratic Taiwan represents a century of humiliation. Gaining control of Taiwan establishes Beijing’s hegemony over the most vital areas of the Pacific.

Yet, Biden is more intent on appeasing China and working with them on ‘climate change’. North Korea is getting frisky (the Washington Times piece is from January 2023). The OPEC nations told Biden to pound sand on higher oil production. Let’s not forget the utter mess when the Biden admin evacuated the US embassy in Sudan, giving little notice to regular citizens (in fairness, they should have known how dangerous the nation was), and pretty much left them hanging in the wind. Oh, and, hey, allowing a Chinese balloon to fly over the entire US before shooting it down in the Atlantic Ocean. Even the NY Times said Biden’s foreign policy is a mess. Just imagine how much worse it would be if he was working more than 30 hours a week and not taking every weekend off?

Read: Brandon Admin Says US Citizens Should Leave Belarus ASAP »

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ZOMG, Climate Gentrification Could Be Coming To Maui

By William Teach August 23, 2023 – 7:15 am

This might be a new one to Jazz Shaw, but, I’ve read this one a few times, though the climate cultists do not trot it out that often

In Hawaii, concerns over ‘climate gentrification’ rise after devastating Maui fires

…

More than 3,000 buildings in Lahaina were damaged by fire, smoke or both. Insured property losses alone already total some $3.2 billion, according to Karen Clark & Company, a prominent disaster and risk modeling firm.

With a housing crisis that has priced out many Native Hawaiians as well as families that have been there for decades, concerns are rising that the state could become the latest example of “climate gentrification,” when it becomes harder for local people to afford housing in safer areas after a climate-amped disaster.

It’s a term Jesse Keenan, an associate professor of sustainable real estate and urban planning at Tulane University School of Architecture, first started lecturing about in 2013 after he noticed changes in housing markets following extreme weather events.

Jennifer Gray Thompson is CEO of After the Fire USA, a wildfire recovery and resiliency organization in the western U.S., and worked for Sonoma County during the destructive Tubbs Fire in October 2017. Thompson said Maui is one of the “scariest opportunities for gentrification” that she’s seen because of “the very high land values and the intense level of trauma and the people who are unscrupulous who will come in to try to take advantage of that.”

So, yeah, they’re Blaming this on Hotcoldwetdry

While one extreme weather event cannot be entirely blamed on climate change, experts say storms, fires and floods, which are becoming more damaging in a warming world, help make Hawaii one of the riskiest states in the country. Earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes, which are not related to climate change, also add to this risk.

Oh, you mean like a string of islands with active volcanoes, that are in the way of tropical storms, get earthquakes from the volcanic activity, would be subject to tsunamis from earthquakes around the Pacific, and can generate their own with landslides from the volcanoes?

Maui has stringent affordable housing requirements for new multifamily construction, Tyndall said. But the practical effect has been that very little housing gets built. So new supply is low, both for affordable housing and rentals at market rate, “which just makes housing more expensive for everyone,” he said.

They’re islands thousands of miles away from the mainland, with low product supply for construction, especially since the government is beyond restrictive on cutting down trees for new construction. Most stuff needs to come on fossil fueled ships, unless you want a bamboo hut.

Katharine Mach, professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, cautioned against immediately labelling a situation climate gentrification, because that makes it difficult to tease out the other factors such as decades of discrimination, racism and land use changes.

Gentrification is usually used in terms of white people moving into neighborhoods which were mostly black, often young hipsters/urban professionals, and buying everything up, making the areas safer, cleaner, better property values, more prosperous, like what happened in downtown Detroit. And this is what the AP is trying to push, forgetting to mention that it really would be more about rich folks of all colors buying out the properties, perhaps using third parties. Just like all that property Oprah has snapped up for nothing in Maui. And there is already talk about it taking years and years before the property is OK to rebuild, where the Powers That Be say it is too polluted at this time.

Seriously, there are over 800 still missing, lots of them children, and the climate ghouls are peddling their insane cult crap.

Read: ZOMG, Climate Gentrification Could Be Coming To Maui »

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It Starts: Atlanta College Requires Masks

By William Teach August 23, 2023 – 7:00 am

There couldn’t possibly be an ulterior motive for this, right?

Atlanta’s Morris Brown College Ushers in Mask Mandate

Atlanta’s Morris Brown College is re-embracing mask mandates, years after initial panic over the coronavirus.

While many universities and colleges have dropped coronavirus mandates — such as vaccine requirements and mask requirements — some clearly remaining open to reinstating them. Atlanta’s Morris Brown College is among those, sharing the announcement on social media this week.

The August 20 update states, “Effective immediately, Morris Brown College has reinstated its COVID-19 mask mandate due to reports of positive cases among students in the Atlanta University Center.”

Because of that, the school is requiring all students and employees to mask up, maintain physical distance, avoid large gatherings, and comply with contract-tracing for the next 14 days.

It might be a little premature for instituting all the insane, and against state law, election rules for 2024, what about

Nah, that couldn’t be it, right? What if the kiddies had their COVID shots? We were told we’d get our lives back if we took them, so, they don’t need to mask up (not like they work at all, and, really, make it worse, because masked up people will get too close to each other), right? And these kids are the least likely to get really sick from COVID. Probably no worse than a cold or the flu (which transmit easily, so, why no masking for that?), and you know the kiddies won’t be wearing them anywhere off campus while partying.

It doesn’t make a difference that the Fulton County Jail, where Trump and the others must turn themselves in, is only a few miles from the college, right?

Also

As Breitbart News reported:

Lionsgate is requiring employees who physically work at its headquarters in Santa Monica to wear masks at all times when in the building, effective immediately, except when alone in an enclosed office or large open workspace. In addition, employees are required to submit to daily COVID testing and to report the results to the company, according to an internal memo obtained by Deadline.

COVID doesn’t get you while eating, of course.

Read: It Starts: Atlanta College Requires Masks »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus, Liberal World | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

Politico: Say, You Know All That Green Energy? Someone Has To Pay For It

By William Teach August 22, 2023 – 3:00 pm

Again, I’m not against “green” energy: I’m all for it, as long as it is affordable, dependable, and reliable. Oh, and that it doesn’t create an environmental (meaning, not climate scam) mess

States have big hopes for renewable energy. Get ready to pay for it.

A generational push to tackle climate change in New York is quickly becoming a pocketbook issue headed into 2024.

Some upstate New York electric customers are already paying 10 percent of their utility bill to support the state’s effort to move off fossil fuels and into renewable energy. In the coming years, people across the state can expect to give up even bigger chunks of their income to the programs — $48 billion in projects is set to be funded by consumers over the next two decades.

The scenario is creating a headache for New York Democrats grappling with the practical and political risk of the transition.

It’s an early sign of the dangers Democrats across the country will face as they press forward with similar policies at the state and federal level. New Jersey, Maryland and California are also wrestling with the issue and, in some cases, are reconsidering their ambitious plans.

“This is bad politics. This is politics that are going to hurt all New Yorkers,” said state Sen. Mario Mattera, a Long Island Republican who has repeatedly questioned the costs of the state’s climate law and who will pay for it.

Democrats, Mattera said, have been unable to explain effectively the costs for the state’s goals. “We need to transition into renewable energy at a certain rate, a certain pace,” he said.

Places like NYC, Albany, and Buffalo, among others, should be forced to implement these green energy sources: let’s see how well they do, and how well the mostly Democratic party voting residents enjoy it. Seriously, can you imagine NYC running on pure renewable? With all those skyscrapers? Good luck! What they really need is their own gen 5 or 6 nuclear power plant.

Proponents say the switch will ultimately lower energy bills by harnessing the sun and wind, result in significant health benefits and — critically — help stave off the most devastating climate change scenarios. And they hope federal money from the Inflation Reduction Act, celebrating its one-year anniversary, can limit costs to consumers.

When will it lower bills? Reporters almost never ask politicians this as mostly left-wing politicians mandate this stuff, a vast over-reach of their authority. Where’s that money for the IRA coming from?

Even Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who is fond of saying that “we’re the last generation to be able to do anything” about climate change, last spring balked at the potential price tag of a policy to achieve New York’s climate targets. And she’s not the only top member of her party to say so.

“If it’s all just going to be passed along to the ratepayers — at some point, there’s a breaking point, and we don’t want to lose public support for this agenda,” state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, a Democrat, warned in an interview. (snip)

New York City “supports efforts to transform our electric system away from fossil fuels to sustainable, carbon-free technologies,” a lawyer for Mayor Eric Adams’ administration wrote in recent comments on a potential new clean energy subsidy. “However, the City is very concerned that the cost of utility service is becoming unaffordable for many New Yorkers.”

Unaffordable, huh? Democrats are gung ho about this stuff in theory, but, as soon as it become practice, well, their tune tends to change.

Of course, the bigwigs will still push this stuff, and the bureaucrats won’t let them stop. And since New Yorkers, and other Blue state residents, will continue to vote Democrat, their power bills will continue to skyrocket. They’re getting what they voted for.

A study released by the state’s utility regulators last summer found Murphy’s clean energy policies could increase rates by 10 percent to 20 percent unless people use less energy, buy an electric car and rip out their natural gas appliances to install new electric appliances.

So, unless you are forced to do these things, reduce the standard of your life, you’ll pay through the nose. And, even if you do these things, you’ll pay through the nose since two of those things require the use of more electricity.

Read: Politico: Say, You Know All That Green Energy? Someone Has To Pay For It »

Posted in Democrats, Energy, Global Warming | 10 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 22, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…is a sea that is soon to flood the world, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is No Tricks Zone, with a post on four more temperature reconstructions causing issues with the Warmist narrative.

Read: If All You See… »

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Brandon Admin Resists Calls From Sanctuary Cities To Do Something

By William Teach August 22, 2023 – 10:30 am

How brilliant of a move was it to send illegals/migrants to sanctuary cities and states around the country by Texas, Florida, and Arizona?

Feds resist cities’ requests on migrants over legal, border concerns

Officials in New York are assembling tent cities for those who can’t be placed in a shelter system of more than 200 hotels and other facilities that is already housing 60,000 migrants and more than 50,000 homeless residents.

In Chicago, which is housing over 7,000 migrants, police stations and parks have been converted into makeshift shelters, and plans to house asylum-seekers in vacant schools have generated fervent local backlash. In cities like Sacramento and Denver, some migrants have found themselves on the brink of homelessness. In Boston and other parts of Massachusetts, the arrival of thousands of families and pregnant women seeking asylum prompted the state’s governor to declare an emergency. (snip)

The cities’ struggles to house tens of thousands of destitute migrants, and their growing calls for federal action, have also placed mounting pressure on the Biden administration to intervene. Local leaders have implored the administration for funds and to allow migrants to work legally so they can be self-sufficient. (snip)

The Biden administration has set aside $770 million for New York, Chicago, Denver, Boston and other cities, both in the interior and along the southern border, this fiscal year through Federal Emergency Management Agency programs for entities supporting migrants. The administration recently asked Congress to authorize $600 million in additional funds.

But the administration has refrained from taking other actions requested by local leaders, such as granting migrants temporary legal status so they can apply for work permits more quickly. Current and former U.S. officials, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said concerns about lawsuits and the possibility of encouraging more unauthorized arrivals along the southern border were among the reasons why the administration has been reluctant to do more.

Ukraine has been getting more money. Giving them work permits doesn’t solve the problem, just takes jobs away from Americans in a tight job market, and create more problems in an already tight housing market. As for encouraging arrivals, well, that’s a complete BS excuse, because Democrats and the Biden admin have been encouraging them.

Politically, the cities’ concerns about the number of migrants in need of shelter have placed the administration in the awkward position of fielding public criticism from Democratic allies on a divisive issue that Republicans are eager to highlight heading into an election year.

“Once this shifted from being an ideological fight about the border to a real question of the cost the cities are assuming, that changed the political calculus,” said Andrew Seele, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. “It is visible. It is costly for cities. And it is causing a reaction among city leaders, most of whom are Democrats.”

They’re getting what they wanted for Other Areas, and are upset it’s happening in their own. Democrats say the immigration system is broken, but, the only thing that’s broken is not enforcing immigration law. It’s funny, illegals have been destroying TX, New Mexico, Florida, and AZ for years but you send a few thousands to their beloved blue cities and you can’t stop hearing about it. You rarely read about it in those areas, eh?

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul commits $20 million more in aide to tens of thousands of migrants

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday that the state will pour an additional $20 million into aiding asylum-seekers in New York City with the goal of helping them exit emergency shelters, secure work authorizations and manage their claims for asylum.

The newly announced outlay is in addition to $1.5 billion the state has already directed toward the city to address the migrant crisis, which has strained the city’s social services infrastructure since last April.

So, lots and lots of taxpayer money to pay for non-citizens. You voted for this, a goodly chunk of you New Yorkers.

Read: Brandon Admin Resists Calls From Sanctuary Cities To Do Something »

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Who’s Up For Eating Jellyfish Due To Global Boiling?

By William Teach August 22, 2023 – 7:15 am

There’s an old Washington Post article from back during the mid-George W. Bush years, during the rise of the Blogosphere, where they interviewed a bunch of hard-left with Bush Derangement Syndrome, and one was talking about how she got up, cracked a non-alcoholic beer, lit a smoke, and thought about what hatred she would spew at BushCo. This is similar to the climate cult, where they apparently look for ways to link anything and everything to ‘climate change’ then doom-monger it

Out With Shrimp, In With Jellyfish? Seafood Industry Facing Potential Overhaul Due To Climate Change

Record-breaking ocean warming, shifting currents and continued development in coastal communities are all contributing to a changing planet and concerning climate patterns that stand to dramatically impact the world’s seafood supply and could deliver a $10 billion hit to fisheries annually by 2050.

A steady rise in ocean temperatures over the last year has outpaced the decades-long average warming of the oceans, according to the Washington Post, and average global ocean temperatures in June were almost a full degree Celsius above the average recorded from 1982 to 2011—delivering a major blow to the habitats of the world’s most commonly consumed seafood species. (it’s a very weirdly written piece, if you click the link, so, snipping way down to the last paragraph)

Not all creatures are negatively impacted by warming waters. Biologists and fishers say squid, or calamari, are not only quickly evolving to survive the changing ocean temperatures—they’re thriving. A Current Biology study says the population of cephalopods, which also includes octopus, have increased globally over the last six decades. Another study, published in the Journal of Marine and Coastal Fisheries, says the population along the Pacific coast multiplied by as much as 39 times between 1998 and 2019, and Oregon has a squid fishing industry for the first time as the animals move further north. The downside? The squid most commonly eaten by humans, including longfin squid and Humboldt squid, are major predators of shrimp and have led to the collapse of some shrimp populations, particularly during extreme heat waves. Jellyfish also thrive in warm waters, according to Science Friday, suggesting jellyfish-based dishes most common in China and Vietnam now could be seen as a more sustainable seafood option. The Vietnamese eat a traditional salad called G?i s?a with jellyfish, onions and fried rice, and a similar cold salad is popular in China’s northeastern provinces.

So, I guess Warmists should save the planet and start eating jellyfish, right?

Read: Who’s Up For Eating Jellyfish Due To Global Boiling? »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 15 Comments | Trackback URL

Biden Makes It To Maui, Jokes About How Hot The Ground Is

By William Teach August 22, 2023 – 7:00 am

You can bet none of the nation media are mentioning this. I checked, ABC, CBS, NBC, LA Times, Washington Post, NY Times, and a few others

Listen to it yourself. It wasn’t a “good Lord, this is horrific that it is this hot on the ground.” It was meant in a joking manner

(CNN) President Joe Biden arrived in fire-ravaged Maui on Monday to witness up close the devastation left by an inferno more than a week ago and assess for himself a government response that some residents initially found lacking.

The trip brought Biden to the scene of the deadliest American wildfire in more than 100 years. His initial response to the Maui wildfires drew criticism earlier this month, mainly from Republicans, who seized upon a nearly five-day period of silence between Biden’s first comments about the fires to when he next publicly addressed the tragedy.

Pretty sure others “seized” on it, too (rest is below the “more” tag)

Read More »

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850 People Are Still Missing In Maui

By William Teach August 21, 2023 – 3:28 pm

I have to wonder, why is this not bigger news? 850 Americans still missing? Why is news about Maui such low priority? Is it because Biden had no interest in visiting? Kinda like how the East Palestine train derailment was minimized after a few days?

850 people are still missing after Maui wildfires, mayor says

As of Monday morning, 850 people are still listed as missing after the the deadly Lahaina wildfire, Hawaii officials said, citing data compiled by the FBI and local authorities. In a video posted on social media, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said 114 people have been confirmed dead, 27 have been identified and 11 families have been notified.

Bissen said while more than 800 people are still missing, that list once contained 2,000 names. “To the tireless work of the FBI and the Maui Police Department, 1,285 individuals have been located safe,” he said. “We are both saddened and relieved about these numbers as we continue the recovery process.”

Bissen said there will be daily fluctuation to these numbers, and he urged those with immediate family members who are missing after the fires to provide DNA samples to help assist in the identification process. A Family Assistance Center has been set up at the Hyatt Regency Ka’anapali on Nohea Kai Drive for local people to provide those samples.

The mayor is not happy having to answer questions, though

How dare anyone ask him a question! Why is it so difficult for elected and other public employees to answer questions these days?

Read: 850 People Are Still Missing In Maui »

Posted in Current Affairs | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 21, 2023 – 1:00 pm

…is a hazy, smoke filled sky from carbon pollution wildfires, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Not A Lot O fPeople Know That, with a post on Texans asked to reduce their electricity usage as the wind drops.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 6 Comments | Trackback URL
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