Poll: By A 4-1 Margin Americans Say They Are Not Better Off Than Last Year

By William Teach March 22, 2022 – 8:23 am

Perhaps a lot of people should have thought more about their vote, what kinds of policies they were voting for, rather than losing their minds over mean tweets

I&I/TIPP Poll: Are You Better Off Today Than A Year Ago? By 4-To-1, Americans Say ‘No’

Are you better off today under President Joe Biden than you were a year earlier? And are you financially prepared for a downturn in the economy or a job loss? The March I&I/TIPP Poll suggests most Americans would answer “no” to both of those questions.

The poll asked: “Generally speaking, is your family better off today than it was one year ago, worse off than it was one year ago, or about the same as it was a year ago?”

Fewer than one in five (20%) said they were “better off.” while more than twice that number — 42% — said they were “worse off.” Another 36% said they were “about the same.”

Taken as a whole, that means 78% of Americans have seen no progress or improvement at all in their financial and economic lives since Biden took over in early 2020.

Despite this, Biden’s recent speeches have included references to the “best economic growth in the last four decades.”

Well, in fairness, you wouldn’t expect Biden to say that things are not good. That just doesn’t happen in politics anymore. Rarely will the party in power acknowledge the actual problems, especially in a mid-terms year. Unless it’s a problem the Democrats can fear-monger over, in order to spend lots of taxpayer money and take away freedom and liberty, like with the climate crisis scam. The GOP will tend to go after the border and national security. Regardless, they usually acknowledge the issue in private, and attempt to deal with the problem. Biden and the Democrats are in La La Land when it comes to the economy

In the same poll, I&I/TIPP also asked Americans, “How much does your household have in emergency savings — that is, money that is readily available in either a checking, savings or money-market account?”

Respondents were given eight possible responses: “No emergency savings,” “One month’s expenses,” “Two months’ expenses,” “Three months’ expenses,” “Four months’ expenses,” “Five months’ expenses,” “Six months’ expenses or more,” and “Not sure.”

Sadly, the biggest category by far was “No emergency savings,” at 34%. Both “One month’s” and “Two months’ ” garnered 11% each.

So 56% of all Americans, over half of the population, have either no savings or barely enough to last two months, should economic trouble occur. For most, that means they are one job loss or personal injury away from economic disaster.

#Let’sGoBrandon! Is it any wonder that Biden’s approval rating is under water badly? That people consistently say America is on the wrong track? That Biden polls horribly on the economy? Americans need to really start thinking about policies and results when voting, rather than personality.

Read: Poll: By A 4-1 Margin Americans Say They Are Not Better Off Than Last Year »

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SEC Floats New Climate Scam Disclosure Rule

By William Teach March 21, 2022 – 3:00 pm

They just want to make business harder and more expensive

The S.E.C. moves closer to enacting a sweeping climate disclosure rule.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has said for the first time that public companies must tell their shareholders and the federal government how they affect the climate, a sweeping proposal long demanded by environmental advocates.

The nation’s top financial regulator gave initial approval to the much-anticipated climate disclosure rule at a meeting on Monday, moving forward with a measure that would bolster the Biden administration’s stalled environmental agenda.

The proposed rule — approved by a 3-1 vote — was a major step toward holding companies accountable for their role in climate change and giving investors more leverage in forcing changes to business practices that have contributed to rising global temperatures.

Ben Cushing, who leads the Sierra Club’s push for stronger climate disclosures, cheered what he called a “long-overdue step” and urged the commission to quickly finalize “the strongest rule possible.”

It still must go through the rule making process, but, does anyone think the climate cultists won’t make this happen?

The SEC’s Climate-Change Overreach

The Securities and Exchange Commission will propose sweeping new rules this week requiring publicly traded, and perhaps even private, companies to disclose extensive climate-related data and additional “climate risks.”

Setting climate policy is the job of lawmakers, not the SEC, whose role is to facilitate the investment decision-making process. Companies choose how best to comply and thrive under those polices, and investors decide which business strategies to back. That approach addresses many societal issues—think vaccines—and enhances global welfare. Taking a new, activist approach to climate policy—an area far outside the SEC’s authority, jurisdiction and expertise—will deservedly draw legal challenges. What’s worse, it puts our time-tested approach to capital allocation, as well as the agency’s independence and credibility, at risk.

That’s correct, the SEC shouldn’t be basing this on some tiny bit of language in another bill, possibly one that has little relation to ‘climate change’. Congress is responsible for this, not unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats.

Understanding and addressing global climate change is one of the most complex and significant issues of our time. Some predict we face inevitable catastrophe, while others say the costs of the transition to a “net-zero world” outweigh the benefits

We know four things for sure. First, implementing an economywide emissions-reduction policy will have a profound impact on the domestic energy, labor, transportation and housing markets, among others. Many jobs will be destroyed while others are created. Some businesses will close while others will flourish. Even if the long-term benefits outweigh the costs, near-term stresses on working Americans are inevitable and will be distributed unequally.

Government shouldn’t be picking winners and losers for a scam. Especially bureaucrats

Fourth, the body that the Constitution prescribes for weighing the relevant trade-offs in this area is Congress. Congress, duly elected by and responsible to the people, is precisely where climate policy, in all its complexities and consequences, should be resolved. Yet over decades, elected leaders have pushed hard policy questions to federal agencies staffed by unelected bureaucrats, whose decisions are reviewed only by unelected judges. This is at best bad for democracy and at worst unconstitutional.

Demanding that the SEC “act on climate change” allows politicians to say that they are working on their constituents’ behalf without accepting responsibility for the hard choices involved in crafting policy.

Exactly. And this will drive up costs, which are then passed on to consumers.

Read: SEC Floats New Climate Scam Disclosure Rule »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Economy, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach March 21, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is the land turning to desert from too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Greenie Watch, with a post on the Dems radical climate agenda being a political albatross.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 13 Comments | Trackback URL

NY Times Is Super Excited By Things We’ll Keep In Post Pandemic Life

By William Teach March 21, 2022 – 10:30 am

Post pandemic? From what? Do you see anything in the news about a pandemic? Oh, right, that Chinese coronavirus stuff, which mostly simply disappeared from the news when the polling became very inconvenient for Democrats, causing them to end most of their mandates toot-sweet, even though cases were higher than they were last summer. Do you see much about COVID? Vaccine mandates disappeared. I guess Brandon’s planned big employer mandate, set to kick in early January, was unnecessary. But, the NY Times really wants to keep certain aspects (you can also see it at WRAL, if the Times’ paywall gets you)

Six Things We’ll Keep From Pandemic Life

On Nov. 17, 1918, The New York Times published a lengthy interview with the city’s health commissioner, Royal Copeland, titled “Epidemic Lessons Against Next Time.” Copeland, who a few years later would become a United States senator, spoke about the city’s comparative success combating the Spanish flu, which at that point, although it had killed nearly 20,000 people, had caused considerably less devastation than in other major cities. Copeland credited this outcome in large part to systems and habits put in place during previous public health crises. Even a century earlier, there were, in other words, always takeaways.

Now, two years into the current pandemic, it seems like a good point to ask ourselves what changes — to our patterns, lifestyles and public spaces — might be with us for good, or at least for a very long time, given that the future will almost certainly bring new variants and disruption.

A mask will probably live in your pocket forever.

Mask-wearing, though popular in many countries around the world before the pandemic, especially where pollution is severe, was always regarded with suspicion in the United States — a sign of indulging unnecessary paranoia. Although masks became the subject of a lot of defiance in many states during the past two years, New Yorkers embraced them. Compliance with wearing masks on subways remains remarkable.

We have also learned that they have multiple uses — as face warmers, as shields against unpleasant street smells, as concealers of skin problems and, for women, as armor against men who pass you by on the street ordering you to “smile.” Their use is now normalized, and we’ll pull them out of the drawer every flu season.

I can see it to warm your face on a chilly, windy day. Smells? Not bloody likely. They do not stop smells, unless you’re dousing it in perfume/cologne. Armor? Please stop with this trope. I’m not carrying one with me, though, I still haven’t cleaned them out of my work bag or car center console. Will Mask Cultists continue to wear them incorrectly as they wear them voluntarily?

Remote school was a disaster. Remote work was fantastic.

I wouldn’t know, since my job can only be done in person at work. Some people love remote work, some don’t.

Everyone fell in love with biking.

If you didn’t already have a bike in the early phase of the pandemic, you soon learned that the bright idea to go buy one immediately was shared by many, many others. By the end of 2020, sales had nearly doubled nationwide, and waits for bikes could last months. Last year, Citi Bike was struggling to keep up with demand, and people complained that it was nearly impossible to dock bikes. The city responded by working to improve biking infrastructure, and a new cadre of bike advocates was born just as New York was plunging into the hard work of meeting its carbon targets.

They did fall in love, and, then quickly gave it up when things started reopening in Fall 2020. There’s a greenway behind my house. I rarely see bikers anymore, where there used to be a ton. Maybe NYC is different, but, I bet there are a lot of expensive, unused bikes sitting in people’s homes right now.

Everyone said ‘I love you’ to the urban wild.

The pandemic fundamentally changed our relationship to the outdoors. It wasn’t just eating out on a sidewalk under a heat lamp in January that became a thing; so many forms of social and professional life moved beyond the indoors — first out of necessity, then for the sheer pleasure of it. In 2020, attendance in New York state parks hit a record. In the city, people began exploring parks far from their own neighborhoods. (When a colleague told me about some hiking trails in Staten Island he had been to, I quickly corralled my son and our friends to check them out.) Walks with friends took the place of meeting up for drinks or coffee. And if you were lucky enough to live near some of the people you work with, you might get together to brainstorm on the Brooklyn piers, never missing the windowless conference room.

Do they still do that? Or, have they gone back to their old ways?

Workers rose up.

And now things are starting to go back to the way it was.

Forget Miami, the Catskills and every other place you thought you were going to live.

The real estate market in suburbs and rural towns and on beaches outside New York soared. Bidding wars were making headlines. But eventually, living on a goat farm in Sullivan County got tedious. The sump pump in the Morristown Colonial kept breaking. The “Ice Storm” scene in Connecticut appalled you, and just because you could play tennis on a public court every day didn’t mean that you ever got around to it. You missed the city. It’s true that in the city, you very rarely went to experimental theater or ate grasshopper tacos in Queens or had any real inclination to go to the Andrei Tarkovsky retrospective at Lincoln Center. But all those other people did. Above all, New York is the thrill of its human capital. The affair was over; you wanted the marriage back.

I’d say this shows the elitist urban liberal mentality, but, this was written for NYC folks, and most people think where they live is optimal. Missing is how all those New Yorkers escaped the city early in COVID for the suburbs and rural areas, spreading COVID around the country. And most of us in those areas are appreciated when the NYC liberals go home, bringing their uber-leftist ideas with them, their Elitist attitudes with them. There’s an old saying down here “your expensive BMW is great, but, our good old boys drive $250K combines two weeks a year.”

Read: NY Times Is Super Excited By Things We’ll Keep In Post Pandemic Life »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus, Liberal World | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

International (Climate Cult) Energy Agency Has Ideas For You To Reduce Your Energy Use

By William Teach March 21, 2022 – 7:15 am

Not for them, of course. They’ll continue to burn lots of oil as they scoot around the world to climate meetings. This only applies to you peasants (via Climate Depot and Watts Up With That?)

Russia crisis spurs push to cut oil use

The International Energy Agency just unveiled ideas for quickly cutting oil demand at a time when Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine could bring substantial loss of Russian barrels from global markets.

Why it matters: The 10-point plan comes amid IEA warnings that the war could become the biggest supply crisis in decades as countries look to isolate Russia.

It’s part of a wider reckoning in Europe — Russia’s largest market — and elsewhere over how to curb reliance on Russia while keeping markets supplied and avoiding even greater economic shocks.

Zoom in: The plan says that “immediate actions” in advanced economies could reduce global oil demand by about 2.7 million barrels per day within four months.

The US uses almost 20 million a day itself. What does 2.7 million actually mean for the globe? And the ideas?

Reducing highway speed limits by about 6 miles per hour; more working from home; street changes to encourage walking and cycling; car-free Sundays in cities and restrictions on other days; cutting transit fares; policies that encourage more carpooling; cutting business air travel; and more.

They also want to reduce your air travel, forcing you onto trains and buses. When do the elites do this? And how is this accomplished?

“Governments have all the necessary tools at their disposal to put oil demand into decline in the coming years, which would support efforts to both strengthen energy security and achieve vital climate goals,” it states.

That’s right, Government elites forcing this down your throats. Marc Morano write

“COVID 2.0 has arrived?! The 2022 International Energy Agency’s (IEA) report sounds an awful lot like an energy version of COVID lockdowns. Instead of opening America back up for domestic energy production, we are told to suffer and do with less and are prescribed the same failed lockdown-style policies we endured for COVID. It is odd how COVID ‘solutions’ also allegedly helped the climate and now the same solutions are being touted to deal with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As a bonus, IEA tells us these measures will also help ‘achieve vital climate goals.’ Let’s simplify this: The proposed ‘solutions’ to climate change, COVID, and now the Russian war are all exactly the same — hammer the poor and middle class with more restrictions on travel, less freedom, and even more surrendering of power to unelected government regulators.

This is what I’ve been saying since 2005: the entire climate crisis scam is simply a way to force their authoritarian policies down our throat, softening it as a way to “benefit” the peasants. It’s force politics. It’s Progressivism, ie, Nice Fascism. They aren’t nice, this is for your own good.

Read: International (Climate Cult) Energy Agency Has Ideas For You To Reduce Your Energy Use »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

Reports Of US Funded Lab In Ukraine Are “Dangerous”

By William Teach March 21, 2022 – 7:00 am

The modern news, folks, where certain subjects should be off limits. You know, like Hunter Biden’s laptop

Hvistendahl: Reports that U.S.-funded lab leaked COVID-19 are ‘dangerous’

Intercept reporter Mara Hvistendahl said reports that the National Institute of Health may have funded a grant for research that resulted in the release of COVID-19 from a lab are “dangerous.”

“There is absolutely no evidence to support that so I consider that a conspiracy theory,” Hvistendahl said on HillTV’s Rising.

This comes after Hvistendahl and Intercept reporter Sharon Lerner reported that Peter Daszak, who works for EcoHealth Alliance, which aims to understand and prevent infectious diseases, worked closely with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a partner on a 2014 NIH grant to research bat coronaviruses in China.

Daszak has also been tied to many debates about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic because of a research proposal that reportedly risked creating a more dangerous pathogen.

And that’s why they do not want it discussed, because it could precipitate more conversation the Wuhan lab thing, which is bad for His Majesty Fauci and others, along with all those trying to deflect away from China’s culpability and responsibility. Did Mara consider that she could do that whole Being A Reporter thing and prove or disprove it.

Project Veritas, a far right media company, has been criticized for its reporting that the NIH funded a grant into research into bat related coronavirus may have led to the pandemic, with Dr. Anthony Fauci calling the reporting, “distorted.”

Hvistendahl said Daszak maintain that research that could make coronavirus more transmissible was not funded.

Most in the media refuse to investigate.

Read: Reports Of US Funded Lab In Ukraine Are “Dangerous” »

Posted in Wonky Media | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach March 20, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is a fast rising sea from carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Real Climate Science, with a post on Pfizer/FDA hiding data on vaccine failure.

It’s wing-women week!

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments | Trackback URL

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach March 20, 2022 – 9:49 am

Patriotic Pinup Maxine Stevens

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in the Once and Future Nation of America. The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, and Spring is in the air. This pinup is by Maxine Stevens, which is a pseudo-name for Edward Runci and his wife, Maxine, who helped him paint it and posed, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. neo-neocon discusses Ukraine and Biden family corruption
  2. Noisy Room wonders why the NY Times finally validated the Hunter Biden laptop story
  3. Outside The Beltway has an interesting post on daylight savings time
  4. Pacific Pundit covers NBC altering a photo on fake woman swimmer Lia Thomas
  5. The First Street Journal discusses Free Speech at the NY Times
  6. The Last Refuge features Lara Logan and the reality of Ukraine
  7. The OK Corral notes that a Texas robber chose poorly
  8. The Other McCain delves into the Jan 6 witch hunt committee
  9. The Right Scoop covers AOC doing the Biden whisper and being her usual dumb self
  10. This ain’t Hell… highlights fearmonger Fauci calling for more lockdowns
  11. Legal Insurrection discusses a UK hospital covering up rapes by a gender confused “woman”
  12. IOTW Report notes ESPN’s creepy moment of silence
  13. Geller Report covers a bill from Democrats that could allow killing a baby up to 28 days after birth
  14. GeeeZ discusses Tulsi Gabbard being censored for opinions on Ukraine
  15. And last, but, not least, Dissecting Leftism features 10 biggest COVID mistakes

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your Pinups for Vets calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me. I’ve also mostly alphabetized them, makes it easier scrolling the feedreader

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?

Two great sites for getting news links are Liberty Daily and Whatafinger.

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

Posted in Patriotic Pinup | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Bloomberg: Nobody Said Inflation Would Be Fun, Peasants

By William Teach March 20, 2022 – 7:00 am

Y’all need to just give up things like eating meat and health care for your pets

From this insane “let them eat cake” bit (yes, I know what was really meant, but, we know the modern meaning)

(Bloomberg) For those earning much less, it’s a different story. Those at the median, with income of about $50,000, spend more than 3% of it on gas and motor oil. Low-income households making between $7,000 and $19,000 spend about 9%. The latest inflation numbers show gas prices jumped 6.6% in February from a month earlier — even before President Joe Biden banned U.S. imports of Russian oil.

Economists say the overall share of income spent on gas is lower than it used to be, and despite the increases, prices are still relatively low by historical standards. That’s true, but it offers little consolation these days for someone on the lower end of the income distribution who drives to work.

Food prices are also up, posting their biggest monthly increase since April 2020. There, too, those making less than $19,000 spend much more of their income — almost 15% — compared with higher earners, whose total food spending is just 4% of their income. Households with income of about $50,000 spend 8.5% of it on food.

So, really, the $300K number was just a canard. Those making a lot less, which is more the norm, are suffering.

To deal with gas prices, it’s worth reconsidering public transportation if it’s an option where you live. Fares are up about 8% compared with 38% for gasoline. Now may even be the time to sell your car. It certainly isn’t the time to buy a new or used one. Prices have stabilized a bit, but used-car prices are still up more than 40% from a year ago, and new ones are up 12%.

So, just sell your cars, peasants, and take the bus. And definitely give up your weekly helicopter flight to your beach house in Delaware or wooded camp.

When it comes to food, don’t be afraid to explore. Prices for animal-based food products will certainly increase. Ukraine and Russia supply a significant amount of corn and barley to the world market, mainly to feed livestock for human food. Meat prices have increased about 14% from February 2021 and will go up even more. Though your palate may not be used to it, tasty meat substitutes include vegetables (where prices are up a little over 4%, or lentils and beans, which are up about 9%). Plan to cut out the middle creature and consume plants directly. It’s a more efficient, healthier and cheaper way to get calories.

Suffer, peons

If you’re one of the many Americans who became a new pet owner during the pandemic, you might want to rethink those costly pet medical needs. It may sound harsh, but researchers actually don’t recommend pet chemotherapy — which can cost up to $10,000 — for ethical reasons.

You can always eat them, right?

Try to be as flexible and creative as possible. Scientists tell us our brain plasticity will improve by trying novel things. There’s an advantage to mixing up what you consume to cope with unusual price spikes: You become more resilient as you create a locus of control and interrogate your habits.

Or, the government could do the exact opposite of what they’re doing now to allow the economy to surge.

Read: Bloomberg: Nobody Said Inflation Would Be Fun, Peasants »

Posted in Economy, Unhinged Tools | 55 Comments | Trackback URL

Biden Admin Touts Nuclear Fusion To Help Solve Climate Crisis (scam)

By William Teach March 19, 2022 – 3:00 pm

Well, good on them. Some major Warmists are all for nuclear energy, such as Michael “Robust Debate (and I’ll block you)” Mann. Most, though, will disagree with Biden and his Comrades. And there’s one tiny tiny problem

To Help Tackle Climate Crisis, White House Touts Nuclear Fusion

President Biden wants the warmth of many suns to power American homes and businesses.

The White House held a summit yesterday on fusion, which could someday become a major source of carbon-free energy. Fusion is made by pressing atoms together to create heavier ones. Nuclear fusion is the energy process that powers stars, with a low radiation and tremendous energy output.

Critics have long claimed that fusion energy, scientifically possible but commercially challenging, is decades away from powering homes or businesses. But the Biden administration, and a growing cadre of risk-taking investors, see fusion as an important tool on the path to an economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

“We can lead the world with new energies and innovation and that is exactly what we are doing and why we are gathered here today,” White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy said. “We have to act on climate change so our country can win the 21st-century economy, and that’s what fusion helps to present us with—tremendous opportunities as well as challenges we know.”

Can you see the problem? Yeah, it doesn’t exist yet. It would be decades away. Provided the Usual Suspects do not sue to stop construction. And even experiments. I’ll give Brandon, Gina, and the others the benefit of the doubt that they’re serious, however, in the mean time, we need to be constructing Gen 5 and 6 nuclear power plants. If they’re serious about reducing fossil fueled power, especially coal (which I am not a fan of), let’s go nuclear. It will provide a heck of a lot more power, and be stable and reliable, than wind or solar, and take up a whole lot less land to do so.

The latest $1.5 trillion appropriations bill from Congress included $45 million for a new fusion program in which private companies will partner with DOE to build new fusion energy devices. It’s part of a record investment in fusion that will send more than $700 million to DOE’s Fusion Energy Sciences program.

Doesn’t seem like much, but, at least it’s something. But, consider that Solyndra received a $535 million loan (which pretty ended up flushed down the toilet, with a huge environmental mess left behind).

A Chinese project achieved fusion reactions for 17 minutes at 126 million degrees Fahrenheit, which is five times hotter than the sun, according to the White House. DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved a “burning plasma” reaction, which demonstrated for the first time in any research facility a fusion reaction in which more energy was generated from the process than was required to initiate it (Energywire, Jan. 27). A European effort achieved a five-second, high-power pulse, which broke a 24-year-old record by doubling it.

How about just regular nuclear power plants?

Read: Biden Admin Touts Nuclear Fusion To Help Solve Climate Crisis (scam) »

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Joe Biden | 13 Comments | Trackback URL
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