Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

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 »

Bloomberg: Nobody Said Inflation Would Be Fun, Peasants

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 »

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

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) »

If All You See…

…is an Evil gas powered grill causing the seas to rise and hurricanes to be worse, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Jihad Watch, with a post on women in hijabs learning to ride bikes.

Doubleshot to clear the folder below the fold, check out Moonbattery, with a post on Brandon fans having trouble naming his accomplishments

Read More »

Read: If All You See… »

Brandon Threatens China With Sanctions And “Global Backlash” If It Backs Russia Against Ukraine

He’s trying to get all big and bad, you know

Joe Biden warns Xi Jinping of ‘consequences’ if China backs Russia

Joe Biden spoke for nearly two hours with Xi Jinping as the US sought to dissuade China from backing Russia’s war on Ukraine.

A White House account of the call on Friday said that the US president “described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians”.

A senior administration official said there would be consequences “not just for China’s relationship with the United States, but for the wider world”, but would not give more details on whether Biden had gone into specifics on possible sanctions, other than to point out what had happened to Russia as an example.

“The president really laid out in a lot of detail the unified response from not only governments around the world, but also the private sector to Russia’s brutal aggression in Ukraine,” the official said. “The president made clear that there would likely be consequences for those who would step in to support Russia at this time.”

The problem with getting all big and bad is that the person you’re fronting up to might be big and bad, as well, and not care, finding you actually weak. Russia didn’t care. Those supporting Russia didn’t care. The Taliban sure didn’t care about any threats from Biden. They all see the weakness.

That would be his 36th trip to his home for the weekend. Rather hard to take Joe serious when he doesn’t take the job serious.

In fairness, others aren’t doing so well, either

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, both had hour-long conversations with Putin on Friday morning,

According to Scholz’s office, the German leader had “put pressure on [Putin] to introduce a ceasefire as soon as possible, to improve the humanitarian situation and to make progress in the search for a diplomatic solution for the conflict”.

The solution should be that Russia leaves Ukraine and pays reparations for their invasion, at a minimum.

Read: Brandon Threatens China With Sanctions And “Global Backlash” If It Backs Russia Against Ukraine »

DOD Wastes $2.6 Million On Climate Scam Study

Oh, sure, it’s only $2.6 million. Of taxpayer money. For silly stuff. That could have been used for military equipment and training

$2.6M in DOD Grants to Fund Studies of Climate Change Impact on Security

Two University of Maryland researchers have received awards totaling $2.6 million to study how national security and climate change intersect in the United States and around the world.

Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham, professor and co-director of graduate studies in the Department of Government and Politics, and Distinguished University Professor Arie Kruglanski in the Department of Psychology were among 17 researchers nationwide to be named recipients of the grants from the Department of Defense’s Minerva Research Initiative, a university-based social science research program.

Cunningham received about $1.6 million to lead a three-year project to study the role that state and non-state actors play in a country’s management of climate change. The focus is Mozambique, an East African nation that has a diverse array of environmental hazards along with a history of non-state actors, ranging from non-governmental organizations to rebel groups, engaging with the population in different ways.

The study will examine people’s understanding of the risks of climate change and how non-state actors involve themselves in governing such issues, said Cunningham, who is working with researchers from Emory University, Texas A&M, Penn State and Carleton University.

Good grief, that is a huge waste of money, basically pet projects of no value.

“We’re also interested in explaining the conditions under which actors, state or non-state, try to leverage the idea that different agencies, people, and organizations are responsible for managing the hazards of climate change—when is it that a rebel group might be able to use government failures of managing climate change to their advantage; who do they assign blame to when things go wrong; and who do they reward when things go right?” she said.

How does this actually help the US Military defend the U.S.A.?

“It’s exciting to see people studying climate change from different angles,” said Cunningham of their fellow Minerva grant recipients. “This will hopefully lead to some interesting cross-pollination.”

So, do it with your own money. Get private funding.

Read: DOD Wastes $2.6 Million On Climate Scam Study »

Democrats Vote On Important Stuff: Hair Discrimination

Because the interest groups which run the party care about this stuff, and, they need to patronize their base

House Democrats Vote on Alleged Anti-Hair Discrimination amid Ukraine Crisis, Rising Inflation

House Democrats voted on legislation on Friday that would combat alleged anti-hair discrimination while there remains a war in Ukraine and Americans grapple with soaring inflation and gas prices.

The House passed H.R. 2116, the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act of 2021, 235-189.

Democrats overwhelmingly supported the legislation, and Republicans opposed the bill.

The legislation would prohibit alleged discrimination based on a person’s hair texture or hairstyle that is commonly associated with a particular race or national origin.

As Republicans pointed out, federal law already prohibits discrimination, but, you know, Democrats Are Serious People. The best part is “alleged discrimination”, which actually appears in the text of the bill. In other words, all it would take is someone having a feeling. They wouldn’t need to prove anything.

“Black women are 1.5X more likely to be sent home from work because of their hair. Discrimination against Black women and girls because of their natural hair is far too common in our workplaces and schools. I’m proud to sponsor the #CROWNAct, which would ban this racist practice,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) wrote.

Well, if they aren’t in compliance with company policies, yeah.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) said on the House floor ahead of the vote that the CROWN Act may prevent employers from regulating hairstyles for safety purposes.

It may mean that employers will pass on hiring women who’s hair could be a problem within existing corporate policy.

SEC. 6. EMPLOYMENT.

(a) Prohibition.—It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer, employment agency, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee controlling apprenticeship or other training or retraining (including on-the-job training programs) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against an individual, based on the individual’s hair texture or hairstyle, if that hair texture or that hairstyle is commonly associated with a particular race or national origin (including a hairstyle in which hair is tightly coiled or tightly curled, locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, and Afros).

But, they’ll have to prove it. It’ll mean lots of black women will be passed over for jobs.

Read: Democrats Vote On Important Stuff: Hair Discrimination »

Jimmy Page Vs Eddie Van Halen

Something different. And interesting enough to post it. It’s a tough one.

First there’s Page: one of the original rock gods, starting back in the 1960’s. Lead guitarist for the greatest band in rock and roll. One of the greatest songs in R&R history, Stairway to Heaven. Every single LZ album is at least an A. Extremely innovate, bringing all sorts of themes and styles. He played many guitars, including the double neck with the 12 string. He could also play the mandolin, dulcimer, theremin, bass (he started with the Yardbirds on bass), banjo, harmonica, dobro, sitar, keyboards, tambourine, tambura, hurdy gurdy, and pedal steel guitar. His written music is often more complicated than it sounds.

EVH: one of the fastest guitar players ever. Innovative with the sounds he could create with the guitar. One of the most influential guitarists of the 80’s and forward. Also plays the keyboards. Overall, probably a bit better on consistently great solos than Page. Incredible themes.

Tough choice. Gotta go with Page. What do you think?

Read: Jimmy Page Vs Eddie Van Halen »

Your Fault: Hailstorms To Maybe Possibly Get Worse

We can stop this if only you would buy an EV for your trips to go get a soy burger

Hailstorms and climate change: What to expect

When people think of the most dangerous threats spawned by thunderstorms, tornadoes typically come to mind. Yet in terms of total damage, hail really ought to be front and center. U.S. hailstorms cause far more property damage than tornadoes, and their toll is rising fast. Climate change may only accentuate the trend.

Insured U.S. hail losses now average from $8 billion to $14 billion per year, or $80-140 billion per decade, as noted by the Insurance Information Institute. This hefty bill far outpaces the total of around $14.1 billion in insured U.S. property loss from tornadoes over the decade from 2010 to 2020.

Each year since 2008 has produced at least $10 billion (USD 2021) in U.S. insured damage from severe weather, according to the reinsurance firm Aon. That’s more than four times the inflation-adjusted damage rate of the 1980s. Hail is typically the largest single culprit in such losses, according to Aon’s Steve Bowen, who called the trend toward more costly severe weather “definitely a new normal.”

One reason the financial impact of hail is getting worse: there are increasingly more things to damage in hail country.

Well, yeah. More houses, buildings, vehicles

Trends in hail-producing storms themselves are also part of the picture. Hail-producing thunderstorms are localized by nature, and databases of hail reports are imperfect. Still, there’s at least some evidence that the largest, most destructive hailstones could become more common in hail country. Climate-model projections indicate this apparent enlargement trend may continue in at least some hail-prone areas as the century unfolds.

That’s right, computer models as stand ins for crystal balls.

In contrast to some other widely documented trends in line with a warming climate – e.g., the intensification of extreme rainfall, or the increase in record-high versus record-low temperatures – researchers haven’t found a consistent trend in hail evolution around the world. Any such trends would be difficult to ferret out because of hail’s overall rarity and because of regional and temporal variations in how hail is measured.

So, they’re purely guessing

Though there’s no sign of a broad global shift toward more hail, there are hints that hail is becoming more severe in at least some areas. A 45-year analysis in northeast Italy found a 2% rise per year in the kinetic energy (a proxy for destructive power) delivered by 90th-percentile hailstorms, or the most intense 10% of all hailstorms, even though the total number of hailstorms did not change dramatically.

Hints are not scientifically gathered data to show a trend.

Hail may become less frequent, but trending larger when it does happen

Oh, good grief. Same garbage prognostication as with hurricanes. It’s a cult.

Read: Your Fault: Hailstorms To Maybe Possibly Get Worse »

If All You See…

…are the colors of a big carbon polluting nation, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Gen Z Conservative, with a post on the groomer Left losing to Florida and Desantis in the polls.

Read: If All You See… »

Pirate's Cove