LGB: Consumer Sentiment Falls To Lowest Level Since 2011

Good thing Biden’s on vacation at Camp David yet again this weekend. Sure, sure, he can do pretty much everything there he can do at the White House, but, unlike previous presidents, Biden doesn’t seem to do a damned thing on the weekends, just sleep and get ice cream

US consumers are ‘in a deep funk’: What that means for the economy

As concerns around inflation soar, American consumers’ outlook on the trajectory of the U.S. economy has deteriorated, worrying some experts that negative attitudes could dampen expenditure and put a dent in economic growth.

The University of Michigan’s closely-watched consumer sentiment index fell to 61.7 in early February, hitting the lowest level since October 2011. January saw a reading of 67.2.

Recent declines in the measure have been driven by weakening personal financial prospects amid rising inflation, less confidence in the government’s economic policies, and the least favorable long-term economic outlook in a decade, the University of Michigan said in its latest report Friday.

The reading follows fresh CPI data out Thursday that showed U.S. inflation accelerated last month in the fastest rise since 1982, with prices across a wide range of goods and services soaring further amid lingering shortages and supply chain disruptions.

“Incredibly, the consumer is polling negatively on almost everything when it comes to the economy, and if their confidence doesn’t improve, the economy could be headed towards the cliff of recession,” FWDBONDS chief economist Christopher S. Rupkey said in a note. “We almost have to recheck our figures because the consumer is clearly in a deep funk and if they decide to call it quits then the economic growth we have seen is going to fade fast.”

Almost every single move the Brandon admin has made has hurt the economy and consumer confidence. Even his talking points hurt. Say what you will about Mr. Mean Tweets, Trump was focus on the economy and helping the middle and lower classes.

“The big drop in consumer sentiment through February is concerning,” Bill Adams, chief economist for Comerica Bank, said in a note, pointing out the indicator is down 26.6 points from its recovery-to-date high in April 2021 through the February preliminary release.

If we go by Democrat talking points, that would mean that the sentiment was high due to the work of the Trump admin, and then Brandon crashed it.

Morgan Stanley chief economist Seth Carpenter told Yahoo Finance Live that the data shows as long as job gains continue, consumer spending tends to hold up.

“Consumer sentiment numbers are a bit of a cautionary tale… but fundamentals still look pretty good,” said Carpenter.

And, hopefully this turns around, which would be in contradiction to Biden’s policies. Of course, the “new” jobs are mostly just replacing those lost during the Chinese coronavirus.

Read: LGB: Consumer Sentiment Falls To Lowest Level Since 2011 »

Surprise: Democrats Getting Lots Of “Dark Money” To Push Their Climate Authoritarism

I’m utterly shocked at this revelation, considering how much and often Democrats rail against dark money. Whitehouse whines about it almost every day

Unsurprisingly, Sheldon, like so many, reaps the benefits from this dark money. You can see it at opensecrets.org.

Dark Money Link to Democrats’ Climate Probes

It was Democrats who nearly a decade ago first labeled the opaque funneling of millions of dollars into various political influence operations “dark money” and railed against the then-GOP-dominated practice.

Over the past two election cycles, however, Democrats have not only caught up but surpassed Republicans in channeling unlimited sums of special interest and billionaire spending through nonprofits that do not disclose their donors’ identities.

Liberal groups and political operatives allied with the Democratic Party have also grown more creative in the types of political influence operations the funds support. A little-noticed dark-money entity created at least three years ago to help Democrats in Congress work more effectively is now drawing scrutiny.

The piece then spends a lot of time on quite a few of these big dark money groups, leading to

Schiliro previously told the New York Times that the group has trained lawmakers and staff on how best to extract meaningful information from well-coached witnesses called to testify before Congress.

Schiliro and Barnett’s recent work with Democrats on Capitol Hill stirred Republican scrutiny in recent months after the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held an October hearing titled, “Fueling the Climate Crisis: Exposing Big Oil’s Disinformation Campaign to Prevent Climate Action.” After the hearing, the panel issued subpoenas to oil companies whose executives were called to testify. (snip)

After the October hearing, Rep. Ro Khanna, who chairs the environment subcommittee of the oversight panel, told reporters that he was working with former Waxman staffers with the goal of modeling the “Big Oil” hearings after those held into the tobacco companies in the 1990s on whether nicotine is addictive. Khanna told The Hill newspaper that he expected the investigation to continue for months, and boasted that the committee has enlisted the help of “a lot of people” involved in planning the Waxman hearings for advice.

Khanna’s comments and the dark-money role in funding Co-Equal formed the basis of a formal complaint to the House of Representatives’ Office of Congressional Ethics. Government Accountability and Oversight, a conservative government watchdog organization, in mid-January filed a complaint arguing that Co-Equal was providing privately financed or in-kind support for the House oversight panel in violation of House ethics rules.

“This development, which on its face is in violation of House rules (XXIV) and ethics requirements, represents the extension of a new but rapidly expanding practice of privately underwriting governmental staff, for ‘climate’ policy and even investigating private parties viewed as impeding advancement of the climate policy agenda,” the watchdog argued.

Surprise? Democrats have taken the whole dark money thing and kicked it up a few notches while attempting to shake down companies and push climate authoritarianism.

Read: Surprise: Democrats Getting Lots Of “Dark Money” To Push Their Climate Authoritarism »

If All You See…

…is an area turning to desert from carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is 90Ninety Miles From Tyranny, with a post on a post on a study which suggests COVID came from a lab.

Read: If All You See… »

Biden DHS Fear Mongers About Trucker Convoy Disrupting The Super Bowl

The hyper-leftist DHS apparently wants to freak people out and make the freedom truckers out to be Bad People. They’d probably be surprised how many regular citizens would support the truckers here in the U.S.

Officials warn a trucker convoy could target Super Bowl, but law enforcement says there is no ‘legitimacy’ to the threat as security measures are ramped up in LA

Federal officials warned that a trucker convoy protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates — inspired by the ongoing demonstrations in Canada — could target the Super Bowl this weekend, but law enforcement doesn’t see it as a major threat.

The Super Bowl, which takes place Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood in Los Angeles County, will feature the Los Angeles Rams against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Department of Homeland Security distributed a notice to public safety officials and law enforcement agencies this week saying “the convoy could severely disrupt transportation, federal government, and law enforcement operations through gridlock and potential counterprotests,” Yahoo News first reported Wednesday.

DHS said it “has received reports of a convoy of truckers planning to potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities in the United States in protest of, among other things, vaccine mandates for truck drivers.”

But, there’s one little problem

But law enforcement in Los Angeles said it is not aware of any credible or direct threats related to the game.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department told Insider it is ramping up security for the Super Bowl, but as a standard practice and not in response to the DHS warning. A public information officer said on Wednesday there was no “legitimacy” to the trucker convoy threat.

He also said, because of the way the area surrounding the stadium will be blocked off, if a trucker convoy did arrive in the city, it would not be able to get near the stadium without a game pass.

So, no real threat to all the celebs and politicians showing up and not wearing their masks.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also said at a press conference Tuesday there was no indication of a “specific credible threat against the Super Bowl,” ABC News reported.

The DHS warning about the potential trucker convoy said that, as of Tuesday, it appeared to be “purely aspirational because the event is only being discussed online” but noted that “this could change quickly,” Yahoo reported. Insider’s Jake Epstein and Kieran Press-Reynolds reported Wednesday dozens of right-wing groups were using Telegram to discuss organizing trucker convoys in the US.

So, DHS was just spitballing. Because some truckers were spitballing on social media and Telegram. The far left DHS, Biden, and other Democrats certainly do not want any of those icky blue collar folks interfering with their big day.

Read: Biden DHS Fear Mongers About Trucker Convoy Disrupting The Super Bowl »

GM Stumps For Climate Crisis (scam) With Austin Powers Super Bowl Commercial

This would be the auto manufacturer who ditched most sedan lines because they’re mostly selling pickup trucks and SUVs, right?

Mike Myers’ ‘Austin Powers’ Villains Sell Climate Fear and Electric Cars in GM Super Bowl Commercial

Actor and producer Mike Myers has brought back his Austin Powers villains to stump for climate change and electric cars in an ad for General Motors that is set to air during the Super Bowl this month.

The 60-second ad features Myers bringing his “Dr. Evil” character out of retirement to banter with No. 2 (Rob Lowe), Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling), and son Scott Evil (Seth Green).

The ad opens with Dr. Evil and crew taking over GM’s headquarters in Detroit as one more step in Evil’s plan to take over the world.

The henchmen, though, correct Dr. Evil’s assertion that he is the number one threat to the world and tell him climate change is worse. Climate change, Scott Evil says, is “arguably the No. 1 threat to the world now.”

It’s meant to pimp their electric vehicle lines. Which are so affordable! The Chevy Bolt, a tiny car, starts at $32495. The Bot EUV and Silverado EV are more. Affordable, right? The ones they are coming out with, like the Sierra Denali, the Hummer, the Lincoln, and more, are all aimed at the upper middle class. What do those in the regular middle and lower classes do, who cannot afford $600+ monthly payments, and can’t put a charging station at their apartment complex?

The Austin Powers-based commercial is joined by another car maker’s Super Bowl ad featuring Hollywood celebs peddling electric cars. In the second ad, BMW presents Arnold Schwarzenegger and Salma Hayek as retired Greek Gods pitching the company’s iX electric vehicle.

Elites pushing elite vehicles. Look, I’m in favor as they do not have the smog component that gas powered vehicles have. Remember how clean the air was during the spring of 2020, with so few vehicles driving around? But, they are neither practical nor affordable at this time.

Read: GM Stumps For Climate Crisis (scam) With Austin Powers Super Bowl Commercial »

Let’s Go Brandon: 60% Cannot Name One Thing He’s Done That They Like

I just woke up about 10 minutes ago, and I’m racking my brain, and I can’t think of anything, either. This piece and poll must make CNN very upset

A grim portrait of Biden’s unhappy America

Biden Brain SuckerPresident Joe Biden often says America’s best days are ahead. It just doesn’t feel that way right now.

A nation exhausted by a two-year pandemic, struggling against rising food and gas prices, driven to distraction by school closures and torn apart by a political schism that erupted into violence is far from at ease with itself.

The sense of turmoil was captured in a new CNN/SSRS poll released Thursday that showed waning faith in US elections and found that most of the nearly 60% of Americans who disapprove of how Biden is handling his presidency were unable to name one single thing they like that he has done. “He’s not Donald Trump. That’s pretty much it,” one despondent respondent said. Another answered: “I really like his new cat, Willow Biden.”

That’s why Biden was elected, he’s not Trump. Without the Chinese coronavirus raging, Trump probably would have won.

There has been some mystification in Washington as to why administration successes have not registered more. The unemployment rate is near 50-year lows following a bumper monthly jobs figure last week. America’s economy is recovering more quickly than many other developed nations’ after the pandemic. A huge vaccine rollout saved thousands of lives. A massive Covid-19 relief bill that passed early in Biden’s presidency made significant reductions in child poverty. And while an audacious multitrillion-dollar climate and social spending bill is stalled in the Senate, Biden did what all of his recent predecessors had failed to do — pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

We’re basically replacing the jobs killed by government closing businesses with the same jobs. Most developed nations are doing better that the U.S. The vaccine was thanks to Trump, with Biden saying it would not happen by November 2020. There was a big COVID bill during Trump’s presidency. Only 13 House Republicans voted for the infrastructure bill, which doesn’t actually deal with real infrastructure. You did have 20 Senators vote for it. Democrats refused to vote for infrastructure during the Trump years.

Just 41% of those asked approve of the way Biden is handling his job. His approval rating on the economy has dropped to 37% — down 8 points since early December alone. Only 45% approve of his handling of the pandemic he was elected to end. When those who disdain Biden’s overall performance were asked to name a single thing he’d done that they approved of, 56% had nothing positive to say. “I’m hard pressed to think of a single thing he has done that benefits the country,” wrote one respondent.

Just about anything he does creates misery and doesn’t help.

Read: Let’s Go Brandon: 60% Cannot Name One Thing He’s Done That They Like »

Young Climate Cultists Will Have Their Day In Court Or Something

Bless their little indoctrinated hearts

Youths suing Montana over climate change will have their day in court

Sixteen youth plaintiffs are suing the state of Montana for their right to access a clean and healthful environment in a case scheduled to go to trial next year.

Attorneys for the Oregon-based Our Children’s Trust, the Western Environmental Law Center and Kalispell-based McGarvey Law representing the kids announced the trial date this week. The group says in Held v. Montana, that the state’s support of fossil fuels have contributed to climate change.

According to University of Montana law professor Anthony Johnstone, broad climate change challenges like this one are rare, but they have become more common in recent years.

“Almost all of them have failed for one reason or the other, so this would be the first one in Montana, and possibly the first one in the nation, to get as far as a trial.”

The problem with going to court is that they will actually have to prove their assertions and Beliefs. This is not the news or a climate conference where they can just make wild prognostications and never be forced to back them up, nor can they claim future doom, especially when they cannot prove past doom from anthropogenic climate change.

Further, when the defense, and possibly the judge, starts asking questions like “what are you doing in your own life to practice what you preach?”, what will they say? This will be interesting to watch, but, really, I wouldn’t be surprised if this astroturfed lawsuit is dropped before trial.

Read: Young Climate Cultists Will Have Their Day In Court Or Something »

If All You See…

…is a horrible carbon pollution intensive sports arena, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is 357 Magnum, with a post on self defense being legal in Ohio.

Read: If All You See… »

Surprise: Bloomberg Wants School Mask Mandates Ended

Bloomberg, and their editorial board, have long advocated for people to be forced to wear masks, especially school kids. But, now? This was interesting enough to create a separate post rather than going back and adding on to the earlier one

For Kids, Mask Mandates No Longer Make Sense

So far, four states — Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon — have announced that they’ll do away with requirements that K-12 students and teachers wear masks at school. Others may soon follow suit. It’s time.

To be clear: There’s evidence that masks may have been useful in blocking Covid infections in schools. A recent study conducted in two large Arizona counties found that outbreaks were more prevalent in schools that did not require masks than they were in those that did. This is one reason that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — in contrast with the World Health Organization — has recommended indoor masking for all students and teachers at K-12 schools, regardless of age or community transmission levels.

But as numerous experts have noted, this study and others that the CDC has relied on have shortcomings. The two Arizona counties in the study, for instance, had different rates of vaccinations. Meanwhile, other analyses have found little evidence that student mask mandates significantly reduce transmission rates. It’s fair to say the evidence is mixed.

Most other 1st World nations did not require the kids to mask up in school, that was mostly an invention of Democratic Party politicians.

One might still make a plausible case that masks make sense as a precaution. But there are worrying signs that they’re imposing steep costs on children’s social development. Research indicates that people of all ages have trouble recognizing faces that are half-covered by protective masks. For children, the difficulty is much greater. Masks appear to make it harder for kids to mentally assess and and process faces as a whole, which may weaken their ability to read other people’s emotions and form social ties. They may also struggle to hear their teachers and to pick up on nonverbal cues.

Gee, just like Republicans have been saying all along, as well as many non-Progressive Democratic voting parents.

With omicron case numbers plummeting, it’s reasonable to recalculate the balance between the protection masks provide and the difficulties they impose. In doing so, it pays to keep in mind school-age children’s relatively low risk of hospitalization and death from Covid — especially if they’re vaccinated, as almost all of them should be. What’s more, there’s evidence that kids do not readily spread the coronavirus to their elders at school.

We knew this in 2020.

For now, and unless Covid resurges in some new form, the potential harm caused by masks seems to outweigh the benefits. States and districts need to make a plan for relaxing these mandates — and then scrapping them altogether.

I wonder what changed to make the editorial board write this? Expect to see more of this type of stuff as the mid-terms start approaching.

Read: Surprise: Bloomberg Wants School Mask Mandates Ended »

Bummer: Infrastructure Bill Is Bad For Climate Crisis (scam)

It wasn’t that long that the sycophants in the media, along with elected Democrats, were calling Biden’s infrastructure bill “historic” and super duper awesome. Times change because there’s a big cult around

How Billions in Infrastructure Funding Could Worsen Global Warming

st greta carThe highways in Colorado, one of the nation’s fastest-growing states, are frequently clogged with suburban workers driving into Denver, skiers heading high into the Rocky Mountains and trucks rumbling across the Interstates.

A Western frontier state with an affinity for the open road and Subaru Outbacks, Colorado’s traditional answer to traffic congestion could be summed up in two words: more asphalt.

But widening highways and paving new roads often just spurs people to drive more, research shows. And as concerns grow about how tailpipe emissions are heating the planet, Colorado is among a handful of car-dominated states that are rethinking road building.

In December, Colorado adopted a first-of-its-kind climate change regulation that will push transportation planners to redirect funding away from highway expansions and toward projects that cut vehicle pollution, such as buses and bike lanes.

Nothing like riding a bike a long distance with your tools or skis in cold, winter weather, right? But, hey, this is what you cultists voted for, don’t complain.

The new $1 trillion infrastructure law invests billions in climate-friendly programs like electric car chargers and public transit. But it also gives states $273 billion for highways over five years, with few strings attached. One analysis from the Georgetown Climate Center found that this money could significantly increase emissions if states keep adding highway lanes.

Well, that’s a bummer, eh?

Already, there are signs that even states with ambitious climate goals like WashingtonIllinois and Nevada hope to use federal funds to expand roadways, such as adding lanes to a congested section of the Eisenhower Freeway near Chicago. In 2019, states spent one-third of their highway dollars on new road capacity, roughly $19.3 billion, with the rest spent on repairs.

“This is a major blind spot for politicians who say they care about climate change,” said Kevin DeGood, director of infrastructure policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. “Everyone gets that oil pipelines are carbon infrastructure. But new highways are carbon infrastructure, too. Both lock in place 40 to 50 years of emissions.”

That’s horrible! How dare politicians listen to citizens who want less congested roads!

Read: Bummer: Infrastructure Bill Is Bad For Climate Crisis (scam) »

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