Happy Bidenflation! Fastest Rate Since 1990

By William Teach November 11, 2021 – 6:44 am

Some of you might remember 1990. Joe Biden had already been in the U.S. Senate for 17 years. He hadn’t anything by that point, and didn’t do anything after. Which is perfect, because he’s still doing nothing

Consumer Prices Soar 6.2%, Fastest Rate of Inflation Since 1990

Consumer prices rose at their fastest rate in decades in October, data from the Department of Labor showed Wednesday.

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.9 percent in October from September, exceeding expectations for a 0.6 percent rise. Compared with the prior October, prices are up 6.2 percent, exceeding expectations for a 5.8 percent rise and the highest annual rate since 1990.

Excluding food and energy, two categories of goods that are central to the cost-of-living to households but are so volatile that economists look beyond them to see underlying inflationary trends, and prices rose 0.6 percent on a monthly basis and 4.6 percent annually. Both exceeded expectations.

Earlier this year, inflationary pressures were largely concentrated in a few areas of the economy, leading Fed officials and others to expect inflation to taper off when temporary supply bottlenecks cleared up and demand surges related to the reopening of parts of the economy subsided.

Instead, the tide of rising prices has accelerated, broadened, and become stickier. The Department of Labor described October inflation as “broad-based, with increases in the indexes for energy, shelter, food, used cars and trucks, and new vehicles among the larger contributors.” Energy prices rose 4.8 percent in the month, with gasoline prices rising 6.1 percent compared with the prior month. The food index rose 0.9 percent in the month and 5.3 percent over 12-months, with food at home rising one percent on a monthly basis and 5.4 percent annually.

Let’s be fair, a goodly chunk of this has nothing to do with Biden or his Democratic Comrades: we should be blaming China for releasing COVID19. Much of this could have been happening if Trump had won re-election. The difference is, Trump wouldn’t have done everything possible to exasperate the problems caused by COVID like Biden. Other countries are dealing with so many of the same issues, yet, their leaders are not working hard to make them worse, they’re working to help solve them. Which is what Trump would have done. Biden is in Clueless Land.

And Democrats are still trying to pass the Build Back Better bill, which will make things even worse. They will supposedly vote on it Friday.

In all my years, I cannot remember a poll with that question.

Read: Happy Bidenflation! Fastest Rate Since 1990 »

Posted in Democrats, Economy, Joe Biden | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Bummer: Warmists Who Won’t Practice What They Preach Say Draft Agreement Not Strong Enough

By William Teach November 10, 2021 – 3:00 pm

Must be nice to take a long fossil fueled trip to tell Other People how to live their lives

Activists, experts say draft U.N. climate change agreement isn’t strong enough

The first draft of an agreement to combat climate change being negotiated at the U.N. Climate Change Conference was released early Wednesday morning, and while certain provisions represent landmark progress in the effort to avert catastrophic climate change, activists and experts say it still falls short of what is needed in several key areas.

“This is not a plan to solve the climate crisis,” said Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, at a Wednesday morning press briefing at the climate summit, also known as COP26. “It won’t give the kids on the street the confidence they need,” she added, referring to the mostly young activists who have been marching during the conference in Glasgow to demand stronger climate action.

“The text is not as strong as the political direction given last week,” said Alden Meyer, who studies U.S. climate policy for European think tank E3G, at the Wednesday briefing.

“This draft COP decision text is too weak,” said Tracy Carty, head of Oxfam’s COP26 delegation, in a statement. “It fails to respond to the climate emergency being faced by millions of people now who are living with unprecedented extreme weather and being pushed further into poverty.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: why don’t they starting living the Net Zero life themselves? It’s easy, right? But, this is not about climate, not about science, it’s about authoritarian government, and the little idiots pushing this don’t seem to understand that these laws and rules will impact their own lives negatively.

Obama on climate change: We can’t afford anyone on the sidelines

Former President Barack Obama comments on international cooperation to end climate change at the COP26 international climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

From the guy who took a fossil fueled flight from his fancy, 1%er beach front house.

Ocasio-Cortez in Glasgow: ‘America is back’ as a leader on climate change, and this time ‘it is different’

At the U.N. Climate Change Conference on Tuesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said that “America is back” as a leader on climate change and predicted that the Biden administration’s Build Back Better plan and its wide-ranging climate provisions would soon be passed into law.

“America is back at COP, on the international stage as a leader on climate action,” the Green New Deal co-author said at an event alongside other Democratic lawmakers. “One thing that I think is so exciting about this time is that when we say that the United States is back, it’s not just that we’re back in the way that the United States was pursuing climate policy before,” she added. “It is different.”

Is that the same GND she never pushed to be passed? Who paid for her flight to Glasgow? Was it commercial or private? Why would an elected Socialist want to implement so many governmental controls on citizens, yet, refuse to do much of anything in her own life?

Read: Bummer: Warmists Who Won’t Practice What They Preach Say Draft Agreement Not Strong Enough »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 10, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is an inland sea created by carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Chicks On the Right, with a post on the state with the highest vaccination rate (Vermont) seeing a big surge in COVID cases.

Read: If All You See… »

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

Use A Payment App? The IRS Will Now Require It To Disclose Transactions

By William Teach November 10, 2021 – 10:30 am

Obviously, it’s more than young folks who use lots of these payment apps, but, they compromise the biggest chunk. Of 10.2 million users (2017 numbers, can’t find anything newer), 7.4 million are under 34. A lot of these younger folks are about to get a big lesson in government intrusion

If you use Venmo, PayPal or other payment apps this tax rule change may affect you

If you’re among the millions of people who use payment apps like PayPal, Venmo, Square, and other third-party electronic payment networks, you could be affected by a tax reporting change that goes into effect in January.

Payment app providers will have to start reporting to the IRS a user’s business transactions if, in aggregate, they total $600 or more for the year. A business transaction is defined as payment for a good or service.

Prior to this change, app providers only had to send the IRS a Form 1099-K if an individual account had at least 200 business transactions in a year and if those transactions combined resulted in gross payments of at least $20,000.

The expansion of the reporting rule is the result of a provision in the American Rescue Plan, which was signed into law earlier this year. The ultimate aim of the provision is to clamp down on unreported, taxable income. (snip)

The rule change also does not make other transactions suddenly taxable. For instance, your friend sending you money on Venmo to reimburse you for their half of last night’s dinner tab will not become taxable.

The biggest change is the increased visibility the IRS will have into business income transactions, both those that have always been reported by the income recipient and those that haven’t been.

The IRS is now going to have an easier view of the transactions of most people who use these apps, because most will surely hit the $600 threshold. Remember when Democrats told us that they wanted to go after The Rich, not everyone else? How’s that working out, younger folks who voted Democrat?

In theory, the only people who should be worried about the rule change are those who weren’t reporting all their business income in the first place. In other words, “those who are tax evaders, who violated the self-reporting rules and utilized the old thresholds to avoid paying taxes,” said Scott Talbott, spokesman for the Electronic Transaction Association.

Yeah, so, going after low hanging fruit.

But in reality, tax experts say, the threshold change could mean some administrative hassles for many tax filers who use payment apps, whether or not they’re engaged in business transactions.

“These third-party settlement entities may not know for sure if they are dealing with a business or an individual or if they are dealing with a payment for goods or services, or a non-taxable transaction. It is going to be up to the taxpayer, if they receive a 1099 in any form for a nontaxable event, such as splitting rent among roommates, splitting a dinner bill, or even selling something on eBay for less than you paid for it, to explain to the IRS that the 1099 was received for a non-taxable transaction,” said Mark Luscombe, principal analyst for tax publisher Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.

Is it any wonder why Biden’s agenda includes way more funding in order for the IRS to hire a lot more agents? The reconciliation bill would reportedly add 87,000 new agents. Which seems a crazy number, when the IRS only has around 74,000 employees now. So, let’s do something we do in the the sales world: cut it in half. Let’s say it’s only 43.5K. Too much? 21.75K. How’s that number work for you? Think they’re just going after rich folks?

Read: Use A Payment App? The IRS Will Now Require It To Disclose Transactions »

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Thomas Friedman: Why Won’t You Peons Just Allow Government To Force You To Make Lifestyle Changes For ‘Climate Change’

By William Teach November 10, 2021 – 8:24 am

The NY Times’ Thomas Friedman is very afraid, you know. But, has failed to note what lifestyle changes he’s made personally, along with what changes the NY Times has made at their corporate office

The Climate Summit Has Me Very Energized, and Very Afraid

I spent last week talking to all sorts of people gathered for the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, and it left me with profoundly mixed emotions.

Having been to most of the climate summits since Bali in 2007, I can tell you this one had a very different feel. I was awed by the energy of all the youth on the streets demanding that we rise to the challenge of global warming and by some of the amazing new technological and market fixes being proposed by innovators and investors. This was not the old days — everyone waiting for the deals cut by the priesthood of climate diplomats huddled behind closed doors. This was the many talking to the many — and I am buoyed by that.

Hmm. He took a long, fossil fueled flight over to Glasgow for a conference on killing off fossil fuels?

But for me, there was one question that hovered over every promise coming out of this summit: When you see how hard it’s been for governments to get their citizens to just put on a mask in stores, or to get vaccinated, to protect themselves, their neighbors and their grandparents from being harmed or killed by Covid-19, how in the world are we going to get big majorities to work together globally and make the lifestyle sacrifices needed to dampen the increasingly destructive effects of global warming — for which there are treatments but no vaccine? That’s magical thinking, and it demands a realistic response.

Interesting. He sees the resistance from people in wearing masks, which barely work to prevent the spread of the Chinese coronavirus, the resistance to Governmental force. The above photo is from the article. That’s a lot of people gathered closely together without masks, eh? Sure, they’re outside, but, every government recommends wearing masks when outside in large groups. Those are all the type of people who would normally Cooperate with the dictates of government.

Further, and more important, how many of them took long fossil fueled trips to Glasgow? How many of them, the True Believers, the foot soldiers of the Cult of Climastrology, have made lifestyle sacrifices voluntarily? No more fossil fueled travel (whoops, too late), live in a tiny home, make their own clothes, stop eating meat, etc and so on? Giving even more of their earned money to government? Giving up their liberty and freedom?

Really, this is Friedman letting the cat out the bag in noting that people will have to give up their modern lifestyles. We are constantly told that Doing Something about ‘climate change’ won’t require much if anything. Next thing you know we have Warmists like Friedman telling us the truth.

Good news, Gen Zers: You won the debate on climate change. And thanks for that. Both governments and business are now saying: “We get it. We’re on it.” The bad news: There is still a huge gap between what scientists say is needed by way of immediately reducing use of the coal, oil and gas that drive global warming and what governments and business — and, yes, average citizens — are ready to do if it comes to a choice of heat or eat.

Oops. We can eat or heat. Are you sure you want to continue this, Thom?

We need to stop deluding ourselves that we can have it all — that we can do foolish things like close down nuclear plants in Germany that provided massive amounts of clean energy, just to show how green we are, and then ignore the fact that without sufficient renewables in place, Germany is now back to burning more of the dirtiest coal. This moral preening is really counterproductive.

On, that, he makes a good point. Good luck trying to sell that to other climate cultists. Because doom is coming, and if government doesn’t Do Something, like limit your lifestyle, we are doomed, as the rest of his piece notes

Two planets are talking to each other. One looks like a beautiful blue marble and the other a dirty brown ball.

“What on earth happened to you?” the beautiful planet asks the brown one.

“I had Homo sapiens,” answers the brown planet.

“Don’t worry,” says the blue planet. “They don’t last long.”

Read: Thomas Friedman: Why Won’t You Peons Just Allow Government To Force You To Make Lifestyle Changes For ‘Climate Change’ »

Posted in AGW Socialism, Climate Cult, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

USA Today: Why’s Biden’s Approval Rating So Low, He’s Doing A Great Job!

By William Teach November 10, 2021 – 8:01 am

Paul Brandus is surprised that the Farter In Chief is doing so poorly, and wants you stupid voters to wake up

Jobs, jabs, infrastructure, prosperity and peace: Thank President Biden for his service

COVID-19 vaccinations of America’s children are underway; about 28 million kids ages 5 to 11 are eligible to be protected. Meanwhile, the 90-day average of both cases and deaths among the overall U.S. population is trending steadily lower, as vaccinations increase.

A $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill has been approved by Congress. Money, gobs of it, will soon start flowing to all 50 states for badly needed road and bridge repairs. Rural communities with poor internet service will soon have high-speed broadband. Lead pipes, which deliver tainted water to countless communities, will be replaced. The nation’s rickety power grid will get an upgrade. And more.

What else? Wages are up 4.2% over the past year, slightly higher than the “core inflation” rate that the Federal Reserve watches like a hawk. Speaking of the Fed, it says household wealth in the United States is at an all-time high, thanks to the solid housing market and a stock market that continues to defy gravity.

Overseas, we’re out of a money-sucking war in Afghanistan, and most of the world has a sharply improved opinion of America and faith in the president to do “right thing in world affairs.”

Interesting. Biden originally said, multiple times, that there is no way a vaccine would be ready so soon. The infrastructure bill barely contains infrastructure. Lead pipes? Even AOC knows it’s not enough money (also, Democrats blocked bills that would have done this during Trump’s time)

Wages are up because people are actually working. Inflation is driving up the cost of food and everything else. The housing has nothing to do with Biden, it’s because of a massive shortage of homes, as building mostly stopped for a long period in 2020. Afghanistan? Biden’s plan was a disaster, he left a lot of people behind, and launched a drone strike on kids and a journalist.

To recap: Jobs, jabs, prosperity and peace. And yet most Americans are unhappy. Just 28.6% say the country’s going in the right direction, says the Real Clear Politics average of all recent polls.

You stupid people just don’t know better!

If nearly 6 million jobs had been created in less than one year on Donald Trump’s watch (fact check: that’s more than were created during his entire four years in office), he’d throw a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue for himself.

Except, they were mostly not new jobs, but, people rejoining the workforce into existing jobs that had been lost during the Chinese flu periods. If a company had, say, 40 jobs in January 2020, and pared down, let people go, saw people leave or not come back when things were reopening, they still have 40 jobs to fill. They aren’t making it, say 43. In the auto industry, every car dealership I know has barely replaced all those positions which were lost. If they were down 10, they might have filled 2.

My sense is that the administration – from the president on down – isn’t doing enough to “own the narrative.” When nearly 60% of the country – a vast majority that extends well beyond the 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats – say things aren’t going well, well, something’s up.

Perhaps the something is that Democrats have allowed the impressive economic gains occurring on their watch to be overshadowed by their “wokeness.” Not to denigrate words like “equity” and “fairness,” but perhaps Mr. Biden and Co. should spend more time reminding Americans of the basics: Jobs are plentiful. Wages are up. The country is opening up. Things are getting fixed. As Bill Clinton’s adviser James Carville famously said three decades ago: It’s the economy, stupid.

Yes, it is the economy, and people are seeing a lack of new and use cars, lack of some groceries, lack of other goods, and the prices are going up on them all. They’re hearing that the cost of Thanksgiving dinner will be the highest in their lifetimes. That they should shop for Christmas gifts now, and Dems are telling them to just pare back for Christmas, and, heck, everything. He’s shutting down pipeline projects, and even pipelines in operation. Shutting down oil and gas leases. And begging OPEC to increase their output. America had been energy independent under Trump.

Not mentioned is Biden’s open borders, with illegals streaming in and being flown under cover of darkness around the country, and the administration refuses to say how many nor where they are being dropped. And then Brandon is trying to give them all amnesty. The $450k notion is pissing a lot of people off. He can try and clean that up, but, they are considering it.

People are pretty unhappy with Joe’s performance for a whole lot of things. With Trump, they were unhappy with his mouth and Twitter. With Joe, it’s about what he’s doing, trying to do, and failing to do. He’s focused more on creating more and more government while ignoring the economic issues. So, it’s just a total shock that he’s polling so poorly, eh?

The president will go to Baltimore on Wednesday to talk up the new infrastructure bill and all that it’ll do for Charm City. God knows Baltimore needs fixing. But why waste time in a blue city in a blue state?

Why not step up his game and go to Ohio, where he got creamed by eight points a year ago, to remind Trumpsters who’s getting their bridges fixed?

Go for it. I triple dog dare Biden to go to non-friendly places, see if he can convince them on his agenda. He won’t. He goes to the bluest of blue.

Yup, no focus on the actual jobs, not focus on the economy.

Read: USA Today: Why’s Biden’s Approval Rating So Low, He’s Doing A Great Job! »

Posted in Democrats, Joe Biden, Liberal World | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Surprise: Samantha Power Admits There’s A Problem In Spreading Out Climate Cash

By William Teach November 9, 2021 – 3:00 pm

First up, you know how much climate cultists say the U.S. owes?

Yeah, they’ll build airports, coal power plants (paying China to build them), and, surprise, corruption

Samantha Power acknowledges a hurdle for U.S. climate change funding for developing nations: corruption

Samantha Power, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, said Monday that President Biden’s pledge to donate $3 billion annually to help developing nations adapt to climate change is a crucial commitment, but acknowledged that addressing rampant corruption in countries that will need those funds could prove challenging.

“I think it’s really important for donor countries to do what the United States has done, which is to elevate the anti-corruption agenda and mainstream it across development financing,” Power told Yahoo News in an interview just outside the U.N. Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26. “That is something that USAID is doing for the first time this year. President Biden is the first president to declare fighting corruption a national security imperative, and of course he considers the climate crisis a national security threat.” (snip)

Yet ensuring that billions in U.S. taxpayer funds and loan guarantees can find their way into the right hands and have the desired impact is made more difficult in places where corruption has become endemic.

“In the short term, you know, you have to have a lot of auditing, a lot of vetting, you have to work with trusted partners,” Power said. “USAID has relationships with developing countries that date back the entire 60 years of our history. We have missions in 80 countries. There is a sense of where money can be well spent, and where there’s risk of waste, fraud and other forms of abuse.”

I’m shocked that giving no-strings attached climate cash to 3rd world shitholes, er, developing nations, would be problematic. If we’re going to piss away money, let’s do it for American citizens.

Read: Surprise: Samantha Power Admits There’s A Problem In Spreading Out Climate Cash »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming, Joe Biden | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 9, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a couch made for the skin of horrible, evil, no good, world killing cows, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Ace Of Spades HQ, with a post on the Dems melting down over the question of whether to stay woke or go for broke.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

More Election Fallout: New York Rejects “Expansion” Of Voting

By William Teach November 9, 2021 – 10:30 am

This has made the Progressives and cheaters at the UK Guardian very upset

New Yorkers reject expanded voting access in stunning result

Amid an array of discouraging election results for Democrats last week, there was one under-the-radar outcome that was especially perplexing. In New York, one of the country’s most progressive states, voters overwhelmingly rejected initiatives that would have expanded voting access in future elections.

The vote, which came in a year when Republican-led states have passed dozens of laws to restrict voting access, left voting rights advocates stunned.

Yes, it’s a bad thing to restrict voting to U.S. citizens, to people who are eligible to vote in that area, to stop people from voting multiple times, to make sure there aren’t dead people and imaginary people voting, and to require people to prove who they are to vote.

One of the proposals would have paved the way for lawmakers to get rid of a longstanding states policy that requires voters to give an excuse if they want to vote by mail (34 states and the District of Columbia allow anyone to vote by mail for any reason). Another would have allowed people to register to vote on election day, a reform advocates believe significantly increases political participation.

It’s called cheat by mail for a reason, and really, it should only be used as little as possible. It, for one thing, means people are voting way before the election is over, and anything can happen near the end. Imagine if it, and early voting, was not used in Virginia: Youngkin could have utterly obliterated MaCauliffe. People registering on election day shows people who are not serious, who probably know nothing about the issues, and could lead to serious fraud. By the time the fraud is caught, it’s too late to change the outcome.

None of the measures came anywhere close to passing. Republicans waged a well-funded and aggressive campaign to oppose the amendments, a move that caught supporters of the proposal off guard. The reforms were also hampered by low turnout and confusing wording on the ballot, which may have prompted some voters to choose to skip voting on the measures altogether. (snip)

Voters also may have simply not understood the lengthy and complex descriptions of the proposals, printed on the back of ballots. Up to 13% of voters left each of the three questions blank. “They had so many candidates on the front side and then they flipped it over to the backside and they had a dissertation to read,” Wilson said.

Oh, see, the measures failed because voters are stupid. The typical Democrat answer. And, let’s be honest, some of them are. They take no time to understand the politicians or measures.

Nineteen states passed 33 laws between January and the end of September that made it harder to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, and are widely seen as an effort to make it harder for minority voters to cast a ballot. Democrats have aggressively challenged the new policies in states like Georgia and Florida, both of which allow for no-excuse absentee voting, the same policy New York voters rejected on Tuesday.

Funny how Democrats always think “minorities” are too dumb to be able to do what whites do. It’s that kinda, you know, racist?

Read: More Election Fallout: New York Rejects “Expansion” Of Voting »

Posted in Democrats, Elections | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Cadillac Reducing Dealerships To Take On Tesla

By William Teach November 9, 2021 – 7:43 am

How many people will lose their jobs because of the push by Biden and his Democratic Comrades to force everyone into EVs (which most elected Democrats are not buying and driving themselves)?

Cadillac thins out U.S. dealers to get fit for the Tesla challenge

Electric vehicleGeneral Motors Co’s Cadillac brand is gearing up to challenge Tesla Inc and other rivals in the luxury electric vehicle market with a new electric utility vehicle and nearly 40% fewer U.S. dealers than it had in 2018, the brand’s global chief told Reuters.

Cadillac has largely completed a restructuring of its U.S. dealer network and expects to have 560 dealers by the end of this year, compared with about 920 three years ago, said Rory Harvey, head of the global Cadillac brand.

GM has booked a total of $274 million in costs during 2020 and 2021 related to the effort to buy out Cadillac dealers who were not prepared to invest $200,000 to $500,000 per store in the equipment and training to support the brand’s shift to an all-electric vehicle lineup, planned by 2030.

Cadillac will still have more U.S. dealers than other established luxury brands, and has opened new show-rooms in New York City, Beverly Hills, San Francisco and Atlanta.

That’s actually quite a few dealership, probably too many for the amount of sales the company has, though, most are small, even in big cities. Compare that to Honda with 1,069 dealers, some of which are huge. How many people have lost their jobs, though? Sales, sales managers, finance, service writers, mechanics, detailers, support. All out of jobs so that rich folks can virtue signal and drive an EV.

Next summer, Cadillac plans to launch the first of a wave of electric vehicles, starting with a compact utility vehicle called the Lyriq. Harvey said Cadillac has received expressions of interest in the Lyriq from 216,000 people.

That Lyriq is going to start at $59,990. Affordable to everyone, right? How many people will lose their jobs thanks to the mandates from governments for EVs? Vehicles that most will not be able to afford to purchase. All to stop an imaginary issue of human caused climate change.

Read: Cadillac Reducing Dealerships To Take On Tesla »

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