Hot Take: Excitable Ro Khanna Wants No Small Businesses That Can’t Afford $15 Minimum Wage

By William Teach February 22, 2021 – 7:11 am

It’s always something with these nutters. On the bright side, Ro actually worked in the private sector for many years. Of course, that was mostly as a lawyer for other people’s firms along with teaching, so, he really has no idea what it takes to actually run a small business (video at the link)

Dem Rep. Khanna: ‘We Don’t Want’ Small Businesses That Can’t Afford $15 Minimum Wage

Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) declared Sunday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that we should not want “low-wage businesses” when pressed on small businesses who would struggle under a federal mandate to pay employees $15 an hour.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 would cost 1.4 million Americans their jobs over the next four years.

Anchor Abby Phillip said, “I know that you feel very strongly like many progressives about the minimum wage issue. Right now, at the same time, businesses, both large and small, are struggling in this pandemic economy, more than 9 million jobs have been lost in the last year, and they still aren’t back, and the problem is particularly acute in industries like retail and foodservice, which are more likely to pay minimum wage. I think the question that a lot of Republicans are posing and perhaps some moderate Democrats is timing. Is now the right time to increase it to $15? I should say the bill has stages, of course, but immediately it would go up about 30% right now. Is now the right time to do that?”

Khanna said, “Abby, it’s absolutely the right time to give working Americans a raise. Let’s look at the facts. Amazon raised their wage to $15 nationally, not regionally. They have more jobs today. It didn’t hurt job creation or business. Target followed. They also did it nationally, more jobs.”

Well, it’s very easy to force Other People to spend more money, right? Perhaps all these yahoos should spend about a month watching what small business owners actually do, what they go through, what their operations look like, before they say “oh, it’s super easy to pay employees more.”

Phillip said, “Large businesses like Amazon and McDonald’s, for example, can and perhaps should pay more, but I’m wondering what is your plan for smaller businesses? How does this, in your view, affect mom and pop businesses who are just struggling to keep their doors open, keep workers on pate roll right now?”

And that right there is one of the problems: these Leftists do not understand that there is a vast difference between Amazon and McDonald’s. McDonald’s locations are franchised, so, essentially a small business, not a business with hundreds or thousands of employees. Someone put their money on the line. They took out the loan and put their heart, sweat, and tears on the line.

Khanna said, “Well, they should be doing it by paying people low wages. We don’t want low-wage businesses. Most successful small businesses can pay a fair wage. If you look at the minimum wage, it increased with worker productivity until 1968, and that relationship was severed. If workers were actually getting paid for the value they were creating, it would be up to $23. I love small businesses, I’m all for it, but I don’t want small businesses that are underpaying employees. It’s fair for people to be making what they’re producing. I think $15 is very reasonable in this country.”

What value are burger flippers creating? Or those who are working a register? Many are in commissionable positions, where they get paid somewhere between minimum wage and $15 an hour plus commissions/bonuses. You raise it to $15, and much of the commissions/bonuses go away and/or are reduced. In other areas, they can either raise prices, which reduces buying power of the min wage increase, or let people go. Reduce hours. Limit overtime. Moonbats like Khanna think they know what they’re talking about, but, don’t actually have to put their own businesses on the line. And most federally elected politicians, and goodly chunk of state ones, are utterly divorced from Economics 101 and what it takes to run a business.

Read: Hot Take: Excitable Ro Khanna Wants No Small Businesses That Can’t Afford $15 Minimum Wage »

Posted in Barking Moonbats, Democrats, Economy | 31 Comments | Trackback URL

Digging Deep: Neither California’s Nor Texas’ Power Grids Could Survive Climate Apocalypse

By William Teach February 21, 2021 – 3:00 pm

The climate cultists just can’t help themselves, and now that they’ve posted their screeds Blaming you eating a burger for causing greenhouse gasses induced extreme winter weather (sigh), they have to get creative to protect the cult beliefs

Texas and California built different power grids, but neither stood up to climate change

stop global warmingTexas and California may be worlds apart in their politics and climate policies, but they have something in common: Extreme weather crashed their power grids and left people stranded in the dark.

The two sprawling, politically potent states have devoted massive sums to their power networks over the past two decades — California to produce huge amounts of wind and solar energy, Texas to create an efficient, go-it-alone electricity market built on gas, coal, nuclear and wind. But neither could keep the lights on in the face of the type of brutal weather that scientists call a taste of a changing climate. (snip)

The catastrophe this week in Texas left more than 4 million people in the dark and the cold, and even more without clean water, when a rare blast of Arctic air drove temperatures down, freezing both natural gas plants and wind turbines.

Texas “planned more for heatwaves than for ice storms,” said Dan Reicher, who worked in the Clinton administration’s Energy Department on renewable energy and is now at Stanford University. And the onus now is on figuring out how to prevent a repeat — a tricky situation given the independence of Texas’ grid and sharp opposition from Republicans there to linking up to other states and giving federal regulators oversight of its power system.

See, a warming world causes cold and snow and ice. And, yeah, Texas planned more for warmth than a rare cold weather system. California planned for a doomy warmth, and their system still failed hard, to the point that they had to ration electricity, that they had planned brownouts and blackouts, unlike Texas, which just saw its grid go down. It’s kinda like so many states from NC down: we have some plans for winter weather, but, that only goes so far. Northern states don’t really plan heavy for hurricanes, while, we in NC do. And they still do damage.

If we’re supposed to plan for a doomy warming world, why would we plan for crazy cold weather? Oh, right, it’s a cult.

That presents both an opportunity and a challenge for President Joe Biden, potentially aiding his efforts to draw support from lawmakers and states for his multitrillion-dollar proposals to harden the nation’s energy infrastructure to withstand climate change. But he’s already facing entrenched resistance to his pledges to shift the nation to renewable energy by 2035 — including from fossil fuel advocates who have sought to scapegoat wind and solar for the energy woes in both states.

If Joe was smart, he’d push more nuclear, Gen 5 and Gen 6. But, his base of lunatics, which has increased in numbers tremendously from the Clinton years, won’t allow nuclear, even though some climahysterics, like Michael Mann, are in favor of nuclear. If it’s mostly solar and wind states which get lots of winter weather will see the grid go down from production first, rather than mostly downed lines, blown transformers, and blown substations.

Meanwhile, they’re also dragging in SJW garbage, rich vs poor

Texas freeze shows a chilling truth – how the rich use climate change to divide us

…

Like the poor across America and much of the world, poor Texans are getting hammered by climate change. Many inhabit substandard homes, lacking proper insulation. The very poor occupy trailers or tents, or camp out in their cars. Lower-income communities are located close to refineries and other industrial sites that release added pollutants when they shut or restart.

In Texas, for-profit energy companies have no incentive to prepare for extreme weather or maintain spare capacity. Even if they’re able to handle surges in demand, prices go through the roof and poorer households are hit hard. If they can’t pay, they’re cut off. (snip)

Climate change, Covid-19 and jobs are together splitting Americans by class more profoundly than Americans are split by politics. The white working class is taking as much of a beating as most Black and Latino people.

mule fritter sherman potter

Read: Digging Deep: Neither California’s Nor Texas’ Power Grids Could Survive Climate Apocalypse »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 21, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is the flag of a nation that won’t Take Action on the climate crisis, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is a rare link to The Gateway Pundit, with a post on China Joe ending a program that targeted sex offenders illegally in the USA.

It’s long legs week!

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach February 21, 2021 – 9:12 am

stefano riboli patriotic pinup

Happy Sunday! Another fantastic day in the once and future nation of America. The Sun is shining, the geese are honking, and Texas is warming up and getting its power back. This pinup is by a more contemporary painter, first time using, Stefano Riboli, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Hot Air covers some wild power bills in Texas
  2. The Last Refuge discusses Trump planning to speak at CPAC
  3. American Greatness notes that there’s no proof Jan 6 was an “armed insurrection”
  4. Climate Change Dispatch covers polar bears thriving. Still thriving. Can’t Warmists get a break?
  5. Jo Nova notes Texas was ready for global warming, not crazy cold and snow
  6. 357 Magnum discusses when the truth cannot be discussed
  7. Blazing Cat Fur discusses the electric snow mobile saving all Canadians or something
  8. Common Cents Blog features the landing of Perseverance on Mars
  9. Creeping Sharia covers Valparaiso U cancelling their Crusader nickname
  10. Datechguy’s Blog notes the big drop in COVID
  11. Weasel Zippers covers when experts are saying we’ll have herd immunity
  12. Vox Popoli discussing everyone hating Andrew Cuomo
  13. This ain’t Hell… highlights people saying that “America is back” with China Joe in office
  14. The Right Scoop covers NBC blasting DeSantis for prioritizing the elderly for vaccination
  15. And last, but not least, The People’s Cube wonders if it can continue, since real life has become too similar to what they’re parodying

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.

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?

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

Posted in Patriotic Pinup | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

With Utterly Leftist COVID “Stimulus” Package, China Joe Calls For Bipartisanship

By William Teach February 21, 2021 – 7:42 am

In Democrat World, the word bipartisanship is a word, not an action. Not a piece of legislation

In Stimulus Push, Biden Calls for Setting Partisanship Aside

As Joe Biden presses his case for Republicans to set partisanship aside and support his Covid-19 relief bill in Congress this week, the President reminded Americans of his own history working across the aisle with his visit Saturday evening to his ailing friend Bob Dole.

The friendship between Biden and Dole, the former Senate Republican leader who recently revealed that he has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, was forged over the many years that the two men served together in the Senate. Biden often speaks with nostalgia about his working relationships with GOP leaders during that less polarizing time when negotiation was the rule rather than the exception.

Having a friendship with someone on the other side of the aisle is about friendship, not about passing legislation that goes against political beliefs. Reagan and Tip O’Neill could go out and have a beer after a day of thundering at each other. Because, with politics, they used to say this was not personal. And the personal was mostly left out. There’s an old saying about politics, that it’s a dirty, nasty business with a veneer of civility. Democrats eliminated that veneer, and not only have to destroy their opponents politically, but personally.

The new President’s desire to create more consensus in Washington will clearly be on his mind as he tries to steer his $1.9 trillion stimulus package through the US House this week and prepares for the legislation’s more difficult path through the US Senate. The Senate will also take up more of his nominees this week as he looks to fill out his Cabinet. But not all of them have full Democratic support. He’ll need GOP votes, for example, to get Office of Management and Budget director nominee Neera Tanden confirmed.

Who remembers when Joe and his House and Senate Comrades never bothered talking about forging a bipartisan bill, but, rather immediately going the reconciliation route the moment they heard they won the redo elections in Georgia?

But on the pandemic, at least, he is leaning in with the limited political capital he has in a narrowly divided Congress, while taking his case for the package directly to the American people as he tries to overcome Republican opposition.

So, he’s not going to bother going the bipartisan route, but, attempt to browbeat Republicans who aren’t interested in passing his silly, chock full of leftist garbage, raising the minimum wage and killing jobs package? Which, BTW, still doesn’t have the $2,000 Joe promised. No, his promise was not for an additional $1,400 to add to the $600. It was $2,000.

In this first glimpse of Biden’s presidential salesmanship, he has not been shy about calling out Republicans who are wary of supporting his American Rescue Plan, despite its popularity — urging them to offer their ideas for potential compromise. On Friday, at a Pfizer plant in Michigan manufacturing vaccines, he made an impassioned case for the bill while pushing back on Republican critics who have said it is too big and too expensive.

“Let me ask them: What would they have me cut? What would they have me leave out?” Biden asked. “Should we not invest $20 billion to vaccinate the nation? Should we not invest $290 (billion) to extend unemployment insurance for the 11 million Americans who are unemployed so they can get by while they get back to work? Should we not invest $50 billion to help small businesses stay open, when tens of thousands have had to close permanently? … Should we not invest $130 (billion) to help schools across the nation open safely?”

So, calling out, not calling on. What to cut? Start with the $15 minimum wage, which is unrelated to COVID. Cut everything unrelated. Cut the school spending, it’s unnecessary, schools have plenty of money. Cut local and state money, it’s mostly unnecessary. How about cutting $91 million for outreach to student loan borrowers? $135 million for the NEA and $135 million for the National Endowment for Humanities, railroad bailout money, and so much more?

Anyhow, the article cannot mention anything bipartisan in the bill, cannot mention Joe actually working the phones and meeting in person to woo Republicans. If the GOP was smart and went on the offensive (most have already forgotten the Trump Lesson, that you have to attack and sustain that attack), they’d use Joe’s own words about what to cut and say exactly what to cut, along with saying that the $1,400 should be voted on separately and that the rest could be negotiated on.

Read: With Utterly Leftist COVID “Stimulus” Package, China Joe Calls For Bipartisanship »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus, Democrats, Joe Biden | 31 Comments | Trackback URL

White House Notes What Happened In Texas Shows We Aren’t Ready For Climate Apocalypse

By William Teach February 20, 2021 – 3:00 pm

Climate cultists just can’t help themselves, can they? I’d suggest that the White House give up their own use of fossil fuels and run 100% on solar panels, wind turbines, and jelly beans

White House Adviser Says Texas Outages Show How U.S. Is Unprepared For Climate Change

The extreme weather conditions in Texas, where a winter storm has caused widespread power outages, should serve as a reminder that climate change is real and the United States not fully prepared to deal with its impact, said White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall on Thursday.

“The extreme weather events that we’re experiencing this week across the central, southern and now the eastern United States do yet again demonstrate to us that climate change is real, and it’s happening now, and we’re not adequately prepared for it,” said Sherwood-Randall, who also serves as deputy national security advisor.

“Power grids across our country, particularly in Texas, are overloaded by the demands that are placed on them under these circumstances, and the infrastructure is not built to withstand these extreme conditions,” she added.

Sherwood-Randall said the federal government will work with states to incentivize efforts to reinforce infrastructure against adverse climate events.

If you’re blaming cold and snow on greenhouse gases, you’re a member of a doomsday cult.

Sherwood-Randall said that it’s not physically feasible at the moment to connect the Texas’ independent power grid to the national grid, but the Energy Department is relaxing some environmental standards on an emergency basis to allow Texas to bring additional energy generation online.

Hey, Texans, do you want your power grid connected to the national grid, giving Los Federales control of it? I’m betting the answer is no. Why does it always seem that government wants to grab power using ‘climate change’ as their argument? Anyhow, it wouldn’t have made a difference, since so many lines were down and transformers blown.

Read: White House Notes What Happened In Texas Shows We Aren’t Ready For Climate Apocalypse »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Democrats, Energy, Global Warming | 16 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 20, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a house on stilts to protect against extreme weather and sea rise, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Pacific Pundit, with a post on leaked Coca Cola employee training on being “less white”.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Democrats Unveil Full COVID Bill, Pretty Much Exactly What You Thought It Would Contain

By William Teach February 20, 2021 – 10:30 am

The only way it passes is through reconciliation, provided any Republicans will cross the aisle, since Joe Manchin has said he’s against raising the minimum wage in the bill, as has Democrat Senator Kyrsten Sinema

House Democrats unveil full $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill with minimum wage increase

House Democrats took another step Friday in their effort to advance a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, releasing the full bill text, which includes an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, $1,400 direct checks for Americans making $75,000 or less a year, an extension of $400 federal unemployment benefits and more money for small businesses struggling amid the pandemic.

The legislation, which had already been passed in pieces out of individual committees, was packaged together by the House Budget Committee.

The panel will take up the bill Monday and it is expected to come to the House floor for a vote later next week. (snip)

The bill is not expected to attract much, if any, Republican support. On Friday, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise urged Republicans in an email to vote “no” on what his office called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “Payoff to Progressives Act.”

“With millions of Americans unemployed and demanding relief to reopen schools and get people back to work, House Republican leadership is demanding its members vote against a bipartisan plan to help struggling Americans,” Nancy Pelosi’s office said in an email. “Americans need help. House Republicans don’t care.”

If it was a great, bipartisan bill there wouldn’t be much opposition. Take out the minimum wage increase idiocy, which might cause the bill to be shot down in court because that’s not part of what can be in a reconciliation bill.

Biden’s Coronavirus Relief Package Has Almost Nothing to Do With the Coronavirus

… (There’s $128 billion in the bill for schools)

But even if you think substantial additional funding is strictly necessary for rapid reopening, there’s a problem: The vast majority of the relief plan’s money for schools wouldn’t be spent in the current fiscal year, or even next year. Previous coronavirus relief and congressional spending bills have already included more than $100 billion in funding for schools. But according to the Congressional Budget Office, “most of those funds remain to be spent.”

As a result, just $6 billion would be spent in the 2021 fiscal year, which runs through September. Another $32 billion would be spent in 2022, and the rest by 2028. Biden is insisting that schools must reopen soon—and also that the only way for them to reopen is to authorize more than $120 billion in spending, most of which wouldn’t roll out for years. It doesn’t make much sense.

How much money did school systems not spend on electricity, water, supplies, throughout the day cleaning, operations, fuel for buses, etc? They don’t need it.

Similarly, Biden’s plan calls for $350 billion to backstop state budgets, which were projected to be down as much as 8 percent overall this year. Yet according to The Wall Street Journal, total revenues were down just 1.6 percent for the 2020 fiscal year, and 18 states ended the year with above-projection revenue. As Reason‘s Christian Britschgi noted last week, Biden’s plan would disburse money to every state—including California, which is set for a $15 billion surplus. Previous coronavirus relief bills, meanwhile, have already doled out $300 billion to bolster state budgets. The billions in extra funding Biden’s plan would deliver to soaring state budgets would, in all likelihood, not be spent this coming year. So much for not having a second to waste.

Payback to Democratic cities and states. And we know what would happen with a minimum wage rise to $15 by 2025 would do: job loss. Oh, and they’re raising the wage for those who get tipped, too, which will reduce the hours of servers and number of servers

How much of this alleged coronavirus relief plan is actually related to the coronavirus?  According to CRFB, just 1 percent of the relief plan’s spending would go toward vaccines, and just 5 percent would go toward pandemic-related public health needs. Meanwhile, 15 percent of the spending—about $300 billion—would be spent on long-standing policy priorities that are not directly related to the current crisis.

Plus, you aren’t even getting the $2,000 check Biden promised again and again, especially for the Georgia Senate revote.

Twitchy has a mega thread from Oilfield Rando which lays out the crazy, such as (click the more tag)

Read More »

Read: Democrats Unveil Full COVID Bill, Pretty Much Exactly What You Thought It Would Contain »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus, Democrats, Joe Biden | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

Hot Take: High Flying John Kerry Says We Only Have 9 Years Left

By William Teach February 20, 2021 – 7:01 am

You remember John Kerry, right, and his private jet? Well, he now says we only have 9 years left

Here’s a CBS article on this idiocy

The wild winter weather this week has been called historic and unprecedented, and John Kerry, U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, wants to stop it from becoming typical.

“Obviously we want to prevent this from becoming the new normal to the degree that we can,” Kerry told CBS News’ Ben Tracy.

Many people wrongly believe that climate change only relates to temperatures increasing, not decreasing.

Kerry said it threatens all weather patterns.

“I think it’s a very appropriate way to think of it, so it is directly related to the warming, even though your instinct is to say, wait a minute, this is the new Ice Age. But it’s not,” Kerry said. “It is coming from the global warming and it threatens all the normal weather patterns.”

Yes, he did just blame the winter weather on Someone Else taking fossil fueled flights

Kerry said we have only a few years left to avoid a climate catastrophe.

“Well, the scientists told us three years ago we had 12 years to avert the worst consequences of climate crisis. We are now three years gone, so we have nine years left,” he said.

We’ve had 50 years of failed eco prognostications, many of those along the lines of “we only have X years left or Dooooooooom!” At least John was able to get his math correct.

Read: Hot Take: High Flying John Kerry Says We Only Have 9 Years Left »

Posted in Climahypocrites, Global Warming, Kerry | 11 Comments | Trackback URL

Democrats Pushing Gun Registry Legislation, Including Where People Keep Their Firearms

By William Teach February 20, 2021 – 6:48 am

Well, of course they are, this is what they do

Democratic bill would create public registry of gun owners, their guns, and where they keep them

A Democratic bill introduced in the House of Representatives this year aims to create a mandatory and publicly accessible registry listing the names of gun owners, how many guns they have, and even where they keep their firearms.

Additionally, the bill, H.R. 127, would ban several types of commonly used ammunition .50 caliber or greater, require gun owners to purchase firearm insurance costing $800 per year, and force those seeking to buy a gun to complete a psychological evaluation and a government training course prior to the purchase.

Should gun owners fail to adhere to the new restrictions, they could face an harsh penalty of 10 years in prison and fines of $50,000 to $150,000.

Sponsored by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), the bill is one of the most aggressive attempts yet by progressive lawmakers to curb Americans’ Second Amendment rights and is already drawing intense scrutiny from gun rights groups.

Publicly accessible doesn’t just mean the Government knows who has what guns and where they are kept: it means lunatic leftist gun grabbers know and can doxx people, and, criminals would know where the guns are so they can steal them. And other criminals would know who has them so they can target other homes.

Insurance? That would make owning a firearm much more expensive, and, for some, make it unaffordable. Psychological evaluation? You can bet most would fail in Democratic Party run areas. Government training? I’m not again it, but, I don’t remember any of this in the 2nd Amendment, and it would all certainly be struck down by the Supreme Court as violating rights. Not that it would make it through the Senate. Not unless Democrats want to kill off the filibuster.

Speaking with the Washington Times, the leaders of several retired police officer groups also slammed the bill as a brazen attempt to curtail Second Amendment rights — and a hazardous one at that. Under the legislation, retired officers would not be exempt from the public registry.

“This is very dangerous, especially for retirees,” Kevin Hassett, president of the New York’s Retired Police Association, told the outlet. “Things have gone so downhill with this level of hostility towards cops and we are out there with the label that we are no longer cops. Retired cops don’t have partners or backup. We are out there on our own.”

Democrats want to make owning a firearm very difficult for every citizen (yet, aren’t willing to give up their own armed protection).

While the bill has a long way to go before becoming law — it has no co-sponsors and has yet to be scheduled for a committee hearing — its mere introduction demonstrates the confidence of anti-gun lawmakers under the Biden administration and in a Democratic Party-controlled Congress.

“H.R. 127 is so outrageous, persecutory, and unworkable that its main function is simply to display the hostility of its author and supporters toward firearms, those who own them, and those who want to own them,” the NRA added in its blistering writeup.

What they’ll do is water it down slightly, get one idiot Republican on board, and call it bipartisan. Then they’ll hide what it really does and call anyone who is against it a racist and supporter of domestic terrorism, that they hate kids.

Read: Democrats Pushing Gun Registry Legislation, Including Where People Keep Their Firearms »

Posted in 2nd Amendment, Democrats | 2 Comments | Trackback URL
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