COVID Update: Cleaning, Picking Nose, Salon Raids

Lots of fun little COVID things to go over. Did you know that cleaning is not really necessary?

Still Disinfecting Surfaces? It Might Not Be Worth It

At the start of the pandemic, stores quickly sold out of disinfectant sprays and wipes. People were advised to wipe down their packages and the cans they bought at the grocery store.

But scientists have learned a lot this year about the coronavirus and how it’s transmitted, and it turns out all that scrubbing and disinfecting might not be necessary.

If a person infected with the coronavirus sneezes, coughs or talks loudly, droplets containing particles of the virus can travel through the air and eventually land on nearby surfaces. But the risk of getting infected from touching a surface contaminated by the virus is low, says Emanuel Goldman, a microbiologist at Rutgers University.

“In hospitals, surfaces have been tested near COVID-19 patients, and no infectious virus can be identified,” Goldman says.

In all fairness, early on things were very much up in the air, no one knew much. But, here we are closing in on a year later and now we’re finding this out? Will this be broadcast out beyond this lonely NPR article? Or will they look to keep us in fear?

Why picking your nose isn’t just gross — it’s dangerous in the time of coronavirus

…Jokes aside, nose picking is deadly serious.

Not only are people spreading their own bacteria and viruses onto everything they touch after a bout of digging for gold — but you also “transfer germs from your fingertips into the nose, which is the exact opposite of what you want,” said infectious disease specialist Dr. Paul Pottinger, a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

That means that you can spread coronavirus to others from your nose-picking session, and you are also more likely to bring that virus, along with others like influenza or rhinovirus (the common cold), directly into your body.

One has to wonder how CNN green-lit an article on picking your nose, even with the Bat Soup Virus angle

VIDEO – Agents Cite CA Salon for Defying Shutdown Order: ‘They Treated It Like a Drug Raid’

A salon owner and several stylists in Stockton, California, were cited Wednesday for keeping their doors open despite the state’s regional stay at home orders.

“Agents with the Department of Consumer Affairs visited Pomp Salon in Lincoln Village, where the owner and staff have been outspoken about their desire to stay open,” KCRA reported.

Video footage of the incident shows one person asking an agent, “Are you gonna pay our bills? Would you like to pay my mortgage?”

Stylist Denise Levitt said she believes it should be up to clients to decide whether they want to visit the business or not, adding, “I was screaming because I said, ‘the governor does not follow his orders, so why should we?’”

Masks are worn at all times inside the salon, according to owner Dino Ballin, who said he is baffled as to why the personal care industry is being targeted.

“They burst into our salon and they treated it like a drug raid,” Ballin’s wife, Vicki Kirk, told Fox 40.

If you hit the links and check the video, these agents of the Dept of Consumer Affairs were actually wearing “police” placards on the back of their flack jackets. Really. I don’t see any firearms in the video, but, it is crazy that these agents would be considered police. Welcome to California?

Meanwhile, Dr. Fauci, who’s all over the place on his herd immunity claims, says that the worst is yet to come, just like China Joe. It’s like they want to keep this going as long as possible to keep as much power in the hands of government, getting you more and more used to it.

Read: COVID Update: Cleaning, Picking Nose, Salon Raids »

Climate Cult Looks To Drive The Rest Of Heavy Manufacturing Out Of The U.S.

President Trump worked hard to keep manufacturing here in the U.S. and bring some back, and had some successes. And some losses. Warmists would like to get rid of most of it

A way forward on climate change: Focus on reducing heavy industry’s carbon emissions
Heavy industry like iron, steel and cement production has an outsized impact on trade, job growth and the environment.

In such a landscape, low-hanging fruit feels easy, but we should set our sights higher. It is time for Congress to work together — in a bipartisan fashion that addresses Republicans’ key priorities while also significantly cutting greenhouse gas emissions — on one of the most difficult climate challenges: reducing the carbon footprint for heavy industry.

Little has been done, so the policy playing field is wide open. No idea has been tried and discarded; partisan camps have not been locked down.

Heavy industry like iron, steel and cement production has an outsized impact on trade, job growth and the environment, which make it an alluring opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, industry accounts for about 19% of direct greenhouse gas emissions — 33% when including indirect emissions, such as those generated by lighting and heating industrial facilities.

Indeed, data-driven climate policy needs to focus on industrial emissions because they have steadily increased and could soon surpass power sector emissions.

Because it is at the heart of the supply chain, the industrial sector has an outsized influence on critical economic indicators. Estimates based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that for every 100 jobs created or lost in the durable goods manufacturing sector, more than 700 jobs hang in the balance elsewhere in the economy.

OK, let’s go right to the heart of the matter, Warmists want to force the industry sector to Do Something about their “carbon footprints” here in the U.S., and use silly phrases like

  • Empower companies to reduce their emissions voluntarily.
  • Facilitate growth in the market for goods that have lower emissions profiles, and reduce barriers for people and companies interested in purchasing low-carbon products.
  • Update federal procurement policy to ensure that the U.S. government — the world’s largest buyer of goods and services — favors American-made low-carbon products.

to cover up that they force compliance by government fiat, thinking that industry will comply instead of getting out of dodge. A lot of auto manufacturing is getting out of Canada and the UK, partially due to climate crisis scam requirements, and moving to Mexico. A lot more would say Bye! to the U.S., along with all those jobs and tax revenues, at least in the cases where they do not just raise the costs to the consumers. So, the Warmists want to nail high carbon pollution products coming into the U.S., which would require that the U.S. watch how products are made in other countries, and mean that the costs would be passed on to the consumers.

BTW, without the industry sector, how will the China Joe admin make all those electric vehicles?

Read: Climate Cult Looks To Drive The Rest Of Heavy Manufacturing Out Of The U.S. »

Trump Signs COVID/Govt Funding Bill, Still Has Demands

Congress was obviously going to Congress on the bill, and was happy to give citizens chump change while funding all sorts of dumb things, like ‘climate change’ idiocy and gender studies in Pakistan

President Trump signs bill that includes $900 billion stimulus deal after delay

President Trump signed legislation on Sunday evening that provides crucial government spending and $900 billion in pandemic-related stimulus after demanding that the bill be amended in various ways.

The president “has signed H.R. 133, an Act making consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, providing coronavirus emergency response and relief, and for other purposes,” White House spokesperson Judd Deere stated Sunday evening.

The entire $2.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, which funds the government through September 2021, passed both chambers of Congress on Monday night with overwhelming support.

The $900 billion coronavirus relief portion of the bill includes $600 stimulus checks, extends two federal unemployment programs, provides an additional $300 in weekly jobless benefits, and adds another round of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for small businesses.

Also included is funding for vaccine distribution and schools, $25 billion in rental assistance, an extension of the eviction moratorium, $13 billion in food assistance, and $7 billion to increase access to broadband.

Trump has a few demands, but, it’s almost as if he’s washing his hands of this whole mess

In Sunday’s signing statement, the president asserted that the Senate “will start the process for a vote that increases checks to $2,000, repeals Section 230, and starts an investigation into voter fraud.”

Breitbart has the full statement, and the question now becomes whether the GOP will vote for the $2,000 checks, now that there’s no need to worry about stripping the dumb crap out of the bills. The House won’t bother with either of the other two things, Section 230 being about Big Tech protections, and the Senate will most likely ignore them, as well. Per Trump’s statement, he looks to use the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which will allow him to not spend lots of the crazy money funding measures. The question then becomes, does China Joe do the same, probably by accident? Or does he go and change it and spend that money in other countries when Americans need it?

I guess we’ll know later in the day about the $2,000.

Read: Trump Signs COVID/Govt Funding Bill, Still Has Demands »

Say, Who’s Going To Foot The Bill For China Joe’s Climate Crisis (scam) Agenda?

Anthony Rowley at the South China Morning Post asks a good question. It’s the answer he provides that’s rather interesting

As Joe Biden prepares to rejoin the global fight against climate change, who will foot the bill?

US President-elect Joe Biden has promised to go full tilt into action against climate change from the first day of his presidency on January 20.

But, in fighting an impending climate crisis, he and other advanced-nation leaders may encounter an unexpected enemy – a crisis of market capitalism.

The two things are closely connected, but this fact does not appear to have dawned yet on policymakers, investors and others who are raring to go into battle against climate change and other existential threats. Saving the planet is going to cost money, and no one is sure where it will come from.

In round terms, half of the multitrillion-dollar amount needed is envisaged to come from governments and the other half from financial market investors. Just how exactly this latter half is supposed to find its way from private savings into public projects is far from clear.

Um, where is the government getting the money from?

So, unless capital markets can come up with some radical new ideas on how to translate private savings into the colossal amounts needed to save the planet and its inhabitants, and do so quickly, state intervention to bypass markets will almost certainly become necessary.

That’s a mouthful, eh? They’re expecting private firms to take the money they’ve been entrusted with by private citizens to make the right decisions and dump that into Hotcoldwetdry stuff, and, if they don’t, it should be confiscated. Taken away. Think about that. Even you Warmists out there, do you want “state intervention” with your hard-earned money? Money you count on for retirement, for your kids, for whatever?

State-dominated financial systems (among which China’s is by far the biggest) seem likely – by virtue of their ability to marshal savings behind mega social and economic projects – to leave market economies behind in the race to “go green” and contribute to saving life on Earth.

Sounds like they’re advocating a takeover of the U.S. financial systems. Silly me to say this is about politics and not science.

The task needs not just a climate change tsar, such as former secretary of state John Kerry whom Biden has appointed to the task, but also a financial system tsar who can get Wall Street and other financial centres properly focused on the task in hand. That would be a good New Year resolution for Biden and other leaders.

Do you trust Government for this? Do you want the people who buy $750 hammers and fund shrimp on treadmills (insert your own example) do this? Finding creative ways to take your money?

Read: Say, Who’s Going To Foot The Bill For China Joe’s Climate Crisis (scam) Agenda? »

If All You See…

…are old buildings made for living without electricity and heating and AC, which is super awesome for other people, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Newsbusters, with a post on ABC and NBC being befuddled by Trump wanting bigger COVID checks.

It’s sundress week!

Read: If All You See… »

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

patriotic pinup gil elvgren

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in America. The Sun is shining, the geese are honking, and the new year is almost here. Did everyone have a wonderful Christmas? This pinup is by Gil Elvgren, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Independent Sentinel notes John Ossoff took money from the CCP and hid it
  2. Weasel Zippers covers (fake holiday) Kwanza and Kamala Harris
  3. The Right Scoop discusses what MSNBC thinks of the selfish people having weddings
  4. The Other McCain notes a left wing journalist arrested for firebombing a police car
  5. The Last Refuge covers the FBI having a person of interest in the Nashville bombing
  6. The First Street Journal has some SJWs being butthurt
  7. Sultan Knish notes that managing people is just easier
  8. Powerline wonders if Dems are in trouble for 2022
  9. neo-neocon covers wealth extraction in San Francisco
  10. Moonbattery notes a school superintendent suspended for wearing blackface…18 years ago
  11. Liberty’s Choice features an epidemic of politics
  12. Legal Insurrection notes Detroit suing BLM protesters
  13. Jihad Watch covers CAIR and their 33 demands to China Joe
  14. DC Clothesline discusses all out war after Jan 6th
  15. And last, but not least, Chicks On The Right covers all the wasteful spending in 2020

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 »

Trump Rages As Congress Refuses To Remove Pork From COVID Bill In Exchange For $2,000 Checks

When we talk about a biases, partisan, spinning media, this is a good example

Unemployment benefits expire for millions as Trump rages

Unemployment benefits for millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet lapsed overnight as President Donald Trump refused to signed an end-of-year COVID relief and spending bill that had been considered a done deal before his sudden objections.

The fate of the bipartisan package remained in limbo Sunday as Trump continued to demand larger COVID relief checks and complained about “pork” spending. Without the widespread funding provided by the massive measure, a government shutdown would occur when money runs out at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

“It’s a chess game and we are pawns,” said Lanetris Haines, a self-employed single mother of three in South Bend, Indiana, who stood to lose her $129 weekly jobless benefit unless Trump signed the package into law or succeeded in his improbable quest for changes.

Washington has been reeling since Trump turned on the deal after it had won sweeping approval in both houses of Congress and after the White House had assured Republican leaders that Trump would support it.

Instead, he assailed the bill’s plan to provide $600 COVID relief checks to most Americans — insisting it should be $2,000. House Republicans swiftly rejected that idea during a rare Christmas Eve session. But Trump has not been swayed in spite of the nation being in the grip of a pandemic.

“I simply want to get our great people $2000, rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill,” Trump tweeted Saturday from Palm Beach, Florida, where he is spending the holiday. “Also, stop the billions of dollars in ‘pork.’”

That’s “raging”? Nowhere in this Associated Press article, published at ABC News, does it mention that Trump wants all the pork, all the silly stuff, pulled from the bill, which is a combination COVID and government operations bill. Seriously, as Trump said

“It’s called the COVID Relief Bill, but it has almost nothing to do with COVID,” Trump said. “This bill contains $85.5 million for assistance to Cambodia, $134 million to Burma, $1.3 billion for Egypt and the Egyptian military, which will go out and buy almost exclusively Russian military equipment. $25 million for democracy and gender programs in Pakistan, $505 million to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. $40 million for the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, which is not even open for business.

And $15 million for Pakistan, at least $10 million of which must be used for gender studies. Lots of folks defending the Covid bill are saying “hey, this includes a normal operations of government funding bill”. Is it necessary to add all this stuff for other countries as well as non-needed stuff to it? Even some stuff such as $1.4 billion for wall construction is not necessary at this point. Nor is $15 billion for grant programs for live entertainment venues such as Broadway, which are all shut down. It’s really all the foreign aid that is unnecessary at this time. Kill it off.

But, you know, Trump’s raging about stupid spending or something.

Read: Trump Rages As Congress Refuses To Remove Pork From COVID Bill In Exchange For $2,000 Checks »

New Zealanders Are Up For Anything Goes To Stop ‘Climate Change’

Well, I’m sure anything but measures that hurt their own lives

New Zealand readers say ‘everything’ must be prioritised in battle against climate change

After prime minister Jacinda Ardern declared a climate emergency this month, we asked you what New Zealand should prioritise to meet its climate change goals.

The responses varied widely, although there was broad consensus that more needed to be done to reduce emissions from agriculture and transport. Some of you argued for better urban design, while others advocated the introduction of a carbon tax, investment in renewable energy and more sustainable housing, efforts to reduce plastic waste and an increase in the planting of native trees.

Many of you also urged Ardern to exhibit the same leadership she showed during the Covid-19 crisis, to be brave in making decisions and honest with New Zealanders about the changes required to meet her government’s goals.

Here is a selection of your answers:

Most of the answers are about Government needs to do something, not about “hey, I’ll happily give up my own use of fossil fuels and make my life carbon neutral. Sure, I’m good with paying a lot more for energy and all goods and services. Sure, I’m good with rolling blackouts. Yes, I think we should stop all fossil fueled flights from coming to New Zealand with vacationers and goods. Sure, we should stop all fossil fueled ships that bring goods to New Zealand.”

Like the rest of the world it [NZ’s climate response] needs to do everything. Climate change is complex and there’s no easy fix. The solution is to reduce emissions across the board, and that means moving away from a lifestyle based on individual “success” to one based on collective wellbeing. That means bigger government, with more regulation and a stronger influence on what people and businesses do. It means a fairer distribution of wealth, better education, better public facilities (including transport), more emphasis on quality of life and less on material wealth, less “development” and more “conservation”. To put it simply, less greed and more sharing. It means changing society, and you can’t do that by focusing on one or two things.

Early on, when I started blogging, plus yapping on chat boards, people said I was crazy for saying that ‘climate change’ had little to do with science and everything to do with far left politics. I’ve told skeptical scientists and such that their focus on disproving the crazy science of the Cult of Climastrology was a waste, because this isn’t about science, and no matter what, Warmists will find a way. This is about politics.

Read: New Zealanders Are Up For Anything Goes To Stop ‘Climate Change’ »

If All You See…

…is an inland sea created by climate change, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Lid, with a post on NYC’s population continuing to amscray.

Read: If All You See… »

Politico Basically Admits That Lockdowns And Closing Businesses And Such Doesn’t Work

There have been lots of different methods tried early on to limit the spread of Wuhan-Flu. California went the draconian route, and still is trying. Yet

From the link

California has had some of the toughest restrictions in the country to combat the coronavirus, from a complete ban on restaurant dining to travel quarantines and indoor gym closures.

It hasn’t been enough.

America’s most populous state has become one of the nation’s worst epicenters for the disease, setting new records for cases, hospitalizations and deaths almost every day. Things are so bad in Southern California that some patients are being treated in hospital tents, while doctors have begun discussing whether they need to ration care.

The turnabout has confounded leaders and health experts. They can point to any number of reasons that contributed to California’s surge over the past several weeks. But it is hard to pinpoint one single factor — and equally hard to find a silver bullet.

So, perhaps all the restrictions weren’t necessary, because it sure looks like a resurgence is happening all over the world, not just the country

At more than 100 new daily cases per 100,000 residents, California’s case rate is second only to that in Tennessee, according to the nonprofit tracking site Covid Act Now — though it’s a state that does not mandate mask wearing and allows indoor gatherings of up to 10 people. The website Covid Exit Strategy shows a 97 percent rise in Covid throughout California, which has gone in the opposite direction from its West Coast counterparts, Oregon and Washington.

And Tennessee is just barely ahead of California, despite not having mask mandates. But, people voluntarily wear masks in Tn, because it’s this year’s fashion statement, you know.

After early success, S. Korea sleepwalks into virus crisis

South Korea had seemed to be winning the fight against the coronavirus: Quickly ramping up its testing, contact-tracing and quarantine efforts paid off when it weathered an early outbreak without the economic pain of a lockdown. But a deadly resurgence has reached new heights during Christmas week, prompting soul-searching on how the nation sleepwalked into a crisis.

The 1,241 infections on Christmas Day were the largest daily increase. Another 1,132 cases were reported Saturday, bringing South Korea’s caseload to 55,902.

They had some social distancing restrictions, and then loosened them, but, did not destroy their economy. And, like pretty much most 1st world nations, and, heck, 3rd world nations, they are seeing a big resurgence. There never was a reason to ruin economies. And most often, it was those with no skin in the game, those who weren’t missing paychecks, those not having their jobs deemed non-essential, who pushed the hardest for all the hardcore lockdowns and such.

Read: Politico Basically Admits That Lockdowns And Closing Businesses And Such Doesn’t Work »

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