Warmist Nations Agree On Carbon Tax For Global Shipping

By William Teach April 12, 2025 – 7:15 am

This will totally stop climate doom, right? Or just be a way to raise prices for consumers, put money in the pockets of the rich and politicians, and, well, put money in the pockets of the rich and politicians, who all fail to practice what they force on everyone else

Major nations agree on first-ever global fee on greenhouse gases with plan that targets shipping

Many of the world’s largest shipping nations decided on Friday to impose a minimum fee of $100 for every ton of greenhouse gases emitted by ships above certain thresholds, in what is effectively the first global tax on greenhouse gas emissions.

The International Maritime Organization estimates $11 billion to $13 billion in revenue annually from the fees, with the money to be put into its net zero fund to invest in fuels and technologies needed to transition to green shipping, reward low-emission ships and support developing countries so they aren’t left behind with dirty fuels and old ships. The thresholds set through the agreement will get stricter over time to try to reach the IMO’s goal of net zero across the industry by about 2050.

The agreement, reached with the United States notably absent, is expected to be formally adopted at an October meeting to take effect in 2027. The IMO, which regulates international shipping, also set a marine fuel standard to phase in cleaner fuels.

Do these cleaner fuels exist?

One major issue during the meetings was the way the fee would be charged. More than 60 countries entered the negotiations pushing for a simple tax charged per metric ton of emissions. They were led by Pacific island nations, whose very existence is threatened by climate change.

In other words, nations with barely any exports of note, but, who have lots of airports and receive most of their goods through fossil fueled ships want lots of that sweet, sweet, strings free climate scam cash.

Other countries with sizable maritime fleets — notably China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Africa — wanted a credit trading model instead of a fixed levy. Finally, a compromise between the two models was reached. The compromise is in the ambition of the measure, since the fee is not a universal levy on all emissions.

The IMO aims for consensus in decision-making, but in this case had to vote. Sixty-three nations, including China, Brazil, South Africa and many European states, approved the agreement. Led by Saudi Arabia, 16 opposed. And 24 nations, including a group from the Pacific Islands, abstained. Ministers from the island nations said they refused to support an agreement that would “do too little, too late to cut shipping emissions and protect their islands,” and will try to strengthen it at the October meeting.

What’s in it for China? You know they wouldn’t sign on if they weren’t going to make some money out of it. Or, be given some sort of exemption.

When asked about the United States’ position in a press conference, Secretary-General Dominguez said large ships traveling between different countries are obliged to comply with the IMO’s regulations. He said nations with concerns should engage with the IMO, to move forward together.

Yeah, well, good luck with that as long as Trump is president.

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Judge Rules People In Charge Of Immigration Can Deport Mahmoud Khalil

By William Teach April 12, 2025 – 7:00 am

Of course, Democrats are going to work hard to make sure this guy who came to the US and immediately started calling for the deaths of Jews and Americans, the destruction of Israel and America, and taking over buildings with violence can stay in the U.S.

Immigration judge rules that Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported

Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil can be deported as a national security risk, an immigration judge in Louisiana ruled Friday during a hearing over the legality of kicking the activist who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations out of the U.S.

Immigration Judge Jamee E. Comans said at the conclusion of a hearing in Jena that the government’s contention that Khalil’s presence in the United States posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” was enough to satisfy requirements for his deportation.

Comans said the government had “established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable.”

Lawyers for Khalil are expected to appeal. And a federal judge in New Jersey has temporarily barred Khalil’s removal from the country.

Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under President Donald Trump’s promised crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza.

How is he a legal U.S. resident? He came in on a student visa in 2022 and immediately started protesting and whipping up hatred of Jews. His student visa is over. The US government has no need to keep him on any work visa. They do not have to give him any visa. He is not a legal resident. Threatening to kill Jews, destroy Israel, and destroy America is more than enough to get him booted. He’s a hardcore Hamas supporter, and that’s enough.

On Friday, Justice Department attorneys said in papers filed in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, that Comans would not have the authority to immediately free Khalil.

They said an immigration judge could determine if Khalil is subject to deportation and then conduct a bail hearing afterward if it is found that he is not.

Seriously, why does it take so long to boot out people who are bad for the U.S.?

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Starmer To Relax UK Green Rules To Help Out Rich Brits

By William Teach April 11, 2025 – 3:00 pm

The green rules relaxation won’t help out the peasants, except in one small case

From the link

Gas guzzling supercars are set to be exempted from the 2030 ban on new petrol vehicles as ministers scramble to help companies hit by Donald Trump’s tariff war.

Sir Keir Starmer said he wanted to ‘back British brilliance’ as he confirmed yesterday that luxury vehicle manufacturers, such as Aston Martin, Bentley and McLaren, will be allowed to continue selling petrol-only models beyond the cut-off year.

In a victory for ‘white van man’, ministers have also agreed to delay the ban on petrol and diesel vans until 2035. Swingeing fines on manufacturers which fail to hit targets for selling electric vehicles have also been reduced and postponed while firms try to cope with the 25 per cent tariff on exports to the US announced by Mr Trump.

Apparently, Starmer thinks all the peasants are working class who buy white vans. What happens if all the working and middle class folks buy them? It would create a shortage and drive up prices

Let’s see how the uber-left BBC covers this

The government has announced a relaxation of electric vehicle (EV) sales targets to help the car industry in the face of trade tariffs from the US.

A ban selling new petrol and diesel cars will still come into effect in 2030, but manufacturers will now have more flexibility on annual targets and face lower fines.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told BBC Breakfast its changes were not a “silver bullet” but part of the solution to responding to US tariffs.

UK opposition parties said Labour’s measures would not be enough to boost the car industry.

Um, what do tariffs have to do with any of this? These are cars made not made in the US and shipped to the UK. What’s the percentage? Only about 18,000 vehicles are imported into the UK from the US a year for new sales. Forcing the peasants into expensive, low range EVs is what’s killing the UK car industry. And relaxing the rules for supercars and white vans sold in the UK has little to no bearing on British produced cars shipped to the US, which averages about 101,000 a year, 16.9% of the exports from the UK for new vehicles. I suspect the Rich folks in the UK are getting a bit upset over being forced into EVs, rather than their luxury cars.

But, really, the Elites who push the climate scam rarely include themselves in Doing Something.

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If All You See…

By William Teach April 11, 2025 – 1:00 pm

…are horrible fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Jo Nova, with a post on Labor wanting working people to help rich people buy home batteries for their solar systems.

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RFK, Jr Says HHS Will Know Cause Of Autism By September

By William Teach April 11, 2025 – 10:30 am

Well, this is sure to drive a lot of people crazy, especially since RFK, Jr. was Trump’s pick to head HHS. And, he’s always been a little loopy on vaccines causing autism

RFK Jr. pledges an answer to the ‘autism epidemic’ by September

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a significant commitment at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting at the White House, saying that his agency will “know what has caused the autism epidemic” by September.

Kennedy said that HHS had launched, at President Donald Trump’s direction, a large research effort involving “hundreds of scientists from around the world” to look into the rising rates of autism diagnoses.

“At your direction, we are going to know by September,” Kennedy said. “We’ve launched a massive testing and research effort that’s going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world.”

“In September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures,” he added.

Trump commended Kennedy on the September goal, speculating — without scientific backing — that the answer to driving down rates could be “you stop taking something, you stop eating something or maybe it’s a shot, but something’s causing it.”

The question is, what causes autism? Environmental? Societal? Medical? Chemical? Vaccines? What is it? Consider

(Autism Speaks) A new study published in JAMA Network Open shows that the number of children and adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased by 175% over a decade.

Researchers analyzed electronic health records and insurance claims data from over 12.2 million people from 2011 to 2022. Over that period, autism prevalence across the lifespan rose from 2.3 per 1,000 people to 6.3 per 1,000 people.

Results showed that ASD prevalence was highest among children aged 5 to 8, reaching 30.3 per 1,000 children in 2022—about the same as the most recent CDC prevalence rate. Among adults, prevalence was notably low, particularly in those aged 45 and older. However, young adults aged 26 to 34 saw the sharpest rise in diagnoses, with rates increasing by 450% over the study period.

That’s not an insignificant rise. Is it over-diagnosing? Wouldn’t it be nice to know? Wouldn’t it be good to know? Shouldn’t we do science to figure this out?

Scientists have been studying the cause of autism for decades, and have identified genetics and several other factors as possibly playing a role.

It is true that estimated autism rates have climbed in the past 20 years, however experts say these rising rates are likely largely due to better awareness, a wide definition of autism spectrum disorder, and better access to services, leading to more children being screened and diagnosed. It’s possible that a yet-unknown factor is also contributing to the increase.

If it’s genetics and other factors, what has changed to significantly increase the rates? Obviously, the 2nd paragraph is trying to poo-poo Kennedy’s investigation, but, then they end with “yet-unknown factor”. Shouldn’t we find out?

In 2000, approximately 1 in 150 children in the U.S. born in 1992 were diagnosed with autism. By 2020, 1 in 36 children born in 2012 were diagnosed, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prior to 1985, it is estimated that 1 in 2,500 had autism. Why the big jump? Just better diagnoses? Perhaps over-diagnoses? If we could figure it out might it be a step to ending autism, or at least drastically reducing the rates? Especially for those with the type that truly has kids and adults stuck in their own little world, where they used to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized?

Now it’s time to sit back and wait for Democrats to lose their sh*t over this investigation.

I wrote this early morning. By 930 stuff like this started popping up in my timeline

Most are not saying why it is a problem to do scientific research, just, Orange Man and JFK, Jr Bad.

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Unsurprisingly, Deep Democrat Areas Have Most Climate Insanity, Er, Anxiety

By William Teach April 11, 2025 – 7:15 am

I wonder how much federal money has gone to the Yale climate scam program, which needs to be ended (I’m stripping some of the weird Axios formatting)

SF has the highest climate anxiety among U.S. counties

San Francisco leads the country in worrying about climate change, with 82.3% of adults expressing concerns over global warming.

State of play: Climate anxiety is more likely to be concentrated in big U.S. metros and some coastal communities, per Yale Program on Climate Change Communication estimates based on survey data.

The findings, based on statistical modeling using data from nationally representative Ipsos surveys, paint a stark picture of how attitudes toward climate change vary nationwide.

Zoom in: Many of the California counties with some of the highest nationwide shares of worried adults are in areas vulnerable to climate-driven threats like flooding or wildfire risk.

In San Francisco, 66% of adults say they’ve personally experienced the effects of global warming.

And, yet, they still live in an area surrounded on three sides by water. I’d worry more about earthquakes. Oh, and slipping on poop in SF streets. Having my car stolen. Being robbed.

The big picture: About 63.3% of U.S. adults overall are “somewhat” or “very” worried about global warming as of 2024, the report shows.

Yes, and all using a statistical computer model.

You can go to the link and see how your county feels. Wake County is about 70%. But, it’s super liberal here. Oh, well. Weather happens.

Oh, and, per the “survey data” link, 61% think citizens should do more. But, no question about “I should do more.” Weird.

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House Passes SAVE Act, Democrats Freak

By William Teach April 11, 2025 – 7:00 am

Well, Democrats have been freaking for a couple weeks, but, now that it is passed we get

Cray cray, and she doesn’t even know what a real woman is

House passes bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections

The House passed a bill Thursday that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections in an effort to codify one of President Donald Trump’s executive actions from his second term.

Lawmakers approved the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in a 220-208 vote, with four Democrats — Reps. Ed Case of Hawaii; Henry Cuellar of Texas; Jared Golden of Maine; and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state — joining every Republican present in support of the measure.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, would amend the National Voter Registration Act so that states would be required to obtain proof of citizenship in person from people who are registering to vote.

It would also require states to establish a program to remove undocumented immigrants from existing voter rolls and would allow American citizens to sue election officials that don’t follow proof of citizenship requirements.

But, can it get through the 60 vote threshold in the Senate? Of course we get headlines like

All sorts of fearmongering. I’ve also seen them throw around 21 million being affected….possibly, but, they’d all be illegals. This AP article provides actual information, though, the original headline certainly fearmongered on the women part

What documents would be required to register?
The SAVE Act compels states to reject any voter registration application in which the applicant has not presented “documentary proof of United States citizenship.”

Among the acceptable documents for demonstrating proof of citizenship are:

  • — A REAL ID-compliant driver’s license that “indicates the applicant is a citizen.”
  • — A valid U.S. passport.
  • — A military ID card with a military record of service that lists the applicant’s birthplace as in the U.S.
  • — A valid government-issued photo ID that shows the applicant’s birthplace was in the U.S.
  • — A valid government-issued photo ID presented with a document such as a certified birth certificate that shows the birthplace was in the U.S.

Probably 99.9% of American citizens already have these. Most illegals do not. Of course, Democrats think that women, and minorities, are too stupid to be able to get an ID, going through the minor hoops necessary to for the name change. Besides, most already are registered

“This has no impact on individuals that are currently registered to vote,” said Rep. Bryan Steil, a Wisconsin Republican who has been advocating for the bill.

Most Americans are too smart for these Democrat shenanigans these days.

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Bummer: Orange Man Bad Ends Funding For Key US Climate (scam) Body

By William Teach April 10, 2025 – 3:08 pm

Well, hey, the Warmists in the private sector can pony up and pay for this if they care so much, right?

White House ends funding for key US climate body: ‘No coming back from this’

The White House is ending funding for the body that produces the federal government’s pre-eminent climate report, which summarizes the impacts of rising global temperatures on the United States.

Every four years, the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is required by Congress to release a new national climate assessment to ensure leaders understand the drivers of – and threats posed by – global warming. It is the most comprehensive, far-reaching and up-to-date analysis of the climate crisis, playing a key role in local and national decision making about agriculture, energy production, and land and water use.

The next assessment is due by 2027. But now, Nasa has ended its contract with the consulting firm ICF International, which convened the USGCRP and coordinated the federal agencies that contribute to the quadrennial report.

“There’s really no coming back from this, and it means we are all less informed about climate impacts, and won’t have the most up-to-date information on risks and threats,” said one federal staffer who was engaged in USGCRP activities, and who requested anonymity to avoid retribution. “USGCRP helped me to leverage resources from other agencies for use in my own work. But without these networks, I’m left without a support system and the latest science on climate change.”

The end of the contract, first reported by Politico and confirmed by multiple sources to the Guardian, imperils the federal government’s climate research, say experts.

Well, too bad. Why does it always seem that the US federal government is always outsourcing their work to private companies and NGOs, to the tune of tens of millions (if not more) of taxpayer money? And that companies crash when the money dries up? If the UK Guardian, Politico, and others are so concerned let them pay. And then they can wonder why it costs so much to produce, and where all the money has gone.

The move came one day after the rightwing outlet the Daily Wire published an article attacking ICF International saying the firm was “raking in millions to spread climate doom”. Since its publication, the second worker said they had had a “pit in their stomach”.

Let’s look at that article

While the U.S. Global Change Research Program states on its website that it has a budget of $4.95 billion in 2025, it only lists two full-time employees. So, who’s getting paid to put the massive and consequential report together?

Lots more at the link.

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If All You See…

By William Teach April 10, 2025 – 1:00 pm

…is a field perfect for solar panels to offset the evil fossil fueled vehicle, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Blazing Cat Fur, with a post on China interfering in Canadian government.

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Fannie Mae Fires Over 100 For Misconduct

By William Teach April 10, 2025 – 10:30 am

This is a bit of an under-the-radar story, which one would have thought would be bigger news

Fannie Mae fires more than 100 employees for unethical conduct, including the facilitation of fraud

Fannie Mae said Tuesday it fired more than 100 employees for unethical conduct.

“Since my swearing-in, we fired over 100 employees from Fannie Mae who we caught engaging in unethical conduct, including facilitating fraud, against our great company,” William J. Pulte, chair of Fannie Mae’s board of directors, said in a statement.

“Anyone who commits fraud against Fannie Mae does so against the American people,” he added.

In his Tuesday statement, the Pulte said under the Trump administration there would be no room for fraud, mortgage fraud or “any other deceitful act that can jeopardize the safety and soundness of the housing industry.”

Pulte was sworn in on March 14 after being appointed by President Trump.

That’s a good start. Of course, it’s just over 100 of 8,100 employees from this “government-sponsored enterprise”

Further details on the firings were not revealed. However, Pulte did note that the agency reduced 25 percent of staff as ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“We exceeded DOGE’s expectations at U.S. Federal Housing (FHFA), with an over 25 percent reduction in the Agency’s active workforce,” he wrote in a Tuesday afternoon post on the social platform X.

Downsizing federal agencies where they need to be downsized is fantastic, but, my preferred method would be to terminate employees caught in wrongdoing, especially fraud, graft, and waste, and then prosecute them. If any of these over 100 are prosecuted will it make the news? Prosecutions should be happening across the federal agencies. You know there is massive fraud, graft, and waste.

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