China Joe Is Good With $600 For You, Wants Lots More For Migrants

We can’t quite call them illegal aliens yet, as they are waiting on the other side of the border, but, Joe is prioritizing them over Americans

Joe Biden to Get Aid for Foreigners, Settles for $600 Checks for Americans

President-Elect Joe Biden is looking to provide foreign nationals in Mexico with better housing and coronavirus tests as they await their asylum hearings in the United States.

As Biden suggested he is satisfied with Congress allocating just $600 stimulus checks for each American out of a $900 billion coronavirus relief package, his advisers said he will push to fund better housing and coronavirus tests for foreign nationals in Mexico.

Biden said, “Congress did its job this week” in reference to the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate passing the package. President Trump, on the other hand, has demanded the package be reworked to include $2,000 stimulus checks for each American.

On a call with reporters this week, Biden transition team officials said, “they plan on providing funding to improve shelter and humanitarian assistance to immigrants waiting in northern Mexico, as well as provide COVID-19 testing to ensure people presenting at POE have a negative test before being processed,” according to a Buzzfeed News report.

The move, as noted by Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Jessica Vaughan, would mean that foreign nationals who have yet to prove their asylum case in U.S. hearings would be provided with American taxpayer-funded aid.

Who’s surprised? In fairness, China Joe did say that the current hideous COVID relief package is just a “down payment“, but, when will he recommend something that actually help? If Congress is going to do something, why not do it now? Why wait? Why put together another package at some time later in the Winter or Spring? Oh, right, because Democrats will attempt to again add all sorts of giveaways for Dem Party run cities and states that when loony tunes with lockdowns and are also really bad with their money.

(Fox News) House Democrats and Republicans are set to make dueling “unanimous consent” requests on Thursday based on grievances President Trump aired Tuesday night to the massive coronavirus stimulus and government funding package lawmakers sent to his desk — exchanging political barbs as it’s still unclear whether Trump will veto the original piece of legislation.

Trump on Tuesday night released a scathing video in which he called panned $600 stimulus checks for Americans as too small, saying the number should instead be $2,000.

He also demanded that “wasteful and unnecessary” spending – Trump specifically listed foreign aid to several countries, along with a few other line-items – be cut from the year-end spending package which lawmakers married to the coronavirus aid so it could all be passed in one vote.

Congress should have split the funding and COVID bills, but, as usual, they think they can get away with jamming stuff through, and know that for all the uproar the People of the United States have no power to do a damned thing.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., swiftly announced plans to bring a stand-alone piece of legislation to the House floor Thursday, when the body is set to meet at 9 a.m. EST in a pro forma session, to boost the stimulus checks to $2,000. By asking for unanimous consent to pass it she will essentially be daring House Republicans to object — which they will, Fox News is told.

“Mr. President, sign the bill to keep government open! Urge McConnell and McCarthy to agree with the Democratic unanimous consent request for $2,000 direct payments! This can be done by noon on Christmas Eve!” Pelosi tweeted Wednesday.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Wednesday evening responded by announcing Republicans would put forward their own unanimous consent request to address the other part of Trump’s twofold grievances — foreign aid.

This could get interesting.

Read: China Joe Is Good With $600 For You, Wants Lots More For Migrants »

Sea Level Could Be Worse Than Prognosticated Or Something

Yeah, it’s a doomsday cult, and the scientists who proscribe to this have to constantly trot out more and more doom to keep the funding flowing

Sea-level rise from climate change could be worse than projected

Of the many threats from climate change, sea-level rise will most certainly be among the most impactful, making hundreds of thousands of square miles of coastline uninhabitable and potentially displacing over 100 million people worldwide by the end of the century. This threat is a top concern for national security experts because forced migration poses significant risks to international security and stability.

The magnitude of this threat depends heavily on how much the oceans rise in the coming decades. But because of the complex dynamics of massive ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, exact estimates remain elusive, ranging from just over a foot to several feet above current levels. That disparity is the difference between tens of millions of people forced from their homes or a much more unmanageable hundreds of millions displaced.

Now, a new paper published in the past week warns that if global warming continues at the current pace — reaching high-end warming projections for 2100 — then sea-level rise will probably surpass those projections.

Since the late 1800s, sea level has risen an average of about 10 inches globally, but the amount varies from region to region. Last century the largest contributor to the rise of the oceans was thermal expansion; simply put, warmer water expands. But now the melting of ice sheets, mainly from Greenland and Antarctica, constitutes a greater proportion, and that fraction will only grow.

Again, 10 inches would be exactly average for the Holocene. One would expect much more during a warm period

In fact, there is enough ice locked up in Greenland and Antarctica such that if all the ice melted it would cause a sea-level rise of 210 feet, a little taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. No scientist is expecting anything even close to that this century, but after the Earth surpasses a certain level of warming, ice sheets become less stable and less predictable, with potential tipping points coming into play.

Not expecting it, yet, let’s trot it out

While scientists and scientific periodicals tend to be conservative in their public projections of sea-level rise, scientists will often remark that they are concerned it may be much worse. When CBS News asked Englander what he thinks is a “realistic range” of sea-level rise by 2100, he said, “With the current global temperature level and rate of temperature increase I believe that we could get 5 to 10 feet before the end of this century.”

Read: Sea Level Could Be Worse Than Prognosticated Or Something »

If All You See…

…are evil plastic bottles of water and cans of soda, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Other McCain, with a post recommending to be patient.

Read: If All You See… »

NY Times: Travel Restrictions Are Nice, But, We Really Need To Surveille All You People

If you remember, the NY Times wasn’t particularly enthused about President Trump’s travel bans, first on China then on Europe. Just like the rest of their Democratic Party Comrades. Now? The editorial board has Ideas

The Coronavirus Is Mutating, and America’s Leaders Are Flying Blind

A new and potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus has been detected in Britain and elsewhere. With the Trump administration continuing to do little to address the pandemic, state and local leaders have, again, been left to deal with this problem on their own.

To that end, on Monday Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York persuaded major airlines to require people traveling from Britain to New York to first clear a coronavirus test. Mr. Cuomo’s willingness to act quickly and decisively here is commendable — refreshing in a year rife with failures to do exactly that — and the move seems reasonable in the face of federal inaction and many unknowns.

It wasn’t so commendable when Trump did this, eh? It’s also sorta beyond Cuomo’s actual Constitutional, federal and state, powers.

Genomic surveillance is also one of the few ways officials can determine whether, where and how to put travel restrictions in place. Without this data, even the fastest-acting, best-intentioned leaders — like Mr. Cuomo, in this case — are flying blind. They have no way to know which countries such measures should focus on, or whether such an effort would be worth the political blowback. For instance, it may not be worth it if the variant in question is already circulating widely in the United States, or if only a tiny amount of spread is being driven by overseas cases.

Well, sure, looking at the genomes of those who have COVID could be worthwhile. But, is that really, really what the NYTEB is pushing?

But to truly solve this problem, federal officials need to increase the nation’s disease surveillance efforts, and in particular its genomic surveillance. Until they do that, Americans everywhere will be stuck in the same place we’ve been for the better part of this year: making often brutal sacrifices to try to slow the spread of the virus ourselves.

Yeah, not just genome, but, surveillance on everyone, in order to track everyone. Where they go, who they see. Like states try and do with your smartphones. How soon till some Dem party run states start requiring this, rather than asking? As for sacrifices, what sacrifices have politicians and the news media made? They’re still getting paychecks. They aren’t going out of business

It’s unfair that individuals and small businesses have borne so much of that pain. But right now, it’s the only way to squelch this mutant — and any other that has yet to be detected.

You peons will just have to suffer more. It’s easy for people who aren’t being hit with loss of money, etc, who really do not have skin in the game.

Van’s tweet is mostly aimed at the Irish government, but, he’s utterly correct. It’s easy for news outlets to call for draconian measures, when they do not have to pay the penalties.

Read: NY Times: Travel Restrictions Are Nice, But, We Really Need To Surveille All You People »

Climate Cult Says Dangerous Temperatures Will Be Here Soon

The best way to stop this from happening is taxing you and restricting you from eating delicious steaks and other meat, force you to take no more than 2 minute showers, and have you take the train to work. Or walk. Or bike. Anything but fossil fuels

Climate change: New study says ‘dangerous’ temperatures will be here sooner than we think

Climate scientists say it’s almost certain we’ll cross the threshold for a “dangerous” level of global warming as soon as 2038, possibly as early as 2027, if drastic measures aren’t taken.

It’s a gloomier scenario than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has put forward, they say; but being based on real-world historical data, sadly perhaps more accurate.

“Climate skeptics have argued that global warming projections are unreliable because they depend on faulty supercomputer models,” said Bruno Tremblay, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at McGill University and co-author of a new study looking at the future state of the climate.

“While these criticisms are unwarranted, they underscore the need for independent and different approaches to predicting future warming.”

How much do you want to bet that neither the raw data nor the methodology will be shared? Of course, if they are using the smoothed/adjusted data from places like NOAA and the UK Met Office, this projection is unreliable.

The threshold for 1.5C of warming will be passed sometime between 2027 and 2042, they say – depending on what actions humanity takes. The IPCC’s estimate is 2052.

Under a best-case scenario, where emissions are phased out by 2100, the world has an 80 percent chance of keeping temperature rises below 1.5C this century, and a 97 percent chance of keeping it below 2C.

In the middle scenario – emissions rising to 2050, then falling to about half that level by 2100 – it’s almost certain we’ll pass 1.5C mid-century, and 94 percent likelihood of breaching 2K by 2100.

The third scenario – emissions keep rising through the 21st century – the 1.5C threshold will be breached in the 2030s or 2040s, and 2C in the 2050s.

The Medieval Warm Period and the Minoan Warm period (from around 1500 BC to 600 BC) were both way warmer than today, especially the latter. It’s debatable if the Roman Warm Period (O AD to about 550 AD) was as warm as now, but, it was pretty warm. Why? No fossil fueled vehicles, right? Reconstructions also show the possibility of the two warm periods prior to the Minoan were way, way warmer. Regardless, this is all about the Doom, trying to scare people into giving up their money and freedom. And, setting the stage that if some countries Do Something then their models won’t fail.

Read: Climate Cult Says Dangerous Temperatures Will Be Here Soon »

Trump Calls COVID Package A Disgrace, Wants $2000 Checks To Citizens

This isn’t out of the blue, as President Trump has mentioned wanting $2,000 relief payments since not long after the first COVID relief passed

Donald Trump demands bigger stimulus checks in $900 billion COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress

In an unexpected video posted to Twitter on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump denounced a sweeping COVID-19 relief package he was expected to sign, calling it a “disgrace” and urging congressional leaders to make several changes to the bill including increasing direct payments for Americans.

“It’s called the COVID relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with COVID,” he said in a video posted just moments after he issued a raft of pardons for several allies. “I’m asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple.”

The president stopped short of saying he would veto the bipartisan legislation but was expected to sign the measure alongside a $1.4 trillion spending bill to fund the government. Trump called on Congress to remove “wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation,” appearing to conflate the relief bill with the government spending measure. (snip)

“I am also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation, and to send me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to deliver a Covid relief package,” Trump said. “And maybe that administration will be me, and we will get it done.”

Let’s be honest, most citizens are conflating the two measures, since they were joined and Congress voted on them together.

(Breitbart) Trump criticized the bill for extending direct coronavirus relief payments to family members of illegal aliens, getting up to $1,800 each.

“This is far more than the Americans are given,” Trump said.

The also president lamented that the bill also failed to provide substantial aid to restaurants and small businesses.

Trump berated members of Congress for failing to even read the massive bill before passing it quickly in the last hours before the Christmas holiday.

“It’s called the COVID relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with COVID,” he said.

“Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries and lobbyists and special interests, while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it,” Trump said.

Nancy Pelosi is in favor of the $2,000 payment, though, she, as House Speaker, didn’t work particularly hard to help the American people with the COVID relief bill. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are also on-board with the $2,000 payout. Congress could easily strip tens of billions, if not more, from the COVID relief and government spending measures to pay for this and help for small businesses and such.

Yes, it would be much better to open the economy, get people working, but, at this point, a lot of people are hurting because of the lockdowns and such.

Read: Trump Calls COVID Package A Disgrace, Wants $2000 Checks To Citizens »

Surprise: Next COVID Deal Could Be Even Harder To Get

By now I’m sure you’ve read tons and tons on all the insanity put in the COVID relief bill (don’t forget, it was essentially two bills, a COVID relief one and one for funding stuff for Government) instead of simply taking care of the American people. And the next one could be harder

The next stimulus deal will be even harder to get

Congress passed three coronavirus stimulus bills in March, and started working on a fourth bill in April. That’s the bill Congress is finally poised to pass this week—eight months later.

One reason it took so long to pass the fourth, $900 billion relief package was the 2020 elections, with both Democrats and Republicans making absurd demands to show voters how committed they were to core party principles prior to Election Day. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who now hails the $900 billion bill as a historic success, insisted in the fall that a fourth bill must entail at least $2.2 trillion in spending. Less is more, apparently. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in the fall it would be fiscally imprudent to spend more than $500 billion, but he has now signed off on nearly twice as much.

Many economists say that, while welcome and necessary, the latest $900 billion package still isn’t nearly enough to power the economy back from the huge decline in output and jobs that have followed widespread business shutdowns. There’s little aid for states and cities reeling from tax revenue shortfalls that are forcing the layoffs of cops, firefighters, teachers and other public-payroll workers. A new $300 weekly payment to unemployed workers will expire in March, well before vaccines are likely to be widespread and the economy back to normal. The new bill will extend an eviction moratorium set to expire on Dec. 31 by just one month.

One reason it took so long is because politicians, mostly Democrats, wanted to add too much in the way of insane partisan measures, and McConnell and the White House were having none of it. Pelosi was putting poison pills in there in order to Blame Bush Trump. She wanted to play hardcore games rather than help the American people. Think that’s too crazy?

Pelosi and many other Democrats say they’ll pass more stimulus as needed in 2021. Don’t count on that. The first issue is the Senate, now controlled by Republicans who tolerate deficit spending when a Republican is in the White House but become fiscal hawks when a Democrat is president. McConnell and a core group of fellow conservatives simply hate aid packages for cities and states, which they view as “blue-state bailouts” that let Democratic states off the hook for poor management of their own budgets.

Yup, the states and cities who were the most hardcore with lockdowns (which didn’t work, based on the spread of COVID in Blue areas) destroyed their economies.

If Democrats win both Senate seats, they’ll control Congress by one vote. But a slim majority won’t let them pass whatever legislation they want. At least a couple conservative Democrats could block some spending, and the Senate can only bypass filibuster rules to pass one spending bill per year without a 60-vote supermajority. So Democrats would get one shot at an additional stimulus bill if they control both houses of Congress and can muster agreement from essentially all of their members. If it sounds easy, you try it.

Do Dems dump the filibuster rules? They should remember that they won’t control the Senate forever, and if they go hardcore, they’ll kiss it goodbye in 2022, along with, most likely, the House.

And people will remember the insanity of the current bill, where they get a whopping $600 and locked out of their businesses. Seriously, look at this thread.

Read: Surprise: Next COVID Deal Could Be Even Harder To Get »

If All You See…

…are uniforms of consumerism causing extra winter precipitation, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Raised On Hoecakes, with a post on frozen cherry pie regulations.

Read: If All You See… »

Excitable Pete Buttigieg Wants Millions Of New Electric Vehicles On The Road

You know Pete. He’s the guy Biden picked to be Transportation Secretary

Well, good luck powering all this with “clean energy”. Perhaps if Warmists would agree to build nuclear power plants, but, the majority of them are against that.

https://twitter.com/Kevgenus/status/1341187124163428354?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1341187124163428354%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fbrettt-3136%2F2020%2F12%2F21%2Ffuture-transportation-secretary-pete-buttigieg-says-we-must-put-millions-of-new-electric-cars-on-the-road%2F

Beyond that, who’s paying for the EVs? They aren’t cheap, you know. The least expensive out there, excluding the tiny ones like those you rent in places like Bermuda (which makes sense there), is the Mini Cooper SE, with a range of 110 miles and a base price of $30,750. For that kind of money you could get a Honda Accord EXL or the Toyota Camry equivalent, higher end standard sedans, or the same trim levels for the CRV or RAV4. Their hybrid versions aren’t that much more expensive. And will go a lot longer, have a much lower cost of ownership, and much higher residual values.

(Toledo Blade)  Pete Buttigieg, the presidential hopeful and Indiana mayor, revealed something new about his whip at Tuesday’s Democratic debate.

“I didn’t realize it was unusual to have empty factories that I would see out the windows of my dad’s Chevy Cavalier when he would drive me to school until I went to college,” Mr. Buttigieg said of his hometown of South Bend, where he’s mayor. “Now I drive my own Chevy. It’s a Chevy Cruze, made in Lordstown, which is now one more symbol of the broken promises this president has made to workers.”

OK, that was during the 2019 Democratic primaries. Does anyone think Pete has changed it for an EV?

Read: Excitable Pete Buttigieg Wants Millions Of New Electric Vehicles On The Road »

Climate Cultists Now Coming After 5G

Sure, this is only one French government advisor based on a report from one council, but, how quickly might this spread throughout the Warmist community? Of course, are all the Warmists willing to give up their own acquisition of 5G smartphones?

5G Could Worsen Climate Change, Claims French Government Advisor

The widespread installation of fifth generation cellular broadband networks (5G) will likely increase greenhouse gas emissions over the next ten years, according to France’s High Council on Climate.

The report by the independent government advisory body, commissioned by the French Senate, found that 5G deployment in France would result in between 2.7 and 6.7 million tons of CO2-equivalent in 2030. That’s a significant increase compared to the tech sector’s current total environmental impact – about 15 million tons of CO2-equivalent.

The main impact comes from the manufacturing of the many component parts of 5G infrastructure and the new devices that will be produced to use it. Those devices use raw materials which must be mined, causing more emissions.

So far, much of the opposition to the rollout of 5G towers has been on health grounds, with critics citing unsubstantiated claims that the signals are hurting humans. Some internet conspiracy theories have even said 5G causes the COVID19 pandemic, again without offering any evidence.

In response, French President Emmanuel Macron has doubled down on his commitment to rolling out 5G, saying its critics were subscribing to an “Amish model” of living. “We’re going to explain, to debate, to put an end to all the false ideas but yes, France will make the 5G shift,” he said at a tech event in Paris in September.

I wonder how long till his tune changes based on climate cult beliefs?

Critics say the High Council on Climate’s report casts a wide net to encompass emissions that might happen whether or not 5G is rolled out. For example, it counts the emissions caused by manufacturing new 5G-compatible smartphones and the construction of telecoms infrastructure and data centers. It also factors in an expected increase in electricity consumption, assuming an increase in internet use as a result of the faster speeds.

Most stuff climate cult casts way too wide of a net. They’re using a giant trawler net instead of a little one used for a 5 gallon guppy tank. It’s the norm for these folks. Will they start going after 5G in force? Or leave it alone, and then start demanding people pay taxes/fees as carbon offsets? Once the Cult of Climastrology starts on something, they do not ever stop.

Read: Climate Cultists Now Coming After 5G »

Pirate's Cove