Bummer: Florida AG Investing Climate (scam) Groups

On the surface I thought “seriously, they may be cultists, but, is this necessary?”

However

Florida’s Uthmeier launches investigation into climate change groups

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on Monday that his office has issued subpoenas against two climate change groups involved in environmental, social and governance advocacy.

Uthmeier’s office is going to determine whether the CDP (formerly the Climate Disclosure Project) and the Science Based Targets Initiative violated consumer protection or antitrust laws by coercing companies into disclosing proprietary data and paying for access under the guise of environmental transparency.

“Radical climate activists have hijacked corporate governance and weaponized it against the free market,” Uthmeier said in a release. “Florida will not sit back while international pressure groups shake down American companies to fund their ESG grift. We’re using every tool of the law to stop the Climate Cartel from exploiting businesses and misleading consumers.”

ESG is an acronym used in conjunction with environmental, social, and governance policies in investments.

This could be construed under Florida law as extortion, which, as you know, is a felony. And, with such a big group doing it, well, that could come under Florida’s RICO laws, as in, corrupt organizations. And just wait till Uthmeier finds out where all the money is going, how it is misspent and mostly ends up in the pockets of the people doing the shakedowns rather than for any stated purposes.

The state investigation will center on scrutinizing deceptive trade practices such as selling better scores and public endorsements; “pay for play” with companies incentivized to subsidize the organizations for favorable treatment; misrepresentation of environmental data used by investors and consumers.

Uthmeier’s office will also examine anti-trust issues such as whether there coordination between the groups and financial institutions which the office says could constitution unlawful market manipulation and whether pressure efforts by the CDP against companies that don’t participate had anti-competitive effects.

“The Florida attorney general’s investigation into CDP and SBTi marks a critical step in holding the climate cartel accountable,” said Jason Isaac, the CEO of the American Energy Institute. “These activist outfits have built a pay-to-play climate racket that pressures companies into advancing radical agendas, all while profiting from the data they manipulate and the scores they sell. This is not transparency, it’s extortion wrapped in green branding. By exposing and dismantling this scheme, states are standing up for consumers, competition, and the free market.”

Anti-trust, anti-corruption, this could get fun.

Read: Bummer: Florida AG Investing Climate (scam) Groups »

Wacko Judge Says Congress Must Fund Planned Parenthood And Abortion

Here she goes again

Obama-appointed judge orders Trump to continue funding Planned Parenthood

An Obama-appointed federal judge Monday blocked the Trump administration from cutting off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, which was a key element of his One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston issued a preliminary injunction to stop the feds from halting funds to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for even non-abortion services such as birth control, citing the First Amendment.

Federal funding for abortion is already prohibited under the Hyde Amendment.

“Restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs [sexually transmitted infections],” she wrote in a 58-page opinion.

“Legislative context corroborates Plaintiffs’ contention that Congress drafted these criteria with the intent to punish Planned Parenthood Federation and its Members,” the judge said.

This might be more nuts than her previous rulings

Seriously, the Appropriations Clause states “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of Appropriations made by Law” (Article I, Section 9, Clause 7). This means Congress must authorize all spending. The Legislative Branch, not the Judicial Branch. Congress may cut any and all funding except that required by Article I Section 8. If they wanted to defund Obamacare, they have that right. They can also defund most federal courts if they so choose. Since it says “To constitute Tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;”, that means they only really need two courts below the Supreme Court, right?

The GOP megalaw enacts a one-year ban on Medicaid funding to health-care nonprofits that provide abortions and garnered over $800,000 in federal funding back in 2023.

In case I missed it, Planned Parenthood is not a federal government agency enacted by an act of Congress, and are not entitled to a cent of taxpayer money flowing from the federal government. Especially when they make around $1.5 billion on their own. She has way overstepped her boundaries, and once SCOTUS has smacked her down, she needs to be impeached for her inability to understand her job.

Read: Wacko Judge Says Congress Must Fund Planned Parenthood And Abortion »

Your Fault: Larger, More Damaging Hail To Happen More Often

We could have avoided this, but, you refuse to give more of your hard-earned money to the government to give to NGOs, er, warlords in 3rd world shitholes, er, governments in developing nations which has zero strings attached

Damaging, golf ball-size hail will fall more frequently because of climate change, Illinois researchers warn

During severe thunderstorms, rising air shoots icy pellets the size of Dippin’ Dots ice cream into the bitter cold of upper atmospheric layers. There, supercooled water freezes onto the small particles to form hail, which then falls when it gets too heavy for the storm’s upward draft.

As climate change warms average global temperatures, hailstones larger than pingpong or golf balls will become more frequent — likely worsening the weather hazard’s already billions of dollars in annual property damage across the country, according to a study published last year in the scientific journal npj Climate and Atmospheric Science.

“Climate change is obviously occurring,” said Victor Gensini, a meteorologist and professor of atmospheric science at Northern Illinois University who led the study. “The question, for scientists, is often: How does that manifest itself (in) these smaller-scale extreme weather perils?”

Yes, global warming is occurring. Mostly natural, just like previous Holocene warm periods.

Insurance companies have reported rising hail damage claims from homeowners due to severe storms. In 2024, roof repair and replacement costs totaled nearly $31 billion across the country, up almost 30% from 2022, according to an April report from Verisk, a risk assessment and data analytics firm. Hail and wind accounted for more than half of all residential claims. 

Yes, because there are more homes and buildings, and the cost of the buildings has skyrocketed post-COVID.

Using a model with high-resolution mapping offered researchers new, more granular insights into the future of individual storms and their hazards compared with the data that traditional global models produce, which Gensini characterized as coarse and grainy.

So, they gathered a limited amount of real world data and then fed it into their handy dandy doomcomputers? Huh.

Read: Your Fault: Larger, More Damaging Hail To Happen More Often »

If All You See…

…is an area flooded from carbon pollution Bad Weather, you might just be a Warmist

The blog off the day is 357 Magnum, with a post on Gen Z vs Hollywood.

Read: If All You See… »

NY Times Seems Upset That Trump Made A Big Deal With The EU

One would think that Democrats and the NY Times would be happy for America to get a great trade deal. Nope

Europe Cuts a Trade Deal With Trump, Worried About Other Global Issues

Survive and advance.

That phrase, favored by sports teams in big tournaments, sums up Europe’s approach to the trade negotiations it just wrapped with the Trump administration.

For Europe, surviving in the first year of President Trump’s second term means reaching an agreement on a trade deal that almost certainly won’t help the continental economy — but isn’t as bad as it could have been.

Advancing means keeping Mr. Trump engaged in the foreign policy issues that have preoccupied many European leaders more this summer than their own domestic economic struggles. Those issues include the fate of the Iranian nuclear program, the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and, most important, Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russia’s invasion.

The trade deal is centered on a tariff of 15 percent on most goods imposed by the United States on imports from the European Union. It reflects a sort of risk aversion from leaders like Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission; Friedrich Merz, the chancellor of Germany; and Emmanuel Macron, the president of France.

I hope at some point the Times says what America gets

Europe could have fought Mr. Trump longer, hoping for better terms. E.U. members had already agreed to a set of retaliatory tariffs on about $100 billion in American exports to Europe, which they could have decided to trigger if Mr. Trump had followed through on his threat to tax European exports at 30 percent starting on Aug. 1. Mr. Trump had pushed similar deadlines back before.

It’s almost like the Times wanted Europe to go hardcore on the U.S., where the Times is based and full of US citizens in a city full of US citizens, hurting the US because Orange Man Bad.

Trump Reaches Historic Trade Deal with EU: Europe to Buy $750 Billion in U.S. Energy

President Donald Trump announced a sweeping trade agreement with the European Union (EU) on Sunday, setting a baseline 15 percent tariff on European imports — including automobiles — while keeping existing 50 percent duties on steel and aluminum in place. As part of the deal, the EU committed to purchasing $750 billion in U.S. energy products.

The EU will purchase three-quarters of a trillion dollars in U.S. energy, while also investing $600 billion into America on top of existing investments. Additionally, EU countries will be setting tariffs on U.S. goods at zero percent, and Europe agreed “to purchase a vast amount of military equipment,” Trump said.

Remember, EU nations placed all sorts of tariffs on American goods for decades, making it harder and more expensive for American companies, big and small, to import their goods into Europe.

“So we have a tariff of 15% we have the opening up of all of the European countries, which I think I could say were essentially closed,” Trump said. “I mean, you weren’t exactly taking our orders, you weren’t exactly taking our agriculture, and then you would have smaller things, but for the most part, it was closed, and now it’s open.”

That’s what Trump wants: the ability for Americans to sell their goods in Europe at a reasonable price. Commerce. With who are supposed to be our allies.

(Politico) It locks in U.S. tariffs of 15 percent on most imports from the EU. Von der Leyen and Co. had succeeded in fending off Trump’s threat to raise tariffs on most EU goods to 30 percent on Aug. 1. The agreement is likely to boost the European economy, which is still lagging behind much of the rest of the world and is struggling to pick up after the Covid pandemic.

Really, Europe does need the US more than the US needs Europe. Regardless, this is what it’s all about: re-balancing trade for the US to give Americans a better deal around the world.

Read: NY Times Seems Upset That Trump Made A Big Deal With The EU »

The Atlantic: Summers Are Like Winters, With Americans Stuck Inside

Well, I guess if you’re soft and weak like the barking moonbat Warmists at the Atlantic you avoid a little weather

American Summers Are Starting to Feel Like Winter

Americans have a long history of enduring heat waves by going outside. In a 1998 essay for The New Yorker, the author Arthur Miller described urbanites’ Depression-era coping mechanisms: People caught the breeze on open-air trolleys, climbed onto the back of ice trucks, and flocked to the beach. In the evenings, they slept in parks or dragged their mattresses onto fire escapes.

But since air conditioning went mainstream, in the 1960s, the easiest way to beat the heat has been by staying indoors—at home, the office, the mall—where cool air is a constant and blinds are often drawn to prevent homes from overheating (and electric bills from skyrocketing). For this convenience, Americans sacrifice the benefits of sunshine and the opportunities for fun it creates. As climate change turns up the temperature, summers in America are coming down to a choice between enduring the heat and avoiding it—both of which might, in their own ways, be making people sick.

In cities across the country, summers are, on average, 2.6 degrees hotter than they were some 50 years ago. In Phoenix, where a 95-degree day is a relief, schedules are arranged around the darkness; Jeffrey Gibson, an accountant who works from home, takes his eight-month-old daughter out for walks before 6:30 a.m.; after that, it’s so hot that she flushes bright red if they venture outside. He spends the rest of his day indoors unless leaving is absolutely necessary. It’s like this from April to October. Gibson recently told his wife, “Man, I think I’m a little depressed.”

Good grief, if you cannot take 2.6F more than 50 years ago you should probably replace your panty shields. It was 96 here today, I washed the car and did the windows inside. Big whoop.

The DSM-5 categorizes SAD as a type of major depression with a seasonal pattern, with symptoms such as sadness, feelings of worthlessness, and low energy. Usually, it presents in the winter, though scientists don’t agree on why. Some suspect that it’s because a lack of sun exposure may contribute to decreased levels of serotonin, a hormone that regulates mood, as well as vitamin D, which helps stimulate serotonin activity. Another theory links low exposure to sunlight with unusually high levels of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate sleep.

Maybe the Warmists could go outside for a bit? Maybe go to the pool or the beach? Down to the lake? But, come on, these people are deranged.

Read: The Atlantic: Summers Are Like Winters, With Americans Stuck Inside »

Good News: Trump Admin Immigration Policies Transforming US-Mexico Border

Well, not good news to the LA Times, which supports illegal immigration

Self-deportations. Factory layoffs. Military zones. How Trump is transforming the U.S.-Mexico border.

Juan Ortíz trudged through 100-degree heat along the U.S.-Mexico border, weighed down by a backpack full of water bottles that he planned to leave for migrants trying to cross this rugged terrain.

Only there hadn’t been many migrants of late.

When Ortíz started water drops in this especially dangerous stretch of desert near El Paso nearly two years ago, he sometimes encountered dozens of people trying to reach the U.S. in a single afternoon. Now he rarely sees any. Border crossings began falling during the final months of President Biden’s term, and have plunged to their lowest levels in decades under President Trump.

Oh, lord, they’re actually trying to give Biden credit. The illegals knew the Trump admin was soon going to shut it down

These borderlands surrounding El Paso were long a place of risk but also opportunity. Migrants chasing the American dream crossed by the tens of thousands annually, sometimes dodging federal agents and often seeking them out to ask for asylum.

But Trump’s immigration crackdown — a total ban on asylum, a mass deportation campaign and the unprecedented militarization of the border — has altered life here in myriad ways.

Across the Rio Grande from El Paso in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, shelters once hummed with life, rich with the smell of cooked stews and the chatter of people plotting their passage to the U.S.

Today those shelters are largely empty, populated by migrants stranded in Mexico when Trump took office, and others who were in the United States but decided to leave, spooked by policies designed to instill fear.

I mean, seriously, this is what happens when the Executive Branch uses the laws on the books and dissincentives people from around world to cross the border and/or declare (fake) asylum.

The Pentagon, which made the designations, has deployed some 9,000 active-duty troops to the border as part of Trump’s directive to expand the military’s role in reducing migrant crossings. Migrants who enter the new “national defense” zones while crossing the border are being detained by U.S. troops, charged with trespassing and turned over to immigration authorities.

Applause! Of course, for the LA Times it is a long, long, whiny piece about how mean it is for the Trump admin to enforce federal law.

Meanwhile

US government is building a 5,000-person immigrant detention camp in west Texas

The U.S. government is building an immense 5,000-person detention camp in west Texas, government contract announcements said, sharply increasing the Trump administration’s ability to hold detained immigrants amid its ever-growing mass deportation efforts.

A Defense Department contract announcement on Monday said Acquisition Logistics, a Virginia-based firm, had been awarded $232 million in Army funds to build the facility, which would be used for single immigrant adults.

Procurement documents called it a “soft sided facility,” a phrase often used for tent camps.

And they can all avoid being put there by self-deporting.

Read: Good News: Trump Admin Immigration Policies Transforming US-Mexico Border »

If All You See…

…is an Evil fossil fueled vehicle, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Independent Sentinel, with a post on the easy citizenship tests getting revamped.

Let’s make it an easy bikini week.

Read: If All You See… »

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

Happy Sunday! Another fine day in Returned America. The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the ankle is getting better day by day. This pinup is by Dietz, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. The Right Scoop: BREAKING: Democrats receive LOWEST rating from voters in 35 years
  2. Victory Girls Blog: Gatorade: Let the WNBA Be Barefoot and Preggers in the Kitchen
  3. The Last Refuge: FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino “shocked to his core” over FBI’s recent corruption discoveries: ‘I’ll never be the same’
  4. The Gateway Pundit: Mollie Hemingway: Media Not Reporting New Russiagate Developments Because ‘They Were Complicit’ in Original Crime (VIDEO)
  5. The First Street Journal: If you are not calling on Hamas to surrender and release the hostages, your cries about people suffering in Gaza are worthless.
  6. The American Conservative: Trump Administration Greenlights Chevron’s Venezuela Oil Drilling
  7. Powerline Blog: Macron v Owens
  8. Pacific Pundit: Ilhan Omar is demanding that the United States abolish all nuclear weapons
  9. Outside They Beltway: A Bullish View of AI That’s Not So Bullish
  10. Newsbusters: PBS’s Expert on Campus Anti-Semitism: Columbia Settlement Was ‘Ransom’ to Trump
  11. Moonbattery: Moonbat Attack on Blue Angels
  12. Legal Insurrection: U.S. Withdraws from Jewish-History-Denying, Islamic-Supremacist-Promoting UNESCO … Again!
  13. Jihad Watch: Germany: 18-year-old Muslim migrant tortures 13-year-old victim for hours on film, gets probation
  14. Irons In The Fire: About that land some of my ancestors, very happily, got the hell out of
  15. And last, but, not least, Geller Report has Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: The Stealth Islamization of America

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, so, most are hosted internally). 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. I’ve also mostly alphabetized them, makes it easier scrolling the feedreader

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?

Two great sites for getting news links are Liberty Daily and Whatafinger.

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

And Here We Go: Excitable Alex Padilla Introduces Bill To Make Most Illegals Legal

Is this worse or better than Republican Rep Maria Elvia Salazar’s? Or, are both horrendous and a giveaway to illegals which will entice more illegals to come

Sen. Alex Padilla introduces legislation for pathway to lawful permanent residency for immigrants

Amid weeks of federal immigration enforcement activity in the Southland, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., announced on Friday legislation intended to expand existing pathways for immigrants to obtain lawful permanent residency.

His bill would update the Immigration Act of 1929, also referred to as the Registry Bill.” The law provides the Secretary of Homeland Security the discretion to register certain individuals for lawful permanent resident status if they have been in the country since a certain date, among other requirements.

The act was established in 1929, and Congress has modified it four times — most recently during the Reagan administration in 1986.

Since then, no changes have been made. According to Padilla’s office, the Registry Bill currently allows immigrants who have lived in the U.S. since Jan. 1, 1972, to apply for and obtain a green card.

Under the proposal, immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for at least seven years, do not have a criminal record and meet all other current eligibility requirements could apply to receive a green card.

So, it would count for those who haven’t been convicted, just charged? Remember, they already broke federal law by crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visas.

But, is that what the bill really says? Padilla’s press release links to here as The Bill. Go read it. It will take you 30 seconds. See if you see anything about criminal record. I don’t. But, it could be buried in the government-speak of 8 U.S. Code § 1259, but, could be deemed under 8 U.S. Code § 1182 – Inadmissible aliens. They can’t be unhealthy. Things like “assets, resources, and financial status” are to be taken into consideration, ie, they need to stand on their own two feet, not be wards of the state.

Oh, weirdly, in 6(A)(1): An alien present in the United States without being admitted or paroled, or who arrives in the United States at any time or place other than as designated by the Attorney General, is inadmissible. So, illegals are not eligible? Did Alex think this through?

Of course, there is zero chance it will pass the GOP controlled House or Senate. If the Dems take control in 2027, it won’t survive the 60 vote threshold.

Read: And Here We Go: Excitable Alex Padilla Introduces Bill To Make Most Illegals Legal »

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