If All You See…

By William Teach August 4, 2020 – 1:00 pm

…are horrible carbon pollution clouds, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is 357 Magnum, with a post wondering just how the elderly are supposed to defend themselves.

Read: If All You See… »

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BLM Activist Accuses Chicago Fire Department Of Removing BLM Banner

By William Teach August 4, 2020 – 10:30 am

Something strange is going on

Chicago Fire Department Investigates Alleged Removal of BLM Banner

The Chicago Fire Department announced Sunday that it had launched an investigation into an online post that alleged someone operating a firetruck removed a Black Lives Matter banner, officials said.

A post on Nextdoor — a hyperlocal social network — by Dr. Adele Cobbs claimed that the Black Lives Matter banner in Kenwood near Lake Shore Drive was taken down by two white men operating a firetruck, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

“They literally obstructed traffic to do this,” Cobbs wrote in her post, which included a photo showing the firetruck. “Unbelievable. They are paid to serve our community and this is what they think about Black lives.”

Cobbs told the Chicago Tribune Sunday she saw one of the men taking down the banner from a fence shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday.

“I’ve seen that banner,” Cobbs told the Tribune. “It’s in a discreet place that was bothering no one.”

Seems like an interesting narrative, eh?

Cobbs pulled over and parked in front of the firetruck as it stopped along a two-way street to remove the banner.

“I stuck up my arms and said, ‘Why?’” Cobbs said.

The only thing she got in return from the firefighters was an aggressive honk of their truck’s horn.

So Cobbs filed a report with the department confirming what she saw.

Here’s the strange thing: in the era of everyone having a phone which can take pictures and video, and people whipping them out to record every little thing that happens, not one news outlet has a photo or video of this happening. You’re telling me that a Dr. Cobbs wasn’t able to get on photo or video? And no one else seems to have any? I’ve rolled through over 10 articles. Checked Facebook and Twitter. Nothing. The only thing she shared was an image of Firetruck No. 15, which belongs to Station 45 in Bronzeville, behind her vehicle. Behind

Hey, maybe it did happen. But, most likely it was BLM activists who took it down looking to create outrage, and now they get to blame the CFD.

Read: BLM Activist Accuses Chicago Fire Department Of Removing BLM Banner »

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Warmists Get Tiny Little Sales Tax On November Ballot In Denver

By William Teach August 4, 2020 – 8:38 am

The best part will be when this gets shot down, as most climate scam taxes do. But, while I want it to be shot down in order to laugh at the climate cultists, I also want to see it pass, because we all know the sales tax will start increasing and increasing

A sales tax bump to fight the climate crisis gets some space on Denver’s November ballot

Denver’s Election Day ballot got thicker Monday after city council referred a climate change sales tax to voters.

If voters OK the tax on November 3, residents and visitors would pay 0.25 percent more, or 2.5 cents on every $10, for most items they buy. In exchange, proponents said, Denver would get cleaner air and relief from the effects of global warming like health problems, hotter temperatures, drought and flooding.

The legislative body passed the question onto city residents by a vote of 11 to 1, with Councilman Kevin Flynn dissenting.

The Climate Action Task Force, a body appointed by Mayor Michael Hancock to map out the city’s climate change response, recommended the tax to council. They think it will raise about $36 million a year, a lower sum than originally thought because of the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pack this on top of all the other taxes. Funny thing about Warmists, they don’t want to pay taxes themselves. I’ll give this a 40% chance of passing

Much of that money would fund infrastructure and incentives that make Denver’s homes, buildings and streets more energy-efficient. For example, officials envision retrofitting buildings to emit fewer greenhouse gases while incentivizing cleaner energy sources like solar. They also see car-first roads becoming multi-modal streets that prioritize buses — from a carbon-free fleet — as well as bikes, electric bikes and electric cars.

Pollution from residential, commercial and industrial buildings is the main ingredient in a cocktail of greenhouse gases that trap the sun’s radiation in the city, according to government documents. The transportation industry, including fossil-fueled cars, trucks and airplanes, is the second-largest contributor to climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Well, that’s weird. Usually climate cultists blame fossil fueled vehicles 1st. Perhaps they’re saying this to deflect from the reality that Denver revolves around fossil fuels? The massive airport. All the major sports teams. All the tourists.

Some say a sales tax is not the way to go because it will disproportionately burden people with less money.

A sales tax is what numbers people call “regressive” because everyone pays the same rate for the same thing, regardless of the buyer’s income. So while the tax is equally applied, it is not equitably applied. While wealthy people might not notice it, those with fewer means will, said Alexis Morris, a young resident who spoke at the city council meeting Monday.

Um, it’s 2.5 cents for every ten dollars. 2.5. Cents.

Denver would be “settling” for a regressive sales tax, Flynn said. He supports a separate sales tax measure to help the city’s unhoused residents because people with money would be helping people without it, he said. Flynn said the climate tax measure would be “asking too much from our voters right now.”

Asking for 2.5 cents on every $10 spent is asking too much? What Flynn, speaking for Warmists means is that Someone Else should pay.

Read: Warmists Get Tiny Little Sales Tax On November Ballot In Denver »

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NY Times Recommends Getting Rid Of Presidential Debates

By William Teach August 4, 2020 – 8:00 am

Of course, with the obvious mental decline of Joe Biden, combined with him having to defend the far Left Modern Socialist ideas, such as defunding the police, from Donald Trump, who never has a care over attacking, this will surely only apply for this election

From the screed

Nervous managers of the scheduled 2020 presidential debates are shuffling the logistics and locations to deal with the threat of the coronavirus. But here’s a better idea: Scrap them altogether. And not for health reasons.

Yes, health reasons. But, not COVID19 ones, Joe Biden ones. If you put that there in the first paragraph, that’s the focus

The debates have never made sense as a test for presidential leadership. In fact, one could argue that they reward precisely the opposite of what we want in a president. When we were serious about the presidency, we wanted intelligence, thoughtfulness, knowledge, empathy and, to be sure, likability. It should also go without saying, dignity.

But, hey, you know what makes sense? Demanding Trump’s tax returns.

Over time, the debates came to resemble professional wrestling matches, and more substantive debates were widely panned in the press. Points went to snappy comebacks and one-liners. Witty remarks drew laughs from the audience and got repeated for days and remembered for years.

That’s pretty much politics in the modern era, really going back to the Nixon-JFK debate, which is mentioned.

This, by the way, isn’t written out of any concern that Donald Trump will prevail over Joe Biden in the debates; Mr. Biden has done just fine in a long string of such contests. The point is that “winning” a debate, however assessed, should be irrelevant, as are the debates themselves.

Yes, it is.

The better way to pay attention to and choose among the presidential candidates is to follow the long campaign that so many complain about. The reason for such moaning has always been a mystery, because unless the campaign is taking place in your living room, you can simply switch it off.

Should we pay attention that Biden is essentially hiding? That we rarely ever see him speak, and when he does, it is not good? That the only coherent sentences he speaks are in commercials in which we don’t actually see him speaking them? I watch a lot of programs on Discovery Go and there have been lots of those Biden commercials, none with him actually speaking the lines.

The party conventions, also vestigial organs of a political system that no longer exists, are close to being done away with, if not for the reasons they should be. There’s no reason not to throw the presidential debates on the trash heap of useless (at best) rituals that are no help in our making such a fateful decision.

And next up is doing away with Biden having to make a speech at the convention. Probably just walk out, wave, and walk off.

Read: NY Times Recommends Getting Rid Of Presidential Debates »

Posted in Barking Moonbats, Democrats, Wonky Media | 26 Comments | Trackback URL

Bummer: Carbon Taxes Are Not So Popular Anymore

By William Teach August 3, 2020 – 3:00 pm

The one thing this article forgets is to mention what is popular with Alarmists

Putting A Price On Carbon: It Was Hot, Now It’s Not

“A carbon tax is the most straight-forward and efficient strategy for quickly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” That statement, from Bernie Sanders in 2014, was accepted as gospel in climate policy circles for many years.

Today, not so much. The evolving political consensus, at least on the left, has relegated carbon pricing to second-tier status, while measures involving more targeted government intervention have gained prominence.

Adding a tax to the price of carbon-based fuels to capture their real cost to society has long enjoyed broad appeal. Taxing pollution produced by the fossil fuel industry resonates with progressives, and, as a broad-based market mechanism, it also finds favor with conservative economists.

(discussion of attempts to implement one)

The Democrats have now moved on.

Presidential candidate Jay Inslee, who as governor battled doggedly but unsuccessfully for a carbon fee in the state of Washington, has shifted his attention to other climate policies.

A recent draft of the 2020 Democratic Party Platform is silent on carbon pricing. This omission is undoubtedly intentional because it was included in the 2016 platform — it called for greenhouse gases to “be priced to reflect their negative externalities.”

The Green New Deal, an evolving progressive policy framework introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, is likewise agnostic on carbon pricing.

I wonder why?

First of all, taxes aren’t popular. In France, a fuel tax increase in 2018 set off the gilets jaunes protests, not because people were ignorant of climate risks, but because they lacked practical transportation options, and they felt the tax was punitive.

In theory, the taxes aren’t supposed to hurt the middle and lower classes. In practice, the only group who isn’t harmed is The Rich. Oh, and the Political Aristocracy who ignores all the mandates and such.

Furthermore, to achieve meaningful emissions reductions, carbon pricing has to ramp up rapidly. When asked about why he has cooled off on carbon pricing, Jay Inslee said, “To actually get carbon savings, you need to jack up the price so high that it becomes politically untenable.”

The hell you say!

The transition to the carbon-free economy will require systemic transformation — a reconciliation of our social and ecological realities with the entrenched infrastructure of the capitalist economy. It’s a far bigger job than what carbon pricing could be expected to achieve.

They never want to say what that systemic transformation involves, eh?

Read: Bummer: Carbon Taxes Are Not So Popular Anymore »

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If All You See…

By William Teach August 3, 2020 – 1:00 pm

…is carbon pollution hanging in the air, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Datechguy’s Blog, with a post on voting Trump if you want government accountability.

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Bummer: Democrat Voters Might Stay Home On Election Day

By William Teach August 3, 2020 – 10:30 am

That would be a real shame, eh?

Why Democratic voters might stay home on Election Day

Alarm is growing in Democratic circles that the massively unpopular President Trump might connive to keep himself in office past January even if he is voted out. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the party’s presumptive nominee, has warned repeatedly that Trump will steal the election. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Sunday said he believes the president “plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold onto office.” Publications including The Atlantic and The Washington Post have carried stories speculating that Trump will usurp the election or reject its results. Trump himself fed the speculation last week by suggesting the election be delayed — a notion quickly squashed by Republican officeholders across the spectrum.

These warnings are rooted in Trump’s clear disregard for American democracy, or any rule that keeps him from getting what he wants. But what if all this doomsaying scares Biden’s voters away from the polls? Rick Henderson, editor-in-chief of Carolina Journal — and a friend of mine — raised the question Sunday: “‘Responsible’ people on both sides seeding doubt about the legitimacy of the election (and possible transfer of power) is nuts,” he wrote on Twitter. “If no one trusts the election to be fair, why would anyone want to vote and play a sucker’s game?”

Democrats have been worried that their voters won’t make it to the polls this fall, but those concerns are mostly rooted in a fear of overconfidence within the party, and GOP voter-suppression efforts. There hasn’t been much concern — publicly, at least — that voters will conclude American democracy is already dead and thus it’s not worth the effort of casting a ballot.

There’s lots more fear-mongering in the article, but, what this is really all about is setting the stage for when Biden loses, claiming that the election was fraudulent. They claimed it was Russia Russia Russia for the 2016 election, and could never prove it. They need Reasons as to why the hardcore Modern Socialist agenda is not really that popular across the country.

Really, though, you can see lots of non-crazy Democrats, the ones who aren’t the far left nuts, along with Independents who lean Democrat not bothering to vote this time. Lots of them. They’ll see the issues with Joe Biden, such as his mental deterioration and hard Progressive turn, and just stay home. Meaning that the down ballot votes will not go their way. They compare the Dem candidates agenda to Trump, and see people who want Crazy vs a guy who seems to be a jerk personally but gets things done in office. And understand that all politicians are jerks, most just hide it better. These people may not vote Trump, but, they won’t vote Dem, either. They’ll stay home.

There is already some reason to be concerned about Democratic turnout this year. Recent polls suggest that, when it comes to voter enthusiasm, Biden lags Trump in key battleground states. That could mean Democrats are less likely to vote in November. Or it could mean very little. Democratic voters may have to hold their noses at the ballot box, but they’ll still cast a vote for Biden. As CBS News’ Kabir Khanna observed, “an unenthusiastic vote … counts just the same as an enthusiastic one.” Indeed, it seems a fair number of likely Biden voters are settling for him not because they love him or his potential policies, but because they see him as a “safe” candidate in a time of great peril.

Who can get enthused by Biden? Will he continue to hide till election day? Will he debate? If all he gets is Hillary’s 2016 states, he loses. Is anything he’s doing expanding the votes to flip the Trump 2016 states?

Read: Bummer: Democrat Voters Might Stay Home On Election Day »

Posted in Democrats, Elections, Joe Biden | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

Cult of Climastroloy Looks To Ban Ads For SUVs In U.K.

By William Teach August 3, 2020 – 7:10 am

Remember, this bit of Progressivism (nice Fascism) is for your own good, and I can totally understand why the CoC gets upset when we call them things like Fascists, Marxists, and Authoritarians

Climate crisis: ‘Ban ads for polluting SUVs’ campaign urges, highlighting damaging trend for ever larger vehicles

Advertising the most polluting cars on the roads – predominantly large Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) – should be immediately banned, according to a new campaign highlighting the growing damage done by the trend for ever larger private vehicles on British roads.

The rapidly increasing sales of bigger and more polluting SUVs around the world is jeopardising climate goals, a report by thinktank The New Weather Institute and climate charity Possible claims.

The authors say car brands appear to be “disproportionately promoting larger, more polluting SUVs due to higher profit margins on these vehicles”.

SUVs now make up more than four in 10 new cars sold in the UK – while fully electric vehicles account for fewer than two in 100.

They aren’t advertising them more for greater profits, they’re advertising them more because that’s what people are more interested in. If that’s the demand, that’s what you push the most. And, really, SUVs do not tend to carry more profit than sedans. A CRV or RAV4 holds about the same as an Accord or Camry. And, really, almost no one gives a rat’s pattootie about fully electric vehicles. I bet most, if not all, of the people complaining about the SUV advertising are not driving FEVs themselves. And many drive SUVs. Or a mini-van. The bulk of the SUVs sold will be ones with 4 cylinder engines. People are buying compact (like RAV4, CRV, Escape) and subcompact (such as HRV, CH-R, Kona) instead of mid-size and compact sedans (mid is size of compact SUV, compact sedan size of subcompact SUV).

Andrew Simms, co-director of the New Weather Institute, said: “We ended tobacco advertising when we understood the threat from smoking to public health. Now that we know the human health and climate damage done by car pollution, it’s time to stop adverts making the problem worse.

“In a pandemic-prone world people need clean air and more space on town and city streets.” (snip)

The campaign calls on the secretary of state for Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden, to introduce new legislation to outlaw advertising for the ‘dirtiest third’ of new cars sold in the UK, as well as advertising for any cars which are too large for a standard UK parking space.

Nope, nothing Fascist there. I might take their beliefs more serious if Warmists gave up their own use of fossil fueled vehicles.

Read: Cult of Climastroloy Looks To Ban Ads For SUVs In U.K. »

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Louisville Cubans Rally Around Business Owner Threatened By BLM

By William Teach August 3, 2020 – 6:49 am

They’re referring to the actions of BLM as “mafia like”. That would make them illegal. This was plainly extortion

Cuban business owner in Louisville decries BLM protesters’ demands as ‘mafia tactics’

Fernando Martinez, a business owner in downtown Louisville, took part in a protest Sunday with fellow members of the Cuban community and expressed solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters after he called their recent demands in the city “mafia tactics.”

The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that business owners in the area received letters from protesters that included a list of demands to improve diversity in the community and in the workplace. The paper cited a press release that said the letter was delivered by protesters who told Martinez to put it on his front door so “your business is not f***ed with.”

The paper reported that Martinez, who is a partner of the Ole Restaurant Group and came to the U.S. on a raft at 18, was not the only business owner who received the letter and he took to Facebook to write, “There comes a time in life that you have to make a stand and you have to really prove your convictions and what you believe in. All good people need to denounce this. How can you justified (sic) injustice with more injustice?”

The paper reported that some of the demands laid out in the letter included a minimum of 23 percent of the staff being Black and buying at least 23 percent of their goods from Black-owned retailers, to name a few.

The letter further demanded that the employees receive diversity training and display a visible sign that increases awareness and shows support for the reparations movement. Martinez is himself black. That Louisville Courier-Journal link reports

Phelix Crittenden, an activist who works with Black Lives Matter Louisville, said the demands and related “NuLu social justice health and wellness ratings” were not meant to be a threat but were instead intended to start a conversation with owners about how their businesses can better reflect and support Black people.

Right, right, not a threat, just a conversation. And it would be a real shame if something happened without the conversation, right? The letter was distributed on July 24th, and

The restaurant remained closed the next two days because “management and staff were concerned about safety,” according to the release. “30+ staff members (mostly immigrants) were unable to earn a paycheck.”

Nice people in BLM, eh?

At the root of the protesters’ demands is the request that business owners acknowledge the harm brought on Black residents when they were displaced from NuLu and the adjoining Phoenix Hill neighborhood during the demolition of the Clarksdale housing project in the early 2000s.

Something which Martinez and the other business owners had nothing to do with. And was a place of drugs and violence, which did not fit in with the economic expansion of Louisville.

Read: Louisville Cubans Rally Around Business Owner Threatened By BLM »

Posted in Beyond Moonbat, Current Affairs | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach August 2, 2020 – 1:00 pm

…is a wonderful low carbon bike, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Legal Insurrection, with a post on Democratic privilege in funerals.

It’s cleaning out the folder week.

Double shot, since I uploaded the above before realizing it was small. Check out MOTUS AD, with a post on running monkeys.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 4 Comments | Trackback URL
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