Archive for 2022
January 26, 2022
OPEN THREAD: I know that there is pain.
#RESIST: Seen in Billings, Montana:
Plus, Nazareth, Pennsylvania:
And, location unknown:
The #Resistance is everywhere.
CHANGE: Military space advocate Rep. Jim Cooper to retire from Congress. “Cooper’s decision was expected as his current district in Nashville was redrawn by the state legislature and his seat is likely to be won by a Republican candidate. Cooper has been in office for 32 years.”
IT’S THE DEEP SEVENS, ISN’T IT? Wild New Paper Suggests Earth’s Tectonic Activity Has an Unseen Source.
MARY KATHARINE HAM: Be Resilient For Your Kids, Not The Other Way Around.
IT DOESN’T HELP KIDS, BUT DEMS WANT IT ANYWAY FOR INDOCTRINATION PURPOSES: “It’s a pre-K study that has many virtues . . . and it says kids who were assigned to the pre-K condition actually did worse than kids who were not.”
#AB5 UPDATE: San Diego lawmaker Lorena Gonzalez used false data to peddle her disastrous AB 5 law.
Eventually, we did find what we were looking for. It turns out that in 2012, a report issued by an Obama Administration commission headed by Joe Biden stated that the nation, not California alone, loses $7 billion because contractors don’t pay payroll taxes—not annually, but rather over a 10-year period. Their report covered all people who provide contracting services, not just those in rideshare and high-tech.”
Lewin and his team then analyzed numbers to determine the actual potential loss to the state of California annually due to independent contracting.
The loss is closer to zero, he said. In fact, in the rideshare and delivery sector alone, the state would actually gain about $111 million annually from the independent contractor arrangement relative to the employment arrangement, they found.
“That supposed $7 billion putative annual revenue loss in California due to independent contractors has no basis in fact or in empirical evidence whatsoever,” affirmed Lewin.
The $7 billion estimate continues to be promoted to this day, not just in California, but nationally.
Those numbers were just a pre-COVID modified limited hangout that did its job — to further wreck California’s economy, and possibly serve as a dry run for a similarly disastrous Federal version.
OUT ON A LIMB: Meat Loaf blamed China for COVID, revealed he couldn’t sing months before death.
Serious, no kidding around question: Where does the New York Post’s Natalie O’Neill think that COVID came from?
TOP SELLER: New Balance Men’s 510 V5 Trail Running Shoe. #CommissionEarned (Bumped)
UNDER TRUMP WE WERE A NET OIL EXPORTER: Russian crude exports to US highlight risks to Ukraine talks for Biden.
Shipments of Russian crude to the US in 2021 averaged 202,000 b/d, the highest in 11 years, according to data from S&P Global Platts trade-flow analytics tool cFlow. Most of these imports consist of Russian export grades, such as Urals, ESPO Blend and Varandey.
Overall Russian crude and product shipments accounted for 11% of total US imports between January and October 2021, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration. Imports of Russian crude and products averaged 704,300 b/d in this period, EIA data showed. The US is now importing higher volumes from Russia than it is from key ally Saudi Arabia. . . .
The growing importance of Russia’s crude to US refiners underscores the challenge facing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in negotiations with his counterpart Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, set to resume next month, as the two sides attempt to resolve tensions over the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, as well as Moscow’s requests for security guarantees from NATO.
Everything is going swimmingly.
IT’S A BIG COUNTRY: Survey Says: Americans Want Big Range from EVs. “It seems Americans want more EV range than anyone else in the world. A lot more. Generally speaking, consumers in the States expect the driving range of a fully charged BEV to be north of 500 miles, while people in places like China and Japan are content with a range of half that amount. The quick-minded in our audience will point to the massive amount of land which comprises America, meaning our driving distances are often much longer on average than they are for folks living in countries on the Pacific Rim.”
Americans want enough range to be able to drive all day. 500 is a minimum for that.
Plus: “Other interesting results to parse from this survey? Americans seem to abhor the idea of a vehicle subscription service, at least compared to drivers in China and India. Nearly 4 out of 5 respondents in those countries cotton to the idea, compared to less than a third of those surveyed in America. In a stat that will surprise no one, personal vehicles are far and away the preferred mode of transportation in this country, compared to about 50 percent in most of Asia and a surprisingly low 67 percent in Germany.”
I’VE SEEN THE LOCKDOWNS AND THE DAMAGE DONE: Only Four States Have Regained All the Jobs Lost Since the Pandemic. They’re All Run By Republicans.
THE FDA’S COVID TRACK RECORD HAS BEEN DREADFUL: The FDA is wrong to pull life-saving COVID-19 antibody treatments.
SATIRE (I THINK): Biden’s Supreme Court Pick Sexually Assaulted Me 25 Years Ago.
NOW WE KNOW WHAT ULTIMATELY HAPPENED TO THE BRADY BUNCH’S ASTROTURF BACKYARD: Behold the deeply unsettling creep factor of this “luxury bunker” in Las Vegas that’s located 26 feet below ground but is made to look as if it’s outside.
I’M SAD TO REPORT THAT I OWN NO BELT-FED WEAPONS: Mandatory Safety Recall of All FN M249S Rifles.
Please do not mock me in my shame.
COLORADO: Parents at Aspen council meeting speak out en mass against mask mandate for children.
While people party unmasked in packed bars and eat and drink in restaurants throughout Pitkin County and at the ski resorts, hundreds of children are forced to wear face coverings all day long in school and it’s impeding their education, eroding their mental health and creating fear of authority.
That’s according to two dozen parents who spoke for an hour during public comment at Aspen City Council’s meeting on Tuesday, urging elected officials to convince their colleagues on Pitkin County’s board of health to lift the mask mandate in public schools and child care facilities.
Julia DeBacker, a parent of six children in Aspen, said two years of forcing them to wear a mask has led them to be socially incompetent, fearful, full of anxiety and untrusting of authority.
Sense broke out here in southern Colorado over a year ago, but Aspen (and Pitkin County) are deep blue.
ATHENA THORNE: I’ve Learned Some Wild Stuff Since I Came to PJ Media.
DON’T GET COCKY: Red wave alert for Senate Democrats.
The race-by-race analysis hasn’t kept up with the deteriorating macro-political reality for Democrats. At the beginning of the cycle, Senate Democrats looked like they would benefit from a favorable Senate map, not defending a single state that Trump carried in 2020. But with Biden’s downturn, the swing states that the president carried narrowly (Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) now look like tough territory for the party in power. Meanwhile, Republican-leaning states like Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio, which once looked competitive, now look like longer shots—even with a solid Democratic recruit in Florida, the presence of a Trump-endorsed candidate in North Carolina, and an underwhelming Republican field in Ohio. At the same time, Democratic-leaning Colorado and New Hampshire could get competitive, even without popular Gov. Chris Sununu running in the former and with a muddled GOP field in the latter.
Outside of Sununu’s decision to pass on the Senate race, most recent developments have played to Senate Republicans’ advantage. Scandal-plagued, Trump-endorsed Sean Parnell dropped out of the Pennsylvania race, allowing for a more mainstream hedge fund co-CEO (David McCormick) and a celebrity doctor (Mehmet Oz) to fill the vacuum. The Democratic primary field has gotten pulled so far to the left in Wisconsin that even vulnerable Sen. Ron Johnson has a clear path for a third term. Republicans have released internal polling showing their challengers are already leading in Nevada and Georgia; even older Democratic surveys underscore the precarious predicament for Sens. Raphael Warnock and Catherine Cortez Masto.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to put all senators on the record to roll back the legislative filibuster—in a failed attempt to pass a voting-reform package—only gives Republican challengers fodder to argue that even the swing-state Democratic senators (except Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema) are doing the bidding of the progressive base.
Two real weak spots are Arizona and Georgia. I bet the GOP in those states could use some volunteers.