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Interesting: Mexican President Erects Barrier Around Presidential Palace

See, walls are fine for protecting political elites, just like we’ve seen in Washington, D.C., but, not good for protecting the border from unauthorized people attempting to cross illegally and sneak into the U.S. The Mexican president said he has “no opinion” of the wall, but, hailed China Joe’s halt of border wall construction

Mexican president defends 10-foot barriers to wall off women protesters

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday said a metallic barrier to wall off the presidential palace ahead of a planned women’s march on International Women’s Day was to avoid provocation and protect historic buildings from vandalism.

In a country where femicides rose nearly 130% between 2015 and 2020, critics said the decision to erect the 10-foot-high (3-meter) barriers was symptomatic of Lopez Obrador’s apathy toward the crisis of violence afflicting women.

Ahead of International Women’s Day on Monday, barriers were also installed around other emblematic buildings and monuments in downtown Mexico City where a year ago tens of thousands of people protested rampant violence against women and impunity.

“We have to avoid provocation of people who only want to cause damage,” Lopez Obrador said at an event in Yucatan. “Imagine, if we don’t take care of the national palace and they vandalize it. What image will this send to the world?”

Hmm, we have to avoid provocation of people who only want to sneak into the U.S. and take jobs from citizens, drive down wages, drive drunk, assault citizens, steal people’s identity, commit arson and rape and child sexual assault and murder.” Well, hey, it’s always some excuse to protect the elites, be it walls, excuse me, fencing, fossil fueled limos and private jets, you name it.

Lopez Obrador reiterated that women had the right to protest and cited his own movement in 2006 as an appropriate form of peaceful protest.

“The presidency was stolen from us … and we protested but never broke glass. … I walked two, three times all the way from Tabasco to Mexico City,” he said. Lopez Obrador has repeatedly accused opponents of electoral fraud over the years.

Interesting. The article doesn’t complain about Lopez Abrador saying an election was stolen from him.

Interior Minister Olga Sanchez Cordero said on Twitter that the barriers were “for the protection of the women.”

Oh, right, right. Sure thing, Sparky.

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Capitol Police request a two-month extension of National Guard deployment

Well, of course they did!

Capitol Police request extension of National Guard to protect Congress

By Dan Lamothe | March 4, 2021 | 9:15 PM EST

The U.S. Capitol Police have requested a 60-day extension of some of the 5,200 National Guard members activated in the District in response to security threats and the Jan. 6 assault on Congress, opening the door to a military presence in the nation’s capital into spring, defense officials said Thursday.

Acting chief Yogananda Pittman submitted the request to the Defense Department for an extension, the Capitol Police said in a statement on Thursday evening, without saying for how long.

You know what was known by Thursday evening? By Thursday evening, we knew that the alleged plot by purported militants to assault and breach the Capitol that day never happened.

The inauguration? That passed peacefully, without incident. The impeachment trial? Nothing happened.

The ‘new’ date for the assault which never happened is, supposedly, March 20th.

Now, did the attack not happen because of the troops and precautions, as the left will claim, or did it not happen because it was never a real threat in the first place?

The current National Guard mission ends on March 12th; the proposed extension would take the mission well into May.

At what point will the left decide that we do not want to have our nation’s capital looking like that of a banana republic?

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Surprise: Michael “Robust Debate” Mann Claims Hurricane Activity Is Your Fault

His big tree ring study leading to the “hockey stick” was a bunch of mule fritters, so, sure, let’s listen to him again as he fear mongers

Humans, not nature, are the cause of changes in Atlantic hurricane cycles, new study finds

It’s well known in science that for more than a century hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean has oscillated between active and inactive periods, each lasting a few decades. For the past couple of decades, meteorologists and climate scientists have believed that this ebb and flow was due to a natural warming and cooling cycle built into the climate system called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, or AMO.

The term was coined in the year 2000 by world-renowned climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University and author of the new book “The New Climate War.” The concept of the AMO has become ubiquitous in explanations and forecasts of active or inactive hurricane seasons.

The image below, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows how hurricane activity seems to flow in roughly 60-year waves — active for around 30 years when the Atlantic in its warm phase and inactive for around 30 years when in the cool phase.

But today, in a newly released paper in the journal Science, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation may have been dealt a deadly blow — by the very man who named it. Mann now concludes the AMO is very likely an artifact of climate change, driven by “human forcing” from rising carbon emissions in the modern era and “natural forcing” due to massive volcanic eruptions in pre-industrial times.

It’s just very convenient that Mann, along with the rest of the Cult of Climastrology, can say “see, back then it was all nature but now it’s Your Fault,” eh?

The finding — which is bound to generate significant controversy and pushback from the weather and climate communities due to how broadly accepted the concept of the AMO has become — may very well shake the foundations of understanding of what has been driving historical hurricane cycles.

Simply put, if true, this discovery means that during the 20th century and beyond, humans — not natural variability — have been the main driving force in the up-and-down cycles of hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean.

I wonder how many faulty premises and data points will be in this study? Meh, it matters little to the Cult, because this now gives them an excuse to call for more taxes and government Authority.

 

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Democrats Join Republicans In Scuttling $15 Minimum Wage From Senate COVID Bill

Donald Trump was 100% correct that this is something that states/cities should enact, not the federal government

Group of Senate Democrats and Republicans vote to keep $15 minimum wage out of Biden’s COVID stimulus bill

A group of Democratic senators joined all Senate Republicans in voting against Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour on Friday.

The Vermont independent tried to add the provision to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 stimulus bill as the Senate considered the $1.9 trillion measure. But the effort failed in a 58-42 vote with eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus voting against it.

The vote started at 11:03 a.m. EST Friday and didn’t officially end for nearly 12 hours as Democrats and Republicans negotiated changes to an extension of unemployment benefits.

The outcome of the vote could spell trouble for future Democratic attempts to raise the minimum wage, something Biden included in his initial stimulus proposal that passed the House last week.

It may or may not cause trouble in the future if they bring up a clean bill that is simply about raising the minimum wage, rather than including it in a completely unrelated bill, and, by unrelated, the minimum wage has nothing to do with COVID relief (and most of the bill is unrelated to COVID relief). It would have been against the ruled to include a minimum wage increase in the bill that they know they will have to reconcile (which also shows that it is highly partisan if they have to go that route.)

Republicans have been united against the $15 proposal, citing opposition by some small businesses and an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office which estimates it would result in the loss of as many as 1.4 million jobs. The same analysis said it would boost the pay for as many as 27 million Americans and would lift nearly 1 million out of poverty.

Higher wages increase the cost to employers of producing goods and services, and those costs are generally passed on to consumers who usually react by purchasing fewer goods and services, according to the CBO. As a consequence, employers faced with having to scale back their output usually cut back their workforce.

I’m rather shocked that the USA Today allowed that 2nd paragraph, despite being the truth as to how the economy and consumers react. The question now is not about how many times Comrade Bernie will attempt to add the $15 MW to unrelated bills, but, 1. whether the GOP can kill off lots of the unrelated garbage and unnecessary spending

and 2. what happens when the reconciled bill is reconciled with the House version, which does contain the $15 MW increase. Will the House drop it, or try to force it back in even with the knowledge that it won’t pass the Senate? And another question, why hasn’t the GOP simply submitted legislation that provides for the $1,400 checks, unemployment relief, vaccinations, and other COVID specific measures? Heck, introduce one for the checks as a stand alone, force Dems to vote on it.

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When you tolerate tyranny, you will get more tyranny When you accept tyrants, you will get more tyrants.

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY)

If Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) had asked Kentuckians to wear face masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, I would have willingly complied. Had Mr Beshear, seeing that the General Assembly passed new laws to rein in his claimed ’emergency’ executive authority, gone along with the new state laws, and asked the state legislature to approve extensions of his executive orders, I wouldn’t be writing this column. Had the Governor tried to work out his differences with the legislature, as Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd asked him to do, I wouldn’t be so upseet.

Instead, the Governor responded, “See you in court,” showing his utter contempt for democracy.

Am I upset? Hell, yes, I am, totally pissed off, actually shaking in rage.

Beshear: KY won’t repeal its mask mandate anytime soon. 28 new COVID-19 deaths.

By Alex Acquisto | March 4, 2021 | 4:42 PM EST | Updated: March 4, 2021 | 5:28 PM EST

Reiterating that Kentucky will not be repealing its mask mandate anytime soon, Gov. Andy Beshear announced 1,068 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Thursday, as well as 28 virus-related deaths.

Earlier this week, Republican governors in Texas and Mississippi lifted coronavirus restrictions, repealing their states’ mask mandates and reopening businesses to full capacity. Kentucky will not do that, Beshear said.

“We’re going to continue to lose people until we’re fully out of the woods and everybody is vaccinated,” he said in a live update. “That’s the reason we’re not going to do what Texas or Mississippi has done. Those decisions will increase casualties when we just have maybe even a matter of months to go.”

Well, f(ornicate) him!

The Governor claims that the public support him on this, and keeps producing polls which say so. But, in the only poll that counts, the one on election day, the Republicans who ran against his dictatorial decrees were rewarded with 14 additional seats in the state House of Representatives, and two additional seats, out of only 19 up for election, in the state Senate. At every step along the way, Governor Beshear has excluded the state legislature:

Beshear was asked at Friday’s (July 10, 2020 — Editor) news conference on COVID-19 why he has not included the legislature in coming up with his orders. He said many state lawmakers refuse to wear masks and noted that 26 legislators in Mississippi have tested positive for the virus.

Translation: the General Assembly might not do exactly what I want them to do, so I’ll just go around them!

And here I thought that it was supposed to be the evil reich-wing Donald Trump who was the fascist! From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Although fascist parties and movements differed significantly from one another, they had many characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a Volksgemeinschaft (German: “people’s community”), in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation.

A contempt for electoral democracy?  Yup, that’s there, showing utter contempt for the legislators elected by the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Individual interests and rights subordinated to what the Governor defines as the good of the state?  Yup, that’s there, too.  He even makes his propagandistic appeals as his Twitter feed is full of things like #TogetherKy and #TeamKentucky.

Of course, our Governor’s motives are good ones, right? That’s what Judge Shepherd said, when he granted Mr Beshear’s motion for a temporary injunction and partially stayed the effectiveness of three new laws the legislature approved, overriding the Governor’s veto.

The judge said all parties in the case “are acting in good faith to address public policy challenges of the utmost importance” but “the governor has made a strong case that the legislation, in its current form, is likely to undermine or even cripple, the effectiveness of public health measures necessary to protect the lives and health of Kentuckians from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

So, dictatorship is just fine as long as it’s a benevolent dictatorship.

Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote:

Viktor Yanukovych is the kind of dictator we love to hate. A kleptocrat who chose a bribe from Russia over his people’s future in the EU. A thug who sent other thugs to beat up protesters, until he was finally ousted by his own people. A man who left his country bankrupt while pictures of his palatial estate and private zoo are broadcast around the world. We vilify dictators like this. And, yet, there remains a dream, for far too many development experts, business people and others around the globe that a strong leader with authoritarian powers is needed to move poor countries into the developed world.

I am watching Ukraine implode from a West Africa nation where corruption is perceived to be growing, development is stalled and the economy is heading downhill. From high-level government appointees to members of civil society, I hear: “What we need is a benevolent dictator. … ” The sentiment is generally followed by praise for Paul Kagame, who has created a remarkably clean and efficient Rwanda after that country’s genocide, or Lee Kuan Yew, the “father of Singapore,” who corralled government corruption and thrust his nation into the first world.

The desire for benevolent dictatorship is not confined to developing nations. I hear it even more often from America’s business community and those working on international development – often accompanied by praise for China’s ability to “get things done.” The problem is that the entire 20th century seems to have produced at most one largely benevolent dictator and one efficient but increasingly repressive leader, both in tiny countries.

Meanwhile, we have seen scores of Yanukovych-like kleptocrats, Pinochet-style military dictatorships that torture dissenters in secret prisons and “disappear” those who disagree, and North Korean-style totalitarians whose gulags and concentration camps starve and murder hundreds of thousands or even millions of their countrymen.

Occasionally, dictators begin benevolently and grow worse. The world is littered with Kwame Nkrumahs, Fidel Castros and Robert Mugabes who rose to power with great popularity, built their nations, then turned their people’s hopes to ash through corruption, personality cults and violence. One Lee Kuan Yew and a Kagame teetering from benevolence toward repression, versus every other dictatorship of the 20th century? Those are not odds to bet your country on.

There is no doubt that Governor Beshear is personally popular in the Bluegrass State. He has been right out in front, on television almost every day, with his soothing words and handsome, non-threatening visage. The Governor wrote:

This is a war. We have lost more Kentuckians to COVID-19 than in battles during World War I, World War II and Vietnam combined.

That’s true enough, but there is one very stark difference: those Kentuckians who gave their lives on the battlefield were fighting, and dying, for democracy, for liberty, and not for dictatorship and despotism. Regardless of how benevolent Mr Beshear and his sycophants think he has been, irrespective of how necessary they have thought the Governor’s actions to be, they were, and are, still fundamentally and morally wrong, still an assault on our syste4m of government, far more than the 800 or so rioters in the Capitol kerfuffle, because the Governor has, so far, gotten away with his despotism.

Patriotic Kentuckians must do everything we can to fight Governor Beshear, we must do everything we can to frustrate his taking away of our rights. We must demonstrate, we must protest, we must obstruct his edicts, and we must never, ever accept anything less than liberty.

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How Farmers Can (Be Forced By Government) To Fight Climate Apocalypse Or Something

It’s always great when people who aren’t anywhere close to being experts, or even amateurs, in a field like to tell the experts how to do their jobs

How farmers could fight climate change (and make a profit)

Agriculture has never been a principal focus of efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. But farm emissions — which make up about 10% of the U.S. total — are coming under increasing scrutiny as Democrats take the reins of agricultural policy and farmers themselves awaken to the threats of climate change. One strategy in particular is getting attention this year: encouraging farmers to view emissions reduction and carbon sequestration as potential sources of income.

The idea is fairly straightforward. Farmers would take steps to reduce their carbon output, such as reducing tillage to avoid releasing soil carbon, planting cover crops to hold carbon in the soil, applying manure treatments and “digesters” to limit emissions of methane, and using nitrogen fertilizer more precisely to lower nitrous-oxide emissions. In return, they could sell credits to companies looking to reduce their own climate footprint. Private markets for such credits are already springing up, and Congress took measures to encourage similar exchanges in the 2008 Farm Bill.

So, Democrats are going to use government force to “encourage” farmers to not use their fields to grow food, and to use older, less safe processes like spraying shit instead of modern treatments on the growing food. And the farmers will somehow make money by selling credits on these mythical private markets for credits, which are really backed by and mandated by Government.

But much about this concept has yet to be worked out, notably the basic question of how to measure the climate value of various farming practices. Here the U.S. Department of Agriculture could help. A Senate bill introduced last year would direct the USDA to create standards for measuring the effectiveness of climate-protection measures on farms, certify people to help farmers take such measurements and verify their value, and work with the Environmental Protection Agency to monitor private carbon-credit markets.

More government interference and control of the agriculture sector. Which means cost increases for food. All for a mythical problem.

Such exchanges could go a long way toward encouraging farmers to reduce emissions and sequester carbon. But they won’t work unless regulators can ensure that they’ll actually bring substantial climate benefits. The danger is that a carbon-credit system might instead mainly enable airlines, investment funds, energy firms, agribusinesses and other companies to excuse their own greenhouse-gas emissions by purchasing inexpensive and largely meaningless offsets.

It won’t make a difference in the climate at all. It will make farmers, who are independent spirits, resist like heck.

By setting standards for measurement and verification, and monitoring the private markets, the USDA can maximize the potential of “carbon farming.” It can also extend the benefits beyond the big operations, which can most easily demonstrate emissions reductions, to smaller farms — by helping them participate in collective efforts. If such measurements proved reliable, the Biden administration’s proposal to create a government “carbon bank” — which would buy credits from farmers for a guaranteed price per ton — might act as a powerful incentive for farmers big and small.

Sure sounds less like a private market and more like government dominance, eh?

That said, carbon trading does hold significant promise for limiting emissions on the farm — so long as it’s based on verifiable practices that will allow markets to accurately value the credits. The first step is to get the right data.

I suggest that would start implementing these types of carbon trading schemes on credentialed news outlets, print, TV, and even Internet, let’s see if they’re good with trading schemes when they apply to their own industry. No? They’d be mad? Huh.

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The huge disconnect between the government and the governed Wealthy Justin Trudeau is so worried about #ClimateChange that he'd freeze Canadians

Our great neighbor to the north, the second largest country in the world by area, has had what we Americans would consider a very liberal government. Canadians have restrictions on speech imposed upon them, and all sorts of laws and regulations of which American ‘progressives’ can only dream about.

One of the liberal policies imposed on Canadians by their government is a ‘carbon’ tax to discourage fossil fuel consumption. But, as the term neighbor to the north implies, the climate is somewhat cooler up there, and downright cold in the winter. From the Toronto Sun:

Carbon tax punishes Canadians for staying warm

Kris Sims| March 4, 2021

Cold enough for ya?

All of Canada’s capitals were below the freezing mark during the latest cold snap.

Even Victoria had its ploughs pressed into service as snow smothered the cherry blossoms. Edmonton was at -34 C (-29º F), Regina dipped to -39 C (-38º F), and call-the-army Toronto hit -13 C (9º F). The Maritimes shivered through -14 C (7º F) and something called “ice fog.”

Without natural gas, propane and furnace oil, millions of Canadians would have been freezing in the dark.

Those silly Canucks use the metric system; conversions to Fahrenheit in the article by me.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is jacking up the carbon tax over the next nine years which will punish Canadians for the grave sin of wanting to stay warm.

As one of the writers of the federal carbon tax legislation recently explained on the TV show Counterpoint, Trudeau’s carbon tax is meant to “punish the poor behaviour of using fossil fuels.”

At $30/tonne, natural gas currently carries a federal carbon tax punishment of 5.8 cents per cubic metre, the tax on propane is 4.6 cents per litre and furnace oil is taxed at 8 cents per litre.

What will life be like when Trudeau increases the carbon tax to $170 per ton?

The article continues to tell people what life will be like once that carbon tax has been increased, and I’ll skip over that part, because quoting the whole thing would be copyright infringement, but you can follow the link to see the numbers for yourself.

Those counting on carbon tax rebates to magically put more money back in their pockets should take heed of the British Columbia carbon tax example on which the federal program was based. Rebates in B.C. evaporate when a two person working family hits an income $59,000 per year, far below the provincial average.

The carbon tax advocates in the United States have pushed rebates for the poor, but obvious questions arise:

  • What documentation and filings will be required to get such rebates; and
  • How frequently will such rebates be paid

Without documentation, how will the government know to whom and how much the rebates should be sent? Would the government impose some sort of quarterly tax filings on lower-income people?

If the rebates are paid quarterly, how much good does that do for people living paycheck-to-paycheck?

Carbon tax cheerleaders, typically the well insulated and academic political set, say Canadians should simply go electric instead of using oil, natural gas and propane to stay warm. The fact is electric heat is not affordable for many households and our power grids don’t have the juice to both heat our homes and charge our electric vehicles.

Electric systems can fail. In January of 2018, an ice storm that the Weather Channel called Winter Storm Hunter knocked out sparktricity to our humble abode. Being January, it was rather cold out, as you might expect.[1]As much as the Weather Channel tried, the idea of naming winter storms never caught on beyond their network

The power was out for 4½ days. My wife went to stay with our daughters, in Lexington, but I had to stay at home, to take care of the critters. By the last day, it was down to 38º F — that’s 3 C to the Canadians! — inside the house.

Well, never again, we said, and as part of our remodeling, we had propane installed into our previously all-electric house. Mrs Pico wanted a gas range, and we went ahead and added a gas hot water heater and propane fireplace.

Well, we just got hit by historic flooding, and while the electricity never went out, the flooding destroyed our electric HVAC system; it reached into the crawlspace, but not into the house itself. I tied the propane tank to a nearby tree, so that if it floated, at least it couldn’t float away! I had to turn off the propane at the tank at that point.[2]We were very lucky; about three more inches, and the record flood waters would have reached the wooden sills and floor joists

Well, it did float, and turned upside down. It was only through the goodness of the Lord that the supply line didn’t snap. As the flood waters receded, I was finally able to muscle the tank back upright, though sitting on the ground rather than the concrete blocks on which it originally sat. I checked the gas line, and tested it, and it was OK. Now, that propane fireplace is heating our house again. It was 30º F outside this morning, but the house is warm. We have an HVAC contractor coming by on Monday to give us an estimate, because, being completely inundated by muddy flood waters, the system is almost certainly destroyed. The point is simple: if we didn’t have the propane backup, we’d have no heat for perhaps weeks!

We live in Kentucky, and the normal highs and lows for this time of year are 50º and 32º F. What are they in Calgary or Whitehorse or Iqaluit?

Yes, I did spend one winter in Maine when I was a third grader, but that’s a long-ago, remote experience. Nevertheless, I seem to have a greater appreciation for what poorer Canadians, what people living outside of Ottawa and Toronto and Montreal have to go through in their lives than the Right Honourable Mr Trudeau, the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. I do not know how an American who has never set foot in Canada can understand more about Canadians than a native son, but apparently I do.

Perhaps if the Prime Minister were to leave Ottawa and live out in the boondocks of Saskatchewan, where some off-gridders have to use propane to power their refrigerators, he might learn something about his own countrymen.

References

References
↑1 As much as the Weather Channel tried, the idea of naming winter storms never caught on beyond their network
↑2 We were very lucky; about three more inches, and the record flood waters would have reached the wooden sills and floor joists
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Washington Post Complains That 1,400 Americans Died During Reading Of COVID “Relief” Bill

The Credentialed Media seems pretty upset that a $1.9 trillion bill, which has very little in the way of actual COVID relief, was forced to be read on the Senate floor. Seriously, why is it necessary for anyone to know what’s in it, and for Senators who are going to vote on it to understand what they’re voting for?

Action on Stimulus Bill Halts as Senate Clerks Read All 628 Pages Aloud

With President Biden’s nearly $2 trillion stimulus bill moving toward passage, Senator Ron Johnson brought proceedings to a halt on Thursday by demanding that Senate clerks recite the 628-page plan word by word, delaying action to register his objections.

The maneuver by Mr. Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, was unlikely to change any minds about the sweeping pandemic aid plan, which would deliver hundreds of billions of dollars for vaccine distribution, schools, jobless aid, direct payments to Americans and small business relief, and has broad bipartisan support among voters. Republicans signaled that they would be unified against it, and Democrats were ready to push it through on their own, using a special fast-track process to blow past the opposition.

But in the Senate, where even the most mundane tasks are subject to arcane rules, any senator can exploit them to cause havoc. The exercise was Republicans’ latest effort to score political points against a measure they were powerless to stop and to punish Democrats with a time-consuming, boredom-inducing chore.

“Is he allowed?” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, muttered quietly when Mr. Johnson tried to explain after demanding the reading.

You can pick up the derision from the NY Times that someone would dare do this, right? Many other outlets take a similar tone. But, nothing tops Philip Bump at the Washington Post for pure, unadulterated moonbattery

While the Senate reads the coronavirus relief bill, nearly 1,400 Americans may die from the virus

Shortly after Jan. 5, it became apparent that Congress was likely to pass legislation substantially bolstering economic relief provided in response to the coronavirus pandemic. What changed was that two Democrats won runoff races for the Senate in Georgia, giving the party and incoming President Biden enough votes to pass the bill Biden wanted to see.

It’s been nearly two months since that election and, after passing the House, the $1.9 trillion bill is awaiting a vote in the Senate. But that won’t happen for a while yet, not because there aren’t the votes to pass it but, instead, because Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has decided to force the chamber to read the 628-page bill in its entirety. The effect isn’t to change the outcome. Instead, it’s to delay the inevitable. (snip)

It’s meant to be a nuisance. But, as CNN’s Brian Fung pointed out on Twitter, it carries an additional weight this time. Included in the funding bill is financial support for millions of Americans, as well as billions of dollars meant to bolster vaccine distribution and testing — tools which could bring the pandemic to an end more quickly.

At this moment, on this issue, time can be measured in human lives. On average, nearly 2,000 people a day are dying from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. That’s a death about once every 44 seconds. It’s an improvement over the end of January, when people were dying at a rate faster than two a minute. But it’s still a far faster rate than the country had seen for much of the pandemic.

Got that? The Democratic Party controlled House sat on putting forth a bill and voting on it (actually, much longer because Democrats refused to provide much in the way of help because it would hurt Trump) for months (and they filled it with a partisan wish list, unrelated to COVID measures, and unnecessary spending) then sat on it for a week or so before sending to the Senate, but, only now is taking a few hours to read a crazy bill a problem and killing Americans.

How much of this bill actually saves American lives? Just 1% is for vaccination. Heck, it doesn’t even have the $2,000 checks Biden promised again and again (he never promised it would add to the $600 to make that $2K). 99% of it won’t save American lives, and, if this was so darned important, why didn’t they take it up in January? The House could have sent it over to the Senate the minute the Georgia Dem Senators took their seats. But, no.

Given the current rate at which people are dying of covid-19, we can expect just shy of 1,400 Americans to succumb to the disease during that period.

It’s not the case that those lives would have been saved had the bill passed sooner. But it is the case that more immediate assistance for things like vaccines or bolstering people’s bank accounts is better than slower relief. Again, the question isn’t if the bill passes, it’s when. In that context, the argument for a 17-hour delay isn’t a robust one.

The same people that constantly yammer about Saving Our Democracy are mad when Democracy is in action, when people have to actually be told what is in a bill. A 17 hour delay when Democrats have basically been jamming up relief for 8 months.

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#Unity: House Passes Partisan Police “Reform” Act Named After George Floyd

Democrats decided to take some sound ideas and ramp them up to Partisan Category 4

House Approves Police Reform Bill Named After George Floyd

House lawmakers on Wednesday passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a police reform bill that would ban chokeholds and eliminate qualified immunity for law enforcement. The 220-212 vote came nine months after Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed by Minneapolis police officers last spring.

The wide-ranging legislation would also ban no-knock warrants, mandate data collection on police encounters, prohibit racial and religious profiling and redirect funding to community-based policing programs.

“Never again should an unarmed individual be murdered or brutalized by someone who is supposed to serve and protect them,” said Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., in a statement. “Never again should the world be subject to witnessing what we saw happen to George Floyd in the streets in Minnesota.”

Banning chokeholds is nice, but, sometimes police need to use them to grab hold of a perp. It’s easy to ban them, but, in practice, when an officer is attempting to grab hold of a violent criminal, it is the easiest way to grab them. It’s knowing when to let go. But, it’s doing away with qualified immunity that is the worst part of this, and will lead to huge numbers of police officers quitting the force, especially in Democratic Party run areas where crime is rampant, and would see fewer people wanting to be police officers, making the rest of us who aren’t criminals less safe.

No knock warrants are a big problem, but shouldn’t be banned: they should be reformed to make sure there are more safeguards and a stronger approval method. Profiling? We all profile constantly, and police use profiles to understand potential crimes. “Community based policing programs”? Left wing idiocy which will make the rest of us less safe.

In debate on the House floor Wednesday evening before the vote, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota said Minneapolis is still traumatized by Floyd’s death. “Time and time again we have witnessed the people who are sworn to protect our communities abuse their power,” she said.

Traumatized? She didn’t know George Floyd. Or his family. She’s just grandstanding. Perhaps she should ask the business owners who saw their businesses trashed by the rioters. And those who were assaulted. The families of those who couldn’t get their loved one to a hospital because Ilhan’s peeps were blocking the streets, or a fire truck couldn’t make it through the blocked roads.

(KYOUTV) Iowa Congresswomen Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks both issued statements on their opposition to The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives by a narrow vote of 220-212 on Wednesday night.

In Hinson’s statement, she wrote that “Law enforcement officers in Iowa and across this country put their lives on the line every day to keep our communities safe. It’s reprehensible that House Democrats would bring forward legislation to defund police departments while relying on law enforcement to protect our Capitol from imminent threats...In a chamber safeguarded by Capitol Police.

In her statement, Miller-Meeks wrote that “We need serious bipartisan police reform that holds bad officers accountable” but that “The Justice in Policing Act would eliminate qualified immunity, which would make recruitment and retention difficult,” adding that “In effect, this is a backdoor way to defund the police.”

And this bill would interfere with States Rights on how to run their police departments. This is, as usual, a highly partisan bill. The GOP attempted to pass Senator Tim Scott’s JUSTICE Act, which was well thought out and didn’t destroy the police, but, Democrats blocked it with the filibuster (you know, that thing Democrats say they hate). Dems already knew the George Floyd bill was 100% partisan, but, still voted and passed it again. And, again, the only way it makes it through the Senate is with nuking the filibuster.