BloggeRhythms

While climate-change is a subject very few Americans care about, there’s huge amounts being spent on it anyway, which is why the topic remains newsworthy. 

As far as actual temperature change is concerned, according to Marc Morano @climatedepot.com the most recent reports showed in November 2015, 225 months have shown no global warming at all. A total of 18 years 9 months. 

With that statistic in mind, an article by Valerie Richardson @washingtontimes.com, published yesterday illustrates the extent to which alarmist environmentalists will go to push their highly questionable agenda.    

Ms Richardson writes: “In the hours before they took the stage for their March 29 press conference, Democratic attorneys general received a secret briefing from two top environmentalists on pursuing climate change dissenters. 

“Peter Frumhoff of the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Climate Accountability Institute’s Matt Pawa spent 45 minutes each providing talking points behind the scenes on “the imperative of taking action now” and “climate change litigation,” according to a cache of emails released over the weekend by the free market Energy.” 

Therefore, what these groups wished to do was employ their four years of planning and advocacy to use the legal system to link fossil fuel firms and others challenging the catastrophic global warming consensus to fraud and even racketeering, the emails and other documents show.   

It’s no surprise that the press conference included AlGore, along with a coalition of 16 Democratic attorneys general and one independent — Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude E. Walker, where it was announced that they would use the power of state government to explore legal avenues to challenge climate change dissent. 

“Four of the attorneys general have reportedly launched investigations into Exxon Mobil Corp., and Mr. Walker has issued a subpoena for 10 years worth of climate change documents and communications from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank. 

“Mr. Walker also issued a subpoena last month to Exxon Mobil, citing the territory’s laws against racketeering. The company filed a motion Wednesday to block the subpoena in Texas state court.” 

As far as the emails just released are concerned, they shed new light on the close working relationship between the climate change movement and Democratic lawmakers. Which is why several Republican attorneys general have called the coalition’s effort an attack on free speech. 

A March 30 joint statement by Attorneys General Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma and Luther Strange of Alabama said: “This scientific and political debate is healthy, and it should be encouraged. It should not be silenced with threats of criminal prosecution by those who believe that their position is the only correct one and that all dissenting voices must therefore be intimidated and coerced into silence. It is inappropriate for State Attorneys General to use the power of their office to attempt to silence core political speech on one of the major policy debates of our time.” 

“Both have joined a lawsuit filed by 26 attorneys general challenging the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which requires strict emissions reductions in the name of combating climate change.” 

So, here we have a group of 17 attorney general's trying to employ the legal system to silence and curb dissenters, up to and including prohibiting any argument against their objectives. Yet, 26 others, almost double, disagree with their premise and conclusions. Which sort of makes one wonder just how much this is actually based on the environment, or are there other things, such as campaign contributions at play here?    

On another favorite Democrat topic, raising minimum wages, looks like there’s another cloud forming on the horizon. 

Anneta Konstantinides wrote yesterday @dailymail.com via Drudge: “Bottomless brunch and mimosas may be the way to a millennial's heart, but it may be bottomless fries that get them back to McDonald's tables.” 

A new 6,500 sq ft  “McDonald's of the future,” is set to open in July, offering as many fries as you want.  

“Owners Chris and Karri Habiger are turning their McDonald's into a luxurious one, with earthy tones, couches and armchairs and kiosks instead of people taking your order.  

“Habiger said the kiosks will make it easier for people to go through the 'hundreds of different choices to build the burgers of your dreams', as well as their chicken sandwiches and even dessert.” 

“But Habiger, who owns six additional McDonald's locations, said the kiosks won't be replacing jobs and that the company instead plans to hire 85 new employees in the upcoming months. 

While Mr. Habiger may certainly be planning to add 85 new hires to his network of establishments, the new kiosks obviously haven’t been tested yet for customer reaction. It also doesn't sound pleasant to project employee layoffs. However, it’s far more likely that this is the first step to expanding automation which might not have been thought of before his employment costs doubled.   

Reader Sparky2, Atlanta, commented: “Business leaders and the republican party have been warning about this for years. With the $15 minimum wage, high taxes, Obamacare, gov't regulations, it just isn't possible for those business working on a thin profit margin, to make a profit. Thus they become more automated to keep costs in line resulting in lost jobs. And this is just the beginning.” 

Bringing us to today’s update on Bill Clinton’s wife. 

Niall Stanage @thehill.com/blogs, writes: “Sanders devoted a significant portion of his hour-long address in Prospect Park to assailing Clinton for issue after issue on which he suggested she was insufficiently liberal or flat-out wrong: free-trade agreements; fracking; the war in Iraq; her refusal to call for a $15 per hour minimum wage; and her reluctance to support raising the income cap on Social Security contributions.”  

Mr. Stanage then points out: “Sanders, who has become more sarcastic about Clinton of late — including in the ninth and fieriest debate between the two last Thursday — mocked the former secretary of State for her refusal to release the transcript of her paid speeches to corporations, including Goldman Sachs.

“Noting that Clinton has received as much as $225,000 per speech, Sanders said: “Now, if you give a speech for $225,000, it must be a pretty damn good speech, must be a brilliant and insightful speech analyzing all of the world’s problems, must be a speech written in Shakespearean prose. And that is why I believe Secretary Clinton should share that speech with all of us.” 

And here’s the part that may appear ominously familiar to Bill’s wife’s supporters, because it sounds very much like what happened last time around: “There is nothing new about Sanders highlighting contrasts with Clinton. But the withering tone he is adopting will worry those in the Democratic Party who see the former secretary of State as the all-but-inevitable nominee. There are already murmurs that such attacks wound her and make it more difficult to unify the party for November’s general election.”

Thus, although Sanders springing another surprising win in New York and elsewhere Tuesday, may certainly seem highly improbable, at this point most pundits expected the race to be long over altogether. But, obviously, it isn't. Which leads to the ongoing question: Joe Biden, Mayor Bloomberg, Jerry Brown, and Starbuck’s chairman and CEO, Howard Schultz, are you guys reading this?    

That’s it for today folks.  

Adios