Nothing Is More American Than The Summer Road Trip
Through an unfortunate twist of fate, I rediscovered the joys of the road trip and all that America's highways and small towns have to offer.
Hillary Clinton is literally blaming Trump-supporting Republicans for summer heat.
On Tuesday, the twice-failed presidential candidate responded to a tweet from the Center for American Progress, a leftist think-tank, that blamed "MAGA Republicans" for hot summer weather. It said such Americans are "pouring fuel on the climate crisis fire."
The CAP's inability to distinguish between climate and weather aside, Clinton took CAP's rhetoric and ran with it.
"Hot enough for you? Thank a MAGA Republican," she said. "Or better yet, vote them out of office."
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Yes, most American's are experiencing hot temperatures. But it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and hot weather is normal.
Even if the hot temperatures (which happen every July in the United States) were abnormal and caused by climate change, how could so-called "MAGA Republicans" be responsible for it? Is Clinton really arguing that a group of voters who have only existed for eight years (since the beginning of Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2015) are responsible for changing the climate in extreme ways in such a short period of time?
Clearly, her argument is bunk, and it, as climate scientist Dr. Ryan Maue pointed out, aligns with a directive from the New York Times to "politicize" weather events.
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Besides, it's just plain wrong to assert that heat currently being experienced in the U.S. is "unprecedented" or that climate change is the only explanation for it.
"Without climate change, July's summer heat in the U.S. Southwest would have been 'virtually impossible,'" Maue mocked on Tuesday. "I guess that's true if you memory hole 1925, 1930s, 1950s, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2012, 2020, etc. and the rest of the almanac.
"The Dust Bowl of the 1930s and 1980 stand out as so exceptionally hot, many decades ago, that no one would say without laughing that the recent July in Texas was unprecedented," he continued. "I guess politicizing the weather means we have to suspend disbelief and erase the past."
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It turns out that summer is hot and if you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
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The New York Times is being torched for publishing an article asking if it "safe to go outside" during "this cruel summer." Reactions online roasted the liberal news outlet for pushing "fear-mongering" content.
In its "Health" section, the New Times published an article titled: "Is It Safe to Go Outside? How to Navigate This Cruel Summer."
The article's sub-headline reads: "Heat, flooding and wildfire smoke have made for treacherous conditions. Use this guide to determine when it’s safe to head out and when you should stay home."
The article is written by Alisha Haridasani Gupta – a reporter "focused on women’s health, health inequities and trends in functional medicine and wellness."
The article sounds the alarm about this year's "summer of weather extremes in the United States, in which going outside can be riddled with perils." The NYT cites flooding in the Northeast, heatwaves across the country, and smoke from wildfires in Canada.
The NYT writer advises people to watch for flood warnings and check air quality levels before going outside.
The Times urges people, "If you must be outdoors, consider wearing an N95 mask to help reduce your exposure to toxins, Dr. Balbus said."
The New York Times tells readers, "A heat index of 103 degrees Fahrenheit and above is dangerous; you’re likely to experience heat cramps and heat exhaustion, and heat stroke is possible if you’re outside for a prolonged period or doing something strenuous, according to the National Weather Service."
The Times warns that "extreme heat leads to hundreds of fatalities a year in the U.S."
Despite warnings about heat-related deaths, studies show that more fatalities are caused by cold weather.
A 2021 study published in The Lancet Planetary Health found that for every death linked to heat, nine are connected to cold.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics Compressed Mortality Database stated: "During 2006-2010, about 2,000 U.S. residents died each year from weather-related causes of death. About 31% of these deaths were attributed to exposure to excessive natural heat, heat stroke, sun stroke, or all; 63% were attributed to exposure to excessive natural cold, hypothermia, or both; and the remaining 6% were attributed to floods, storms, or lightning."
According to The Lancet, there were 1.7 million deaths worldwide deaths from extreme temperatures in 2019 – 356,000 were related to heat and the rest were caused by cold.
A 2020 study by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago found that 94% of temperature-related deaths were because of cold weather.
The official Twitter account for New York Times Health posted the article on social media with the caption: "So you want to go outside — despite the heat, heavy rainfall and poor air quality affecting millions this summer. Here’s how to determine whether it’s safe to leave the house."
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Reactions to the guidance on Twitter scorched the New York Times over the article instilling fear in the heads of readers and recommending face masks.
BlazeTV host Lauren Chen: "Journalists have now reached levels of neuroticism previously thought to be impossible."
Professor of medicine, economics, and health research policy at Stanford University Jay Bhattacharya: "Anyone taking health advice or learning epidemiology from the @nytimes will be doomed to isolation and ignorance."
Mathematician and cultural critic James Lindsay: "It's definitely safe to go outside."
DeSantis campaign researcher Kyle Lamb: "They're already back to trying to normalize lockdowns and masking for things like weather and air quality. They're desperate for control."
Public health expert Pradheep J. Shanker: "I'm not sure there is a bigger conveyor of scientific misinformation in the country right now than @NYTScience."
Writer Tom Goodwin: "The news reads very much like covid times these days. Monetizing existential dread and fear as a business model."
Lawyer Julie Hamill: "YES - it is safe to go outside. Stop fear mongering. You are enabling agoraphobia and extremely unhealthy life decisions."
College professor Wilfred Reilly: "The elite is very consciously domesticating the citizenry."
Political consultant Noah Pollak: "Liberal neurotics are desperate to find another excuse to lock themselves in their apartments."
Attorney Laura Powell: "Why has there been a concerted effort by the government and its propaganda arms to scare people into remaining in their homes? What purpose does this serve? It certainly doesn’t promote public health, as they pretend."
Writer Jennifer Sey: "Free floating fear and anxiety in search of a reason. And wanting everyone else to be as anxious as you are so it’s normal."
School social worker Justin Spiro: "The inevitable next step after years of COVID fear-mongering. The New York Times incredulously implies that leaving the house is dangerous due to the horror of... summer weather! Could you imagine such a headline in 2019?"
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Utility company Xcel Energy locked out tens of thousands of Colorado residents from changing the temperature on their thermostats Tuesday, all in the name of conserving energy.
Smart home technology, such as digital thermostats, may be trendy and convenient, but apparently it also gives those who can access your technology the ability to control it without your knowledge.
The high temperature in Denver nearly broke 90F on Tuesday. Naturally, residents wanted to crank up their air conditioning for respite from the sweltering heat.
But more than 20,000 people quickly learned they didn't have the ability to turn down their thermostats because their utility company remotely locked their A/C temperature at nearly 80 degrees.
Image source: KMGH-TV screenshot
Resident Tony Talarico told KMGH-TV that when he went to his thermostat, he saw a message explaining it had been locked due to an "energy emergency."
"Normally, when we see a message like that, we're able to override it," Talarico explained. "In this case, we weren't. So, our thermostat was locked in at 78 or 79."
That's right. Xcel customers with smart thermostats were prohibited from controlling their own A/C for hours on Tuesday. The company, in fact, confirmed that 22,000 customers who joined the company's AC Rewards program were locked out from controlling their thermostats.
The program allows the utility company to remotely control thermostats for a "convenient, energy-saving lifestyle with long-term benefits."
By participating in AC Rewards, adjustments are made to your smart thermostat during the hottest summer days. When the demand for electricity is the highest, you'll help us manage these peaks and ease the strain on the electrical grid. You'll be cut back on the time your central air works to cool your home with control events.
Control events may occur anytime during the cooling season. You'll have the ability to opt out of control events at any time and receive optional notifications of control events, either from your thermostat, mobile device, or web app. On rare occasions, system emergencies may cause a control event that cannot be overridden.
Xcel incentivizes the program by offering customers a one-time enrollment credit of $100 and an annual credit of $25 for joining the program.
Emmett Romine, vice president of customer solutions and innovation, defended his company locking thermostats by noting the program is voluntary.
"It's a voluntary program. Let's remember that this is something that customers choose to be a part of based on the incentives," Romine told KMGH. "It helps everybody for people to participate in these programs. It is a bit uncomfortable for a short period of time, but it's very, very helpful."
The reason for the "energy emergency," Romine told the news outlet, was an unexpected outage in a nearby city, hot weather, and high A/C usage.
Former President Barack Obama told his 132 million Twitter followers how they could get involved with reimagining policing. George Floyd's death certainly reimagined policing. You can see the consequences of "Saint George's" reimagined police force in the reluctant and deliberate reaction to the 18-year-old psychopath Salvador Ramos.
This reimagined system of policing kept officers in the parking lot of an elementary school for 40 minutes while second, third, and fourth graders and two teachers were at the mercy of Ramos, who eventually killed 19 kids and two adults.
Those poor children and teachers were alone with a deranged boy for nearly an hour without facing resistance. Thanks to the police being scared to do their jobs in the wake of George Floyd, they stood in the parking lot for close to 40 minutes debating what exactly to do.
BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock of "Fearless" believed those police officers stood outside that elementary school and rejected men's natural masculine instinct to sacrifice their safety and lives to protect women and children.
"Man's instincts have been reimagined in the last two decades, and the left and feminists have told us that our masculinity is toxic. Police are told by the Democratic Party and radical political activists that George Floyd, Jacob Blake, Eric Garner, and Brianna Taylor's trigger-pulling boyfriend are heroes and law enforcement is the villain. We've incentivized police to stand down, stand back, and give criminals a safe space to work out their frustrations," Jason said.
"Obama's veneration of George Floyd is an outgrowth of a cultural lot sweeping America. We've made heroes of men who contributed nothing to our society and demonize men whose jobs require them to risk everything," Jason added.
Jason lost a close relative to police misconduct and empathizes with George Floyd and his family. But according to Jason, "The last nine minutes of George Floyd's life do not make him a hero."
"Obama is romanticizing George Floyd, and it's not surprising given Obama's resume. He's mixed-race, half black, half white. He grew up in Hawaii and was raised by white people. He attended elite schools, including Harvard. Obama desires street cred, but he knows absolutely nothing about the streets. Other than what he learned from watching his favorite TV show, 'The Wire.' Obama naively thinks George Floyd is 'The Wire' character Bubbles — a well-intentioned gold-hearted dope fiend. The truth about Floyd is more like an older just-released-from-prison version of Marquis Byrd Hilton — the violent enforcer Omar Little framed for murder," said Jason.
"I'm not arguing that Floyd got what he deserved, but no one on the streets cried when Omar lied about Bird in court," he added. Anyone with an ounce of street sense knows that Obama is playing politics.
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