California City Raises Wages for Grocery Workers, Grocery Chain Responds Predictably

“…The City of Long Beach, California has been among the hardest hit in the country as a result of COVID-19 restrictions placed by both the state and the City of Long Beach.  Lots of small businesses continue to remain closed and those lucky enough to be open are struggling for business.  Among the businesses that never closed, grocery stores have been exempt from most, if not all of the government-imposed restrictions.

There’s an old saying about the road to hell, and it definitely applies in this case.  In order to reward the work of grocery store employees, Long Beach passed the “Hero Pay” measure, which increased the pay of grocery store employees by four dollars an hour.  While the measure seems like it was well-intentioned, good intentions don’t balance budgets nor make the availability of products any more diverse.  Long Beach officials were looking for a positive moment in the press, however, the Kroger grocery brand quickly put that to rest, by announcing that they were closing two grocery stores in the city, a Ralph’s location as well as a Food4Less store.

In an interesting development, Kroger tied the decision to close the stores directly to the ordinance.  Most of the time, companies are less likely to wag their finger at the government as they don’t wish to draw the regulatory ire of elected officials.  In this case, Kroger didn’t hold back.  When people (who obviously don’t understand how business works yet continue to opine about it) began to attack Kroger about the decision, Kroger doubled-down to respond to those critics:

Hello! Despite our teams’ efforts to overcome the financial challenges we were already facing in these locations, the extra pay for some but not all grocery workers imposed by Long Beach City Council makes it impossible to run a financially sustainable business. (1/2)

— Kroger (@kroger) February 2, 2021

We’ve made the business decision to close our Ralphs location at 3380 N. Los Coyotes Diagonal on April 17th. Our team looks forward to continuing to serve you at our 4 other Long Beach locations. (2/2)

— Kroger (@kroger) February 2, 2021

…Imagine being as insane as to watch a policy literally backfire, which will lead to the layoff of dozens if not hundreds or thousands of grocery workers, reduced hours for the workers who are not laid off (with greater responsibilities), the reduction of accessibility of products (because of the likely closing of other stores) and other horrible outcomes, and still enacting the policy anyway.  When I have said for a long time that liberalism is a mental disorder, I mean it.  Their policy proposals are so divorced from reality that when the chickens for their horrible policies come home to roost, they have yet another policy in the hopper ready to wreck business or industry…”

Biden White House gets backlash for dismissive response to question on U.S. military’s Space Force

Space Force was created under the Trump administration and put in place by Congress.

While the Biden Administration continues to think about whether or not the #CCP is a threat, China is working overtime to become the dominant force in space.

We need the professionals, @SpaceForceDoD, to keep American’s safe. https://t.co/K3S5dqWujg

— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) February 2, 2021

Can you imagine media response if a Republican press secretary was this clueless about some issue? Ms. Psaki will have to “circle back.” The militarization of space is not something that Ms. Psaki considers worthy of her time, apparently.

Grenell congratulates Buttigieg on becoming second openly gay Cabinet member

If you get your news from MSM, you’d think Buttigieg is the first.

https://twitter.com/SteveInmanUIC/status/1355782289435725825

Hat tip to Kane

BREAKING: The DC District Court refused to disbar convicted felon Kevin Clinesmith for his crimes against the President of the United States. Instead they simply suspended him while on probation and until he pays his $100 fine. He should never be allowed to practice law again. pic.twitter.com/hsNZJUIJlt

— @amuse (@amuse) February 2, 2021

Rules and laws are for Republicans. Democrats who break the law obviously did it for the right reasons so they are not held to account or they get a slap on the wrist.

San Francisco school board declares — ‘Acronyms are racist’

“…First the San Francisco School Board decided to rename 44 schools because they are named after people with ties to racism or slavery. Now the Arts Department has taken a bold move by changing its name, “VAPA” because they say, “acronyms are a symptom of white supremacy culture.”

Schools have yet to reopen in San Francisco, but their Arts Department has continued to work toward ensuring that all students have access to quality arts education.T

he director of that department said, “We are prioritizing antiracist arts instruction in our work.” So they got rid of the acronym “VAPA,” which is short for visual and performing arts.

From now on, they’ll simply be called SFUSD Arts Department.

“It is a very simple step we can take to just be referred to as the SFUSD Arts Department for families to better understand who we are,” explained Sam Bass, Director of the SFUSD Arts Department…”

What a bunch of nitwits. You can’t make this stuff up.

.@GovRonDeSantis Announcing Some Of The New Regulations The State Of Florida Will Seek To Enact To Deal With Big Tech & How They Will Be Enforced 2/ pic.twitter.com/YnqEtUGdBR

— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) February 2, 2021

The Democrats in power in Washington will do nothing. The censorship is all in their favor. I have not heard any Democrat on the national level speak out against censorship of conservative speech. Maybe there has been one or two and I just missed it. I have heard numerous Democrat calls for additional censorship of conservatives. State action is the only possible response at this point. DeSantis is one of the leaders in this effort.

Poll: Four in ten say COVID restrictions eased after Trump exit for ‘partisan political reasons’

The Unstoppable Momentum of Outdated Science

Roger Pielke Jr.:

“…A 2015 literature review found almost 900 peer-reviewed studies published on breast cancer using a cell line derived from a breast cancer patient in Texas in 1976. But in 2007 it was confirmed that the cell line that had long been the focus of this research was actually not a breast cancer line, but was instead a skin cancer line. Whoops.

Even worse, from 2008 to 2014 — after the mistaken cell line was conclusively identified — the review identified 247 peer-reviewed articles putatively on breast cancer that were published using the misidentified skin cancer cell line. A cursory search of Google Scholar indicates that studies continue to be published in 2020 mistakenly using the skin cell line in breast cancer research.

The lesson from this experience is that science has momentum, and that momentum can be hard to change, even when obvious and significant flaws are identified. This is particularly the case when the flaws exist in databases that underlie research across an entire discipline.

In 2020, climate research finds itself in a similar situation to that of breast cancer research in 2007. Evidence indicates the scenarios of the future to 2100 that are at the focus of much of climate research have already diverged from the real world and thus offer a poor basis for projecting policy-relevant variables like economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions…

…As a result of the growing recognition of the divergence between scenarios and the real-world, the climate research community is in a similar place to where the breast cancer research community was in 2007. Evidence is now undeniable that the basis for a significant amount of research has become untethered from the real world. The issue now is what to do about it.

The challenges for climate research are significant. Consider that in contrast to the 900 articles that misused a skin cancer line as a breast cancer line, our literature review found almost 17,000 peer-reviewed articles that use the now-outdated highest emissions scenario. That particular scenario is also by far the most commonly cited in recent climate assessments of the IPCC and the U.S. National Climate Assessment. And every day new studies are published using outdated scenarios.

The elevated role of scenarios across climate research means that there is a huge momentum behind their continued use. A research reset would be a massive endeavor and would require essentially writing off the policy, economic or other real-world relevance of thousands of studies, and perhaps even their scientific utility. Though to be fair, there are reasons to use exploratory scenarios in modeling or theoretical studies, but such uses shouldn’t be confused with practical relevance — just as studies of skin cancer lines should not be confused with breast cancer lines…”

Related:

Uncomfortable knowledge: the social construction of ignorance in science and environmental policy discourses

Acquitted killer of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl transferred from death row to Pakistani safe house

Ocasio-Cortez says she’s a sexual assault survivor, suggests Capitol riot compounded earlier trauma

The New York congresswoman compared her experience after Jan. 6 to that of being told by an abuser to ‘move on’ after sexual trauma.

Maybe she is a sexual assault survivor. So many liberals make up stories about personal victimhood, that I would like to see proof before I accept that claim.

Hat tip to Conservative Momma

Related:

Ms. Psaki does not like being ridiculed in the press and social media. The “circle back” phenomenon has apparently resulted in this:

White House Reporters: Biden Team Wanted Our Questions in Advance

It’s not fair. How can the White House Press Secretary be prepared for all the questions?

Female athlete speaks out against new Biden executive order on gender identity

Idaho college runner says it’s ‘frustrating’ to compete against biological males.

Democrats are more concerned with the small fraction of the population that suffers from transgenderism than they are with normal women. I feel for the the people who suffer from transgenderism. It must be terrible. However, I don’t view them as heroes to be emulated, or special people to be put on a pedestal above others. Why should the unusual needs of a few override the normal needs of the many?

Democrats.

We live in the age of stupid.

CNN is reporting that the Biden administration can't decide whether the armed, military takeover of the civilian government in Myanmar is a "coup" or not.

Meanwhile, they are certain the Viking Hat guy and his selfie army were a coup.#TheBigLie

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) February 2, 2021

Whenever liberals acquire power their supporters in the media make sure to incessantly hype cartoonish right-wing fringe figures in order to deflect from what liberals are actually doing with their newly acquired power (Marjorie Taylor Greene is just Michele Bachmann 2.0)

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) February 1, 2021

The 19th century author Charles McKay had thoughts relevant to today’s climate religion. In his 1841 book “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,” McKay writes:

“…In reading the history of nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities; their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do.

We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.

We see one nation suddenly seized, from its highest to its lowest members, with a fierce desire of military glory; another as suddenly becoming crazed upon a religious scruple; and neither of them recovering its senses until it has shed rivers of blood and sowed a harvest of groans and tears, to be reaped by its posterity. 

At an early age in the annals of Europe its population lost their wits about the sepulcher of Jesus, and crowded in frenzied multitudes to the Holy Land; another age went mad for fear of the devil, and offered up hundreds of thousands of victims to the delusion of witchcraft. At another time, the many became crazed on the subject of the philosopher’s stone, and committed follies till then unheard of in the pursuit…”

Hat tip to Willis Eschenbach

We live in the age of stupid.

More on what modern “antiracism” does to schools

John McWhorter:

“…In my Atlantic article about antiracism manifestos that threaten to destroy institutions’ basic missions as educational, I mentioned that the Dalton School in New York was considering transformative antiracism measures.

However, I have it on good authority that in fact, the damage was already done as of last semester. Here are some snapshots from Dalton, Fall 2020 from concerned parents who, because if they went public with their names they would be pilloried as bigots nationwide, are staying anonymous.

“Every class this year has had an obsessive focus on race and identity, ‘racist cop’ reenactments in science, ‘de-centering whiteness’ in art class, learning about white supremacy and sexuality in health class.”

“In place of a joyful progressive education, students are exposed to an excessive focus

on skin color and sexuality, before they even understand what sex is. Children are

bewildered or bored after hours of discussing these topics in the new long-format

classes.”

“Why would anyone voluntarily send their children to be taught that they are guilty regardless of their decency and kindness? A school where they are constantly reminded of the color of their skin, not the content of their character. What Black parent wants the other children to feel sorry for their kid and look at them differently? We have spoken with dozens of families, of all colors and backgrounds, who are in shock and looking for an alternative school for their children.”

Now – The Elect (my term for the hyperwoke who are hijacking constructive leftist ideals in this nation) will claim that this sort of thing is exactly what education needs to be, and that white (or “white”) parents who object are displaying “fragility.” However, we get that “fragility” notion from one of the worst books ever written, as I have argued here. What Dalton is doing is a tragic and grisly substraction of what education should be…”

Biden administration cites climate change as a ‘racial justice issue.’

It is hard to understand how people believe this.

it is stupid.

Democrat.