It's makes one nau$eous:
"After passing a landmark climate law, Mass. officials now face the hard part: how to wean the state off fossil fuels" by David Abel Globe Staff, April 6, 2021
Over the coming decades, the state’s largest utilities have plans to spend billions of dollars upgrading a vast network of aging pipes and mains that distribute natural gas, after billions they’ve already spent in recent years, but much of those plans clash with a landmark bill that Governor Charlie Baker signed last month that requires the state to effectively eliminate its carbon emissions by 2050.
It's all about breaking your will, so I hope you are prepared for the power outages and roundup -- for our own welfare and protection, of course, as this country goes sour fast.
I would say forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do -- except they know exactly what they are doing and are pure evil.
Some environmental advocates and lawmakers fear that continued investments in gas infrastructure could hinder the transition to renewable energy and leave ratepayers covering the costs of an obsolete energy system for decades. They support repairing leaky pipes and those that pose a danger to the public, but they’re pressing the utilities to spend far more on zero-emissions technologies.
They don't care about ratepayers.
If they did, they wouldn't be doing this and setting us up to freeze in winter.
“It’s just fiscally irresponsible, and it sets up a classic utility death spiral,” said Zeyneb Pervane Magavi, co-executive director of HEET, a Cambridge nonprofit that specializes in energy efficiency. “As people move off the gas system, you have fewer people paying for it, meaning they will be shouldering more of the costs. It’s a disaster.”
It's also a way to obliterate their indu$try in flavor of communi$m, only this time it's green!
Officials at the largest gas companies have issued mixed messages, saying in public they fully support the state’s efforts to drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels, but in private meetings with industry colleagues they have suggested they would resist efforts to curtail the use of gas, which has been a cash cow for utilities.
It’s now up to state officials to decide how and when to compel utilities to phase out their reliance on gas, which they long touted as a “bridge fuel” to an emissions-free era, as it releases less carbon than oil and coal. Gas now heats more than half of all homes in Massachusetts.
“This is something we know we have to work on, going forward,” said Kathleen Theoharides, the state’s secretary of energy and environmental affairs.
Boy, they really f**k you, don't they?
Now cleaner gas is a csh cow.
Give 'em an inch and they take everything sooner or later.
The state compelling free enterprise sure stinks of you-know-what, too.
We are so f**ked, and I choose the wrong state to live in and can't leave for various reasons.
Getting to net zero emissions will require some 3 million homes and 5 million vehicles to eliminate their use of fossil fuels. How that will be accomplished remains unclear, as does the costs for residents, who already pay electricity rates nearly double the national average.
This is INSANE, folks!
“At this point, we don’t have a message,” Theoharides said, but state officials will need one soon, as the climate law requires they cut emissions by as much as 50 percent below 1990 levels by the end of the decade. To reach that goal, the law also establishes a number of deadlines in the coming months. By this summer, for example, officials must set emissions-reduction targets for programs sponsored by Mass Save, the state’s home energy efficiency program.
By next summer, they will have to adopt specific emissions limits for 2025, and by the end of next year, they must issue a new building code that will encourage construction of homes that don’t rely on fossil fuels or emit carbon.
Sure $mells like the globali$ts Great Re$et program, or whatever name you call it.
As a first step toward reducing emissions in homes and other buildings — perhaps the most daunting challenges of achieving the goals of the new law — Theoharides said she plans to convene a commission this spring to come up with a plan. She also noted that the administration last year ordered the Department of Public Utilities to investigate the role of natural gas distribution in achieving its climate goals, which they set out in a detailed roadmap to how the state could eliminate its carbon emissions.
“We have to understand how to do this in an orderly way,” she said.
Well, sealing up the massive leaks would be a start -- as well as protect public safety and health -- and speaking of commissions, the flap had to be opened due to the fart.
Some state lawmakers and environmental advocates have questioned whether utilities are serious about their public commitments to reduce emissions, after officials at Eversource, the region’s largest energy provider, delivered a controversial presentation last month at an industry meeting.
The presentation suggested natural gas was in for the “fight of its life.” Slides urged that “everyone needs to contact legislators in favor of” the fossil fuel and warned “Anti-Gas Pressure Continues to Grow.” Another slide suggested the industry should “take advantage of power outage fear.”
No, that is reserved for the pre$$ for wars or a fake pandemic, and I think it is finally dawning on some in the elite that they are meant for extermination as well.
You should worry if the lights flicker.
The slide that most concerned them was one that said Eversource supported a “consortium to combat electrification,” suggesting the company and others in the industry sought to blunt the move toward renewable energy.
“This is a smoking gun for someone like me,” said state Senator Michael Barrett, a Lexington Democrat and one of the climate bill’s lead negotiators. “This is distressing, explosive stuff. I worry this represents the real sentiments of Eversource.”
Someone should leave on for him, and I hope it does represent their sentiments even if it is an uphill climb. The problem is the revenue stream drying up and the banker puppeteers cutting financing.
How odd. To save the world, you now need to support oil and gas.
Bill Akley, president of gas operations at Eversource, called the presentation “unfortunate.” In response, the company withdrew from the consortium, rescinded $10,000 it had pledged in support of the group, and admonished employees who were involved in preparing the presentation, he said.
“We need to disconnect from any connotation that this is what we’re about,” Akley said. “Folks may believe that’s where we’re at behind closed doors, but that’s not an accurate picture.”
Eversource understands the risks of climate change and is adapting to a world that no longer relies on fossil fuels, he said. As evidence, he cited the company’s investments in renewable energy.
“You can see it in every bit of our action,” Akley said. “If we’re not part of the solution, we’re not going to be here.”
I inhale, 'er, retract the praise from a few paragraphs ago as they prove my point.
Only one entity can drive and indu$try to $elf-immolation.
Since 2015, the company has spent about $72 million a year to replace about 500 miles of older gas mains across the state. By 2035, it expects to repair or replace nearly all of its leak-prone pipes.
Akley said Eversource is seeking to “find a balance” between maintaining the gas distribution system and preparing for a future when it’s no longer needed.
“The answers are complicated,” he said, suggesting the system could be used to distribute hydrogen, biogas, and other forms of energy. “We’re exploring all decarbonization pathways.”
Yeah, but here is the thing, it is NOT!
Officials at National Grid, which supplies gas to nearly 1 million customers in Massachusetts, released a plan last year to achieve “net zero” emissions from operations and sales by 2050. In addition to energy efficiency and reducing gas leaks, they also suggested the state look at other energy that could use their supply network.
“Though we do not have all the answers, we believe our electric and gas networks, which play a vital role in the lives of our customers, can be useful in achieving net zero emissions,” said Robert Kievra, a company spokesman.
The Baker administration has set a goal of retrofitting 1 million homes to use electricity for heating by 2030. Left unsaid is how to accomplish that, and what should come of utilities’ plans to upgrade their gas infrastructure. Those plans would cost ratepayers about $16 billion, according to an estimate by the Applied Economics Clinic, a nonprofit research group in Arlington.
So WHEN do they come into your home to perform an energy audit, 'eh?
Then bankrupt you with onerous requirements causing loss of property?
Mark my words, it won't be long.
Environmental advocates have said they worry utilities are trying to steer the state toward solutions that would allow them to continue to retain control of the market. They questioned, for example, utilities’ suggestions that they could repurpose their system to distribute hydrogen, which is highly combustible, expensive, and far more likely to leak.
They’re also pressing ISO New England, which operates the regional power grid, to change its rules to make it easier for renewable energy sources, especially offshore wind, to compete with gas, which has been a favored source of energy because of its relatively low cost and reliability.
Without changes to the rules, it’s unlikely the state will meet its emissions obligations under the new climate law, they said.
So?
The state has shown time again it is above the law.
They will just pass a waiver that absolves them.
“If offshore wind is given a chance to compete, it will save ratepayers billions of dollars,” said Deborah Donovan, a senior policy advocate at the Acadia Center in Boston. “We need the ISO to help us achieve the state’s goals.”
After months of pressing Baker to sign the climate bill, Barrett said he’s now focusing on ensuring his administration implements it.
He has threatened legal action if the administration seeks to “evade legislative intent and substitute the weaker preferences of the executive branch.”
“It’s going to be a tough slog,” he said. “There’s no silver bullet here.”
That's an odd saying, and speaking of fossils and werewolves:
Let us pray he burns in hell and is not reincarnated into a deadly virus to thin the herd as he wished, the sick, twisted, and evil fuck.
Sorry to throw stones, but....
Time to check the $tock price:
"Technology companies led stocks to more gains Thursday on Wall Street, nudging the S&P 500 to an all-time high for the third time this week. The gains were tempered mainly by a slide in energy stocks and real estate companies. Apple rose 1.9%, Microsoft gained 1.3% and Amazon added 0.6%. In remarks Thursday to the International Monetary Fund, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said a number of factors are putting the nation "on track to allow a full reopening of the economy fairly soon."
Are you sick of the “efforts to gaslight with lies and deception,” regarding the outcome of the vote or what?
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"John Kerry, the special US envoy on climate, said Friday that President Joe Biden was keen to work with Bangladesh in dealing with climate change impacts after the United States’ return to the Paris accord. Kerry arrived in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, to hear what the South Asia delta nation has done to cope with weather extremes and rising sea levels ahead of a virtual summit on climate change that Biden is hosting this month. “No one country can solve the problems of climate crisis,” he told reporters, after visiting other vulnerable countries including the United Arab Emirates and India. Biden returned the US to the Paris agreement on climate change after Donald Trump pulled out in 2017....."
First things first: how did that hypocritical windbag get there?
I sure as hell hope it wasn't by airplane and it's spew, but if so, I hope it's a Boeing.
I was further told that Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen, who appeared with Kerry, took the opportunity to ask for US help in repatriating about 1.1 million Myanmar Rohingya refugees from crowded camps in the border district of Cox’s Bazar, saying they were destroying vast areas of forests and ecology, [and that] the refugees are victims of persecution in Myanmar, which is now military ruled since the Feb. 1 coup toppled the civilian government, but before Kerry could respond, and tremendous explosion took place and pyroclastic debris was hurled into space!
The arrogant Kerry thinks he is heaven sent and has the Christ complex to prove it:
"In Asia, John Kerry urges bold action on climate to avoid global ‘suicide pact’" by Joanna Slater and Brady Dennis The Washington Post, April 8, 2021
NEW DELHI — More than 7,000 miles from Washington, John Kerry arrived in yet another major capital to deliver a message and a plea: The United States plans to make a profound push to combat climate change in the months and years ahead, and it needs all the partners it can get.
OMG!!!
He flew halfway across the world and spewed enough gases to cover the entire population of the state for an entire year!
What a CRIMINAL A$$HOLE at this point.
In an interview, President Biden’s special envoy for climate said it is a message he has been delivering with “humility for four years that have been wasted.” After the Trump administration aggressively rolled back policies to limit climate change and made the United States the only nation to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, Biden has made reversing those moves a central part of his presidency.
Kerry said that as catastrophic impacts of climate change have become more tangible and more frequent, the urgency of the problem means that countries must work together to confront it, or else face a "mutual suicide pact across the planet."
The problem remains solvable, but it "depends entirely on the political will," and that the United States under Biden plans to lead by example, he said.
His latest latest mission is saving the world as he is apparently immune to COVID.
Readers, Kerry has veered into sandwich-board, Chicken Little stuff and should be committed.
This is the kind of stuff that was once deservedly ridiculed and yet now characters like him are considered serious -- while "conspiracy theorists" who have been proven prescient are denigrated and disparaged.
Exactly what that example might look like will take shape later this month, when Biden convenes dozens of world leaders for a virtual Earth Day summit. He is expected to unveil a new, more ambitious plan to cut US greenhouse gas emissions between now and 2030 — likely in the neighborhood of 50 percent compared to 2005 levels.
How much more can you take, America?
It will turns us into a medieval nation.
Whether that goal becomes a reality remains uncertain, and will depend at least in part on what initiatives Congress is willing to fund and what policies future administrations pursue. Still, the moment is aimed at reestablishing American leadership in the fight to limit the Earth’s warming. That US promise and the policies that underpin it, the administration hopes, will help compel other large-emitting countries around the world to step up their own efforts and cement enhanced national pledges ahead of a key United Nations climate conference this fall in Scotland.
How are the participants going to get there, and why are they meeting in person when we can't?
That’s why even amid an ongoing pandemic, Kerry has spent significant time in the run-up to the Earth Day summit visiting leaders who will play critical roles in whether the world can meaningfully alter its current trajectory, which scientists agree is woefully inadequate and could lead to ever deepening climate-related crises in coming decades.
Kerry traveled to Europe last month to meet with allies in London, Brussels, and Paris, in hopes of forging a coalition that could push other nations to move more quickly. His trip to Asia this week includes stops in three countries: India, Bangladesh, and the United Arab Emirates. He also plans to visit China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, at a later date.
What is the CARBON FOOTPRINT on that $TINK, and why does the pre$$ not care?
The travel is a way to convey the Biden administration’s sense of urgency about the problem and the president’s determination to renew relationships ahead of the global gathering in Glasgow in November. India is currently reporting record numbers of coronavirus cases, but Kerry spent three full days in the country consulting with political leaders, business executives, and entrepreneurs. Meeting people in person allows "greater ease in the give and take," he said in the interview. It also gives the ability to pull someone aside and "whisper in their ear" something "you don't want other people necessarily to hear."
OMG, that is a violation of distancing protocols and PROOF this WHOLE THING is a FRAUD and PLAN for WORLD CONTROL!
India is a crucial player in the fight to curb global emissions. It is currently the third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, and such emissions are expected to grow rapidly as incomes and energy consumption rise in a nation of more than 1.3 billion people. It is one of few nations on track to meet its commitments under the Paris accord, Kerry noted. The Indian government has set a goal of installing 450 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030. If India makes progress toward that target, Kerry said, it will automatically pull the country away from some of its dependency on fossil fuels.
So who is one and two, and why is the American war machine exempt?
India isn't "using coal because they like coal or they're oblivious to the impact," Kerry said. "If they can find a way to finance an alternative, they'll leap at it."
Yeah, they are just dumb peasant with their lump of coal.
Still, as in the United States and virtually every other major economy, change is not yet happening quickly enough. Climate Action Tracker, an independent group that analyses what cuts countries have vowed to take and how they are living up to those promises, said India currently is doing its “fair share,” based on historic responsibility for the problem and its currently capabilities, but its current efforts, the group says, are "not consistent with the Paris Agreement, and domestic emissions need to peak and start reducing, including with international support." It added that while the pandemic has provided India with a chance to "accelerate a transition away from coal to renewable energy," there are "no clear signs that India is seizing that opportunity. While no new coal power stations have been built in 2020, the government is encouraging more coal mining and increased coal production which is not consistent with a green recovery," the group wrote in an analysis, saying India must develop a strategy to phase out coal for power generation before 2040.
COVID provided a cover for so many advances for which globali$t $cum like Kerry advocate.
Makes one want to vomit.
Kerry this week met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and praised his determination to move India in the right direction. "He's deeply invested in this," both as an expression of spiritual and personal values, Kerry said in the interview. A right-leaning Hindu nationalist leader, Modi has publicly embraced the fight against climate change. The push also aligns with other objectives of his government such as promoting energy independence and reducing air pollution.
At the same time, Modi has a "tough hand to play," Kerry acknowledged. He must generate jobs for a growing population and modernize India's infrastructure, all with limited resources. The developed world needs "to help with that."
Kerry's trip is part of an attempt "to get all the major emitters on board to do more," said Ajay Mathur, a former Indian climate negotiator and the director-general of the International Solar Alliance. Whether that turns into concrete commitments remains to be seen, Mathur said.
On Friday, Kerry will travel to Bangladesh, a densely populated coastal nation where the impacts of climate change will be severe. There his goal will be to emphasize the “challenge of adaptation and resilience, which often gets left behind, and to highlight vulnerable nations writ large.”
Meanwhile, China says it is all his fault!
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
How they intend to impose it:
"US floats tax compromise targeting 100 international firms" by Laura Davison, Isabel Gottlieb and Nikos Chrysoloras Bloomberg, April 8, 2021
The Biden administration has floated a compromise proposal to counterparts around the world that would apply a new international tax code to, at most, 100 global corporate giants.
The US plan would consider a company’s profitability in determining whether more of its income should be taxed by the countries where it does business — something the Biden administration argues will resolve long-standing disputes about which companies should be targeted by new global tax rules — according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News.
New tax rules would apply to no-more than 100 multinational enterprises that meet both revenue and profit-margin thresholds, regardless of their industry. The aim is to target those companies with the highest profit-shifting potential, according to the document.
Previous proposals had focused on applying the new tax rules to digital companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon — as well as companies that sell to consumers. The United States has long argued that rules that only target tech giants would disproportionately hit its own companies.
The United States cannot accept any result that is discriminatory toward American firms, the document said.
Does the hypocrisy off this regime never end?
The US proposal argued that limiting the number of companies to which the tax applies reduces the complexity, without substantially reducing the total profits, subject to taxation.
The US proposal has gone to the nearly 140 countries participating in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s talks on digital taxation and global minimum levies, an offer that could help move previously stalled negotiations to consensus.
Group of 20 finance chiefs on Wednesday targeted reaching a consensus on global taxation by mid-2021.
That's weeks away!
The American proposal was reported earlier by the Financial Times.
Companies that fall within the scope of the OECD’s plan would see some of their profits taxed by many more countries than they do now. They would pay more tax in countries where they have users or consumers, and less in the country where they’re headquartered, assuming those are not one and the same. The plan wouldn’t necessarily raise companies’ taxes, but change where some of their profits are taxed.
When is indu$try going to stand up for itself, or are they all in on it while stamping out independent small business?
Negotiators failed to reach a consensus last year, with disagreements over the scope being one of the main hurdles.
The OECD plan intends to address concerns that tech giants aren’t being fairly taxed when they have users, but limited physical presence, in many of the countries in which they do business.
The negotiations have centered around two central plans, or pillars. The first pillar addresses which country has the right to tax what corporate profits. The second pillar focuses on a global minimum corporate tax in an effort to stop a race to the bottom on corporate tax rates as countries seek to compete with each other to attract business investment.
Oil was once the pillar of the global economy, but no more and definitely not in a net-zero emissions world that can only be achieved with a 90% reduction in human population.
President Biden proposed a 21 percent global minimum tax as part of his corporate tax overhaul plan to finance domestic infrastructure spending. His administration may be hoping to influence the global tax talks and encourage countries to sign onto a higher minimum tax — never agreed to, but negotiators had discussed at a level of roughly 12.5 percent.
An agreement among the participants in the OECD talks is also seen as the best way to stop the proliferation of digital tax measures imposed by individual countries across the globe. Companies say a growing patchwork of measures means their profits are taxed multiple times by different countries, creating a compliance nightmare.
Now even more countries will be taking them, albeit at the same rate.
How much you want to bet the 21 percent figure is what they agreed to and won't effect profits at all?
Where they plane to spend it:
"Biden details $1.52 trillion spending proposal to fund domestic priorities" by Jim Tankersley New York Times, April 9, 2021
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration proposed a significant expansion of federal spending on Friday, asking Congress to bolster funding by 16 percent for domestic programs including education, health research, and fighting climate change as it tries to harness the government’s power to reverse what officials called a decade of underinvestment in the nation’s most pressing issues.
Communi$m didn't work during the 20th century, why would it now?
The nearly 60-page request, totaling $1.52 trillion for domestic discretionary programs, comes on top of President Biden’s plan to seek trillions of dollars in new infrastructure spending. It does not include tax proposals, economic projections, or so-called mandatory programs like Social Security, which will all be included in a formal budget request the White House will release this spring.
He really wants to wreck the dollar, and then it's over.
Digital UBI on the way, right?
The request is a declaration of Biden’s belief that expanding, not shrinking, the federal government is key to economic growth and prosperity by directing government dollars toward some of the country’s biggest problems, including poverty and a warming climate.
TAXING and SPENDING by GOVERNMENT NEVER LED TO PROSPERITY, and this shows he truly is demented!
Among its major new spending initiatives, the plan would dedicate an additional $20 billion to help schools that serve low-income children, create a multibillion-dollar program for researching diseases like cancer, and sharply increase government spending to fight and adapt to the damages of climate change.
It would also seek to lift the economies of Central American countries, where rampant poverty, corruption, and devastating hurricanes have fueled migration toward the southwestern border and a variety of initiatives to address homelessness and housing affordability, including on tribal lands, and it asks for an increase of about 2 percent in spending on national defense.
Where is all this money coming from?
A INCREASE in the WAR BUDGET?
Forget the corruption and poverty here, he is going to send loot to Central America!
All told, the proposal calls for a $118 billion increase in discretionary spending in the 2022 fiscal year, when compared with the base spending allocations this year. It seeks to capitalize on the expiration of a decade of caps on spending growth, which lawmakers agreed to in 2010 but frequently broke in subsequent years.
The theft of the 2020 election was well-timed.
Of course, it was supposed to be Clinton's second term -- or was it?
Administration officials would not specify on Friday whether that increase would result in higher budget deficits in their coming budget proposal, but promised its full budget would “address the overlapping challenges we face in a fiscally and economically responsible way.”
As part of that effort, the request seeks $1 billion in new funding for the Internal Revenue Service to enforce tax laws, including “increased oversight of high-income and corporate tax returns.” That is clearly aimed at raising tax receipts and cracking down on tax avoidance by the wealthy.
It's what used to be called a $HAKEDOWN!
Officials said the proposals did not reflect the spending called for in Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, which he introduced last week, or for a second plan he has yet to roll out, which will focus on what officials call “human infrastructure” like education and child care.
WTF?
This guy is spending like a drunken sailor!
Congress, which is responsible for approving government spending, is under no requirement to adhere to the White House budget, which is generally viewed as a political messaging document.
Education is a major focus. The administration asked Congress to bolster funding to high-poverty schools by $20 billion, which it describes as the largest year-over-year increase to the Title I program since its inception under president Lyndon B. Johnson.
The proposal also seeks billions of dollars in increases to early-childhood education, to programs serving students with disabilities, and to efforts to staff schools with nurses, counselors and mental health professionals — described as an attempt to help children recover from the pandemic, but also a long-standing priority for teachers’ unions.
Unlike during the Obama years, there is no talk of tying federal dollars to accountability measures for teachers and schools, a signal of the closeness of the Biden administration to interest groups that have opposed such measures, including teachers’ unions, as well as broader shifts among center-left education activists around the importance of addressing baseline resource inequities that affect students of color and those from low-income families. The request also shows an increasing sense of urgency in the Biden administration to deter migration to the southwestern border.
Let the wa$te begin!
Biden proposed investing $861 million in Central America, just a margin of the four-year $4 billion package the administration has committed to spending to improve the economy and quality of life in the region. Another $1.2 billion would go toward investing in border security technology, such as sensors to detect illegal crossings and tools to improve entry ports. Biden followed up on his commitment to provide no new funding for border wall construction.
What a farce this is!
The proposal directs significant government dollars toward addressing climate change across the government, requesting $14 billion toward advancing Biden’s vision of having every cabinet chief, whether they are military leaders, diplomats, fiscal regulators or federal housing planners, charged with incorporating climate change into their missions.
The broad-based increase in climate spending across government agencies would come on top of clean energy spending in Biden’s proposed infrastructure legislation, which would pour about $500 billion on programs such as increasing electric vehicle production and building climate-resilient roads and bridges. If successful, Biden’s approach to using the federal budget to fight climate change could anchor those programs into the heart of the government for years to come — but it could also politicize and inflame fights over programs such as agriculture and transportation spending.
The plan would also increase funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, whose funding and staffing levels the Trump administration sought to cut.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Meanwhile, you are still waiting on that unemployment check:
"Employers face steep new fee increase to keep state’s unemployment insurance fund solvent; Business groups call for government help in the face of skyrocketing bills" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff, April 9, 2021
A coalition of business groups sent a letter to state and federal leaders on Friday, calling for help in the face of skyrocketing unemployment insurance bills that will take many companies by surprise — especially those that thought this issue was resolved.
The state Legislature approved a measure last month, with much fanfare, that froze the rates that dictate how much employers pay in premiums into the state’s unemployment insurance fund. That legislation headed off a 60 percent increase that had been scheduled because of the amounts of money drawn from the fund during the COVID-19 pandemic, but lawmakers didn’t address what’s known as a solvency assessment, a surcharge that’s normally used in part to cover the costs for employers who go out of business. Companies are starting to get their bills from the state Department of Unemployment Assistance, and the picture is not pretty: The solvency assessment for this year is 9.23 percent of a worker’s wages up to the first $15,000 that they earn, compared to 0.58 percent last year.
The fund is broke after they mi$managed all the money, and can the digital UBI be fare way?
That means many companies will pay roughly 16 times more per worker than what they paid last year for the solvency portion of their unemployment bills, as state officials project a deficit in the unemployment fund of $4 billion to $5 billion. For many businesses, this could translate to an extra $1,000 or more per worker this year.
Can't Biden cover it?
Baker administration officials said the solvency rate is computed annually, based on requirements in state law, leaving the department no discretion to change it. They said the federal CARES Act mandates that COVID-19-related unemployment claims be covered by these solvency charges. Spokesman Terry MacCormack said in an email: “The Administration is looking into this matter.”
What BULL$HIT!
They do what they want to do and waive the law when they see fit.
This is about denying you the loot so they can keep it!
The business groups’ letter went to the Baker administration, House Speaker Ronald Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka, and the state’s congressional delegation, according to Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. Hurst’s group spearheaded the letter and was joined by 20 other groups, mostly local chambers of commerce, including those in Boston and Worcester.
They want to use some of the billions in federal stimulus funds coming to Massachusetts to partially offset the costs of this assessment, or alternatively pass new federal legislation to ease the burden. Hurst said many employers were forced by pandemic-related restrictions to lay off workers and should not bear the full brunt of the unemployment insurance fund’s insolvency. Hurst noted the solvency assessment for his organization’s payroll is rising to $9,876 from $590 a year ago.
“The reality is most businesses are probably seeing a far bigger than 60 percent increase in their UI tax,” Hurst said. “To some extent, Capitol Hill will be pointing to Beacon Hill and Beacon Hill will be pointing to Capitol Hill, about who should be covering some of this deficit. Our argument is that they both should.”
That will KILL the surfing small businesses, as per Great Re$et plan.
Of course, some won't have to worry from where there next check is coming:
"These are the 25 local names on Forbes’ billionaires list" by Anissa Gardizy Globe Staff, April 6, 2021
The 25 billionaires in Massachusetts are worth more than $104 billion combined, according to the 2021 Forbes’ world’s billionaires list.
The business magazine published the list on Tuesday, which ranks 2,755 individuals who together are worth $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion on the 2020 list. The list had 660 more people than last year, a sign that many of the world’s richest people saw their fortunes rise during the pandemic.
Think of it as a rever$e Robin Hood effect.
Nearly 500 first-time billionaires were added to the list, including four local names tied to the success of Moderna, the Cambridge biotech that developed one of the only authorized COVID-19 vaccines. Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of the company, is now worth $4.3 billion, making him the ninth richest person in Massachusetts.
Abigail Johnson again ranked as the wealthiest person in Massachusetts, a distinction she has held for many years. The CEO of Boston-based Fidelity Investments boasts a net worth of $20.9 billion.
So much for the $exi$m!
For the fourth year in a row, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the world’ richest person with a net worth of $177 billion, up from $113 billion last year. Close behind at $151 billion is Elon Musk of Tesla, whose net worth soared from $24.6 billion last year. Musk is a major proponent of bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that has exploded in popularity and value over the past year.
These are the 25 local names on Forbes’ billionaires list.....
Abbie came in at number 85 overall, and her father ranked 219 with Bob Kraft placing at number 380.
Surprisingly, John Henry didn't make the top thousand and is "worth" a mere $2.8 billion, while not one black person was to be found on Forbes' list of billionaires.
Time to look for a job:
"Unemployment claims rise a 2nd straight week in much of US, including Mass." by Nelson D. Schwartz New York Times, April 8, 2021
The US job market remains challenging, with the government reporting Thursday that initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose last week.
“It’s surprising and disappointing,” Rubeela Farooqi, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, said of the increase in filings, “but our expectation remains that as large sections of the economy come back online, recovery in the labor market will be ongoing.”
Is it?
Increases in two states, California and New York, more than accounted for the week’s rise nationwide. While the rise in regular claims was a setback, the drop in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims was encouraging, said AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab. “It’s still movement in the right direction,” she said.
And the sky is green.
Diane Swonk, chief economist at the accounting firm Grant Thornton, said the decline in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims could be a sign that the most vulnerable workers were finally benefiting from the uptick in hiring.
“They’ve been living on fumes, but it suggests that some of these gig workers don’t need the unemployment insurance as much as they did before,” she said.
And now they are screaming variants and lockdowns again.
Overall, she added, the report is “a reminder of why the Federal Reserve is being so patient — it’s really a show-me economy.”
Job postings have been outpacing job searches, she said, possibly because many workers have not been able to secure vaccines in high-risk areas and remain nervous about coming off the sidelines.
“They want a job, but there is a hesitancy there, and that’s understandable,” Swonk said.
Not when it comes to the toxic tubes gof genocidal poison, though!
On Friday, the government reported that employers had added 916,000 jobs in March, twice February’s gain and the most since August. The unemployment rate dipped to 6 percent, the lowest since the pandemic began, with nearly 350,000 people rejoining the labor force.
Still, there is plenty of ground to make up.
Even after March’s job gains, the economy is 8.4 million jobs short of where it was in February 2020. Entire sectors, like travel and leisure, as well as restaurants and bars, are only beginning to recover from the millions of job losses that followed the pandemic’s arrival.
“The claims numbers are a reminder that the labor market recovery, while we still expect it to happen, has a ways to go,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist at Oxford Economics. “Things are opening up, but not uniformly, and many people are still out of work.”
At lea$t Wall Street is going great guns:
"Wall Street capped another week of gains with more milestones Friday, as strength in technology and health care stocks helped push the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average to all-time highs. The S&P 500 rose 0.8% for its fourth record high this week and third straight weekly gain. The Dow's latest milestone followed an all-time high on Monday. Stocks have benefited this week as bond yields, which had been steadily ticking higher, retreated from highs hit earlier in the month. Higher yields can slow down the economy by pushing up interest rates, making it more expensive for people and businesses to borrow money. Bond yields rose Friday, but that didn't weigh on stocks. "The S&P 500 finished at another all-time high today as investors have become comfortable enough with the current level of interest rates and inflation to keep putting money into equities," said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance. Most analysts expect inflation to increase as the economy improves. "We're seeing some evidence of inflation creeping into the market place, but it's not problematic," said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management....."
Not yet, anyway, so it will be a shock when it comes.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Time to take a look into the Globe's crystal ball:
"Spy agencies’ forecast: Post-coronavirus world may be upended by climate change, splintering societies" by Shane Harris Washington Post, April 8, 2021
WASHINGTON — US intelligence officials have little comfort to offer a pandemic-weary planet about where the world is heading in the next 20 years. Short answer: It looks pretty bleak.
I agree, but not the way you think.
These are the same guys that got WMD so wrong, right?
On Thursday, the National Intelligence Council, a center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that creates strategic forecasts and estimates, often based on material gathered by US spy agencies, released its quadrennial ’'Global Trends’' report.
Looking over the time horizon, it finds a world unsettled by the coronavirus pandemic, the ravages of climate change — which will propel mass migration — and a widening gap between what people demand from their leaders and what they can actually deliver.
Where did they get thugs thing from, the World Economic Forum?
The intelligence community has long warned policy makers and the public that the coronavirus could profoundly reshape global politics and US national security.
??????!!!!
How could they have "long warned" about something that just appeared a year ago?
The authors of the report, which does not represent official US policy, describe the pandemic as a preview of crises to come. It has been a globally destabilizing event: The council called it ’'the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II.” one that ’'has reminded the world of its fragility’' and ’'shaken long-held assumptions’' about how well governments and institutions could respond to a catastrophe.
That reads like a WEF document as it pushes a world government!
At the same time, the pandemic accelerated and exacerbated social and economic fissures that had already emerged, and it underscored the risks from ’'more and cascading global challenges, ranging from disease to climate change to the disruptions from new technologies and financial crises,’' the authors write in language that will resonate with just about anyone who has tread water in the past year, the authors write of a ’'looming disequilibrium between existing and future challenges and the ability of institutions and systems to respond.’'
People didn't tread water, they drowned -- except for that list of billionaires who benefited(?!?).
Within societies, fragmentation is increasing — political, cultural, economic — and “large segments of the global population are becoming wary of institutions and governments that they see as unwilling or unable to address their needs,’’ the report says.
Gue$$ we will need a global government, huh?
The effects of the pandemic will linger and could shape future generations’ expectations of their governments, particularly as a warming world leads to new human conflicts, including, in the most dire scenario, global food shortages that spawn mass violence.
Global power was contested long before the pandemic, and those trends haven’t abated.
There you go!
Nothing has changed and they are telegraphing the planned famine and cull.
How sickening!
The report sees the international stage as largely being shaped by a rivalry between China and the United States, along with its allies. No single state is poised to become the dominant global force, the authors write, and competing powers will jockey for position, leading to ’'a more conflict-prone and volatile geopolitical environment.’'
Technology, with all its potential to boost economies and enhance communication, also may aggravate political tension — as it already has.
People ’'are likely to gravitate to information silos of people who share similar views, reinforcing beliefs and understanding of the truth,’' the report concludes.
Prediction is an inherently risky business, and intelligence practitioners are quick to emphasize that they can’t see the future, but the National Intelligence Council imagines five scenarios on a kind of sliding scale that may help tell us where the world is turning as we approach 2040.
On the rosiest end, a ’'Renaissance of democracies’' ushers in a new era of US global leadership, in which economic growth and technological achievements offer solutions to the world’s biggest problems and Russia and China are largely left in the dust, authoritarian vestiges whose brightest scientists and entrepreneurs have fled to the United States and Europe.
That is out now that Trump is gone.
At the dark end of the future are ’'tragedy and mobilization,’' when the United States is no longer the dominant player and a global environmental catastrophe prompts food shortages and a ’'bottom-up’' revolution, with younger people, scarred by their leaders’ failures during the coronavirus pandemic, embracing policies to repair the climate and tackle longstanding social inequality. In this scenario, a European Union dominated by green parties works with the United Nations to expand international aid and focus on sustainability, and China joins the effort in part to quell domestic unrest in its cities affected by famine.
The WEF would LOVE that outcome!
In between those extremes, the report imagines three other possibilities: China becomes a leading state but is not globally dominant; the United States and China prosper and compete as the two major powers; or globalization fails to create a single source of influence, and the world more or less devolves into competing blocs, preoccupied with threats to their prosperity and security.
The present has a lot of say over the future, and there, the authors find reason for alarm.
’'The international system — including the organizations, alliances, rules, and norms — is poorly set up to address the compounding global challenges facing populations,’' the authors write, but the pandemic may offer lessons on how not to repeat recent history. The authors note that although European countries restricted travel and exports of medical supplies early in the crisis, the European Union has now rallied around an economic rescue package. That ’'could bolster the European integration projecting going forward.’'
(Blog editor simply shakes head at the sickening sophistry)
’'COVID-19 could also lead to redirection of national budgets toward pandemic response and economic recovery,’' they add, ’'diverting funds from defense expenditures, foreign aid, and infrastructure programs in some countries, at least in the near term,’' but overall, the pandemic leaves the authors with more questions than answers — and humbled.
’'As researchers and analysts, we must be ever vigilant, asking better questions, frequently challenging our assumptions, checking our biases, and looking for weak signals of change,’' they write.
All over nothing more deadly than common flu, which is what it is.
The future is foggy, but you can open up the COVID Time Capsule to see if they were right.
Related:
I'm sure that is one prediction that will come true since the sick psychopathic bastards will make it so.
Also see:
"The area of Massachusetts in “abnormally dry” conditions continues to rise, as more than 75 percent of the state now falls under that categorization, according to the US Drought Monitor. Data released on April 6 shows 75.40 percent, a 23.87 percent increase from the week prior, of the state in abnormally dry conditions, the first stage of drought conditions. The March 30 report from the US Drought Monitor showed 51.53 percent of Massachusetts in the category, which itself was a rise from the previous week’s 38.19 percent. The US Drought Monitor classifies abnormally dry areas as those areas that are “not in drought, but are experiencing abnormally dry conditions that could turn into drought or are recovering from drought but are not yet back to normal.” Symptoms of abnormal dryness include “short-term dryness slowing planting, growth of crops or pastures,” if the area is potentially headed into a drought or “some lingering water deficits,” and “pastures or crops not fully recovered” if the area is recovering from a drought. Three months ago, no areas of Massachusetts were in any of the five categories of drought, according to the US Drought Monitor. In the Northeast region, 40.14 percent of the area is in “abnormally dry” conditions while 10.27 of the region, primarily areas of New York, Vermont, and Pennsylvania, is in “moderate drought” conditions. According to the National Weather Service, Boston has a 40 percent chance of showers on Sunday night. Boston has received 7.88 inches of rain since Jan. 1, four inches below average, according to the National Weather Service."
Good thing there is rain coming and this is flood season!
Your government is going to set you adrift as they kill your chickens:
"Efforts are underway to keep three chickens from being kicked out of a coop in East Boston. The chickens live in Eagle Square and are cared for by a local nonprofit called Empower East Boston. On March 31 the group launched a petition on Change.org to “Save The Eastie Chickens” after city officials discovered they lacked the proper permits to have a chicken coop there....."
That is what COMMUNISM looks like, but the citizenry can't see it amongst the clucking.
