via MishTalk:
A huge backlash against climate change goals is underway. A cow burp tax decided the election in New Zealand. People are upset with similar Green stupidity in California as well.
Burp Tax Revolt
Climate backlash is underway in the US, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. Let’s start with New Zealand.
EuroNews asks ‘Burp tax’ Causes Outrage in New Zealand – But Could this Impact the Elections?
New Zealand has a plan to tax farmers for their livestock’s burps and flatulence — and it’s causing a stink ahead of Saturday’s general elections.
The New Zealand economy is driven by agriculture with around 10 million cattle and 25 million sheep – that’s seven times more livestock than people in the country.
The Irish Examiner cited a calculation prepared by US Department of Agriculture experts, using a modelling approach of NGO Beef + Lamb New Zealand Ltd.
It shows that the ‘burp’ tax would cost a typical big dairy farm in the country more than €11,000 per year, with methane priced at €0.067 per kg. The calculation includes plenty of incentive discounts on emission reduction actions and technologies, but without those the levy could be as much as €52,000 in a year.
The Return of the Right: The 2023 New Zealand General Election
International Affairs comments The Return of the Right: The 2023 New Zealand General Election
The 2023 New Zealand General Election resulted in the governing Labour Party losing power; with its share of the party vote almost halving to 26.91 percent, down from 50.0 percent in 2020. In contrast, the centre-right National Party’s share of the party vote increased by 12.51 percent to 38.1 percent. The right-wing Act party increased its support to 8.64 percent while winning a second affluent urban electorate off National. The nationalist and socially conservative New Zealand First Party returned to parliament with 6.08 percent of the vote and the Green Party’s share of the vote increased by 3.74 percent to a record 11.6 percent.
Labour got crushed and deservedly so. You might hope that would ends burp tax silliness, but it won’t.
Idiots in California are determined to make you Vegan. And that is the UN’s goal as well.
First They Came for the Cars, Then the Cows
The climate lobby is now aiming to use taxes and regulation to restrict your meat consumption.
The Wall Street Journal reports First They Came for the Cars, Then the Cows
Climate has become religion for the global left.
This crusade to stamp out meat is gaining force. A U.N. report last year held that about 7 gigatons of CO2 reductions—about as much emissions generated from global natural-gas combustion—would have to come from people eating less meat.
The Netherlands, the world’s second-largest exporter of agricultural products after the U.S., plans to pay livestock farmers to shut down to bring the country into compliance with European Union emissions regulations.
The same anti-bovines are at work in America. California requires dairy and livestock operations statewide to reduce methane emissions to 40% below 2013 levels by 2030. Sacramento plans to achieve this target with costly regulations that drive farmers out of business. Consider the state’s mandates that more space be given to farm animals under the guise of improving animal welfare. The real purpose of these regulations is to increase the cost of livestock production and thus reduce farmers’ output.
California’s farming rules will have a national effect, because they apply to any livestock raised in the U.S. and then sold in the state. Thousands of pork producers nationwide warn they may be forced to shut down because of the high cost of compliance. Congressional members from 21 farm states this summer introduced legislation to block California from regulating farmers outside its borders—much to the consternation of green groups.
Farm Methane
California and the federal government also provide regulatory credits for dairy farms to capture methane from manure. These credits are literal cash cows, worth nearly $2,000 a head. An April 2022 presentation at the California Air Resources Board titled “What’s Worth More: A Cow’s Milk or Its Poop?” mused that these subsidies might become so rich that farmers may begin to “farm methane rather than milk.”
Hundreds of Dutch farmers to Close their Livestock Farms
EuroNews reports Hundreds of Dutch farmers to Close their Livestock Farms Under New Schemes
Over 750 Dutch farmers have signed up for a government buy-out scheme, although it will take months before it’s clear if the plan will be put into practice. Farmers in the Netherlands have been staging protests over emissions reduction targets since October 2019.
Nearly €1.5 billion was earmarked earlier this year to compensate farmers who voluntarily close farms located near nature reserves. Some 3,000 farms are expected to be eligible.
The outgoing ruling coalition wants to cut emissions, predominantly nitrogen oxide and ammonia, by 50 per cent nationwide by 2030. In May, the country received confirmation from the European Commission that the plans are permissible under state aid rules.
“The schemes will improve the environment conditions in those areas and will promote a more sustainable and environmentally friendly production in the livestock sector, without unduly distorting competition,” said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy, in a statement approving the aid.
Pitchforks Fly for an Empire of Cows
Also consider the September 2023 article In the Netherlands Pitchforks Fly for an Empire of Cows
The Dutch government’s announcement last year that it was planning a 50% cut in nitrogen emissions by 2030 sent shockwaves through the countryside. The only way to achieve a reduction that deep, on such a short time line, would be buyouts and shutdowns for farms near nature reserves.
The threat of incoming buyouts and mandated livestock cuts sent farmers in the Netherlands into a rage. When the government announced its new reduction targets, WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages associated with farmers’ organizations like Agractie and the more militant Farmers Defence Force sprang into action. Within days, processions of tractors were rolling through rural provinces, banners draped on their grilles that said “No Farmers, No Food.” On highways in the countryside, some demonstrators dumped piles of manure and lit them on fire.
The scale and fury of the protests shocked the Netherlands. Clips of angry farmers at rallies warning of food shortages circulated on the internet, eagerly absorbed by the borderless digital churn of social media. To many pundits and figures on the political right, the protests took on a larger, global significance: the farmers weren’t just pushing back against Dutch regulatory overreach, they were fighting “elites” who they claimed were using climate and environmental scaremongering to impose a radical agenda.
Right-wing firebrand Geert Wilders and his French counterpart, Marine le Pen, expressed support for the demonstrations, as did Donald Trump, who warned that U.S. farmers were next up in the crosshairs of “climate fanatics.” Russell Brand released a viral video laden with bizarre conjectures, claiming the plan was to “bankrupt farmers so their land can be grabbed.” In the Netherlands, more extreme wings of the farmers’ movement hinted at shadowy conspiracies at play, alleging that the World Economic Forum was using nitrogen as a Trojan horse to bring about its “Great Reset.”
But instead of drawing up long-term plans to reform agricultural production before the situation worsened, it designed an ineffective emissions-trading scheme that favored big business.
In the BBB’s first-ever election, one characterized by unusually high turnout and widely seen as a referendum on Rutte’s rule, it won a bigger share of the vote than any other party in the Netherlands. Gaining 16 out of 75 seats, overnight the BBB went from an insurgent outsider’s movement to the largest single party in the Dutch Senate.
Almost immediately, the BBB’s shocking win upended the Dutch cabinet’s plans for addressing the nitrogen crisis. Badly beaten at the polls and facing a no-confidence vote in parliament, Rutte agreed to hit pause on the plans and signaled that his government was open to pushing back the emissions reduction deadline from 2030 to 2035.
Bruised but not broken, Rutte vowed to continue pushing for a compromise that would keep the Netherlands in line with EU rules and protect the environment. But what Rutte’s cabinet didn’t know was that its electoral disaster had chipped away at the foundation of an already shaky ruling coalition. Before long, the whole house was going to collapse.
2023 Dutch General Election
Geert Wilders is fed up with immigration and wants a referendum to ban Mosques and exit the EU. BBB is as discussed above.
What is NSC?
By flirting with the possibility of EU-level opt-outs, the party takes a similar stance to fellow newcomer and agrarian protest party Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), which stated its intention to opt out of the EU’s migration and nature policies in its own election program last month.
Finance and economy
In its programme, the NSC also states its opposition to the EU’s potential transformation into a so-called “transfer union” and categorically rejects joint EU borrowing and Eurobonds. It also calls on the ECB to halt its asset purchase programme and “return to its original mandate”.
Wilders came reasonably close to being able to formulate a government winning 63 of 76 seats assuming NSC and BBB would go along.
Regardless, that is 63 votes against agricultural policy likely shelving Green silliness for another 5 years.
With that let’s return to the US and a discussion of Trump vs Biden.
Biden Blames the Media
On November 10, I wrote Why Are Americans in Such a Rotten Mood? Biden Blames the Media
Hoot of the Day
Despite the Media whitewashing every bit of bad news about the president, and numerous reports in unexpected places about how great the economy is, President Biden blames the media for the US’s sour mood.
Maybe Bidenomics is working for everyone who owns a house but not those struggling with rent and struggling to put food on the table.
And what about those who see $7,500 subsidies going to people can afford a new EV when they struggle buying gasoline.
The Devil We Had Is Better Than the Devil We Got
Also consider my November 23 post The Devil We Had Is Better Than the Devil We Got
Our lesson of the day comes from the Netherlands where far-Right Populist Geert Wilders unexpectedly wins the Dutch election. US voters, please pay attention.
In the US, people are genuinely sick of Biden’s energy policies. He is throwing hundreds of billions of dollars are ridiculous wind and solar projects, now failing due to inflation that Biden has caused.
People struggle with rent and the cost of food, and Biden is wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on untenable Green projects. And he wants wants hundreds of billions more for wars in Israel and Ukraine that are essentially none of our business.
The Devil You Know vs the Devil You Know
In the US, voters are increasingly likely to face a repeat election the public in general does not seem to want: Trump vs Biden.
As a Libertarian, I do not like either of them.
Trump is not remotely close to being a Libertarian and neither is remotely close to being a moderate.
However, voters have correctly decided that between Trump and Biden, Trump looks better in comparison. The devil we had is better than the devil we got.
If Trump would just stop the batshit crazy talk, he might be able to win in a landslide.
He wants to create an Anti-Woke University and Freedom Cities supported by tax hikes.
For discussion, please see Is Trump Going Too Far With His Second-Term Plans? Are They Even Republican?
Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought Republicans would propose such a thing as “free federal online schools paid for by tax hikes.”
In the Netherlands, Wilders did not change, but he toned down his rhetoric. There’s a lesson here for Trump, especially as it relates to swing voters, but don’t expect him to hear it.
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