Filed under: Big Tech, Capitalism, Coronavirus, Democrat Corruption, Election 2020, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Immigration, Junk Science, Progressivism, Science/Technology, Technology | Tags: Biden's Big Plans, Climate Panic, John Kerry
Reminder: There is not a “President Elect” until the Electoral College meets on December 14. But it does look like it is going to be Joe Biden, in spite of how he managed to get there. He is moving quickly to try to establish his administration, which is not encouraging. A very significant percentage of Democrat voters had never heard of the Joe and Hunter Biden scandals, and really want the matter formally investigated. That, in itself is a fairly scary note and suggests that our negativity about our news media is not far misplaced.
Joe Biden’s first big appointment is John Kerry to be the new “Climate Czar”. His qualifications rest on his being Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, and initiating the Paris Climate Accords. Uh huh. The United States provides about 14% of worldwide CO2 emissions. U.S. and European emissions have remained steady or declined significantly. Increases have come from the developing world, China, India and Africa, as they add electricity, air-conditioning and automobiles. The move to approved wind and solar energy has accounted for about 9% of our needed electricity supplies. If you stop and think for a moment about our energy needs: manufacturing, mobility, light, heat, comfort, food, only begins to touch upon our energy requirements.
I am certainly not a climate scientist, but I do have a unique outlook on the problem. I grew up on 400 acres in the mountains of Idaho at about 4,000′. We produced our own power with a small dam, a flue and our own power plant. We put up ice in the winter for summer refrigeration, warmed things with our hot springs water, fireplaces and wood stoves. We finally got Idaho power in the late 40s. Few people would have the natural assets we did. Nevertheless, I do read the science, daily.
Other than the autistic Swedish child, there’s not much evidence of a climate crisis. We have tried wind and solar energy in many forms, and found them wanting. Nuclear plants work nicely, but since Chernobyl and Fukushima, people are scared of nuclear energy. We have successful dams in our major rivers, but they don’t produce enough energy for the country as a whole. “Fracking”, simply a new way of extracting natural gas, has made us energy independent, and no longer dependent on Arab oil. Great outcry against coal-fired or natural-gas fired power plants because of the insistence that CO2, (which is a natural fertilizer for plants and is helping to feed a hungry world), is to be blamed for global warming, which is simply a natural process of warming and cooling that has gone on for centuries and centuries.
I have been following John Kerry’s career since he was a Vietnam War protester, got drafted, and had a subsequent career in government. I do not have a favorable impression of him, and would prefer that he not be in charge of anything whatsoever. He promises to fix CO2 and Covid-19 as well because they go together somehow? Both in the air? I think its an enormous amount of sheer bunk, but that seems to be what we’re stuck with. You might get in touch with your Congressmen, and study up. Good websites linked in the sidebar.
Lots of big ideas to fix society after the dreadful years of the Bad Orange Man’s successful economy, improved black lives, Middle East Peace, and successful management of the Covid Crisis. “Warp Speed” has meant that vaccine for Covid will be available in mid-December.
Here are the ten executive orders that Joe Biden says he will sign the first day he’s in office, via CNN.
Implement the already-existing Clean Air Act, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by developing new fuel economy standards to ensure all new sales for light- and medium-duty vehicles will be electrified, and annual improvements for heavy-duty vehicles.
Double down on liquid fuels like advanced biofuels and make agriculture a key part of the solution to the climate crisis. Reduce emissions and cut consumer costs through new standards for appliance and building efficiency.
Other than that, he intends to end “gun violence”, which essentially means banning all guns. He will improve the abortion situation, so anybody can get an abortion any time for any reason. How that fits with his Catholic faith, I’m not sure. But if your interest is in easier abortions, Biden’s your guy. Going to offer citizenship to all the illegal aliens, and invite more in.
Interestingly, 44 states voted without any allegations of skullduggery. Election went off smoothly and almost all of the votes were counted in about six hours after the polls closed. No allegations of irregularities by Republican-governed states other than Georgia.
A Big-Tech expert says that Google’s “manipulations “Shifted” at least six million votes to Joe Biden. That might suggest a call to your congressman, at least a Republican one.
Joe Biden still may nominate Sen. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to cabinet positions. The good website www.issuesinsights suggested a little “turnabout is fair play” with an article entitled “Impeach Joe Biden”. Made my day.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Capitalism, Coronavirus, Democrat Corruption, Election 2020, Energy, Environment, Free Markets, Free Speech, Freedom, History, Immigration, National Security, Politics, Progressivism, Regulation, Socialism, The United States | Tags: "Build Back Better", Control., The Great Reset, Totalitarianism
You don’t have to have read a lot of history to realize that every so often somebody pops up with a better idea for humanity. They want to fix us. The names in modern times are familiar, Benito Mussolini, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung , some get far enough to make it into the pages of history, some try but never catch on. It takes a certain kind of mindset to think you have the correct plan to fix humanity. We do have to admit cheerfully that we are imperfect. But very possibly we were meant to be that way.
But the events of 2020 have changed all that because COVID-19 has provided the perfect pretext for the kind of co-ordinated globalist takeover which might previously have been little more than an evil glint in Klaus Schwab’s eyes. Here’s a new name to add to the list: Klaus Schwab. He’s a bald German in his early Eighties, who in the 1970s founded what is now known as the World Economic Forum. They have an annual summit in Davos, Switzerland. James Delingpole notes “that’s where billionaires go to lecture millionaires on how ordinary people live.”
You start with believing the Autistic Swedish child that the world is going to end shortly if we don’t DO SOMETHING about climate change. If you would listen to scientists who have spent lifetimes studying climate science instead of Autistic Swedish children, it would be a good start. Dr. Roy Spencer (link in the sidebar) not only has spent a lifetime studying the science but he runs the satellites that measure the temperatures of the earth for NASA. On his website, you will find a handy essay on global warming and what it means, as well as all sorts of other valuable information. Visit Climate Depot (link in the sidebar) where you can order Climate Hustle 1 and 2 to explain the Climate Wars. Climate Hustle 2 looks at both popular scientific claims surrounding climate change and examines the motivations of those clamoring for immediate action.
Interestingly, some 30 percent of Democrats want a more thorough and official investigation of the Joe Biden/ Hunter Biden affair and all its implications.
Way back in 2015, Christiana Figueres, at the time the General Secretary of the IPCC, at a press conference, announced that “Climate Change” was our best opportunity to get rid of Capitalism, permanently. I assume that is still what they’re after. I’m rather fond of capitalism myself.
Filed under: Coronavirus, Democrat Corruption, Election 2020, Energy, Global Warming, Health Care, Junk Science, Law, News the Media Doesn't Want You to Hear, Politics, Progressives, Progressivism, Science/Technology, The United States
Joe Biden is coming up with new regulations, new advisors, new treatments. He may insist that everyone wear masks, but the role of masks is much misunderstood. A mask protects other people from your exhalations, spittle, coughs or sneezes. It does not protect you from other people. The mask is meant keep your spittle in. Your protection from other people’s coughs or spittle is dependent on your washing your hands obsessively and frequently, social-distancing, and not touching your face. Almost counter-intuitive. Stay home. You may soon be ordered to do so. Governors are all over the map with their orders and directions, and may or may not know what they are talking about. Apparently Thanksgiving dinner is out. Governors may order you to forget it.
I am remaining confined at home, ordering groceries delivered. Difficult. The folks that pack the groceries don’t know that bananas must be a little greenish at the ends, and no brown spots. They don’t know that you sniff at the stem end of a cantaloupe to see if it smells like cantaloupe. If it doesn’t it’s no good. Those are the little complications of shopping at the grocery store. Who knew that the bagels you ordered might turn out to be whole wheat bagels? Whoever heard of whole wheat bagels? Don’t open the door to anyone.
Joe Biden’s Coronavirus Adviser urges a lockdown for “4 to 6 weeks.” He suggests that “we could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers, for losses to small companies, to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments. We could do all of that. (The doctor is a little light on his understanding of economics) He wrote that the problem with the March to May lockdown was that it was not uniformly stringent across the country.
Biden’s four leading priorities: Covid-19, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change. No delusions that a Biden administration will be good for liberty or limited government.
Breitbart headline” “Biden to Make Combatting Climate Change an “All-of-Government Agenda.” Well, there we go. There is nothing anyone can do to “combat climate change.” The climate has been changing for millions of years. The climate today is very much like it was 1,000 years ago. Carbon dioxide is a natural fertilizer for plants, and crops around the world are bountiful. Hungry people are being fed. Joe Biden will formulate a governing strategy to curb carbon emissions by maximizing executive authority. He will rejoin the Paris Climate Accord on his first day at the White House and create a new division within the Department of Justice to combat pollution.There’s a proposal to spen $2 trillion over four years to combat climate change.
One million jew jobs in the auto industry to boost the production of energy-efficient vehicles. Legislation to incentivize individuals to trade in their gas=powered vehicles for ones running on either electricity or hydrogen. He apparently wants to adopt a 100 percent clean-electricity standard by 2035.
This might have a rather large impact on the coal and natural gas industries that produce about 63 percent of all electricity in the country. You cannot trust your government. You have to be informed, and know what these nutcases are up to.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Domestic Policy, Economy, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, History, Junk Science, Law, Media Bias, Politics, Progressives, Progressivism, Science/Technology, The United States
We have had some nice rain over the last two days, and the skies have cleared, the air has cleared, and we’re pretty much back to normal. California is not. The government is not sure at all just who they should listen to, and the result has been a catastrophe.
Environmentalists want everyone to believe that we can forego nasty petroleum fuels, and rely on clean, beautiful wind and solar energy which is free, well, except for the huge cost of wind turbines, their upkeep, the rare minerals required to construct them and the underlying simple fact that the wind does not blow all the time, nor does the sun shine on solar arrays all the time. There are cloudy days and rainy days when neither wind nor sun are noticeable. Wind and sun may be visible, but they are not necessarily available when needed. We are so accustomed to having energy at the flick of a switch that we don’t really give it any thought at all.
At the dawn of the nuclear age, we thought we could power anything with nuclear energy, but then there was the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, still an abandoned city, I believe. And then the Fukushima accident in Japan in 2011 in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, which was started by the Tòhoku earthquake and tsunami. A couple of disasters like that and interest in nuclear plants begins to fade. In the United States we have some great river systems and dams that produce lots of reliable energy, but the environmentalists squawk about the fish runs and damage the dams do. Probably everything that has an upside also has a downside. Some want to remove all dams, just because.
We are uncertain about costs and benefits, usefulness and dangers, needs, in other words we don’t know very much about the problems at all, and are apt to fall for anything that sounds good, particularly if it is fairly remote. When it’s your house that burned down, you pay a little closer attention.
Dr. Roy Spencer PhD, who runs the satellites that measure the earths’ temperature for NASA, has several basis articles at his website on, for example, “Global Warming 101”, “Global Warming Background”, “Global Warming Natural or Manmade?” which you will find useful. There are others in the sidebar, and each of those will direct you to other scientific sites.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is getting a well-deserved batch of criticism for his handling of the wildfires. The Native Americans learned to minimize the damage by controlled small fires and cutting away dead trees and brush, but we moderns have had more trouble getting our minds around the problem. Did you know it costs something over $43,000 to dismantle a single wind turbine?
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Junk Science, Politics, Progressivism, Regulation, Science/Technology, The United States | Tags: Gavin Newsom, Global Warming, Jay Inslee
Washington State is still smoky, some local fires, mostly I believe, smoke drifted north from California. Visibility is not normal, ( Rain forecast for Friday) but we’re told in Eastern Washington, across the mountains, visibility is about the length of a football field, at least considerably worse than here.
Our incompetent Democrat governor, Jay Inslee, follows in the steps of California’s incompetent governor Gavin Newsom, to proclaim the wildfires are because of global warming, and we just have to give up our cars, or at least switch to electric cars, and be kinder to Mother Earth so she doesn’t punish us for our fossil fuels. Which is all nonsense.
Sorry. Carbon Dioxide is not the control switch for the climate of the earth. The Sun is.
We had Ice Ages and Heat Waves long before we had gasoline powered cars, or even discovered fossil fuels. Native Americans did controlled burning, thinned out brush, and even cut down trees to keep their lands safe from fire. California is on fire because the governor has not funded the necessary cleanup, as is Washington State.
Lots more expensive when you have to pay lots of firefighters coming for high pay to fight the fires in our forests in our forests, but you can’t be blamed if it is the result of a global pandemic. Our respective governors, having never bothered to study up even slightly, accept as gospel the party line. Trump bad, Paris Climate Accord essential to save the Earth. Trouble is the scientists started making “models”to help them decide what to do, but they were too arrogant to grasp that they didn’t know enough to make viable models, because there is so much we don’t yet understand about the Sun and the Earth and the galaxy and the interactions between them.
The debate is over around climate change. Just come to the state of California, observe it with your own eyes a grinning Newsom told reporters while touring the fire-ravaged North Complex near Oroville. It’s not an intellectual debate, it’s not even debatable. The debate is over around climate change. Just come to the state of California, observe it with your own eyes,a grinning Newsom told reporters while touring the fire-ravaged North Complex near Oroville. It’s not an intellectual debate, it’s not even debatable.
Breitbart reported this morning:
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Thursday that the August Complex Fire has burned 471,185 acres in the Elk Creek and Stonyford area, surpassing the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire, which burned 459,123 acres.
Six of the largest fires in California’s history have taken place in 2020. Cal Fire said 29 major wildfires are active and more than 3.1 million acres have burned in the state since the beginning of the season.
The National Interagency Fire Center said 102 large fires have burned a combined 4.4 million acres in 12 states in the western United States, resulting in some two dozen deaths in California, Oregon, and Washington.
In California, five people were killed in the LNU Lightning Complex, 10 were killed in the North Complex, and one each was killed in the CZU August Lightning Complex, August Lightning Complex, Tatham Fire, and Hills Fires.
So there you go, 19 people killed so far, but just blame it all on global warming. I grew up on 400 acres bordered by National Forest at about 4,000′. Many of our closest friends were Forest Service people, and others were loggers or ran lumber mills.
Bernie Sanders is using the current wildfires to push for a Green New Deal, of course blaming Trump who he says “rejects science and calls climate change a hoax.” Christiana Figueres, who was the General Secretary of the IPCC said at a news conference that the idea of Climate Change was the best weapon they had for destroying Capitalism.
You can natter on all you want about Global Warming, but if you had thinned the forests, rid them of dry brush, we would not have the forest fires of three states poisoning our air and blanketing us with smoke.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Coronavirus, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Education, Energy, Environment, History, Junk Science, Law, Media Bias, Police, Politics, Taxes, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: Is Anyone Watching?, Political Ads, The Online Convention
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Coronavirus, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economics, Election 2020, Energy, Environment, Free Speech, Freedom, Immigration, Law, Politics, Progressivism, The United States | Tags: Bad Judgment, Environmental Panic, The Green New Deal
This is going to be an unusually interesting election season. Joe Biden, who has been selected as the Democrat nominee, seems to have some problems with early stage dementia. He does seem unable to remember the proper word to use, or how to adequately express himself at times, and people are concerned, although perhaps incorrectly.
Democrats are inclined to dislike Republicans, and vice versa. That’s simply the way it is, and the problems lie in the amount of dislike and the efforts to do something about it. Now that Mr. Biden has chosen Kamala Harris as his Vice Presidential partner, the campaign has instantly become about sexism.
The usual Hollywood “celebrities” (someone whose name may be recognizable and thereby attract readers) have immediately called up Hillary as an example of someone who lost an election because of sexism. Which is an error. Hillary lost because she is a compulsive liar, had performed poorly as Secretary of State, and is roundly disliked. Nothing to do with her sex. She did notify the campaign that she was anxious to help out in any way she can.
I don’t think much of Kamala Harris as a candidate, and with Joe Biden’s age and possible dementia we have to assume that Ms. Harris could very likely become president. Articles I’ve seen: “Former Obama speechwriter mocks mainstream media’s “hilarious” push to call Kamala Harris “moderate” and Tensions linger between Biden and Obama Carried throughout 2020 primary campaign: Not sure what’s going on here, the Obama group doesn’t like the Biden group?
The Biden, Harris team are going for some very radical (and ignorant) ideas about the climate, which is just fine, and cooling slightly. They are all for AOC’s “Green New Deal.” Joe Biden wants to ban fracking and the advances that have given us plentiful and cheap energy to run America’s manufacturers and cities, Kamala wants to ban plastic straws and limit access to red meat, altering the food pyramid. Harris wants to reenter us in the Paris Climate accords so “we would be carbon neutral by 2030.” Sorry. Carbon dioxide is not the control knob for the climate. The climate of the earth is determined by the actions of the sun, which is currently in a slightly cooling phase.
Why can’t people study up a little on subjects they know they don’t understand very well? You don’t have to become an expert, just learn enough to be an informed voter and an intelligent conversationalist. Dr.Roy Spencer, who measures the temperatures of the earth–running the satellites for NASA, has a short helpful explanation of “global warming” at his website, and if you look at his blog, there’s an amazing video of a lightning strike.
Growing up in the mountains of Idaho, we once had a lightning strike about 200 yards from the house. It made a remarkably loud noise, and stripped the bark in a circular pattern down the trunk of a Ponderosa Pine. It’s a Big Deal up close.
I am convinced that the Democrats depend on people’s reluctance to study up and depend on their lack of information to accuse their opposition candidates of absurd things. Democrats have tried hard for four years or more to stick President Trump with some sort of collaboration with Russia or Vladimir Putin. None there, but they just would not give up on it, and are back at it.
The other big drive is to blame President Trump for all the deaths from the Covid virus. Good grief, he not only slammed the gates shut to any flights from China immediately, but has not only dealt well the virus and medical equipment needed in this country, but helped other countries as he could as well.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economics, Economy, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Junk Science, National Security, Politics, Regulation, Socialism, The United States | Tags: Joe Biden, Really Bad Ideas, The Green New Deal
I was worried about Joe Biden when he said that he wanted to ban plastic bags. Cloth bags at the grocery store are dangerous to one’s health. Meat drippings, oozing from the packaged meat, from vegetables impregnated into a cloth bag creates a veritable poisonous package to be carried back and forth to the grocery store, to cause all sorts of illness, but when faced with “plastic”, a word that currently occupies the same category of words as racist, gets righteously ignored.
But that was only the beginning. Joe Biden has put AOC in charge of his climate stance, and adopted her “Green New Deal,” which would be a disaster. He wants to ban “fracking” which has made the United States energy independent, and has allowed us to sell oil and natural gas to other nations., as well as provide ourselves with all the energy we need.
We had the Swedish child climate activist Greta Thunberg over to tell us we have no time to waste for we are all doomed, and even AOC gives us only a few months until disaster. But they are erroneously assuming that CO2 is dooming the planet. The climate of the earth is determined by the action of the sun, not CO2. Slight increases in carbon in the atmosphere acts as a natural fertilizer for plants, and increases the growth not only of foodstuffs, but of forests around the world. Completely beneficial.
Here’s Bjorn Lomberg writing about “How climate change alarmists are actually endangering the planet“, and he does know what he is talking about. AOC has attracted lots of attention because she is always searching for the nearest microphone, but she has become a celebrity of sorts because of her appalling ignorance, which Conservatives find funny.
Our contemporary society runs on energy. Everybody got all excited about wind and solar, because how wonderful to power our modern world with natural resources. They do produce some energy, when the wind blows, or when the sun shines, but you may have noticed that the sun sinks beneath the horizon at night. Aside from clouds and rain, of course. And there are few places in the entire world where the wind blows at a steady 35 mph, even in the windiest places. Some solar panels on your roof can get you a break on your power costs, but not much of one, and the idea that you can power a modern society with either wind or solar is absurd. Nuclear power works efficiently, but people are afraid of it because of Chernobyl.
Bloomberg News recently reported that California will use Diesel this summer to keep electricity going when the utility cuts power to prevent live wires from sparking fires in high wind. Nobody thinks all that much about power. You just turn on the light switch, and the lights go on, except when they don’t.
Here’s the Green New Deal from the Green Party:
The Green New Deal will convert the decaying fossil fuel economy into a new, green economy that is environmentally sustainable, economically secure and socially just. The Green New Deal starts with transitioning to 100% green renewable energy (no nukes or natural gas) by 2030. It would immediately halt any investment in fossil fuels (including natural gas) and related infrastructure. The Green New Deal will guarantee full employment and generate up to 20 million new, living-wage jobs, as well as make the government the employer of last resort with a much-needed major public jobs program.
Democrats remain fascinated with Roosevelt’s New Deal. They believe it ended the Great Depression, which was very bad indeed. Franklin Roosevelt tried all sorts of remedies, and succeeded in extending the Depression for seven years longer than it needed to be, if he had not applied the wrong remedies. Two economists at UCLA proved that conclusively several years ago. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the war that followed brought an end to the Depression. not FDR and not the New Deal.
The whole climate change panic thing has been a fraud from the first. designed to eliminate Capitalism. That’s what created the United States, made it a powerful and rich nation, and we certainly can’t have that. At a news conference in early February of 2015, Christiana Figueres, the general secretary of the UN’s IPCC revealed that eliminating Capitalism was the goal. Enter her name in the sidebar over Bob Hope’s head and all sorts of information will come up. The Green New Deal is just another one of the frauds on the ignorant.
Study up a little on Climate. There are a number of websites in the left sidebar, and each of those list a multitude of other reliable websites. There are large numbers of people out there trying to make big changes, and you need to know what they are trying to do to our country and to you. Socially just, indeed.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Economy, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, History, Humor, Immigration, Junk Science, Media Bias, Politics, Taxes, The United States | Tags: Climate Change, Complications of the News, To Blame for Everything
RECENT EARTH CLIMATE HISTORY
600 – 200 B.C.: An Unnamed Cold Period
200 BC to about AD 600: The Roman Warming
600 to 900: The Dark Ages Cold Period
900 to 1300: Medieval Warming
1300 to 1850: The Little Ice Age (two stages)
MODERN CLIMATE HISTORY
1850 – 1940: Especially between 1920-1940: Warming
1940 to 1975: Cooling Trend
1976-1978: Sudden Warming Spurt
1979 to 1998: +1º
1998 to 2011: +1º
The Medieval Warming period led to the Renaissance which began approximately in 1300 and ended approximately in 1700. A bountiful time, wine grapes grew in England, food was plentiful and there was a flowering of learning and art. Think Michelangelo, Raphael, and Copernicus among others. What I’m getting at here, is the idea that if we are facing climate doom, the world is going to die in 10 or 12 years if we don’t save it by stopping “fracking,” using oil and gasoline, and eliminating plastic bags. That’s what you get for listening to “celebrities” instead of studying up on the science.
I was an English Major, which meant that I learned how to read hard stuff, and read a lot. That does not mean that I’m always right, but I do like to think so. Christiana Figueres was quite sure that the object of “climate change” was as a tool to get rid of Capitalism. Leftists do not like capitalism, which seems a bit strange, but economics is not their strong point. Capitalists are business CEOs and owners, and the “Rich:”. The Left is simply entitled to be in charge because they are morally superior.
Conservatives have long sneered at the Left because they were the Southern slave owners in the Civil War, but the Left has ended that accusation by electing the first black president, who served for two terms, which puts them back in the morally superior category. Global Warming, plastic bags, ending fracking, and giving taxpayer money to illegal aliens adds to their superiority.
America is a nation of immigrants, as you know, which leads them to believe that immigrants are special, and just because they can’t be bothered to enter the country the legal way, shouldn’t keep them from sharing in the bounty of America. So Leftists care about illegal immigrants, which means hating I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and making sure that illegal immigrants get stimulus money. It is that mindset that makes them believe that if little immigrant children were kept in cages, it was obviously done by conservatives, contrary to the actual actions of the Obama administration. Once you get the “entitled to be in charge because they are morally superior” theme firmly in mind, it makes understanding all the other stuff simple. Or at least it helps.
Then there’s this: From Climate Realism and Climate Depot:
Among the top articles in a May 19 Google News search for “climate change” were a slew of articles claiming climate change causes cancer. CNBC and several other major news outlets published the claims, citing American Cancer Society (ACS) activists making the assertion. The line of reasoning is preposterous. And even if the ACS line of reasoning were sound, the line of reasoning would indicate that climate change is reducing cancer incidence and mortality.
The CNBC article is titled “Climate change is fueling extreme weather that lowers cancer survival rate and threatens prevention.” The article points out ACS line of reasoning as “[1] Climate change has triggered more frequent weather disasters like hurricanes and wildfires that [2] release deadly carcinogens into communities and [3] delay access to cancer treatment.” Each of the three prongs of the argument is ridiculous, and the three in combination give new meaning to the term “far-fetched.”
That’s a pretty good indication into how the news gets so weird, and wrong ideas seem to prevail. The fact that it is an election year means that politics rears its ugly head, and before you know it, all is confusion. Fight back.
Filed under: Blogging, Coronavirus, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economics, Economy, Election 2020, Energy, Environment, Freedom, Global Warming, Humor, Junk Science, News of the Weird, Politics, Progressivism, Science/Technology, The United States | Tags: Choosing Advisers, Choosing Heroes, The Efficacy of Models
People have wondered, but the current economic slowdown will have almost no effect on the climate. To the contrary, a new paper finds that the slight increase in CO2 in the atmosphere means that the Earth is going to gain nearly three times as much green matter as was predicted by the IPCC’s AR5. From Patrick J. Michaels: That means we will meet the Paris Accords demand, and plentiful crops will help to feed a hungry world. All good. Most of the modern global warming that appears in the sensitive models is clearly too strong. Climate is a key to the world’s food supply. In the 1970s Global Cooling led to widespread droughts — there had been 30 years of cooling, and as a consequence dwindling grain reserves, and most of the world relies on grain. Grains are the world’s basic food, and when food supplies fail, millions die.
Models are not the real world. Scientists put in what they know for sure, which isn’t really all that much, add things that they are pretty sure of, and at some point they add a lot of guesses about the way things are that may or may not be true. The models are derived from computer models that are meant to predict what the stock market will do. Since we are all fabulously wealthy, and nobody has gotten the dread COVID-19 disease, you surely understand that models are a very imperfect method of projecting what will be in the future. Sometimes we get it partly right, and sometimes not, even when we adequately put in the past, but it lets us make an attempt to understand what may happen in the future, and our guesses are clearly better for next week than for 20 years ahead. But think how boring life would be if we already knew what the future would be. If the future looks bad, we can try to prepare.
If you want to understand more about the climate, see the links in the sidebar, or go to Dr. Roy Spencer’s website. He has a brief introduction to Global Warming 101 and climate that is very useful. Dr. Spencer runs the satellites that measure the temperatures of the world for NASA with Dr. John Christy, and he writes a blog about all things climate.
The Democrats presumed candidate for the election this fall is Obama’s Vice President Joe Biden. Vice President Biden has chosen Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to be his Climate authority, which is an even scarier possibility than Mr. Biden himself, with his ‘senior moments’.
Rep. AOC tweeted back in early February:
Fracking is destroying our land and our water. It is wreaking havoc on our communities’ health. We must do our job to protect our future from the harms caused by the fracking industry. That is why I am proud to introduce the Fracking Ban Act with Rep Darren Soto today. (with a big Ban Fracking Nationwide sign)
She is a big “Green New Deal” fan, (the “New Deal” thrown in for the Rooseveltian touch.) “Fracking” is the way that our geologists have found to release natural gas from where it is trapped underground, and has made cheaper energy plentiful and widely available, which has been a huge boon to the economy. The Earth has been warming and cooling for millions of years, and the current slight warming does not portend destruction of the earth in eleven years hence, and we can expect it to continue to warm and cool for another millennia. Neither AOC nor Mr. Biden have bothered to study up on the climate situation, but prefer to go along with what they have heard from the Swedish kid, or those who assume that we can run a modern economy on windmills and solar panels. We can’t. Even Michael Moore has given up on wind and sun, and I believe has a movie out so stating.
There are a lot of very poor countries in the world. We have already had a “Green Revolution”, the late Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution in a set of technology transfer initiatives between 1950 and the late 1960s increased agricultural production worldwide, particularly in the developing world. Technologies like high-yielding varieties of cereals, chemical fertilizers, and irrigation, new methods of cultivation including mechanization were adopted as a whole. He received the Noble Peace Prize in 1970 and is credited with saving over a billion people from starvation. But of course there are those who assume that we have too many people in the world already. If you want heroes to extol, remember Norman Borlaug. Banning fracking is just plain silly. Sun and wind energy simply cannot and do not produce the energy needed by a modern society and modern lives.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, China, Coronavirus, Economics, Economy, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Humor, Science/Technology, Technology | Tags: Covid-19 vs Climate Change, Improbable Probabilities, The March of Time
Confined at home, I have been wandering in the world of opinion which is varied, ranging from vast ignorance to possible but not probable information.
Consider that the first printing press in America arrived in Cambridge Massachusetts in 1638. This was an age when there were still town criers, and news was carried from one town to another on horseback. 1844: the first telegraph message was sent from Washington DC to Baltimore. The Pony Express carried messages from the East to the West Coast from April 3, 1860 to October 24, 1861. Exciting dodging Indians, but a failed enterprise meant to challenge messages having to be carried around the horn by sailing ship.
The first transcontinental telegraph was completed on October 24, 1861 (So much for the Pony Express). By 1866, a telegraph line had been laid across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Then there was the transcontinental railroad, roads, highways and freeways, now blissfully manageable with everyone confined at home. And think of the increases in the flow of information: telegraph, telephone, radio, television, computers, cell phones, mobil phones and when will we get our implants?
There was a time when mere opinion was considered to be unreliable and not worth much, or even a little embarrassing. What started all this is the conflation of Covid-19 with the Climate Crisis. Huh? Al Gore came up with that one, I don’t know that he was the first, but the general idea seems to be that the Covid-19 Crisis is interfering with our more proper concern with the Climate Crisis, or something like that. The general approach can be summed up in this article from the Santa Barbara Independent. Do read it, it’s short, and remember that Santa Barbara was going to paint a line across the city streets to show how much of the city was going to be underwater from the rise of the oceans.
So possibly there is a connection. If the freeways everywhere are seeing less traffic…oh never mind. If you start prowling around in this area, you run into Greta’s demand for more climate concern, and how the Swedes are dealing with the corona virus.
Then there is the territory of models. Do computer models tell us anything real about climate change? Or the spread of the corona virus for that matter? When big government grants became available for those professors in science departments who thought they could write a good grant proposal for studying the science of possible climate change, and get some new equipment and maybe even an assistant — they borrowed the programs investment houses were using to predict what the stock market would do, and put in what they knew about the climate and the ocean, and temperatures, and what they thought might be true and a bunch of guesses for the stuff they didn’t know and then came up with things like the infamous “hockey stick”.
I recommend a used copy of Democracy and Irs Discontents by Daniel J. Boorstin, the former Librarian of Congress. A new paperback will cost you around $60. Worth every penny, but good used copies at Amazon can be had for closer to $3.00 or borrow it from your friendly public library. He has a lovely and lively discussion of Opinion and its discontents which you would enjoy. Anything by Dr. Boorstin is very worth reading.
In the meantime, Democrats are hunting for something in the Covid-19 crisis for which they can impeach President Trump, perhaps because it is making him ignore the climate crisis which they expected to be more useful in their political maccinations. So there you go. I think I have been cooped up in the house a little too long.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Economics, Economy, Education, Energy, Environment, Health Care, Immigration, Law, The United States | Tags: Covid-19 Coronavirus, Protecting Yourself., Super Tuesday
image: artist unknown. via powerline
We have had a second death from Covid-19 Coronavirus, also from the same facility in Kirkland, Washington. Here is the Washington State Department of Health website but use it only if you need it, it’s apt to be busy. Here’s information for the public from Representative Adam Smith:
The public can take everyday actions to protect themselves and help prevent the spread of the virus:
Practice excellent personal hygiene habits, including hand washing, coughing into tissue or elbow, avoid touching eyes, nose, or mouth.
Stay home when sick.
Do not go to the emergency room unless essential. Emergency rooms need to be able to serve those with the most critical needs. If you have symptoms like cough, fever, or other respiratory problems, contact your regular doctor first. Stay informed from reliable sources. Information is changing frequently. Check Public Health Seattle & King County, Washington State Department of Health, and the CDC for updated information.
On the political front, Amy Klobuchar has quit the presidential race, and endorsed Joe Biden. I don’t think Elizabeth Warren has formally withdrawn, but I keep hoping. She was lined up with Bernie Sanders, but went after him strongly at the last debate. Pete Buttigieg has also endorsed Joe Biden.
Tomorrow is what is called Super Tuesday, when a whole bunch of states have their primaries on the same day. 14 states have signed up: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia. California is, they say, representative of the primary electorate of the Democrat party, Texas is similar, as the second most populous state, with a large Latinx ) a new and somewhat offensive designation) population.
Chris Matthews has apparently left CNN*. And welcome to the month of March.
Greta Thunberg had an occasion in Bristol in the United Kingdom last week, urging British schoolchildren to skip school on Friday to protest global warming. About 15,000 people are believed to have attended Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate rally. It was raining briskly, and the heavy rain turned the grass into mud, making a colossal mess of the rally. The BBC reported that “Ms. Thunberg has been presented as a sort of expert on the environment by alleged adults in the international Press” which covers it nicely.
* Chris Matthews has retired.
ADDENDUM: The Coronavirus death toll here in Washington State has reached 6, all connected to the Senior Care facility in Kirkland. There has been one death in New York.
American Elephants 