Filed under: Environment, History, News, Pop Culture | Tags: Mt. St. Helens, Natural Disasters
[The following was originally posted in 2008]
Chances are, if you’re not from Washington or Oregon, the date May 18th has little meaning to you. Heck, even around here, many don’t think of it unless someone reminds them.
But I remember — every year.
It’s one of the only world events I remember from back then (I was very young after all). But the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980 was just the kind of event that little boys remember forever.
We were very fortunate; the mountain exploded northwards, but the prevailing winds carried the ash plume away to the southeast. I remember being somewhat disappointed that the ash wasn’t turning day into night for us like it was for all the people on TV. In fact, we didn’t seem to get any ash-fall at all, much to my chagrin; while people on the other side of the mountain were measuring it in inches like snow. According to news reports, there were people on the other side of the country getting more ash fall than I was. As you can imagine, I was very envious!
So much excitement! So little pay-off.
About the most exciting thing I personally experienced was standing on my dad’s roof to see the enormous plume looking fairly small and unimpressive so many miles away. I’m not sure if we heard the explosion or not. They say people heard it up to 700 miles away, and we were certainly much closer than that. I think we did — but then, that could just be my memory playing tricks on me.
So close, and yet so far. But I still remember it every year.
Matthew 28:1-10
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Election 2020, Environment, Free Markets, Free Speech, Freedom, Global Warming, History, Humor, Immigration, Liberalism, Media Bias, Politics, Progressives, The United States | Tags: Blame., Guilt, Your Fault!
What is it about Liberals? Why do they want us all to feel guilty? We are not supposed to be thankful on Thanksgiving, because we should feel guilty about the Native Americans. We should feel guilty if we call them Indians rather than “Native Americans”.
Some, “Antifa” or something else, have been out rioting and tearing down statues again this weekend, The statues are torn down because we should feel guilty about putting up a statue to someone currently considered unworthy. like George Washington because he once owned a few slaves. Though historically he did not like slavery and had no wish to create a plantation out of Mount Vernon. But that was 244 years ago, and statues of George Washington must be destroyed today to assuage our guilt? Makes no sense whatsoever.
George Washington, father of our country, had a few things more going for him than just the possibility that he owned a very few slaves. Many plantation owners did own slaves at the time, Society, worldwide had not yet decided that owning slaves was wrong. The young people out to riot and break windows and loot and break things seem far more interested in doing that and getting away with it because they were part of a big bunch of people all having fun doing it. Had they been promptly arrested and stuck in cells until someone bailed them out, the whole rationale for rioting might be somewhat different.
Those who choose to feel guilty about celebrating Thanksgiving because we displaced the Indians, might remember that the Native Americans did a lot of massacres as well, of the intruding Englishmen. The history of civilization is full of people being displaced by other warlike tribes, and civilizations have arisen and vanished all over the earth. Supposedly that is why we study history to understand how the world has changed in the past and will undoubtedly change more in the future. But we really don’t need to feel guilty about a past that we had nothing to do with.
If you recall, when Joe Biden decided to run for the office of the presidency, he said that he wanted a black woman as his vice president, and so chose Kamala Harris. So he wanted the credit for choosing a black woman who might become the first black and the first woman to become president rather than choosing someone for their outstanding qualifications and skills.
If you appear in public without wearing a mask, you are supposed to feel guilty. Governors have ordered people to refrain from having Thanksgiving dinners because of Covid. Wags have tacked lifesize representations of those governors to windows where people might be having a Thanksgiving dinner against governors orders. Those governors who issued orders and then had their own celebration were quickly discovered and mocked in the press, and theoretically made to feel properly guilty. Anyone departing from the conventional wisdom of the moment must be guilty, and exposed.
It was hard to choose an image, because there are so many. All the members of the House abjectly kneeling on the floor of Congress. AOC weeping as she clings to a chain-link fence staring out at what turned out to be an empty parking lot that supposedly represented imprisoned illegals at the border, Elizabeth Warren emphasizing her “Indian heritage”, once even with a Native American. All the previous presidents conferring happily with Vladimir Putin, but only Trump being accused of some kind of wrongdoing across a table from him.
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: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Election 2020, Freedom, History, Media Bias, News the Media Doesn't Want You to Hear, Politics, Progressives, Progressivism, Technology, The United States | Tags: 2020 Election, Democrat Corruption, vote fraud
I have no idea if any of President Trump’s efforts to expose the vast amounts of fraud in the election will bear fruit. A little common sense suggests that it was undoubtedly massive, but scattered. Democrats have spent the last four years trying to demonize, dislodge, destroy, discredit in one way or another, anything that Donald Trump did. There is always partisanship in elections, that’s why there is more than one party. But after the onslaught of attacks over the four years, to assume that the election was clean, fair, and honest defies common sense.
The Obama Administration went to work even before Donald Trump took office, and a summary of their efforts over the four years is startling. It began with claims of Russian association, and grew from that. Hollywood “celebrities” chimed in daily, which gets them brownie points in Lefty Hollywood. There has always been plenty of partisanship, but the effort to destroy Trump and the seething hatred for him has been quite remarkable. In four years, he’s managed to do quite a good job in spite of them. I’ve lived through quite a number of presidential administrations, and this one has been something new and different. He got the economy going again, raised possibilities for Blacks significantly with opportunity zones.
A Chinese virus arrived in the Seattle area was soon identified, and traffic from China was ended promptly. No, Trump was not responsible for the deaths from the virus, but he put in place an effort to understand the disease and find temporary remedies and develop what promise to be successful vaccines in just four years. That is really quite remarkable. Democrats have tried to blame him for each fatality, and encouraged a world of riots, protests and damage to citizens and shop holders. Stores, all kinds of businesses, vehicles, civic buildings, statues mindlessly torn down, race wars, a nationwide temper tantrum, and we are suppose to assume that the recent election was peaceful, fair, and honest? Uh-huh.
That does not mean that the presumed election of Joe Biden can be overturned. We’ll see what happens when the Electoral College meets on December 14, and if Biden is then declared president-elect.
Like many who have never felt it necessary to investigate anything, Biden seems to have swallowed whole the idea that if we don’t do something right now about the climate, we have little time left. The autistic child from Sweden whose job is to enrich her parents, is still a world celebrity. “Environmentalists” are often not the people who know something about the environment, but people who “feel” about the environment. Somewhere I think I still have an entertaining video of some tree-lovers out loving trees. Did you see the news that the Christmas tree arrived at the White House with an owl still tucked in among the branches.? Cute little fellow.
Filed under: Big Tech, Capitalism, Capitalism, China, Conservatism, Cuba, Democrat Corruption, Economics, Economy, Education, Election 2020, European Union, Freedom, History, Immigration, Law, Politics, Progressivism, Socialism, Taxes, The United States, Venezuela | Tags: Electoral "Irregularities", Electoral College, The President Elect
There is, as yet, no President-Elect, nor will there be until December 14, when the Electoral College meets. Al Gore historically had 37 days to challenge the election, and President Trump deserves as much, since there were so many “irregularities” in this one. “Irregularities” is simply a nice word for blatant fraud, massive cheating, and computerized switching of votes. The American people have a right to have confidence in an election.
I want to quote a bit from Paul Mirengoff, one of the attorneys at the Powerline blog. His piece was titled “Biden Deserves Worse During the Transition Than He’s Likely to Get.”
In 2016, Democrats, Obama administration officials and liberal media moved quickly to target President-elect Trump. Over 73 days, there were calls for impeachment, a resistance movement, attempts to infiltrate the Electoral College, false opposition research and FBI surveillance. . . .
Do read the whole thing, I’d forgotten a lot of it, and you probably have too. There was no interest in a peaceful transition, they just wanted to spoil everything about the new administration that they could.
They boycotted the Inauguration, 53 members of Congress refused to attend, accusing Trump of conspiring with Russia to top the election. After 3 years of investigation, there was no such evidence. They organized a resistance movement inside the administration, including the FBI.
Attorney General Barr summarized the Obama administration’s resistance to the president elect:
Immediately after President Trump won election, opponents inaugurated what they called ‘The Resistance,’ and they rallied around an explicit strategy of using every tool and maneuver available to sabotage the functioning of his Administration. Now, ‘resistance’ is the language used to describe insurgency against rule imposed by an occupying military power. It obviously connotes that the government is not legitimate. This is a very dangerous — indeed incendiary — notion to import into the politics of a democratic republic.
This is going way too far with partisanship. The United States of American is a big powerful country, and for that we are widely hated, no matter how kindly our intentions. There are some who want a one world government, want us to be a subsidiary of the more fashionable European Union, some are convinced that the world is in the final days of global warming, and if we don’t fix that right now, we’re done. The earth has been warming and cooling for millions of years, and there is no scientific evidence that it will not continue to do so. Some have the illusion that Socialism or Communism would at last make everybody equal, which is utter nonsense.
And then there is China, and we don’t know what their intentions are, but there is no indication of peaceful friendship. Their treatment of the Uyghurs is very revealing. Chinese of a different religion, millions of them in concentration camps, worked to death and the women used as prostitutes for the Chinese military. Look that up online.
If you find viewpoints troublesome, take the time to study up, so you know what you are talking about, and voting for. How much of the bureaucracy is useful, and how much is just making nice occupations and income for friends and relatives? That’s encompassed in the word bureaucracy. A lot of that obviously goes on. Presidents are just people, and governments are composed of people, and we’re a flawed species. Nobody’s perfect.
I am listening to Joe Biden’s ideas and proposals as we hear them, and I am not looking forward to a Biden administration. Forgiving all student loans? Nice for the young people who face them, but why should the taxpayers pay for their failure to pay them off. Nationalized health care? Britain has had national health care for years, and it is demonstrably not something to be desired. Making Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. into states so the Democrats can maintain control? Increasing the numbers of illegal aliens allowed in the country, because they are likely to vote Democrat? Socialism may look good from the outside, but there’s little difference between Socialism and Communism, and there is a reason why Cubans head for the United States with anything that will float. Listen to the Venezuelans. That used to be a beautiful prosperous country.
We are a most fortunate people. Our founders were aware of trying to make simple rules for a new country, with full recognition of what was wrong with the old one, what the reason was that they had given up on their old home in the search for something unknown, but better. If you do not have a copy of the Constitution, you can get a pocket-sized version for $4.95 from Amazon or the Cato Institute store. Cato has a 10 copy package for $10.00 so you can be sure that each member of your family has one. I’ve had that version in my desk drawer for years, and find that I refer to it more often than the dictionary.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Coronavirus, Democrat Corruption, Election 2020, Health Care, History, Media Bias, National Security, Politics, Progressives, Progressivism, The United States | Tags: COVID-19, Elderly Victims, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York City.
As I was saying, thank goodness that it’s only a few days till the election. Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York State, has just announced that “I’m holding Trump Responsible for Every’ Coronavirus Death in this Country.” He actually said that on ABC’s “The View”
Governor Andrew Cuomo, undoubtedly thinking that he was doing the right thing, sent 6,300 Covid-19 elderly patients to nursing homes, assuming that the older folks would be better cared for by people accustomed to caring for the elderly. Dreadful mistake. One of the highest nursing home death tolls in the nation.
Cuomo has blamed everyone else, but not himself. Now he has settled on President Trump, because the Democrats are hoping that blaming Trump for all the coronavirus deaths will win the election for them.
On Tuesday, Cuomo was asked about a report from the Associated Press that his team had added more than 1,700 deaths to the count of those who died in nursing homes, bringing the total to at least 4,813. “I don’t know the details, frankly,” the governor answered, turning to an aide. Sgt. Schultz reporting for duty!
I guess there are examples in history of those who have denied something or other until their deathbeds. Does it work? I have no idea, but it’s quite clear that the governor made a dreadful mistake. Is it better to admit it or just deny forever. Trying to blame President Trump, however, is really dirty, extremely dirty, politics.
As I pointed out earlier, back when we first learned about the virus and it’s potential pandemic, Dr. Deborah Birx, presidential advisor with Dr. Anthony Fauci early on, said that if we were very, very lucky and did everything right, we might get only around 200,000 deaths from the pandemic. We’re at 213,000 now.
Democrats are desperate to blame Trump for the deaths, will it work? Probably with the Hollywood crowd, who seem to find it useful to proclaim their hatred for the President. I am thoroughly sick of Hollywood ‘”celebrities” and it will probably be a long time before I ever see a Hollywood movie again. British movies are usually better anyway.
Donald Trump, whether you like him or not, has done a very good job with the virus. (Including trying out the disease for himself and his family). He sought out the most recommended advisers, did everything he could to fulfill the needs of the Governors, who expressed their gratitude for his help. Forced the Auto industry to make ventilators, the military set up temporary hospitals in tents and stadiums, he sent our hospital ships to New York and to the West Coast. Has done what he can to help other countries as well, and is sharing what we have learned with the rest of the world. So all of the deaths from the coronavirus, are his fault?
As I was saying, politics gets pretty nasty in the final days of an election.
Filed under: Big Tech, Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Conservatism, Coronavirus, Democrat Corruption, Economics, Election 2020, Freedom, Health Care, History, Media Bias, Politics, Progressivism, Socialism, The United States | Tags: Big Tech, Covid-19 Coronavirus, The Election
The days close to an election get a little wild. Everyone is panicking. at least slightly, and frightened that the opposition will possibly win, so it’s getting nasty out there. Congress has called Big Tech in before them to have a little discussion about their interference in the election which has gone far beyond what is allowed or permissible. Or if the laws don’t control what they have done, Congress may have to fix the laws, which is completely within their power. Twitter is, of course the biggest offender, but the others are not far behind.
Corporations used to understand their role, but Big Tech has been called “masters of the universe” in jest so often that they may have come to believe it, to assume that their “fact-checkers” have some validity, or that their interference is fine because all their employees agree with them anyway. Congress does not agree, and if they need to fix the laws, Congress will do just that. Corporations used to have a clear idea of their role, which was to cooperate and stay out of it.
Democrats biggest claim is that Donald Trump is somehow responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, responsible for all the deaths, and it is all clearly his fault. So There! Au contraire. Back when the Chinese virus first arrived and we first began to understand what we might be in for, Dr. Deborah Birx who was adviser to the president along with Dr. Anthony Fauci said that if we were very fortunate and very lucky, we might have only somewhere around 200,000 deaths over the course of the disease. We are at 231,000 today, so perhaps we have done pretty well, while regretting every loss.
Democrats are now preparing to impeach Amy Comey Barrett. They don’t know what for yet, but they’ll find something. Which shows not how much they dislike the immensely competent and capable new justice of the Supreme Court, but that they do not understand the purpose of the Supreme Court and view it as a partisan organization, which they must control along with everything else. Their drive for control of the economy is insatiable, so perhaps the Bidens are not the only ones prospering from their time in public office.
I’m beginning to think we should change the qualifications to run for public office which should be adjusted a little more, and require some greater understanding of American history and contemporary economics. Kamala Harris’s husband, Douglas Emhoff, remarked that his wife was going to be the President of the United States, so apparently they don’t think Joe Biden is going to make it through a full term either.
Be sure to vote, only once each, please. And take it very seriously, for it is a very serious matter.
ADDENDUM: One would think that businesses would understand that probably half of their customers would belong to the opposite party, and wouldn’t approve of being lectured to or their expressing their party line.
Filed under: Capitalism, Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Economics, Election 2020, Environment, Global Warming, History, Junk Science, Media Bias, Progressivism, The United States | Tags: Christiana Figueres, Climate Change, Elizabeth Warren
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,” stop 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 means that I learned how to read hard stuff, and read a lot. That does not mean that I’m always right, much as I like to think so. Christiana Figueres, the General Secretary of the IPCC, 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 to them are business CEOs and owners, and the “Rich”. The Left is entitled to be in charge because they are morally superior, it would be helpful if we all understood that.
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 sense of 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.
Elizabeth Warren ranted that President Trump was trying to kill everybody in the world because he would not correctly address climate change, or something like that. The very slight warming we have had has brought enormous blessings to the world. The slight increase in the amount of CO² in the atmosphere has been a bounty for mankind for it is a natural fertilizer for plants. More bountiful crops mean the hungry are well fed and there is less starvation in the world. Forests grow more as well, and there is more wood for fuel and for building homes.
In case there is any confusion, Elizabeth Warren is calling her climate program “The Blue New Deal”. Don’t want any confusion with the Green thing.
Do make time to visit Climate Depot and Dr. Roy Spencer and the others listed in the sidebar. There’s an enormous amount of hype out there, and the best defense are informed citizens. Solar energy and wind energy are nice, when they aren’t killing birds, but they cannot provide the energy needed by a modern society. Just doesn’t work.
Filed under: Conservatism, Democrat Corruption, Election 2020, History, Law, Politics, Progressivism, The Constitution, The United States | Tags: Appellate Court, Notre Dame Law School, Supreme Court
Another strange day as we move ever closer to the election. Amy Coney Barrett appeared before the Judicial Committee, beginning the first step towards confirmation. So naturally a bunch of women turned up outside in “Handmaiden” costumes in reference to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel about women forced to be reproductive factories. Unpleasant book, dumb idea, don’t bother reading it.
If you are attracted to the idea, Amazon has “handmaiden” costumes for sale. Possibly in preparation for demonstrations? Halloween is coming up. As a demonstration against a candidate for the Supreme Court, it is not only beyond ignorant, but shows no understanding whatsoever of what a judge actually does, nor what the Supreme Court does. We do need to get our schools teaching a little history and civics. Which means that if you have kids in public school, you need to pay close attention to what they are learning. There are a lot of examples out there of kids being instructed on who to support in the upcoming election, which is not a teacher’s job.
It would be highly improper for a prospective judge to indicate in any way their feelings about issues that might come before the court. Judges don’t rule on what they like and don’t like. They consider all the implications of the precise case before them and how it relates to the Constitution of the United States of America.
There were, of course, questions about Barrett’s religious faith. She is a practicing Catholic, Some find that worrying, The first Amendment states firmly: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. “
I copied the whole thing because we seem to be deep into First Amendment territory right now, especially the “peaceably to assemble” bit. That’s where all the descriptions in the press came from. Peaceful protest.
Amy Coney Barrett is a splendid nomination, and will be an excellent addition to the Court.
Filed under: Capitalism, Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Economy, Election 2020, Health Care, History, Media Bias, Politics, Science/Technology, The United States | Tags: COVID-19, Fact Checking, Internet Changes.
The internet is changing. Of course it is always changing, but the way in which it is changing is something new. The initial idea was that it would be an opportunity for what were formerly magazines available in bookstores or by subscription to have a second outlet, and far more would be available for free. It was assumed that the ability to reach so many people online would create advertising that could reach so many people that it would pay for everything.
Different people use the internet differently. I’m a reader, and am usually looking for information rather than entertainment. Others want to share their lives with their friends and the internet replaces a lot of phone calls and letters with the ability to include pictures and have lots of sharing. Some use it entirely for work, and get their entertainment from television or online movies. I’m looking for world and national news, politics, general information. I do not want to hear from Hollywood “celebrities” at all. If they make a good movie, I might go to a theater, but their abilities lean toward acting, not useful thought. “Celebrities” have name recognition and are “click-bait” for websites. So would-be celebrities no longer have to pay press agents, they only need to say something outrageous, and their utterances make “news.” I don’t want an internet that is all about people insulting each other.
Google has taken over control of advertising, and where ads can be placed on the page and where they can appear. Along with many others, I’m annoyed by ads that block or limit the piece I am trying to read. There are others who don’t like ads, so an industry has sprung up to make ads less frequent or even to make them disappear (for a fee). So, surprisingly there are ads for services that remove all ads, which has resulted in websites demanding that you block your ad removal service or they won’t let you read the piece you are reading. Google lets you block ads but wants to know why you are blocking them, I presume to try to discover your reasoning and figure out how to get around it.
Ads are not producing the revenue needed to pay for the staff of writers that the various websites have employed. You have undoubtedly noticed that the websites are asking you to subscribe to get the important pieces, which they will label to show that you can only read them if you have subscribed. The question now is if you will subscribe so you can read everything, and if the number of people who will subscribe is enough to pay the salaries and benefits of all the writers the website wants to employ, and helps to maintain the cost of having a website. Everybody’s expectations were perhaps a little higher then was justified.
How many websites do you visit each day, how many of those want you to subscribe? I visit about 20 websites each day. I could whittle that down a bit, but if you multiply the monthly cost of all for 12 months, and add it all together, it’s a fairly significant sum. Not going to happen. How will the internet develop to cope with all this? I spent a lot of years working in advertising, and some significant shifts from Google would improve things.
Tried tonight to watch a bit of the vice-presidential candidates’ debate. Different moderator, different tactics, but impossible to limit candidates to the assigned time. Kamala Harris has come equipped with many attack modes, most of them simply political attacks that are completely untrue. Many might believe your attack that President Trump did not respond correctly to the Covid -19 virus, but it’s just false.
The virus was unknown when it hit the nursing home in the next suburb to the north of my house, but as soon as it became known that a visitor who was returning from Wuhan, China had infected many of the residents, President Trump slammed a halt to all traffic from China. In January, which provoked screaming outrage from Democrats who accused him of racism and xenophobia. He promptly began a deliberate and thorough response to the needs of each state. We had to learn about the virus before we could do the right thing.
To try to blame President Trump for all the corona-virus deaths to date (and in the future) is absurd. Kamala Harris is attempting to use in the debate tonight all the party-line accusations the Democrats have come up with so far, most of them unfair or untrue. Many actions taken with care turned out to be unneeded (like the tent hospitals the military set up) that were not used at all. Ms. Harris is not projecting vast competency.
Joe Biden has spent 36 years in Congress as a likeable senator, without significant accomplishment, and 8 years as Barack Obama’s vice president. He is 77 years old, and appears to be afflicted by “senior moments” or some oncoming dementia which many find troubling for a future president. Many worry that Kamala Harris could become president for she doesn’t seem qualified. Biden’s family seems to have been significantly enriched by vice-presidential influence. In a political season, the charges will be many, and not all of them are true, as I’m sure you have noticed, and internet fact-checks aren’t significantly accurate.
Donald Trump has been attacked with the most vicious slanders that the Democrats can find. I can’t remember a campaign ever that has been so angry and so unfair. Trump is not one to suffer silently, and Twitter has been his major outlet. He slams right back. Many find his “tweets” “unpresidential”, which depends on your ideas of the proper words of a president. I’ve lived through a significant number of Presidents, but this campaign really is different. We are faced with a pandemic from Wuhan, China that has killed thousands across the world. We have had to learn about it slowly, step by step. Most of the rest of the world has suffered too. Stop and think about the toilet paper crisis.
The U.S. has had 7,640,890 confirmed cases. 214,947 deaths, and 4,958,850 Americans have recovered. Joe Biden tried to claim there were 200 million deaths, so you see how easy it is to get tangled up in the numbers. Two hundred thousand is still too many. Globally there have been 36,063,675 confirmed cases and 1,054.153 deaths while around 25 million have recovered.
Democrats are urging people to avoid the vaccines that may be available before the end of the year, because” Trump is involved”. That’s going too far. People are apt to fear vaccines, but when you understand the testing involved, our official guidelines are pretty trustworthy. There are protocols in the United States for vaccines to make sure that none are released before they have been thoroughly tested and are remarkably safe.
When you know your history, of pandemics and new medicines and new treatments, the United States ranks remarkably highly for such a big country. We have a really fine medical sector, and they do a pretty good job. Lots of diseases still out there, but they are working hard to conquer them. News today about planets that seem to be habitable, and perhaps even more habitable than this one. And now we have a Space Force, and what is next, and where will we go?
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?
American Elephants 