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, 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, Big Technology, Capitalism, Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Election 2020, Free Markets, Free Speech, Politics, Progressivism, Regulation, Technology, The Constitution, The United States | Tags: American Freedom, Big Tech, Censoring, Twitter
Corporate leaders used to rise through the ranks, much like the military, through gradually getting promoted to higher responsibility, if you were worthy. The first mass produced personal computers didn’t appear until 1977, and I imagine it took quite a few years before they were common. Jack Dorsey sent the first message on Twitter on March 21, 2006, and it was 2010 when they unveiled “promoted Tweets,” ads that would appear in search results as a revenue source. So there’s not a long history of learning how to behave in the American corporate world. Heretofore corporations went to great lengths to stay out of politics, partly presumably, because it was assumed that their employees would have differing allegiances and party preferences.
As Josh Hammer wrote at American Greatness this week:
The increasing brazenness with which the various Big Tech behemoths distort their search algorithms to hide conservative viewpoints, undermine conservatives through “shadow banning” and weaponize the sanctimonious and self-serving “fact-checking” cottage industry to suppress conservative voices has long been clear to those of us who, to use the parlance of the day, are “very online.”That kind of common sense is no longer the case.
The American people are becoming aware of the Big Tech efforts to control conservative viewpoints, and they are not happy. The demands for the federal government to step in and break up these companies is growing increasingly common. Facebook and Twitter ganged up against “the New York Post, founded by Alexander Hamilton, and is today the nation’s oldest continually operating daily broadsheet in galling fashion.” They broke an important story about Hunter Biden’s dealings with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, and his efforts to get Burisma people in contact with the “right” people in Washington DC through his connections with his father. The Post is one of the nation’s largest daily newspapers by circulation, and no one actually seems to be denying the Post’s reporting.
The Senate prepared to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but they hastily responded that they would be happy to be there without being subpoenaed. Our Constitution usually deals with what the government may or may not do, and only the 13th amendment deals with the private sector at all. There are quite a few of our representatives in Congress who have already spoken out on this matter, and they are well aware that they have the responsibility of dealing with threats to our liberty. Suppressing the views of one of America’s political parties in the run-up to an election isn’t going to work. If they were paying attention, they might have noticed that as a whole, America’s responsible corporate leaders were not out playing politics. There is a reason for that.
ADDENDUM: They also seem to have a major problem with their “fact=checking”. I don’t know how they have arranged it, but they might start with someone who is highly literate and widely read. The current office holders don’t know the difference between a “trusted source” and someone of the correct (in their minds) political persuasion. In short, the fact-checking is embarrassing.
I apparently misspoke. They still may be subpoenaed. That remains to be seen. It’s clear that there is a lot of anger out there at Big Tech, and they might do well to be very cooperative. Apparently many of their employees really hate Trump, so they’re stuck between the proverbial rock and…Did you ever hear, ever? of employees demanding that management conform to their political preferences? We have a lot of ignorance of history, of the Constitution, and ordinary good manners there.
Filed under: Asia, China, Communism, Environment, Foreign Polidy, India, Iran, Iraq, News, Politics, Technology, The United States | Tags: All of Asia, Glacier Fed, The Tibetan Plateau
While we are complaining about smoky air, there are a few towns that have completely burned up. Destroyed by fire. Some lives lost, I’m not clear if it is among the firefighters or just people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
On the other side of the world, the world is watching to see if China’s Three Gorges Dam survives the flooding of the Yangtze River. Fascinating article.
That led to the Epoch Times and a long interview with Maura Moynihan, daughter of the former Senator and former Ambassador to China. She is an activist about Tibet, the plateau that controls all of Asia, and China and the CCP. If links in the article don’t get you there, just go to Epoch Times which will. My complaints about my view and the air quality pale in comparison. I may not sleep well tonight. I learned a lot about geography, and the Chinese Communist Party, and the relations among the countries of Asia.
Moynihan suggests that the Chinese don’t know much about flood control, nor about building big environmentally sensitive dams, nor about constructing a dam to stand for years and withstand big floods. All the major rivers of Asia flow from the Tibetan Plateau, so it is a very very big deal indeed.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Coronavirus, Domestic Policy, Economics, Economy, Education, Politics, Regulation, Science/Technology, Technology, The United States | Tags: Catching COVID-19, Online Education, Reopening Schools
Our society is not quite comfortable yet with the computer world. Comfortable is the wrong word, but I don’t know what the right one is. We currently are only beginning to learn what are their real possibilities and what are their dangers. And of course the problem is not the computers, but the people operating them.
A computer is just a machine grown out of the merger of adding machines, code-breaking machines a few trips in space, television and a lot of very complicated efforts to build something new to measure and compute. (There’s a completely scientific definition for you.) But the point I’m attempting to make is that the problems or faults are people problems and faults, not machine problems, at least for the most part.
We have had a lot of very complicated efforts to create models to tell us what to expect in, for example, climate and Covid-19. Doesn’t work. The models have been wildly wrong, and cannot be depended on at all. We just don’t know enough about what we are trying to enter. And the answers we get from the models are gradually proving to be completely wrong. Lots of bureaucratic phases about lockdowns and re-opening, and particularly the opening (or not) of the schools.
So far, online education in the school system is a major flop. Teachers are afraid to go back in the schools for fear of getting the Covid virus. Kids out of school are ranging from refusing to do the online classes, to simply finding them boring and ineffective. Teachers are not expert in creating online classes. Parents have to work, and leaving the kids home is bad. Some parents are banding together and hiring tutors. All very, very complicated. President Trump is absolutely correct. The kids need to be in school.
Does everybody understand that you wear a mask to keep your exhalations from infecting anyone else — not to protect you from whatever you might breathe in?
Here’s an article from AIER, the American Institute for Economic Research, on the models and reopening. Worth your time. The photo is borrowed from that article, there were no photo credits, but it’s a fun picture.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Coronavirus, Domestic Policy, Economy, Election 2020, History, Media Bias, News the Media Doesn't Want You to Hear, Politics, Progressives, Progressivism, Science/Technology, Statism, Technology, The United States | Tags: The Corona Virus Lockdown, The Press & Journalism, Trump Derangement Syndrome
I am so sick and tired of the press. President Trump announced a halt to immigration in order to protect the jobs of so many who have lost their jobs in the current Corona virus lockdown. Many small businesses have laid off workers in reaction to the sudden drop in business because people have been ordered to stay home. The businesses hurting the most have often been small restaurants or small shops that do not have the finances to keep running anyway nor to refocus to take out, or delivery. Not highly skilled jobs. And just the kind of jobs that many new immigrants would look for, and undercut the salaries that their predecessors were receiving. President Trump clearly cares about the American people.
For the press, it was clear that President Trump just doesn’t like immigrants and has an unreasoned prejudice against them. Look how he’s always talking about his wall. I believe that the benefits of citizenship should be bestowed on those who are citizens, and those who have applied legally to become citizens. There is a legal way to do this, and we welcome legal immigrants. Democrats want more immigrants, and try to get them to the states that will increase the Democrat numbers for the census, so they can control more seats in the House of Representatives. Any pretense that they care more about immigrants is just that, a pretense.
COVID-19 has done quite a job of exposing the governors and other office holders who are having to deal with a crisis, an ongoing crisis that is doing a job on killing people. We have body counts every day, and reports on how many people have been tested and how many have caught the virus, how many have died and how many have survived. It adds a special clarity to officials words and actions, in some cases not very favorably.
Grim new rules for New York City Paramedics — do not resuscitate cardiac arrests nor bring them to Emergency Rooms. Apparently an effort to keep from overcrowding hospitals. Same day, Gov Cuomo tells the President that they don’t need the USS Comfort (the Military Hospital Ship) any more, and he can have it back. They have filled up the Javits Center with hospital beds, which is apparently still empty. (I’m on the West Coast, so if I get this wrong, let me know) I only know what I read in the press. But in next-door New Jersey, the military is putting up field hospitals.
Michigan Governor Whitmer has already had mass protests descending on the State Capitol, and Michigan residents are not happy. Going to be an interesting election this Fall.
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, China, Coronavirus, Democrat Corruption, Economics, Free Markets, Freedom, Health Care, Junk Science, Media Bias, Politics, Progressivism, Regulation, Technology, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: Grocery Stores, The Covid-19 Crisis, The Econony
The situation here with grocery stores pretty much sums up the situation nationally. Our grocery stores manage to serve our city population of 122,363 efficiently and without shortages or any particular problems. We have a wide variety of grocery chains, some smaller local stores, significant numbers of ethnic specialty stores ranging from the huge Uwajimaya to some catering to Russians, a variety of Eastern Europeans and a number of Mexican Taco trucks. The larger chains have added ethnic foods to their regular stock to appeal to the latest groups added to the workforce at Microsoft, Amazon, or the smaller businesses that depend on the giant employers. No empty shelves, and if something is missing you hardly notice.
Now, everyone is ordering their groceries to be delivered. You start with a delivery time which will probably be 5 to 6 days hence, and try to figure out what you will need by then as well as what you are out of now. I am currently OUT of coffee, and getting testy.`One chain tells you as you go along what they are out of now, the other doesn’t tell you what they are out of until you submit your order, and then you have to start over. And was it a matter of brand or language, or are they out of the whole category? The whole experience suggests that people are really “stocking-up” (hoarding) in case they have trouble finding that product next time. The more you find that they are out of something makes you want to stock-up as well — and so it goes.
The same thing is going on nationally, and not just about groceries. People and pundits are attacking the president and all of his advisors. The experts he consults are criticized, because the critic would have consulted someone else instead, and doesn’t like what the expert had to say. Governors issue lots of orders, many of them misguided, whine about supplies they are not receiving, do not appreciate what some of those still working are going through on their behalf. The truckers who are trying to deliver the needed goods cannot find food or restrooms along the highway. Which is a valid symptom of what everyone is faced with in one way or another.
Take a deep breath. Most of these people are trying to avoid any and all unnecessary deaths, and to protect the living from contagion — as their first and most compelling task. That is going to mean a lot of discomfort for others who are worried about lesser problems. Read that book you set aside a while back. Go the Hillsdale College website and take an online free course in history or government or economics for that matter. Start researching and writing down your family history. Write your own assessment of the current world situation for your children or grandchildren or the local newspaper. Learn to knit or draw. Plan a summer vegetable garden in pots or planter boxes. Type in “All About Birds” in the search bar of your computer, which will lead you to Cornell University’s website which offers just that, and plan a bird feeder or hummingbird feeder for your yard or window. Learn how to play Cribbage. Look into the history of sailing ships or early aircraft. Or just write down a list of 20 things you would like to learn about or learn how to do, and — start.
Or perhaps, write a critique of today’s mass media, and the current job of reportage. Do you think they still have journalism schools? And what are they neglecting to teach their students? Are you utterly fascinated with what the latest celebrity has to say? And why not? That should keep you busy for a while.
Filed under: Politics, Domestic Policy, Humor, Economy, News of the Weird, Japan, The United States, Regulation, India, Bureaucracy, Technology, Economics | Tags: The Morning Rush, Scooters?, Bicycles?
A couple of days into the New Year, and in spite of all the hype, things don’t seem all that much different, or do they? Back to the same old battles with the morning rush to get to work on time. But other countries have the same rush to get to work, but what they have to accept as routine is just a little bit different.
A Notable Reminder: It could be a lot worse!
Filed under: Education, Environment, Free Speech, Freedom, History, Intelligence, Science/Technology, Technology, The United States | Tags: Great Minds, The Origin of Species, Theory of Evolution
Perhaps you have noticed on the web, some remarks about scholars challenging Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Here they are with the Hoover Institute’s Peter Robinson, explaining their deviance from what has been scientific orthodoxy. This is a fascinating and very interesting video, probing some of the country’s sharpest minds, though as it happens when all were in Italy:David Berlinsky, David Gerlernter, and Stephen Meyer. Enjoy, it’s very much worth your time.
Filed under: Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Education, Election 2020, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Junk Science, Media Bias, Politics, Science/Technology, Technology | Tags: National Academy of Scientists, Professor Richard Lindzen, Professor William Happer
This is an older video, but a very good one. Dr. Richard Lindzen is one of our most respected scientists, and this simple video does a good job of clarifying the situation.
Here’s another (also older) from”Conversations that Matter” with Dr. William Happer, from Princeton University.
Most of the warming, rise of the oceans, all the stuff you hear so much panic about is measured in millimeters. If you don’t have a ruler that includes millimeters look it up. And as to warming:
The world’s 76 best Tide gauges show a mean 0.34 mm per year rise. “negligible acceleration”. There is no sign of climate models predicting sharply warming acceleration or sea level rise.
There are now around 31 different climate computer programs (the serious ones). They put in what we know, and what we think maybe we know, and a bunch of intelligent guesses. And they especially don’t know what to do about clouds. Clearly clouds have an effect on warming. Yesterday was cloudy and windy. Today the sky was blue with little wisps of transparent cloudiness. But what that influence is and what is means is a mystery. They are mostly moving.
In cities, where a lot of the measurements take place, there is a huge urban heat island effect with concrete absorbing the heat from the sun, and furnace exhaust systems, concrete pavement, concrete walls.
There’s an enormous amount that we just don’t know. And what we don’t know doesn’t seem to be a cause for alarm. Sorry, Greta. Several years ago, Christiana Figueres, who was the general secretary of the IPCC, admitted in a radio broadcast that Climate Alarmism was the best opportunity we had, to rid the world of the evils of Capitalism. Perhaps that’s where AOC gets her “Green New Deal.” Pay more attention to scientists other scientists respect, and less to movie has-beens like Jane Fonda or Leonardo Di Caprio. Better yet, study up on your own.
American Elephants 