If All You See…

By William Teach April 10, 2019 – 1:00 pm

…are horrible clouds of carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Right Scoop, with a post on AG Barr putting together an investigation into the FBI’s conduct regarding Russia Russia Russia.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 18 Comments | Trackback URL

Science Is Cool: First Picture Of A Black Hole Revealed

By William Teach April 10, 2019 – 10:16 am

I’ve been waiting for this for over a week, when it was first announced that it would be released

It’s 55 million light years away

(Fox News) Scientists have released the first-ever image of a black hole, revealing the distant object in stunning detail.

The groundbreaking discovery was made by the Event Horizon Telescope, an international project involving telescopes across the globe that describes itself as a “virtual Earth-sized telescope.” Telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, Chile, Mexico, Spain and the South Pole participated in the ambitious research project.

The black hole was spotted in galaxy Messier 87 (M87) that is 55 million light years away. A light year, which measures distance in space, equals 6 trillion miles.

“We’re delighted to report to you today that we have seen what we thought was unseeable,” explained Dr. Shep Doeleman, director of the Event Horizon Telescope, during a press conference at the National Science Foundation Wednesday. “We have taken advantage of a cosmic opportunity.”

“”If immersed in a bright region, like a disc of glowing gas, we expect a black hole to create a dark region similar to a shadow — something predicted by Einstein’s general relativity that we’ve never seen before,” explained Heino Falcke of Holland’s Radboud University and chair of the EHT Science Council, in a statement. “This shadow, caused by the gravitational bending and capture of light by the event horizon, reveals a lot about the nature of these fascinating objects and allowed us to measure the enormous mass of M87’s black hole.”

There have been photos of the supposed lensing affect of black holes, but none that ever really showed one.

Read: Science Is Cool: First Picture Of A Black Hole Revealed »

Posted in Like, Gnarly, Dude, Science | 56 Comments | Trackback URL

High Flying John Kerry Praises AOC Over Green New Deal Or Something

By William Teach April 10, 2019 – 7:47 am

John Kerry, who is really proud of flying all over the world on fossil fueled airplanes as Sec of State, squee’d a bit, but, he forgot one really, really important point

John Kerry Praises Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Leadership’ with Green New Deal

Former Secretary of State John Kerry testified before the House Oversight Committee Tuesday, claiming freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has demonstrated more leadership on combating global warming than President Donald Trump “has in his lifetime.”

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): Secretary Kerry, my question to you is printing a lot of new money and opening a bunch of new public banks is a real way to pay for this Green New Deal project proposal?

JOHN KERRY: Well, let me begin by saying, Congressman, there are a lot of different proposals about how to proceed. I don’t know that any of them are coming from your party or your side of the aisle. Do you have a plan to deal with climate change? I think you said you’re not sure of the science. But my focus is on how we’re going to move forward and we all have some differences about one piece of legislation or another, but in proposing in what she has proposed together with Senator Markey, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has, in fact, offered more leadership in one day or in one week than President Trump has in his lifetime on this subject.

So, we’re talking about it, and my question is where is your proposal? Did you have any hearings on it in the last few years? Mostly on Benghazi, if I can recall, when I was up here. So, I think what we ought to do is stop the politics and get down to really serving the people of West Virginia and Kentucky.

What’s missing is that AOC has never demanded a vote in the House on the GND. Nor even just a floor debate. If the resolution is so darned “leadership”, then where are the calls for a vote? Further, she was mad that the Senate voted on the GND, a vote where almost all Democrats voted present. So much leadership that AOC didn’t seem to understand that they weren’t voting on “her” resolution as submitted to the House, but the one submitted by Senator Ed Markey (D) in the Senate.

Kerry is cute, though, with his “where is your proposal” schtick. Why would anyone submit anything for a fake science issue that’s really all about hardcore Modern Socialist politics?

But, in fact, Warmist Republican Matt Gaetz has released a legislative plan, which highlights the use of alternatives and, especially, nuclear power

U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01) announced, at a press conference on Capitol Hill earlier today, the introduction of the “Green Real Deal,” a plan to address climate change by harnessing the power of free markets, embracing technological innovation and entrepreneurship, and cutting excessive governmental red tape. Congressman Gaetz’s “Green Real Deal” is the preeminent conservative response to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (NY-14) “Green New Deal” introduced earlier this year.

Rep. Gaetz’s “Green Real Deal” recognizes that a national commitment to innovation, competitive markets, and the deployment of advanced energy technologies will help the United States as the global leader in clean energy. The Green Real Deal calls for increased investment in clean energy technology and sources, like solar and nuclear power, while improving transparency and accountability for the benefit of customers, investors, and shareholders alike. Pointing to the unprecedented demand for job-creating, American-made clean energy, as well as the need to empower individuals and businesses to come together, the Green Real Deal harnesses the power of the free market to create millions of U.S. energy jobs and secure the nation’s position as a global environmental leader.

He’s doing the right thing for the wrong reason, namely, anthropogenic climate change. But, it is a decent plan, meant to limit the input and control by and of the federal government. All the taxes and fees that Warmists usually love are missing (Gaetz has never supported a carbon tax, cap and trade, etc.). All the big government dominance and decrees in controlling our lives are gone. Kerry wanted a plan, here’s one.

Read: High Flying John Kerry Praises AOC Over Green New Deal Or Something »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Democrats, Global Warming | 7 Comments | Trackback URL

Rep. Omar (D) Describes 9/11 Attack As “Some People Did Something”

By William Teach April 10, 2019 – 7:26 am

Unsurprisingly, you aren’t going to find any mention of this on the front pages of most news outlets, because it once again paints Ilhan Omar in a really bad light, to go with her Israel and Jew hatred. Nothing in the NY Times, NY Daily News, ABC, CBS, or NBC news, all stationed in NYC. Nothing from the Washington Post, LA Times, nor the main Minnesota newspaper, the Star Tribune.

Crenshaw calls out Omar for describing 9/11 attacks as ‘some people did something’

Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar is facing backlash after her speech at a Muslim rights group’s event in which she described the September 11, 2001 terror attacks as “some people did something.”

Omar spoke at a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) fundraiser last month, where she called upon other Muslim Americans to “make people uncomfortable” with their activism and presence in the society and criticized the Jewish state.

But another part of the speech surfaced on social media earlier this week, in which Omar described the terror attacks perpetrated by al Qaeda.

“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” Omar said at the event.

The comments from the Minnesota freshman Democrat, still reeling from a number of anti-Semitic controversies, prompted Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw to slam Omar for her description of the terror attacks.

“First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as ‘some people who did something,’” Crenshaw wrote in a tweet. “Unbelievable.”

It’s not particularly surprising, as many, many Muslims here in the U.S. took the side of the the Muslim extremists, while many others were just agnostic on the whole matter. Most are smart enough to keep these views among themselves, which, really, was probably what Omar thought would happen here, speaking in front of her buddies linked to Islamic extremist groups, as they run along the manner of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is really the top of the extremist chart.

And she doesn’t even understand CAIR’s history. It was founded in 1994, not 2011, and one of the reasons was that some were upset over the depiction of Muslims as terrorists in the movie “True Lies”. So, CAIR immediately started palling around with Hamas.

“Ilhan Omar isn’t just anti-Semitic – she’s anti-American. Nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives to Islamic terrorists on 9/11, yet Omar diminishes it as: ‘Some people did something.’ Democrat leaders need to condemn her brazen display of disrespect,” said GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.

Democrats want this to go away, so, their buddies in the news media have complied.

She’s proud she’s an Israel and Jew hater, and a 9/11 dismisser.

*In the photo, every single square is where someone jumped and hit the ground at the World Trade Center.

Read: Rep. Omar (D) Describes 9/11 Attack As “Some People Did Something” »

Posted in 2996, Democrats | 63 Comments | Trackback URL

California Looks To Tax Pretty Much Everything

By William Teach April 9, 2019 – 4:41 pm

Except abortions. They wouldn’t tax those

Sacramento wants to tax soda, tires, guns, water, pain pills, lawyers, car batteries…

…

But in California under Democrats, it’s tax, tax, tax — a drip and a drop, nickel and a dime — all the time. That’s not a political statement. It’s a fact.

Not all taxes are evil. Some are justified. But many are unwarranted. And others are eye-rollers.

One of the more controversial and annoying taxes currently being proposed is a state levy on sugary soft drinks. More on that later.

Here’s an eye-roller: A bill that would authorize San Francisco to turn its crooked Lombard Street — a tourist attraction after so many movie appearances — into a toll road, maybe even requiring reservations. Think they have a traffic jam now on weekends? Wait until cars are lined up behind a tollgate.

There are a whole bunch of taxing ideas in the Capitol: on new tires, firearms, water, prescription painkillers, lawyers, car batteries, corporations based on their CEO pay, estates worth more than $3.5 million, oil and gas extraction. The list goes on.

The oil and gas extraction tax is long overdue. We’re the only major oil-producing state without one. It would raise an estimated $1.5 billion a year.

The California Tax Foundation has counted more than $6.2 billion worth of tax increase proposals pending in the Legislature. It expects the figure to grow substantially as bills are amended with details.

But, really, guess who this would effect? Nope, not the rich Hollywood stars and political elites. All these taxes get passed on, and decrease economic activity

Polls show that California voters already think they’re overtaxed. No surprise there.

When voters were asked recently by the Public Policy Institute of California whether they paid more or less state and local taxes than they should, the answers were: more 63%, the right amount 32%, less 4%.

Yet, these idiots keep voting for Democrats. But

Meanwhile, there’s a legislative proposal to lower the marijuana tax. We want more potheads but fewer soft drink sippers. Crazy.

Priorities.

Read: California Looks To Tax Pretty Much Everything »

Posted in Liberal World, Taxation | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach April 9, 2019 – 1:00 pm

…are horrible fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Jihad Watch, with a post on Muslim groups in New Zealand making demands.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

Climate Nutters To Protest DNC Debates

By William Teach April 9, 2019 – 10:45 am

People say they care about Hotcoldwetdry, but, at the end of the day, it usually polls last or next to last on the issues that people care about, even among Democrats. So, sure, why not create a big fuss?

Climate Activists Have Their Next Target: The DNC Debates

No city better embodies the challenges of climate change than the setting for the first Democratic debate in June. At least 10 candidates who meet the DNC’s set of polling and grassroots fundraising criteria will take the stage in Miami, a city that will face the threat of encroaching seas on a daily basis in the next 25 years. Many of the climate activists who have spent their time recently urging presidential hopefuls to embrace the Green New Deal and reject donations from fossil fuel industries are preparing for their next battle: pushing for a future presidential debate focused entirely on climate.

Environmental and progressive groups including 350.org, Greenpeace, Sunrise movement, Credo Action, and Friends of the Earth plan to ramp up campaigns in the coming weeks and months calling on the Democratic National Committee, as well as the major networks and individual 2020 candidates, to dedicate one of the dozen official debates to a subject that has never gotten its due in primetime.

Awesome. They’ll all be traveling using sources other than fossil fuels, right? BTW, if sea rise was so important for the Miami area, you’d think NOAA would have an active tide gauge. Nope. It was last active in 1981. The closest good ones are in Vaca Key, which shows a sea rise of 1.2 feet per 100 years, way up in Mayport, which shows .86 feet per 100 years (this is a long term gauge), and Key West, at .79 feet (another very long term gauge). These are all less than average for a Holocene warm period.

“We’re seeing a shift in people’s consciousness,” Janet Redman, Greenpeace USA’s climate program manager, told Mother Jones. “We need to see that starting to be reflected in our politics—that it’s not an isolated set of incidents or phenomenon. The public is craving politicians to have a conversation on this. They want to know real solutions.”

“Craving!” It was virtually a non-issue during the 2018 mid-terms. Same with 2016. 2014. 2012. Etc. It wasn’t even that big an issue when Al Gore was running. Those pushing it now, like Jay Inslee (who’s made it his #1 issue), are polling low. If the Green New Deal is so important, why are Warmists not demanding a debate and vote in the House?

But this year is likely to be different. After another year of record wildfires and extreme weather, capped off by alarming headlines from the normally staid Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Democratic primary voters have never been more concerned about climate. According to a Des Moines Register, CNN, and Mediacom poll in March, 80 percent of those polled said candidates should spend “a lot” of time talking about climate change, placing this issue only second to concerns about health care. And the vision for the Green New Deal, when stripped of partisan context, has polled at astoundingly high ratesacross partisan lines.

No, it won’t be different. But, hey, I’d love for Democratic candidates to be asked what they want to do, whether they support carbon taxes and fees, if they’re for forcing people to give up their fossil fueled vehicles and take trains and buses, have the government take over the energy sector and the economy, control our lives at the federal level, and so forth.

Read: Climate Nutters To Protest DNC Debates »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Democrats, Global Warming | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

NY Times Tries Another Route To Get Unredacted Mueller Report

By William Teach April 9, 2019 – 7:05 am

Democrats in Congress do not want the full report in order to peruse it and verify themselves that what they’ve been screeching about for over two years was false. Nope, they want the full report in order to leak portions that might possibly embarrass Trump. Those in the House know that, since Democrats control the House, there will really be no repercussions for leaking. If they were serious about being serious, they’d simply wait for the report, which will have redactions per law, but, no, they keep reaching

Subpoena Isn’t the Only Way to Get the Mueller Report

The House Judiciary Committee may be sitting on its subpoena for the Mueller report, but under federal law, certain other committees need neither a subpoena nor a court order to get access to it and its underlying materials, including grand jury testimony and documents.

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees should already have certain investigative materials relating to Russian election meddling, in unredacted form, collected by the special counsel, Robert Mueller.

This legal structure was created by a provision in the Patriot Act combined with the notification provisions of the National Security Act. The intelligence committees have a lawful right, virtually unbounded, to foreign intelligence information in the possession of the intelligence agencies of the executive branch.

Federal law requires that the attorney general provide to the director of national intelligence any foreign intelligence information collected during a criminal investigation. Then the director must by law provide it to the intelligence committees of Congress — either by sending a notification or acting in response to a request from the committees. The director has an obligation to inform policymakers, including Congress, of intelligence assessments so that they can take steps to protect the American people.

The Mueller investigation wasn’t a criminal investigation. It was, at its base form, meant to “investigate any links and/or collusion between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump”, as well as whatever interference from Russia that occurred. If something arose that was criminal, they could do something about it. So, only a very small portion of the investigation ended up being criminal, and most of that was process crimes, and had nothing to do with foreign intelligence.

The process is not a partisan tool or a method to take down President Trump. It’s about national security.

So, it’s a partisan tool and method to take down the President Trump.

As a nation in 2001 we learned a very painful lesson, that keeping vital foreign intelligence from the intelligence agencies, and ultimately Congress, must give way in the face of potential terrorist attacks.

Yes, Vickie Divoll, who was general counsel for the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2001 to 2003 and is a former deputy legal adviser to the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorist Center, just compared this to 9/11 (say, which Party put in the rules about sharing intelligence between agencies?)

Read: NY Times Tries Another Route To Get Unredacted Mueller Report »

Posted in Democrats, Unhinged Tools | 24 Comments | Trackback URL

Trump Declares Iranian IRGC Terrorist Group, Resistance Upset

By William Teach April 9, 2019 – 6:48 am

Iran is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, particularly against Israel (which Democrats hate) and America (which Democrats hate). Democrats have to back Iran, after Obama did the horrendous Iran deal, and because they have a kneejerk reaction to oppose everything Trump

Trump designates elite Iranian military force as a terrorist organization

President Donald Trump announced Monday the US will formally designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, a move some in the administration had opposed over concerns about potential risks to US troops in the Middle East.

The step “recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft,” Trump said in a statement that described the IRGC as “the Iranian government’s primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign.”

Administration officials said the move is a response to Iran’s destabilizing behavior across the Middle East, including support for the regime in Syria, Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as for assassination plots in Europe and the US.

The announcement aims to drive a stake through the heart of a central institution in Iran. Formed after the Islamic revolution in 1979, the IRGC is not only Iran’s most powerful military institution, it holds deep influence over domestic politics and the economy, with interests extending to and beyond the construction, telecommunications, auto and energy industries.

So, of course, the Washington Post “analyzes” (meaning some opinion) this, and finds it to be problematic

“This so-called ‘maximum pressure’ strategy demonstrates that not a lot of thought was given about the complexities involved in the designation, such as the fact that the IRGC is not a monolith and is also made up of conscripts who have no choice but to serve,” Holly Dagres, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said to Today’s WorldView. She added that this was part of the reason the national security establishment in Washington long resisted making the move.

The White House’s targeting of Iran also betrays its deep ideological animus toward Tehran. It has entertained no similar measures for the military intelligence services in Pakistan or the Persian Gulf monarchies, which, at various points have maintained their own networks of support for a host of extremist groups with blood on their hands. Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of the National Interest, argued that the latest decisionwas “championed by the lurid duo of John Bolton and Mike Pompeo” — Trump’s national security adviser and secretary of state, respectively — neoconservatives who are leading the president “willy-nilly, to a fresh conflict in the Middle East.”

That’s a point that the more unhinged are making all over Twitter, that Trump and Pompeo want to start a war with Iran. Let’s face it, if Trump said he was removing all sanctions against Iran and reaching out to do a big deal, the #Resistance and #NeverTrumpers would find a problem with that

At minimum, the U.S. designation forecloses the remote prospect of rapprochement between the Trump administration and the Islamic Republic, goads the Iranians into taking provocative action, and would make returning to the nuclear deal — something some Democrats have vowed to do should they win in 2020 — a more complicated and difficult exercise.

Question: why would we want rapprochement with Iran, when the government leads chants of “Death To America” and sponsors terrorism against our citizens? Right, right, TDS.

Oh, hey, we have a “distraction” call! Many are also thinking that this is Trump assisting Netanyahu, they just don’t say how.

Read: Trump Declares Iranian IRGC Terrorist Group, Resistance Upset »

Posted in Current Affairs, Donald Trump, Iran | 20 Comments | Trackback URL

Bummer: Rhino Poacher Crushed By Elephants, Eaten By Lions

By William Teach April 8, 2019 – 3:59 pm

Does it make me a bad person that I got a good laugh at this?

RHINO POACHER CRUSHED BY ELEPHANT, DEVOURED BY LIONS IN KRUGER NATIONAL PARK

A suspected rhino poacher was trampled to death by an elephant and his body devoured by lions in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, officials said Monday.

South African rangers have recovered the skull of the man in the vast Kruger sanctuary, which has born the brunt of much of the country’s poaching crisis.

According to a park spokesman, rangers were alerted after the victim’s alleged accomplices told his family that he had been crushed to death by an elephant. (snip)

“Our field rangers looked around the area and made the unfortunate discovery of a skull. That was the only remaining part of the deceased,” Kruger national park spokesman Isaac Phaahla told AFP.

He said a pride of lions was thought to have been in the area and were believed to have devoured the man’s remains.

The other men involved were arrested and will soon have their day in court. Too bad you can’t throw them out there in the wild to fend for themselves. And, yes, I am a little extreme on certain environmental issues.

Read: Bummer: Rhino Poacher Crushed By Elephants, Eaten By Lions »

Posted in Environment | 3 Comments | Trackback URL
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