Mostly Peaceful Protest In Baltimore Includes Broken Windows, Thrown Rocks, Damaged Police Cars

By William Teach April 26, 2015 – 7:56 am

And let’s not forget about all the arrests. There’s a serious amount of dissonance going on in this NY Times article written by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Stephen Babcock

Scenes of Chaos in Baltimore as Thousands Protest Freddie Gray’s Death

OK, the headline, which is most likely written by an editor, says “chaos”

A largely peaceful protest over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a spinal cord injury in police custody, gave way to scattered scenes of chaos here on Saturday night, as demonstrators smashed a downtown storefront window, threw rocks and bottles and damaged police cruisers, while officers in riot gear broke up skirmishes and made 12 arrests near Camden Yards.

Perhaps someone in the Credentialed Media could explain why, exactly, they love using the phrase “largely peaceful”, when it is anything by? (Of course, were this a Right leaning gathering, they’d immediately deem it a riot)

Hours earlier, a racially diverse and mostly calm crowd of hundreds — and by some estimates more than 1,000 — marched through the streets, clogging intersections, carrying signs and shouting, “All night, all day, we’re gonna fight for Freddie Gray!” They made their way from the Gilmor Homes — the squat brick public West Baltimore housing development where Mr. Gray was arrested on April 12 — through the sparkling downtown harbor, a major tourist attraction here, before assembling on a plaza at City Hall.

There, Malik Shabazz, president of Black Lawyers for Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based group that called for the demonstration and advertised it on social media, told the crowd that he would release them in an hour, adding: “Shut it down if you want to! Shut it down!”

Hmm, yelling about fighting to people who were already worked up, and telling them to shut it down. (Were this a conservative crowd, the media would tell us how this was a call for violence)

Mr. Shabazz said in a later interview that his rhetoric was intended only to encourage civil disobedience — not violence — but added that he was “not surprised” by the scattered angry outbursts because people here “haven’t received justice.”

Why would he be surprised? Time and again we’ve seen these “demonstrations” turn violent. That’s not a reflection as to what happened to Freddie Gray, of which I do not know, having barely followed this. This is more about the crazy media talking point about “mostly peaceful”. It is interesting to note, though, that Baltimore is a very Liberal/Democrat city with a huge presence of Blacks in government and the police department. And a mayor, Stephanie Rawlings Blake, who is Black. Doesn’t seem that they are doing the community any good service.

Saturday’s trouble began in the early evening, when a group of protesters, as many as 100 by some accounts, split from the main group as the City Hall rally was breaking up and went on a rampage, throwing cans, bottles and trash bins at police officers, and breaking windows in some businesses. As the breakaway group reached Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles were playing the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night, it was met by police officers in riot gear.

Protesters smashed windows of some cars and blocked the corner of Pratt and Light Streets, a major intersection that is a main route to Interstate 95 and out of the city. The department used its Twitter feed to urge demonstrators to remain peaceful, and blamed the problems on “isolated pockets of people from out of town causing disturbances downtown.” Late in the ballgame, police briefly instructed fans to remain in the stadium “until further notice,” but the crowd was eventually released.

This “mostly peaceful” demonstration needed 1,200 officers to be deployed. Reason has an interesting screencap from the Camden Yards scoreboard asking people to stay in the stadium.

Of course, violence in Baltimore is nothing new. This is a city that is known for the use of bullet proof plexiglass, used extensively to separate the store workers from the consumers, often with huge amounts of the product behind the plexiglass. This is a city that had to deploy huge numbers of officers around the city to deal with violence and crime for July 4th. They’ve had to deal with large groups of Black youths committing large numbers of crimes around the Harbor area.

The People’s Power Assembly was on hand, a group that backs cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. And

Shades of Ferguson. What, exactly, did this store, its owner, and its employees have to do with the death of Freddie Gray? Lots of interesting photos at the Baltimore Sun. Looks mostly peaceful, eh?

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Mostly Peaceful Protest In Baltimore Includes Broken Windows, Thrown Rocks, Damaged Police Cars »

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If All You See…

By William Teach April 25, 2015 – 1:00 pm

…is wonderful wine which will be decimated by too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

photo 18efd46e22a8de9d4ba71c6b09eabc2c_zpsjtpmdafi.jpg

The blog of the day is Sooper Mexican, with a post on nasty military hating fraternity jerks.

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Nepal Earthquake: The Winners Of Today’s Climate Change Nuttbaggery Are…

By William Teach April 25, 2015 – 12:26 pm

So, in case you didn’t hear, there was a very big earthquake in Nepal, a 7.8. So, of course, this

https://twitter.com/UncleBibby/status/591937306942013442

More insanity below the fold

Read More »

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Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Warmist: Know What Caused All Those Mediterranean Boat Deaths? Climate Change

By William Teach April 25, 2015 – 10:31 am

Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with extremist Islamists or anything

(Breitbart) James Murray, editor of Business Green, said the deaths are “precisely the kind of disaster security analysts expect to see worsen in a world afflicted by escalating climate change.”

Admitting there may be other factors involved, including terrorism and corrupt governments, he nevertheless asserts that global warming is to blame.

“Without a rapid and successful global effort to tackle this existential threat the heart-breaking scenes of the past week and the sadness and rancour they unleash will only become more commonplace. After all, this is what climate crisis really means,” he wrote.

photo facepalm.gif

Read: Warmist: Know What Caused All Those Mediterranean Boat Deaths? Climate Change »

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Bruce Jenner: I’m A Woman And A Republican

By William Teach April 25, 2015 – 9:24 am

I’m really kinda surprised that many in the media are shocked that Bruce Jenner has stated that he’s a woman. It’s not like there haven’t been numerous stories about him transitioning. The other part is sure to drive liberals nuts

(Breitbart) In an Interview with Diane Sawyer Friday night on ABC, Bruce Jenner ended months of speculation by confirming he is in the process of transitioning into a woman.

“I’ve always been confused about my gender identity,” Jenner tearfully said at the beginning of the two-hour special, which was partially filmed inside of his home.

Then

Among the more surprising revelations, Bruce told his guest he is both a Christian and a Republican. He admitted he has at times been concerned his lifestyle puts him at odds with the Bible–in particular, the book of Deuteronomy, which classifies a man dressing as a woman as sin.

A puzzled Sawyer asked him if he identifies as a Republican, to which Jenner answered, “”Yeah. Is that a bad thing? I believe in the Constitution.”

Here’s the thing: there will certainly be people, a small number, on the right who do not like him because of this. There will be others who disagree with his lifestyle, but will be supportive of Jenner as a person. For most on the right, they won’t really care one way or the other, but, if they meet him, they’d be nice, even in disagreement. Because we understand that the content of character is more important.

You can bet that liberals will despise Jenner for coming out as a Republican. Twitchy features some of those intolerant libs.

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Washington Post: These Big Meanie Republicans Just Won’t Accept Big Government Solutions To “Climate Change

By William Teach April 25, 2015 – 7:16 am

The tag line to this piece by the Washington Post Editorial Board is “Serious politicians should welcome, not duck, a debate on global warming”. Which is interesting, considering that Warmists have constantly stated that “the debate is over!!!!!!!!” And it has been those on the Skeptic side who have constantly called for actual debate on the subject of anthropogenic global warming/climate change, with members of the Cult of Climastrology typically refusing to debate. And the notion that newspapers should not allow debate from Skeptics in articles, opinion pieces, and even in the comments is growing. But, hey, those crazy Republicans, ya know?

Republicans are engaging in smog and mirrors on climate

“CLIMATE CHANGE can no longer be denied,” President Obama said in Everglades National Park on Wednesday. “It can’t be edited out. It can’t be omitted from the conversation.” No matter how much, Mr. Obama might have added, Republican presidential hopefuls would like to neglect the matter.

Nothing says “hey, believe what I say” like taking a giant fossil fueled day trip. Or this

We’ll skip the next paragraph, which whines specifically about Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush. Bush is a Believer, he just doesn’t want Government to Do Something, which leads to

The common element among GOP leaders is resistance to the notion that the government needs a significant policy against greenhouse-gas emissions. What would the national conversation be like if Mr. Obama got his way and they accepted the need to act with ambition?

Wait, Republicans against empowering the Central Government with massive new powers to tax, spend, and control the energy sector, the economy, The People, and private entities? The hell you say!

Ironically, it wouldn’t be kind to some of Mr. Obama’s policies, but that’s not his fault. Because of the GOP’s abdication, the Obama administration has cobbled together a climate plan from legal authorities it could exercise without Congress’s say-so. The result is an awkwardly designed and inefficient approach. A more reasonable Congress could shape a more efficient plan, with an eye toward sparing the economy gratuitous pain.

In “Free Will”, Rush has a line “if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice”. The choice made by Republicans is to not pass any legislation relating to Doing Something about Hotcoldwetdry, because it is a political issue, not a scientific one. And, hey, remember when Democrats “abdicated” when they had full control of Congress and the White House?

Economists have known for decades how to do this. First, the government should eliminate energy subsidies of all kinds — for fossil fuels as well as renewable energy. Then Congress should put a significant tax on carbon-dioxide emissions and set it to rise over time. The resulting market forces would decide how the economy would move to a greener state. Consumers and businesses would have more reason to consider wasting less electricity, buying efficient appliances and investing in products that require less carbon dioxide to make. Generators of electricity would have an incentive to use cleaner fuels and renewable sources of energy — when it makes economic sense, not when the Environmental Protection Agency decides they must. Companies that exploit giveaway subsidy policies would have to compete fairly.

First, they aren’t subsidies, and the WPEB should know this, but they have been captured by the CoC talking points. Second, why would Republicans be up for these Big Central Government solutions which interfere with the private market? Socialism/Marxism/Fascism is a Democrat thing.

The nation’s climate debate has been impoverished by the absence of responsible conservative voices. A revenue-neutral carbon tax is a reform Republicans should love. It could end irrational federal subsidies, lower the GOP’s most-hated taxes and harness market efficiency to provide some insurance for the planet at a minimal cost. Instead, the party’s would-be leaders appear to be looking for any way to avoid engaging seriously.

That’s some serious sleight of hand. A carbon tax is the antithesis of free markets. But, tell you what: let’s remove all tax breaks/subsidies on all energy production, and we will see which one wins. It won’t be the alternatives, which cannot survive without those tax breaks and subsidies, nor without massive government “loans”, which so often seem to never get repaid.

Say, when will the Washington Post give up its own use of fossil fuels to deliver its dead tree editions?

Read: Washington Post: These Big Meanie Republicans Just Won’t Accept Big Government Solutions To “Climate Change »

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“Carbon Emissions” Warm The Atmosphere Faster Than We Thought Or Something

By William Teach April 24, 2015 – 4:02 pm

While the vast majority of legitimate research seems to prove that CO2 doesn’t cause the warming that the Cult of Climastrology thinks it does, Treehugger’s Sami Grove is both Very Concerned and Very Elated about other research

Cutting emissions slows climate change faster than we thought

Global carbon emissions stalled last year. China’s coal use is falling. Solar power is becoming increasingly competitive. Heck, even some forward thinking utilities arerethinking their reliance on fossil fuels.

For the first Earth Day in a very long time, I am hopeful we might see some very real progress on cutting carbon emissions, much quicker than we ever thought possible. And yet, every time I voice this optimism, the pessimists pipe up:

“We’ll never cut emissions fast enough… Runaway climate change is already upon us… Carbon emissions hang around in the atmosphere for decades… etc etc ”

I too had been under the impression that emissions cuts can take many, many decades to have an impact on the climate. So while tooling around on the internet last night, and trying to avoid annoying EArth Day press releases, I was excited to read oabout new research that came out in December last year, which suggests that CO2 emissions warm the climate quicker than we thought.

Why would he be happy about that? Because, Sami believes that if it warms it quicker, removing it can stop the warming quicker. Hey, maybe that’s the reason for this?

Read: “Carbon Emissions” Warm The Atmosphere Faster Than We Thought Or Something »

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If All You See…

By William Teach April 24, 2015 – 1:00 pm

…is wonderful wine, so necessary to discussing climate change at big parties, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Jihad Watch, with a post on a woman being branded a racist for bringing her Muslim sex abusers to justice.

Read: If All You See… »

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Cult Of Climastrology Laments This Stupid Democracy Thingy

By William Teach April 24, 2015 – 10:29 am

This is certainly not the first Warmist article complaining about democracy getting in the way of Doing Something (implementing Big Government solutions which give a central government more power over the lives of citizens, private entities, economies, and energy, all while refusing to change their own lives to accord with their belief set), nor will it be the last. Nor will it be the last which dinks and dunks around the edges of exposing that these folks are Progressives (nice fascists)

Hidden crisis of liberal democracy creates climate change paralysis

A “burning platform” with big, tangible impacts on our everyday lives is often the tipping point for concerted action. We call these crises.

Think of the G20’s actions in the wake of the global financial crisis or the global response to 9/11. Both events left governments and decision-makers with no choice but to act.

Then there are the hidden crises. These are usually not a single, explosive event, rather a pattern of events whose impacts are difficult to connect.

As such it takes time to bring to the surface the underlying cause and have it widely recognised as a crisis. It takes even more time to convince decision-makers to act.

Climate change is an obvious example of this knowledge-action gap.

Uh huh

Specifically, the failure to tackle climate change speaks to an overall failure of our liberal democratic system to:

• deliver competent, future-focused policy that can guide and give context to the pressing need for action on core challenges

• reconcile expert knowledge and community opinion to deal with the big issues of our age

You darned stupid freedom and democracy loving people!

Yet the crisis of liberal democracy remains intangible. This is because we prefer to blame the idiosyncrasies of leaders and bad leadership, rather than the system itself and its growing pattern of policy gridlock and dysfunction.

In the process, we overlook the fact that our delivery mechanism of democracy – liberal democracy – evolved out of a pre-21st century world. It was a world where the speed, scale and complexity of policy were of a dramatically lower order.

So in a globalised, digitally saturated world no longer bound by speed limits, our hands are tied by political and policy machinery, like parliaments, designed to synchronise with the 20th century’s comparatively languid rhythms of decision-making.

See? Democracy Bad! So, what can be done?

It means understanding that liberal democracy’s governance machinery – and the static, siloed policy responses generated by such democracies – is no longer fit for purpose.

It means coming up with disruptive solutions – like coalitions of countries, cities and companies to tackle climate change – that re-align this machinery with the new order of scale, complexity and speed that defines our 21st-century world.

Solutions like

More deliberative systems that directly engage citizens and deepen debate. Such systems would work to capture and grow long-term vision, values and objectives – rather than static perceptions of incremental policy decisions made for tactical reasons.

And

Granting more decision-making power to institutions independent of the government of the day, but still accountable to parliaments (such as the Parliamentary Budget Office or Infrastructure Australia). This would increase the capacity of policy planning and decision processes to have staying power beyond individual political cycles.

Wow, it’s almost like they want to take power out of the Hands Of The People and just give it to Government. As one commenter wrote “This article has Orwellian self interest written all over it.” The writers want to hand power to Government and “experts” (IPCC, anyone), which, in reality, would be even less accountable that Government and politicians are now. All for an issue that is mostly fake. But sure seems to be a way to push the Progressive (nice fascist) goal-set.

Read: Cult Of Climastrology Laments This Stupid Democracy Thingy »

Posted in Global Warming, Progressive Goals | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

USGS: Man-Made Earthquakes Increasing In U.S.

By William Teach April 24, 2015 – 7:14 am

If true, this could be seriously concerning. Until you get to the end of the USGS article, information not mentioned in the LA Times article.

(LA Times) For the first time, the U.S. Geological Survey has unveiled a map of earthquakes thought to be triggered by human activity in the eastern and central United States.

Oklahoma is by far the worst-hit state recently, according to the USGS study released Thursday. The state last year had more earthquakes magnitude 3 or higher than California, part of a huge increase recorded in recent years.

Seismic activity in Texas near the Dallas-Fort Worth area has also increased substantially recently. Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Ohio have all experienced more frequent quakes in the last year.

All of the areas highlighted on the map “are located near deep fluid injection wells or other industrial activities capable of inducing earthquakes,” the study said.

Mark Petersen, chief of the USGS’ National Seismic Hazard Project, said the pattern of increased quakes is troubling.

“These earthquakes are occurring at a higher rate than ever before, and pose a much greater risk and threat to people living nearby,” Petersen said.

On one hand, if fracking is causing these earthquakes, that is a serious concern. On the other hand, correlation is not causation. There have been many times that science has said “X is causing Y”, and then a bit of time goes by, and science says “whoops, nope, x doesn’t cause Y. Our Bad!” Of course, there are other times where science comes back, after much real world research, and confidently states that “after much research, it has been determined that X does, in Fact, cause Y”.

The release of the map comes as officials are coming to terms with the idea that wastewater disposal following oil and gas extraction is causing more earthquakes. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves shooting a high-pressure mix of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to extract oil and natural gas. The resulting wastewater is often forced underground as well, but can trigger earthquakes on faults that haven’t moved in a very long time.

We should all be a bit skeptical whenever anyone declares X. Especially when we get this from the USGS (one would have thought that the LA Times writers could have actually linked the USGS article)

The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) released a report today that outlines a preliminary set of models to forecast how hazardous ground shaking could be in the areas where sharp increases in seismicity have been recorded. The models ultimately aim to calculate how often earthquakes are expected to occur in the next year and how hard the ground will likely shake as a result. This report looked at the central and eastern United States; future research will incorporate data from the western states as well.

This report also identifies issues that must be resolved to develop a final hazard model, which is scheduled for release at the end of the year after the preliminary models are further examined. These preliminary models should be considered experimental in nature and should not be used for decision-making.

The report is based on computer models and looking into the future, and less on investigation. None of which should be “be used for decision-making”. The LA Times left that part out.

USGS scientists identified 17 areas within eight states with increased rates of induced seismicity. Since 2000, several of these areas have experienced high levels of seismicity, with substantial increases since 2009 that continue today. This is the first comprehensive assessment of the hazard levels associated with induced earthquakes in these areas. A detailed list of these areas is provided in the accompanying map, including the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Here’s a question: what about other areas that are using fracking? Are earthquakes increasing in those areas? USGS plans on more studies for the Western US. What about areas like Pennsylvania, which are increasing their use of fracking?

Wastewater that is salty or polluted by chemicals needs to be disposed of in a manner that prevents contaminating freshwater sources. Large volumes of wastewater can result from a variety of processes, such as a byproduct from energy production. Wastewater injection increases the underground pore pressure, which may lubricate nearby faults thereby making earthquakes more likely to occur. Although the disposal process has the potential to trigger earthquakes, most wastewater disposal wells do not produce felt earthquakes.

Many questions have been raised about whether hydraulic fracturing—commonly referred to as “fracking”—is responsible for the recent increase of earthquakes. USGS’s studies suggest that the actual hydraulic fracturing process is only occasionally the direct cause of felt earthquakes.

So, um, wait, the end of the USGS article is saying that the many different processes involved with fracking may, in fact, not be the cause of the earthquakes? What was the purpose of the fear-mongering in the early part of the USGS article?

All that said, this does certainly deserve more study to determine the reality. Research on the ground. What we need less of is fear-mongering with few to no facts based on preliminary models.

Read: USGS: Man-Made Earthquakes Increasing In U.S. »

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