Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
- .22 Long Rifle
- Dipnet
- Sting
- YouTube
- Fusion GPS
- EPA
- Polar Bear
- Shooter
- .22 Long Rifle. One of the indicators I have used for the last eight years is the availability of ammunition for various firearms. Following his immaculation in 2009, ammunition shortages started showing up as gun owners started building personal stocks of ammunition. This was variously referred to as hoarding by the gun grabbers. Here in AK, prices started spiking for most of the popular ammunition for personally carried firearms – 9mm, .40 and .45 caliber. .223, .22 long rifle, two of the most popular caliber ammunition were available in relatively large quantities, though prices did increase. Following the 2012 election, .22 long rifle started getting hard to find, at least up here. It stayed that way for the entirety of the second term in anticipation of California style gun laws out of congress or new rules and regulations from the regime. Interestingly enough, shotgun ammunition in 12 and 20 gauge was always available, though prices did increase. Within weeks (days?) of Trump’s election, certainly no later than Thanksgiving, I started finding .22 long rifle ammunition in local stores again – the 500 round blocks. So far, prices are not back down to where they were before 2009, but they are falling quickly and steadily. The marketplace is the single greatest way to transfer information. And with this, gun owners are expressing their view that the world has indeed changed a bit.
- Dipnet. One of the ways we here in Alaska stock our freezers with salmon is via a technique called dipnetting. Essentially you stand in the water and net red salmon as they swim past. It is also done from boat. This is the fastest growing fishery in the state, with 538,000 reds harvested that year. Peak effort year was 2014 with 36,000 permits issued, 28,000 of them fished. ADF&G is doing its level best to discourage this fishery, closing more of the Kenai river to dip netting, which will only serve to increase crowding where it is allowed. Last summer was the smallest harvest by dip netters since 2008, with only 259,000 salmon caught. As the three primary rivers – Kenai, Kasilof and Copper are large, dip netters operate against the big water, little fish theory, and there must be a lot of fish in the river for a successful day. On the Kenai, that number is over 50,000 fish. More than that, the dip netters (along with fishermen that use rod and reel) do reasonably well. Less than that, and you flog a lot of water chasing few fish. So where did the fish do last summer? Into the nets of commercial fishermen who believe that anything over minimum escapement into the river are fish stolen from them and their businesses. ADF&G commfish manages commercial fishing so as to control escapement and commercial harvest of Kenai and Kasilof salmon a priority. They used back to back to back emergency openings to ensure the 1,200 commercial permit holders in Cook Inlet got their fish. When the commercial nets are in the water, reds don’t make it to the rivers. The more continuous time commercial fishermen keep their nets in the water, the fewer fish get back into the river. Today Cook Inlet commercial fishermen have executed regulatory capture of the Board of Fish and ADF&G. They have enough political clout that the legislature is not able to respond as they should. There will be a knock-down, drag out fight at the Feb. Board of Fish meeting next month. Should commercial fishermen retain their control of the resource and other users’ interests get ignored, I predict extra-legal means of expressing displeasure. Here in Alaska, from time to time, that displeasure has expressed itself in things burning down whether it be homes, businesses or boats. I hope we don’t go there. But at this writing, I don’t see anything to keep it from happening. https://craigmedred.news/2017/01/11/dipnet-catch-disaster/
- Sting. Buzzfeed got their hot little hands on an explosive, 35-page dossier of unverified allegations against Donald Trump and released it Tuesday afternoon. John McCain passed it along to his media buddies and CNN ran with it as a breathless expose on the utter corruption of Trump and his collaboration with the Russians. Nothing in the dossier was true and it was quickly swatted aside as the pack of lies that it was. Later in the week, Trump had a meeting with intelligence officials and took a briefing about Russian involvement with the election. He did not tell his own people who he was going to be meeting with or what the topic to be discussed was going to be. Within minutes of the meeting being over, intelligence officials leaked the substance of what was being discussed to the media to damage Trump’s legitimacy as the duly elected president. The next day in his press conference, Trump called the political hacks masquerading as intelligence officials out for leaking and told the assembled reporters he had set up a sting. Looks like the embedded political hacks on the left have thoroughly corrupted the intelligence agencies, which is not a surprise as corruption is what the left always does. There is going to be a lot of housecleaning done over the next few years. And it is long past time to begin. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4110654/Trump-conducts-sting-operation-ensnare-intelligence-briefers-says-caught-leaking.html
- YouTube. YouTube took down all videos posted by the Legal Insurrection web site late last week. They claimed they had complaints by the Modern Language Association, a Palestinian sympathizer, and far, far left in its positions in the political wars. As legal Insurrection has a few brilliant minds working on it, the response was quick and quite devastating to the point where the videos were restored less than 24 hours later. Expect some legal action to be taken against Modern Language Association which made verifiably false and fraudulent claims against Legal Insurrection to shut them up. http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/01/youtube_briefly_removed_legal_insurrection_video_channel.html
- Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS is a is a Washington DC research firm. Their claim to fame is the company hired by Planned Parenthood to defend it against the O’Keefe sting videos of Planned Parenthood officials selling baby parts and organs from their chop shop operation nationwide. It was Fusion GPS that came up with the idea to accuse the Center for American Progress of conveniently editing the videos for maximum negative impact. This was done via a “forensic report” that was taken as gospel and provided talking points for PP supporters to deflect the very real criticism at the carnage and mayhem inflicted on babies by PP. Fusion GPS was also in the middle of dirt digging on Mitt Romney donors during the 2012 campaign including one Frank VanderSloot of Idaho whose original sin was to be married to a woman who donated money to anti-gay marriage campaigns. Fusion GPS was the outfit that put together the anti-Trump dossier released last week. It was constructed starting in 2015 at the request of a major anti-Trump donor whose name was not released. If you want dirty tricks these days, Fusion GPS is a good place to start. http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-sordid-history-of-the-firm-behind-the-trump-russia-dossier/article/2006254
- EPA. The wheels of justice grind slowly and they grind exceedingly fine. The EPA is being sued by targets of their anti-carbon jihad and the targets are starting to win some significant victories in court. Last week a federal judge in WV listening to a case filed by coal mining corporation Murray Energy and its affiliates found that the EPA was in violation of the Clean Air Act which states in part that the EPA
“… conduct continuing evaluations of potential loss or shifts of employment which may result from the administration or enforcement of the provision of [the Clean Air Act] and applicable implementation plans, including where appropriate, investigating threatened plant closures or reductions in employment allegedly resulting from such administration of enforcement.”
Essentially the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to analyze the economic impact on a continuing basis when enforcing the Clean Air Act, including loss of jobs. In its war on coal and CO2, the EPA has steadfastly refused. Federal Judge John Preston Bailey then issued summary judgement against the EPA, giving it 14 days to come up with a plan for compliance not only applicable to this case but to the entirety of its war on coal and CO2. He ordered the EPA to evaluate how many power plant and coal mining jobs have been lost because of anti-coal and CO2 actions by the EPA. The judge was just getting warmed up as he chewed on the EPA counsel after EPA Administrator McCarthy opined it would take the EPA a full two years to start doing something they haven’t done in decades. He noted that the “… EPA does not get to decide whether compliance with (the law) is good policy, or would lead to too many difficulties for the agency”, essentially calling it out as a lawless bunch of political hacks. Given the incoming Trump administration, I believe that Judge Bailey has just given them a megaton-class weapon against the EPA and its future lawlessness. Sometimes the Good Guys win one. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/01/federal-judge-denounces-epa-as-rogue-agency.php
- Polar Bear. Dr. Susan Crockford of Polar Bear Science blasted away at USF&WS and media malfeasance in its reporting of the latest draft report on recovery of polar bear populations in the Arctic, calling it fake news. The media was trumpeting the release of the final version of a draft report release a year ago. The report demands action on climate change or the polar bears are all gone. What the public employees did not tell the general public is that since 2007, Arctic sea ice coverage has declined from time to time to levels their sea ice colleagues predicted would not happen until 2050, yet the 2/3 decrease in polar bear population predicted did not happen. Somebody’s forecast was wrong – perhaps both are. https://polarbearscience.com/2017/01/09/fake-news-on-polar-bear-survival-predictions-is-political-posturing/
- Shooter. Latest Muslim shooting took place at the Fort Lauderdale airport. A young man flying in from Alaska who checked a handgun and ammunition through picked up his case, went into the restroom, loaded up, and came out firing. Turns out he was a vet who spent time in the Middle East. He also claimed to have PTSD which was ignored by the agencies involved. He converted to Islam before enlisting in the Army and downloaded Islamist jihad porn. He told the FBI that he was being forced to fight for the Islamic State (ISIS). These warning were all ignored in the name of political correctness and he carried out his murderous plot on innocents. PTSD? Likely. Islamist? Most certainly. And the media and the O’Bama regime steadfastly refuses to make that connection. https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265467/fort-lauderdale-airport-shooter-converted-islam-he-robert-spencer
More later –
– AG