Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
- Ford
- Renewables
- Tranys
- Observatory
- Funding
- Chicago
- Maria
- Ford. The long-awaited sexual harassment accuser of SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh came forward a week ago and the fecal matter hit the rotating machinery. Thanks to Senate Judiciary Committee member Jeff Flake (McCain’s mini-me, retiring US Senator from AZ), Chairman Grassley spent the entire week listening to outrageous demands from Ford’s lawyer to schedule a hearing for her allegations. Ace of Spaces posted a piece over the weekend making the case that Flake plans on voting ‘present’ when the committee vote takes place, ensuring it does not report the nomination out of committee. So, what is alleged to have happened 36 years ago? Ford claimed Kavanaugh was one of 2 – 4 people who pushed her down onto a bed and attempted to feel her out. Over the multiple media retelling, this morphed unsurprisingly into attempted rape. She did not report it to any law enforcement nor did she tell any friends or family at the time. She was 15 at the time. The party sounds like a teen age kegger. The woman named four people at the kegger who were there (there may have been as few as two and as many as six). She does not know the location or the date. As of this writing, all four of those Ford named wrote to the Committee under penalty of perjury, letters stating emphatically that they did not see, hear of, or know about anything that Ford claims took place. At the time Kavanaugh attended an exclusive boy’s school. Ford attended a nearby exclusive girl’s school. That school apparently had a reputation rivaling Fast Times at Ridgemont High, as online year books were scrubbed in the week following the release of Ford’s allegations. Fortunately, someone (or several someone’s retained copies of those original pages). Just to demonstrate that this was a well thought out political hit, Rikki Siedman, who started out fighting the Bork nomination in 1987, advised Anita Hill in 1991, and worked in Ted Kennedy’s office for several years (note that this renders all stated concern for abused women by Seidman moot based on Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne), who is now advising Ford hinted last summer that something was planned. For her part, Ford spent weeks before the allegation went public scrubbing her social media footprint. She shopped the story to the Washington Post a month before the story was leaked. She sent a letter to a House democrat at least six weeks before the allegations hit the media. This action is significant, as it demonstrates that Ford was at a minimum, a willing participant in this attempt at character assassination. Reason not to send the letter to anyone on the Judiciary Committee? Because there is federal law governing false charges made on nominees. Cute. For her part, Feinstein sat on the letter for at least six weeks, dropped it at the last minute, and is now whining about the committee moving too fast. As of this writing, it is unclear that the majority has ever seen the letter in question. For their part, democrats were doing all the expected. Senator Mazie Hirono (D, HI) outdid herself demanding men in the senate sit down and shut. What’s next sweetheart, move to the back of the bus? As of this writing, I have no idea whether Ford will show up Thursday or not. I do expect this to be a very rough week, as a second woman came forward with even more bogus claims and Stormy Daniels lawyer Avenatti claims he has a client who was also abused by Kavanaugh and wants to play. Darned shame that we no longer practice tar and feathers. Yes, Jeff, this means you. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/09/the-wall-street-journal-nails-it.php
- Renewables. After the political ugliness of the democrat obstruction of Brett Kavanaugh, perhaps it is time for a fun story. This one comes out of Forbes and discusses the economic disaster that is renewable energy. Environmental Progress published an analysis of energy decisions made in California and Germany. Two points are important. First, had Germany spent $580 billion on nuclear instead of renewables and the backup fossil fuel generation renewables require, they would have replaced ALL fossil fuels and biomass in its electricity sector and replace all petroleum currently used for cars and light trucks. Second, if California had spent an estimated $100 billion on nuclear rather than wind and solar, it would have been able to replace all fossil fuels in its in-state electricity mix. Germany could have purchased its reactors from France, which has a modern, robust nuclear generation despite EU obstruction. California could have purchased from any of several vendors. The move to renewables is not only expensive, but it is economically idiotic. And their voters demanded that their elected official implement that economic illiteracy and its natural expensive outcome. https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/09/11/had-they-bet-on-nuclear-not-renewables-germany-california-would-already-have-100-clean-power/#2cd119f1e0d4
- Tranys. Yet more data supporting Johns Hopkins decision to get out of the medical mutilation game for the sexually confused. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that young people who embrace transgenderism, the fad of the day, suffer shockingly high suicide rates. Currently, all female adolescents attempt suicide at a nearly 18% rate. Males are nearly 10%. Female to male transgenders have the highest attempted suicide rate near 51%. Transgendered individuals today have a 41% suicide rate. Those who undergo medical mutilation are 19 times more likely to commit suicide as those who don’t. Transgenderism, like homosexuality has the stench of death around it. Why is this a good thing? Sometimes fads are not a positive to participate in. And making this a publicly celebrated lifestyle choice is going to unnecessarily destroy a lot of lives. https://www.redstate.com/brandon_morse/2018/09/12/data-shows-suicide-rate-transgender-students-breathtakingly-high/
- Observatory. I always keep an eye out for odd stories. A recent one was the law-enforcement ordered closure of the Sunspot Observatory outside Alamogordo, NM. The closure involved black helicopters, closed mouth law enforcement, evacuation of the observatory for over a week, and a simultaneous closure of a local post office. Given proximity of Alamogordo to Sandia National Labs, nuclear testing and Roswell, this unexplained closure got the attention of a lot of observers. After a week or so, law enforcement announced the re-opening of the observatory. They also had an explanation of the closure, which was an investigation into allegations of kiddie porn. Now kiddie porn is pretty ugly stuff, but is it a reason to go all Alice’s Restaurant on everyone? Kind of demonstrates that perhaps we have too much law enforcement, as they have to look this hard to find places to use all the cop equipment and training. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/09/20/closure-of-national-solar-observatory-explained/
- Funding. Here in Alaska we have a ballot initiative that will impose an additional permitting scheme on any project – past, present or future – that will touch any waters salmon swim or spawn in. The initiative is entitled Stand for Salmon. The campaign is aimed directly at the proposed Pebble Mine, which was targeted by Bob Gillam every other year with ballot initiatives until he finally got one passed. The backers hammer home the notion that the mine will be a terrible thing partly because it is partly owned by a Canadian mining company. Imagine our surprise when the vast majority of funding for this initiative and the green groups backing it also comes from out of state. So, we have the specter of outside mining, bad, and outside green funding, good. Campaign disclosures available so far show $1.1 million in contributions, with $730,000 of that being non-monetary. The Alaska Center for the Environment tops that list at $357,000 followed by DC-based new Venture Fund at $227,000. Groups backing the initiative include Alaska Conservation Foundation, Alaska Center for the Environment, Cook Inletkeeper, the Wild Salmon Center, and Salmon State. Trustees for Alaska claims to have crafted the initiative language itself. When you take a look at contributors to the involved in state NGOs, you find outside organizations in 2017 donated $339,000 to Trustees for Alaska. The Alaska Center received $245,000 from the same foundations that backed the Trustees. Cook Inletkeeper received $260,000 from the New Venture Fund and Trustees foundation donors. While these donations are not illegal, laundering outside money through so-called Alaskan NGOs and calling the entire mess a grass roots environmental effort is going a bit far. We will see how the campaign goes. We have another five weeks. http://www.alaskajournal.com/2018-09-12/opinion-following-outside-money-backing-stand-salmon
- Chicago. Michael Barone had a great question last week: If democrats can’t run Chicago, can they run anything? Answer: No!. To demonstrate why, Barone points to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision not to run for a third term as Chicago Mayor. Look at what he has politically. He has complete control of the Chicago political machine. He has deep connections and is an integral part of the O’Bama political machine based in Chicago. He has political support of both the unions and local mobs. Emanuel can stay as mayor as long as he wants. And he no longer wants to. Remember that Chicago is the heart of the economic disaster that is Illinois, with outrageously large public employee pension obligations on the books for decades in a city that is chasing productive citizens out of town as quickly as humanly possible by high taxation and unrestrained public violence. Additionally, the Mayor of Chicago gets to balance poor black wards with other poor minorities, all lorded over by well-placed and positioned liberals. This model no longer works. And Emanuel’s departure tells you that in his eyes, there is no possible way to make it work. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/09/15/michael-barone-if-democrats-can-t-run-chicago-can-run-anything.html
- Maria. As Hurricane Florence barreled toward the Carolinas last week, the left made another attempt to blame deaths in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Maria which lawn-mowed it last year on President Trump and his (in their eyes) incompetent handling of the response to the emergency. One technique is to diddle the death toll due to the Puerto Rican storm. While the original estimate was less than 100 lives lost, a recent study set the actual number at nearly 3,000. President Trump strongly disputed that estimate, leading to the expected yammering in the media. The House Hispanic Caucus got itself involved in the festivities and turned down an invitation to the WH. If President Trump is right on this, where did the larger number come from? Well It comes from a woman at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, who compiled a death toll of 2,975 what she calls “excess deaths” as a result of the hurricane. The game the statistician is playing is making a comparison between the expected death toll within a year of the storm and the actual death toll due to the storm. In September, that excess was 574 deaths. The problem is that in order to generate her 2,975 total, she kept counting monthly excess deaths five months after the storm hit. So, we are now defining hurricane caused deaths as deaths that happen months after it hits? Why five months? Why not 12? Or 9? Of 53? You could generate a heck of a large number if you go far enough out. While this may or may not have been an intentional political hit by the researcher, it was most certainly used as one by the Washington Post. https://hotair.com/archives/2018/09/15/politics-calculating-hurricane-deaths/
More later –
– AG