Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
- Whistleblower
- Fukushima
- Fires
- Sun
- Oberlin
- Tranny
- Whistleblower. Thoughts on the impeachment festivities from last week. First, we have an identification on the so-called whistleblower, one Eric Ciaramella, Yale graduate, registered democrat, holdover from the O’Bama WH, previously worked for Joe Biden, and former CIA Director John Brennan, and most importantly a vocal critic of President Trump. Apparently, he also helped initiative the Russia collusion investigation of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. He was fired from his NSC post in the WH in 2017 for leaking information to the media. He has been in the CIA since then. Here’s how the whistleblower statute works. The only reason a name is kept quiet is in order to keep him from getting fired after the complaint is made. Problem is that you have to file your complaint according to the actual rules in the statute. This boy didn’t. For example, you need direct experience with whatever it is that you report. He got his information second-hand from an Army LtCol detailed to the NSC named Vindeman. You must file your complaint through the appropriate IG. His first contact was with Adam Schiff’s staff. As his complaint was entirely hearsay, he had to wait until the Intel IG rewrote the rules for a complaint before formally filing it. This is one of the reasons that DoJ ruled he was not a formal whistleblower. The fun part is that his name has been widely known for months in DC. It was even said in open hearing by another democrat in a House committee hearing. But the media and leftist social media are doing everything humanly possible to make sure the public does not know what that name is or anything about his background. Interesting position that, as all three networks sat on stories tying Jeffrey Epstein (who didn’t kill himself) to a massive pedophilia ring that serviced well-connected democrats and global elites. NBC and ABC rooted out who they thought was their whistleblower and fired her immediately. So, what is going on here? Looks like there are a lot of people in the State Department and the Intel community (including a bunch of those wearing the uniform) that have their collective noses out of joint that Trump is conducting his own foreign policy without listening to what they say, which is one of the reasons he was elected. Schiff and the democrats are going to parade as many of them in front of the cameras for the next couple weeks as humanly possible, all opining about how awful they think he is. They will make all sorts of claims of what they think he has done, all of it without any actual firsthand knowledge of what actually transpired. Trump has flushed out the deep state, setting it up for annihilation. About damned time.
- Fukushima. Increased electricity prices and greater use of fossil fuels led to more deaths following the Fukushima accident in 2011 than the accident itself. No deaths were recorded as a direct result of the accident, but the decision to suspend nuclear power generation did. Before the earthquake and tsunami, nuclear generated around 30% of all electricity in Japan. 14 months after the accident all of this was shut down. 9 of 26 reactors have been restarted. The remaining 17 are in the process of getting restart approval. Increased imports of fossil fuels into Japan increased electrical prices by 38% in some parts of Japan. These higher prices led to a decrease in electrical consumption, especially during times of the year when heating demand is highest. The reduced electrical use during the cold part of the year led directly to increased mortality, estimated at least 1,280 deaths 2011 – 2014. This is in addition to the previous estimate of 1,232 deaths as a result of the evacuation. So, the anti-nuke crowd led by Harry Reid’s and Ed Markey’s anti-nuclear NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko managed to kill over 2,500 Japanese via an artificial, completely baseless anti-nuclear panic. Also overestimated was the actual exposure to radiation released by the accident. Completely ignored is the deadly impact of the panicked evacuation on individuals, families, and especially the elderly. All of this was based on the favorite tool of the greens, the precautionary principle, which never seems to be applied to the victims of any orchestrated green panic.
- Fires. As wildfires and associated electrical blackouts roar through California, all sides joined the Placing of the Blame game with threats, promises and all manner of Sturm und drang, sound and fury signifying nothing. Cali Governor Gavin Newsome blamed PG&E and threatened to take it over so as to properly run it, not unlike what his former city of SF is doing for homelessness (/sarc). President Trump got involved telling him to get his act together on this or he would withhold federal fire funds. Newsome may be in some political trouble not unlike Grey Davis was before he got recalled after botching state energy with Enron. There are a couple things going on here. First is the basic fact that California is dry this time of year, regardless of how much rain or snow it has gotten. In fact, periods of lots of rain tend to heighten the problem as they grow more undergrowth. The hills around LA were burning in 1960 when I lived in the Valley. The Doors were singing about it in 1971. That hasn’t changed a lot since, though a lot more people are building homes in the parts of the mountains that burn than they did 50 years ago. What did change is the ability of loggers, homeowners, and other businesses to remove undergrowth. You can clear this stuff a couple ways. One would be mechanically, saving whatever you cut down for other purposes (mulch). Another would be controlled burns. Both are recommended every 6 years or so. In Cali today, that duty cycle has extended as far out as 500 years. And the brush continues to grow, to dry out when it is dry, and burn like crazy when the fires start. Why has Cali halted logging, controlled burns, and other traditional fire control effort? Climate change. They want to limit CO2 emissions. Like every single other good intention, this one has greased a very hot Road to Hell (great Chris Rea song), as their climate utopia releases far more CO2 into the atmosphere during a wildfire than it would should normal management techniques be used. Final little piece of this Passion Play is the possibility that some unknown number of Muzzie Bad Guys may be intentionally setting fires in Cali like they have done in Israel. What better target than a sanctuary state that does not clear brush?
- Sun. Two of the main problems with the climate forecast models is they never consider solar output and they never consider the impact of clouds on local and global temperatures. Solar output is incredibly important and seems to be connected to periods of warmth and cold and cloud cover. Svensmark has done really good science suggesting the connection between solar output and cloud formation on the earth. During times of active sun (visible sunspots), the solar magnetic field is stronger as is the solar wind. This tends to protect Earth from incoming cosmic rays. When these particles hit the upper atmosphere, they cause a cascade of lower energy particles which in turn act as condensation nuclei for cloud formation. When the sun is active (lots of sunspots), not as many of these get through (fewer clouds). When the sun is quiet, a lot more of them get through (more clouds). Over the last 1,000 years, there have been at least 4 periods of extreme quiet sun. These are called grand solar minimums. The last four in order are the Wolf, Sporer, Maunder and Dalton minimums. The first three combined to create hundreds of years of extremely cold weather what we now call the Little Ice Age. While correlation does not prove causation, there is more actual science supporting this than in all the climate models and supercomputer time it has taken to create them. With all that in mind, the sun set a record in 2019 with 228 days without sunspots as of Nov. 1. Forecasts for Solar Cycle 25 (the current cycle) are all over the place, some suggesting it may be the weakest in 200 years, and in turn perhaps the introduction into yet another grand solar minimum. And right on cue, Utah reports record cold temperatures last week, with Peter Sinks reporting -43.6F Oct. 30, the lowest temperature ever recorded in October in the Lower 48. Nearby Salt Lake City reported 14F, the coldest for the date since 1874 when records began to be taken. While weather is not climate, neither is it to be ignored or summarily dismissed. Winter is coming.
- Oberlin. Oberlin College lost a $44 million judgement to Gibson’s Bakery last summer after they destroyed the small business with accusations of racism. They lost mostly because the school administration got themselves involved after the store apprehended three students (all black) shoplifting. The administration coordinated and supported student protests based on claims of racism that began right after Trump’s election in 2016, crushing the business. For some reason, this did not go over all that well with the local jury pool. Who knew that false claims of racism against long-time, respected small businessmen would be rejected out of hand so quickly and completely? The award was reduced to $25 million per a state cap on punitive damages. The college, rejecting the jury verdict persists in their personal attacks on Gibson’s and are appealing the verdict and award. They claimed the total net worth of the business was less than $36,000 during the trial. Both Oberlin and its legal team were and continue to be incredibly tone deaf during the trial, with aggressive and demeaning attacks on Gibson’s during and after the trial. Most recently they hired a high-powered DC legal team to appeal the verdict. In response, Gibson’s requested Oberlin put up a $36 million bond to ensure they could and would pay the verdict amount. They also filed a counter to the appeal requesting a reinstatement of the entire $44 million judgment. Last week, Oberlin and a couple Cleveland stations made similar motions to unseal Fakebook records of the son of the owner. The son was not a party in the lawsuit. He was working in the store when the shoplifting took place. Unsealing the FB account is a collateral attack on the jury verdict, attempt to smear and defame the Gibson’s name and brand. Oberlin epitomizes academia these days, an example of a little liberal arts college who like Talleyrand described the Bourbons in 1814 when they were restored to power in France “They leaned nothing and forgot nothing” during their time out of office. It seems Oberlin has learned little from the $44 million judgment against them. So much for liberal education these days.
- Tranny. One of the sadder (and uglier) stories over the last few weeks is a divorced mother in Dallas attempting to turn her 7-year old boy into a girl. The kid has been at the center of a custody dispute triggered by the mother’s insistence to turn the boy into a girl, claiming the kid really wants to change his sex. This got the father who did not have custody into court. A jury found in the mother’s favor last month and was overruled by the judge who awarded partial custody to the father. The jury voted 11-1 that the boy should have sole main conservatory, but they didn’t agree that it should be the father. This triggered a massive public outcry and got the Texas Governor, Attorney General and even US Senator Ted Cruz involved. The mother was at the point where she was about to start taking the kid to doctors for hormones to medically change his sex without his permission. Medical mutilation to remove his genitals was not all that far in his future either. Apparently, she has been doing this since he was 3 years old. While living with his mother, he is required to be a girl named Luna. He is quite happy as a boy when with his father and at school, leading to the legal festivities between the two. As usual, the mother is trying to get the courts to strong-arm the father into paying for the medical maltreatment, gender transitioning therapy where the kid can be strong-armed into being something he isn’t, and hormonal sterilization by age 8. It is hard enough being the child of divorced parents without having to undergo this sort of crap. As usual, the father was painted as paranoid and in need of decades of therapy for his opposition to all of this. The problem with this is that any transition therapy will only extend any sexual confusion currently present in the kid. And the risks of medical sterilization and hormone treatments are so great that they must not be attempted. Not so fast, claims the pro-transition lobby, as a disagreement based on scientific evidence is now considered paranoia requiring thought reprogramming. Scary stuff when enforced by anti-father family courts. What the mother and the so-called medical professionals on her side of the argument are trying to do is little more than child abuse. At least it has been slowed down for a little while. Munchausen’s by proxy, anyone?
More later –
– AG