Environmental Irony

There is a certain ironic agony to the fact that electric cars, which are California’s way of saving our planet from climate change, are having difficulty getting recharged there because of this state’s electric grid’s unreliability ... due to the use of solar and wind electricity generation ... also meant to save our planet.

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Know-Nothings

I guess I don’t and will never understand people who are proud about what they don’t know. If I get caught in an information hole, I am embarrassed and try to fill it back up. 

These “know-nothings” don’t watch FoxNews. Some will not read the New York Times. Others don’t want to know any details about Obamagate. Too many won’t follow the debate about climate change ... they just know that it’s going to burn us alive. I myself even resent my wife’s subscribing online to that rag of a newspaper, the Boston Globe ... but I do chuckle when she reads me its dellusional stories.

People’s information tastes are fickled ... and often driven by fads and cocktail party conversation. However, wearing ignorance as a badge of honor has me baffled.

Afterward ... read: Bari Weiss leaves the NYT.

Headlines

Steyer will return to the debate stage in South Carolina

Coronavirus live updates: Turkey closes its border with Iran, South Korea on high alert

Carville: Those who think Sanders can beat Trump are stupid ...

Joe Biden’s South Carolina firewall is on fire

National security adviser dismisses claims of Russian 2020 interference

‘Tesla killers’ aren’t killing Tesla at all

Harry and Meghan: Queen doesn’t own the word ‘royal’ ...

JP Morgan: We’re all going to die of  climate change!

Coronavirus cases spike in Italy

Sanders’ ‘very, very different’ economic plan no match for Trump’s, Mnuchin claims

DHS whistleblower during Obama administration found dead ...

Swedish population growth overwhelming driven by mass migration

Headlines

Steny Hoyer leads trip to Puerto Rico amid aid standoff

Bloomberg reveals plans for Social Security and retirement savings

Madam VP: ‘I never say never because I do believe in serving my country’ ...

6.1 million people off food stamps under Donald Trump

Rockets strike near U.S. Embassy in Baghdad

The White House doesn’t trust China’s coronavirus numbers — here’s why

Betting odds soar for Mike getting the nomination ...

Evangelical women pray over Donald Trump

Israel’s Gantz vows to form government without Netanyahu

Trump administration may stop engines co-manufactured by GE to China, WSJ says

760 million [Chinese] people face restrictions ...

Pew study reveals massive GOP-Dem divide over climate change

Bloomberger

“Where’s the beef?”

Michael Bloomberg rode in and rested on NYC’s Mayor Giuliani’s coattails for 12 years. Now, he has ordered his tailor to measure Trump’s suit size in case he surges on the Democrat ticket before November. Me thinks he would,  if elected, shadow Trump’s winning policies except for climate change, Big Gulp soft drinks and gun control. We might even be able to call him the #MeToo Trump candidate.

Obvious Truth

Climate Chicken Littles would have a far stronger case if any of their many predictions had actually come true. Instead of constantly scaring us, perhaps, stepping back for a while, waiting for more solid evidence, might be the more prudent strategy?

And Epstein didn’t kill himself.

Headlines

‘It simply isn’t our time’: Julien Castro ends his presidential bid

‘First five days’ indicator, which has a solid track record at predicting year, off to good start

Bernie cash blowout ... Tops Dem field

Trump: Iran will pay ‘Very BIG PRICE’ for embassy attack

Trump warns Turkey’s Erdogan against military intervention in Libya

Amazon threatens to fire employees who speak out on climate change

Florida poised to surpass New York in congressional seats ...

Pope Francis apologizes for slapping woman’s hand

‘The game has changed’ : Defense secretary warns of defensive strikes on Iranian group

People couldn’t wait to leave New Jersey in 2019

Fed pumps [liquidity by] $56.72 billion ...

Joe Biden urges coal miners to ‘learn’ to code

Headlines

John Kerry: We are way behind on climate change

5G broadband is an existential threat to cable companies, but execs and investors aren’t worried

Chinese tech groups writing UN facial recognition standards ...

Trump still has not released aid to Lebanon

U.N. Chief warns of ‘point of no return’ on climate change

Winter storm snarls post-Thanksgiving air travel

Focus on early release of convict in London stabbings ...

Islamist militants hack to death 12-year-old Christian boy in Cameroon

Doug Collins wants Adam Schiff to testify in front of House Judiciary Committee

China wants rollback of tariffs in phase one trade deal with US, Chinese state media says

Unusual tornadoes confirmed in Arizona ...

NBC’s Todd accuses GOP Senator of pushing Putin talking points

Talking Points

Michael Bloomberg is teasing a run to become the Democrat presidential candidate. Imagine that I am a talking head on cable TV and here are some points that I might make:

- Our population is aging ... as logically are our presidents. But, Michael Bloomberg entering the Democrat primary fray might bring a new first. If Bloomberg were elected president, he would be inaugurated shortly before his 79th birthday ... and most of his tenure would be while he was in his 80s.

- Bloomberg is just one more old white guy .... and a member of the Davos elite. This hardly lines up with current political winds. He has said he would roll back Trump’s tariffs ... and go back to the Obama national defeatist stance.

- Bloomberg’s entry is an act of political desperation. He and a lot of the Democrat leadership apparently believe that the current cast of candidates are all sure losers against Trump.

- Bloomberg was a reasonably good NYC mayor ... but his stop and frisk actions ... his banning of large soft drinks ... and his reversal of his term limit could cause embarrassment.

- Bloomberg has poor national name recognition ... he only has a 6% approval rating, far underwater.

- Bloomberg is a rabid gun control advocate. not sure this will play well in middle-America

- Bloomberg is a plutocrat worth $52 billion and a Wall Streeter. He like Trump is a New Yorker which, in this case, might be a negative.

- Bloomberg is also a radical on climate change ... a left of center position

- And finally, like Warren, Bloomberg is rather opaque as to what would be his foreign policy ... other than he will likely, out of spite, reverse many of Trump’s initiatives

Warren’s Foreign Policy

Recently I outlined Elizabeth Warren’s platform to be elected president. Missing was her stance on foreign affairs ... which she seems to studiously avoid on the debate stage ... see:  The Warren Doctrine. So I have gone back to the search engines to fill in this void and did find something she “wrote” in 2018 which lays out her vision for how she would deal with the rest of the world if elected ... see: Foreign Affairs Article. Kind reader, take some time to read this revealing article. You will find that Warren’s foreign policy is little more than an extrapolation of her socialist domestic stance. Not very detailed or insightful beyond what Trump is doing.

In short, she advocates:

- Trade policies that sound very much like President Trump’s ... although I sincerely doubt that she would pursue this stance with Trump’s tariffs spine. She does acknowledge that globalism has benefited large international companies while hollowing out American manufacturing and our middle class.

- Given this recognition, Warren offers little of how she would remedy these imbalances. She accuses President Trump of self-serving policies with little evidence to support this assertion. It seems she would fix the sins of globalism with more domestic programs, subsidies and expanded socialism. The whipped cream on this cake would be punishing US corporations with higher taxes and lower profits ... and, although not admitted to by her, crippled competitiveness.

- American technology companies must insure individual privacy both at home and abroad.

- We should use American economic power to coerce other nations toward cleaner environmental policies. Climate change is a dire threat.

- Like Trump, Warren believes we must end our involvement in endless foreign wars. Virtually all of our involvements in the Middle East have burdened our future generations with untold debt while bringing little current benefit. BUT, our focus on terrorism has distorted our domestic policies toward limiting immigration, increased racism and social injustice. Our foreign policy must be based on “fair” domestic policies.

All in all — pretty thin gruel ...

Headlines

Trump impeachment  witnesses leave a trail of tantalizing clues

S&P 500 jumps to record high on strong earnings, trade-deal progress

Trump greeted by boos, chants of ‘lock him up’ at World Series game ...

Impeachment witness Bill Taylor led Ukraine delegation for group advised by Hunter Biden

Brown: California fires show ‘the horror’ world will face from climate change

Chart analysts say new record gives investors the green light to jump back into bull market

Russia ‘doubts’ it [Baghdadi takedown] took place ...

Report: Democrat [Rep.] Kate Hill to resign

Trump says phase one of China trade deal is ‘ahead of schedule’

Cramer on stock record: We need apologies from trade-war naysayers who said US would be damaged

Survey: 1 in 3 millennials see Communism as favorable ...  70% likely to vote socialist ...

FNC’s Wallace presses Pence: ‘Why didn’t the president notify’ Pelosi

Deflection

The Democrats are masters at deflection. All these California wildfires are not due to forest mismanagement on the part of these woke Libs. They are caused by that ogre “climate change” which, in turn, is Trump’s fault for pulling out of that Paris climate fraud.

Increased crime rates in many cities around the country are not due to open borders and sanctuary-city policies.  They are caused by Trump’s xenophobia and his racism.

Trump was involved in Russian collusion to win against Hillary ... when just the opposite was true. This trope is classic deflection or also known as transference by the shrinks — accusing me of doing what you, in fact, are doing.

I actually am surprised that the Dems haven’t started to make this same case — Trump is the true deflector ... and his investigation into all the intelligence community‘s malfeasance in 2016, 2017 and 2018 is to cover up for what his minions are doing today. This would be known as deflecting a deflection.

Shush ... not too loud!

Headlines

Castro blindsides Buttigieg over Chicago donation

The US and China made ‘substantial progress’ at trade talks, Chinese vice-premier says

Riots stun Chile ... Unrest around the world ...

Donald Trump fires back at ‘disaster ‘ Susan Rice

Clinton claims Russia grooming Gabbard to be a third-.party candidate

Scientists debate if lab+grown meat could exacerbate climate change

Hedge Fund King: ‘World in great sag’; echos 1930s ...

Tulsi Gabbard dubs Hillary Clinton ‘Queen of Warmongers’

U.K. Parliament votes to force Boris Johnson to seek a Brexit  extension

The yield-curve recession indicator is righting itself, but that does not mean we’re in the clear

38 people cited for violations in Clinton email probe ...

Report’ Obama administration ‘rebuffed’ efforts that Burisma was corrupt and linked to Hunter Biden

Fall Colors

Can’t you lay off climate change for one minute and just enjoy the fall colors?

Cartoon printed in the New Yorker magazine no less ...

Headlines

Can the F-Bomb save Beto?

The disappointing jobs report would have been much worse without newly-hired Census workers

Record 157:878,000 employed ...

Biden struggles to explain plan for tackling China on climate change

Dems demand info on Trump allegedly steering government spending to his resorts

Trump’s move to put military money toward border wall could hurt GOP senators

Black unemployment lowest level recorded ...

Major League Soccer declares Betsy Ross flag a ‘symbol of hate’

Facebook joins Google as target of states’ antitrust probes

Hurricane Dorian caused $1.5 billion to $3 billion worth of damage in the Caribbean

FALL PREVIEW: Pressure grows on Biden to release health records ...

U.S. jobs report: 130,000 jobs created in August, wages up 3.2%

Social Credits

China has instituted a “social credit” score for virtually all its adult citizens ... in essence a computer weighing based upon many social parameters as to how good a “citizen” its residents are. This score is then used by China to allow or restrict social rewards: freedom to travel, welfare benefits, medical services ... anything that the government can control ... and the government of China controls almost everything. This is all very restrictive and frightening ... the ultimate in Big Brother tyranny.

Now the barons of Silicone Valley are thinking to emulate this Brave New World ... see: Fast Company Story. Will these tech tyrants follow China’s lead in using the same parameters that measure us? (They already have quite a bit of raw data with which to work ... our buying patterns, our credit scores, our browsing histories, our friends, our travel preferences, our DNA, etc. ... and now are vying to corner our medical records and banking transactions too ... but, interestingly, not if we are a US citizen). So this development, unless it is nipped in the bud by Trump, might collect some other personal data on us Americans. May I suppose:

- have we ever typed or spoken the word “transgender”?

- do we vape or do any drugs?

- do we listen to gospel music?

- have we ever made a political donation ... and to which party?

- do we own an all-electric vehicle?

- what level of melanin do we have in our skin?

- do we believe in God, Allah, or climate change caused by CO2?

- do we own a weapon more powerful than a BB gun?

- do we own a BB gun?

- have we memorized any Bob Dylan lyrics?


Will  Mark Zukerburg soon effectively own us everyone ... cast our votes ...  make all other choices for us? ... or else!

Armageddon

There are quite a number of threats to the survival of our culture ... even our people. Whether they actually mean that the Earth will turn into Mars is dubious, but some actually might pose this menace. I have listed below real and imagined Armageddons ... in a descending order I consider reasonable. Each deserves its own extensive blog entry ... which I may well do. You may differ with the sequencing, but I doubt that you will dispute these items themselves:

Nuclear Proliferation — Nukes in the hands of lunatics

Top-dog Hegemony — China vs. Russia vs. USA vs. radical Islam ... unless the U.S. wins, things will be over

Plague — Biological weapons or natural pandemics might easily wipe out huge numbers of people

Artificial Intelligence — The nutroots are constantly predicting that robots will rule us. I am dubious.

Climate Change — the Earth has been getting warmer since 1750. Will it burn up as many predict? Maybe in a few million tears ... but not tomorrow.

Green Energy — I think that capturing energy from the wind and tides may present some unintended consequences.

Recreational Drugs — opium once almost took down China. It is conceivable that the legalization and propagation of mind-altering drugs could profoundly affect our future outlook.

Designer Babies — DNA-altering medicine will be changing our offspring and lives in ways not fully understood. Are we in for a planet full of Frankensteins?

Population Bomb — thirty years ago this was close to the number one fear. However populations are leveling off and declining everywhere bu Africa. Thus threat is therefore small.

Famine — the reduction of population pressure combined with higher crop yields reduces the possibility of widespread famine.

Big Data — although not threatening the end to civilization, the collection of massive amounts of personal data through social media and otherwise does pose a serious danger to our freedoms.

UFOs — Sorry Tucker ... not a threat.

Loopy Loop

“Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.” — Yeats

Aberrant actions seem to be instigating aberrant actions. It’s a feedback loop that turns on itself. The Squad says something loopy about the Mexican border and then some nut job attacks a migrant processing center ... ending up in the morgue. Which, of course, creates a traffic jam of C-list celebs trying to be first on Twitter to condemn, in flowery language, this attack ... somehow blaming it all on Trump ... or climate change. This in turn causes a bunch of activists to replace the American flag at an ICE center with a Mexican flag ... spawning more rah-rah support from The Squad. Trump then suggests that these radicals might fix the problems in their hellhole homelands before trying to fix America. Then things really heat up as de Blasio suggests that Nazi Germany is upon us. And all hell really breaks loose when the Washington Post next claims that Jeffery Epstein was sleeping with Chelsea Clinton and probably fathered her children! Oh, maybe not ... but don’t be surprised. Anything and everything is now game in this loopy loop of our social media mania.

Apt Analogy

Global warming hysteria is the modern-day equivalent of the Aztecs sacrificing young children to appease their gods ... only the cost of such climate-change superstition now is substantially more onerous.

Headlines

Agriculture Department buries studies showing dangers of climate change

Beijing wants US to stop ‘inappropriate’ actions against Chinese firms

Debate week: Dems pounce on ‘erratic’ Trump

Pete Buttigieg faces angry town hall after police shooting

Turkish leader’s party losing Istanbul election

Trump says he never threatened to demote Fed Chair Powell, but he has the ‘right’ to do so

Bernie to propose canceling entire $1.6 trillion in student loan debt ...

Donald Trump backs down on deportation threat

‘Snow job’: Palestinians reject economic portion of White House peace plan

Bitcoin soars above $11,000 for the first time in 15 months — now up 170% for the year

HACK THAT: US strikes Iran military computers ...

New Zealand: Govt won’t pay full price for banned guns