Headlines

Tech sell-off resumes, NASDAQ down more than 8 percent in 3  days

Senate to vote on coronavirus stimulus plan as soon as this week

U.S. marshals have found 72 missing children in past two weeks

Mystery: Piles of mail dumped in California

Trump defends his campaign spending as cash advantage evaporates

Apple announces Sept. 15 event where it’s expected to reveal new iPhones

Iraqi forces kill two senior ISIS militants in raid

Lightfoot’s Chicago: At least 51 shot, 7 killed over Labor Day weekend

Vaccine makers promise safety amid shaky public confidence in Covid developments

Oil drops 8% to multi-mont low on demand fears

China offers to build the Taliban a road network in exchange for peace

Joe Biden touts Wall Street support for plan to abolish suburbs

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Headlines

Democrats discover a new team player: Bernie Sanders

OPEC and allies agree to extend record oil production cut

Buffalo cops who shoved elderly man charged with assault ...

Oprah to lead town hall on racism in America, with Stacey Abrams

France says it killed al-Qaeda leader in North Africa

Coronavirus updates: Amazon workers sue the company, tennis star Djokovic chafes at US Open restrictions

Ivanka rips ‘cancel culture’ after she’s dropped as commencement speaker ...

Abraham Lincoln statue vandalized and scaled in London BLM protests

Zuckerberg says Facebook will revisit policies in wake of Trump backlash

Wall Street’s latest surge isn’t benefitting many Americans

[Tropical storm] Cristobal on its way to Gulf Coast ...

57 member Buffalo police team resigns over officers’ suspensions

Headlines

National Republicans sue California to block mail-ballot election

Trump threatens to move GOP convention over coronavirus restrictions in North Carolina

Trump accuses MSNBC host of murder ... Mika begs Jack: Make it stop!

Chicago mayor launches police raid to shut down black church’s Sunday service

Federal judge strikes down restrictions on Florida felons voting

Oil on track for its best month ever after rebound, but traders say it’s ‘not out of the woods’

Violence erupts as crowds swarm to reopen beaches ...

EU: End of U.S. leadership, rise of China ‘happening before our eyes’

U.S. is ahead of China in vaccine race, former FDA chief says

Coronavirus updates: Japan seeks to end Tokyo’s state of emergency, Trump bans travel from Brazil

Six shot at Daytona Beach ...

Trump calls on Sessions to drop out of Alabama Senate race

Headlines

Trump touted reopening. Privately, his team sounded alarms.

Coronavirus live updates: Record private payrolls lost in April,  Friday’s jobs report may be ‘worst ever’

United States of Infection ... 71,130 dead

U.S. sheds record 20.2 M jobs in April

Zoom taps former Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster for board

Uber to lay off 3,700 employees, about 14% of workforce

Germany eyes accelerated return to normality ...

W.H.O. continues to follow China’s instructions, ignores Taiwan

Hungary no longer a democracy Freedom House says

Oil turns lower, snapping 5-day winning streak as oversupply fears weigh

New model predicts 350,000 deaths by end of June if all states fully open ...

Pulitzer Prize to New York Times essay with fake history

Headlines

Tracking the virus may require 300,000 workers. We’re nowhere close

Coronavirus live updates: McDonald’s gives away meals to frontlines, Hertz to lay off 10,000 workers

Iowa sends National Guard troops to meat plants ...

Rashida Tlaib: ‘Corporate greed is the disease us country’

Trump pledges financial aid to oil industry

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently had surgery, could be incapacitated, US officials say

Study: Virus has mutated into 30 different strains ...

Joe Biden: I’d pick Michelle Obama for VP ‘in a heartbeat’

Farm workers to be immune to Trump’s immigration ban

March home sales drop as sellers take properties off the market — and the coming months look worse

Second night of riots in Paris ...

About 4% of L.A. county residents have coronavirus antibodies

Trump Got it Wrong

Yesterday at his coronavirus presser, Trump was asked about the price of oil going negative. Trump indicated that the was due to a “short squeeze” for the April-delivery future contracts on light-sweet Texas crude oil. Hold on pilgrim! A short squeeze occurs when short sellers have to scramble to buy, in this case oil, to cover what they previously sold ... and the price therefore soars.

In this case the price plummeted to as much as a negative $37 per barrel. So it was the short sellers who had the whip hand. They required other sellers to pay them $37 to take a barrel of oil off their hands. So the short sellers were the squeezers ... not the squeezed.

Is this innocent mistake another Trump lie?

Headlines

Chinese ventilator makers desperate for parts as global demand for machines hits 1 million

Senate adjourns after Democrats block McConnell’s bid to add $250 billion in small business aid

Federal stocks of protective equipment nearly depleted ...

Pope says pandemic is ‘certainly nature’s response’ to global warming

Mnuchin: Economy could reopen in May

US weekly jobless claims jump by 6.6 million and we’ve now lost 10% of workforce in 3 weeks

Fed pumps another $2.3 trillion ... Why relief to small businesses has lagged ...

Donald Trump: What does Barack Obama know about Joe Biden?

Fed pulls out $2T lending bazooka to boost businesses, cities

Oil jumps 12% amid report Saudi Arabia and Russia have reached a deal, cut could reach 20 million barrels a day

Crisis devastating news industry. Many newspapers won’t survive ...

Trump: US spent $452 million on W.H.O. in 2019; China $42 million

Headlines

Bernie Sanders suspends his presidential campaign

Coronavirus updates: Italy’s new cases accelerate, WHO warns leaders against politicizing outbreak

DC braces for looming surge ...

Poll: Trump tops Biden as better leader for coronavirus ...

Oregon Rep. Walden: Nationwide mail-in voting would be a ‘recipe for disaster’

Oil surges in sudden move toward the end of trading, production cuts eyed

Farmers panic-buying to keep cows fed ...

‘His condition is improving’: Boris Johnson is ‘sitting up in bed’

Mnuchin hopes to unveil ‘Main Street’ lending facility this week

New York Gov. Cuomo says state won’t return to ‘normal’ as daily coronavirus  deaths reach new high

Obesity is major risk factor says epidemiologist ...

Harris poll: 77 percent of Americans blame China for coronavirus outbreak

Headlines

European authorities shifting in face masks adds to confusion on coronavirus crisis

Coronavirus live updates: NYC mayor pleads for medical help as US cases continue to rise

Kissinger: Pandemic alters world order ...

Rasmussen poll: Voters increasingly support universal basic income for U.S. citizens

Biden tells Sanders he’s pushing ahead with VP, cabinet picks

Oil set to ‘crater’ Monday as OPEC meeting delayed, tensions flare between Saudi Arabia and Russia

NYC: Business burglaries rise 75% ...

Unemployment rate jumps to 4.4%, 701,000 jobs lost

Supreme Court postpones more arguments amid coronavirus outbreak

Cuomo says New York could hit peak in 7 days: ‘We’re not yet ready”

Fauci: Not even half-time ...

Pelosi: We want to get more money to voting by mail in next bill

Headlines

Trump calls on Russia and Saudi Arabia to cut oil production

Coronavirus live updates: Google relaxes ban on coronavirus ads, VW extends Tenn. plant closure

[Virus] Spreads just by breathing ...

Trump: ‘We’re not going to have farms’ without H-2A foreign workers

Pelosi forms new select committee to oversee $2 trillion coronavirus relief package

Oil surges 20% after Trump tells CNBC Saudis, Russia reach production cut agreement

Half humanity on lockdown ...

Italian gov: I was called ‘racist’ for wanting to test China travelers

Behind the scenes, Kushner takes charge of coronavirus response

US weekly jobless claims double to 6.6 millions

 Fed ‘temporarily’ eases capital requirements for big banks ...

Doctors see evidence of hydroxychloroquine benefits in fighting coronavirus

Carbon Life Forms

“CO2 is our friend.” — John B.

- Life on earth is carbon-based. This means that all life is comprised of vital molecules that rely on carbon atoms.

- Despite always being a very tiny portion of our Earth’s atmosphere (currently 0.04%), carbon dioxide has been the ONLY source of all this carbon in living things ... for hundreds of million years.

- The way that living things capture carbon dioxide is through plant photosynthesis ... which, on the side, produces oxygen ... which then animals use ... and they (we) also consume the plants (and each other). Animals then, through respiration, put CO2 back into the air to feed the plants. This is called a symbiotic relationship.

- However, over the eons, plants were voracious ... thought to have reduced CO2 levels ten-fold to levels close to where they are today. It was only when man invented fire and burned wood that plants didn’t starve to death. More lately, internal combustion engines and central heating helped feed plants even more carbon oxide.

- Most carbon-based deposits — oil, natural gas, coal, etc. — derive from the demise of previous carbon-containing living things (mostly plants).

- Carbon dioxide is a “greenhouse gas” and does, among other variables, contribute to the warming of our planet. As plants drove down CO2 levels to near zero, they could have contributed to our periodic ice ages ... the more dangerous temperature extreme ... as plants and animals have survived much, much higher CO2 levels during the Earth’s Carbonaceous Period.

- When one sees smoke coming out of chimneys and industrial smokestacks, it is NOT carbon dioxide (which is invisible.) It is, in fact, water vapor and soot (tiny carbon particles.)  Don’t confuse them. Getting rid of the soot is OK.

- During the Obama administration, our EPA designated carbon dioxide as an air pollutant. And the current environmental activists have declared a war on “carbon” (suggesting soot to most, but implying carbon dioxide to the woke.)  These are both clear indications of a virulent and suicidal mass hysteria.

Headlines

Trump calls for ousting GOP congressman from party ahead of coronavirus relief vote

Coronavirus live updates: Lack of Internet leaves millions cut off, Real ID deadline extended

USA now leads world in cases ... Peak second week in April ...

New York Times blames evangelical Christians  for coronavirus

Poll: Majority approve of Trump’s coronavirus response, but more Americans say he was too slow to start

Trump criticizes GM, CEO Mary Barra for wanting ‘top  dollar’ for producing ventilators

UK rocked: Boris positive ...

Hundreds die in Iran after drinking poison ‘cure’ for coronavirus

Judge orders release of 10 immigration detainees from N.J. jails

Cramer sees oil plummeting below $20 per barrel

Federal Reserve’s balance sheet tops $5 trillion for first time ...

Dr. Deborah Birx steers away from making Doomsday prediction

Headlines

How Trump created a credibility problem for the Pentagon

Trump says: Iran ‘appears to be standing down’ after missile attacks on US targets in Iraq

Two quakes strike near [Iranian] nuclear plant ...

Iran claims it’s ‘not seeking escalation’ after multiple attacks ...

Ukrainian airplane crashes near Irani’s capital, killing 176

Oil falls 4% after Trump says Iran is ‘standing down’  in Mideast fight

Survey: Fewer than third of American voters can point to Iran on the map ...

POTUS: Iran deserves a great future of prosperity and peace ...

Barbara Boxer joins D.C. lobbying firm

Private payroll growth surges in December, to end 2019 strong, ADP says

Cancer death rate drops by largest amount on record ...

NY  may give automatic voter registration to illegal aliens with drivers licenses

Obama’s Piss Poor Presidency

A commenter asked on Presidential what I meant by Obama’s “piss poor” presidency. I gave it short shrift and it deserves better ... so here is more — the urine that the “chosen one” managed to spread around during his pampered eight years:

- His initial apology tour ... disparaging his country
- Gutting our military
- Significantly deepening the domestic racial divide
- Doubling our notional debt burden by $10 trillion
- Spending $1 trillion on [non] “shovel-ready jobs”
- Cash for clunkers
- Attempting to destroy our coal and oil industries
- Relying on monetary and not fiscal levers for economic recovery
- Tens of billions lost on Solyndra and other crony  “investments”
- The stupid Paris Climate Accord
- Oblivious to huge trade deficits with China, Mexico and the EU
- Frequently disrespecting Israel
- The Benghazi debacle
- Allowing Hillary’s private email server
- Politicizing our intelligence agencies
- Obamacare which is slowly being fixed by Congress and the courts
- The Iranian nuclear deal giving it $150 billion and  $1.6B in hard cash
- Giving lip service to defeating ISIS ... possibly even arming them
- Reneging US commitment to put missiles in Poland
- Colluding with the Muslim Brotherhood and Black Lives Matter
- Unconstitutional DACA executive order
- Pardoning spy Chelsea Manning
- Swapping deserter Bowe Bergdahl for five senior Taliban bad guys
- “Fast and Furious” gun running to Mexico cartels
- IRS discrimination against Tea Party groups
- Spying on political opponents and the media
- Selling 20% of US uranium to the Russians
- Russian reset including allowing them to annex Crimea
- Not arming the Ukraine with anti-tank missiles against Russia
- Not making NATO countries meet their committed military spending
- The very expensive Afghanistan “surge” producing nothing
- Not confronting North Korea’s for its bad behavior

Enough? And I’m sure I forgot quite a few!

Batteries

Batteries store energy.  Hydrocarbons (natural gas, oil, coal) also store energy ... much more energy and much more efficiently than batteries. Why can’t we just call hydrocarbons “batteries?” That small semantic tweak would solve all our economic and technological problems in short order ... but not, according to the greenies, our environmental problems. But two out of three ain’t bad.

Headlines

Trump’s re-election campaign is on a crusade against leaks

It was a monumental week for markets with major milestone for stocks, bonds, gold and oil

ICE raids starting Sunday ...

TX Governor orders 1,000 National Guard troops to border

Huawei sues Commerce Department over seized equipment

Traders his week bet on a Fed rate cut in record-setting numbers

Trump deporting illegals at slower pace than Obama ...

Donald Trump: People ‘forgot’ Elizabeth Warren is a ‘fraud’

What if Trump won’t accept 2020 defeat?

Giant explosion rocks largest refinery complex on East Coast, sends gasoline prices higher

Special Prosecutor named in Jussie Smollett case, new charges possible

Trump cuts Obama’s Syrian refugee surge by more than 60 percent

Apolitical Science

It would seem to this observer that there are a number of reasonable and apolitical steps that should be taken by real scientists when investigating the future energy needs of our world:

- For hundreds of million years hydrocarbons (coal, oil, tar and natural gas) were created as a result of plants capturing the energy of the sun and then, through natural forces, storing it underground for our future use. We need to know what might be the sum total of BTUs that were created during this period (a truly huge number) and how much of this energy might be realistically recoverable given probable scientific advances. And what are the possible error boundaries of these estimates?

- How much of this hydrocarbon energy has already been expended since we stopped depending on wood, wind and whale oil ... and how many years, decades or centuries might this energy reservoir sustain the entire world given realistic demographic and per-person usage projections. And what are the possible error boundaries to these estimates?

- Given these estimates and their error boundaries, at what point will the world likely need significant new energy sources and what might these energy sources be? Hydroelectric? Nuclear? Fusion? Tidal? Geothermal? Wind? Solar? or the possible requirement for some new energy technology? What are the possible risks and error boundaries associated with each of these options?

- What are the realistic apolitical economic and social implications of each of these paths to supplying our longer-term energy needs and what are the error boundaries therein?

- What are the chances that this will occur?

Headlines

The campaign to confirm a diplomatic novice to America' top U.N. post

Finally, signs of a Santa Claus

First year of no violent tornadoes in USA ...

German Supreme Court rejects child marriage law

Nielsen deflects blame for boy's death in Border Patrol custody

Oil surges 10% after the settle, rebounding witch stocks after Christmas Eve sell-off

MSNBC beats FOXNEWS in key ratings for first time ...

Week 16: 'Monday Night Football' ratings hit record low

How Trump gave away this secret War Zone trip

Trump cancels meeting with Iraqi leadership after a 'disagreement,' Iraq PM says

Update: Putin setting up bomber base on Caribbean island ...

China lauds Cuba for rejecting 'individualism'

Headlines

2020 Dem candidates join anti-ICE stampede

Trump says Saudi King has agreed to increase oil production'maybe up to 2 million barrels'

Record hear Chicago, DC, NYC ...

Report: Trump to demand Rissia exit from Syria at Putin summit

Spain, Greece and Germany seal migrant swap deal

Trump says he will bring up election meddling with Putin

Cut fiber line causes widespread COMCAST outages ...

Report: FBI withholding info on Loretta Lynch and  Clinton investigation

Feds: Decades-old court decision allows family immigration detention

Chinese stocks tumble onto bear market with Shanghai index on track for worst year since 2011

Congressman (Rep. Gohmert)): Rosenstein spying on me ...

Environmental policy created plastic pollution in oceans: says study

Headlines

State Dept: Another US. diplomat in Cuba suffered from medical issues

Tesla is asking Model 3 reservation holders for an another $2,500 to order their cars ...

Update: Oil spikes to highest price in four years

Whoopi Goldberg to Trump's potential SCOTUS pick: 'Get out of my vagina!'

Shooting at newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland

The Red Hen restaurant that refused to serve Sarah Sanders was hit by a cyber attack

Judge: 'Even blind person' can see Mueller using Manafort to 'target" Trump ...

Poll: Majority of Americans believe social media sites censure political views

Sen. Lee: Kennedy's retirement might not mean the end of abortion rights

Amazon wipes out $17.5 billion from eight companies in one day

Gowdy tells Rosenstein: 'Finish the hell up!'

130 Mexican political candidates assassinated in 10 months