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Ruth King

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Solar Power to Hit the Wall in Nevada By Norman Rogers

By on June 18th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/06/solar_power_to_hit_the_wall_in_nevada.html

Solar power and wind power are the dominant methods of generating electricity that are acceptable to the extreme left. The left calls its acceptable methods of generating electricity “renewable energy.” The definition of renewable energy, enshrined in renewable portfolio laws in many states, tells us what the left likes and doesn’t like. It is very arbitrary. The general idea of renewable energy is that it doesn’t use fuel that could run out and it doesn’t emit CO2. But the left breaks its own rules as is convenient.

For example, nuclear power doesn’t emit CO2 and running out of fuel is strictly theoretical. Nuclear is also reliable with steady delivery of electricity. The prospects for new technology in the nuclear universe are very bright. Yet, nuclear is arbitrarily banned in renewable portfolio laws. Incredibly, most renewable portfolio laws effectively ban hydroelectric power too, because the environmental left does not like dams.

Geothermal power, utilizing hot rocks underground as a source of energy, is accepted as renewable, even though the “fuel” can and does run out as the rocks cool under the pressure of removing the heat to make electricity. Geothermal only works if rare good sites are found.

Solar power and wind power are loved by the left, but have the serious problem of erratic delivery of power. Wind dominates solar except in places with poor wind and good sunshine, such as Nevada, where I live. In states where a lot of solar has been installed, such as California and Nevada, solar is running into a wall that is related to  the time delivery of solar power versus when the electrical grid’s need for power.

Nevada has a renewable portfolio law that demands that by 2030 half the electricity come from renewable sources. The promoters of green power are even trying to put the renewable power quota into the Nevada Constitution. As a practical matter that quota requires greatly increasing solar electricity. Nevada does have fairly good geothermal resources, but those are expensive and slow to develop.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Muslim Federation Removes Name of FB Manager from FB Page Abdur Rahman al-Ghani says Jews ‘demonic,’ US ‘#1 terrorist,’ ‘Islam will rule world.’ Joe Kaufman

By on June 18th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274015/muslim-federation-removes-name-fb-manager-fb-page-joe-kaufman

It appears Abdur Rahman al-Ghani’s job as Facebook Manager for the South Florida Muslim Federation (SFMF) Facebook page may be over. Following two FrontPage articles written by this author, exposing al-Ghani’s hatred for Jews and America and support for an Islamic State, SFMF has removed the ‘Team Member’ section from its Facebook page (SoFlo Muslims), which listed al-Ghani as its sole team member. At the same time, al-Ghani removed from the ‘Intro’ section of his own Facebook page that he “Manages SoFlo Muslims.”

The South Florida Muslim Federation has only been around for just over two years, and in that short period of time, major issues have been exposed regarding the terror and hate-related groups and individuals involved with it.

The Executive Director of SFMF is Nezar Hamze. Prior to leading the Federation, Hamze was the Regional Operations Director for the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization with foundational and financial ties to Hamas. Wilfredo Ruiz, the Public Relations Director of SFMF, is also the current Communications Director of CAIR-Florida and the legal advisor for the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA), a group that has been cited by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for anti-Semitic activity.

Both CAIR and AMANA are member organizations of SFMF. Indeed, SFMF is an umbrella group for most, if not all, of South Florida’s radical Muslim organizations, including all of South Florida’s radical mosques.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

7 Years Later, Trial of Benghazi Attacker Ends in Mistrial on 15 Charges Daniel Greenfield

By on June 18th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/274052/7-years-later-trial-benghazi-attacker-ends-daniel-greenfield

Arresting Islamic terrorists and bringing them to trial was a signature policy of the Obama years.

Despite his end zone dance after OBL’s death, Obama’s actual plan was to arrest Osama bin Laden and put him on trial. The arrests of terrorists, instead of their battlefield elimination, is still continuing on as a policy even after Obama is out of office.

Here’s how well that plan worked out in the Benghazi Islamic terrorist attack that killed 4 Americans, including an ambassador..

 A U.S. judge has declared a mistrial on 15 remaining charges against a Libyan militant who was found guilty last week of playing an instrumental role in the 2012 Benghazi attacks.

The mistrial in the case of Mustafa al-Imam was declared Monday in Washington after a jury could not reach a decision on 15 counts. The same jury last week found al-Imam guilty of two different counts, including conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

That’s two to fifteen. Great track record.

Mustafa will be spending plenty of time in prison. But the entire process is a pointless farce. 

Benghazi was an enemy attack. Its perpetrators should have been taken out, not put on trial at a cost of millions to taxpayers, with indecisive results are best.

This was not a sign of strength, but of weakness.

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P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Smithsonian Disgrace How America’s historical memory has been traduced into celebrating a communist hack and servant of dictators. Matthew Vadum

By on June 18th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274039/smithsonian-disgrace-matthew-vadum

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in the nation’s capital is planning to use taxpayer dollars to honor unrepentant America-hating Communist Angela Davis.

Of course, this is the same museum that had to be shamed into properly recognizing the contributions of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a brilliant jurist and political conservative, to American society. Initially, the museum praised his undistinguished nemesis, Anita Hill, a former aide whose politically motivated lies about his office behavior nearly felled his nomination to the court in 1991, before being pressured into giving Thomas the attention and respect he richly deserves.

Unless a political backlash arises, on Sept. 10 the museum will screen and host a discussion on a piece of agitprop called Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners, directed by Shola Lynch. Lynch and Davis will headline the talk that will be moderated by Rhea Combs, NMAAHC film and photography curator.

According to the museum, “[t]he documentary explores the life of Angela Y. Davis, Ph.D. a brilliant young scholar and how, because of her activism in support of social justice, she was criminalized and named on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list.”

This piece of revisionist anti-American cinematic propaganda is, of course, how the Left prefers to view Davis: as a Social Justice Warrior extraordinaire cruelly and systematically oppressed by a nation that hates her because she is a black agent of desperately needed change.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The Case for Restraint in the Gulf So long as U.S. ships aren’t struck, Trump should stick with his current Iran strategy. By Walter Russell Mead

By on June 18th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-case-for-restraint-in-the-gulf-11560813331

The latest crisis with Iran illustrates an important but widely neglected point about world politics: Amid all the talk about American decline, American power in the international system has actually grown. Even five years ago the U.S. could not force Iran out of world oil markets without causing a devastating spike in oil and gas prices that would destabilize the world economy. Today, world energy markets are so robust that Brent crude prices have fallen since the first set of attacks on oil tankers in May.

Simultaneously, the U.S. has developed the ability to globalize unilateral sanctions. Washington doesn’t need the support of its allies to isolate Tehran economically, because “secondary sanctions” can effectively compel other countries to comply with the U.S. effort. That the administration has accomplished this while also engaged in trade battles with nearly every important American trading partner underscores the magnitude of U.S. economic power and the administration’s determination to bring it fully to bear on Iran.

As the shades of Robert McNamara and McGeorge Bundy can testify, however, great power does not automatically confer wisdom. Having demonstrated an impressive ability to squeeze Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, the Trump administration now needs to translate raw power into policy success. This goal remains elusive with all three countries so far, and the path forward is anything but clear.

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MEDIA, P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Teen Vogue Encourages Children To Explore Prostitution As A Career By Chrissy Clark (Huh??!!)

By on June 18th, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/06/17/teen-vogue-encourages-children-explore-prostitution-career/

On April 26, Teen Vogue posted an article titled “Why Sex Work is Real Work” by Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng. Teen Vogue tweeted the article out again today.

Teen Vogue
✔ @TeenVogue

Yes, sex work is real work! http://tnvge.co/VnFnlN7

The author, who is also the founder of Nalane Reproductive Justice, explains why she believes sex work should be decriminalized.

“The idea of purchasing intimacy and paying for the services can be affirming for many people who need human connection, friendship, and emotional support,” Mofokeng said.

What drew outrage, beyond the obvious, was that the article was published in Teen Vogue, a magazine targeted toward 13-year-old girls.

This article reduces the work of a medical professional to that of a sex worker. In her piece, Mofokeng questions why having a medical degree to talk about sex-related problems differs from physically performing sexual acts. Both are a transfer of cash, therefore both ought to be legal.

With that line of logic, we should legalize all drugs because doctors give out drugs; therefore crack dealers should be allowed to give out drugs. They’re both a transfer of cash, after all.

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EDUCATION, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Another Anti-Israel Academic Coming to Campus Near You avatar by Moshe Phillips

By on June 18th, 2019

https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/06/17/another-anti-israel-academic-coming-to-campus-near-you/https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/06/17/another-anti-israe

Usually by the time we hear about an anti-Israel professor at some university, it’s too late — she or he already has tenure, is chair of the department, or is so deeply entrenched in other ways that there’s simply no way to prevent him or her from turning young minds against Israel for decade after decade.

But once in a while, fate hands us an alert. Take the case of Kyle Stanton of Albany, New York. He hasn’t even finished his PhD yet, but he has already joined the world of academic Israel-haters. So get ready. Pretty soon he could be teaching your sons and daughters at their college.

Stanton is a PhD candidate and a teaching assistant at the State University of New York at Albany. During the past year or so, his articles have begun to appear in a variety of journals. Academic writing is among the prized stepping stones to a full-fledged university teaching position.

Stanton’s first published writings reveal that he has some very strong opinions about the Arab-Israeli conflict — and a profound bias against Israel.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iran to Increase Uranium Enrichment in Violation of 2015 Nuclear Treaty By Jack Crowe

By on June 17th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/iran-to-increase-uranium-enrichment-in-violation-of-2015-nuclear-treaty/

Iranian officials announced on Monday that they will begin to increase uranium enrichment in violation of the 2015 international nuclear treaty from which the U.S. already has withdrawn.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Agency, said the country’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium will surpass the limit established under the treaty within ten days, according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim.

The announcement by Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency comes weeks after Tehran threatened to violate the 2015 nuclear treaty if the pact’s remaining European signatories failed to shield the country from the effects of U.S. sanctions within 60 days.

  

Kamalvandi left open the possibility of returning to compliance with the treaty if the European parties help to relieve some of the burden of U.S. sanctions by establishing alternative trade arrangements.

“As long as they comply by their commitments, these will go back,” Kamalvandi said during a televised press conference at the country’s Arak nuclear plant.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran continued to escalate last week after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Iran was responsible for an attack on two oil tankers that occurred in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday morning.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Since When Are Liberals against Investigating the CIA and FBI? By Jonathan S. Tobin

By on June 17th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/liberals-against-investigating-cia-fbi/Since Trump took office, of course.

Was there ever a time when Americans had unquestioning faith in federal law-enforcement agencies? Maybe in the days before Vietnam and Watergate, most citizens did believe that those in charge of the nation’s fate could be trusted. Before World War II, the FBI’s formidable public-relations machine actually produced a popular radio and television program lauding its efforts “in peace and war.” After the war, when the CIA became the country’s first full-time foreign-intelligence agency, few Americans understood much about what it was doing, and what little they did know was colored by the government’s propaganda efforts.

But ever since the upheaval of the late 1960s and early 1970s seemed to make cynicism about government our new national pastime, the notion that the intelligence community is above politics has been as outdated as the adulation once accorded to J. Edgar Hoover. It’s in that context that we should understand the recent debate about whether it’s appropriate to scrutinize the CIA and FBI’s role in the origins of the Russia probe. Though Democrats are now treating criticism of federal law enforcement as beyond the pale, their newfound faith is every bit as partisan as Republicans’ newfound skepticism. A sober look at the history of the past few decades reveals that, to paraphrase Clausewitz, in Washington, intelligence has always been a matter of politics by other means.

Attorney General William Barr’s decision to launch an investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation has caused some predicable anger among Democrats and other Trump-administration critics. This discomfort stems from what they regard as an attempt to flip the narrative from Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia to a dubious decision by the FBI to begin spying on the political opponents of Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration.

Given the failure of the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to prove the collusion allegations, Barr’s attempt to determine whether the unprecedented probe of a presidential campaign was an abuse of power seems reasonable. But Barr’s decision is a huge problem for Democrats who are hoping to pursue the impeachment of Trump by picking up the case that Mueller failed to make after two years of effort.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Sorry, banning plastic bags won’t save our planet Bjørn Lomborg

By on June 17th, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-sorry-banning-plastic-bags-wont-save-our-planet/

Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center.

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a plan to reduce plastic pollution, which will include a ban on single-use plastics as early as 2021. This is laudable: plastics clog drains and cause floods, litter nature and kill animals and birds.

Of course, plastic also makes our lives better in a myriad of ways. In just four decades, plastic packaging has become ubiquitous because it keeps everything from cereals to juice fresher and reduces transportation losses, while one-use plastics in the medical sector have made syringes, pill bottles and diagnostic equipment more safe.

Going without disposable plastic entirely would leave us worse off, so we need to tackle the problems without losing all of the benefits.

The simplest action for consumers is to ensure that plastic is collected and used, so a grocery bag, for example, has a second life as a trash bag, and is then used for energy.

Explainer: Canada’s single-use plastics ban: What we know so far and what you can do to recycle better

But we need to be honest about how much consumers can achieve. As with other environmental issues, instead of tackling the big-picture problems to actually reduce the plastic load going into oceans, we focus on relatively minor changes involving consumers, meaning we only ever tinker at the margins.

More than 20 countries have taken the showy action of banning plastic bags, including even an al-Qaeda-backed terrorist group which said plastic bags pose “a serious threat to the well-being of humans and animals alike.”

But even if every country banned plastic bags it would not make much of a difference, since plastic bags make up less than 0.8 per cent of the mass of plastic currently afloat on the world’s oceans.

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