Displaying the most recent of 92136 posts written by

Ruth King

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Special Seinfeld? An investigation about nothing could become something worse.By James Freeman

By on June 18th, 2017

“After 7 months of investigations & committee hearings about my ‘collusion with the Russians,’ nobody has been able to show any proof. Sad!,” tweeted President Donald Trump this morning. Mr. Trump isn’t known for understatement, but in this case his argument is stronger than he suggests, because then-Director Jim Comey’s FBI began looking for evidence of collusion nearly a full year ago. It still hasn’t appeared, which means that Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller is conducting an investigation in search of a premise. But if this is starting to look like the Seinfeld of federal productions—a show about nothing—recent events suggest it could end up being about something worse.

Mr. Mueller has a sterling reputation and a long record of service to the United States, including as a decorated Marine in Vietnam and as Mr. Comey’s predecessor atop the FBI. He is known for his independence and professionalism, which makes recent media reports about his burgeoning investigation rather puzzling.

CNN reports today that Mr. Mueller has already hired 13 lawyers and plans to hire more. The network describes the investigative team:

Among them are James Quarles and Jeannie Rhee, both of whom Mueller brought over from his old firm, WilmerHale. He’s also hired Andrew Weissmann, who led the Enron investigation.

“That is a great, great team of complete professionals, so let’s let him do his job,” former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who investigated President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, told ABC News.

While only five attorneys have been identified, concerns have come up over the political leanings of Quarles, Rhee and Weissmann. They have donated overwhelmingly to Democrats, totaling more than $53,000 since 1988, according to a CNN analysis of Federal Election Commission records.

If Mr. Mueller promptly exonerates the President, the presence of partisan Democrats on the investigative team will certainly lend credibility to Mr. Mueller’s findings. In a similar way, the presence of Trump donors on the team would bolster Mr. Mueller’s case if he ended up claiming that the President did something wrong.

Conscientious people—and even attorneys—can put their politics aside and perform honest service. But rather than deciding which political partisans to engage in this work, shouldn’t Mr. Mueller be seeking people who don’t have a particular rooting interest in the outcome? For both the appearance and the reality of a fair inquiry, an independent staff would seem to be an obvious objective when assembling the team.

Is it hard to find good lawyers who aren’t political activists? Mr. Mueller is obviously comfortable hiring former WilmerHale colleagues, and it turns out it’s not so easy finding attorneys there who aren’t partisans. The firm’s investigative and criminal litigation practice group is one obvious place to look for lawyers to join the Russia investigation. Both co-chairs of this group at WilmerHale are Democratic donors, according to OpenSecrets.org. This group is part of a larger “Litigation/Controversy Department,” and its chair and all four vice chairs are also Democratic check-writers, though a couple of them have also contributed to Republicans. Many of the more junior attorneys are also active in politics, which means Mr. Mueller may need to get outside his comfort zone if he wants more independent thinkers.

Again, just because Mr. Mueller hired people who gave hefty donations to Democrats doesn’t mean these lawyers can’t do a professional job searching for the long-sought evidence of collusion. But then what are we to make of the Washington Post report this week with various anonymous sources saying Mr. Mueller’s team is investigating if the President obstructed justice—and then another Post report based on leaks saying Team Mueller is looking into presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner’s business dealings?

As for the idea that Mr. Trump might have obstructed justice, Andy McCarthy and Alan Dershowitz and Michael McConnell have separately explained why this is a big stretch, and Richard Epstein makes the case that if anyone in this drama is vulnerable to a possible obstruction charge, it’s Mr. Comey. CONTINUE AT SITE

Continue reading →
ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Israel turned deserts green, there is no reason Kenyans should go hungry By Eliud Kibii

By on June 18th, 2017

As Israeli Ambassador Yahel Vilan ends his two-year posting, Kenya is suffering from drought and food insecurity and has been forced to import food. Israel, a tiny country of 21,000 square kilometres and a population of 8.7 million, is famous for turning the desert green with agricultural innovation, such as drip irrigation.And it exports fresh produce.

Kenya with 48 million people covers more than 581,000 square kilometres, much of it arid and desert, some of it verdant, well-irrigated and perfect for agriculture. And yet it’s struggling.

In a wide-ranging interview, Vilan discussed Israel’s assistance to Kenya in agriculture, especially the Galana-Kulalu irrigation project in Tana River.

It is being developed with Israeli expertise and run by an Israeli company. It’s largely funded by Kenya.

Though the project has been criticised by some in Kenya for not producing enough, Vilan called the project — which is a pilot — a success that will help transform Kenyan agriculture.

According to chief engineer and project manager Thuita Mwangi, the third harvest from 2,500 acres delivered 93,860 bags. About 1,000 locals are employed.

Describing how Israel became so successful despite the geographic and climatic challenges, Vilan said, “We knew from the beginning that we didn’t have choices. We wanted to strive, first and foremost for our own consumption. We needed to base our agriculture on technology.

“We had scarcity of water and we had to find solutions, which we did through drip irrigation and use of treated water. Israel is currently number one in usage of treated water for agriculture.”

Vilan said bold and consistent decision–making at national and county levels is essential if if Kenya is to be food secure.

“There is no reason Kenya should have to import food,” the envoy said.

State and local governments should not sit and wait for the next drought, the ambassador said.

Rainwater must be harvested and better managed, instead of going to waste. This, he says, is a matter of policy-making and leadership.

Vilan called critism of the Galana-Kulalu project premature.

“The Kenyan people one day had nothing. We go for this ambitious project and almost immediately, there is criticism. If people expected miracles and immediate yields, that is not possible. It is okay to criticise but I invite everyone to go there and see with their own eyes.”

The first maize crop was harvested when Vilan arrived in the country in September 2015.

In less than two years, he says, 30-40 bags of maize are being harvested per acre, as promised.

“We also should remember, the goal of Galana, as of now in this pilot project, is not to solve Kenya’s food shortage but to introduce technologies and methods for farmers for the future. This is an experiment testing different varieties of maize and other crops. The plan is not just to produce maize and other food products but also to ensure every farmer in Kenya sees how these technologies can work here. We have seen governors and ministers going to Israel and saying it is working there and they want to see it working in Kenya. Agriculture is not cut-and-paste. But, in the end, this [Galana-type agriculture]is the solution to Kenya’s food security.” the ambassador said.

To avoid a repeat of the collapse of the Kibwezi irrigation project — into which Israel pumped Sh300 million into 14 years ago — the envoy says they have introduced the training aspect in Galana, so Kenyans can learn to run it by themselves.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Canada criminalizes non-progressive thought By Daren Jonescu

By on June 18th, 2017

Do you think imposing so-called transgenderism on children as a sexual norm might be harmful to their moral development? Do you question the legitimacy of using made up so-called gender-neutral pronouns as replacements for the standard English words “he” and “she”?

If you answered yes, or even maybe, to either of those questions, then, as of today, you are in violation of Canada’s Human Rights Code, and subject to fines, re-education, or – should you refuse comply and repent – prison time.

Canada’s Senate has passed a “controversial” (read: fascistic) new law, Bill C-16, which adds “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the nation’s hate crime laws – Canada being a world leader in legislating who should be hated and who shouldn’t – thus effectively making it a crime for a business owner to “discriminate” on the basis of not wanting his male employee to wear a dress, or for a teacher not to use a nonexistent, politically correct pronoun whenever a student tells her to. More generally, it makes a hate criminal of anyone who openly expresses a view not perfectly compliant with the zeitgeist on gender identity, transgenderism, or what have you. The debate is now, officially and legally, over.

Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of Canada’s pro-life movement, condemned the passage of Bill C-16.

“This tyrannical bill is nothing but social engineering to the nth degree, all in the name of political correctness,” Campaign Life’s Toronto vice president Jeff Gunnarson told LifeSiteNews.

Jack Fonseca, Campaign Life’s senior political strategist, said the bill will be used to attack Christian belief.

“Mark my words, this law will not be used as some sort of ‘shield’ to defend vulnerable transsexuals, but rather as a weapon with which to bludgeon people of faith and free-thinking Canadians who refuse to deny truth,” he told LifeSiteNews.

In other words, a postmodern, nihilistic, neo-Marxist pseudo-theory of sexual identity and systemic oppression, dreamt up by some pretentious careerist professor of “queer studies” climbing out of the academic slime somewhere five years ago, has officially been declared the unassailable Absolute Truth by Justin Trudeau’s government. Unassailable as in “alternative views will not be given a hearing.” Unassailable as in “heretics will be burned.”

One of those heretics, a sort of hero of the martyrs brigade, is University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson, who has stood up publicly, including in front of the Senate committee debating C-16, against the imposition of what he correctly calls “compelled speech” and specifically speech that implies acceptance of a particular, specious (to put it politely) theory of human nature.

Continue reading →
ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The true ‘climate deniers’ By Michael N. Mattia

By on June 18th, 2017

The money-grubbing hucksters of climate change, global warming, or whatever other catchphrase title is being used to scare the gullible Chicken Littles of the world claim modern “science” has the ability to foretell the future. Their predictions are no more reliable than those of a swami gazing into a crystal ball telling you that if you simply contribute money to his personal lottery for the next five years, he will guarantee a significant return.

There are a few issues that should be seriously considered before throwing tens of billions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars into an international slush fund like the Paris Accords. The leaders of the world’s various governments clamoring for more and more wealth re-distribution are more than happy to sign on to such nonsense, especially if the money is going to come from the United States.

First, the prognostications of climate doom and gloom occurring in the next 100 years ignore human history. The science of today may very well turn out to be as accurate as the science of yore which claimed the Earth was flat or that the sun revolved around the Earth. The modern-day alarmists are direct philosophical descendants of those who claimed that the only way to ever cross oceans was by sailing ship, or that there would never be any form of locomotion and all transport would be powered by animals, or the only way for humans to communicate long-distance was by pen and paper…and choose to ignore the results of the ingenuity and inventiveness of the individual human mind. No one can predict the technological marvels of the future or the impact these innovations will have on our lives.

Second, history has shown that thrusting vast amounts of money into the hands of corrupt politicians (but I repeat myself) and bureaucrats only serves to make those people rich. Has the bloated bureaucracy of the United Nations and the spoiled, pampered, and overpaid bureaucrats living large in Manhattan really made a significant change in the world? Wars are rampant; dictatorships flourish; polio still cripples millions; malaria still ravages third-world countries whose leaders live in palaces and drive around in armored limousines.

What government has ever developed a technology to improve life on the planet? Perhaps atomic energy is the exception that proves the rule, but that was initially developed to destroy. Most if not all advances in technology have been accomplished by the individual inventor, entrepreneur, or risk-taker. The telegraph, the telephone, electricity, the steam engine, all from individuals never from government. Even today, most technological advances come from the private sector. Why would anyone base his hopes on the promises of politicians?

Why are so many willing to cast trillions of dollars into a virtual bottomless pit of government graft, fraud, and waste? One hundred ninety-two nations of the world working toward a common goal? That is truly Alice in Wonderland fantasy.

Continue reading →
ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Switzerland’s Carbon Capture Plant Is a Giant Waste of Money By Spencer P. Morrison

By on June 18th, 2017

On May 31, 2017 the world’s first commercial atmospheric carbon-capture plant opened for business in Hinwil, Switzerland.

The plant, designed and operated by a Swiss company called Climeworks, is different from existing carbon-capture facilities because it filters carbon dioxide out of the ambient atmosphere using proprietary technology, rather than from industrial exhaust, which is quite common.

Climeworks claims their facility will be able to remove 900 tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year. Furthermore, its modular design will allow it to be scaled up as the demand for carbon dioxide increases.

What do they plan to do with said carbon? Some of it will be pumped into nearby greenhouses to help the plants grow better, some will be used in carbonated beverages, and the rest will be sequestered deep underground in Swiss mines. The point? To stop climate change. Whether or not this is a worthy goal is beyond the scope of this article, but for the sake of argument, assume that climate change is a clear and present danger–even an existential threat. Does this project make sense?

No.

First of all, given the quantity of carbon Climework’s plant is able to filter from the atmosphere, it would take some 250,000 such facilities to meet even the relatively modest carbon sequestration goals recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change–that is 1% of total emissions by 2025. Presumably building these would cost a lot of money (although in fairness, Climeworks had not disclosed the cost of its project).

Also, in order for the company to be profitable, the carbon must be sold to greenhouses and pop manufacturers. Has it occurred to any of these “environmentalists” that the moment the lettuce is shipped out of the greenhouse, or the can of Sprite is opened that the carbon dioxide simply returns to the atmosphere. This plant will mostly just move carbon around, and is therefore useless.

The only way this facility actually removes carbon from the atmosphere is via sequestration, which is clearly not profitable. This means taxpayers will inevitably be on the hook for this “business” venture. Of course, carbon is used in oil wells, but more than enough of that is harvested locally from exhaust–no one needs Swiss atmospheric carbon.

Finally, Climeworks, and the entire green technology industry for that matter, appears to have forgotten that trees exist. Yes, trees. Trees naturally remove carbon from the atmosphere, and give us beautiful breathable oxygen. They basically do exactly what Climeworks does, except they are free–or dirt-cheap at the very least.

The best part is that trees are also very good at what they do. Depending on the climate and the type of tree, they can remove enormous amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, and lock it away for centuries. In numerical terms, it only takes 98 “mature” trees (trees that can grow at least 20lb per year) to remove one ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and this number is for Canadian trees, which are not particularly verdant.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Palestinians Kill Israeli Police Officer; ISIS Claim Is Rebutted Hamas, PFLP also claim responsibility for Jerusalem attacks By Rory Jones see note please

By on June 18th, 2017

Again, these terrorists are referred to as “militants”….rsk

TEL AVIV—Stabbing attacks by Palestinian militants in Jerusalem left an Israeli police officer dead, Israeli officials said Saturday, but authorities cast doubt on a claim by Islamic State that its fighters were responsible for the assaults.

The three attackers also lightly injured several other officers and civilians before security forces shot them dead in locations outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday evening, Israeli police said. One of the assailants had a gun that jammed, avoiding more serious casualties, the police added.

Sergeant Major Hadas Malka, 23 years old, was stabbed while engaging the attackers and later died of her wounds, Israeli officials said.

The bloodshed on Friday ended a lull in Palestinian violence against Israelis after a wave of attacks that began in September 2015 had largely abated in recent months in part due to greater security coordination between Israeli and Palestinian security forces.

Islamic State quickly took responsibility for the attacks, but Israeli authorities said they had no evidence to support the extremist group’s claims, which were also dismissed by other Palestinian militant groups.

Islamic State made the claim in a statement on its official channel, its first about an attack in Israel.

In response, Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and regularly claims responsibility for Palestinian violence against Israelis, said one of its members and two operatives from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine conducted the attacks.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Islamic State’s claim aimed to “muddy the waters.”

The PFLP, a secular nationalist group that has only a small level of support among Palestinians, said in a statement it also was responsible for the attacks. CONTINUE AT SITE

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Rep. Steve Scalise Upgraded to Serious Condition Hospital says Republican congressman is more responsive, speaking with family

By on June 18th, 2017

WASHINGTON—U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R., La.) was upgraded from critical to serious condition on Saturday after he was wounded in a shooting at a Republican baseball practice outside Washington, D.C.

Medstar Washington Hospital Center released the update Saturday on behalf of the Scalise family. The congressman underwent another surgery Saturday, and the hospital said he is more responsive and speaking with family.

Mr. Scalise, the House majority whip, was one of five people shot when a gunman opened fire Wednesday as the Republican team practiced in Alexandria, Va.

The assailant, James Hodgkinson, had lashed out at President Donald Trump and other Republicans over social media and last year volunteered for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign.

Mr. Scalise, 51 years old, was shot as he stood by second base, and he dragged himself into the outfield in a bid to reach safety, witnesses said. He has required surgery several times since the shooting.

Matt Mika, a lobbyist for Tyson Foods who was among those shot, also underwent additional surgery and doctors expect a full recovery.

Mr. Mika’s family said in a statement Saturday that he would remain in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital at least through the weekend. They said he is able to communicate through notes and signed the game ball from Friday’s congressional baseball game.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

London Police Say 58 People Are Presumed Dead From Tower Fire Fire ripped through west London tower block early Wednesday By Wiktor Szary

By on June 18th, 2017

LONDON—At least 58 people are presumed dead from the huge blaze that ripped through a west London residential tower earlier in the week, police said Saturday, warning that the number might change as the search operation continues.

The number included the previously confirmed death toll of 30, London police commander Stuart Cundy said.

After facing mounting criticism for being slow to meet survivors and the families of victims, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May said the government’s immediate response had been inadequate.

“The support on the ground for families who needed help or basic information in the initial hours after this appalling disaster was not good enough,” she said in a statement.

Police said they resumed the search operation in the tower on Saturday after it was suspended Friday over safety concerns, and formally identified the first victim of the fire as Mohammad Alhajali, 23 years old. Some victims of the fire have been identified publicly by family members.

The developments come amid heightened tensions over Wednesday’s fire at Grenfell Tower—a low-income high-rise in North Kensington, near Notting Hill and a few miles from the center of the U.K. capital, that was home to hundreds of people.

Critics have questioned whether officials were too slow to address concerns about fire-safety measures in low-income, public housing. One area of focus has been whether the aluminum cladding on the 24-floor building’s exterior contributed to the fire’s quick spread. The cladding wouldn’t have met widely adopted U.S. standards, according to building groups. CONTINUE AT SITE

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Deadly Collision Crushed Captain’s Cabin of USS Fitzgerald Bodies of seven U.S. sailors recovered after the U.S. destroyer collided with the ACX Crystal By Alastair Gale and Gordon Lubold

By on June 18th, 2017

YOKOSUKA, Japan—A deadly collision with a cargo ship crushed the captain’s cabin of a U.S. destroyer and other sleeping quarters, giving sailors almost no time to save themselves as seawater flooded in, the commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet said Sunday.

The bodies of seven U.S. sailors missing after the USS Fitzgerald collided with the Philippines-registered ACX Crystal early Saturday have been recovered from inside the destroyer, U.S. defense officials said.

Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin said the impact crushed berthing cabins below the waterline and ripped open a large hole in the vessel. Bodies of the missing sailors were found in the berthing cabins, the Navy said.

The cabin of the ship’s captain, Bryce Benson, was also badly damaged.

“He’s lucky to be alive,” Vice Adm. Aucoin said, adding that Commander Benson, who was airlifted from the Fitzgerald, is in a stable condition in a nearby hospital.

Two berthing areas were crushed, housing more than 100 sailors. Many were asleep at the time of the collision.

Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, U.S. Seventh Fleet Commander, said there wasn’t a lot of time for sailor’s to react to the collision. Photo: toru hanai/Reuters

“The water inflow was tremendous” after the collision, Vice Adm. Aucoin said. “There wasn’t a lot of time” for sailors to react. “The crew had to work very hard to keep the ship afloat”

Vice Adm. Aucoin said he had ordered a full investigation into the cause of the collision, and would also cooperate with Japanese investigators looking into the incident.

A spokesman for the Japanese coast guard said its investigation was continuing, and Filipino crew members of the ACX Crystal had been questioned. He declined to discuss further details of the probe.

Nippon Yusen K.K . , the Japanese shipping company that operates the 728-foot-long ACX Crystal cargo ship, said all of the 20 crew members were unharmed. The company said it would fully cooperate with an investigation into the cause of the collision.

The region where the two ships collided is often busy with marine traffic.

Collisions at sea for the U.S. Navy are extremely uncommon, said Bryan McGrath, a former destroyer captain, who said they occur only once or twice a decade, if that. He said he couldn’t remember a recent collision that was this consequential. CONTINUE AT SITE

Continue reading →
ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The Charade of the Paris Treaty The real problem with the global accord on climate change is that it would make no real difference By Bjorn Lomborg

By on June 17th, 2017

Environmentalists were aghast when President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate treaty, with some declaring that the very survival of our civilization was at stake. But is the Paris accord really all that stands between the planet and the worst of climate change? Certainly not.

This is not to deny that President Trump’s announcement was problematic. He failed to acknowledge that global warming is real and wrongly claimed that China and India are the “world’s leading polluters.” (China and the U.S. are the largest emitters of carbon dioxide, and the U.S. is the biggest per capita.) It was far-fetched for him to suggest that the treaty will be “renegotiated.” Worse, the White House now has no response to climate change.

But the global consensus about the Paris treaty is wrongheaded too. It risks wasting huge resources to do almost nothing to fix the climate problem while shortchanging approaches that promise the most transformative results.

Consider the Paris agreement’s preamble, which states that signatories will work to keep the rise in average global temperature “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and even suggests that the increase could be kept to 1.5 degrees. This is empty political rhetoric. Based on current carbon dioxide emissions, achieving the target of 1.5 degrees would require the entire planet to abandon fossil fuels in four years.

But the treaty has deeper problems. The United Nations organization in charge of the accord counted up the national carbon-cut pledges for 2016 to 2030 and estimated that, if every country met them, carbon dioxide emissions would be cut by 56 gigatons. It is widely accepted that restricting temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius would require a cut of some 6,000 gigatons, that is, about a hundredfold more.

The Paris treaty is not, then, just slightly imperfect. Even in an implausibly optimistic, best-case scenario, the Paris accord leaves the problem virtually unchanged. Those who claim otherwise are forced to look beyond the period covered by the treaty and to hope for a huge effort thereafter.

The treaty commits nations to specific and reasonably verifiable (but nonbinding) cuts in carbon emissions until the year 2030. After that, nothing really is concrete, for a very understandable reason: Could you imagine a carbon-cutting promise made by President Bill Clinton being fulfilled by Mr. Trump? Could you see a Democrat in 2035 feeling honor-bound by policies set by Mr. Trump today?

Now ask the same sort of questions about every country that has signed the treaty. Rose-tinted hopes for the accord’s success rely on heroic assumptions about what tomorrow’s world leaders will do. If what we need is a carbon diet, the Paris treaty is just a promise to eat one salad today, pushing all the hard self-restraint far into the future.

History gives us cause for skepticism about overly optimistic forecasts, even over much shorter spans. In 1993, Mr. Clinton committed the U.S. to cutting emissions by 2000, but he ditched the promise seven years later. In 1992, the industrialized nations promised that they would lower their emissions to 1990 levels by 2000. Nearly every country failed. Before the Paris treaty, the Kyoto Protocol was sold as a key part of the solution to global warming, but a recent study in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management shows that it achieved virtually nothing.

In the wake of Mr. Trump’s exit from the Paris treaty, there have been many claims that solar and wind energy will soon be ready to power the world. This also isn’t true.

Just 0.6% of the world’s energy needs are currently met by solar and wind, according to the International Energy Agency. Even with implementation of the Paris treaty, solar and wind are expected to contribute less than 3% of world energy by 2040. Fossil fuels will go from meeting 81% of our energy needs to three-quarters. The energy expert Vaclav Smil of the University of Manitoba puts it bluntly: “Claims of a rapid transition to a zero-carbon society are plain nonsense.”

Though there are contexts in which solar and wind energy are efficient, in most situations they depend on subsidies. These will cost $125 billion this year and $3 trillion over the next 25 years, to meet less than 3% of world energy needs. If solar and wind truly out-competed fossil fuels, the Paris treaty would be unnecessary. CONTINUE AT SITE

Continue reading →