ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The Greatest Scientific Fraud Of All Time — Part XXV Francis Menton

Posted By on August 19th, 2019

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2019-8-17-the-greatest-scientific-fraud-of-all-time-part-xxv

I posted Part XXIV of this series just three days ago, on Wednesday August 14. The subject of that post was the “homogenization” of official historical temperature data, by which the keepers of our official temperature records from ground-based thermometers use the excuses of station moves and instrumentation changes to adjust earlier temperatures downward in order to create an artificial warming trend and make recent temperatures appear to be the warmest ever.

But why would anyone engage in such a stupid game? After all, it’s been a good 50 years since the network of ground-based thermometers was recognized as completely inadequate to the task of keeping track of the earth’s changing climate. This network just had too many unfixable issues that meant that its measurement accuracy was not nearly sufficient for the task at hand. The issues include things like poor coverage of most of the earth’s surface (e.g., the whole southern hemisphere), essentially no coverage of the poles or the oceans, urban heat island issues affecting many of the most important stations, poorly tracked station moves and instrumentation changes, and so forth. These many issues are reasons why the decision was made back in the 1970s to spend some serious money to create a far superior methodology to track not just temperature readings at randomly sited ground stations, but instead to track the bulk heat content of the entire lower troposphere. Since 1979 the U.S. government has spent several billion dollars to build, launch and operate a group of satellites with instrumentation called “microwave sounding units,” designed to measure true average worldwide temperatures of the lower troposphere. Thus, since 1979, the network of ground-based thermometers has been made obsolete. We now have the far more accurate satellite temperature record to guide us.

The satellite-based temperature record is calculated and reported each month by a group at the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH) headed by Drs. John Christy and Roy Spencer. On August 1, UAH reported what they call the temperature “anomaly” for the lower troposphere for July: +0.38 deg C (measured as a departure from the average temperature from 1981 to 2010). That made July a relatively warm month, but it was down substantially from the anomaly of +0.47 deg C in June, let alone from the record anomaly of +0.88 deg C that occurred three and a half years ago in January 2016. The drop from the January 2016 record anomaly was a full 0.5 deg C, which is a very large drop considering that the record upward departure from the 1981-2010 mean is only +0.88 deg C.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

BDS Is an Anti-Semitic Movement and Tlaib and Omar Are Its Face Ned Ryun

Posted By on August 19th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/08/16/bds-is-an-anti-semitic-movement-and-tlaib-and-omar-are-its-face/

“Because of who we are as a people, because Israel is our closest and most trusted ally in the Middle East, because of basic human decency, we must do what we can to combat this anti-Semitic movement. If we truly believe in “never again,” we must do all that we can to eradicate the BDS movement. ”

By barring Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from entering the country, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did what he needed to do when confronted with his nation’s enemies. Israel quite rightly refuses entry to people who advocate its destruction. As any sane country would. (Ahem.) 

When Tlaib was extended a humanitarian visa on Friday to visit her family—specifically her grandmother—on the condition she not agitate politically, Tlaib refused the privilege. Apparently, “seeing gamgam” was just a ploy. What she and Omar apparently wanted was to discuss, promote, and agitate for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement that targets Israel and seeks to strangle it to death economically.

The movement was founded by Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian activist born in Qatar who now lives in Israel. Barghouti’s goal is not a two-state solution, but a one-state solution in which Israel ceases to exist and the land is returned to the Palestinians. The leaders of the BDS movement are quite clear about that: they seek to eliminate Israel, eradicate it, and replace it with “Palestine.” It was no accident that Omar and Tlaib’s agenda for their trip to Israel was titled “U.S. Delegation visit to Palestine.” 

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Cosmic Injustice: Politicians ignore felonies in their midst, preferring to hector the misdemeanors of the universe. Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on August 19th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/08/18/cosmic-injustice/

One of the weirdest characteristics of our global politicians and moral censors is their preference to voice cosmic justice rather than to address less abstract sin within their own purview or authority. These progressive virtue mongers see themselves as citizens of the world rather than of the United States and thus can impotently theorize about problems elsewhere when they cannot solve those in their own midst.

Big-city mayors are especially culpable when it comes to ignoring felonies in their midst, preferring to hector the misdemeanors of the universe. Notice how New York Mayor Bill De Blasio lords over the insidious deterioration of his city while he lectures on cosmic white supremacy.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg used to sermonize to the nation about gun-control, global warming, the perils of super-sized soft drinks, smoking, and fatty-foods in his efforts to virtue signal his moral fides—even as his New York was nearly paralyzed by the 2010 blizzard that trapped millions of his city’s residents in their homes due to inept and incompetent city efforts to remove snow. Or is the “Bloomberg syndrome” worse than that—in the sense that sounding saintly in theory psychologically compensates for being powerless in fact? Or is it a fashion tic of the privileged to show abstract empathy?

In the last years of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s governorship, Arnold more or less gave up on the existential crises of illegal immigration, sanctuary cities, soaring taxes, water shortages, decrepit roads and bridges, homelessness, plummeting public school performance, and a huge exodus out of state of middle-class Californians.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Back to School and Howard Zinn in the Classroom Turning American youth against their country. Mary Grabar

Posted By on August 19th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274612/back-school-and-howard-zinn-classroom-mary-grabar

California has scrapped its proposed Ethnic Studies curriculum. The Orange County Register took from the 300 pages of sample guidelines, quotations about “’guiding values and principles’” that would “’cultivate empathy’” and encourage students to “share stories of ‘struggle and resistance’ and ‘critique empire and its relationship to white supremacy, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society.’” The editorial board “blasted” the curriculum as “’leftist propaganda’” that included capitalism in “the roll call of oppression.”

According to the Washington Times, the Jewish Legislative Caucus and 83 Jewish and pro-Israel organizations objected to the fact that the curriculum’s minority groups included “Arab Americans, but not Jewish Americans, and identified multiple examples of bigotry, but not anti-Semitism.” The curriculum also promoted the “anti-Israel, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, . . . BDS supporters such as Women’s March co-leader Linda Sarsour,” and included anti-Semitic rap lyrics,.

Kudos to the Orange County Register, the 84 pro-Israel groups lobbying against the curriculum, and to the citizens voicing their complaints in the feedback form.

But citizens should not let down their guard.

MEDIA Comments turned off

Stoking Racial Division? MSNBC Does the Dems’ Work By Frank Miele

Posted By on August 19th, 2019

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/08/19/stoking_racial_division_msnbc_does_the_dems_work_141036.html

The Democrats clearly don’t need to spend a dime on the 2020 presidential election campaign when they have almost the entire mainstream media doing free infomercials for them, and with just about the same level of authenticity and reliability as you would expect from those ads for Miss Cleo’s Psychic Friends Network.

It’s hard to know why the networks and cable news channels don’t have to declare their in-kind contributions to the Democratic Party when it is so obvious that their No. 1 goal is getting Donald Trump out of office. You can’t really blame the First Amendment because neither you nor I can make unlimited donations to the candidate of our choice or else it’s called (cue the scary music here) “daarrrrrrk money.” Our political speech is not protected by the First Amendment, so neither should the blatantly biased political speech of phony journalists who are less interested in reporting facts than expressing outrage.

Take this example from last week on MSNBC:

“If it’s Tuesday: Divide and conquer. The White House offers up a few changes to the famous Statue of Liberty poem about immigrants, putting the spotlight once again on the president’s campaign to stoke racial division.”

No. If it’s Tuesday, it’s Kasie Hunt making up stuff on “MTP Daily” to hurt President Trump because Chuck Todd is too busy stroking his own ego to do the job. There, I fixed it.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

“Palestinian Authority” Threatens Prison for Gay Group Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on August 19th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/274675/palestinian-authority-threatens-prison-gay-group-daniel-greenfield

There have been thousands of stories on Israel’s travel ban for two anti-Semitic Democrat House members, Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib, who wanted to express their support for anti-Israel terrorists, including, no doubt, the Palestinian Authority.

And there will be approximately zero mainstream media stories about the “Palestinian Authority”, a fancy way of saying the PLO, threatening to lock up members of a gay organization.

The Palestinian Authority banned members of the Palestinian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community from carrying out any activities in the West Bank.

The ban came after the grassroots group Al-Qaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society (Arabic for “the bow”), which engages and supports Palestinians who identify as LGBTQ, was planning to hold a gathering for its members in Nablus at the end of the month. The group operates both in the West Bank and among Arab-Israelis.

Explaining the decision to ban the LGBTQ group from operating in PA-controlled areas, Luay Zreikat, spokesperson for the PA Police, said that such activities are “harmful to the higher values and ideals of Palestinian society.”

Zreikat said that the group’s activities were completely “unrelated to religions and Palestinian traditions and customs, especially in the city of Nablus.”

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Tlaib and Omar Weren’t Banned for Disagreeing with Israel Their jihad advocacy is far worse than that. Robert Spencer

Posted By on August 19th, 2019

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274656/tlaib-and-omar-werent-banned-disagreeing-israel-robert-spencer

It is unlikely to come as a surprise to anyone except the most blinkered Leftist ideologue that Ilhan Omar’s response to being banned from entering Israel, along with her fellow antisemitic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, was outstandingly disingenuous. But she knows, when she retails her outrageous falsehoods, that the establishment media will never call her on them or reveal the true depths of her alliance with jihadis and agitation against Israel.

“The irony of the ‘only democracy’ in the Middle East making such a decision,” said Omar, “is that it is both an insult to democratic values and a chilling response to a visit by government officials from an allied nation.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to restore some realism and honesty to the discussion, saying: “As a free and vibrant democracy,” he said, “Israel is open to critics and criticism, with one exception: Israeli law prohibits the entry into Israel of those who call for, and work to impose, boycotts on Israel, as do other democracies that prevent the entry of people believed to be damaging to the country.”

There’s the rub. Omar and Tlaib are not just Congresswomen with opinions that are critical of Israel. They are not just spokesmen; they are activists. They are active apologists for the jihad terror networks Hamas and Hizballah. The Washington Examiner reported in May that “Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared to take the side of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad Sunday night after terrorists fired hundreds of rockets at civilian targets in Israel this weekend.” Omar tweeted: “How many more protesters must be shot, rockets must be fired, and little kids must be killed until the endless cycle of violence ends? The status quo of occupation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unsustainable. Only real justice can bring about security and lasting peace.” About Hamas’ genocidal incitement and celebration of the murders of Israeli civilians she was silent. Nor has she ever uttered a murmur of protest against the fact that Hamas is dedicated to the complete destruction of Israel, which, if it ever happened, would result in the deaths of millions of Israelis.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Release the prison surveillance footage By Bobby Harr

Posted By on August 19th, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/08/release_the_prison_surveillance_footage.html

I never thought I’d see the day we all unanimously demand further answers about a dead pedophile. But nobody is buying the conventional explanation for Jeffrey Epstein’s death New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Nearly all irregularities in the case have one thing in common, and that is their reliance on another human’s word. We’re getting all of our information by taking the word of the guards, warden, the medical examiner, the prison nurse, and so on.

All of these irregularities require a human to provide us the information we seek — all but one.

The cameras.

If the sleeping guards, falsified documents and abrupt removal from suicide watch weren’t enough, the “malfunctioning camera” in Epstein’s cell during his death sealed the deal. Cameras tell the story without humans. Cameras don’t lie.

It’s a strong likelihood that we will never see what happened on the inside of that jail cell, but it doesn’t end there. Every correctional institution in the country surveils virtually every inch of the place 24/7, especially maximum security facilities like Rikers.

Even if we must accept the “dog ate my homework” excuse for Epstein’s cell footage, we can still likely connect several dots if given access to other surveillance footage from the prison.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

DAVID ISAAC ON OMAR AND TLAIB

Posted By on August 19th, 2019

https://freebeacon.com/

Dems and Jewish Groups pick wrong side on Omar-Tlaib

Should the Netanyahu government have barred “Squad” members and BDS advocates Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country? Chattering classes in both countries quickly took sides. Surprising is how quickly major American Jewish organizations—those one would most expect to defend Israel—jumped to condemn its decision, arguing that it should have rolled out the red carpet for the two congresswomen. While their argument is that keeping the women out harms the Jewish State, it is their position that damages Israel and strengthens its enemies.

“A good-faith visit to Israel is the best way to be exposed to its democracy, complexities, and range of views. And so while we absolutely disagree with the pro-BDS positions of Reps. @IlhanMN & @RashidaTlaib, keeping them out is counterproductive,” tweeted ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt on Thursday, echoing a nearly identical tweet sent out less than half an hour earlier by AIPAC, which declared “every member of Congress should be able to visit and experience our democratic ally Israel firsthand.”

The problem is that Omar and Tlaib weren’t visiting Israel. They were visiting a fictitious country called “Palestine,” which Arabs hope will replace Israel. Their itinerary, titled “U.S. Congressional Delegation to Palestine,” was loaded with meet-and-greets with Palestinian Authority officials. The only Israel representative was the group B’Tselem—a radical organization that last made headlines condemning Israel at the U.N. Security Council. Israel’s ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer described the itinerary as a “BDS circus.”

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Trump Isn’t the One Dividing Us by Race He hardly mentions it, while his adversaries are obsessed with ‘whiteness’ and ‘white privilege.’ By Heather Mac Donald

Posted By on August 19th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-isnt-the-one-dividing-us-by-race-11566158729

Long before the El Paso massacre, President Trump’s political opponents accused him of sowing “division” with his “racist language.” Mr. Trump “exploits race,” “uses race for his gain,” is engaged in a “racially divisive reprise” of his 2016 campaign, stokes “racial resentments,” and puts “race at the fore,” the New York Times has reported over the past several months.

Yet Mr. Trump rarely uses racial categories in his speech or his tweets. It is the media and Democratic leaders who routinely characterize individuals and groups by race and issue race-based denunciations of large parts of the American polity.

Some examples: “As race dominates the political conversation, 10 white Democratic candidates will take the stage” (the Washington Post); Mr. Trump’s rally audiences are “overwhelmingly white” (multiple sources); your son’s “whiteness is what protects him from not [sic] being shot” by the police ( Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand ); white candidates need to be conscious of “white privilege” (South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg ); “white supremacy manifests itself” in the criminal-justice, immigration and health-care systems ( Sen. Cory Booker ); “ Michael Brown was murdered by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri” ( Sen. Elizabeth Warren ); whiteness is “the very core” of Mr. Trump’s power, whereas his “predecessors made their way to high office through the passive power of whiteness” (Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic).