ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Ideas For An Incoming Trump Administration: Climate And Energy Edition Francis Menton

Posted By on November 13th, 2024

https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=a9fdc67db9&u=9d011a88d8fe324cae8c084c5&id=9ffbb491bc

The arena of climate and energy is sufficiently large that it deserves its own post of ideas for the incoming Trump administration. The Biden people went so far off the rails in this area that there are far more topics than I can cover. I’ll have to stick to some highlights.

Communications.

As I noted in the previous post, changing the communications of the prior administration should be an easy and obvious first priority. However, the Trump people notably did a poor job on this subject the first time out.

The subject of climate and energy is pervasive through the websites of dozens of federal agencies. Let’s just note a few examples:

At the Department of Energy, a big section is devoted to “Combating the Climate Crisis.” From the intro:

There is no greater challenge facing our nation and our planet than the climate crisis. That’s why President Biden has laid out the boldest climate agenda in our nation’s history—one that will spur an equitable clean energy economy and cement America on a path to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. . . . DOE has long been the nation’s powerhouse for scientific and innovative solutions to the challenges we face, including the climate emergency. Our program offices and 17 National Laboratories are working every single day to research, develop, and deploy the clean energy technologies of the future, including battery storage, renewable power, electric vehicles, carbon capture, and resilient grid infrastructure.

And don’t forget the subject of “Energy Justice,” otherwise known as the scam of justifying vast wasteful subsidies to useless energy sources as some kind of quasi-reparations to minority communities:

For far too long, communities of color and low-income communities have borne the brunt of pollution to the air, water, and soil they rely on to live and raise their families. The clean energy revolution must lift up these communities that have been left behind, and make sure those who have suffered the most are the first to benefit.

Over at EPA, the huge “Climate Change” section of the website pretends that the regulatory onslaught attacking hydrocarbon fuels has something to do with “human health.” Example:

Understanding and addressing climate change is critical to EPA’s mission of protecting human health and the environment.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Rats Flee Sinking DOJ Ship The scales of justice have a chance to recalibrate following Donald Trump’s resounding victory and the departure of key figures at the Biden/Harris Department of Justice. Julie Kelly

Posted By on November 13th, 2024

https://www.declassified.live/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=8t06w&next=

The New York Times today confirmed Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors plan to resign before Donald Trump takes office in January. In what must have been a painful article to write, Devlin Barrett and Glenn Thrush, two reliable mouthpieces for the Department of Justice, said Smith’s office is “drawing up its plan for how to end the cases” against the incoming president. It is also unclear whether Smith will file a confidential report summarizing the special counsels’ work, a requirement under the DOJ special counsel rules.

Smith further “finds himself on the defensive,” according to the Times, as House Republicans prepare to investigate the investigators. “Republican lawmakers told Justice Department officials who had worked on the Trump cases to preserve all of their communications for investigators,” Barrett and Thrush wrote. “That is a sure sign that a new balance of power in Washington will make Mr. Smith among those being hunted by congressional investigators and others.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Americans Have Rejected DOJ’s Lawfare By T.J. Harker

Posted By on November 13th, 2024

https://tomklingenstein.com/americans-have-rejected-dojs-lawfare/

The people of this great nation are slow to anger, patient, and inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. They also have an ancient reverence for the rule of law, deferring to its pronouncements in even the most controversial matters. But, for the last eight years, some of the most corrupt, cynical, and treacherous men and women ever to walk the halls of power in Washington, D.C., exploited these admirable traits. I’m speaking, of course, of the leadership and even some of the rank-and-file of the Department of Justice. 

Finally, on November 5, the people of the United States of America delivered a late but stunning rebuke to the ruling elite, the Washington bureaucracy, and above all the Department of Justice. Indeed, never in this country’s history has such a public and censorious rebuke been delivered so clearly to a single federal agency. 

That rebuke makes clear that the Department of Justice has failed totally to meet the high standards of excellence expected by the American people. It has disgraced itself in every respect: wallowing in dishonesty, targeting its opponents, kid-gloving its allies while hammering its enemies, obliterating legal norms, weaponizing the legal system, prosecuting the political opposition, and normalizing lawfare. 

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

How High Does The FEMA Scandal Go?

Posted By on November 13th, 2024

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/11/13/how-high-does-the-fema-scandal-go/

Until the Daily Wire uncovered concrete evidence that the Federal Emergency Management Administration was telling relief workers to avoid Trump-supporting homes, the press was happy to take FEMA’s word and debunk accusations of political favoritism.

Now that the FEMA employee at the center of the current scandal is saying that she’s a scapegoat and that the problem is far deeper and wider, will the mainstream press ignore this too?

In the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, FEMA came under attack for its seemingly sluggish response to devastation in heavily Republican areas of the Southeast.

Poppycock, responded the press, regurgitating talking points from the agency.

But then the Daily Wire got hold of messages from a FEMA supervisor telling workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump” in Lake Placid, Florida, when going door to door to find those who qualified for financial aid. It also had screenshots of reports from workers saying they were “not able to access property,” with a note “Trump sign, no contact, per leadership.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel: The Way Forward by Nils A. Haug

Posted By on November 12th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21114/israel-the-way-forward

Fortunately for Israel, former US President Donald J. Trump was just re-elected to serve a second term. Within hours, Hamas indicated that now might be a good time to talk about peace. Qatar, perhaps concerned that its days of double-dealing might be coming to an end, announced it would be “stalling” its role as a mediator between the US and Hamas. The landslide victory of Trump in the US election this week appears finally to be restoring deterrence.

Israel’s society is politically and ideologically split. On one side are Israelis who understandably want their relatives back, and have been hoping for a ceasefire. Sadly, they are probably unaware that Iran, Qatar and Hamas, are loath to relinquish the only bargaining chip they have, and will undoubtedly drag out releasing even one hostage as long as they can.

[A]fter 13 months of futile ceasefire negotiations, many Israelis appear to have trouble realizing that if Hamas and its backers, Iran and Qatar, so wished, the hostages would be home by now.

If the priority of Israeli progressives were to rescue the hostages, they would demand that Hamas release them. “The slogan for freeing the hostages,” wrote British journalist Douglas Murray, “… should never have been ‘Being them home.’ It should be ‘Give them back.’ Now.”

Murray has also noted that for years, the Biden administration has put all its efforts into trying to oust Netanyahu when it would probably have been better off putting all its efforts into ousting the Iranian regime.

Israel’s progressives would also have called on the international community to pressure Iran and Qatar, rather than hector their own prime minister. Sadly, these Israelis, some of them in desperation to see their loved ones again, are playing into the hands of Hamas. Its leaders must be delighted to see a divided Israel turn against itself. Painfully, Israeli activists are doing damage to both their country and the hostages.

Among Israel’s most vocal protestors are prominent Israeli politicians, backed — and some funded — by the Biden administration. The US appears to desire someone more malleable in Israel’s number-one spot: a person, one assumes, willing to do whatever the US dictates.

The Biden administration’s goal appears to be establishment of a terrorist Palestinian state on Israel’s border. In addition, Iran will soon be able to produce nuclear weapons with which to bomb Israel to oblivion. This monumentally destabilizing objective was proposed by the Obama administration in its illegitimate 2015 “Iran nuclear deal,” officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. (JCPOA)…

As American journalist Daniel Greenfield points out: “The appeasement lobby only has one big idea when it comes to Islamic terrorists and any other enemies: 1. Give them land…”

Evidence shows that, unfortunately, this strategy does not work. The failure of the Oslo Accords only emphasizes that fact. The “ceiling” of each offer becomes the “floor” of the next one, as each concession is pocketed in the expectation of more.

Meanwhile, in the USA, President-elect Donald J. Trump is already creating seismic global changes within days, long before his inauguration on January 20, 2025.

ANTI-SEMITISM, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Second Wave of Apparently Antisemitic Attacks Breaks Out in Amsterdam Alex Welz

Posted By on November 12th, 2024

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/second-wave-of-apparently-antisemitic-attacks-breaks-out-in-amsterdam/

A famous Dutch tram was set ablaze by rioters in Amsterdam on Monday in what appears to be a second wave of antisemitic violence, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Rioters in all-black attire were seen throwing objects and shouting “Kanker Joden,” a phrase that translates to “Cancer Jews” but is widely interpreted as “F*** the Jews.” The tram reportedly contained no passengers.

Perpetrators shattered the windows of a different tram earlier in the day before setting it on fire in the city’s western suburbs. This prompted clashes with law enforcement and more than 50 arrests. A police spokesman reported that the blaze was likely caused by fireworks.

Masked individuals were reported to be roaming the streets shouting “Free Palestine” in the attacks’ aftermath. This comes just days after Israelis soccer fans were targeted in Amsterdam by mobs of young men following a soccer match. Five victims required hospitalization while 20 to 30 others were injured. At least 62 suspects were arrested, yet only ten remained in custody later that same day, Amsterdam’s public prosecutor René de Beukelaer told reporters.

“The Antisemitic attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam are despicable and echo dark moments in history when Jews were persecuted,” President Biden wrote on X. “We’ve been in touch with Israeli and Dutch officials and appreciate Dutch authorities’ commitment to holding the perpetrators accountable. We must relentlessly fight Antisemitism, wherever it emerges.”

ANTI-SEMITISM, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The moral ghettoisation of the Jews The left’s apologism for the pogrom in Amsterdam marks a foul new low. Brendan O’Neill

Posted By on November 12th, 2024

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/11/11/the-moral-ghettoisation-of-the-jews/

Gal Binyanmin Tshuva, 29, is a keen football follower from Israel. Not a hooligan, not a thug, just a fan. In Amsterdam on Thursday night he found himself surrounded by a frothing, Israelophobic mob. They asked where he was from. ‘Greece’, he said, in a desperate bid to evade their hate and blows. They demanded to see his passport. He said he didn’t have it on him. They pushed him to the ground, stomped on his face, gashed his head, broke two of his teeth and knocked him unconscious. He came to eventually, in an ambulance, his face streaked with blood.

Adi Reuben, 24, was set upon by 10 Jew-haters. They beat him so badly they broke his nose. ‘Jewish! IDF!’, they yelled as they pummelled the Jew’s face. Aaron, a Jewish football fan from Britain, saw one of his co-religionists from Israel being stomped on and subjected to anti-Semitic abuse. He intervened to help him. The mob cornered him, yelling: ‘Are you Yehudi? Are you Jewish?’ He said he was a Brit. ‘You helped the Jew’, they said and smashed his face in. They broke his glasses and left his face coated in cuts.

Barak took refuge in Amsterdam’s Holland Casino, along with hundreds of other Israelis, as outside a mob of 200 gathered and seethed, ‘looking for blood’. A young Israeli man staggered into the casino. ‘All his face was blood’, said Barak. They were the victims of a jodenjacht – a ‘Jew hunt’. That’s the phrase used by the assailants themselves, in Telegram chats ahead of the violence. Bring fireworks, they told each other. We’ll attack this ‘cancer’, these ‘dogs’, they said, referring to the Israelis. And they did. They whizzed through the city on mopeds, using fireworks to ‘pelt’ the ‘dogs’ from the Jewish State.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

TB – The Silent Killer Crossing Our Border The biggest infectious disease killer on earth. by Betsy McCaughey

Posted By on November 12th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/tb-the-silent-killer-crossing-our-border/

Open borders allow deadly narcotics and criminal gangs to invade our country. But there’s a silent killer also making its way across the border: tuberculosis.

America’s woke public health authorities are more concerned with equity — redistributing health resources among racial groups — than with keeping a disease the U.S. once nearly eradicated from becoming a threat again.

Reported cases of TB shot up 34% from 2020 to 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and continue to rise. More than three quarters of the cases are foreign-born people who picked up the disease in their home countries or traveling through countries with high TB rates. The TB incidence rate is 60 times higher in Haiti than in the U.S.

In New York City — the No. 1 destination for migrants — the incidence of TB is two and a half times the national average and still rising.

A staggering 89% of TB patients in the Big Apple are foreign-born. The Flushing/Clearview areas of Queens, Sunset Park, Brooklyn and the Lower East Side of Manhattan are the neighborhoods most affected. The single largest national group with reported TB cases is from China, according to the city’s most recent Annual Tuberculosis Summary.

TB is no laughing matter. Globally it has just overtaken COVID-19 as the biggest infectious disease killer on earth. There is no effective vaccine for it, but most cases — except severely drug-resistant ones — can be treated with antibiotics, provided they’re taken daily without interruption for several months or longer. Not easy.

Western Europe, Scandinavia and North America are all reporting rising TB rates as migrants from poorer countries — where TB is common — arrive. UK health authorities are alerting the public to the distinctive cough that comes with TB.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Universities Give Students Milk and Cookies, Cancel Classes Over Trump Victory Encouraging childish, leftist clowns. Robert Spencer

Posted By on November 12th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/universities-give-students-milk-and-cookies-cancel-classes-over-trump-victory/

Leftists the world over are in tears and hysterics over Donald Trump’s historic victory on Tuesday, but nowhere are they more desolate and depressed these days than on America’s college and university campuses. Students are at an age when passions run high, and as our institutions of higher learning are now little more than indoctrination centers for Antifa, it’s understandable that the mood on campus these days is more than a little dark.

College and university administrators and professors, however, are only making matters worse by pandering to the students’ ridiculous grief, and even encouraging it, rather than reminding them that life is tough and they just have to get on with it. This is largely, of course, because those far-left administrators and professors are just as immature as their students.

The Washington Free Beacon reported Friday that “after Donald Trump’s historic reelection sent despair rippling across college campuses, grieving professors at America’s top universities canceled classes, rescheduled exams, and promised to forgive poor grades. Schools offered students milk, cookies, puzzles, Legos, and ‘destress sessions.’”

Milk and cookies? Puzzles? Legos? Are we talking about universities here, or about kindergarten? Given the academic level of these woke institutions today, it’s essentially the same thing, and even the most elite universities are engaging in this silly grandstanding.

One Columbia University professor wrote to her students: “I hope you are hanging in there. I have been think [sic] of you over the last few days. [If] you don’t feel up for class, absences today will be excused.” A Barnard prof wrote in a similar vein: “In recognition of the increased stressed [sic] some of you might be feeling because of the election results, I will offer to replace your midterm Exam 2 grade with your Final Exam grade if better.”

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Nobody’s Coming to the Big Global Warming Conference Except the UK PM and the Taliban. by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on November 12th, 2024

https://www.frontpagemag.com/nobodys-coming-to-the-big-global-warming-conference/

What if you threw a big green party and nobody came?

The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties or COP29 is happening in glorious Azerbaijan but the usual folks flying huge jets to warn us about the danger of using fossil fuels are mostly staying home.

Except for the Taliban who showed up to demand money. (Not a joke.)

Biden has trouble walking across sand. Xi has better things to do with his time. About the only G7 leader to show up is UK PM Keir Starmer (unless you want to pretend that Italy’s Meloni is a world leader) who waddled around like a ridiculous dark and mumbled something about the importance of being green so all the old white British pensioners freeze to death over the winter.

‘I have repeatedly emphasised the importance of global leadership when it comes to the climate challenge, and therefore it is very important for me to come to Cop,” PM Starmer whined. He said there was ‘a global race’ to be the leader on renewable energy, adding: ‘I want us to win the race.’

That’s like wanting to win the world curling championship. Nobody else is even showing for this one.