US Has Had a “Historic Winter” As “All Western States Have Seen Record Snowfall”

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/10/us-has-had-a-historic-winter-as-all-western-states-have-seen-record-snowfall/

The western US has had an historic winter. From record-breaking cold spells to unprecedented amounts of snow, this has been a memorable cold season – and one that runs counter to the prophecies of the AGW party.

Starting with the cold – and according to data from the warmth-addicted NOAA – the US has set 7 all-time low temperature records so far this year (through April 24) compared to just one heat record, while 321 monthly lows have fallen in April alone (also through April 24) compared to 66 heat records.

Highest April 1st snow cover recorded this year

Regrading snow, in the official books going back to 2001, the largest area ever covered with snow/ice in the western US at the beginning of April so far was 2019’s 1,030,820 sq km, but this year that figure was far exceeded, with satellite imagery showing that more than 1,149-960 sq km of the West was covered with snow and ice on 1 April.

By comparison, the average snowpack in the western US at the end of March is 242,000 square miles.

Jeffrey H. Anderson: The Harm Caused by Masks A new study suggests that the excess carbon dioxide breathed in by mask-wearers can have major health consequences.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-harm-caused-by-masks

Evidence continues to mount that mask mandates were perhaps the worst public-health intervention in modern American history. While concluding that wearing masks “probably makes little or no difference” in preventing the spread of viruses, a recent Cochrane review also emphasized that “more attention should be paid to describing and quantifying the harms” that may come from wearing masks. A new study from Germany does just that, and it suggests that the excess carbon dioxide breathed in by mask-wearers may have substantial ill-effects on their health—and, in the case of pregnant women, their unborn children’s.

Mask-wearers breathe in greater amounts of air that should have been expelled from their bodies and released out into the open. “[A] significant rise in carbon dioxide occurring while wearing a mask is scientifically proven in many studies,” write the German authors. “Fresh air has around 0.04% CO2,” they observe, while chronic exposure at CO2 levels of 0.3 percent is “toxic.” How much CO2 do mask-wearers breathe in? The authors write that “masks bear a possible chronic exposure to low level carbon dioxide of 1.41–3.2% CO2 of the inhaled air in reliable human experiments.”

In other words, while eight times the normal level of carbon dioxide is toxic, research suggests that mask-wearers (specifically those who wear masks for more than 5 minutes at a time) are breathing in 35 to 80 times normal levels.

The German study, a scoping review of existing research, aimed “to investigate the toxicological effects of face masks in terms of CO2 rebreathing on developing life, specifically for pregnant women, children, and adolescents.” The latter two groups, of course, have been among those most frequently subjected to mask mandates in schools, despite Covid’s low levels of risk for them and the evidence that masks don’t work.

The real reasons stores such as Walmart and Starbucks are closing in big cities By Nathaniel Meyersohn,

To reinvent downtown retail, drastic changes may be required.

Some of those policymakers, including both Republican and Democratic leaders, have pointed to crime as a chief reason for the closures, following videos of brazen shoplifting incidents.

“We’re losing chain stores that are closing down. People who are being employed in those stores are losing their jobs” because of crime, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, said in February.

But the impact of shoplifting may have been overstated in some cases.

Walgreens said it saw a spike in losses, known as shrink, during the pandemic and cited organized retail crime in its decision to close five San Francisco stores in 2021. But it recently backtracked.

“Maybe we cried too much last year” about shrink numbers, a Walgreens executive said in January.

What Walmart’s pullback from Chicago says about Corporate America’s limits

And instead of a strong correlation with crime rates, the closures aren’t also a recent phenomenon.

San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City, Seattle, Miami and Chicago lost retail stores from the beginning of 2017 to the end of 2021, according to research from the JPMorgan Chase Institute, a think tank.

What’s more, experts agree, the closures aren’t just about crime. Several trends have converged to put these stores at risk.

Perhaps most key is the glut of stores in America.

Trump, DeSantis Descend on Iowa. Longshots Have Never Left. Jake Bevan

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/05/12/trump_desantis_descend_on_iowa_longshots_have_never_left_149225.html

The mutual combatants in the Republican Party’s most consequential rivalry find themselves in the same theater of action Saturday. Playing to type, populist anti-hero as Donald Trump is the anticipated headliner at a sure-to-be-raucous rally in Des Moines, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to speak at a Sioux City fundraiser.

It’s not the head-to-head confrontation many Republicans are anticipating, but Saturday’s near miss highlights the different strategies being employed by the two men who currently stand at the top of the class of 2024 GOP presidential contenders. Both have visited Iowa once in the past month – DeSantis attended a panel in Davenport to promote his memoir, and Trump for a speech on education policy two days later – but Saturday will mark the first time the two have competed simultaneously in the first state to choose convention delegates.

It’s not quite the triumphant return their respective loyalists had hoped for. Each man will take the stage Saturday amid significant shifts in the political landscape – and his own political fortunes.

When Trump visited Iowa in March, DeSantis seemed to be his main worry, barely outpacing the Florida governor in a buzz-worthy favorability poll by the Des Moines Register. Trump arrives in the state Saturday under different circumstances: first, a criminal indictment in New York City that has, if anything, united Republicans; but second, this week’s $5 million jury verdict in a civil case brought by a woman who says Trump once assaulted her in a New York department store dressing room three decades ago.

Nonetheless, DeSantis has watched as polls show him losing touch with the frontrunner. Neither the governor’s extended book tour, nor a recent global sojourn designed to demonstrate foreign policy chops have prevented him from sliding in the polls. Meanwhile, after DeSantis all but declared a victory in his culture war forays against the Disney Co. last month in Davenport, the high-profile skirmish has spun into a protracted bout of legal tit-for-tat that’s reportedly sown doubt among key potential GOP donors.

Officials Neglect Covid Vaccines’ Side Effects Danice Hertz and Brianne Dressen suffered severe neurological symptoms after receiving shots. By Allysia Finley

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-covid-vaccines-neglected-side-effects-neuropathy-nih-fda-cdc-transparency-react19-8afa87b1?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Brianne Dressen was an energetic mom, an avid hiker and a preschool teacher—until she got a Covid vaccine.

Ms. Dressen, 42, was among the first Americans to be vaccinated. She volunteered to participate in AstraZeneca’s trial, and she received her first dose on Nov. 4, 2020, at a clinic in West Jordan, Utah. “I am pro-science and pro-vaccine,” Ms. Dressen says. “I was more than glad to participate in the scientific process.”

But even highly beneficial vaccines can have rare serious side effects. Minutes after the shot, Ms. Dressen’s arm began to tingle, her vision grew blurry, and sounds became muffled. The clinic suggested she see a neurologist, who directed her to the emergency room. The ER couldn’t figure out what was wrong and sent her home.

Her condition steadily deteriorated over the next 2½ weeks. She experienced extreme nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, painful vibrating sensations, pins and needles in her arms and face, numbness, tremors, brain fog, heart palpitations and fever. Physicians were mystified. They diagnosed her with a “silent migraine” and “anxiety due to the Covid vaccine” after a hospital stay. She was provided occupational and physical therapy but spent weeks in bed, unable to tolerate sound, light or even her children’s touch.

In the ensuing months, she faced not only debilitating symptoms but also bureaucratic indifference—though government officials tried to be helpful at first. On Jan. 11, 2021, her husband, Brian, a U.S. Army chemist, contacted Avindra Nath, intramural clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Dr. Nath responded immediately that he would discuss her condition with other National Institutes of Health neurologists. He asked for blood and spinal-fluid samples for analysis, and he ominously mentioned that “the current political climate is another aspect that we need to keep an eye on.”

Dr. Nath didn’t elaborate, but by now the politics of the Covid vaccines are familiar. Bitter disputes over mandates fed skepticism of the shots and claims, often false and outlandish, about their dangers. At the same time, public-health authorities, anxious to promote vaccination, played down risks that were real if rare, leaving patients like Ms. Dressen in limbo

The Biden Administration’s Green Light to Iran’s Terrorists and Nuclear Program by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19643/green-light-to-iran

“It is unacceptable that a U.S. government program, which makes the United States and its allies safer, provides funds to remediate the victims of terrorism, and generates income for the United States in a cost-effective manner has been allowed to languish. United States sanctions should be enforced to the fullest extent of the law. As Iranian oil sales continue to rise, and the IRGC continues to target U.S. citizens and servicemembers, including inside the U.S., it is imperative that we use all available government assets to limit the activities of the Iranian regime.” — Senator Joe Manchin and 11 other Senators, in a letter to President Joe Biden, April 27, 2023.

Under the Biden Administration, however, which suspended new oil and gas leases on US public lands and waters, Iran is now producing more oil and selling it at levels close to the pre-sanctions era to countries such as China…

Iran reportedly is exporting more than 1.5 million bpd — approximately 80% of the oil they used to export before the sanctions.

Iran is also shipping considerable amounts of oil to Venezuela without either country fearing repercussions from the Biden Administration.

The Biden Administration’s appeasement policies towards Iran is contributing to the regime’s increased revenue, the major beneficiaries of which are the IRGC, terrorist and militia groups — and of course the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons program.

Under the Biden Administration, sanctions against the ruling mullahs of Iran have simply become superficial and cosmetic. The Administration appears to be turning a blind eye when Iran’s violates the sanctions, thereby allowing the regime vastly to increase its revenues. Most of these usually assist the regime’s powerful militia and terror group, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), designated as a terrorist organization by the US Department of State.

Chinese Embrace Brazil as “Global Strategic Partner” as Brazilian President Visits China by Lawrence A. Franklin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19642/china-embraces-brazil-partner

Chinese President Xi Jinping also apparently persuaded Lula to support the use of China’s yuan to replace the dollar as the global standard currency…. China also might want Brazil to grant permission to purchase additional farmland. China already owns more than 200,000 hectares of Brazilian land.

The Brazilian leader’s fifth visit to China on April 14 was a stark contrast to his cool visit to the US this past February.

Brazil’s warming ties to China also have an economic purpose. China is Brazil’s largest trading partner, and Brazil exports a great deal of agricultural produce to China. Brazil appears hopeful for increased Chinese investment to modernize its industrial plants as well as technology transfer for its semiconductor production.

Above all, Lula has praised China’s rhetoric favoring the establishment of a new, non-US led international order based on multipolarity. China has acknowledged Lula’s support by emphasizing Brazil’s prominent role in the multinational “BRICS” alliance consisting of Brazil. Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

The Chinese triumph, however, may prove short-lived. Bolsonaro — who condemned China as a “predator” and infuriated the CCP by visiting Taiwan in February 2018 when he was campaigning for the presidency — remains popular and may run against Lula in Brazil’s next presidential election.

The mid-April visit to China of newly inaugurated Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) is an apparent triumph for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in its effort to broaden its influence in Latin America. The visit also seems to have served Lula’s legacy dream of being perceived as a moral beacon and advocate for the impoverished “Global South.”

Lula, now 76, is serving his third term as Brazil’s president, after barely defeating the pro-US and conservative nationalist former President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula has long been an advocate of a socialist model of economic development. He once expressed his respect for the CCP, on an earlier visit to China, “for having created this grand miracle.” According to Wang Yi , CCP Director of Foreign Affairs, Lula also expressed admiration for China’s having brought millions out of poverty and hunger.

MY SAY: BERGDORF GOODMAN? NO WAY

Bergdorf Goodman was always New York’s toniest department store. Even the sales ladies are soigne and as we said in the Bronx “stuck-up” and clearly cater to the wealthy.
How then to explain how a woman and a six footer lout got into a dressing room to frolic 30 years ago? Women got dirty looks if they wore jeans and sneakers in those days and sales ladies escorted buyers to the dressing rooms and frequently knocked to bring other merchandise.
I can believe a maiden could be escorted by the Secret Service to behold the nether parts of a sitting President.
I can also imagine a damsel getting into a car with Ted Kennedy, or being a waitress pinned between him and Senator Chris Dodd, another one-time Presidential aspirant, who fondled and harassed her in a restaurant until the police were called.
It was proven that a child bearing lass accepted money to cover up her affair with the father, a married candidate running for Vice President with John Kerry.
But porny escapades in a fitting room in Bergdorf Goodman thirty years ago? A lot of people doubt that narrative. rsk

If Reparations Are Due, The ‘Great Society’ Crowd Should Pony Up By Jack Cashill

https://amgreatness.com/2023/05/11/if-reparations-are-due-the-great-society-crowd-should-pony-up/
Nationwide, it is estimated that more than five out of every six black children lived with both parents in 1950, a figure that had been fairly stable since Reconstruction. Then everything changed.

In no sane part of this great country are reparations really due, but no one has ever accused California of undue sanity. Last week, as Kurtis Lee of the New York Times reported with a straight face, a California panel approved recommendations “that could mean hundreds of billions of dollars in payments to Black residents to address past injustices.”

By “injustices,” Lee means things like slavery, Ku Klux Klan violence, and Jim Crow. As unjust as they were, these Democratic institutions did not cause the wealth disparities between blacks and whites that reparations boosters like to cite. No, the real damage was done much later by still another Democratic invention, the so-called “Great Society.” 

Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, I had a ringside seat on the change the Great Society wrought. In my forthcoming book, Untenable: The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from America’s Cities, I describe what I and others saw. 

Among the more instructive stories I tell is that of the late black radical Amiri Baraka, the father of current Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. In 1951, Baraka graduated from my integrated neighborhood high school, Barringer. He was one of four blacks in a homeroom of 29 students. 

“His carefree and jovial manner has lighted many of our classrooms,” wrote the editors of Baraka in his senior yearbook. At Barringer, Baraka ran track and cross country and belonged to the science club and the Latin Honor Society. Upon graduation, he was offered a four-year scholarship to Seton Hall University and lesser scholarships to Holy Cross and Rutgers University-Newark.

In mid-century urban America, Baraka’s success was not unusual. In his 1987 memoir, The Autobiography of Leroi Jones, Baraka unwittingly made the case against reparations. Despite slavery and Jim Crow, his friends from the neighborhood were doing just fine—“auto plants, utilities, electronic tube factories, mechanics, white-collar paper shuffling, teachers, small businessmen, security guards, commercial artists.” 

His classmates at the historically black Howard University were doing even better. “At least five of us became generals,” he wrote, “and many more at lower levels. An admiral or two. [Ronald] Reagan’s top Negro. [Spiro] Agnew’s top Negro. Negroes at all levels of state bureaucracy and madness.” 

A Few Thoughts about the CNN townhall with Trump By Patricia McCarthy

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/05/a_few_thoughts_about_the_cnn_townhall_with_trump.html

Few of his supporters were surprised to learn that Trump was going to do a sit-down in New Hampshire for CNN.  The man does not shy away from potential political disasters; he thrives on them, runs straight at them, unafraid.  

Why?  Because he always comes out of these things having won bigly.  Not only is he quick thinking and knowledgeable when it comes to the facts on all the relevant issues, he is gloriously entertaining, verbally and visually.  His facial expressions and gestures say as much he does with words.  

The CNN sit-down Wednesday night was no exception.  Host Kaitlan Colllins clearly thought she would have the upper hand.  Coming from the bubble of leftist propaganda that is CNN’s principal reason for being, of course she believed she would be the hero of the event.  But she got her comeuppance within the first few minutes.  She acted the fool and Trump does not suffer fools, he eviscerates them with a smile on his face.  

He certainly got the better of Kaitlan Collins despite her rude, smug arrogance.  She set a new record for dismissive interviews.  She forgot that Trump has had years and years of experience with boorish and ignorant pretend journalists who hate, loathe and despise him. She clearly has no experience with an outlier with so many IQ points on her.

With each question she aimed to embarrass him, to humiliate him.  But she had no actual facts, not when it came to protecting schools, the Second Amendment, the documents stored at Mar-A-Lago,  the event of January 6, 2021, the border wall, school shootings (she exaggerated wildly), etc.  

She had what she thought were facts but were just Democrat talking points.  For example, Trump noted that the man who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, Michael Byrd, bragged about having done it, which he did.  He said that killing her saved lives! Collins tried to deny that fact.  

She accused Trump of not keeping his promise to build the wall!  He did, despite the Democrats’ fevered attempts to stop it.  It stopped the day Biden took office, as did the new pipelines and drilling that had provided energy independence for us.  

In short, Collins was overconfident, prepared to crush the man, but he crushed her with some delightful facial mockery and without lifting his little finger.  Collins is the new Candy Crowley of CNN.  It was a very entertaining interview.