ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

What NASA and the European Space Agency are admitting but the media are failing to report about our current heat wave Thomas Lifson

Posted By on August 2nd, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/07/what_nasa_and_the_european_space_agency_are_admitting_but_the_media_are_failing_to_report_about_our_current_heat_wave.html

The current heat wave is being relentlessly blamed on increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but there is a much more plausible explanation, one that is virtually endorsed by two of the world’s leading scientific organizations.  It turns out that levels of water vapor in the atmosphere have dramatically increased over the last year and a half, and water vapor is well recognized as a greenhouse gas, whose heightened presence leads to higher temperatures, a mechanism that dwarfs any effect CO2 may have.

So why has atmospheric water vapor increased so dramatically?  Because of a historic, gigantic volcanic eruption last year that I — probably along with you — had never heard of.  The mass media ignored it because it took place 490 feet underwater in the South Pacific.  Don’t take it from me; take it from NASA (and please do follow the link to see time-lapse satellite imagery of the underwater eruption and subsequent plume of gases and water injected into the atmosphere):

When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, it sent a tsunami racing around the world and set off a sonic boom that circled the globe twice. The underwater eruption in the South Pacific Ocean also blasted an enormous plume of water vapor into Earth’s stratosphere — enough to fill more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The sheer amount of water vapor could be enough to temporarily affect Earth’s global average temperature.

“We’ve never seen anything like it,” said Luis Millán, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. He led a new study examining the amount of water vapor that the Tonga volcano injected into the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere between about 8 and 33 miles (12 and 53 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Where woke math goes to die By W. A. Eliot

Posted By on August 2nd, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/08/where_woke_math_goes_to_die.html

The Mathematical Association of America, founded in 1915 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is one of the most prominent math societies in the country. The MAA focuses on math education and research at the undergraduate level and higher, and its math journals are among the most highly circulated in the world. Unfortunately, the MAA has gone woke. Its publications and blogs have been flooded with writings supporting BLM, CRT, DEI, and LGBTQ+.

As an example of the latter, in an article on pages 34-35 of the December 2020- January 2021 issue of its newsletter, MAA FOCUS, the author, who describes herself as bisexual, quotes another professor discussing intersectionality who finds it objectionable that the set theory section of a basic textbook on finite mathematics contains the following example:

Let M = males, F = females, D = doctors. What is D ∩ Fc [that is, D intersect the complement of F]?

The answer, of course, is male doctors. But the professor feels “this question is problematic in that it alienates students in my class who feel strongly against the binary in gender identification.”

The MAA’s annual meeting, MathFest, takes place this week, August 2-5, in Tampa. As evidenced by a letter from the MAA, there has been a lot of handwringing about holding the meeting in Florida:

Dear MAA Community,

We know that the location of MAA MathFest this year is a source of concern in our community. Supporters of Gov. DeSantis in the state legislature have passed laws eliminating DEI efforts and restricting the free exchange of ideas in educational settings, limiting the rights of historically marginalized groups to protest, and restricting the choices of women and non-gender conforming individuals’ freedom to make deeply personal decisions regarding healthcare and even restroom use. However, Florida is not homogeneous, and the Tampa community does not reflect the perspectives expressed in these laws.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

‘Great Men’ Are Unconstitutional Who will ensure that freedom endures – “great men” or ordinary citizens? by Bruce Thornton

Posted By on August 2nd, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/great-men-are-unconstitutional/

One of the Democrats’ favorite smears of Republicans is to accuse them of political hero-worship. Ever since Donald Trump took up residence in the NeverTrumpers’ brains, his constituency, especially the MAGA base, have been ridiculed as unsophisticated rubes with low-brow sensibilities and fascist inclinations, while clinging to their tin-pot hero, forgiving all his sins and cheering for “racist dog-whistles.”

In other words, Republicans are inherently vulnerable to political “great men,” the charismatic (to weak-minded “deplorables”) demagogues whose flashy, duplicitous rhetoric easily brushes aside the feeble critical faculties of hoi polloi. That’s why the progs abuse the question-begging epithet “fascist”––it crudely evokes despots like Mussolini or Hitler or Franco, while studiously ignoring totalitarian mass-murderers like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, or Castro.

And who can forget the Dems’ “slobbering love affair,” as Bernie Goldberg put it, with Barack Obama? Nothing MAGA fans have ever said about Donald Trump comes close to the cringing, creepy encomia of Obama’s acolytes. According to numerous “brights” among our intelligentsia Obama was a “rock star,” the Democrats’ “Tiger Woods,” a politician “it’s hard to be objective when covering,” “so impressive, so charismatic,” “something special,” graced with “chiseled pectorals” and a “keen analytical intelligence,” “prodigious talents,” an “amazing legislative agenda,” and “huge achievements”––that’s just a small sample of the cult-like accolades redolent of the propaganda more typical of totalitarian regimes than of free sovereign citizens.

Remember this embarrassing catalog the next time you hear a progressive mock MAGA idolatry, and recall that postwar political hero-worship has always been a bad habit of the Left and progressives. Who is the conservative version of the psychotic, bumbling Che Guevara, whose famous photograph is an obligatory leftist icon? How is it that communism, a failed ideology responsible for 100 million dead, still retains its allure for cognitive elites, while Nazism, responsible for one-fifth of that toll, is universally condemned except by a tiny fringe of cranks?

But fanatically following a “great leader” transcends party or ideology. Historically, for centuries it was the default form of leadership. The mass of people were the mere subjects to aristocratic elites whose power was a function of their descent from the gods, their innate abilities, legendary myths, and personal charisma. They ruled because of who they were, accountable to no other mortal, but only to fate and their fellow gods.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Which Are the Real Racist States? by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on August 2nd, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19854/racist-states

In some political circles in the West, there is a popular tendency to consider Israel a “racist ” or “apartheid” country.

Israel does indeed have a sizable Arab community… who enjoy rights and liberties that for most other minorities in other countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia are still only a dream.

Unlike many other countries, especially in the area, Israel recognizes and respects the rights of all of these minorities. You are welcome to go to Israel and see for yourself. Most critics of Israel, however, would probably prefer not to be “confused by the facts.”

[Congresswoman Pramila] Jayapal, unfortunately, is also totally wrong about Palestinian Arabs’ not having a right to self-determination…. Some territory, according to the Oslo Accords, is still waiting to be negotiated, but for several years, the Palestinian leadership has seemed uninclined to come to the table. Israel has offered the Palestinians statehood—not just once, but on at least six separate occasions…. Each time, the Palestinian leadership has rejected all offers — perhaps because they were only for 97% and not 100% of everything demanded; perhaps out of fear of seeming a traitor; perhaps because there might be a greater preference for a “cause” than for a solution, unless the solution entails the elimination of Israel. Perhaps, also, there is the hope that the international community will simply hand the Palestinians a state, without the need for them to give anything on their end, or perhaps there is just a strong aversion to signing an “end of conflict” resolution. In any event, each time there was an offer, the Palestinians not only rejected it, but did not even propose a counteroffer.

Muslim Arabs in Israel hold senior positions in all walks of life: senior posts in the Israeli parliament (the Knesset); the medical profession; private industry, various government posts, and on the supreme court. There is also no legal obstacle for Israeli Arabs who wish to join the military or the police.

What about the rights of minorities of other nations in the region?

In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees , according to UNRWA, “are socially marginalized, have very limited civil, social, political, and economic rights, including restricted access to the Government of Lebanon’s public health, educational and social services and face significant restrictions on their right to work and right to own property.” UNRWA also reports that the Palestinians are still prevented from employment in 39 professions such as medicine, law, and engineering.

In Turkey, the Civil Servants Law of 1926 has made it virtually impossible for Christians and Jews to work as civil servants at state institutions. Consequently, thousands of non-Muslims lost their jobs. The law required that civil servants had to be “Turkish” – meaning that the government saw its non-Muslim citizens as “non-Turkish”…. As human-rights lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz noted, “Not even one single non-Muslim army officer, policeman or judge exists in Turkey. Non-Muslims are absent not only from the security and judiciary establishment but from the public sector altogether.

Turkey, a NATO member… appears perfectly comfortable — as does the rest of the international community –with its hostile 1974 invasion of Cyprus , where the Turks still occupy the north of the island and might be eyeing the south.

Perhaps, if Jayapal genuinely wants to help suffering people, she might focus on the more than 360 million Christians around the world who are being murdered and persecuted on a daily basis.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Yoram Ettinger: Israel’s economic growth in defiance of grave odds

Posted By on August 2nd, 2023

According to a July 17, 2023 Bloomberg report, a leading global investment bank, the NYC-based Jefferies Financial Group, Inc., “expects further growth in Israel’s tech sector despite political unrest over government plans to overhaul the judiciary….

“While there are considerable uncertainties, we anticipate Israel’s tech ecosystem growth and maturation will only accelerate, creating a dominant and necessary opportunity for investors…. The report expressed confidence that Israel’s tech industry will remain globally attractive….

“The volume and density of innovation has made Israel a mandatory destination for all leading investors and will likely create a disproportionate number of category-defining winners across sectors in the many years to come….”

Irrespective of the political turmoil associated with the judiciary controversy, the latest data indicates persistent growth of Israel’s high-tech sector, in particular, and Israel’s economy, in general.

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, as presented on July 27, 2023 by a senior Israeli economist, Shlomo Maoz:

*Notwithstanding the dramatic decline in foreign investment in Israel’s high-tech sector, Israel’s high-tech export increased by 6.9% during the first 5 months of 2023, while domestic consumption of Israel’s high-tech products and services decreased by 0.2% during the same period.

*The recent depreciation of the New Israeli Shekel (compared with the US dollar) has benefitted Israel’s exports.

*Industrial production of the high-tech sector expanded during the first five months of 2023 by 5.6% more than the first five months of 2022, as reflected by the 3% growth in the number of high-tech workers during the first five month of 2023, and the 3.6% rise in the number of working hours during the first five months of 2023.  

*Israel’s defense export has surged due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war upon the demand for advanced Israeli military systems; the substantial increase of Germany’s defense budget, and Sweden’s and Finland’s decision to join NATO. In addition, there is the rising Chinese threat to India and the Pacific Ocean countries; and the sustained regional and global threat of Sunni (e.g., Moslem Brotherhood) and Shiite Islamic terrorism (Iran’s Ayatollahs).

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The push-back against Net Zero It appears that more people are beginning to notice some inconvenient truths Melanie Phillips

Posted By on August 2nd, 2023

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/the-push-back-against-net-zero?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The Tories’ pushback on Net Zero is causing horror among climate activists in Britain. Prime Minster Rishi Sunak has announced a carbon trading scheme that lowers the price on carbon emissions, linked to a planned expansion of oil and gas drilling in the North Sea to “max out” Britain’s underwater energy reserves. He has also announced that he is on the side of motorists complaining about city anti-car schemes. 

This has freaked out climate activists who are claiming that it drives a coach and horses though the “climate emergency” agenda.

But it’s these activists who are doing the real damage to their cause through producing ever more ludicrous and hysterical exaggeration by any standards — and straight out garbage by the standards of science. 

A prime example is the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres. As The Guardian reports:

“Humanity is in the hot seat,” Guterres told a press conference on Thursday. “For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a cruel summer. For the entire planet, it is a disaster. And for scientists, it is unequivocal – humans are to blame.

“All this is entirely consistent with predictions and repeated warnings. The only surprise is the speed of the change. Climate change is here, it is terrifying, and it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”

“Global boiling”? This while Dr Eli David tells us:

Antarctica plunges to -83.2C (-117.8F) — earth’s lowest temperature since since 2017. 

This while Tony Heller of Climate Reality tells us:  

Arctic sea ice extent is the highest in nineteen years and in the normal range since 1981

and also tells us:

Temperatures at the North Pole have been below the 1958-2002 average almost every day for the past three months, and will drop below freezing in about two weeks.  May was the coldest on record there.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Kamala Harris Quotes As Motivational Posters, To Help You Be Unburdened By Your Brain Cells: Part 3

Posted By on August 2nd, 2023

https://thefederalist.com/2023/08/01/kamala-harris-quotes-as-motivational-posters-to-help-you-be-unburdened-by-your-brain-cells-part-3/

As Harris reminds us, may we all do what we do — and what we have been doing, every day, in the present moment, together.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Republicans’ Anti-DeSantis Curriculum Attacks Are A Gift To The Left By: Shawn Fleetwood

Posted By on August 2nd, 2023

https://thefederalist.com/2023/08/01/republicans-anti-desantis-curriculum-attacks-are-a-gift-to-the-left/

Several GOP congressmen furthered Democrats’ lie that Florida’s curriculum teaches slavery was beneficial to blacks.

It’s bad enough when Democrats and their legacy media allies intentionally distort facts to smear conservatives. It’s inexplicable when Republicans help them do it.

Last week, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott — a contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination — accepted Democrats’ phony premise that there’s something wrong with Florida’s slavery curriculum. Vice President Kamala Harris and regime-approved media had been fomenting the complete lie that the Sunshine State’s new African American history curriculum teaches students that slavery was beneficial to black Americans.

As The Federalist’s Eddie Scarry and others have pointed out, these claims are total nonsense. The standards are clear in teaching that, despite their enslavement, blacks developed skills that “in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” — not that slavery was beneficial to them. It’s worth mentioning that the College Board’s African American studies course includes similar teachings.

But these facts didn’t stop Republicans like Scott from advancing Harris’ false narrative about the subject. When asked about it late last week, Scott embraced the lie and used it to attack fellow 2024 primary contender Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“[T]here is no silver lining in freedom — in slavery. The truth is that anything you can learn, any benefits that people suggest you had during slavery, you would have had as a free person,” Scott said. “[Slavery] was just devastating. So, I would hope that every person in our country, and certainly running for president would appreciate that. Listen, people have bad days, sometimes they regret what they say, and we should ask them again to clarify their positions.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Who are the six co-conspirators in Trump’s latest indictment on election interference? By Caitlin Doornbos

Posted By on August 2nd, 2023

https://nypost.com/2023/08/01/who-are-the-six-co-conspirators-in-trumps-latest-indictment-on-election-interference/

Former President Donald Trump was indicted in federal court on Tuesday for allegedly making “knowingly false” claims of voter fraud and sending rioters to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in a desperate ploy to remain president despite losing the 2020 presidential election.

While Trump is the only person charged in the crimes so far, the 45-page indictment includes references to six unnamed “co-conspirators.”

Special counsel Jack Smith said Tuesday the six individuals remain under investigation for their role in the former president’s attempt to overthrow the election he lost.

“Since the attack on our Capitol, the Department of Justice has remained committed to ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for what happened that day,” Smith said during a brief press conference Tuesday.

“This case is brought consistent with our commitment and our investigation of other individuals continues.”

While Smith has not disclosed the names of those under investigation, The Post identified the most likely individuals listed as co-conspirators in the indictment using previously known facts about Trump’s circle of cronies in the months following the November 2020 election.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

If He Was Bribed, Biden Must Go, Majority Says: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on August 2nd, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/08/02/if-he-was-bribed-biden-must-go-ii-tipp-poll/

As the Biden corruption probe broadens, and more evidence comes to the fore of possible bribery of the Biden family by foreign powers, a question arises: What do Americans think should be done if the allegations are true? The overwhelming response: Biden should leave or be removed from office and not run again, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

In an earlier story we wondered: “If any of these charges are shown to be true, can Biden weather the ensuing political storm? Or will he face a choice of impeachment or resignation, a la Richard Nixon, and thereby force the Democrats to find a new standard bearer in 2024?”

In our online poll of 1,341 adults taken from July 5-7, with a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points, we answered that question: Biden is not likely to weather the political storm.

A strong majority of 63% in our poll suggested that President Joe Biden should either be impeached (33%) or resign immediately (30%) if the charges prove true. Just 20% said Biden should “Stay in office and run again in 2024, if he wishes.” Another 17% said they weren’t sure.