Scattershots – 10sep18 (updated 11sep18)

George Rebane

What’s wrong with this picture?

The Left likes to make lying a pastime unique to Republican politicians, especially President Trump.  None of them probably noticed that literally all of the Dems’ leading lights on the Judiciary Committee told whoppers when they grilled Judge Kavanaugh in their vain attempts to pry something loose that wasn’t there.  One of them claimed Kavanaugh’s nomination should be thrown out because he was nominated by a president who is an “unindicted co-conspirator”, which Trump is not.  And another one claimed to be the modern-day self-sacrificing Spartacus for releasing committee documents against committee rules, documents that the committee released to him the previous day.  But the lying demagogue just had to have his grandstand for the cameras.  (It turned out that the document in question to show Kavanaugh’s racism was a nothing-burger that indicated exactly the opposite.)  The other Democrats on the panel all did their best to bamboozle their constituents when it came their turn, and given the nature of their constituents, some were undoubtedly successful.

NPR’s daily dump on Trump featured author Bob Woodward talking about his new book.  The interview revealed either how little Woodward knows about executive decision making, and/or the severity of his TDS.  Those familiar with how an executive uses staff for solving problems knows that asking the right questions (formulating the problem) and generating good alternative solutions are the most difficult parts of the process.  Woodward and the mainstream are now citing how a staffer surreptitiously took a supposedly disastrous letter off the president’s desk before he could sign it.  The truth of the matter is that the letter (to South Korea on trade), clearly marked as a draft/WIP,  was one of several alternatives for the president’s review.  Then Woodward takes the president to task for asking ‘why do we have NATO troops in Europe?’ and the same question for South Korea.  Trump is represented here as a double dummy for ‘not knowing the answer’, and SecDef Mattis’s proper answer is characterized as making things clear to an ignoramous.  The real ignoramous is Woodward and Team Lamestream, who have no idea that asking ‘zero base questions’, especially when concerning long unquestioned totems, is a fundamental task of an experienced executive in the process of taking critical decisions.

The Coddling of the American Mind describes the cognitive fragility and brittleness of today’s young.  The just-released book written by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt - two lifelong Democrat academics - raises yet another alarm about how the progressives have managed to screw up an entire generation plus of Americans with massive deficits in being able to “understand nuances” of arguments, and being totally intolerant and fearful of any idea, concept, or notion that questions or goes counter to their carefully taught intellectual and socio-political underpinnings.  This, of course, is massively denied by the country’s Left as witnessed even in these pages.  Neither author is able to suggest a ready remedy to bring these millions of mind-mangled minions back into the realworld.

California proves itself once more “100% certifiable” as a government of grifters sustained by an electorate of malleable idiots.  Our progressive Democrats now mandate that the state get 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2030, and 100% by 2045.  The impact of all this will be utility bills through the roof that will devastate the unsubsidized poor and drive more wage earning taxpayers to other states.  Only the coastal elites will not notice the economic devastation.  Today Californians already pay the highest rates for electricity which have increased more than 25% since 2013.  Given the natural gas-powered back-up plants required, the heavily subsidized wind and solar alternative will not even make a noticeable nick in reducing CO2.  (more here)

[11sep18 update]  Global alarmists claims refuted by another score of credentialed experts in their individual fields.  The details can be accessed on Russ Steele's blog here.  His report concludes with "The well-documented invalidation of the 'three lines of evidence' upon which EPA attributes global warming to human-caused CO2 emissions breaks the causal link between such emissions and global warming."  Worth checking out as we continue doing battle with the politically motivated True Believers in consensus science.

This year's 9/11 memorial will again be held at the gravesite of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Grass Valley this morning.  The Nevada County Republican Women Federated maintain the ambassador's grave, and regularly observe various anniversaries there throughout the calendar year.

Comments

[Todd Juvinall]

More California legislative and governor insanity.

No bail! Those poor crooks and I mean poor in money, won't have to pay bail so we the taxpayers and the good law-abiding citizens will be the recipients of all this. More crime, less accountability, but hey this is all about minorities and racism. We, white folks, are responsible for all that black and Hispanic criminal behavior and this is our penance. You cannot make this stuff up. Simply by being a white male I am now subject to this insanity by these nuts under the dome.

[Gregory]

I suspect the numbers (of math and science degrees conferred) would look much worse for the US if it excluded the less mathematically intensive biological and climatological degrees that are easier to get and in demand, for government employment. Or were in demand.

[Russ]

Why Startups Are Leaving Silicon Valley

https://medium.com/@the_economist/why-startups-are-leaving-silicon-valley-64e2bc8ed1a8

First, the evidence that something is changing. Last year more Americans left the county of San Francisco than arrived. According to a recent survey, 46% of respondents say they plan to leave the Bay Area in the next few years, up from 34% in 2016. So many startups are branching out into new places that the trend has a name, “Off Silicon Valleying”. Peter Thiel, perhaps the Valley’s most high-profile venture capitalist, is among those upping sticks. Those who stay have broader horizons: in 2013 Silicon Valley investors put half their money into startups outside the Bay Area; now it is closer to two-thirds.

The reasons for this shift are manifold, but chief among them is the sheer expense of the Valley. The cost of living is among the highest in the world. One founder reckons young startups pay at least four times more to operate in the Bay Area than in most other American cities. New technologies, from quantum computing to synthetic biology, offer lower margins than internet services, making it more important for startups in these emerging fields to husband their cash. All this is before taking into account the nastier features of Bay Area life: clogged traffic, discarded syringes and shocking inequality.

[L]

Perhaps the STEM numbers reflect the economically advanced countries reaching stability in total number and are replacements, while the LDC numbers reflect a need for a much larger base and will likely taper off later to their own replacement rates.

L

[Bill Tozer]

Re: “The Cuddling of the American Mind”

“Nor will anyone champion a campaign to “discourage the creep of the word ‘unsafe’ to encompass ‘uncomfortable.’ ”. Bingo. In a world of the so-called soccer moms turning into Helicopter Moms and Dads, one does have to wonder how much unsupervised time kids get nowadays. Risk aversion is the result. Leaving the herd mentality is very risky as well.

[Account Deleted]

There's plenty of STEM-stuff in the US of A! Lookie here, we got your full on STEM course for sure!
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/09/10/penn-state-math-course-focuses-on-hillary-clintons-strong-character/
Money quote: "A Penn State spokesperson said that they are working to ensure that Fabbri maintains his academic freedom."
I'll betcha those poor Chinese students don't get THAT kind of 'academic freedom'!

[Account Deleted]

The sad part of California's slide into hyper-expensive virtue signaling is that even if that 100% goal is met, it won't do diddly to lower the total CO2 emissions world-wide. That state's self-inflicted financial suicide and economic collapse will reduce its CO2 output far more than any lefty-greenie goal of 'green electricity'.

[The Estonian Fox]

Gregory Lukianoff is the president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). He is listed as such on the Charity Navigator website, and graduated from Stanford Law School.

FIRE contributes money & legal advice to students who have been deprived of their right to speak without harassment on campus. So describing him as a 'lifelong Democrat academic' might be a little misleading for the work he is involved with now.

[Walt]

And people are worried about Russians? I give you big tech.
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/09/10/silent-donation-corporate-emails-reveal-google-executives-efforts-to-swing-election-to-hillary-clinton-with-latino-outreach-campaign/

I'm no lawyer, but there must be one or two FEC violations to be found.

Google stacks the deck for Hillary and still she loses. (There is a GOD)

[Russ]

Silk purses and pigs ears come to mind.

[George Rebane]

EstonianF 616pm - Lukianoff's record speaks for itself. But that's no reason to rule eventual epiphanies that sometimes even grace Democrats.

[Bill Tozer]

More on Re: The Cuddling of the American Mind
“Nor will anyone champion a campaign to “discourage the creep of the word ‘unsafe’ to encompass ‘uncomfortable.’ ”.

If someone makes me feel unsafe (physically threatened), it’s on them. If someone makes me feel uncomfortable, it’s on me.

“When people say they want to make America like the rest of the world, keep this in mind. America stands alone in the preservation of individual liberty. Hate speech laws that give false empowerment to illegitimate, self-declared victims have no place in America. England has not only embraced this, but advanced it, and now calls on its citizens to act on it.”

https://thefederalist.com/2018/09/11/u-k-police-urge-citizens-report-neighbors-offensive-insulting-speech/

[Walt]

Washington state thinks it can win? LOL!
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/09/11/washington-state-in-legal-battle-with-6-states-after-it-refuses-to-build-coal-export-terminal.html
They sure must smoke plenty of pot in the statehouse.
Look at this like of BS.
Inslee said: “We’re breathing smoke from Mississippi, we’re breathing smoke from the rest of the United States. We have an interest in reducing coal smoke from all over the United States.”

Can someone inform the idiot which way the wind blows?
There is something called the interstate commerce clause.

Anyone buy this excuse?
An Ecology spokesman denies rejecting the coal terminal because of any bias against coal or the environmental impacts caused by burning the coal in Asia.

[Walt]

Sorry Paul, state's rights be damned. It's a FED port.
One LIB asswipe can't pick and choose what gets shipped out.

[Teine Rebane Kenney]

Seems that ratios are missing from the bar chart. That chart gives very little information other than totals.
Are we were measuring how the USA is doing (apples to apples) in comparison to other countries? If so...we’d need to know percentages, not total numbers. Countries have vastly different populations, the existence of a BASIS number is missing.
To solve a simple equation and get a no frills answer I’d, at minimum, ask:
1) How many students in each country graduated from college that year?
2) Of those graduates, how many earned degrees in a STEM area.
From there we could compute a meaningful % number to see where counties REALLY RANK in cranking out STEM graduates.

[Russ]

Accelerating California's Demise

Democrats to Prohibit the Sale of Gasoline-Powered Internal Combustion Vehicles by 2035

The political leaders coming from around the world for Gov. Jerry Brown’s climate action summit this week will grapple with a lot of urgent deadlines to drive down emissions, but one date is especially exasperating.

It is 2035 — the year advocates aim to kill off production of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.

https://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2018/09/democrats-to-prohibit-sale-of-gasoline.html

[George Rebane]

Russ 220pm - My bet is that California will be the ONLY jurisdiction on Earth that will attempt to meet the 2035 date. Perhaps the Great Divide will have already occurred. If that be the case, then the citizens of what's left of this state will gather to hold a community piss on Moonbeam's grave. There'll then be more problems than giving up reliable fossil fuel transportation to make ends meet - isn't socialism wonderful?

[Russ]

Jerry Brown announces that California will launch its own satellite

During brief remarks at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco on Sept. 14, 2018, California Gov. Jerry Brown announced that the state will launch its own satellite to help combat climate change.

[Bill Tozer]

California Climate Policies Facing Revolt from Civil-Rights Groups

The gist of the lawsuit is this: California’s high housing, transportation, and energy costs are discriminatory because they are a regressive tax on the poor. The suit claims that the state’s climate laws violate the Fair Employment and Housing Act because CARB’s new greenhouse-gas-emissions rules on housing units in the state “have a disparate negative impact on minority communities and are discriminatory against minority communities and their members.” The suit also claims the state’s climate laws are illegal under the Federal Housing Act, again because their effect is felt predominantly by minority communities. It also makes a constitutional claim that minorities are being denied equal protection under the law because California’s climate regulations are making affordable housing unavailable to them.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/09/california-climate-change-policy-hits-poor-residents-hardest/

[Bill Tozer]

Re: The Coddling of the American Mind
From an interview (no link) with the authors of the book,. They made an excellent point. To paraphrase, as lawnmower parents have swooped in the protect children from normal exclusion and discomfort, once those children reach college they demand the Administration jump in to fill the void and shield them from isolation (exclusion) and discomfort...to protect them, To protect them socially, protect them from intellectually discomforting thoughts, protect them from anything that the students will find troubling or bewildering. [Paraphrase over.]

Bill sez:
Thus, when it comes to sexual intercource between young students on campus, the co-eds demand the administrators write the rules, thus inserting a legalistic element when two people want to hook up, Rather than rely on internal boundaries, rules, controls, and codes of personal conduct that they should have developed within themselves growing up, they look to an outside authority to write the rules for them.

Heather MacDonald:
“Now you have this bizarre situation on college campuses where … the students who 30 to 40 years ago said to the adults ‘get out of our bedrooms, no more oversight from the college administrators’ … Now you have students asking the adult administrators to write rules for sex … affirmative consent rules,” MacDonald said. [which is insane].

She added that these results all stem from the fact that the innate difference between the sexes was denied by feminists during the sexual revolution.

“Feminists are not willing to say [the] sexual revolution was a mistake. They want to preserve the prerogative of maximum promiscuity for girls,” she said. “We are reaping what we sowed in the 1960s.”

https://www.theblaze.com/video/author-heather-macdonald-efforts-to-destroy-kavanaugh-stem-from-this-feminist-movement