Read it.

Uh, no. You’ve got to be conservative first.

Read it.

Vilified, threatened with violence and in some cases suffering from burnout, dozens of state and local public health leaders around the U.S. have resigned or have been fired amid the coronavirus outbreak, a testament to how politically combustible masks, lockdowns and infection data have become.

One of the latest departures came Sunday, when California’s public health director, Dr. Sonia Angell, was ousted following a technical glitch that caused a delay in reporting hundreds of thousands of virus test results — information used to make decisions about reopening businesses and schools.

Scott Johnson at PowerLine reviews Minnesota.

In Minnesota the media are flogging an alleged increase in new cases and the Sturgis apocalypse to sustain the epidemic of hysteria. See, for example, Jeremy Olson’s Star Tribune story “625 new Minnesota COVID-19 cases contribute to weekend surge.” Subhead: “COVID-19 deaths have not increased amid rise in infections, but health officials worry that this trend could emerge next.” Or skip to the Star Tribune editorial “‘Utter disaster.’ Allowing Sturgis rally to go on puts nation at risk.” Subhead: “Failure of leadership at multiple levels allows event to go on during pandemic.” Coming soon: World to end tomorrow: Women, minorities hardest hit.

While we wait for the end of the world as we know it, we note that deaths attributed by the authorities continue at a low, low level, contrary to their projections and warnings. Yesterday, to take the example closest to hand, we had three new deaths. One decedent was in his 90’s, one in his 80’s, and one in his 60’s.

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The problem, Gesell believed, was that money served two roles that often came into conflict: It was a way for people to store wealth, and it was the thing everybody needed to conduct business. The fact that money could store wealth meant its holders had a reason to cling to it, especially in crises like the one he saw in Argentina, when opportunities to safely put that money elsewhere looked grim. It was a typical story. When people got scared, they hoarded cash and brought business to a standstill. It led, Gesell said, to a situation of “poverty amid plenty.”

Gesell wanted to create a new kind of money — a money that would “rot like potatoes” and “rust like iron” so no one would want to hoard it, a money that was “an instrument of exchange and nothing else.” And the crazy part is that he did create it. Through a series of pamphlets, articles and books, Gesell inspired a worldwide movement that introduced a completely new form of money. It’s one of the most fascinating, and largely forgotten, stories in economic history.

Eugene Robinson on MSNBC: Under Trump, America’s the ‘S-hole’ Country Now  Despite, rather than because of.

Read it.

CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King is steeped in the Democratic Party. She donates to Democrats. She vacationed with Democrats and has lobbied her Democratic-leaning friend Oprah Winfrey to run for president.

All of that would be fine except for the fact that King is allowed to operate as though she was a real, objective journalist. She has even moderated a 2020 Democratic primary debate. But King isn’t a fair and balanced journalist.

Read it.

There are several immediate problems with Fauci’s arguments, including the fact that COVID cases are showing clear signs of a summer resurgence in the same European countries that allegedly tamed the virus through harsh lockdowns in the spring. The American news media however has seized on Fauci’s narrative, and used it to call for renewed lockdowns. The New York Times and the Washington Post both editorialized in favor of a second stricter wave of nationwide lockdowns lasting until October – this despite there being no clear evidence that lockdowns actually work at taming the virus.

So how does the evidence behind this narrative stand up under empirical scrutiny? Let’s consider the claims.

Read it.

Yesterday, New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who signed an executive order forcing nursing homes in his state to accept patients who tested positive for the coronavirus in March, informed reporters there was no need for an independent inquiry into his deadly mistake because no one can be deemed reliable enough to investigate him.

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During Friday’s edition of CNN Newsroom, co-anchor Poppy Harlow kicked off a contentious interview with Kudlow with negative spin, asking Kudlow: “Does the slowdown worry you and the president?” Kudlow immediately slapped back at that idea: “I don’t know that there’s a slowdown. I mean, these jobs numbers will go up and down.”

Harlow interrupted Kudlow to strangely point out last month’s jobs numbers: “4.8 million jobs were added the prior month.” Kudlow responded: “I think the big story here is this survey was taken in the middle of July, July 12th to July 18th.” He continued: “That was the heart, that was the heart of the hotspot problem, where some states had to pull back in the southwest and so forth. Therefore, we didn’t get hurt near as much as many people feared.” A chyron for CNN’s spin-segment read: “1.8 million jobs added in July, but recovery is losing momentum.”

The ‘chyron’ tells the story: CNN is just a publicity operation for the hate-Trump crowd even if they have to lie about it. Fortunately, Kudlow is a Real Economist and he isn’t buying what they’re selling.

Read it.

I apologize for linking to a site that has white text on a black background. Unfortunately, there are far too many people who can’t be bothered to understand that the purpose of a web site is to be legible rather than just be a monument to Cool and Edgy.

Those of us who use Safari have available a feature called “Use Reader when available’ that convert such masturbatory exercises into actual readable text. I heartily endorse it.

Read it.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is claiming that “Donald Trump has undermined and corrupted our most popular government agency—the Postal Service.” I was surprised to learn that the postal service is “our most popular government agency.”

Well, it’s certainly more popular than the IRS.

Steve continues in business.

Today two wonderful things happened. I got over the local-pizza-ingredient hump, and I put a new scope on my Thompson Center Venture rifle.

I need to start making my own bread again.

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And who could blame them?

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Ilhan Omar’s father was the late Nur Said Elmi. Omar has vehemently denied that Nur Said Elmi was his name because the name reflects the fraternal relationship of Ahmed Nur Said Elmi to her — Ahmed Nur Said Elmi being the younger brother she married for fraudulent purposes in 2009. Even though the marriage had long since served its fraudulent purpose(s), Omar didn’t get around to dissolving the marriage to Elmi until 2017, just in time to marry and divorce the father of her three children before marrying her consultant and fundraiser earlier this year. It’s quite a story for someone who has repeatedly invoked her “faith tradition” as both a shield and a sword.

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

New York magazine.

One of the perennial favorite tasls of Lefty ‘journalists’ is explaining ‘conservatism’ to, you know, conservatives (and anybody else who might be listening).

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Using a super porous material to suck up salt from brackish, salty water, researchers were able to sustainably create nearly 40 gallons of clean drinking water per single kilogram of a metal material. Better yet, this drinking water was even cleaner than WHO’s official guidelines.

Read it.

Presumably they are wearing masks and social-distancing.

Fredo RAGES at Trump: ‘You Don’t Give a Damn’ About Pandemic

With latest executive orders, Trump gets approval from his golf club crowd  POLITICO waxes sophomoric.

Trump’s weekend photo op reveals dangerous 2020 strategy: Populist Dictators for Dummies  USA Today.

Trump declares war on Social Security, Medicare  CNN. I’m losing track of all of the things that Trump has allegedly ‘declared war’ on.

Robin Williams’ Daughter Slams Eric Trump for Posting Comedian’s Anti-Biden Bit

Biden Criticized Trump’s Order Cutting Payroll Tax. During The Recession, Obama Said It Would Be ‘Inexcusable’ To Block A Similar Tax Cut

Twitter Labels Trump, McEnany ‘Government Account’ — But Not Iran’s Ayatollah

Shellenberger: Do We Have to Destroy the Earth to Save It?

ART OF THE SPIN: Liberal Outlets TRASH Jobs Report ‘Topping Expectations’

Most Voters Think Democrats Side With Protesters And Trump Sides With Police During Violent Protests, Survey Says  I think that would be right.

GOP Sen. Ben Sasse Calls Trump’s Executive Orders ‘Unconstitutional Slop,’ Sparks Backlash  Ben Sasse is the Kasich of our generation.

Desperate Sharpton Campaigns for Biden, Claims Trump Fears Women & Minorities

#WhiteHouseSiege – This Group Plans To Lay Siege To” & “Occupy” The White House Next Month  Good luck with that.

Trump Halts Briefing After Shots Fired Outside White House

Stelter Meltdown: CNN Host Says It’s “Otherworldly, Offensive” To Question Biden’s Mental Health  Stelter still looks like a character from SEINFELD.

Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #419

Why climate change is about to make your bad commute worse  Washington Post

Cod and monkfish could disappear from British menus due to climate change, warns study

Polar Bears Defy SCIENCE! by Refusing to Die.

How Climate Alarmism Hijacked Environmentalism

Read it.

Heh.

Read it.

A growing response to today’s chaotic information landscape sounds inviting and elegantly simple: Appoint experts to “fact-check” news stories, blogs, speeches, studies, opinions, and political ads. Information they deem to be false is corrected or even removed from public view, in the name of the public good.

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Last October, Ibrahim Bouaichi sexually assaulted Karla Dominguez with whom he reportedly had been in a relationship. He was charged with six felony counts and held without bond in an Alexandria, Virginia jail.

In April, a judge, Nolan Dawkins, ordered the release of Bouaichi due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Bouaichi was 33 years old. The virus probably posed about the same threat to his health as the flu. Moreover, there had been no cases of the virus at the Alexandria jail.

Bouaichi’s lawyers argued that visits to the jail had been curtailed and that they needed to meet with their client. But all trials had been postponed.

The lawyers apparently did not seek relief from the curb on their ability to visit Bouaichi. Instead, they insisted on his release.

Judge Dawkins ordered Bouaichi to stay at home, to leave only to met with his lawyers, and to have no contact with Dominguez, his victim. But the judge did not order electronic monitoring of Bouaichi.

Less than a month after his release, police officers spotted Bouaichi in his car at a Wendy’s drive-through. He rammed his car into one of their cruisers.

For this, he was charged with multiple assault counts and drunk driving. But after spending one night in a Maryland jail, Bouaichi was released on bond.

You can probably guess the rest of the story. In late July, Dominguez was shot to death in Alexandria. The police issued a warrant for the arrest of Bouaichi on the charge of murder. He fled. When the police finally spotted him and moved in for the arrest, he killed himself.

Given the guy’s name, I could as easily put this under Living With Islam.

One of the fundamental tasks of government is to keep its citizens safe. Makes you wonder what we’re paying all of this money for.

Check it out.

The Roman roads diagram project is a series of maps driven by an unconventional idea: what if we represented Ancient Rome’s famed road network in the style of a modern transit map?

Read it.

Look at the cost increases in higher education, healthcare and childcare and ask yourself if the quality of those services have risen in lockstep with price increases.

…

The capital and managerial expertise required to launch and grow a legal enterprise is significant, which is at least partly why a nation of self-employed farmers, shopkeepers, artisans and traders is now a nation of employees of government and large corporations.

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According to a press release from ANL, researchers at the lab, working with partners at Northern Illinois University, have discovered a new electrocatalyst that converts carbon dioxide and water into ethanol with very high energy efficiency, high selectivity for the desired final product, and low cost. Ethanol is a particularly desirable commodity because it is an ingredient in nearly all US gasoline and is widely used as an intermediate product in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries.

This could be a game-changer. Ethanol isn’t as energy-dense as petro-fuel, but if they can get the price down low enough people will use it.

Read it.

Today, the Washington Post’s Sunday “Outlook” section ran a piece in which Lawrence Downes, formerly of the New York Times editorial board, boasts about feeding books by Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Laura Ingraham, and other conservative authors to worms. Downes says he purchases these books on sale from his public library. He then takes them home for “quarantine.” In this way, he prevents people who might want to buy and read the books from doing so.

For extra pleasure, Downes has taken to putting the books in a compost bin along with coffee grounds, potato and carrot peels, etc., and feeding the pages to worms. He seems to believe that doing so is different in nature from burning the books. He’s right. Taking into account the pleasure Downes gets and his desire to write about the experience, it’s sicker.

Trump attempts to bypass Congress on coronavirus relief, though his power to do so is unclear  Boy, that almost sounds like something Obama would do, doesn’t it?

The economy is not Trump’s strong suit | TheHill  I guess those improved unemployement numbers were just a mirage, then.

Trump walks out of news conference after reporter asks him about Veterans Choice lie he’s told more than 150 times  CNN.

I was a Republican, and I drew my red line too late. I’ll answer for my choices for years to come.  CNN loves these ‘true confession’ types of stories.

Brian Williams and His Obama Guy STILL Claiming Trump’s Russian-Owned

CNN Guest Says There’s No Network On The Left Dedicated To Tearing Down Trump  Of course not. There doesn’t need to be. The Herd all moves in the same direction because they all want the same things.

Riot Declared as Fire Burns in Portland Police Union Offices

The COVID Crisis Has Helped Make The Blueprint For A European Superstate

NPR fires weatherman for comparing Seattle riots to Germany in 1938 on his personal blog

Nancy Pelosi Admits On CNN: “China Would Prefer Joe Biden”

Aussie Covid-19 Response: Warrantless Home Invasion, Smashed Car Windows  Australia appears to have degenerated into Just Another European Police State after all. Pity.

STOP the Presses: NYT Commits Journalism, Finds Antifa Thuggery in Seattle

False Alarm by Bjorn Lomborg; Apocalypse Never by Michael Shellenberger – review  The Guardian.

Undeniable Truths

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There have been peaceful protests violent riots every single night in Portland now for nearly three months straight. There appear to be many different groups involved, with many different messages, from “Black Lives Matter” to “Antifa” to people carrying signs with the Soviet hammer and sickle. But there is one thing all the rioters have in common. They all hate Donald Trump. All the riots have signs saying things like “Dump Trump” and other more explicit words saying the same thing. The rioters are urging people to vote against Trump in the next election. Remember, these riots are in Portland, Oregon.

In 2016, Donald Trump won 17% of the vote in Portland. Who are these people trying to convince? There hasn’t been an out-of-the-closet Republican sighted in the wild in Portland since the Reagan administration. And such exotic fauna will most certainly be scarce in Portland in today’s hostile environment. So the Portland riots are essentially Democrats trying to convince Democrats to vote Democrat, while they destroy one another’s property. I don’t get it.

Read it.

Could have fooled me.

CNN chief medial reporter Brian Stelter beclowned himself yet again during Sunday’s no-so Reliable Sources. Between raging at right-wing media and talk radio for questioning Joe Biden’s mental lucidity, and claiming left-wing hacks like himself weren’t dedicated to “tearing down” President Trump, Stelter was out to prove that he was willing to lie with impunity. And at one point, a guest floated the idea of weaponizing the Federal Communication Commission to target and presumably shut down right-wing talk radio.

Gaslighting his viewers from the get-go, Stelter hoped they wouldn’t remember how he was among the first in the liberal media to demand the press start questioning Trump’s mental health, as he railed against right-wing media for now questioning Biden’s.

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In my prior life as an insurance executive, it was my job to deceive Americans about their health care. I misled people to protect profits. In fact, one of my major objectives, as a corporate propagandist, was to do my part to “enhance shareholder value.” That work contributed directly to a climate in which fewer people are insured, which has shaped our nation’s struggle against the coronavirus, a condition that we can fight only if everyone is willing and able to get medical treatment. Had spokesmen like me not been paid to obscure important truths about the differences between the U.S. and Canadian health-care systems, tens of thousands of Americans who have died during the pandemic might still be alive.

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Well. There it is.

Read it.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

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Suspend the price mechanism, put the government in charge, and, sure enough, lo and behold, shortages and quality problems result.

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So President Trump has decided to pet the unicorn. He has set himself up to act in the peoples’ best short-term interest and dared the opposition to sue and stop him (and thus them). He is bringing to life the meme that “They are not really after me. They are after You. I am just in their way.” And that is what voters will come to believe if the Democrats try to stop him.

For all of his alleged impulsiveness, ignorance, and stupidity, Trump keeps sinking those baskets.

Read it.

If this was 2012, the liberal media would be worshiping President Obama for using his pen and phone to get around an obstructionist Congress to help hurting Americans during an election year pandemic. But after President Trump signed an executive orders to continue weekly unemployment checks and halt evictions Saturday, ABC’s Good Morning America was up in arms. They siding with Democrats, claimed it was a “game” to Trump, and hyped the legal battle that would delay the aid.

Apparently aid is good only when it comes from Democrats.

Steve Sailer.

Has this Dunbar number theory ever been tested? It’s quite popular, but I mostly see it used in an “As everybody knows” sense.

…

A lot of people can’t deal well with criticism. They feel like they are about to be attacked by a mob and murdered when they get a few dozen tweets making fun of them. I think that’s a better application of this Dunbar Number: If people get 76 negative responses on social media, they worry, “Oh, no, the majority of my tribe of 150 has spoken out against me! I will be made an outcast and forced to wander along in the wilderness.”

Read it.

Due to increasingly squalid conditions on the Upper West Side, including two new homeless shelters packed with junkies and registered sex offenders, longtime dwellers are departing the Big Apple with no plans to ever return.

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Cities—especially coastal cities in blue states—are the stronghold of Democratic political power. They’ve been the social base for radical left-wing ideas now breaking into the mainstream. Yet as Mr. Cuomo’s plea highlights, those same states and cities depend immensely on the affluent to fund their hugely expensive government programs.

Mr. Cuomo’s friends with Hamptons homes may donate to liberal causes and willingly pay higher taxes for New York’s amenities in normal times. But they probably don’t support confiscatory taxation, and they’re wary of the revolutionary mood on the left insofar as it is producing crime and disorder where they live. The pandemic may cause some to move permanently, leaving cities like New York with fewer resources to finance progressive policies.

If Democrats win the 2020 elections, they promise to raise taxes. Will they try to spare the liberal rich? If they don’t, progressive governance will come under more strain, and liberal high-earners may take a second look at a GOP offering lower rates all around.

Steve Sailer.

Egg and sperm banks like to open offices near famous colleges in order to conveniently harvest the gametes of students most in-demand by their customers. This may sound like the Pseudoscience of eugenics, but, well, you aren’t supposed to think about that.

Read it.

Previous research suggests that it’s much easier for young children to pick up a new language than it may be for their parents or even older siblings. A new study offers a solution to jump that evolutionary hurdle.

Specifically it improves the ability to pick up a language’s sounds. That’s helpful, but not all that much.

Republicans have to let Donald Trump lose if they want victory | TheHill

Trump mocked after calling Thailand ‘Thighland’ in latest speech blunder  The Independent (British tabloid), being sophomoric.

Trump’s desperate attacks are revealing the scam Republicans have been pulling for years  Washington Post.

‘It’s a Peaceful Protest’; Trump NUKES WashPost Hack Concerned About Press Conference Crowd

They Need Help: MSNBC Freaks Over ‘NO LIMITS’ to Trump’s Madness

Whatever your take on the jobs numbers, the economy still needs a federal boost  Washington Post. Because it just does!

Raise taxes on the super rich. They have it, we need it  Los Angeles Times.

Bernie Sanders proposes 60% tax on wealth gained by billionaires during pandemic  Bernie has never seen a wallet he didn’t want to lift.

Karen Bought a Printer and a Roll of Duct Tape

100 Children Shot In Philadelphia Year-To-Date

Diamond & Silk to Newsmax TV: ‘Jim Crow Joe’ Doesn’t ‘Own Blacks’

Bike Store Cancels Contract With Austin Bike Police After “Woke” Employees Complain

NJ principal calls pro-police flag ‘racist’, angry parent joins ‘Tucker’

If Black Is Capitalized But Not White, Shouldn’t Woman be Capitalized But Not Man?, by Steve Sailer

Undoing MLK’s Work: CNN’s Harlow Wants People to Be Judged by the Color of Their Skin

“All Republicans Are Racist Scum…”  Now, if he’d said that about Democrats, he’d have been cancelled already.

Yes, Emissions Have Fallen. That Won’t Fix Climate Change  Wired ‘Science’.

How falling solar costs have renewed clean hydrogen hopes

This worst-case climate scenario might be the most realistic  Popular ‘Science’.

Rising Waters on Lake Michigan Are Threatening Luxury Homes

In Colombia, ‘climate-smart’ villages show how the future of farming could look

Shellenberger’s Optimistic, Viral Take on Climate Future Challenged by Scientists He Cites

Is the EU’s 30% climate budget greenwashing?

Revisiting the global hydrological cycle: is it intensifying?

Read it.

The New York Times loves the public sector, and it mimics our most dysfunctional governments in one respect: it is just about impossible to get fired.

Consider Times opinion columnists Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Nick Kristof and Maureen Dowd. They have all been at the Times for something like fifty years, and none of that quartet has had a fresh idea in at least the last decade. Does anyone still read them? I remember as recently as 2006 there were controversies over a number of Dowd columns, and the Krugman Truth Squad catalogued Krugman’s howlers. But no one bothers anymore.