Read it.

Just a couple of years ago, it seemed that space mining was inevitable. Analysts, tech visionaries and even renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson predicted that space mining was going to be big business.

Space mining companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, backed by the likes of Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, cropped up to take advantage of the predicted payoff.

Fast forward to 2022, and both Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries have been acquired by companies that have nothing to do with space mining. Humanity has yet to commercially mine even a single asteroid. So what’s taking so long?

Joel Kotkin reveals that he is a socialist after all.

The implications of the current land grab are profound, threatening the future of democratic institutions and the middle class. These trends are distressingly common across the higher income countries. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported in Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle-Class that the future of the middle-class is threatened by house prices that have been growing “three times faster than household median income over the last two decades.” The pandemic drove prices even further, and, in the U.S., housing affordability is at the lowest level since 1989.

The use of the smear ‘land grab’ is illuminating. Apparently, buying land that you can afford and that other people are willing to sell you (without coercion) is a ‘grab’. Purer class-warfare sentiments are hard to imagine.

There is nothing about rich people owning land that ‘threatens the future of democratic institutions’; the right to vote, last time I looked, did not depend on land ownership. Whether or not the ‘middle class’ it threatened by it is an assertion for which neither evidence nor argument is presented–he just says it as if it were an Obviously Bad Thing, a traditional progressive practice. (Ask Dave Ramsay some time about the typical ‘middle class’ 30-year mortgage … and Stand Back.)

Read it.

— The IRS has stockpiled 4,500 guns and 5 million rounds of ammunition in recent years, including 621 shotguns, 539 long-barrel rifles, and 15 submachine guns. If true, an explanation is needed so that conspiracy theories don’t multiply.

— The Veterans Administration purchased 11 million rounds of ammunition (equivalent to 2,800 rounds for each of its officers), along with camouflage uniforms, riot helmets and shields, specialized image enhancement devices, and tactical lighting. That’s ironic since many veterans used weapons to defend the nation. Are they now seen as potential enemies of the government many of them fought for?

— The Department of Health and Human Services acquired 4 million rounds of ammunition, in addition to 1,300 guns, including five submachine guns and 189 automatic firearms for its Office of Inspector General.

— According to an in-depth Rutherford Institute report on “The Militarization of the U.S. Executive Agencies,” the Social Security Administration secured 800,000 rounds of ammunition for its special agents, as well as armor and guns. Seniors beware!

— The Environmental Protection Agency owns 600 guns. And the Smithsonian Institution now employs 620-armed “special agents.” You’d better not get near those dinosaurs, or litter the highway, or else.

Read it.

A Saudi court sentenced three members of the Howeitat, a tribe forcibly ejected to make way for the $500 bn Neom megacity, to death earlier this month for resisting displacement, a UK-based rights group has reported.

Shadli, Atallah, and Ibrahim al-Howeiti were arrested in 2020 for opposing the eviction of their tribe for the project and were handed down death sentences on 2 October by Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Criminal Court, according to UK-based rights group Alqst.

“We condemn the sentences and call for their release,” Alqst said in a tweet.

Shadli al-Huweiti is the brother of Abdul Rahim al-Howeiti, a 43-year-old Tabuk resident who was shot dead by Saudi special forces in April 2020 after protesting the government’s eviction orders, including in videos he regularly posted to YouTube.

The men’s death sentences are only the latest in a series of extreme rulings recently handed down by Saudi courts to those who have expressed dissent.

I don’t even have to say anything, do I?

The Howeitat are the tribe of Auda Abu Tayi, of Lawrence of Arabia fame, and their support of the Hashemites, hereditary enemies of the Ibn Saud rulers of Saudi Arabia, no doubt had something to so with the severity of the sentences.

Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #523

Work therapy: can a climate campaigner help a coworking space go green? (The Guardian)

‘Steam loops’ under many cities could be a climate change solution (NPR) Uh-huh. The two I know about run on burning coal.

A small Fairbanks company wants to build Alaska’s biggest wind farms (Anchorage Daily News) Using the same technology as what crapped out during the February Freeze in Texas? What a brilliant idea!

“Jaw-Dropping” New Clues to Future Ice Sheet Change From Ancient Ice Age Valleys (SciTechDaily)

Fed Up British Drivers Unglue Climate Protestors the Hard Way

New Push to De-Platform Climate Dissent Fueled by JunkScience Tweets

Cities Need More Native Bees—Lots and Lots of Them (Wired ‘Science’) Apparently urban bees are needed for urban gardens, and urban gardens are needed so that we ALL DON’T DIE from global warming.

Hurricane Hype, Lies, Censorship – and Reality

The idea that Queen Charlotte was part-Black was popularized by one historian. But others say that’s a myth. (Insider)

UNC once barred Black students. Now it’s fighting for affirmative action. (Washington Post)

House Republican defends Tuberville over reparations remark (The Hill)

NYT: Racist Guns Are Targeting Black Youths More (Steve Sailer) “From the New York Times news section, a report on how objects with agency, guns, are becoming a greater menace to human beings who are above criticism but beneath agency, black men.”

Racist ‘View’ Co-Host Whines About Being Called Out for Her Racism

PayPal Automatically Pulls $2,500 In Reparations From All White People’s Accounts  (Babylon Bee)

Tyson Foods latest large business to flee Chicago, what sparked the exodus? (Fox)

Tyson foods joins Caterpillar and Boeing in ditching Chicago amid huge crime wave under woke Mayor Lori Lightfoot (Daily Mail) BRAAAAAAAINS!

California man kidnapped in broad daylight, remains missing (Fox)

How the Supreme Court put gun control laws in jeopardy nationwide (CNN) They say that like it was a bad thing.

Why is trickle-down economics still with us? (The Guardian) Because Robert Reich can’t let go of the Narrative. In fact, there is no such thing as ‘trickle-down economics’, a smear invented as a stick with which to beat Ronald Reagan.

Republicans ought to be doing better than they are (The Hill) Pushing the Narrative ahead of the mid-terms.

Jagmeet Singh Gaslights Canadians On “Greedflation”

Shooting Near N.Y. Gubernatorial Candidate Zeldin’s Home

Our Deluded Leaders Ignore Reality And Ensure Disaster

Majority Of GOP Nominees Doubt Legitimacy Of 2020 Election: WaPo

West Virginians Sour on Joe Manchin After He Delivers a Big Win for Democrats

CNN’s Jake Tapper Maligns ‘Cynical’ GOP Saying Big Tech ‘Rigged’ 2020 Election

Poll Shows GOP’s Dixon Closing In On Whitmer In Michigan Governor’s Race

Nutty New York Times Repeats ‘Biden Warns’ GOP Congress Will ‘Worsen’ Inflation

Colorado: 30,000 Noncitizens Got Vote Registration Mailer

Ukraine live updates Strikes across Ukraine, including heart of Kyiv; Putin convenes his Security Council (Washington Post)

Russian strikes kill 17 in Ukraine following bridge attack (CNBC)

Russian missiles strike Ukraine after bridge bombing (CBS)

Explosions rock multiple Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv (The Hill)

Several loud explosions heard in Ukrainian capital Kyiv (Al Jezeera)

Why Zelensky’s World War III Gambit Will Fail

Russia Strikes Kyiv, Multiple Ukrainian Cities; Many Dead

Kyiv, Other Cities Hit as Putin Orders ‘Harsh Response’ to Crimea Bridge Attack

Live Updates: Putin’s ‘Mass Strike’ on Ukraine Draws Furious Condemnation (N.Y.Times)

Two Wars, Two Visions

Professor Sachs: “Ukraine Needs To Stop Bombing Nuclear Power Plant And Blaming It On Russia”

Joe Rogan & Dave Smith Break Down The Real Reasons Russia Invaded Ukraine In Viral Clip

Here’s What to Do If You Test Positive for COVID This Fall or Winter (NBC)

Doctor Shares Guidance To Prepare For Severe 2022 Flu Season (Today)

How limitless green energy would change the world (BBC) So would antigravity.

Pregnancy complications spiked during the pandemic. No one knows exactly why. (Washington Post)

Marvel Shills For Pfizer With COVID Vaccine Avengers PSA Comic Book

Biden’s eye-opening warning (CNN)

Pompeo rips Biden’s ‘reckless’ Armageddon remark: ‘One of the greatest foreign policy failures’ (Fox)

How to recover from President Biden’s Saudi Arabia failure (Washington Post)

Nikki Haley: OPEC wanted to ‘stick it to Biden’ after Saudi remarks, Iran deal efforts (Fox)

CBP head says GOP governors’ transports are encouraging more migration to US (The Hill)

“It’s Become A Political Arm Of White House”: ATF Gun Store Revocations Hit 16-Year High

“Massive Errors” By FBI Undercounted Number Of Armed Citizens Thwarting Active Shootings

Biden: World Will Freeze If We Don’t End Fossil Fuels By 1977

The politics of Biden’s marijuana pardons (Axios)

WATCH: Two Minutes of Joe Biden Wandering Around Looking Lost

NPR: National Press Release for Kamala Harris Pushing Abortion Across America

Poll: More Dems Concerned About Biden’s Mental Missteps

FBI Officials Who Briefed Facebook on Hunter Biden Story Are Dem Donors

Small Business Group Latest to Sue Over Biden Student Loan Plan

Politifact Rates Biden’s Claim That ‘Made In America’ Is Two Words As ‘Mostly True’

Kamala Harris Demands To Know Who Locked Up All These Drug Offenders (Babylon Bee)

They Threw a Beer at Her Head. She Chugged It. How a Comedian Owned MAGA Hecklers (Rolling Stone)

POLITICO Playbook: The MAGA candidate of the moment (Politico) Trump cooties!

As Mar-a-Lago case advances, Trump’s initial success could fade (The Hill) They hope, they hope, they hope.

Trump Playing Legal ‘Games,’ DOJ Should ‘Indict Him’: Glenn Kirschner (Newsweek)

Trump Is a ‘Classified Documents Terrorist,’ Should Be Arrested: Kirschner (Newsweek) Dunh dunh DUNHHHHH.

Read it.

A Bloods gang beef may have prompted the shooting outside the Long Island home of gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, police sources said Monday — as troubling new details about the broad-daylight gunplay surfaced.

Neighbors described the pandemonium that broke out — including how one of the victims cried and screamed, “Oh, my God!’ as bullets flew on the typically bucolic Shirley street around 2:20 p.m. Sunday, injuring two teens.

A third teen targeted in the gang-related drive-by shooting, a local high-school sophomore, escaped unharmed, running home in a panic after his near-miss, his brother said.

Time to leave.

UPDATE: CRIME WAVE: Nets Bury Shooting Outside NY GOP Governor Candidate’s House

UPDATE: Chilling New Details of Shooting Outside Zeldin’s Home

Read it.

Foreign ownership of American farmland has raised bipartisan concern from all levels of government, from governors like Ron DeSantis of Florida to senators such as Iowa’s Chuck Grassley and Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow. Foreign ownership of American farmland went from 1 percent in 2000 to 2.9 percent in 2020, a 290 percent increase over the past twenty years.

With the rise in foreign ownership in American cropland come new security risks. Recently, Chinese companies have been buying agricultural land close to American military bases, raising concerns about their intentions.

Read it.

The Supreme Court will hear “the bacon case” on Oct. 11. National Pork Producers Council v. Ross challenges California’s Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, also known as Proposition 12. It’s an ill-conceived and unconstitutional 2018 law that attempts to use the Golden State’s enormous market power as leverage to regulate pig farming nationwide.

California lawmakers often presume they know what’s best—in this case for pigs and pig farmers across the country.

State regulators are currently training inspectors to disperse across the nation to enforce California’s rules. Out-of-state farmers must certify that their products are compliant with Proposition 12 to be sold in California.

Axios.

Nearly four out of 10 Republicans and one in four Democrats say they’ll blame election fraud if their party doesn’t win control of Congress in November, in the latest wave of the Axios-Ipsos Two Americas Index.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Steve Sailer points and laughs.

Ever since the first half of 2020, when pandemic fears and the racial reckoning led to the releasing of prisoners and the decline of policing, dangerous lunatics have been running amok. This has led to calls to finally rebuild the asylum system that long ago removed vicious crazy men from the streets.

One of the many reformers to come out of Massachusetts in the 1840s was Dorothea Dix. She made her cause better treatment of lunatics, whose triumph led to the construction of publicly-funded insane asylums, typically in restful surroundings.

For example, Los Angeles’s mentally ill were served by the Camarillo State Mental Hospital in a serene location in a superb climate a few miles from the Pacific. After his 1946 drug freakout led to him spending six months at Camarillo, Charlie Parker did not at all appreciate his record company naming his comeback track “Relaxin’ at Camarillo.” But still …

So young, and already an insurrectionist.

How a High School Production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ Erupted Into an Ugly Culture War (Daily Beast)

Parents Still Unhappy With Handling Of Local High School Musical Production (WCCB)

PayPal user agreement fining users up to $2,500 for promoting ‘misinformation’ was sent ‘in error,’ spox says (Fox)

The broken US economy breeds inequality and insecurity. Here’s how to fix it (The Guardian) More socialism!

Conservative frustration with fact checkers grows after several dubious PolitiFact articles in one week (Fox)

A town employee quietly lowered the fluoride in water for years (NPR)

2nd Trump-appointed judge publicly says she will not hire Yale clerks (Reuters)

Judge: Facebook intentionally violated WA campaign finance law 822 times (Seattle Times)

California Begins Fighting Inflation With Stimulus Checks This Week

New California Law Forces Taxpayers to Pay for Union Members’ Dues

Delaware Supreme Court Declares Mail-In Voting Unconstitutional

Biology Teacher Reinstated After Refusing To Use Trans Student Pronouns

Feds sent dozens of unaccompanied migrant children to NY shortly after Eric Adams’ emergency declaration (N.Y. Post)

Biden Calls Out ‘Socialist Republicans’ Now Begging for Money From Program They Voted Down (Daily Beast)

Biden’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve down sharply after Dems shut down Trump refill effort (Fox)

Southern border has become the ‘Wild Wild West’ and Biden, Democrats are to blame: Rep. Gonzales (Fox)

The Biden DOJ Comes for the Pro-Lifers

Democrats Nap Peacefully Through Border Crisis They Engineered

WATCH: Joe Biden’s Senior Moment of the Week Vol. 14

Border disaster by the numbers

SEE YOU IN COURT: Law Group Sues FBI For Hunter Biden Docs

There’s This Thing Called . . . Kamala Harris!

Greta Thunberg on the climate delusion: ‘We’ve been greenwashed out of our senses. It’s time to stand our ground’ (The Guardian)

The experiment that may have saved a Washington town from falling into the ocean (The Guardian)

Video games harm the environment. A climate researcher wants to fix that. (Washington P0st)

Media lying about climate and hurricanes

Why ‘Carbon Emissions’ Are Now ‘Climate Pollution’ (Wired ‘Science’)

Tokyo Mean September Temperatures Have Seen No Warming In 34 Years, JMA Data Show

“Move Before I Pull My Gun Out”: Irate DC Commuter Gets a Pass from Climate Protestors

Oops: Renewable Energy Costs Shut Down Solar Cell Manufacturing in Europe

‘Climate Change’ Is a Dangerous Cult

DeSantis Forced to Rethink Brand as He Leans on Biden After Hurricane Ian (Newsweek) Certainly the Narrative media would like to think so.

‘You can’t cancel me’: embattled TikTok star reinvents herself as a warrior for Jesus (The Guardian)

Ye gets slammed by rapper Meek Mill after Tucker Carlson interview: ‘It’s like you hate your own people’ (Fox)

Arlington National Cemetery’s Confederate monument has a troubling history (Washington Post)

AP Fabricates “Completely False Story” To Smear DeSantis, Then Deletes

Nothing to See Here! Online Election Info Monitor Defends Work Helping Big Tech Censor Americans

House Democrats seek to censure Marjorie Taylor Greene over ‘Biden is Hitler’ comment

MSNBC Labels GOP The Party of ‘Cruelty And Oppression’ For Pro-Life Stance

Marjorie Taylor Greene: can Democrats unseat the far-right extremist? (The Guardian)

Liberal Media Spin Rising Violent Crime as Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

PBS’s Capehart Misquotes Dana Loesch: ‘Who Cares About the Children?’

Kanye West, Herschel Walker and the politics of toxic Black men (Washington Post)

NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks, Eric Adams put each other’s girlfriends in top posts Your tax dollars at work! (What’s use of having power if you can’t abuse it?)

The Washington D.C. Snipers After 20 Years: Don’t Mention the Botched Racial Profiling,

60 Years After Integrating ‘Ole Miss,’ James Meredith Is Republican and Christian

Watch: Cop Wrongly Shoots Teen…Whose Skin Color Doesn’t Merit National Uproar

Read it.

You can’t make this stuff up.

I’m waiting for someone to discover that smoking pot cures COVID.

Read it.

When Emmi Conley first heard in September about a rash of hoax calls reporting active shooters in schools, she dismissed it. Conley, an extremism researcher who studies groups and people behind public displays of violence, said she found no indication that these calls were connected to fringe online spaces where these pranks often originate.

But as the number of these reports swelled over time, Conley said she began to discern some very strange patterns — including the possibility that the calls may have come from overseas, and perhaps specifically from Africa.

“The scale and the timeline of the events is highly, highly unusual,” she said. “The calls are consistent. They are coordinated. They are grouped state-by-state and district-by-district, and they’re also sustained. So somebody is putting significant effort to keep these going.”

Gee, maybe it’s an organization wanting to make people think that there are more ‘active shooter’ situations than are really happening. I wonder what sort of an organization would want to do that….

Read it.

The Minnesota State College and University System (“MnSCU”) includes 37 colleges and universities around the state, and trains a large majority of Minnesota’s law enforcement officers. Only you can’t call them “law enforcement” anymore.

Read it.

Central to Vladimir Putin’s claim that Ukraine is historically part of some greater Russia, and the staged plebiscites recently in the Russian-occupied territory, it is worth looking back on the actual votes cast in Ukraine back in 1991 when it had a referendum on the question of independence from the post-Soviet Union. Only in Crimea was there any serious sentiment in favor of remaining with Russia, and even there not a majority. I suspect most Ukrainians still have long memories of their treatment at the hands of Russia over the centuries.

Read it.

A gay Palestinian man who was living under asylum in Israel was allegedly kidnapped and brought to the West Bank, where he was beheaded Wednesday, according to Israeli media reports.

Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, 25, had reportedly been living in Israel for two years and seeking resettlement to Canada because of threats to his life over his sexual orientation. But on Wednesday, Abu Murkhiyeh was beheaded in the West Bank city of Hebron. The victim’s friends told media outlets he was kidnapped from Israel and taken to the Palestinian city, though his family said he regularly visited them in Hebron.

Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
A Muslim waits there
To try to kill you.

Pro-Trump Rally-Goers Blame Mysterious Bogeymen for Latest Event Flop (Daily Beast)

How Oath Keepers Leader Stewart Rhodes Became a ‘Brownshirt for Trump’ (Daily Beast)

Read it.

Markets, we are told, are rebelling against the government’s irresponsible fiscal policy, not least the now-abandoned plan to abolish the 45p tax rate. If that is what they are doing, it marks a sharp change in their behaviour. For most of the past decade they have whooped with delight whenever a fantastically expensive stimulus package has been announced and gone into a sulk whenever there have been rumours that the punch bowl is about to be withdrawn.

In this Alice in Wonderland world, good news became bad and bad news became good. Why? Because bad news means greater likelihood of a stimulus package; good news means stimulus is likely to be withdrawn. And of course, the extra billions pumped into the economy through stimulus – whether it be quantitative-easing or Joe Biden’s blatant helicopter money – had a tendency to be sucked into inflated asset prices.

Maybe like a reformed gambler, global markets have finally come to the realisation that this really can’t go on. You can’t go on creating money out of thin air forever after and expect it not to end up with serious inflation. They are giving the global bookmakers – i.e. central banks – a message: save us, before we all end up broke. If markets have told us anything over the past month it is: governments and central banks, get your fiscal and monetary houses in order.

Analysis: The Mainstream Media Think You’re Stupid

NYC Mayor Eric Adams declares state of emergency over influx of migrants (CNN)

Adams declares emergency over migrant crisis (CBS)

Young people earning $100,000 or more are fleeing California and New York—here’s where they’re going (CNBC)

Wealthy young people flee California, New York and flock to Texas, Florida (CalCoast News)

China’s secret police have invaded American shores: human rights advocate (Fox)

Delaware Supreme Court finds vote by mail, same-day registration unconstitutional (Delaware Online)

GOP dives deep on crime debate ahead of midterm elections (Fox)

Norwegian Cruise deal for migrants unlikely, city seeks cheaper options (N.Y. Post)

Yes, Democrats, Sometimes a ‘Good Guy With a Gun’ Does ‘Stop the Bad Guys.’ Here’s Proof.

NYC Mayor Declares Emergency, Says Migrant Surge Could Cost $1 Billion  Welcome to Texas.

Texas Gov. Will Ship Migrants to NYC Despite Emergency Declaration

Covid In Los Angeles: Concern Over Early Warning Signs & New Variants Going Into Winter (Deadline)

Early signs a new U.S. COVID surge could be on its way (NPR)

Pandemic struggles still afflict Social Security, a last lifeline for many (Washington Post)

Long COVID is still disabling millions of Americans (Axios)

Emails Show Biden Admin ‘Leveraging’ HS Sports To Bully Kids Into Getting Vaxxed

Defense Secretary Austin orders renaming of military bases with Confederate ties (Fox)

Fort Hood to be renamed for Richard Cavazos, a four-star Hispanic general (NBC) Whom nobody has ever heard of. Might as well rename it for Harriet Tubman and be done with it.

GA prosecutor seeks testimony from Gingrich, Flynn, other Trump allies in 2020 election probe (The Hill) The witch-hunt continues.

Testimony sought from Michael Flynn and Newt Gingrich in Georgia 2020 election probe (CNN)

Kanye West defends ‘White Lives Matter’ shirts, slams liberals who threatened, assaulted MAGA hat wearers (Fox)

Jan. 6 detainees say a D.C. jail is so awful that they’d like a transfer to Guantanamo (NPR)

House GOP confronts its 2023 rift: Impeachments (Politico)

Late-night comedy flounders in ratings as Colbert, Kimmel, others openly root for Democrats, shred Republicans (Fox)

MSNBC Suggests High Gas Prices Are A Saudi Plot To Help GOP In Midterms

Dr. Oz Stood in Front of One of Hitler’s Cars at a Fundraiser and Had Jordan Peterson Call In (Jezebel) Jezebel is the Paper of Record for Woke feminism.

Liberal Think Tank CEO: Bringing Jobs Back Is Just Another Ploy To Help White Males

NY Times Scribe Adam Liptak Still Obsessed: SCOTUS ‘Moved Relentlessly to the Right’

How Influential Senate Democrats Shut Down a Bid to Call Witnesses Against Trump (Politico)

Dream job disappointment: Testifying against Trump (Politico)

Why Donald Trump Indictment Will Likely Be Delayed (Newsweek) They still have to find a crime.

Trump Faces ‘Major Step Toward’ DOJ Indictment, Harvard Professor Predicts (Newsweek) Larry Tribe has predicted ten of the last zero Trump indictments.

Chicago City clerk, treasurer defend 20.5% pay hikes (Chicago Sun-Times)

City clerk and treasurer defend large raises in Lightfoot’s 2023 budget (Chicago Business) BRAAAAAAAINS!

Kanye West and the age of the unmanageable (Financial Times)

EXCLUSIVE: Living it up! Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors has installed swanky new garden sauna and PLUNGE POOL at her $1.4m LA ‘Marxist mansion’, after Kanye slammed movement as ‘scam’ (Daily Mail)

Sharon Osbourne Demands $900K Refund From BLM After Kanye Calls Organization A ‘Scam’ (Hollywood Life)

Adidas puts Yeezy deal under review after ‘White Lives Matter’ controversy (Washington Examiner)

‘I Perform for an Audience of One, and That Is God’: Kanye West Speaks Out in Pro-Life Interview

NBC’s ‘Law & Order’ Blames Anti-Asian Hate Crime on Covid & White Supremacy

Virtue Signaling Alert! Premier League Promotes 20 Games Of Kneeling

Stronger, more frequent El Niños could radically change West Coast habitats (PNAS)

Energy crisis? It isn’t that we have too little oil and gas. It’s that we have too much (The Guardian)

A dark tale of money corrupting politics — and destroying the climate (Washington Post)

Princeton Activists Just Won a Historic Victory for Climate Research (The Nation)

EPA will center climate change response in Texas on sea level rise, floods, drought and severe storms (Texas Tribune)

The world’s largest offshore wind farm is going to get even larger (Electrek)

Climate change: the fairest way to tax carbon is to make air travel more expensive (The Conversation) Or maybe ban it entirely, except for Woke celebrities.

Read it.

A specter haunts the Western world today and it is not that of fascism, semi- or otherwise, as President Biden among others demagogically claims. Fascism is a circumscribed historical phenomenon, most distinctive to Italy in the period 1922 to 1945. It combined authoritarianism marked by the cult of the Duce or leader, radical nationalism and neo-pagan idolatry, militarism, and economic corporatism. In blustery speeches in the late 1920s, Benito Mussolini proclaimed the necessity of a “totalitarian” party-state, although in practice he was forced to tolerate both the existence of the Italian monarchy and a Catholic Church under Pope Pius XI (the Roman pontiff from 1922 until 1939) that vigorously challenged the totalitarian pretensions of the fascist state.

Oath Keepers leader was in touch with US Secret Service in late 2020, former Oath Keeper testifies (CNN)

How expanding web of license plate readers could be ‘weaponized’ against abortion (The Guardian)

Proud Boys member is first to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy (CNN)

What is the Insurrection Act? (The Hill)

U.S. military to stop honoring Confederate history — finally (Boston Globe)

Pentagon chief gives go ahead to change military bases named after Confederate generals (The Hill) Which is approximately all of them.

CREEPY: Twitter Activates New ‘Fact-Checking’ Program

Elon Musk buying Twitter ‘puts our democracy at stake,’ civil-rights advocates say (Market Watch)

Google Earth Walkthrough Further Exposes FBI’s Jan 6 Pipe Bomb Hoax

Top ally in Trump’s 2020 election plot fights professional sanctions (Politico) The witch-hunt continues.

MSNBC: Herschel Walker Should Be in Therapy, Not Running For Senate  MSNBC ought to be in therapy, not running witch-hunts.

UK Mother-of-5 Arrested For “Offensive” Online Posts

The 2022 House Republican midterm candidates give ‘crazy’ new meaning (Washington Post) Dana Milbank pushes the Narrative.

A new ‘Great British Bake Off’ episode stereotypes Mexican culture, viewers say (NPR)

Kanye West Is Right About Black Lives Matter (Newsweek)

How to keep leadership white: Ban affirmative action (The Hill)

Building diverse campuses requires race-conscious admissions (The Hill)

Univision, Telemundo Rush to Defend ILLEGAL Post-Ian Looters, Trash DeSantis

The Deadly Collision of Racism and Mental Illness

Renewables Are Meeting Demand—but Climate Disasters Are Pushing Back the Tipping Point (Gizmodo)

US wind, solar tripled over the past decade: analysis (The Hill)

How glaciers melted 20,000 years ago may offer clues about climate change’s effects (NPR)

GE is laying off 20% of its U.S. workforce devoted to onshore wind power, costing hundreds of jobs (CNBC)

Solar and wind farms can hurt the environment. A new study offers solutions (L.A. Times)

Here’s a plan for green King Charles: sell the family silver and use the cash to save the planet (The Guardian)

World Bank ‘has given nearly $15bn to fossil fuel projects since Paris deal’ (The Guardian)

The truth about getting to net zero, according to the numbers (The Guardian)

Cop27 climate summit’s sponsorship by Coca-Cola condemned as ‘greenwash’ (The Guardian) There’s no pleasing some people.

COP27: Activists ‘baffled’ that Coca-Cola will be sponsor (BBC) Activists are often baffled when reality intrudes on their fantasy.

Myths About Hurricanes — Lessons From Hurricane Ian & Florida

The Coming Green Electricity Nightmare

The Dispatch: “A Conservative Approach to Climate Change”

Flooded Electric Vehicles Spontaneously Catch On Fire In Florida After Hurricane

A Comprehensive Roundup of Official Energy Madness

Kanye West: They told me if I said I liked Trump, my life would be over (Fox)

Trump’s Latest Revenge Fantasy: Purge the National Archives (Rolling Stone) Rolling Stone’s latest anti-Trump fantasy.

‘We Are F**KED’: New Book Reveals How GOP Senators Bailed Out Trump During 1st Impeachment Trial (Huffington Post) Since Maggie Haberman’s fictional fantasies sold so well, other Wokerati are getting in on the act.

COVID rebound after Pfizer treatment likely due to robust immune response, study finds (Reuters)

Biden’s Operation Warp Speed revival stumbles out of the gate (Politico)

Mouthwashes inhibit the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 variants (News-Medical.net)

Hundreds Of Thousands Of Americans Sought Medical Care After COVID-19 Vaccination: CDC Data

NY Times Beclowns Self: Election ‘Conspiracy Theory’ Becomes Inconvenient Fact Next Day

The most terrifying case of all is about to be heard by the US supreme court (The Guardian)

Dr. Phil spars with ‘body positivity’ activist who rejects science from ‘middle-aged white’ doctors (Fox)

Louisiana divests from BlackRock over ESG policies: ‘Would destroy Louisiana’s economy’ (Fox)

UN body rejects discussion on China human rights abuses: ‘Failed the test to uphold its core mission’ (Fox)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot sings TikTok karaoke amid 37% increase in violent crime (Fox) BRAAAAAAAINS!

As NYC rents soar, dysfunction in Adams administration fuels housing crisis (N.Y. Post)

ESG investing has damaged credibility of asset managers like BlackRock (Fox)

GOP’s war on ESG could come back to bite it (TechCrunch)

Media Spin On Gun Control Doesn’t Match Voters’ Opinions

Number Of Trans Youth in 2021 Up 70% From 2020, 9 Reasons Why Media Is At Fault

Global Elites Brag About Big Tech Partnerships to Control Speech

Scott Johnson at Power Line.

The Hunter Biden case is not the Hunter Biden case. It’s the Joe Biden case. All the rest is the saga of a corrupt and degraded reprobate.

Yesterday someone somewhere leaked to the Washington Post that the years-long investigation of Hunter may warrant a prosecution on tax and gun charges. He may even have to pay a fine.

It is impossible to be too cynical about the Post story. Reading between the lines, one can only see the coverup of the Biden family corruption at work.

Avoid the red areas. Don’t go there. Don’t eat their food. Don’t buy their products. Don’t adopt their politics. Just … don’t. THERE’S A REASON PEOPLE ARE LEAVING. THEY KNOW SOMETHING YOU DON’T.

Read it.

In just the last few weeks, Liz Truss, Britain’s new prime minister, has been denounced by critics as a “fascist.” So has Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s newly elected prime minister. Along with all Republicans in Congress, Texas and Florida GOP Govs. Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis and, of course, former President Donald Trump. Every one of the tens of thousands of “MAGA Republicans” who attend Trump rallies, too.

Dangerous fascists, for that matter, all of whom critics say need to be shut up.

Read it.

In an interview accorded to a newspaper, she delivered herself further of her political opinions, including the more or less standard one that there are people in the world with far more money than they need. Usually when people say this they mean, there are people in the world with far more money than I. Curiously enough, they do not include themselves in their strictures, their own inessential expenditure, on such things as holidays abroad, being deemed only appropriate to their needs, though they would almost certainly seem extravagant and unnecessary to a Congolese or Bangladeshi peasant. By definition, it is only others who have too much money.

Despite her disavowals, the nurse’s outburst was not completely at random. It is a cliché that many a true word is said in jest, and likewise, I suppose that many a true word is said in anger (though one mustn’t make the logical mistake of thinking that therefore what is said in anger is true). Anger is sometimes truthful, at least in the sense that it reveals the speaker’s attitudes that he or she normally keeps hidden.

Tom Veal.

Nothing that happens in the U.N. Human Rights Council is of much significance, which is good, because the Council is rotten to the core. It’s basically a pack of wolves charged with watching out for the welfare of lambs. Nonetheless, because Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of that snake pit, the Bidenites rushed to get back in. They assured us that American “engagement” with the likes of Red China, Cuba and Venezuela would do something to promote the Rights of Man.

Yesterday, the U.S. delegation moved to open a debate on communist atrocities in Sinkiang (Xinjiang). The motion failed: 17 yea, 19 nay, 11 abstentions.

Read it.

The Washington Post is out this afternoon with news that “federal agents” have sufficient evidence to charge Hunter Biden with “tax crimes” and making false statements related to a gun purchase.

There are some telltale oddities to the story. It describes the source or sources as “people familiar with the situation.” People? What kind of people? The story does not specify whether these “familiar people” are with the FBI, IRS, ATF, or other federal agency. It merely says “investigators with multiple agencies. . . who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case.” Looks as though the Post reporters don’t want to risk a specific agency source becoming the target of a leak investigation. Or that the leaking source demanded this vague identification.

Given the practice of the Justice Department never to bring charges on politically sensitive cases within 90 days of an election so as to avoid allegations of partisanship, it is doubtful we will see any official announcement as a result of this story. So why did someone want to leak this out now? Perhaps someone in the FBI or Justice Department is concerned with the plummeting public respect for these agencies, and thinks it would be useful to show that they aren’t partisan. Or it is also possible that someone in the FBI or Justice doesn’t want the Hunter Biden investigation swept under the rug, even though the investigation is being supervised (supposedly) by the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, David C. Weiss, who is a holdover Trump appointee.