Some Questions on Warming

Some Questions on Warming

What considerations for global warming did Putin make before his mugging of Ukraine? Can we expect nations in the future to sacrifice their nationalistic ambitions in the face of the global warming thesis?

The earth seems to be warming. But a static temperature would be unnatural for the earth. So the question is not change, it is the degree of change. And the factors. Are we sure of the factors in the earth's temperature and their interactions?

What temperature rise would be normally expected after the Little Ice Age in Europe from 1300 and 1850?

The Little Ice Age was regional, not global, and presumably easier to explain with fewer factors. What were they?

Some Notes

 

Some Notes

Psaki was asked about the relative risk to Covid and death based upon age. She said, "We don't know that." Does she mean that the administration doesn't know that because everyone else does?

"After careful consideration, we have decided to reinstate our SAT/ACT requirement for future admissions cycles. Our research shows standardized tests help us better assess the academic preparedness of all applicants, and also help us identify socioeconomically disadvantaged students who lack access to advanced coursework or other enrichment opportunities that would otherwise demonstrate their readiness for MIT."--part of a press release from MIT regarding reinstating entrance exams

Ticket sales for Chris Rock’s comedy shows have reportedly spiked since Sunday night.
Live event ticketing site TickPick sold more tickets to see Chris Rock overnight than it had in the past month combined, according to a tweet from the company Monday.
Rock is set to perform standup at Boston’s Wilbur Theater on Wednesday. On March 18, the cheapest tickets were sold for $46, but had increased to $411 by Monday, according to TickPick’s public relations representative Kyle Zorn.

A detailed analysis of several data files, with various metrics, for the UK confirms that men now are happier than women.

In California, three years into the era of legalization under the Proposition 64 ballot initiative, data indicate that only about one-quarter of weed sold and consumed in the state is legally licensed and that the remaining three-quarters is produced outside legal market channels.

Studies on online effects. This is not a zero negative effect, stronger than usual for girls 12-14, and for men 26-29, but overall not consistent with the doomsaying accounts. From the NYT: ““There’s been absolutely hundreds of these studies, almost all showing pretty small effects,” said Jeff Hancock, a behavioral psychologist at Stanford University who has conducted a meta-analysis of 226 such studies.”

On average, Peru's president, Pedro Castillo has changed a minister every nine days.

Questions 52

Questions 52

James Madison said the powers delegated by the Constitution to the federal government “are few and defined.”

During the Nagorno-Karabakh war in September, Turkish drones intervening for Azerbaijan against Armenia destroyed an estimated 200 tanks, 90 other armored vehicles, and 182 artillery pieces, forcing the latter to withdraw from the territory.

Remember that war?

Starting in 2024, producers will be required to submit a summation of the race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status of members of their movie’s cast and crew. If a particular movie does not have enough people of color or disabled people or gays or lesbians working on the set—and what is “enough” will be determined by a knotty tangle of byzantine formularies—then that movie will no longer be eligible for an Oscar.

A longtime police station located in a Harvard University residence hall is now closed due to students and faculty felt it was both “violent” and “intimidating.”

A large insurance company called BKK ProVita, shared this data with Die Welt:
They analyzed the medical data of 10.9 million insured individuals, looking for potential COVID jab side effects. To their horror, they found 400,000 doctors’ visits could be realistically attributed to the jab. According to Schöfbeck, extrapolated to the total population of Germany, the total number of doctors’ visits attributable to jab side effects would be 3 million.

You may govern by force, but you cannot at the same time hold by both physical and moral means.--acton

The Symptoms of the Dreaded Whiteness

 

The Symptoms of the Dreaded Whiteness

Warning. Some may find very stupid content offensive.

Objectivity, a strong work ethic, individualism, respect for the written word, perfectionism, and promptness: would any society discourage such virtues? Would every parent encourage the development of these traits in their children? Do such characteristics facilitate success or, at least, survival In this hostile world?

Your first response would be wrong.

These characteristics are among the “white norms” that diversity and social-justice theory seek to deconstruct. These are appearing as targets to attack in schools and workshops as these malignant qualities are being run to ground.

The National Museum of African American History & Culture wants to make you aware of certain signs of whiteness: Individualism, hard work, objectivity, the nuclear family, progress, respect for authority, delayed gratification, and more.

From The Smithsonian Institute:

 

Sunday/Freedom

 

Sunday/Freedom

Today's gospel is The Prodigal Son, a lost-and-found gospel where two sons do wrong--one spectacularly--but both significantly. Despite his love for the prodigal, the father allows him his leash and lets him err. He does not intervene to prevent the mistake. The spiritual creature has free will.

He is his own man, for better or worse.

 

Stats

Interesting charts, if it works.

Back and forth over gas prices.

"Oil prices are decreasing, gas prices should too," the president tweeted. "Last time oil was $96 a barrel, gas was $3.62 a gallon. Now it's $4.31. Oil and gas companies shouldn't pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans."

"I see the White House chart is sourced to Bloomberg LP data. As a public service, I'm going to suggest a different chart. Mine has some of the same elements (WTI oil and retail US gasoline price), but instead, I normalized it, and use Dec 1, 2021, = 100," Blas tweeted.
  

Quote Tweet

President Biden

@POTUS

United States government official

· 10h

Oil prices are decreasing, gas prices should too. Last time oil was $96 a barrel, gas was $3.62 a gallon. Now it’s $4.31. Oil and gas companies shouldn’t pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans.

8:57 AM · Mar 2022·Twitter Web App

Mr. Blas's chart shows the opposite, that oil companies failed to pass on the cost of the crude price increase to customers at the gas pump.

According to most recent data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), 56% of the cost of gasoline is the hard cost of crude oil that the refiners have to pay. The chart shows that the price increase at the pump failed to keep up with the incredible jump in crude oil prices. It also shows that oil companies were making less money, not more on the way up.

Lessons From the Supreme Court Hearings

 Lessons From the Supreme Court Hearings

A candidate for the Supreme Court can decline to give an answer to a senator's question.

The key point is not that a candidate can not define a woman, the key point is that she is qualified and can't define a woman.

While the Supreme Court is supposed to be above the political fray, a candidate will fear the political implications of an obvious question so much she will risk looking like a fool by declining to answer it.

The power of a political subset is not related to its size or its importance to the culture.

Politically motivated savagery at the Supreme Court nomination hearings is limited to one party.

Brown Jackson signed a brief accusing George Bush of being a war criminal. This is not a comment on her legal abilities but is a comment on her associations and political mindset which do influence her legal abilities.

These hearings are revealing about the politics of the nation and these lessons are obvious to the average guy.

Covid and Hayek

Covid and Hayek

An important, disturbing concept is reinvigorated in the recent Covid event. Society is like battle in that it has starting points but no predictable evolution or outcome.

"In different ways, Hayek’s theses reiterate a single point: the diverse, complex, Open Society has evolved to the point where it has outstripped basic human inclinations and capacities. The first thesis argues that it is fundamentally at odds with our deepest moral intuitions; the second that it has outstripped our capacity to understand the function and justification of its constitutive rules; and the third that it has evolved beyond our governance. Because of the first, we are constantly tempted to morally renounce it and, on moralistic grounds, construct barriers to it. Because of the second, our attempts to reflect and reconstruct its rules lead to constant and unrelenting moral conflict; we seek to justify, and so present a series of justificatory schemes and criticisms of its basic moral structure. Yet we do not really understand how it works or what it does for us. And we seek to devise policies to improve its function, yet again we do not have the knowledge to competently do so, hence we are constantly disappointed by the last round of interventions and we blame the last government for its failures and broken promises. Perhaps, as seems to have happened today (as it has in the past), the people begin to distrust all claims to expertise and seek simpler, more intuitive solutions."--gaus

Momentum in the Middle East Suicide Pact

Can Iran be protected from itself? Do the Americans have any responsibility there?

There are some questions that are obvious with the Biden/Obama approach to Iran and its search for nuclear power. One wonders why this discussion is always limited to Iran, the U.S., and Russia--aside, of course, from the obvious illogic of it? After all, there are two sides to the Middle East suicide pact and Iran is only half. The other is Israel.

Sooo, what happens when the U.S., through its irrational connection with Russia, facilitates Iran's ambitions? Does the world just write mystified editorials for a year or two and then go back to worrying about transgender sports? Or, does Israel, turning to its ferocious power and vicious single-mindedness, rise above Biden's feckless, one-world vision and just solve the problem?

Is there anyone who thinks that is an unlikely scenario?

Question 51

 

Question 51

Biden talked about a New World Order established in 1945 and that a new such order is coming again. Is that a real concept or is it just a description of the seating arrangements at UN dinners? Do we really have economic and political camps or changing groupings of nations that periodically break out in fits of genocide and those that don't?

As if inversely linked, Covid is beginning to vanish with the rise of Ukraine. A topic that dominated our lives is simply melting away.

It would be nice if Covid was not forgotten.

A demand for something to be done can morph into a demand for anything to be done. Faced with a series of supposed crises and epidemics – the binge-drinking crisis, the obesity epidemic, etc. – the government is told to take action at all costs. But taking action at all costs is a terrible way to make policy.--snowden

No state has completely deregulated car sales by allowing all manufacturers to sell all vehicles directly to customers. Faced with any move to end these anti-consumer laws and allow the market to function freely, dealerships cannot continue to plead the “mom-and-pop business” defense. “The top 10 dealership groups in America have annual revenue of around $100 billion, more than any car company...”

A forthcoming research article from the Independent Institute finds that Federal Reserve economists are increasingly driven by political activism and affiliation; they also demonstrate a growing preoccupation with politically charged topics such as climate change, discrimination, and economic inequality. These goals add more pressure on the Fed to maintain accommodative monetary policy, even as inflation spirals out of control.
Perhaps this provides another explanation for why the federal-funds interest rate is still at zero and the Fed is still engaged in quantitative easing after eleven consecutive months of the annualized CPI running above 4 percent..--salmon

U.S. stock volatility is 33 percent lower during wartime and periods of conflict. This is true even for World Wars I and II, which would seemingly increase uncertainty. In a seminal paper, Schwert (1989) identified the “war puzzle” as one of the most surprising facts from two centuries of stock volatility data. We propose an explanation for the puzzle: the profits of firms become easier to forecast during wartime due to massive government spending. We test this hypothesis using newly-constructed data on more than 100 years of defense spending. The aggregate analysis finds that defense spending reduces stock volatility. The sector level regressions show that defense spending predicts lower stock volatility for firms that produce military goods. Finally, an event-study demonstrates that earnings forecasts of defense firms by equity analysts become significantly less disperse after 9/11 and the invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003).--cortes

Opening Hearts and Minds

 

Opening Hearts and Minds

We have been trying to mainstream outliers over the last years and it must be working. Lia Thomas is winning championships. The NYT stands behind 1619. National office in America is open to anybody.

Here's one I found in USA Today.

Russian parliament member Oleg Matveychev on a TV program addressed waves of sanctions against Russia in response to the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, saying leaders should “think about reparations.”

“The harm these sanctions caused us cost money. Return of possessions, including possessions of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and even parts of Russia that are now occupied by the United States,” Matveychev said on Sunday, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

The host of the show asked Matveychev about the return of Alaska and Fort Ross, which was established by Russians in California, according to the California Department of Parks and Recreation.

“This is my next point – recognizing Alaska, Fort Ross and Antarctica,” Matveychev responded, according to the Anchorage Daily News. “We actually discovered it, so it rightfully belongs to us.”

Sunday/Accidents

Sunday/Accidents

Today Christ comments on the murder of some Jews by the Romans, on an industrial accident. (A tower falls during construction and eighteen are killed.) They did not die, he says, because of their guilt, because they possessed some moral fault.

There is plenty of that, but people are victims of evil and randomness all the time. Not everything has a spiritual meaning.

The Americans on the Phone? Don't Answer

The Americans on the Phone? Don't Answer

The Chinese Communist Party has announced that it will begin increasing domestic coal production while reducing reliance on foreign suppliers. The news comes despite President Joe Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, repeatedly begging China for the past year to join their comrades in the U.S. government in the fight against climate change and for the green energy revolution.

On Monday, Bloomberg News reported that China is looking to add to its record-setting year in 2021 in terms of coal production, by increasing production capacity by hundreds of millions of tons.

It’s hard to overstate the importance to China of coal, the most polluting fossil fuel. The nation produces and consumes more than half of global supply, and it’s the biggest contributor to its world-leading greenhouse gas emissions. China has said that coal consumption should begin to fall off in the second half of this decade as it strives to peak emissions across the economy by 2030.

In September 2021, Kerry flew to China to discuss potential deals regarding the climate. The meetings reportedly did not go so well.

Voice of America reported that Anders Corr, a longtime China observer and publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, stated that “the Taliban got a better reception” from the CCP, in reference to a delegation from the Islamic extremist group that met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing last summer.

Likewise, the CCP refused to even meet with Kerry in person and sent a low-level staffer to conduct the talks, something that Corr noted was not a sign the Chinese were taking Kerry seriously...(This is from the conservative Daily Wire)

The Saudis wouldn't take a call from Biden.

The Iranians speak with us only through the Russians.

Are you noticing a pattern here?

Does Capitalism Have a Philosophy?

Does Capitalism Have a Philosophy?

I heard an interview with a guy pushing his book on the intermingling of woke and business. I can't verify this --and I have not read the book--but these points are fascinating.

The financial advisors of BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard control investment funds amounting to about $20 Trillion. (The GDP of the U.S. in 2020 was about $20 Trillion, the debt a bit more.) These three companies, using American investor dollars, have begun to espouse positions--and make demands on companies they influence to support those positions--that look to be in opposition to the best interests of both their clients and the nation.

Climate activist hedge fund Engine No. 1 recently waged a proxy war to put insurgent directors on Exxon’s board. Reuters described it as “the first major shareholder contest to make climate change the leading issue for choosing directors.” Engine No. 1 was supported by BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street Global Advisors, which voted their combined 21% of Exxon’s shares in favor of two insurgent directors who won election to Exxon’s board. BlackRock supported a third insurgent who was also elected.

These new members demanded--and got--a decrease in oil drilling and refining--and Exxon's output dropped. The leases they surrendered were picked up by.....PetroChina. a BlackRock client.

CERAWeek

CERAWeek

In the first event of the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston Monday, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry laid out ambitious climate goals. "We have to do enough in 2020 to 2030 to be able to achieve net-zero by 2050," Kerry said, referring to a goal for the world to reach zero carbon emissions by 2050. "In order to get that zero by 2050, that's a 45% reduction in emissions in eight years." 

This governmental representative on energy and climate thinks we can change 45% of our energy sources in eight years.

Immediately following the last event of CERAWeek Friday, conference host and prolific climate writer Daniel Yergin appeared to pour cold water on the former secretary of state's plans.

"I think the word is transition, and transitions unfold over a long period of time," Yergin said in an interview with FOX Business when asked about the future of fossil fuels. "And the notion that you can get everything done in 28 years, and half of it done in eight years, you're forgetting that this is a $90 trillion world economy that gets 80% of its energy from hydrocarbons. It's not going to change overnight."

In fact, Yergin said, he investigated energy transitions in his book, "The New Map," and discovered "they unfold over a century."

The Spectrum Within Green

 

The Spectrum Within Green

An internet review by a bright guy of the Brightline rail service from Miami to West Palm Beach for $42:

"A Brightline car picked me up at my door and drove me to the station.
The airy, modern first-class* lounge was filled with snacks.
The train arrived made it to West Palm in 67 minutes, 5 minutes early.
A waiting car took me to my destination.
All that for $42. (And $42 again back home.)
Later this year the line extends to Orlando.
I assume the Brightline is losing money, but am told the real play here, for the financiers, was buying up land around the proposed stations, knowing it would become more valuable.
Whatever — the Brightline is great and will take a lot of cars off the interstate.
Green, green, green."

Clearly a great little thing. But it seems to be achievable only by a strange distortion of economics and motive.

A horse! A horse!

 

A horse! A horse!

We need a little downtime between the Covid apocalypse, the nuclear apocalypse, and the climate apocalypse.

Just a little bit of a missile attack on the U.S. embassy. Not much. We continue to seek common ground.

There is a recurring theme in political interviews, the notion that the Russians, the Iranians, and the Chinese are American "partners." If true, that makes our response to them much more complicated. And naive.

An invasive species of spider the size of a child's hand is expected to “colonize” the entire East Coast this spring by parachuting down from the sky, researchers at the University of Georgia announced last week

My favorite:
On Thursday afternoon, 30 top TikTok stars gathered on a Zoom call to receive key information about the war unfolding in Ukraine. National Security Council staffers and White House press secretary Jen Psaki briefed the influencers about the United States’ strategic goals in the region and answered questions on distributing aid to Ukrainians, working with NATO, and how the United States would react to a Russian use of nuclear weapons.

We are banning Russian dancers, conductors, and Tolstoy. Is this sort of "liberty dogs" for dachshunds? Or is this just foolish identity politics?

My second favorite: Kamala in Europe.
Is this a risk we all take in democracies? Is this an outlier? Or, the scariest, is this the norm, and are we regularly shielded from it?
Volodymyr Zelensky's former press secretary tweeted then deleted a post on Thursday saying it would be a 'tragedy' if Vice President Kamala Harris were to one day be president after she awkwardly laughed through questions at a press conference in Poland when asked about the Ukrainian refugee crisis. 'It would be a tragedy if this woman won the presidency,' Iuliia Mendel, who served Zelensky's administration from June 2019 until July 2021, wrote on Twitter before quickly deleting the post.

Sunday/Transfiguration

Sunday/Transfiguration

Today's gospel is The Transfiguration. Christ and His visitors become dazzling with an inner, radiating light. There is a revelation aspect here where Christ's human quality falls away and the divine "shines through."
We have always had great respect for light. In Genesis, right after the creation of the formless heaven and earth, light displaces the dark. Even Lucifer (appearing only once in the Old Testament) means "the morning star" or "light-bringer."
The architect Wren, on deciding to avoid stained glass windows in his churches, said ""Nothing can add beauty to light." Edison's first commercial electric light system was installed on Pearl Street in the financial district of Lower Manhattan in 1882.
Before that, the world was lit only by fire.


The World
by Henry Vaughan

I saw Eternity the other night,
Like a great ring of pure and endless light,
All calm, as it was bright;
And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,
Driv’n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow mov’d; in which the world
And all her train were hurl’d.
The doting lover in his quaintest strain
Did there complain;
Near him, his lute, his fancy, and his flights,
Wit’s sour delights,
With gloves, and knots, the silly snares of pleasure,
Yet his dear treasure
All scatter’d lay, while he his eyes did pour
Upon a flow’r.

The darksome statesman hung with weights and woe,
Like a thick midnight-fog mov’d there so slow,
He did not stay, nor go;
Condemning thoughts (like sad eclipses) scowl
Upon his soul,
And clouds of crying witnesses without
Pursued him with one shout.
Yet digg’d the mole, and lest his ways be found,
Work’d under ground,
Where he did clutch his prey; but one did see
That policy;
Churches and altars fed him; perjuries
Were gnats and flies;
It rain’d about him blood and tears, but he
Drank them as free.

The fearful miser on a heap of rust
Sate pining all his life there, did scarce trust
His own hands with the dust,
Yet would not place one piece above, but lives
In fear of thieves;
Thousands there were as frantic as himself,
And hugg’d each one his pelf;
The downright epicure plac’d heav’n in sense,
And scorn’d pretence,
While others, slipp’d into a wide excess,
Said little less;
The weaker sort slight, trivial wares enslave,
Who think them brave;
And poor despised Truth sate counting by
Their victory.

Yet some, who all this while did weep and sing,
And sing, and weep, soar’d up into the ring;
But most would use no wing.
O fools (said I) thus to prefer dark night
Before true light,
To live in grots and caves, and hate the day
Because it shews the way,
The way, which from this dead and dark abode
Leads up to God,
A way where you might tread the sun, and be
More bright than he.
But as I did their madness so discuss
One whisper’d thus,
“This ring the Bridegroom did for none provide,
But for his bride.”

Biden, Psaki, and Friedman

 

 Biden, Psaki, and Friedman

Biden and Psaki have been chanting that there is nothing holding back the oil companies from drilling on lands with 9100 permits and that there are no government pressures against such drilling. This falls far short of saying they encourage drilling but such clear mendacity is hard to take, even in American politics. Uncertainty of the regulatory atmosphere--even in this energy wartime and scarcity--will be enough to discourage production. Getting access permits, workers, supply line limits, snail darters--these are just the obvious pressures provided by people who are more devoted to a scientific theory than the nation and people they are responsible for. Here is just a hint of their hostility to domestic production:

https://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2022/01/net-zero-banking-alliance.html

This all stems from a belief of many in the government that oil is bad for us, a thesis raised by climate modeling and aggressively argued and legislated by the current party in power. I think that is a legitimate--but difficult--scientific question. My concern is that this thesis is at least debatable and, if true, has no immediate technical solution whereas the importance of our national energy integrity is immediate and has an immediate, cheap, and convenient solution.

There's a big difference between "Go ahead and drill" and "We will help you go ahead and drill." Biden may not understand that. But Psaki does. When your job requires relentless mendacity, it's time to reconsider your job.

A recent question about oil prices included this article by Friedman from the NYT:
https://www.standardspeaker.com/lies-and-gas-prices/article_43355e03-7888-5451-af4e-11f5b3b6123c.html

I think this is a bit of a straw man argument. This was my response:

I don't have much of an argument against this and Krugman is a hell of a lot smarter than I am. But this is not actually what I was saying. Of course, commodity markets are as global as allowed. And of course, there are a lot of national and international factors. But my points are these. One, inflation is a function of the availability of the commodity and the currency exchanged for it. The deficit spending and the accommodating Fed have created the setting for inflation. In fairness, there are smart people who don't believe that but I do. Increasing availability cheapens. This is not a partisan position; democrats and republicans are both guilty. Two, Obama and Biden both have an apocalyptic vision for the earth with an agent different from Sunday morning pulpit-hammering preachers but no less heartfelt. They are devoted to saving the earth from this apocalypse and want to eliminate fossil fuels to do it. “Under my plan … electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
People don't believe politicians, but I believe these guys. My concern is that I think the West has an immediate threat from predatory enemies--see Ukraine--and the safety of the West will depend, to some degree, upon the integrity of its energy supply. That will not be windmills. Now some, like Kerry, think that these military risks are less than the risk of the apocalypse--as such people will, and probably should. I don't.

We will not remember the Coronavirus in a month. But these people, guided by a model, shut down the economy of the Western world for eighteen months to save us. They are absolutely willing to do the same thing with their apocalyptic vision of the environment. My belief is that would be a humanitarian, strategic and military disaster. And they are being dishonest in their decision-making and their communication of it.

 

Good and Bad, Mostly Bad

 

Good and Bad, Mostly Bad

The Washington Examiner has a story that states Iran had a hit team try to kill John Bolton but U.S. prosecutors are not proceeding because Biden doesn't want to upset the Iran Nuclear deal. Is that possible? Can anything be believed? And can anything lead to further action?

"Now, we have a purported plot to kill a prominent American security official. So, why wouldn’t we want to help the Iranians with a program that will yield nuclear weapons in short order, and in the interim help them by lifting sanctions on their anti-American terrorism so they can subsidize more anti-American terrorism — all with the help of our other negotiating partner, Vladimir Putin?"-McCarthy from NR

MLB has canceled Rule 5 which, theoretically, helps the Pirates.

Biden has blamed Putin for the rise in oil prices. Now the price of oil was up 38% in the year before the Ukraine invasion. And other prices that Putin does not influence are up too. And there are countless examples of Biden saying, like Obama, he wants higher oil prices to encourage the movement away from petroleum. The point is, Biden may have no idea about economics but he's happy with higher oil prices.

So, let's say he's right and this is all Putin's fault. The real question then is what is the next step? The obvious problem is our shortage of gas, the obvious solution is to produce our own. Relying on people who hate us to produce dirtier gas clearly makes no sense. 

Soooo...we'll see what he says. But my bet is that, again, the citizen will be seen--and used --as fodder for some politician's higher vision.

What? Iran and world powers will pause talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal due to “external factors,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief said on Friday, after last-minute Russian demands threatened to torpedo otherwise largely completed talks.

We are at the point of having to explain Kamala Harris. And why the administration sends her places. Now she shows up in Poland to explain why the MIGs won't be sent. The Ukrainians are on pins and needles for her answer; she can't answer the question regarding the MIGs and then turns the moment into an embarrassed school girl minute. It was awful. The Americans looked amateurish and unserious. The Ukrainians must still be looking at each other, shaking their heads.

The Left must understand that their symbols are limited to self-aggrandizement, they can not go out and pretend to be anything more.

Surgeon general Vibek Murthy requested major tech platforms submit information about the prevalence and scale of COVID-19 misinformation on their sites, from social networks, search engines, crowdsourced platforms, e-commerce platforms, and instant messaging systems. He has no such authority, of course, but...

Interesting comparison between Ukraine and Finland. (Russia seems to do a lot of invading. And the Finns are tough.)

https://twitter.com/jmkorhonen/status/1498989078649389059

A piece of an interview with Russian expert Fiona Hill that appeared in Politico:
Hill spent many years studying history, and in our conversation, she repeatedly traced how long arcs and trends of European history are converging on Ukraine right now. We are already, she said, in the middle of a third World War, whether we’ve fully grasped it or not.
“Sadly, we are treading back through old historical patterns that we said that we would never permit to happen again,” Hill told me.
Those old historical patterns include Western businesses who fail to see how they help build a tyrant’s war chest, admirers enamored of an autocrat’s “strength” and politicians’ tendency to point fingers inward for political gain instead of working together for their nation’s security.
But at the same time, Hill says it’s not too late to turn Putin back, and it’s a job not just for the Ukrainians or for NATO — it’s a job that ordinary Westerners and companies can assist in important ways once they grasp what’s at stake.
“Ukraine has become the front line in a struggle, not just between democracies and autocracies but in a struggle for maintaining a rules-based system in which the things that countries want are not taken by force,” Hill said. “Every country in the world should be paying close attention to this.”
There’s lots of danger ahead, she warned. Putin is increasingly operating emotionally and likely to use all the weapons at his disposal, including nuclear ones. It’s important not to have any illusions — but equally important not to lose hope.
“Every time you think, ’No, he wouldn’t, would he?’ Well, yes, he would,” Hill said. “And he wants us to know that, of course. It’s not that we should be intimidated and scared…. We have to prepare for those contingencies and figure out what is it that we’re going to do to head them off.”

Chris Evert has called the ATP punishment of Alexander Zverev "lenient" and agreed with Serena Williams about the ‘double standard’ between men and women. He was fined along with a several months suspension.
Zverev shocked the tennis world during February’s Mexican Open in Acapulco when he repeatedly smashed his racquet against umpire Alessandro Germani’s chair and verbally abused the official.
Williams pointed out the double standard she faces and suggested she would "probably be in jail" if she lashed out like Zverev.
The 24-year-old Number 3, who has since apologized both publicly and privately to Germani, has said the controversy was the "worst moment of his life."

Oil and Theory

 

Oil and Theory

Joe Biden said yesterday that oil prices were down 14%. And, on the international front, Nancy Pelosi brought good wishes to Zelensky from Billy Jean King. We are structuring a Middle East peace program around Iran. We are taking on debt to fight inflation. These are our leaders. Parody is coming front and center.

Our management of energy in the near future will be a touchstone of the quality and honesty of the country's leadership. And maybe of the reliability of the democratic system.

We have decided not to buy Russian oil. The announcement of this completely symbolic act was done without the officials wearing vestments. We can now return to the TV non-discussion over no-fly zones.

We have turned down our energy production as we financed the Russian mugging of Ukraine through our buying Russian oil, we are negotiating--with the help of the Russians!--with Iran(!) so we can buy their oil, using the promise of financing Iran's nuclear ambitions as an eager partner of the Middle East suicide pact, and we have opened negotiations with Venezuela--Venezuela(!)--for their oil. And, of course, we rely upon the kindness of the Saudis.

None of this stands the most superficial scrutiny.

The current mantra in the White House vihara is that American use of Russian oil, however abhorrent, depends upon the tendencies and preferences of the Europeans, the EU and NATO. So, as always, the magician distracts.

The point is not the use of Russian oil. It is only 4% of our consumption. And, if we stopped it, that would make oil more available to the Europeans. The essential point is American production, not American consumption. Our own production could make our own demands independent of foreign production, a concern we have with all of our other essential products--semiconductors, rare earths, steel--whether for convenience or security. 

America's economic and military future will depend on scarcity. Only oil, seemingly, is exempt from the discussion of the importance of having domestic production as a solution to possible scarcity and security risk. 

If Trump had allowed such a vulnerability through overt policy, he would have been impeached.

Questions 50

Questions 50

The Climate Lobby continues to step over the bodies of the Ukrainian dead to get to their podium.

It will be interesting to see how the young people of the free world react to this demonstration of will and cruelty in Ukraine. The belief, or disbelief, in a threat to you, or a way of life you believe in, considerably colors your 'conceptual framework.' (60s alert!)
For example, a poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University, surveyed 1,374 adults across from March 4-6. A majority of those surveyed who identified as Republicans or independents said they would fight for their country in the case of an invasion, at 68% and 57%, respectively. Most of the adults surveyed who identified as Democrats said they would leave the country, at 52%. In total, 55% said they would stay and fight, while 38% say they would leave.

The unasked question was, where would you go?

How are Russia's enemies reacting to this military performance? And what are the Chinese thinking?

Thirty-two percent (32%) of Likely U.S. Voters think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey for the week ending March 3, 2022.
How could anybody believe that? Or does it just mean that these polls are worthless?

Leaders of Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. declined requests to speak to Biden during the Ukraine crisis, officials say. They both took calls from Putin. (according to the WSJ) Oh no, there's no reason for us to develop our own energy independence. 

And can you imagine what the press would have done if Trump had been treated like that?

The Service article that I noted yesterday showed up in the WSJ. I don't have a subscription but I must have somehow come across it there. It is unflattering though I've heard on broadcasts that he doesn't really think that NATO initiated this. Anyway, this is a link:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cause-ukraine-war-robert-service-moscow-putin-lenin-stalin-history-communism-invasion-kgb-fsb-11646413200?st=pooxwwao39oa1p1&reflink=article_email_share

The fatuous State of the Union speech should encourage a return to the original idea of sending the SOTU in a letter to Congress instead. Fight inflation by dropping prices, don't defund the police--no, wait, do defund the police, cover the cost of everyone's daycare and health care, not a word about the military or inflation (except lowering prices) or the border, condemnation from the incredibly successful and productive pharmaceutical companies, the magical and invisible threat to voting, a zillion electric charging stations that for some reason I have to pay for--an astonishing compilation of unattainable, budget-busting, inflation generating, wishes/ideas that give more power and influence to the least competent subset in the nation.
And he actually said the new spending “to fight inflation will lower your costs and lower the deficit.”

I wonder if the NYT regrets their hit piece on Zelensky. A group that did 1619?--probably not.

Prince Michael of Kent was willing to use his royal status for personal profit, and provide access to Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime, a Sunday Times report says.
The Queen's cousin was filmed at a meeting in which undercover reporters were told he could be hired to make representations to the Kremlin. (BBC)
You can always count on leaders to do the right thing.

Good of the Russians to hold off on the invasion until after the Olympics. They meet and discuss priorities. Wouldn't you love to see their hierarchy of ideals.

Public Health Scotland will stop reporting a weekly summary of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths by vaccination status due to data being “misinterpreted.”

In a controversial move Tuesday, a judge in Ottawa, Canada, denied bail for a leading organizer of the Freedom Convoy trucker protests, claiming she presents a "substantial likelihood" to "re-offend."

Some numbers: