Archive for January, 2020

Climate Change is not responsible for the Australian bushfire crisis

Posted: January 9, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Almost immediately after the apocalyptic nature of the Australian bushfires became apparent claims that the infernos are either caused by, or made worse, by climate change began to fill news reports and the internet.   A large majority of the Australia bushfire stories falsely point fingers directly at climate change.  

Fortunately there are articles such as this Breitbart article Delingpole: Environmentalists Made Australia’s Bush Fires Worse which actually uses science, historic data, and real facts to determine the true cause of this catastrophe.  I highly recommend reading the original article, it is full of supporting scientific data and charts.  With this quote you can see that there was nothing extreme about the lack precipitation the area has been experiencing

As Paul Homewood pointed out last month, there has been no significant long-term decrease in rainfall or increase in temperatures in the affected regions.

Yes, it has been dry in New South Wales (where most of the worst fires are), but there have been several years, especially pre-1960, when it was drier

The same holds true for the temperature, which rules out climate change.

The same applies to temperature. Yes, this has been a hot spring in New South Wales. But there have been times when it has been much hotter — making a nonsense of all stories in the Australian media about temperatures being the hottest evah

This next quote points the blame directly where it belongs.

So, to be clear, there is zero evidence of any change in climatic conditions that might have increased the likelihood or severity of these bush fires. This is not — repeat NOT — a man-made climate change story, and anyone who claims otherwise is either a gullible idiot or a lying charlatan.

There is, nonetheless, good reason to believe that the stupidity and irresponsibility of man is at least partly to blame for this disaster — just not quite in the way that the left-liberal MSM and the green wankerati would have you believe.

Arson is the number one cause of the catastrophe.

Man-made culprit #1: all the firebugs who have been deliberately starting fires in New South Wales, Queensland, and elsewhere. You won’t be surprised that their involvement has had very little coverage in the left-liberal MSM.

Bad forest management caused by environmentalists is the number two cause.

Man-made culprit #2: well-meaning idiots who don’t understand that unless you manage forested areas with controlled burns, you’re going to end up with out-of-control wildfires.

Jo Nova has a damning story about locals in East Gippsland in the state of Victoria who successfully stopped a planned controlled burn at Nowa Nowa. Two of them were pictured holding signs saying, “Spring burns kill baby birds alive” and “Stop burning nesting birds”.

A you can see from the next three quotes, bad laws passed to solve the mythical boogie man climate change are also to blame.

Man-made culprit #3: Greens  The people most to blame for the Australian bush fires are the greens. Just like in California, their tree-hugging Gaia worship blinded them to the reality that forests need regular clearance and maintenance if they are not to become a major fire hazard.

in large parts of Australia, it remains illegal to remove trees from your land even in order to create fire breaks and protect your property — despite the obvious risk this ban creates to homeowners living in potential bush-fire zones. Trees have been designated a ‘carbon sink’, which supposedly offset Australia’s CO2 emissions.

Liam Sheahan is an Australian fireman who in 2002 was fined $50,000 – and paid another $50,000 in costs – for illegally clearing the trees round his home in rural Victoria. In 2009 he was vindicated when his property was only one left standing after bushfires destroyed his town.

This Breitbart article Police in Australia Begin Massive Criminal Investigation into Bushfire Arson documents just how large a role arson has played in causing the catastrophe

The Conversation reports experts estimate about 85 percent of bushfires are caused by humans. A person may accidentally or carelessly start a fire, such as leaving a campfire unattended or using machinery which creates sparks.

Research has shown about 8 percent of officially recorded vegetation fires were attributed to malicious lighting, and another 22 percent as suspicious. However, about 40 percent of officially recorded vegetation fires did not have an assigned cause.

When unassigned bushfires were investigated by fire investigators, the majority were found to be maliciously lit

Quaint things: Covington Toobin, Erickson, Gabbard, and the California Press Under the Fedora

Posted: January 9, 2020 by datechguy in education, News/opinion, politics
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A couple of nights ago the word came that CNN has just made a settlement with the Covington High School Kids that they painted as a bunch of racists on the network. Fortunately for the MSM the Iran “attack” gave them a reason to ignore it.

Alas for Resa Aslin the MSM pretending it didn’t happen didn’t keep things from moving along as he, along with several “friends” were now served with suits as well.

The real comedy? It was only then after it cost CNN eight figures and he was served that he deleted his tweet from a year ago suggesting the joy that would come from assaulting a young man who did nothing wrong, as it a year later it would make things all OK.

How Quaint

One of the things that makes both nostalgia and children so quaint is are the innocent assumptions involved here are a few examples:

Jeffrey Toobin in Impeachment:

The House inexplicably refused to seek to compel key impeachment witnesses in court, burning months in which it could have secured not just key decisions in its favor but actual testimony. Indeed, a year ago, I appeared before the Judiciary Committee and encouraged it not only to hold a vote on impeachment but to go to court to force the testimony of figures such as former White House counsel Don McGahn. While refusing to trigger its impeachment powers with such a vote, it did take McGahn to court. It won that case shortly before its impeachment vote. The case will be heard by the appellate court this week, even without being expedited for the impeachment investigation.

When faced with the embarrassing timing of the McGahn ruling after the hurried impeachment vote, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff insisted there was no time to waste in getting the case to the Senate and that “it has taken us eight months to get a lower court ruling” to compel McGahn to testify. He was wrong on both points. After key members claimed there was a “crime spree in progress” and no time to delay a Senate trial, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately blocked any submission to the Senate to demand the witnesses that the House unwisely omitted in its investigation. It seems time is no longer of the essence.

How quaint of Toobin to think that the point of impeachment was to secure a conviction rather than to appease a base for political reasons.

Our next contestant in our quaint exercise in innocence comes from Erick Erickson who is responding to those who ridiculed the VP for pointing out Iran’s & Soleimani 9/11 connection:

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Mr. Erickson is sincere in being offended which is in a sense so cute, as if in 2020 and the years prior the foes of this administration actually still considered obtaining facts and evidence over the possibility of scoring a political point over a hated foe, when in reality as John Adams reminded a young journalist over 200 years earlier that this has ever been the norm.

I really laughed when I saw this one from the Tulsi Gabbard campaign

Just when you thought that Democrats couldn’t possibly play it any dirtier they prove that they are, in fact, capable of just that. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the so-called progressive left is really labeling their fellow party members Russian stooges… and that’s only because those fellow Democrats have the audacity to disagree with the foreign policy establishment. “Roving journalist” Michael Tracey reports on Twitter that Tulsi Gabbard volunteers claim they have found “dozens of signs around New Hampshire defaced with a hammer-and-sickle logo.”

Here is a twitter image

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Is there anything more quaint than the idea that there is still at least one Democrat candidate who thinks being associated with the hammer & sickle might be considered an insult to them. I suppose it’s a mark in Gabbard’s favor that she doesn’t want to be associated with the murderous philosophy responsible for the murder of over 100 million people in the previous century and the enslavement of millions more.

But how naive can one be to think that when running for the Democrat nomination for president in the Year of Our Lord 2020 that there is the slightest possibility that an association with communism would not be considered a great incentive for the current party base to pledge their undying support.

One of the things about the far left is that when you give them power they invariably take it regardless of what you think. Nothing is more illustrative of this than this story out of California:

I’m not sure how I feel about this,” said anchor Jessica Holmes to her co-anchors. “You’re not going to be allowed to shower and do a load of laundry in the same day.”

While that may sound insane, what California Attorney Richard Lee breaks down the hypothetical figures.

“Doing a load of laundry takes about 40 to 50 gallons of water. Taking a shower for about eight minutes uses about 17 gallons of water. Well, there’s a limitation of your daily use of water, 55 gallons per day. So that means if you’re taking a shower and doing a load of laundry, you can’t do both without being in violation of the law.”

How quaint. the News media have been an ally of the left forever and now they are finally discovering that this left isn’t just interested in turning places like Venezuelan into 3rd world hellholes they are interested in importing third world conditions, complete with blackouts and water shortages to America so that folks coming from the 3rd world can feel right at home.

Oh and a note to KTLA, taking down the video doesn’t end the law.

100 Word Fan Fiction “A Drop of Paint”

Posted: January 8, 2020 by datechguy in fun
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“Such poor copies und in wasser too.” The Gestapo man shook his head, “An establishment like yours should do better Herr Maverick.”

The elderly gambler smiled “Herr Hess solders come for the gambling & the ladies, not portraits, besides if they were too good Marshall Goering might whisk them away for his collection!”

Heis refilled his glass laughing at the quip. Maverick nodded, displaying a poker face with sixty years of practice, betraying neither knowledge of the German’s mission nor that only a thin layer of watercolor separated Heis from completing his task to recover what Goering had rightfully stolen.

Previously:

Three Trump Choices to Respond to the Iranian “attack”

Posted: January 8, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, media, middle east
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Last night twitter was all abuzz about the Iranian attack on our bases. All kinds of reports were flying hither and non but after a short period of time it became clear that what we were seeing was a giant propaganda exercise where Iran launched about 15 missiles with more than 20% of em blowing up on the way and then hit large US bases without managing to harm any Americans.

This not withstanding they put out a bunch of photos from previous events pretending that they were from tonight, and plenty of video and news of a great Iranian victory which our Trump hating media lapped up while loudly proclaiming that if we left them alone from this point on they’d leave us alone.

As can be expected the Iranians are talking big. I rephrased the statement of the Iranian diplomats thus:

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Or as Kurt Schlichter put it:

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There might be an explanation for this bad bit of aim.

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If this is true than despite the breathless (and disgraceful) cheerleading for Iran by the American left and the media this might in fact be an Iranian peace feeler in the sense that they can tell their own people they won a great victory while backing down thus saving face, it doesn’t have to be true (for example Egypt still pretends they beat Israel in 1973) and their own people don’t have to believe it but they can pretend that they do. A very Arabian cultural solution keeping their pride while letting the US know they have backed down.

But regardless the President had three options at this point all of which I’m willing to support.

Option #1 Point and Laugh

Option one is to point out that if this is the best the Iranians can do it’s a giant joke and a sign that they are not a threat. He could even confirm the above possibility I just mentioned pooh pooing Iran’s claims as face saving drivel. He can back up his claim by the ineffectiveness of the Iranian action and say his base warning still stands. A few mega hawks will be disappointed and the left that was so worried about escalation will call him cowardly and of course he loses the change to completely erase the Iranian threat but he would avoid a war he doesn’t want plus in the end all the bluster and propaganda won’t bring General jigsaw back together again.

The bad part about this plan it is doesn’t put a further crimp in Iranian plans and the government could just wait for a Democrat to be elected before they start killing Americans again.

Option 2: Tat Tat Tat for Tit

Because the President promised a disproportionate response to any attack instead of laughing at the Iranians he could take several options that are damaging but not mega lethal. This would be within his MO because he doesn’t seem to want to respond to a non-lethal attack with a lethal one. He could take out several oil rigs, blow up some parked jets or even hit a refinery although that would likely risk civilian lives.

He could even seize an Iranian flagged ship, capture the crew paddle and release them (fun but risky).

All of these things have the advantage of being bigger than the attack, particularly in terms of how it would hurt Iran without being lethal and it would once again put Iran on the spot forcing them to either publicly submit which they really don’t want to do or go to a non asymmetrical war which they want to do even less.

The bad side of course is keeps the risk of a larger war on the table that he doesn’t want and of course it’s a half measure which tends to increase uncertainty. While uncertainly in Iran is to our advantage, uncertainty at home is less so, plus we don’t know how Europe or our enemies will react.

Option 3 52 putdown

This option is to treat this as a full fledged attack and to respond with the promised overwhelming force, destroy their navy, destroy their airforce, destroy their refineries and generally leave the country a wreck.

If the Iranians had managed an actual attack that killed someone this would in fact be the only option on the table.

The advantage of course is to clean up the trash that should have been cleaned up four decades ago and crush the power of the terror state to the point where revolution will almost certainly succeed. Frankly this should have been done in 1979 and if it had been a lot of the problems of the last 40 years would not be. Furthermore the lack of Iranian support would crumble terror networks all over the world and would put a lot of bad guys on notice that from this day on, none of them is safe.

While those a big rewards this option also comes with the biggest risks.

  1. If Iran falls we don’t know what will actually replace it. It could become a Persian Libya.
  2. Such a move would almost certainly cause attacks from any sleepers they have here (which might actually be good in the sense better to root them out when they’re not ready vs letting them plan) and cause some terror attacks in the middle east and possibly Europe.
  3. Russia & China with Iran neutralized will have to find a new proxy to counter us which could get really interesting.
  4. While we don’t need Iranian oil the flow stopping will make Europe more dependent on Russian energy
  5. Once the threat of Iran is gone the incentive for the Arabs who were scared of them to make nice with us and Israel goes with it
  6. It’s the equivalent of blowing up your neighbor’s building for trying to step on your toe and missing.
  7. The MSM will blow out of proportion the small amount of naval & air casualties that such a move would cost.

Biggest risks, biggest rewards

Given what we’ve seen from the deep state I hesitate to give a lot of credit to the Government however I do presume they know more about this than me and from what I’ve seen from Donald Trump I trust him to make the right choice from this list (or a different one that I haven’t thought of) based on what he considers in the best interest for the country given the realities on the ground.

The only think we really know for sure is that whatever the President does the Media will denounce him for it as either a failure, a coward, a warmonger or a butcher under the overriding principle of Orange man bad.

That’s why they can be safely ignored.

Update: Always trust the opinions of an Elder who has experience:

Still, at this time, it looks like Trump let Iran know that they can no longer assume that they can act with impunity in the Middle East, and Iran blinked – hard.

The honor/shame culture is what runs the Middle East. To Muslims in the region, appearances are more important than facts. It appears that at least some people in this much-derided administration understood that and the response was calibrated to allow Iran to maintain its honor.

All the while, in the reality based world, the US has won this skirmish hands-down. Iran’s major architect of terror is gone and Iran is backing down. The US has shown the Iranian leaders that direct conflict would be a very, very foolhardy move.

Again keeping in mind that it is too early to say for sure, but so far it looks like the “experts” and fearmongers have been wrong, and the White House has achieved an unqualified victory that not only hurt Iran because of their loss of Soleimani, but also has forced them to re-think all of their offensive moves in the Middle East for the foreseeable future.

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