I DON’T BLAME THEM, BUT WE COULD HAVE HAD PEOPLE ORBITING SATURN BY 1970: Scientists Bereft Over End of Cassini’s Extraordinary Mission.
Archive for 2017
October 2, 2017
ONCE AGAIN, THE HEROISM OF ORDINARY AMERICANS:
After the Las Vegas shooting, people used metal barricades and wheelbarrows to transport injured away from the scene https://t.co/syyICPtSdQ pic.twitter.com/KgvzhNL0qS
— CNN (@CNN) October 2, 2017
CLASSY: Dem rep says he won’t participate in moment of silence for Las Vegas victims.
It’s Seth Moulton, of Massachusetts.
FEMA OFFICIAL: San Juan Mayor ‘Not Participating Substantially’ With Any Efforts of FEMA Field Office.
Who’s got time for that when the cameras are rolling and there’s a false narrative to peddle?
PORTABLE GRID: Tesla is Shipping Hundreds of Powerwall Batteries to Puerto Rico.
In a continued streak of goodwill during this year’s devastating hurricane season, Tesla has been shipping hundreds of its Powerwall batteries to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Since the hurricane hit on 20 September, much of the U.S. territory has been left without power — about 97 percent, as of 27 September — hampering residents’ access to drinkable water, perishable food, and air conditioning. The island’s hospitals are struggling to keep generators running as diesel fuel dwindles.
Installed by employees in Puerto Rico, Tesla’s batteries could be paired with solar panels in order to store electricity for the territory, whose energy grid may need up to six months to be fully repaired. Several power banks have already arrived to the island, and more are en route.
The island ran up unsustainable debts while ignoring the condition of its antiquated power grid.
DEREK HUNTER: The Slow Death Of The NFL?
Since I wasn’t a rabid fan the NFL won’t really notice that I’m gone. But I’m not alone. Through my radio show, social media, and life I have heard from scores of people who are diehard fans, and they’re done too.
More importantly for the NFL and the players, they’re beyond angry. Lifelong fans feel betrayed. Anger fades with time, but the sting of betrayal lingers.
This was a foreseeable eventuality, akin to being hit by a train because you were playing on the tracks and refused to move.
The damage to the NFL began when Commissioner Roger Goodell chose to side with left-wing activists over the game in the hope of placating them and absolving himself from his failures to properly address domestic violence by some players.
Activist groups were vocal critics of slaps on the wrists for players abusing their wives or girlfriends. But left-wing activist groups don’t stop, ever. Even when something is (eventually) made right and harsher penalties were handed out. Because they can fundraise off of it and, equally as important to them, they hate professional sports.
Activist liberals always have hated sports, even when they use it. They hate competition – championing ending scorekeeping in youth sports – because there are winners and losers, and they hate meritocracy. If professional sports is anything it is a meritocracy. Only the best survive, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and all the other boxes liberals have created to divide people.
Professional sports has no time for any of that; there’s too much money in winning. And professional sports is a business.
At least it used to be.
If the NFL does die, it will die two ways: “Gradually, then suddenly.”
MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Puerto Rico has big problems, but President Trump isn’t one of them.
21st CENTURY HEADLINES: Viewers call for milk advert showing UFO with giant nipples squirting drink at children to be pixelated.
21st century milk distribution technology is not turning out as I had hoped, to paraphrase the Professor.
UPDATE (From Ed): This post was scheduled last night, before the horrific incident in Las Vegas became news. I apologize for the unfortunate timing today.
WHAT TOOK THEM SO LONG? Republican strategists have come to the unnerving conclusion that no one in their party—not even Donald Trump—has absolute influence over the unruly populist movement that swept him into office.
At this point, Conant said, no one can predict how the roiling anger in the conservative electorate will manifest itself during next year’s midterms—but it’s unlikely it will subside anytime soon. “We need to be honest about the fact that there are some powerful people inside the Republican Party who have no interest in governing,” he told me. “They’re focused like a laser on decapitating the party’s leadership, and have no interest in growing the party’s base into a lasting majority.” The resulting dysfunction, he said, will only further inflame voters’ frustrations.
The dysfunction isn’t in the base — it’s in the elected Republicans who can’t or won’t do the things they were elected to do. If the GOP leadership doesn’t want angry voters, they should stop pissing them off.
HMM: Reuters: Islamic state claims Las Vegas shooting, says attacker recent convert to Islam. Well, stay tuned.
Plus, a reminder from Rukmina Callimachi: “No, they don’t claim everything. With few exceptions, IS has shown itself to be accurate in claiming only attacks they directed/inspired” Is that true here? Like I said, stay tuned.
Related: Trump speaks on the Las Vegas massacre.
President Trump’s speech was overwhelmingly about empathy toward the victims. He doesn’t name the gunman, he calls it “an act of pure evil,” and refers to the ongoing investigation before going on to praising the first responders and then concentrating onto the victims: “We cannot fathom their pain. We cannot imagine their loss.”
At the 2 minute point, he turns to religion: “Scripture teaches us the Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. We seek comfort in those words for we know that God lives in the hearts of those who grieve.”
It’s smart that he’s not getting ahead of the news. Which is more than you can say for Hillary, who’s already blaming the NRA.
UPDATE (from Steve): Charles Cooke on Twitter:
We’re still very much in the “developing” stage of the news cycle, except of course for two-time failed presidential contenders looking for any angle back to relevance.
IN THE MAIL: From Matt Bracken, The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.
ROGER SIMON: Puerto Rico Enters the ‘Great American Victim Derby.’
Read the whole thing.
RON PAUL: ‘There’s Way Too Much Bipartisanship’ in Washington.
It’s a good rule of thumb that most any legislation with a wide appeal to members of both parties is probably a very bad idea.
THAT’S RICH: Hezbollah says Israel pushing region to war.
WHO REGULATES THE REGULATORS?: The President, as it turns out. Wayne Crews’ Red Tape Rollback Report details how the Trump Presidency has started out as the least regulatory in modern times, and just how that has been done.
SALENA ZITO: The Creators Who Also Destroy:
Twenty percent of men in this country make a good living driving and delivering people or goods from one point to another every day. Driverless cars and trucks make those men and their jobs obsolete.
The applications for 3-D printing are pretty infinite; in the YSU’s lab there were scores of examples of spare parts for machines, toys, gadgets, and larger items everywhere, all produced at the cost of traditional manufacturing. . . .
America has struggled with the impact that automation has had on our workforce since the 1920s. As our best and brightest invent new ways to expedite ‘making things,’ our best and brightest labor force has struggled to figure out where it fits in with the capabilities that match their skillsets.
We don’t have that figured out yet — but seeing young people like Juhasz passionately embrace the possibilities of marrying both — you understand quickly that the sense of commitment to community and progress does live in our nation’s youth.
It is something we should foster and tap — because automation isn’t just coming for someone else’s jobs. It is going to impact all of our jobs; from surgeons to fast-food counters to driverless, 18-wheel tractor trailers transferring commerce further south in Ohio.
And it’s hard to imagine many people are ready for the impact that is going to have on their lives and their communities; industrial revolutions create and destroy, if we are better prepared for the one we are experiencing now, our country’s temperament will stabilize.
It’s not so much the creative destruction that is toxic as it is the attitude of entitled contempt toward those whose jobs are being destroyed.
EAGLES SAFETY MALCOLM JENKINS: What protesting NFL players like me want to do next.
Finally, an answer to the question, “What are they actually protesting, anyway?”
We are fighting to end the money-bail system by investing in community bail funds and advocating legislation that does away with money bail altogether.
We are fighting to pass clean-slate legislation in Pennsylvania to seal nonviolent misdemeanor records automatically after 10 years. We must provide opportunities for employment, housing, education, loans and voting. We should not disenfranchise a third of the population.
I’ve heard people say that my colleagues and I are un-American and unpatriotic. Well, we want to make America great. We want to help make our country safe and prosperous. We want a land of justice and equality. True patriotism is loving your country and countrymen enough to want to make it better.
If I’m reading this correctly, NFL players like Jenkins are fighting to “make America great” by making more Democrat voters. An easier approach — and one that wouldn’t involve destroying an entire football league — might be to combat the socialists taking over the party and adopting a more-centrist platform with a broader appeal.
But that’s much more difficult and not nearly as media-friendly as taking a knee during the national anthem.
FLASHBACK: ISIS Video Threatens Las Vegas, San Francisco, Shows Golden Gate and Skyscraper.
The Las Vegas shooter certainly doesn’t seem to fit the ISIS profile, but it wouldn’t be too surprising if people who supposedly just “snapped” take their inspiration, such as it is, from all kinds of places.
THEY’VE NEVER EXCELLED AT THE HUMAN TOUCH: Big Tech Finds Itself Lacking Political Allies: “Our nation’s ruling tech oligarchs may be geniuses in making money through software, but they are showing themselves to be not so adept in the less quantifiable world of politics. Once the toast of the political world, the ever more economically dominant tech elite now face growing political opposition, both domestically and around the world. For its part, the right has been alienated by the tech establishment’s one-sided embrace of progressive dogma in everything from gender politics and the environment to open borders and post-nationalism. The left is also now decisively turning against tech leaders on a host of issues, from antitrust enforcement to wealth redistribution and concerns about the industry’s misogynist culture, so evident in firms such as Uber. This mounting bipartisan opposition is placing the oligarchs into an increasingly uncomfortable political vise.”