CRIME AND (LACK OF) PUNISHMENT: Portland Antifa rioter charged with assaulting police has case dismissed after 30 hours community service.
Archive for 2021
December 30, 2021
CRISES BY DESIGN: Killing Keystone XL: How Biden Destroyed American Energy Independence.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden revoked the Keystone XL pipeline permit via Executive Order 13990.
With the stroke of a pen, Biden canceled a project that would have boosted U.S. gross domestic product by more than $3 billion, carried 830,000 barrels of oil daily from Canada to the United States, and directly and indirectly provided up to 26,000 jobs—11,000 of which were instantly lost.
Climate czar John Kerry lent a sympathetic voice to the plight of the newly laid-off workers: “Go to work to make the solar panels.”
Then-President Donald Trump had greenlit the project in 2017, after years of delay from the Obama administration.
Though the Keystone XL pipeline project received a favorable environmental review from the U.S. State Department, and construction had already started (crossing the Canadian-U.S border), the Biden administration bowed to radical environmentalists and the “religion” of climate change, leaving hardworking Americans in the cold.
Oil is the lifeblood of our economy and critical to our energy security, but the personal toll may be the highest cost of all: livelihoods, hopes, and dreams dashed in an instant.
Philip, South Dakota, is one of the many towns that the Keystone XL pipeline construction passed through. With the construction came construction crews, and entrepreneurs who provided both the workers and the pipeline project the services they needed—from pipe storage to places to live, eat, and work out. All of it is now extinguished.
“When they came in with a stroke of the pen, everybody was upset. That’s an understatement,” says Jeff Birkeland, chief executive of West Central Electric, which would have served pump stations across the Keystone XL route.
Earlier: “We’re going to keep at it to ensure the American people are paying their fair share for gas,” is the perfect Kinsley Gaffe for an Obama administration retread like Biden: As Steven Chu, Obama’s then-incoming energy secretary, told the Wall Street Journal in the fall of 2008: “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”
So is it fair to ask if Biden is on the payroll of Putin? As Walter Russell Mead wrote in 2017:
If Trump were the Manchurian candidate that people keep wanting to believe that he is, here are some of the things he’d be doing:
Limiting fracking as much as he possibly could
Blocking oil and gas pipelines
Opening negotiations for major nuclear arms reductions
Cutting U.S. military spending
Trying to tamp down tensions with Russia’s ally Iran.
“Yep,” Glenn added in late 2019. “You know who did do these things? Obama. You know who supports these things now? Democrats.”
Related: Biden tormented by Republican guerrilla campaign and ‘I did it’ stickers.
Also: 100Pcs I Did That Biden Funny Car Stickers. #Resist #CommissionEarned
Seen in Cleburne, TX, Christmas Eve:
TEN YEARS LATER: Two Hundred Years Early: Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011.
THE LEFT’S DEMAND FOR HATE IN AMERICA VASTLY EXCEEDS THE SUPPLY: Yet Another Hate Crime Hoax, This Time in Maryland.
NO, IT REALLY ISN’T: 2022’s hottest trend is buying a better face mask.
SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST: Foresthill CA residents, travelers rely on community as storm issues persist. “The record-breaking storm is dumping snow in lower elevations and leaving many in the dark. PG&E crews are working to restore power in Foresthill. Meanwhile, residents are using machines and manpower to clear feet of snow. Dave Tachera said he couldn’t use a snow blower because all the snow that fell from his roof is too compact. His home that has been there since the 1880s is buried, and it’s not easy work changing that. At Foresthill Veterans Memorial Hall, a room became a charging station for electronics and a place to stay warm for residents.”
(Classical reference in headline.)
LAWS ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Education Department illegally stonewalls College Fix request about ‘Free Speech Hotline’: legal expert.
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Rep. Josh Gottheimer says progressive protesters shouted ‘Jew’ at NJ event.
VICTORIA TAFT: Washington State Democrats Want Decreased Penalties for Drive-By Shooters Because… Aw, You Guessed. “There’s woke and then there’s just plain stupid. Washington state Democrats are vying to become the best stupid they can be, bless ’em.”
DEAL OF THE DAY: livho 2 Pack Blue Light Blocking Glasses. #CommissionEarned
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Professor says John Madden built a ‘digital plantation’ only hours after coach’s death.
BEST COVID QUESTION EVER: Christopher Bedford asks it at The Federalist and his answer holds the key to ending the “New Normal” of Covid Mandates/Dr.FaucChi/Where’s Your Mask?
Bedford observes:
“It’s like we’re not experiencing this bug ourselves; like we’re incapable of observing it in our friends and families, and seeing what it does. It’s like we trust the ‘experts’ more than we trust ourselves; damn our eyes.
“But if we dare take a step back and process the very thing we’re told we’re living through, we might recognize – more than ever – the increasingly obvious truth that COVID is a construct: a word we’ve been trained to fear more than the disease itself.”
CHANGE: NC education superintendent to roll out new parent council in 2022:
N.C. State Superintendent Catherine Truitt tells North State Journal she has plans to establish a new parent council in 2022.
“What we’ve seen happen with school boards and parents these past few months reminded me of something that I ran on — and that is the importance of parent voice,” said Truitt.
“When I declared my candidacy, there were no Critical Race Theory debates, and there was no pandemic, and what I spoke about often on the campaign trail was the need for K-12 education leaders to see parents as consumers,” Truitt said.
“And in my support of school choice in all of its forms, I have frequently said that the parent is the best person to decide what’s right for their child’s education and that no one cares more about that child than that child’s parents or guardians,” said Truitt. “And to that end, I will, in the New Year, be announcing the formation of a new parent council.”
Related: Karol Markowicz: Three ways parents can keep fighting the good fight in 2022.
COLORADO: Denver, neighboring counties, extend mask mandates. “On Tuesday, Denver, along with Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield and Jefferson counties, announced it is extending these mandates as cases of COVID-19 are rising amid the spread of the new omicron variant.”
But the science! CNN Finally Admits Cloth Masks Don’t Stop COVID (But Nobody Told Biden).
UH, GOOD? SpaceX’s Starlink Satellites Are Getting On China’s Nerves.
I think China just figured out that, without even trying, Elon Musk has become the dominant military power in space, with thousands of satellites that can be steered to collide with anything else in low earth orbit . . .
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Donald Trump Is 2021’s Man of the Year. “Another great accomplishment of Trump’s this past year was the way he kept the Democrats obsessed with him. They weren’t going to have much of a game with the babbling fool Biden in office but what little chance they had for success was completely undone by the fact that they couldn’t stop thinking about Donald Trump.”
BRILLIANT SCIENTIST, PROLIFIC INVENTOR, THRIVING ENTREPRENEUR: But, as admirable as are those three characteristics of Dr. James Tour of Rice University, there is something else, something totally unexpected, that marks him as someone uniquely worth listening to. Check it out here on HillFaith today.
AMERICA’S FIRST ROMAN CATHOLIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: On this day in 1873, Al Smith was born in a tenement on New York’s Lower East Side. His father was Italian American and his mother Irish American. The name “Smith” was an English translation of his immigrant grandfather’s surname “Ferraro.”
Smith’s father—a truck driver—died when Smith was about six years old. His widowed and impoverished mother did what widowed and impoverished mothers often did in those days: She opened a candy store. Out of that, she managed to eke out a living for herself and her children.
Smith was a proud graduate of Groton and of Harvard. No, wait … I just wanted to make sure you were paying attention. Smith attended local parochial schools until he was about 13. After that, it was the School of Hard Knocks. The story is told that while Smith was serving in the New York Legislature, a member rose to announce that his alma mater, Cornell, has just won some sporting event. That started other members to rise to announce and praise their alma mater. When it got to Smith, he declared:
“I am a graduate of F.F.M.”
“What college is that?”
“Fulton Fish Market.”
And it was true. At the age that wealthy young men were attending college, Smith had been working 12-hour shifts at the fish market, starting at 4:00 a.m. each morning.
Smith’s strong work ethic, attention to detail, sense of humor and (perhaps most important) his reputation for candor, all helped propel him into the New York Governor’s mansion.
But those qualities weren’t enough to defeat Herbert Hoover for the Presidency in 1928. As the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee, Smith carried only Alabama,
ANALYSIS: TRUE.
Or perhaps we should say that, as with a trial, the burden of proof is on the government.
IT’S NOT NOBLE, IT’S JUST A LIE:
LET OMICRON SPELL THE END OF THE PANDEMIC—AND THE COVID SHAMING:
“As an ultra-cautious, triple vaccinated, always-masker I was shocked and very afraid,” another tweeted. “To my surprise, I also felt ashamed. And embarrassed. How could *I* have let this happen? How could *I* have put my family at risk?”
These people want you to know they are the “good” Americans, those who wear two or three masks, didn’t see family, travel or socialize for two years, and didn’t leave their houses. “We did everything right,” followed all the rules, and still got it!
It’s the new confessional, not Catholic but COVID. “Forgive me, Dr. Fauci, for I have sinned,” they cry out. And it’s not just individual citizens that are posting their COVID Confessions. It’s politicians and public health officials, journalists and other public figures. And it’s really weird.
These tweets and the culture they emerged from betray the truth about much of the “fight” against COVID that liberals seem unable to let go of, even when the virus comes for them. Rather than admit that a virus doesn’t care about your virtue, they experience getting infected with COVID as shameful—because they wanted others to feel shame.
Note the notifications of deaths, either “with” or “from” COVID, that dutifully include an announcement of the deceased’s vaccination status. Is this to avoid ghoulish trolls mocking those who chose not to, or could not take the vaccine? Or public proof that the deceased did the “right” thing and was therefore a moral person and not to blame for their own demise?
Since when in human history has someone’s vaccination status ever been included in an obituary? These obligatory COVID/Vaccine Acknowledgement Statements are like some kind of new Land Acknowledgements for the COVID Zero faithful. If only blue state liberals could acknowledge the truth: that no one should feel guilt or shame for getting a highly infectious disease.
After all, we don’t shame people for getting chickenpox or seasonal influenza or any number of other highly contagious respiratory viruses or diseases. It’s something many liberals actually know in other contexts; they would never shame someone for getting an illness that is even related to their behavior, like obesity, alcoholism and some forms of diabetes. Why is this a thing with COVID?
Reason’s Matt Welch has the answer to that question: RIP, ‘Pandemic of the Unvaccinated.’
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Elon Musk says SpaceX will land humans on Mars within five to 10 years.
A major determining factor in getting humans to Mars is engineering the vehicle that’ll take astronauts there. “Starship is the most complex and advanced rocket that’s ever been made,” Musk said. The SpaceX CEO added that the fundamental optimization of Starship is minimizing the cost per ton to orbit and ultimately, the cost per ton to the surface of Mars.
Right now, Musk said, money is the limiting factor. “You couldn’t fly to Mars for a trillion dollars. No amount of money could get you a ticket to Mars,” he said.
Starship is supposed to radically change the affordability part of the equation by eventually creating “the ability to deliver ~100 T of cargo to any planetary surface in the solar system for as little as $50m including refilling tanker flights.”