GO GREEN! Largest EV Charging Station In World Powered By Diesel-Powered Generators. “The Harris Ranch Tesla Supercharger station is an impressive beast. With 98 charging bays, the facility in Coalinga, California, is the largest charging station in the world. But to provide that kind of power takes something solar can’t provide — diesel generators.”
I saw screenshots of this story floating around and wondered if it was real. It is.
WELL, OUR EXPERT CLASS FAILED AT THAT MISERABLY:
Overall, a clear pattern emerges: a marked and fairly widespread decline of public confidence in science since the pandemic. While, historically, Americans’ confidence in science has remained high relative to confidence in other institutions, this gap now appears to be narrowing.
The pandemic surely played a role, especially controversial policies such as school closures and masking young children. There’s little doubt the conduct of scientific, political and media elites contributed as well — from policy mistakes like the botched rollout of diagnostic tests to mixed and misleading messaging on masking to the dishonesty of politicians who failed to follow their own rules to efforts within government, the media and the scientific community to suppress dissent.
The English sociologist Anthony Giddens once observed that modern societies are uniquely dependent on trust, particularly trust in what he termed “abstract systems.” Members of smaller traditional societies are embedded in face-to-face relationships with neighbors, friends and family members. By contrast, we are dependent on a vast array of interconnected social institutions, especially expert institutions, which involve “faceless commitments” to those we do not (and usually cannot) know personally.
It is characteristic of these abstract systems that we cannot opt out, at least not entirely. Sustaining trust in them therefore becomes a basic requirement for the functioning of modern societies. Essential to this process is what Mr. Giddens calls “access points”: interactions between lay citizens and individual members (or representatives) of abstract systems; think of experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci or even your family physician.
Such interactions provide opportunities for experts vested with authority not only to exemplify the requisite skills but also to exhibit the character traits — rectitude, professionalism, disinterestedness — needed to generate and sustain the trust of those lay individuals who depend on them. If your doctors lie to you or put their financial interests ahead of yours, you will probably stop trusting them. If their behavior appears egregious enough, it might shake your confidence in the entire medical establishment. Access points are where trust is established and sustained or broken and lost; they are vulnerabilities in abstract systems.
The Covid-19 crisis simultaneously laid bare our dependence on abstract systems and shook many Americans’ confidence in them. From this point of view, expert institutions lost the public’s trust not only because of unpopular policies but also because prominent representatives of these institutions either were or were perceived as being self-interested rather than disinterested, politically motivated rather than dispassionate.
Do tell.
ROGER KIMBALL: What hath Matt Gaetz wrought by tipping over the House apple cart?
What’s worse than chaos? How about a power vacuum? All the beautiful people are bewailing the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House yesterday because it is supposedly “thrusting the House into chaos.”
Right on cue we have the New York Times skirling that “Far-Right GOP Faction Throws House Into Chaos.” Cant watchers: notice the deployment of the term “far-right” as an intensifier. Not only chaos but chaos from a source the Times can get away with castigating as far right. (Extra credit: would the Times describe a dramatic action by the Squad as “far left”? If not, why not?)On November 2, 1963, a CIA-instigated coup sparked the assassination of Vietnam president Ngô Đình Diệm. The trouble was, they had no one with whom to replace Diem. The results were not edifying.
How about Matt Gaetz and his seven Republicans who joined with 208 Democrats to vote to vacate the speakership? It was an unprecedented action. Never before had the Speakership been vacated by vote (though there have been a few attempts). Have they a successor in mind? House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is said to be angling for the job — and good on him if he succeeds.
If we’re talking about chaos, however, my favorite candidates whose names have been mentioned so far are Donald Trump and former House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes. One needn’t be a representative to qualify for the job, and the ensuing spectacle should either be tapped would certainly be entertaining.
But let’s leave that delicious if improbable fantasy to one side. What hath Matt Gaetz wrought by tipping over the apple cart of House “leadership” and “stability?” His chief complaints were that McCarthy was making “secret side deals” with the Biden administration to fund the Ukrainian war and, more generally, that McCarthy perpetuated an irresponsible funding regime whereby the House conducted its business by “omnibus” continuing resolutions rather than formulating a budget in which legislators could say yea or nay to specific line items. (Fun fact, Congress hasn’t passed a budget in twenty-seven years.)
I think there is a lot to what Gaetz had to say.
Yes, the specifics of his complaints against McCarthy are getting little play, which tells you something.
THIS MIGHT MATTER, IF THE LAW MATTERED ANYMORE. Can a Marylander be the Senator from California? Why Article I’s residence requirement applies to appointees.
DEAL OF THE DAY: Jabra Elite 7 Active True Wireless— Bluetooth Sports Earbuds. #CommissionEarned
HOW’S THAT SPACE PROGRAM COMING ALONG? A Massive Asteroid Just Shot Past Earth. The Next One Is Only Days Away.
THERE THEY GO, AGAIN: How many times in the past have the Republicans snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory? Issues & Insights sees it happening yet again.
READER FAVORITE: Gravity Electric Salt and Pepper Grinder Set. #CommissionEarned
I HAVE A REMINDER SET TO PUT MY PHONE IN AIRPLANE MODE FIVE MINUTES PRIOR: Be Ready For Today’s Emergency Broadcast Test.
IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH THE COMPANY HAS TURNED INTO A PROPAGANDA OUTFIT: You Won’t Believe How Much LGBTQ Content Disney Produced Last Year.
THIS WILL SURPRISE NOBODY:
“This chaos is the result of Democrat-led Soft on Crime policies, no different than their Open Border debacle,” Rep. Burgess Owens said. The chickens may have come home to roost, but will it sway public policymakers’ minds?”
Violent boomerang: Liberals victimized by crime policies they advocated.
You get what you vote for.
THEY SHOULD CAP STUDENT LOANS: “The department’s transparency measures will apply to all programs in all sectors—a shift from previous accountability efforts, which largely focused on for-profit colleges.”
There’s no reason to single out for-profits.
AND ANOTHER ONE:
NEWS — HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP has kicked @RepStenyHoyer out of his Capitol hideaway.
Republicans — McCarthy — are taking revenge for Democrats voting with @mattgaetz to boot @SpeakerMcCarthy from the speakership.
Expect more of this, GOP sources tell us.
Me and…
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 4, 2023
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Plus: “A bipartisan majority decided enough was enough with McCarthy who had promised to allow congressmen to read an appropriations bill and wait 72 hours before holding a vote. He broke that promise this weekend. Matt Gaetz moved to remove him. Gaetz and 7 other Republicans joined 208 Democrats to vote McCarthy out. This is a payback. McCarthy and his loyalists joined Democrats to pass the Democrat budget. Gaetz used Democrats to oust McCarthy. Democrats wisely go by the Benedict Arnold Rule: never trust a turncoat.”
Plus, a Surber riposte to Newt Gingrich:
He wrote, “But Gaetz has gone beyond regular drama. He is destroying the House GOP’s ability to govern and draw a sharp contrast with the policy disasters of the Biden administration.”
House Republicans’ ability to govern? Does he mean the losers who wasted two years of power by not lifting a finger to Build The Wall? What is the sharp contrast with Biden’s open borders disaster? House Republicans made Biden’s policy possible.
House Republicans’ ability to govern? Does he mean the losers who wasted two months defending Liz Cheney when she gave Nancy Pelosi cover for that January 6 witch hunt?
House Republicans’ ability to govern? Does he mean the losers who sit on the sidelines while Democrats railroad President Trump with frivolous lawsuits and indictments meant to bankrupt him in legal fees?
I will care about House Republicans when they start caring about me.
Don’t be shy, Don. Say what you think.
Related:
Interim Speaker Patrick McHenry agressively slams the gavel as he and 200+ other Republicans fume over Kevin McCarthy's ousting.
Where was this anger as millions of migrants poured over the southern border?
Where was this anger as US debt rises over $33T?
Where was this anger… pic.twitter.com/ewW2nvroZN
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 3, 2023
All that said, though, I don’t think Gaetz had a clear plan for what comes next.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Please Welcome to the Main Stage—YOUR Republican Dumpster Fire! “McCarthy failed to learn Rule #1: Don’t trust the Democrats. He knew that if he brokered a deal for a temporary funding bill that Matt Gaetz would come after him. McCarthy apparently thought that some of his new Democrat friends from the stopgap resolution would vote to table Gaetz’s motion to vacate.”
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: What is Google hiding in its unprecedentedly secret antitrust trial? “If they don’t want you to know things, it’s likely those things don’t make them look good.”
A RARE MOMENT OF A REPUBLICAN PLAYING HARDBALL: Nancy Pelosi Ordered to Vacate Her Office by New Acting Speaker, and the Tears Start Immediately. “Democrats play for keeps, and the only way to respond to their ruthlessness is with ruthlessness. The band-aid was ripped off in a variety of ways with McCarthy’s ouster. Going forward, there should be no presumption that the opposition party won’t get involved in the majority’s fight over who will be Speaker. Pelosi wanted to cause chaos and chaos she should receive. That starts with making her staffers haul her big screen TV and the rest of her belongings out of her prestigious office.”
THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL: High-Level Iranian Spy Ring Busted in Washington.
The Biden administration’s now-suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley helped to fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments, according to a trove of purloined Iranian government emails. The emails, which were reported on by veteran Wall Street Journal correspondent Jay Solomon, writing in Semafor, and by Iran International, the London-based émigré opposition outlet which is the most widely read independent news source inside Iran, were published last week after being extensively verified over a period of several months by the two outlets. They showed that Malley had helped to infiltrate an Iranian agent of influence named Ariane Tabatabai into some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government—first at the State Department and now the Pentagon, where she has been serving as chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, Christopher Maier.
More:
The contents of the emails are damning, showing a group of Iranian American academics being recruited by the Iranian regime, meeting together in foreign countries to receive instructions from top regime officials, and pledging their personal loyalty to the regime. They also show how these operatives used their Iranian heritage and Western academic positions to influence U.S. policy toward Iran, first as outside “experts” and then from high-level U.S. government posts. Both inside and outside of government, the efforts of members of this circle were repeatedly supported and advanced by Malley, who served as the U.S. government’s chief interlocutor with Iran under both the Obama and the Biden administrations.
Whatever intel Iran was able to gain aside, the irony is that Tehran hardly needed to engage in any subterfuge to gain more favorable treatment from either Obama or Biden.
But do read the whole thing for all the damning details.
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: McCarthy’s sitdown with Jewish leaders was ‘waste of time’, says Congressional candidate.
Many responses to the tweet indicated offense taken, “A man who wants to represent these Jews in the United States Congress is insulting them instead of seeking their vote,” said Superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District Joel M. Petlin. “Congratulations to @MondaireJones on finding the most Antisemitic way to celebrate the defeat of #SpeakerMcCarthy”
However, it appears that the intended message behind Jone’s post may have been lost, as the congressional candidate later retweeted “Kevin McCarthy has repeatedly wasted the time of Hasidic leaders in the Lower Hudson Valley. He has never delivered for communities in Rockland and will continue to fail to deliver for Rocklanders because he’s no longer Speaker.”
We don’t have any word yet if he blamed the first tweet on his comms shop, but Jones’ followed up with this to remind everyone that no, really, he’s no anti-Semite, honest!
THE ENEMY WITHIN: Biden Iran envoy key member of Iranian government spy ring/influence operation. “Well, this explains a lot. The Obama and now Biden Iran policies have never made much sense to me. Iran is the avowed enemy of our allies and partners in the Middle East region, but for some reason, the Obama and Biden Administrations have spent enormous efforts appeasing Iran at the same time that they have been increasingly hostile to countries that have allied themselves with us. A new revelation that first popped up on Semaphor, written by two Wall Street Journal reporters, sheds some light on who was driving US policies toward Iran, and the news isn’t good.”
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