POWER CORRUPTS: “I Represent Science.” Anthony Fauci’s autobiography unwittingly reveals his transformation from an open-minded scientist to an imperious, unaccountable public-health bureaucrat. As James Meigs concludes in his review of Fauci’s memoir: “No federal official should have so much power, with so little accountability, for so long.”
Archive for 2024
July 17, 2024
HARD TO WATCH: Biden Suffers Multiple Glitches in Nevada Campaign Swing.
I REMEMBER WHEN HIGHER EDUCATION WAS SUPPOSED TO MAKE PEOPLE MORE UNDERSTANDING AND COOPERATIVE AND REASONABLE: Canadian professor laments Trump’s survival of assassination attempt: ‘Damn, so close. Too bad.’
IT USUALLY IS: The Offshore Wind Energy Scandal Is Even Worse Than You Think.
The moves by BP and Shell are only the latest examples of the troubles facing the offshore wind sector, which has been foundering on the shoals of higher interest rates, citizen opposition, and ballooning costs. Over the past year, numerous projects on the Eastern Seaboard, including Skipjack Wind in Maryland, Park City Wind in Connecticut, and South Coast Wind in Massachusetts, have been canceled due to bad economics. In all, according to data compiled by Ed O’Donnell, a nuclear engineer and a principal at New Jersey-based Whitestrand Consulting, about 14,700 megawatts of offshore wind capacity has been canceled. For comparison, about 15,500 megawatts of capacity is now in development, under construction, or operational.
Of course, those figures don’t jibe with the tsunami of hype about offshore wind energy that has appeared in major media outlets. But the hard reality is that America’s offshore wind sector is a subsidy-dependent industry that is dominated by foreign companies who are in bed with some of America’s biggest climate NGOs, including the NRDC (gross receipts: $555 million) and Sierra Club (Gross receipts: $184 million).
Those NGOs and others, including the National Wildlife Federation (gross receipts: $142 million) and Conservation Law Foundation (gross receipts: $17.5 million), are leading the most shameful environmental betrayal in modern American history. Rather than seek to protect marine mammals and stop the industrialization of our oceans, they are eagerly promoting the installation of hundreds of offshore wind platforms smack in the middle of the known habitat of the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.
Much more at the link.
AT AMAZON, Shop Prime Day! #CommissionEarned
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The GOP Is Both Grand and a Party Again. “There is something really extraordinary going on this week: it’s not awful to be a Republican or a conservative who’s voting Republican this year. Let’s be honest here — that’s a novelty. I mean, I think that the last time I was really excited during the week of the Republican National Convention was in 1984.”
“GUN VIOLENCE EXPERTS” ARE GENERALLY JUST HACKS. THIS ONE IS NO EXCEPTION, IT SEEMS: Gun Violence ‘Expert’ Claims Trump Attack Just Another ‘Mass Shooting.’
THOUGHTS FROM READER JOHN STEAKLEY:
All this talk about “turning down the heat” after the assassination attempt reminded me of something I read on Instapundit years ago that resonated with me, so I searched and found it:
https://instapundit.com/462312/
As Thomas Sowell told an interviewer in 2004, “There’s something Eric Hoffer said: ‘Intellectuals cannot operate at room temperature.’
So here is the catch-22 Democrats face when told to “turn down the heat”: Trump IS the heat Democrats need in order to function. If they can’t continue to bloviate and hyperbolize about Trump as an existential threat, then they’re paralyzed. They will fall from their high perches like Florida iguanas in winter. And then this just becomes a contest between one candidate that takes bullets and another that takes naps. They can’t have that.
This seems right to me. Also: “a contest between one candidate that takes bullets and another that takes naps.” Brilliant.
I HAD BEEN ASSURED THAT INFLATION WAS ILLUSORY, TRANSITORY, A HIGH-CLASS PROBLEM, AND OVER ALREADY: IMF lowers outlook for US economy while warning of slower disinflation. “The Federal Reserve is also expecting relatively weaker employment next year, with the unemployment rate rising to 4.2 percent from its current level of 4.1 percent, according to the Fed’s latest summary of economic projections.”
Employment — as measured by full-time, private-sector jobs — already sucks and has since the Biden “recovery.” And so does the labor participation rate, which has yet to recover to pre-lockdown levels.
CHANGE IS COMING:
Just today, Microsoft announced they’re slashing their entire DEI program.
Now, John Deere says they’re done getting involved in woke propaganda activities. Great to see them listening!
The tide is turning. The Culture War is shifting in our favor because people are sick of the… https://t.co/fyPxtjRndi
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 16, 2024
HELP CHRIS RUFO WITH HIS INVESTIGATION OF DEI IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: Are you a federal employee? Is your spouse, best friend, or cousin a federal employee who complains about out-of-control DEI programs? Let Chris Rufo know.
It’s you patriotic duty.
IRRATIONAL ANGER IS A SIGN OF DEMENTIA: Biden Conference Calls Go Badly. “Things got especially confrontational when Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) brought up the crisis in confidence in Biden being our commander-in-chief. Crow, a veteran with a Bronze Star, was excoriated by Biden, who trashed his service and once again used his dead son as some political playing card. The contents of the calls were not known until now. What a nasty piece of work Biden is. Mr. Empathy is a total a-hole, but you knew that already.”
Plus: “These antics aren’t what you want 16 weeks until Election Day.”
No, they’re exactly what I want. The “cabal” installed Biden in 2020, and I want them to suffer for that near-treasonous act.
UPDATE (FROM THE COMMENTS):
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) July 17, 2024
CELEBRATE DIVERSITY: Muslim Cab Driver Beheads Jesus Statue Outside NYC Church.
THOSE WHO ARE NO LONGER OUR COUNTRYMEN: Mayor Johnson plans to remove George Washington statue outside his City Hall office.
I GUESS GOV. ABBOTT WILL JUST HAVE TO CHARTER MORE BUSES: Now Biden is Flying Migrants Back to Texas. “The New York Post has uncovered yet another ‘unannounced’ White House program related to the Biden border crisis. Ever since Texas Governor Greg Abbott effectively shut down his state’s southern border, the cartels have been forced to move their human smuggling cargo further to the west. Much of the traffic has been showing up in California, particularly in the San Diego area. Despite Gavin Newsom’s claims that California was still a ‘welcoming’ state for migrants, in reality, the San Diego area was simply becoming ‘overrun.’ Since we clearly can’t have that happening to a blue state in an election year, Joe Biden rushed to the rescue. The White House has been operating weekly charter flights out of San Diego to take the migrants elsewhere. Their destination? Texas, of course. They are being flown in and released in the Rio Grande Valley.”
BRADLEY THOMPSON: Private Property and the Birth of a Free Society. “The first principle and cornerstone of a free, just, and prosperous society is the recognition, inviolability, and protection of private property. The institution of private property—i.e., the right of exclusive possession, use, and disposition—is synonymous with the rise of civilization itself. No society has long existed without it. Indeed, there can be no freedom, no justice, and no prosperity without it. The acceptance, celebration, and protection of private property as an unalienable right is a reliable barometer of how much freedom, justice, and prosperity there is or will be in any given society.”
That’s why leftists hate it.