BAKE THE CAKE, HATER: Bakers refused to make pro-Trump birthday cake for 9-year-old boy.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
August 7, 2017
SO IT’S COME TO THIS: Cheese Is Rape Or Something.
AL FRANKEN, UN-FUNNY MAN OF THE SENATE: The senator’s new book does contain some wit — when he quotes Lindsey Graham.
Though almost nothing Franken comes up with is funny, the memoir nevertheless contains a lot of wit. This is because it quotes a lot of Republicans. When Lindsey Graham was running for president, and was about 15th out of 17, Franken told him, “I’d vote for you.” Graham shot back, “That’s my problem.” Non-comedy writers speaking off the cuff invariably prove funnier than Franken is on the cuff. At a dinner with senators and their spouses, Stephanie Johanns, wife of former GOP senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska, recalled glad-handing on the hustings, where one is forever confronted with a parade of new people and sometimes can’t keep everyone straight. She “turned around,” says Franken, “and saw a woman whom she knew, but couldn’t place. Stephanie said, ‘I knew I knew this woman, and I panicked. Then I figured out who she was and said, “Oh — hi, Mom!”’” When Franken tells Mitch McConnell his speeches are okay when he isn’t advancing the cause of evil, the Kentuckian fires back, “I like the evil ones better.”
Franken is at times funny when he doesn’t mean to be: He says he bonded with working men on the Iron Range because “I was a member of four unions myself: the Writers Guild, the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the Directors Guild.”
What’s below “tin ear?”
CHARLIE MARTIN: Academic Publishing Meets Capitalism.
Not even iron rice bowls can withstand the forces of creative destruction forever.
AND NEITHER DOES YOURS: Al Gore’s Carbon Footprint Doesn’t Matter.
Emily Atkin:
Gore is hardly the only climate advocate whose personal energy use has been attacked by the right. It’s a familiar, longstanding tactic among conservatives [actually, it’s Alinsky’s fourth rule. -Steve] who don’t accept the truth about climate change. Republican pollster and consultant Frank Luntz told me he thinks Rush Limbaugh “started the argument that the Hollywood Left flew their private jets to global warming conferences.” The first reference I could find was in 2006, when the conservative Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Debra Saunders, then writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, bemoaned what she called “Learjet liberals who burn beaucoup fossil fuels in the sky as they soar around the planet fighting global warming.” Fox News host Sean Hannity picked up “Learjet liberals” soon after, using it in numerous segments in 2007 and 2008 and as recently as January.
“Learjet liberals” isn’t as prolific as it used to be, but the underlying argument is. Leonardo DiCaprio has been a frequent target for his use of private jets and yachts. Elon Musk was called out in June for flying in a private jet. Conservative outlets attacked former President Barack Obama in May for attending a climate change conference in a private jet and a 14-car convoy. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson’s segment on this, featuring Ann Coulter, was an orgy of incredulous outrage.
Leading by example is for the rubes, apparently.
IS THERE ANYTHING CLIMATE CHANGE CAN’T DO? We know Vikings as infamous raiders—was that merely a response to climate change?
It may also be that longboats gave Vikings the chance to indulge in some overseas pillage, which was probably more fun for them than eking a living out of the Scandinavian soil. But you can’t research that in polite company.
In my imagination, Trump’s latest tweetstorm occurred only after a short wrestling match with Chief of Staff John Kelly to get his phone back — and it was well worth the effort, too.
HE HAS SO FAR: Al Gore can’t deny that his climate crusade involves great suffering.
Alex Epstein:
Gore and others should be free to make the case that the danger of greenhouse gases is so serious as to warrant that scale of human misery. But they should have to quantify and justify the magnitude of climate danger. And that brings us to the truth about climate.
The overall trend in climate danger is that it is at an all-time low. The Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) shows 6,114 climate-related deaths in 2016. In other recent years the numbers have maxed out in the tens of thousands. Compare this to the 1930s when, adjusted for population, climate-related deaths hit the 10-million mark several times.
The most significant cause of our radically reduced climate danger is industrial development, which takes a naturally dangerous climate and makes it unnaturally safe. And industrial development is driven by cheap, plentiful, reliable energy — which, today, overwhelmingly means fossil fuels. Climate will always be dangerous so priority number one is to have the energy and development to tame it. Modern irrigation, residential heating and air conditioning have made once uninhabitable places perfectly comfortable.
Gore’s Inconvenient Sequel gives a biased, self-serving, and convenient picture of fossil fuels and climate — convenient for Gore’s legacy, that is, but inconvenient for the billions his energy poverty policies will harm. As citizens, we must start demanding responsible thought leaders who will give us the whole picture that life-and-death energy and climate decisions require.
As Glenn likes to say, I’ll believe there’s a crisis when those telling us there’s a crisis start acting like there’s a crisis.
OH: War-Crimes Prosecutor, Frustrated at UN Inaction, Quits Panel on Syria.
Jaw, jaw is indeed better than war, war — and easier, too. But too often the UN can’t seem to do even that much.
BRIDGET JOHNSON: ‘The Russians Don’t Particularly Like General McMaster,’ Top House Intel Dem Says of Ouster Campaign.
And then there’s an interesting thread on McMaster from Thomas Wictor, starting here:
It might be best to withhold judgment on McMaster until more is known — and not from leaks or anonymous sources.
WELL, YES: City Pledges for ‘100% Renewable Energy’ Are 99% Misleading.
Although activists herald these pledges as major environmental accomplishments, they’re more of a marketing gimmick. Use my home state of Texas as an example. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas oversees 90% of the state’s electricity generation and distribution. Texas generates more wind and solar power than any other state. Yet more than 71% of the council’s total electricity still comes from coal and natural gas.
The trick is that there’s no method to designate electrons on the grid as originating from one source or another. Power generated by fossil fuels and wind turbines travels together over poles and underground wires before reaching cities, homes and businesses. No customer can use power from wind and solar farms exclusively.
So how do cities make this 100% renewable claim while still receiving regular electricity from the grid? They pay to generate extra renewable energy that they then sell on the market. If they underwrite enough, they can claim to have offset whatever carbon-generated electricity they use. The proceeds from the sale go back to the city and are put toward its electric bill.
In essence, these cities are buying a “renewable” label to put on the regular power they’re using. Developers of wind and solar farms win because they can use mayoral commitments to finance their projects, which probably are already subsidized by taxpayers.
Virtual signaling, as ever, on someone else’s dime.
BRUSSELS BLUES: Another Country Could Be On Its Way Out Of The EU.
European Council President Donald Tusk believes Poland’s future in the European Union could be in jeopardy over the country’s many disputes with the EU.
Tusk — who served as the Polish prime minister between 2007 and 2014 — is worried that Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) is edging closer to announcing the country’s intention to leave the EU.
“It smells like an introduction to an announcement that Poland does not need the European Union and that Poland is not needed for the EU,” Tusk told reporters Thursday in Warsaw after testifying in a court case, the EUobserver reports. “I am afraid we are closer to that moment.”
The EU has taken legal action against Poland for its refusal to accept refugee quotas set in 2015. Polish authorities are further accused of ignoring a European Court of Justice order to stop cutting down trees in the country’s Białowieża forest.
“The fact that a European tribunal decision is rejected so arrogantly is evidence of something very dangerous in my opinion — it is an overt attempt to put Poland in conflict with the European Union,” Tusk said.
After numerous partitions and a half-century of Soviet domination, it’s nice to see Poland asserting its own interests against an overbearing (and self-destructive) foreign power.
As I’m writing this, Etiene Dalcol has protected her Twitter account, ensuring that no uncomfortable facts will penetrate her feed from any angle.
Of course, there’s a lot of that going on and for a very long time — even within Google itself.
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What If Nazi Germany Had Built the Atomic Bomb?
Successfully and efficaciously delivering a nuke would have been a problem for the Reich in the mid-1944-to-1945 timeframe, given the condition of the Luftwaffe and that the Allies and Soviets were closing in from all sides.
BRUCE BAWER: The Decline and Fall of an Academic Nitwit.
Just read the whole thing.
BLUE ON BLUE: California Dems To Recall Their Own Assembly Speaker For Being Insufficiently Liberal.
Having no suitable foe to fight from the other party, the furthest left wing of the state party is currently launching an effort to recall Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. His crime? Failing to push through a single payer state operated healthcare system which would have likely bankrupted the Golden State before the decade was up.
Forget it, Jake — it’s Sactown.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG? America’s Cities Double Down on Trolley Follies.
When the St. Louis Loop Trolley was first proposed, the government estimated that the project would cost $43 million and be open for business by the end of 2016. Since then the project’s costs have ballooned to $51 million, with service tentatively scheduled to start at the end of this year. And the Loop Trolley’s chairman—businessman Joe Edwards—says the project will need another $500,000 from county taxpayers to stay viable.
“A year ago, I saw this as a boondoggle,” St. Louis County Councilman Mark Harder told the St. Louis Dispatch. “Now it’s a boondoggle plus 500 grand.”
These cost overruns and delays are no doubt frustrating for St. Louis taxpayers. But they are hardly unique. A rash of recent streetcar developments have run into these troubles, thanks to faulty economic reasoning and an open faucet of federal dollars.
Wasteful and useless public projects like these almost never die because there are always sufficient opportunities for graft.
WELFARE QUEENS: McConnell says he would consider continuing insurer payments.
A week after an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act failed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’d consider a bipartisan effort to continue payments to insurers to avert a costly rattling of health insurance markets.
McConnell told reporters Saturday there is “still a chance” the Senate could revive the measure to repeal and replace “Obamacare,” but he acknowledged the window for that is rapidly closing.
The Kentucky senator noted Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee is working on “some kind of bipartisan approach” that would involve subsidies for insurance companies.
The only unlimited resource is other people’s money.
TRUMP TWEETS UP MOON JAE, THE DOJ LOOKS INTO OBAMA’S SLUSH FUND, AND BALTIMORE CAN’T GO ONE LOUSY WEEKEND WITHOUT A MURDER: All that and more in Liz Sheld’s morning brief.
OH: HHS Documents Reveal Known Pre-Launch Security Flaws in Healthcare.gov.
The documents show a flippant disregard for Senior IT Security Official Tom Schankweiler’s security concerns in a September 23, 2013, email exchange, one week before the launch of Obamacare, then-CMS Chief Information Officer Teresa Fryer and CMS official Jacqueline Toomey. Toomey tells Fryer: “Breathe … don’t allow him to suck you in.” Toomey responds later in the exchange: “I’m afraid of who he’s ‘blind copying’ on his emails.” Fryer says: “When [Consumer Information and Insurance Systems Group] gets theirs, can you make a gagging sound for me?” Toomey responds: “Giggling.”
In a September 28, 2013, review, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Jane Kim notes that “the risk associated with the Illinois Integrated Eligibility System ATC [Authorization to Connect] as “high,” noting that “87 security controls [were] not documented or incomplete.” Risk associated with Minnesota’s application to connect was also deemed “high,” with 110 incomplete or undocumented security controls. Pennsylvania’s risk was also deemed “high,” with 10 high level security findings. Hawaii was also considered a “high” risk, with 23 “high-impact” security findings.
A security spreadsheet in a September 19, 2013, email exchange shows a “high” level defect in the Obamacare website was discovered. That finding prompted top IT security officials to schedule an emergency conference call in which Senior IT Security Official Tom Schankweiler tries to persuade then-CMS Chief Information Officer Teresa Fryer to issue a “short term ATO [Authorization of Operate]”
In the CMS “Pre-Flight Checklist” published on September 20, 2013, is a chart that indicates that the “Hub,” designed to help with verifying applicant information used to determine eligibility for enrollment, was unable to perform its tasks. Regarding verification of citizenship is the comment: “Hub has been too irregular to work thorough this, and still don’t have the right data to test to the 5 year bar.” Regarding verification of SSN is the comment: “Hub has reliability issues …” The Pre-flight Checklist also notes nine “high” security risks, 123 “moderate” security risks, 68 “low” and 17 “common” risks in various components of the Obamacare system.
On October 1, 2013, Americans started shopping for health insurance on healthcare.gov, and the site crashed.
“The Trump administration should do an immediate security audit of the Obamacare official website,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “In the meantime, Americans should be warned that their private health data is at risk on the Obamacare website.”
I know Congress has a lot on its plate already, but this is worth investigating.
GOOD LORD: Swedish Police Say Situation ‘Completely Unacceptable’ after 550 Per Cent Rise in Grenade Attacks.
Police data shows that in 2014 the Swedish force investigated eight grenade incidents, none of which involved a detonation.
But last year this figure inflated by a massive 550 per cent, as officers saw a total of 52 grenade-related incidents, 27 of which involved detonations.
At first, the grenade attacks were mostly directed at cars and homes linked to criminals and their relatives — but from two years ago perpetrators began to target the nation’s “society and state”, an expert at Sweden’s National Police Department told SVT.
“One very worrying trend we’ve noticed is that from 2015, we started to see people throwing grenades at municipal buildings, police stations and police officers,” he said, lamenting how, as the number of attacks has increased, so has the number of people who have been injured.
“[Criminals] may have mistakenly targeted the wrong address, which has resulted in attacks on innocent families who have children, and there have been grenades hidden at kids’ playgrounds.
“There have been a number of cases in which grenades have been found by children, and it is rather surprising to us that there haven’t been more deaths,” the expert added.
According to Peter Hejdström, head of police investigation in Halmstad, the explosives — which are typically thrown by hand — are not a problem that is restricted to the big cities, as the widespread availability of grenades in Sweden means even rural areas have been affected.
Widespread availability of grenades?