A former White House science advisor speaks out about "settled science" (2014)

"Feeling unsettled? Try new Climate Science™, now with extra certainty!"

Climate Science Is Not Settled

"We are very far from the knowledge needed to make good climate policy, writes leading scientist Steven E. Koonin

"The idea that “Climate science is settled” runs through today’s popular and policy discussions. Unfortunately, that claim is misguided. It has not only distorted our public and policy debates on issues related to energy, greenhouse-gas emissions and the environment. But it also has inhibited the scientific and policy discussions that we need to have about our climate future.

"My training as a computational physicist—together with a 40-year career of scientific research, advising and management in academia, government and the private sector—has afforded me an extended, up-close perspective on climate science. Detailed technical discussions during the past year with leading climate scientists have given me an even better sense of what we know, and don’t know, about climate. I have come to appreciate the daunting scientific challenge of answering the questions that policy makers and the public are asking.

"The crucial scientific question for policy isn’t whether the climate is changing. That is a settled matter: The climate has always changed and always will. Geological and historical records show the occurrence of major climate shifts, sometimes over only a few decades. We know, for instance, that during the 20th century the Earth’s global average surface temperature rose 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Nor is the crucial question whether humans are influencing the climate. That is no hoax:". . . 
Hat tip to  WattsUpWithThat.com, . . . "the world’s most viewed website on climate. I’m a former AMS Television Seal Holder (Seal 676 retired) television meteorologist who spent 25 years on the air and who also operates a weather technology and content business, as well as continues daily forecasting on radio, just for fun.

President Trump slaps back when Obama tries to take credit for his economy

As always with Obama, the only spotlight is on himself.  There's no room for the American workers in this piece of undeserving self-congratulation. Trump, naturally (because he fights), had a response:

Andrea Widburg "It's been fascinating watching the Democrats try unavailingly to address the fact that the economy under President Trump has been rocket-fueled.  That effort reached its apex on Monday, when Barack Obama put out a tweet boasting about how it was his Recovery Act, which he signed on February 17, 2009, that not only saved the economy but laid the groundwork for its current strength.  The responses to his tweet were swift, especially from President Trump.

"One of the things that truly riles the Democrats is that President Trump has so much to crow about.  And crow he did during his State of the Union address, making sure to distinguish his economic accomplishments from the Obama malaise." . . .

 . . . "One of the funniest videos you will see today is Tom Steyer, who claims that Trump is presiding over a dismal economy, fighting Martha Raddatz as she points out that, even if Trump's lying about his economic numbers, Americans also happen to think things are great:"

. . . After watching Steyer getting slapped down by another committed leftist, you'd think Obama would have known better than to tangle with the Trump economy. But no...Obama waded right into it: @BarackObama Eleven years ago today, near the bottom of the worst recession in generations, I signed the Recovery Act, paving the way for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in American history." . . .

It’s Over For Hillary And Her Sisterhood of the Plus-Size Pantsuits

Bill Thomas

Could the Hillary-Bernie feud, now entering its final phase, be responsible for everything the Democratic Party has put the country through for the last four years? We may soon find out.

Now three years later, it still goes on.

 "Politics is the business of getting voters to like you. The problem is, most Washington politicians are inherently unlikeable. This is one reason the subject rarely came up until Donald Trump was elected president.
"Now the question of likeability is all that Trump-crazed Democrats talk about—except when they’re talking about each other. That’s why it’s news when one Democratic politician calls another one unlikeable.
"It’s especially newsworthy when the former happens to be ex-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose personal un-likeability is legendary, and the latter is Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), an equally annoying old-time Bolshie, who fought Clinton for the Democratic nomination four years ago, got screwed over by the party, and now not only is running again—he’s in the lead.
"Clinton made her observation about Sanders in a new four-hour “docu-series,” entitled “Hillary.” The carefully crafted piece of long-form PR is scheduled to premiere on Hulu March 6, the week of Super Tuesday and the weekend of International Women’s Day (a.k.a. Communist Valentine’s Day) March 8.
"At one point in the film Hillary is asked what she thinks of Bernie, who probably would have beaten her in 2016 if the Democratic National Committee hadn’t rigged the system.
“ '[Sanders] was in Congress for years,” Clinton says. “He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him . . . .”
"When the comment went viral, Sanders had a comeback worthy of Rodney Dangerfield: “On a good day, my wife likes me.”
"Bernie is a well-known pain in the ass. But look at Hillary. Outside a small circle of paid lackeys, who actually likes her? Or, put another way, after the four decades she’s been in the public eye, who could?
"In the trailer for her new movie, Bill Clinton comes off as tellingly tentative on the subject. While they were dating, he says, he told Hillary, “I really want to marry you, but you shouldn’t marry me.' ” . . .

There’s Zero Chance Bloomberg Would Pick Hillary

John Fund

Her long history of scandals and voters’ doubts about her trustworthiness would make her a risky running mate

"Democratic nomination are on the rise than the fact that the opportunistic Hillary Clinton is already trying to grab a piece of the action.

" The Drudge Report startled the political world on Saturday by noting that “sources close to Bloomberg campaign” are “considering Hillary as running mate, after their polling found the Bloomberg-Clinton combination would be a formidable force.” 

"I have no doubt that Hillary wants back in, and her minions are pushing such rumors. I have no doubt that some of Bloomberg’s hundreds of staffers used to work on Hillary’s campaign and are pushing the idea internally. I also have no doubt that Mike Bloomberg is smart enough to never go for such a crazy and risky idea. 

"First, Mike Bloomberg needs “woke” progressives behind him and enthused enough to actually voted if he is to win a general election campaign. The last thing he should do is infuriate Bernie Sanders voters by sharing his ticket with the woman they blame for “rigging” the 2016 primaries against him. Recall that 12 percent of Sanders’s primary supporters voted for President Trump in the 2016 general election. That is according to the Cooperative Congressional Election Study — a massive election survey of around 50,000 people

"Second, the Democratic ticket would be on the old side with a BloombergClinton ticket. The former New York mayor will be 78 years old at the time of the election this year, and he looks it. Hillary will be 73 years old, and she has a record of not being candid with her health issues. Should something happen to both of them, the next person in line for the presidency, should she remain House speaker, would be 80-year-old Nancy Pelosi." . . .

Image by The Slammer

Obama turned Democrats into losers

Obama reshaped Democrats into his own image. That means they are effete snobs who sneer at the people dumb enough to vote for them.

Don Surber

"Democrats running for president today are running against themselves. Recent stories include Amy Klobuchar disowning her 2006 call for "order at the border." Mini Mike has apologized for his stop-and-frisk program which saved hundreds of black lives. And Breadline Bernie did a 180 on his call to ban the hiring of illegal aliens.

"I won't go into the way Quid Pro Joe has ditched everything he stood for because that is the nature of a grifter. He is a pay-to-play hack who fit in like a bug in a rug in the Obama administration. Biden is running again to fleece donors again who should know better by now.

"But the rest have had to jettison their beliefs because Obama fundamentally transformed Democrats into a loser communist party that hates America and will punish it by stripping citizens of their inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

"The first step upon election is to make citizenship meaningless, which is the purpose of open borders. Businesses buy in because they think cheap labor is worth it. For some reason, corporations are led by people who foolishly believe their money will protect them from the consequences of the end of citizenship.

"Open borders is now the Democrat Party's goal. Klobuchar and Sanders are on board.

Sharpton: Bloomberg Not Only Dem With 'Racial Baggage'

Newsmax  "Mike Bloomberg is not the only Democrat in the 2020 presidential race who is carrying "racial baggage," but the others are attacking the former New York City mayor to dodge tough questions about their own records, Rev. Al Sharpton said Monday.

" 'I want to know what Bernie [Sanders] is going to say about the vote he did for the [1994] crime bill, where people went to jail," Sharpton told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "No matter his reason for voting for it, it was a law that incarcerated people. Joe Biden wrote it."

"Meanwhile, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is facing questions about her prosecution of a black teenager.

"A new investigation into the 17-year-old case uncovered several inconsistencies that raised questions about if police railroaded the teen, 16, concerning the death of an 11-year-old girl, who was hit by a stray bullet.

" 'All of them have racial baggage," Sharpton said. "We can reconcile but let's recognize that.' " . . .

Rev Al has some baggage of his own:

The REAL Al Sharpton: Incitement of the 1991 Crown Heights Pogrom

Serial race-baiter Al Sharpton is credited with saying, “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house” as a response the Crown Heights riot. That is a fallacy; he made that threatening comment to the Jewish community about the growing Jeffries controversy on August 18th the day before the riots began. Clearly something bad was coming.

 Al Sharpton’s Anniversary: 23 Years Since He Incited Freddy’s Massacre

"It was his second anti-Semitic pogrom in four years. On December 8, 1995,  Al Sharpton incited the violent fire-bombing of the Jewish-owned Freddy’s Fashion Mart in Harlem, causing the deaths of Angelina Marrero, Cynthia Martinez, Luz Ramos, Mayra Rentas, Olga Garcia, Garnette Ramautar, and Kareem Brunner – the seven victims of the massacre. There was an eighth death, Roland James Smith, started the fire that burned down the store. Sharpton didn’t toss the firebomb, but the anti-Semitic and racial bias which came out of his mouth and out of the mouths of others while in his presence, produced the massacre as assuredly as if the fire was set with his hands. Smith’s mistake was listening to and believing Sharpton’s hatred."

If you want more, it's out there. 

Have you seen the 2020 Democrat building?

Democrat 2020 Convention   "The 2020 Democratic National Convention is an event in which delegates of the United States Democratic Party will choose the party's nominees for president and vice president in the 2020 United States presidential election. The convention is scheduled to be held from July 13–16, 2020, at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Joe Solmonese, former President of the Human Rights Campaign, was named convention CEO in March of 2019." . . .

Why Trump's plan is proving a hard sell in Israel

Zev Chafets

The incensed settler leaders will not abandon Bibi - they have nowhere else to go - but they could become an opposition faction within the Likud bloc with the power to stymie a Palestinian state, even the most diminished.

"When Benjamin Netanyahu stood on the podium next to Donald Trump and proclaimed the Deal of the Century to be comparable to the 1948 Declaration of Independence, the Israeli prime minister knew there would be strong opposition from the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Arab League, the European Union and other supporters of the Palestinian cause. He didn't think there would be opposition back home.

"Netanyahu knew Trump had his back; and so, he believed, did the Israeli public. Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party, was on board with the plan, along with a plurality of his center-left party supporters. Add Bibi's right wing, orthodox bloc to Gantz's secular, upper middle class liberals and you get a nearly wall-to-wall consensus.

"Or so Bibi thought. But this consensus is more fragile than he anticipated." . . .

Joe Biden should do town halls forever

‘I’ve been around a long time and I know more than most people. And I can get things done. That’s why I’m running. And you want to check my shape? Let’s do pushups here together, man. Let’s run. Let’s do whatever you wanna do. Let’s take an IQ test.’

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

Outline  "While a successful politician in many ways, Joe Biden’s attempts to become president are marked by quite a severe flaw – he cannot enter a town hall without saying something stupid. What would American Democracy be without Joe Biden garlanding astonished voters with insults and imprecations of every kind? God bless that man. Biden has been making a fool of himself at these events for so long now that I’m fairly sure Alexis De Tocqueville observed this phenomenon in a celebrated passage from his Democracy in America (1835):

I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers – and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce – and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution – and it was not there.

"Indeed, it was not until I went into the town halls of America and heard Joe Biden, aflame with righteousness, describe a young woman as a ‘lying, dog-faced pony soldier’ did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she allows crazy old men to talk nonsense without interruption, and if America ever ceases to allow this deluded old mariner to run for president, she will cease to be great.

     "Working out which of Biden’s town hall broadsides was most astonishing will keep teams of historians busy for decades to come. Who among us can say they didn’t watch slack-jawed when, last December, the unhinged septuagenarian unloaded on a voter in New Hampton, Iowa. In response to a question about his son’s ‘work’ in Ukraine, the former VP said, ‘You’re a damn liar man, that’s not true.’ He continued:" . . .

MAD MAXINE: ‘Fancy Parties’ In Beverly Hills Ought To Give CA ‘More Say’ Than Iowa, NH

Daily Wire "Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) says her home state of California should have “more say” in the Democratic Party’s primaries because they have “fancy” big-money parties in Beverly Hills.

“As you know, we have candidates who fly out to Los Angeles from everywhere to raise money,” the California Democrat told CNBC on Thursday.“As a matter of fact, it had gotten so that you would have two, three, four at a time in Beverly Hills having dinners. And some of our contributors who are very rich were holding, you know, fancy parties, trying to accommodate the request for donations and contributions. And so, you know, the conclusion, the thinking is that if we are supplying tremendous dollars to candidates, we ought to have more say.”

"California’s primary comes up on March 3 — Super Tuesday — after a handful of other states hold caucuses and primaries. But Waters thinks California should be front and center at all times.

“Beyond that, a lot of people have come to the conclusion that it should not simply be Iowa and New Hampshire and certainly they are not reflective of the makeup of this country,” Waters added. “And so, California has a role to play.' ” . . .

1927-1941 Carving Mount Rushmore; Creating a monument to endure millennia

If this monument can only survive today's social-justice warriors. TD

Alex Q. Arbuckle, Retronaut  "In 1923, looking to attract tourists and stimulate the economy of his state, South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson proposed creating a massive monument in the Black Hills. He envisioned a memorial to great heroes of the West, suggesting Lakota Sioux leader Red Cloud as a possibility.

"The proposal was granted federal funding, and Robinson selected architect and sculptor Gutzon Borglum to design and carve the monument.

"Borglum convinced Robinson that sculptures of presidents would attract more national interest than Red Cloud. Before settling on the final design of the monument, Borglum selected the stable granite cliffs of Mount Rushmore as the ideal location.

"This decision was met with immediate protest by Native Americans. The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie had granted the land around Mount Rushmore to the Lakota in perpetuity, but the area was later seized by the federal government after the discovery of gold. Carving the faces of the leaders of that government into a spiritually significant mountain — known as “The Six Grandfathers” to the Lakota — was adding insult to injury.

"Their protests fell on unsympathetic ears, however, and the project moved forward. It was decided that the sculpture would include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt for their contributions to the founding, growth and preservation of the nation.

"On October 4, 1927, the carving began." . . .

CNN And MSNBC Analysts Sign Petition Urging William Barr To Resign

Daily Caller  "Eight legal analysts who work for CNN and MSNBC or appear frequently on the networks signed a petition Sunday calling on Attorney General William Barr to resign over his handling of Roger Stone’s case.

"CNN analysts and former federal prosecutors Elie Honig and Renato Mariotti signed the petition, which has more than 1,140 signatures.

"MSNBC analysts Paul Butler, Frank Figliuzzi, Matthew Miller and Jill Wine-Banks also signed the document, which was compiled by Protect Democracy, a nonprofit group staunchly opposed to President Donald Trump.

"Nick Akerman, a former Watergate prosecutor who appears frequently on MSNBC, and Mimi Rocah, a former prosecutor who recently left MSNBC to run for a district attorney position, also signed the petition.

"The petitioners are upset that Barr directed the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., to revise a court filing that recommended that Stone, a long time Trump confidante, serve between 87 months and 108 months in prison on charges that he obstructed a congressional investigation and tampered with a witness." . . .