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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

P&D Today, November 30, 2016

Voter Recount Hypocrisy
 
Foreign Relations
 
Hillarygate
 
Media
 
Leftism
 




Voter Fraud Evidence Ignored by Liberal Media Attack on Trump

By Dave Jolly

Just when the storms and protests caused by Hillary Clinton losing the presidential election to Donald Trump were beginning to calm down, Jill Stein of the Green Party, just poured more gasoline on the fires to get them burning again.

Stein has raised nearly $6 million to pay for election recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. She has already filed the motion for a recount for a recount in Wisconsin, filed the motion yesterday in Pennsylvania and will file the motion in Michigan on Wednesday.

Stein says her wanting a recount has nothing to do with wanting Hillary Clinton declared the winner, but has everything to do with making sure the elections were accurate and that there wasn’t any hacking that could have skewed the election results. Yet, with Stein receiving such a small percentage of the vote, it seems obvious that her motive is try to get a woman – Hillary Clinton – in the White House as President......To Read More.....

Hypocritical Democrats and the Clinton Campaign Oppose a Recount in North Carolina!

By Joe Scudder

The North Carolina recount is based on a much closer race than in Pennsylvania, but Democrats object. Here’s a typical news story about the North Carolina recount:   This story leaves out Pat McCrory’s case for a recount even though the vote was far closer than in states that Jilll Stein is contesting........So what did Hillary Clinton’s election lawyer say—the same lawyer who has supported recounts in states that Trump won? Marc Elias commented: “Instead of attacking North Carolina voters and undermining our democratic process, Governor McCrory needs to accept his defeat and concede.”

Undermining our democratic process?....To Read More....

My Take - I saw the Green Party Presidential candidate, Jill Stein, being interviewed on Fox News yesterday claiming she would have pursued this challenge even if Hillary would have won because she's soooo concerned about making sure the American Public  can have confidence in the system. 

Horsepucky!

The only states being challenged are states won by Trump.....and won hugely by Trump.  Not one state won by Hillary has been challenged so, including those states the margins of victory were small.  In those states the possibility of overturning - just based on the close margin - has some possibility.  But she and her fellow co-conspirators have done nothing about it.  Worse yet - no matter what happens she can't win!  Why is a person who is incapable of winning allowed to make such challenges?  And if Hillary and her cabal aren't behind this why doesn't she come out and say finally and irrevocably - the election is over....period? 

If anyone out there believes this woman is only concerned about assuring America of the legitimacy of the system - I have a fertile field at the top of Mt. Everest I could sell them cheaply. 

One more thing - I think Trump is right - I believe there were millions of illegal aliens who voted in this election and I think Trump should take up Jill Stein's banner and investigate that, especially in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York,  New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Delaware, Virginia, Washington D.C., New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.  Especially those states with a large number of sanctuary cities.  Especially since it's been documented over three million fraudulent votes have been recorded.

 Just to make sure everyone knows election fraud will not be allowed to standAfter all - that's what Jill Stein really wants....Isn't it?

If Putin Is So Great, Why Are So Many Russians Getting HIV?

By Alex Berezow — November 28, 2016 @ American Council on Science and Health

Like an unlucky penny, Vladimir Putin keeps showing up in the American media. From allegations of election tampering to hacking emails, Mr. Putin chooses to stay relevant through notoriety. This has, bizarrely, earned him admirers all over the world.

For many reasons, this admiration is deeply misguided. Mr. Putin heads a kleptocracy and imprisons or murders political dissidents. And, as a shocking new essay in Foreign Policy explains, he fiddles while an HIV epidemic blazes through his country.
Today, there are an estimated 1.5 million people who have been diagnosed with HIV or AIDS in Russia, which has a population of 140 million. Although the spread of HIV has been stemmed in sub-Saharan Africa, in Russia the rate of HIV infection is rising 10 to 15 percent each year — a pace comparable to the infection rate in the United States in the 1980s, when the basic biology of HIV was poorly understood and the antiretroviral drugs used to treat the disease were years away from discovery.
To demonstrate just how backward Russia's public health policy is, let's compare its HIV statistics to those of the United States.

Prevalence is the ratio of people who currently suffer from a disease. More than 1% of Russians have HIV (1.5 million HIV patients in a total population of 143.5 million). The United States has about 1.2 million HIV patients out of a total population of roughly 319 million, which converts into a prevalence of 0.4%. Thus, on a per capita basis, Russia has roughly 2.5 times as many HIV patients as the United States.

The really scary number, however, is incidence, which measures the number of new cases of disease. Public health campaigns in the U.S. have caused the HIV infection rate to flatten. In 2014, there were just over 44,000 new cases of HIV diagnosed in America, giving an incidence of 13.8 per 100,000 people.* In Russia, the incidence rate is 35.7 per 100,000 people, again 2.5 times worse than the U.S. And it's increasing.

Many factors are colluding to create an AIDS epidemic in Russia. According to Stratfor, the problem began mostly with drug users. Now, sexual transmission and drug use share roughly equal blame.

The government's negligence, lack of resources, and refusal to implement modern treatment regimens greatly exacerbate the problem.

For all of its obvious flaws, the American public health system is very good. That is never more obvious than when one travels to a country that lacks even the most basic health services.

*HIV incidence varies widely by U.S. state. CDC data shows that Montana has the lowest incidence (1.9 new cases per 100,000 people), while Louisiana has the highest incidence (36.6 per 100,000). (Washington, DC has an incidence of 66.9 per 100,000). By comparison, the worst regions in Russia, according to The Moscow Times, have an incidence greater than 100 per 100,000 (or 1 per 1,000). 

Democrats Plotting to Overthrow the Election Results

By 317 Comments

As of November 22, at least six Democrats in the Electoral College have joined a movement to keep Donald Trump from getting to 270 votes. On Dec. 19, the 538 members of the Electoral College will meet in their respective state capitals to make Trump’s victory official. Until they cast their votes, Trump’s win is merely theoretical. We’ve never seen the Electoral College rebel en masse, but it’s constitutionally possible.  The electors plotting against Trump know they are up against extraordinarily slim odds; they would have to convince at least 37 Republican electors to join their cause, some of whom would have to break state law to do so. And even in the unlikely event that they succeeded, the decision would then go to the GOP-dominated House of Representatives. You know, the guys who were all sporting red MAGA hats a week ago?

But that doesn’t matter to the electors, who have another motive. They want to begin chipping away at the legitimacy of the Electoral College and set the stage for its eventual abolition.  “I do think that a byproduct would be a serious look into Electoral College reform,” said Micheal Baca, a Colorado elector pushing for rebellion.  Another elector told Politico that chaos was the point......To Read More....

 

How Will Trump Deal With the United Nations?

Patriot News Daily Admin

There’s a piece in the New York Times this weekend about the United Nations and its role in a Donald Trump world. While the article notes some of Trump’s complimentary words about the UN, it also points out some of the areas where the international body and the Trump administration could find themselves at sharp odds:
Sarah F. Cliffe, a former United Nations assistant secretary general […] said she expected a reprise of the tensions that erupted between the United States and the United Nations during the administration of President George W. Bush.
[…]
But Ms. Cliffe said Mr. Trump may also find the United Nations useful.
“He prides himself on making deals,” she said. “The U.N. is the forum where countries make deals in their own national interests but that also does some collective good.”
The Times goes on to note several areas where Trump and the UN may not be able to bridge the gap: climate change, refugees, and the Iran nuclear deal.  On the first, Trump has steadfastly maintained that he does not believe that climate change is a serious threat to the United States. He has called it a hoax, and his early prospects for the incoming administration appear to reflect that view. Trump and many other Republicans have called for the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris agreement......To Read More....
 

What’s the Future for FBI Director James Comey?

Patriot News Daily Admin

At various times throughout the election, FBI Director James Comey found himself the subject of intense criticism from both the Democrats and the Republicans.  Comey, who took the post in 2013, attracted the spotlight in July when he announced the conclusion to the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Speaking in place of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who was forced to all-but-recuse herself from the case after a meeting with Bill Clinton caused an uproar, Comey ripped into Hillary’s “extreme carelessness” before ultimately announcing that she would not face charges.

From that point until late October, Republicans – including Donald Trump – accused Comey of bowing to the pressures of the Obama administration. Pointing to specific crimes that Hillary Clinton indisputably committed, they questioned Comey’s assertion that “no reasonable prosecutor” would indict the former secretary of state. Sources inside the FBI reported that agents were handing in their badges in disgust.  But then came the letter......To Read More....

CNN – The “Compromised News Network”

By Jerry Johnson November 28, 2016

During the 1990s, CNN became known as the “Clinton News Network.”  This was due to the fact that the producers of the 24-hour news channel appeared to be in the tank for Bill Clinton.
No matter what scandal broke, CNN would never ask then President Bill Clinton difficult questions.  In fact, many of their commentators and producers gave him a pass, often making excuses for his poor decisions and bad behavior.

After Bill Clinton left office, many jokingly called the station the “Communist News Network” due to its left wing leanings.  Conservatives were blasted daily by the anchors and commentators while liberal Democrats were painted as the saviors of the world........Because CNN, the Compromised News Network, has proven that it is not a real news outlet.  It is a propaganda machine!.....To Read More...

Embracing Evil: How the Progressive Left Proved its (Im)Moral Hypocrisy

Castro became “the last Communist, railing on the empty, decrepit street corner that Cuba became under his rule.”  Castro “reneged on his promise of free elections, executed thousands imprisoned tens of thousands…and made his isle a pawn in the Cold War.”  Castro “rigidly controlled the arts, the press, the airwaves. [His] efficient secret police force was aided by neighborhood spies and mobs.  Even his daughter said Fidel was “a tyrant–an absolute ruler unrestrained by law.” Senator Ben Sasse quoting the Miami Herald

By Onan Coca

I am a first-generation American. I am the son and grandson of immigrants who arrived on America’s golden shores with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Literally. The liberal outpouring of grief for Fidel Castro is both disgusting and disrespectful to me and to the millions of other Cuban-Americans whose lives were uprooted by the communist strongman today’s liberals seem infatuated with. The man was a Monster in the same vein as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Benito Mussolini, the Khmer Rouge, Idi Amin, and every other dictator whom liberals have pretended to detest. The people of Ireland and Canada, in particular, should be embarrassed at the displays of condolences delivered by their elected leaders. Fidel was not a “controversial” figure — he was a mass murdering oppressor who only cared about himself......To Read More...

4 Categories of Castro Apologetics, and the Anti-Individualism That Knits Them Together

Bad things happen when you wave off cases of individual repression, either home or abroad.

Monday, November 28, 2016

P&D Today!

 

Election Challenge

Science and Global Warming
 
Education
 
Government

The Executive Disorder… is Almost OVER

By A.F. Branco November 27, 2016

590-li

America’s Education System is Broken – it’s Time for “Ed-Exit”!

By Ron Paul

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan recently signed an executive order forbidding Maryland public schools from beginning classes before Labor Day. Governor Hogan’s executive order benefits businesses in Maryland’s coastal areas that lose school-aged summer employees and business from Maryland families when schools start in August. However, as Governor Hogan’s critics have pointed out, some Maryland school districts, as well as Maryland schoolchildren, benefit from an earlier start to the school year.

Governor Hogan’s executive order is the latest example of how centralized government control of education leaves many students behind. A centrally planned education system can no more meet the unique needs of every child than a centrally planned economic system can meet the unique needs of every worker and consumer......To Read More...


Hillary’s Last Gasp

Fred Lucas

The Clinton campaign is officially contesting the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.  Hillary Clinton would have to win a clean sweep of recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in order to overturn the election, and even her team concedes flipping one state is unlikely.   Nevertheless, the Clinton campaign is officially contesting the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. There is no other way to describe joining Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s effort to get recounts in the three states. After the third presidential debate when Trump indicated he might not accept the outcome, Clinton said, “that is a direct threat to our democracy.”   That’s when she thought she would win....... Read More

The Disingenuous Dr. Halderman

By Bruce Heiden

Until a week ago Professor J. Alex Halderman of the University of Michigan was pretty much unknown outside the world of cyber-security, in which he holds a place of distinction as an academic expert on security problems concerning elections in the U.S. and other countries. But this technical expert has put himself on the way to becoming a household name since he reportedly advised the Clinton campaign team that they should request recounts of the presidential balloting in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania because of suspicion that Russia had hacked into their computerized voting systems and affected the outcomes.

Jill Stein’s petition for a recount of the Wisconsin balloting includes an affidavit from Professor Halderman, which Stein cites as the sole “basis of belief” that irregularities occurred in Wisconsin that support her petition for a recount. So what does Professor Halderman say in his affidavit? ..........This point in Halderman’s affidavit is also not supported by any evidentiary exhibits.......Read more

How to Steal an Election in Seven Easy Steps – A Lesson from the Clinton Playbook

By Al Kaltman

Hillary Clinton was clearly devastated by her defeat on November 8. She was in such a state of shock that she was unable to speak to her supporters that night. She had devoted her entire life to achieving one goal—the presidency of the United States. She had suffered countless humiliations from her husband’s womanizing and predatory sexual practices. She had obsequiously served Barack Obama, the man who had dashed her hopes of becoming president in 2008, when a Democratic victory was a sure thing.

Now Donald Trump, a man she despised, had kept her from getting the one thing in life for which she still had a burning desire. She could not allow his election to stand. While the votes were cast on November 8, the election isn’t final until the electors votes are counted before a joint session of Congress on January 6, and the states do not submit the ballots of their electors until December 19.

So between November 8 and January 19, there is plenty of time to steal an election. The last election that was stolen occurred in 1960 when Kennedy became president with the help of dead Chicago voters. As she tossed in her bed that night, Hillary must have wondered if the dead could rise up again and overturn the results of this election. It was time to institute the backup plan. The election wasn’t over—with the Clinton’s it’s never over......To Read More.....

National Geographic asked photographers to show the impact of climate change

Jon Ray @ Greenie Watch

The idea that you could photograph climate change is a considerable absurdity so it should be no great surprise that the results embodied much absurdity.

And equally absurd is the idea that you can support a generalization -- which global warming is -- by selected cases of something. I used to be something of a photographer in my youth and I am quite confident that I could produce a series of shots to "illustrate" just about anything.

For instance, just about everyone seems to have heard that Australia is a "dry" continent.  It is.  Most of it is deserts. But just by wandering around the tropical areas where I was born and bred, I could produce photos of things in Australia that "prove" the opposite: Photos of lush greenery, big rivers, scenic waterfalls and images of dairy cows grazing lush green fields of long grass. Thus I could "prove" that Australia is NOT a dry country.  In fact, however, such a procedure would in fact give precisely wrong results.

Given the feebleness of the presentation, I am not going to attempt to critique it all so I will advert briefly to the text underneath a picture of animals grazing at dusk.


Underneath the picture, the following text occurs:

"These animals have found the secret stash of the orange farmer who dumps the oranges that have fallen from his trees at least seven kilometers away from the orchards to control the breeding of the fruit fly. It is the end of a winter exacerbated by global warming, which makes the season longer and drier and the summer hotter with less rain in an already dry climate"

Which is complete nonsense.  The scene is apparently from somewhere in South Africa and it may be that there was unusually low rainfall there recently. Rainfall varies.  But the low rainfall was NOT due to global warming.  Due to El Nino, there was indeed an unusually warm period globally in late 2015 and early 2016 but why should that cause less rain?  Hot weather evaporates more water off the oceans and that comes down again as rain. Which is why the tropics are wetter than elsewhere. El Nino should have caused MORE rain, not less. Even the most basic physics seems to be unknown to most Warmists.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Observations From the Back Row: Fixing Government, Part II

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. - President Calvin Coolidge

By Rich Kozlovich

Because of all the articles I write or articles written by others I post on my blog, I'm occasionally asked by friends in the pest control industry why I do this and what are my goals. My answer is the same.  Eliminate the EPA! 

On other occasions I've also included eliminating the Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and seriously reduce the Army Corp of Engineers, repeal the 16th and 17th amendments and pass a 28th amendment for term and age limits for the federal judiciary. 

But let's stick to the EPA for now. 

Of course they laugh, but when friends point out I couldn't possibly believe that was going to happen because the EPA was too big and too powerful I point out the Soviet Union collapsed overnight and it was far larger and more powerful than the EPA.  Yet, many still claim it's impossible. 

Impossible?  Really?

A man by the name of Frank Natoli dealt with this "impossibility" argument in a way I found compelling saying: 

"Every problem, the first time you look at it, looks impossible to resolve because it's so big and you can't get your arms around it. The solution, always, is to cut the problem into manageable pieces that you can then progressively correct and/or eliminate. Probably the single largest out control agency with the most deleterious effect on all Americans is the EPA. Fine. Take 90 days to enumerate the dozen most egregious actions the EPA took in the last eight years, reverse them, and put accountability practices in effect that prevent such actions happening again [as long as "the people" put a Trump or Pence in power not an Obama or Clinton]."

"Nothing is impossible when you have the will to do it."

"I recall reading, I believe a book by Robert Sherwood, about the planning that went into the Normandy landings. At first, nobody knew how to do it. At first, it was thought the assault would need to be at night, cause then the Germans couldn't see our guys. So practice assaults were made on the south coast of England in darkness, and every time it was tried, within 15 minutes, nobody knew where anybody else was. So then it was attempted in daylight, and within 15 minutes, half hour at most, everyone was declared by the war game umpires "dead". Then someone came up with the idea of floating in some duplex drive [DD] tanks, to give the guys on the beach a chance against the concrete emplacements with the machine guns and cannon. Now they were surviving an hour, then two. Eventually, combined with bringing destroyers a few hundred yards offshore, they made it all work."

"The EPA is NOTHING compared to Gold, Juno, Sword, Omaha and Utah. Just get it done."



Socialists (aka, liberals, leftists or Democrats) believe the world needs an educated, intelligent non-political class to act as administrators of government policy - with large powers of latitude to make any changes they deem necessary. We need to get this once and for all. Leftist thinking is antithetical to American concepts of government and personal freedom and responsibility. Worse yet - everywhere in the world it's been tried - it's failed.   To accept an administrative state means abandoning the Constitution. After that - why bother with elections?

Fixing the government by eliminating whole departments, bureaus and agencies is just a matter of persistence and determination.

Just get it done!

More bad pension news for California cities.

American Spectator

California’s pension funds continue to face a fusillade of bad news, including new reports showing that retirement benefits consume 20 percent of Los Angeles’ general-fund budget. Put another way, one out of every five dollars the city spends goes to a retired city worker, a percentage that has quadrupled in the past 14 years. That’s an astounding number that is crowding out other public services. Things are even more troubling in San Jose, where pensions and retiree health care now consume nearly 28 percent of the budget........This is what happens when the lunatics run the asylum, or at least when those who benefit from certain policies (government workers) elect their own bosses...........Unless something dramatic happens, cities like Los Angeles will continue to fall into deep disrepair, pension debts will soar, and taxes will rise. The only solution — a devoted effort to confront public-employee unions — is an impossibility given union power in the Capitol. There’s little question the bad news will continue........To Read More...

Leftists and Their War of the Words!

By Rich Kozlovich

Peter Skurkiss posted a article entitled, Reliving the bloodiest battles in the War on Language, and takes note of an article by Beth Reinhard appearing in The Wall Street Journal entitled "Abortion Battle Set to Rage Anew", pointing out "the wording in the story that might be a harbinger of things to come."  Why?  What happened?  It's simple - the author called promoters of abortion "pro-abortion".

That is - in my opinion - a major tectonic shift. 

The left has consistently tried to hide what they do by holding language hostage in the newsrooms of the mainstream media - both print and electronic.  That hostage is now being released.  Why?

The author opines it might be because of the way Donald Trump exposed the media for "the hollowness of political correctness during his presidential campaign" with his direct attacks on these political operatives masquerading as journalists.  That was a violation of all the rules regarding how to win an election - and then turned around and won!  That puts all the main stream media on the spot because if Trump can call things as they are and win - why can't the rest of society call things as they truly are - and change the nation?   And the Internet is now the king of news.

In February of 2015 I posted this article, "Who Reads Blogs?", saying:
For the most part – I don’t have a clue, but I do believe many of my regular readers are what’s called “Quality Readers”. ......“Blogads surveyed 17,159 blog site visitors during a two-day period in May, inquiring about their age, income, media consumption, online spending habits and political affiliations. The survey learned that 61 percent of blog readers were more than 30 years old and nearly 40 percent of those surveyed have a household income of $90,000 or more. “ 
Though one would think the younger generation would be perusing blogs day and night, 30 percent are between 31 and 40, while more than 37 percent are 41 to 60. Only 17 percent of blog readers fall between 25 and 30 years, while a mere 10.3 percent are 19 to 24-years old. The study found that nearly 80 percent of readers are male.”  
So what is it that attracts these people?  Especially since we now know – absolutely know –these aren’t “fringe” people. It turns out nearly “80 percent read blogs because they offer news they can't find elsewhere. About 78 percent say blogs give them a better perspective, and about 66 percent say blogs provide them with news faster than other sites or media. The study found that blog readers are media hungry….”
For years we've heard the pro-abortionists called pro-choice, and the anti-abortionists pro-life.  Both are misnomers, both are intended to fool the public. Furthermore the term pro-life was used by the left to claim hypocrisy on the part of anti-abortion proponents. How?

So-called pro-life people are usually supportive of the death penalty, so that gave the left the hammer they desired to beat them by calling them hypocrites.  In reality anti-abortion groups are not pro-life they anti-murder groups, and abortion is murder.  They want to save the innocent lives of the unborn but are more than willing to execute the guilty lives of murderers.  Whereas the so-called pro-choicers all are for the murdering the innocent unborn while saving criminals who've been tried and found guilty of heinous acts.

The author goes on to say:  "To refer to a candidate or some organization as "pro-abortion" would invoke howls of protest from the likes of Planned Parenthood, the Democratic establishment, and the mainstream media, causing a retraction." Why? Because by calling abortionists pro-abortion exposes them for who they really are.  Murderers of the unborn!

If we're going to change the meanings of words lets make it what it is - infanticide.  Infanticide is defined as "the crime of killing a child within a year of birth".  If we're going to change the meanings of words let make changes that clarify what's happening - abortion is infanticide.

Blue state, red state - why are the Republican - supposedly conservative states - called red states, and why are the Democratic - clearly communist states - called blue states?  In day's gone by Red was the color of communists. How did that change, who did it and why? As in all things with the media - it wasn't an accident and it was clearly .......watch out now here it comes ..... a conspiracy.

This started during the 2000 election with Tim Russert, who before his elevation to media stardom was the chief of staff to Senator Daniel Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and council to liberal Democrat Gov. Mario Cuomo. It was from this liberal echo chamber of head nodders that Russert was hired by NBC.

The author notes: "Clearly, Tim Russert was one of many Democrat operatives posing as journalists.  Another noticeable one is - George Stephanopoulos, a senior adviser in the Clinton administration now embedded in ABC as a top "journalist."

He goes on to say: "Russert and those in the liberal media knew exactly what they were doing when they mislabeled the coloring of states. But the conservative intellectual class didn't seem to."  (Side bar: I noticed! RK)

"They swallowed this distortion with nary a complaint. Conservative publications, one after another, complied with the red state-blue state model as if a law had been passed on the matter. Why? Is their excuse that they didn't want to confuse their readers?  Somewhat more plausible, but still not excusable, is that in 2000, the conservative media, what with the Internet and talk radio, might not have been as strong as it is today."

There are a host of examples of the left convoluting language to promote their latest philosophical flavor of the day, but at this point liberals (aka, leftists, socialists,  which includes fascists and communists) are losing control of the news.  Society is now aware that "the public dialogue is polluted with their distorted, self-serving language", and, as the author points out - the conservative media needs to stop "taking direction" from them and needs to start calling them out. 

This is the time.

After Trump University, Why Not Sue All Colleges?

By Brian C. Joondeph

Trump’s entrepreneurial ventures, a real estate educational program in operation from 2005 to 2010. Live events and in-field mentorships promising to teach students Donald Trump’s real estate techniques, taught by his “hand-picked” professors. A lawsuit alleged false representations, as Trump himself had no significant involvement in the educational event content or instructors. The title of “university” was also claimed to be misleading as Trump University was not accredited as such.........
Looking closer at the complaints against Trump University, the primary allegation is fraud.

According to students and instructors, “Some of whom described the program as a scheme to cheat customers out of thousands of dollars.” Also high pressure tactics, “Tapping into the roller coaster of emotions to get students to sign up.”

Let’s compare all of this to “real universities” and colleges and other institutions of higher learning across the US. Counting both two and four year institutions, public and private, just over 4700 such institutions dot the US landscape......Read more

Praise for a Communist Murderer from a Rogue’s Gallery of Politicians

November 26, 2016 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

Do politicians celebrate the life of Osama bin Laden? Or fondly remember the supposed contributions of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Workers Party? Or wax poetic about the memory of Pol Pot?

 
Maybe in some backwater of the third world, but no politician from a civilized nation would be remotely tempted to say anything nice about these evil people.

So why, then, are some of these clowns falling all over themselves to lionize one of the world’s worst people, the former communist dictator of Cuba? Why would any sentient adult say anything nice about Fidel Castro, a vicious and brutal tyrant who imposed such hardship on his people?

Yet there are people with this perverse degree of moral blindness. Including the head of the European Commission......To Read More....

Former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is dead - Actually, Castro was just another Latin American thug who came to power promising heaven and ended up creating a communist hell from which millions sought to escape.  But he became the darling of the left when he thumbed his nose at the United States. More

American media reacts to Castro's death - It's too much to ask liberals to open their eyes to the reality of who this murderous thug really was. More

Fidel Castro dies (Okay, you may smile just a little!) - The pop icon of bloodthirsty killers, drowner of desperate would-be escapees from his panacea of socialized medicine, and all-around authoritarian power-mongering cigar aficionado has finally gone to meet his...well, no one.  Worms.  Decay. More

A very hot place awaits Fidel - First, I recall the morning Batista fled and the expectations.  My mother serving us breakfast and my father on the phone talking about the future of Cuba.  More

Cuban Strongman Fidel Castro Dies - Cuba’s former dictator Fidel Castro has died, his brother and successor Raúl Castro said on national television late Friday, sparking mourning among some Cubans and celebration among exiles that fled his regime.  “With profound pain I am here to tell our people, our friends in the Americas, and the world that today…at 10:29 at night our commander in chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, passed away,” President Raúl Castro said in the broadcast ........

Fidel Castro’s Communist Example - He turned a developing Cuba into an impoverished prison. Fidel Castro’s legacy of 57 years in power is best understood by the fates of two groups of his countrymen—those who remained in Cuba and suffered impoverishment and dictatorship, and those who were lucky or brave enough to flee to America to make their way in freedom. No progressive nostalgia after his death Friday at age 90 should disguise this murderous and tragic record.  Castro took power on New Year’s Day in 1959 serenaded by the Western media for toppling dictator Fulgencio Batista and promising democracy. He soon revealed that his goal was to impose Communist rule. He exiled clergy, took over Catholic schools and expropriated businesses. Firing squads and dungeons eliminated rivals and dissenters........


Fidel Castro: Death-dodger - The mass murderer the left is lauding this week had a knack for getting his chestnuts pulled out of the fire. More

Enemies of Language

by Victor Davis Hanson

What would happen if conservatives started to change the words we use for political ends? Throughout history, revolutionaries of all stripes have warped the meaning of words to subvert reality. And now here we go again, with another effort — spearheaded by the media and universities — to use any linguistic means necessary to achieve political ends. “Sanctuary city” is a euphemism for the local and state nullification of federal law — a subversive tactic that dates back to the nullification crises during the Andrew Jackson administration and, later, in the years leading up to the Civil War.........

Campus “safe space” is another vocabulary distortion. Such places are often set-aside spots that actually discriminate on the basis of race or gender......college “theme houses” often admit residents on the basis of segregation by ethnicity or race........

“Microaggression” is certainly not aggression as usually defined. Instead, the term seeks to stifle free expression on the principle that one can still be dubbed a racist or sexist by saying something that normally would not offend anyone — at least not without arcane academic inventions of bias.....

“Trigger warning”..... this one-sided term only applies to material — from Roman elegiac poetry to the works of Mark Twain — deemed potentially hurtful or unfair by 21st century progressive standards of race, class, and gender. No one on campus is given a trigger warning before reading the left-wing manifestos of Eldridge Cleaver or Malcolm X, despite their calls for violence.........Read more

 

Five stages of climate grief

President Trump could help – and force climate alarmists to answer questions they’ve ignored

Paul Driessen

Ever since the elections, our media, schools, workplaces and houses of worship have presented stories showcasing the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

Liberal-progressive snowflakes are wallowing in denial, anger and depression. They cannot work, attend class or take exams. They need safe “healing” spaces, Play-Doh, comfort critters and counseling. Too many throw tirades equating Donald Trump with Adolph Hitler, while too few are actually moving to Canada, New Zeeland or Jupiter, after solemnly promising they would.

Nouveau grief is also characterized by the elimination of bargaining and acceptance – and their replacement by two new stages: intolerance for other views and defiance or even riots. Sadly, it appears these new stages have become a dominant, permanent, shameful feature of liberal policies and politics.

The Left has long been intolerant of alternative viewpoints. Refusing to engage or debate, banning or forcibly removing books and posters, threatening and silencing contrarians, disinviting or shouting down conservative speakers, denying tax exempt status to opposing political groups, even criminalizing and prosecuting climate change “deniers” – have all become trademark tactics. Defiance and riots were rare during the Obama years, simply because his government enforced lib-prog ideologies and policies.

Liberals view government as their domain, their reason for being, far too important to be left to “poorly educated” rural and small-town voters, blue-collar workers or other “deplorable” elements. Liberals may not care what we do in our bedrooms, but they intend to control everything outside those four walls.

They are aghast that over 90% of all US counties and county equivalents voted for Trump. They’re incensed that President Trump and Republicans in Congress, 33 governor’s offices and 69 of 99 state legislatures nationwide will likely review and reform policies, laws and regulations on a host of issues.

Above all, they are outraged over what might happen to their “dangerous manmade climate change” mantra. It was supposed to be their ticket to endless extravaganzas at 5-star venues in exotic locales – their trump card for controlling the world’s energy, economy, livelihoods and living standards.

That is why they demand that only their “facts” be heard on the “consensus science” supporting policies they say are essential to prevent a “disastrous” 2º C (3.6º F) rise from 1850 levels, when the Little Ice Age ended (and the modern industrial era began). It’s why the Paris climate agreement tells developed nations to keep fossil fuels in the ground, roll back their economies and reduce their living standards – while giving $100 billion per year to poor countries for climate mitigation and reparation.

That, in turn, is why developing countries eagerly signed the Paris accord, bringing it into force and effect just before this year’s climate confab in Marrakech. They would not be required to reduce their fossil fuel use or greenhouse gas emissions. And they – or at least their governing classes – would receive trillions of dollars over the coming decades. Countless thousands were thus in jolly spirits as they flew giant fuel-guzzling, GHG-spewing jetliners into Morocco for the historic event.

But then, on the third day, news of the US elections brought misery and mayhem to Marrakech. Event organizers had tolerated credentialed Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow representatives handing out Climate Hustle DVDs and discussing Real World climate science and energy development. But when CFACT erected a Donald Trump cutout and shredded a copy of the Paris accord, they sent armed police to forcibly end the educational event and boot the impudent non-believers out of the hallowed conference.

Marrakech may have marked the zenith of the religious-political climate movement. President-Elect Trump has long held that there is likely “some connectivity” between human actions and the climate – but he has also said it is a “hoax” to say humans are now causing catastrophic global warming and climate change. He also says he has an “open mind” on the issue and will be studying it “very closely.”

Here are a few important facts and probing questions that he could raise, to get the ball rolling.

1) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was formed to detect and assess possible human influences on global climate systems, amid many natural forces. However, it soon began looking only at human influences. Now it claims warming, cooling and weather are driven only by human emissions. How and why did this happen? How can alarmists ignore the powerful natural forces, focus solely on air emissions associated with fossil fuel use – and call it solid, honest, empirical, consensus science?

2) Your “manmade climate chaos” thesis – and computer models that support it – implicitly assume that fossil fuel emissions and feedbacks they generate have replaced numerous powerful natural forces that have driven climate cycles and extreme weather events throughout Earth and human history. What caused the ice ages and interglacial periods, Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age, Anasazi and Mayan droughts, and other major climate and weather events – before fossil fuel emissions took over?

Where did all those natural forces go? Why are they no longer functioning? Who stole them? When did they stop ruling the climate: in 1850, 1900, 1950 … or perhaps 1990, after the IPCC was established?

3) You claim climate and weather patterns are already “unprecedented” and increasingly cataclysmic. But even as plant-fertilizing CO2 levels continue to climb, average global temperatures have risen barely 0.1 degrees the past two decades, amid a major El Niño. Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are growing at record rates. Seas are rising at barely seven inches per century. It has now been a record eleven years since a category 3-5 hurricane struck the US mainland; the previous record was nine years, 1860 to 1869. The 2016 US tornado count was the lowest on record. Where are the unprecedented cataclysms?

4) Your computer models begin with the assumption or assertion that increasing levels of carbon dioxide will cause rapidly, dangerously rising global temperatures, and more extreme weather events. But if this assumption is wrong, so are your models, projections and scenarios. It’s garbage in / garbage out. And in fact your models have been wrong – dramatically and consistently, year after year. When will you fix them? When will they factor in data and analyses for solar, cosmic ray, oceanic and other natural forces?

5) The manmade climate cataclysm community has refused to discuss or debate its data, methodologies, analyses and conclusions with those whom you call “skeptics” or “deniers.” 97% consensus, case closed, you say. What do you fear from open, robust debate? What manipulated data or other tricks are you trying to hide? Why are you afraid to put your cards on the table, lay out your supposed evidence – and duke it out? Do you really think taxpayers should give you one more dime under these circumstances?

6) The FDA and other federal agencies require that applications for drugs, medical devices and permits for projects include extensive raw data, lab and project methodologies, and other information. Your modeling and other work is largely paid for with taxpayer money, and used to determine public policies. Why should you be allowed to hide your data and methodologies, treat them as proprietary, refuse to share them with Congress or “realist” scientists, and refuse to engage in a full peer-review process?

7) EPA’s “social cost of carbon” scheme blames everything imaginable on fossil fuels – but totally ignores the huge benefits of using these fuels. Isn’t that misleading, disingenuous, even fraudulent?

8) America already produces more ethanol than it can use. Now EPA wants another 1.2 billion gallons blended into our gasoline. Why should we do this – considering the land, water, environmental, CO2, fuel efficiency and other costs, rampant fraud in the RIN program, and impacts on small refiners? If we replace all fossil fuels with biofuels, how much land, water, fertilizer and energy would that require?

9) Wind turbines are land intensive, heavily subsidized and exempted from most environmental rules. They kill millions of birds and bats. Their electricity is expensive and unreliable, and requires fossil fuel backup generators. Why should this industry be exempted from endangered species laws – and allowed to conduct bogus mortality studies, and prevent independent investigators from reviewing the work?

Mr. Trump, keep an open mind. But keep exercising due diligence. Trust, but verify. And fire anyone who lies or refuses to answer, or provides the climate equivalent of shoddy work and substandard concrete.

Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org), and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death and other books on the environment.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Man-caused Global Warming: The Greatest Scam in World History

Heartland Institute Science Director Jay Lehr was a featured speaker at the pre-election “Freedom Summit” in Chicago put on by local radio station AM 560 The Answer. In a packed room of nearly 200 conservative activists, Lehr explained how the media and “scientific community” collaborate to misinform the public on the shaky hypothesis that human activity – specifically the emission of carbon dioxide – is causing catastrophic climate change.


Best of the worst: Austin debt totals $3,000 per household

By   November 22, 2016 @ Texas Watchdog
 
Austin’s reputation for big government spending took a bit of a hit in a new report showing it has the lowest taxpayer debt of any large Texas city.

Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, El Paso and San Antonio all carry proportionately higher debt loads, according to Truth in Accounting, a nonpartisan think tank that analyzes public-sector financials.
Among America’s 20 largest cities, Austin had the fourth-lowest taxpayer burden.

Though Austin looks weirdly good by comparison, TIA says the city is no model of fiscal restraint.
Factoring in all pledged liabilities, TIA found that Austin has not fully funded $1.3 billion in city pension payments and has no funding earmarked for $1.4 billion in retiree health-care benefits.

“The amount of Austin’s unfunded liabilities is troubling and I encourage Mayor Steve Adler and his administration to address the situation,” said TIA founder and CEO Sheila Weinberg. “If action isn’t taken, future taxpayers will have to pay for these obligations without receiving any corresponding benefits.”

When all unfunded liabilities are included, Austin’s total debt amounts to $789.3 million after available assets are deducted. The debt works out to $3,000 for each household in Texas’ capital city.
Residents in other Texas cities are on the hook for even more, according to TIA’s net debt computations:

San Antonio — $1.2 billion, or $3,300 per taxpayer.
El Paso — $722 million, or $3,700 per taxpayer.
Fort Worth — $2.3 billion, or $9,700 per taxpayer.
Houston — $7.6 billion, or $11,700 per taxpayer.
Dallas — $6.2 billion, or $16,900 per taxpayer.

Dallas’ taxpayer burden – which TIA called “staggering” – was the nation’s fourth highest. The three worst were New York ($61,000 debt per taxpayer), Chicago ($44,000) and Philadelphia ($27,500).
Dallas, Houston and El Paso — like Austin — set aside no money for retiree health care. Fort Worth’s health-care program is funded at just 7 percent; San Antonio at 40 percent.

The TIA debt calculations are conservative, as they do not include municipal bond debt that is tied to fixed assets.

“Considering that there are balanced-budget requirements, these [debt] numbers should be zero,” Weinberg told Watchdog.org in an interview.

Austin officials did not respond to Watchdog.org’s request for comment.

Weinberg noted that municipal budgets are “convoluted and hard to follow. It’s a huge shell game,” she said.

“Municipal accountants need to clean up their accounting methods and acknowledge the true city debt,” Weinberg advised.

TIA said taxpayer burden is “more than just a number.”

“It can be linked to a lower quality of life, poor highway systems and slow home price recovery,” the study concluded.

Kenric Ward reports for the Texas Bureau of Watchdog.org. Contact him at kward@watchdog.org and follow him on Twitter @Kenricward
                                          Click here to LEARN HOW TO STEAL OUR STUFF!
 
 is the San Antonio-based reporter for Watchdog.org. A California native and veteran journalist who has worked on three Pulitzer Prize-winning newspapers, he received a BA from UCLA (Political Science/Phi Beta Kappa) and holds an MBA. He reported and edited at the San Jose Mercury News and the Las Vegas Sun before joining Watchdog.org in 2012 and previously reported from Virginia. Kenric can be reached at kward@watchdog.org.
 
 

Family asks Florida high court to lift bird ban on their private property

By   /   November 22, 2016  /   News  /   31 Comments @ Florida Watchdog
 
A Florida family is looking to the state Supreme Court to resolve a decades-old property rights dispute that’s gone to the birds — literally.

In 1970, Tom and Molly Beyer purchased a 9-acre island in the Florida Keys for $70,000. The property was intended to be a legacy investment for the couple’s children. Despite development zoning, local officials eventually blocked the Beyers from building on it through a series of land use restrictions.

First, they could only develop one home per acre. Then, one home per 10 acres. Finally, Monroe County officials designated the vacant investment property a bird rookery, effectively banning all future development.

“This case is about an uncompensated property grab — literally, an unconstitutional island grab,” said Mark Miller, managing attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Florida-based Atlantic Center.

“The island has been seized from the Beyers in all but name,” he said.

The couple passed away during the past twenty years of legal battles to reclaim the use of their land, and their children have since taken up the family cause. They’ve enlisted the help of the the nonprofit public interest law firm that specializes in property rights and a “balanced approach to environmental regulations,” according to its website.

Miller filed an opening brief with the Florida Supreme Court earlier this month to appeal the Third District Court of Appeal’s previous ruling, which sided with the city of Marathon against the Beyers.
The high court asked to hear the challenge but has yet to officially take up the case.

The Third District held that the city met its constitutional obligations to offer “just compensation” for the land through a local Rate of Growth Ordinance (ROGO) program. Under the scheme, points are awarded toward the purchase of development permits in city approved areas.

A trial court beneath the Third District also approved the compensation gesture as satisfying the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause that prohibits the government from taking private property without payment.

In 2005, a city land official known as the Beneficial Use Special Master awarded the Beyers 16 ROGO points after denying their initial appeal to lift the bird rookery designation.

Miller says the points, or credits, aren’t a “tangible payment,” and don’t come close to a fair arrangement.

“At best, they amount to guesswork about possible development at some undetermined time in some unidentified place,” he said.

According to the brief, evidence presented during the Special Master proceeding showed that the rookery reclassification had diminished the value of the property by 98.7 percent.

What’s more, the family has been required to pay taxes on the property since its purchase.

“Although the city is oh-so-generously allowing the family to continue paying taxes on their island property, and to retain all the liabilities that come with property ownership, bureaucrats have commandeered the actual use of it for purposes of their own choosing,” Miller said.

If the state Supreme Court decides not to take up the case, Miller said he’s prepared to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. His firm is representing the Beyer family at no charge.
 
 is Watchdog.org’s Florida reporter. His work has been featured on Fox News and the Drudge Report, among other national sites. He’s also been cited and reposted by numerous statewide news organizations.  wpatrick@watchdog.org
 

The Stealthy Gallium War

By Stephen Bryen @ Amercian Center for Democracy

War is going on over special integrated circuits based on a material called Gallium Nitrite. Winning this war will effect not only the United States national security, but also its ability to protect key global partners in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Unfortunately the battle for Gallium Nitrite is very complicated, because the material has extensive commercial as well as military application.

But perhaps the single most important use for Gallium Nitrite is for detecting stealth aircraft and defeating long range weapons including so-called Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles launched from aircraft.

The United States is totally committed to stealth as the game changing technology of the present and future.  So deeply is the United States committed, that the only air superiority multi-mission aircraft being produced today is the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).  The JSF is hugely costly and less stealthy than its big brother the F-22, but the F-22 was sacrificed so the JSF program could be financed, so mostly everything going forward hangs on this single airplane.

Stealth is a technology that effectively hides the radar signature of an aircraft, UAV or missile.  When a radar sends out a beam and scans the horizon, it is looking for an object to return a signal back to the radar.  Today radars are increasingly smart and the most advanced type are called AESA, for Active Electronically Scanned Array radar.  Instead of moving parts, AESA radars move their beam based on computer logic, not mechanics; and because of the special transmit and receive elements these radars can simultaneously track many targets.

Today's stealth technology optimizes an aircraft, UAV or missile to make it hard to detect by radar, even sophisticated AESA.  Most air defense radars, include those on airplanes, are primarily operating on what is called X band.  These are radars that operate in the 8 to 12 gigahertz frequency range.  Stealthy aircraft are engineered to deflect radar interrogations in this frequency range.
 
There are other means to detect stealthy platforms including VHF and radars in different frequencies, particularly L Band.  L Band is still missing some technology to make it a good performer against stealth platforms.  Perhaps most importantly, L Band transceivers need more power and more cooling to do their job, making it tricky to get them squeezed into an aircraft.

But the Russians are squeezing them in, building L Band detectors into the wings of its latest aircraft, particularly the still-developmental Sukhoi PAK T-50, which is planned to be about as stealthy as the JSF.  The L Band radar is in the leading edge of the fighter's wing.  It is an AESA radar that is under development by Tikhomirov NIIP, Russia's leading radar house located about twenty five miles from Moscow.  If the Russians are successful there are potentially dramatic consequences: their newest fighters will be able to detect US stealth aircraft (F-22, F-35), jam their weapons and their radar, and close in for a kill.  In short, the Russians could have the potential to blow out the US stealth program.  The secret sauce the Russians need to get there are a new generation of Transmit and Receive modules based on Gallium Nitrite technology.  op US defense contractors, including Raytheon and Northrop, are deeply involved in Gallium Nitrite, as are companies such as Selex in Europe.  So, too, are developers elsewhere working the same problem, especially China.

China and Russia, while not always comfortable in sharing technology, cooperate.  It is a major concern in Washington where a special committee in the Pentagon, known as the Low Observable-Counter Low Observable Committee that monitors stealth and applications that use this technology such as night vision, electro-optical sensors  and radars.  The Lo-Clo committee is a Tri-Service agency.  It recently is said to have intervened to help block the sale to China of a Germany-based company  that builds sophisticated coating technology equipment enabling Gallium Nitrite military applications.
 
But this is not nearly the only concern. The spread of Gallium Nitrite technology is already mostly out of control, because products based on this technology are revolutionary. Gallium Nitrite's main benefit is that transistors and devices made with this material can carry out very rapid switching, at very high power while generating very little heat. Silicon based devices, on the contrary, generate a lot of heat and cannot handle high power without cooling systems. And silicon based devices cannot switch at the speed of Gallium Nitrite transistors. Where silicon can work in gigahertz, Gallium Nitrite can work in terahertz. This has a huge impact in imaging, sensing and communications, even the ability to rapidly detect explosives or scan persons at airports (in high resolution).

Applied to huge data centers such as those run by Microsoft and Google, that eat up 2% of America's electrical power, this new technology could cut power use dramatically. It is a transformative technology also for electric cars, making them viable without having to keep pushing the envelope on batteries. New types of electric motors and far better power inverters could change the automotive landscape in the next twenty years. The intersection of commercial and military technology is quite obvious, and the ability to separate them (if such an ability exists at all) is completely unchartered. Thus the Pentagon effort to try and knock off a Chinese purchase of a sensitive company that manufactures enabling technology for Gallium Nitrite fabrication, is a small step and, perhaps an inadequate one in taming this new beast. In the real world it may be that much of the technology is already lost

Consider the case, exposed by the Financial Times, of a young engineer named Shane Todd.  Todd worked for IME in Singapore. Located in Singapore's Science Part #2, the Institute of Micro Electronics is a state technology development organization that "aims to enhance the value-add of the microelectronics industry in Singapore by undertaking core R&D in microelectronics, supporting the R&D needs in the industry and developing skilled R&D personnel." Todd was working on a project to develop a Gallium Nitrite based amplifier device "able to withstand extreme heat and power levels."  The IME partner for this project was Huawei.

Huawei is a sensitive subject in the US intelligence community. "U.S. lawmakers and regulators have blocked Huawei from three proposed acquisitions and many more partnerships over the past decade." While Huawei is a big mobile phone provider, the company also manufactures and sells advanced switching equipment and microwave devices.  US intelligence also believes it feeds intercepted information to the Chinese military and supports the Chinese military with advanced electronics..

Shane Todd  was concerned about the work he was doing with IME and Huawei, and the interference he was running with a US Gallium Nitrite technology company, sensing that he was violating US national security rules.  This, the FT reported,he told his parents who were speaking with Todd over a Skype connection from Singapore. Skype is, as many know, far from secure.

Todd also told his parents that he had secured a new job in the United States and was leaving IME. But, in June 2012 (date uncertain) Todd was found dead in his apartment in Singapore. Wikipedia says his death was under "disputed circumstances." The belated Singapore investigation said that it was a suicide; the parents question that assessment. The US Embassy in Singapore proposed bringing the FBI into the police investigation; the request was refused.The matter of Dr. Shane Todd's death, and the possible linkages to American companies may still be an open matter as far as the US government is concerned. But the fact that the story is connected to Gallium Nitrite and its extreme national security importance, is what makes the story compelling and, at least in the eyes of his family, unresolved.

* Dr. Stephen Bryen was the founder and first Director of the Defense Technology Security Administration. * This article has been posted on Bryen's Blog on November 21,