Headline and picture courtesy of The New York Post:
Monthly Archives: June 2023
Do Parents Have The Right To Raise Their Children?
On Tuesday, The Gateway Pundit reported the following:
Three school districts in the state of New Jersey require parental notification if a child begins transitioning their gender. As a result, they are being sued by the state.
This is outrageous and shows that concerned parents who have been showing up at school board meetings in recent years had every right to be worried about where things are going.
Imagine such a monumental thing happening to your child and the school you fund with your tax dollars hiding it from you.
The article quotes The College Fix:
The state of New Jersey is suing three school districts that require parents be notified “when gender-nonconforming students wish to change their names, be called by new pronouns, or request other accommodations.”
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin filed civil rights complaints against the Middletown Township, Marlboro Township and Manalapan-Englishtown Regional districts this past week, mere hours after the districts had approved the policies.
The College Fix notes the discrepancy in this policy:
Platkin said in a statement that the state “will not tolerate any action by schools that threatens the health and safety” of children. He called the districts’ policies “discriminatory” and said they were a “severe risk” to trans and non-binary students.
Five years ago the New Jersey Department of Education issued regulations making gender-based decisions dependent upon students, not parents. New Jersey and federal law “require schools to ensure a safe and supportive environment for transgender students.”
If a student wants a Tylenol for a headache, however, his/her parent must be notified.
If a child wants to get his/her ears pierced before the age of 16, a parent’s permission is needed. Why are we letting schools encourage drugs or surgery that result in major physical changes to the students without notifying the student’s parents?
The Slippery Slope
On Thursday, The New York Post reported that doctors in the Netherlands are euthanizing patients with autism or other intellectual disabilities.
The article reports:
Nearly 40 people who identified as autistic or intellectually disabled were legally euthanized in the Netherlands between 2012 and 2021, according to a Kingston University investigation of Dutch euthanasia cases.
Five people younger than 30 who were killed at their own request cited autism as the sole or a major reason for their decision to end their lives, the UK study found.
With those cases, experts have questioned whether the law allowing doctors to kill suicidal patients via lethal injections has strayed too far from its initial intentions when passed in 2002.
Kasper Raus, an ethicist and public health professor at Belgium’s Ghent University, said the types of patients seeking out physician-assisted suicide have changed greatly over the past two decades in both the Netherlands and Belgium, where it is also legal.
The article notes:
In the roughly 10-year period the study focused on, nearly 60,000 people decided to die via euthanasia in the Netherlands, according to the Dutch government’s euthanasia review committee. Of those deaths, the committee has released documents and data on 900 cases in an effort of transparency.
Kingston University researchers looked at those 900 cases and found 39 of them had autism or an intellectual disability. Of the 39, 18 were younger than 50 years old.
Many of the patients cited a number of mental, physical and age-related ailments as the reason for ending their lives — including unbearable loneliness.
Eight people, however, named the sole cause of their suffering as factors related to their intellectual disability — such as social isolation, a lack of coping strategies, an inability to adjust to change or oversensitivity to stimuli.
The article concludes:
Dutch psychiatrist Dr. Bram Sizzo was disturbed by the trend.
“Some of them are almost excited at the prospect of death,” Sizoo said. “They think this will be the end of their problems and the end of their family’s problems.”
In a third of cases, Dutch doctors determined that there was “no prospect of improvement” for people with autism and intellectual disabilities, according to the study.
The director of Cambridge University’s Autism Research Centre, Simon Baron-Cohen, worried that people with such disabilities may not fully grasp the decision to end their lives. He called it “abhorrent” that they were not offered more support and were instead euthanized.
Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is disturbing. It is reminiscent of the road that Hitler marched down that ended with the killing of Jew.
The Different Reactions Tell Us All We Need To Know
The Supreme Court today announced a decision that struck down the consideration of race in college admissions. The contrast between President Trump’s reaction and President Biden’s reaction is stark.
On Thursday, Breitbart reported:
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday applauded the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the consideration of race in college admissions.
Trump issued a statement making clear his delight. He said:
This is a great day for America. People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our country, are finally being rewarded. This is the ruling everyone was waiting and hoping for and the result was amazing. It will also keep us competitive with the rest of the world.
Our greatest minds must be cherished and that’s what this wonderful day has brought. We’re going back to all merit-based—and that’s the way it should be!
As Breitbart News reported, racial preferences in college admissions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, the Supreme Court decided in a historic decision with profound implications for racial preferences in many areas of law and public policy.
On Thursday, Breitbart posted another article highlighting President Biden’s reaction to the ruling.
The second article reports:
President Joe Biden slammed the U.S. Supreme Court for its decision striking down racial preferences in college admissions on Thursday, declaring in the White House: “This is not a normal court.”
Biden scheduled a press event to react to the decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, in which a group representing Asian-American students sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina over their affirmative action programs. The court struck down racial preferences in college admissions that could not meet the “strict scrutiny” standards of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.
Biden slammed the decision, saying that it interfered with colleges’ discretion over how best to achieve diversity within their student bodies — presuming that “diversity,” not excellence, is the purpose of college admissions.
He proposed an alternative standard for admission, an “adversity” standard that would examine an applicant’s socioeconomic circumstances and the difficulties they had to overcome to qualify for college. All applicants, he said, that met the academic standards for admission should then be measured by the “adversity” they had experienced. He did not explain how “adversity” might be an unconstitutional proxy for racial criteria.
This is such gobbledygook. There are children throughout America that are not getting the education they need–mostly in our public schools, which have placed more emphasis on diversity than achievement. The success of the Asian community in America is a result of their work ethic. If other ethnic groups would acquire that work ethic, they would be accepted at elite schools at the same rate as the Asian students. It’s not about race–it’s about the effort put forth. As one example, Ben Carson was not someone whose circumstances were ideal for success, but the love of reading instilled in him by his mother made all the difference. It’s not the race–it’s the culture.
From my friends at Townhall:
Living In A Really Bad B Movie
For what it is worth, I believe that the Democrat plan is to remove President Biden from office some time before the end of summer and put their preferred 2024 candidate in as Vice-President. The deep state has played this game before. That is how the Republicans got President Ford. I have no idea what the details of the plan are, but I feel as if we are trapped in a really bad B-Movie that is being totally orchestrated behind the scenes.
On Wednesday, The U.K. Daily Mail reported the following:
IRS whistleblower says he was STOPPED from pursuing leads into ‘big guy’ Joe in the Hunter investigation
- IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley claimed Hunter did receive special treatment
- Said he was prevented from taking routine steps in probe into president’s son
- House Republicans released more WhatsApp messages Tuesday between Hunter Biden and a Chinese business associate
All of the information we are hearing now about the millions of dollars flowing into the Biden family from overseas is not new. I am sure Washington insiders have been aware of it for decades. It was kept quiet in order to elect Joe Biden to carry out President Obama’s third term. Hillary Clinton was supposed to do that, but the vote manipulators underestimated the popularity of President Trump.
There is a quote that has never been denied that is in a book written by Donna Brazile.
This is the quote from election night 2016:
According to Bill Still’s source — an unnamed “NBC associate producer of the forum” — Hillary was so enraged that, after the forum, she went into a ballistic melt-down, screaming at her staff, including a racist rant at Donna Brazile, calling Brazile a “buffalo” and “janitor”. Brazile recently turned against Hillary — now we know why.
…She screamed she’d get that f**king Lauer fired for this. Referring to Donald Trump, Clinton said, ‘If that f**king b***ard wins, we all hang from nooses! Lauer’s finished, and if I lose, it’s all on your heads for screwing this up.’
You don’t generally hang from a noose after you lose an election (at least no so far in America). What did she mean by that, and isn’t it time someone looked into it?
At What Point Do You Declare Elder Abuse?
On Wednesday, Fox News posted an article about some recent comments by President Biden. Either his mental capacities are totally failing or he is punking all of us. I tend to think it’s the first option.
The article reports:
President Biden faced criticism on social media Wednesday over an apparent gaffe when he claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently “losing the war in Iraq.”
“It’s hard to tell, but he’s clearly losing the war in Iraq,” Biden told a reporter outside the White House on Wednesday when asked “to what extent” Putin has been weakened by recent events in Russia, including a reported attempt at a mercenary coup.
“He’s losing the war at home, and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world,” Biden added.
This is not a good look for America!
Power Evolution
Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D
An examination of the history of mankind’s standard of living shows very little to any significant progress for thousands of years until the industrial revolution. Man’s living circumstances were basically subsistence level from the earliest recorded history about 3000 BC to about the mid 1600’s AD. Subsistence farming by human work force labor and animals was barely able to prevent starvation for the majority of mankind. Housing, frequently shared with livestock, barely prevented death from extreme cold and heat. Unpredictable droughts, plant disease and insect invasions made life very tenuous at best.
Now, let’s examine what happened with the advent of steam power. Human production was always limited by the physical power of humans and afterwards that of domesticated animals. Animal-powered machines such as threshers, plows, and harvesters added significantly to human production. These primitive machines substantially increased production, which in turn led to less expensive products which raised mankind’s standard of living. An exponential improvement was the development of steam power as a replacement for human and animal power. Steam power is not subject to fatigue or to limits of magnitude. It was also applicable to a wide range of uses from clothing product, food processing and transportation. Steam power was the foundation of the Industrial Revolution, allowing the development of machines whose productive capacity far exceeded human labor capabilities.
In the late 1800’s, the genius of men like Thomas Edison, built on earlier experiments by Benjamin Franklin and others, created the ability not only to generate electricity but to modify and alter it to serve the needs of expanding manufacturing. There was quite a dispute early on over DC (direct current) advocated by Thomas Edison or AC (alternating current) advocated by Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse. The competition was fierce and eventually AC was shown to be more practical; primarily because the use of transformers could boost the voltage, allowing longer and more efficient transmission lines. The impact on the standard of living was dramatic, since now power could be provided at manufacturing sites throughout the country and no longer required close proximity to steam generators. The application of electricity to power manufacturing plants, combined with the invention of radio, television as well as electric lighting and air conditioning transformed the lives of mankind in unimaginable ways. This technical advancement continues today.
Although there are alternate ways of generating electricity such as water power, nuclear, and wind and solar, modern civilization cannot exist without fossil fuels. Why didn’t humans turn to wind and solar to power the industrial revolution? There were attempts to use wind power in places like Holland primarily to power pumps to keep back the sea level and prevent flooding. A civilization dependent on electricity requires a dependable and always available generating power source. Fossil fuels and nuclear energy are the most readily available and dependable.
One thing that should not be overlooked is the importance of protecting the elaborate power grid that maintains our survival. Author Gary Timco, has frequently written about this necessity in his articles in The County Compass newspaper. We must protect the power that allows us to survive and live a modern life. Let’s not be led into some childish fantasy by the environmental extremists who would have us believe we can maintain our civilization on wind and solar. We are being led to destruction by the Pied Piper.
On July 18th, Gary Timco will be speaking at Stanly Hall Ballroom in New Bern, North Carolina at 7 pm. He will be sharing some of his thoughts on how to protect America’s power grid.
Irony At Its Best!
On Tuesday, The Daily Caller posted the following headline:
Every Living US President Except Donald Trump Is Descended From Slaveholders: REPORT
Wow.
The article reports:
A genealogical study carried out by Reuters found that every living president except Donald Trump is directly descended from slaveholders.
Reuters set out to examine the genealogical histories of America’s political elite, “many of whom have staked key positions on policies related to race.” Through their research, the investigators found that every living U.S. president — a group that comprises Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden — is directly descended from slaveholders, except Donald Trump, whose ancestors came to America after slavery was abolished.
Obama is directly descended from slaveholders on his mother’s side, the investigators found.
The investigative team traced the lineages of America’s elite by analyzing census records, tax documents, slave records, estate records and family Bibles, as well as birth and death certificates. Their findings were then vetted by board-certified genealogists.
In addition to U.S. presidents, investigators found that among the 536 sitting members of the last Congress, 100 were descended from slaveholders, including Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton and James Lankford, and Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan.
This is hilarious, but actually makes sense. The majority of our political leaders come from families that have been in America for many generations. Slavery was an acceptable part of society around the world until the mid-nineteenth century. During the early days of America, it was acceptable to own slaves. If our political leadership extends back into the late 1700’s and the early 1800’s, it makes perfect sense that they would have owned slaves. Since Donald Trump’s family arrived in America after the Civil War, it makes sense that his family would not have owned slaves.
The article has a very wise conclusion:
Henry Louis Gates Jr, a professor at Harvard University who focuses on African and African American research and hosts the popular television genealogy show Finding Your Roots on PBS, stressed that the findings were not intended to cast blame, but rather to showcase how closely the nation is still linked to the institution of slavery.
“We do not inherit guilt for our ancestors’ actions,” Gates said, arguing this was instead a “learning opportunity for each individual.”
“It is also a learning opportunity for their constituency … and for the American people as a whole,” he added.
Another Angle Of Attack That Failed
If it’s Monday, the Democrats must be filing another lawsuit against Donald Trump. I heard he pulled the tag off of his mattress. I wonder if there is anyone left in America who doesn’t see the government as the bully trying to defeat a citizen.
On Monday, The Epoch Times reported the following:
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 26 dismissed an appeal over a long-running dispute between former President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats over the former Trump International Hotel in the nation’s capital.
The dispute focused on documents related to the lease of the government property in downtown Washington that housed the hotel. Democrats claimed that Trump received a sweetheart deal and demanded documentation from the government, which refused their request.
Trump left the presidency in January 2021, and The Trump Organization sold the lease to the property in May 2022 to CGI Merchant Group for an undisclosed sum. The hotel is now known as the Waldorf Astoria Washington D.C. and is part of Hilton Worldwide.
If the case had been heard and Democrats had prevailed, the minority party in Congress would have gained a great deal more power going forward to investigate a president’s administration of the opposite party, even if the minority party lacked the committee votes required to issue a subpoena.
The Supreme Court had just decided on May 15 to hear the case, but Democratic lawmakers advised the court on June 7 that they had voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit in the lower courts.
The case is Carnahan v. Maloney, court file 22-425.
Robin Carnahan is the administrator of the General Services Administration, an independent agency of the U.S. government that manages federal property and provides contracting options for government agencies. The lead respondent, former Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chaired the U.S. House Oversight Committee until she left office on Jan. 3.
Congress does have some oversight responsibility. However, that responsibility has to be tempered in reality. I believe that investigating a business deal a President made a year after leaving office is questionable. Questioning a President’s business dealings while holding public office is something different. Thus I support the investigation into the business dealings of President Biden while he was Vice-President–particularly those involving foreign adversaries.
Failing Upward
On Tuesday, The Conservative Review reported the following:
Fauci’s Next Act: COVID Czar To Teach at Georgetown
I don’t think I would send my child to Georgetown to study medicine.
The article reports:
Amid a growing consensus that COVID-19 likely emerged from a Chinese lab and past revelations that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) funded coronavirus research in one such lab, the former head of the agency, Anthony Fauci, has landed a professorship at Georgetown University.
Fauci, who was pulling a salary of over $400,000 a year while working for the federal government, told Georgetown that while he “could do more experiments in the lab and have my lab going,” he felt that he would be better suited to serve as an “inspiration to the younger generation of students.” It is unclear if Georgetown will be matching the compensation Fauci enjoyed as a public servant.
The former NIAID director’s career prospects do not appear to have been hampered by mistakes made during his advisory role throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci initially denied the possibility that the virus could have originated from a laboratory. All U.S. intelligence agencies see the lab leak as a possibility and a high profile report from the Department of Energy considers it the most likely explanation. Fauci is now open to the possibility of a lab-leak origin but won’t take a definitive stance.
If the virus did originate in a lab, that could reflect poorly on Fauci and the federal government. While Fauci was heading the agency, NIAID funneled $653,392 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab believed to be the origin of COVID-19, for coronavirus research.
In addition to his relationship to the origin of the virus, Fauci’s pandemic-era policy recommendations have also come under scrutiny.
The article notes that Dr. Fauci will be part of both the school of medicine and the school of public policy.
Now They Are Coming For Our Pizza!
On Sunday, Breitbart reported that the New York City Department of Environmental Protection has created new rules regarding pizzerias that use coal or wood-burning ovens. Shouldn’t the people making these regulations be accountable to the citizens of New York? Aren’t laws supposed to be made by legislators who are elected?
The article reports:
“All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality,” Timbers said in a statement. “This common-sense rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible.”
According to the New York Post, the new rule will likely require pizzerias with pre-2016 ovens to pay upwards of $20,000 to install air filtration systems, which will include continued maintenance costs:
Under the mandate, restaurants with coal-and-wood-fired ovens must hire an engineer or architect to assess the feasibility of installing emission controls devices to achieve a 75% reduction in particulate emissions.
If this report concludes that a reduction of 75% or more cannot be achieved, or that no emissions controls can be installed, it must identify any emission controls that could provide a reduction of at least 25% or an explanation for why no emission controls can be installed.
The restaurant will be allowed to apply for a variance or waiver, but must provide evidence to prove a hardship.
Are New Yorkers now going to be told that they cannot use their fireplaces?
About That Climate Change Thing…
On Friday, The Federalist posted an article about the deadly summer heat Americans experience in the summer.
The article reports:
“Extreme heat kills more people in the United States than any other weather hazard,” is the first claim in this Washington Post piece warning about the deadly summer heat — and it is almost certainly false.
First off, the only reason “extreme” temperature kills more people than other weather hazards is that deaths from weather have plummeted over the century, even as doomsday climate warnings about heat, hurricanes, tornados, floods, and droughts have spiked. Extreme weather accounts for only about 0.1 death for every 100,000 people in the United States each year. The Post should be celebrating the fact that humans have never been less threatened by the climate.
The Post warns that 30 million people in the U.S. may be “exposed” to dangerous heat “today.” That’s a lot of people, even considering nearly all of them live in the southernmost spots in the country and it’s the middle of the summer. The Post counts anyone exposed to heat over 90 degrees as being in some level of danger. Fortunately, most Americans enjoy the luxury and health benefits of air-conditioning, one of the great innovations of the past century.
Nowhere in the piece, however, do the authors tell us exactly how many Americans have perished from the oppressive heat. Anyway, it’s around 700 people a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — if you liberally count heat as both the “underlying” and/or “contributing” causes. It is about 400 people when heat is the underlying cause. And that’s terrible. But, also, it’s around 3,600 fewer people than those who drown every year.
The article also notes:
And most of those deaths, despite the Post’s claim, are from the cold, which is far more lethal. I come to this information via a Washington Post piece that ran this very winter, which noted that for “every death linked to heat, nine are tied to cold.” That piece relied on a peer-reviewed Lancet study. Another peer-reviewed study in The BMJ found that “cold weather is associated with nearly 20 times more deaths than hot weather.” Other studies have come to the same conclusion.
During extreme heat, you have the option of filling up the bathtub and sitting in it until you cool down. During cold weather, if you lose power and have no way to heat your house, it will be a matter of hours before you either have to leave your home or find some way to keep your family warm.
It’s The Economy, Stupid!
It’s the economy, stupid! Those were the words Bill Clinton used to win the 1992 election. The economy was slowly rebounding from the bi-partisan tax increases that President Bush had agreed to, but a lot of Americans did not realize that. On Monday, Issues & Insights posted an article about our present economic state.
The article reports:
Once upon a time, Democratic presidents understood how important a healthy economy was. President Bill Clinton and his advisers won two elections living by the mantra, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Get that right, they thought, and everything else follows. But today, Americans think President Joe Biden doesn’t get it, June’s I&I/TIPP Poll shows.
The online I&I/TIPP Poll, taken from May 31-June 2 and including responses from 1,358 adults nationwide, asked the following: “To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement: The American economy remains strong, as it transitions to steady and stable growth.”
That statement, by the way, was not made up. It’s a direct quotation of what Biden told Americans after the Commerce Department reported in April that real GDP growth in the first quarter was a disappointing 1.1%. It has since been revised up slightly to 1.3%. We did not, when surveying Americans, identify who made that statement.
Do Americans agree with Biden that the economy’s strong, steady and stable? Overall, I&I/TIPP found, 55% of Americans disagreed that the economy “remains strong,” while just 36% agreed. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points.
The article concludes:
Meanwhile, the World Bank has slashed its growth estimate for the U.S. in half, saying the economy is “likely to remain weak.” That could impact America’s standing around the world.
“Nearly all the economic forces that powered progress and prosperity over the last three decades are fading,” the World Bank warned. “The result could be a lost decade in the making … for the whole world.”
One major indicator of economic misery: weekly wages, adjusted for inflation. The current “recovery” features 26 straight months of shrinking wages, after taking into account not just pay but also inflation and number of hours worked. When real wages decline for middle-class Americans, their standard of living also declines.
…It wasn’t until the economy soured, with roaring inflation and soaring oil prices, that the Watergate scandal really began to gain traction. Americans simply lost patience with someone they saw as both economically incompetent and corrupt. Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974, rather than face almost certain impeachment.
I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past five presidential elections.
The people who write Issues & Insights are the former editorial board of Investor’s Business Daily. They are very well educated on economic issues.
From my friends at Townhall:
Seizing Control Of Native American Land
On Wednesday, The American Thinker reported the following:
Washington Democrats were surprised that Native Americans were not rejoicing with them when secretary of the interior Deb Haaland seized control of the Navajo Nation land surrounding the Chaco Culture National Park in northwest New Mexico. They were shocked when members of the Navajo Nation kept Secretary Haaland from celebrating her actions at Chaco.
What will Washington Democrats be if the Navajo Nation files suit against Secretary Haaland and her seizing control of land belonging to the Navajo Nation?
…Haaland rekindled old conflicts between the nineteen Pueblos and the Navajo Nation when she unilaterally seized control of over 350,000 acres of Navajo Nation Land and BLM land surrounding Chaco on behalf of nineteen Pueblos on June 2, 2023. UNESCO’s website states, “Chaco Canyon, a major centre of ancestral Pueblo culture between 850 and 1250, was the focus for ceremonials, trade and political activity for the prehistoric Four Corners area.”
The nineteen Pueblos and the Navajo Nation have been discussing how to manage energy development in the area surrounding Chaco and protect the rights of the Dine who live on those lands. Haaland usurped the ongoing discussion and seized control of the land, which favored her Laguna Pueblo and the other eighteen Pueblos.
The article concludes:
Washington leaders, bureaucrats, and lobbyists still view the West and its inhabitants in terms of nineteenth-century caricatures and believe that they are as benevolent as the Wizard of Oz, which could not be farther from the truth. This needs to change now. President Biden should start by rescinding Secretary Haaland’s unilateral order and encouraging the Navajo Nation and the nineteen Pueblos to create an agreement that addresses their competing interests on their lands. The federal government should continue with President Trump’s decentralization of the Department of Interior.
Haven’t we done enough damage to the native Americans already? This is a disgrace.
How Did We Get So Skewed?
This is a screen shot from the Daily Caller on Twitter:
No. This is a story of a corrupt family and one son’s drug addiction enabled by the rest of the family. This is a story of corruption at the highest levels of government. This is a story of a family that sold out their country for their pocketbooks. Unfortunately, this also may be a story where no one is ever held accountable. Even if President Biden is removed from office, will he or anyone in his family be held accountable for the illegal business dealings and money laundering that they have engaged in for so long?
When Green Energy Fails
On Friday, WND posted an article about the failure of wind turbines.
The article reports:
Siemens Energy announced Thursday that it will be undergoing a technical review after it was found that up to 30% of its wind turbines could have faulty components, according to statements made by the company.
Siemens Energy, an international energy company that seeks to “decarbonize global energy systems,” announced that it is withdrawing its profit guidance for the year after subsidiary Siemens Gamesa found that there was a “substantial increase in failure rates of wind turbine components.” The company believes that between 15% and 30% of its installed fleets are suffering from component failures, Jochen Eickholt, CEO of Siemens Gamesa, said during a Friday morning analyst call.
“The fact that we have identified more quality problems marks a significant setback for us. These quality problems go beyond what we were previously aware of, and they are directly linked to selective components at a few but important suppliers,” Christian Bruch, President and CEO of Siemens Energy, said during the call. “At this point in time, we believe that the costs are likely to be in excess of 1 billion euros.”
As a result of the announcement, stock in Siemens Energy fell 36% as of Friday morning.
The article concludes:
The use of wind energy has received criticism as operations grow in size, incurring more maintenance costs and environmental concerns. Newer, larger turbines designed to generate enough power to fuel renewable energy desires suffer from a greater rate of component failure, resulting in higher maintenance costs, according to The Wall Street Journal. Some environmentalists also claim that wind farms harm animals, including birds, through habitat destruction and obstructing air travel.
It’s time to realize that although fossil fuel is not perfect, it can be utilized in a way that creates a minimum amount of pollution. We need to look at the pollution we are creating in the manufacturing of the windmills and solar panels that generate ‘green energy’ and the pollution caused by the disposal of their parts after they wear out.
The Things The Whistleblowers Told Us
On Saturday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about the things we have learned from two IRS whistleblowers.
Here is the list. Please follow the link to the article for the details:
1. Hunter linked dad to Chinese deal in threat to business partner
2. Joe Biden attended other business meetings with Hunter and his Chinese partners
3. The FBI authenticated Hunter Biden’s laptop almost a year before we knew it existed
4. Hunter deducted hooker and sex club payments from his taxes
5. The FBI division that investigates foreign spies was involved in Biden probe
6. The investigation into Biden had porn-related origins
7. Prosecutors wanted to charge Hunter with felonies, but he ended up with misdemeanors
8. Biden’s Department of Justice blocked investigation at multiple turns
9. The IRS whistleblower’s boss corroborated bombshell claims
10. Hunter won’t ever pay tax on $400,000 income from Ukraine
11. Agents wanted to search Biden family homes, but were shot down due to ‘optics’
12. IRS wanted search warrant for Hunter’s storage locker, but prosecutor tipped off his lawyers
13. A mole tipped off Hunter that FBI wanted to interview him
14. Hunter’s lawyer said prosecutors would be committing ‘career suicide’ if he was charged
15. Joe Biden visited FBI Delaware office during investigation
16. Hunter deducted hotel rooms for father and drug dealer from his taxes
Do you still believe in an unbiased Department of Justice?
Yuengling Does It Right
On Saturday, Hot Air posted an article about Yuengling Beer. I am not a beer drinker, so I am not qualified to comment on the quality of their beer, but I can comment on how well the company handled a tricky situation.
The article reports:
Yuengling Brewery has a unique story. It is a sixth-generation family-owned and family-run American brewery. It is America’s oldest brewery, celebrating its 194th anniversary. Wisdom is often a bi-product of age and I think it applies in this case. The company’s president is listed as Richard Yuengling Jr.
…Ironically, Yuengling is a German-origin name that means “young man” in English. Four women run the business now. To celebrate 194 years in business, Yuengling rolled out limited-edition, 12-ounce cans that read, “Let’s Go USA,” while featuring a Stars and Stripes design. No Pride rainbows or transgender characters to draw attention to the brand or insult regular Americans in order to attract The Woke. The pride this company is celebrating is old-fashioned patriotism. How refreshing. The sisters attribute the company’s continued success to “amazing employees and very loyal consumers.”
Even with such an All-American kind of family and business brand, a little scandal may fall. In 2016, for example, the patriarch, billionaire Dick Yuengling, publicly endorsed Donald Trump and Eric Trump visited him. The two men held a press conference. The rainbow mafia went nuts and D.C. gay bars started to boycott the beer, followed by other bars.
This week the brewery found itself dragged into another controversy. For many years, Yuengling has been a sponsor of Musikfest, an annual festival held in Pennsylvania. On Monday, the festival shared a promo on its Facebook page about this year’s event. Yuengling was included in the post, as a sponsor. Four days later the post was edited and Yuengling was removed from the text of the promotion. Why? Because social media followers went nuts.
A “family-friendly drag show” is a part of the festival’s events this year. The original promotion said that “babies in arms” would be admitted. Children under 2 “may not be recommended for some performances.” After the backlash began, ArtsQuest — the venue hosting the event — issued a statement absolving Yuengling of any involvement. And the age for admission into the show had been raised to 18+.
The article contrasts the actions of Yuengling with the actions of Budweiser:
And that, my friends, is how a company does damage control. Mind you, Yuengling has nothing to do with the drag show, “family-friendly” or not, and was only mentioned in the Facebook promo because it was listed as a sponsor. Yuengling quickly worked to nip the backlash in the bud. The well-respected brewery’s name was immediately removed and then the venue changed the age of admission to 18+. Bud Light waited too long to correct the damage brought on by its woke marketing director. They then half-assed the response – they suspended or fired a couple of people and hemmed and hawed about the whole situation. The CEO has still not apologized to Bud Light’s customers (now former customers) and three months down the road, Anheuser-Busch’s CEO is still trying to do clean-up. The CEO refused to do the one thing that would have started a thawing of the chill that Bud Light’s boycotters began – a simple apology. Now it’s too late.
If I drank beer, I would go out and order a Yuengling. They handled the situation correctly.
Please follow the link above to read the entire story.
An Interesting Turn Of Events
It seems as if the mainstream media is spending more time fact-checking President Biden. That is a change. It may represent a move to find a new presidential candidate before 2024, or it may be that they are simply trying to prove that they are unbiased. Either way, the fact checking is increasing. On Thursday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about some recent fact checks.
The article cites a few examples, here are some:
In a Friday speech at the National Safer Communities Summit in Connecticut, Biden spoke of how a gun control law he signed in 2022 has provided federal funding for states to expand the use of gun control tools like “red flag” laws, which allow the courts to temporarily seize the guns of people who are deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. After mentioning red flag laws, Biden invoked his late son Beau Biden, who served as attorney general of Delaware, and said: “As my son was the first to enforce when he was attorney general.”
Facts First: Biden’s claim is false. Delaware did not have a red flag law when Beau Biden was state attorney general from 2007 to 2015.
***
“Put a pistol on a brace, and it…turns into a gun,” Biden said. “Makes them where you can have a higher-caliber weapon – a higher-caliber bullet – coming out of that gun. It’s essentially turning it into a short-barreled rifle, which has been a weapon of choice by a number of mass shooters.”
Facts First: Biden’s claims that a stabilizing brace turns a pistol into a gun and increases the caliber of a gun or bullet are false. A pistol is, obviously, already a gun, and “a pistol brace does not have any effect on the caliber of ammunition that a gun fires or anything about the basic functioning of the gun itself,” said Stephen Gutowski, a CNN contributor who is the founder of the gun policy and politics website The Reload.
Please follow the link to the article for further examples.
The article concludes:
Fact-checking Joe Biden poses difficulties. For one thing, you first have to figure out what he is trying to say. Beyond that, just about everything Biden says is wrong, so fact-checking him could be a full-time job. Still, it is interesting that after years of running interference for Biden, some Democratic Party news outlets are starting to throw him under the bus.
From my friends at Townhall:
Definitely A “Get Out The Popcorn” Moment
On Friday, The Patriot Journal reported that next month Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will appear before Congress to discuss his experiences with censorship and free speech. C-SPAN just got very interesting. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s presidential campaign represents a serious challenge to the Democrat establishment. He can be hard to listen to because of a genetic speech defect, but he is definitely one of the more sane candidates in the Democrat party.
The article reports:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will testify before House Republicans’ Weaponization of the Federal Government Select Subcommittee. He will be discussing how social networks, in league with Democrats, removed his posts that were critical of the COVID vaccines.
Kennedy has long been critical of government-mandated vaccines. Even before COVID, he challenged men like Fauci for evidence that the many vaccines pushed onto children by the government are safe.
RFK has been repeatedly censored by Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Even as recently as last weekend, YouTube took down an interview of RFK from Jordan Peterson’s channel.
Clearly, the left is terrified of what Kennedy has to say. He comes from a well-known and beloved American family. He is offering an alternative to the fearmongering and hysteria of the liberal narrative on vaccines and politics.
I have very mixed emotions about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as a candidate. There were many good things his father and uncle did for America. However, during the presidency of John Kennedy, there were things going on that would be totally unacceptable now. John Kennedy’s various affairs, which the media kept secret at the time, would be a problem today. The illegal surveillance carried out by J. Edgar Hoover that was an open secret would not be acceptable today. I also have questions about the role Robert F. Kennedy, Sr., played in the death of Marilyn Monroe. The Kennedy family is not known for being one of America’s most law-abiding families. I lived in Massachusetts for 35 years; I am familiar with the family. However, the candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., may actually partially clean up the Democrat party. My impression of RFK is that he sincerely wants to make a positive difference to America. It will be interesting to watch his appearance before Congress.
While We Were Watching Other Things
On Wednesday, KTVZ in Bend, Oregon, reported the following:
Cultivated meat, also known as lab-grown meat, has been cleared for sale in the United States.
Upside Foods and Good Meat, two companies that make what they call “cultivated chicken,” said Wednesday that they have gotten approval from the US Department of Agriculture to start producing their cell-based proteins.
Good Meat, which is owned by plant-based egg substitute maker Eat Just, said that production is starting immediately. Cultivated or lab-grown meat is grown in a giant vat, much like what you’d find at a beer brewery.
Wednesday’s move follows a series of previous approvals which have paved the way for sales of cultivated meat in the US.
Last week, Good Meat and Upside said they had received approval for labels for its product from the USDA. In March, Good said it had received a so-called “no questions” letter from the Food and Drug Administration. That letter states that the administration is satisfied that the product is safe to sell in the United States. The FDA issued a similar letter Upside Foods in November.
The nascent cultivated meat sector is being overseen by both the USDA and the FDA.
Good Meat, which has been selling its products in Singapore, advertises its product as “meat without slaughter,” a more humane approach to eating meat. Supporters hope that cultured meat will help fight climate change by reducing the need for traditional animal agriculture, which emits greenhouse gases.
This is the latest move by the climate extremists to separate Americans from their hamburgers and steaks. I suspect that we will reach a point where farming and raising cattle are looked upon as undesirable activities, and those professions will gradually be phased out to be replaced by fake food. I really think this is a bad idea.
The article concludes:
Upside founder and CEO Uma Valeti on Wednesday called the approval “a giant step forward towards a more sustainable future,” adding that it will “fundamentally change how meat makes it to our table.”
Upside is planning to introduce its product at Bar Crenn, a San Francisco restaurant, but did not share a launch date yet. Selling at Bar Crenn should help Upside learn more about how chefs and diners feel about the product, a representative said. Eventually, the company plans to work with other restaurants and make its products available in supermarkets.
For now, Upside is holding a contest to allow curious customers to be among the first to try the product in the US.
Don’t mess with my steak!
Is It Already Fixed?
On Wednesday, Just the News reported that despite concerns from cybersecurity experts, the State of Georgia will not update its voting machines until after the 2024 election. Sounds like they are planning to close the barn door right after the horse leaves.
The article reports:
A nearly 2-year-old report was finally made public last week and showed Dominion voting machines had significant vulnerabilities, which led the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to issue a public advisory last year based on the findings.
However, Georgia election officials say that the machines won’t be updated until after the 2024 elections because it’s such a massive undertaking.
The report was completed in July 2021 by University of Michigan Professor of Computer Science and Engineering J. Alex Halderman with Professor Drew Springall, of Auburn University, and focused in part on vulnerabilities they found after examining Dominion’s ImageCast X Ballot Marking Devices for three months.
A redacted copy of the report was released June 14 by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division.
The report was completed on behalf of the plaintiffs in the case of Curling v. Raffensperger and found the Dominion machines are vulnerable to vote flipping.
Halderman suggested the machines were capable of being manipulated in mere minutes by bad actors, saying the QR codes on printed ballots could be altered and malware installed on individual machines “with only brief physical access.”
That sounds like a problem that really should be corrected before another election.
The article concludes:
However, in the judge’s order making the report public, she said CISA and the parties in the lawsuit agreed that the proposed redactions to the report appropriately safeguarded against election security concerns.
Dominion settled a lawsuit with Fox News in April for $787 million regarding claims made on the news station’s channel about the company’s voting machines.
Phill Kline, director of The Amistad Project, told Just the News on Wednesday that one of the problems with the issue of voting machines’ integrity in election systems is the disagreement among experts.
He also said officials overseeing elections don’t have the knowledge to understand how the machines work and have to rely on the companies that created them to make sure everything works properly.
“Machines are not transparent, and that’s the problem,” Kline said. He also said the transparency issue is a “key reason Americans are losing faith in elections,” and that they cannot get their questions answered about how elections are conducted “in a manner that’s understandable.”
Are you convinced that there is not a problem?