Right Wing Granny

News behind the news. This picture is me (white spot) standing on the bridge connecting European and North American tectonic plates. It is located in the Reykjanes area of Iceland. By-the-way, this is a color picture.

Right Wing Granny

Ending An Idea That Simply Did Not Work

Since man has walked the earth, he has been in search of a perpetual motion machine. The laws of physics make the possibility of him finding that machine non-existent. Reaching a goal of net zero carbon emissions probably falls in the same category as the perpetual motion machine.

On Saturday, John Stossel at Hot Air posted an article about the end of net zero.

The article reports:

What a difference a few years make.

 Not long ago, politicians said climate change was going to kill us, so we must move to “net zero” emissions. 

This is theoretically possible. Since vegetation removes carbon, we could get to net zero by burning fewer fossil fuels.

Governments everywhere pledged to do just that.

President Joe Biden and European leaders promised “net zero by 2050.”

For a while, it seemed like it might happen. Spain invested billions into its solar power grid. Germany and Spain claimed to get most of their power from renewables.

But now they realize that they made a mistake.

European businesses closed as electricity costs rose, and last year, Spain’s electricity supply shut down for 16 hours.

It was a wakeup call for the green dream.

The article notes that as a result of banning air conditioning in several European countries, according to Reuters there were 10,000 excess deaths during a heatwave in June.

The article reports:

A majority of Americans have air conditioning, but only about 20% of European homes have it.

In Britain, some homeowners were even ordered to tear out air conditioners under climate laws.

“This is just the pure religious nature of the climate catastrophist movement,” says Epstein. “It has one commandment: ‘thou shalt not impact nature.’ They just think that everything good is a happy climate god and everything bad is a vengeful climate god.”

The article notes:

“Why aren’t wind and solar enough?” I ask. “The solar panels keep getting cheaper. Batteries last longer.”

“Because the electricity grid has to be built around the worst day,” he replies.

When there’s no wind or the sun doesn’t shine, countries need reliable, steady power to back up renewable power.

Now, countries like Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom are walking back their net-zero push.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz now says rules must “better align climate targets, market realities, companies and jobs.”

Common sense has entered the climate change debate.

Forgetting The Lessons Of Recent History

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about an idea put forth by Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT). Senator Murphy wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $25 over twelve years. Artificially raising the minimum wage is not a new idea–it has been tried multiple times and failed each time.

The article quotes the Competitive Enterprise Institute website:

Last week, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) introduced the Senate version of the Living Wage for All Act, which raises the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $25 per hour — a 245 percent increase — over 12 years. It begins by increasing the minimum wage 66 percent to $12 an hour and then establishes separate schedules for large and smaller employers, with the former being required to raise hourly pay to $25 in only 5 years.

The article also quotes The Washington Post:

Who’s “we”? Businesses have to cover the cost of higher wages somehow — hiking prices, shrinking hours, laying off workers or hiring fewer are all on the table. A higher minimum wage also increases the incentive for automation.

Some states already know the effects of raising the minimum wage beyond what the market can bear. California set a $20 wage for fast-food employees in 2024. That eliminated 18,000 jobs within a year, according to an analysis in the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The article quotes a UC Santa Cruz paper:

On Wednesday, University of California – Santa Cruz released a real world appraisal of how the $20 mandate has affected owners and employees of fast food franchises. Stephen Owen, an economics lecturer, and a team of undergraduate helpers visited and studied more than 100 outlets in Santa Cruz and the Central Valley and came away with data that seem to validate industry predictions of the effects…

“Employees have been impacted with fewer job opportunities, reduced employee hours, elimination of overtime, and new eligibility challenges for healthcare and other benefits. Automation, such as order kiosks, mobile apps, Artificial Intelligence drive-through ordering systems, as well as other innovative assembly technologies, are being tested and implemented with the goal to reduce labor requirements.”

When wages are artificially increased, prices go up, and inflation increases. Senator Murphy needs to study economics!

Actions Have Consequences

Prior to October 7, 2023, many Palestinians crossed into Israel to work. Jobs in Gaza were scarce and often depended on who you knew or who you gave money to, and work in Israel was available and paid well. Unfortunately, many of the people who worked alongside the Israelis before October 7th were the same people who attacked them on October 7th. Now the people in Gaza are complaining because Israel will no longer allow them to cross into Israel and work there.

On Tuesday, Hot Air reported:

From what little contact I have had with Palestinians in the United States, they can be entrepreneurial, hard-working, and decent enough people to be around.

Of course, these are generally Palestinians with the wit to leave the hellholes that the Palestinian leadership has created, and are also in jobs where a middle- to upper-middle-class guy like me is likely to meet them. So they are probably not representative.

But still, I can think of no inherent reason why, other than culture, that Palestinians in the Middle East are such a poisonously dangerous population, but there is not one Arab country that wants anything to do with them, and for good reasons. They destroy every place where they congregate.

Ask the Jordanians. The Lebanese. The Egyptians. The Palestinian “refugees” from the war have all wound up in European countries too stupid to defend themselves against any threat. They are stupid enough to take in Syrians, Pakistanis, and Afghans as well, and have lived to regret it.

Since the West Bank and Gaza are terrible places to do any business, largely because the “governing” bodies are horrifically corrupt and only interested in graft and jihad, Palestinians get work in Israel. Or did, until October 7th, when many of the people welcomed into Israel to work turned out to have been spies who helped develop the intelligence necessary to commit the atrocities of that day.

…Israel has always had this problem. On the one hand, they want the Palestinians in the formerly occupied territories to become more prosperous and less inclined to genocidal fantasies, and on the other hand, Palestinians as a group want to have their cake and eat it too.

They want to live well, and thus need to work outside the crapholes created by their leaders, but on the other hand, they are bloodthirsty and want to kill Jews.

After October 7th, Israel cut off access to the country for Palestinians, and now we are supposed to cry for the Palestinians who lost their jobs and blame Israel for not being interested in seeing its citizens raped, murdered, or blown up.

The article concludes:

When The New Yorker leads with a phrase like “justified in the name of security,” they are trying to say that the real cause is racism or prejudice, as if the fear of Palestinian terror is irrational.

That is absurd, of course. As many people have noted, proportionally the October 7th massacre was far more deadly than 9/11, so of course it has scarred the Israeli psyche. And, unlike the United States, Israel has lived with Palestinian terror for its entire existence as a country. To this day, its citizens contend with rocket attacks essentially daily.

The transnational elite-types are indifferent to that, of course. As we have seen over the past year or two, even New Yorkers have embraced Islamists in the name of “diversity,” and elected as Mayor a man who campaigned with an unindicted co-conspirator with the World Trade Center bombers, and speaks at mosques where they pray for “Death to America.”

Gad Saad calls the impulse to defend people who declare themselves enemies of our civilization “suicidal empathy,” and surely there is much truth in that diagnosis. But I think that only captures one variable; many supporters of Palestinians quite consciously want our civilization to fall. They approve of the violence as it is a necessary component to their larger agenda.

The AWFLs (affluent, white, female, liberal) may be besotted with “empathy,” but the Bolsheviks just want to destroy what they hate.

Actions have consequences.

How New York City Will Take Over Private Apartment Buildings

On Friday, Hot Air posted an article about the strategy being used by New York City Mayor Mamdani to change private apartment buildings to publicly owned apartment buildings. The strategy is actually very simple.

The article quotes Councilwoman Vicki Paladino:

Step 1: ‘Organize’ tenants to file dozens and dozens of complaints with the building department to establish cause for investigation.

Step 2: Squeeze these same landlords with massive compounding fines they will not be able to get out from under. Use rent strikes and rent control laws to limit income, making compliance with tenant complaints financially impossible.

Step 3: Use the outstanding debt with the city resulting from the fines and noncompliance as leverage with mortgage and bankruptcy courts to have the buildings turned over to the city and/or designated nonprofits at fire sale prices.

That’s how private property will be stripped from owners, and how politically-favored activist nonprofits will become the new land barons of NYC.

They will do this on increasingly small properties, and eventually even to private homeowners who rent an upstairs or basement apartment.

And once they take over these properties, they will be left to rot, just like NYCHA is. That’s the future the marxists want for us. It’s just plain evil.

This sounds like a bad dream. Unfortunately, it is reality. Unless New Yorkers wake up quickly and impeach (is that possible in New York City?) Mayor Mamdani, they may not like their future. Living conditions in socialist countries where the state owns the property are well below the standard of living Americans are accustomed to. Residents may get lower rents, but they will also get poorly maintained buildings.

It should also be noted that the level of discontent after all of Mamdani’s policies are enacted is going to be very high. High levels of discontent often lead to high crime rates. I would strongly suggest that anyone who considers voting or votes for a socialist be given an airplane ticket and required to spend a month in a socialist country. That may be the only way to educate people.

Refusing To Learn The Lessons Of History

On Friday, Hot Air posted an article about California Governor Gavin Newsom’s support for a wealth tax. You would think that with all of the people moving out of California because of its high taxes, he might have observed a pattern. Remember, this man may be a presidential candidate.

The article reports:

Gavin Newsom has, until now, opposed wealth taxes, or so-called “Billionaire” taxes. 

No longer. Joining Ro Khanna, Elizabeth Warren, and the more radical left-wing in his party, he is jumping on board the crazy train,  calling for an “economic reset” by seizing a fraction of the wealth—almost all of which is unrealized capital gains, and hence the ownership of companies and not actual cash money—and transferring to the government to spend on…whatever. Making the world poorer but “fairer.”

To quote Thomas Sowell:

What exactly is your ‘fair share’ of what ‘someone else’ has worked for?

There is also the matter of the Laffer Curve:

On Friday, CNN reported:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday proposed a national tax on billionaires that he says is the first part of an “economic reset for America” agenda, which aides explicitly say is part of his considering to launch a presidential campaign.

“The system America’s founders built was designed to prevent the concentration of power in a few hands, but we have allowed that concentration to happen anyway, slowly, in plain sight, over decades,” Newsom writes. “We can reverse it together, as a country.”

It is extremely early in the presidential campaign cycle for a policy proposal — but comes as Democrats continue to embrace economic populism and moves against the wealthy. It also comes as California voters in November will decide on a billionaires’ tax after the governor and opponents of the tax late Thursday failed to reach a deal to keep it off the ballot.

Class envy and greed are ugly, but they are often useful in political campaigns.

The article at Hot Air concludes:

Other First World countries have committed economic suicide. Argentina used to be the 7th largest economy in the world. Then it became fascist/socialist, and it has taken decades to just get back on the right track. Europe has been committing economic suicide.

America could too.

Newsom’s move shows that at least some, and probably many, Organized Crime Democrats are going to try to throw the babies and old people to the ravening wolves, and you and I are those babies and old people.

This is one of many reasons I am urging common-sense Americans to vote Republican in the mid-term elections. The Democrats are very scary right now.

It Really Is Time To Stop Fooling Around And Pull Off The Band-Aid

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about the Iran negotiations.

The article reports:

In a move that shocks precisely nobody, Iran has done a 180 and denied that the regime has agreed to IAEA inspections any time soon, if ever. 

They made the announcement within minutes of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant announcing that the United States has lifted all sanctions on Iranian oil, which can now be legally traded, in dollars no less, and be sold anywhere within the world without restrictions at market prices. 

…Vice President Vance had highlighted Iran’s concession to allow IAEA inspectors into the country as a major achievement—something many had already disputed, given that IAEA inspectors had been allowed into Iran up until the 2025 Midnight Hammer operation. Without knowing how freely the inspectors could roam in Iran and whether the disputed sites would be included, it’s hard to say whether this was a breakthrough or just a baby step toward getting back to pre-2025 levels of cooperation.

…It seems obvious that Iran is saying one thing behind the scenes and another in front of the cameras. Its claim to have walked away from negotiations yesterday proved half true—its top officials refused to sit down or even meet with Vice President Vance’s team, but its lower-level negotiators remained in talks with our lower-level folks. 

First of all, do the people negotiating for Iran actually have power in their country’s government? Second of all, it is remotely possible that Iran is simply saying anything to get the sanctions lifted and the attacks on Hezbollah stopped? This is taqiyya at work.

Taqiyya (Arabic:  romanized: taqiyya; lit. ‘prudence’ or ‘fear’) is a doctrinal principle in Islamic jurisprudence permitting the dissimulation or concealment of one’s religious beliefs, practices, or affiliations when facing persecution, mortal danger, or severe harm to oneself, family, or community. Originating from Quranic verses such as Ali Imran 3:28, which instructs believers to avoid close alliances with disbelievers unless fearing them while harboring true faith inwardly, and supported by prophetic hadiths, taqiyya emerged as a pragmatic response to early Muslim vulnerabilities under hostile regimes. (source here)

We do not want Iran to have the money to continue funding terrorism around the world. They have to be totally defeated and new leadership put in place. Damn the torpedoes–full steam ahead! Nothing else is going to work.

The Atrocities Hidden By The Cover-Up

This article is rated PG-13.

On Thursday, Hot Air posted an article about what the investigations into the ‘grooming gangs’ scandal in Britain.

The article reports:

Rupert Lowe, who ran the independent grooming gang (rape gang) inquiry because the Labour Party refused to do so, has released his report to the public. 

It is so, so, SO much worse than anybody imagined. Which, you would have thought, was impossible. After all, given what we knew, how could it be?

Well, it turns out that no matter how much you hate the British ruling elite, it is not nearly enough.

Now, while some people—mostly Muslim advocacy groups—are claiming that the inquiry was biased and that all the testifiers were lying slags, few people actually believe that. Even the government, which up until now has resisted any disclosure and tried to tamp down the crisis, has ordered local police forces to investigate offenses dating back over a decade.

The cover-up is, if not completely exposed, no longer tenable. What we know is far too explosive.

According to an X post included in the article:

The inquiry estimates AT LEAST 250,000 girls. A QUARTER MILLION. They are overwhelmingly white girls and they were raped, trafficked & tortured over decades. The 250k number is the MINIMUM, the FLOOR… there are likely even more than this.

The article notes:

The sheer scale and time frame in which this took place is staggering. The earliest cases date back to the 1950s, which explains why the sheer number of victims is so large. I would assume that the reason things got going then was the collapse of British India and the subsequent wave of migration to the UK. There were two massive waves of immigration from the region—the 1950s, during post-war reconstruction, and since the 1990s, when “Global Britain” became a thing.

The article concludes:

All this matters to us across the pond for a simple reason: Britain is not some alien culture, and this is not some ancient tragedy. This is what a modern liberal democracy based on the same fundamental system of justice and traditions can do when it deviates from the norms we have all come to expect.

We tend to assume that “that couldn’t happen here,” when all the evidence is that it certainly could. For all the wallowing in generational guilt when it comes to “colonialism,” it turns out that the sense of guilt so distorts our consciences that we turn our back on our own citizens.

“What did you think decolonialism looked like?” That was the leftist refrain after October 7th. You could say the same thing here.

This is what decolonial ideology leads to. And it is uglier than you can imagine, just as October 7th was.

Is This A Surprise To Anyone?

On June 16th, Hot Air posted an article about the latest scandal involving the Obama Presidential Library. The Obama administration claimed to be scandal-free, but much of the information coming out about the administration since President Obama left office has shown that was not the case. The Obama Presidential Library is also not scandal-free.

The article reports:

It'[s going to be a big party when the doors open, but there are some people who were involved in the construction who might not have the thirty bucks to get a ticket to darken the doors.

It turns out there are many unhappy and unpaid contractors on this massive project, and a required endowment for future maintenance and repairs on behalf of the Obama Foundation of $470 million that has never once climbed above the initial $1 million deposited in the account years ago.

,,,The Obama Presidential Center opens to the public on Chicago’s South Side on June 19, the Juneteenth holiday, with a grand opening ceremony the night before. The 19.3-acre campus in Jackson Park houses a 225-foot museum tower, a digital library, an athletic facility, a café, conference space, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, and offices for the Obama Foundation, which will run the center as a private nonprofit.

The center cost roughly $850 million to build, nearly triple the original $300 million projection. Public infrastructure spending tied to the project has crossed $350 million by state and city transportation department figures alone, with no agency producing a final consolidated total. 

A $470 million reserve fund the Obama Foundation pledged to seed for the center’s long-term operations stands at roughly $1 million. Median rents in the neighborhoods near the campus have risen 43 percent and home values 130 percent since the center was first announced in 2015. Days before the opening, several Black-owned subcontractors who built the campus say they are owed millions and are fighting to keep their businesses open.

In March, Fox News reported:

The Obama Foundation is looking for 100 unpaid volunteers to work alongside the former president’s highly paid cronies at the $850 million Obama Presidential Center in Chicago when it opens in June.

Officials are pitching the no-paycheck gigs as rooted in former President Barack Obama’s legacy of civic engagement. The recruitment campaign comes after Fox News Digital reported that the organization’s CEO, former top Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, was paid $740,000 in 2024.

Maybe the people paying the bills at the library need to revisit their priorities.

Some Basic Thoughts On Iran

The article I am sourcing here was posted on Tuesday, so a lot can happen between then and now, but this is how the situation looked then.

On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about the war in Iran.

The article notes:

Me?

I just want the Iranian regime gone. I realize why we couldn’t state that as an aim at the beginning of this action against them, and that was fine with me. Any strike against the mullahs and crippling of their ability to inflict casualties on Americans at large, and, increasingly, their citizens at home, was fine with me.

Every bomb dropped, every missile that hit, every bullet that hit was one less chance for their deadly, malevolent mischief, and one more blow that should have been struck forty-seven years ago and never had been.

Since we entered the ‘negotiation’ phase, knowing who’s on the other side of the table, I have been waiting for the Iranians’ overconfidence – born from jerking Americans around for nearly five decades – to trip them up. For them to smugly pull a ‘one-step-over-the-line, unforgivable strike or act of bravado that gets them smoked back to stone and ash. 

Trump is capable of it, but what would trigger it?

The article includes an X post from Central Command:

U.S., Partner Forces Defend Against Aggressive Iranian Behavior

TAMPA, Fla. — U.S. forces successfully defeated multiple Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, and conducted self-defense strikes on Qeshm Island in response to attempted attacks by Iran across the Middle East, June 2.

Iran launched several ballistic missiles toward regional neighbors; however, all failed to hit their intended targets. Two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait fell short or broke apart enroute, and three missiles launched at Bahrain were immediately intercepted by U.S. and Bahrain air defense forces.

Moments earlier, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces shot down three one-way attack drones launched by Iran toward civilian mariners that were rightfully transiting regional waters. American forces also conducted self-defense strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island.

No U.S. personnel were harmed. CENTCOM forces remain vigilant and ready to defend against unwarranted Iranian aggression during the ongoing ceasefire.

It’s time to end Iran’s stall tactics and get the job done!

Good News From The Medical Field

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about some of the recent developments in dealing with cancer.

The article quotes a New York Times article:

A drug nearing regulatory approval, daraxonrasib, is the first to substantially extend the lives of patients with pancreatic cancer. It works by targeting a cellular protein that fuels not just nearly all pancreatic tumors, but also many lung and colon cancers. Those three are the leading causes of cancer deaths.

Now, some scientists predict that the approach could wind up being the most significant advance in cancer treatment in 15 years, since the arrival of immunotherapy…

The drug that opened the floodgates, daraxonrasib, has been fast-tracked for review by the Food and Drug Administration and could win approval later this year. Until then, the agency has signed off on a plan by Revolution Medicines, the small Silicon Valley company developing the drug, to offer early access to some patients.

The pills, three taken daily, are not a cure — eventually, daraxonrasib stops working. Many patients do not respond. And it has side effects that can be harsh, including rash, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea and raw, split fingertips.

Until now, however, patients with pancreatic cancer have typically been offered grueling chemotherapy that does little to extend their lives.

The article also mentions positive developments in breast cancer and prostate cancer research.

The article concludes:

All of these developments are good news for future patients diagnosed with these cancers and could lead to additional breakthroughs as other companies race to find similar drugs they can bring to market. None of this happens overnight of course but with advances in AI we can expect it to happen much more frequently in the coming years. In ten years time, the cumulative change in treatments and survival rates could be pretty dramatic compared to where we are now.

This is really good news!

They Need To Go Back To Spy School!

On Thursday, Hot Air posted an article about the arrest of David Rush, an ex-Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official. Not only was he charged with the theft of $40 million in gold bars, it has been revealed that his job application to the CIA included fake credentials. Doesn’t the CIA bother to check the information on their job applications? David Rush was hired in 2009 when Leon Panetta was CIA Director.

The article reports:

No doubt, most people will be amazed that David Rush managed to steal $40 million in gold bars from the CIA. After all, each bar weighs over 27 pounds, so you can’t just walk out with them, and if the reports are true, he managed to steal them right under the bureaucrats’ watchful eyes.

He requisitioned them. He actually requisitioned them. You have to admit that was a ballsy move, and in itself it shows that something very very wrong is happening at our nation’s premier intelligence agency.

The article concludes:

We all expect the CIA itself to engage in dishonesty, but we also expect the agency to be good at rooting it out, given that it is in the business of intelligence and of committing fraud against our adversaries.

But no, apparently not. The agency hired a guy who faked his resume. Three different resumes, each more dishonest than the last.

And then hid the fact from those doing background checks and security screenings to ensure that we could trust him with our nation’s secrets. That was the primary part of his job.

Remember, this guy was high enough to requisition $40 million in gold and get it. For “work-related expenses.”

If that doesn’t frighten you, what would?

How did this man get past the basic employee screening process and the security clearance process?

Why We Need To Protect Property Rights

In 2010, I posted an article about the relationship between property ownership and the wealth of a country. The article essentially said that countries that supported private property ownership tended to be more wealthy than countries that did not. People who own things take better care of them, and property ownership is a way to pass wealth down to the next generation. As someone said–“You don’t wash a rented car.” Unfortunately, Mayor Mamdani of New York City is not aware of the relationship between property ownership and wealth.

On Wednesday, Hot Air posted an article about Mayor Mamdani’s quest to end private property. The post includes the following X post:

?ABSOLUTELY HISTORIC: 

Mayor Mamdani just unveiled his “Block by Block” housing plan to build and preserve HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of affordable homes across New York City.

The plan includes 200,000 new affordable rent-stabilized homes, billions for NYCHA repairs, stronger tenant protections, and a massive crackdown on slumlords.

“When New Yorkers can afford a home, they can afford to dream.”

This is the LARGEST municipal housing transformation proposal in modern NYC history.

Sounds good, but let’s look at the details. Notice that the homes he is talking about are rent-stabilized–not privately owned!

The article notes:

His headline program will be the new public housing projects, which everybody knows will be models of cleanliness, civility, and livability. 

Right? 

But those are just the tip of the iceberg, and not remotely the point of his program. More city-run housing units, in a city where the government is already the biggest slumlord and abuser of tenants in the country, are just more of the same failed welfare-state policies that have been around for decades. 

Mamdani has bigger plans, as he hinted at in his campaign, and confirmed with his appointment of communist nepo-baby Cea Weaver. 

Cea Weaver doesn’t believe in private property and wants homeownership eliminated, and Mamdani has a plan to begin this path through increased regulation of “slumlords.”

A “slumlord” is basically anybody who gets complaints from tenants, and it is mighty easy to organize tenants to complain about their landlords, especially when you create NGOs to organize them to do so.

The goal is to rack up complaints, charge huge fines, and foreclose on landlords who cannot afford to pay for all the fines.

…You see the strategy? It’s actually quite genius, if you want to implement communism in a society where doing so is especially difficult. Rather than putting everybody you dislike against the wall, you pile up the regulations, selectively enforce them against chosen targets, seize the property, and hand it over to government-approved groups and individuals. 

Hopefully this plan will be before a court soon and will make its way to the Supreme Court. This is a direct attack on private property ownership.

Why Is This A Partisan Matter?

Yesterday, Hot Air posted an article about the US Senate Homeland Security Committee testimony of James Erdman III.

The article reports:

James Erdman III is testifying today before the US Senate Homeland Security Committee, and he is blowing the whistle on the CIA’s willingness to bow to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s insistence that COVID did not originate in lab leak, likely tied to gain-of-function research.

No surprise there, I have to say. At the time, the CIA agreed to withhold its conclusion that the most likely explanation for COVID’s spread was a lab leak, although it has subsequently stated that the lab leak was likely.

Yesterday MSN reported:

No Democrats attended a committee hearing Wednesday featuring a whistleblower who accused former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Facui of covering-up details about the origins of COVID-19.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee James Erdman III appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to testify about Fauci’s alleged role in covering-up the origins of COVID-19, with no Democrats on the committee being present.

“No Democrats showed. They don’t care to dismantle the deep state,” Gabrielle Lipsky, the deputy communications director for Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Hot Air notes:

This tale, as far as I can tell, is more about the willingness of bureaucracies to cooperate to cover up their own role in disasters than the CIA’s participation in causing this particular one. There is no indication that it played any role itself, but rather that it bowed to political pressure from Fauci et al to cover up their own.

Covid was something that impacted all Americans in some way. Lying to the American people about its origins did nothing to help any of us. The fact that the Democrats did not bother to show up for this hearing is concerning. Their constituents was as impacted by Covid as those of the Republicans.

At Some Point We Need To Admit That It Doesn’t Work

On Thursday, Hot Air posted an article about the Vineyard Wind farm, off the Nantucket coast.

The article reports:

In the middle of April came word that one of the two partners in the project, GE Renewables, a subsidiary of GE Vernova (which made the infamous blades used in the project), had declared itself no longer a player. It was walking away.

This caused much angst amongst everyone, especially the Vineyard Wind development (with its offshore parents, Iberola and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners), which declared the nearly complete $4.5 billion (with a ‘B’) project could not be finished without GE Renewables full participation. They filed a lawsuit to force GE into honoring the contract.

Within 24 hours, Vineyard Wind had a ruling from a Suffolk Superior court judge telling GE they could not walk away, and to get back to work, calling the GE complaints ‘fanciful,’

…As of yesterday, the Massachusetts judge has agreed to rehear the case because the wind farm is now supposedly ‘operational,’ which completely negates Vineyard Wind’s arguments against GE Renewables’ exit.

…What makes this tit for tat argument interesting are the details. What, exactly, is ‘operational’ in a wind farm?

According to Vineyard Wind, they still need GE around because they’re only partially operational, which sounds kind of like being only ‘mostly dead.’

The article quotes The Citizens’ Task Force on Wind Power:

…When you see the blades spinning, the turbines do not engage the generator to produce power until 6 miles per hour. After 6 mph, they start generating, and they don’t produce full power until around 23 miles per hour. In other words, a 13 megawatt wind at around 12 miles per hour may only produce half its power. Additionally, the turbines are automatically shut down during storms due to high winds or shifting winds. 

The average wind speed off Massachusetts is around 20 miles per hour.

The article at Hot Air notes:

According to the wind farm operator in court in their lawsuit against GE Renewables, it will never pay for itself over the – God willing – 20-year life of the project.

It will never come close.

Nonetheless, there are still silly cultists chanting the mantra, as yet another renewable boondoggle plays out in public.

The article concludes:

…Vineyard Wind’s Final Environmental Impact Statement concludes: “…it is anticipated there will be NO collective impact on global warming as a result of offshore wind projects.”

It’s a shame the same couldn’t be said for consumers’ wallets, the national budget, the ocean, or sea creatures in it.

See also a previous article on the environmental problems caused by the Vineyard Wind project. This project has been a boondoggle from the start.

The New Alliances In The Middle East

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about the new alliances that have formed in the Middle East as a result of Iran’s behavior.

The article reports:

It’s been little noticed by the media, but ever since the beginning of the Iran War, Arab countries have been quietly, but not secretly, coordinating with Israel.

The UAE, for instance, has Israeli advisors on the ground who are helping with air defense, and an Iron Dome battery is based in the UAE. During the 12-Day War, several Arab countries shot down Iranian drones aimed at Israel.

…And now, the UAE has made clear that they are entering the kinetic side of the war, and are coordinating with Israel and presumably the United States, and are not hiding their cooperation with Israel in the least.

…While the media portrays this war as primarily the US and Israel against Iran, most of the strikes that Iran has made have been against the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. During the 12-Day war, Iran not only struck Israel, but also Qatar, which has a US base.

The article concludes:

It is possible that today’s attacks on the UAE are intended to create a rift among the GCC states, especially following the UAE’s exit from OPEC. Qatar’s recent condemnation of the Iranian attacks suggests that this is unlikely. 

Things are getting interesting again. 

Qatar has been playing both sides of the street up until recently. Much of the Hamas leadership was safely ensconced in Qatar after the September 7 attack on Israel. Qatar has also historically been a major funding source for terrorism. It will be interesting to see if that changes. The countries in the Middle East have a choice–do they align with the country ruled by a tyrant whose ordinary citizens still live in the 5th century with very little freedom or do they align with a successful democracy that leads the world in scientific achievement and continues to prosper despite attacks from all sides. Who would you want as your trade partner?

Actions Have Consequences

The attacks (verbal and physical) on conservative politicians and conservative journalist have been going on for a while. One Representative told people during the first Trump administration that if someone sees a person from that administration they should ‘get in their face.’ That is not good advice.

On Wednesday, The New York Post posted an article about an attack on a conservative journalist in Minnesota.

The article reports:

A Minnesota couple — including a dad who fancied himself “the voice of a generation” — and their daughter were hit with federal charges for allegedly assaulting a Turning Point USA reporter at an anti-ICE protest earlier this month.

Christopher Ostroushko, 51, Deyanna Ostroushko, 46, and daughter Paige Ostroushko, 20, were indicted for the assault of TPUSA reporter Savanah Hernandez outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling, the US Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

Horrifying video from the April 11 anti-ICE rally outside the Whipple building captured Christopher Ostroushko suddenly shoving Hernandez, 29, to the ground with both hands, while yelling, “Don’t f–king touch my daughter!”

The enraged dad’s assault came after a female protester was seen punching Hernandez in the face, knocking her clean off her feet and into a fence behind her, and before another woman tackled her to the pavement once again, according to the footage.

Hernandez previously told The Post that she was tasked with filming protest activity — and did so untouched until she was identified by “a mob” of “left-wingers” for her work with the organization co-founded by assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

On Thursday, Hot Air reported:

Deyanna Ostroushko is probably not looking at actual federal prison time, unless she has a previous conviction on her record. However, Christopher and Paige are looking at the potential for serious time inside a Club Fed or worse if convicted of the top charge in the indictment. Their attorney may argue that Hernandez’ injuries are not serious enough to warrant a felony conviction under that statute, but that’s not how the statute is written. They may not get the full ten years, but it sounds like US Attorney David Rosen plans to make the Ostroushkos an example pour encourager les autres and to establish consequences for the “national scourge” that the Ostroushkos represent. 

That’s certainly the message Harmeet Dhillon intends to send, loudly and clearly. She was “on it” from the beginning, and in terms of grand-jury proceedings, practically sprinted across the finish line to file this indictment against the family that preys together to stay together. We need much more of this tough approach to political violence across the board. It will take more than a prison sentence for the Ostroushkos to re-set the incentive structure around the near-riots around federal immigration facilities and attacks on conservative observers to them.

This is unacceptable behavior. Fortunately, it was caught on firm, so the defendants will have a hard time proving their innocence.

Support From Unusual Places

On Wednesday, Hot Air posted an article about a Supreme Court case involving a New Jersey Pregnancy Center.

The article reports:

There was another Supreme Court decision today which isn’t getting as much attention as the Voting Rights decision, but it represents a win for pro-life pregnancy centers against an attorney general seeking to harass them. Here’s the backstory to this case taken from the decision written by Justice Gorsuch.

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc., is a religious nonprofit organization that has provided counseling and resources to pregnant women in New Jersey since 1985. Believing that “life begins at conception,” and seeking “to protect and honor life in all stages of development,” the group does not provide abortions or refer clients to others for abortions.

In 2022, New Jersey’s Attorney General, Matthew Platkin, established a “Reproductive Rights Strike Force.”… Shortly after its creation, the Strike Force issued a “consumer alert” in which it accused groups like First Choice of “seek[ing] to prevent people from accessing comprehensive reproductive health care” by “provid[ing] false or misleading information about abortion.” App. 357–358. The alert concluded by directing women to abortion providers and asking members of the public who believed they were “victim[s] of fraudulent, deceptive, misleading, or unlawful conduct” to “please file a complaint with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.”

In short, this was a partisan witch hunt which turned up no witches. Naturally, that didn’t matter to AG Platkin who resorted to subpoena’s and threats.

Neither the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs or the Attorney General’s office received any complaints. The Attorney General demanded a list of donors, which was refused by the Pregnancy Center.

The Washington Post reported:

The Supreme Court held unanimously on Wednesday that a chain of faith-based antiabortion pregnancy centers can mount a federal court challenge to a subpoena for its donors that it claims is part of an intimidation campaign by New Jersey officials hostile to its views on abortion.

The justices sided with First Choice Women’s Resource Centers Inc., which claimed the request by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin (D) chilled its First Amendment rights to speech and association with donors because disclosure might make supporters leery of contributing money.

Also noted in The Washington Post:

In briefs submitted to the court, a number of organizations noted that having an avenue to fight politically motivated investigations was crucial for nonprofits and other advocacy-based groups.

Among them was the American Civil Liberties Union, which publicly acknowledged it did not fall on the same side as First Choice when it came to abortion policy but signed on to an amicus brief, saying that such broad subpoenas could “put all advocacy at risk.”

Sometimes politics makes strange bedfellows!

The Technology Is Not Quite Ready For Prime Time

On Friday, Hot Air posted an article detailing what has happened when municipalities decided to use electric buses. The article reminds us that electric buses do not do well in cold weather and that use of electric school buses in New York State and other northern states left students cold and stranded.

The article reports:

In March, I had a field day posting some of the latest news that had come in on both the urban and school district E-bus experiments. Tragically for the tax dollars involved, and, in some cases, the health, comfort, and well-being of the kiddos on the buses, most were abysmal disappointments and many flat-out disasters.

There were mechanical issues galore, scary fires that thankfully erupted in unoccupied vehicles but consumed the fleet in some cases, and maintenance/parts problems arising from bankrupt bus manufacturers that seemed insurmountable.

Tellingly, data was also now available from some of the school districts that had first adopted the E-buses, and the promised affordability was nowhere to be found. This was causing considerable consternation.

…This is with the Naples (NY) School District running only two electric school buses, both of which had initially paid for by federal grants, etc.

36 cents per mile for diesel and $3.18 per mile for electric

The article concludes with an example of this mess from Florida:

Local 10 News has learned that because federal grant money funded a significant portion of the electric bus fleets in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, there are federal guidelines tied to how long those buses are expected to remain in service.

If the buses are taken out of service early, counties may have to repay a portion of that federal funding.

That possibility is now driving decisions in both counties in very different ways.

In Broward County,transit officials have formally asked the Federal Transit Administration for forgiveness in an effort to avoid paying that money back.

“And so one of the things that we are, the application that we submitted to the FTA is for us to be able to get forgiveness from them so that we do not have to reimburse them for the funds that they have provided to us and also to be able to dispose of them, said Coree Cuff Lonergan, CEO and general manager of Broward County Transit.

In Miami-Dade County, leaders are taking a different approach.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the county is still trying to find a way to get the buses back on the road.

“We are still hopeful we can still put them into service. The company that is the successor company is not able to give us the level of service we need,” she said.

…I think they need to scrounge up a new mayor, but that’s just me.

How much money did this electric boondoggle cost taxpayers?

Negotiating With The People Who Want Peace

Just as Iran has become a county led by tyrants that do not represent the population, Lebanon in many ways has been taken over by Hezbollah. With the funding of Hezbollah by Iran at least temporarily cut off, this is the time to free Lebanon from their terrorist grip.

On Friday, Ed Morrissey posted an article at Hot Air about the negotiations for peace between Israel and Lebanon. Hezbollah was not included in those negotiations.

The article reports:

The Wall Street Journal raises the question of the Rabid Dog That Was Not Allowed to Bark In DC in its analysis of the ceasefire brokered by Marco Rubio between Israel and Lebanon. Reporters Omar Abdel-Baqui and Dov Lieber concede that the pact engineered by the Secretary of State comes as a “historic step” between the two countries, especially since Lebanon has never recognized Israel’s status as a state. However, they wonder just how these negotiations can take place in the absence of “one of the main belligerents”:

The article quotes The Wall Street Journal:

Without Hezbollah at the negotiating table, the cease-fire and the possibility of a successful Israel-Lebanon peace agreement would be on shaky ground.

…In 1983, the countries signed a peace agreement, which fell apart after Hezbollah and other factions opposed it. Another U.S.-backed peace effort in 1993 broke down, owing to opposition from Syria, which then dominated Lebanon, and the impossibility of security guarantees with Hezbollah. A November 2024 deal was supposed to lead to the Lebanese government’s demilitarizing Hezbollah, and Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and halting strikes on Lebanon. None of those objectives were achieved.

…Meeting a group of Lebanese lawmakers, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun endorses continued direct negotiations with Israel and says that his country is working to secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces, to bring back Lebanese citizens held by Israel and to solve border disputes.

Aoun says “direct negotiations are crucial… and the gateway to advancing the negotiations” with Israel.

The Lebanese Armed Forces “will play a fundamental role after the withdrawal of Israeli forces,” Aoun says, promising they will deploy to the Israeli border and will reassure residents of southern Lebanon, “after their return to their villages and towns, that there will be no armed forces other than the army and the legitimate security forces.”

The article at Hot Air concludes:

That’s why Hezbollah was not invited to participate in the talks. It’s also why Israel is not constrained by the ceasefire if Hezbollah violates it. Hezbollah did not get a seat at the table because Iran doesn’t get to dictate terms in Lebanon any longer. The IRGC regime may not get to dictate terms in Iran for much longer, for that matter. So why invite its terror proxies to discuss their own destruction?

I think the Lebanese are tired of living in a country held hostage by a terrorist organization.

Some Random Thoughts And X Posts About The Rescue Of American Airmen

On April 6th, Hot Air posted an article about the rescue of the two American airmen shot down over Iran. The article included a lot of X posts that illustrated the difference between some America’s view of the rescue and the European view of the rescue.

My favorite quote from the article was a statement by Former CENTCOM commander Ret. Gen. Frank McKenzie, who PERFECTLY described the situation– “It takes a year to build an aircraft — and it takes 200 YEARS to build a military tradition where you don’t leave anybody behind!”

The article included the following X post:

The article notes:

As soon as the news broke of the downed F-15, a massive divide became evident: Trump’s opponents, to a person, shouted that this was proof that the United States was losing, that Iran had the upper hand, and, worst of all, a creeping sense that some of these people felt absolute glee.

…Not all, of course. It is never all, but the overwhelming sentiment seemed to be satisfaction, and even a creeping hope that Iran would capture our pilot and WSO. And when the pilot was recovered, the intensity of the left’s seeming hope that the WSO’s fate would be determined by Iran was…disturbing.

This is another X post from the article:

I am not sure if we can ever bridge the divide that we see developing in western civilization. We have not had to defend our civilization in this generation, and I am not sure we will be able to defend it if we are called to do so.

Policy Changes Before An Election?

It’s amazing what politicians will do to get elected. On Saturday, Hot Air posted an article with one example.

The article reports:

Kathy Hochul is up for reelection this year, and has a big, big problem: for all the talk about an “affordability” agenda, every single policy the Democrats like to push increases costs, reduces quality of life, and drives people out of Blue states.

And one of the worst problems she faces is skyrocketing energy bills, and the prospect that those prices will rise even more and faster in the next few years as climate deadlines rapidly approach.

The article quotes The New York Times:

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday moved to alter and delay the implementation of New York State’s landmark 2019 climate law, which calls for gradually decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by certain deadlines.

Those proposed adjustments include delaying issuing the regulations for enforcing the law — already two years late — until 2030 and amending how certain emissions are measured.

“We need more time,” Ms. Hochul wrote in an editorial that was published on Friday morning in The Empire Report, a news site that covers state politics. “So much has radically changed since the Climate Act was enacted, necessitating common-sense adjustments.”

The proposal, anticipated by lawmakers in Albany, comes late in the budget negotiation process. Although Ms. Hochul has considerable leverage to push for her agenda during this time, members of the Legislature will need to approve the final budget, which would include changes to the climate law.

The article notes:

There is not a serious person alive who didn’t understand that imposing huge costs for not meeting impossible climate goals would raise costs for consumers. You had to have had a lobotomy or be a liberal to not predict this.

Passing the climate law in 2019 was perfect for liberal politicians; it helped funnel money in great quantities to political allies for years, and the worst of the price increases was put into the seemingly distant future. But that “distant” future is not so distant now, and Hochul sees political trouble if she doesn’t relieve the artificial price pressure the law has created.

The article concludes:

As always, the Democrats warn about a fake crisis, promise the moon, spend tons of money, make things infinitely worse, and then say they will fix the problem.

Hey, folks, I have a better plan: get rid of these idiots and elect some Republicans. They aren’t perfect, but you get a lot fewer butterfly bridges, fraudulent programs, insane green energy laws, and as a bonus, we won’t put boys in girls’ locker rooms.

Give it a try. You may like it.

The Governor’s election in New York State is going to be fun to watch!

I Think She Has Missed The Point

On Thursday, Hot Air posted an article titled, “Kathy Hochul Begs Rich People to Come Back to New York.” Why does she think they left?

The article reports:

Hochul’s appeal to the millionaires who are fleeing New York came last week at a POLITICO “Fireside Chat” that was fascinating, if you are into such things. It gave us insight into the dilemma that national Democrats face: their base is radicalized, their records are appalling, and their states are bleeding citizens.

Here are a quote from the chat:

Now, there are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up. Okay, cut me the checks. If you want to be supportive, but maybe the first step should be to go down to Palm Beach and see who we can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded. So I philosophically don’t have a problem, I have to look at the fact that we are in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals. And I would say remote work changed everything. There were people who could only work in an office in Manhattan or work in New York State and they were captives to our state. They were going to stay. We saw that that’s not the case. Wall Street, businesses looking at Texas? They’re not going there because they have a nicer governor, I know that for sure, but they’re going there because of the tax rate. We have to be smart about this. But we can fund what we want to fund with what we already are taking in.

I have a few questions. How many people have your extensive social programs actually helped? How much of the money collected in taxes actually goes to the people who need it and how much goes to bureaucratic expenses? Why should a businessman bring his business to a place that is extremely expensive to do business?

Bad management gets bad results!

I Didn’t Pay To Be An Ally Of Iran

On March 5th, Hot Air posted an article about the changing alliances in the Middle East. There are a lot of reasons for those changes–economic, political, and reading the writing on the wall. In an effort to expand the war and apply pressure against Israel, Iran has attacked Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman, and Iraq. Those attacks have not had the desired effect–in fact in many cases those countries have now quietly or openly aligned with Israel. I wonder if these countries are grateful that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon.

The article reports:

Donald Trump is breaking the post-Cold War assumptions in foreign policy and rewriting the strategic rules. Campus radicals in America, and antisemitic professors and transnational elites are much more hostile to Israel than Saudi Arabia or even Qatar.

The international establishment can’t wrap its head around the new reality, nor the opportunities that the changes in strategic alliances promise.

Winning the Iran war, or whatever you want to call it, has the potential to reshape the Middle East for decades to come. Especially if the new Iranian regime is relatively moderate, as we can hope, if not expect, yet.

In the1970s the Middle East was divided between Arab states hostile to Israel and an alliance of Israel, Iran, and the United States. Since the Iranian revolution, the Arab states remained enemies with Iran, had reasonable relations with the US, and a mostly hostile peace with Israel.

Could we soon see a new alignment, with Israel, the Arab states, and even Iran coexisting well together?

We can hope.

The Abraham Accords were the beginning of this process. We could be looking at a peaceful Middle East. It has been a long time since that happened.

Doing The Right Thing After Being Told Not To

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about Vinny Martorano, a young reporter who covers Austin, Texas. He was out and about covering the protests and rallies in Austin after the attack on Iran.

The article reports:

He’s just about ready to go when his cameraman hands him a phone with a message from the station bosses, telling him to cool his jets on the ‘Yay, Trump‘ crowd coverage.

They don’t want us focusing on that,‘ says the cameraman, and it is hard to make out over the racket of the voices behind him.

WELL, I AM

The article concludes:

What a sad commentary on the state of the media that this one young man’s honest adherence to the essence of reporting the truth of the story in front of him is just a gobsmacker in this day and age.

A reporting job for a major affiliate in a larger market like Austin is a plum opportunity, and to buck the bosses to tell the truth?

To show THE UNADORNED, UNEDITED TRUTH instead of massaging the sensitivities of the pervading ideology?

I’m sorry – that is beyond spectacular.

Maybe it’s because he went to a mid-major like Ball State (yes, I read his bio) that he’s kept his innate integrity. 

Whatever it is, his parents raised what used to simply be known as a ‘good man’ – the same ‘good men’ who are now as rare as Sasquatch sightings in his profession.

I don’t know what will happen once word of this hits the bosses, or if they’ve already ripped him a new one for his report.

All I know is that the media could use more Vinnies on-air and a whole lot less of the national CBS reporters.

I’ll lay you dollars to donuts they do the exact opposite.

Vinny has a future in alternative media. It remains to be seen if he has a future with CBS.

The Alternative

Some Democrats chose not to attend the State of the Union Address. Some Democrats went so far as to create events running simultaneously with the State of the Union Address. One such event was the People’s State of the Union rally. I am not exactly sure what they were trying to accomplish, but Hot Air posted a few videos on Thursday.

Please follow the link above to see the videos. I could not figure out how to insert them.

The article at Hot Air is titled, “When Democrats Make Donald Trump The Normie In The Room, They’re Losing.” I totally agree.

The article reports:

Donald Trump has had, without question, a first fourteenish months in office that is hard to top in any other administration of my lifetime in accomplishments. And to be fair, it would also be correct to say that no president has stirred up more angst and controversy among his detractors than any other administration in a similar time period.

After last week’s press conference at the White House a day after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision on the tariffs case, Donald Trump’s contempt for the majority opinion was so palpable that one of the questions going into last night’s State of the Union was how soon and how hard the President would rhetorically apply the Trump tattoo to the justices present in the joint session of Congress.

Trump certainly had words, but they were tempered and not made personal. In fact, for virtually the entirety of the address, which came in a few ticks under two hours, the speech was about the best speech Donald Trump has ever delivered.

At times, establishing the narrative that real progress has been made on economic problems created and/or exacerbated by the Biden Regency, and at other points a celebration of American excellence, whether in sports, or bravery, courage, and resilience in all walks of life, this was simply a State of the Union speech unlike any other we’ve heard. And that is a very, very good thing.

One thing to remember when considering the bad behavior of some Democrats who attended the speech–these Democrats were elected by their districts. To be even more clear–Ilhan Omar probably accurately represents the voters in her district. Obviously, we need to think carefully about who we allow to come to America.