Weekend Data Dump

Solar/Wind Apples and Fossil Fuel Oranges. If renewable energy is so great at producing jobs, why do renewable boosters have to lie about the benefits? Tip to Instapundit.

When we need a "why do they hate us?" debate we won't get it. Yeah, nobody is proclaiming "we are all journalists, now."

If Trump demanded that Canada not prosecute Americans in their country for certain crimes, it would be rightly called an awful, modern version of extraterritoriality. But when Denver virtually green lights domestic violence by illegal aliens to avoid deportation, that's compassion. Or something. Probably something. Isn't it odd that citizens and legal foreign residents will be punished more harshly for crimes than illegal immigrants? Membership has more privileges for being an American Express cardholder than just being an American in Denver's criminal justice system. Tip to Instapundit for the Denver news.

Ethnic cleansing for a day.

Aerial jousting over Syria. Let's hope we learn more than the Russians.

We are not in end days. So just stop the panic-mongering.

Sigh. They should really be less concerned with carbon footprints and more concerned with car bomb footprints. Seriously, stop that.

Actual Resistance to actual dictatorship. I point this out as a basis of comparison to the faux resistors in America who preen about their so-called bravery.

For liberals these days, you are either against Trump or you are for him. I don't think the world nuance means what they think it means. Tip to Instapundit.

A hateful man killed two men who intervened to defend two Moslem women from a hateful tirade in Portland, Oregon. The men who were murdered (and a third survived) should be hailed as much as the man who killed him should be punished to the full extent of the law. His tirade against the women and murderous actions against the men were unacceptable in America. He is free to hate, of course. As awful as that is. But taking action on the hate is unacceptable. Keep your damn hate to yourself and whoever can stand your company. Where did he get his hate? Trump is the obvious suspect, I'm sure. Sadly, the killer seems to be a Bernie Sanders (socialist) and Jill Stein (Green--socialist who recycles) fan. Oops for the narrative. I hate to go here. It shouldn't be about politics. But Stein blamed the killing on "Trump's America." How's Stein's Portland looking, eh?

Are journalists rushing to claim a Republican Congressional candidate who roughed up a journalist was due to the hostile environment established by President Trump's criticism of the media thinking things out? If anything happens to President Trump, how can we describe the environment established by almost uniformly hostile media coverage of the president? Where will the blame fall for an assault on the president in that environment?

Laws are for the little people.

I'm not going to pretend I know enough to say this domestic spying under the Obama administration is as horrible as it sounds. I wasn't horrified at necessary meta-data retrieval during the Bush administration and didn't get outraged when Obama did it, too. So I will wait. What I will say now is that if the media had reported Trump or Bush doing this spying there would be widespread media talk of dictatorship and the need for impeachment and prison for the president involved rather than relative radio silence.

It's nice when stupidity has consequences.

What happened to Max Boot? I'm no fan of Saudi Arabia (or of Pakistan, for that matter), but in the real world we have to deal with them and use them as allies. But according to Max Boot's logic, FDR should be condemned for allying with Stalin to fight Hitler rather than resisting both. My guess is that Boot is tired of not getting invited to Georgetown and Upper West Side cocktail parties.

"Climate change" is keeping Americans up at night because of the heat. I don't suppose it would matter that the global temperature has been flat for about two decades? I didn't think so. Then I guess I can only hope that decades after we could send a man to the moon we could figure out how to lower temperatures and humidity of indoor air ("condition" it?) so we could at least get a good night's sleep. I am a dreamer, I know.

Oh, if only a single "teach in" could educate the dunderheads upset about GPA redistribution.

Yes, as I've written many times, it is a fool's game for conservatives to focus on controlling the federal government rather than reducing its scope so it just doesn't matter much who runs it.

And I'm going to ask again why our military didn't respond to the Benghazi attack on September 11, 2012. I want to believe that our military naturally prepared to move to the sound of the guns. If they didn't, we have a bigger problem than the now-departed (well, except for stay-behinds wreaking havoc) Obama administration. The September 11, 2012 Benghazi attack confirmed my contempt for the Obama administration in its lack of seriousness about the war we remain in.  Do remember that two days before that attack I wrote that our government felt the need to raise the issue of zombie attacks to encourage emergency preparedness. They honestly couldn't come up with a real-world threat. Will we ever get an honest accounting of why our military in Europe sat on its hands that day? Do I have to ask this question every week?

This last week I culturally appropriated the Hell out of Mexico and the Arab world by making a taco-meat and shredded cheese on Arabic flat bread in a sort of ersatz (yeah, I'm taking that from the Germans, so suck on it) soft taco.  I love the taste of cultural appropriation in the morning.

At some level, just carrying on as usual after a terror attack just gives the government the opportunity to do nothing to end the threat. Did the British carry on as usual during the Blitz? Or did the British hunker down, sending their children north to safety (sadly, Manchester is no longer a safe haven from murderous bombers of the human type), and fight the threat?

The military's recruiting base is too narrow. I had an article accepted on addressing this problem that is not yet published.

Is it any wonder that liberals think conservatives are the biggest terror threat to America when any killer is portrayed by the left-friendly media as a right-winger regardless of the facts? And recall the Orlando mass murderer who was portrayed as a symptom of conservative alleged homophobia rather than Islamist rage.

This is supposed to be scary but it cheapens the value of Russian deterrence: A Russian legislator said Russia would use nukes if American or other NATO troops entered Russian-occupied Ukraine. So would Russia nuke Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory to strike "invaders" or would Russia fire at America? Because if the latter, Russia would be nuked. Is this threat to use nukes against a less than fatal military action really credible? And isn't it a sign of weakness that Russia would need to resort to nukes so close to home while NATO would be far from its home territories? America would not nuke Russia if Russia invaded Alaska and held some of our territory. We'd drive them out. Because we can. I think that Russian legislator is writing a check that Russia can't afford to cash.

"No, You’re Not More Likely to Be Killed by a Right-Wing Extremist than an Islamic Terrorist[.]" Yeah, don't embarrass yourself by making that ridiculous claim.

These judges are assaulting rule of law. Is that where we want to go? Seriously, we need to push politicized policies back to states so these battles stop tearing America apart.

At what point do gender studies departments get charged as criminal enterprises for taking a lot of money from people to give them worthless degrees that are based on "scholarship" indistinguishable from bullshit?

Seriously, what is going on with this low-profile probe in Congress that has Democrats so upset?

I'd be open to the idea of a basic government (taxpayer)-provided income to all that was simply the base of whatever else you earn, if this led to the elimination of the vast majority of the welfare bureaucracy that dispenses needs-based expenditures. This bureaucracy is so large that it seems more like a jobs program for the well-paid employees than a means to help the poor. I wonder how that Canadian experiment will work?

Putin says he is certain Syria did not use chemical weapons in April. But keep in mind he is certain his army didn't invade Ukraine and is certain he looks good shirtless, hunting tigers.

The rise of Jack D. Ripper in the Democratic party? Duh. I was all over that development 7 months ago! Yeah, the 1980s called and the Democrats answered--but misheard the warning as Russia being our greatest political threat. That kind of threat will get a reaction. As an aside, the Democrats demonized a moderate and decent man in that election simply because he had an (R) after his name.

France is updating their armored vehicle fleet to network it.

America has invited China to RIMPAC 2018, our major naval exercise. I think this is a mistake. China will never learn to fear us, only to believe they understand how to defeat us.

Liberals have (of course) turned the outrage dial to 11 (tell me this is a science issue rather than a matter of faith!) over President Trump's withdrawal from the toothless and unnecessary climate deal signed in Paris. But I'm sure liberals will come around. How many decades did the Democrats ignore the Russian threat? But liberals did discover that! After all, just wait until liberals discover that the now-hated Russians oppose fracking, drilling, and low oil prices in general in order to prop up their economy through energy exports! "Resist Russia" bumper stickers can't be far off on a Prius near you, eh?

Will the Russians (again) cripple their economy for an arms race with America?

The Democrats and the media seem to be unwittingly causing chaos in America, which suits Russia just fine. This is totally unique in that the Democrats are now doing it "unwittingly" unlike their deliberate actions to undermine America for the Soviets in the Cold War.

Demonstrators in Venezuela have taken to pointing out how their socialist ruling class seem to be doing just fine financially as the country dissolves in hunger and poverty around them.