Make Up Your Minds

The negotiations with the Taliban to try to end the Afghan war have brought out the crazy nature of those who oppose President Trump.  For a long time, they complained that Trump didn't end the war.  They ignored the fact that president Obama called Afghanistan the right war to fight.  Then we started negotiating with the Taliban to see if a peace deal could be reached.  The response from the Dems was to ask how we could negotiate with a group like the Taliban.  Of course, as the President said yesterday, it is impossible to end a war by negotiation if you don't talk to the other side.  In any event, the Dems went crazy when they learned that Taliban representatives were supposed to come to Camp David for discussions.  What an outrage to have the Taliban at a meeting.  Then, because the Taliban attacked and killed a group of people including an American soldier, Trump cancelled that meeting.  The Dems' response:  if you guessed that they are outraged, you'd be correct.  How could Trump cancel peace talks?  What an outrage.  It's rather amazing.  If Trump holds the peace talks the left thinks it's outrageous.  If he doesn't hold the peace talks, the left thinks it's outrageous. 

It's hard to believe that a group of people who actually consider themselves to understand foreign policy could behave in such a silly manner.  I wonder if they actually understand what they are saying.

Will Liberal be Liable for Libel

The One America Network just sued Comcast, MSNBC and Rachel Maddow for defamation.  It stems from a refusal by Comcast to let its local cable networks carry OAN.  That was followed by an exchange of emails and letters.  It was topped off, however, when Rachel Maddow discussed OAN and said that the news it carried "“really literally is paid Russian propaganda.”

OAN has now sued.  It points out that it is not a Russian company, it has no dealings with Russia or Russians and that it is paid nothing by anyone to carry particular news.  OAN is seeking ten million dollars in compensatory damages and an unspecified amount of punitive damages.

Most likely, this dispute will end up being settled.  Comcast is unlikely to want to face a jury when it could be hit with major damages.

OAN's claim seems pretty strong to me.  In order to win, OAN will have to show that Maddow was either intentionally seeking to harm OAN or was extremely reckless in making the statement in question.  It's not enough that the statement is wrong; it has to be either intentionally wrong or grossly negligent.  Given the statement, however, that is not too hard to show.  Normally a TV host like Maddow would say that according to sources, claims have been made that OAN is paid to carry Russian propaganda.  That is sufficient to get by most libel claims.  Maddow, however, didn't say that.  Instead, she made a definite statement.  She said OAN is "really, literally" paid to broadcast Russian propaganda.  And remember, Maddow took no steps to attempt to determine if that claim was true.  Neither Maddow nor anyone from MSNBC contacted OAN to ask about the claim.  Maddow seems to have not a single bit of evidence to support her claim that OAN is a purveyor of Russian propaganda.  

This will all be up to a judge.  He or she will have to decide if a reasonable jury could conclude that Maddow and MSNBC acted recklessly or intentionally in making this attack.  If that finding is made, it will be up to the jury to decide if OAN has been defamed and what damages it has suffered.  Most likely, however, the jury is not going to be very sympathetic to a giant company like Comcast and its minions.

I predict again that this will be settled.

Valerie Plame Runs For Congress

Trending right now on Twitter is Valerie Plame.  Remeber Valerie?  She's the CIA worker who was supposedly "outed" in retaliation for her husband Joe Wilson contesting statements at the time the Iraq War began.  It wasn't really much of an "outing" since a great many people already knew that she had worked for the CIA, but it still got blown up into a special prosecutor and a major media circus.  The media blamed Dick Cheney for her "outing" and particularly Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby.  After a lengthy investigation, however, it turned out that it was Richard Armitage of the State Department who had told reporter Robert Novak that Plame had worked for the CIA.  Novak broke the story.

After that, Plame and her husband disappeared from the media.  She was no longer useful for bashing President Bush and his administration, so none of the media followed her anymore.

Today, Plame reappeared to start her campaign for Congress in New Mexico.  Not surprisingly, Plame started with two lies.

First, Plame repeated the story that Scooter Libby had been the one to disclose her identity.  That's a bald faced lie and Plame knows it.  No matter, though, Plame is still pushing that lie.

Second, Plame tried to inoculate herself from her anti-Semitic statements of the last few years.  She actually claimed that she did not know that when she tweeted an article called "America’s Jews Are Driving America’s Wars" from the website of a holocaust denier that it was anti-Semitic.

This is a woman who should not be in Congress, even as a  Democrat.  We already have enough anti-Semitic Democrat women congressmen.

Mass Hysteria and Warren's Promise to Virtue Signal the USA into Oblivion

Elizabeth Warren has now promised that she would ban fracking on her first day in office.  She wants to issue the ban in order to fight climate change.  Think about that for a moment and consider whether this promise alone disqualifies Warren from ever being president.

Here are a few important facts:

1.  In the last 20 years, the USA has cut its carbon dioxide emissions substantially.  We are alone of all the world's large economies to accomplish that feat.  The principal driver of the emissions cut has been the conversion of our electric power plants from burning coal to using natural gas instead.  The use of gas cuts emission by nearly two-thirds compared to coal.

2.  The conversion to natural gas has been made possible by the increased supply of natural gas that results from the use of fracking.  For example, Pennsylvania has now become the second largest producer of nat gas and over 99% of all the gas produced there results from fracking.

3.  If fracking is banned, the amount of natural gas produced will start to decline noticeably by six months later.  By two years later production will be down by something over 30%.  All these power plants that run on natural gas will be forced to switch back either to coal or oil, and both of those fuels will be substantially dirtier than the nat gas.  In short, banning fracking will result in a big INCREASE in emissions.

4.  Right now about 83% of all US power comes from either fossil fuels or nuclear power.  Warren also opposes nuclear power for safety reasons.  The fuel to provide power will have to be replaced if we are all to have electric power moving forward.

5.  The bulk of all new domestic oil production is also the result of fracking.  The Permian is a huge field, but it depends on fracking for production.  Without the use of fracking, American oil production will drop quickly.  We will be back to importing oil from OPEC.  There will be a shortage of oil worldwide.  That means that both oil and gas prices will soar.  Get ready to pay seven or eight dollars, if not more, per gallon at the gas station.

6,  There are literally millions of people whose livelihood depends on the production of domestic oil and gas.  Essentially all of these jobs will be placed at risk and millions will be lost if fracking is banned.  It will mean a severe recession at best and a depression at worst.

Put all this together and you find that banning fracking will do the opposite of what Warren intends.  It will INCREASE carbon emissions.  At the same time it will deliver a body blow to the American economy.  We will have "instant recession" or "depression".

So what is the benefit of banning fracking?  Warren says it shows we are serious about fighting climate change.  She gets to show her virtue by taking this step.  Warren wants to go with virtue signalling even if it harms the environment and kills our economy.  What's her slogan going to be?  How about "America Last!"

The Voice Of Morality

Mark Sanford, the former governor of SC and a former congressman, announced today that he is running for president in 2020 as a Republican.  He joins Joe Walsh and William Weld as primary opponents for President Trump.

Really?

It was silly when Weld ran against Trump.  It was beyond silly when Walsh announced.  But now we have Mark Sanford?  This is the guy who disappeared while governor of SC because he went to see his mistress in South America and didn't tell people that he was going.

Look, Trump is probably the president with the most unusual behavior I've seen in my lifetime, but Sanford is someone whose mental stability is questionable.  Why is he running?  He won't win.  What can he possible hope to accomplish?  Is he looking to get a slot as a commentator on CNN after the election?

Down by 56%

I didn't want this story to pass without comment.  Mexico announce two days ago that the number of Central Americans and others coming to the US southern border is down 56% for the last month compared to the number in May.  This means that the Mexican effort to stop the flow of illegals across that country to the US border has been a success.  Mexico agreed to enforce its laws rather than to ignore the flow of illegals after President Trump threatened Mexico with the imposition of a tariff on Mexican goods entering the USA.

The left will no doubt scream that this is heartless and wrong, but remember, Mexico is just enforcing the laws it already has on the books.  Tens of thousands of illegals will no longer be taking the arduous journey from Guatemala north thousands of miles to the USA.  This cuts the flow of drugs and also human trafficking.  It is a major victory for the USA.

What's Going On?

In the last few weeks, a lot has happened that can only be described as bizarre.  Here are a few examples:

1.  CNN ran seven hours of town halls with ten Democrat candidates.  That was a strange programming choice, but during all of that seven hours, not a single candidate was asked about the new data from NOAA that shows no warming trend in the USA since the data collection for the project began in 2005.  How do you talk about global warming and fail to ask about the lack of predicted warming?

2.  In the middle of coverage of a serious and dangerous hurricane, the media made a detour to focus at great length on whether or not President Trump misspoke when he included Alabama as a possible target of the storm.  Trump included Alabama about 4 or 5 days prior to when that state would have been hit.  One thing that anyone who watches hurricanes must know is that predicting the path of a large hurricane 4 or 5 days in the future is very problematic.  If Trump was wrong, so what?  The focus of coverage should be on the hurricane, not one whether or not Trump misspoke.

3.  Pete Buttigieg has taken to citing the Bible in his arguments.  He's pushed the idea that Christianity supports a $15 per hour minimum wage.  Seriously, he said that.  He's also pushed the idea that the Bible supports abortion any time up until the delivery of a child.  How sad.  Mayor Pete insults every believer by twisting the Bible into something it isn't.  Life is something that we are all supposed to protect.  We don't protect a child by killing it just prior to delivery.  The strangest thing, though, is not that Mayor Pete said this, but rather than it has gotten very little coverage in the mainstream media.  Sure, Pete keeps falling lower in the polls, but even so, one would think that a major perversion of the message of the Bible merits a mention in the media.

4.  Old Joe Biden has been falling apart before our eyes.  At the CNN town hall on climate, Biden's message was obliterated because he had a blood vessel in his eye rupture on camera.  Biden has been forgetful and confused for months.  And despite all these indicators that Old Joe's health is failing (or at least his mental acuity is failing), he won't release his medical records and his campaign won't even discuss his health on the record.  It's the ostrich method of dealing with a problem.  Biden's health and age is an issue, so he and his campaign stick their heads in the sand.

5.  The US sanctions against Iran are really hurting the mullahs, so French president Macron came up with a proposal under which France would give Iran 15 billion dollars to keep going with the Iran nuclear deal.  Of course, Iran itself announced that it is violating that deal by moving forward with uranium enrichment beyond the level allowed by the agreement.  Supposedly that agreement is still in place between Iran on the one hand and the UK, France, Germany, Japan and Russia on the other hand.  There should be outrage in France that Iran has violated the agreement, but instead we get Macron offering big aid to the mullahs.

6.  In the UK, there was a binding vote of the people a few years back to leave the EU.  Brexit was chosen and since then the political elites have tried to change that outcome.  One would think that by now the British public would be incensed that the politicians are trying to ignore the will of the people.

That's just a smattering.  Things just keep getting weirder.