News of the Week (February 9th, 2020)

Posted on February 9, 2020 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for Feb. 9th, 2020


 

Election 2020

 

Democratic Party Withholds Results Of Iowa Caucuses, Citing Tech Errors
Democratic presidential candidates declared victory in the Iowa caucuses Monday night although the Iowa Democratic Party did not release the results of the contest. Hours after the caucuses began, the Iowa Democratic Party announced it was delaying the results over what they claimed were reporting inconsistencies in precincts across the state.

Murkowski: I’ll Vote To Acquit, Because Everyone Here Stinks
Fact check: Mostly true. After chastising Elizabeth Warren without naming her for attempting to make John Roberts a target in the witness vote, Lisa Murkowski declared late yesterday that she would vote to acquit Donald Trump in his impeachment trial. However, the Alaska Republican blasted Trump, her Republican colleagues in the Senate, Democrats in both chambers, the media, and voters for their behavior throughout the impeachment process.

Nevada won’t use the same app in its Democratic caucus that caused problems in Iowa
The same app that caused some of the problems during Monday night’s Iowa caucus will not be used in the February 22 Democratic Party Caucus in Nevada, the Nevada Democratic Party said in a statement.

Is Trump Recovering in 2020 Just Like Obama Did in 2012?
Is it impeachment or the Democratic primary that’s boosting Trump’s approval rating?

In 1985, Bernie Sanders Defended Nicaragua’s “Suspension Of Certain Civil Liberties”
Yesterday the Washington Post published a story headlined “Bernie Sanders’s foreign policy is a risk for Democrats against Trump.” If you’re a regular reader then you’ve already seen some of the material cataloged in this story but there were several eye-popping things I hadn’t seen before, all of which were given to the Post by a rival Democratic campaign. One of those was a 1983 letter from a Soviet spy

Pelosi Tears Up Trump Speech
“The best is yet to come,” Donald Trump had just said, when Nancy Pelosi provided it to him. Even before Trump turned to walk off the stage, the House Speaker made a show of tearing up his speech while the cameras were still pointed at the dais

Senate Majority Acquits Trump On All Impeachment Charges
The partisan operation to oust Trump through impeachment for winning the 2016 presidential election finally came to an end on Wednesday.

If You Liked The Way Iowa Democrats Count Votes, You’ll Love What Texas Has Planned for Super Tuesday
There’s such a thing as overthinking things in life. Sometimes, an apple is just an apple and trying to make it into an orange just won’t work.

Bloomberg plagiarized parts of at least eight of his plans
MIKE BLOOMBERG’S PRESIDENTIAL campaign plagiarized portions of its plans for maternal health, LGBTQ equality, the economy, tax policy, infrastructure, and mental health from research publications, media outlets, and a number of nonprofit, educational, and policy groups.

Shadow’s Cancelled Nevada Caucus App Had Errors, Too
An error wouldn’t let users report results in a test version of the app. Shadow confirmed it was fixing some errors at the time.

Forty-three percent of Americans back Trump acquittal, 41 percent opposed: Reuters/Ipsos poll
Americans are evenly split, mostly along party lines, over the U.S. Senate’s acquittal of President Donald Trump at his impeachment trial, even though more respondents than not think he probably did something wrong, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday.

Pete Buttigieg’s father was a Marxist professor who lauded the Communist Manifesto
The father of Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg was a Marxist professor who spoke fondly of the Communist Manifesto and dedicated a significant portion of his academic career to the work of Italian Communist Party founder Antonio Gramsci, an associate of Vladimir Lenin.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews slams socialism in chilling message to ‘younger people’
MSNBC host Chris Matthews slammed socialism, saying that it “doesn’t freaking work.”

Mike Bloomberg: Those Uneducated Midwest Rubes Are Just Too Stupid for Trans Bathrooms
Back in 2016, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg made elitist and demeaning comments about Midwestern rubes who are too uneducated to support transgender bathroom access. The remarks, which resurfaced on Friday, illustrate the patronizing attitude many pro-transgender activists have toward those who dare to disagree with the view that gender identity overrides biological sex. Ironically, transgender activists were triggered by how the former mayor insulted the Midwesterners who disagree with them.

University poll finds New Hampshire Democrats choose human extinction over Trump re-election
Women favor global death far more strongly than men

 

Gun Rights

 

History prof: Founders’ intent of 2nd Amendment not to guarantee private gun ownership
An American University professor recently published a book in which he advocates to “repeal the Second Amendment.”

NRA enters 2020 campaign early, Virginia gun ban push the ‘biggest wake-up call’
The 2020 general election is still months off, but at every Friends of the NRA event that First Vice President Charles Cotton attends around the country, members are rushing up to him to urge that the National Rifle Association get involved early.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Nature Has Been Removing Excess CO2 4X Faster than IPCC Models
Sixty years of Mauna Loa CO2 data compared to yearly estimates of anthropogenic CO2 emissions shows that Mother Nature has been removing 2.3%/year of the “anthropogenic excess” of atmospheric CO2 above a baseline of 295 ppm. When similar calculations are done for the RCP (Representative Concentration Pathway) projections of anthropogenic emissons and CO2 concentrations it is found that the carbon cycle models those projections are based upon remove excess CO2 at only 1/4th the observed rate. If these results are anywhere near accurate, the future RCP projections of CO2, as well as the resulting climate model projection of resulting warming, are probably biased high.

Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills
Companies are searching for ways to deal with the tens of thousands of blades that have reached the end of their lives.

Plastic-Bag Bans Are Bad for the Environment
Starting next month the state of New York will be banning single-use plastic shopping bags, an indication that our Empire State government continues to consider it its sworn to duty to harass and annoy its own citizens. As John Tierney demonstrates in the winter issue of City Journal, though, plastic-bag bans are based in emotion, not rational consideration of costs and benefits. (Hundreds of municipalities and eight states have outlawed or regulated such bags.)

Billionaires could ‘leave Earth behind for space colony’ as ‘climate collapses’
There’s growing speculation that the the trend for billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to research space travel is more than just ‘boys and their toys’ – it could be a lifeboat to escape a dying Earth

An Academic’s Proposal For Ending Climate Change: Human Extinction
I came across this on Twitter today and at first suspected it was satire but so far as I can tell it’s not. An Australian academic named Patricia MacCormack has a new book out titled, “The Ahuman Manifesto: Activism for the End of the Anthropocene.” The idea is that the earth would be better off without us and, therefore, it’s time to start an activism whose goal is our own extinction.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Trump Administration Challenges California over Abortion-Funding Requirement
Late last month, just before Donald Trump became the first president ever to speak at the rally before the annual March for Life, his administration announced that it would take action against California over its requirement that insurers in the state cover abortion procedures.

 

War & Terror

 

The Navy Is Arming Nuclear Subs With Lasers. No One Knows Why.
Nuclear reactors can easily power laser weapons, but what’s the target?

UK Police Prepare For Release Of 40 Convicted Terrorists Over The Next Year
There was another terror attack in London last Sunday. Sudesh Amman stabbed two people before police shot him dead. He had previously been convicted of terrorism related offenses and, per the current law in Britain, was released after serving just half of his sentence. That release happened just over a week before the knife attack. Authorities knew Amman hadn’t been rehabilitated in prison and had him under surveillance from the moment he left prison to the time of the attack.

Post-Brexit, France’s Macron Proposes EU Nuclear Doctrine
President Macron: “The vital interests of France now have a European dimension.”

Man Arrested After Driving Van into GOP Voter Registration Tent in Jacksonville, Florida
On Saturday a man intentionally crashed a van into a tent where Trump campaign volunteers were registering voters Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, Florida. Within hours of the incident, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrested 27-year-old Gregory William Loel Timm on two counts of aggravated assault, criminal mischief, and driving without a license.

 

National

 

Christian colleges oppose Title IX due process reforms as “barrier” to the truth
CCCU president says “in-person” hearings discourage reporting of sexual assault

Will the White House Order New Federal Architecture To Be Classical?
While the country was riveted by the President’s impeachment trial, a Washington rumor was quietly bubbling about a potential executive order that, if implemented, would profoundly affect the future of federal architecture.

Little and no choice in many Californian legislative races
Millions of Californians have little or no choice when it comes to choosing a state legislator. In 24 of the 100 districts on the ballot, only candidates from one party are running. And in 15 of those districts, the incumbent lawmaker is unopposed and all but assured of re-election.

Premoting campus freedom and intellectual diversity, the third legislative wave
My friend Stanley Kurtz has worked tirelessly with state legislatures to pass laws that protect campus free speech and promote intellectual diversity. Stanley’s efforts have paid off.

California wants to scrap student-fitness tests because they treat boys and girls as boys and girls
Is the state calling the Obama administration transphobic?

Prof accuses UNH of ‘gender apartheid’
A professor familiar with Title IX complaints says he will file one against the University of New Hampshire should the school refuse to change its gender exclusive policy around its recreational facilities.

Los Angeles Looks At Seizing Private Apartment Building To Prevent Gentrification
Out in Los Angeles, they’re not only dealing with a homelessness crisis but a significant lack of affordable housing for those who aren’t very wealthy. As usual, the local Democrats have been working hard to come up with a plan to combat that problem as well. One “issue” that’s come to the attention of the City Council is the Hillside Villa Apartments. For three decades, the complex has offered a number of units at rates well below market value, providing a great deal for those lucky enough to get one. This arrangement was part of deal worked out with the city when the building was first acquired by the present owner, Tom Botz.

Why males pack a powerful punch
Elk have antlers. Rams have horns. In the animal kingdom, males develop specialized weapons for competition when winning a fight is critical. Humans do too, according to new research from the University of Utah. Males’ upper bodies are built for more powerful punches than females’, says the study, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, suggesting that fighting may have long been a part of our evolutionary history.

No, the Constitution Doesn’t Allow Romney to Be Recalled
A Utah bill aimed at giving voters the power to recall senators will never hold up in court.

NPRI to US Supreme Court: Restore Workers’ Rights!
Today, the Nevada Policy Research Institute, alongside 12 other public policy organizations from across the nation, have formally requested that the United States Supreme Court grant Certiorari in the Reisman v. Associated Faculties of the University of Maine case.

At “Undoing Racism” workshop, participants told “all white people are racist”
“Intensive process challenges participants to analyze the structures of power and privilege”

Californians who register to vote would be required to cast ballots under new bill
Following a series of sweeping expansions to expand access to voting in recent years, a California lawmaker is pushing to require voters to cast a ballot in future elections.

Cruz Warned Trump’s Lawyers: Not A Single Member Of The Senate Believes There Was No Quid Pro Quo
The funniest part of this CNN scoop is how the strategizing about whether to admit at the trial that there was a quid pro quo is presented as some sort of eureka moment by “legal eagles” Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham. For months commentators on both sides of the Trump divide made the point that the president would be on much firmer ground legally if he gave up fighting on the facts and focused on fighting on the law. By insisting there was no quid pro quo in the teeth of all kinds of witness testimony he was boxing Senate Republicans in. Better to just say, “Whether you believe there was a quid pro quo or not, it’s clearly not a high crime or misdemeanor that warrants removal.”

Standardized Tests Are Powerful Tools; Affirmative-Action Bans Have Limits
Those are the two implications of a new report from the University of California system, first noted by the Los Angeles Times.

California Lawmaker Proposes a State Takeover of PG&E
Gov. Newsom eyes takeover of PG&E, says utility “no longer exists”.

Clinton Adviser James Carville Panicked Over 2020 Democrats: “We’re losing our damn minds”
“We’re like talking about people voting from jail cells”

Brain Dead MSNBC Anchor Wants ‘Gerrymandering’ to Rig the Senate for Democrats After Impeachment
Did you hear that senators who voted to convict the president represent 12 million more people than senators who voted to acquit?

Researchers resurrect mutated genes of one of the last wooly mammoths
By the end of the last ice age, some 10,000 years ago, most of Earth’s mammoths were gone. However, a few small, isolated populations pressed on.

A detransitioner in agony recounts how gender doctors manipulated him into castration, hormones
When Marcus Fitz started ejaculating blood it finally occurred to him that just maybe the medical professionals he trusted had been misleading him.

Sen. Susan Collins Getting ‘Credible’ Death Threats From Deranged Leftists Over Impeachment Vote
Senator Susan Collins says she’s been getting death threats since she voted to acquit President Trump last week. The threats are being investigated and have been deemed “credible,” according to the Associated Press.

Exposed: Islam’s Role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Islam’s history with the West has been one of unwavering antagonism and seismic clashes, often initiated by the former. By the standards of history, nothing between the two civilizations is as well documented as this long war. Accordingly, for more than a millennium, both educated and not so educated Europeans knew—the latter perhaps instinctively—that Islam was a militant creed that for centuries attacked and committed atrocities in their homelands, all in the name of “holy war,” or jihad.

AOC: Let Me Shoot You Some Knowledge From Famed Economist “Milton Keenes”
A leftover from yesterday. We all have our brain-freeze moments, and she’s not terribly bright to begin with, but how does an economics major cough up “Milton Keenes” when referring to Keynes

Florida teacher tried to get “8 ball” of meth delivered at school: cops
A Florida teacher has been busted for trying to get drugs delivered to her while she taught at an elementary school, according to authorities.

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Foreign emoluments, wage histories, and defenestration.

 

Economy & Taxes

 

The War on the “Gig” Economy is Bad News for Workers
From minimum wage to mandatory paid leave, politicians are making it increasingly more expensive for many companies to hire workers. California’s recent attack on the “gig” economy is a perfect illustration of this kind of ostensibly “pro-worker” regulation that actually ends up hurting the very working-class people it is, ostensibly, supposed to help.

Does AB 5 Violate Publishers First Amendment Protections as Well as Freelancers?
Freelance writers and photographers challenged AB 5 in court as a violation of their First Amendment’s rights to freedom of speech. A second line of attack could come from those who hire the writers and photographers. The way some publishers run their publications, whether print or digital, could be drastically altered and potentially put out of business by the dictates of AB 5. Isn’t that a First Amendment violation “abridging …freedom… of the press?”

House to Vote on Bill Forcing Non-Union Members to Pay Union Dues
The U.S. House of Representatives will vote this week on a sweeping bill backed by organized labor that would reverse so-called right-to-work laws in 27 states and require non-union workers in unionized professions to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

In California, Protecting Workers Means Outlawing Their Jobs
Assembly Bill 5 was designed to constrain the growth of the so-called gig economy. In practice, it’s closing off opportunities

Wuhan Virus Watch: Coronavirus Outbreak Sickens Chinese Economy
President Xi declares a “People’s War” on the pathogen.

 

International

 

Chinese doctor who tried to blow the whistle on coronavirus catches disease
A Chinese doctor was targeted by authorities after sounding an alert about the coronavirus during the early days of the outbreak — and now he lies in a hospital, sickened with the deadly disease, according to a report.

Ancient Crate-Like Object May Be World’s Oldest Known Wooden Structure
The old well doesn’t look like much – a wooden crate-like object, dilapidated, crumbling a little. But according to new research, it’s really special. A tree-ring dating technique has revealed that the oak wood used to make it was cut around 7,275 years ago.

Airline Ends Relationship With Chocolatier Over CEO’s Traditional Values
What does Christianity have to do with the quality of chocolate? A lot, according to Swiss Air.

There’s a Cancer Treatment That Gives People ‘Night Vision’, And We Finally Know Why
Amongst all the different types of cancer treatment, photodynamic therapy – where light in is used to destroy malignant cells – might have one of the strangest side effects: patients are often better able to see in the dark.

EU urged to adopt meat tax to tackle climate emergency
Levy would help offset impact of farming by raising price of steak in UK by 25%, says report

Operation Chaos Moves To… Germany?
Yesterday we looked at the possibility of a new Operation Chaos brewing in South Carolina, where Republicans plan to ask their voters to show up for the state’s open primary and vote for Bernie Sanders. But there may have been a similar operation already underway in the western German state of Thuringia… at least briefly. The democratic socialists of the far-left Die Linke party had been in control of the government but in a surprise move yesterday, Thomas Kemmerich of the center-left Free Democratic party was elected Premier (or Minister President). And that only happened because the right-wing AfD (Alternative for Germany) party supported him. Chancellor Angela Merkel was, to put it mildly, not pleased.

Wuhan Virus Watch: Wuhan Crematoriums “Burning Bodies 24/7 to Cope With Extra Workload”
If there is any good news for today’s report it is that a relatively small number of children seem to be catching the virus.

Starbucks’s Shameful Child Sex-Change Campaign
Starbucks has launched a dreadful campaign partnering with the U.K.’s aggressive child-sex change charity, Mermaids.

He ducked Chinese authorities to report on coronavirus in Wuhan. Then he disappeared.
A Chinese lawyer and citizen journalist whose dispatches from Wuhan have offered a chilling glimpse of the conditions inside the coronavirus hot zone has been missing since Thursday, friends and relatives say.

Schools in Wuhan convert dorms to quarantine areas
Several dorms at Wuhan Business University are now being turned into wards that can take in coronavirus patients with mild symptoms. Six hundred rooms are being converted taking in a total of 2,400 patients.

Wuhan Virus Kills 89 in One Day as Death Toll Tops SARS
An American citizen living in Wuhan, China has died of the coronavirus that’s now sweeping across China. The 60-year-old becomes the first American to die of the coronavirus.

 

Opinion

 

U.K.: It’s our 1776, and we’re brimming with optimism
John Adams was the gloomiest of the American founders, deeply pessimistic about man’s fallen nature. But when the Declaration of Independence was issued in 1776, even he got swept up in the mood.

Now That Brexit Is Complete, It’s Time To Strengthen The Anglosphere
A new world order demands new geopolitical thinking and new leadership. An informal trade, research, and defense bloc that values national sovereignty would be a good start.

“If It’s Only a Symbol, to Hell with It”
Like Kevin, I was puzzled by Shankar Vedantam’s remarks about religion last week.

Make America Competent Again
The Iowa caucus debacle is only the latest manifestation of our culture of errors.

In Praise of “Boring”
My Impromptus today offers the usual smorgasbord: political, social, and artistic. Here on the Corner, I’d like to publish a little mail.

Majority of House Democrats Want to Put Freelancers Like Me Out Of Business
The majority of Congressional Democrats currently serving in the House of Representatives want to put me and millions of other American freelancers out of business.

Jordan Peterson Debunks Intersectionality
Intersectionality is the newest fad in political activism. What is it? Who’s involved? And, what does it even mean? Dr. Jordan B. Peterson and Ben Shapiro break it all down.

Shut Up, They Advised
A committee on judicial standards ignores the Constitution to rule against the Federalist Society.

Senator Tim Scott Just Gave America a Much-Needed Ward Cleaver Lecture About Fairness
When you hear Senator Tim Scott’s bold and elegant talk about fairness in the impeachment process, you’ll understand why President Trump relied so much on his support. You’ll also understand why America so clearly needs to know there are greater things at stake than political takedowns. Right and wrong matter. Fairness matters.

What Today’s Insanely Left Democratic Party Is Doing With Virginia Will Scare You
Virginia Democrats mistake their legislative control as a mandate for extreme liberal social re-engineering — and it shows where the rest of the party is headed.

“Blank-Slate Equalism”
Readers know that I’ve recommended Rollo Tomassi’s book The Rational Male as the basic text of a “Red Pill” understanding of male-female differences, and I make that recommendation knowing that many will find some aspects of Rollo’s worldview offensive. Of course, it’s impossible to find anyone who ever agrees with me 100% — no two people ever have exactly the same opinions — but Rollo deserves credit for his willingness to criticize directly the errors of egalitarianism. As I’ve been saying for more than a decade, insofar as men and women are different, they are not equal, because equality implies fungibility, i.e., that one can be substituted for the other without loss of value.

Hey, Maybe Turnout Is Low Because Nobody Likes Your Agenda!
Even if the Associated Press doesn’t feel comfortable declaring a winner between Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders in Iowa, we now know that the Iowa Democratic Party says 176,436 people voted in the first round of the caucus.

Making College Affordable for All
If you whittle away all the unnecessary expenses that we generally associate with college, it turns out to be quite inexpensive. An organization based in Oklahoma has done exactly that and in today’s Martin Center article, Professor Vance Fried explains what they’ve done.

It’s Never Sunny In Wokeadelphia
A lazy, entitled bum of a college student? Whoever heard of such a thing! Look, I’m always on the side of a teacher having to deal with an academic layabout, but holy cow, you have to read the whole Sunny Singh thread to observe her total woke meltdown. Sunny Singh, a British university, is one fragile lady — but as usual with the woke, she has learned how to weaponize her fragility.

The making of trans children
Campaigners, doctors and teachers have turned a fringe idea into a worrying reality.

More Laws, Less Freedom
Rafael A. Mangual joins John Stossel to discuss how the expansion of state and federal criminal laws puts well-meaning citizens at risk of serious prosecution.

Ideological Diversity is not Enough
Conservatives need a positive scholarly agenda for the humanities and social sciences

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