Wingnut Predicted New Ice Ages that Never Happened

In which Peter Hadfield, aka Potholer54 tracks the November 2018 claims back to sources, and shows how wrong they are in their interpretation of the data regarding the new Solar Grand Minimum. He also does a great job of looking through the past RW blogosphere claims of coming ice ages to show how wrong they were.

Of course Peter sticks to the facts and the papers, just pointing out the fallacies, whereas I am going to question the motives. Why does the Right Wing blogsphere have a such an interest in sowing doubt? Are they paid by lobbies to sow doubt, ala Heartland institute, or is there a lot of wish full magical thinking going on in order to make recalcitrant facts fit their worldview? I suspect it’s a bit of both, but honestly don’t have the energy or time to track this all back the way that Peter does.

We can with solid authority state that you should never trust RW blogs, or for that matter any blogs, when it comes to science. Instead you should trust Scientists and go to their papers and their statements.

Joe Biden: Trump Put The Country In A Terrible Spot By Failing To Act

Stephen Colbert with an extended interview with Joe Biden, presumptive democrat nominee for president. The horrific corona virus response is covered, and Joe covers plans to tackle the pandemic when he gets in office.

That Smell, Can’t you Smell that Smell?

the GOP is going to pretend that it’s ok, that it’s somehow normal, nothing to see here, these aren’t the droids

There is a deep deep rot within the republican party, the stench reaches to the very heavens. Now that the evidence is out and everyone can plainly see that Trump is undeniably guilty of enlisting multiple foreign countries to interfere in US politics on his behalf, the GOP is going to pretend that it’s ok, that it’s somehow normal, nothing to see here, these aren’t the droids etc. You know that they would not feel the same way if this were Obama, or any other democrat for that matter. That stench is never going to wash off if the Republicans allow this to continue.

This all started long ago with a gentle glide path into the bad the GOP didn’t break back, they slowly slid bad over several decades. At multiple junctures different Republicans adopted the attitude that you have to be BAD to fight bad. Initially there might have been some grumbling, some pushback, but generally the rank and file just went along with it — and it got easier with each successive moral slip down that oooh so gentle slope.

Maybe it can be traced back into the UR conservative days of Weyrich, when the architects of the modern GOP decided they needed their own institutions, their own separate cultural beacons and outlets, and that they must remain separate from all others. Massive mailing ventures started, and proved successful – especially successful at getting money. Separatist niche-crafted institutes and outlets were stood up, and some catered to that wild west libertarian crowd, while others were designed to capture zealot attention.

Then came the internet, and those ventures blossomed – their separate and sealed niches were protected and enhanced, and in each the mythos grew and was refined, departing further and further from reality with each passing decade. These niche ventures were great at cultivating zealots and extremists, and they were the breeding ground for the tea party.

Hidden behind the curtains in each were the Birchers, conservative citizen council members, and other extremists that Buckley used to keep outside the big tent on the midway with the freak shows. Then Buckley died, and the freak show became the main attraction, and here we are.

The GOP’s slope downward is now very steep, and ahead lies the leering cliff edge leading to the brink of hell – will they look up in time?

Poll: 65% of Republicans say Trump’s Ukraine scheme was normal presidential behavior

If an elected official is found to have broken the law or abused the powers of office, is impeachment merited or should the judgment be left to voters?

As part of our podcast, Impeachment, Explained, Vox partnered with PerryUndem and Ipsos on a poll exploring Americans’ beliefs about when presidential behavior is impeachable, when it’s simply wrong, and how partisanship is shaping those perceptions. The results were fascinating and unnerving.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/9/20955441/impeachment-trump-poll-ukraine-2020-democrats-republicans

A CONSERVATIVE solution to global warming (Part 1)

Political Correctness in the Republican party consists of denying that global warming exists, or that it’s man made, or that it’s impact to our children’s futures and our nation won’t be monumental. These denials come in the face of science that states unequivocally otherwise.

Political correctness in the GOP demands knee jerk adamant opposition to clean energy because they’ve wrongly become convinced that environmentalism and capitalism are mutually exclusive isms… It means that all GOP pundits must regularly spout myths that most of world knows are not true, and it means that China will be the world energy leader and have the world energy markets dominated within 30 years.

All of this is clearly and concisely covered in Peter Hadfield’s video below.

Buyers tied to Russia, Soviet republics made 86 all cash sales

Was it for favors or things beyond the condos, or were they just laundering money?

Was it for favors or things beyond the condos, or were they just laundering money?

— BY ANITA KUMAR

Aleksandr Burman, a Ukrainian who engaged in a health care scheme that cost the federal government $26 million and was sentenced to a decade in prison, paid $725,000 cash for a condo at a Trump Tower I in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. in 2009.

Leonid Zeldovich, who has reportedly done extensive business in the Russian-annexed area of Crimea, bought four Trump units outright at a cost of more than $4.35 million, three of them in New York City between 2007 and 2010.

And Igor Romashov, who served as chairman of the board of Transoil, a Russian oil transport company subject to U.S. sanctions, paid $620,000 upfront for a unit at a building adorned with the future U.S. president’s name in Sunny Isles Beach in 2010.

Buyers connected to Russia or former Soviet republics made 86 all-cash sales — totaling nearly $109 million — at 10 Trump-branded properties in south Florida and New York City, according to a new analysis shared with McClatchy. Many of them made purchases using shell companies designed to obscure their identities.

| McClatchy Washington Bureau
via Buyers tied to Russia, Soviet republics made 86 all cash sales | McClatchy Washington Bureau

 

South Dakota lawmaker: Let businesses ‘turn away people of color,’ later apologizes

I can just see the thought process here… “Darnit – with Trump in office I can’t tell anymore when I’m supposed to be wearing my ‘not a bigot’ facemask and when I’m not…”

In a Facebook comment, state Rep. Michael Clark, a Hartford Republican, said business owners should have the final say in who they serve.

Clark later pulled the Facebook comment. And an hour after the Argus Leader published a story about the comment, he sent an email apology to a reporter.

The comment elicited outrage from constituents and calls from Democratic opponents for him to withdraw.

Clark’s initial comment came in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s narrow decision Monday siding with a Colorado baker that refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple’s wedding.

via South Dakota lawmaker: Let businesses ‘turn away people of color,’ later apologizes

Senator Incitatus

they are the sort of lies a conceited paranoid twit would tell to shore up his self worth

Here we are four days in to the four years of Trump’s administration and on each of those days both the President and his press secretary have told multiple lies all of which are easily verified as false. What makes it worse is that they are the sort of lies a conceited paranoid twit would tell to shore up his self worth. They aren’t even substantial or meaningful, they don’t advance any real purpose other than the

Caligula and Incitatus
Caligula and Incitatus
standard outrage of the day mythic swill the extremists in the GOP live, eat, and breath everyday. Trump appears to have been born and braised in bile like this his whole lifelong, and he knows nothing better I guess. He thinks he is the Republican president, and not the American President.
Keep in mind that one of his lies was to people in the House and Senate, who definitely know he’s lying – which is kind of insulting to them when you come down to it. After all of this you can’t help but wonder how long it will be before he proposes a horse for senator.

Kirk Douglas on the Road Ahead

These are not the American values that we fought in World War II to protect.

From Kirk Douglas, now 100 years old, yet newly relevant again:

A few weeks ago we heard words spoken in Arizona that my wife, Anne, who grew up in Germany, said chilled her to the bone. They could also have been spoken in 1933:

“We also have to be honest about the fact that not everyone who seeks to join our country will be able to successfully assimilate. It is our right as a sovereign nation to choose immigrants that we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish here…[including] new screening tests for all applicants that include an ideological certification to make sure that those we are admitting to our country share our values…”

These are not the American values that we fought in World War II to protect.

Read more at Huffington Post.

Jon Stewart Takes Over the Late Show to Rant About GOP and Fox News Trump Contortions

Jon Stewart Takes Over the Late Show to Rant About GOP and Fox News Trump Contortions

a few of the topics covered:

The Republican convention, Donald Trump, Fox News, the GOP, Jon Stewart, republican gymnastics, the Roger Ailes resignation, Sean Hannity, The Late Show, twists, teleprompters, Ivanka, narcissists, blue collar billionaires & how that’s not a thing, elitism, who’s a Christian, Religion, PopeX immigration