Jul 23

A scam collapsing before our eyes: Global warmists appear to have removed links to “data” which showed Greenland glaciers retreating

A few years back a guy named James Balog started “the Extreme Ice Survey.” He produced an award-winning video, “Chasing Ice,” which featured him cramponing around the glaciers of Greenland and Alaska with sad piano music in the background.

Balog’s theme was that he wanted to video and photograph the glaciers before they melted away.

At one time, the “Extreme Ice Survey” website had “data” locked behind a paywall, which a visitor could check out after paying by credit card.

But the website now seems to have no “data” tab. It now stresses the “art” behind its photographs, rather than its science.

Here is a report by Tony Heller about Greenland’s glaciers in 2017. THEY ARE GROWING, NOT RETREATING. (In fact, Greenland’s glaciers have been growing since 2013.)

Jul 22

Tesla: the Lobbying Firm Masquerading as a Car Maker

Governments worldwide propose “energy policies,”–subsidizing some energy firms while taxing and overregulating others. Picking winners and loses by obstructing free markets.

For decades, U.S. lawmakers have been subsidizing “alternative energy” schemes that would never work without government support. “The first justification was that internal combustion engines polluted too much. But emissions steadily declined, and today’s cars emit about 3% of what their predecessors did.”

See here.

“In recent months, Tesla sales plunged to nearly zero in Hong Kong and Denmark, as huge government subsidies were eliminated.”

The same thing will soon happen in the United States, so some government bodies (such as the California legislature) are seeking to maintain massive artificial supports for Tesla and other electric “car makers.”

A 2015 study found the richest 20% of Americans received 90% of hundreds of millions in taxpayer EV subsidies. Thus, such subsidies represent a massive transfer of wealth from poor people to rich people.

Jul 19

US Postal Service gave time off and benefits to postal workers who campaigned for Hillary

“Campaign finance reformers” often depict (private sector) funding of political ads as an overwhelmingly influential factor in elections.

But there are many ways that people and institutions influence election outcomes. Government agencies have numerous means of trying to influence the political sphere.

Now the Washington Post reports that the US Postal Service gave time off and other benefits to Postal employees who campaigned for Hillary in the 2016 presidential election. See here.

This practice of the Postal Service apparently reached a massive scale.

Jul 19

Bob Barr: the Nightmare of Single Payer Health Care

Baby Charlie, a British infant suffering from an incurable disease, has been ordered to be “humanely” killed by British courts.

This is against the wishes of his parents who are desperate to explore all options to extend his life.

In the words of Bob Barr, “In the healthcare system in a free society, the ability to seek treatment for a seriously ill infant would not even be a question for debate. However, in a government-run healthcare system like that in the UK, resources are rationed, with government bureaucrats serving as all-powerful gatekeepers, whose decisions are backed by black-robed judges whose allegiance is to the system and not to human beings.”

Jul 18

Socialism lowered life expectancy in Venezuela while capitalism raised life expectancy in Chile

Many government lovers condemn and criticize the rightist regime that took over Chile in the 1970s.

Naomi Klein’s book “The Shock Doctrine” begins with a (mostly false) story that Chile’s Pinochet adopted free-market policies and followed the guidance of free-market economist Milton Friedman.

But while Chile under Pinochet was hardly the free-market model its enemies depicted, the country did make some good movements toward lower taxes and some pro-business reforms.

At the time of Pinochet’s “rule,” Chileans were poorer and had lower life expectancy than nearby Venezuelans who were the wealthiest people in Latin America.

But now after 15 years of Venezuealan socialism and relative capitalism in Chile, Chile has HIGHER LIFE EXPECTANCY, better average health, higher per capita wealth and income, cleaner air, cleaner water, and fewer problems with disease than Venezuela. See here.

Jul 16

A majority of self-described conservatives now view America’s colleges as a DRAIN on society

An astounding new study by the Pew Research Center is out:

A majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (58%) now say that colleges and universities have a negative effect on the country, up from 45% last year. By contrast, most Democrats and Democratic leaners (72%) say colleges and universities have a positive effect, which is little changed from recent years.

See here.

Thus, increasingly, America’s massive experiment with government-subsidized colleges is losing its support among half the country.

Jul 16

Is global warming the biggest financial scam in world history in addition to being the world’s biggest scientific scam?

Several science professors have said that apocalyptic-manmade-global-warming-by-carbon-dioxide hysteria is the biggest scientific scam in world history.

The hoax has relied on worldwide collusion of government-funded scientists and censorship of dissent in important channels and media outlets.

It is the first major scientific fraud that went worldwide, with almost all of the world’s governments embracing it.

But data analysts have increasingly found that the government agencies responsible for storing and maintaining climate data have obviously and deliberately altered their data sets to spread the hysteria. See here.

Thus, writes Karl Denninger,

It is therefore quite-clear that the data has been intentionally tampered with.

Since this has formed the basis for plans to steal literal trillions of dollars and has already resulted in the forced extraction of hundreds of billions in aggregate for motorists and industry this quite-clearly constitutes the largest economic fraud ever perpetrated in the world.

Jul 14

U.S. Taxpayers are forced to subsidize Amazon.com deliveries

The Wall Street Journal is out with a fascinating article about a-mostly-unknown agreement between the U.S. Postal Service and Amazon.com.

The U.S. Postal Service has failed to innovate as the world has gone increasingly digital.

But in order to stay “competitive” with FedEx and UPS, the Service subsidizes box delivery. Letters pay for the subsidy. (Of course, the USPS has lost $50 billion over the past decade).

According to the WSJ analysis, every box delivered by the USPS for Amazon (which owns the pro-government extremist paper The Washington Post), comes with a $1.46 subsidy from U.S. taxpayers!

Jul 13

Turkish government arrests film maker for making documentary about Turkish government

The world’s safest profession: being a pro-government news reporter or observer.

The world’s most dangerous profession: being an anti-government news reporter or observer.

In recent years the Turkish government has arrested hundreds of critics–including comedians, reporters and actors–for such crimes as terrorism and sedition.

Now there is a report that movie director Ali Avci has been arrested for producing a film about last year’s unsuccessful attempt to topple Turkish President Erdogan.

Erdogan claimed last year that rebels led, paid or inspired by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen attempted to assassinate Erdogan and take over the country.

(Gulen denies the claims.)

Jul 09

IRS accused Texas bridal shop of “structuring” deposits under $10,000. When the owners resisted, the IRS shuttered the store, seized all inventory and “auctioned” it off for pennies on the dollar

Astounding story of a small bridal shop in a suburb of Dallas. See here.

It seems that the IRS accused the shop’s owners– Tony Thangsongcharoen, 68, and his wife, Somnuek Thangsongcharoen, 72–of “structuring”: making bank deposits just under $10,000 to avoid federal “reporting requirements.”

The IRS shut down the small business and quickly held an “auction” inside the store–“auctioning” off the entire inventory of wedding and bridesmaid dresses, valued at $615,000, for about $17,000 — not enough to cover the roughly $31,400 in tax debt the IRS claims the store owed.

Even worse, it seems that government officials may have purchased items. Designer dresses went for about 4 bucks apiece.

According to the Dallas News:

[T]he government said in legal filings that the IRS used a special law that allows for a streamlined procedure if the agency determines the goods seized could “perish or waste” or become greatly reduced in value.
As a result, the IRS didn’t have to post advance public notice of the Mii’s sale or wait at least 10 days before selling the goods, as is normally required.