ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Peter Smith Blinded by ‘Science’

Posted By on October 19th, 2018

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2018/10/blinded-science/

Reputable scientists start afresh when their theories clash with experience. Not the climate careerists preaching planetary doom, who have just released yet another fires-and-floods prophecy. This lot adhere to Groucho’s maxim: when predictions don’t work out, they have others.

Don’t ask me any questions, but the wavelength of light emanating from an object increases in wavelength if the object is moving away at speed. This is called redshift, I understand. Apparently, it is the observations of this redshift from distant galaxies that has convinced most scientist that the universe is expanding and at an ever-faster rate – thwarting gravity. How to explain it? Well they couldn’t. So, out of thin air, so to speak, to push galaxies apart, they simply invented a mysterious and invisible substance which they call ‘dark energy’. And this ain’t small beer. It is hypothesised to make up almost 70% of all of the energy in the universe.

A group of scientists in Bilboa, Spain, has come up with another explanation of redshift which is that time is slowing down.[i] Now this makes no sense to me personally because my life seems to be running out at an increasing rate. Nevertheless, I will come up with a scientific explanation for time slowing which is that the universe is indeed collapsing on itself as a result of gravity and everyone knows that time slows as the density of matter increases. Or at least I think that’s right because time slows to zero at (or is it just beyond) the event horizon of black holes, which are extremely dense. I don’t expect a Nobel Prize for this brilliant insight, but am quite taken with it and will fly to Sweden if invited.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A Clash of Judicial Visions By John Yoo & James C. Phillips

Posted By on October 19th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/supreme-court-judicial-philosophy-constitutional-system/

Defining the proper role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system

Editor’s Note: The following is the first in a series of articles in which Mr. Yoo and Mr. Phillips will lay out a course of constitutional restoration, pointing out areas where the Supreme Court has driven the Constitution off its rails and the ways the current Court can put it back on track.

The end of the sordid ordeal that led to Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation provides conservatives the opportunity to think deeply about what they want from the Supreme Court. Conservatives, of course, would have fought for Kavanaugh whether he was a stalwart Clarence Thomas or a wandering Anthony Kennedy. At stake were the principles of fairness and due process that should guide all of our institutions, even when they intersect with the #MeToo movement’s claims. The courts, Congress, federal agencies, state governments, and even the most delusional of our great societal institutions — the media and our colleges and universities — must not banish facts, proof, and the right to be heard.

But now that Justice Kavanaugh has assumed his seat on the Court, conservatives can take a step back and consider their agenda for the future. Democrats launched their scorched-earth war against Kavanaugh, an outstanding judge and distinguished public servant, precisely because his appointment promised a reliable fifth vote for a conservative majority. There’s a good argument to be made that conservatives have not had such a working majority on the Court since 1936. Even though Republican presidents have appointed the majority of justices since 1968, when Richard Nixon won on a law-and-order platform, their appointments have often “grown in office” and drifted leftwards. But the outrageousness of Democratic attacks on Justice Kavanaugh should guarantee that he will not follow in the path of Republican-appointed Justices such as Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, and David Souter, who became lions of the Left.

The Supreme Court now has the opportunity to reconsider doctrines at odds with the Constitution’s original meaning. Before they devolved into an ugly political and personal brawl, Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings revealed, among other things, the fault lines in American constitutional politics.

Democratic senators, as well as their expert witnesses called in opposition, advanced a view of a judge as simply the enabler of a political party’s policy preferences. They cross-examined Judge Kavanaugh on the specific outcomes he had reached in cases relating to certain groups of interest: minorities, women, environmental organizations, and the like. In their view, the only difference between a judge and a congressman is the former wears a robe.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Pompeo: America Approaching Immigration ‘Crisis’ By Mairead McArdle

Posted By on October 19th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/mike-pompeo-america-approaching-immigration-crisis/

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that the U.S. is quickly approaching a “moment of crisis” when it comes to immigration.

Speaking at a press conference in Mexico City alongside his counterpart, Mexican foreign secretary Luis Videgaray Caso, Pompeo stressed the need to address the influx of immigrants to both countries.

“We are quickly reaching a point which appears to be a moment of crisis,” he said.

A caravan of about 4,000 Honduran immigrants, including children and fragments of families, reached the southern Mexican border on Friday, prompting the Mexican government to request humanitarian aid from the United Nations to help address the asylum seekers.

“We are deeply aware that the way that Mexico will handle this is your sovereign decision,” the secretary of state said. “Mexico will make its decision — its leaders and its people will decide the best way to achieve what I believe are shared objectives” such as “stopping this flow before it reaches the U.S. border.”

“It’s a challenge that Mexico is facing, and that’s how I expressed it to Secretary Pompeo,” Videgaray said.

Pompeo also stressed the importance of reforming American immigration law, saying that, “If we get it right, we will improve the relationship between our two countries materially.”

President Trump has threatened to cut aid to Central American countries and send the U.S. military to America’s southern border to stop the group of migrants if Mexico would not step in, but no troops have yet been deployed.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Justice Department Charges Russian with Interfering in Midterms By Mairead McArdle

Posted By on October 19th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/justice-department-charges-russian-interference-midterm-election/

The Justice Department charged a Russian national on Friday with conspiring to interfere in America’s midterm elections.

Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, 44, is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States in the first criminal case to confront Russian efforts to interfere in the upcoming elections. Khusyaynova, who is not in American custody, is alleged to have spent almost two and a half years in charge of a Russian influence operation’s $35 million budget, part of which was used to conduct what the group called “information warfare against the United States,” including “promoting news postings on social networks.”

According to prosecutors’ indictment, the group, Project Lakhta, pretended to be American political activists during both the 2016 and 2018 election seasons in order to sow divisions by highlighting controversial issues, including immigration, gun control, the Confederate flag, race relations, LGBT issues, the Women’s March, and the NFL national anthem controversy.

“Through supporting radical groups” the conspirators aimed to “aggravate the conflict between minorities and the rest of the population,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

“The strategic goal of this alleged conspiracy, which continues to this day, is to sow discord in the U.S. political system and to undermine faith in our democratic institutions,” U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger said.

“The Conspirators’ activities did not exclusively adopt one ideological viewpoint; they wrote on topics from varied and sometimes opposing perspectives,” FBI Special Agent David Holt wrote in the criminal complaint.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Embrace E-Verify By The Editors

Posted By on October 19th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/immigration-e-verify-republicans-should-embrace/

As we wrote early this summer, an electronic system called E-Verify is the key to solving the illegal-immigration problem. By participating in this voluntary program, employers can ensure that their workers are in the country legally; were its use made mandatory, the attraction of illegal immigration would decline precipitously. Because so many illegal immigrants come by overstaying visas rather than by sneaking across the border, its potential effect is far greater than that of even a border wall.

The 115th Congress has failed to pass legislation to this effect, but with an immigration restrictionist in the White House for at least two more years, there is still hope for the 116th — if it has a clear mandate to do so. This is why it’s crucial for Republican Senate candidates to strongly endorse E-Verify. Many candidates have done so. But others have been quieter on the issue, and they need to speak up.

Among the Republicans with a decent chance to win next month, there are many who have aggressively promoted E-Verify in the past — sometimes when it really mattered. Arizona’s Martha McSally, Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, and North Dakota’s Kevin Cramer all cosponsored a bill in the House, the Securing America’s Future Act, that among much else would have mandated the program. Current Republican senators up for reelection Deb Fischer (Nebraska) and Roger Wicker (Mississippi) cosponsored a recent bill to mandate E-Verify as well.

Florida governor Rick Scott has required state agencies and contractors to use the program; Indiana businessman Mike Braun uses it at his own company. Mitt Romney, running to take Orrin Hatch’s Senate seat in Utah, supported the program during his presidential run and continues to endorse a “simplified legal status verification system” in which employers who hired illegal workers would be sanctioned. In Ohio, Jim Renacci’s website endorses “instituting a nationwide E-Verify system.” Texas senator Ted Cruz, too, has argued in the course of his reelection campaign that E-Verify is an essential component of immigration reform.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Ready for Hillary again? By Monica Showalter

Posted By on October 19th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/10/ready_for_hillary_again.html

She persisted.

Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton apparently is running for president again. She’s out to settle old scores with President Trump.

According to The Week:

Philippe Reines, who worked for Hillary Clinton going back to 2002 and was her senior adviser at the State Department, made the argument to Politico Friday that the former Democratic nominee might actually be the party’s best hope for defeating Trump in 2020. He said no other Democrat has “anywhere near a base of 32 million people,” especially not Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The party, he feels, shouldn’t dismiss her as a failed candidate because she’s “smarter” and “tougher” than most, and she “could raise money easier than most.”

But it doesn’t sound like this is just wishful thinking on his part. He really thinks it could happen, saying the chances of Clinton running in 2020 are “not zero.”

Lucky us.

Like her 36-point approval rating, in the wake of her obvious campaign to spy on her rival, Donald Trump, and pin the whole thing on him as Russian collusion, has helped her in the public’s estimation. Or as if her unresolved use of an unauthorized private server in some guy’s bathtub, is great for her poll ratings. Or her Clinton Foundation pay-to-play shenanigans, which made her a very rich woman, are going to be a crowd-pleaser? Or is it the fact that she will be 74 when she takes to the hustings again, sliding into cough attacks, falling down stairs, failing to maintain a healthy weight level and still not telling the truth about her medical conditions going to rope them in?

Hillary indeed will be 74 if she campaigns again, and among the jurassic pickings proffered by the Democrats, that will make her the youngster of the bunch. Maybe it’s that.

Does the public really want to hear her arrogant hectoring voice again, or to see her menagerie of yes-women such as Cheryl Mills or Huma Abedin cocooning around her and wielding great unaccountable power, or watch more Central Park pantsuit dances? Does the public really want more Obama Economy, single-payer health care, and leading from behind? Does the public actually want more of Chelsea Clinton and her nasty, unpleasant tweets (if not power) in front of us?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

New York Man Arrested for Threatening Kavanaugh-Supporting Senators By Debra Heine

Posted By on October 19th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/new-york-man-arrested-for-threatening-kavanaugh-supporting-senators/

Another day, another unhinged Democrat is arrested for threatening to kill Republicans.

Ronald DeRisi, 74, of Smithtown, Long Island, was arrested Friday morning after allegedly leaving more than ten “threatening voice messages” at the offices of two senators because of their support for Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

DeRisi allegedly called the home state offices of the senators and left “expletive-laced” threats, according to the federal complaint.

The senators are not named in the complaint, but the New York Post has identified them as Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).

In a Sept. 27 message, DeRisi allegedly left a voice message claiming he had a “present” for “Senator-1” (Grassley), saying, “It’s a 9 millimeter. Side of your f***ing skull you scumbag motherf*cker.”

The 85-year-old senator got another call that same day, saying: “We’re tired of this guy sucking taxpayers’ money! Getting a free f***ing ride! How many more years you gonna do it? None! He’s a dead man! 9 millimeter, side of the f***ing head! If f***ing Kavanaugh gets in, he’s dead f***ing meat! Actually even if Kavanaugh doesn’t get in he’s dead f***ing meat. 9 millimeter, side of the head, you f***ing old bastard.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

President Donald Trump: “Democrats Produce Mobs, Republicans Produce Jobs” Posted By Tim Hains

Posted By on October 19th, 2018

President Trump appeared at a Thursday night campaign rally in Missoula, Montana on behalf of Republican Matt Rosendale’s bid to unseat Democratic Senator Jon Tester in the upcoming midterm election. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Rep. Greg Gianforte (R–Bozeman) also attended the event in support of the president and Rosendale.

Trump summed up his 2018 campaign message in one sentence: “Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs.”

HOMELAND SECURITY, POLITICS Comments turned off

Top DHS Official: Hackers Using Midterms to Practice for 2020 By Mairead McArdle

Posted By on October 19th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/dhs-official-hackers-midterms-2020-election/

A top official at the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that hackers are using the 2018 midterm congressional elections to practice for the “big game” in 2020.

“We are working aggressively right now with our partners in state and locals to work through what could an adversary do in the three weeks or two-and-a-half week leadup to the midterm elections,” Christopher Krebs, undersecretary of the National Protection and Programs Directorate at DHS said during a speech for a “CyberTalks” event in Washington, D.C.

“Yes, the midterm is not the big game, the big game we think for the adversaries’ probably 2020. ’18’s just the warm-up or the exhibition game. But nonetheless we’re going to be ready, we’ve been working around the clock.”

However, Krebs reassured that DHS is not seeing “direct election hacking” right now.

“We’re not seeing anything right now along the lines of 2016, and that frankly makes me a little nervous,” Krebs said.

“I have a paranoid disposition anyway so I continue to work through what can we do. I don’t want to have another failure of intelligence and I don’t want to, most importantly, have another failure of imagination.”

“We’re ready,” he said on PBS earlier this month. “I think this is going to be the most secure election in the modern era.”

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Theresa May isolated as party turns on ‘chaotic’ Brexit plan and EU leaders give her the cold shoulder

Posted By on October 19th, 2018

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/10/18/theresa-may-isolated-party-turns-chaotic-brexit-plan-eu-leaders/

Theresa May was on Thursday evening increasingly isolated over her plan to keep Britain tied to the EU for longer as she was savaged by both wings of her party and left in the cold by EU leaders.

Mrs May confirmed on Thursday that she was prepared to consider extending the transition period – currently due to end in December 2020 – by “a matter of months” in an attempt to break the deadlock over the Northern Ireland border issue.

The move enraged Brexiteers who said it would cost billions, and angered members of the Cabinet who said they had not formally agreed the plan before she offered it up as a bargaining chip.

Mrs May also faced a potential mutiny from Tory MPs north of the border, including David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, who said the proposal was “unacceptable” because it would delay the UK’s exit from the hated Common Fisheries Policy.

The Prime Minister was accused by one of her own ministers of presiding over “total chaos” while her DUP allies said she was in a “mad panic”.

Having started the Brussels summit with a call for “trust” from her fellow leaders, she appeared to have lost the support of her own MPs, with one May loyalist admitting she was “losing the confidence” of her party.