Fay Voshell

A brilliant article on North Korea and possible responses by the always profound Victor Davis Hanson.

I admire this man so much. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447013/madmen-nukes-deter-western-actions-north-korea

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This courtesy of Jack Kemp

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/laurettabrown/2017/04/24/schumer-invites-sessions-on-a-4-am-ny-subway-ride-n2317586?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=


Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) fired back at U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Monday over a Friday press release in which Sessions said that "New York City continues to see gang murder after gang murder, the predictable consequence of the city's ‘soft on crime’ stance.”
"My daughters, you know, they’re young adults, but they ride the subway at 4 a.m., and I’m perfectly happy about it,” Schumer claimed. "We are a safe city.”
"But I’ll be happy to ride the subway at 4 a.m. with Jeff Sessions,” he added.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was also insulted by Sessions’ statement saying Friday, "I would say to President Trump, and to Attorney General Sessions, if you believe this statement is accurate, come here to New York City, look our police officers in the eye and tell them that you believe they are soft on crime. See how that feels. See what the people of New York City will say about that.”
Sessions clarified on ABC’s This Week that his remark was not aimed at the New York Police Department (NYPD) but focused at the city’s sanctuary city policy.
"For four decades, New York has been a fabulous city for law enforcement,” Sessions said. "They have developed some of the best techniques ever. They are so far ahead of many other cities. I think we all should study the tactics that have been developed.”
He pointed out that Ed Mullins, president of the NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Association said in a statement Friday, "Sessions is absolutely correct to hold New York and other jurisdictions accountable for their so-called ‘sanctuary policies.’”
"For a long time, Mayor De Blasio and the NYPD’s leadership have failed to heed the warning that refusing to cooperate with federal immigration officials when it comes to criminals and suspected terrorists would have consequences beyond making our City less safe,” Mullins warned adding, "They have placed officers in an impossible Catch-22: between obeying the directives and orders of their superiors and elected officials on one hand, and the obligation they feel to follow the direction of the law and to cooperate with federal immigration officials on the other.”
"We want to improve law enforcement in America. Half of the murders in New York are gang-related. Many of those are people – gangs who have illegal aliens involved in them,” Sessions pointed out. "So why would you not want to deport those and make the city even safer?”

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Jack Kemp

This will make your blood boil:

You have to go to the article's website link to see the images and some tweets...

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2017/04/24/kim-kardashian-virgin-mary-candle-n2317362?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Reality star Kim Kardashian sparked controversy over the weekend when she released a "Kimoji" image of herself as the Virgin Mary on a candle, complete with the image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary over her chest. The candle can also be purchased on her website. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07168a.htm

Kardashian first rose to fame in 2007 after a sex tape featuring herself and her ex-boyfriend Ray J was leaked.

The day after the Kimoji/candle were released, Kardashian wore a sheer dress with the picture of the Blessed Mother on the chest. The Catholic League issued a statement condemning the dress and the image. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/21/kim-kardashian-rebuked-catholic-league-virgin-mary-dress-kimoji/

This is an absurd move by Kardashian, and she should have known better than to do something like this. In 2015, she had her daughter North baptized at St. James Cathedral, an Armenian Apostolic church in Jerusalem. She also visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with her husband and shared images of her family venerating the Stone of Anointing. She has to be aware of how people would view this image and product as offensive or disrespectful.
http://www.etonline.com/news/166186_kim_kardashian_posts_pics_of_north_west_baptism_on_her_second_birthday/

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Jack Kemp


Here's what I wrote about Debbie Schlussel on Amer. Thinker's article about her attack on Sean Hannity:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/04/in_defense_of_sean_hannity__comments.html

Jack Kemp's comment...

Ever since Debbie Schlussel, Hannity's accuser, attacked Sarah Palin in 2008, I thought she was bat guano crazy - especially since she was trying to sell herself as a Republican at that time. Now she is attacking Sean Hannity?
Debbie Schlussel was a self-promoting egoist and disgrace over a decade ago. She is trying to be the next Amy Schummer. I wonder if Schlussel has one of those pink wool pointed hats at home, too.

UPDATE: From Wikipedia's Schlussel site...

"On May 30, 2012 Schlussel wrote a blog post[37] commenting about a speech by President Barack Obama, in which he mistakenly used the phrase "Polish death camps" referring to the German death camps in occupied Poland.[38][39] Schlussel said Obama owed no apology for his remark"

Whereas there were Poles who collaberated with the Germans, there were also Poles that helped Jews, including my aunt after she jumped from a train going to Treblinka. My aunt later sent him money and even went from her home in Israel to visit him in Poland decades after WWII. The fact that Schlussel wants to characterize Nazi death camps as Polish rather than German further proves how crazy and deliberately inflamitory she is.

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Wil Wirtanen

http://www.businessinsider.com/marines-m107-sniper-rifle-failed-during-firefight-so-he-called-customer-service-2017-4

A NOTE FROM TIM:

While not in the same league as a Marine under fire, I too enjoyed success with the customer service at the Auto Club, who sent a tow truck out to toe me off my wilderness property when when my pickup became stuck in a mud quagmire. I was impressed; they simply said "we're on our way" as I tried
desperately to explain my location relative to some sort of civilized landmark. Not as good as what happened here, but certainly worthy of commendation.

There is still good customer service out there.

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Timothy Birdnow

Outgoing St. Louis mayor Francis Slay shows exactly why the STL area saw hell break loose. From Ladue News:

http://www.laduenews.com/business/columns/outgoing-mayor-francis-slay-discusses-accomplishments-ferguson-and-more/article_534627c0-642a-580e-9623-c340569c237b.html

"There was a big disconnect between the people, police and government in general in a lot of communities,” he says. "We learned you can’t isolate people in low-income minorities in a way that they feel disconnected.”

Slay successfully pushed for the establishment of the Ferguson Commission, which uncovered overreaching governments that were funding themselves with unfair traffic courts. "We need to learn in St. Louis that something that happens in one part of the region impacts the entire region,” Slay says."

End excerpt.

Mayor Slay blamed the courts for weak sentencing after violent crime increased under his watch and yet he promoted a weak, puscillanimous approach to civil order that was guaranteed to lead to an increase in crime. The "disconnect" between police, government and "people" was actually a disconnect between police and criminals, who knew a good thing when they saw it. The Ferguson Commission was nothing but a Democrat slush fund and tool for black supremacists. That Slay is unwilling to admit this speaks volumes about him.

It suggests to me he wants to run for higher office at some point.

The fact is the Ferguson riots and the troubles in St. Louis after vonderritt Myers was shot were easily preventable had a firm hand been taken at the outset. But fools like Slay handled this as a "social justice' matter rather than as the acts of terrorism and criminality they were. And the Ferguson Commission's recommendations amounted to surrender, meaning that the political operatives who took the $33 million dollars from George Soros now know they can force their will on the voting public simply by throwing a temper tantrum.

St. Louisans are less safe as a result of Mayor Slay's actions, and there will be more of this down the road because he acted more out of political interest than in the interests of his citizens. But a Democrat is a Democrat, and reality has little to do with their assessment of events.

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Timothy Birdnow

The Democrats have been challenging redistricting in courts to avoid the GOP taking seats from them. And yet here we have a clear case of Gerrymandering in the north St. Louis County community of Florissant that is being hailed by the liberal Post-Dispatch because it gives minorities more representation.

From the article:

"It’s significant in St. Louis County’s largest city, where one in four residents is black and where Parson’s election comes less than a year after the city agreed to redraw the boundary lines of its nine wards so that each has roughly the same number of people.

The change in boundaries came at the urging of the New York-based NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the country’s first civil rights law firm.

"We believe that the city’s current electoral plan may undermine the opportunity of black voters in Florissant to participate equally in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice,” wrote Legal Defense Fund President Sherrilyn Ifill and three other attorneys from the firm in a letter two years ago to Mayor Thomas Schneider.

"We, therefore, write to encourage the City Council to pursue a readily available fair and inclusive approach to elections that complies with the Constitution, the Voting Rights Act and other applicable laws.”

The letter was unexpected, Schneider said, and was the first indication that the city had used incorrect data when redistricting, something it is required to do after every decennial census.

"We were surprised by the letter, surprised that the data was flawed, then surprised at how flawed it was,” Schneider said. "It actually made the wards worse.”

The letter was written April 15, 2015, eight months after teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer in neighboring Ferguson. The Legal Defense Fund attorneys pointed out that in addition to under-representation on their city councils, both communities have few black police officers, and officers make a disproportionate number of traffic stops involving African-American motorists."

End excerpt.

So florissant has redrawn her districts to increase the chances of blacks to win public elections, despite the fact that the Florissant election scheme goes back to redistricting in 2010, long before the community developed a large minority population.So the city of Florissant (one of the largest cities in Missouri) has essentially undergone a redistricting despite based on minority demands.

It should eb pointed out that Florissant is largely dominated by Democrats.

Last August a judge tampered with the school board elections in the Ferguson-Florissant school district in a similar way, as I chronicled at the time. The city of Florissant clearly feared legal entanglements and surrendered to the NAACP and the other aggressors.

Just another liberal coup dressed as "fairness".

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Timothy Birdnow

Guns are the great equalizer. Here is a classic example; a female employee of a Seven Eleven store thwarted a robber by shooting him.

According to the Post-Dispatch:

"ST. LOUIS • A woman who stepped out of the 7-Eleven where she worked for a smoke break found herself in a gun battle early Monday when an armed man tried to rob her before she shot him.

The 53-year-old woman, whom police have not named, was shot twice in the leg. Police said the woman was conscious and breathing when she was taken to a hospital, where she was stable. Her medical condition was unavailable.

The 25-year-old man died from his injuries at St. Louis University Hospital"

End

So, a 25 year old man attacks a 53 year old woman and pays the price. Had she not had a gun she may well have wound up being raped or killed. If nothing else, we have one less evil bastard in our fair city.

Too bad she didn't shoot him first.

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Timothy Birdnow

Bill Maher, host of "Real Time" and the formerly misnamed "Politically Incorrect" continues his desent into madness.
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/04/21/maher-were-gassing-syrians-too-with-co2-syrian-problem-started-with-climate-change/

Maher claims:

"we talk about Assad gassing people, we’re gassing them too. We’re just doing it slower with CO2.”

and he makes the ridiculous assertion Syria's problems stem from Climate Change (gee, I thought it was a result of foreign intervention to drive the decades-long dictator out of power.)

Now, I have no doubt Maher knows well what it means to be gassed; I suspect he's frequently on the sauce. But how can he possibly think this sort of stupidity gives him any credibility whatsoever?

The Syrian Civul War had its roots in the Egyptian and Libyan rebellions, which were fostered by the U.S. government. Here is a timeline of events. It is clear that Syria was swept up in the wave of "Arab Spring" which was a result of the Iraq invasion and falling oil prices. Even the New York Times recognized the U.S. involvement in promoting the rebellion:

"The money spent on these programs was minute compared with efforts led by the Pentagon. But as American officials and others look back at the uprisings of the Arab Spring, they are seeing that the United States’ democracy-building campaigns played a bigger role in fomenting protests than was previously known, with key leaders of the movements having been trained by the Americans in campaigning, organizing through new media tools and monitoring elections.

A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region, including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a youth leader in Yemen, received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington, according to interviews in recent weeks and American diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks"

[...]

"Some Egyptian youth leaders attended a 2008 technology meeting in New York, where they were taught to use social networking and mobile technologies to promote democracy. Among those sponsoring the meeting were Facebook, Google, MTV, Columbia Law School and the State Department.

"We learned how to organize and build coalitions,” said Bashem Fathy, a founder of the youth movement that ultimately drove the Egyptian uprisings. Mr. Fathy, who attended training with Freedom House, said, "This certainly helped during the revolution.”"

End excerpts.

And declining oil prices weakened both Asad and his Russian backers. Couple that with the power vaccuum left by the fall of Saddam Hussein and the subsequent rebellion against the U.S. occupation and you have a perfect storm for the rise of something like ISIS. Global Warming has zilch to do with any of this.

Yet here is Maher making ridiculous claims without even realizing how monumentally idiotic he sounds.

I am mindful of the end of the excellent Peter Sellers movie "being There" where it concludes "life is a state of mind". I don't know about life, but Climate Change sure as hell meets that definition.

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Dana Mathewson

Sen. Chuck Grassley believes that one, maybe two more Supreme Court Justices will retire before long.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/15569/huge-senator-says-another-supreme-court-vacancy-hank-berrien?utm_source=dwemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=042017-news&utm_campaign=position3

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Paul Driessen


West Virginia University Professor James Smith offers another perceptive commentary on current events and trends in America. This time he and his master’s degree student Alex Hatch reflect on the waning of the one-time American ideal of being a "company man.” The change is having significant implications for careers, families, financial security and the need for young people in particular to take charge of their own financial security and not expect to find solutions to a lack of personal planning during the eleventh hour of their working careers.

Financial security versus independence

The changing face of the United States should be viewed as an opportunity

James E. Smith and Alex Hatch

In 2015, the Bureau of Labor (BLS) Statistics released the results of a study dubbed the "National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979.” https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/nlsoy.pdf This survey observed the employment habits of nearly ten thousand men and women of various groups over a 30-year period. Of all the data presented by the study, two numbers most characterize the evolution of the American job market: 11.7 and 93.7.

The former represents the average number of jobs a person will work between the ages of 18 and 48; the latter the percent of people age 30 to 34 who will spend less than 15 years with any single employer.

These numbers reflect the downward trend, if not the death, of the one-time American ideal of being a "company man.” The average American no longer aspires to grind through a nine-to-five job in his or her perfect first employment scenario. If they did initially, the volatility of the current job market seems to force a more thorough review of reality.

At the very least, they certainly don’t expect to be rewarded with a mantle clock or gold watch after thirty-plus years of faithful service. Even in their early to mid-thirties, an age when most people begin to settle down and raise a family, the average American is still willing to change careers and locations repeatedly to further their long-term economic viability.

In most cases a planned career change provides an improvement in living and working conditions, as well as a boost in income. For most, these improvements are reflected in the standard of living enjoyed, and also with measureable improvements in future financial security, improved net value, greater liquidity, and larger retirement benefits.

For some, the correct choices may also provide the ability to cross the threshold where financial security becomes financial independence: defined as the ability to continue the same, or better, lifestyle without a job; the much-heralded early retirement.

The frequency for this likelihood increases for the case where workers take greater personal and financial risks early in their career by investing in additional retirement plans, stocks and bonds or, more significantly, by contributing their time and future income to innovative technologies and start-ups.

Accordingly, spurred on by the age of the internet, numerous opportunities have sprung up in the last 30 years, resulting in a more than eight-fold increase in millionaires. That demographic can be used here to illustrate the number of people who have become financially independent.

More specifically, in 1988 there were only about 1.5 million millionaires in the United States. By 2017, this number had increased to 10.8 million, showing that, as investment savvy workers and the innovations they support have grown, so too have the number of financially independent Americans.

By and large though, employer mobility, as enjoyed by American workers, has often come at the cost of their financial security. According to the BLS study, during the 30-year period the bureau analyzed, the subjects spent a total of 22% of their time from age 18 to 48 either unemployed or out of the workforce. This means that they were out of the working world for nearly seven years during what should be the most productive portion of their lives.

While a good portion of this time was likely related to the pursuit of higher education and training, the result is still the same: the average American now spends more than half a decade out of the workforce during their working careers. This results in years of lost wages and promotions for the individual, lowering their future earnings potential and seniority in a position, in many cases affecting their job security.

In a broader sense, this also means that there are fewer citizens who can make positive contributions to the local economy, as well as to the government in the form of taxes. Today’s employee knows that stability in a career is not a given, and there is very little chance that the government will provide any kind of substantial fallback for them should their employment situation change. Thus, their historically strong employer loyalty has given way to increased financial depth.

The days when Social Security and even company pension plans would provide for future living conditions and survival security are long gone. Even with all the optional retirement vehicles, the reality is that the American workers must again secure their own future financial security, independent of government-mandated programs that may work initially but can never keep pace with changing economic, demographic, longevity and life-style realities.

Workers must invest in their own future, first through education and training and then by investing in public and private markets, as well as in innovation and entrepreneurial opportunities, not to mention second jobs or the equivalent from their spouses and other family members.

According to the 2016-17 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, http://www.babson.edu/Academics/centers/blank-center/global-research/gem/Documents/GEM%202016-2017%20Global%20Report.pdf there has been a significant uptick in entrepreneurial activity in the last decade. Most notably, in 2016, 13.6% of all American adults ages 18 to 64 were involved in either the creation or the operation of businesses that are less than 42 months old. Thus, millions of Americans have decided to dedicate at least part of their time and financial security to the pursuit of innovation and wealth creation, instead of working exclusively in the corporate world.

While entrepreneurship entices Americans with the promise of great wealth, it is important to note than 90% of all startups fail. For the sake of financial stability, Americans must understand that the social safety nets currently in place simply cannot support entrepreneurs who fail in their endeavors. They must have their own savings and safety nets to help them survive any failures they may encounter.

We are ultimately responsible for our current situation, and more so for the future, since we have time to make the plans necessary for that future lifestyle we have set as our goal. It also means we can bet the house on one throw of the dice. Proper planning is essential and even risk taking must have a safety net.

For these and numerous other reasons, it is important for the stability of our citizens and the social welfare system we enjoy that we take charge of our own financial security and not expect to find the solution to our lack of personal planning during the eleventh hour of our working careers. Programs are in place to provide the fundamental mechanisms for wealth accumulation. We just need the discipline to take advantage of them.

More importantly, with that same discipline and a proper outlook to the future, there appears to be a plethora of ideas that will allow the transition from hand to mouth to financial security and possibly to financial independence. The data show that the United States is primed to make innovation another way to create security and independence. It is our responsibility to make it happen.

___________

James E. Smith, PhD is a professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at West Virginia University. Alex Hatch has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from WVU and is studying for his Master’s Degree in engineering at WVU.

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Dana Mathewson

I tell ya, there are people out there who monitor my e-mails. *) laughing This guy said, just as I did a few days ago, that flying is a privilege, not a right.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/15495/mike-rowe-offers-refreshingly-different-frank-camp?utm_source=dwemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=041917-news&utm_campaign=position1

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Paul Driessen

In his latest article, aspiring Ugandan college student Steven Lyazi explores efforts by a number of companies and entrepreneurs to bring solar ovens and photovoltaic panels to Uganda and other African countries. As Steven points out, these technologies are much better than the open fires Africans currently rely on. However, most families live on a few dollars a day and cannot possibly afford the ovens and panels. Worse, too many of these retailers and environmental activists seem to believe a little solar or wind power for villages and cities in Africa should be enough, or all they should aspire to.

Steven doesn’t accept that and notes that Africa has big dreams. It is no longer content to be a poor, neglected stepchild or former colonial region, while the rest of the world moves forward. But to advance, Africa needs abundant, reliable, affordable energy, especially electricity.

Solar ovens and sustained poverty for Africa

African families and hospitals cannot rely on limited solar power, instead of electricity

Steven Lyazi

Solar technology in Africa, including my country of Uganda, would bring good news to millions of people who today must use firewood, charcoal and dung for cooking. Millions of Africans die from lung infections caused by breathing fumes from these fires, millions more from eating spoiled food, drinking contaminated water and having spoiled medicines, because we don’t have electricity, sanitation or refrigeration. What we do have in abundance is extensive, sustained poverty.

Solar technologies could help Africa, because this multi-purpose energy can cook food, light homes, charge cell phones and even power tiny refrigerators. Even simple solar ovens can help reduce our deadly traditional ways of cooking. Renewable energy from wind turbines can deliver even more electricity to billions around the world who still don’t have this amazing, essential energy.

Those are huge benefits, and I applaud them. In addition, we can install little wind and solar systems faster than we can build big power plants and transmission lines to remote areas.

However, we must not look at wind and solar as anything more than short-term solutions to fix serious, immediate problems. They do not equal real economic development or really improved living standards. Our cities need abundant, reliable electricity, and for faraway villages wind and solar must be only temporary, to meet basic needs until they can be connected to transmission lines and a grid.

Only in that way can we have modern homes, heating, lighting, cooking, refrigeration, offices, factories, schools, shops and hospitals – so that we can enjoy the same living standards people in industrialized countries do (and think is their right). We deserve the same rights and lives.

That is why I react strongly to people and organizations that think wind and solar electricity and solar ovens should be enough, or the end of our progress, and everyone should be happy that their lives have improved a little. I do not accept that. But I see it all the time.

At least a dozen companies are selling solar ovens and other solar technologies in Uganda. There’s Blazing Tube Solar from Hawaii and Home Energy Africa, which sells Dutch products. Green Energy Africa is registered in Kenya. It says its renewable energy systems "provide electricity without depleting the earth’s limited resources.” (Of course, those systems generate very limited electricity and require raw materials that are limited in quantity and must be dug out of the earth and turned into products using fossil fuels. But we’re not supposed to think about that.)

There’s also Solar point Uganda Limited, Energy Made in Uganda, New Age Solar Technologies Ltd, New Sun Limited, Solar Assembly Plant for African Villages, and other companies.

Some just want to make money, and leave. Others plan to stay for years. They can help solve some of our electricity, cooking and indoor air pollution problems. But these are all just short-term solutions. We need real energy, real electricity – a lot of it, reliable and affordable. What we are offered is very different.

I watched a Blazing Tube Solar demonstration and asked some questions. Their system has a long shiny metal trough that holds a tube filled with vegetable oil. The hot oil heats up a small oven at the top, to bake bread and cook other food. It has handles and wheels, so it can be moved easily. The cooker is mostly metal, so it should last a long time. But it can take 45 minutes to boil some eggs, and it costs $260.

Most African village families live on a couple dollars a day and can hardly afford food for their children. They cannot afford $260, or even $100 for some other systems. So they watch the sales presentations and admire the cookers. But they are frustrated or angry that they cannot afford them. I saw this when I traveled to the northern, eastern and central parts of Uganda.

Another problem is the sunlight. Even in Uganda, which is on the equator, the best sun comes from October through February. Other times of the year, it’s not as good because of clouds and rains. So the solar companies mostly come around when the sun is best and their ovens perform the best.

When it’s cloudy for several days, families cannot cook at all, unless they have solar cookers that actually run on electricity from photovoltaic panels on their homes. But those systems are even more expensive, and the battery power only lasts a couple days. Then families have to go back to wood, charcoal and dung. (Small diesel generators would be a huge improvement, but they too are unaffordable for most.)

Parents are very aware of the deadly respiratory diseases. But they have no choice. And many just prefer the cheaper traditional means of cooking and surviving than the fancy, expensive solar innovations.

A major local preacher for solar energy stoves is a Ugandan native who now resides in Chicago, Mr. Ron Mutebi. He used part of the $100,000 he won at the African Diaspora Marketplace competition at an Africa Infrastructure Conference in Washington. The conference was sponsored by the Corporate Council on Africa, Western Union, USAID and President Obama’s Forum with Young African Leaders. Mr. Obama often said Africans should use wind, solar and biofuel energy instead of fossil fuels.

But I worry that Mr. Mutebi has forgotten how many people are starving, have no money, try to earn a living by digging metal ores with their hands, and almost have to feed their children with grass and dirt. Uganda’s New Vision newspaper recently reported that over 10 million Ugandans in seven districts are starving and many animals are dying of hunger. This sustained poverty and starvation cannot continue.

Many people also don’t know that Africa has some big dreams. One is a Trans East Africa railway that will link Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Horn of Africa countries. This will be a first of its kind electric railway, some 750 kilometers (466 miles) long, and it will need tremendous amounts of energy that cannot come from wind turbines and solar panels.

It will have to come from nuclear power plants – or coal or natural gas generating plants. Africa has these resources in great abundance. But so far we are barely developing or using them, except maybe to export oil to wealthy nations. We should use them. Right now, most of our natural gas from oil fields is just burned and wasted right there. Why not build gas pipelines to power plants to generate electricity for millions? Why not build nuclear and coal plants, and hydroelectric projects like the Bujagali and Karuma Dams on the Nile River in Uganda? Mostly because powerful environmentalist groups oppose these projects. They care more about plants, animals and their own power, than about African people.

What is an extra degree, or even two degrees, of warming in places like Africa? It’s already incredibly hot here, and people are used to it. What we Africans worry about and need to fix are malnutrition and starvation, the absence of electricity, and killer diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, sleeping sickness and HIV/AIDS. Climate changes and droughts have been part of our history forever, and modern energy and technology would help us cope with them better in the future. We must stop focusing on climate change.

African governments are not doing enough to build the energy, transportation and communication systems we desperately need. They are not standing up to Europeans, global banks or environmentalists who oppose big power plants in Africa. They need to do better at helping their people.

Our leaders also need to remember that Europe and the United States did not have a World Bank or other outside help when they modernized and industrialized. They did it themselves. National and local governments, groups of citizens and businesses, and various banks and investors did it. They invented things, financed big projects, and built their cities and countries. China and India have figured this out.

Now Africa needs to do the same thing – and stop relying on outsiders, bowing to their demands, and letting them dictate our future. We have the energy and other natural resources, and the smart, talented, hardworking people to get the job done. We just need to be set free to do it.

Steven Lyazi is a student and worker in Kampala, Uganda. He served as special assistant to Congress of Racial Equality-Uganda director Cyril Boynes, until Mr. Boynes’ death in January 2015. He plans to attend college and help his country and Africa get the energy and living standards they need and deserve.

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Dana Mathewson

More marches by idiots. http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Science-March-Protests-Rallies/2017/04/22/id/785807/?ns_mail_uid=95809690&ns_mail_job=1726810_04222017&s=al&dkt_nbr=hozacs67

A NOTE FROM TIM:

Anyone who actually cares about Science would not march in some dopey protest demanding more government largess for the promotion of research. Real science requires independence, and government money comes with strings. What these people want is not to promote "science" but rather to promote money, money, money. This is about the golden fleece of taxpayers. As Barry Kriptke said on the television show The Big Bang Theory "I'm not a string theorist I'm a string pragmatist. I take the money they give me for research and use it to buy liquor and broads" That pretty much sums up this march.

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Paul Driessen

The eight-day stretch between April 22 and 29 will showcase Earth Day (aka Lenin’s birthday), the March for Science and the People’s Climate March. Liberal protesters intend to "demonstrate” to President Trump and the world how much they hate his energy agenda … and how they will no longer tolerate the ways government officials "skewed, ignored, misused and interfered with science” during the Obama era.

Receiving far less media fanfare was another important week-long event, April 17-23: Green Energy Poverty Week. It helped draw attention to the multiple ways wind, solar, biofuel and other "renewable, eco-friendly” energy policies send electricity and fuel prices skyrocketing, kill jobs, hammer families – and in developing countries perpetuate poverty, misery, disease, malnutrition and death.

My article this week chronicles some of these intolerable, inhumane consequences. Thank you for posting it, quoting from it, and forwarding it to your friends and colleagues.

Green Energy Poverty Week

A week dedicated to topics that underscore impacts environmentalists don’t want to discuss

Paul Driessen

April 22 was Earth Day, the March for Science and Lenin’s birthday (which many say is appropriate, since environmentalism is now green on the outside and red, anti-free enterprise on the inside). April 29 will feature the People’s Climate March and the usual "Climate change is real” inanity.

The Climate March website says these forces of "The Resistance” intend to show President Trump they will fight his hated energy agenda every step of the way. Science March organizers say they won’t tolerate anyone who tries to "skew, ignore, misuse or interfere with science.”

After eight years of government policies that killed jobs and economic growth – and skewed, ignored, misused, obstructed, vilified and persecuted science and scientists that strayed from alarmist talking points, to advance a climate chaos, anti-fossil fuel, anti-growth agenda – that piety is arrogant hypocrisy.

But their theater of the absurd gets worse. Some March for Science leaders were outraged that the recent MOAB bomb dropped on ISIS terrorists shows "how science is weaponized against marginal people.”

The rhetoric also recalls the annual Earth Hour, when people in rich countries are supposed to turn off their lights for 60 minutes, to repent for the sin of using fossil fuel, nuclear and hydroelectric power to electrify our homes, businesses, schools and hospitals. I personally promote Human Achievement Hour, by turning on extra lights, to celebrate humanity’s incredible innovations and advancements these past 150 years, our modern living standards, and the right of all people to improve their lives and life spans.

I was a campus organizer for the very first Earth Day, in 1970, when we had serious pollution problems. But since then we’ve cleaned up our act, air and water. Environmentalist groups, modelers and Obama regulators ignore these advances, real climate science and the Real-World climate outside their windows.

Far worse, while claiming to care deeply about the poorest among us, they ignore the harm their policies inflict: soaring electricity prices, fewer jobs, lower living standards in the West – and perpetual poverty, disease, malnutrition and premature death in developing countries. We pay more and more each year for de minimis further improvements in environmental quality, combined with ever-expanding government and activist control of our lives, and steadfast opposition to reliable, affordable energy in the Third World.

That’s why some folks who actually care about poor, minority, elderly, working class and developing country families again designated April 17-23 as Green Energy Poverty Week.

For industrialized nations, "green energy poverty” refers to households in which 10% or more of family incomes is spent on natural gas and electricity costs – due to policies that compel utilities to provide ever increasing amounts of expensive, less affordable, politically preferred "green” energy. It’s a regressive tax that disproportionately affects low and fixed income families which have little money to spend beyond energy, food, clothing, rent and other basic needs. Every energy price increase hammers them harder.

Beyond our borders, the concept underscores the lot of families that enjoy none of the living standards we take for granted. They have no electricity or get it a few hours a week at random times, burn wood and dung for cooking and heating, and spend hours every day collecting fuel and hauling filthy water from miles away. Corrupt, incompetent governments and constant pressure from callous environmentalist pressure groups in rich countries perpetuate the misery, joblessness, disease, starvation and early death.

In the United States, green energy policies affect the poorest households three times more than the richest households. In fact, rising electricity prices affect all goods and services, for all electricity users: homes, offices, hospitals, schools, malls, farms and factories. With 37 million American families earning less than $24,000 per year after taxes, and 22 million households taking home less than $16,000 post-tax, it’s pretty obvious why wind and solar mandates are unfair, unsustainable and inhumane.

Unbelievably, one million mild-weather California households now live in green energy poverty, the Manhattan Institute reports. In fact, the once-Golden State now has the USA’s highest poverty rate, thanks largely to government requirements that one-third of the state’s electricity must come from "renewable” sources by 2020, and one-half by 2030. No wonder California’s rising rates are already nearly double those in Kentucky and other states that use coal and natural gas to generate electricity.

Tesla electric cars also reward wealthy buyers: with free charging stations, access to HOV lanes, and up to $10,000 in combined tax rebates. They require batteries made from lithium dug out under horrendous or nonexistent environmental, health, safety and child labor rules in Africa. The batteries cost $325 per kilowatt-hour – equal to $350 per barrel for oil (seven times the April 2017 $50.40-a-barrel price).

Spreading California policies across the United States would send the cost of heat, lights, AC, internet, and all goods and services soaring. Jobs would disappear, living standards decline, depression rates increase, drug and alcohol abuse climb, and more people die from poor health, drugs and suicide.

Over in Europe, electricity prices are double California’s current rates: 30-45 cents per kWh! Green energy policies are hammering jobs, industries, healthcare, family budgets and future prospects.

British families pay "a whopping 54% more” for electricity than average Americans. Nearly 40% of UK households are cutting back on food and other essentials, to pay for electricity. One in three UK families struggles to pay energy bills. Up to 24,000 elderly Brits die from illness and hypothermia each winter, because they cannot afford proper heat; many are forced to choose between heating and eating.

In Germany, 330,000 families had their electricity cut off in 2015, because they could not pay soaring bills. In Bulgaria, 50% of average household income is spent on energy. Greeks are cutting down trees in protected forests because they cannot afford heating oil; hundreds of thousands of acres are being destroyed across Europe for the same reason. A tenth of all EU families are now in green energy poverty.

It’s infinitely worse for billions of parents and children in Earth’s poorest regions. In Africa, India and other impoverished regions, more than two billion people still burn firewood, charcoal and dung for cooking. Millions die from lung infections caused by pollution from these open fires, millions more from intestinal diseases caused by bacteria-infested food and water, more millions because medicines are spoiled and healthcare is primitive in clinics that don’t have electricity, refrigeration or window screens.

In Uganda, "entrepreneurs” burned a village down, killing a sick child in his home, to turn the area into new forest so that the country could claim carbon credits to prevent climate change. Chad’s government banned charcoal, the mainstay for cooking in that nation, out of absurd concerns about climate change.

Africa’s desperate families hunt and cook anything that walks, crawls, flies or swims, endangered or not. They have cut down trees and brush for miles around cities and villages – turning cheetah and chimpanzee habitats into firewood and charcoal. Poverty is undeniably the worst environmental pollutant.

For the wealthy and increasingly powerful radical environmentalist movement, it is no longer about addressing real pollution problems, protecting the environment or improving human health. As UN climate officials have proudly proclaimed, it’s really about ending fossil fuel use and capitalism, redistributing the world’s wealth, and controlling people’s livelihoods, living standards and liberties.

Of course, it’s all meant to save people and planet – from exaggerated or fabricated climate cataclysms and resource depletions. But ponder the Real-World consequences during Green Energy Poverty Week.

Environmentalists profess to care deeply about America’s and the world’s poor and middle classes. But their policies and actions too often speak far more loudly than their words. We might be forgiven for asking, With friends and protectors like these, do the world’s poor really need enemies?

Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death.

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Jack Kemp forwards this:

http://www.theblaze.com/podcasts/airline-passenger-blames-trump-for-her-flight-delay/
Airline passenger blames Trump for her flight delay
Chris Salcedo 2 hours

The Daily Mail posted a viral video yesterday of an unidentified woman attempting to travel by plane from San Antonio, Texas . Today on the "Chris Salcedo Show,” Chris Salcedo played as much of the Not Safe for Work video as he could, highlighting key points in her spirited discourse.

The passenger spent much of the video protesting the hours she and others had been sitting in the hot plane on the tarmac. She expressed that she did not want to end up "like that dude that got beat up,” referencing United’s now infamous passenger, Dr. David Dao.

She also dared the flight crew to find a reason to remove her from the plane. Chris remarked "She’s under the false impression that the captain needs a reason,” as the airline is a private business.

The pinnacle of this rant is when the fed-up passenger inexplicably yells "This is Trump’s fault.” No explanation is offered as to how she ascertained the 45th president’s culpability.

Chris can’t imagine why anybody wouldn’t want such a "charming individual” on their plane.

To see more from Chris, visit his channel on and listen live to "The Chris Salcedo Show” weekdays 2–5 p.m. ET, only on .

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Jack Kemp

Did you guys see this?

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/04/a_stunning_school_sex_scandal_the_media_refuse_to_notice.html

April 21, 2017
A Stunning School Sex Scandal the Media Refuse to Notice
By Jack Cashill


I learned about this crime for one reason. In January, I became editor of a new, nonprofit, online publication -- Sentinelksmo.org -- designed to counter the disinformation spread by the overwhelmingly liberal media in Missouri and Kansas. Over the years, people have approached me with stories about regional abuses, and I had an easier time placing those stories nationally than locally. In these two deeply red states, there was no media outlet of consequence halfway friendly to conservative causes. Now there is, the Sentinel.

Our partner in this project, the Kansas Policy Institute, hoped to correct the relentlessly dishonest reporting on Kansas taxes and state spending in general and the Sam Brownback administration in particular. As a resident of Missouri, I wanted to cover both states on a wide range of issues, including sex, crime, and education. To do this I had to track the local media and, in doing so, I hit the trifecta when I stumbled upon the article about Green. The story was covered by the local media, but barely.

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William Been

Please consider supporting Jay Sekulow’s efforts to restore some reality to the Judicial System re this most critical situation.

WILLIAM,

America faces a grave threat. Today we're taking action in court.

ISIS (the Islamic State) has publicly called for jihadists to infiltrate and attack America.

The radical Left is filing new frivolous lawsuits to block a new Executive order to keep America safe from terror.
Sign the Petition Now

Federal judges have absurdly labeled it a "Muslim ban," ruling that an Executive order to protect America from terror violates the Establishment Clause.

I've been arguing Establishment Clause cases for decades. This Executive Order doesn't violate the Constitution. It follows the Constitution to protect America.

The President's new Executive order implements many of our policy proposals: 1) a pause in refugees, 2) creation of extreme vetting, and 3) blocks jihadists from terrorist hotbeds.

Today we're filing a critical amicus brief in federal appeals court, defending the constitutionality of this lawful Executive order. We must defend America from jihad. Take urgent action with us.

Sign Our Urgent Brief: Defend America from Terror.
https://aclj.org/national-security/defend-our-national-security?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=d-04212017_top-NS_seg-NexDEOplFREO_typ-PT

Jay Sekulow
ACLJ Chief Counsel

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Timothy Birdnow

The Ozark Hilton is ever one for surprises, and yesterday's bloglessness was a result. As is my custom I headed down to the fabled mansion in the pines to try to get a little work done and maybe enjoy a bit of solitude. I didn't know my stay would be extended courtesy of the property itself.

For new readers the Ozark Hilton tales have become a standard part of this website. Twenty acres of forest land in southern Missouri, the property cost me less than most used cars and continues to do so since taxes are ridiculously low in my area. Building codes were largely non-existent, too, and so I built a two room cabin out of trash and debris I found throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area. It's unfortunate I got sick back in 2011; the cabin isn't done and now probably never will be. I have a huge pile of boards and other building materials detracting from the natural beauty, and I don't know how I'll ever get rid of it now. I can burn some of it, granted, but I really wish I could have completed the structure.

It is, um, rustic; no electricity, no running water, no toilets, nothing. If I have to go to the bathroom I use a couple of cinder blocks which accommodates a toilet seat. I don't have to worry about the waste, though; critters come and clean it up for me, a self cleaning system! I light the cabin with kerosene lamps or battery operated gizmos. Heat is provided by a steel barrel turned on its side with a hole knocked into it by an ax. Black stovepipe vents the smoke through a hole in the wall (which leaves a gap in the structure) and a Weber barbeque lid acts as my stove lid. I cook with those too, by the way. Not that I do much cooking down there; too much trouble cleaning up! I usually just eat a sandwich and if I have to go to the bathroom I generally try to hold it until I get home - or to the nearby state park.

Ah the joys of the rustic life!

I am forever chasing rodents out of the cabin, too; they tear everything up and make a huge mess. Rats are the worst because they destroy things. I've had to replace countless kerosene lamps because of those little love children. I once brought down a big bag of rat poison and put some out; they found the bag in a plastic container and ate it all! I STILL had a rodent problem after that!

But what the heck; the place is beautiful even if it rather resembles a junk yard now (I have all manner of building material scattered about and unfortunately work stopped when I became ill back in 2011.) I suppose it will never be finished now, although I do have hopes. I usually go down there and do light duty, mostly clean the place up and maybe nail up a board or two.

I used to read after dark, but the dim lighting precludes that. Now I bring down a portable DVD player and a 12 volt battery, the kind you use to jumpstart your car. I can watch movies all night! It doesn't exactly make me a scholar, but at least I have a chance to relax and enjoy a little solitude.

At any rate, Friday I eagerly headed down to my luxury resort. It was colder than it has been in weeks; barely scratching 60*. Oh, well, I would have to have a fire, that was obvious. It started raining when I was a third of the way there.

It never stopped.

Now my property has a road only in an academic sense; it was nothing more than a trail used by loggers when the property was logged many years ago, and I cut the volunteer growth out but little else. It's a tight squeeze, but it has always served. I've been there in heavy storms, in snow, in ice, and always had little trouble. The only real problem I had was when the Missouri Department of Transportation redid the main road and raised it up so I had a hard time getting onto the blacktop. Last Christmas they gave me a present; put in a ramp allowing me easy access. I thought my problems were solved.

Nope.

Because of the heavy rain I was forced inside. I made a marginal fire with largely wet wood and lit my lamps at five p.m., settling in for a long and dreary siege. The cabin stays dry, despite my rather poor craftsmanship. (It was leaking in the "new cabin" the add on I built, but there wasn't much to be done; someone is going to have to get up there, and the last time I was on a ladder I fell and broke five ribs.) About eight p.m. my cell phone received an emergency alert, warning of dangerous flooding. The rain continued all night and into the morning. When I went out I was surprised to see a lake where my parking lot had been. Now, this land is all rock and tree root and it sits on a ridge so it drains in minutes. I've never seen it like this, and have never, ever had a problem with mud. But my foot got stuck in a quagmire, and that gave me trepidation.

I headed off and just as I reached to top of the drive my truck sunk in the mud. Just sunk. I have rear wheel drive and could have gotten out with four wheel drive, but alas my two rear wheels just kept digging. I swear I was a foot deep in the earth!

What to do? This land is not near any town or even any major intersection (the nearest being almost two miles away). It is true rural land in one of the least populated counties in Missouri. Here I was stuck in the mud off road in the ass end of nowhere. What to do?

I did what any city slicker would do; called AAA!

The customer service rep was, um, a bit confused; I had to tell her physical landmarks to look for my property. But while I was on with her the service station called (that quick) and I am very good at giving directions, being as I have worked in the field most of my adult life. Within the hour the tow truck arrived, hooked up the winch, and towed me right out. It was that simple.

God bless them!

This put me back hours, though, as I tried all manner of things to dislodge the vehicle and tried to wait out the rain. As a result, I did no blogging yesterday.

A thought occurred to me as the wife and I were talking over dinner last night. My mother recently passed away, and she had a notorious feud with the Auto Club, who once cancelled her for too many service calls (she was forever locking her keys inside her car). This whole fiasco would have made my mother smile; it was like a vengeance she would have smitten them with, making them go out into the virtual wilderness to pick me up. I can't help but think my mother had a hearty laugh at this.

It DOES make me gun-shy about my next visit; how many times will I be able to get them to come and tow me out? As I say, I never had a problem like that before. I did get stuck once or twice climbing up onto the pavement (and locals always stopped to pull me out) but getting stuck on the land is a different thing. I now have one more thing to worry about down there.

But life is not to be lived in fear; I'll be back down there again soon (as long as it's not raining like THAT.) All I have to fear are snakes, scorpions, hornets, wasps, coyotes, maybe even bears and mountain lions (which I think visited me once there.) Oh, and the occasional heart attack or whatnot.

But it's still worth it.

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This from ALG:

http://netrightdaily.com/2017/04/200-million-americans-dead-one-year-emp/

By Printus LeBlanc

Recent tensions with North Korea have put the U.S. power grid on the front page. Former Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency, James Woolsey stated, "I think this is the principal, the most important and dangerous, threat to the United States.” He further said, "If you look at the electric grid and what it’s susceptible to, we would be moving into a world with no food delivery, no water purification, no banking, no telecommunications, no medicine. All of these things depend on electricity in one way or another.”

The United States of America is a society completely dependent on electricity. Food production, transportation, and communications all depend on one thing, electricity. The Department of Homeland Security classifies sixteen different critical infrastructure sectors. No sector is more important than the energy sector. No other critical infrastructure sector, from health services to the chemical sector can operate without electricity. It is the critical piece of our critical infrastructure. If the President and Congress decide to spend any money on infrastructure, the U.S. power grid should be alone, at the top of the list.

The U.S. power grid is comprised of three smaller grids. One grid powers the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains while another serves people from the Rockies to the Pacific. The last grid is the state of Texas. Each of these individual grids is comprised of a network of power producing facilities, tens of thousands of miles of transmission lines, and hundreds of substations, bringing power to your home and business.

A key piece of the energy chain is the high-voltage transformer (HVT). HVTs "step-up" and "step-down” voltage of newly generated electricity for transmission and distribution reasons. The voltage is increased or stepped-up to transmit over long distances and then is decreased or stepped-down to be distributed to homes. Without these HVTs, it would be nearly impossible to supply the US with electricity. These HVTs are peculiarly vulnerable to attacks from man and nature. These transformers weigh between one and four hundred tons and cost up to eight million dollars. The Department of Energy estimated it could take up to 20 months for the larger HVTs to be built. What would the US look like without power for 2 months, let alone 1 year?

There four principle modes of attack that could destroy HVTs. These are an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP), a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), a cyber-attack, and a physical attack.

A nuclear bomb detonated in the upper atmosphere might not even be noticed by people on the ground. Most Americans would look up and see a sky that resembles the Aurora Borealis. However, they would notice the effects immediately. Their world could come to a complete stop. Cars could lose power and drift to a stop. Planes in the air could lose power and begin a rapid powerless decent towards the earth. Trains could lose power and coast to a stop. Anything with a microchip could be dead. This includes HVTs. A large device detonated 400-500km above Kansas would affect all within the continental U.S.

200 million people could die in a year without water and electricity.

A CME would have the same effect as an EMP, but on a global scale. A CME is an ejection of particles from the sun, also known as a solar flare. These happen quite often. The last major CME event to hit the Earth was in 1859. When it hit, there were reports of sparks shooting off telegraph wires in telegraph stations. A CME event today could shut down electronic devices worldwide.

On April 16, 2013, an attack occurred in Metcalf, California substation. An unknown number of assailants shot hundreds of rounds at the HVTs in the substation. The damage caused the substations to shut down. The energy companies were able to reroute power and avoid a shutdown. To this day, nobody has been charged in the attack. Many within and outside the government have labeled this a dry run.

Another lesser known attack occurred in Utah on September 25, 2016. An assailant fired several shots into the transformer’s radiator system. The shots caused the transformer to overheat and fail. The damage was estimated at $1 million and between 6 and 12 months to repair. Once again, power companies were able to divert power and prevent a cascading failure.

In response to the attack, Brian Harrell, a director in Navigant’s energy practice and former director of the cyberthreat-sharing portal at the North American Electric Reliability Corp, said, "we must assume that at some point in the future a North American utility will suffer from a planned and coordinated attack against electrical infrastructure.”

A coordinated attack on several substations at the same time has the ability to create a rolling blackout that power companies cannot keep up with fast enough, and overload the system. From there, the system crashes.

Small computers control every piece of the electric grid. These are Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. SCADAs tell a substation how much voltage is coming in and going out. SCADAs tell HVTs when to shut down. By hacking these devices and infecting them with viruses, a hacker can force the SCADA systems to break the machines being monitored. The U.S. and Israel recently launched such an attack against the Iranian nuclear program. The virus was called Stuxnet. It was successful in destroying thousands of centrifuges. The cyber genie has been let out of the bottle, and the entire U.S. power grid is in danger.

It is time to take the security of the electrical grid serious. The principal reason for the existence of government is security. People come together to form groups for security. The U.S. government must not ignore the EMP threat anymore. The President and Congress have stated their desire to pass an infrastructure bill. The most important aspect of the infrastructure bill must be the electric grid.

Printus LeBlanc is a contributing reporter at Americans for Limited Government.

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