Friday, September 22, 2023

Comedian Louis CK is not joking about why we should open the border

There is a small possibility that Louis C.K. just changed the outcome of the 2024 election.  This could be the tipping point.  People could wake up and see what the extreme left stands for.  Someone might ask, "What do they stand for?"  It is about giving away everything you have earned.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Larry

A clip of comedian Louis C.K. on the Joe Rogan show has been circulating on X (formerly Twitter) this week in which he goes on and on about how opening up the southern border would be a good thing because Americans shouldn't have such a high standard of living compared to the rest of the world, how poor people in other countries just want what Americans have, and how it's not fair that we have so much. "It shouldn't be so great here," he says. So open the border and let them pour in.

It's possible he's joking, that it's just a comedy bit he's practicing. That's what my friend Inez Stepman thinks. Get liberals to nod along in agreement and then expose the consequences of such an insane idea. You can judge for yourself:

I don't think it comes off as a joke but as an almost perfect distillation of globalist liberalism. Louis C.K. cannot fathom why Americans should have a say about who comes into their country and who does not. He clearly has no real allegiance to his country or countrymen, and is actually embarrassed by their prosperity — and presumably his own as well.

There is nothing special about America, according to this view, and no reason the rest of the world should not enjoy her ill-gotten riches. Opening the border is the least we could do for the cause of justice.

Whether it's a joke or not, the substance of what Louis C.K. articulates is the logical endpoint of leftist ideology. It's what the mainstream left believes — and the Biden administration has been actively working to accomplish at the southern border.

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Suit Accusing Burger King of Undersized Whoppers Proceeds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zALwAIqVBo4

@john2001plus
0 seconds ago
Something is wrong with society when massive and expensive lawsuits happen over the size of a hamburger.  I like Burger King.  If I were unhappy with the size of their burgers, I could go somewhere else.  Let the free market decide.

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Eric Weinstein Reacts To Sam Harris On Modern Wisdom

I don't know this person, but he is interesting to listen to.  He sounds like a conspiracy theorist but also plausible.

Saturday, September 9, 2023

Jurassic Raccoon

https://youtube.com/shorts/D7w4AXKSZUg?si=_Pa-bGZVvGTP_raE

My father used to say that you should never feed a wild animal. I didn't understand at first, but the problem is that many animals can have rabies and not show symptoms. This includes raccoons.

Wild animals are not pets.

Migratory birds only fly south when the food runs out. I noticed that people would feed ducks who then stuck around till winter. This can't be good for the birds.

Best wishes,

John Coffey

ASAPScience: BUSTED!!

KKK Member speaks

https://youtube.com/shorts/rpZqts3ftz4?si=gUVphI8GbLTrBWn4

This does not represent 98% of whites nor conservatives. Conservatives are the most accepting people I know. Unlike the political left, we don't try to divide people into (arbitrary) categories.

Cryptocurrency Scam - Pig Butchering

Montana broadband build-out costs $300,000 per home

When did the name United States of America originate?

September 9, 1776

On September 9, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted a new name for what had been called the "United Colonies." The moniker United States of America has remained since then as a symbol of freedom and independence.

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Controversial Statues Are Nothing New

https://youtube.com/shorts/XaExp2EAGfY?si=rDOBYkeAV563gw4M

Doctor Who

I am concerned about the next version of Doctor Who starting around November, which is the 60th anniversary of the show.

They hired a gay actor to play possibly a gay Doctor Who.


The previous versions of Doctor Who had some relationships which clearly identified the character as heterosexual.  If they decide to change the character without a good explanation, then it seems to me that this would destroy the character.

They retconned the previous version of Doctor Who in a way that completely rewrote the history of the character.  For the most part, the fans aren't happy about the change.

The Doctor Who series was extremely good about 13 years ago, which is why I am still interested in the show, but it went slowly downhill after that.

--
Best wishes,

John Coffey

Statement on 'Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses' review | Cochrane

Many commentators have claimed that a recently-updated Cochrane Review shows that 'masks don't work', which is an inaccurate and misleading interpretation.

It would be accurate to say that the review examined whether interventions to promote mask wearing help to slow the spread of respiratory viruses, and that the results were inconclusive. Given the limitations in the primary evidence, the review is not able to address the question of whether mask-wearing itself reduces people's risk of contracting or spreading respiratory viruses. 

The review authors are clear on the limitations in the abstract: 'The high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions.'

California Wants to Make it Illegal to Confront Shoplifters

Saturday, September 2, 2023

Watch "Chris Rock - How not to get your ass kicked by the police!"

On Sat, Sep 2, 2023 at 11:58 AM Albert
Hard to believe this skit has been out for about 25 years!



I Can't Stop Thinking that People Who Deny Climate Change are Lying



@john2001plus
1 second ago
I am not aware of people changing where they are on the climate belief scale.  I can't speak for everyone, especially attention-seeking YouTubers.

Of course, human CO2 emissions have caused the atmosphere to warm by about 1 degree Celsius over the last 140 years.

However, this issue is far more complicated than that.  Climate Alarmism very much depends upon as of yet unproven positive feedback mechanisms.  The solutions to Climate Change are likely more expensive and damaging to our economy than they are worth.

There are many factors that contribute to people's doubt, which is maybe why it would appear that people are shifting positions.  Just to name a few:   The politicization of science.  Poor past predictions.  The urban heat island effect.  The uncertainty associated with clouds.  The large error bars in the models.   Temperature data that is estimated based on models.  The alteration of past temperature data.  Climategate "hiding the decline".  One third of the people on the IPCC are members of an environmental lobbying group, which is a conflict of interest.  The IPCC refused to hire anyone who did not already believe in catastrophic-man-made warming, which is what they are supposed to evaluate.  (You don't do science by starting with the conclusion.)  The former head of the IPCC called catastrophic-man-made warming his "religion".  (No bias there!)  A former IPCC member said that it wasn't about climate but about doing away with free-market capitalism.

Some climate scientists said that they were afraid to speak out against climate alarmism because they would lose funding.  There is no 97% consensus.  There are many actual climate scientists who think the alarmism is overblown.

We are in a brief interglacial warm period.  All of human civilization arose during this brief warm period.  We are halfway between the Earth's maximum tilt, which melts glaciers, and its minimal tilt, which allows glaciers to grow. Over the very long term, global cooling will be the problem.  What humans have done to the atmosphere is trivial, and we will be running out of most fossil fuels by the year 2100.  We might run out of oil reserves in 40 years.

Most climate charts go back to 1880 which was an unusually cold period that killed many people in North America. Cold kills far more people than heat, and the 1-degree increase since 1880 has been an improvement. It would be an unlikely coincidence if we were currently at the optimal temperature for human beings.

Friday, August 25, 2023

The Truth Trans Activists Don’t Want You to Know

Fiery Vivek clip

The U.S. Constitution won us the American Revolution?

Other than that, I like the speech.

On Fri, Aug 25, 2023 at 3:47 PM Larry wrote:

why steal from the dollar store?

Fwd: Since 2007

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Larry 



US Budget Deficits Are Exploding Like Never Before

Investors see a high-spending new normal keeping interest rates and inflation elevated.


American politicians are keener than ever to juice the economy with government cash, a shift that's already helping to drive up borrowing costs and looks likely to keep them high long after the inflation emergency is over.


The outlook for the federal budget right now is essentially unprecedented—crisis-size deficits as far as the eye can see, even though the economy appears to be in good health. That prospect is making investors uneasy, as demonstrated by yields on benchmark 10-year Treasuries climbing above 4.3% this week, their highest levels since 2007. Other borrowing costs are rising in tandem: 


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-24/bond-market-flashes-warning-as-us-budget-deficit-surges?srnd=premium#xj4y7vzkg



Fwd: Since 2007

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Larry>

Well this explains how we can how power outages in America.
Apparently in 2007 we plateued as we stopped adding enough electricity to replace retiring coal plants . This seem like a bad idea as the population growth didn't stop in 2007.




Global Investors Dump China Blue Chip Stocks Amid Economic Crisis

Sage Steele


"On October 5, 2021, Steele was suspended with pay by ESPN for remarks she made on Jay Cutler's September 29 podcast about COVID-19 vaccine mandates, women who dress in a way she feels is provocative, and Barack Obama calling himself black even though he, like Steele, has a white mother. In conjunction with her suspension, Steele issued an apology: "I know my recent comments created controversy for the company, and I apologize. We are in the midst of an extremely challenging time that impacts all of us, and it's more critical than ever that we communicate constructively and thoughtfully."

Steele filed a lawsuit against ESPN in April 2022, alleging that the network had retaliated against her in the months following the suspension. Steele's suit accused ESPN of taking opportunities away from her and steadily degrading her career, alleging that her free speech rights were being curtailed through ESPN's retaliation against her for comments she had made as a private citizen. The parties settled the lawsuit in August 2023, at which point Steele left the network."

Hollywood Rewrites History Again: What the Oppenheimer Deification Movie Didn’t Tell You

Soviet spy chief, General Pavel Sudoplatov, who in his 1994 memoirs stated that Oppenheimer, while at Los Alamos, had passed nuclear secrets to the Soviets without which they'd never have been able to build their own A-Bomb so quickly. Also ignored…was a 1944 letter from a Soviet security official, Boris Merkulov, to Lavrenty Beria, Stalin's notorious chief of secret police, in which he stated that Oppenheimer had reported to the Soviets on his work at Los Alamos via CPUSA [Communist Party of the United States of America] president Earl Browder

Friday, August 18, 2023

Body Language: The Trump Sidestep - YouTube


@john2001plus
1 second ago
I think that it is a given that Trump is not entirely honest, and not the nicest guy in the world.  He is clearly a narcissist, but he is also a strong person who is cable of getting things done.  He might be the guy we need, again.  

You Won't Believe The HORRIBLE Climate Trial Ruling in Montana

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Americans Must Not Kneel to the Biden Administration’s Bullying   

Through the weaponization of government agencies, as well as a ruthless, calculated fight for radical abortion and transgender policies, the Biden administration has effectively forced millions of Americans to choose between living out their faith or to suffer serious harassment, persecution and even punishment for their sincerely held beliefs.   

The Biden administration recently showed its hand by announcing that it is reversing plans to station the U.S. Space Command's headquarters in Alabama and would instead make Colorado Springs its permanent headquarters. This change has left little doubt it is due "in part because of concerns about the state's restrictive abortion law, according to two U.S. officials and one U.S. defense official familiar with the discussions."    

The whole situation reeks of the administration's mob-like tactics. Anyone paying attention can see the change is also retaliation against Alabama's Senator Tommy Tuberville, 

The Big Guy

The Trump Indictments Are Blunt Demonstrations Of Power

"So yes, the hypocrisy is stupendous and blatant. But let me suggest that decrying the hypocrisy here is a loser's game. What you see in these anti-Trump indictments is not hypocrisy, it's hierarchy. We all became familiar with this concept during the Covid pandemic. Gathering for church, even outside, was against the law, but mass rioting in the streets was OK — so long as you were rioting for racial justice. Ordinary people had to let their elderly loved ones die alone and were not even allowed to bury them, yet thousands attended the funeral and memorial services for secular saint George Floyd.

As my colleague Eddie Scarry wrote at the time, "This is simply another example of those in power, those running our most influential cultural and political institutions, sending a message: There's a new social hierarchy in America. And this one isn't about what you can afford to do, it's about what you're allowed to do."

The same analysis applies to the raft of indictments against Trump, whose post-2020 denunciations of the election are no different than those of Clinton in 2016 or most Democrats in 2000 and 2004. Democrats are allowed to question the results of an election, Republicans are not. That's not hypocrisy, it's hierarchy. 

Once you understand this, you begin to recognize it everywhere. Antifa thugs and BLM rioters were allowed to trash entire city blocks, torch police stations, take over neighborhoods, besiege federal courthouses — and do so with the blessing and encouragement, at times even with the complicity, of elected Democrat Party leaders. But every granny that set foot within a mile of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 had better brace for a federal indictment.

The same goes for teachers who push transgender ideology and critical race theory on students versus the parents who object to these things being taught behind their backs. The former are courageous leaders, the latter are potential domestic terrorists, at least according to the Biden Justice Department. Ditto for the media's treatment of the Trump family business versus the Biden family business. None of this is hypocrisy, it's hierarchy. The left is trying to tell you something, which is that they have all the power and you have none."

Snow White - How To Destroy Your Own Movie

The (Second) Deadliest Virus

Saturday, August 12, 2023

The Truth Behind The Media's Newest Lies About Michael Brown

I like the analysis here.

Fwd: Oliver Anthony

I'm not sure how good the music is, but this implies a backlash against excessive government.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Larry 




Friday, August 11, 2023

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Star Wars in a historical context


To put Star Wars in context, in 1977 I was 17 years old.  We were living during the Cold War, where the Soviet Union could be viewed as the Evil Empire, while the fight against the Nazis during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War didn't seem like ancient history, but were still relevant in our minds.  The thought of nuclear annihilation also felt like a very real possibility.

We were going through the worst economic decade of my lifetime.  Some people might look at the events that followed 2008 as being the worst, but the American economy was much more robust in 2008 and able to eventually rebound.  However, the 1970s was just one piece of bad news after another.  The country felt like it was in a giant malaise.

Then came Star Wars in 1977, which to my 17-year-old mind felt like a godsend.  It was a metaphor for a hopeful battle against all the evils that plagued us.

Star Wars became an important part of my life, and it influenced my career toward computers and video game development.  To this day, Star Wars feels like a part of my personality.

At my more advanced age of 63, I notice how violent Star Wars is.  This didn't seem like much of an issue in 1977 when the characters were fighting Space Nazis, because the 1970s felt like an existential struggle against the forces of evil.  For example, Star Wars calls light sabers an elegant weapon, but how elegant is cutting people in half or cutting their heads off?  It would be like calling a battle axe an elegant weapon.

All this makes me wonder how relevant Star Wars is to our current time?  The 20th century was by far the most violent in history, which made mechanized murder on a mass scale feel more normal.  I think that there was less regard for the individual, which is something we take to extreme levels today.

I feel far less threatened by outside forces today than I did after 9-11, or in the 60s, the 70s, and the 80s.

We can still fantasize about a struggle for survival between good and evil, but good and evil in the modern world are less distinct from one another.

This makes me think that Star Wars has to change to remain relevant.  The original movie gave us 1970s characters in a futuristic setting.  The recent series Andor did a great job of giving us modern characters in the same setting and feels more relevant to the time we live in.

--
Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Friday, August 4, 2023

1,760,000,000,000

Jordan Peterson: The radical Left is guilt-tripping the West into oblivion


Dr. Peterson makes his best points in the first 17 minutes, however the rest of the video is also interesting.

One thing I like about Peterson is that he speaks at such an intellectual level that you have to pay attention to keep up.  However, this sometimes feels like a trick, where if he drops enough buzzwords then it makes him seem like an intellectual.

I differ form Peterson in that he treats mythology as existential truth.  If he was only talking about metaphors he might be correct, but he tends to take it a higher level as if the mythology were true.  It has never been clear where Peterson stands on religion, because he plays both sides.  He will talk about religion as metaphor, but also treat it like it is true.  In this regard, he doesn't limit himself to just one religion or mythology, but he talks about many.

Before his serious illness, he held suffering on a pedestal, which he thought was inevitable anyway.  This made him seem a little nutty.  He backs off this a little, but his point has always been that you have to have a moral compass and relationships to get though the hard times.

Peterson argues that truth will win out over falsehoods.  I think that this is by no means a given.  It might not be true at all.  It appears that false doctrines are winning, and historically this seems to be the norm.

Peterson argues for standing for truth even against extreme oppression.  However, I don't think that humans should make themselves into sacrificial animals against a system they can't defeat.  It is better to survive and wait for a better opportunity.  History shows that oppressive regimes eventually crumble, often from internal corruption.

There Doesn't Go The Arctic Ice Again

Thursday, August 3, 2023

Breaking: Biden White House Tried to Censor Daily Wire

Answering People's Questions About Slavery: The London History Show

This is an engaging and unpleasant look at the slave trade.


Compare how slavery was the norm for thousands of years and has only been abolished for less than 200 years.  This doesn't speak well for humanity.

Even after abolition in the United States, the southern states used laws to enslave black persons.  https://www.history.com/news/black-codes-reconstruction-slavery

This practice wasn't abolished until the mid 20nth century.

The Arab slave trade was huge.  Barbary pirates would capture European and even American ships and enslave the passengers.





Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Fwd: Watch "My student loan is not my responsibility!"

LOL.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Albert 

After watching this I'm thinking about taking out a mortgage in hopes that the government (i.e. taxpayers) pay off my loan for me. Lol


Thursday, July 6, 2023

10 Taboo Questions About History and Society


I'm not endorsing everything he says here.

It seems very flawed to say that war is a force for good because of the scientific and medical advancements that happened during war.  Those advancements would have happened anyway, perhaps more slowly, but maybe more quickly because we wouldn't be spending most of our wealth trying to destroy each other.  Nobody thinks that we should go to war to advance science.  What creates innovation is a free market.

World War 1 is responsible for the spread of the Spanish Flu that killed at least 50 million people.

Sometimes war is necessary to stop aggression.

Structural Racism Flowchart | American Heart Association

https://newsroom.heart.org/file/structural-racism-flowchart228182228183228184228185228186228187228188228189228190

The Marxist left has been trying to divide people politically based on race.  The left promotes an agenda where any disparity is due to racism.  Yet, I don't know anyone who is racist.  They claim that although individuals might not be racist, the system is flawed, which is true when we talk about generational poverty.  However, this is the rationale for abandoning the system entirely and replacing it with something much more authoritarian.  This is the real agenda.  It is about power, which the far left wants at any cost.  They don't really care about society.  They want to be in control.

People today aren't responsible for the sins of the past.  Race relations were improving significantly until agitators promoted a divisive agenda.  It wasn't perfect, but we had the most racially harmonious society on the planet.  By comparison, almost all Asian countries are extremely racially biased, and racism in Europe is on the rise.

Saturday, June 24, 2023

Hunter Biden story

Vaccine Expert Stalked after Joe Rogan Feud

The World Marx Lived In

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ABt-lH1JQ2g

Why did people move from farms to crowded cities to work under terrible conditions? Because it was better than what they had before. Maybe overpopulation meant that there was a shortage of jobs. Still, the industrial revolution created a middle class that didn't previously exist, and people were afforded luxuries that they couldn't afford before.

So the problem was overpopulation and not the industrial revolution. It would be interesting to compare America during the Industrial Revolution. Socialism creates more poverty than the free market. Only a free market produces wealth in any meaningful way.  

Marx was a lazy racist who did not want to work and had an affair with a maid who he refused to pay. He treated her as a slave.

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Communism Abdicates Responsibility

Great Supreme court quote from 1943 in response to florida judges action

Gender ideology is rooted in a worldview called expressive individualism, which Carl Trueman brilliantly expounds in his recent work, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. (As an aside, this book is a must-read for anyone who wants to meaningfully engage our culture today.) According to Trueman, expressive individualism holds that human identity, which is primarily sexual, is rooted in a person's own psychological and subjective view of oneself. Once this identity is discovered, the person must live out this identity to the world, i.e., express that identity outwardly through dress, speech, pronoun usage, associations, etc. To do otherwise is to live a lie; to live under the yoke of oppression. Therefore, anything external to the individual that threatens or fails to affirm that identity — whether objective truth claims, biology, societal norms, laws, even the Creator Himself — is deemed oppressive and must be opposed and canceled. This is the worldview of expressive individualism, and it answers the deepest questions of life, including about human nature, the problem with the world, the solution to that problem, how we know something as truth, and where ultimate authority lies.

Whether expressive individualism and its outworking of gender ideology is "real" is beside the point. That is a political question left to the people and elected representatives of Florida. Judge Hinkle, as a judge bound by the law as written, has no authority to impose this worldview through judicial fiat. As the U.S. Supreme Court stated in 1943 (in a different context that is no less applicable here): "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein." 

No, Judge Hinkle, Gender Identity Is Not Real, Nor Legally Relevant - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

If we take this logic to the extreme, we should be required to affirm child molesters or else those people are being oppressed, as if people's sexual desire takes precedence over societal norms.  Maybe this is a bad example because it is about behavior instead of belief.  However, we are gradually headed in this direction.  There doesn't seem to be a limit to how far identity politics will go. 

So instead, if a person believes that they are a dog, should we be required to affirm this identity to support that person's freedom?   However, we have freedom too, so we should not be coerced to accept insanity as normal. 

There is a much deeper agenda here that is the true motive of the far left, which can be found in the book "1984".  If you can be forced to believe that there is no objective truth, i.e. everything is subjective, then the only real truth is the official narrative propagated by the state.  If the state can force you to accept a lie, and then force you to give lip service to that lie, then you are completely under their control  

You can see this reasoning in Climate Alarmism.  If you don't accept the so called consensus, which is in reality anything but, then you are a heretic and must be excoriated.  (Reportedly, scientific funding has been taken over by the left and there are multiple climate scientists who said privately that they want to speak out but don't do so because they are afraid that they will lose their funding.  This is the nature of oppression.)

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Why Companies NEED People Back In The Office



I don't believe that work from home is better. The only motivation for the employee is a less coercive environment. People claim that they want to work at their own pace, but they really just want to work less. For example, people claim that working at home lets them spend more time with their family, i.e. less lime working.

Home is full of distractions to an overwhelming level. I need a focused environment to stay focused. And it helps to be around coworkers and management all focused on the same goal.

Best wishes,

John Coffey

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Fwd: Watch "Mass Illness Hits Cruise Ship — CDC Sounds Alarm" on YouTube

The older I get, the less I like to travel.  I tend to get sick easily.  

Best wishes,

John Coffey

Begin forwarded message:

From: Albert

Just another norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship. CDC has reported 12 gastrointestinal outbreaks on cruise ships this year.

Never Drink From a Cup Offered by a Cop


You can't really prevent the police from getting your DNA.


Friday, June 2, 2023

Why the Left's Vision of Equity Is Flawed | Douglas Murray

'Truth is a Right Wing Concept' | Melanie Phillips

How Reagan Ruined Everything



Nobody but the left used the term "trickle-down economics".    Reagan got reelected because there was a huge difference between how people faired under Jimmy Carter and Reagan.  I lived through the horrors of Jimmy Carter and it was a complete failure of leftist policies.

The left does not want to live in a free society.  The current movement toward extreme leftist policies will be disastrous economically.  We are practically bankrupt now.

Regardless of people's concern about income inequality, a seventy percent tax rate is not only oppressive but bad economically.

The amount of wealth has increased dramatically in the United States since 1980.  The GDP is over 10 times greater.  Adjusted for inflation, it is over 3 times greater.  This is a triumph of the free market that people want to destroy.

The left keeps unfairly attacking Reagan as a racist.   Playing the race card is a sign of desperation.

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

El Niño Is Coming. How Will It Change the Weather Where You Are? 🌎

https://youtube.com/shorts/czLLwv1Dq7w?feature=share

Violence and controversies during the George Floyd protests

Some anti-capitalist, anti-fascist and police abolitionist groups consider the civil unrest in the United States as part of a broader revolution. The Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front from Portland are a police abolitionist group who seek to "show the world that the fire of this uprising is still burning strong, and that flames will just keep getting bigger until the police state has been dismantled once and for all". Speaking at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in mid July, one Portland rally organizer said that she organizes for "the abolition of not just the militarized police state but also the United States as we know it"

Sunday, May 28, 2023

Why Did People Volunteer To Be In WWI?

Is the CO2 greenhouse effect saturated?



John Coffey
7 minutes ago (edited)
We have almost doubled the CO2 level already from the preindustrial level, and we aren't experiencing a 2 to 4 degree increase in temperature.  Instead, we are looking at a 1 to 1.1-degree increase.   The current rate of change is barely over 1/100th of a degree per year.  Climate Alarmism depends upon as-of-yet unproven positive feedback effects, which likely exist, but we also have to factor in the negative feedback.

Right now we should be in the rapid cooling phase of the Milankovich Cycles and headed toward the next period of mass glaciation, except that those pesky humans have warmed the planet a tiny bit.  Thank goodness for that.

Saturday, May 27, 2023

"I looked at the recent bird flu data, and now I'm really scared."

An elderly friend of mine in Salt Lake City died from the flu.

According to the video, there is no pandemic of the Bird Flu right now, but conditions are ripe for one to happen.  It has infected animals close enough to humans for it to have the potential to spread to people.

The video claims that public officials are trying to prevent an outbreak.  It would be good if we could avoid another pandemic.


Friday, May 26, 2023

BLM Bankrupt?!

Does COVID Mess With Your DNA?



What I gather from the video is that the methylation of genes is a natural bodily response to infection. People with long COVID appear to have overly persistent and/or inappropriate methylation leading to chronic inflammation.

IPCC pressure tactics exposed: "Hide the decline."





John Coffey
1 minute ago
As much as I am a climate alarmism skeptic, what I gather from the video is that the most recent tree ring data is aberrant from the actual temperature data and other proxies.  So they threw out the data that didn't match recent reality as they understood it from the temperature data.  There was no "decline" if you believe the temperature data is correct.

However, they replaced the missing data with fake data making all the data appear to agree.   They simply could have excluded the tree ring data because of its apparent unreliability.

Many people have called into question the temperature record, because of the urban heat island effect.  I also have heard that roughly half of all temperature data is not data at all but estimates based on models.  This leads to apparent circular reasoning where the models are based on data, but some of the data is based on models.  Why isn't this a problem?

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

John Durham’s Report and a Presidency in Crisis - WSJ

"Mr. Durham's findings will be old hat and ignored by a media that ignored such information even when it was new hat. Even to the most receptive audience, the news will be eclipsed by what has happened since. The Clinton campaign engaged in good, old-fashioned political smears, albeit helped by fellow travelers in the FBI. This new low in American politics has since been succeeded by the layer cake of falsehood cooked up by 51 former top intelligence officials, including three former leaders of the CIA, to flaunt a new fake Russia conspiracy to get Joe Biden elected.

Because of Mr. Durham's timing, you're reading an expurgated version of a column that would have noted that, in any universe where news reporting hadn't been corrupted by the need to appear anti-Trump, Mr. Biden's would be a presidency in crisis.

Even so, the news blackout can't conceal the suspicious details unearthed by congressional investigators about Biden family bank accounts, shell companies and transfers from shady foreign actors. It can't conceal that Mr. Biden may owe his presidency to a de facto U.S. intelligence agency operation to bamboozle voters about his son's laptop.

A Dixie-whistling press can't suppress a whopping factoid: Though Mr. Biden's likeliest opponent has been found liable for sexual assault, is under indictment for payoffs to a porn star, and soon may face various federal charges, Mr. Trump is still beating Mr. Biden in some national polls.

Last week's CNN town hall, despite much huffing and puffing, rightly frightens Democrats. It shows Mr. Trump ambulatory and energetic, qualities that no amount of pharmaceutical intervention can supply Mr. Biden.

For several days the New York Times featured prominently on its home page the headline "As Biden Runs Again, Black Voters' Frustration Bubbles." Mr. Biden thereupon ran off to frighten the graduating class of Howard University, who likely have their pick of job offers from name-brand employers, with imaginary white supremacists hiding under every bridge.

Outrage and mockery alternate when Russia characterizes its enemies in Ukraine as Nazis. But of course if the Putin regime characterized its Ukrainian opponents as they actually are, the Russian people might start questioning their own government. Mr. Biden engages in the same dodge with his constant invocations of white racism. Don't kid yourself. This is political desperation at work."

Sunday, May 14, 2023

Conspiracy theory - Wikipedia

Talking to a friend, I made the comment that a "conspiracy theory" is a belief in a secret cabal that we don't have good evidence for but people think exists anyway.  This is different from a group of people pushing a mutually held political agenda that is well-known.  A good example is the World Economic Forum, which has been accused of conspiracy, but makes its agenda public.  Some have accused the World Economic Forum of pushing socialism, but this is a matter of interpretation.  It seems to me that they are pushing a "command economy", but the problem is that command economies are associated with dictators and fascists.

As far as I can tell, it is not true that the World Economic Forum wants to kill millions of people.  This would be a conspiracy theory.

I am very much surprised by the large percentage of people who believe in conspiracy theories.


'Difference from conspiracy

A conspiracy theory is not simply a conspiracy, which refers to any covert plan involving two or more people.[10] In contrast, the term "conspiracy theory" refers to hypothesized conspiracies that have specific characteristics. For example, conspiracist beliefs invariably oppose the mainstream consensus among those people who are qualified to evaluate their accuracy, such as scientists or historians.[11] Conspiracy theorists see themselves as having privileged access to socially persecuted knowledge or a stigmatized mode of thought that separates them from the masses who believe the official account.[10] Michael Barkun describes a conspiracy theory as a "template imposed upon the world to give the appearance of order to events".[10]

Real conspiracies, even very simple ones, are difficult to conceal and routinely experience unexpected problems.[54] In contrast, conspiracy theories suggest that conspiracies are unrealistically successful and that groups of conspirators, such as bureaucracies, can act with near-perfect competence and secrecy. The causes of events or situations are simplified to exclude complex or interacting factors, as well as the role of chance and unintended consequences. Nearly all observations are explained as having been deliberately planned by the alleged conspirators.[54]

In conspiracy theories, the conspirators are usually claimed to be acting with extreme malice.[54] As described by Robert Brotherton:

The malevolent intent assumed by most conspiracy theories goes far beyond everyday plots borne out of self-interest, corruption, cruelty, and criminality. The postulated conspirators are not merely people with selfish agendas or differing values. Rather, conspiracy theories postulate a black-and-white world in which good is struggling against evil. The general public is cast as the victim of organised persecution, and the motives of the alleged conspirators often verge on pure maniacal evil. At the very least, the conspirators are said to have an almost inhuman disregard for the basic liberty and well-being of the general population. More grandiose conspiracy theories portray the conspirators as being Evil Incarnate: of having caused all the ills from which we suffer, committing abominable acts of unthinkable cruelty on a routine basis, and striving ultimately to subvert or destroy everything we hold dear.[54]'

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Illegal Immigration

 I found an email that I wrote a couple of months prior to the 2016 election.

My ability to write has improved over time, so I touched up parts of it.

We have reached a point where you can get into trouble for just talking about issues like this.  You can be blocked on social media or ostracized in other ways.  We have experienced a loss of free speech and this has become normal.

________________________________

From: John Coffey

Concerning immigration and illegal immigration in the United States:

1.  Although I believe in freedom and lean libertarian, I am not an anarchist.  I believe that we need laws to protect people and those laws should be enforced.

2.  I have always been concerned about population growth.  Increasing population strains resources.  Labor itself is a resource, but every new person needs land, housing, water, food, farms, and roads to support that person.  As the demand for natural resources increases, the cost of those resources goes up.  It makes life more expensive.  I have heard some people say that we have plenty of land, but the most desirable places are already taken.  In highly crowded areas, housing costs are astronomical.  As the country becomes more crowded, it makes life more inconvenient and there are many problems associated with overcrowding.  

Hypothetically you could reach a point where the country is so crowded that people would realize that we need to stop and control the population.  For example, to be as crowded as Europe the United States would have to have a billion people.  By definition, there has to be a point where any reasonable person would say that we have too many people.   Wouldn't it be better to not reach that point?

Improvements in technology will allow some steady population growth.  In a free market, people will make decisions on whether to have children based on the resources available to them.  In that respect, it can be a self-limiting system, although the long-term trend will always be to increase the population because the natural human tendency is to procreate.  

One way to distort the natural population increase is through too much immigration.  I honestly believe that with open borders that a billion people would want to come here.  Maybe not all would have the means to come here, but the population would increase until the United States is no longer a desirable place to live.

Therefore we need limits on immigration.  You can debate what those limits should be, but regardless of what they are, they should be enforced.  People entering this country illegally are lawbreakers and should be deported.

3. There are real threats in the world, and we should not be bringing in people whose viewpoint is fundamentally antagonistic to ours.  I understand that people want compassion, but the cost of being compassionate and wrong is too great.  We could have another 9-11 or worse.

Europe is self-destructing because of immigration. We have seen repeated terrorist attacks and rape capitals forming.  The United States has also had terrorist attacks by people who came here legally.

4. The political left uses immigration to its advantage because naturalized immigrants typically vote Democrat.  As a result, the demographics have changed radically to the point where a free-market conservative has little chance of getting elected.  Meanwhile, the country is headed toward a financial crisis because the government has promised people far more than it can deliver.

5. Trump was mostly right in his comments about illegal immigrants.  Statistics show that they are committing higher rates of crime, rape, and murder.  The California prisons are full of illegal immigrants.  I personally have been threatened by illegal immigrants and witnessed crimes committed by them.  When I visited a court in Salt Lake City, every case was a Hispanic facing criminal charges.

Immigration is not the same as one person moving from one state to another.  It is a false equivalence.  Immigration is (mostly) importing poverty.  Illegal immigration is importing crime at a rate higher than average.  

I think that the American people are wise enough to know that they have been screwed on illegal immigration, which is why Trump has gotten support.  He has been the only one with the courage to speak about it.

I am for immigration.  I am against illegal immigration.

Best wishes,

John Coffey