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Tuesday, November 15. 2016

Why Is Sleep Improvement So Important?

Can kinky sex make you more creative?

Meteorites reveal lasting drought on Mars

Climate change again

The Supermoon and Other Moons That Are Super in Their Own Ways

First Ever Quadriplegic Treated With Stem Cells Regains Motor Control in His Upper Body

Record Global Cooling Over The Last Eight Months

I blame Trump

How To Indoctrinate Students: “What Do I Say” Stories From Teachers After Election Day

How TV news is made

Report: Three Million Votes in Presidential Election Cast by Illegal Aliens

Obama told them to vote

National Populism

That's it - what the heck is wrong with nationalism?

2008 Obama Memo: Border Fence Useful In Stopping Illegal Immigration

Jonathan Gruber Discovers ‘Stupidity’ Is Wrong Word For American Voters

Never support any government power you would not want your ideological enemy wielding

NYT: Dems slowly realizing Obama led them into a cultural dead end

Memo to the Left:

The fact is that everything you liberals wanted to do, except rebuild America’s bathrooms to suit a more transgendered sensibility, is done -- and it probably could have been done without all the intellectual terrorism inspired by Karl and Fritz and Max and Ted and Herb, scaring the pants off the victims and silencing the bourgeoisie. So you can take your street armies and your racist BLMs and La Razas and your segregated dorms, your “Studies” degrees, your “mostly peaceful protests,” and demobilize the activists and tell them to go get a job.

Reporters Spin Furiously Against Trump

Expect 4 years of this. It's the routine demonization of Repub administrations.

Liberals Scared to Death by Their Own Caricature of Trumpettes

When the Left-media Becomes a Crying Cult

The NYT publisher and executive editor would like you to take them seriously now... now that they are done putting their all into getting Hillary Clinton elected. They'd like to be empowered for the purpose of undercutting President Trump.

The Stupefying Hypocrisy of the Luxury-Peddling New York Times

Sadly, Trump’s victory has driven some at the WaPo to the breaking point

Dowd's obituary for Obama's presidency

Donald Trump Will Prove to Be One of the Greatest and Most Consequential Presidents

We'll see...

How Donald Trump brought populism to Washington

How President Trump Could Reshape the Supreme Court—and the Country

I doubt a reshape. At best, a depoliticization of the Court

Trump transition team begins minority outreach with "new deal for Black America"

Trump’s election is shaking up British politics, too

Iran FM’s Advisor: Missiles outside Iran not Limited to Syria

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:31 | Comments (42) | Trackbacks (0)

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Donald Trump Will Prove to Be One of the Greatest and Most Consequential Presidents

Part of the reason Regan looks so good, even in hindsight, is the contrast to Jimmy Peanut (who should be thanking Jesus every day that the Obama presidency). Nixon was far more of change agent than Regan but the reversal of the Carter years was a starker contrast than Nixon vs LBJ/JFK.

If Trump is merely adequate enough to retain the gains the GOP has made the last six years he'll benefit from a similar contrast.

#1 Christopher B on 2016-11-15 08:34 (Reply)

I actually agree with the assessment in the piece. Know why? Because since the beginning of his run in June 2015 he was underestimated. He was determined 'sure to fail' even on Election Day.

He won.

Resoundingly.

He is a doer. That is why people voted for him. He works like a demon. Did no one see the SEVEN rallies he did in ONE DAY right before Election Day?

And you think Trump is going to just sit on his hands and barely do anything once he's in office?

I think that is exactly what the left fears...and some on the right fear this, too. Trump will expose all of Washington, and they are terrified. Their excuses for why things don't get done will be tossed out the window.

It's all about leadership. Trump kicked butt in his campaign. He will continue this in the White House.

#1.1 MissT on 2016-11-15 11:38 (Reply)

The leftist protestors, criminals/activists, useful idiots and paid saboteurs are proof that the Democrats hate middle America and have learned nothing from their failed Saul Alinski style divide and conquer political style. They are still depicting Trump and all Republicans as racist bigots even as they themselves discriminate and segregate. I am always blown away at their willingness to use the fear tactic of bringing up the KKK in their rhetoric considering that the KKK was created by the Democrats and was always a Democrat political arm. You would think they would be afraid that some reporter or commentator would out them on this ploy but I guess they are confident they own the MSM.

My advice to the Democrats is to purge your party of the Soros types, the Marxist/communist organizations, ACORN and Move on. Rid yourself of these despicable people and groups who in their heart are anti-American and anti-Democratic and become the party of the people; all the people. I do not want a single party rule but I do want both parties to be pro-American and inclusive to all Americans.

#2 GoneWithTheWind on 2016-11-15 10:02 (Reply)

Tweet in response to the Presidential election: "We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!"

#2.1 Zachriel on 2016-11-15 10:11 (Reply)

And? What's your point supposed to be? It didn't happen. Conservatives are not the easily manipulated useful idiots like the liberal dems/leftists are.

#2.1.1 Dale on 2016-11-15 11:39 (Reply)

Dale: What's your point supposed to be?

It's pretty obvious. Trump didn't just call for marches, but a stop to Obama becoming president.

#2.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2016-11-15 16:29 (Reply)

He did not stop Obama becoming president, nor from leaving office, but he will replace Obama in January. Notr to mention, what marches did Trump call for?

#2.1.1.1.1 Sam L. on 2016-11-15 18:51 (Reply)

Donald Trump, at the election of Barack Obama: "We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!"

#2.1.1.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2016-11-16 08:56 (Reply)

Yes, country is divided. The popular vote was almost an even split. Either way, there would have been division.

The best solution to division is not protests and demands, but acceptance and deciding how you can move forward with the new normal.

Parents don't reward tantrums. Find a way to express yourself like a rational, calm person and you will find someone willing to listen. This is the best way to work with the other side.

#2.1.2 MissT on 2016-11-15 14:34 (Reply)

MissT: The best solution to division is not protests and demands, but acceptance and deciding how you can move forward with the new normal.

So you disagree with Trump's tweet from 2012: "We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!"

#2.1.2.1 Zachriel on 2016-11-15 16:27 (Reply)

The Dems need to purge the Gang of Z, too. They can't, because they don't know who he is, either.

#2.2 Sam L. on 2016-11-15 13:39 (Reply)

QUOTE:

Record Global Cooling Over The Last Eight Months

Land-only is not global. RSS measures radiation in the troposphere, not surface temperature. A look at the underlying data clearly shows temperature increasing, except for the last data-point. One data-point is not sufficient to indicate a trend.

Here's what Global RSS looks like with the vertical axis showing tropospheric temperature anomaly.

#3 Zachriel on 2016-11-15 10:09 (Reply)

So what? Just curious...are the claimed increases in temperatures increases in daytime highs or less cooling in the nighttime temps?

#3.1 Dale on 2016-11-15 11:41 (Reply)

Dale: are the claimed increases in temperatures increases in daytime highs or less cooling in the nighttime temps?

They are the global mean temperatures of the lower troposphere.

#3.1.1 Zachriel on 2016-11-15 16:30 (Reply)

Comrade Zacheriels:

As our Dear Leader Barry has decreed, "elections have consequences". Now the Accepted Truth is against Global Warmings.

We will never defeat the capitalist running dogs unless we abandon old deeply held principles and accept the new deeply held ones. Glotabl Hottifyin' is passe.

Conform.

#3.2 The Reflexive Liberal on 2016-11-15 12:22 (Reply)

Zach,
Heat to the earth comes from the sun, not the clinton crime family foundation (I know that is too hard for you to understand).
The sun also emits protons which somewhat shield the earth from gamma rays, which cause clouds (which reflect light). Theree ar less protons with lower solar activity.

So reduced sun activity reduces earth temperature (not hard to understand). The sunspot cycles of the top and bottom halves of the sun are in slightly different phases. The upcoming solar cycles are predicted to be low, which might cause a mini ice age, like the Maunder (sunspot ) Minimum.
If.when we have an ice age, lots of people will die, because cold is worse for health, economies and farming than heat.

see for example http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/723481/Earth-ICE-AGE-big-freeze-solar-activity

#3.3 jaybird on 2016-11-15 16:15 (Reply)

jaybird: Heat to the earth comes from the sun

Sure, but the distribution of energy depends on greenhouse gases. Without greenhouse gases, the Earth's surface would be largely frozen. Same solar irradiance, vastly different result.

jaybird: So reduced sun activity reduces earth temperature

Changes in solar irradiance do not explain the current warming trend. However, increases in greenhouse gases are consistent with the current warming. Notably, the stratosphere is cooling, which would not be the case with changes in solar irradiance .

jaybird: see for example http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/723481/Earth-ICE-AGE-big-freeze-solar-activity

The prediction is based on cycle-fitting, so they lack a physical model. But even if they are correct, greenhouse warming will overwhelm what they predict due to changes in solar irradiance.

#3.3.1 Zachriel on 2016-11-15 16:37 (Reply)

Nonsense.

The models that support your assertion that ", increases in greenhouse gases are consistent with the current warming" are all wrong. All of them.

And those are the same models used to support the assertion "Changes in solar irradiance do not explain the current warming trend."

You have no support for these claims, instead you throw out a straw man that "Without greenhouse gases, the Earth's surface would be largely frozen." a claim that no one is denying or contending with. Yet you use it inappropriately to support your bogus claims.

#3.3.1.1 DrTorch on 2016-11-15 16:52 (Reply)

DrTorch: And those are the same models used to support the assertion "Changes in solar irradiance do not explain the current warming trend."

Solar irradiance has decreased slightly over the last few decades, while surface temperatures have trended upwards. So, changes in solar irradiance do not explain the warming trend.

DrTorch: "Without greenhouse gases, the Earth's surface would be largely frozen." a claim that no one is denying or contending with.

Let's start with this bit of common ground. So you agree that there is a greenhouse effect; and that this greenhouse effect results in a warmer surface than would otherwise be expected. So, if we increase the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, what would be expected to happen?

#3.3.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2016-11-15 17:08 (Reply)

Zach, I'm sorry it was too complicated for you (just as I feared) that heat comes from the sun. When the son wanes, we have cooling or an an ice age. It is starting to wane now, for at least the next several decades. I know, too hard for you to follow, because the phrase "greenhouse gasses" confuses you.

Look up the IR absorption of water vapor, compared to CO2. Look uo the conecntrtion of water vapor compared to CO2. Then buy some long underwear.

Are you too young to remember the scary headlines in the 70's that there was going to be an ice age which would kill us all and put New York under a mile of ice? Not surprisingly, this required government action and new taxes given to the "smart connected people" who could prevent this and save us?

The "global warming" scam is just to impose new taxes on energy, achieve international wealth transfers with opportunities for graft (think Tata, buying Russian CO2 credits, and Al Gore's crooked carbon trading scheme) and get crooked money to politicians from political bribers who get large taxpayer grants (have you ever heard of solyndra?) Another scam is forcing utilities to buy very expensive electricity from bird-killing windmills, to sell to consumers at monopoly forced prices. Hopefully Trump will eliminate the windmill grants and tax credits to protect the consumers and birds (thousands of eagles) killed, at much higher rate than snail darters which you wanted to protect.

#3.3.1.1.1.1 jaybird on 2016-11-15 18:18 (Reply)

jaybird: heat comes from the sun.

That is correct.

jaybird: When the son wanes, we have cooling or an an ice age.

While changes in solar output have an effect, ice ages are thought to be due to orbital variations.

jaybird: Look up the IR absorption of water vapor, compared to CO2. Look uo the conecntrtion of water vapor compared to CO2.

The relations of atmospheric CO2 and water vapor has been known for a century. See See Arrhenius, On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground, London, Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science 1896.

While you responded to our comment, you didn't attempt an answer.

1) Solar irradiance has decreased slightly over the last few decades, while surface temperatures have trended upwards. So, changes in solar irradiance do not explain the warming trend.

2) Given that the greenhouse effect results in a warmer surface than would otherwise be expected; if we increase greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, what would be expected to happen?

#3.3.1.1.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2016-11-16 09:05 (Reply)

QUOTE:

Report: Three Million Votes in Presidential Election Cast by Illegal Aliens

Very truthy.

#4 Zachriel on 2016-11-15 10:19 (Reply)

Please stop all this gloating.

We feel unsafe.

#5 The Reflexive Liberal on 2016-11-15 11:51 (Reply)

Dems/Libs have been in control for several generations.

Now it is the conservatives turn.

I look forward to the rest of my life because of the this election.

This country went right up to the edge of imploding and we owe TRUMP a huge debt for pulling us back from the brink of destruction.

#6 Mark M. on 2016-11-15 12:20 (Reply)

We dodged a bullet on this last election.

But all we've got now is a chance. Get some charismatic liberal demagogue up, get the media behind him, and 2020 could be a very different story.

Trump's success or failure (and you know the media's going to be doing everything they can to show everything he attempts as a failure) will determine what 2020 brings...

#6.1 Jlawson on 2016-11-15 13:12 (Reply)

I wouldn't classify Elizabeth Warren as charismatic, but she is a demagogue, and in terms of Democrat constituencies, she stands a petty good chance of being their nominee in 2020 and even of winning. That's not likely to happen if the economy is booming or if there are other positive signs of growth and improvement under Trump, but whether or not that can actually occur is anyone's best guess at this point.

#6.1.1 Kurt on 2016-11-16 16:48 (Reply)

RE Can kinky sex make you more creative?

"Kinky" as in, intercoursical relations with an adult human member of the opposite sex outside of second degree consanguinity?

We don't know. We've never tried.

#7 The Reflexive Liberal on 2016-11-15 12:27 (Reply)

Hoo, BOY! You been missin' OUT!

#7.1 Sam L. on 2016-11-15 13:41 (Reply)

When I was a young man and just married I did find that alcohol worked really well to make me creative about kinky sex. It did in general require that your partner drink a similar amount of alcohol too. A bonus was that the next day you could claim to not remember if it didn't go well.

#7.2 IdahoBob on 2016-11-15 15:34 (Reply)

In addition to reporters spinning furiously against Trump, be prepared for the great homelessness rediscovery beginning on January 21, 2017.

This quote dates to 2000, but will be even more relevant under a President Trump:

QUOTE:

"If George W. Bush becomes president, the armies of the homeless, hundreds of thousands strong, will once again be used to illustrate the opposition's arguments about welfare, the economy, and taxation."--Mark Helprin, Oct. 31, 2000

#8 Kurt on 2016-11-15 14:04 (Reply)

Kurt, it will be really bad when the cold winters come in the next solar cycle, and freeze these good hundreds of thousands of homeless people to death, because the Paris Convention prevented Trump from being able to keep them warm. The good news for Trump is that it (everything) will still be Bush's fault.

What is really funny is watching a "global warmist" trying to explain why electricity from natural gas is bad. It burns into two water molecules for each CO2 molecule. CO2, of course, is what plants use, which "Global Warmers" like. Plants grow better, and use more CO2, when there is more of it in the air.

#8.1 jaybird on 2016-11-15 18:32 (Reply)

Regarding RSS global land-based cooling:
1. Calm down. It looks like instrumentation error. Verify that before all else. That might take months. Satellite sensors age. A very normal occurrence.
2. Calm down. If not #1, it might be model changes. RSS recently had some changes. Carl Mears is trying to kill off the pause and shut up the deniers. Maybe this is a consequence of the model change. It is often the case, squeeze it here and it bulges out there. Unexpectedly.
3. If not #1 and 3, then it looks like year-to year weather.
4. If not weather, figure out if it is within the range of short-term climate variability. The satellite measurements have not been collected over long enough timespans that we can be confident that we have observed the full variability of year-to-year changes.

California has had a pleasant, sunny and warm fall. With weather like this and enough water, we could grow three crops a year and feed the world. Oats just love this weather.

#9 John A. Fleming on 2016-11-15 18:01 (Reply)

John, it doesn't parse well that Carl Mears is changing his model to "kill off the pause", and "shut up the deniers".

Doesn't "the pause" refer to the absence of global warming over the past 15 or so years? Would Carl Mears change his "model" like Michael Mann's hockey-stick phonus balonus model switch, which was exposed by the East Anglica email leaks?

Why would someone change his model with the express purpose to "shut up the deniers"? Didn't Feynmann say "Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts"? Hard to trust someone who intentionally fudges a "model" to get a pre-supposed result, specifically to "shut up the deniers" . It sounds like the result is intended to be fixed, rather than correct. There's lies, damned lies, and "Global Warming " models.

#9.1 jaybird on 2016-11-15 19:23 (Reply)

At the risk of attracting *z' bots ...

The climate general circulation models with their high (?) ECS (equilibrium climate sensitivity) and TCR (transient climate response) estimates of the effect of CO2, predicted an increasing and by-now-obvious global temperature increase. The Earth apparently demurred and declined to play along these past 16-20 years. Since the modelers are convinced of their correctness, they go looking for faults in the data. The collectors and processors of data also do not like to see their data be an outlier against the "consensus". It's lonely on the frontier. These are powerful incentives for confirmation bias to creep in.

I will be more precise. The RSS published data is the result of satellite-borne amplitude measurements of various infrared wavelengths being converted into air temperatures at various altitudes. It's a subtle and complicated business keeping it accurate and correct, and there is always room for improvement. Sometimes it's not always clear what is the "correct" transformation. RSS and UAH work with nearly the same measurements, have different methodologies, and arrive at nearly the same results. With subtle differences.

Secondly, Carl Mears of RSS is on quote as calling climate skeptics "deniers", an ugly ad hominem deliberately designed to associate with Holocaust deniers. Much as they deny it. Why would he do it? Because science is a no-holds-barred blood sport. Either you get the grants, or they do.

It's from the old playbook:
1. When first questioned, appeal to authority ("97% consensus").
2. If that doesn't work, attack with ad hominems ("deniers")
3. If that doesn't work, claim the contrary data is cherry picked.
4. If that doesn't work, collect more data or re-analyze the data you have, to claim you are still right and never were wrong.
5. If that doesn't work, work the system to keep your opponents from publishing their contrary results.

Hence the old joke: science progresses with funerals.

#9.1.1 John A. Fleming on 2016-11-15 22:00 (Reply)

John A. Fleming: The climate general circulation models with their high (?) ECS (equilibrium climate sensitivity) and TCR (transient climate response) estimates of the effect of CO2, predicted an increasing and by-now-obvious global temperature increase. The Earth apparently demurred and declined to play along these past 16-20 years.

Global mean temperature trend from 1996 to present (20 years):

HADCrut4, +0.159°C/decade
GISTEMP, +0.187°C/decade
UAHv5.6 TLT, +0.169°C/decade

Surface and satellite comparison

John A. Fleming: RSS and UAH work with nearly the same measurements, have different methodologies, and arrive at nearly the same results.

Largely correct, but RSS is still using NOAA-15, which is in a decaying orbit. UAH has switched to NASA Aqua AMSU, which uses propellant to keep it in a stable orbit.

#9.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2016-11-16 09:15 (Reply)

John, there is a certainty, rather than just "risk" of attracting Z-bots to their "core" issues including "global worming" and the ethical purity of the clinton crime family. My assumption that their goal is to drive down and harass websites that have open discussion that contradicts their paid "narrative". So they need to be challenged with the criminality and perversion of those who buy their services.

Your comments are interesting - I was on the board of a company with a VIS camera in orbit, and am now working in my "spare time" on uncooled MWIR camera designs that could be pretty stable. But of course there is no cooling problem for space cameras.

I asume that the "hyperspectral" IR source is the earth, and the atmospheric temperature affects IR filtering of different atmospheric layers?. Or do the satellite cameras actually measure the atmospheric background IR emission?

#9.1.1.2 jaybird on 2016-11-16 13:15 (Reply)

jaybird: there is a certainty, rather than just "risk" of attracting Z-bots to their "core" issues including "global worming"

We tend to post on topics where there is a strong objective basis. Global warming is one such topic. On other forums, we post on many other topics, including biological evolution.

jaybird: and the ethical purity of the clinton crime family.

The Clintons are hardly "pure", but they are hardly criminals either .

jaybird: My assumption that their goal is to drive down and harass websites that have open discussion that contradicts their paid "narrative".

Not at all. We try to address the topic, and marshal facts to support our position. Unless someone argues the point, we usually leave it there.

jaybird: MWIR camera designs that could be pretty stable.

Here's specs on the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS).

#9.1.1.2.1 Zachriel on 2016-11-16 13:58 (Reply)

you meant to say the clintons are hardened criminals,,,
its astounding what you "overlook"

#9.1.1.2.1.1 jaybird on 2016-11-16 23:10 (Reply)

John A. Fleming: 1. Calm down. It looks like instrumentation error.

Possibly. The orbit of NOAA-15 is decaying. The calculations required to compensate are problematic. RSS has been running cooler the last few years compared to UAH.

John A. Fleming: 4. If not weather, figure out if it is within the range of short-term climate variability.

El Niño has ended, so surface cooling is expected.

#9.2 Zachriel on 2016-11-16 09:01 (Reply)

It will be very interesting to see what path donations to the Clinton Foundation take, if they are essentially powerless to deliver.
Until Chelsea gets elected to something.

#10 Jerry on 2016-11-15 19:36 (Reply)

Ahhh Hillary selling leftover "I'm with her" T-shirts in Times Square?

#10.1 jaybird on 2016-11-15 23:19 (Reply)

I liked the "Trumpettes" piece, until the author went all "wealth redistribution". He says the rich haven't paid their "fair share". That word, fair--I do not think it means what he thinks it means.
"Fair" would mean everybody pays the same percentage: the rich would pay more, because x percent of 1,000,000 is more than x percent of 10. So-called progressive taxation is nothing more than theft inspired by envy.
It apparently never occurred to the author that one reason Trump appealed to some was because he has the same mindset as we do. Not the crassness; I try always to behave according to the manners with which my parents raised me. Rather, the not-caring-about-what-fools-think part. Call me racist, xenophobe, homophobe, mysogynist? I could not care less. Slurs and insults from people for whom I have no respect at all are not worth my consideration.
I voted for Trump, but only because Darrell Castle wasn't on the ballot in my state. I'd rather have had Ted Cruz, but he was beaten in the primaries.

#11 Tennessee Budd on 2016-11-15 22:39 (Reply)

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Tuesday, November 15. 2016

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