Friday morning links

Gail Collins trying to be the new snark princess a la Maureen Dowd and just comes off as a condescending a**hole. Her analogy about Al Gore and divorce lawyers probably had Tipper coughing up her Cheerios this morning, but Collins is probably too stupid to see the irony.

#1 bill on 2016-12-09 07:35 (Reply)

The North Pole.

Not that it'll make a dime's worth of difference to either side, the next time the left side makes frantic bleating noises about climate, take them to any dynamic climate map, this is as good as any, circle up to the North Pole, pan out, and click on "temperature".

See that nice warm wash coming all the way up to and past the British Isles? See how at many times of the year it even passes all of Scandinavia and circles around to the northern Siberian shore? Didn't expect that, did you leftist climate person?

That enormous swirl of warmth - a warmth so pervasive it grows palms in Scotland - we call the North Atlantic Current and it's unique in the world. It's unique because nowhere else does that vast amount of heat get carried that far north. Nowhere. It's a BTU pipeline.

Now if you're on one of those global climate simulation sites like the one I linked, notice too how especially this time of year places like Canada and Russia are absolutely, numbingly frigid. Notice how far south these enormous over-land waves of cold penetrate, at many times of the year putting places far, far south of, say, Canada's entire Hudson Bay, a hundred degrees colder than Scandinavia.

In fact, the North Pole itself is frequently fifty degrees warmer than Canada! This is because land and water are so very much different with regard to temperature. This also means that the continent of Antarctica - that's on the opposite end of the globe, leftist - is one cold mother. See, it's a continent smack dab on the pole with no way for oceanic thermal currents to get anywhere near the thing. Water doesn't flow under land like it can and always does under ice, see?

Did you catch that part, Climate Warrior? Did you note that that means it's pretty much always balmier way, way up on the shores of places you associate with reindeer than it is places you associate with shirtsleeves, baseball, and hot dogs?

So get a clue, Great Climate Champion. The North Pole is constantly assaulted by the greatest northward, utterly natural migration of equatorial heat - yes, heat - anywhere in the solar system. And this migration owes to the entirely natural behaviors of air and sea. Has always been thus and shall always be thus.

#2 Ten on 2016-12-09 08:01 (Reply)

from the article:

QUOTE:

My [six year old son] son is very interested in fashion, and so we talked at length about Santa’s warm red jacket.

the kid's got a lot more problems than arctic ice.

#2.1 Will Bithers on 2016-12-09 10:11 (Reply)

Ace is great. Just wanted to give him some love for hitting the lefties in their weakest spot.

I noticed that it was linked on Realclearpolitics.com, too. Nice work, Ace!

#3 Dangerous Dean on 2016-12-09 09:20 (Reply)

CALExit

while desirable in many ways, there are no legal means of California leaving the USofA, short of, I suppose, a constitutional convention. see, Civil War; Texas v. White, 74 U.S. 700 (1869).

#4 Will Bithers on 2016-12-09 09:32 (Reply)

Though none of my ancestors were here until the 1870s, when my state seceded in 1861, a war criminal marched an army toward the state and shot people until they threw in the towel. I don't think Cali would put up much of a fight. But I am eager to see how this plays out.

#4.1 Dangerous Dean on 2016-12-09 09:49 (Reply)

like all secession, its a fantasy, null and void ab initio. if the libtards want to waste money, ok by me.

#4.1.1 Will Bithers on 2016-12-09 10:09 (Reply)

I think if a state voluntarily joins a union, it should be able to be able to voluntarily leave it (peacefully).

I'd be happy to see California secede - which would likely encourage Oregon and Washington and maybe even Hawaii to secede - but that would leave the US without a Pacific naval base on the mainland. I think that would be the biggest downside to the US.

#4.2 mudbug on 2016-12-09 10:14 (Reply)

Hawaii would be snatched by China in an instant.

#4.2.1 Jim on 2016-12-09 20:56 (Reply)

Just reverse the statehood flow. The process is already defined, no new laws needed, only Acts of Congress. We bought Alaska from Russia, Louisiana from France, and turned them into States.
1. Californians vote (in sufficient numbers to be taken seriously) to secede.
2. After a cooling off period, the Congress votes to return California from a State to a Territory. All California Federal legislators go home. The President appoints a Territorial Governor, and the Congress creates a Territorial unicameral legislature.
3. Since the Territory of California is owned by the United States, the Territorial Governor creates a boundary commission, to establish the boundary of what land is to be sold off to become Not-California. The boundaries of the sale are approved by Congress. In the meantime, the Territorial Governor, Territorial legislature, and Territory and Federal Justice system are charged with protecting the rights of all U.S. citizens and the preservation of the property of the United States.
4 The United States starts accepting offers from other sovereign states, (Mexico, Canada) to buy California from We the People of the United States. Also the to-be inhabitants of Not-Cailifornia can get themselves organized and make a play to buy Not-California from the United States. Perhaps in a proposed federation or alliance with Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, or Russia.
5. The sale is made. Everybody smart and wealthy, persons and businesses, have already bugged-out of Not-California. Not-California starts life with a huge amount of sovereign debt, everything of real value the United States has already taken back, and all the big companies are gone. In the meantime, Canada, Japan, China, Mexico, Russia strive for hegemony over California. (You of course can see the coming new c-f it it even gets this far.)

There are structural and geographic reasons why the Indians and Spanish and Mexicans couldn't hold California. Take away all those Manifest Destiny aggressive Anglo reasons and Western Rationalism and Protestantism, and Not-California will revert to its natural state as an under-populated weak and corrupt agrarian society.

(California is a desert surrounded by a bigger desert, all the gold and silver and oil is gone, timber isn't worth very much, neither is cattle, and the not-Californians will be an idiocracy governed by a kakistocracy that will plunder the place, and either let the aqueducts fall into ruin, or fight over them and destroy them.)

(Well maybe not all the oil, but the morons that infest California won't allow modern hydrocarbon extraction until they are far-gone desperate. If you thought PeMex was bad, wait till you see the massive corruption of PeNotCal.)

It is likely however, that somewhere between items 3 and 4, a civil war will start, perhaps helped and fomented by the above-mentioned foreign powers. The johnny-reb breakaway part of California Territory will quickly become occupied by Federal troops. And the rest of the United States is going to very pissed at the jerks in California who caused all this. At some point afterward, the very chastened and reconstructed neo-California Territories will once again be promoted to Statehood (it is unlikely that the original California will survive intact as a single state, we won't make that mistake again).

#4.3 John A. Fleming on 2016-12-09 22:04 (Reply)

Re Yale and Calhoun College

John C famously called slavery "a positive good" in a senate speech. As such, he is very representative of Democrats throughout history and should be venerated by them.

#5 Will Bithers on 2016-12-09 09:43 (Reply)

Tax infographic not entirely true - 1913 is the introduction of the current income tax, but there were short lived income taxes in the 1890s and to pay for the civil war -- but the level (e.g. 3% of all incomes over US $800 in the revenue act of 1861) effectively limited the tax to what were very high-income people at the time.

Federal taxes other than income tax included international trade tariffs as the primary source of income, as well as excise taxes on products like alcohol -- the whiskey rebellion being a notable example of an early federal tax being controversial. Again, these would be opaque to the average person, but had substantial effect on the cost that they paid for goods.

And schools, colleges, roads, streets, and subways were (when government projects) almost entirely local or state funded from rather substantial local and state tax revenue. Even federal Post Roads were often constructed/improved by the individual states that they served or by turnpike entepreneurs. Railroads certainly got substantial federal subsidy, but it was in the form of land-grants that could be sold off to fund the construction, rather than direct federal spending on railroad construction.

#6 Douglas2 on 2016-12-09 09:52 (Reply)

"Hospitals gear up for major offensive against ObamaCare repeal"

The entrenched forced have too much invested in the various government bureaucracies and will resist using the courts and delaying tactics to wear down the forces of change. That is why I say don't move immediately to end Obamacare simply make some minor bureaucratic/administrative changes that will make it untenable: 1. End the requirement/mandate for Obamacare. Simply declare the mandate to have been unconstitutional and end it. 2. End or severely cut back the federal subsidies in Obamacare. That's it! Don't end it, don't bad mouth it, don't encourage it and don't debate it. After that anyone who likes and wants Obamacare can have it. Everyone else gets freedom of choice.

#7 GoneWithTheWind on 2016-12-09 09:54 (Reply)

$107516 for turbines --

I think the link is to this story:
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/wind-turbines-generating-regret-100000-turbines-to-create-1-50-in-electricity-monthly/

https://solarconduit.com/shop/wind/wind-generators-turbines/urban-green-energy-vawt-visionair3-tower-controller.html

#8 Douglas2 on 2016-12-09 11:39 (Reply)

Hospitals want the Medicaid money to keep rolling in. That's about all they want out of the ACA. They are still chasing people for $$, but the poor people that wander in to the ER with the sniffles are now covered.

If only the hospitals decided to push back against the requirement that they treat everyone who walks in the door, despite ability to pay, maybe they'd get somewhere.

I can't think of one modern hospital system in the world (someone correct me, please) that gives out free treatment and lets you leave without paying a dime. Sure, they can hound you for payment, ruin your credit and force you into bankruptcy, but it still doesn't solve the problem of hospitals having to write off millions of dollars in losses every year due to this ridiculous requirement.

Anyway, I could go on, but I'm already getting annoyed at the AHA!

#9 MissT on 2016-12-09 12:42 (Reply)

re Was Old Man Potter really so evil?

yes.

He kept the 8 grand Uncle Billy mistakenly handed him.

#10 feeblemind on 2016-12-09 13:14 (Reply)

Hospitals and Medicaid : My local hospital chain is the recipient of a county property tax for "indigent" patients. Our kids are covered by Kidcare (if their parents care enough to pay the $20 a month, or Medicaid if not). The working poor get discounts and Workman"s comp, the welfare recipients get medicaid. Previously the uninsured were largely young people who were mostly healthy and didn't want to pay for healthcare insurance and illegal aliens who gave fake names and disappeared. HOwever the hospitals only gave emergency treatment, no transplants, abortions or elective care. The "bankrupt from medical bills" were mostly those who thought healthcare should be free, even when you make a middle class income. This tax seems like a reasonable way to finance emergency fall back care for the hospitals locally.

#11 fiona on 2016-12-09 15:28 (Reply)

Vanuatu is also a very poor country, with many squatters' camps outside the capital of Port Vila on the island of Efate. The diving is good, but paradise it is not.

#12 Agent Cooper on 2016-12-09 20:15 (Reply)

Haven't seen you here for a long time Coop. Welcome back.

#12.1 feeblemind on 2016-12-09 20:24 (Reply)

So the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Hospital Association, and the Federation of American Hospitals are already plotting? It's the modern-day Mafia vs. a new president who isn't beholden to D.C. cronies--this'll be interesting.

#13 Gene on 2016-12-09 22:34 (Reply)

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Friday, December 9. 2016

Friday morning links