The Morning Report — 8/11/23

Good morning, kids. And greetings from somewhere in midtown Manhattan. I'll have some thoughts on this sort of surreal experience in a separate piece on Monday, so BOLO for that.

Now on to the "fresh hell" or warmed-over purgatory for the day. In any case, it really is fresh hell for the people of Maui HI:

The death toll from the wildfires that have ravaged vast parts of the west coast of Hawaii’s Maui island over the past 48-hours stood at 53 late Thursday night. Authorities have warned the count is expected to rise.

“In 1960 we had 61 fatalities when a large wave came through Big Island,” Governor Josh Green said, referring to a tragedy that struck a year after Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state.

“This time, it’s very likely that our death totals will significantly exceed that.”

Green said around 1,700 buildings were now believed to have been affected by the blaze, as Breitbart News reported. . .

. . . “There is no doubt everyone would describe this as though a bomb hit Lahaina,” he said. “It looks like total devastation; buildings that we’ve all enjoyed and celebrated together for decades, for generations, are completely destroyed.”

U.S. Coast Guard commander Aja Kirksey told CNN around 100 people were believed to have jumped into the water in a desperate effort to flee the fast-moving flames as they tore through Lahaina.

Prayers for the victims. That said, I hate to be a hard-bitten cynic (yeah. right) but given the fact that some of the residents on that island include such people as Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, Clint Eastwood and Larry Ellison, to name but a few, I'm sure it won't be long before President Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants is on the ground to declare a disaster and throw billions of dollars for relief. After all, the residents of Maui are just plain folks. Just like the plain folk of East Palestine, Ohio, right?

Of course, sometimes a natural disaster isn't so natural because of "climate change." Given the wildfires in California and the media's reaction to them, I'm sure some propagandist schmuck somewhere is already working on that angle as we speak.

Facts and reality be damned, as friend of the blog and MR's unofficial science reporter Bob Zimmerman elucidates:

The present and growing dark age: According to the watchdogs who run the website Retraction Watch, the number of peer-reviewed scientific papers that have been retracted each year has risen from 40 in 2000 to 5,500 in 2022, an astonishing increase of 13,750%.

According to these watchdogs, there are two reasons for this increase in research failure:

Retractions have risen sharply in recent years for two main reasons: first, sleuthing, largely by volunteers who comb academic literature for anomalies, and, second, major publishers’ (belated) recognition that their business models have made them susceptible to paper mills – scientific chop shops that sell everything from authorships to entire manuscripts to researchers who need to publish lest they perish.

These researchers are required – sometimes in stark terms – to publish papers in order to earn and keep jobs or to be promoted. The governments of some countries have even offered cash bonuses for publishing in certain journals. Any surprise, then, that some scientists cheat?

I think the watchdogs are missing the major and much more basic source for this problem. Since the 1990s the academic community has largely abandoned — even condemned — the fundamental concepts of the Enlightenment, which established the scientific method with its unwavering dedication to finding the truth, no matter where it led. These fundamentals required from scientists not only the ability to think critically, questioning without mercy everything they did, they also demanded a very high level of ethics from scientists, since without those ethics the urge to lie and cheat becomes so much easier. . .

. . . Compounding this willingness to put politics and ideology first, the Marxist political theories that have taken over many campuses have worked to slander and discredit the Enlightenment, often calling it simply an expression of “systemic racism” because it was established mostly by “old white men.” The high standards of honesty and ethics it demanded from everyone, no matter their race, were obviously “racist” and must therefore be abandoned.

The result in the 21st century has been this skyrocketing retraction rate. Too many scientists no longer see anything wrong with cheating and lying and falsifying data. Too many put their political goals first. And too many scientists are also willing to look the other way in order to keep their jobs.

Interesting and seemingly counterintuitive to me that there are any retractions at all, especially to the extent in the story, given the fact that so much of the scientific community is composed of Trofim Lysenko's, who view and promote narratives and memes that are declared as Sacred Absolute Eternal Truths.

And, though completely unrelated, that last sentence applies with equal measure to the cops, military and Sean Hannity's/Yawn Inanity's vaunted "ham 'n eggers" if/when push comes to shove in dealing with a citizenry that has finally had enough.

Have a great weekend.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• William Jacobson: The “hands up, don’t shoot” lie gave birth to the formal Black Lives Matter movement. Possibly the most significant social and political movement of the past decade, one that has re-shaped our country, was based on a lie that is repeated year after year after year. I’m never, ever, going to stop telling the truth about it.
  Nine Years Later, Race Hustlers are Still Lying About the Death of Michael Brown
  
• Robert Zimmerman: "Compounding this willingness to put politics and ideology first, the Marxist political theories that have taken over many campuses have worked to slander and discredit the Enlightenment, often calling it simply an expression of 'systemic racism' because it was established mostly by 'old white men.' The high standards of honesty and ethics it demanded from everyone, no matter their race, were obviously 'racist' and must therefore be abandoned."
  Retractions of Peer-Reviewed Scientific Papers Has Risen 13,750% in this Century
  
• Mollie Hemingway: "Corporate media rightly question the rigged 1972 Olympic men’s basketball final, so why not the 2020 election?"
  Biden Won In 2020 The Same Way Soviet Basketball Won Gold In 1972
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: "We need an American Leo Amery to stand up."
  Who Will Say No More to the Current Madness?

BIDEN CRIME FAMILY REVELATIONS
• Says it’s a lousy question “because it’s not true,”
  Video: Biden Snaps at Reporter’s “Lousy” Corruption Question; Claims “I Never Talked Business With Anybody”
  
• “The media is now acknowledging that, sure, Hunter Biden was selling influence and access but it was an illusion and there’s no proof that Joe Biden got an envelope full of money or a direct deposit to his account; therefore, there’s nothing here. Democrats have constantly said stop asking questions because you don’t have that type of direct evidence of benefits. Well, that’s just ridiculous. I mean, obviously, all of these payments benefit Joe Biden. It’s going to the Biden family fund.”
  'Being a Crook Doesn't Mean You're a Moron': Jonathan Turley Slams 'Direct Deposit' Depictions of Biden Allegations
  
• "Oversight Committee investigations 'were always going to end with the Bidens,' chairman Comer says."
  House Republicans Will Subpoena Biden Family
  
• "Justice and politics demand that Biden be impeached. With the most consequential presidential election looming, House Republicans have an obligation to take the fight to Democrats."
  Impeach Biden, Make Democrats Sweat

  SHAMPEACHMENT 1.0, 2016 CLINTON/OBAMA COUP, CONGRESSIONAL PERSECUTION, SPYGATE, DEEP STATE, MUELLER DECEPTION

• Daniel Greenfield: "The Clinton campaign is actually guilty of the electoral coup Trump was indicted for."
  Where is Hillary’s Indictment on the Same Charges as Trump?
  
• "The government is not wrong that it’s in the public interest to have an early trial, before people start voting in Iowa in mid January, but then the feds should have brought this case (if at all) a year ago. The timing of all these trials, possibly 4 in 2024, is election interference."
  Feds Request January 2 Trial Start In DC Case Against Trump
  
• "The 45th President of the United States now faces 40 hyper-partisan counts involving seven different charges, with the trial scheduled to take place in May next year."
  ‘NOT GUILTY’ – Trump Pleads to Added Charges From Obama-World Prosecutor
  
• “Here’s the other thing, if somebody has cooperated with Jack Smith’s team and Fani Willis goes in and indicts that person, that’s what we call blowing up the cooperator, that’s gonna be a big problem for Jack Smith in particular.”
  CNN Legal Analyst Explains How GA Prosecutor Could 'Blow Up' Jack Smith's Indictment

  CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG "RIOT" & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION

• "Suggest?!" They should be screaming bloody murder about this.
  Republicans Investigating J6 Committee Suggest Dems Destroyed Evidence In Apparent Cover Up
  
• "Sounds like a set-up."
  Former Capitol Police Chief Gives His Account Of What Happened On January 6
  
• Robert Zimmerman: "The obviousness of its discriminatory policies that violated Rogers’ rights is beyond questioning. Whether she will win or not depends on whether a modern jury will be willing to see these plain facts, or whether they will be like most of today’s Democrats, who are quite willing to deny obvious facts for partisan reasons."
  Today’s Blacklisted American was Fired for Refusing to Participate in Company's Programs that Purposely Excluded Whites
  
• "Two viral videos show vigilante justice, which wouldn’t be necessary without the left’s anti-police, pro-crime rhetoric."
  The Montgomery Brawl Isn’t What Race-Baiting Media Want It To Be
  
• Raymond Ibrahim: "It's hard to get more comical than this. Let's look at some real history."
  Only 'White People' Ever Enslaved Others, Says Black Professor

  FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH

• Asked about the company’s so-called “hate speech” policies, Yaccarino said: “It goes back to my point about our success with freedom of speech, not reach… If it is lawful but it’s awful, it’s extraordinarily difficult for you to see it.”
  WEF CEO Says SHE Runs Twitter (X), Not Elon, & Introduces Censorious ‘Labeling’ of ‘Lawful But Awful’ Users
  
• "It’s interesting how Hobbs accused Trump supporters of being Nazis when she was resembling the actions of one."
  Katie Hobbs Requested That Twitter Censor Critics of Tweet Comparing Trump Supporters to Nazis
  
• "Kessler’s fact check has not aged well."
  For Washington Post’s Feared ‘Pinocchio’ Fact Checker, Forthrightness Dies in ‘Updates’ to Biden-Burisma Story
  
• Jack Cashill: "Here's the sad story of how my opinion was not 'diverse' enough for a public library in a county that voted for Trump by 20 points."
  Cancelled by Educated Liberal Women!
  
• "Believe it or not, the Left used to love free speech." (no, they just didn't have enough power like they do today to do away with it - jjs)
  The Left’s War on Free Speech
  
• "The enormous implications of Päivi Räsänen’s case for fundamental freedoms have triggered international outrage."
  Finnish Grandmother Is Back In Court Facing ‘Hate Speech’ Charges For Tweeting Bible Verses
  * * * * *

• "They make us incapable of normal human interaction."
  Smartphones Are the New Civilizational Crisis

  SCOTUS ABOLISHES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

• "Ohio senator says elite schools may be coordinating admissions practices to defy Supreme Court ruling."
  Vance Asks FTC to Investigate Universities Over Alleged Admission Policy Collusion Following Affirmative Action Ban

  THE ECONOMY, STUPID

• "This is your economy on Bidenomics."
  Welcome To Biden’s Grand Illusion Of Prosperity
  
• "Runaway spending is eroding America’s ability to respond to future economic downturns." (a feature, not a bug - jjs)
  Eating Our Seed Corn
  
• In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act was viewed skeptically by many, including the Congressional Budget Office, which said the bill would have “a negligible effect” on inflation in 2022 and 2023. The office said that by this year, the bill would either reduce inflation by less than one percent or increase it by less than one percent.
  Biden's Regret About the Inflation Reduction Act: 'I Wish I Hadn't Called It That'

  RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM

• "The shift away from Democrats among non-white working-class voters is a trend nationwide, survey and polling has recently shown."
  Joe Biden Touts Green Policies in New Mexico as Hispanic Ranchers Turn on Democrats over Climate Agenda
  
• "Sometimes the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow."
  The Known Unknowns of 'Renewable' Energy
  
• "Renewable energy is running up against a harsh reality."
  Environmentalists’ Broken Toys

  AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY

• “He is allowing it to become completely run by the cartels.”
  Video: Texas GOP Rep. Tells Biden To “Go Straight to Hell” Over Open Border
  
• "Do you have an extra room?" (there are quite a few in Maura Healy's house - jjs)
  Massachusetts Calls On Families To Help Solve Migrant Crisis

  CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY

• “Any Investigation going forward is to hold accountable the individual who threatened & attempted to rob them.”
  7-Eleven Workers Who Beat Thief in Viral Video Will Not Be Charged
  
• "I believe whoever disfigured this poor woman’s face has an issue with her pulchritude or with pretty women in general. Morin was clearly dedicated to her appearance. Whoever did this to her wanted to deprive her of that beauty in death."
  Pay Attention to the Case of the Murdered Mother in Maryland
  
• "What might have altered their fate?"
  Slain Hookers on Gilgo Beach

  AMERICA AND THE WORLD IMPRISONED: CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS AND FACTS

• "Stanford University's Thomas Dee could face up to $50,000 in fines following testimony."
  ‘It’s a Gag Order’: California Threatens Researcher Who Testified That Pandemic Closures Hurt Poor Kids
  
• Lloyd Billingsley: "Bad for the people but inherent in the system."
  White Coat Supremacy Succession

  EDUCATION, AND WHAT PASSES FOR IT

• Christopher Rufo: "New College of Florida votes to abolish its gender studies program."
  The Arc of Reform
  
• William Jacobson: Our Civil Rights Complaint against the University of Nebraska-Lincoln over its “Black Public Media Residency” program continues to reverberate: “There is no ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ exception to the anti-discrimination laws and the Equal Protection guarantee in the 14th Amendment.”
  “The days when universities could get away with racial discrimination to advance diversity are over”
  
• "Higher education now seems adrift of its moorings and without a moral compass to bring it back.  That has inspired progressives to turn their guns on the youngest classroom cohort of American society."
  Why Ban Books if You Can Rewrite Them?
  
• "California students lack math skills, and the state’s fix could make things even worse."
  Innumeracy and Lunacy

  THE 2020 AND 2022ELECTION HEISTS & AFTERMATH

• Other Wisconsin court cases won by the RNC and its partners in recent years include rulings protecting GOP poll observer access and prohibiting “clerks from completing witness signature requirements that voters have to do themselves.” (well now we have this Janet Prostitutkovich on the bench to make it a 5-4 leftist majority - jjs)
  Republican Groups Intervene To Stop Democrats’ Lawfare Against Wisconsin Elections
  
• For a party that loved to feign outrage about nonexistent Trump-Russia collusion and “foreign interference” in the elections process after the 2016 presidential contest, Democrats throughout the country seem awfully eager to grant illegal aliens the ability to influence U.S. electoral processes.
  California Court Greenlights Foreign Interference In San Francisco’s School Board Elections

  OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY/LEFTIST-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM, ANTI-CHRISTIANITY

• "It’s not ‘white supremacy’ among Catholics the FBI is really worried about, it’s traditional Catholic morality."
  The FBI Targeted Traditional Catholics Because They Will Never Accept the Left’s Pagan Morality

  DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY

• ". . . he left has insisted over many years that any “pay gap” between the average salaries of men and women can only be explained by toxic musicality, patriarchal bias, and good ol’ sexism - and it’s up to the government to implement new laws to fix this fictitious problem. Maybe they should start with their own payroll."
  GENDER PAY GAP! Turns Out Women In Biden's White House Make Way Less Than Men

  POLITICS

• "You’d better have a backup plan."
  DeSantis Doesn’t Have to Be the Nominee, but He Must Be Viable
  
• "It is unlikely that Manchin would pull support away from [Gov. Jim] Justice in a three-way race with another Democrat on the ballot. If Manchin figures this out, he’ll likely announce his retirement rather than risk losing."
Is Joe Manchin About to Ditch Democrats?

  THE UKRAINIAN "FRONT"

• "We’ve given Ukraine $123 billion since last year."
  Report: Biden Planning to Ask Congress for $13 Billion for Ukraine
  
• "Let’s consider a practical approach."
  The Russia–Ukraine War Must End in Compromise
  
• "We really could 'all just get along,' but the Deep State has different ideas for Russia and Ukraine."
  Clearing the Fog of 'Unprovoked' War

  FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL

• "In fact, Namazi in July 2022 described an Iranian proposal that seemed fairly close to what the Biden [junta] agreed to just over a year later. He accused [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Joe Biden of dragging his feet on sealing the deal because he wanted to use the frozen Iranian assets as leverage to restart nuclear deal talks."
  Reports: Biden Gives Iran $6 Billion in Unfrozen Assets Plus Prisoners for Five Jailed Americans
  
• “By giving the Iranian mullahs $6 billion, the Biden [junta] is responsible for financing terrorism and fueling the continued oppression of the Iranian people,” she asserted.
  Rep. Tenney Slams $6 Billion ‘Ransom’ Paid to Tehran: Iranian People’s ‘Blood’ on Biden’s Hand
  
• France24 TV channel: Iran’s “Education Minister Youssef Nouri admitted that schoolchildren were being detained in the streets or at school and held in “medical psychological centres” where they were “re-educated” to prevent “anti-social” behaviour.”
  Iran Forces Women, Minor Girls into Psychiatric Treatment for Defying Hijab Laws
  
• "The Liberals' alarming history with the Islamic Republic."
  Canada: New Democratic Party Seeks Probe on Election Interference by Iran
  
• The country’s problems could have a material impact here in America, not least because China is the world’s second-largest economy and until recently was the world economy’s main engine of growth. . . It does not seem to have occurred to the Communist officials that attempts to muzzle the analysts might have exactly the opposite effect on investor sentiment than intended."
  China’s Madoff Economy Could Come Crashing Down — with Worldwide Effect
  
• "British authorities have warned tourists to delay traveling to Cape Town, and to take extra precautions if a visit is necessary, especially in the areas along the N2, which connects the city with the airport."
  British doctor murdered after taking wrong turn in Cape Town during violent taxi strike
  
• "The right’s gains would come at the cost of the centrist and left-wing parties. The European People’s Party (EPP) – currently the largest group in the European Parliament – is expected to lose 12 seats, bringing the total number to 165, with the far-left Greens predicted to lose a whopping 24 seats, maintaining only 48."
  Right-Wing Parties Expected To SURGE In Europe
  
• "How the Biden [junta] has perpetuated our anti-Israel folly."
  American Officials Admit Giving ‘Mistaken’ Advice to Israel
  
• "If we accept that America must continue to be the World’s Policeman simply because there is no one else in the free world capable of doing it, then we have got to do it." (the intellectual dishonesty of the author totally ignoring the criminal incompetence of Foggy Bottom since 1945, and perhaps 1917, is breathtaking - jjs)
  We Can't be the World's Policeman?
  
• "Hosting them could endanger your life."
  A Cautionary Tale From France about Muslim Migrants

  DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS

• "Once, he was a soldier. Now, though, Milley has become a bureaucrat in uniform, trading national security for leftist policies."
  The Deadly Untrustworthiness of General Mark "Vanilli" Milley
  
• ". . . the requirement to “open” the tech and intellectual property on some types of devices could exacerbate critical infrastructure challenges we are facing, most notably the cyber vulnerabilities of hospitals and health care facilities, which according to reports are growing in frequency."
  ‘Right To Repair’ Policies Could Exacerbate Cybersecurity Threats To Critical Infrastructure

  DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE COURTS, WASTE/FRAUD/ABUSE

• "AFP reports officials in Maui County confirmed number of dead now stood at 53, and firefighters were still battling the blaze. Historic Lahaina township itself lay in charred, smoking ruins, with Green saying 80 percent of the town was gone."
  Hawaii Wildfires Death Toll Stands at 53, Expected to Rise ‘Very Significantly’

  HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

• "Experts caution that suicide is complicated, and that recent increases might be driven by a range of factors, including higher rates of depression and limited availability of mental health services." ("experts" eh? - jjs)
  US suicides hit an all-time high last year
  
• "A new book shows how a system designed to protect human research subjects needlessly costs lives."
  Unblocking Medical Breakthroughs
  
• "This network, which oversees the nation’s 56 organ procurement organizations, has long suffered from archaic computer systems and an unaccountable bureaucracy." (isn't this the really story of our government? - jjs)
  How Breaking Up the Organ Transplant Monopoly Will Save Lives and Dollars

  ACTUAL SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY

• "In what is turning into routine clockwork, SpaceX tonight completed its fourth launch in only the first ten days of August, placing 22 Starlink satellites into orbit using its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral."
  SpaceX launches another 22 Starlink satellites
  
• "The picture ... shows the splotched and volcanic surface of Io, which because it orbits close to Jupiter tidal forces cause it to have an intensely active volcanic surface. All the black features are either volcanoes or lava flows." (if you look really close, there appears to be an object that reads "ConAm 27" - jjs)
  Juno gets new close-up images of Jupiter’s moon Io

  FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY

• "Stamping out the toxic masculinity from your teenage boy before it's too late."
  Feminists’ Fear and Loathing of Their Own Sons
  
• "The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has vetoed at least three panels with European clinicians about their efforts to limit gender care."
  They Support Sex Changes for Children, With Safeguards. A Top Child Psychiatry Group Won’t Let Them Speak at Its Annual Conference.

  CULTURE WARS, NATIONAL SUICIDE

• “Netflix made millions of dollars from Making a Murderer, but the filmmakers left out very important details,” says Owens in the trailer. “[There are] Mountains of evidence that you have not yet seen … I’m not going to make the same mistake that the filmmakers did. … How could they claim to care about the truth?”
  Convicting a Murderer Release Date Announced, Trailer Drops for Hotly Anticipated Response to Netflix’s Making a Murderer
  
• "The lengths to which the museum has gone to insert 'queerness' into the preservation of wooden warship wreckage has resulted in many complaints, and not only from conservatives." (hurl a can of tomato soup at this exhibit and see how fast you get thrown in prison - jjs)
  Museum ‘Queers’ Exhibition on 16th-Century Sunken Ship

  HITHER & YON

• Christian Toto: "Shocker spun from Stoker's classic novel shares new angle on Dracula lore."
  Last Voyage of the Demeter – Gothic Horror Done Right

NOTE: The opinions expressed in the links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.

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posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:07 AM

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