Nancy Pelosi Takes Break for Health Evaluations

Five Questions to Ask About the Current Trump Kerfuffle

CHARLIE MARTIN@PJM - Of course, everyone already knows that the current legacy media furor is over Donald Trump Jr.'s 20-minute meeting with a Russian. Of course, some Democrats were out with their favorite T-word, "treason. " Hillary Clinton's erstwhile running mate, Tim Kaine (D-Irrelevancy), said: We are now beyond obstruction of justice. This is moving into perjury, false statements and even potentially treason. (Of course, there is no way this would be treason. For crying out loud, not even Vox believes it could have possibly been treason.)

Still, lots of fuss about this.  I have to admit I'm a little puzzled about it, though. I'm not getting why this is such a big thing. So here are five questions I'd like someone to answer for me. As far as I can tell, what really happened is that Natasha Nogoodick, er, Natalia Veselnitskaya, contacted Trump Jr, offering damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. had an email chain saying they thought this information was via the Russian government because they favored Trump. The meeting was held, it lasted perhaps 20 minutes, and it turned out to be someone lobbying about international adoption. No damaging information about Clinton was offered. 

Question One. Does agreeing to meet with any Russian constitute collusion? Does lobbying by a Russian constitute collusion?

Question Two. What criminal statute covers meeting with Russian private citizens? For that matter, what criminal statute covers accepting opposition research about a candidate?

Question Three. What is the massive ethical breach involved here? Was it more unethical than these?

Question Four. Does this photograph indicate collusion with the Russians? Is it only collusion when your name is "Trump"?

Question Five. What the hell is is wrong with these people?

[SNIP]

The way the media is howling you'd think Donald Jr. had sold American Uranium reserves to the Russians for personal profit while his was Secretary of State or something......

Tesla Car Battery Production Produces As Much CO2 As 8 Years Of Driving On Gas

Elon Musk, who seems to have mastered the modern liberal art of sucking the taxpayer for subsidies for his pet projects, like solar roofs and attractive electric cars with explosive batteries, must be a bit embarrassed by this study. Or maybe he has been fully aware of this possibility the whole time....... 

"IVL The Swedish Environment Institute has, on behalf of the Swedish Transport Administration and the Swedish Energy Agency, investigated the climate impact of lithium-ion batteries from a life-cycle perspective. The batteries for electric cars were included in the study. The two authors, Lisbeth Dahllöf and Mia Romare, have done a meta-study, that is, reviewed and compiled existing studies.  -  The report shows that battery manufacturing leads to high emissions. For each kilowatt-hour of storage capacity in the battery, emissions of 150 to 200 kilograms of carbon dioxide are generated in the factory. The researchers have not studied the individual car brand batteries, just how they were produced or what electrical mix they used. But to understand the importance of battery size, two standard electric cars on the market, Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S, have batteries of approximately 30 kWh and 100 kWh respectively.  -  Even before you buy the car, CO2 emissions equivalent to 5.3 tons and 17.5 tons, respectively, gets produced. The numbers can be difficult to put in context. By way of comparison, a trip for a person returning from Stockholm to New York by air emits more than 600 kilograms of CO2, according to the UN organization ICAO’s calculation model.  -  Mats-Ola Larsson at IVL has calculated how long you need to drive a gasoline or diesel car before it released as much CO2 as the battery manufacturing produced.  -  The result was 2.7 years of CO2 emissions for a battery the same size as a Nissan Leaf and 8.2 years for a Tesla-sized battery." -  Principia Scientific

Another conclusion of the study is that about half the emissions come from producing the raw materials and the other half from the battery factory. 

Nevada Issues A ‘Statement of Emergency’ - Yo We're Running Out of Weed Over Here Man!

The State of Nevada’s Department of Taxation has issued a “statement of emergency” due to a shortage of herb since the plant was legalized for recreational use at the beginning of this month. Between July 1 and 4, dispensaries made roughly $3 million in sales and generated as much as $1 million in tax revenue. But the green rush has come with a shortage, one almost certainly created because of the way the licensing law passed last year was written.

“Based on reports of adult-use marijuana sales already far exceeding the industry’s expectations at the state’s 47 licensed retail marijuana stores, and the reality that many stores are running out of inventory, the Department must address the lack of distributors immediately.  Some establishments report the need for delivery within the next several days.”  - Reno Gazette-Journal

To avoid a messy little battle with the liquor industry in the state, the backers of the Law, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, accepted a campaign contribution from liquor vendors in exchange for including an 18-month period in which only liquor vendors could obtain distribution licenses. 

Taxation officials announced that Gov. Brian Sandoval had endorsed the department's "statement of emergency," allowing state officials to consider adopting an emergency regulation that could alleviate the shortage. The regulation would allow the department to consider a larger pool of applicants for distribution licenses, licenses that permit the transport of recreational marijuana from the cultivation and packaging facilities to the dispensaries.

Maybe Nevada should bring in some old school, out of state sales & distribution experts to consult on the situation:

Rapper and Reefer Connoisseur, Mr. Snoop Doggy Doo

WAPO Reports A Non-Story About a Phony Non-Study

Female-named Hurricanes Kill More Than Male Hurricanes

 Because People Don’t Respect Them

This is actually a news item in the once respected Washington Post, and probably the stupidest thing you will read all day.  According to the Post, a university research study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, claims people don’t take hurricanes as seriously if they have a feminine name and the consequences are more deadly. Yeah, you read that right.

"Researchers at the University of Illinois and Arizona State University examined six decades of hurricane death rates according to gender from 1950 and 2012. Of the 47 most damaging hurricanes, the female-named hurricanes produced an average of 45 deaths compared to 23 deaths in male-named storms, or almost double the number of fatalities." 

The article goes on to clearly state "The study excluded hurricanes Katrina and Audrey, outlier storms that would skew the model." 

Oh, so they exclude two of the most destructive and deadly hurricanes to ever hit the Gulf coast? Well well. Could it be that if they didn't exclude them, their groundbreaking political correct phony gender equality pushing study would come off sounding even more ridiculous, seeing the authors of the study fail to explain what makes the findings sound even remotely legitimate since storms weren't even given male names until 1979! 

"The difference in death rates between genders was even more pronounced when comparing strongly masculine names versus strongly feminine ones. “[Our] model suggests that changing a severe hurricane’s name from Charley … to Eloise … could nearly triple its death toll,” the study says. “People imagining a ‘female’ hurricane were not as willing to seek shelter. “The stereotypes that underlie these judgments are subtle and not necessarily hostile toward women – they may involve viewing women as warmer and less aggressive than men.”

Ladies and gentlemen, after only the short time I have lived in Louisiana we have experienced 3 direct hits of major hurricanes.  A cat 5 and two Cat 3's. And I can assure you I heard no one, not one say "aw it's just one of them female storms, not to worry.  No, even before the first outer rain bands reach the coast, for most it's load the mule and make haste. But the world is abundant with stupid people and this study just re-enforced the fact. Some choose not to run and pay the price. The ignorance determines the death toll, NOT A FRIGGIN' NAME! 

This study is just some college researchers advancing a feminist agenda, justifying their position and grant money by tweaking stats to their advantage. (sound familiar?) And it's an ideal story to forward WAPO's agenda and advance the left's newest "Cause Celeb" of Gender Inequity, which hypocritically ignores "Accomplishment & Merit" just as the researchers conveniently ignored the fact some people are just too damn stupid to get out of the rain. 

Thank You MJA for the Linkage!

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