History Is Not Always Kind

This week marks the third anniversary of Joe Biden's disastrous debacle that surrounded his withdrawal and abandonment of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

Do you remember the headlines?

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/16/taliban-takes-afghanistan-kabul-airport-last-stand-u-s/8147419002/

Source: https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/chaos-desperation-at-kabul-airport-as-biden-defends-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/08/27/us-service-members-killed-kabul-airport-names/

The meme below takes us back to that same week in history to remind us of how things were on other fronts three years ago.

What happened, indeed.

This isn't half of it.

This was also all before we ended up with mandates for a vaccine that did not work as advertised, collusion between government and media companies to censor and silence free speech that did not conform to an approved narrative and a fully weaponized Department of Justice was turned lose on political opponents that prompted Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) to make this remark this week.

Of course,  this weaponization has just not been deployed against Trump.

It has also included parents who spoke at School Board meetings who opposed school shutdowns, doctors who advocated alternative Covid treatments and grandmothers who walked into the Capital on January 6 after being waved through the doors by the Capital Hill police.

Seeing where we were three years ago and where we are today you would think that the people running all of this would be feeling some heat.

You would think that even a few true believers in Biden's own party might be having some doubts about Biden's proficiency and performance. 

You would be wrong.

Believe it or not, Joe Biden actually has a higher approval rating with Democrats right now than Barack Obama did at the same time in his Presidency.

The most recent Gallup poll shows that Joe Biden has an 86% approval rating with Democrats.

Source: https://news.gallup.com/interactives/507569/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx

Barack Obama only had a 77% approval rating with Democrats at the same time in his first term.

Source: https://news.gallup.com/interactives/507569/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx

That is a little sobering to consider, isn't it?

Democrats are clearly very pleased with Joe Biden. 

They apparently were not as enthralled with Obama's attempts at sweet talking or trying to pretend he was playing to the middle.

Democrats appear to be more than pleased with Biden's "ram it down their throats" style of politics and don't see the need to make any apologies for it.

Give us what we want with executive orders.

The hell with compromise with Republicans in Congress.

Let's threaten to prosecute everybody that does not agree with us.

Make no mistake. Not every voter is buying what they are seeing. Joe Biden has problems when he gets beyond the party faithful.

Joe Biden is sitting at a 40% overall approval rating in the latest Gallup poll with all adults.

This is due to a 38% rating from Independents and and a meager 2% from Republicans.

Source: https://news.gallup.com/interactives/507569/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx

However, this overall approval rating only trails Obama by 2 points at the same time in the first term of each in the Gallup poll.

Source: https://news.gallup.com/interactives/507569/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx

 

In the Rasmussen Presidential daily tracking poll, Obama had a 43% approval rating on August 17, 2011 (just slightly less than three years into his first term).

Biden is at 45% approval at the same point in his Presidency in the Rasmussen poll today.

Trump was at 46% approval at the same time.

Source: https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/biden_administration/prez_track_aug17

Yes, it is hard to believe that Joe Biden has a higher approval right now than Barack Obama did considering what has been unleashed in the last three years.

Obama recovered in the polls to win another term. History has been kind to him. Will that always be true?

History is not always kind.

When all of this plays out it is not going to be kind to someone.

History is either not going to be kind to the United States of America due to leaders with records like Joe Biden being left in office.

Or history is not going to be kind to those who have seen all that this man has done in his three years in office and yet still blindly approve of what he is doing.

Perhaps both.

We are living in a very dangerous and consequential time in history.

And history is not always kind.

Glaciers and Lahaina

I recently returned from a trip that saw me spend almost two weeks in Alaska.

The trip included visits to both Glacier Bay National Park and the College Fjord glaciers.

Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

Margerie Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park
The face of that glacier is over 300 feet high

Harvard Glacier, College Fjord, Alaska

Of course, you can't look at any of these glaciers without a National Park Ranger or someone else remarking that the glaciers are receding because of "human-induced climate change".

There is an argument to be made that the climate may have warmed over the last 30 years but where is the evidence that it is "human-induced"?

For example, this is an image taken from the brochure that the National Park Service provides to visitors to Glacier Bay National Park.

This was in my hand as I was listening to the park ranger tell me that the glaciers were receding due to "human-induced" climate change.

The brochure shows the recent history (the last several hundred years) of the glaciers in the park.

Source: Glacier Bay Visitor Brochure
National Park Service

Notice that glacier size increased dramatically in the 70 years between 1680 and 1750 during what is often referred to as the "Little Ice Age" period.

The next 130 years (1750-1880) saw the glacier receding at an enormous pace.

Of course, this is a period when there was almost no fossil fuel activity caused by man.

There has been additional glacial recession in the succeeding 145 years until today but it is minimal in comparison to what has been seen previously,

For example, this is a graphic shot from the same Glacier Bay National Park brochure referenced above which shows the positions of individual glaciers at various points of time.

I have added the red highlights to the image so as to make what occurred with the glacier to be more readable.

Much of what is now called Glacier Bay today would not exist without the decline and melting of the glacier formation that took place in the 19 years between 1860-1879.

The main glacier receded 25 miles in just 19 years---more than 1 mile per year---when humans and fossil fuels could not possibly have been responsible in the slightest for the warming of the climate.

Any decline in the glaciers today is measured in feet per year and we are told it is "human-induced"?

Can you imagine the hue and cry if we were seeing this type of decline in these glaciers today and what it would be attributed to?

It is actually quite remarkable how pervasive the climate change propaganda narrative is used day in and day out without any regard to the facts.

And with almost no challenge based on real facts.

Instead, we hear about models.projections and forecasts. 

There is almost no one that ever looks at the historical record or actual facts.

The narrative is everything and it is clearly being used in support of a political agenda.

For example, consider this suburban Philadelphia weather forecast for August 9-18 that I saw recently.

74 degrees in August is VERY HOT?

Source: https://twitter.com/phillyrich1/status/1689228195243962369

Notice the use of the cactus to symbolize those extreme temps in suburban Philly. Nice touch!

Of course, with the tragic wildfire in Lahaina on the island of Maui in Hawaii last week we see once again that the opinion makers cannot miss the opportunity to let a crisis go to waste.

You can count on the The New York Times in times like this.

Has climate change turned lush Hawaii into a tinderbox of late?

That statement is not be supported by actual data that is collected and reported by the U.S. Drought Monitor time series.

It actually shows that Hawaii has recently been in one the the best periods it has been regrarding drought  conditions in the summer period looking back to the year 2000.

 

Source: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DmData/TimeSeries.aspx

The data does show that Maui was drier than many other areas of Hawaii recently.

However, there were no parts of Maui that were considered high risk drought areas (drought levels 3 or 4) the week of August 8.in 2023

Compare that to last year when almost 30% of Maui was in drought levels 3 or 4 at the same time.

This is all due to recent climate developments?

How about the summer of 2000 on Maui when the entire island was in drought conditions and two-thirds of it were levels 3 or 4?

I was in Lahaina, Maui last exactly seven years ago this week.

I took this photo of the giant banyan tree that graced the seaside park near the center of town at that time.

Banyan Tree, Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, August, 2016

The tree is still standing after last week's inferno although it was charred and traumatized by the flames.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/maui-wildfires-lahaina-banyan-tree-standing-hawaii/

Arborists expressed hope that it will generate new growth and produce buds on its branches according to a CBS News Report.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told CBS News the tree is "still breathing" and is absorbing water and producing sap, just not as much as it usually does. 

"It's like a burn victim itself," Green said. "Traumatized, much like the town." 

Yes, trees need water to survive. A big tree like that also needs sunlight.

However, what they need most is carbon dioxide.

That is the same thing that the climate change crazies want to massively reduce from our environment.

However, trees, vegetation and crops do not grow without CO2. 

For example, this little graphic shows the effect CO2 has on the growth of rice.

Credit: https://twitter.com/_ClimateCraze/status/1691076561611419648

This is the reason that many greenhouses that grow plants and vegetables pump carbon dioxide into the enclosure to accelerate growth.

How much of the earth's atmosphere is currently composed of carbon dioxide?

.04%.

Source: https://www.worldatlas.com/environment/how-much-carbon-dioxide-is-in-the-atmosphere.html

What is the latest scheme that Joe Biden and his climate alarmists want to do to stop climate change?

They are in the process of spending $3.7 billion of your tax dollars in a plan to vacuum carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and then store it.

Source:https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-37-billion-kick-start-americas-carbon-dioxide

Why?

I guess when crops start failing and trees begin to die they can then turn on the spigot and save us all.

Would it not be ironic if that banyan tree in Maui survived the fire but dies in the end due to a lack of CO2?

Undoubtedly, that would also be blamed on "human-induced climate change".

That is also what the Democrat Governor of Hawaii has placed the blame for the Maui fire on.

How could it be anything else?

Never mind that the local fire department left a small brush fire caused by a downed electrical wire claiming that it was 100% contained. It wasn't. 

Winds came off of the Maui mountains and whipped the smoldering embers into the inferno it became. Most citizens did not even receive a warning to evacuate from the the spread of the fire from government authorities. As a result, many were trapped to face the fire with no place to go.

Was it climate change or a government that failed the people?

Believe me when I tell you that we are living in a world day in which facts, reason, logic and any understanding of meteorological or human history mean nothing compared to the importance of the current political agenda.

Look no further than those glaciers I recently saw and the tragedy in Lahaina.

Heightened Expectations

I recently came across some interesting data on the dating preferences of females regarding male height.

This data was collected from preferences expressed on the online dating site Bumble as to the height of men women were willing to consider meeting.

We have heard the old adage that women prefer a man who is tall, dark and handsome.

The Bumble data suggests that the first attribute is true,

Credit: https://twitter.com/TheRabbitHole84/status/1684629709001490432

Almost 90% of women are willing to consider a guy who is 6'6" tall.

However, only 60% are willing to consider a 6 footer.

Losing one inch to 5'11' cuts the number of women who are interested down to 30%.

Only 15% of women are interested in men who are 5'8'' or 5'9".

The problem is that this is right at the average height level of American men.

In fact, women on Bumble are four times more likely to consider meeting a 7 footer as a guy who is 5'7".

Let's put that in perspective.

There are an estimated to be only 2,800 people on our planet of 7.5 billion people who are 7 feet in height or taller.

There are a couple of billion that measure between 5'6' and 5'10".

Here is the breakdown of heights of males in the United States per the latest CDC data.

Only about 15% of American men in the age 20-59 age group are 6 feet or taller.

It is lower in older ages.

Source:  https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_03/sr03-046-508.pdf

Might there be as small disconnect between expectations and reality here?

Here is the data for females age 20 and over.

The 50th percentile is right around 5'4"' for those in the 20-59 age group.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_03/sr03-046-508.pdf

Things That Make You Go Hmmm---August 11, 2023 Edition

Things that may cause you to scratch your head or at least say hmmmmm.

LBGTQ+

Is there something in our food, the water or the environment?

Or are we seeing the greatest example of social contagion in the history of the world?

Logic 101

I do not expect this point being brought up for discussion in a Logic 101 course at an Ivy League college.

Credit: https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1679980778292215811

Weighty Thoughts

I recently came across the CDC report on Anthropometric Reference Data for Adults and Children in the Untied States.

Simply stated, it is reference data on the height and weight for Americans sorted by age, gender and race.

This is the weight data at the 50th percentile for women ages 40-59 by race.

Black women are over 60 pounds heavier than Asian women in that age group.

Asians are also 35 pounds lighter than Whites.

These are the statistics for men so there is no suggestion that there is any bias in my reporting of the data.

What I also found interesting are the differences in weights between men and women at the median for those in the 40-59 age groups .

White males  +35.4 lbs

Black males   +10.6 lbs

Hispanic males. +28.1 lbs

Asian males.  +35.1 lbs

Height and body type clearly affect weight. This is why men are generally much heavier than women.

However, what explains why Black females are such an outlier in the data?

Feel free to weigh in.

Not So Souper News

What did happen?

Is it just a coincidence that in August 1971 Richard Nixon announced that the dollar would no longer be linked to gold?

Source: https://www.barrons.com/articles/gold-standard-dollar-dominance-bretton-woods-51628890861

Student Loans

Student loans will start accruing interest again in September and payments are required to start in October.

There has been a pause on interest and payment for 3-1/2 years.

The Jain Family Institute did a longitudinal study on the extent to which student borrowers made progress in paying off their loans that were outstanding in 2009 up through 2022.

There are some pretty stark differences in who made efforts to pay the loans off compared to who did not.

Credit: The New York Times

Which groups do the Democrats absolutely need to carry in order to win in 2024?

Women, Blacks and young college-educated voters.

Any questions as to what is driving Biden's executive orders on student debt forgiveness?

Best of Twitter (Now X)

Human beings are incredibly creative.

One of the great benefits of social media sites such as Twitter X is it allows humans to showcase their creativity and unique perspectives to a wide audience.

It often provides some humor or insight that we would not have gotten without the reach of this tool.

Here are a few tweets that I came across this year that measured up based on those standards.

Don't I wish that I had the smarts, wit or insight to think to put some of these together.

Roseanne Barr and Madonna.

 

You have to love Elon. A genius with a keen sense of humor.

Elon again. Right on point.

The five levels of wealth

What will we tell our children about the climate crisis?

Russian invaders vs. Illegal Alien invaders

It's science, Dr. Fauci.

The Best and Brightest Minds on Wall Street.

 

Joe Biden says we will power the United States with 100% clean energy in 2035.

What would Walt Disney say?

One Stop Shopping.

Give me credit for one.

When I Grow Up I Want To Be A CEO? NBA Player?

We hear a lot about how executive compensation for CEO's is out of control and unwarranted.

It is argued that it is inequitable that so few individuals can earn so much.

30 CEO's of the 500 companies that are in the S&P 500 index on the New York Stock Exchange made at least $30 million last year. 

This was reported in an article in The Wall Street Journal in July.

Hers is an excerpt from the compensation list down to and just beyond the $30 million income level.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/meet-the-ceos-who-pull-in-more-than-100-million-a-year-8409afe0

Notice that the CEO's of Cisco Systems ($53 billion in revenues, 79,500 employees), T-Mobile ($80 billion in revenues, 75,000 employees) and General Motors ($157 billion in revenues, 155,000 employees) did not break the $30 million level.

By contrast, here is the list of NBA players who made at least $30 million this past season.

It numbers 39.

I am not sure how many on this list could manage a $50+ billion or 75,000+ employees.

I do know that they are among the world's greatest athletes.

NBA players have to possess elite quickness,  agility, jumping ability and eye to hand coordination for starters.

It does not hurt to be 6'6" or taller and have a wing span that is even longer.

Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/salaries/_/year/2023/seasontype/4

Yes, more NBA players made at least $30 million in compensation in the last year than did the CEO's of the largest public companies in the United States.

Next season the number of players making at least $30 million is expected to increase to  44 based on contracts already in effect.

What is also worth noting is that almost every player on this list is African-American or an immigrant from another country.

I believe Gordon Hayward is the only White American-born player on this list that is making at least $30 million.

What does all of this tell us?

Could it be there is no better place in the world for economic opportunity than in the United States of America for minorities, immigrants or natural born citizens?

Could it be that the natural forces of supply and demand bring about the best allocation of resources and results?

Could it be that there are fewer 6'6'' and taller men who can jump through the roof and hit shots from 30 feet than Harvard MBA's suited to run a large company?

Could it be that there is not as much economic injustice in the United States as is stated when you see data like this?