Monday, November 18, 2019

I'm Surprised It's Not Higher

More than a third of Ph.D. students have sought help for anxiety or depression caused by Ph.D. study, according to results of a global survey of 6,300 students from Nature.
Thirty-six percent is a very large share, considering that many students who suffer don’t reach out for help. Still, the figure parallels those found by other studies on the topic. A 2018 study of mostly Ph.D. students, for instance, found that 39 percent of respondents scored in the moderate-to-severe depression range. That’s compared to 6 percent of the general population measured with the same scale.

Nature’s survey of graduate students of different backgrounds and fields is its fifth in a decade. It asked about a range of issues, from planned career paths to work hours to overall program satisfaction. But the data on mental health, including a question asked of all respondents for the first time this year, are particularly alarming -- even as they add to our vital understanding of a serious problem.


“Sadly, the findings are very in line with what we hear, and what we ourselves experience,” said Kaylynne M. Glover, director of legislative affairs at the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students, an advocacy organization.

Calling graduate education “systemically abusive,” Glover said it's “a problem that crosses cities and cultures, and it affects students from low-income and marginalized backgrounds the worst.”
Graduate students are the infantry of academia; thrust out on foot to take an objective or die (wash out). Intelligent and obsessive (at least for the most part), with a goal that's often indeterminately far in the future, and with their ability to use the degree once it's attained often uncertain, it's a wonder that any of us survived with our sanity intact.

Why, I haven't had a student dream in weeks.
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Monday Morning Russiagate

Gah; too much already; First from sundance and CTH, John Ratcliffe discusses race between the House impeachment and the  coming IG Report: “The Inspector General is going to have to find that there were things that were done wrong”…


and Doug Collins -vs- Maria Bartiromo – Interview Brushes Up Against FISA Reauthorization…
Representative Doug Collins appears with Maria Bartiromo and points out a position on FISA reauthorization that is hopefully carried by the majority of Republicans. Collins states an approach where he, perhaps others, would advance a “short-term” FISA extension pending a full review of the upcoming FISA report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz, prior to any longer term reauthorization.

FISA-702 authority, bulk U.S. person metadata collection, storage and surveillance, is set to terminally expire December 15th. The last FISC report from Judge Boasberg stated that all violations of FISA law are still ongoing and there have been no substantive corrections by the intelligence community to fix the abuse issues. The Judge Boasberg report was written in September of 2018 but not released (redacted) until last month. {Go Deep}

The Intelligence Community (writ large), the FBI and the DOJ are all seeking a permanent reauthorization. In my humble opinion this FISA reauthorization is the cornerstone motive for an IG report delay. There is an alignment of interests.
From Twitchy,  ‘Had concerns about Vindman’s judgment’: Byron York breaks down Tim Morrison’s transcript and it AIN’T lookin’ good for Schiff, It looks like Vindman was trying to make mountains out of molehills. Thanks to Schiff, he succeeded. Dan Flynn at AmSpec, Democracy Dies in Darkness — Speak the Whistleblower’s Name. At this point, the media is pretending not to know, and Democrats are pretending to believe them. From Elizabeth Vaughn at Red State, FOIA Emails: Eric Ciaramella, Victoria Nuland Received Regular Updates From Top Official at Soros’ Open Society Foundations. Look for coded orders.

OAN, New Documents Allege Millions Went To Biden’s And Kerry’s Firm. The original John Kerry and his son. Apparently he was not content with Theresa's ketchup money. Tom Lifson, AmThink,
Dems' star witnesses bungle Hunter Biden's Burisma bounty
but according to Althouse "An overwhelming 70% of Americans think President Donald Trump’s request to a foreign leader to investigate his political rival... was wrong..." ABC News reports on its new poll. Was Sondland acting on Trumps orders to encourage an investigation? Politico, Sondland said he was acting on Trump’s orders, aide told investigators. I would hope so! Little Timmy also claimed White House Official Feared Trump Transcript Leak Could Be Politically Damaging according to Adam Schiff's latest leak. We even heard that Trump talked to Bolton about Ukraine. Imagine that. Impeach Trump for talking to his advisers!

Rabbi Fischer at AmSpec, Did You Know This About Marie Yovanovitch? An Obama holdover with anti-Trump biases of long standing. I have no problem believing it, but I wish the Republicans would come up with some evidence or witnesses. Andy McCarthy at NR Breaks Down the Fallout from Marie Yovanovitch’s Testimony
The president’s camp is the unapologetic source of the whispering campaign. They depict a very different Yovanovitch: a partisan deep-state operator, who abetted and covered up Ukrainian collusion with Democrats in the 2016 campaign. On Friday, that alternative view was the dog that never barked.
On Elise Stefanic, Yahoo whines that Stefanik embraces spotlight at impeachment hearings.  John Hinderocker Power Line, thinks She Must Have Hit a Nerve, for Democrats to post a photoshopped picture of her flipping off the camera. Democrats are all nerves and no brains. Scott Johnson, also at Power Line, Please Support Elise Stefanic.
Her Democratic opponent is fundraising off Rep. Stefanik’s stellar performance and she is taking incoming such as the vile tweet from one George Conway noted in Ryan Saavedra’s Daily Wire story “‘ABUSIVE CREEP’: George Conway Blasted For Smearing Elise Stefanik With Alleged Doctored Image, Calling Her ‘Trash.’” Brit Hume responded in his understated style that should be sufficient to shame those who can be shamed (tweet below, also included in Saavedra’s compilation).
Nick Arama at Red State, CNN Contributor Claims Doctored Pic of Stefanik Is ‘Believable’
Twitchy again, Our ‘moral betters’ like Joan Walsh and Chrissy Teigen show us who they REALLY are in tweets to Elise Stefanik
The only good Chrissy Teigen is a naked Chrissy Teigen (NSFW).  Victory Girls, The Knives Are Out For Elise Stefanik and Erielle Davidson:
And, of course, more random impeachment nonsense:

I’m Sorry, Is Impeachment Not Entertaining Enough for You?

Impeachment Hearings Are Boring. No One Cares. Get Over It.

The Democrats Aren’t Fooling Anyone | Power Line

Schiff: Democrats will send "charlatan" Trump back to golden throne

IG report will be an indictment of Adam Schiff: Rep. Ratcliffe - YouTube

Sunday Talks: Jim Jordan -vs- Margaret Brennan – Important Note: Media Given Leaked Sealed Transcripts from Friday Depositions… | The Last Refuge

Goodwin: Nancy Pelosi has gone full coup coup in Trump impeachment push

Peter Navarro: If Pelosi Could Pause the Impeachment, Congress Could Pass the USMCA… | The Last Refuge

Is the impeachment inquiry legitimate? – Stopping In Flyover Country

Victor Davis Hanson on the impeachment inquiry/coup – The New Neo

Fox News? More like Trump’s impeachment shield - Hot Air

Nancy Pelosi on "Face the Nation": Trump has "every opportunity to present his case" in impeachment inquiry - CBS News

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Some Warm Milk for Monday Morning



I'm not as offended as the author of the attached article; breast milk is clean and nutritious. But I'm not much of a milk drinker myself, and if I do drink it, I prefer it with chocolate.
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Sunday, November 17, 2019

Climategate: Ten Years After

It’s Officially the Tenth Anniversary of Climategate – and they’ve learned nothing
By Charles Rotter and Anthony Watts

From Charles:

It was ten years ago today that I personally first viewed the instructions to download the Climategate files from the anonymous Russian server. That set in motion a series of events still affecting the outcome of worldwide energy and environmental policy today. The whitewashers at the BBC, The Guardian, and elsewhere have started putting up their officially sanctioned narrative version, amounting to little more than nothing to see hear move along.

I wrote up my contemporaneous version of events here.

Anyone who wants to rebut claims of exoneration can use this Ross McKitrick paper for reference.

A couple of days ago we reposted Judith Curry’s excellent 10 year anniversary write up.

There’s little I can say that Dr. Curry does not touch upon, except for the fact that it is gratifying to see ideas we help disseminate echoing back to us via both traditional and social media.

At the time of the event, Patrick Courrielche did one of the best jobs covering it in the media.

His original three part series can be found here (part 1), here (part 2), and here (part 3)

Patrick also published an interview with Anthony Watts, Steve McIntyre, Steve Mosher, and myself earlier this year on his Redpilled America Podcast. It is excellent and worth a listen.
The Curry article is well worth the read.



From Anthony:

Coincidentally, 10 years ago today is not only the day that “Mr. FOI” released the files, it was (and is) WUWT’s birthday. On November 17th, 2006, I wrote my first post.

In November 2009, while Charles was holding the fort at WUWT and examining the emails left by “Mr FOI”, I was in Brussels at a climate skeptic conference being put on by Hans Lobohm.

I remember the first message I got from him: “You need to look at this!“. Then reading the emails, wide-eyed, and realizing I was about to go through security at the EU, I wondered about the timing….and told Charles that under no circumstances would we write anything about it or release it until I was back on U.S. soil. Then, after clearing customs at Dulles two days later, I sat down in the airport, and wrote the story, breaking the news on the 19th. I was literally the last person on the plane back to Sacramento, and in those days, WiFi on planes didn’t exist. So I was faced with over six hours of unknowing. Thoughts of “what have I done?” raced through my mind. See the “Red Pilled America” audio interview above for my personal recollections.

Luckily, James Delingpole picked up the story for his column, and it’s entry into the British newspaper The Telegraph started the chain reaction that made the story grow, becoming the “worst scientific scandal of our generation“.

Today, I look back, especially at the latest BBC “whitewash” of the issue, and I shake my head. These people, journos and climate scientists alike – have learned absolutely nothing. . . .
I was a catastrophic warming skeptic before Climategate, but Climategate crystallized my skepticism of the climate science cabal.
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More Research into Russiagate

NYPo, Roger Stone supporters push petition for presidential pardon
“We, the undersigned, respectfully request that the President of the United States grant a full and unconditional pardon to Roger Jason Stone Jr,” reads an official White House petition — which has now generated nearly 5,000 signatures.

It’s unclear who started the petition, with the creator only identified as “J.V.”

If the petition gets 100,000 signatures within 30 days, the White House will be forced to respond, according to the government’s official petition website.
Althouse echos Scott Adams:

I would be OK with a Stone pardon. Now John Brennan, that's another story GP, Brennan Sends President Trump Ominous Warning in the Middle of Schiff’s Impeachment Show Trial, ‘May Your Downfall be Swift’.

A generalization from "Bonchie" at Red State, Andrew Napolitano Has Been Wrong About Basically Everything.  Much like Paul Krugmann; always wrong, never in doubt.

A flashback from Rob Urie at Counter Punch, Impeachment, Brought to You by the CIA. Today from sundance at CTH, A Seditious Conspiracy – Lt. Col. Vindman, CIA “Whistleblower” Source #1, Shaped False Summary of April Trump-Zelensky Phone Call…

From ET, Official Linked to ‘Spygate’ Hatched Plan for Biden to Force Firing of Top Ukrainian Prosecutor
State Department Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland worked with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt in late 2015 to create a plan to force the firing of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, according to Kent. Nuland was also among a network of Obama administration officials involved in the distribution and recirculation of the infamous Steele dossier, the document used by the FBI to secure a maximally intrusive spy warrant to surveil a Trump-campaign associate.

“My understanding is that the conversations that were near-daily between Ambassador Pyatt and Toria Nuland regarding what to do on the way forward then included pitching the office of the Vice President to push President Poroshenko to remove Shokin,” Kent told lawmakers on Oct. 15.
They weren't pissed that he was a corrupt prosecutor; they were pissed he was prosecuting the wrong corruption; that involving children of American politicos. From Dan Sobieski at AmThink,Time to Subpoena Alexandra Chalupa
Now we find out, thanks to Tom Fitton and Judicial Watch that DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa, who worked with Hillary Clinton to get Ukraine dirt on Trump, visited the Obama White House 27 times and even had meetings with the alleged Ukraine whistleblower whose name dare not be spoken, Eric Ciaramella.

This is the whistleblower coached by Adam Schiff and who colluded with him, a deep-state CIA agent whom we are told might wet his pants out of fear if his identity was publicly acknowledged. Ironically, as I noted recently, in a major goof-up, Schiff forgot to redact Ciaramella’s name in a posted PDF of the transcript of Ambassador Bill Taylor’s testimony.

As Judical Watch notes in its recent press release:
Judicial Watch announced today analysis of Obama-era White House visitor logs that detail meetings of controversial CIA employee Eric Ciaramella, who had been assigned to the White House. Ciaramella reportedly was detailed to the Obama White House in 2015 and returned to the CIA during the Trump administration in 2017. The logs also reveal Alexandra Chalupa, a contractor hired by the DNC during the 2016 election who coordinated with Ukrainians to investigate President Trump and his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, visited the White House 27 times.
Judicial Watch noted that White House visitor logs revealed a number of individuals met with Eric Ciaramella while he was detailed to the Obama White House. A few examples paint a picture of WH involvement . . .
Ace, Hannity: I Predict "Masha" Yavonovich will "Cry on Cue" In Order to Give the Impeachment Some Soap Opera Drama - Day Two of Impeachment: Masha Yavonovich Cries on Cue, as Predicted
Devin Nunes actually brought a box of Kleenex tissues and had them positioned right to his front right in the hearings. I saw speculation that his plan was to gallantly offer Masha a tissue the moment she turned on the Made for TV waterworks.

Alas, he didn't.

This wasn't merely a prediction -- Free Beacon reported that Democrats really wanted "Masha" there to testify not because she had facts relevant to impeachment (she admitted that she knew nothing about the phone calls or aid hold-up) but only because she cried like a little girl in her deposition, and Reality TV producer Adam Schiff thought she'd make a good cast member for his show.
Tristan Justice at Da Fed, Marie Yovanovitch Admits There Was No Crime, No Bribery From Trump On Ukraine.  Dr. John at Flopping Aces, These are the three yuge stories out of yesterday’s Yovanovitch tear jerker and a star is born
One - Yovanovitch is forced by Chris Stewart to admit she knows nothing of any Trump crimes . . .

Two - She disclosed that the obama administration knew about the corruption Hunter Biden was engaging in and they prepped Yovanovitch for that. . .

Three - The investigation into Burisma corruption was not closed as Biden and democrats have been falsely asserting . . .
From Breitbart, Marie Yovanovitch Not Interested in Hunter Biden Corruption or Ukrainian Election Meddling and Marie Yovanovitch Compares Herself to Diplomats Killed in Benghazi. Matt Margolis at PJ Media, Obama Left An Ambassador to Die, But We’re Supposed to be Outraged Over Trump's Yovanovitch Tweet?. Politico whines that Trump attack on Yovanovitch exposes GOP's muddled impeachment defense

Of course, the real heroine of the Yovanovich hearing (from the right) and the villainess  from the left's perspective was Elise Stefanik. Althouse, WaPo acknowledges the rise of a new GOP star: "Elise Stefanik emerges in impeachment hearings as key Trump defender — and GOP celebrity."
The piece — by Mike DeBonis — begins with Stefanik's record as a "maverick" — voting against the 2017 tax bill and supporting LGBT rights and DACA. But at the impeachment hearings, we're told she's "a complete team player."
Ace, To the Democrats Marie, Not Elise, was yesterday's star. NYT via Hot Air, Elise Stefanik Emerges In Hearings As Key Trump Defender — And GOP Celebrity, which is not a good thing from their point of view.
“I think everything they did today was strategy,” said Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), one of three Democratic women on the committee. “She’s one of the newer members on the committee, and she’s a woman. . . . When they are badgering a female witness who is a career Foreign Service officer with an impeccable record, and they want to badger her, I think it’s a better look when a woman is taking the lead on that.”
Sundance, After Rep. Elise Stefanik Highlights Ambassador Yovanovitch False Statement – Stefanik Becomes a Target…. You know you're over the target when you're taking flak.

Reuters reports Support for Trump's impeachment unchanged after hearings begin. Only partisans are tuned in, and their opinions are pretty well fixed.

Sundance, House Releases Transcripts from Jennifer Williams and Tim Morrison Depositions…. and David Marcus at NYPo discusses Why Democrats still need secret hearings

Althouse, Politico chooses a head-on-a-platter photograph of Adam Schiff... ... for its "What Was Truly Unprecedented in This Week’s Impeachment Hearings?" article:

To hide his skinny neck? It's a good look on him.

Mickey Kaus at Da Kausfiles, The Maidan's Tail
We can start in 2013, in the Maidan, Kiev's central square, where demonstrators gathered to protest the decision by Ukraine's President, Viktor Yanukovych, to shift away from more integration with the European Union and instead accept a Russian bailout. The US foreign policy apparatus was clearly rooting for the protesters — and why not? They were the defenders (for the most part) of Euro-style civil society and human rights. Yanukovych was corrupt and pro-Russian. Who wouldn't want “Euromaidan” to prevail?

Senator John McCain soon showed up at the Maidan and gave a rousing speech. Our ambassador, Victoria Nuland, passed out cookies to the demonstraters (and plotted behind the scenes on the makeup of a post-Yanukovych government). Eventually, the protesters did win — in February 2014 when the police pulled back and Yanukovych fled Kiev. He was replaced in a parliamentary vote that was nevertheless short of what was required under the Ukraine constitution to impeach him. The parliament cited "circumstances of extreme urgency.” This was Ukraine's "Revolution of Dignity."

All in all, a triumph for the U.S. foreign policy bureaucracy (if you don't count Russia's reaction — invading Eastern Ukraine). But it had an unattractive anti-democratic aspect.  The Maidan protesters were not elected, after all. The president they took down was elected, to a term that ran into 2015. The protesters represented an appealingly Westernized urban constituency, yet — maybe I'm out of my depth here! — that didn't mean they were a majority. Ukraine is a big country.

But, within the foreign policy (“interagency”) world, these annoying thoughts could be safely buried. It's not the job of the State Department to observe every jot and tittle of another country's election laws. It's the job of the State Department to pursue U.S. interests. If that also involves meddling in another country's politics to a degree that would send Robert Mueller into permanent state of shock if Russia did it to us -- well, welcome to the world. . .
DiGENOVA: An "Impeachment" Constructed of Lies
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has been trying to overturn the 2016 election from day one, and he isn’t about to let something as trivial as the truth get in his way.

Schiff has pursued that aim relentlessly for the past three years, jumping from one conspiracy theory to another—from Russia to Ukraine, from tax returns to absurd “dossiers,” from Robert Mueller to Michael Avenatti, and back again. All the while, he has revealed his naked partisan motivations and portrayed himself as some kind of defender of truth.

In reality, everything about Schiff’s still-fruitless crusade against our duly-elected president is built on lies. The dishonesty runs back to the very beginning of the Trump presidency. Just one month after Inauguration Day, for instance, Schiff was gleefully reading juicy tidbits from the blatantly fraudulent Steele dossier into the Congressional Record . . . 

Linked by EBL in  Car Models.

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Perhaps She Should Try Venezuela

Latin Grammys 2019: Chilean singer Mon Laferte exposes her bare chest in political protest
Chilean musician Mon Laferte is making a political statement at the Latin Grammys.

The singer-songwriter, 36, exposed her bare chest  during the biggest night in Latin music Thursday in protest of police brutality in Chile.

While walking the red carpet in Las Vegas, Laferte stopped and opened her black jacket to reveal the phrase "En Chile torturan violan y matan" on her chest, which translates to "In Chile they torture, rape and kill."

That wasn't her only political statement of the night. Laferte won best alternative album for "Norma" at the Latin Grammys and dedicated her win to her home country.

"I want to thank my colleagues … and especially to the public, the people, the fans that are there; without people nothing could happen," she said during her acceptance speech.
Chile is no heaven on earth, but it's pretty mild by the standards Venezuela. Keep the protests alive!

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