Flotsam and Jetsam - A Day Without Balloons

At least none that we know about. But I can fix that. John Sexton at Haut Hare has  An update on the balloon saga, and sundance at CTH hosts the Biden regime's briefing, White House Holds UFO Press Briefing – 1:00pm ET Livestream. Also from sundance,  First Missile Fired From F-16 Over Lake Huron Missed – Military Has No Idea Where it Landed, so the idea that we're shooting them down over water to protect people, well ... Also, sidewinders cost $400k each, and we used two to shoot down what may be a piece of sky trash (a lost weather balloon). At Town Hall Matt Vespa explains  Why It Took More Than One Shot to Down the Unknown Object Over Lake Huron. No heat for a heat-seeking missile to seek? Also, White House NSC Spox John Kirby Says Pentagon Has No Idea What Objects They Shot Down and Still No Recovery of any Debris. At Hot Hare Jazz Shaw wonders How many UFOs will we (globally) shoot down this month? Or how many will they admit to? At NYPo, Non-Chinese US adversaries may have launched recent UFOs, ex-NORAD chief says and ‘No indication of aliens’ in spate of shoot-downs, White House claims. I guess I'm relieved. 

At PM, China claims US sent more than 10 spy balloons into country's airspace. It may be true, it may be false, or it may be an exaggeration. It's what countries do; they spy, if they think they can get away with it. I don't believe claims from any government at face value. The Peacock whines that Rep. Jim Himes says he has 'real concerns' about Biden administration's transparency on flying objects "Himes, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said he hopes the administration will move quicker "to tell us everything they do know" in an exclusive interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press,"  and at Breitbart, Dem Rep. Himes has ‘Real Concerns’ Biden Admin Not Being More Forthcoming with Intel. Noah Rothman at Commentary comments The Balloon Really Was a ‘Sputnik Moment.’ For those young people, the 'Sputnik Moment' was when the US first realized it was losing the space race with the Soviet Union putting the first satellite in orbit. 

At ET, Top Lawmaker Warns US Doesn’t Have an ‘Adequate Radar System’ After Flying Objects Shot Down. Yeah we do, we just have to turn up the gain. News Max notes China's Spy Balloon Has GOP Unwilling to Cut Defense Spending. There's plenty to cut, I'm sure; it's just getting both parties to agree that's the hold up. At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.13.23, EBL, What are all these objects flying into the USA and Canada?  CDR Salamander answers Sticks, Lasers, and Balloons, This Ain’t Hell, Car sized object shot down from Alaskan airspace, and Weasel Zippers, Chuck Schumer Says Red Chinese Spy Balloon Was Acceptable Because They Would’ve Gotten Intel Anyway and BattleSwarm, Peter Zeihan Thinks We Won The Great Balloon War. At Blaze, Top lawmaker reveals Chinese spy balloon 'did a lot of damage' — and he connects the dots of its flight path. Althouse notes that in the media's mind, The really serious threat: Republican questioning President Joe Biden’s leadership. "I'm reading "A trio of new intrusions leaves America’s leaders grasping for explanations" by Stephen Collinson (CNN)."

At Breitbart, Chris Christie claims Republicans Made ‘Big Mistake’ Heckling Biden at State of the Union. Ben Bartee at PJ Media is Reading the Tea Leaves: Why Is Nancy Pelosi Hardcore Endorsing Biden for 2024? Hans von Spakovsky at Da Signal is worried that ‘Conservatives Need Not Apply’ Under Biden Administration’s Proposed Hiring Rules. Sister Toldja Red State hears Jill Biden Earns Fitting New Nickname After Eagles Lose Super Bowl, "“Dr. Jinx.” Heh. 

At PJ Media VIP, VodkaPundit peers Inside the GOP Plot to Stop Donald Trump... Or Will He Do the Job Himself? Nate Cohn atNYT worries Ron DeSantis Is Not Scott Walker "His support among Republicans at this early stage of the primary cycle puts him in rare company." Insty, I LIKED SCOTT WALKER, BUT YEAH: “What sets Mr. DeSantis apart from Mr. Walker? To be blunt: how many people already say they want him to be president.”  At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.13.23 Twitchy, Laura Loomer’s Lame Attack On Casey DeSantis Fact-Checked Into Oblivion, and BattleSwarm, Haley? No. Pence? No. Pompeo? No. Sununu? No. Duane Patterson at Hat Hair VIP makes The case for and against Nikki Haley for president. It doesn't matter; she won't be. Ace, Chris Sununu, Larry Hogan, and Trump Are All Piling on "Meatball Ron" "I know polls mean nothing, especially this far out, but a New York Post poll finds that DeSantis beats Trump head-to-head, but Trump beats DeSantis as long as there are other non-Trump candidates in the race to split the non-Trump vote. Like that idiot Nikki Haley."

Insty at his gig at NYPo says John Fetterman really wasn’t fit for the Senate — but the press still pretends. But as long as he can understand hand gestures and push the right button on his Senate desk, they don't care. From  the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.13.23 The Fed, Sam Lenett thinks John Fetterman Is A Danger To Himself, but, hey, it's his life. Also, Margot Cleveland warns Democrats’ Unconstitutional Crusade To Disbar Texas AG Ken Paxton Shows How Far They’ll Go To Win Elections. FEE explains Why Mandatory Voting Would Make Democracy Worse, Not Better, forcing the morons to set policy.

From  the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.13.23, Victory Girls on Chest Binders: Every School Counselor Has One, CDC Warns Of Teen Girls Experiencing Violence And Hopelessness and Spence Dalke at Da Fed reports Smeared Colorado School District By MSNBC For Refusing To Teach Kids To Hate Each Other Hits Back. 

Bill Spruance at Brownstone worries The Covid Coup Attacked the Right to Travel.

John Schindler at WaEx explains The Albanian shakedown: A new twist in the FBI’s Charles McGonigal scandal. At the Stream, Are the Feds Targeting Catholics? Only the sincere ones. From  the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.13.23 Adam Piggott says The FBI know that TLM Catholics are the Real Deal, also, The Regime does indeed Fear the TLM. At NewsMax, Dershowitz to Newsmax: FBI Must Tread Carefully With Religion. Sundance is unhappy that New York City Sent the Fingerprints of Unvaccinated Employees to FBI for Tracking and Registration.

Breaking 911, Biden Fires Architect of Capitol After Backlash Over Report That Found Abuse Of Office. Insty, CHANGE: Biden Fires Architect of the Capitol Amid Unethical-Behavior Allegations.

[Brett] Blanton’s firing comes after an Office of Inspector General report released in October found that he regularly commandeered government vehicles from the federal agency for personal use, costing taxpayers almost $14,000. Blanton used the cars for trips as far away as Florida and South Carolina, according to the report.

On another occasion, Blanton told Fairfax County police officers that he was a member of law enforcement while trying to pursue a suspect in a hit-and-run crash that took place near his house, according to the report.. . .

More details from AP: “At a House hearing last week, Blanton also came under fire when he testified that he was not at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack because it was a ‘telework’ day under COVID-19 protocols. He also faced fierce questions about Capitol tours he allowed and sometimes conducted despite pandemic restrictions.”

'Bonchie' at Red State observes James Clapper Runs From His 2020 Election Interference, Jonathan Turley Drags Him in Response. Dan Chaitin at Da Wire, Former Spy Chief Accuses POLITICO Of Distorting Letter On Hunter Biden Laptop and saying what he wanted them to say. Althouse, "There was message distortion. All we were doing was raising a yellow flag that this could be Russian disinformation." ""Politico deliberately distorted what we said. It was clear in paragraph five." Said former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., quoted by the WaPo fact checker Glenn Kessler in "The Hunter Biden laptop and claims of 'Russian disinfo.'" Ace, James Clapper: I Didn't Lie About the Laptop Being RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION. I "Merely" Said It Might Be RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION. It Was the Media (Who Now Employs Me) Which Deliberately Lied About My Words and Took the Nuance Out of Them. "The media, such as CNN, your employer?"  Glenn Greenwald@ggreenwald, "If you're at CNN and you're upset most of the country hates you and places no trust in what you say, start here."You earned that contempt. The most basic rule of journalism is you apologize and retract when you spread false claims. Your refusal to do so is why you deserve this. And, Glenn Greenwald@ggreenwald Every word in this October 17, 2020 interview with James Clapper on CNN by @ErinBurnett - every word - is false. Even if they didn't know it then, they know it now. Yet CNN never once told its audience this was false or explained how they spread false claims before the election." Also at Althouse, Edward Snowden keeps trying to get people to watch this video.

Almost six million people watched this. https://t.co/shyAKE8kTV

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 12, 2023

At Twitchy, Glenn Greenwald marvels as MSM, political establishment hurl each other under bus over Hunter Biden. At Judicial Watch, Judicial Watch: Secret Service Official: ‘Maybe We Were Asked for A Favor?’ in Investigation of Hunter Biden’s Gun, at a time when the Biden's weren't under SS protection. Dan Chaitin at Da Wire, James Comer Says Hunter Biden Probe Critical For ‘Legislative Fix’. BUT TRUMP! ABC Lobbies James Comer to Investigate Trump Family (New Busters).

PJ Media's Matt Margolis snarks Biden's Classified Documents Scandal Keeps Getting Bigger as WaEx reports Biden attorneys helped transfer previously unknown 'boxes' of files from Boston law office, emails show.

At RCP, Matt Taibbi: "Twitter Files" Reveal The Structure Of The Relationship Between Social Media Companies And FBI Requests For Censorship. 

Scott Johnson at Power Line has A Twitter Files footnote (8)  Capt. Ed comments "It’s the old “who you gonna believe, me or your own lying documentation” gambit. And it’s every bit as pathetic as Scott argues. There is a concerted effort to keep this from becoming a larger national story than it already is, and thus far that effort is succeeding. That makes the national media just as pathetic, and exposes them as corrupt, too." At Reason, Can the Feds Prosecute Douglass Mackey for His Twitter Trolling?. Capt. Ed, "Color me skeptical as well. This appears to me to be a way to reverse-engineer legitimacy to the FBI, DoJ, and DHS efforts to censor speech on social media platforms." Andrea Stroppa  Claudius Nero's Legion "@andst7 But..But…they said..… Elon Musk@elonmusk "Replying to @farzyness "This is the highest Q1 Twitter usage ever and that is after most fake accounts have been suspended" Twitchy reports Adam Kinzinger TATTLING on Elon Musk for ‘not being on the side of Ukraine’ BACKFIRES hilariously.

At Behind the Black, A real blacklist designed to choke ad profits from conservative and legitimate news organizations. Ace, Confirmed: "Disinformation" Groups Are Creating Lists of "Reprehensible" Sites Which Advertisers Then Use to Blacklist Conservative Sites, Starving Them of Revenue
And the Government Is Funding This, "A Basket of Deplorable Websites." But NewsMax reports Microsoft Removes 'Negative Flags' for Conservative Sites. Sunlight works. 

Da Mail lists The nine shocking replies that highlight 'woke' ChatGPT's inherent bias - including struggling to define a woman, praising Democrats but not Republicans and saying nukes are less dangerous than racism and yet, as Jazz Shaw at Hat Hair notes MSNBC denies ChatGPT's wokeness. to be fair, it's probably not as left-wing as they are.

Linked at 357 Magnum in the Wednesday Roundup of Link Roundups - 15 February.

The Wombat is a day late and a dollar short with Rule 5 Monday: Rebecca Bagnol.

Happy Valentines Day!

The Wombat is a day late and a dollar short with Rule 5 Monday: Rebecca Bagnol.

New Maryland Bill Would Force Counties to Make "Climate Crisis Plans"

 WTOP, Maryland lawmakers want local governments to prepare climate crisis plans

As state agencies begin implementing the ambitious Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022, which confronts the effects of global warming in multiple ways, two lawmakers are back with a bill they floated last year to require counties to put together a climate crisis plan, outlining how they’d prepare for and respond to emergencies.

Advocates for the bill say it’s even more necessary now that the statewide law is in effect and argue that the legislation dovetails with provisions of Climate Solutions Now.

“This is just an opportunity to ensure that our local communities participate in the much broader requirements laid out in the climate bill,” said Sen. Ben Kramer (D-Montgomery), who is sponsoring the local climate crisis plan mandate in the Senate.

But while the legislation has been embraced by environmental groups, it’s facing stiff resistance from the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) — and the often-combative Kramer is engaging in a war of words with the large and venerable organization that represents the state’s 23 counties and Baltimore.

“There is an element of ‘the sky is falling’ with the bill opponents, with those who are going to cry that implementation of this bill is going to cost zillions of dollars,” Kramer said during a hearing Thursday of the Senate Committee on Education, Energy and the Environment. “There’s nothing in the bill that says [the counties] have to implement anything. They just have to plan and make estimates for what those costs are going to be.”

The bill would require all 23 counties and the city of Baltimore to prepare a climate crisis plan and submit it to the Maryland Department of the Environment for review by June 1, 2024.

The legislation lays out 15 criteria for local officials to consider in their analysis, including how to increase the county’s use of renewable energy across multiple sectors; how to decrease greenhouse gas emissions; preparing an inventory of the infrastructure that’s most vulnerable to climate destruction; establishing adaptation strategies; and estimating the cost for all the necessary policy changes and preparations.

The upside, Kramer said, is that each jurisdiction can design its own crisis preparation and adaptation plan without adopting a “one-size-fits-all solution,” while at the same time gearing up for certain mandates laid out in the broader climate legislation.

“In Allegany and Garrett [counties], coastal flooding is not an issue,” Kramer said. “But ski resorts that bring in all the revenue and attract the people to come in have to worry about the lack of snowfall. The idea here is each jurisdiction has a role to play in addressing the climate crisis.”

The bill’s House sponsor, Del. David Fraser-Hidalgo (D-Montgomery), said the legislation merely asks every jurisdiction to prepare for the worst.

“Whatever you’re doing in your life, it’s always better to have a plan and never need to use the plan than it is to be caught in a situation where you’re panicked because you’ve never actually thought about what you need to do and then you’re caught flat-footed,” he said.

The bill, Fraser-Hidalgo added, asks local leaders to contemplate questions like, “What do you do with increased water? What do you do with increased heat? What do you do with all the issues associated with climate change?”

The whole idea is dumb. Counties should be planning for the future in any case, and making their own evaluations of what they think the problems the future will bring, whether it's too much or too little rain, snow or sleet, or those damn tourists from Washington D.C. There is no climate crisis not of the climate mongers imaginations. Sea levels are not rising fast than they have in the last 100 years, any warming trends are in the fractions of a degree per century. There are no apparent increases in "climate" (really weather) related damage to lives or property, corrected for population, they have declined.

But MACo and lawmakers from smaller jurisdictions are sounding the alarm about the potential costs — even of preparing a study.

“There’s a big difference between the bigger counties and the smaller counties,” said Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore). “This is a tremendous lift for smaller counties.”

Carozza said that when she saw that the estimated cost of preparing a climate crisis plan could be about $500,000 for smaller counties, “I almost fell out of my seat.” (Larger counties have estimated greater costs.)

Kramer replied that local governments should have the in-house expertise to prepare the climate plans.

“Nothing says you have to go out there and hire high-priced consultants,” he said.

Even so, I presume the people already have something to do, or they would not be there. Adding this to the long list of stuff to get done either requires shorting something else, or hiring more people. And that may just be the real goal of this legislation, to create more jobs that depend on the whipping of the climate horse.

No, Just No

Masks Off!

Ace, NPR Pushes The Idea That There Are "Some Places" -- Leftwing Enclaves Controlled by Hysterical Obese Karens -- Where We Must "Mask Forever"

Literal state media.

There are still hundreds of thousands of COVID cases reported in the U.S. each week, along with a few thousand deaths related to COVID.

But with mask mandates a thing of the past and the national emergency health declaration that will expire in May, we are in a new phase of the pandemic.

Life looks a little more normal here in the U.S. than it did a few years ago, but decisions on how to deal with the virus aren't over yet.

China had a huge increase in cases last month after abandoning its zero COVID policy, and another variant prompted renewed recommendations in some airports. Researchers estimate that more than 65 million people are struggling with the effects of COVID -- a disease we still have to learn about.

 

Wondering if and when you should still be masking up? NPR asked some experts.

Some experts that NPR was pretty sure would agree with their Mask Forever Protocol.

Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says he and his wife are still playing it conservatively. He cautions people to stay "careful, not carefree."

He says that "older" people and the immunocompromised should still wear masks.

Nowhere in this article, by the way, is there any acknowledgement that masks have repeatedly found to be ineffective against "stopping the spread."

The masks were a quick, and largely useless response to the demand that we do something, anything about WuFlu. They became a shibboleth, a class and political marker. 

The Wombat is a day late and a dollar short with Rule 5 Monday: Rebecca Bagnol.

Flotsam and Jetsam - And that Makes Four

Only 95 left to go? The Peacock, U.S. military shoots down unidentified object over Lake Huron. "Pentagon says it hasn't determined the nature and purpose of the last 3 objects taken down, which it declines to describe as balloons." NRO, U.S. Military Shoots Down Unidentified Airborne Object over Michigan. Sundance at CTH sees verbal evidence of a dogfight in UFO Shootdown #4 – U.S. Military Shoot Down Another UFO Over Lake Huron, "Canada Minister of defense said they “defeated” object.  Strange choice of words."  The Drive, F-16 Shoots Down “Octagonal Object” Over Lake Huron. At Da Caller, Pentagon On ‘Heightened Alert’ As Fourth Unidentified Aerial Object Shot Down Near Michigan, NORAD Commander Says. Citizens Freep, U.S. Military shoots down ‘high-altitude’ object over Lake Huron in Michigan… At Da Wire, Top U.S. Air Force General Makes Shocking Remarks About Unidentified Objects Shot Down By U.S. Military "When asked if the U.S. military had ruled out an extraterrestrial origin for the unidentified objects, VanHerck responded: “I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything.”" 'Bonchie' at Red State thinks he hears Pentagon Confirms Shot-Down Objects Aren't Balloons, Makes an Even Weirder Admission: Disclose.tv@disclosetv "JUST IN - Pentagon does not know to what keeps these "objects" aloft, unknown propulsion systems. "We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason," says U.S. Air Force General Glen VanHerck." This appears to have been the same object seen on radar over Montana they day previous, that they were unable to locate in the dark. Althouse, It was a UFO... so... aliens? Emerald Robinson@EmeraldRobinson, "When CIA mouthpiece @NatashaBertrand starts pushing UFO's, that's when you know: it's a totally false story." Insty. I’M NOT SAYING IT’S ALIENS, BUT: How Bad Is It? Biden Team Issuing ‘Private Assurances’ It’s Not Aliens. Stephen Kruiser at PJ Media thinks Biden's WWIII Balloon Confusion Is Really Getting Weird. On Sunday Talks Sundance at CTH features House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, Mike McCaul, Discusses Ongoing Sky Battles with UFO’s – The Best Way to Defeat Them Is More Money for Ukraine. At Da Wire, Astronomers Say Chinese Satellite Beamed Green Lasers Over Hawaii.

Jonathan Tobin at WaEx, Ron Klain and the demise of moderate Democrats. At Anxious, Josh Kraushaar is anxious about Dems' 2024 disconnect.  Twitchy, Dom Lucre takes a stroll down Biden’s RACIST AF memory lane in receipt-filled, MERCILESS thread. Insty, TOP BIDEN LEGAL ADVISER SAYS ELECTION WAS STOLEN. The Truth About Guns, Does Anyone Think Biden’s Seen the Latest Polls on Support for Gun Control? Anyone? I&I, ICYMI: Biden Just Admitted He’s Responsible For Today’s Energy Crisis. Justin Haskins at Front Page highlights Biden’s Biggest Lie at the State of the Union Address "The data and common sense tell a very different story." Josiah Lippincott at Am Great is worried about Biden’s Bombing "The deeper meaning of the American attack on the Nord Stream pipeline." I'm waiting to be convinced. KT at Haut Hair cynically notes New Communications Director at White House checks an important identity box: Greg Price@greg_price11 "Jean-Pierre: "Ben [LaBolt] is making history. Here at the Biden White House, representation matters. He will be the first openly gay communications director." Are we supposed to be shocked when they install another gay guy? At 1945 Peter Suciu thinks Donald Trump And Joe Biden Have The Same Big Problem, "Donald Trump and Joe Biden Should Both Fear Ron DeSantis – Here’s Why" In Sunday Talks, Sundance features. Likely 2024 Candidate Chris Sununu Waxes Philosophically About the Value of “Free Market Conservatism,” the Policies That Created The Rustbelt. Sununu won't be President.

Anna Paulina Luna

Matt Vespa at Town Hall Latest Update on Fetterman's Health Raises a Key Question. Can he function? Probably not, but he can vote the party line. WaPoo continues its line of attack on Texas Republican Anna Paulina Luna for heresy, The making of Anna Paulina Luna "Luna’s sharp turn to the right, her account of an isolated and impoverished childhood, and her embrace of her Hispanic heritage have surprised some friends and family who knew her before her ascent to the U.S. House this year." They're no longer accusing her of outright lying, just shading the truth.

Stacy McCain likes how  Vince Dao Wrecks Liberals by — Wait for It — Denying Genetic Determinism

Vince Dao is a young Christian conservative college student in Florida who has a YouTube channel. He somehow got invited onto a panel discussion by Vice in which the subject was anti-Asian bias and the “model minority” stereotype. Everybody else on the panel was some kind of woke leftist, dressed like slobs, and Dao shows up in a suit and tie and starts dishing out hard truths. Video clips went viral this week.

. @benshapiro reacting to my VICE Panel:

“I love the faces of the people around him. He’s saying perfectly obvious things.” pic.twitter.com/HKsk2tS2qR

— Vince Dao Media (@VinceDaoMedia) February 10, 2023

Jazz Shaw at Haut Hare hears a New Hampshire school district bans... urinals? "The district had previously allowed students to use the bathrooms (but not the showers or locker rooms) based on their gender “identity” rather than their actual gender. But in response to protests by parents, they moved to reverse the rule and restrict bathroom access based on biological sex. This conflict called for a “compromise” by the board, which then decided to stick with the biological sex rule, but they blocked the use of urinals by anyone. (No… don’t ask me what they were thinking. I have no idea.) The following is from the Associated Press . . ." 

Victory Girls find Salon Sunday Ridiculousness: Why Children Should Vote. Because it would help Democrats, of course. At Am Think M.B. Mathews thinks The GOP will win by making voting harder for everyone

It should be mandatory that:

• Voting should be on a single day and in person
• Photo ID must be required to vote
• Signature and address must be checked against a database. If the address is not valid, no vote.
• Mail in ballots should be permitted only for the disabled, those overseas, and the military. Proof of any of those things must be required before sending a ballot.
• Oversight at every polling place by registered overseers of both parties should be zealously administered.
• Paper ballots; we know enough now to realize that electronic voting presents myriad validation problems and in fact, flips votes from Republican to Democrat if so programmed, which is not hard for any 14-year-old miscreant to do. This was unearthed in the last election by hundreds of disenfranchised voters who were told to “file a form.”
• No votes will be counted after midnight of election day, and no halting or slowing of the vote count for any reason other than an H-bomb shall take place.
• In the event that mail-in voting doesn't go away, the GOP should mobilize a D-Day-sized operation to use mail-ins to their advantage. They had better learn how now, not six months from now.

 Insty, OUCH:

I am so honored to have so many protesters — made up of nasty women who watch the view and their “low-T” husbands — here in Idaho!

Privilege of a lifetime. pic.twitter.com/fSASd1L8MM

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) February 12, 2023

Da Blaze reminds us New York City teachers who refused COVID vaccine had their fingerprints sent to FBI and New York Criminal Justice Services. Based Politics features Ron Paul’s 25-year-old warning about the FBI. At PI Rusty Weiss finds Biden Claims Public Isn’t Interested In Investigation of His Son Hunter, but the Public Says Otherwise.

At BPR, ‘Absurd’: Turley dismantles DWS attack on his credibility to testify on govt. censorship. Sundance thinks this is Likely A Worthwhile Endeavor – Matt Taibbi Looking for Research Help. I do too. Nick Arama at Red State, has a HOT TAKE: Hilarious Liberal Meltdown Over Who Elon Musk Sat Next to at Super Bowl. Billionaires hang out with other billionaires; who'da thunk? Vicky Marshall at Da Fed notes an Exposé Reveals Shadowy Left-Wing Network Works To Censor, Deplatform Conservatives.

John Hawkins, Is ChatGPT Going to Break Capitalism? "Short answer: Yes" We know ChatGPT is liberal, because it was trained by liberals. It even has the morality of a liberal, at Da Wire, ChatGPT Makes Up An Academic Paper To Push Radical Gender Theory, Professor Says. 

A university professor accused the popular AI software ChatGPT of fabricating an academic paper to push radical gender theory. Nick Flor, a professor of information systems at the University of New Mexico, posted a tweet on Friday experimenting with the software, which has been shown to harbor a liberal bias. While chatting with the AI, it claimed that the belief that gender is complex is widely accepted by scientists, then cited a paper that didn’t exist to back up its claim. Flor accused the AI’s programmers of gaslighting the public to push radical gender theory.

The Monday Morning Stimulus

Leslie Eastman at Legal Insurrection, Study Claims People Need to Battle Climate Change by…Drinking Less Coffee "No one appears to take the research or the conclusions seriously."

The Wombat is a day late and a dollar short with Rule 5 Monday: Rebecca Bagnol.

MDDNR Sinks Boat

To add to a reef: WTOP, Boat sinks in Chesapeake Bay — on purpose

Scientists from Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources took a more than 50-foot long abandoned yacht made out of concrete, had it towed away from the harbor where it had sat untouched for the last several decades, and sunk it off the northern tip of Kent Island.

“The Love Point site is about a 50-acre square” if you’re looking at a map, said Mike Malpezzi, the coordinator of the artificial reef program. About a quarter of that site is filled with chunks of concrete and rock to serve as an artificial reef.

“It provides instant, hard-bottom habitat,” he said. “Oysters, barnacles, mussels, that sort of thing, they live by attaching on to hard (surfaces), rocks or oyster shells and things like that. They can’t live just on sand or mud.”

Over time, a lot of those habitats have been destroyed, and Malpezzi said “this is a way to put some of that habitat back very quickly.”

All those filter feeds — barnacles and mussels — will help filter the water of the bay.

“It’ll also act as habitat for a lot of juvenile fish,” said Malpezzi. “They’ll seek out the structure to hide and they can eat bits of algae and little bits of food that cling to the structure. Once you have a bunch of little fish hanging around you’ll also get big fish that come around to try and eat the little fish. So you’ll get larger game fish.”

Crabs might also hide under the sunken boat on the bottom in the hopes of avoiding predators, while ambushing other organisms that go crawling by.

The unique features of this abandoned boat, namely the fact that it’s made with a special type of concrete, proved to be the perfect fit for this type of project. Most of the time, Malpezzi said he has to reject offers people make to use their old boats in similar manners.

“This boat was actually pretty special,” said Malpezzi. “This boat was larger than most that I’ve been seeing. It was pretty well built. Despite being rather old it was in really good shape.”

I fished Love Point a few times with Pete when he was commercial hook and line fishing. The place is a zoo in summer; it's close to Annapolis and a lot of other popular boating areas, and it tends to hold fish when other places kind of lacking, probably due to a combinations of currents and structure (Pete's mantra, current + structure = fish).

There is a concrete hull from a old sailboat down at the harbor, which has been there as long as I can remember. It would make a nice addition to an artificial reef, but it ain't gonna move itself.

Good for Her

At Today, Bethany Hamilton says she’ll boycott World Surf League events because of policies allowing trans women to compete

Pro surfer Bethany Hamilton says she does not intend to participate in upcoming World Surf League events after the organization announced a change in policies that will allow trans women to compete in women's events.

In two different videos shared to Instagram, Hamilton said she believes she is speaking up for other pro surfer women who fear being "ostracized" for having the same opinions.

The World Surf League this month announced plans to adopt the International Surfing Association’s policy, which requires trans athletes seeking to compete in the women’s division to maintain a testosterone level less than 5 nonomoles per liter (nmol/L) for the previous 12 months.

In her video, Hamilton questioned this policy.

“Is a hormone level an honest and accurate depiction that someone indeed is a male or female? Is it as simple as this?” she asked. In her follow up video, she questioned the policy again. "Am I just a hormone number? Is it as simple as that?"

 

Hamilton argued that moving forward with these policies in surfing would allow for “male-bodied dominance” seen in other “women’s sports like running, swimming, and others.”

Multiple studies in recent years have looked at whether transgender athletes have competitive advantages. Joanna Harper, a trans competitive runner and medical physicist, published a first-of-its-kind study in 2015 that looked at eight trans women runners who took treatments to lower their testosterone levels and found they did not perform better in several women's races than they did in men's races. A newer 2021 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, however, conducted fitness tests with 29 trans men and 46 trans women and found that trans women retained an athletic edge over their cisgender peers, even after 12 months on hormone therapy.

 

Harper, who continues to study athletic performances of transgender people and serves as an advisor to the International Olympic Committee, told OutSports in 2021 that most research, even her own studies, has nuances and conversations should be had in the greater context of sports as a whole.

Until now, Bethany was best known as the professional woman surfer who lost an arm in a shark attack at age 13 and continued to surf anyway

Flotsam and Jetsam - Another UFO Shot Down, More Documents

And, just possibly, a another being hunted over the skies of Montana. There's definitely something weird going on in the skies over North America. At Fox, Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says US shot down 'high altitude airborne object' over North America, "The unidentified object over Canada comes the day after the United States shot down an unknown object in Alaska." Nick Arama at Red State says the 'Object' Shot Down Over Canada Similar to What Was Shot Down in Alaska; Pilots Divulge More Concerning Info "The official described it as “small, cylindrical,” and smaller than the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by the U.S. military last week. It also appears to have penetrated some distance into Canadian territory before it was taken down." Breaking911@Breaking911 "CNN: US Pilots approaching object shot down over Alaska said the aircraft interfered with their plane’s sensors, another said they ‘could identify no identifiable propulsion system and they did not know how it was actually staying in the air’" Sundance at CTH, NORAD Tracks Another – U.S. Shoots Down Another “Unidentified Object” Over Canadian Yukon Airspace. At Da Wire, New Information Released About Object U.S. Military Shot Down Over Alaska "The unidentified object that the U.S. military shot down over Alaska on Friday reportedly had a “cylindrical shape” and was about the size of a small car. A U.S. official told Politico that the object did not appear to have any “observable surveillance equipment.”"

And then to top it off, ABC, US shoots down another high-altitude object, Montana airspace temporarily closed. Da Mail, 

NORAD confirmed on Saturday that there was a temporary space restriction over Montana.

The airspace was closed due to an object "to ensure the safety of air traffic in the area during NORAD operations. The restriction has been lifted," the statement read.

"NORAD detected a radar anomaly and sent fighter aircraft to investigate. Those aircraft did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. NORAD will continue to monitor the situation," the statement continued.

 Da Mail, Fighter jets fail to locate new 'airborne object' detected over Montana after military shut down airspace over 'radar anomaly' - hours after US F-22 shoots down 'small cylindrical object' over Canada. 'Streiff' at Red State, FAA Shuts Down Airspace in Montana Due to National Security.. Sundance, FAA Closes Airspace in Havre, Montana, to Support Defense Dept Activities.  Matt Rosendale @RepRosendale "I am in direct contact with NORCOM and monitoring the latest issue over Havre and the northern border. Airspace is closed due to an object that could interfere with commercial air traffic — the DOD will resume efforts to observe and ground the object in the morning."

At SLAY, Bill Gates Calls for America to ‘Tone Down the Rhetoric’ over China Threat, and to shut up and eat your bugs quietly. 

Da Lid observes Joe Biden’s Lie-Filled SOTU Was Lowest Rated In Three Decades "Perhaps Americans Wanted To Watch A Non-Fiction Program Instead." Larry O'Connor says Biden Ignores Actual Bipartisanship So He Can Call Republicans Racist. Gotta keep his base whipped up. At Da Caller,  Fox Says Super Bowl Interview With Biden Is Still On After White House Claimed The Network Canceled It. "Some media personalities, including CNN’s Oliver Darcy, have speculated that the White House attempted to arrange for Biden to be interviewed on Fox Soul in order to avoid sitting down with a Fox News anchor."  KT at Haut Hare wonders Why is Joe Biden afraid of Fox News Channel?

Traditionally over the years, the news division of the company broadcasting the Super Bowl has interviewed the president. When Joe Biden campaigned to be president, he promised a return to normal. He said the professionals would be in charge of government again. Since he began his term as president, things have been anything but normal. Here we are at Super Bowl weekend and another example of Biden’s not-normal America pops up.

Biden refused to commit to doing an interview with an anchor from Fox News Channel, this year’s Super Bowl broadcast channel. Think Bret Baier. Nope. Apparently, Joe Biden is scared to face a political journalist on America’s most-watched cable news network. Instead of agreeing to an interview with FNC, Team Biden negotiated an interview on Fox Soul, a Fox streaming service. Ever heard of it? Me, neither.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and husband Andy Gamberzky

At Fox, Washington Post forced to issue correction after claiming GOP congresswoman was once registered Democrat. "Rep. Anna Paulina Luna blasted Post story that detailed her 'sharp turn to the right'" 'Bonchie' at Red State, WaPo Hit Piece on Anna Paulina Luna Completely Falls Apart, Major Corrections Made. You can tell who they fear by who they smear.

Natalia Mittelstadt at JTN reports Mixed results from new GOP secretaries of state who pledged election integrity reforms. "The secretaries are in states with Republican legislatures and governors."

At Haut Hare, Jazz Shaw reports Missouri AG opens probe into trans children's clinic. A little shop of horrors?

Breathlessly, ABC reports Trump team turns over items marked classified to DOJ, sources say. "A folder was discovered in mid-January, sources tell ABC News." Bob Spencer at PJ Media, Leftists Go Into Four-Alarm Frenzy: Trump Laptop Found! Trump Laptop Found! Trump Laptop Found!

So a Trump aide, not Trump himself, copied some files without realizing they were classified, and Leftist talking heads are already getting the hangman’s noose ready. Well, they’ve done this before. And when the Trump laptop story turns out to be as much of a nothingburger as the Russian Collusion Hoax, the Jan. 6 “insurrection,” and all the rest, Leftists won’t learn the obvious lesson any more than they did the other times. They’ll just go searching for the next opportunity to say it again: The walls are closing in!

But wait! There's more!  At NYPo, ‘Boxes of documents in Boston’ latest reveal in Biden classified saga.

Emails released Friday by the National Archives reveal references to President Biden’s lawyers handing over boxes of documents in Boston — confirming a little-known detail in the chronology of Biden’s classified documents scandal.

“Please ensure that the boxes in your office in Boston remain secure in a locked space and are not accessed by anyone,” National Archives official Gary Stern wrote on Nov. 7 to Biden attorneys Patrick Moore and Bob Bauer.

The email was sent five days after Biden’s lawyers say they discovered classified documents at Biden’s post-vice presidency office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington.

Julio Rosas at Town Hall hears Mika Brzezinski: Joe Biden Has Nothing to Do With His Son's Scandals, but the Free Bacon reports Hunter Biden Asked Father's Top White House Aide To Help Serbian Businessman Campaign for UN Chief, "First son's ties to former Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic have caught the attention of the House Oversight Committee." Althouse notes Matt Bai at WaPoo admits to being a total partisan hack Matt Bai knows he "should care more about Hunter Biden," but he just doesn't. "And he's telling you why in The Washington Post: ... I find it hard to get too worked up over all this, the way I did over the egregious conflicts of Donald Trump’s family during the last administration." At ET, House Oversight Committee Accuses Hunter Biden of ‘Stonewalling’ Investigation.

At the Boston Herald Howie Carr gives A rare salute to the Boston FBI for refusing Jan. 6 improper investigations on citizens The Boston office of the FBI finally got something right, and I salute them for doing so. The above is a sentence I never dreamed I would be writing, but there’s a first time for everything, and this is it." The Boston FBI office told DC to stick when they wanted the Boston FBI to investigate people who rode the bus down to DC for the J6 rally. A different K.T. at Ace's fondly remembers Abscam, FBI's Jersey Hustle saved the credibility of the U.S. government, as well as reviewing the many FBI scandals. 

At PM, Man who served 2 years for torching police precinct during 2020 'autonomous zone' runs for Seattle city council.The Tacoma native, who has also lived in Seattle, has filed to run in Seattle’s District 2 against Socialist incumbent Tammy Morales

Seattle Council Member @TammyMoralesSEA announced she is seeking another term

During the riots in 2020, she said, "It does make me wonder why looting bothers people so much..." & that she doesn't want to be "told to be civil"

She also defunded SPD

Run this until election day pic.twitter.com/gc32CVNMmL

— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) February 1, 2023

 Forget it Jake, it's Seattle. 

Jazz Shaw at Haut Hare, Is Twitter censorship "the new red scare?" 

Today’s headline question was posed by Jonathan Turley in a new op-ed at the New York Post. Turley has done more than simply observe the House hearings into censorship by proxy on Twitter, abetted by the FBI, the Biden campaign, and others. He was called to Washington to testify himself. The damning revelations uncovered in the Twitter Files should have been setting off alarm bells for anyone with even a hint of respect for freedom of speech and the First Amendment. But the reaction from too many Democrats and their MSM stenographers has been one more reminiscent of Joe McCarthy and the red scare era in the 50s. Rather than demanding answers, these critics are attacking the witnesses and labeling people “Putin apologists” and all sorts of other names. As Turley puts it, “the red scare is back and it is going blue.”

Cathy Salgado at NewsBusters, Surprise, Surprise! Soros-Tied Disinfo Group Is Reportedly ‘Blacklisting’ Conservative Media. Tim Graham says CNN's an Unreliable Source on Conservatives Being Censored. He could have saved four words in that title.

The Wombat is a day late and a dollar short with Rule 5 Monday: Rebecca Bagnol and FMJRA 2.0: Home At Last.

Superbowl Sunday Sunrise

 Have a happy Superbowl day, however you have it.

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links. The Wombat is a day late and a dollar short with Rule 5 Monday: Rebecca Bagnol.

Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

Dave Strom at Haut Hare reports on Baltimore: not one student at these 23 schools can do math at grade level

Public school teachers need a raise.Sure, why not? It’s a tough job, and if they can get most of their students to learn the basics it makes sense to pay them well.

But what if, say, not one of their students can perform basic tasks at grade level? Not even one. Nada. Zip. Bupkus.

That’s the situation in Baltimore, where the city brags that they have some of the highest teacher salaries in the country.

After FOX45’s Project Baltimore’s report uncovering 23 schools in Baltimore City had zero students who tested proficient in math, some leaders representing the city aren’t talking about the problem.

The Maryland State Department of Education recently released the 2022 state test results known as MCAP, Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program. Baltimore City’s math scores were the lowest in the state; 7% of third through eighth graders tested proficient in math, meaning 93% could not do math at grade level.

Project Baltimore analyzed the test results and found 23 schools – including elementary, middle and high schools – that didn’t have one student performing at grade level.

Baltimore schools as a whole did better than those 23 worst-performing schools: a whopping 7% of students in grades 3-8 were proficient at math.

So not everything is terrible. Just 93% of everything is terrible.

As cynical as I am about Baltimore, even I have a problem that there's not one kid who didn't accidentally absorb enough math, or who was naturally gifted enough to get it despite the obvious malpractice in the schools. 

Beach Report 2/11/23

We set out right after lunch to take advantage of a decent low tide. Cool today, about 40 F, with light winds, about 7 kts from the NW

Not an outrageously good day, for teeth, but not too bad. This wildly colored Snaggletooth, and this White Shark lower were the two best.

They appear to be burning marshes on the Eastern shore today. While the burned marshes come back looking lusher and greener, it prevents the marsh from accumulating peat and rising with rising sea-level. Then they'll complain about losing the marsh to open water.