FBI investigated Muslims in US who celebrated the 911 attacks said The New York Times at the time

Here.

Is anti-Trumper Liz Mair a trans in need of a shave?

Hm. 

See the comments, here.

Well duh: control your borders and the need for surveillance plummets

Turkey is not an honest player, whether as a member of NATO or in the fight against ISIS, funneling extremists to Syria

From The New York Times, here:

"Turkey wants Mr. Assad gone, and has allowed its border with Syria to be an easy crossing point for Syrian rebels, including those the West regards as terrorists or radical Islamists; Russia wants to prop up Mr. Assad and his government. While Moscow says it is attacking the Islamic State, for the most part Russian planes and troops have been attacking the Syrian rebels, some of whom are supported by the United States and the West, who most threaten Mr. Assad’s rule."

Obama is a complete hypocrite defending Turkey's right to secure its border against air incursions by Russia. Turkey's border is deliberately porous, feeding fighter after fighter into the flames of the conflict. Turkey is a main point of entry for ISIS volunteers.

No wonder it appears to Putin that the whole of NATO is in support of ISIS.

And to others it will appear to be a grand anti-Semitic conspiracy orchestrated by a pro-Islamic American president, with the notorious Jens Stoltenberg at the helm of NATO defending Turkey's downing of the Russian SU-24:

"At a huge demonstration in central Oslo to protest Israel's independence on April 20, 2002, former Labor Party prime minister Jens Stoltenberg addressed pro-Palestinian groups waving Nazi flags. Without blinking, he endorsed their cause. 'There is one occupant, and one occupier,' he told them."

World War III: The stupid Turks, supposedly our friends, shoot down Russian interceptor in airspace dispute over Syria

Reported here:

'Footage from Turkey's Anadolu Agency showed two pilots parachuting out of the jet before it crashed. The fate of the pilots remains unknown but broadcast media has shown footage of Russian helicopters above the crash site. ... The plane went down in area known by Turks as "Turkmen Mountain" in northern Syria near the Turkish border, Haberturk said.'

The entangling foreign alliance in this case is NATO, and Turkey shouldn't be in it.

What hath the Dardanelles to do with the English Channel?

Call Dianne Kelly Superintendent of Schools in Revere MA about disciplining a student for exercising freedom of speech

This woman is banning a high school cheerleader from cheering for tweeting her opinion about low voter turnout for mayor, saying "If you're going to stand up and say something that other people will find offensive- than you need to be prepare to deal with the ramifications of that."

The student had tweeted:

"When only 10 percent of Revere votes for mayor cause the other 90 percent isn't legal".

Maybe people would like to telephone the superintendent and remind her that if there are official sanctions for expressing an opinion then that's not freedom of speech.

Full story here.

Powerline Blog finds story behind WaPo archives paywall about people celebrating on 911 in New Jersey which WaPo's Glenn Kessler somehow couldn't . . .

. . . or wouldn't find in fact-checking Trump's claim he saw thousands in Jersey celebrating on TV.

At a minimum there were people celebrating on Jersey rooftops as they watched the catastrophe unfold.

Still waiting for the video, but that'll be like waiting for the news media to replay video from the attacks at all.

Story here and here.

Jeff Jacoby of The Boston Globe is of that rare breed, the conservative of gratitude

Here, celebrating National Review's 60th anniversary:

"IF GRATITUDE IS the quintessential conservative virtue, then Thanksgiving must be the quintessential conservative holiday. And with Thanksgiving 2015 comes an additional reason for gratefulness on the right: National Review has turned 60 and is marking the occasion with a grand anniversary issue. ... National Review’s 60th birthday is a milestone not just for a magazine, but for an ongoing commitment to the conviction that ideas matter, and that good writing can change lives. Its longtime readers have much to be thankful for. Of course, conservatives always do."

Anyone in this day and age who does not immediately define conservatism in the economic terms of libertarianism and ideology and who knows how to use "its" in a sentence is OK in my book. However bad National Review has become since its (!) ejection of the so-called nativists, it's (!) still nice to read someone who remembers the magazine which once steered by the conservative lodestar.

"Look over the whole creation, and you shall see, that the bond or cement, that holds together all the parts of this great and glorious fabrick, is gratitude."

-- Robert South (1634-1716)

New ABC and FOX polls boost Trump to +7.7 in Real Clear Politics poll average

In 2012 Obama called gasoline at $2.50 a phony promise, three years later it's $1.77

The promise of $2.50 a gallon gasoline was made by presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in 2012, which just shows you how a truly smart politician who knew what was coming, unlike Obama by the way, hoped to get elected and get the credit for predicting and delivering something which would have happened anyway.

But does it need to be repeated that oil and gasoline price reductions happened INSPITE of Obama's war on so-called fossil fuels?

Yes, it does.

Obama's done everything he can to stop the country from discovering and using fossil fuels, but private industry and initiative have done an end run around the president, a sort of payback for the president's end runs around the constitution.

This ain't over by a longshot.

Media/Dems feign worry about Muslim "registration" but would register American gun owners in a heartbeat

Obama should pop off to the golf course and clear the way for someone else to actually do the job he won't

So says Robert Tracinski here:

"And this, I suspect, is how he is going to end up being remembered as commander-in-chief: as the guy who, in a crisis, gave us petulant speeches about why he was doing nothing.

"This is one of those moments when you almost appreciate the parliamentary system, which can hold a vote of no confidence in the chief executive. You want to talk about popping off? If Obama is traumatized and overwhelmed by the job of being commander-in-chief, he can pop off to the golf course and clear the way for someone else to do it."

Real Clear Politics poll average moves Trump to +2.8 ahead of Carson, +7 ahead in PPP poll, +4 in Bloomberg poll

Liberal Kevin Drum fears mocking Republicans over Syrian refugee stance will lead to electoral disaster

Here:

"In general, we should act like this is a legitimate thing to be concerned about and then work from there. Mocking it is the worst thing we could do. It validates all the worst stereotypes about liberals that we put political correctness ahead of national security. It doesn't matter if that's right or wrong. Ordinary people see the refugees as a common sense thing to be concerned about. We shouldn't respond by essentially calling them idiots. That way lies electoral disaster."

In other words, liberals should LIE by feigning concern.

Remind you of anyone?

If you guessed Muslims, you get a cookie!

Liberals are so bend over backwards friendly towards Muslims because in them they rightly see kindred spirits, people who routinely lie to the unbeliever as a matter of principle.

"Moderate" Muslim soccer fans from Turkey boo moment of silence for Paris victims, chant "Allahu akbar" instead

Story and video here.

Enough said. Turkey should never have been allowed into NATO. They are not our friends and never have been.

So how does Charlie Sheen withdraw up to $10 million to pay blackmail and not get prosecuted and Speaker Hastert does?

I'm callin' phony on this story:

"Sheen said he's trusted the diagnosis with people he thought he could confide in, but has paid out upwards of $10 million to keep the illness a secret."

World's best newspaper according to Rush Limbaugh

Here:

"The Daily Mail, the UK Daily Mail, one of the best newspapers in the world, has a story today reminding their readers of their reporter who was able to buy a fake Syrian passport that looks totally legit."

Even Muslim war uses the lie, conducting it with deceit: One suicide attack inside the Paris soccer stadium to create panic, two outside to meet the fleeing fans

Phil Jenkins, here:

"Matters would have been even worse if the attackers had achieved what was apparently the main component of the attack, namely the planned multiple-suicide bombings at the international football game. One bomb inside the stadium to create a panic, then two more bombers to meet fleeing fans at the exits."

The multiple lies Muslims will tell the infidel

The last words from Flight 93 also are lies

The Flight 93 hijacker:

"Ladies and gentlemen: here the captain. Please sit down, keep remaining seating. We have a bomb on board. So sit." 09:31:57

"Here's the captain: I would like to tell you all to remain seated. We have a bomb aboard, and we are going back to the airport, and we have our demands. So please remain quiet." 09:39:11

To end the Muslim ability to make war means dirty bombing their oil fields, not just setting them on fire

Trump is in first by +1 in Real Clear Politics poll average reflecting November polling to date

Out they trot Reza Aslan to lie about his religion

And it is his religion, make no mistake about it, so he's not an objective source, especially since he's a switch hitter, a former Christian, and a lousy historian of Christianity whose popular book on Jesus doesn't pass the smell test because it stole the long ago propounded thesis of the scholar S.G.F. Brandon but never credited him or responded to it.

Here at Vox:

"Islam doesn't promote violence or peace. Islam is just a religion and like every religion in the world it depends on what you bring to it."

Islam promotes submission, means submission, requires submission. It's inherently confrontational in a way which Christianity or Judaism or any other religion has never been and he knows it. And the lying about it is not a bug, either, but a feature. Lying to the infidel is sanctioned as part of the process of dominating the infidel.

And that's the problem for the West. Islam uses the West's value of freedom of expression and freedom of religion against it, as an opening to dominate it. And like fools, we allow it. 

CNBC.com commits act of real journalism

Punishment at eleven.

Here.

Muslim terrorists kill 129 in Paris, climate kills 0

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/Despite-attacks-Paris-climate-summit-remains-on-course/articleshow/49787660.cms

Hey Guardian.co.uk! The Eiffel Tower goes dark every morning at 1:00AM

They don't call it "The Grauniad" for nothing

The French won't even name what attacked them lest in the naming they appear to agree that a god exists

Foolish French soccer star imagines that the horror they've just experienced "has no religion"

Seen here:

'The France midfielder Lassana Diarra has revealed that his cousin, Asta Diakité, was killed during Friday night’s attack. Diarra played 80 minutes of the match against Germany. In a statement posted on twitter, he said his cousin was like “a big sister to me … In this climate of terror, it is important for all of us who are representatives of our country and its diversity to speak and remain united against a horror that has no colour, no religion.”'

Yeah, that religion that just attacked you atheists once again wasn't real. It was just in your imagination.

It's not just religious people who are ideologues.

Two Syrians involved in Paris attacks, not just one

One at the theatre attack, another at the stadium attack.

The Guardian is live-blogging the investigation, here, but won't definitely say they were Syrians until the fingerprints are linked to the passports.

Gee, suicide bombers blow themselves up and they just happen to find Syrian passports on the bodies/nearby, but the bombers could have stolen/forged them.

Wouldn't want to accuse Syrians falsely now would we?

Muslim terrorists are smuggling weapons into Europe hidden deep inside cars

Reported here by Ian Traynor: 

"The man was stopped in a Volkswagen Golf with Montenegrin plates near Germany’s border with Austria on 5 November. Officials found a pistol under the bonnet, prompting them to take the car apart. In doing so, they uncovered a sophisticated smuggling operation, with automatic weapons, 200 grammes of dynamite, hand grenades and ammunition concealed in the car’s bodywork, according to Bavarian public radio.

"Examination of the suspect’s mobile phone and the car’s GPS system indicated the detainee was en route to Paris."

Rob Lowe is right: The French should have closed their borders in January after the Charlie Hebdo massacre

Our brain dead liberals are actually criticizing Rob Lowe for this opinion. Some memory they've got. Light up another one, you morons.

One Paris terrorist held Syrian passport, came through Greece in early October, meanwhile Obama wants to let in more of them

Reuters broke the Syrian passport story here.

Pledging to take 10,000 Syrian refugees in September, Obama now wants to take even more of these people.

Trump on ISIS: I would bomb the shit out of 'em and take the oil

Here.

Muslim terrorists slay 140+ in Paris, Obama says ISIS is contained

Story here.

Bernie Sanders doesn't give a damn about Hillary's e-mails, but the FBI does, expanding its probe

Story here at The Hill, noting that the FBI is looking into whether Hillary has given it materially false information.

You know, like former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert did, who was charged with lying to federal investigators but pleaded guilty to a separate charge.

Does the FBI have a separate charge ready for Hillary after it charges her with lying to them?

Hillary has made such a career of lying about anything and everything that she may have forgotten you can't do that to the Feds with impunity and count on getting away with it, especially when you're in the habit of calling them "pigs" all the time.

The legacy of the left's long march through the institutions since the 1960s is . . .

. . . the repudiation of the Bill of Rights, which is why so many Americans fled the Democrat Party and joined the Republican Party, starting with Ronald Reagan ("the Democrat Party left me"). They are just like the Puritans, who preferred to switch rather than to fight.

Unfortunately, there's nowhere left to which to switch, indeed, to retreat.

It's either us, or them.

Hillary retells the lie about trying to join the Marines in 1975, Glenn Kessler doesn't do the math

From WaPo, here:

“He looks at me and goes, ‘Um, how old are you. And I said, ‘Well I am 26, I will be 27.’ And he goes, ‘Well, that is kind of old for us.’ And then he says to me, and this is what gets me, ‘Maybe the dogs will take you,’ meaning the Army.” –Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at a breakfast, Manchester, N.H., Nov. 10, 2015

One Clinton story that has often been greeted with skepticism is her claim, first made in 1994, that she once tried to join the Marines in 1975. On the campaign trail, she brought up the story again [... above].

Can this story be confirmed?

For the reasons given Kessler gives the claim two Pinocchios out of four for truthfulness, "subject to change if more information becomes available."

More information?

When Hillary got married to Bill Clinton October 11, 1975 ("Let's see, what should I do, quit both my jobs at the University of Arkansas and my private law practice and join the Marines, or get married to Bill Clinton?"), she was two weeks from her 28th birthday, not her 27th.

She wasn't 26, going on 27, as she claimed this week.

Not only that, a recruiter from the era went on the record years ago stating the military was desperate for bodies at the time, taking people up to age 35, and that the Marines never made quota until the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979.

Add two Pinocchios, and the whole damn woodshop.

h/t Chris Plante

There aren't any "law-abiding" illegal aliens

You idiots.

Sorry Marco, they can fact check your stupidity: philosophers make more than welders

And arguably, we're already producing plenty of welders relative to philosophers, at least 16 times more, but it would be nice if the welders, and the politicians, could at least speak English correctly, as in "more welders, fewer philosophers", instead of "more welders, less philosophers". 

From the BLS, here:

Ann Coulter was right: Fiorina criticized Trump for claiming to get to know Putin in a green room but did the same thing herself

Here.

Ann.Coulter.Dangerous.

Carly.Fiorina.Phony.

Kasich thinks values and ethics education will fix greed on Wall Street

Well, sign me up for that! Education = salvation!

Senator Marco Rubio: We need more welders and less philosophers

Oh boy, they ate that up in Milwaukee.

Go less miles . . . use fewer gasoline.

Judith Curry: The hottest topic in climate research is little or no warming in the 21st century

US average surface temperature has shown a slight cooling trend in the 21st century

Judith Curry, Georgia Institute of Technology, quoted here:

"The hottest topic in climate research is the observation that global average surface temperature, as well as satellite observations of temperatures in the atmosphere, has shown little or no warming during the 21st century." 

Senator Claire McCaskill, Missouri's big fat condescending Stalinist bitch feminist

But other than that she's alright.

Here.

Trump denounces Chinese state capitalism, throws down gauntlet committing the USA to a policy of containment

In The Wall Street Journal, today:

"China’s economy is controlled by the government. Any notion that their economy is based on a free-market system is simply not true. ... On day one of a Trump administration, the U.S. Treasury Department will designate China a currency manipulator. ... To ensure the security of the nation and our investments, we will build the military we need to contain China’s overreach in the Pacific Rim and the South China Sea."

Read the whole thing here.

Libertarian Paul Ryan, disgusting traitor, advances immigration bill to bypass cap on guest workers in order to employ Obama's illegal hordes

From the story here:

'The cap exemption on the H-2B expired in 2007. At the time, it doubled the number but it could as much as quadruple, legislative sources told WND. This is the same way the total number of existing H-1B visa workers got so much higher than the annual inflow. The H-2B visa program, though referred to as a “seasonal” guest worker program it is not an agricultural guest worker program. “These are explicitly non-farm jobs, often for lower-skilled work but also middle class jobs,” the source told WND. “Of course, because we don’t have a visa-tracking system and the president is not enforcing over-stay rules, it increases another avenue to add to the illegal population.”'

Real Clear Politics poll average updated today shows Trump lead at +.4, down from +.8

Hysterical French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warns of planetary catastrophe from global warming: "life on planet at stake"

Trump to +.8 in latest Real Clear Politics poll average

WaPo Gen Xer drinks climate Kool-Aid, attacks Baby Boomers for causing global warming and running up the $18 trillion debt

spotted headed to Mt. Rushmore

Here:

"Boomers soaked up a lot of economic opportunity without bothering to preserve much for the generations to come. They burned a lot of cheap fossil fuels, filled the atmosphere with heat-trapping gases, and will probably never pay the costs of averting catastrophic climate change or helping their grandchildren adapt to a warmer world. They took control of Washington at the turn of the millennium, and they used it to rack up a lot of federal debt, even before the Great Recession hit."

Substitute "liberals" everytime you see "boomers" in the essay and it makes a lot more sense than attacking your parents per se. Instead the author prefers to commit Maoism in "Baby boomers are what’s wrong with America’s economy". 

Meanwhile, exporting good jobs and importing cheap labor were artifacts of the 1960s revolution, advanced by people who were fellow travelers under FDR. The height of the baby boom generation was what, aged 10 in 1967? 

In the end, Jim Tankersley can't add and subtract, but what his father gave him for Christmas in 2012 for his patricidal thesis says it all:

"After I first outlined this argument to my father in 2012, he gifted me an actual lump of coal for Christmas."

Well done, Dad! The earth remains full of coal, especially American earth, ensuring energy independence as far as the eye can see, as well as oil and natural gas and . . . thorium! If only we'll use it. 

It makes more sense to rely on these going forward because they remain so plentiful, employing technologies to make them harmless to human health, invented by smart people from every generation.

But if a Maunder Minimum ensues in 2030, we might not care as much about the health as the warmth.

The total public debt is now up $457 billion in just four days

Rush Limbaugh: 94 million not in labor force are ALL on welfare, ALL have an EBT card, ALL getting food stamps, ALL getting disability

Today, here, with the right's version of The Big Lie:

"We don't have 5% unemployment. We've got 20% unemployment.  Bob, we have 94 million Americans not working, not in the labor force.  They're all on welfare, Bob, one way or another.  You are talking about vandals basically coming in and ripping you off at the laundromat.  Half of this country is on welfare, Bob. That's another reason why people aren't talking about it.  Half the country that votes is on welfare, and they vote for Santa Claus, Bob. And to them, you're Santa Claus.  And you're...

"I can understand exactly why you want to sell the business and get out of there.  It's probably being stolen from you.  Customers in there get harassed by people that want to commit vandalism or crime in there.  I have total understanding, relatability, sympathy for what you're going through.  But we've succeeded in letting so many people... Bob, 94 million Americans not working, and they all have an EBT card. They're all getting food stamps. They're all getting some form -- many of them -- of disability."

Carson calls Politico story a lie, but MSM repeats it as a fact

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/06/carson-got-caught-who-stands-to-benefit.html

http://www.woodradio.com/onair/the-insider-48410/developing-ben-carson-admits-to-fabricating-14102408

That second one is a real howler. A Rush Limbaugh affiliate, Wood Radio in Grand Rapids could actually monitor the broadcast to learn Carson's campaign says the story is a lie but would rather just go with the lie.

Carson campaign denies it admitted to fabricating anything, calls Politico story a total lie

Here.

Rush Limbaugh is all over the story today.

Politico attempts to discredit Carson's claims to being offered the full ride to West Point

Here.

The story tries to make hay with his claim to being offered a full scholarship at West Point when there isn't any such thing "per se", but admits that with an appointment "all costs are covered". Carson was evidently encouraged to apply by General Westmoreland at some point based on his qualifications and interest, but declined to do so in favor of a medical education.

Carson's story may stretch the facts and err in details but overall remains a plausible if understandably biased retelling of his ROTC experience in high school.

Who would fault a poor black kid from Detroit for emphasizing that a full ride through West Point had been within his reach?

Answer: the liberal hacks at Politico.

Commentary Magazine's Jonathan Tobin doesn't even read what he cites, making a hash of Obamacare story

Jonathan Tobin here:

"This is something of a misnomer because, as the Heritage Institute pointed out in a paper published last month, almost all of these people were simply added to the rolls of those receiving Medicare. If you only count those who are actually receiving insurance outside of Medicare, the net increase of those with coverage (the number of those buying these policies is offset by an almost equal reduction in the number of customers who have employer-based plans) is only 260,000 people."

Ah, no.

First of all the paper was from the "Heritage Foundation", not the "Heritage Institute". Perhaps he's heard of it? It's only been a Washington fixture since like the Reagan Administration. He does remember Reagan, right? Well, he is a neoconservative.

And it was the rolls of Medicaid which were expanded, not Medicare. What kind of a dummy gets that wrong? Medicare is for older Americans. Medicare is supposed to be paid for through payroll taxes, and it's blowing up as we speak, but that's another story. Medicaid used to be health coverage for the poor and the indigent, provided by the States. Leave it to Obama to expand it from DC and call it insurance.

The middle class of this country will end up poor and indigent and on Medicaid, too, if someone doesn't put a stop to this train wreck called Obamacare and soon.

Middle class people have just had their taxes raised dramatically to provide coverage and subsidies to pay for that coverage to about 9 million people who didn't have it before or didn't have what they're getting now. Middle class taxes went up in the form of health insurance premium increases, raised deductibles and skyrocketing pharmaceutical price increases. Middle class people buying the cheapest of plans now can expect to shell out over $13,000 in premiums and deductibles before their plans pay out one red cent of a big healthcare bill. The incentive for them is to avoid care even when they need it in order to save money.  

All Tobin had to do to get the article moving in the right direction was to actually read the title of the Heritage paper and the accompanying abstract, but apparently he didn't do even that. One wonders if he even wrote the story himself. He is Commentary's "editor" after all.

What a putz. 

Backgrounder #3062 on Health Care

October 15, 2015

2014 Health Insurance Enrollment: Increase Due Almost Entirely to Medicaid Expansion

By Edmund F. Haislmaier and Drew Gonshorowski

Abstract

Health insurance enrollment data for 2014 shows that the number of Americans with health insurance increased by 9.25 million during the year. However, the vast majority of the increase was the result of 8.99 million individuals being added to the Medicaid rolls. While enrollment in private individual-market plans increased by almost 4.79 million, most of that gain was offset by a reduction of 4.53 million in the number of people with employment-based group coverage. Thus, the net increase in private health insurance in 2014 was just 260,000 people.

I know that when I wanna store some food, I always build one of these first . . .

Investor's Business Daily comes out for abiotic crude oil and natural gas

Here.

You can take your Hubbert's Peak and shove it up your hind end.

To pay for highway bill, US House relies on selling strategic oil reserve and privatizing IRS employment instead of raising gasoline taxes

From the story here:

"The bill is in fact financed with a collection of offsets that many lawmakers find objectionable, such as raising $9 billion by selling oil from the country’s emergency oil reserves. Roughly $2.5 billion comes from requiring the Internal Revenue Service to use private debt collectors, reviving a controversial program opposed by many Democrats, consumer groups and the union that represents agency employees."

Trump is ahead of Carson 25 to 23 in two post-debate polls

Obama's gift to America

Looks like Real Clear Politics won't be including Reuters/Ipsos post-debate poll, so here it is: Trump 31% over Carson 19%

Explore it here.

At new book launch, Trump accuses Janet Yellen of keeping interest rates low to protect Obama's reputation

Donald Trump, quoted here by AP/Obama:

'"In my opinion Janet Yellen is highly political and she's not raising the rates for a very specific reason: because Obama told her not to," Trump said. "Because he wants to be out playing golf in a year from now, and he wants to be doing other things and he doesn't want to see a big bubble burst during his administration." ...

'The central bank decided in October to keep its key short-term interest rate at a record low in light of a weak global economy and slower U.S. hiring.'

Michigan Republicans increase gasoline excises by 7.3 cents, taking the state from 12th to 5th for highest gas taxes paid in America

Here's the current list of highest combined federal and state gasoline taxes per gallon paid in the top paying states, from highest to lowest:

PA: 73.70 cents per gallon

WA: 62.90

NY: 62.67

HI: 61.55

CA: 59.32

CT: 55.91

FL: 54.82

NC: 54.65

WV: 53.00

RI: 52.40

NV: 52.25

MI: 52.24

IL: 51.87

IN: 51.70

WI: 51.30

GA: 51.02

MD: 50.50

IA: 50.40

ID: 50.40

The tax increase in Michigan will bring the current level to 59.54 cents, ahead of California!

Lest you tree-hugging electric and hybrid drivers think you'll escape, you get slapped with $100 and $30 surcharges (hahahahaha!), according to the story here, on licenses, the rest of us 20% increases:

"Registration fees for passenger vehicles and trucks would rise by 20 percent in 2017, meaning an average $100 bill would rise to $120. The state would also assess a new $100 annual surcharge on most electric vehicles and $30 on hybrids."

And you thought Republicans were against raising taxes.

Real Clear Politics poll average has Carson +1, adds Quinnipiac poll but not Reuters poll out yesterday showing Trump way ahead

Raw temperature data have all been changed, 20% of it 16 times in the last 2.5 years

So says Marcia Glaze Wyatt here:

"Raw data is adjusted, sometimes justifiably (yet still injecting uncertainty), yet sometimes, arguably not justifiably, adding more uncertainty!!! Raw data have all been changed – 20% of it changed 16 times in the last 2 and a half years. This plot shows NOT the average surface T trend between 1880 and 2010, but rather the trend of changes made in the temperature anomalies (1880 to 2010) between May 2008 and May 2015. Take the month of January for comparison b/n 1915 and 2000. In May of 2008, the difference b/n January temperature anomalies for those years was 0.39oC. As of May 2015 note, the difference is 0.52oC (almost a degree F). ... And while one assumes that good intentions motivate the adjustments, one thing is obvious: temperatures adjustments prior to 1950 have resulted in a substantial cooling of the early century (20th) and adjustments made after 1950 have substantially warmed the record; consequently, the trend of temperature increase has significantly steepened over the years – a product of data changes. Is this an accurate reflection of reality? Uncertainty..."

Debt ceiling follies: The total public debt hit $18.152 trillion in mid March, but somehow the Treasury Dept. kept paying the bills for eight months without defaulting

March 2015

November 2015

Still waiting for Real Clear Politics to add the Reuters poll released over two hours ago

As usual Paul Krugman is full of crap about Republicans and jobs

Here:

"[P]rivate-sector employment is eight million higher than it was when Barack Obama took office, twice the job gains achieved under his predecessor before the recession struck."

When Barack Obama took office, W-2 employment stood at 155.4 million, and promptly fell 4.5 million. At the end of 2014 it stands at 158.2 million, 2.8 million higher than at the end of 2008, not 8 million higher.

At the same point in his presidency, George W. Bush had added 5.8 million W-2 jobs, and 7.3 million by the end of it.

Give 'em hell, Harry: The South China Sea is no more China's than the Gulf of Mexico is Mexico's

Admiral Harry Binkley Harris, Jr., Commander, USPACOM, quoted here:

Harris has been a forceful advocate within the military for challenging China’s claims to vast areas of the South China Sea. He told a Senate hearing in September that “the South China Sea is no more China’s than the Gulf of Mexico is Mexico’s.”

Carson beats Trump in another national poll, this time NBC/WSJ (last time CBS/NYT -- when ABC/WaPo flip you'll know it's a conspiracy)

Just 2 extreme heat events in Grand Rapids in the last 50 years, but 14 in the 70 years before that

Of course Ben Carson wants the debates taken off television

Television is Donald Trump's home turf.

An El Nino forecast for winter in Grand Rapids Michigan July 2015 - June 2016

Mean snowfall 66.7, predicting 47.85 inches

Mean heating degree days 6719, predicting 6148

Grand Rapids Michigan was warmer on average in October 2015 by 1.1 degrees F

The cumulative anomaly for 2015 thus declines from -18.2 to -17.1 degrees F.

That's now two months in a row with above average temperatures, helping to erase the big negative anomaly built up in the winter, and in February in particular.

Summer temperatures in GR in 2015 were below normal, so the warmer September and now October have offset that. A late or extended summer, you might say.

The cumulative anomaly in 2014 was -30.3 degrees F, and would have been even worse if not for a warm and snowless December. November set snow records here with 31 inches and the negative temperature anomaly reached -33 degrees F.

The peak negative anomaly in 2015 so far has been -22.6 degrees F through August.

It is amazing . . .

(seen here)

"Elixor" at the beginning was the tell.

China's nine-dash-line claim in the South China Sea will finally get its day in court

But China won't be there to defend it.

From the story here in The Diplomat:

On Thursday, October 29, the Permanent Court of Arbitration awarded its first decision in the The Republic of Philippines v. The People’s Republic of China. The court ruled that the case was “properly constituted” under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, that China’s “non-appearance” (i.e., refusal to participate) did not preclude the Court’s jurisdiction, and that the Philippines was within its rights in filing the case. In short, Thursday’s decision means that the Permanent Court of Arbitration rules in the Philippines’ favor on the question of jurisdiction. With the jurisdictional issue resolved, the case can move forward to evaluating the merits of the Philippines’ legal assertions in the South China Sea. ...

First, and most vexing for China, is the status of Beijing’s nine-dash line claim in the South China Sea. Manila argues that the nine-dash line is an excessive maritime claim and not in line with the entitlements for coastal states under UNCLOS. With jurisdiction question resolved, we can look forward to China’s nine-dash line getting its day in international court (although, notably, without China taking part to defend it). China has kept the scope of its nine-dash line ambiguous under formal and customary international law, but once the Court decides on the matter, its ability to maintain ambiguity will be limited.

Second, based on the first point, that the nine-dash line is an excessive claim, the Philippines is arguing that China’s occupation of various features in the Spratly Islands is illegal.