Why wouldn't you re-elect this man?

He has Risen!! Happy Easter!

So why are we in this Paris Climate deal?

Harvey and Irma Can't be Blamed on Climate Change

There's only one small problem with such accusations. Man-made warming did not cause Harvey and Irma. As carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions have increased, there have been no trends in global tropical cycle landfalls. Before Harvey and Irma, with a little bit of luck, the United States was in a 12-year hurricane drought. More importantly, the average number of hurricanes per decade reaching landfall in the U.S. has fallen over the past 160 years. This comes not via "denier data," but from mainstream science. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported in its most recent scientific assessment that "(n)o robust trends in annual numbers of tropical storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes ... have been identified over the past 100 years in the North Atlantic basin," and that there are "no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency." 

 Take note even the latest IPCC assessment said there's no correlation between global warming and tropical cyclonic activity.

Even if man-made warming were responsible for Harvey and Irma, the policies that tax or regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions are costly non-solutions. The U.S. could slap a $40 tax on all carbon dioxide emissions, and the "climate benefits" would be hardly noticeable. By the year 2100, the averted warming would be less than two-tenths of a degree Celsius, and the averted sea level rise would be less than 2 centimeters. The costs, however, would be staggering. Because carbon dioxide-emitting conventional fuels meet 80 percent of America's energy needs, the tax would harm families multiple times over as energy is a necessary component for almost everything we make and do. Between now and 2035, the country would experience an average employment shortfall of 400,000 lost jobs, a total loss of income exceeding $20,000 for a family of four, and a $2.5 trillion hit to the overall economy. That means less wealth to combat future challenges, whether they are climate-related or not. 

The disaster is not global warming per sec. It is the misbegotten policies to try and prevent it. It is surly a case where the cure is worse than the disease.

The media has disgraced itself with Hurricane Harvey Coverage

From the catty complaints over Melina Trump’s stilettos, to the whining about president Trump not showing “compassion” to the victims, to the gross and indecent cartoons about Texas they media has finally drop and pretense of what they think of themselves and what they think about commons ordinary Americans.

From all objective criteria the local, state, and federal response to the disaster has been exemplary (so far).  

In addition, the outpouring of support from ordinary people helping one another, saving one another’s lives, demonstrates what is best about the Texan character, and the American character in general.

However, that is not what the Trump loathing media wanted as the narrative. They desperately wanted the narrative to be of a colossal Katrina-size failure of a government lead by a reality show star who is in over his head.

To their great disappointment, Trump performed admirably in managing the federal response to the disaster. He appointed good, professional people in positions of authority who manage the response in a professional manner. 

And not enough credit can be given to the point man in the response to the disaster; Texas governor Greg Abbot.  His performance compared the ex-governor Kathleen Blanco in Katrina was like night and day. Where Blanco rolled up in a fetal position, overwhelmed by her responsibilities, Abbot immediately took charge and was proactive coordinating the local, state, and federal response. 

The effort was so successful that the media could not find anything substantial to attack Trump with so they were reduced to attacking Melina’s shoes and whine over insubstantial optics. 

This is the behavior of a group whose hate is so fundamental that they can no longer approach their tasks in a fair and professional manner. It’s small wonder that their credibility has tanked and that their approval ratings are not much better than Congresses.

But I think the topper was the gross and indecent cartoons published by so call main stream media outlets.  A picture is worth a thousand words and in those pictures, was the undisguised elitism of the political class and their disdain and contempt for ordinary Americans living outside of the Arcelia corridor.   They represent what is worst of the American character and are a disgrace to their country

Watch Florida 27 In 2018

This is Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's (R) district and she just announced her retirement which means the seat is going to be open in 2018. 

However, I suspect the primary reason for her retirement was the court ordered redrawing of her district lines. The district used to extend down to the southeastern coast of Miami-Dade county from Hialeah, and Little Havana to Homestead. It also included the exclusive Key Biscayne neighborhood off the port of Miami. With the new lines, the district loses Homestead and it's mostly Republican constituency and pick up some surrounding Democrat neighborhoods in Miami. 

In 2016 they re-elected Ros-Lehtinen by 9 points but the district went for Hillary Clinton by 10 points. 

Cook now Rates the District as D+5 and it should be an easy pickup for the Democrats in 2018. 

If not, then the Democrats will been in real trouble. 

Happy Easter

Abuse of the FISA Law Is The Real Story

To hear the media narrative, you would think the biggest story of the century is the “sinister” connections between Donald Trump, his associates, and certain Russian officials and private Russian citizens.

However, for all the smoke generated by these stories, according to testimony by FBI director James Comey, there is no evidence of collusion or any illegal or improper actions by Trump or any of his associates. (I would have to say yet as the FBI investigation is on-going, but after eight months of investigation, I would doubt they will find any.)  

Despite this, the media persist in running the “Russian collusion” narrative. However, in their hatred of all things Trump, they are ignoring the more significant part of this story.

A more important and, quite frankly, scary aspect of this story.

The reason we know about this in the first place is that the National Security Agency (NSA) has intercepted communications between these foreign agents and associates of Trump’s business organization and presidential campaign.

FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) gives the NSA broad authority to intercept communications of foreign persons without a warrant. Even if they are within the United States or they are communicating with US citizens.

If they are communicating with US citizens then, by law, the NSA must shield the identity of the US citizens by substituting pseudonyms for their actual names and redacting any text that would reveal their identity.

However, there is a highly-classified index that equates the pseudonym with the actual citizen’s identity.  This allow the citizen name to be “unmasked”. These names can only be unmasked at the order of high-level officials and only for purposes of national security or to pursue a criminal probe. (It is unclear whether a FISA warrant is required to unmasked a name for a criminal investigation, but it should.)

With that in mind, consider these points.

1.       We know conversations with the Russian ambassador to the US and former Nation Security Advisor Michael Flynn was leaked to the New York Times. Not only was classified intercepts leaked but Flynn’s identity was unmasked so the leaker had to be a high-level Obama administration official or a high-level official revealed the information to the eventual leaker. Either way disclosing classified information and the Identity of US citizens in warrantless intercepts is a felony.     

2.       An unusually large number of foreign persons with contacts and previous relationships with Trump and his associates were targeted for surveillance by the Obama administration. There doesn’t seem to be any indication of a national security or criminal interest in these conversations.  

3.       According to sources, Obama’s National Security Advisor, Susan Rice ordered the unmasking of all Trump related intercepts. Rice has admitted to the unmasking but denied she leaked the information to anyone. Rice claims the unmasking if US citizen’s identities is not unusual and is legal under the FISA law.  Rice has lied to the American people in the pass so her credibility is somewhat questionable.

Given the lack of any evidence of wrong-doing from the incoming Trump administration it is hard to conclude anything other than Trump, his campaign staff, and business associates were targeted for pollical purposes.

It is obvious that the Obama administration was casual about protecting the privacy of US citizens that were inadvertently swept up in a FISA surveillance.  

And that is the scary part of the story. The Obama administration deliberately used the FISA law in a back-door effort to spy on his political opponents. This is the stuff of banana republics and deserves far more scrutiny than it is receiving today.