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Politics and Sports: Keep Your Hands Off My Football
Sports has a unique ability to unite our communities and our nation. Until recently, that is. How did sports get so politicized? Clay Travis, host of Outkick the Show, tackles the country’s cultural divide and its effect on our favorite pastime.
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I believe a report on climate change was just released which concluded such is taking place and will impact global GDP significantly in the ensuing years. Trump, is reported to have said his own administration is going to release it's own report that will be more definitive, whatever that means.I have not doubt man impacts weather. I have no doubt weather is changing and possibly is causing some serious problems. However, weather encompasses the entire globe so that means the economic burden cannot simply be borne by America because that will put us at an economic disadvantage, which our adversaries would love, and climate change would not be positively effected.
To be effective you need every nation to do their proportionate share and there must be enforcement. The Paris Accord was like a movie set. All up front and nothing in the rear.
America has done a tremendous amount of attending to our own climate issues and we are continuing to do so. There are some scientific issues that remain challenged and the cost benefits also remain unresolved.
Progressives always have a solution to everything and it is called spend more money. Education comes to mind and we have spent more money and things have gotten worse not better.
Once again Trump haters assert he is opposed to clean air. Being a "commercialist," I have no doubt he is far less impressed with scientific evidence that has many knowledgeable detractors and whose cost does not appear justified based on questionable results and theoretical projections
Progressives can always find a cause to support on which money can be spent and when their reasoning is challenged they get testy and tend to yell "baby killer." When it comes to social issue challenges they yell "racist."
Climate change is another sensitive issue that evokes more heat than light and fits a long such contentious list that have been politicized/weaponized like abortion, illegal immigration, police brutality etc.
I am willing to assume we should be concerned about climate change. I am not sure I have heard any sensible solutions that will accomplish the goal at a calculable cost.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/
And:
The Climate Won’t Crash the Economy
By
A worst-case scenario projects annual GDP growth will be slower by 0.05 percentage point.
Headlines warned of economic doom after the U.S. government released its fourth National Climate Assessment last week. Yet a close reading of the report shows that the overall economic impact of human-caused climate change is expected to be quite small.
Projecting human-caused changes in the global climate is a major scientific challenge; estimates of the temperature increases due to rising greenhouse-gas concentrations are uncertain by a factor of three. Trying to make projections for a particular region—such as the contiguous U.S., which comprises only 1.6% of the globe’s surface—compounds the uncertainty. Estimates of the economic impact are less certain still, in part because as-yet-unknown modes of adaptation will mitigate the effects.
The report’s numbers, uncertain as they are, turn out not to be all that alarming. The final figure of the final chapter shows that an increase in global average temperatures of 9 degrees Fahrenheit (beyond the 1.4-degree rise already recorded since 1880) would directly reduce the U.S. gross domestic product in 2090 by 4%, plus or minus 2%—that is, the GDP would be about 4% less than it would have been absent human influences on the climate. That “worst-worst case” estimate assumes the largest plausible temperature rise and only known modes of adaptation.
To place a 4% reduction in context, conservatively assume that real annual GDP growth will average 2% in the coming decades (it has averaged 3.2% since 1935 and is currently 3%). That would result in a U.S. economy roughly four times as large in 2090 as today. A 4% climate impact would reduce that multiple to 3.8—a correction much smaller than the uncertainty of any projection over seven decades. To put it another way, the projected reduction in the average annual growth rate is a mere 0.05 percentage point. The U.S. economy in 2090 would be no more than two years behind where it would have been absent man-caused climate change.
Experts know that worst-case climate projections show minimal impact on the overall economy. Buried in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2014 report is a chart showing that a global temperature rise of 5 degrees Fahrenheit would have a global economic impact of about 3% in 2100—negligibly diminishing projected global growth over that period to 385% from 400%.
If we take the new report’s estimates at face value, human-induced climate change isn’t an existential threat to the overall U.S. economy through the end of this century—or even a significant one. Changes in tax policy, regulation, trade and technology will have far greater consequences for Americans’ economic well-being.
There are many reasons to be concerned about a changing climate, including disparate impact across industries and regions. But national economic catastrophe isn’t one of them. It should concern anyone who supports well-informed public and policy discussions that the report’s authors, reviewers and media coverage obscured such an important point.
Mr. Koonin, a theoretical physicist, is a University Professor at New York University. He served as undersecretary of energy for science during President Obama’s first term.
My friend writes no one want to stop Putin. Or they are afraid to do so. (See 1 and 1a below.)
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I have no objection to those who wish to immigrate to America as long as they do so legally and the law are changed to correct some of the obvious failures of our current policies.
Having said the statistics revealed by the current approach are staggering, unsustainable and defy logic.
Congress see no reason to do what is best for our nation because Republicans want to avoid being called racists and do not want the political fall out and Democrats have succeeded acquiring new voters paid for through tax dollars.
And so it goes in La La Land until everything eventually collapses and the blame game begins. (See 2 below.)
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the Trump haters want it to happen. (See 3 below.)
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Those of you who read what I write know I have been saying once newspapers were no longer owned by families and/or individuals and became corporate entities they became entertainment vehicles and their focus became profit versus professionalism.
I want to carry this proposition one step further.
I am not suggesting the main reason for those who now become candidates for the highest office in the land is due to the decline in press and media professionalism. However, I do believe it has a significant bearing on the type of person who now runs, is nominated and thus wins.
The focus by reporters, the questions asked and the responses shapes the type of candidate who has public appeal and thus, is successful in my opinion. Trump knows a lot about media and how to manipulate those in it. That is not to say he did not have other personal and executive accomplishments that served him well against his more bland adversary who had a long history of being a loser who projected a negative image and carried baggage that was unappealing.
In essence, the less professional the mass media the more likely we will lower the bar on those who seek to become presidents.
I invite your comments.
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More wisdom from Sowell:
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1)Again with the Crimea: No One Wants to Stop Putin
By Sherwin Pomerantz
On Monday of this week the president of the Ukraine got the country’s parliament to approve martial law and put the nation on a war footing with Russia.
This in reaction to Russia’s seizure on Sunday of three small Ukrainian naval vessels and 23 sailors (Ukraine really does not have what one could call a navy per se) which was the first overt armed conflict between the two sides since the beginning days of 2014 when Russian special forces occupied Crimea. And once again Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to test the resolve of the west in limiting his dreams of regional control.
It 2014, then US President Barack Obama declared there were no easy answers nor military solutions to the Crimea crisis, but cast Vladimir Putin's Russia as a lonely villain shredding the international rulebook to bully a smaller neighbor. Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula did not herald a new cold war, Obama told 2,000 people gathered in Brussels. But it was also clear that the Kremlin's actions leading up to the seizure of Crimea had triggered a deep shift in western perceptions of Putin that everyone expected would see Russia increasingly isolated internationally and exposed to a spiraling trade war with the west, depending on his next moves.
But it did not happen that way. It was clear Obama had no intention of being drawn into rash action or any kind of dangerous confrontation with Putin over Ukraine. "This is not another cold war that we're entering into. The United States and NATO do not seek any conflict with Russia," Obama said. "Now is not the time for bluster … There are no easy answers, no military solution." All that happened was that Russia was removed from the G8 group which then became the G7.
So while the world cannot blame Obama directly for Putin’s seizure of Crimea, US President Trump tried to do so in June of his year when he said it was former President Barack Obama's fault that Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea in 2014. “President Obama lost Crimea just so you understand, this was before I got there," Trump said while speaking with reporters outside of the White House. "President Obama lost Crimea." Trump claimed this was because Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't "respect" Obama. "President Obama lost Crimea because president Putin didn't respect President Obama, didn't respect our country and didn't respect Ukraine," Trump said.
Trump made similar comments regarding Obama and Crimea later at the G7 summit in Canada, where he called for Russia to be readmitted to the group. "Whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run," the president said at the time. "And in the G7, which used to be the G8 — they threw Russia out — they should let Russia come back in because we should have Russia at the negotiating table." Russia was kicked out of the group in 2014 as a result of its annexation of Crimea.
But, of course, Trump will not do anything about Russia’s current flap with Ukraine either even though he believes that Putin respects him. Obama did not get involved because he abhorred military intervention. Trump will not get involved because in his own view of world politics he respects Putin when he acts like a bully because it mirrors Trump’s personality.
But for those of us who plod along every day trying to live normal lives in this abnormal world, the core problem is the same with Trump as it was with Obama. Neither one of them saw/see the need for a policeman in the world nor wanted/wants America to play that role. And that continued inaction on America’s part makes the world a more dangerous place for all of us.
In fact, the world without a policeman is, as Trump said late last week in comments about America’s free pass to the Saudis, a vicious place prone more to chaos than to order. What has kept the world more or less orderly since the end of World War II was the role the United States played as the policeman. When there is no authority figure the despots of the world feel empowered to grab whatever they want by force because they know that there will be no price to pay for their actions.
4th Century Greek statesman Demosthenes said “Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states.” He saw clearly what is at risk when despots are empowered. Sad that our political leadership is not that astute.
1a)
Vladimir Putin’s method is to probe for weakness in adversaries, and then see if there is any push back to his aggression. That’s what he seems to be doing again in the Kerch Strait off Crimea, as Russian forces Sunday seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and 24 crew members.
1a)
Putin Tests Trump on Ukraine
The Russian is watching the response to his latest military aggression.
By The Editorial Board
Vladimir Putin’s method is to probe for weakness in adversaries, and then see if there is any push back to his aggression. That’s what he seems to be doing again in the Kerch Strait off Crimea, as Russian forces Sunday seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and 24 crew members.
Russia says the ships were detained after performing dangerous maneuvers in Russian waters, but that is unlikely. Ukrainian ships use the waterway to gain access to its ports in the Sea of Azov, and they’ve been the target of increasing Russian harassment in recent months.
Perhaps Mr. Putin figures now is a good time to escalate and embarrass Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who faces an election in March. He also may see a Western alliance whose leaders are under domestic pressure: Angela Merkel has had to cede her party’s leadership in Germany, Emmanuel Macron is facing riots over a new fuel tax in France, Britain’s Theresa May is struggling to sell her Brexit deal, and Donald Trump suffered a midterm election defeat.
In this context, Mr. Trump did well to say Monday that he’s “not happy” with Russia’s aggression. Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, also denounced “yet another reckless Russian escalation” and said it would “further sour Russia’s relations with the U.S. and many other countries.”
Mr. Trump criticized Barack Obama for tolerating Mr. Putin’s seizure of Crimea, but now the Russian is testing Mr. Trump. The American should make clear during the G-20 summit this week that such aggression will be met with more arms sales to Ukraine and tougher sanctions on Russia. The Kremlin strongman will be watching for signs of weakness.
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