Fudged numbers, leaving the left, civil asset forfeiture, the press and Black History Month

I wish you could see my shocked face over this revelation. NOAA fudged temperature data? Say it ain’t so!

A whistleblower says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) rushed a landmark study claiming the planet was warming much faster than expected in order to influence international climate negotiations.

Dr. John Bates, the former principal scientist at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., told the Daily Mail NOAA’s 2015 study was meant “to discredit the notion of a global warming hiatus and rush to time the publication of the paper to influence national and international deliberations on climate policy.”

Bates said NOAA scientists made a “blatant attempt to intensify the impact” of global warming to eliminate the “pause” in temperature rise since 1998. The Daily Mail claims Bates showed it “irrefutable” evidence NOAA’s study relied on “unverified” data.

Of course, anyone following this closely – beside being called a ‘heretic’ for claiming the data didn’t support the warmist’s conclusions – knew that NOAA et. al. were fudging temperature data to get the desired result. The raw data simply didn’t support their theory.  So they changed the numbers.  How else do you explain conclusions that defied reality? Science!  Political science!

A repentant former liberal points out some of the problems with liberalism/progressivism today in a very long but worthwhile post. He feels the liberalism that first attracted him has now abandoned him.  Also, frankly, he grew up.  Here he points to why those who were once considered liberals wouldn’t be welcome in today’s movement:

Hell, JFK was a recklessly warmongering one-percenter. Like Bush 43 and Romney rolled into one! He could not hope to win the Democratic ticket in 2017. He’d be compared to Trump, and lambasted in a similar manner. Meanwhile, Martin Luther King would be called a race traitor, for failing to embrace intersectional identity theories and their attendant anti-caucasian, anti-male, anti-straight, anti-cis hatreds — which place Victimhood (caps v) above content of character.

Even the original Suffragettes would be kicked out of the Good Guy club, for their traditional opposition to abortion.

In other words, there is almost nothing about the 21st century American Left, which can be accurately called liberal. No way in hell.

The 21st century American Left is instead a cultural and political enforcer of both dogma, and uniformity. Which preens in the mirror each morning, celebrating its eminent superiority, and talking down to, attacking, or otherwise throwing out anyone and everyone who steps out of line.

It doesn’t take much to get put on the “bad people” list. Witness all the proper progressives forever being witch-burned on our campuses, by the intersectional crybabies (in grown bodies) who demand to never be disagreed with, otherwise they’re triggered — and need to run to their safe spaces.

I can’t ride in that dysfunctional clown car. It is anti-intellectual, and anti-reason. It proposes to elevate feelings above all else, and has turned victimization — both real and imagined — into a bizarre form of morally-elevated celebrity.

Being a victim is now chic!

I’ve talked about the cult of the victim the left has developed and nurtured.  Of course you have to be the right kind of a victim to cash in with them.  Otherwise, well, you can suck it. Read the whole thing.

Anyone who has read this blog over the years knows I have no patience or love lost for those who attempt to support the legalized act of theft known as civil asset forfeiture.  It is a contemptible act. It should be made completely and unquestionable illegal.  And my impatience and scorn is applicable to our new President as well:

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday there was “no reason” to curb law enforcement agencies that seize cash, vehicles and other assets of people suspected of crimes, a practice that some lawmakers and activists have criticized for denying legal rights.

The issue of civil asset forfeiture, created to disrupt the activities of organized crime groups, arose when sheriffs from around the United States told Trump at a White House meeting that they were under pressure to ease the practice.

“I’d like to look into that,” Trump said. “There’s no reason for that.”

Yeah, there is a reason for that Mr. Trump.  It’s theft, pure and simple.  Either have probable cause, arrest and indict the person or don’t, but confiscation because you “feel” they may be a criminal (or, mostly, because you can and don’t have to justify the confiscation legally) is not only un-American, it’s morally wrong.  If you’re going to wave the Bible around, live up to it.

Pier’s Morgan, formerly of CNN, tells Fox’s Tucker Carlson that CNN and other news outlet were in the bad for Hillary Clinton and got  “more and more virulent” in their attacks on Donald Trump as the election neared.  Ed Morrissey notes:

Morgan makes an excellent point about the root of the problem in American media. In the UK, Morgan notes, media outlets make very little pretense of having no point of view, so readers and viewers can put their reporting in context. “It’s pretty balanced down the middle,” Morgan explains, with “as many left-wing papers in Britain as there are right-wing. In America, what I don’t like is this pretense from papers like the New York Times that somehow they are completely beyond any reproach when it comes to their coverage, that they are completely neutral. They’re not neutral,” Morgan declares, and then goes on to point out examples of editorial bias.

By the way, Morgan points out, the temper tantrums in the US over Trump’s win are also taking place in the UK over the Brexit vote. In both cases, the media seems to be cheerleading them to some extent, too. “It’s one of the great hissy fits of modern political times.” Yes, and it’s hardly a recipe for voters to take the opposition or the media more seriously.

Indeed.  Of course that’s been said everyday in many ways but soundly ignored by the left – thankfully.

A final note to the left.  It’s Black History month.  Instead of trying to declare a whole race “victims”, why not look at real accomplishments by blacks who didn’t consider themselves victims and contributed to this great country?  Such as:

OMG … anti-abortion?  Can’t have that can you?  She, instead, joins the undesirables and deplorables and must at least be … well, sexist!

~McQ