Wednesday Morning Breakfast For The Brain

Served up piping hot and definitely not sunny side up.

Sustainability 

Via Lew Rockwell

Sustainability, the concept and the movement, is one the strongest narratives working on and within the culture today. Of course, corporations, like most individuals, are obliged to confront in some fashion the sustainability crusade. And certainly, for such a major meme, there are markets to be served. Thus, it is not surprising that the large international corporation I work for recently offered a series of webinars on sustainability to its employees. Most were about internal efforts dealing with topics such as life cycle assessment and carbon capture. To be generous to the concept, sustainability in some cases overlaps with what is economical. It is most often misguided, but it can be evil.

The propensity to evil was evident in the webinar on data and artificial intelligence serving sustainability. This presentation was given by an external consultant from a think tank (names reserved to protect the innocent and the guilty). The presentation intended to address the questions: “Does the ecological crisis leave enough time to find, develop and scale up solutions?” and “Does everyone have access to hi-tech solutions?” This plugged-in technocrat proceeded to explain what and how technology is emerging based on two scenarios.

The first scenario, “Scientific Salvation” through “transformation technology,” was presented in three stages. The first two stages were relatively benign, “understand and protect the ecosystem” and “help us find suitable alternatives.” To avoid boring the reader I pass directly to the third stage, “To transform living things.” The project involved a technology “to predict and select the quality of embryos.” The concept technology is founded on somehow creating thousands of embryos and then letting the AI driven scanning technique choose the only ones of quality for gestation and birth, presumably based on some health metric. Even the speaker recognized the dangerous nature of what he described because, moving to the next example, he noted it is “less scary.” During the question period I was pleased to see some ethical pushback. In response to a question regarding embryo selection, the word “eugenics” and “sinister” were mentioned by the speaker; so again, he was not totally obtuse to the potential evil in what he was describing. But he took the line that this was the coming technology, not necessarily that he endorsed it. Then he added, “Now most people do not give birth at home. Within a generation it will be rare to reproduce at home.”

The second scenario called “under the influence,” was also described in three stages.

“Stage 1 Inform & Educate” was again relatively tame. “Stage 2 Encourage!” is essentially Cass Sunstein’s nudge approach to obfuscated tyranny. “Stage 3 Coerce?” had as a background image minnows schooling in a circular pattern that made the intent clear. Even with the question mark, I was amazed this direct call for tyranny could be presented in such a vanilla corporate setting. The euphemism I expected “delegating decisions” was given in the following slide. The example project was a credit card that blocks spending when, for example, the consumer passes his carbon limit. On the slide it stated, “Your card decides whether you can spend your money.” As the speaker conceded “to force people into being environmentally friendly” could “raise a lot of issues.” The concluding questions posed by the speaker were “If information and encouragement don’t work, will individuals and businesses accept coercion?” and “Will the same models work for every community and every problem?” Good questions. I hope wherever I am living the answer will be “no” to coercion.

Read the entire article HERE.

Climate Fear Propaganda: New TIME Cover Story Exploits Pandemic to Cry ‘Climate Is Everything’

Via Newsbusters

Time magazine continued its sad history of pushing the inconsistent climate nuttiness it’s been peddling for decades.

The magazine released a new cover story with a headline that once again reeked of climate Armageddon agitprop: “Climate Is Everything: How the pandemic can lead us to a better, greener world.” Climate doom-monger and Time senior correspondent Justin Worland laced the story with absurd propaganda: “[S]purred by alarming science, growing public fury and a deadly pandemic, government officials, corporate bosses and civil-society leaders are finally waking up to a simple idea whose time has come: climate is everything.”

Pivoting off of Democratic strategist James Carville’s famous statement, “It’s the economy, stupid,” Worland quipped: “[A]s the effects of climate change increasingly shape economic outcomes, we may soon be saying, ‘It’s the climate, stupid.’” [Emphasis added.]

It’s interesting that a new analysis published a day after Worland’s story by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University was headlined: “Climate ‘Emergency’? Not So Fast.” Meteorologist Richard Lindzen and physicist William Happer argued that “[t]here is no climate emergency. Americans should not be stampeded into a disastrous climate crusade.” The authors said that “[a] climate crusade that destroys economies and ultimately lives will be as bad, or worse [than the medieval crusades].”

Worland praised U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge for “working to infuse climate considerations into everything [President Joe Biden’s] Administration does.” Worland heralded how “[t]he intertwining of the economy and climate change promises to shape global politics and society for the foreseeable future.”

Worland’s story read like the same kind of false alarmism that Time peddled when it tried to scare readers about a global cooling catastrophe nearly 47 years ago. In 1974, Time said: “The trend [of global cooling] shows no indication of reversing … Telltale signs are everywhere —from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest.” On a similar note, Worland tried to convince readers recently that 2020 was the world’s “one last chance” to save the planet.

Worland appeared to champion how the pandemic shifted conversations toward climate change and led governments to infuse policy-making with eco-extremist nonsense. He wrote:

“When COVID-19 hit, the climate conversation at first took a back seat as hospital beds filled. But in the midst of the crisis, interest seemed only to grow as the pandemic reminded people of the risk of ignoring science and the world’s interconnectedness.”

Worland even cited climate fanatic and former Vice President Al Gore, who said: “‘The world is crossing the long-awaited political tipping point on climate right now … We are seeing the beginning of a new era.’” Of course, Worland didn’t mention that Gore has a long history of being wrong on many of his climate predictions.

Read the entire article HERE.

Welcome to Medellín, Minn., Where Elected Officials and Cops Are Afraid of BLM and Antifa Race ‘Cartels’

Via PJ Media

Well, folks, we’re here.

After years of pulling the threads from the Constitution and foundation of Western thought, telling ourselves it wouldn’t matter “this time,” or being shamed by our betters about the “fallacy” of the slippery slope, we’ve arrived to find our social fabric nearly undone.

It’s over there, a tattered, stringy mass lying on the floor.

The Third-Worlding of America is nearly complete. Colombia, here we come!

Let’s go over the bill of particulars in case you don’t think Medellín is in our future.

In recent years we’ve seen that the rule of law bends toward injustice. We’ve seen the legal system weaponized against a sitting president of the U.S.

Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill rioters are treated completely different than Seattle’s Capitol rioters.

People defending themselves from a mob are the ones who end up in jail.

If there’s a difference of opinion, people who believe in the wisdom of the Constitution and the rule of law are called names like fascist or nationalist. They are kicked off platforms that have replaced the public square.

If people in the favored crowds are called out for doing something wrong or the merely hypocritical, it’s the disfavored messenger who is shunned from the public square. Ask James O’Keefe or Jason Whitlock or the “terrorists” who supported President Trump or the people who were – oopsie – geotagged at the president’s speech on January 6th … by the cell phone companies and banks.

And now we’ve seen a “public servant,” a term I use loosely, openly admit that she voted to fire a guy rather than leave herself open to the hostility – or worse – from the narcos.

In America.

Last week after the Brooklyn Center police shooting of Daunte Wright, there were the familiar riots, looting, arsons, and unrest in response. It’s understandable. After all, one needs a big-screen TV or jacked cellphone for “justice.”

The police officer involved in the shooting, a 26-year-veteran, had mistaken her service weapon for her taser and shot the suspect, who was fighting and fleeing the cops.

This, of course, occurred during the Derek Chauvin trial in nearby Minneapolis, which should have been moved from the area, as I explain in a recent piece in PJ Media. Chauvin is standing trial for the death of George Floyd, which has sparked endless riots, arsons, looting, and unrest.

And after the terrible news about Wright’s death, the mayor decided that everyone should be fired – the cops, the police chief and others.

Among the voices of reason was City Manager Curt Boganey, who said that before anything was done the cop needed due process.

And stating the 5th and 14th Amendments of the United States Constitution was Boganey’s undoing.

The council voted to fire the – it seems appropriate to mention here – black city manager because he believes in the right to due process.

It’s not like it was for anything important that he lost his job. I mean, it’s not like due process is a big deal or anything.

The city councilor told the truth about the firing at a Zoom meeting later, as Legal Insurrection pointed out.

Brooklyn Center Council Member Kris Lawrence-Anderson, who voted to fire Boganey, explained that her decision to do so was based on fear of retaliation from the Black Lives Matter radicals who were wreaking havoc on the city:

At a virtual council workshop, Council Member Kris Lawrence-Anderson said she voted to remove the city manager because she feared for her property and retaliation by protestors if she had voted to keep him.

“He was doing a great job. I respect him dearly,” she said. “I didn’t want repercussions at a personal level.”

For those keeping score at home, the city manager was fired for standing by the fundamentals of affording the accused due process. At the same time, at least one council member openly admitted she cast her vote based solely on what she thought the mob of rioters might do to her or her property if she voted in a way that displeased them.

“I didn’t want repercussions at a personal level.” Great job, Minnesota! What a profile in courage she is. She was concerned about BLM and antifa going all primeval on her ass, so she tossed due process under the bus.

It looks like the wrong guy got fired here.

When antifa and BLM stir as much fear as Pablo Escobar and his henchmen, which prevents you from doing your damned job and following the Constitution, we’ve arrived at Banana Republic status.

Welcome to Medellín, Minnesota, where judges, elected officials, and cops are afraid of the race cartels.

Read the entire article HERE.

Judge Asks Jurors To Disregard Maxine Waters As She Pours Gasoline On Their Heads

Via The Babylon Bee

MINNEAPOLIS, MN—County Judge Peter Cahill has issued final instructions to the jury ahead of closing arguments in the Derek Chauvin trial. As part of his charge to the jury, he asked them to please disregard Maxine Waters as she walked among the jurors pouring gasoline on their heads.

“As the jury, you are charged to be fair and impartial,” he began. “Please pay no attention to the fact that you’ve just been soaked in gasoline. Please also ignore that Representative Waters is now standing behind you trying to light a match. In addition, please disregard the crowd of masked Antifa holding pitchforks right outside the door.”

Maxine Waters has made it clear to the jury that they must issue a “guilty” verdict if they don’t want to be doxxed, threatened, fired from their jobs, or peacefully set on fire.

President Biden also weighed in, suggesting packing the jury with more members to ensure the correct verdict.

“So far, things are going pretty well for us,” said the prosecution.

Check out all of the Bee’s takes on a world gone mad HERE.

Be sure to stop by at Def-Con News to get our morning started off right.