Dr. Roy Spencer:
The U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimates that the economic downturn in 2020 produced only an 11% reduction in fossil fuel use. The resulting change in atmospheric CO2 concentration was unmeasurable.
Furthermore, while we nibble around the edges of the “carbon pollution” problem, China’s CO2 emissions continue to grow.
htpp:///www.drroyspencer.com/2021/01/biden-to-end-fossil-fuel-subsidies-like-the-paris-agreement-it-will-make-no-difference/
Ooh, a storm is threatening
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Ooh yeah I’m gonna fade away
“Gimme Shelter”, Mike Jagger and Keith Richards
See also Tyler’s reaction in ZH: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/biden-administration-monitoring-marketwide-short-squeeze
A story published today in the Washington Times covers the US intell assessment of the China Virus as a lab breach event. The breach at the Wuhan Institute of Virology likely involved gain-of-function research funded by Dr. “Death” Fauci through the EcoHealth Alliance.
Here’s Bill Gertz:
U.S. intelligence findings recently declassified by the State Department provide fresh evidence for the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic likely began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China’s sole high-security laboratory that has links to the country’s military.
The department, in a report made public this month by the outgoing Trump administration, disclosed for the first time that several workers at the Wuhan institute, where research on deadly viruses is conducted, were sickened in the autumn of 2019 with COVID-19-like symptoms.
The report also made public U.S. intelligence that the People’s Liberation Army conducted secret research on covert biological warfare at the institute. Chinese leaders have consistently denied any link between the lab and the outbreak of COVID-19 and have even promoted speculation that the United States or some other foreign source brought the virus to China.
Here’s the full story: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jan/26/wuhan-lab-theory-coronavirus-outbreak-bolstered-de/
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyman_G._Rickover
Hyman G. Rickover (January 27, 1900 – July 8, 1986) was an Admiral in the U.S. Navy. He directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of the U.S. Naval Reactors office. In addition, he oversaw the development of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the world’s first commercial pressurized water reactor used for generating electricity. Rickover is also one of four people who have been awarded two Congressional Gold Medals.
Though not often cited in the literature, Rickover also introduced quality management that became the basis for SQC, TQM, and a wide range of industrial initiatives.
Some notable quotes:
“Responsibility is a unique concept… You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you… If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible.”
“Success teaches us nothing; only failure teaches.”
“When doing a job — any job — one must feel that he owns it, and act as though he will remain in that job forever.”
“Optimism and stupidity are nearly synonymous.”
“The Devil is in the details, but so is salvation.”
“If you are going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won’t.”
James Brevard:
In a free society, peaceful citizens deserve the legal benefit of the doubt. In an age where government agents have endlessly intruded onto people’s land and into their emails, citizens should not be scourged for transgressing unknown or unmarked federal boundaries. There are enough real criminals in this nation that federal prosecutors don’t need to seek publicity by destroying people who may have unknowingly illicitly violated politicians’ sacred turf.
Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed a complaint and motion for temporary restraining order in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, asking the Court to immediately halt the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) freeze on deportations of illegal aliens.
On its first day in office, the Biden Administration cast aside congressionally enacted immigration laws and suspended the removal of illegal aliens whose removal is compelled by those very laws. The move violates the U.S. Constitution, federal immigration and administrative law, and a contractual agreement between Texas and DHS. Last night, Attorney General Paxton issued a letter warning that the Administration’s actions resulted in an abdication of DHS’s obligation to enforce federal immigration law, which would seriously and irreparably harm Texas and its citizens.
“In one of its first of dozens of steps that harm Texas and the nation as a whole, the Biden administration directed DHS to violate federal immigration law and breach an agreement to consult and cooperate with Texas on that law. Our state defends the largest section of the southern border in the nation. Failure to properly enforce the law will directly and immediately endanger our citizens and law enforcement personnel,” said Attorney General Paxton. “DHS itself has previously acknowledged that such a freeze on deportations will cause concrete injuries to Texas. I am confident that these unlawful and perilous actions cannot stand. The rule of law and security of our citizens must prevail.”
The petition is available here: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/ag-paxton-sues-biden-administration-demanding-immediate-halt-unlawful-deportation-freeze
And a Federal judge blocked the deportation freeze.
Paxton, in a statement on Twitter, hailed the victory, saying, “Texas is the FIRST state in the nation to bring a lawsuit against the Biden Admin. AND WE WON.”
“Within 6 days of Biden’s inauguration, Texas has HALTED his illegal deportation freeze. *This* was a seditious left-wing insurrection,” the Republican continued. “And my team and I stopped it.
The highest-paid Federal civil servant and his gain-of-function research with Federal tax dollars – outsourced to the Wuhan Institute of Virology – developed the high affinity ACE-2 receptor.
Dr. “Death”‘s labelled his opinion in the Washington Post: “A flu virus risk worth taking” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-flu-virus-risk-worth-taking/2011/12/30/gIQAM9sNRP_story.html):
Tyler Durden (ZeroHedge):
Well, here’s an idea: maybe all the central-planning megabrains at the Marriner Eccles building and 33 Liberty Street can take a break from whatever circle jerk they are engaged in right now, and look at the latest Case Shiller numbers which showed not only that home prices surged at the fastest pace in seven years, rising more than 9% compared to a year ago but that for the first time since the financial crisis, the annual price increase in every major US MSA (and according to Case Shiller there are 20 of them) rose by at least 6.8% Y/Y (in the case of Las Vegas) and as much as 13.8% in Phoenix, meaning that the average home prices across all of the US is now rising at 4.5 times the Fed’s own inflation target, and even the cheapest US MSA is rising at more than 3 times the Fed’s inflation goal.
Why does this matter? Simple: Because if – as Joseph Carson mused last month – CPI measured actual house prices, inflation would be above 3% right now.
For those who missed it, here again is the explanation:
“Actual” consumer price inflation is rising during the recession. That runs counter to the normal recessionary pattern when the combination of weak demand and excess capacity works to lessen inflationary pressures.
The main source of faster consumer price inflation is centered in the housing market. The Case-Shiller Home Price Index posted a 7% increase the last year, more than twice the gain of one-year ago.
The sharp acceleration in house price inflation represents the fastest increase since 2014 and runs counter to the patterns of the past two recessions. During the 2001 recession house price inflation slowed by one-third, while in the Great Financial Recession housing prices posted their largest decline in the post-war period, falling over 12% nationwide.
The consumer price index (CPI) does not show in house price inflation because it uses a non-market rent index to capture the trends in housing inflation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that the non-market rent index has increased 2.5% in the past 12 months, or 450 basis points below the rise in house prices.
If actual house prices were used in place of rents core CPI would have registered a 3% gain in the past year, nearly twice the reported gain of 1.6%.
If aggregate price measures did not exist house prices would be one of the most important measures to gauge inflation and the proper setting of official interest rates. That’s because house price cycles include easy credit/financial conditions, excess demand, and inflation expectations, three key ingredients of inflation cycles.
Rising consumer price inflation is added to the list of unique features of the 2020 recession. Others include an increase in corporate debt levels instead of debt-liquidation and rising equity prices instead of share price declines.
If the 2020 recession has economic and financial features that normally appear during economic recovery what does that imply for the next growth cycle? The debt overhang at the corporate and federal debt should impede the next growth cycle. And if the cyclical rise in housing demand is occurring in recession it can’t be repeated during recovery.
The next economic cycle will be filled with unique tipping points, and no one should assume that policymakers can control or offset them.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/home-prices-soar-45-times-feds-inflation-target-all-us-cities
Econophysics2020 