Idiots what more can I say

The Washington Post in an editorial call out for Humans to reengineer the climate to save the planet. “Climate engineering scholars” David Keith and Wake Smith believe that we can have 15 souped up gulfstreams to put 100,000 tons of sulfur in the lower stratosphere to block solar rays only for half billion dollars over five years.  Note I put quotation over “Climate engineering scholars” since how can anyone be so stupid to actually consider having governments change the weather.  We just witnessed what happened in United Arab Emirates when the government added cloud seeding to a front coming in and flooding resulted.

In the early 1980’s, one study supposedly stated that 100 nuclear wars unleashed at one time would produce a nuclear winter along with the radiation and other impacts of a nuclear war.  This was considered a bad thing but now we have “scientists” who want to make this planet colder and produce their version of a nuclear winter only without unleashing nuclear weapons.

Of course, our brilliant scientists and thought leaders have not understand that a few nations would not like the idea United States or other Western nations changing the weather and this potentially could spark a conflict or two. 

This is not a new idea, as Marc Morano noted, “This is retro 1970s. In the 1970s, they believed fossil fuels were creating aerosols blocking the sun, creating man-made global cooling. So, they came up with the same kind of geo-engineering solutions back then. They wanted to put black soot on the Arctic to melt it. There was one proposal that was to use nuclear energy to loosen the Arctic ice caps because they thought they were growing too much. John Holdren (Science Czar) in the Obama Administration supported geo-engineering, if you will, of the climate. This is radical, risky, unproven, with unknown effects but they are doing it as a sort of lever over us…. ABC News meteorologists (Ginger Zee) talked about the cloud seeding to increase rain, snow, or storms, They will — the government will control the weather, and you will be Happy. That seems to be the new motto.”

This is one of those ideas that should be simply rejected but there are scientists, activists and politicians who love to play God and somehow the idea that a government can actually control the weather is not only delusional but dangerous  We are purposedly creating a colder planet and yet to hear one scientists tells us why we need to a colder planet when more people die during colder weather and shorter planting season for farming could lead to less yields for farmers and less food for the rest of us. 

We can only look at studies dealing with the gain of functions with virus to know the potential for disaster with geo-engineering.  Many policy makers have refused to come to grip that Covid was most likely a lab accident in a facility working on making virus more potent.  Anthony Fauci and other scientists who have supported this research did everything they could to cover up the fact that Wuhan lab was involved in gain of function research  and that United States helped finance this.  The possibility that Covid was research supported by American taxpayer and escaped from Chinese laboratory is becoming more the actual truth, millions around the world died as a result with the same brilliant experts demanding we lockdown our economy, close our schools and our businesses to no avail.

The same is true with adding foreign substances to change weather patterns.  We don’t know the results will be, but it is certainty that will have a negative impact on our planet and civilization. Play God and disaster will happen.

Is Clark Underpaid?

Is Caitlin Clark underpaid?  If one looks at her impact on WNBA, you can easily make the case that she is underpaid.  The WNBA attendance averages 7,000 vs 18,000 in the NBA and NBA revenues are 10 billion and WNBA doesn’t even make 100 million in revenues.  NBA viewership during the season is three times the WNBA even though WNBA has seen increases in 2023. 

NBA tickets range from 95 dollars to 600 dollars, and there is fluctuation depending  on the opponents, the average ticket price in WNBA is 47 dollars.  Last year post season, the NBA averaged over 6 million viewers and Miami-Denver finals had almost 12 million whereas WNBA finals peaked at 1.1 million.

Clark impact is being felt just in ticket sales as Indiana Fevers ticket sales have increased and other teams are noticing that there is increase demand for Indiana Fevers games.   New York Liberty have already sold out their game with the Fevers and ticket prices have gone through the roof.  Conservatively speaking, Liberty will see an increase of at least half a million dollars when Clark and her Fevers teammate come to town.   Considering that Clark salary is less than 400,000 dollars for four years, she has already paid off her salary just for this game.   And this is being repeated throughout the league and Nike is already investing in a 28 million dollars contract with Ms. Clark and she has a good year, Nike will make a return on their investments.

Clark means increase ticket sales, increase television ratings and merchandise sales and as we free market types would say, Clark rising tide will lift all boats.  The average WNBA team has 12 players, and the average NBA has 15 players plus two players are considered two-way contracts between their G-League affiliates and the main club.  Increase revenues means that WNBA can not only raise salaries but also increase the number of players.  With only 12 teams in the league, WNBA can end up expanding so the overall number of players getting paid in the United State increases as well. 

Because of Clark, Iowa women team sold out Carver arena in Iowa City and many of Iowa opponents found ticket sales increased as well.  Iowa -South Carolina had 5 million more viewers than the men NCAA finals between Purdue versus Connecticut.   Women college basketball saw tremendous increase in overall ratings and Iowa ratings were often the highest.   Clark could lead to a similar increase in the WNBA.  (The ratings for the 2023 NBA finals averaged 11 million viewers and not one of the final games out drew what Iowa -South Carolina.) Clark already has made more money for the WNBA than they are paying her, and we will see if Clark can lift WNBA in the future. So far the Clark presence is showing its impact.

Genius of Reagan

In 1983, Ronald Reagan proposed what he called Strategic Defense Initiative and his opponent called it star wars with disdain. One United States Senator spoke at the National Press club in 1986, “Star Wars represents a fundamental assault on the concepts, alliances and arms-control agreements that have buttressed American security for several decades, and the president’s continued adherence to it constitutes one of the most reckless and irresponsible acts in the history of modern statecraft.”  This past weekend, this Senator found himself working with Israel to knock down those missiles.  Yes, Joe Biden should be thankful to Ronald Reagan for his foresight.

 The goal was to defend America against ballistic missiles.  In 1988, I ran a congressional campaign in Missouri 5th district and my candidate, Mary Ellen Lobb, reviewed data on SDI and as we talked about the concept and how to use it in the election.  We wrote up a position paper and she insisted that we must include regional powers about Iran. Ms. Lobb was prophetic about the importance of SDI, and it use against Iran. This was 1988. 

Israel realized the importance of missile defense and within two years of Reagan announcement, Israel began working with the United States and this past weekend, the world watched in real time how SDI worked in protecting Israel population.   While United States didn’t develop a space-based system, the technology has put together an arsenal of ground, air, and sea basked interceptors and Israel developed an iron dome to protect the population from short range missile along with David’s sling protection includes medium range missiles and the Arrow 2 and 3 hit missiles at high attitudes.   

Now that we have a  spaced based force, it should be obvious that a space-based system will protect American population from missiles but maybe also protects our satellites as well. 

Maybe it is time to review the Reagan years for on many issues, Reagan was ahead of the game and SDI was one area.  He understood that keeping a world on the edge of mutual destruction was not the long-term strategy, but SDI allowed something different, a defense against missiles.

Israel has showed the ability to protect their population and shown how SDI does have a role in future of the warfare.  

Holly Holm combat champion

Holly Holm is the only fighter who has won championships as a boxer and a championship as a Mixed Martial Artist. Her most recent defeat at the hands of Kayla Harrison at the age of 42 showed maybe a fighter who no longer is the great fighter of the past.  Mother time always wins as she lost her recent bout but yet Holm has managed to put together a hall of fame career as a combat fighter.

Holly Holm is the daughter of a pastor and had the nickname, the Preacher Daughter, and her first fight was a knockout win in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2002, the beginning of a combat sport career that extended 22 years to her recent MMA fight, but also includes boxing and kick boxing.

Holm career began in aerobics class at the age of 16 including cardio-kickboxing and her instructor saw talent and began instructing her.  She did amateur kicking boxing before going into a professional boxing career.

As a boxer she was regarded as one of the best female boxers in the welterweight division and won the female boxer of the year in 2005 and 2006 and was a three-time title holder between 140 to 154 pounds.  She won the undisputed super welterweight champion by defeating Mary Jo Sanders in June of 2008. 

Her first title was defeating Terri Blair for the inaugural WIBA junior welterweight in 2004, and from there, she was a regular mixture on the championship fighting.   Her biggest challenge was Anne Sophie Mathis who stopped her in the seventh round for the junior Middleweight division, but she won the rematch by a decision. She had two more championship victories before moving to the MMA.  

She won her first nine MMA fights before facing Ronda Rousey, who was then the queen of the MMA. Rousey had dominated the opponents as no one managed to get out of the first round, but Holm shocked the MMA world and defeated Rousey with knockout. This proved to be her high-water mark as she would lose her title to Misha Tate in her next fight and from there, she would be a contender for titles but never quite get over the top for another title.

However, she proved to be competitive in the UFC, but she won her only title at the age of 34, but her competitive spirit kept her going.  Holm style involved lateral movement, adopted from her boxing days while working jabs.  She waited to counterattack with strikes and combination punches.  Her footwork was her advantage and employed a variety of kicking techniques, hitting the body before striking with high kicks. As a boxer, she was a slick boxer with the majority of her decisions by decision and only nine knockouts.

Now the future is clouded as UFC head Dana White observed that maybe the 42-year-old Holm should consider retirement and certainly she has reached that point of her career where age is eroding those skills. 

Holms has had a great career and is in International boxing hall of fame and her boxing record was 33 wins 2 losses and three draws.  Her MMA record was 15 wins, 7 losses and one no-contest.   And she also did kickboxing as well.   

Holly Holm will go down as one of great female boxers and in her second career as MMA fighter, she was a champion and afterward a consistent contender for another title.  Her victory over Rousey had over 1 million viewers PPV.   No fighter has done what she has done, winning titles in both professional boxing and UFC MMA.  She is the ultimate combat warrior, a champion in a multiples of combat sport. 

Biden Foreign Policy is a Disaster!

Biden foreign policy is the extension of the Obama’s foreign policy and in comparison with the Trump years, there is no comparison for Trump era was superior to both Obama and Biden’s years.  In the Obama years, Russian took a piece of Ukraine while Joe Biden’s son was making money working with corrupt oligarchies.  Obama never viewed Ukraine as part of our national interest and while you can debate the merit of his views, the 1994 Budapest accord made it clear that Ukraine sovereignty would be respected in exchange of giving its nuclear stockpiles.  Obama essentially ignored the Budapest accord.

Obama Middle East policy was to appeased Iran and work on the false assumption that Iran could be a partner of stability in the Middle East.  Obama pull out in Iraq would be the model for Biden’s disastrous Afghan retreat. Obama declared victory and ISIS ended up in control of good portion of Iraq in quick order and Syria ignored Obama’s redline on use of chemical weapons.   Obama had to send troops back in. 

When Trump came into office, ISIS was in control of significant territory, Russia was embedded in the Middle East after decades of foreign policy keeping Russia out, Iran was going for a nuclear weapon and collecting money courtesy of Obama’s administration and using that largess to sponsor terrorism.  Russia penetrated Ukraine and the world was less safe.

Under Trump, ISIS defeated and due to reimposition of sanctions, Iran economy was in a shambles. Trump left Biden’s administration with the Abraham accord in which Israel making peace with Sunni states against Iran.  Europe was quiet and no Russian further encroachment of Ukraine.   Trump left Biden’s with a more peaceful world. 

Now the world is on fire, thanks to incompetence of the Biden’s administration and it should be noted, Biden followed Obama initiative in the Middle East of appeasing Iran and providing Iran with the money to create instability once again in the Middle East.  The present Israeli war against Hamas is the direct of results of Obama/Biden foreign policy and the disastrous pull out of Afghanistan left billions of dollars of military equipment in the hands of the Taliban. Putin viewed the rest of Ukraine fair game after the Afghanistan pullout and Biden’s weakness led to the worse military conflict in Europe since World War II and the war still in doubt as the debate on further aid is in jeopardy. The Middle East war has expanded to Yemen threatening our trade routes,  Hezbollah raining missiles on Northern Israel along with Gaza. Iran launched their own attack from their soil directly against Israel.

Our border is a disaster as 8 million plus have crossed the border into the United States and we have an immigration policy that has at least two illegal immigrants coming into the United States compared to one legal immigrant.  This is unstainable. 

We were told that Biden’s administration were the grown-ups to bring normalcy and “sound foreign policy” but they have failed to bring normalcy and their foreign policy has been a disaster.   Decline is a choice for nations and the Biden administration is choosing decline.