Don's Tuesday Column

   THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   2/25/2020

  Socialism, hate, climate follies

Following are limited comments—due to the ultimate irrelevancy of these early Democratic nomination contests—on the apparent clown show (no disrespect to clowns intended). When the Dems have resorted to picking names from a hat, flipping a coin and drawing cards, the clowns rule. You do realize, I hope: 1) The out-and-out “socialist” Sanders (the “democratic” prefix simply means that once getting voted into power, totalitarianism assures permanency) cruised to a commanding win, with more Nevada caucus votes than the next two, Biden and Buttigieg, combined.

2) It should be deeply concerning, scary one might say, for an unrepentant, one-time Trotskyite/Stalinist/Bolshevik-supporting leftist to appear on his way to a major party nomination. It’s certainly scaring the Democratic insiders, who rightly see a Trump landslide ala the McGovern, Mondale and Dukakis losses. They dread Trump’s coattails restoring sane, Republican rule in the House.

3) Hence, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews may be channeling the conventional, fallback wisdom: “I’m wondering if the Democratic moderates want Bernie Sanders to be president…(and) take over the Democratic Party in perpetuity. Maybe they’d rather wait 4 years and put in a Democrat they like.”

4) Network coverage has favored the voices of left-leaning journalists and Democrats; I’m trying to remember if their coverage of the Republican primaries and caucuses in 2012 favored Republican voices.

Following up on the “One-sided hate” theme, we have to add “one-sided ignorance” for a clueless comment/question by former congressman, now Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison. “I have never seen Bernie Sanders supporters being unusually mean or rude. Can someone send me an example of a ‘Bernie Bro’ being bad…?”

Daniel John Sobieski: “Like most Democrats, progressives, and liberals, Ellison has a selective and short memory when it comes to their hypocrisy on moral issues and inciting violence.  As it turns out, someone has provided Ellison with an example of a "Bernie Bro" going bad.  The winner of the Ellison challenge is none other than Congressman Steve Scalise, the victim of a "Bernie Bro,” James Hodgkinson, running amok with guns and a list of Republicans he wanted to kill. ‘I can think of an example (replied Scalise).’” Look up “A Bernie Bro Shot Steve Scalise,” Feb. 23.

In a video setting the global warming record straight, “Climate Alarmists Fleeing to Antarctica,” Tony Heller refers to “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowd,” by Charles Mackay. Originally written in 1841, it debunked the fads, manias, schemes and hysterias of the day, including economic bubbles, alchemy, fortune-telling and prophecies.

Proving eternally relevant, a quote goes: “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.” The “dot com bubble” gripped investors prior to 2000, wherein tech stocks that had no established product or revenue value—fueled by speculation of future stock prices—were bought on “margin” or loaned money providing the buyer with an illusory sense of getting richer. A big crash followed.

Arguably, the “irrational exuberance” for—if not socialism in general—socialistic schemes like “single-payer health care” is driven by delusions lacking actual track records of success and efficiency. One could also point to the outsized support for socialist Bernie Sanders among the youngest Democrat Party voters—which declines into single digits among their older voters—as evidence of the susceptibility of youthful inexperience to utopian ideas. Nothing government touches becomes cheaper and better.

The hysteria—only 12 years left, hottest weather ever, environmental apocalypse, we need “complete economic overhaul”—over global warming/climate change/extreme weather also falls into that category of “extraordinary popular delusions.”

Titles alone paint a truthful picture: “ZOMG We’re All Gonna Die: 2019 Second Hottest Year on Record (Except It Isn’t)” by Stephen Green; “2019: the year of peak green bullsh*t—Greta, Prince Harry and Extinction Rebellion took the eco-cult to new heights of madness” by Ben Pile; “The Economist Calls for ‘Complete Overhaul’ of Economy to Fight Climate Change” by Thomas D. Williams, PH.D.;

“Environmental apocalypse predictions have failed for half a century” by Myron Ebell; “Goose eggs: No climate doomsday warning has come true” by Paul Bedard; “Doomsdays that didn’t happen: Think tank compiles decades’ worth of dire climate predictions” by Sam Dorman; “No U.S. Warming Since 2005” by John Hinderaker. Finally, the goal in one title: “The Global Warming Scare — The Perfect Trojan Horse For Tyranny” by I & I Editorial Board (formerly Investor’s Business Daily).

Tony Heller’s website, Realclimatescience.com, and “Pulling Back The Curtain On Junk Science,” is worth perusing; his degrees and resume exceed most of the more well-known alarmists like Al Gore or Bill Nye. In his video, he begins with the 2008 predictions of mass migration to Antarctica as the earth uncontrollably heats up; it was a serious study published in places like “The Telegraph” by Urmee Khan. That was preceded in 2004 by “Why Antarctica will soon be the only place to live—literally” by The Independent’s Geoffrey Lean, quoting Professor Sir David King.

They have abandoned alarmism over the Arctic sea ice because the current ice coverage exceeds 13 of the last 14 years—very close to the 30-year average—and spoils their catastrophe-projection. They have had to ignore that Alaska and Greenland are having some of the coldest conditions on record, as did New Delhi which had its coldest day on record. Snow has fallen in parts of Saudi Arabia.

Yet, one location on an Antarctic peninsula 2000 miles from the South Pole had a (supposed) record high of 18.3C (64.4F), not particularly warm by our standards. The deception is that in 1982, not far from that station, it was about 1.8C warmer; however, if alarmists need to ignore it to maintain the warming narrative, they just do it, knowing no media supporters will dispute them. So much for following the science.