Hawaii just won praise during the recent international climate crisis for pursuing renewable energy. I sure hope their new power systems work during this blizzard. //

However, in the interest of science, I will note that the peaks of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea often get snow in the winter.

The summits are home to space observatories. Visitors traveling to the peak of Mauna Kea are advised to use only four-wheel-drive vehicles because of the steep terrain.

“Bear in mind, there is no one who lives up there,” said Maureen Ballard, a Weather Service meteorologist in Honolulu. “We do get snow there pretty much every year.”

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No major reforms have taken place at the Department of Justice or FBI even as its politicized bungling of prosecutions and investigations has made major news. //

Despite Rep. Fortenberry’s efforts to cooperate, when he didn’t recall details the government’s informant had been directed to describe to him nearly a year earlier prosecutors waited until the Biden Administration was in power and then brought multiple charges that had nothing to do with their campaign finance investigation,” said Fortenberry spokesman Chad Kolton. “This set up of a highly effective and well-respected member of Congress is another alarming example of a Justice Department and FBI that are out of control and destroying the lives and reputations of far too many Americans.” ///

It is called "entrapment".

The Proof Is in the Pudding: IRS Data Show Trump’s Tax Cuts Benefited Middle- and Lower-Income Earners More Than the Wealthy

Four years after President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) into law, IRS data prove the historic legislation benefited those in the working- and middle-classes more than the wealthy.

Of course, this fact belies the left’s relentless lies about TCJA being a massive tax cut for the ultra-wealthy while ripping off hard-working Americans. //

“IRS data further show that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act appeared to have a strong upward effect on economic mobility. The number of filers with an adjusted gross income of $1 to $25,000 decreased by more than 2 million in just one year, while the number of households reporting incomes higher than $25,000 increased in every income bracket.” //

“The IRS data also revealed that higher-income earners paid an even larger share of the total tax burden in 2018 than they did in 2017, indicating that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may have made the tax code slightly more progressive,” Haskins writes.

The proof is in the proverbial pudding: “In 2017, filers earning $500,000 or more paid 38.9 percent of all personal income tax revenues. In 2018, the same income bracket paid 41.5 percent of total income tax revenues.”

While many have accused the Biden administration of creeping toward socialism, Joe Biden’s nomination of Saule Omarova to comptroller of the currency demonstrates a sprint. The administration announced it would withdraw her nomination Tuesday, but that it was made at all indicates the administration’s priorities. Omarova expressed a desire to seize for the federal government sweeping powers over banking, including the politicized denial of services.

“Saule would have brought invaluable insight and perspective to our important work on behalf of the American people,” Biden said Tuesday in a statement about withdrawing her nomination. “But unfortunately, from the very beginning of her nomination, Saule was subjected to inappropriate personal attacks that were far beyond the pale.” That’s just plain false, and it’s frightening Biden would nominate and praise a woman with her record. //

Omarova, currently a law professor at Cornell University, is a native of Kazakhstan while it fell under the control of the Soviet Union. There, she was a member of the Communist Party.

“Omarova has promoted radical – ‘radical’ is her description — nationalizing the banking system, imposing government price controls, espousing the idea that money is a public, not a private good, curtailing economic innovation, dramatically limiting economic freedom and choice, having the government seize seats on corporate boards,” noted Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania in her hearing. //

Omarova earned her B.A. at Moscow State University, graduating in 1989 on the Lenin Personal Academic Scholarship prior to immigrating to the United States in 1991. Once in the United States, Omarova earned both her M.A. and Pd.D. at the University of Wisconsin, and her J.D. from the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

While at Moscow State, Omarova wrote her thesis entitled, “Karl Marx’s Economic Analysis and the Theory of Revolution in ‘The Capital.’” When questioned about her thesis, she claimed to have forgotten about it, and testified she is unable to locate the document, even though it remained on her resume through 2017.

Why not just use C and C++? The reason is security and memory-related bugs, said Lerche, quoting research that “70 per cent of all high severity security vulnerabilities in software in C and C++ are due to [lack of] memory safety.”

Rust is revolutionary, he said, because “Rust is the first mainstream programming language that is efficient while maintaining memory safety.” Lerche explained how Rust achieves memory safety by using the idea of ownership, based on a concept called Affine logic, where each object has one and only one owner at a time.

Ownership rules are checked at compile time, so there is no runtime overhead. Concurrency too is easier and safer in Rust than in C or C++, leading to further performance and efficiency gains. //

The problem is that coding in Rust is hard. One reason why languages like Java, JavaScript, and Python have seen such wide adoption is that programmers can become productive more quickly.

This then is the elephant in the room, “the famous learning curve,” said Miller. In a recent survey, “of the engineers who said they were no longer using the language, 55 per cent cited learning and productivity as their reason for abandoning it. Experienced engineers require three to six months of study supported by a subject matter expert before they are productive with the language.”

The Nez Perce Indians of northern Idaho received the state’s first large-scale battery from Tesla in November.

About the size of a standard shipping container, the Tesla Megapack will store power from solar panels, enabling the tribe to reduce its dependence on local dams. For decades, the Nez Perce have demanded the destruction of four hydropower plants along the Lower Snake River with claims the concrete barriers hamper a near-extinct salmon population.

The Tesla Megapack, installation company RevoluSun CEO Josh Powell told Public News Service, “allows people like the Nez Perce to control their energy where it’s being produced where they have lands.” //

A primary component of the megapack power station is lithium. The U.S. Geological Survey says the United States is home to some of the richest reserves of lithium but mines less than 1 percent of global production, according to the Wall Street Journal. The world’s top three lithium producers are Australia, Chile, and China, respectively, with the Chinese dominating refinement. Tesla sources its lithium from Chinese companies.

While reaping the rewards of Chinese lithium, the Nez Perce have become the primary opponents against mining on American soil. Their fight was chronicled by “CBS Saturday Morning” in August as tribal members protested operations on the retired site of the Stibnite Mine in Idaho. If the mine was opened, the United States would be able to tap the nation’s largest reserves of antimony, a critical mineral for missile defense systems.

In sum, despite their pro-speech intent, anti-SLAPP laws are typically used by media conglomerates and Big Tech companies to punish individuals who dare to fight back against being libeled or censored. These laws are not narrowly targeted to protect speech, but sloppily drafted so as to place insurmountable burdens on ordinary citizens seeking to fight back against powerful entities.

Libel and deplatforming victims are frequently unemployable and incapable of raising money due to censorship — recall that Rittenhouse was thrown off GoFundMe when he tried to raise money for his legal fees. The threat that a libel victim will have to pay the legal fees of the wealthy corporations that have slandered them is often enough to prevent the victim from bringing suit in the first place.

Overturning Sullivan would be quite difficult, requiring a Supreme Court ruling or constitutional amendment. By contrast, there is nothing stopping states from repealing their anti-SLAPP laws and allowing ordinary citizens a level playing field on which to fight back against Big Media and tech companies in court.

Elisha
@ElishaKrauss
We had two fireplace/chimney experts over at our house this morning. Both 67, both considering retiring. Both told my husband he had an eye and a brain for the business and that “no one under 60 does this anymore.” Our generation needs guys like this. Where are skilled workmen?
2:07 PM · Dec 7, 2021 //

Republicans need to go and get those voters. Conservatives need to be shouting the virtues of hard work and the trades class. It’s a recipe for a double whammy of success – rebuilding an America that does not solely depend on foreign goods and labor, and welcoming in disenfranchised voters looking for a political movement that will foster their chosen path in life.

A thriving industry of skilled workers is the key to a thriving and independent American future.