90 Miles From Tyranny

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

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Visage à trois #717

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Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #899

Great Reset: Individual CO2 Limits Needed to Fight Climate Change, Says German Scientist

Those who exceed their limit should be forced to pay for the pleasure.

An individual carbon dioxide limit should be applied to every person in order to establish a “planetary guardrail” in the effort to combat allegedly man-made climate change, a leading German scientist has argued.

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) said this week that every person should have a limit of three tonnes of C02 emissions per year and those who exceed their limit should be forced to pay for the pleasure.

In comments reported by Taagesschau, Schellnhuber said that there were are two competing property rights issues at hand, namely the right to spend one’s money on high emissions activities and the rights of the rest of the population to “have an environment worth living [in]”.

In a carbon credit style scheme, those who emit over the three-tonne limit by the middle of the century would need to privately purchase credits from those who are under the limit, he suggested: “Every person gets three tons of CO2 per year, but if you need more, you just have to buy it.”

At present, according to the news outlet, the average German is far above Schellnhuber’s proposed limit, as ten tonnes of C02 emissions are produced by the average citizen. Citing the Paris World Inequality lab, there are some millionaires within the country that produce over 100 tonnes of CO2 per year, and some thousands of elites worldwide emit over 2,000 tonnes per year.

Aside from not spelling out how he expects people to drastically reduce their carbon emissions, the German scientist did not elaborate on...

Rocky Mountain Institute partnered with China to implement 'economy-wide transformation' away from oil and gas

The green energy group behind a study cited in Consumer Product Safety commissioner Richard Trumka Jr.'s call to ban gas stoves has partnered with the Chinese government to implement an "economy-wide transformation" away from oil and gas.

Colorado-based nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute, which published the December study that attributes 13 percent of U.S. childhood asthma cases to gas-stove use, is hardly staffed by an objective group of scientists.

The organization is demanding "systemic change and economy-wide transformation" to address a climate crisis it says we must go to great lengths to avoid. In 2013, for example, the Rocky Mountain Institute joined forces with China's National Development and Reform Commission—the government agency tasked with planning the communist nation's economy—to produce a report that advised China to replace existing appliances and generators with "clean energy technologies." The commission went on to set climate goals that included energy reduction targets. When local provinces in 2021 failed to meet those targets, the commission pushed them to implement electricity rations, prompting "dimmed traffic lights that cause chaos" and "half-cooked rice in rice cookers."

The Rocky Mountain Institute is far from the first green energy group to advocate for the banning of gas stoves, which nearly 40 percent of U.S. homes use. But the nonprofit's newfound influence reflects the Biden administration's alignment with the left's loudest climate activists. President Joe Biden has already proposed a natural gas phaseout in federal buildings, which would ban fossil-fuel equipment in new buildings by 2030. Leading green energy groups applauded the move, which will cost taxpayers millions of dollars annually, the Washington Free Beacon reported in December.

Beyond its public mission statement and work with the Chinese government, the Rocky Mountain Institute's biases are reflected in its gas-stove study, academic leaders told the Free Beacon. The study—which spans just nine paragraphs—was based on a hodgepodge of different data and methodologies spanning various years and countries, ranging from 2019 U.S. Census data to conclusions from a 2018 analysis in Australia.

Structuring a study that way is questionable, according to Yale University professor of medicine Dr. Harvey Risch. Moreover, the conclusions of the institute's study differs from what the organization is saying publicly.

"This paper does not do any research on possible association between residential natural gas use and risk of childhood asthma," Risch told the Free Beacon. "It only calculates a percent of childhood asthma that could be attributable to residential natural gas use and risk of childhood asthma."

That distinction is important, Risch said, particularly when calling for such a dramatic public policy proposal that would change how tens of millions of Americans prepare their food. The study was also ethically dubious, according to Risch, as its authors stated they held no conflicts of interest despite working for climate change activist groups. The Rocky Mountain Institute's board, for example, is filled with executives at green energy corporations with a financial interest in banning the use of...

Visage à trois #716

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Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #897

Document: Hunter Listed $49,910 Monthly Rent Payments While Living at Joe Biden’s Residence

Hunter Biden recorded monthly rent payments of $49,910 while living at President Joe Biden’s residence, according to a document unearthed by New York Post’s Miranda Devine.

On a document titled “background screening request,” it appears Hunter paid $49,910 in monthly rent for one year while living at Joe Biden’s Delaware residence, where the president kept classified documents alongside his Corvette in the garage.

Hunter listed his rental tenancy from March 2017 to February 2018, the document shows. The document is signed July 2018.

In 2017, Joe Biden left the White House and stored a large number of classified documents inside his Delaware garage and at two other locations. The first batch of documents found are alleged to contain information pertaining to Ukraine and Iran, CNN reported.

The document also shows that Hunter checked a box on the form claiming to own Joe Biden’s home. It is unknown why Hunter would have paid rent if he owned the home.

It should be noted Joe Biden’s 2017 tax return on Schedule E only listed $19,800 in “rents received.” In 2018, Biden listed no rents received.

Owasco PC, Hunter’s law firm, is also listed on the document as an entity Hunter owned in 2018.

Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY) believes many of Hunter’s suspicious wire transfers, flagged by U.S. banks, involve Owasco PC. Comer is investigating the Biden family business for wire fraud and has requested Hunter’s personal wealth manager turn over “suspicious” bank records connected to the Biden family business schemes.

For years, wire transfers have been the tool of choice for money launderers. To mitigate the risks to the financial institutions, suspicious wire transfers over $10,000 are flagged for review. Wire transactions involving more than $10,000 are also to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

Moreover, international wire payments, such as those to James and Hunter Biden, are monitored by the Office of Foreign Assets Control to ensure the money is not a part of corrupt business schemes.

Hunter Biden revealed in a 2019 text message to his daughter that the family has an arrangement where Joe Biden collects half his son’s salary.

“I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family for 30 years,” Hunter described in texts to his daughter. “It’s really hard. But don’t worry, unlike Pop [Joe], I won’t make you give me half your salary.”

According to former Utah U.S. attorney Brett Tolman, the Biden family’s payment mechanism may reveal the core of an entrenched business enterprise, which could involve legal “predicates” for racketeering charges.