Hello, August!
No medical news today …
… so far on my ex’s stay at the rehab facility.
One thing I see that’s a potential problem is that, although he was walking on his own until he had the health crisis (partly caused by dehydration) this past Saturday, now they’ll only let him walk with a walker. It seems to me that they should let him try some walking on his own while they are close by, in order for them to help him and give him tips on how to do that in the safest manner and to see what he’s capable of. But they say that for safety reasons he has to use a walker at all times when he’s at the facility. They are doing that, they say, to protect him – but of course it protects them as well.
So how does a person get ready to walk independently if they won’t let him?
Clapper’s crew threatened the Russiagate whistleblower
And is anyone surprised?
From Margot Cleveland:
A crony of then-Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper threatened to withhold a promotion from a senior intelligence official unless he concurred in the fake Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, notes obtained exclusively by The Federalist show.
And why did they fail to burn the burn bags which apparently contained some further incriminating material?
The UK, France, and Canada are gung-ho on a Palestinian state
Why are they rewarding terrorism and those who would destroy not just Israel but the West in general? Is it to appease and placate their own Muslim populations? Is it because they hate Israel – that “shitty little country”?
Here’s the story with Canada:
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday that Canada will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September, in a fresh diplomatic blow to Israel as it faces increasingly intensifying international criticism over the war in Gaza.
He said the move was “predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to much-needed reforms,” including elections in 2026, anti-corruption measures, and a demilitarized Palestinian state. Carney stressed he was “not in any way or shape minimizing that scale of that task.”
“Clearly that’s not a possibility in the near term,” the prime minister said, adding that Canada has joined the efforts of other states to “preserve the possibility of a two-state solution.”
This makes so little sense that I wonder if I’m understanding Carney correctly. It seems to me that he’s saying he will recognize a Palestinian state in September, “predicated” on certain PA reforms that have not happened and probably will not happen. He also clings to the fantasy of a 2-state solution, something that has failed since the beginning and that 10/7 made clear was dead in the water. And yet in about a month he’s set to recognize a Palestinian state that doesn’t exist and is more accurately described as a terrorist entity.
This is not the first time brutal terrorism has paid off big time for the Palestinians; it happened after the Munich massacre in 1972, which made Arafat a star and ended up with his addressing the UN two years later.
The following just might be my favorite quote from Canada’s Carney. It is quite stunning in its obtuse and perverse reversal of the truth:
“Canada condemns the fact that the Israeli government has allowed a catastrophe to unfold in Gaza,” he said.
The Israeli ambassador to Canada had a good response:
Iddo Moed, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, said Israel “will not bow to the distorted campaign of international pressure against it.”
“We will not sacrifice our very existence by permitting the imposition of a jihadist state on our ancestral homeland that seeks our annihilation,” he said in a statement.
”Recognizing a Palestinian state in the absence of accountable government, functioning institutions, or benevolent leadership, rewards and legitimizes the monstrous barbarity of Hamas,” Moed continued. “It punishes Israeli and Palestinian victims of Hamas, vindicates Hamas.”
That seems completely obvious to me.
NOTE: O’Neill on Starmer’s threat to Israel.
NOTE II: Trump says the Canadian trade deal might be at risk:
President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that Canada’s promise to recognise a ‘Palestinian state’ would hurt its prospect of a trade deal with the United States.
President Trump responded on Truth Social by writing: “Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!”
“Oh Canada” is a pun on the title of the Canadian national anthem, which is “O Canada.”
Open thread 7/31/2025
The NY Times continues its blood libel of Israel
Blood-libeling Israel seems to be high on the Times’ agenda, and I don’t think they have any intention whatsover of stopping; see this:
The New York Times published a photo—taking up nearly half the front page—showing what appears to be a child dying of starvation in Gaza.
It shocked the world, as it should. It was horrific, if a bit weird, since the mother for some reason seemed well fed.
After we exposed the lies and cynical exploitation of Gazan children who suffer from rare genetic diseases that cause their bodies to become severely emaciated, who have become symbols of hunger – the New York Times, one of the world’s largest newspapers that echoed this lie itself, published a clarifying tweet… The problem is that a week has passed, and after you publish the picture of a child like this on the cover, a small clarifying tweet doesn’t really help. This is how media outlets in the world that are supposed to be objective and balanced become tools for Hamas propaganda. Instead of having to apologize over and over again, take some advice – do your job, investigate, and publish only the truth and facts, even if it means that Israel is actually right.
It fed every narrative that Hamas and its supporters want you to believe, and did so in the most powerful way. Because a picture is not worth a thousand words, but millions of them. You cannot unsee a starving child. No amount of statistics can dissuade you from believing what your eyes show you, even if what they show you isn’t exactly real.
Absolutely, and the press learned this long long ago. The Times almost certainly knew the provenance of the photos it published and didn’t care. The paper has its agenda.
Bill Maher does something unusual – he says he was wrong
I’m not a Bill Maher fan. But I give him credit for this. So few people, in private life or public, admit they were wrong. But Maher did:
The stock market is at record highs….I don’t see a country in a depression at all. I see people out there just living their lives.
“And I would have thought — and I gotta own it — that these tariffs were going to f***ing sink this economy by this time — and they didn’t. So, how do we feel with that fact? Because that’s the fact.”
“I gotta own it” is an unusual sentiment, especially with public figures whose pronouncements have been seen and read by so many people.
Maher also changed his mind on something else:
NEW: Bill Maher *RAVES* over Trump’s Iran strike
“I loved it. That was a home run.”
“And I’m a guy who was always saying … we should try to see if the Obama plan — the peace deal that Obama made — can work.”
“Maybe I was wrong.”
It’s certainly not a full-blown political conversion. But it’s nevertheless something of which many people – I think most people – are incapable.
Now the EPA feels the heat
It was Nixon who established the EPA by an EO in December of 1970, later ratified by Congress. It seemed well-intentioned enough:
At its start, the EPA was primarily a technical assistance agency that set goals and standards. Soon, new acts and amendments passed by Congress gave the agency its regulatory authority. A major expansion of the Clean Air Act was approved in December 1970.
EPA staff recall that in the early days there was “an enormous sense of purpose and excitement” and the expectation that “there was this agency which was going to do something about a problem that clearly was on the minds of a lot of people in this country,” leading to tens of thousands of resumes from those eager to participate in the mighty effort to clean up America’s environment.
But power tends to corrupt, or at least grow and grow. From a WSJ editorial:
EPA [under the current Trump administration] is proposing to undo what Congress never gave the agency the authority to do: Regulate greenhouse gases. The Clean Air Act authorizes the EPA to regulate pollutants such as ozone, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and others that “may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.”
A 5-4 Supreme Court majority ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA (2007) that greenhouse gases could qualify as pollutants under a capacious reading of the law. Ergo, the EPA must regulate them if it finds they endanger the public. Thus arose the Obama 2009 endangerment finding that undergirds federal climate diktats.
The finding acknowledged scientific uncertainties about the effect of CO2 emissions on temperatures, extreme weather, allergies, diseases and more. But it cherry-picked studies to support the dubious proposition that greenhouse gases pose a clear and present danger to the public.
The gist of it is the administration’s claim that CO2 is not a pollutant like the ones envisioned in the Clean Air Act:
Those pollutants “are subject to regulatory control because they cause local problems depending on concentrations that include nuisances (odor, visibility), damage to plants, and, at high enough exposure levels, toxicological effects in humans,” the report notes. “In contrast, CO2 is odorless, does not affect visibility and has no toxicological effects at ambient levels.”
In other words, higher levels of CO2 in the air from fossil fuels won’t make you sick. This is a distinction Democrats elide when they claim that increases in CO2 will cause dirtier air.
It matters because this expansion to CO2 was the way a host of regulations came to be: electric-vehicle mandates, the retirement of fossil-fuel fired power plants, and proposals to regulate CO2 emissions from such things as leaf blowers and lawn mowers which use fossil fuels.
Obviously, there are legal hurdles ahead.
NOTE: Here’s one of the comments to the article:
It too late anyway. The Republicans have won the extreme weather, inundated coastline, wildfire raged future they future they always wanted. Gee, I wonder why people aren’t lining up to have babies anymore? It is too dangerous and too expensive.
Medical update
Things are slightly improved for my ex-husband. The rehab hospital found a medical problem that had escaped detection by the regular hospital, which I find interesting. My ex has started PT and OT and all the T’s.
I’m planning to go over there in the afternoon, observe, and annoy them by asking too many questions and making a few suggestions.
Open thread 7/30/2025
Roundup
(1) Columbia has settled a lawsuit by janitors who had been trapped by pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the university. Columbia has had to pay several times for its failure to restrain the anti-Israeli mob.
(2) Israel may annex parts of Gaza:
Within 48 hours, Jerusalem is expected to make a critical decision: if Hamxs refuses to release the hostages, Israel may move to formally annex parts of Gaza.
Unlike military withdrawals, which can be executed at any time, annexation is a near-permanent step. Under Israeli law, reversing annexation isn’t simple, it requires either a supermajority of 80 Knesset members or a national referendum.
I’m not sure how likely that is. But Israel is stalemated regarding the hostages; Hamas wants victory as the price for releasing them, and Israel is understandably unwilling to pay that price. Hamas knew the hostages were worth their weight in gold and then some; that’s why they took them in the first place.
(3) Democrats are slow-walking Senate confirmation of Trump’s nominees, even non-controversial ones. Thune has a plan to expedite matters, but it doesn’t sound very effective to me: “We’re just gonna grind it out and wear ’em [Senate Democrats] down.”
(4) Pollsters and Trump – something fishy?
(5) Bondi files complaint against Judge Boasberg for misconduct:
Today at my direction, @TheJusticeDept filed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg for making improper public comments about President Trump and his Administration.
These comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary …
I think the public’s perception of the “integrity of the judiciary” has been doing down, down, downhill in recent years. Boasberg is part of it, but there are plenty of others.
Fatal shooting in New York City
Four are dead, including the shooter who committed suicide. One of the dead is a New York City policeman.
The killer fits the profile of quite a few recent mass killers in that he appears to have been mentally ill, with a history that indicates as much:
An NYPD officer and three other people were shot and killed by a crazed gunman who stormed a swanky Midtown skyscraper early Monday evening and later turned the gun on himself, officials said.
The 27-year-old maniac, identified as Shane Tamura [of Nevada], barged into the 44-story building — which houses Blackstone and the NFL headquarters — armed with a rifle and opened fire at around 6:30 p.m. during the evening rush. …
Mayor Adams said the gunman intended to target the NFL’s headquarters, however he took the wrong elevator to the incorrect floor.
So in addition to everything else, Tamura drove a very long distance and ended up going to a place other than his intended target, and did not even hit people connected with the NFL. He never played pro football but apparently and bizarrely blamed the NFL for giving him some sort of brain damage (CTE) from playing the sport, which he did in high school.
To top it all off, CNN anchor Erin Burnett reported the shooter as being “possibly white.” He clearly was not white, even “possibly.” He appears to have been of mixed race, most likely black and Asian.
RIP to the dead.