Years ago, people used to celebrate the “Hunter’s Moon,” sometimes called the “Blood Moon.” It was typically the first full moon in October. It was a sign of the end of summer and time to get serious about winter. It was a time for hunting, slaughtering, and butchering

We are now looking at a different kind of “Hunter’s Moon,” but it is also a time of hunting, slaughtering, and butchering. It is increasingly clear that the entire establishment, both Democrat and Republican, and their supporters in the MSM are so done with the Joe Biden show. At first, this probably seemed amusing, because the hated Donald Trump was gone. Then it became annoying, as he implemented extreme liberal policies publicly embraced, for political reasons, by the establishment but secretly despised. These are things they promise, but never ever expect to see happen, at least not to them.

That was bad enough. But now Joe Biden is literally blundering on an international stage with a situation in Ukraine so dangerous that he risks setting the world on fire, again. Everyone in the establishment agrees on one thing; Joe Biden is dangerously incompetent.

Something must be done and there are signs that some of it is already in play. The admission by the New York Times that the Hunter Biden laptop was real could not be ignored, for long. Now the rest of the MSM, including the Washington Post and even CNN is reporting on this. That would never have happened without the specific approval of the real establishment, in both parties. They disagree on a lot, but the incompetence of Joe Biden is not on the list.

Some still pretend that the Hunter Biden emails etc. do not necessarily impact Joe Biden, but they know this is not possibly true. Hunter made millions by influence peddling, and since few are impressed by him, that meant he was peddling the influence of Joe Biden, when he was Vice President of the United States. Influence peddling only works if you have influence to peddle and Hunter Biden, without Joe Biden, had none.

We have never seen anything like this before, so this is impossible to predict. But don’t be surprised to start seeing Kamala Harris start to become a figure of interest. When the establishment conspired to remove Richard Nixon from office, they took out Spiro Agnew first, and replaced him with a more pliable Gerald Ford.

While the world will be focused, rightly, on the disaster in Ukraine, other things are already happening. People we may not even know exist, are having secret meetings, once again making decisions that impact everyone else. Let us pray they get this right, but we should avoid over optimism based on the insane decision to replace Donald Trump with someone as plum awful as Joe Biden.

TDM

One of our clients was involved in a minor accident. The vehicle involved was damaged, but there was a dispute with the insurance carrier regarding whether some of the damage had been pre-existing. So, they investigated and found a series of pictures taken of that car, in various locations including on the highway and while parked, showing the license plate. I have personally seen those pictures and they are all too real. They found a way to search databases for any pictures taken of that license place. In some cases, these pictures went back five years.

While I can understand why an insurance company would want to verify damage, this just seemed shocking to me. It caused me to think of all the times a camera took pictures of my license plate. While shopping at Walmart? Driving down the road. Based on these pictures, almost anywhere. Somewhere, out there, is a data base, with pictures of my license plate, showing exactly where that car was located on a specific date and time. Now, frankly, I don’t think I have ever driven or parked my car someplace that would create a problem for me. But this still seems like an invasion of privacy.

I have never attended a Trump rally. But, with this DOJ and this Attorney General, would they consider tracking license plate pictures to try and track down anyone who did attend a Trump rally? Did they use this to track down people they considered to be suspects regarding the January 6^th, 2021, event? The potential for serious abuse is beyond obvious. But at least the DOJ has to get a search warrant with at least some argument for probably cause. It doesn’t appear as if the insurance industry has any such restraints.

This reminded me of another case, where I was approached regarding expert witness work. I was shocked to learn that an insurance company had demanded copies of the insured’s telephone records because they disputed a claim. I question whether a law enforcement could demand this type of information without a search warrant. This makes me wonder about the extent to which our private records are already on file and subject to search without our knowledge and/or consent. It is even more frightening to consider the potential abuse with a highly politicized DOJ that seems to be more focused on punishing political opposition than on stopping serious crimes including real terrorist threats. The people involved in the January 6, 2021, event often acted irresponsibly and probably did break the law, but they were hardly a terrorist threat.

I am not a conspiracy type person, but it is clear that all of us need to pay more attention. Some very untrustworthy people are collecting personal information on everyone and storying it for future exploitation. Most of us, who are not considered a threat, will be blissfully ignorant of this. But it is now clear that this could affect all of us and we need to be aware. Many people have been warning us about the enormous amount of data that is and has been recorded. Our primary protection against abuse of that data was the legal restraints against this being used irresponsibly. Sadly, with this administration, this Attorney General, and this DOJ, relying on their character is not particularly comforting. I easily predict that there are going to be some earth shattering cases regarding what data can and cannot be collected and who can and cannot have access to that data. If you are not thankful for anything else, give thanks that it was Donald Trump, and not Barack Obama or Joe Biden who appointed the last three Supreme Court justices.

TDM

Those who conspired to put Joe Biden in office as President of the United States are now reaping the rewards for this major miscalculation. They foolishly believed their own propaganda, that anything or anyone was better than Donald Trump. They were wrong, very wrong. Now everyone is paying a steep price for this mistake. People have already figured out Joe Biden. Now they will start looking around for who to blame. It will be an exceptionally lengthy list. It is bad enough to be one of those people who foolishly believed the lies told by the MSM and naively voted for Joe Biden. It will be much worse for those who conspired to put him there. All Trump need say at this point is: “I would rather be blamed for trying to stop Joe Biden then for foolishly putting him in the oval office.”

The 2020 election was rigged, there is no doubt about that. The only question is the extent to which people went to defeat Donald Trump. At a minimum there was massive collusion by the DNC, RINO Republicans and the MSM during the run up to the 2020 election. This not only included massive misinformation about Donald Trump, but it also included a conspiracy to cover-up serious concerns about Joe Biden. The failure to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story, by itself, may have been enough to change the outcome.

To makes things even worse, it seem increasingly likely that when this campaign still failed, they may have resorted to an unprecedented level of election fraud. Then they covered that up by conspiring to pretend this existed only in the delusion mind of Trump and his equally delusional supporters. That ship has sailed. There are numerous real cases moving through the system, any one of which may completely change this narrative. All it takes is on case where fraud is proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and it will cast doubt on the entire election.

But the more fundamental problem, increasingly obvious, is that Joe Biden was never remotely capable of being President of the United States. While the usual suspects can and will deflect blame for the collapsing economy, the runaway gas prices and the out of control crime, Joe just put on a display, in front of the entire world, that simply cannot be ignored. Nor can it be explained away. His incompetence and blundering has literally put the entire world at risk of an unprecedented disaster.

We are now at a point where whenever Joe Biden speaks, he is immediately discredited, by his own staff, because the alternative is even worse. When Biden talked about the need for regime change in Russia, the entire world shuddered. Not because they disagree with him, but rather because it has the potential to push an already paranoid Putin over the edge. The result could easily be World War III and could include chemical weapons and even nuclear weapons. The unthinkable is once again moving dangerously close to reality. One thing is absolutely certain, is that no one and I do mean no one is even pretending to expect leadership from Joe Biden.

Biden met with the U.S. troops stationed in Poland, and it was a major embarrassment for all involved. I believe we are perilously close to a point where even though Joe Biden is President of the United States, if he speaks it is far from certain anyone will listen and increasingly unlikely they will not follow his orders. That alone is dangerous beyond words. Our allies know this. The American people know this, and our enemies know this.

While the MSM liked to pretend that the entire world lost respect for us, because of Donald Trump, the opposite was true. The rest of the world did not like Donald Trump, but they respected him, and they feared him. They do not respect Joe Biden and certainly do not fear him. Whatever happens in Ukraine or even Taiwan will be in spite of Joe Biden, not because of him. A problem made more difficult by the sad fact that the only person less qualified for this position is the one next in line.

We can take small comfort in the knowledge that Putin has managed to do tremendous damage to himself by underestimating his own capacity for enormous miscalculation. We can also be grateful for the people in Ukraine who stood up for freedom, against all odds, and just may defeat the Russian army. Putin is now in a position where he may have more to fear from his own inner circle then from his declared foreign enemies.

In the meantime, on the verge of war, the only way to describe the increasingly bizarre behavior of Joe Biden is to call it: “Full Mental Jacket.” One really wonders what is going on in what is left of his already questionable mental capacity. The only thing certain is that Joe himself will be the very last to realize there is a problem.

TDM

We all know that inflation is a problem. But the media is downplaying this, probably in a failed attempt to protect Democrats. Yahoo reported that the inflation rate in February was 7.9%, which was a 40 year high. If only that were accurate. But the real measure of inflation is “what was the cost last year, and what is the cost now?” By that measurement, 7.9% seems absurdly low. What on earth are they measuring?

Last April the average price of gas was between $2.76 and $2.99 per gallon. Today it is between $4.11 and $4.34 per gallon. Unless you are in California, where gas is much more expensive. I will choose the higher estimate of $2.99 for last March and the lower estimate of $4.11 for this march. That is still a 37.4% increase, and no one expects this to end here.

Last year you could buy a ribeye steak for about $10.99 per pound, but today that costs $17.99 per pound. That is an increase of 63%. I don’t really know of anything that has increased by only 8% from last year. Do you?

Have you been to a restaurant lately?  First, you have to find one that survived COVID. You probably have to wait in line. Your waiter is likely to be inexperienced. Service will be slow because of understaffing. Food portions will be smaller than last year. But the price has been lowered to only about a 50% increase to make up for this.

Don’t even think of buying a new car. Few dealers will consider selling a car for the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. They will mark it up substantially. Sometimes it is hard to even find a new car because the parts are on a slow boat from China. But you can find a new used car, for just about the same amount someone paid for it last year. Only now it has 30,000 miles on it.

Incredibly, the only solution proposed by the Biden Administration is to buy less gas from Russia, to block building pipelines and suggest that somehow, miraculous, switching to clean energy like wind and solar is going to reduce costs. They suggest people consider buying an electric car. Why not? Just because it will cost a lot more, the battery is an environmental nightmare, and you need to use electricity, usually generated by what they call fossil fuels, to charge your car. And, by the way, good luck finding a charging station if you travel more than 50 miles from home.  There was a guy on TV last night promoting a portable charger. He can come out to your electric car and give you a charge good for 50 miles. Nice!

The fed is talking about raising interest rates .05% per quarter. In Brazil the current interest rate is 11.75%.  I doubt we will get anywhere near that, but interest rate increases are coming. I have a degree in economics and have done graduate level work in economics and even taught this at the college level. Yet I could never understand how raising interest rates, which raises the cost of everything, somehow magically reduces inflation. What it does do is limit the ability of people to buy things, so I suppose lowering demand eventually reduces price. However, this distinction is unlikely to be embraced by someone having trouble affording the cost of the gas necessary to get to work.

Naturally at a time like this, one looks for the dumbest possible solution. Well, here it is: “Let’s lower the national speed limit to 55 and stop driving on Sunday.” This makes sense, because there are still too many people who go to church and Lord knows we can’t have that.

The only thing certain is that the people currently in power will ignore the obvious and embrace the ridiculous. Everyone will pay a high price for this, but ultimately, they will be the ones who will reap the full benefit of what they sow. How high? Hopefully high enough to replace the entire class of clowns who know nothing but consider themselves pillars of wisdom. That high!

TDM

While everyone is, appropriately, focused on the death and destruction in Ukraine, this is far from the only serious problem. There is the obvious problem with fuel prices. It is even reported that Russia reversed the flow of natural gas to Germany, just in time for that warm March weather. But one of the biggest financial losses is mostly ignored. Most people know that countries stopped airlines based in Russia from going anywhere. But they also stopped airplanes, already in Russia, from going anywhere. Those airplanes are not cheap, there are a lot of them, and the cost to replace them is enormous. Aircraft-leasing companies are trying to recover those planes, but this is not exactly an ideal situation. Some of them have warned insurance companies of potential claims and insurance companies have started cancelling policies and may challenge claims since the planes aren’t actually damaged, just grounded.

Putin may be pure evil, but he made a decision that allowed Russian airlines to keep their aircraft until the end of the lease and re-register in Russia. Yet according to the European Union sanctions, leasing companies have until March 28 to cancel contracts. Insurance carriers are scrambling to avoid paying for this mess.

The following article explains:

Airplanes in Russia Promise Insurance Havoc with Claims on the Way | ProgramBusiness

It turns out there are about 509 airframes leased to Russian Operators. The estimated value of these claims is estimated at $1.7 billion. If all are considered damaged the claims could get north of $4 billion. Anyone in the insurance industry knows that one is far more likely to underestimate the extent of the damage than to exaggerate it.

One notes that some planes were seized by Iraqi forces during the invasion of Kuwait. The insurance industry moved at light speed to resolve those claims and as a result the litigation only lasted for about 20 years.

Not all the planes in Russia were leased to Russian operators. Airlines from other countries also had planes stranded in Russia. Good luck with that. Any volunteers to fly to risk and try to steal one of those planes back?

In 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland, the result was World War II. But the situation in 1939 is very different than the situation today. For one thing, no one was worried about what happened to hundreds of airliners. To some extent we are already involved in World War III, the real question is how it will be fought. Many worry about this becoming a nuclear war. That is a legitimate concern, but the reality is that this is far more complicated than anyone realizes. For example, some historians believe the Rothschild’s almost single handedly funded the war of 1812.

Did the Rothschilds fund the War of 1812? – JanetPanic.com

Di you ever wonder where Hitler got the money to fund his war machine. The follow article says at least part of this was funded by companies like General Motors, General Electric, Dupont, and wall street companies like J.P Morgan and Chase.

Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler – the history of banks who funded Nazis (bastabalkana.com)

The point being that someone has to finance this mess. While all of us have been focusing on Putin and his war machine, a little attention should be paid to the money involved. Once again, follow the money. History teaches us that the filthy rich are truly filthy, but they are also irredeemably greedy. Right now, it looks like Putin is costing everyone a lot of money. If the truly rich decide enough is enough, well the buck truly stops there.

TDM

Everyone watching the news is rooting for the citizens of Ukraine to defeat Russia. There are no circumstances where it is remotely acceptable for Russia to use brutal military force to take over a clearly independent country. But, as always, there is more to the story. A story that the MSM has totally ignored. It is a story of blatant and systemic corruption. A story complicated by the inconvenient fact that Hunter Biden appears to have been a direct participant in that corruption on behalf of his father, Joe Biden.

The U.S. gave billions to Ukraine, under the direct guidance of then Vice President. Joe Biden is rich man. How, exactly, did that happen? Is it a coincidence? There is even a video of Joe Biden demanding Ukraine fire the prosecutor investigating fraud, or he would personally block additional aid. No one in the MSM appears to have given this a moment of thought. They were too hysterical over the possibility that Donald Trump suggested Zelensky investigate a situation that sure looked suspicious.

The following report identifies some of the alleged corruption. While this may or not be totally documented, there are numerous reports from multiple news entities reporting on systemic corruption in Ukraine:

Billions of Dollars in Ukraine Have Gone Missing Yet US Politicians Send Off Billions More (thegatewaypundit.com)

I still believe we should give aid to Ukraine. We simply cannot turn our back on the brutal military assault by Russia. But we should also do some serious investigating on how we got here.

This should have been a concern to everyone, liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat. Since when is it acceptable for the U.S. to send our hard earned dollars to a foreign country famous for corruption? If that money had been used properly, it is possible that The Ukraine may have been better prepared to defend itself. They certainly could have more resources than they had when this invasion occurred.

Donald Trump suggested the new President of Ukraine, Zelensky, investigate the obvious corruption, but since this involved Hunter Biden, Democrats responded by literally impeaching him. Apparently suggesting investigation regarding what still looks and feels like blatant corruption, was a crime against humanity. Why? Because if it turned out that Hunter Biden was funneling money to his dad, who happened to be running against Donald Trump, that could have influenced the 2020 election. Duh! They are right about that. If the American people knew the truth about Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, it would have influenced the election. Trump would have won. We just might have avoided at least some of this mess.

Which is worse? Trump doing something that could help him politically, or Joe Biden getting rich off blatant corruption? Which is worse, trying to stop someone like Joe Biden becoming President, or conspiring to put him in office without regard to his ability to do the job and with even less regard to the consequences.

The New York Times just reluctantly admitted that the Hunter Biden laptop is legitimate,  and the emails that seem to refer to this father are legitimate. But when this story broke, the New York Times not only refused to investigate it, but they also dismissed it as “Russian misinformation” invented out of whole cloth by Russia to help the Trump campaign. More utter nonsense fueled by the totally discredited Russian Collusion hoax. They were quickly supported by Twitter, which banned the New York Post for daring to report on this. Again, part of the conspiracy between the DNC, the MSM and social media to defeat Donald Trump, without the slightest regard to the truth and with even less regard to the consequences.

Well take a look at the consequences. Who, exactly, benefited from this? It sure didn’t benefit the citizens of The Ukraine. It didn’t help us, as we now have the ineptest President in the history of the United States, confronted by an extremely dangerous situation literally risking nuclear war, and the only person less capable is next in line for the position.

Truth or consequences.

TDM

During a time when much of the news is dark and dreary one takes comfort from the occasional event that offers a least a glimpse of better days ahead. ESPN just announced that they have signed both Troy Aikman and Joe Buck to long term contracts to broadcast Monday Night Football. Rejoice, I say rejoice! Now there is only one day of the week where one has to turn off the volume in order to watch a major sporting event. For years we have endured watching Joe Buck’s smirking face during broadcasts of the World Series, NFL football games and major league tiddlywinks. Perhaps it is just me, but I don’t know a single person who can stand listening to Joe Buck. A lot, probably too much, of the buck has landed on Troy Aikman. As far as I can tell Joe Buck got the job because his daddy was a good announcer, and someone made the false assumption that he would be good too. Then he kept getting plush assignments because he previously got plush assignments.

He reminds me of the judges on shows like American Idol, America’s Got Talent, and The Voice. The announcers think the show is all about them and occasionally we get to see an actual performance. Even then it is often ruined by self-serving, arrogant, and patronizing commentary that only distracts from the performance itself. I must admit that I haven’t watched any of these shows in years because of this, while years ago we watched shows like American Idol all the time.

Joe Buck has elevated this to an art form. It is made worse by the producers who seem to think we must endure hours of puff broadcasting about individual athletes they want to promote. Often the athlete featured in the pre-game nonsense fails to perform very well during the actual event. The only thing that makes these broadcasts even watchable is that the game itself is shown, during brief interludes between commercials.

I don’t know what genius made this decision at ESPN, but I suspect they also worked overtime to give us President Joe Biden. Look how well that worked out!

In any event, this is a case where addition is gained from subtraction. I do not know who will replace Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, but it will take skill and effort to find someone worse. Just being able to turn on a major sporting event and not seeing Joe Buck is more than enough to brighten one’s day. Enjoy!

Free at last.

TDM

When George Bush made the decision to invade Iraq, Colin Powell allegedly gave him a stern warning. “If you win it, you own it.” The point being that if Bush succeeded in Iraq, which was likely, he would end up owning the results for what followed. Whether Powell actually said that or not, the prophecy was true. Defeating Saddam Hussein and overthrowing the government of Iraq was relatively easy. But Bush inherited a mess that to a large extent still remains unresolved. While some people in Iraq celebrated freedom, others chose to launch a campaign of terror in response. When Bush left office, Iraq was reasonably stable, but only after a great cost to the U.S. Then President Obama just withdrew all our troops, with no conditions, and the result was ISIS.  Few would argue that Iraq, dominated by ISIS was anything resembling a success.

The point being that even if Putin wins in Ukraine, which is increasingly in dispute, what will he actually win. He has succeeded in destroying an unbelievable amount of property and has displaced reports of over 2.7 million people. But if Ukraine surrendered tomorrow, what on earth would or even could Putin do with the remains? There are still over 40 million people in Ukraine, many of them are very well educated and all of them hate Putin. This is not exactly going to be a place of peace and harmony. Who on earth is going to rebuild what has been destroyed? Russia? Please! The Western World, which rebuilt Germany after World War II is not about to rebuild Ukraine if Putin is in charge. In the meantime, Putin is going to be trying and probably failing to revive the already faltering Russian economy. Putin has already been a success at destroying. There seems to be no possibility that he will be successful in managing the results. Odds are that only by removing Putin will anyone be willing to help restore Ukraine and even then, it will take years.

So how did this happen? The answer, sadly, is that the Democratic Party and their fawning supporters in the MSM were successful in destroying Donald Trump, but the cost was putting Joe Biden in power. The entire world is paying a very high price for that mistake. To some extent it doesn’t matter if the election was stolen through fraud or merely by deliberate and continuous misrepresentation. The result is the same. The DNC and the MSM colluded to defeat Donald Trump. Congratulations, you own it.

The cost is becoming more obvious by the hour. Unfortunately, under our constitution, the people who engineered this masterpiece are left with few options to fix it. No one considers replacing Joe Biden with Kamala Harris to be an option. Few could drink enough to stomach President Nancy Pelosi. It appears the only option is to let this play out for another two years and eight months and hope someone capable shows up in November of 2024 with a plan to fix this. There will be a lot to fix.

Things are already changing. Republicans are going to trounce Democrats during the midterms, but then to some extent they will also inherit at least some of the problems. I really can’t predict how this all ends. It is hard, perhaps impossible, to imagine Joe Biden lasting another two years and eight months. It is hard to imagine anyone, in either party, tolerating Kamala Harris. There is even less chance people will tolerate Dr. Jill acting as President similar to what happened during the last couple years of the Woodrow Wilson administration. Neither party will accept that. Unfortunately we know a lot about the wrong answers with few hints of a real solution anytime soon.

Garth Brooks wrote a song called “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.” Perhaps that helps put this in perspective. A lot of people prayed for the defeat of Donald Trump, because they didn’t like his hair and his mean tweets. Well, they got their wish, and everyone is paying the price. The question here is who were they praying to? Many of them don’t even believe in God. Perhaps, this is all a reminder of who is actually in charge. Two things Russia and the Democratic Party have in common is a determined movement away from trusting God. The woke movement tolerates anything and everything, except God fearing church going people. Freedom of religion in Russia means freedom only as long as you support the government. How did that work out?

I do not know what will happen but I do know who is actually in control. I think we will all look back on this, with amazement, because ultimately, in spite of the best efforts of people like Putin and Biden, evil is its own reward. When it wins, it loses. Chaos is always temporary. Sometimes it lasts much longer and does much more damage than anyone thought possible, but it always ends. The reason is quite simply because chaos builds nothing. Nothing will change until the good guys take over, and once again clean up the mess left by others. That day is coming, probably sooner than you think. Unfortunately, we seldom learn the most important lessons until we learn the full cost of ignoring the importance of distinguishing between right and wrong, and between might and right.

In a way, only one person is likely to benefit from this, and that is Donald Trump. Joe Biden just may make him the most popular former President in history. That does not mean that he will ever be President again. A lot of things, including his age, may prevent that. But few will argue the simple truth, that sometimes: “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Til Its Gone.” The good news is that more and more people are waking up to what is gone. The question is, who or what is going to bring it back?

TDM

How many times have you heard that we must stop getting our energy from fossil fuels? Coal is indisputably a fossil fuel, but there is considerable debate regarding the source of oil. When we are dealing with climate change hysteria, which wants to wean us totally from fossil fuels, meaning oil, it really matters if we get this right. For years I have been reading reports that oil might not be a fossil fuel at all, that it was formed abiotically, meaning it is generated by a subterranean process of heat and pressure.

Oil is made up of 85% carbon, 13% hydrogen, .05% oxygen with traces of Sulphur, and nitrogen. It was thought that oil originated from the decomposition of organic matter. Basically, from the remains of dead animals over millions of years. The theory said we would run out of it sooner, rather than later. At first, most oil wells were drilled into areas where there are fossils, so this seemed to make sense.

But at early as 1951, Russian scientist N.A. Kudryavtsev said that deep petroleum was produced abiotically. Keep in mind that at the time, Stalin was absolutely desperate to find new sources of oil. Anyone remotely familiar with Stalin knows that when he wanted something, people who failed him paid a very high price. So Russian scientists were literally on a mission to find oil.

It may surprise you to learn that Fortune Magazine published an article about this in 2003.

Oil Without End? Revisionists say oil isn’t a fossil fuel. That could mean there’s lots more of it. – February 17, 2003 (fortune.com)

Some of the numbers are staggering.

“In the mid-1990s the world’s reserves of oil were thought to total about 890 billion barrels. Today reserves stand at 1.1 trillion barrels; the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that continued reserve growth, along with undiscovered resources, could bring world oil estimates to as much as three trillion barrels. “We’re finding there are pretty substantial oil reserves in the world,” says Tom Ahlbrandt, world energy project chief at the USGS. “New exploration and drilling technologies are making major new discoveries possible.”

In 2015, Forbes Magazine ran an article saying that we may have enough oil to last 1,000 years:

How Much Oil Does the World Have Left? (forbes.com)

It turns out that if we just use more efficient methods to get oil, we may already have more than enough!

“Additionally, ~66% of the oil in a reservoir is frequently left behind because it’s too expensive or difficult to extract. Since the 1970s, CO2-enhanced oil recovery offers a gigantic global prize of 2-5 trillion barrels and a safe way to sequester CO2 underground for 1,000 years. Wait: what was that?  CO2 helps extract oil. I thought it was killing us?

So why don’t you know most of this? Why do decisions made by the Biden administration look remarkably similar to the predictions made by the Hubbert Peak theory? That was produced in 1956 and the only thing absolutely certain is that this has been thoroughly discredited.

Hubbert peak theory – Wikipedia

Hubbert assumed that after fossil fuel reserves (oil reserves, coal reserves, and natural gas reserves) are discovered, production at first increases approximately exponentially, as more extraction commences and more efficient facilities are installed. At some point, a peak output is reached, and production begins declining until it approximates an exponential decline.

The Hubbert curve satisfies these constraints. Furthermore, it is symmetrical, with the peak of production reached when half of the fossil fuel that will ultimately be produced has been produced. It also has a single peak.

This looked to be accurate, until people started finding oil, a lot more oil, and became much better at extracting it. Now, it is absurdly wrong.

I recently had someone I respect as intelligent, repeat the myth that 80% of scientists agree with him that global warming caused by rising C)2 levels is a threat to mankind. He was totally uninterested in hearing any facts to the contrary. This unfortunately is typical. We should all be willing to see facts, even if they are inconveniently inconsistent with our current beliefs. Truth always matters. Those who ignore truth, or suppress truth, are doomed to making monumental errors. When those people are stupidly elevated to position of power, we all pay a terrible price for their miscalculations.

ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER

In summary, we are not running out of oil at all. It just may be the cleanest most renewal source of energy on this planet. Yet we have people who literally want to stop producing oil dreaming of a future with all electric cars and trucks powered by wind and solar. It is the impossible dream. It is also a nightmare, because all these clean renewable sources of energy are actually environmental nightmares. Wind Farms are ugly as sin. If you drive by any wind farm you will notice that most of the machines are not working. That is because wind powers machines only operate in a narrow range of wind speed. If the wind speed is too low, they won’t spin. If it is too high, the props are feathered to avoid burn out. Wind farms kill birds, lots of birds. The propellers are hard to recycle and are the polar opposite of biodegradable. And, wind farms are located in rural areas, which means electricity must be transmitted for miles.

Solar Panels also kill birds. They are also ugly. They work great in California, where the sun shines most of the time. Not so much elsewhere and even in California, they don’t work well in the winter, because there are not enough hours of daylight.

Electric cars are expensive, the batteries are very heavy, not biodegradable, use up our limited source of rare earth minerals, and need something to power the electricity to charge them. If the wind and solar stops working or anything else interrupts the power grid, electric cars become stationary objects. Not everyone can afford to fly to Cancun with Ted Cruz. (On a plane powered by jet fuel.)

No one is building dams. Nuclear power has been stopped, because of environmental concerns. So, we are betting on an all-electric country, powered by environmental damaging sources like wind and solar, neither of which is likely to be available in the event of power outages. What could possibly go wrong?

The real solution, as always, is to choose smarter people, who make decisions based on the truth, not on years of deliberate reporting of misinformation arrogantly presented as if it is straight from the lips of the God, they don’t believe in. Certainly not weak people who make decisions based on something as dumb as political correctness. They are the real fossils, and they can’t go extinct soon enough.

TDM

Today is my birthday. It is a reminder that, once again, another year has passed circling the sun. Unfortunately, my birthday has often been coincidental with major, not necessarily, good events. This is not my fault, because some of them happened long before I arrived on this planet. But then, if some of the stories told by my parents are true, my added presence may have contributed somewhat to the chaos. So, to those of you who choose to blame everything on me, please be aware that March 11 is famous for a lot of things, other than my birthday. Some of these are good, some are very bad. I accept zero responsibility other than acknowledging the completion of another cycle around the Sun.

1425 BC Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Egypt, dies (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).

537 Goths lay siege to Rome

843 Icon veneration officially re-instated in Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople

928 Trpimir II succeeds to the Croatian throne.

1387 The Battle of Castagnaro begins.

1502 Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty, crowned Shah of Persia (rules till 1524)

1513 Giovanni de’ Medici chosen Pope Leo X

1567 Geuzen army leaves Walcheren to return to Oosterweel

1597 Archduke Albrecht occupies Amiens, France

1649 The Frondeurs (French rebels) and the French government sign the Peace of Rueil.

1665 NY approves new code guaranteeing Protestants religious rights

1669 Mt Etna in Sicily erupts in its largest recorded eruption, killing 15,000

1702 1st English daily newspaper “Daily Courant” published

1708 Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation

1744 English auction house Sotheby’s holds its first ever auction (of books) in London

1779 US Army Corps of Engineers established (1st time)

1789 Benjamin Banneker and Pierre Charles L’Enfant begin to lay out Washington, D.

1791 Samuel Mulliken is 1st to obtain more than one US patent

1795 Battle at Kurdla India: Mahratten beat Mogols

1812 Citizenship granted to Prussian Jews

1823 1st normal school in US opens, Concord Academy, Concord, Vermont

1824 US War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs

1829 Johann Sebastian Bach‘s “St Matthew Passion” is revived by Felix Mendelssohn, aged 20, conducting in Berlin

1835 HMS Beagle anchors off Valparaiso, Chile

1845 The Flagstaff War: In New Zealand, Chiefs Hone Heke and Kawiti lead 700 Māoris to chop down the British flagpole and drive settlers out of the British colonial settlement of Kororareka because of breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.

1848 Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government

1850 Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania opens 2nd female medical school in the US

1851 Giuseppe Verdi‘s opera “Rigoletto” premieres in Venice

1855 Bowery Boys gang leader William Poole aka “Bill the Butcher” is buried in Brooklyn with 155 carriages and 6,000 mourners

1861 Confederate convention in Montgomery adopts constitution (US Civil War)

1862 Abraham Lincoln removes George McClellen as general-in-chief

1862 General Stonewall Jackson evacuates Winchester Virginia Army of the Potomac. Gen Henry Halleck is named general-in-chief

1863 25th Grand National: George Stevens wins his 2nd GN aboard 4/1 Emblem; winning mare’s full sister Emblematic wins the following year

1864 Dale Dike on Humber River crumbles. The Great Sheffield Flood: the largest man-made disaster ever to befall England kills over 250 people in Sheffield

1865 General William T. Sherman‘s Union forces occupies Fayetteville, North Carolina

1867 Giuseppe Verdi‘s opera “Don Carlos” premieres in Paris

1869 The West first learns of the Giant Panda via French missionary Armand David who receives a skin from a hunter

1872 Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain

1872 The Meiji Japanese government officially annexes the Ryukyu Kingdom into what would become the Okinawa prefecture

1876 English FA Cup Final, Kennington Oval, London: Wanderers and Old Estonians draw, 1-1; Wanderers win replay, 3-0 for 3rd title

1882 Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association organized in Princeton, New Jersey

1882 Fridtjof Nansen sets out on a sea voyage to study Arctic zoology

1888 Great blizzard of ’88 strikes northeastern USA

1892 1st public basketball game (Springfield, Massachusetts)

1893 Carlos Gardel and his mother, Berthe Gardès, arrive in Buenos Aires, Argentina

1895 Spanish cruiser Reina Regente sinks in Straits of Gibraltar, over 400 die.

1897 A meteorite enters the earth’s atmosphere and explodes over New Martinsville, West Virginia. The debris causes damage but no human injuries are reported.

1900 British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejects peace overtures from the Boer leader Paul Kruger (on 5 March) as demanding too-favourable terms

1901 Cincinnati Enquirer reports Baltimore manager John McGraw signed Cherokee Indian Tokohoma, who is really black 2nd baseman Charlie Grant

1904 Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Brandon Wheat Kings in 2 games

1905 Stanley Cup, Dey’s Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Rat Portage Thisles, 5-4 for 2-1 challenge series victory

1910 Jack Hobbs scores 187 vs South Africa, his 1st international test hundred only to get out hit wicket

1912 First Stanley Cup challenge game to be played in three 20-minute periods (formerly 30-minute halves), Quebec beats Moncton, 9-3 on way to series sweep

1912 Eleftherios Venizelos, leader of the Liberal Party, wins the Greek elections again.

1915 The British declare a blockade of all German ports

1917 1st NHL championship game ever played, Toronto Arenas beats Montreal Canadiens 7-3 in 1st of 2 game set (second game on March 13)

1917 British forces occupy Baghdad, the capital of Mesopotamia, after Turkish forces evacuated

1918 Moscow becomes capital of revolutionary Russia

1918 Save the Redwoods League founded

1918 US Army mess cook Private Albert Gitchell of Fort Riley, Kansas becomes the first documented case of Spanish flu; start of worldwide pandemic killing 50-100 million

1919 General strike in Germany crushed

1920 Syria proclaims Emir Feisal king after the country has fought off French domination

1922 Western Hockey Championship: Vancouver Millionaires (PCHA) sweep Regina Capitals, in 2 games

1924 3rd term of Belgium Theunis government begins

1924 Eden Phillpotts’ “Farmer’s Wife” premieres in London

1924 NHL Championship: Montreal Canadiens sweeps Ottawa Senators in 2 games

1926 Eamon da Valera ends leadership of Sinn Féin

1927 1st armored commercial car hold-up in US, Pittsburgh

1927 1st golden gloves tournament

1927 Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens famous Roxy Theater (NYC)

1930 William Taft, American 27th President & Chief Justice buried in Arlington Cemetery

1931 Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union

1935 Bank of Canada first opens on Wellington Street, Ottawa

1935 Hermann Goering officially creates the Luftwaffe (German Air Force)

1938 Artur Seyss-Inquart replaces Kurt von Schuschnigg as Chancellor of Austria; German troops also entered the country

1941 Bronko Nagurski beats Ray Steele in Minn, to become wrestling champ

1941 FDR signs Lend-Lease Bill (lend money to Britain)

1942 1st deportation train leaves Paris for Auschwitz Concentration Camp

1942 General MacArthur leaves Corregidor (Bataan) for Australia

1942 Japanese troops land on North Sumatra

1943 Nazi Militia forms in Netherlands

1944 Dutch resistance fighter Joop Westerweel arrested

1945 1,000 allied bombers harass Essen, 4,662 ton bombs

1945 Flemish nazi collaborator Maria Huygens sentenced to death

1948 Jewish Agency of Jerusalem bombed

1948 WBAL TV channel 11 in Baltimore, MD (CBS) begins broadcasting

1953 1st woman army doctor commissioned (FM Adams)

1954 US Army charges Senator Joseph McCarthy used undue pressure tactics

1956 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women’s Golf, Augusta CC: Louise Suggs wins her 3rd Titleholders title by 1 stroke from Patty Berg

1958 American B-47 accidentally drops nuclear bomb 15,000 ft on a family home in Mars Bluff, South Carolina; creates crater 75 ft across, bomb without its nuclear capsule

1958 Charles Van Doren finally loses on US TV game show “Twenty-One” after winning $129,000 – later revealed to be fixed

1958 Starting this season, AL batters are required to wear batting helmets

1959 Lorraine Hansberry’s stage drama “A Raisin in the Sun”, 1st Broadway play by a black woman, starring Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, NYC; later transfers to the Belasco Theatre; runs for 530 performances

1959 4th Eurovision Song Contest: Teddy Scholten for Netherlands wins singing “Een beetje” in Cannes

1960 Pioneer 5 launched into solar orbit between Earth & Venus

1961 Then NHL record 40 penalties, Black Hawks & Maple Leafs (20 each)

1963 Somalia drops diplomatic relations with Great Britain

1963 US Defense Secretary Robert MacNamara orders the adoption by the US military of the M16 assault rifle, originally designed as the AR-15 by Eugene Stoner

1964 21st Golden Globes: The Cardinal, Sidney Poitier, & Leslie Caron win

1965 Indonesia President Sukarno signs the ‘Supersemar’ order, giving army commander Lt. Gen. Suharto authority to do whatever he “deemed necessary” to restore order

1966 Military coup led by Indonesian General Suharto breaks out

1966 A fire at two ski resorts in Numata, Japan kills 31 people.

1967 Pink Floyd releases 1st single “Arnold Layne”

1967 14th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: North Carolina beats Duke, 82-73

1968 Anti-Zionist Clandestine Radio Voice of El Assifa starts transmitting

1968 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 12nd string quartet

1968 Otis Redding is the first person in the US to posthumously receive gold record for his single “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”

1970 12th Grammy Awards: Aquarius; Crosby Stills & Nash; Peggy Lee win

1970 Iraqi Ba’th Party recognizes Kurd nation

1971 Jim Morrison leaves for Paris to reorient himself emotionally and creatively and to avoid the jail sentence given to him in Miami. He will never return to the US.

1972 “Inner City” closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 97 performances

1972 OPEC threatens “appropriate sanctions” against companies that “fail to comply with . . . any action taken by a Member Country in accordance with [OPEC] decisions.”

1972 19th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: North Carolina beats Maryland, 73-64

1974 Mount Etna in Sicily erupted

1974 Rhino Store gives people 5 cents to take home Danny Bonaduce’s Album

1975 Rightist military coup in Portugal under General António de Spínola fails

1975 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1977 Hanafi Muslims hold 130 hostages in Washington, D.C.

1978 Terrorists attack mail truck at Tel Aviv, 45 killed

1978 USF-led Bill Cartwright scores 23 points as the Dons oust NC

1979 Randy Hold receives 67 min in penalties in a 60 min NHL hockey game

1980 Rod Marsh bowls 10 overs for 51 runs in dull Aust v Pak cricket draw

1981 Chile constitution takes effect, Augusto Pinochet‘s second term begins

1981 Johnny Mize and Rube Foster are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame

1982 Failed military coup under Rambocus and Hawker in Suriname

1982 Harrison Williams (Sen-D-NJ) resigns rather than face expulsion

1982 Detroit Pistons play the Chicago Bulls, with final score of Detroit 152 to Chicago 144 and Detroit having 20 blocked shots

1982 US boycotts Libyan crude oil

1983 Ice Dance Championship at Helsinki, Finland won by Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean (Great Britain)

1983 Ice Pairs Championship at Helsinki won by Valova & Vasiliev (Soviet Union)

1983 Ladies’ Figure Skating Championship in Helsinki won by Rosalynn Sumners (USA)

1983 Men’s Figure Skating Championship in Helsinki won by Scott Hamilton (USA)

1983 9th People’s Choice Awards: Burt Reynolds, Jane Fonda & Katharine Hepburn win (Motion Picture) and Tom Selleck, Linda Evans & Loretta Swit win (TV)

1984 31st ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Maryland beats Duke, 74-62

1985 Mikhail Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader

1986 1 million days since the foundation of Rome on April 21st, 753 BC

1986 187.27 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange

1986 Islander Mike Bossy, 1st NHLer to score 50 goals in 9 straight seasons

1986 Japanese probe Sakigake flies by Halley’s Comet at 6.8 million km

1986 NFL adopts instant replay rule

1988 Utrecht conservatory destroyed by fire

1988 British pound note ceases to be legal tender, replaced by one pound coin

1990 16th People’s Choice Awards: Dustin Hoffman & Meryl Streep win (Dramatic Motion Picture) and Bill Cosby & Phylicia Rashad win (TV)

1990 Lithuania declares its Independence

1990 37th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: #14 Georgia Tech beats Virginia, 70-61

1990 31st SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Alabama beats Ole Miss, 70-51

1990 11th Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament: Connecticut beats Syracuse, 78-75

1991 17th People’s Choice Awards: Mel Gibson & Julia Roberts win (Dramatic Motion Picture) and Bill Cosby & Kirstie Alley win (TV)

1991 Janet Jackson signs $40M 3 album deal with Virgin records

1991 John Smith, US amateur wrestler, wins James E Sullivan Award

1991 Monica Seles ends Steffi Graf‘s streak of 186 weeks ranked as #1

1993 Men’s Figure Skating Championship in Prague won by Kurt Browning CAN

1994 Eduardo Frei succeeds Patricio Aylwin as President of Chile

1995 -36.8°F (-38.2°C) in Chosedachar, Komi-district, on 67°N

1995 President Nazarbajev disbands Kazakhstan parliament

1995 Sinn Féin party leader, Gerry Adams, arrives in US

• 1995Yolanda Chen hop-skip-jumps world indoor record 15.03m

1996 Chris Harris scores 130 in losing NZ side v Australia, World Cup

1996 Mark Waugh scores 110 v NZ for his third century of the World Cup

1996 The EU Database Directive is passed

1996 John Winston Howard becomes the 25th Prime Minister of Australia. His term in office is the second longest in Australian history, ending December 3, 2007.

1997 Beatle Paul McCartney knighted by Queen Elizabeth II

1997 San Francisco Giant J T Snow suffers a fractured eye socket when hit by a pitch

1999 Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

2000 21st Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament: St. John’s beats Connecticut, 80-70

2001 48th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: #3 Duke beats #6 North Carolina, 79-53

2001 42nd SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Kentucky beats Ole Miss, 77-55

2003 The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague.

2004 Terrorists explode simultaneous bombs on Madrid’s rail network ripping through a commuter train and rocking three stations, killing 190

2006 Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as the first female president of Chile

2006 27th Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament: Syracuse beats Pittsburgh, 65-61

2007 54th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: #8 North Carolina beats NC State, 89-80

2007 48th SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Florida beats Arkansas, 77-56

2008 Plácido Domingo named “The King of Singers” in BBC Music Magazine, based on voting by 16 renowned opera critics for the April 2008 issue

2009 Winnenden school shooting – 17 people are killed at a school in Germany.

2010 Sebastián Piñera becomes Chilean president for the 1st time

2011 9.0 magnitude earthquake strikes 130 km (80 miles) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people and causing the second worst nuclear accident in history at Fukushima nuclear plant

2012 US soldier kills 16 civilians in Afghanistan

2012 59th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: #17 Florida State beats #4 North Carolina, 85-82

2012 53rd SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Vanderbilt beats Kentucky, 71-64

2013 European Union bans the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals

2013 North Korea cuts the phone line with South Korea, breaching the 1953 armistice

2013 Falkland Islands’ sovereignty referendum: 99.8% choose to remain an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom

2013 Laureus World Sports Awards, Municipal Theater, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Sportsman: Usain Bolt; Sportswoman: Missy Franklin; Team: FC Bayern Munich

2014 Refugees from Syria pour into the Kingdom of Jordan

2017 At least 65 killed in landslide at rubbish dump near Addis Ababa, Ethopia

2017 England retains the Six Nations Rugby Championship with 61-21 win over Scotland at Twickenham; England’s 11th consecutive Six Nations win and equals NZ’s record of 18 consecutive international wins

2018 China’s National People’s Congress approves removal of term limits for a leader, will allow Xi Jinping presidency for life

2018 Superhero movie “The Black Panther” becomes the fifth Marvel movie to earn $1 billion worldwide

2018 Greek football Super League suspended after PAOK Salonika’s president Ivan Savvidis invades pitch with a gun after goal disallowed

2019 Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, refutes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s statement “Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people – and only it.”

2019 Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (82) changes his mind saying he will not seek a fifth term and postpones elections after mass protests

2020 COVID-19 declared a pandemic by the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, with 121,564 cases worldwide and 4,373 deaths

2020 Harvey Weinstein is sentenced to 23 years in prison for a criminal sex act and rape in New York

2020 Smallest dinosaur ever discovered – skull preserved in piece of amber smaller than a fingertip from a mine in Myanmar, reported in “Nature”

2020 11-year bull market ends as the Dow Jones industrial average falls more than 20%, becoming a bear market

2020 NBA suspends 2019-20 season until further notice after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tests positive for COVID-19

2021 British Prince William says the royal family is “very much not a racist family” in first public comments since interview by brother Harry and wife Meghan

2021 Digital art work “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” a digital college by Beeple, with a non-fungible token, sells for record $69.3 million in online auction by Christie’s

Two years ago, I celebrated my Birthday by watching COVID turn into a world-wide pandemic. Today I watch the horrific cost of having someone like Joe Biden pretending to be President of the United States.

Sorry.

TDM