Anyone Tired of all the Winning Yet?

It's been a busy week for the new President.

If you followed Trump, even a little bit, in the two years leading up to last week - nothing he did should be a surprise to you. That is, unless you took him and his rhetoric metaphorically. Or even figuratively.

Apparently, no one took him literally.

ObamaCare D.O.A. - new plan TBD.
Federal hiring freeze.
But not the military. That's going to get bigger.
A whole pile of State Department folks quit/fired ... it was a race to the door.
Tears at the EPA, PBS and NPR.
No more regulations. Or, you can have a new one, but you have to take 2 away.
No more abortion talk for global health assistance groups.
TPP is just T.P. (that's Toilet Paper for you folks not into acronyms) now.
Green light for the Dakota and Keystone Pipelines.
Domestic Steel for those pipes.
Green light for new manufacturing facilities.
Sanctuary Cities are on notice, but it won't matter too long...
He's going ahead with the wall. Yes, that's a physical wall.
And there's "Extreme vetting" - in case you made it over the wall. Maybe in an airplane?

That last one might be the brick too far for some folks. There's still a judiciary branch of the government, but apparently it's no longer a page in the White House.gov's website. There's a few other pages missing now. Some people noticed these omissions.

And no one has noticed how busy the Pentagon has been this week... And they've been really busy.

It's been a good week of fundraising at the ACLU and Planned Parenthood though. And folks who make signs for protesters. A banner year. Pun unexpected.

Efficient Car Rope-a-Dope

How do you save a dying auto industry in the Obama administration? Step 1, Create federal regulations virtually eliminating the production of the models people most want to buy. (linko)

No, I don't mean Honda, Toyota and VW, snarky.

It looks, simply, that he's applying California standards to the nation. I had always assumed that this would be the case some day. The new national fleet mileage rule for cars and light trucks of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. In the odd chance you're wondering, the current national standard is about 25 miles per gallon.

This is a political rope-a-dope. Rather than institute a $2.00 Federal Gas increase - which would have accomplished this goal in the marketplace rather than through government intervention - will put the initial burden on the car manufactures. [Those car manufacturers that are around] In 2016 will happily slide the costs to implement these Federal standards onto your MSRP. So you'll see at least an additional $1,300 added on your next vehicle - but we'll feel good about not paying more tax on gas. That's one tax increase that Obama has dodged, but still gets what he wants. 

A nice maneuver. Smoke and mirrors, and there is no real change.

EPA Smoking Gun: Tax on Breathing

It appears that initial reports about the EPA memo missed a key passage. The internal memo, marked “Attorney Client Privilege”, did warn about the negative impact EPA regulation of CO2 would have on the economy. But The Hill reports that it also challenged the notion that the EPA or anyone else had proven CO2 or other greenhouse gases to be harmful to humans:

An EPA finding last month that greenhouse gases are a danger to public health rests on dubious assumptions and could have negative economic impacts, a memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) warned.

The memo has no listed author but is marked “Deliberative–Attorney Client Privilege.” A spokesman for OMB told Dow Jones Newswires that the brief is a “conglomeration of counsel we’ve received from various agencies” about the EPA finding, the conclusions of which would trigger regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

The author(s) of the memo suggest the EPA did not thoroughly examine the relationship between greenhouse gases and human health.

“In the absence of a strong statement of the standards being applied in this decision, there is concern that EPA is making a finding based on…’harm’ from substances that have no demonstrated direct health effects,” the memo says, adding that the “scientific data that purports to conclusively establish” that link was from outside EPA.

The memo then borders on secular heresy by suggesting that if warming was indeed the result of man’s activity, it may have beneficial effects rather than being a net negative:

Finally, in language sure to anger climate change activists, the memo questions whether climate change might bring benefits that would mitigate the costs.

“To the extent that climate change alters out environment, it will create incentives for innovation and adaption that mitigate the damages,” the memo reads. “The [EPA finding] should note this possibility[.] … It might be reasonable to conclude that Alaska will benefit from warmer winters for both health and economic reasons,” the authors note.

Senator John Barasso calls the memo a “smoking gun”, and notes the memo insists that the EPA has shown no deleterious effects from the gases Lisa Jackson wants regulated:

To defeat this cap-and-trade garbage, we must embrace this EPA report that casts doubt on global warming science. And Science in this case means "faith." ClimateFaith(tm). Global Warming has never been about the environment or saving the planet. It's always been about reparations and control.

I.E. It's a tax on breathing.