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300,000 And Fighting

The 2015 Paris talks (formally known as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties and the eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol—but let’s just call it the Paris talks) are going to draw about 22,000 official attendees.

Official means negotiators, delegates, diplomats, and aides from 195 countries. That does not include the NGOs, businesses, activists, high school students, and many, many journalists (including me) who will be there to influence, capitalize on, or catalog the two week event. Playing it conservative, total attendance will land around 50,000 people.

Average distance traveled will be about 9,000 miles, round-trip, which translates into around 300,000 tons of CO₂ emissions so that these fine people can discuss ways to minimize your "carbon footprint". Portland's alleged mayor "Streetcar" Charlie will be there, delivering a speech about the tiny town's "pioneering" efforts to "fight climate change", and of course, Barry and his entourage will attend so that he can stress the I'm portance of gun control as a means to battle the climate change problem. All in all, a grand time should be had by all.

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Cleaning Up The Gene Pool

Apparently unsuccessful in any legitimate endeavors, a guy in Huron, near Fresno, California decided to try his hand at burglary but failed at that as well. Perhaps he shouldn't have eaten so much turkey, or perhaps he should have checked into how these things work.

In any case, he climbed down the chimney Friday night while the homeowner was out, and oddly enough, became stuck. The homeowner returned yesterday mid-afternoon and, as it was chilly, lit a fire. As the suspect discovered, doubtless to his dismay, the whole Santa thing's a myth; fireplaces and chimneys have these things known as dampers, and they're too narrow to fit through.

As to the result: well, the homeowner did try to extinguish the flames as the suspect screamed and the house filled with smoke due to the blockage. He even called 911. Not that it mattered, as the wannabe burglar's goose was cooked. On the bright side, there should be no need for a casket. On the downside, it being California, Jerry's DEQ will probably want to fine the homeowner for improper barbecue.

It's Only Money

Chickens, meet roost: Oregon's city, county, Metro, and state governments will all be ponying up huge sums of money over the course of the next decade to cover contractual obligations to the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS). That'll happen when unelected bureaucrats are permitted to "negotiate" contracts with public employee unions, knowing full well that the bureaucrats themselves will benefit from the result; the "managers" will get the same benefits that they "negotiated" with the union.

In order to bail out, PERS will need to raise public employers' contributions to the system by about 4 percent of their payrolls in each of the next three budget cycles. And that implies public employers will need to tap their budgets for an extra $800 million per biennium starting in July 2017, another $860 million in 2019 and an additional $930 million in 2021.

This illustrates the huge difference between public employee unions and those in the private sector: management in the private sector typically drives for a hard bargain, because concessions to unions cut into their bottom line. By contrast, in the public sector, unelected bureaucrats don't worry about a bottom line, because there isn't one; they'll just raise taxes and fees.

 

Crossing Our Border

We're supposed to welcome these people. If it's all the same, thanks but no.

Streetcar Charlie Goes To Filbert Flats

In an effort to show how much he cares, the Portland mayor stopped by the illegal encampment, touring some of the tents and unpermitted structures.

"I've learned a little bit more about how this is working; I'm impressed by how it is working," said Hales in an interview with Vahid Brown, a Portland activist and the camp's liaison to the city. "Our job in city hall is to try to help everybody where they are, whether they are in established neighborhoods and everything's fine, or whether they're struggling and they're trying to stay in their apartment, or whether they're houseless and living on the street."

Well, how cool is that? Streetcar Charlie's "impressed". Of course he is: they're not in his neighborhood.; Filbert Flats "Hazelnut Grove" is in a relatively poor northeast Portland area, out of sight.

Black Fridays Matter!

Actually, not so much. Apart from some fighting shoppers in the South, it was relatively calm, and that's something we'll likely see repeated because the very sorts of places that initiated the annual feeding frenzy are now seeing a backlash from shoppers and employees alike.

REI announced that it would be closed not only on Thanksgiving Day but also on Black Friday itself. In fact, they made Black Friday a paid holiday for employees and encouraged them to spend they day outdoors rather than at a mall. Nearly 70% of shoppers nationwide have acquired a decidedly negative view of the "Hunger Games" cachet that Black Friday has assumed, and businesses like REI are capitalizing on the backlash; by refusing to open, they're not leaving cash on the table - they're getting free advertising because a store that declines to participate in Black Friday madness? That's news, folks!

And REI and others get to save a bundle on ad buys.

Coming Soon: Starbakes

It's skunk-infused coffee, produced by Washington-based Mirth Provisions with a proprietary method of imparting 20 milligrams of THC per serving, along with (medicinal) CBD. They're also producing a line of fruit drinks. Unsurprisingly, others have had the same sort of idea, so there's a company in Vancouver called Fairwinds that produces Keurig cups called Catapult, albeit via a markedly different production technique.

Both are simply marketing extensions of the Northwest Speed Ball (a shot of espresso and a hit of pot) that's been popular here for years.

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Japan Calls Them "Suspicious"

They've found about a dozen wooden boats drifting off their coastline during the past couple of months, containing some 20 decomposing corpses. Yeah, that seems kind of "suspicious".

Japan's NHK television reports that Korean writing was found on the boats.

Experts suspect the vessels are fishing boats from North Korea as the impoverished state prone to poor harvests is trying to expand its fishing industry to bolster food security, NHK said.

But a number of North Korean fishing boats have been lost due to a lack of modern equipment, including the Global Positioning System capability, it added.

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Fighting Racism In Portland, Oregon

The way you accomplish that, apparently, is by holding an event for blacks only. That's not racist, or anything, because black people are incapable of racism. Just ask Al Sharpton.

Event organizer Ebony Oldham said the day will be a safe space centered around Blackness, community love and radical healing. There will be food, arts and crafts at no cost to participants.

“It’s a space to self care and uplift black folks. Oftentimes we are so engaged in work because we are in a state of emergency every day that we forget to take care of ourselves and each other,” Oldham said.

Black Joy will take place at The Center for Intercultural Organizing from 12 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 28.

The only "culture" that will be acceptable for admission to the event will be based upon the color of one's skin. Because blacks "are in a state of emergency every day". Of course, that wouldn't be the case - even if it were true - if the gang-bangers would stop shooting one another. Violence against blacks in Portland is almost entirely perpetrated by: other blacks. It may not be "politically correct" to note that, but then, facts are rarely "politically correct"; they're just facts.

 

Federal wildlife officials say the world's oldest known seabird has returned to Midway Atoll.

The albatross was leg-banded in 1956. Her age is estimated at 64, though she could be even older. Who knew they could live so long?

I knew a guy who used to do counting at Midway after he retired. Because it was research for USFWS, he could write all the expenses off his taxes.