Daily Digest

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• How Much Has the Earth Actually Warmed?
• Why Does 60 Minutes Still Exist?
• Why did baseball capitulate?
• Whose Side Are They On?
• This day in baseball history: Washington’s last opener of the century

How Much Has the Earth Actually Warmed? Posted: 05 Apr 2021 04:50 PM PDT (John Hinderaker) Maybe the only good thing about covid hysteria is that it has, for a while, drowned out global warming hysteria. Still, many people have the impression that global temperatures have warmed alarmingly in recent decades. Unfortunately, there is no reliable record of surface temperatures for a number of reasons, including the fact that the activists who are in charge of the records keep changing them to promote the alarmist position. But that is all right, since warming due to carbon dioxide doesn’t occur at the surface, it occurs in the atmosphere. The only reliable, unfudged record we have of global temperatures is the satellite record in the lower troposphere, which only goes back to 1979. This is the global temperature trend from then until now: This means that “[t]he linear warming trend since January, 1979 remains at +0.14 C/decade (+0.12 C/decade over the global-averaged oceans, and +0.18 C/decade over global-averaged land).” In other words, at the warming rate that has prevailed since 1979–assuming it continues–the Earth’s average temperature would rise by one degree in 70 years. How much of that is due to human activity, as opposed to natural variation (e.g., rebounding to normal temperatures after the Little Ice Age), no one knows.

Why Does 60 Minutes Still Exist? Posted: 05 Apr 2021 04:24 PM PDT (John Hinderaker) It is remarkable that, nearly 17 years after Rathergate, 60 Minutes still exists and apparently has an audience. 60 Minutes has never been truthful or reliable. Not long before Rathergate, we wrote about another instance of blatant misuse of documents by that program to support a false narrative. It hasn’t gotten any better since then. Last night, 60 Minutes contributed to the Democratic Party’s smear campaign against Governor Ron DeSantis by airing a heavily edited exchange between CBS “reporter” Sharyn Alfonsi and DeSantis. Alfonsi accused DeSantis of rewarding Publix, a contributor to his campaign, by giving Publix a role in covid vaccine distribution in Florida. DeSantis thoroughly rebutted Alfonsi’s accusation, so 60 Minutes simply deleted almost everything he said to make it look as though he had no real answer to Alfonsi. The Daily Wire reports: Alfonsi suggested that Publix, the largest grocery store chain in Florida, had engaged in a pay-to-play scheme with DeSantis where they donated money to his campaign in exchange for him awarding a contract to the grocery store chain to host vaccinations. CBS edited the interaction between DeSantis and Alfonsi when she showed up to a press conference a few weeks ago and repeatedly confronted the governor. The network cut out a lengthy portion of DeSantis' response in which he explains what happened and how decisions were made. This is the transcript of the actual exchange. 60 Minutes cut out everything that appears in bold: Sharyn Alfonsi: Publix, as you know, donated $100,000 to your campaign, and then you rewarded them with the exclusive rights to distribute the vaccination in Palm Beach— Ron DeSantis: So, first of all, that — what you're saying is wrong. That's— Sharyn Alfonsi: How is that not pay-to-play? Ron DeSantis: —that, that's a fake narrative. So, first of all, when we did, the first pharmacies that had it were CVS and Walgreens. And they had a long-term care mission. So they were going to the long-term care facilities. They got the vaccine in the middle of December, they started going to the long-term care facilities the third week of December to do LTCs. So that was their mission. That was very important. And we trusted them to do that. As we got into January, we wanted to expand the distribution points. So, yes, you had the counties, you had some drive-through sites, you had hospitals that were doing a lot, but we wanted to get it into communities more. So we reached out to other retail pharmacies — Publix, Walmart — obviously CVS and Walgreens had to finish that mission. And we said, we're going to use you as soon as you're done with that. For Publix, they were the first one to raise their hand, say they were ready to go. And you know what, we did it on a trial basis. I had three counties. I actually showed up that weekend and talked to seniors across four different Publix. How was the experience? Is this good? Should you think this is a way to go? And it was 100% positive. So we expanded it, and then folks liked it. And I can tell you, if you look at a place like Palm Beach County, they were kind of struggling at first in terms of the senior numbers. I went, I met with the county mayor. I met with the administrator. I met with all the folks in Palm Beach County, and I said, "Here's some of the options: we can do more drive-through sites, we can give more to hospitals, we can do the Publix, we can do this." They calculated that 90% of their seniors live within a mile and a half of a Publix. And they said, "We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents." So, we did that, and what ended up happening was, you had 65 Publix in Palm Beach. Palm Beach is one of the biggest counties, one of the most elderly counties, we've done almost 75% of the seniors in Palm Beach, and the reason is because you have the strong retail footprint. So our way has been multifaceted. It has worked. And we're also now very much expanding CVS and Walgreens, now that they've completed the long term care mission. Sharyn Alfonsi: The criticism is that it's pay-to-play, governor. Ron DeSantis: And it's wrong. It's wrong. It's a fake narrative. I just disabused you of the narrative. And you don't care about the facts. Because, obviously, I laid it out for you in a way that is irrefutable. Sharyn Alfonsi: Well, I— I was just— Ron DeSantis: And, so, it's clearly not. Sharyn Alfonsi: Isn't there the nearest Publix — Ron DeSantis: No, no, no. You're wrong. Sharyn Alfonsi: —30 miles away. Ron DeSantis: You're wrong. You're wrong. Yes, sir? Sharyn Alfonsi: That's actually a fact. CBS News generally, and 60 Minutes in particular, are a bad joke. No one should take anything they do seriously.

Why did baseball capitulate? Posted: 05 Apr 2021 12:16 PM PDT (Paul Mirengoff) Jim Geraghty wonders why Major League Baseball pulled its all-star game from Georgia, but major sporting events are still scheduled to take place in that state. He cites the Masters Golf Tournament, as well as all home games for professional Atlanta teams and Georgia's collegiate athletic programs. In addition, the following events are still a go, as of now: The 2021 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Games in Atlanta The 2021 SEC Championship Game The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl The PGA Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in September The USTA Atlanta Open Why, Geraghty asks rhetorically, if there is a moral imperative to move the baseball all-star game, is there no obligation to move other sporting events to a different state? The answer, of course, is that there is no such obligation. That, I take it, is Geraghty’s point. But why has baseball moved the all-star game, while comparable events will still take place in Georgia? I don’t know for certain. I do know that the Masters has a history of not bowing to pressure stemming from identity politics. Some years ago, when the left threatened sponsors of the televised tournament because the Augusta club did not admit women, the organizers decided to present the event commercial free. Those were the days. As for baseball, there may be a particular reason why it was so quick to knuckle under to the woke left — a reason suggested to me by a reader with extensive background in the sport. Baseball’s labor contract will soon expire and everyone expects negotiations over a new one to be tortuous. Tony Clark, a former player, heads the players’ union. He wanted the game moved out of Georgia. There’s a good chance that the commissioner’s decision to move it was in part (maybe in large part) an attempt to appease Tony Clark in advance of negotiations over a new contract with the union. We should never underestimate the tendency of corporate heads to make bad decisions simply to avoid accusations, no matter how ridiculous, that they are abetting “racism.” But the suits at Major League Baseball had an extra incentive to knuckle under. That incentive might have made the difference. UPDATE: According to a report in The Athletic: [Commissioner Rob Manfred] spoke to the Players Association during his [decision making] process, but the union, which had not yet surveyed its membership when the decision came down, did not have to and did not sign off on the switch. Some club executives called around to one another Friday, trying to determine exactly how the final choice went down, and the union did not know it was coming. This report is not inconsistent with (1) Tony Clark telling Manfred what he wanted and (2) Manfred complying. STEVE asks: When did corporate presidents turn into college presidents? It happened so slowly I hardly noticed. . .

Whose Side Are They On? Posted: 05 Apr 2021 09:52 AM PDT (John Hinderaker) The Trump administration scored notable foreign policy successes in the Middle East. Abandoning decades-long, futile attempts to secure a negotiated peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Trump came down foursquare on the side of our ally Israel. Among other things, the Trump administration helped to broker peace agreements between Israel and the Emirates and Bahrain. Predictably, the Biden administration is committed to returning to a “peace” policy that consists mostly of trying to force Israel to make ever-greater concessions to the Palestinians in hopes of getting Mahmoud Abbas’s signature on a document. As part of this policy reversal, the administration has resumed aid to the Palestinians: The Biden administration is quietly ramping up assistance to the Palestinians after former President Donald Trump cut off nearly all aid. Since taking office with a pledge to reverse many of Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian decisions, the administration has allocated nearly $100 million for the Palestinians, only a small portion of which has been publicized. One of many Biden administration policies that the administration would just as soon voters not know about. The administration announced last Thursday that it was giving $15 million to vulnerable Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. A day later, with no public announcement, it notified Congress that it will give the Palestinians $75 million for economic support, to be used in part to regain their "trust and goodwill" after the Trump-era cuts. How, exactly, will we benefit from such “trust and goodwill”? The new assistance appears aimed at encouraging the Palestinians to return to negotiations with Israel, though there is no indication it will have that effect and Israel’s response has yet to be gauged. In other words, the same old failed policy. But what about the fact that the Palestinian Authority continues to support terrorism? Under U.S. law, the United States may not provide aid to the Palestinian Authority or fund projects it would benefit from as long as the authority pays stipends to the perpetrators and families of those convicted of anti-Israel or U.S. attacks. Such payments were one reason the Trump administration cut off aid. Although none of the assistance is to be provided to the Palestinian Authority, pro-Israel lawmakers, many of them Republicans, are likely to raise objections. The administration assures us that this round of bribes payments is strictly legal. Perhaps. In any event, they are a terrible idea.

This day in baseball history: Washington’s last opener of the century Posted: 05 Apr 2021 07:40 AM PDT (Paul Mirengoff) April 5, 1971 was baseball’s Opening Day. As was the tradition back then, Washington played the only American League game of the day. Normally, the U.S. President threw the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day in D.C. Some years, the Vice President filled in. But on this day, former Vietnam prisoner of war Master Sergeant Daniel Lee Pitzer did the honors. Manager Ted Williams selected Dick Bosman to pitch for the Senators. Bosman was the obvious choice. His combined record the two previous seasons was 30-17. In 1969, he had the lowest ERA in the American League (2.19). Denny McLain, newly acquired by Washington, would have to wait. The opposition, Oakland, went with Vida Blue. The 21 year-old had only ten previous career starts. However, his record in 1970 was 2-0 with a 2.09 ERA. Established ace Jim “Catfish” Hunter, would have to wait. Blue was considered the game’s next great pitcher. He would more than live up to that billing in 1971. However, Blue had a short, unhappy outing on this day. The Senators scored four runs in the first two innings. Only one of them was earned. A pair of errors by Bert Campanaris contributed to the other three. Even so, A’s manager Dick Williams gave Blue the hook after only an inning and third. It was deserved. Blue had already allowed three hits and walked four. Two of the four outs Blue managed to chalk up were by strikeout. He would go on to strike out 301 batters in 1971. Two of Blue’s walks were issued to Curt Flood. Later, Flood would add a hit. The controversial centerfielder, who sat out the 1970 season while challenging baseball’s reserve clause, was attempting a comeback with the Senators. It lasted only 13 games. The Senators went on to win their opener 8-0. Bosman pitched a complete game, allowing only six hits, including two by Rick Monday and two by Dave Duncan. For the Senators, rookie Toby Harrah and Paul Casanova had two hits each. Frank Howard and Mike Epstein both drove in two runs. In early May, the Senators traded Epstein, along with star relief pitcher Darold Knowles, to Oakland. Both would play important roles in the A’s championship season the following year. At the end of the 1971 season, owner Bob Short moved the team to Texas, where they became the Texas Rangers. Thus, the 1971 opener was the last played in Washington during the 20th century. The next one didn’t happen until April 14, 2005. * Although I’m boycotting Major League Baseball due to its decision to weigh in on the Democrats’ side of a political issue, there’s no reason not to continue writing about baseball history. My “this day in baseball history” posts do not benefit the current game. Fifty years ago, baseball wasn’t “woke.” It did not take the left’s side on any controversial issue of which I’m aware. The achievements of the players back then deserve to recognized and fans of that era deserve to be reminded of them.

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