Another day, another cultural event invaded by leftist goons

 So there I was, in the middle of the opening night of Tannhäuser at the Metropolitan Opera, when the shouting started. “Climate protesters,” or “climate activists”—the usual grotesques—were shouting “No opera on a dead planet,” and other such inanities. They placed themselves around the theater, timing it so that when one was arrested, another started shouting somewhere else. I counted five interruptions, though the first press reports say there were only four; did I get it wrong? The audience was displeased; I heard shouts of shame! and even, briefly from one member of the audience, U.S.A.! U.S.A.! The management finally announced that the program would go on no matter what, keeping the lights on so that security could remove people more quickly; either the thugs were exhausted, or the remainder figured that it wasn’t worth bothering with. So we finished the opera, with too much light, and (at least for me) some nervousness at every loud noise, thinking it might be another interruption.

There have been at least two previous intrusions at operas, in Amsterdam and Milan. Less than a day ago, pro-Hamas goons tried to interrupt the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas tree. Less than a week ago, others tried to disrupt the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. It’s a general campaign to try to make normal life impossible until you give in to the radical demands.

That’s the short version, but it’s worth considering the various elements.

Partly this is just publicity, aimed at a larger audience than just the opera. The point is to publicize the cause. With that in mind, note the curiously full and immediate report by Hyperallergic’s Maya Pontone, which somehow found audience members sympathetic to the activists, included a quotation from a press release by Extinction Rebellion, and named one of the disruptors, whom Pontone was fortuitously able to interview. “Video taken from one of the balconies by Hyperallergic shows Met Opera staff forcibly escorting two of the demonstrators away.” Hyperallergic was remarkably fortunate, don’t you think, in having someone there at the opera to take that video? The article gives the impression that Pontone knew about the demonstration in advance, and that her publicity was planned.

Partly this is a campaign to pressure liberals to fall into line with radical dictates. The audience of the Metropolitan Opera, after all, is not (alas) MAGA country—it’s blue as a druid. When the fanatics go after the Met—or when they stage sit-ins at the New York Times, or mob the Democratic National Committee headquarters—they’re attacking soft targets, to bullyrag them into line. The Met’s tithe after the George Floyd riots was to start putting on a bunch of new woke operas, but it managed to preserve much of its repertory along traditional lines. I fear that its response to this latest outrage will be to commission climate-change operas, or to make a solemn announcement at the beginning of each opera that the Met favors some radical climate change policy.

Ultimately, this reflects the core radical urge to destroy any activity that isn’t dedicated to political activism. They mean what they say: to do anything but work for the goal of the day (climate, Palestine, whatever) is a treachery. Radical politics is a jealous god—and with good reason. Watch Tannhäuser as an aesthete, and you will find in its beauty something more compelling than any politics. Watch Tannhäuser and listen to its message, and you will find Christian belief, with such keywords as humility, salvation, forgiveness, and other concepts alien to radical activists. (Granted that Wagner was not himself a devout Christian; the message is still there.) Of course the radicals want to disrupt this opera. Who would want to devote himself to their childish destructiveness when he had Wagner as an alternative?

And likely as not, the radicals will win. The audience didn’t like them, but the liberal gentry are weak-minded. Ask them, if you had a choice between voting for Donald Trump to restore law and order or never hearing an opera again, which would you choose? By and large, they would say, we could never vote for Donald Trump! And they will quietly make some bargain that gives the radicals something they want, and then another, and then another—and 10 or 15 years from now, if the Met hasn’t folded from lousy sales, there’ll be nothing but woke operas that aren’t worth seeing.

Of course, it might yet end up otherwise, and we should all strive to make it so. I just wouldn’t take bets. 

David Randall is the director of research at the National Association of Scholars.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/climate-protests-at-the-met

Power prices are gonna rise —shame, they don’t have to

 Electricity rates have increased substantially in recent years.

But if you think your power bill is expensive now, just wait another decade and you’ll be longing for these good old days.

The US, like other developed nations, will see historic increases in electricity demand due to the electrification of vehicles and heating.

The nation is also retiring conventional base-load power plants, which are slowly being replaced by less-reliable green-generations systems like wind turbines and solar panels.

This trend will be far more pronounced in the Northeastern US, including my home state of Connecticut, where I am a state senator and a ranking member of the legislature’s Energy Committee.

According to ISO New England — which regulates power across the Northeast — regional electricity demand will increase by around 70% by 2040.

The region’s largest utility, Eversource, expects their demand to increase by 150% by 2050.

But supply is not keeping up.

Proposed wind farms are suffering from major cost overruns of upwards of 50% — on top of the fact that the price of the original wind contracts was already more than twice the wholesale cost of electricity. 

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Protestors outside the Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York State, which was shut down in 2021 owing to concerns that it was too costly to maintain.Getty Images

As a result, many wind developers are taking significant hits to their stock price while others are pulling out of the American market entirely. 

We all want affordable, reliable and clean energy.

But economic trends — along with an endless array of bad policy decisions — are making this harder to achieve.

Although these problems are difficult to solve, federal, regional and state policymakers must do their best.

One low-hanging fruit is for states to reform their Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), like we did in Connecticut this year, which will reduce costs and increase reliability of the electricity grid.

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A wind turbine along a rural Connecticut road. Eco-conscious power-generation is gaining momentum just as the nation’s need for power has never been greater.Alexander – stock.adobe.com

Some 36 states have an RPS that requires a certain percentage of power to be generated from clean energy sources. And this subsidizes those generators at the expense of others.

The problem is that almost all states exclude nuclear energy from RPS eligibility and limit the amount of hydropower that is eligible, as well. This makes no sense.

Hydropower and nuclear energy emit less carbon than their solar counterparts and operate far more reliably — even when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind fails to blow. 

On top of that, existing nuclear and hydropower facilities — many of which are being imprudently shuttered — cost less to operate and keep online than politically popular alternatives.

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A section of turbine in London, CT. Such projects are becoming increasingly popular, but are also being met with massive cost overruns.TNS

For example, Connecticut’s Orsted wind project was contracted at roughly $100/MWh, excluding hundreds of millions of dollars for infrastructure build-out, roughly twice the cost of a power purchase agreement with the Millstone nuclear plant.

It was against this backdrop that the co-ranking member of Connecticut’s Energy Committee and I introduced a plan in January to make all nuclear and hydropower eligible for RPS certification. 

We wanted to level the playing field so that all “clean” energy opportunities are considered for our state, not just those typically deemed as “green.”

In testimony this past February, the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority predicted that such reforms could lead to significant savings for consumers.

Ultimately, we compromised with our Democratic counterparts — who hold a majority in the legislature — to allow for more hydropower and any newly-constructed nuclear power to be eligible to meet the state’s requirement.

The change in Connecticut’s RPS makes us only the second state after Indiana to include nuclear energy in their Renewable Portfolio Standard.

The reform is simple but can substantially reduce the cost of clean energy programs while strengthening our increasingly fragile grid.

If this reform was in place years ago, concerns about rolling blackouts over the next decade would be less serious.

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Despite fears of radiation leakage in the wake of the Three Mile Island accident decades ago, responsible, well-managed nuclear power makes sense both for the environment and economy.

Nuclear plants that were shuttered for economic reasons, like Indian Point, Vermont Yankee, Oyster Creek, Pilgrim and others, might still be operating and producing power. Same goes for many hydropower facilities.

There are dozens of additional states that could easily make nuclear and hydropower eligible to meet their existing Renewable Portfolio Standards.

This would not only keep legacy nuclear and hydropower facilities online, but increase the likelihood of new ones—especially as nuclear technology improves—being constructed.

This is a simple way for state lawmakers to cut electricity bills in the near term and reduce the likelihood of rolling blackouts in the long term. But we need to act now before it’s too late – before the lights go out. 

Ryan Fazio (R-36) is a state senator in Connecticut.

https://nypost.com/2023/12/02/opinion/power-prices-are-gonna-rise-shame-they-dont-have-to/

'Disturbing Gibberish': New Trans Text For Shrinks Could Harm Millions Of Kids, Critics Say

 by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A new "cutting-edge" textbook on transgenderism written with the help of activists will be used to train psychiatrists and could harm millions of children in the future, some experts have warned.

"Gender-Affirming Psychiatric Care," just released on Amazon at $58, is a textbook printed by American Psychiatric Association (APA) Publishing.

The textbook signals early on that it's more subjective than objective, quoting a feminist studies professor saying, "Scientific neutrality is a fallacy."

The content has prompted some critics to question the textbook's reliance on a mix of transgender-identifying professionals writing about their experiences, limited scientific studies, and neo-Marxist critical theories.

"This is a huge issue; millions more kids will be harmed," said Dr. Lauren Schwartz, a psychiatrist in Oklahoma speaking out against the rush to "transition" children.

The textbook's introduction says the book is based on an "evidence-informed approach" instead of an evidence-based approach, which is more scientific, she told The Epoch Times.

The 26 chapters are written by 56 authors, 50 of whom are in the transgender community, according to the textbook's foreword.

Chapters include affirming "two-spirit people," a term used to refer to someone who believes he or she is both sexes, and one about "double queer" people—or people who identify as transgender and have a mental disability.

The book's editors are listed as an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and investigator at the National LGBT Health Education Center; and a transgender-identifying psychiatry resident at the University of Pennsylvania, whose work is influenced by her background as a "non-binary/trans, queer, neurodivergent, chronically ill, Jewish person."

Dr. Schwartz noted that the authors were chosen by "prioritizing lived experience, diversity of perspectives, and community impact of prior work over academic titles."

'Disturbing Gibberish'

The problem is the textbook will be perceived as authoritative because it was printed by the APA's publishing arm, she said.

"Anyone wanting to practice gender-affirming care, any attorney wanting to defend it, and any legislator who wants to protect it, now they have a new peer-reviewed textbook, not just 'evidence' in a journal or a study," she said.

Alan Hopewell, a prescribing neuropsychologist in Texas who saw transgender-identifying patients decades ago, called the textbook "disturbing."

"This is nonsensical gibberish which has no foundation whatsoever in science," he told The Epoch Times.

Hospitals could demand doctors go by the textbook because the APA put it out, or it could even be used to remove the license of doctors who don't go along with it, he said.

Abigail Martinez (R), the mother of a transgender teen who committed suicide, sheds tears as Erin Friday comforts her and transgender activists block TV cameras from capturing her story in Anaheim, Calif., on Oct. 8, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

"This reminds me of brain-damaged hippies free-associating at a commune," Mr. Hopewell said.

The book foreword says that most of the contributing authors recognize they are "obscenely privileged" as English-speaking doctors with access to elite schools.

It asserts that the psychiatric field was built on "the work [and assumptions] of European, white, cisgender men, including their colonial, Anglo-centric, cis-heteropatriarchal worldview and pathologization of experiences that did not fit their own 'norm.'"

"For millennia, outside of European colonial influences, gender diversity has flourished to varying degrees among hundreds of indigenous communities around the world," the foreword reads.

The idea that Western countries were colonizing land stolen from indigenous people is part of critical race theory (CRT), which critics say is rooted in neo-Marxism.

Straight White Bias

CRT and gender theories see white people and heterosexuals in Western civilization as "oppressors" of minority identity groups, who are viewed as victims.

Activists are encouraged to dismantle oppressive societies in order to right discrimination of the past, according to ideology architects such as Ibram X. Kendi, who wrote "How to Be an Antiracist."

Detransition advocates meet outside of the annual Pediatric Endocrine Society conference held in San Diego, Calif., on May 6, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Proponents of CRT and gender theories contend that discrimination against identity groups such as white people and heterosexuals is needed to right the wrongs against racial and sexual minorities.

"The entire document is predicated on an uncritical acceptance of queer theory, which is more accurately queer Marxism," conservative author James Lindsay told The Epoch Times.

Queer theory is a gender ideology advocating the destruction of traditional sexual norms; some queer theorists support sexual acts such as pedophilia and bestiality that aren't accepted by society.

The textbook describes heterosexuals as cisgender people who are part of a "cultural and systemic marginalization" of LGBT people who don't align with societal norms.

To prove the point, the authors object to the idea that only women can have babies.

"For example, naming an obstetrics and gynecology practice a women's health center is cis-normative because it assumes the practice will only serve patients with one gender," the foreword reads.

Mr. Lindsay, author of "The Marxification of Education," said the idea of "treating" gender dysphoria with hormones or surgery is akin to performing lobotomies on the mentally ill decades ago.

History teaches that communist theories applied to the real world have deadly results, he said.

Mr. Lindsay pointed to the forced application of Trofim Lysenko's Soviet agriculture program based on pseudo-science as an example of a communist idea gone bad.

The program caused millions of innocent people in the former Soviet Union to starve by forcing them to plant seeds close together in the belief that plants from the same class never compete with each other. The theory contributed to widespread famine.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/disturbing-gibberish-new-trans-textbook-psychiatrists-could-harm-millions-kids-critics

Jazz halts sleep disorder med trial over 'visual disturbances' and CV effects

 Jazz Pharmaceuticals is pressing pause on a phase 1 sleep disorder med due to adverse events despite one executive saying that it “achieved proof of concept.” 

The comments were relayed by Chief Medical Officer Kelvin Tan at a conference hosted by Evercore ISI on Tuesday and poured cold water on the near-term prospects of the asset recently licensed from Sumitomo Pharma. Tan said that the drug, JZP441, demonstrated proof-of-concept in healthy volunteers as measured by the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT).

However, reports of “visual disturbances” and cardiovascular effects have forced the company to pause the trial while they investigate further. 

“This is early and emerging data but we’ve taken this decision,” Tan said. He added that despite the pause, orexin-2 receptor agonists remain a priority class and the company has a “backup” program in tow. Executives wouldn’t go as far as to fully terminate the paused asset, saying they’re looking to further investigate the side effects and how to potentially mitigate them. 

“It does require additional work,” President and Chief Operating Officer Renée Galá said at the conference. Jazz told Fierce Biotech in a statement that the company has not observed any liver toxicity signals. 

Jazz grabbed onto commercialization rights for most parts of the world from Sumitomo some 18 months ago, costing Jazz $50 million in upfront cash with more than $1 billion on the table in biobucks. At the time of the deal, the drug was in the middle of a phase 1 trial among healthy volunteers study in Japan.

The initial plan was to test JZP441 as a treatment for narcolepsy, though Jazz felt it likely had application in other sleep disorders, as well. The drug targets the orexin-2 receptor in the hopes of stimulating orexin signaling. Orexin is a neuropeptide involved with regulating sleep and wakefulness. 

Takeda may have been a canary in the coal mine. The Japanese pharmaceutical was working on its own candidate but scrapped further development in July 2022 citing the risk-benefit profile. That final blow followed Takeda’s previous decision to halt two studies after a safety signal arose. 

At Tuesday’s conference, Tan made sure to swiftly transition from bad news to good, announcing that Jazz planned to initiate rolling submission of its bispecific antibody zanidatamab before the end of the year. The company is seeking accelerated approval as a second-line treatment for patients with biliary tract cancer, with the application set to be completed by the first half of 2024. 

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/jazz-halts-recently-licensed-sleep-disorder-med-after-clocking-visual-disturbances-and-cv

FDA recommends avoiding plastic syringes made in China amid safety probe

 The FDA is advising U.S. healthcare providers and patients to stop using any plastic syringes in their inventories that were made in China, if possible, as it looks into a spate of quality complaints.

In a safety communication issued Thursday, the agency said it’s in the process of collecting and analyzing information about reported issues with China-made syringes, including leaks and breakages. The complaints received to date have reportedly spanned several syringe manufacturers in the country.

“We are concerned that certain syringes manufactured in China may not provide consistent and adequate quality or performance,” the regulator wrote.

So far, the FDA said the issue appears to be confined to standard plastic syringes that are used to inject fluids into or withdraw them from a patient. Glass syringes, pre-filled syringes and needle-less syringes used for oral or topical purposes are excluded from the safety advisory.

The quality-related complaints include some reported as part of recent recalls and in other medical device reports (MDRs) submitted to the FDA, as well as additional complaints linked to certain Chinese manufacturing sites, according to the agency.

In addition to leaks and breakages, other problems have been linked to changes in syringe dimensions—which has been cited as the cause of the recent and ongoing Class I recall of tens of millions Monoject syringes that changed dimensions during their rebranding from Covidien to Cardinal Health.

Those reported issues could affect the performance of the syringes and therefore pose a safety hazard to patients, according to the FDA, which offered as an example the possibility that a faulty syringe might not be able to deliver the correct dose of medication.

To avoid such hazards, the regulator has recommended that healthcare providers and consumers “consider using syringes not manufactured in China.” If that’s not possible, they may continue to use the devices until they can procure an alternative but should keep an eye out for leaking, breakage and other issues.

The FDA said it’s currently monitoring all complaints related to the China-made syringes and is working with “federal partners” to conduct testing. It’s also planning to call on the manufacturers themselves to implement any needed corrective actions—which could include blocking the syringes from entering the U.S. at all, if necessary.

The agency didn’t list any specific Chinese manufacturers of the potentially faulty syringes, nor any of the devices’ sellers, but one medtech maker made sure to distance itself from the warning: In a Thursday evening announcement of its own, BD said the FDA’s recommendations do not apply to any of the syringes it sells.

“Essentially all plastic syringes BD provides to the U.S. health care system are manufactured in the United States in Nebraska and Connecticut,” said Eric Borin, president of the company’s medication delivery solutions business, adding, “BD remains committed to supporting the U.S. health care system and is ready to increase production to help supply those providers who currently purchase syringes impacted by the FDA communication.”

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/fda-recommends-avoiding-plastic-syringes-made-china-amid-safety-investigation

'Bolton argues US effort to prolong Middle East truce is ‘objectively pro-Hamas’'

 Former National Security Advisor John Bolton blasted efforts to extend the truce in the Israel-Hamas war, calling them “objectively pro-Hamas.”

The Biden administration, factions of the Israeli government and regional allies have urged the two sides to continue a pause in fighting, which ended Friday. The previous weeklong pause in fighting allowed for the freedom of over 100 Hamas-held hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners.

“I think the second-guessing by the Biden administration, the efforts to prolong the pause to turn it into a full ceasefire, are objectively pro Hamas because it denies Israel the self-defense right it has to eliminate the terrorist threat,” Bolton said during an “On Balance” interview on NewsNation with host Leland Vittert.

While the Biden administration has not pushed for an indefinite cease-fire in the conflict as some Democrats have, adding to pressure on the administration, Secretary of State Antony Blinken did urge a longer cease-fire to continue the hostage release deal.

“Looking at the next couple of days, we’ll be focused on doing what we can to extend the pause so we can continue to get more hostages out and more humanitarian assistance in,” Blinken said Wednesday.

“And we’ll discuss with Israel how it can achieve its objective of ensuring that the terrorist attacks of Oct. 7 never happen again, while sustaining and increasing humanitarian assistance and minimizing further suffering of Palestinian civilians,” he continued.

The deal was extended by two days after his comments.

Bolton has been one of the most vocal opponents of the hostage deal and temporary cease-fire, calling it a “very bad deal for Israel” and saying it could help Hamas militarily.

Cease-fire advocates argue that an indefinite pause in fighting is needed in order to help Gaza civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom have been displaced from their homes due to the war. The short-term deal came after weeks of negotiations between the U.S., Qatar, Israel and Hamas.

The conflict has raged for nearly two months, killing over 13,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children, after leaving approximately 1,200 Israelis dead in Hamas’s initial attack on Oct. 7.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4338878-bolton-us-effort-prolong-middle-east-truce-objectively-pro-hamas/

Rand Paul hopeful Fauci testimony will answer remaining COVID questions

 Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he’s looking forward to questioning former pandemic chief Anthony Fauci over the origins of COVID-19 during a congressional hearing scheduled for next month.

Paul has been the loudest voice calling for investigations into government action surrounding COVID-19 origins, specifically into U.S. government funding of biotech research in China. He’s a major proponent of the “lab leak” theory of COVID, but the disease’s exact origin is still unknown.

“What we discovered is everything Anthony Fauci was saying in private, he was saying the opposite in public,” Paul said in a Fox News interview Friday. “So when he came to Congress, he basically lied to Congress and said that they weren’t funding dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan, research that in all likelihood led to the virus.”

Paul’s theory is that dangerous research at a Chinese-run lab in Wuhan, China — which received some U.S. funds — created the COVID pandemic through a lab mishap. He claims that Fauci and the U.S. government then executed a cover-up to hide involvement.

“This may be the worst medical decision ever made by a scientist or physician in government, not to review [Wuhan lab tests] for safety before allowing this money to go to China,” Paul continued.

The senator, also a COVID vaccine skeptic, has openly called for Fauci to be jailed for his involvement in the pandemic. Fauci served as the head of pandemic response during both the Trump and Biden administrations.

“But the real question is, was the top of the food chain of the cover-up Anthony Fauci?” Paul questioned on Friday.

Paul also alleged that the CIA may have been involved in such a cover-up, an unproven conspiracy theory.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4339113-paul-hopeful-fauci-answer-remaining-covid-questions-testimony/