Summer’s heat not bad, so far

August is here and Kingfisher has recorded only one 100 degree high temperature (recorded on July 30) thus far in the summer.

Understand I’m not complaining, especially after the showers last week that provided a nice break from the summertime heat, not to mention the moisture – .48 inch according to Local Weather Observer Steven Loftis at the National Weather Service station in Kingfisher.

The Mesonet site at the Mueggenborg Farm at the west edge of Kingfisher reported a three-day total of .54 inch.

Times and Free Press staffer Twila Adams reported .8 inch total at her residence east of Kingfisher.

Kingfisher County was at the back end of the system that provided moisture for much of western Oklahoma and the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles.

You can be sure the cotton and other summer crops and pastures in those areas welcomed the August moisture.

Speaking of summer always reminds me of the mid-day heat in southwest Oklahoma where I grew up and regularly joined the cotton chopping crews (chopping the weeds, not the cotton) who faced temperatures hitting 115 degrees and higher regularly during that time of year.

Don’t tell me global warming is something new. Not only that, don’t tell me that warming is bad, if there even is such a thing as the Left portrays it.

All the life-ending events in the Earth’s history were caused by five brutally cold periods. They weren’t called Ice Ages for nothing.

If what I’ve read is true, there have been many drastic changes in the weather during the Earth’s existence.

Aborigine Migration Reveals Cooler Earth 50,000 Years Ago

For some reason, I woke up one morning recently thinking about the spelling of Aborigine, the indigenous people of the Australian continent. (I can’t explain why.)

Anyway, I had an urge to see what Google said about them, and it brought out some information I hadn’t read before.

It said the Aborigines migrated to Australia and its accompanying islands from 50,000 to 65,000 years ago when the seas were lower than they are now and there were more islands and land bridges.

The people originated in southeast Asia, the report said, adding that the Aborigines were a diverse people with many differences and at one time formed as many as 500 linguistic and territorial groups.

The article indicated that England began sending its lawbreakers to penal colonies into Australia after it lost control over the United States with the American Revolution.

I don’t think it took much to run afoul of the English legal system at that time – if a person got in debt or caused any disruption, he-she might quickly find himself-herself in Australia, or as fast as ships of that time could travel.

When I asked an Australian friend about the criminal legacy of Australia’s citizenry, he was quick to snap back that it didn’t take much of an offense to get shipped there.

His sharp reaction made me glad that Australians are rated a friendly people, ranking above Americans in that regard.

I guess the history books I read in school forgot to mention that England sent lawbreakers to America at one time. It’s no wonder the American freedom fighters were so determined in their efforts to kick the Limeys back across the Atlantic.

And I’ve been thinking all these years that nearly all American colonists came here in search of freedom of religion.

You might not know that now due to the official U.S. government attitude toward Christians under recent Democrat administrations when American Christians were often described as potential terrorists, requiring close government scrutiny. Apparently, at least half of Americans don’t believe that the former administrations had replaced God as the principal deity. But I digress.

Left Finds New Reason to Whine

The displaced Democrats of today maintain a constant howl against any actions taken by President Donald Trump.

A recent whine came over the allowed merger of Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) and Juniper Networks in an effort to challenge Communist China’s Huawei digital network, which is being used by China in its quest for world domination.

Mira Ricardel, former U.S. deputy national security advisor, recently wrote: “In my years at senior levels of government and industry, I have often witnessed how technology is increasingly shaping global power. When I served as Deputy National Security Advisor, ensuring that the United States retained domestic control over the invisible yet indispensable networks that power our phones, businesses, and military was a top priority. As such, it does not surprise me that the reported recent debate inside the Department of Justice’s decision over whether to settle and permit Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) to acquire Juniper Networks is such a hot-button national news item today. The disposition of this merger and related decisions may affect whether America will lead the digital age—or cede it to China.

“The stakes could not be higher. China’s Huawei controls 30 percent of the global market for network equipment, leveraging not only Beijing’s subsidies but also its aggressive initiatives to embed its 5G technology across Asia, Africa, and Europe. The reality of the situation—one that the Pentagon and Congress have emphasized—is that Huawei is, for all intents and purposes, an arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), building infrastructure that gives the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) both legal and illegal pathways to access data, shape global standards, and export digital authoritarianism.”

Here’s Another Voice Col. Rob Maness, in a recent Townhall.com column headlined “DOJ just dealt a crushing blow; Booker and Warren hate it” provides additional background on the topic: “The Justice Department just dropped a bombshell on Beijing, and it’s about darn time.

“The DOJ recently green-lit the HPE-Juniper telecom merger, which may create a company big and strong enough to finally end the reign of terror of Huawei, the Chinese Communist Party-backed tech giant whose goal is global domination of everything from 5G to AI and enterprise networking.

Ten days after President Trump’s inauguration, an interim antitrust chief, acting before President Trump’s core DOJ team was confirmed, tried to block the HPE-Juniper merger.

“Why the U-turn?

“Well, according to an Axios report … U.S. intelligence officials warned Trump’s DOJ that this merger was critical to stopping Huawei. In that same story, the Justice Department also confirmed that it regularly collaborates with the intelligence community when making decisions.

“In plain English? National security trumped a handful of bureaucrats’ misplaced economic concerns. I’m sure that the fact that even the socialists over at the EU approved the deal didn’t hurt either.”

Then he said: “…(T)his week, the deal’s back in the spotlight. Critics, like Sens. Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren, are crying foul, saying the feds caved to pressure or misread the market.

Who Would Blockage Help?

They couldn’t be more wrong, and it begs the question: do these critics understand who blocking this deal will help?

Globally, no American telecom company can compete with Huawei, China’s state-backed tech giant. As Marco Rubio put it in October, “the goal of China’s telecom giant Huawei is global domination.”

Huawei isn’t just selling phones. It has its claws in global 5G and enterprise networks, which run everything from universities and hospitals to banks, factories, and even military-linked sites in countries that we call allies.”

Mrs. Ricardel added this enlightened comment: “Secure networks are the backbone of everything that matters now and in the future: artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and the weapons systems that keep us safe. If China dominates 5G, it not only gains economic leverage, but benefits from increased control over the flow of critical data and development of some emerging technologies. If much of the globe relies on Chinese-made infrastructure, Beijing, not Washington, will set global standards, and America and its friends and allies will be far worse off.”