For the past two years, the Netflix/Attenborough ruse to blame climate change for walruses falling from a high cliff to their deaths seemed like a silly PR stunt.

But it appears the film’s real purpose was to convince a far more important audience than paying Netflix customers that a global ‘climate emergency’ was going on: the elite influencers and world leaders who attended the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2019, where the dying walrus film clip was introduced and interpreted to the audience by Sir David Attenborough himself.

In the spring of 2019, Netflix released its ‘Our Planet’ documentary that included a clip of walruses falling from a high cliff in Siberia to their deaths on jagged rocks below, which Sir David Attenborough’s narration told viewers was due to lack of sea ice caused by climate change.

It moved people to tears, as it was meant to do.

Of course, we now know that already-fat polar bears deliberately frightened those walrus over the edge – using a particularly effective, site-specific hunting strategy that avoided fighting the dangerous beasts head-on – and it all had nothing to do with walrus struggling desperately to survive in a warming world.

This explanation not only makes biological sense, but it’s also backed by solid evidence. Since it is now clear that the truth would eventually come out when the BBC aired its own documentary in November 2019 showing bears driving walrus to their deaths, the Netflix/Attenborough ruse seemed like a silly PR stunt.

Now I know otherwise.

Here is a quote from a blog post written by Anatoli Kochnev, the Russian on-site ‘scientific advisor’ to the Netflix producers, who helped out with filming in Ryrkaypiy on the coast of the Chukchi Sea; the post is dated 7 April 2019 [via Google Translate, my bold]:

Just in the fall of 2017, I worked as an expert and field guide with a British team of filmmakers who shot walruses and polar bears for two programs of the BBC and the Living Planet company. This year, films should appear on television and computer screens… A couple of days ago [sic, actually months], at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Sir David Attenborough and Prince William presented a preliminary version of the film, in which one of the key stories was presented with shots taken then, in 2017, in Chukotka…The most vivid and dramatic shots captured the fall of walrus from the cliffs, where they climb because of the lack of space on the beach and to avoid unpleasant smells from the nearby village. That year, only on one of the rookeries where we were shooting, about 800 walruses died, of which almost a third broke when falling from rocks…It is said that some of the important economic and political bosses could not keep tears when watching a film in Davos.

President Joe Biden’s Commerce Secretary nominee Gina Raimondo said Tuesday that while she understands the impact of raising taxes on the middle class, they “need funds” to pay for Biden’s climate plan.

Florida Senator Rick Scott asked Raimondo how they plan to pay for the Biden administration’s transportation climate initiative.

“The document I signed – by the way it was bipartisan, Republican and Democratic governors – was an intention to work together with our legislators to develop a transportation climate initiative, so it’s very early in that process,” Raimondo responded.

Commerce Secretary nominee Gina Raimondo stays open to raising taxes on the middle class, says that we “need funds” for Biden’s climate agendahttps://t.co/yiNAOSUdz5 pic.twitter.com/ONG7KPzVUk

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 26, 2021

Scott noted that Transportation Secretary nominee Pete Buttigieg said that he was open to raising the gas tax, which would “impact the poorest families in our country significantly.”

“What is your opinion on that and how would that impact your ability to do your job as Secretary of Commerce?” Scott asked.

“I would defer to Congress to make that decision,” Raimondo said. “Let me say this. I, as governor, am deeply in touch with how much increasing bills affect the average American family. Having said that, we do need to meet the climate change challenge and we need funds for improved infrastructure – better roads, safer roads, safer bridges – which also creates jobs.”

“So I would look to balance those interests and work as a piece of the president’s team,” she added.

Biden’s $2 trillion climate plan promises “far-reaching investments” in things like infrastructure, housing, clean energy innovation, and environmental justice.

Read more at Daily Caller

Last week, Pete Buttigieg began confirmation hearings for his appointment as Transportation secretary.

During the question-and-answer session, we discovered why President Asterisk favors Mayor Pete for this position.

It seems he has a radical new idea for how to fund highway maintenance and development, which the new administration favors.

Funding for our highway infrastructure is currently supported via a fuel tax — 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon of Diesel. Mayor Pete’s proposal is to move to a tax on miles driven, rather than fuel consumed.

It seems that the administration is concerned that drivers of electric cars are not paying their fair share. Thank God we’re past the silliness of the Trump administration.

The adults are back in town, and the Harris/Biden administration is tackling the inequity of highway funding head-on. I’m sure racism is involved somehow.

I haven’t figured that angle out yet, but I’m sure that the white privilege of owning an electric car has something to do with it.

Given that electric cars still comprise less than 1% of all vehicles on the road, I have a question for the party of science. Isn’t the amount of fuel used to drive from point A to point B still a somewhat useful indicator of the distance from point A to point B?

Granted, big cars use more fuel than small cars, but shouldn’t small cars pay less anyway? They impose less wear and tear on the roads after all.

Of course, there is the problem that when I’m mowing my yard I’m helping to pay for the highways. Seems like a national issue that the administration should get right on.

But how will we track the mileage that everyone drives? Maybe the people that brought us election integrity would like us to use the honor system. We can require everyone to log where and when they drive every day.

Of course, we may need the police to deal with the inevitable scofflaws who will lie on their mileage logs. I’m not sure if those would be funded or unfunded police, but I’m sure they won’t mind this addition to their mission.

Another possibility would be to legislatively require every car manufacturer to include mileage recorders — rather like flight recorders for airplanes.

Whenever an automobile is driven, its mileage will be recorded and automatically reported to the IRS. What could be easier? Now which one is the mileage recorder fuse again?

Perhaps we could mandate that all cell phones be manufactured with a mileage tracker app. Putting aside the Orwellian implications of this — Would that mean that I pay a mileage tax when I walk from my bedroom to the kitchen? How about when I walk the dog?

These minor inconveniences are easily remedied by directing people to turn off their cell phones while walking — just like they’ll be doing when they’re driving. Of course, we won’t have a texting while driving epidemic anymore.

Drone technology has reached a level of maturity where it could possibly be used for this initiative. Predator drones are capable of tracking multiple objects and their optics can even read a license plate from their cruising altitude.

During periods of pandemics, the drones could even be used to enforce social distancing and prohibitions against illegal churchgoing. There’s no word yet on whether Hellfire missiles will be required.

Granted there are technical issues to be resolved. But, as the above paragraphs show, these are solvable problems. I’m sure Mayor Pete will be able to resolve any technical hurdles with a panel of experts and ample public funding.

I think we can safely say that his appointment as the Transportation secretary is a very good thing — for South Bend, Indiana.

The next time I’m out in my pickup truck and come upon a slow-moving hybrid with a Bidden/Harris bumper sticker, I’ll find great comfort in knowing that its driver is paying as much to use the highway as I am.

Read more at American Thinker